Houdini

Anomaly TrekMUX Episode (#01-006) 5/17/00

Stardate: 51440.6

Balin continues to rub his temple. "If it's so quiet, then where is that personnel report I asked for?" he asks softly.

Cross taps on his panel furiously, smelling the ensuing trouble.

Gwen blinks a few times, then her jaw drops a little. "Oh...." She looks down at her console, "I was a little distracted sir, it's only half-finished..... I should have it finished soon, sir."

Balin's tone shifts to the higher decibles. "When I ask for something, Lieutenant, I /expect/ that it be done. I'm not interested in hearing your excuses. If you can't handle the job, maybe I should look somwhere-" He cuts off suddenly, collapsing to his knees, and gasping for air. He brings both fingertips to his temples, and rolls over on his back.

Cross stands up, shouting "Commander!"

"Sir!" Gwen stands from her seat and moves to the fallen man. She taps her com badge and calls to the infirmary and Holliday.

Poole taps her comm badge. "Poole to Holliday."

Balin cries out, and his body spasms in a rigid convulsion.

A voice over Poole's comm badge says, "Holliday here."

Poole says into her comm badge, "Doctor, Medical Emergency in Ops.... the Commander has collapsed and is spasming.... We need a medical team up here now!"

Cross grabs his tricorder, and begins to scan Balin, struggling to maintain his calm.

Over Poole's comm badge, Holliday says, "On my way, Lt." The link goes dead as Holliday terminates transmission.

Gwen can't do much more than stay near the commander, keeping him from hitting any sharp and/or hard objects in his spasming.

Cross Looks at Gwen "Where the hell is Holliday?"

Holliday enters operations, the door sliding shut behind him.

Holliday has arrived.

Gwen looks up from near ops and calls to the Doctor, "Hurry...."

Cross steps back from the fallen commander, giving the doctor access

Balin is lurching on the floor, his body rigid and arcing. Occasionally he cries out.

Holliday enters at a pace close to a run, medkit in hand. A quick glance around ops on the way to Balin's side. He kneels, flipping open his tricorder... While he's waiting for the readings to come back, he fumbles to open the medkit..

Gwen moves back from the commander, but stays close enough to assist Holliday should he require it.

Cross snaps his tricorder shut, frustrated. Watching the doctor, he mutters quietly "Not a known psionic effect..."

Holliday curses, loudly, then blinks, remembers himself, and subsides into a low obscene mutter. "It's the DNA virus.. It's 'evolved on me.. Need to buy some time.." He taps his compin. "Holliday to the Infermary. I'm going to need cryostasis support." He digs in the medkit, dialing something on a sprayhypo and hits Balin with it twice. He holds his breath..

LaFae enters operations, the door sliding shut behind him.

LaFae has arrived.

"At once, doctor," replies the neutral femenine voice from the Infirmary. With a hiss, the hypospry is administered. It doesn't do much, as the commander continues to thrash around on the floor. Balin cries out, "Rom..u...lans!" His back arcs stiffly, his eyes squinting shut against the invisible pain.

Gwen's expression darkens as she sees that the hypospray doesn't have any visable effects. She winces as Balin cries out, watching him closely.

Cross looks sharply at the other officers in OPS, visibly distressed.

Holliday looks to Operations Officer Cross, "Mr. Cross, can you spare me the juice for a site-to-site to ER.. sickbay.. infirmary." He corrects himself.. This isn't a hospital.. or a starship.. Back to Balin. He reaches for another hypo-cartridge, muttering, "Morathial.." He sprays Balin again, and begins to apply neuro-stimulators to his brow.. Cross nods to holiday, practically shouting: "aye sir."

Cross begins to tap on his panel, diverting power from any systems neccessary to the transporters.

Holliday says very clearly, "Computer, this is Chief Medical Officer Holliday. I am removing Commander Balin from duty due to medical emergency until further notice. Please note and update required functions." He looks to Poole, "I believe you have the station." He then frowns, looking from the tricorder to the neural devices.. He thumbs the settings on the hypo, delivering a sedative.. He now begins to change the settings on the stimulators.. "Anytime, mister.." he says to Cross..

