: Posted by Ensign Rico Barak (Security officer) in Romulan Engineering Section
: : Posted by Lieut (j.g.) Dominique Burnett (Chief Engineer) in Romulan Engineering Section
: : : : : : : "In quick succession," Blenkow added ... "we need someone to give us a steady beat ..." he began clapping ... "someone keep that beat, choose a beat to push those three buttons one on each beat. Who'll do that? It is important that is done just right. A button push on each beat. If we mess this up, we run the risk of the whole thing exploding prematurely, and taking us with it. Better than average chance of that happening, Sir," he said to the ranking officer in the room.
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: : : : : : : "After that, there'll be a faint click ... that is normal. Then a further two beeps, that too is normal. They'll go on our beats as well beep nothing beep beep." the freighter captain said, "I think I'm ready when you are ..."
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: : : : : : : "Then wait for us to tell you the next pattern ... there'll be four such patterns. At that point, the cannister should be totally disarmed and the singularity should be stabilised. That's the theory anyway. Sir, once we start this, there's no turning back. This seems to be the best hope to save those two planets and really work out what's happened here," Blenkow said.
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: : : : : : : Blenkow motioned to the freighter captain to explain it and the freighter captain complied, "it seems that this cannister was set to release its deadly contents into the air supply of this vessel when the cloaking device was engaged. From the evidence, it would appear that this Romulan Senator, if he was in fact a Senator, and not some kind of infiltrator, left it here. It would explain the orders not to engage it until they reached here. It would also explain the secrecy behind the Senator's actions here. But why this and why now?"
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: : : : : : : "We can worry about that later," Blenkow said, recovering his anger somewhat, "we've got two planets to save. Sir," he once again said to the ranking officer, "this is a delicate operation. I know that Fleet Captain Wolfe is very concerned that we let him know what's going on ... but could we possibly ask him for subspace silence for the next few minutes? Tell him, he'll know when its safe to talk to us again. If he doesn't hear from us ... and if they see the explosion, well they'll know we weren't successful. Anything that goes wrong here could have bad consequences for all of us."
: : : : : : :
: : Burnett nodded, agreeing with the ensign's assessment.
: :
: : =/\= Burnett to Athena, we're attempting to stabilize the singularity. Requesting subspace band silence for 2 minutes. =/\=
: :
: : : : : : : After the appropriate actions were taken, he looked to someone, "the beat please, if you don't mind ..."
: : : : : : :
: : : : : Tresha stepped up to the console and looked at the man, "ready," she said. Her hands were poised over the buttons.
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: : : : : : : "Now then," the freighter captain said looking at Bi'ran, "are you ready? Remember on the beats ... one button on each." After Bi'ran's nod, he issued the first set of orders, "First Row Button Five, Third Row Button Two, Second Row Button 1."
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: : : : : : : Blenkow found himself holding his breath as the beat continued to be tapped away ...
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: : : : : : : - GM
: : : : : :
: : : : : Tresha kept in time with the beat and pressed the buttons in time with the person who was keeping the beat, she looked at the console only, keeping her attention sharp on the task as she listened to the instructions told to her.
: : : : :
: : : : : Lt. Jg. Rai
: : : : : Tinkerer
: : : :
: : : : Rice stepped closer to Tresha and watched as she worked the console like a piano, trying to see if he could memorize the sequence as he copied it onto his data padd.
: : : :
: : : : Ensign Rice, Engineer
: : :
: : : Silence throughout the room with the exception of the regular beat ... then on the beat beep beep pause beep.
: : :
: : : Blenkow looked at the screen again and said "Next set for you is Third Row Button Six, First Row Button Four, Second Row, Button Seven."
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: : : - GM
: :
: : Burnett continued to tap on his tricorder, monitoring the matter injection, singularity rotation, and plasma flow of the singularity, though the knowledge of a rapid destabilization would do them little good, it was comforting to possess the knowledge nonetheless.
: :
: : Burnett
:
: Rico stood guard, thinking that that was the right thing to do on a Romulan Starship. He had a problem with the Romulans, but he was keeping that under his hat.
: Rico, Security

That set of buttons were pushed, as were each of the following sets ... All in time to the beating of the tricorder. The beats sounded, the silence only broken by the beeping of the system. That was the only thing that was breaking the eerie silence of the engineering section on the ship. As the final set of them sounded, the cannister came lose and deactivated in their hands.

Blenkow let out an explosive breath.

"Well, that's over. Time to get off of this tub. Maybe we should let the captain know we're safe, and what we've found out," he suggested.

"But," protested the freighter captain, what about the identity of the Romulan Senator, "don't we want to know who that is?"

Once again Blenkow looked to the senior officer in engineering. "We don't want to overstay our welcome. Romulans are still very suspicious of things. I'd suspect that someone will be by this way soon to investigate what's going on. We really don't want to be here when that happens."

- GM