<OOC Steven, this came through a bit garbled before so i thought Id send

it

to you again, just in case you wanted to repost it>



Stardate 239905.19





Atlanta Jade, walked on to a barren and deserted Bridge.  She was the only

one there. Gradually one by one, as Ruckwood and Dach repaired the ship, the

operating systems became functional. The structural damage had been repaired

and Dach had managed to get the warp drive back on line. Now they only

needed a few more minor repairs before they could attempt to get home. The

question of how they would do this, still needed to be answered, however

Atlanta Had more pressing business on her mind.

"Bridge to Engineering, " she spoke into her COMM badge.

"Yes what is it?" Dach replied sounding agitated.

"I would like to hold a meeting, in the ready room, if you are

available."

Atlanta tried to b polite.

"Do I have any choice?" came the reply.

Atlanta poised herself for a confrontation. She knew that Dach was in a foul

mood anyway. "Er.. not really" she replied.

"Right. I'll meet you there in ten minutes"

"Where's Ruckwood?" Atlanta asked. She hadn't seen him all day,

then again

she hadn't seen anyone all day.

"I'll contact him." Dach snapped quickly "Dach out."



The three of them sat round a table in the ready room. Dach looked exhausted

and Ruckwood, just confused.

"So what's this about then?" Tar'a asked. "I presume it's not

just a social

get together.'

Atlanta frowned. "Hardly" she answered coldly. With the three new

additions,

we have some sort of an authoritarial problem. I am not sure how they will

fit into the crew. We have no option but to make them crew members as we can

't possible operate this ship properly with only three of us. It would be a

tactical mistake to leave our battlestations unmanned, especially whilst

within range of hostile territory.  On the other hand, incorporating them

into our crew might cause some managerial arguments....." She walked

over to

the window and gazed out.

 Ruckwood interrupted her. "What have you done to your head?" he

asked.

 Atlanta moved her hand to her head and felt a large lump. "Oh.....

nothing"

she said dismissively.

 "You should see the doctor with that...... You're bleeding."

 "I'm fine" Atlanta replied, grinding her teeth together.

 "Still, I think......." Ruckwood continued, but was cut short by

Atlanta.

 "Ruckwood..... Has anyone ever told you that you're a prat??" she

asked,

feeling annoyed that they had moved away from the main topic.

 "Yes..... you many times." He answered

 Dach intervened. Until then she had remained silent, unable to speak,

through exhaustion. "Then why don't you just listen and shut up."

 "Thank You" Atlanta said sarcastically. "Now, does one of us

assume a

command position as temporally Captain, or do we put our trust in Davis and

his crew to take over. They do have seniority, however this is still our

ship, and we can't be court marshalled unless we get back to a Federation

Dimension."

 "I don't trust them', Dach said leaning forward in her chair and then

slumping back down.

 "Hmmm. I'm not sure" Ruckwood replied after contemplation.

"None of us has

enough experience to captain the ship."

 "I agree" replied Atlanta "maybe we need to speak to them

first. We won't

make a decision about this until the three of us agree. There will be no

split team."

 "Right...." Dach manoeuvred herself out of the chair and mad a

quick exit.

Ruckwood moved neared to Atlanta to get a better look at her head.

 "I still think that you should get this looked at.." he said.

Atlanta was

surprised that he actually seemed concerned.

 "I'm not going near that pathetic EMH, that asks me to state the

'nature of

the medical emergency' whenever I activate it. It annoys the hell out of me

and that's the last thing I need at the moment." Atlanta walked out of

the

room, slamming the door behind her, leaving Ruckwood standing alone

wondering why everyone was in such a bad mood. 'There has to be a scientific

explanation for this' he thought.

 Storming down the hallway, Atlanta passed the Commander and Lieutenant

Moraine heading for the mess hall. They certainly weren't going to find

anything interesting there, apart from the odour of death and fear, where

many of the crew had spent their last  minutes. She hurried past quickly,

remembering the Lieutenant's psychic abilities. That was another thing that

irritated her. She didn't want people reading her thoughts. She had enough

trouble dealing with them herself and didn't want someone else intruding.