Gwen nods to the doctor and stands up, she looks a bit pale... not quite nervous though. She waits for the doctor and the commander to beam out.

Nevaren enters operations, the door sliding shut behind him.

Nevaren has arrived.

Cross shouts "got it!" He looks to the doctor, excited, "ready?"

Nevaren steps into ops, whistling tunelessly, reading over conduit inspection reports on his pad. He makes his way towards his station, oblivious.

Holliday dissapears with a shimering of transporter energy.

Holliday has left.

Balin has left.

Cross slips back down into his chair, wiping sweat from his brow. His hands fall to his lap, in constant ache from repeated use.

Gwen shakes her head, "God help him..." She looks up at Nevaren, though she can't quite manage the a greeting smile.

Nevaren looks up at the shouting person, startled.

Nevaren says "What the hell is going on?"

Cross nods to Nevaren weakly, a little shell-shocked. "Ensign Cross, Mission Ops."

Nevaren nods slowly. "Ensign Nevaren. Junior Engineer. Now what was the shouting about?

Holliday and Balin have just beamed to the infirmary, with Ensign Cross's handling of the controls. The station has been given to Lt. Poole.

Poole says "Commander Balin has been relieved of duty... he was going into convulsions."

Cross looks at Poole, muttering "He said something about Romulans..."

Nevaren's brow darkens and he turns away from everyone. His voice is quiet and meek, strange, coming from the half-vulcan who is useually so cheerful and vibrant. "IS it bad.?"

Gwen lowers her gaze, "It's that virus... it's getting bad." She moves to the commander's chair, then pauses and thinks for a moment.

Cross laughs, but it is void of humour. "Sure as hell wasn't good," he proclaims cynically.

LaFae blinks, "Virus?"

Nevaren turns back to Poole since she is acting commander. "Sir, permission to go to sickbay? I got the commander into this and maybe Doc Holliday can use me to help him."

Gwen looks up at the viewscreen, seeming to have caught on to something. She turns and looks to Nevaren, "You have permission to go to sickbay, but I may need your help up here... wait until the doctor calls you." She looks to Cross, "I need you to send out a general hail.... Don't worry about how weird that sounds... there may be a cloaked ship out there."

Cross nods to Gwen without further questions, cracking his knuckles against each other. He straightens in his seat, and replies "What should it read?"

Nevaren nods. "Aye sir, I'll stay then. Are we expecting trouble?" He walks to his engineering station and brings up his display, his fingers flying over the keypad.

Nevaren sits down at Engineering I.

"Mekara, are you out there?" Gwen replies to Cross, then nods to Nev. "Some trouble.... the commander may be in for the worst of it though."

The viewscreen is black.

Cross nods again, accessing the controls. Tapping rapidly, he initiates the hail as described by Poole.

Nevaren brings up structural schematics of the station on his terminal, overlaying sensor sweeps of the most vulnerable spots to outside attack in red, just so he is prepared for the worst.

There is no response.

Nevaren looks at Poole. "Just who are we trying to contact, sir?"

Poole's comm badge chirrups. "Holliday to Poole," says a voice over it.

Gwen frowns and says, "Ensign just try the hail again, this time in the direction of the Neutral Zone....

Poole taps her comm badge. "Poole here."

Over Poole's comm badge, Holliday says, "How're things going up there, Lt?"

Cross taps at the panel several more times... "sir," he mutters to Gwen. Then more loudly: "Sir, we have an anomolous reading... identified as a chronoton echo. Could be a cloaked vessel." Calmly, he awaits further instructions.

Poole says into her comm badge, "Oddly Doctor... I think the commander may have been partially lucid. We may have a romulan visitor nearby the station."

Gwen questions, "Is there anyway we could force it to drop cloak?"

