Thomas was working away at one of the science stations consoles. Before him there was an enormous amount of data to manipulate. For some good news the sensor array was one of the sections of the ship that hadn't received a lot of attention from the previous engagement, however from reports the deflector dish was another story and with the warp core offline there were obvious issues in getting the array to work at anywhere near efficiency.
His thoughts turned to Stellar Cartography and the labs, another section that would have greatly assisted his efforts in tatters, not just that the life of the head cartographer was in serious danger, the last he heard the Captain was on the way, but with environments about to be shut down there, saying he was concerned was an understatement. With that deck about to be shut out to all things that needed oxygen he begun transferring control of the various science functions through to the sensor Pod.
The Lieutenants voice above him was one of the most welcoming things he could have asked for at that moment. "Nathanial! Sir." Thomas responded he was ecstatic to see the lieutenant opposite him. That could wait for later, getting the chief up to speed would be critical, besides The lieutenants words left little room for chit chat.
"We were attacked by several Romulan ships. The Captain has assigned Science to recalibrate the sensor pod to pick up several signatures that will help us track the Romulans who engaged us. The warp core is currently offline and engineering is about to shut off life support to deck 8, Cadet Bre'accoria is trapped in Cartography; the Captain is on the way there now. I have begun transferring science stations and on duty crew to the Sensor pod."
Pausing to take air he recalled another section of news; the launch of the mutagenic into the atmosphere. "Sir, one of the Romulan ships launched a mutagenic into the Atmosphere, we were unable to discern what its purpose was before we entered the nebula, did you see any reactions from the surface?"
"I did" Nathanial said in short. He did not want to face the thoughts at the moment of the surface, not when there was still so much to do here.
"Ok Ensign, great job holding up the fort, I need you to accompany me to the sensor pod now, so we can finalize the relocation, and start working on getting us out of this situation. What do you think the captain would say about playing with temporal mechanics" he said attempting a strained bit of humour.
Well clearly the chief didn't want to elaborate about the surface, Thomas wasn't going to even try and force the issue and replied to the lieutenant "Well that's the joy of temporal mechanics we could go to a future after this situation would be dealt with and ask her for ourselves, well that's if our grasp of it was better than the theoretical." Worried that his superior may have taken a blow to the head he cautiously responded as he begun to make his way with the lieutenant towards the turbolifts. "That hypothetical doesn't have anything to do with the sensor pod?"
"No no Thomas." he started as they headed to the Turbo lifts. "It was just what a bit of humor in a desperate situation!" He finished while entering the lifts.
He pressed the button for Deck A, and the turbolift rattled slightly while doing the assent. "Make sure to note down that the turbolift is in need of engineering attention." He said with a smile to Thomas.
Nathanial needed to keep his head in the game, and he knew that concentrating on the task at hand would allow him to do so.
The doors opened to Deck A. The first thing that caught their eyes was the commotion going on. "I don't think I have ever seen the sensor pod so full of people before." Nathanial said.
There were at least a half dozen crew from the science department, setting up stations, upon seeing their commanding officer they stopped what they were doing and saluted. Nathanial saluted back. "At ease everyone, we have lots to do." He pointed to two of the crew "I want you both to make sure that our power grid is stable in the pod and that we have access to all the sensor functions." They both nodded and turned to access a control station.
Nathanial turned to another "Cadet, organize a control station with deflector control, I want it available incase we need it." The cadet nodded.
"Ensign Thomas" Nathanial started turning towards Thomas.
"You and I are going to figure out how to detect those ships out there." he said while walking over to a console and bringing up a map of the nebula.
Taking A few PADD's from a larger unallocated pile Thomas brought up the signature data the captain had supplied relating to the classes of warbirds she was familiar with, well most likly captained herself he idly thought. "The Captain has given us something to help us here." Passing the PADD to the Chief he continued "These are common engine emission signals Romulan warbirds emit, we could set the deflector to scan out such specific emissions."
"We could try, but the Mutara class nebula's make our sensors too unreliable, which is what I think is keeping us alive at the moment!" Nathanial responded, "What we need is a visual scan! Have a look at this" He finished while pointing to the console.
Look to what Nathanial was specifically pointing out "Their Thoron emissions?" Thomas replied curious to why they were chosen.
"Yes Thoron particles, I was thinking, have you ever seen fireflies Ensign?"
Nodding in the affirmative Thomas now really wanted to see where the chief was taking this
"Their bioluminescence reaction has got me thinking" He said looking at the schematics supplied by the captain"
"If we were able to supply a catalyst from the deflector array to cause a reaction from the Thoron with the Romulan emissions."
Nathanial couldn't help but smile back. "Ok Ensign, we need to figure out what will cause the reaction, and see if we can mimic it through the deflector dish."
"Aye Sir we can create any one of these signatures the Captain provided and begin testing immediately. I can begin simulations to best work out dispersion and the most efficient catalyst" Thomas Suggested.
