11
Jim stared in disbelief at the panels around him. They were actually glowing from the restored power, albeit at minimal power levels. They wanted to restrict their electronic signature to as little as possible until they were ready to make their run for Federation space. He barely managed to keep the smile from his face as he opened the comm channel to Engineering.
“Well done Engineering! How long until the new warhead is in place?”
Chief Engineer Granger came on the line.
“Sir, we’ve got the warhead lined up at the bow but the debris
is making it slow going to attach. We have to keep clearing the tracks before we can move it in and we don’t dare use the autosequencer to pull it in, just in case the Spoon-, er Cardassians, manage to detect the energy signature. It’ll take another hour to get it attached manually, then about thirty minutes to run diagnostics. No point in all this effort if we blow up due to a faulty power relay!”
“Very well, keep me informed! Bridge out!”
This is going to be a long 90 minutes! Jim mused as he looked around the bridge at the expectant faces. He rubbed his tired face and ran a hand through his hair to try to shake the lethargy that had been stealing over him because of the stress of the new position he had been forced to adopt.
“Okay people, we’ve got ninety minutes, let’s get this ship ready to fight!”
The crew adopted his assertiveness and made it their own as they went about their tasks and repairs. All over the ship the crew moved like an army of ants, repairing anything they could that was vital to getting the ship in a condition to fight her way home. None of them doubted that they would indeed have to fight for their freedom and so all of their efforts were spent in repairing the primary systems. They would not have time, nor would they be able, to repair the secondary systems as well. They would have to wait until
they returned to Deep Space Nine before being repaired – if they could get there. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that they would make it but everyone, including the Hunter herself, was giving one hundred and ten percent.
An air of hope began to rise on the ship as the minutes ticked by without reports of systems failure. The Damage Control and Engineering teams began to report in to the bridge with encouraging news. The major hull breaches had been sealed as best they could, many be welding pieces of shattered bulkheads over the exposed hull plates, and all reparable systems aboard had been repaired. Several sections of the ship remained without power or life support and, having been evacuated earlier, were sealed off.
To Be Continued...
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