Cross rubs his hand, unused to vigorous control work. He attempts to pinpoint the source of the disturbance using sensors...

Over Poole's comm badge, Holliday says, "Really? <surprised, then> Wouldn't be a sub-commander Ma- me- Em-something would it?"

Poole says into her comm badge, "Yes... She's either being stubborn, or she isn't there at all."

Nevaren turns back to his terminal, wondering just what he can offer to this. Suddenly he smiles and turns back to Poole. "Romulan cloaking devices use chronaton fields to warp energy wavelengths around them, right?"

Gwen nods and says, "I believe so, what do you have in mind?" She stands from her chair and looks to Nev.

Cross looks at Nevaren quizically, stroking his beard as he thinks. "The vessel is roughly 5,000 km out there, between the station and the anomaly. Do you have some way to disrupt the cloak?"

Over Poole's comm badge, Holliday says, "I'll bet. I hope you can pin her down.. I have reason to believe the Romulans, and this one in particular, may be at the root of Balin's condition.."

Poole says into her comm badge, "Then we may be able to deal with her to help the commander....."

Nevaren's fingers play over his terminal, speedily bring up windows of information. "Energy fields are comprised of wavelengths. IF we can generate a chronoton field of equal strength but inversed frequency, they will cancel each other out.. like sound waves. With no viable chronaton fields to help warp enrgy around them, the cloak should falter and drop.

Gwen grins, almost evilly so, "Do it." She looks to Cross and nods, "Repeat that hail if their cloak drops."

Over Poole's comm badge, Holliday says, "I hope so, Lt. I need something here, pronto.. I'm going to transmit some medical logs to you then. I'd review them .. somewhere private. I'm sorry Nevaren. Holliday out."

Poole says into her comm badge, "Acknowledged."

Poole says into her comm badge, "Poole out."

Poole terminates the comm by tapping her comm badge.

Cross ignores the strain and allows his fingers to dance over the keypad, eyes swerving back and forth. He braces systems in an attempt to generate a chronoton field, directed 5,000 km from the station. "Aye sir," he replies.

LaFae says "You might want to belay that ensign...Creating another chroniton field so close to the anomaly, well there's no way to predict what will happen."

Poole frowns, then turns a sour look on LaFae. "Any other ideas then?"

Cross stops typing, nodding to LaFae. "Would it be possible to generate an anti-proton beam, as federation systems do on spacial borders to detect cloaked ships?"

LaFae says "Plausible."

You say "Is there any danger of the anomaly reacting to the anti-proton beam?"

Cross says "I am not sure. From an operations perspective, I'm confident the station could do it, however."

LaFae says "There isn't a way to be certain...there's so much about this we don't know, including how it will react to anti-proton beam in the area. But we haven't detected anything that would seem to indicate a reaction if the beam is focused away from the anomaly."

Cross stroking his beard, he speaks up "With all do respect, the possibility of romulans in the sector could override these risks. I agree with LaFae, perhaps a beam directed away?"

Gwen sighs, then says, "Let's try the beam. If all else fails we could launch a proton torpedo at them and see if they move."

Nevaren agrees with Cross. "Yes. The station could do it. We can use the deflector array the station uses to deter incomming cosmic debris. But I do have a better solution. Romulan ships use quantam singularities for power." He looks at Lafae. "Would the anomalies quantum properties be having an effect on their singulaities. Like.. maybe causing a quantum wake or oscillation we can scan for?".

Cross smiles at the thought, and looks up at Nevaren. "Looks like I've been one- upped: you have the power for a quantum wake?" Awaiting response, he grins.

LaFae steps over to the sensors panel.

Nevaren shakes his head. "No, cross. We don't have to provide one. If the anomaly is putting out waves of quantum energy, then a second quantum singularity being moved across the anomalies plane would be like.. like the wake a boat leaves in water."

Gwen walks over to Ops, then says, "We're not trying to find out if they are there.... we're trying to reveal their exact location. Would scanning for them in this way do that? We need to force them to speak with us."

Cross nods with renewed understanding of the idea.

LaFae pulls up a map on the sensor array, "Well...we have their wake -- which means we know their trail, now to follow it."

Cross looks at Poole, stating: "I have the anomalies location, sir. They just don't feel like talking today."

Cross nods at LaFae "My sentiments exactly."

Nevaren doubles Lafaes terminal display on his own. "If we extrapolate their position, we can fire a warning shot across their path, telling them we know where they are. To get their attention."

Gwen closes her eyes, then opens them again and looks to Nevaren. "Exactly. Let's do that, Liuetenant. Give me the coordinates, and I'll fire the shot."

Poole walks over to the tactical terminal.

You stand and leave Commander's.

LaFae rambles off the space-time co-ordinates of the ship..."B4, you wanna sink their battleship..."

Nevaren grins at LaFae

Poole looks up from her station, grinning broadly. "Not quite.... But I might burn their tail." She starts typing in the course for the torpedo.

LaFae says "Umm...I'm no weapons expert, but don't phasers work wonders for warning shots too?"

Cross gazes at the viewscreen, sitting back in his seat. "Enjoy the show..."

Poole looks to LaFae, "Yes, but phasers aren't nearly as dangerous." Then she goes to fire....

LaFae shrugs, "Perhaps not...I'm the type to sit back and not tip them off we can see them, let them be careless to get a better idea what they're up to, if they wanna fly to close to the anomaly and get obliviated...I say let 'em."

The viewscreen displays the targeted area. The anomaly flashes rapidly in the distance, and from the bottom of the screen, the torpedo arcs toward the target, and explodes in a flash. In a moment, a de-cloaking warbird appears, flying fast from the target area. It swoops down quickly toward the station and knives two disrupter blasts at the shields. The station rocks under disrupter fire.

Cross lurches forward as the station shudders, looking to the main viewer: "Looks like that got their attention."

"Computer, Red Alert...." Gwen looks to Cross, "Hail them again."

Nevaren braces himself, waiting out the tremors. As soon as they fade, he quickly runs a sweep of the station for damage.

Cross says "Aye sir.... shields at ninety percent..."

Cross initiates the same hailing frequency as before

The station goes to red alert.

The image of the warbird is replaced with that of a Romulan woman with black hair and aqualine features. "Cease fire or we will destroy your station."

Cross looks at Poole with a raised eyebrow, amused by the Romulan's arrogance

Gwen stands from her station and says, "We will cease fire, but you have to agree to talk with us." She puts a hand over the weapons firing controls, poised either to fire or to power them down.

Nevaren 's brow creases even more as he see's the romulan on the screen. HIs apparent dislike for romulans is very noticable

The woman, clad in the Centurian's uniform of the Romulan Star Navy, crosses her arms and leans back. "You will listen. You will disarm your weapons, beam over all relavent data about this anomaly and the artifact which it produced, and your crew will be allowed to live."

Cross mutters under his breath, inaudibly to the romulan (and most in OPS,) "How generous..."

Gwen frowns strongly at the woman, "No. You will give us the information we need to help the commander, and you will leave our space.... Or we will destroy you and your ship." If she is a poker player, you'd better bet she'd win a few hands just by bluffing.

The woman smiles smugly. "I doubt you have the capability to take on our fleet, Lieutenant, with the recent Jem'Hadar incursion you experienced. Oh, and the loss of Commander Balin, it would seem."

Holliday enters operations, the door sliding shut behind him.

Holliday has arrived.

Nevaren's knuckles are whiter then even his albino complexion as he grips his terminal's sides, nervous Cross quietly scans the Warbird for any damage the nearby torpedo explosion may have caused

LaFae says "Lieutenant. Five more birds, behind us."

Gwen returns an evil grin at the woman, "We may not be able to take on your fleet, but we could make sure you will not survive the battle." She nods slightly to LaFae, not saying anything about the new enemy ships.

Holliday steps thru the door into ops, and then to one side of it, to stand as inobtrusively as possible there. He looks over the room, and to the screens, trying to take stock of the situation.

Nevaren looks at Poole, his eyes wild.. he hands, below the display so the romulans can't see it but is in poole view, are signing for her to mute the transmission a moment.

Cross broadens the scan to search for any nearby Federation vessels that could assist.

The woman steeples her fingers. "I had hoped you would not be as stubborn as your commander. Reports have said that you're a weak human woman whose grasp on sanity is feeble at best."

"Perhaps, perhaps not." Gwen signals to Cross to mute the transmission for a moment, then waits for Nevaren to speak up.

Cross nods, muting the signal happily. He then relaxes in his chair casually.

Nevaren's voice is very calm. "We have a trump card. I know how to destroy the anomaly, and with it most of the sector. That threat should get her off out back."

Gwen supresses a smile, then says, "You are sure you can do it?"

Holliday moves to an empty console podium, something relatively useless in this situation, like sciences. Seeing the com's muted, he speaks up, probably out of turn. "While we're talking.. I might have something to add."

Nevaren nods slowly. "Pretty sure. Its not foolproof, but my simulations were pretty clear."

Gwen looks to Cross and signals for the transmission to be unmuted. As soon as it is, she says, "Subcommander Mekara, I'm ordering you to hand over your information regarding the virus attacking Commander Balin. If you don't... we will destroy the anomaly, and everything in this sector along with it... including you and your fleet."

Cross feigns surprise in clear view of the Romulan, as if Poole had just gone crazy

Holliday sighs, and begins to operate the panel before him.

Nevaren's face drops into a pose of restrained (and acted) horror. "Sir... Y.y.you can't be serious..."

Cross glances sharply at Nevaren and reprimands: "We have a duty to die for starfleet."

Nevaren looks at cross, a look of shame on his face.

Gwen just stares at the romulan woman on screen, her eyes smoldering.... and daring her opponent.

LaFae shifts, stiffening up as he stares into the sensor array.

Nevaren stands and leaves Engineering I.

Holliday sweating and looking nervous... He's not acting, and he's grimacing at his console controls..

Nevaren sits down at Science I.

Cross stands his ground, trembling in mock terror

Mekara actually laughts at this. "You lack the conviction to actually do it. If I knew how to do it, I'd have done it myself. You see, we understand the full implications of the anomaly, and the artifact. It represents a grave security risk to the Romulan Star Empire. Go ahead, wipe out this sector of space. Murder your sister."

Cross says "Powering up, sir, on your order."

Nevaren says "Bringing up anomaly system. Computer, activate program Nevaren Simulations 001 and activate parameters. Fire on Ensign Cross's mark"

Poole doesn't look pleased, and says, "You yourself just said I had a feeble grasp on sanity. How do you know I wouldn't do it? How do you know my loyalty to Starfleet isn't total?.... How much are you willing to pay for your Empire's success.... will you pay with your life?"

Holliday says, "Posi-cyclic impulse buffer on line, sir." You may not know what the hell he's talking about, but then again, neither does he..

The woman nods with a smile. "Indeed I will." She sits back, determined to enjoy the show.

Nevaren turns to his terminal, and starts redefining the parameters Cross attempts to simulate a power buildup in one of the station's systems (plasma injectors, perhaps?) His fingers fly frantically over the panel, as if preparing a great weapon....

It's a simple matter to simulate the power buildup, but.. then what? The Romulan woman just sits there, a smug smile on her face.

Nevaren readjusts the beam modulation and turns to Poole, smiling. "We're at go sire. Fire on your mark."

Nevaren signs below the terminal again with his hands. "Go for it"

Cross looks to Poole for the sign to initiate massive power buildup

Gwen narrows her gaze at the romulan woman, then looks to Cross and then at Nevaren. "Fire."

Holliday affects a more formal, at attention stance and addresses Poole. "We're behind your decision, sir. Systems primed." He's played enough poker to bluff... But has Mekkara? And is Poole really bluffing, for that matter? He pales a bit...

Cross allows his fingers to initiate a massive power buildup in the plasma injectors...

Nevaren stabs a finger at the neutrino sensor emiter, firing the beam at the designated target.. the anomaly

Mekara doesn't look in the slight bit nervous. She gives no orders to her crew, just awaits patiently for Poole's word. The burst of the anomaly is stellar - a beautiful sight. It fills the blackness of the void like a white artificial sun, bathing the station in a brief, bright flash. When it ends, Mekara leans forward, but stays silent.

Nevaren stands up quickly., motioning the other to be silent.

Cross states proudly in clear view of the Romulan "It will take several minutes for the full effect to come to pass. Power buildup proceeding smoothly...." he then mutters, "god help us... for the good of Starfleet."

Nevaren says "I have just initiated a flux build-up in the anomalies core. In 13 mninutes it will surge and explode in a wave of Chronaon particles, destroying this entire sector and laying waste to subspace for tousands of parsecs. I am the only one who knew how to do it.. and I am the only one who can stop it. And I won't. Unless you pull back."

Mekara smiles. "Nice display of pyrotechnics," she says, leaning back. "We both know it was harmless, Lieutenant, so stop playing your games. Turn over all information you have pertaining to the artifact and the anomaly, as well as the artifact itself, or we will destroy your station. You have /fifteen/ minutes to comply," she says, out-doing Nevaren's estimation by two.

Gwen signals to Cross to cut the transmission. "I'm not authorized to do that Mekara, I am however authorized to stop you from getting your hands on the artifact and the anomaly at all costs."

Gwen signals to Cross to cut the transmission.

Cross does so Nevaren looks at Holliday. "I can't... at least not now.. But we may get a chance to soon. I think I can knock out their ship

Cross looks firmly toward Nevaren, saying "And then we have five more, angrier than ever..."

LaFae says "what about the five on our six?"

Nevaren looks at LaFae. "What do you mean?"

LaFae says "Five more birds on our tail in case you went deaf sometime in the past twenty minutes."

Holliday nods to Nevaren, and taps his keys again.

Cross looks at Poole, thinking while stroking his beard, and says "We need to convince her that we are a threat to the empire..."

Nevaren thinks hard, rubbing his goatee. "I think... I think I may be able to disable all the warbirds at once

Gwen turns around and says, "We need a different trump card...." She looks to Nevaren, then at the rest of the crew. "I do not want to have to destroy that anomaly, but I may have to self-destruct the station..... we can't let the artifact fall into her hands."

Holliday nods. "We've got about ten minutes before she's openly going to call and clean us out..."

Cross glares at Poole "I don't think we're dead yet, sir. I've been through a lot of hairy situations... do the Romulan's know what the artifact does?

Nevaren turns to his terminal and starts bring up his simulations again. "We caused a flare in the anomaly. Remember what I said about the wake of the romulans singularities in the anoanlies quantum waves. IF I can modulate another neutrino beam just enough, I can cause anopther flare. But this time, maybe I can cause is to be of the right frequency and strength to affect the romulan's singularites. Causing them to flare.. overload all their systems."

Holliday laughs. "Do we?" He says, refering to the artifact. Then he shuts back up.

Poole shakes her head and replies to Cross, "But that woman wasn't falling for any of my bluffs." Then she looks to Nev, "Can we actually do that?"

Nevaren shrugs, trying to find out if it is plausable

Cross slaps his knee, grinning at Nevaren. He replies "Now we're thinking... but would such an event damage the station?"

Nevaren purses his lips, not happy "I can only do one at a time. Each warbird would require a seperate flare. By the time I got one or two the other would get us. And no.. it wouldn't have any affect on us."

Holliday can't really keep quiet here. He's quippy in the operating room too, if you'd ever seen him. "More or less than the Romulans, Mr. Cross?"

Cross says to Nevaren "But do they know that, I mean, could we bluff by destroying one or two with the weapon?"

Cross says "They know we don't like taking life... they would think we didn't destroy the rest out of compassion. Possibly." Cross Rubs his chin, smiling at Holliday "I suppose that was my question."

Nevaren looks at Poole. "It's up to you, sir. Maybe if we used it on the leader ship, we could tractor it in and use it as a hostage. A bargaining chip."

Gwen shakes her head, "I don't think the romulans would believe something like that, Ensign." She nods to Nev and thinks for a few moments.

Holliday says "Maybe you could .. raise the stakes, Lt. A nuclear explosion will kill unshielded combustion engines before the shockwave hits.. Maybe you could make them think the power failure is due to the 'anomaly's power' building up."

Nevaren grins at holliday. "If I confined the beam enough, they couldn't detect it. Youc an only detect neutrinos by them passing through you.

Gwen seems to have come to a decision and heads back to the chair. "Cross, hail Mekara. Nevaren, get ready to fire the beam on her warbird."

Holliday nods, raises one hand in a questioning shrug, looking to Poole and the others. Then he starts tapping the keys again.

Cross nods to Poole, "Understood sir." Tapping the appropriate keys, he initiates the hail.

Mekara appears on the screen again, her finger steepled before her. "Four minutes, Lieutenant."

"Give us the information and retreat now, or we will destroy your vessel. This is your last chance." Gwen raises her hand in signal to Nevaren, if she drops it, fire.

Nevaren setting new parameters on the beam, calulating for frequency and setting it so the the anomaly flare will lash the lead ship.

Mekara's eyes narrow. "Surely you know that this is a suicidal course, Lieutenant. Destroy my ship, and the rest of my warbirds will make short work of you."

Cross readies to set the computer to retrieve their logs when the power goes down, and readies transporters if it becomes neccessary to go aboard.

Holliday stands by, ready to reroute any recieved information into a (hopefully) safely buffered file, if he can figure out just what the heck Nevaren is doing, and how to handle his own end of things.

Poole frowns, then drops her hand. She's already giving more orders, as well. "Cross, if their shields go down, beam Mekara to the bridge here, and surround her by a forcefield."

Cross keeps the controls ready, in case of a slight power failure in which shields may just go down for a few moments... sweat once again pools on his brow

Nevaren fires the beam at the Anomaly. It glows brightly, then a shockwave rocks the station. The viewscreen statics over as sensors start to go down all over the station. The lights flicker as the deckplates buckle below your feet, sending everyone careening across ops.

Eventually the station stops rocking, and sensors start to come back online.

Poole's comm badge chirrups. "Tyler to Poole," says a voice over it.

Poole dives and grabs hold of the nearest rail, managing to not go flying too far. "Good God... What was that?" She stands shakily and barks (very Balin like), "Damage report."

Poole taps her comm badge. "Poole here."

Over Poole's comm badge, Tyler says, "Suh-sir? Wuh-what j-just happened?"

Nevaren sweeps the station quickly with his sensor, bring up the engineering display on his science terminal.

Cross struggles off the ground, brushing himself off, and sitting at the OPS panel. Immediately, he checks sensors, and attempts to scan the Romulan ship for damage

Sensors are down.

LaFae bounces off his terminal, "To us or the station?...Ouch."

Poole says into her comm badge, "We initiated a beam at the anomaly.... a shockwave hit us afterwards."

Cross slams his fist on the console

Nevaren curses in bajoran. "The sensors are offline. Attempting to reroute them through secondary systems"

Over Poole's comm badge, Tyler says, "Science luh-lab two experienced.. Nuh-never mind. Tyler out."

The link goes dead as Tyler terminates transmission.

Gwen frowns, then says, "Are our weapons and shields still functioning? Communications?"

Legs wearing SF pants and boots kick in the air for a moment, then a hand reaches up towards the top of the console podium, and Holliday pulls himself shakily upright. He starts trying to pull up some info- did they get anything off the romulan computer? Might as well check station life support while he's at it.

Cross looks to Nevaren and says "It would be nice.. the good doctor needs those logs and if we can get over there..." Cross checks the COMM array

Nevaren shakes his head. "All I can get is external sensors"

Cross nods to Nevaren in thanks, and runs a sweep of the Romulan starship for damage

Holliday looks at Nevaren darkly, then observes in a dry tone, "A stich in time, Ensign?"

"And what can we see?" Gwen turns to Cross.

Nevaren looks at Holliday, shaking his head tiredly.

Cross turns to Poole in surprise, saying "The Romulans... they're gone! Scanning for debris...." He taps rapidly on the panel

"We're running on secondary life support, systems .. holding and stable." The doctor reports.

Cross shakes his head no to Poole. "No debris found."

Nevaren works on getting internal sensors online, trying to shunt them through undamaged systems.

Cross says "Sir, should one of us head down to security and verify that we have no intruders?"

Gwen shakes her head, "This is not good... We had better make sure none of them jumped ship. Security teams to sweep all decks." She moves to tactical, trying to verify the status of the shields.

Nevaren stops, having a very unpleasant thought. "Computer," he states, "Use sesors to mark star locations.. and give me the correct date correlating data from the stellar cartography database."

Cross contacts the security department via OPS and relays Poole's orders

Holliday looks over the data-display, addings, "Casualty report- Minor injuries reported on habitat decks, no fatalties so far." He sighs, and taps his combadge. "Holliday to Infirmary. How you doing down there, Nurse?" He begins to initiate the 'air-raid' protocol: get the civilians to secured areas and mobilize trauma teams, if they're available...

Nevaren shrugs at the computers display readout of his request. "Not bad. only off by a few milliseconds. better than centuries." He turns to Poole. "I'll go down to engineering and see if I can't fix up some of this mess from down there."

A fairly toneless voice responds to Holliday's hail, "As expected, Doctor. Your services are far from required at this point."

Nevaren stands and leaves Science I.

Nevaren exits operations, heading out into the corridor.

Nevaren has left.

Holliday answers into his pin, "Very good. I'll see what I can do from up here." He snorts softly, almost a chuckle. "Consider me on call. Holliday out." He waits a few seconds to see if she has anything further, then terminates the transmission with a tap.

Gwen moves from tactical and addresses the bridge. "Cross, I need you send word to Starfleet Command of what just occurred, keep up the scanning, maybe they just cloaked." She look to Holliday and says, "Doctor, I know it may be a futile effort, but I need to ask you to get back to work on helping the commander."

Holliday nods at Poole's words, not looking up from the panel. He swears, his mouth twitching. "Nothing! Just what I was working on, Lt." He looks up now. "Unfortunately the romulan's records seem to be gone along with the rest of their ship." He sighs wearily before squaring his shoulders. "I'll keep working with what I have, I guess."

The young female liuetenant moves to the commander's chair, sitting down slowly. She closes her eyes and puts her hands on the arm-rests. "Tiny miracles...."

Holliday says "Anyone got a rabbit, and a hat?"

Poole turns her head to look at Holliday, "A rabbit and a hat?"

Cross nods to his commander, beginning to once again work on the OPS panel. He performs a scan for the Romulans swiftly, and dispatches an emergency communique to Starfleet Command. Additionally, he asks all departments to check in: noting any that are in serious trouble. Then he replies "Unfortunately, I've got neither Doc."

Holliday nods, shakes his head, and begins to move towards the turbolift outside. "Right, Lt. It'd be nice if we could work a little magic about now, pull something out of our sleeves." Cause we are going to need it. He nods then and goes out into the corridor, presumably returning to the infirmary..

Gwen stands again from the chair and walks towards the CO's office. "I'm going to send my report in to Starfleet."

Cross says "Sir, I'm not much good here...should I go check the station personally?"

Poole stops just before the doors to the office, then looks to Cross. "Please do so, Mr. Cross." She sighs, looking very weary all of a sudden and heads into the office.