4. Dead in the Water.
BRAKTOR was stood over a large fiche schematic of the Neprem in the engineering room, they would have used the master operational display in the engineering room if it were not for the fact that it wasn't currently working due to the devastating effects of the EMP that had shot them down. Braktor was forced to resort to circling the damaged areas of the ship with a flourescent marker. Things were grim for the Neprem, Braktor had speculated that the residual shockwave from the warp core breach may have disrupted the cloak enough to allow the malfunctioning stingers sensors to have targeted the Neprem as a hostile blip even though she was supposedly invisible at the time . Braktor was relatively unskilled at managing his facial expressions for a Cardassian and Dukat could see that he wasn't going to like what his chief engineer had to say. Not at all.
Dukat decided to defuse the tension by cutting straight to the chase. "Right Braktor, how long before we can be underway again? Are our CPU systems able to be restored to full working order after the EMP, or are we looking at large scale system failure. Braktor responded glumly. "The computers systems suffered less damage than we thought. Damar was right to surmise that a residual hit struck out port wing, so the primary CPU housings didn't take the brunt of it, and we should be able to restore over 90 percent of computer functionality by rebooting with the back ups, likewise for the avionic systems. I believe we need two to three hours to restore computer control." Braktor seemed remarkable downbeat for this seemingly surprising stroke of good luck, Dukat was getting a little impatient with him, a Gul shouldn't have to wait for his subordinate to volunteer information, especially out here on the move. He let his irritation be known "Braktor! Could you be as so kind to give your Gul a complete breakdown of this ships operational status? The demands on my carefully rationed time are quite pressing, I shouldn't have to wring it out of you, understood?"
Braktor looked like he'd been stingered himself at the rebuke, but he continued. "Sorry Gul Dukat, I forget my place. We were fortunate with the computers, the warp drive I regret to say has fared a lot less so." This was not good news to say the least. The warp drive was just so integral to interstellar flight that a badly damaged or destroyed unit really was the ultimate word in engineering bad news. "Braktor, we do have warp capability do we? We aren't stranded in El-Gatark with a wrecked warp drive." Braktors eyes closed ever so slightly and he gave his assessment of the drive "The slim good news is that the warp drive is still functioning, though only just. The port wing was both damaged by the direct hit from the stinger and from striking a mountain as we crash landed. The wing has impacted not only into its mounting, but into the adjacent port nacelle also. It has punctured the warp coils and fractured them, and the entire nacelle will have to be removed in its entirety and replaced with new nacelles for full warp capability."
Dukat knew that this repair job would mean a major overhaul at a starbases dry dock. They couldn't rely on cadging a few spare parts and a free once over from a sympathetic yard superintendent as they had done for other minor damage they had occurred on their campaign. He held out on at least a flicker of hope and responded to Braktor. "What about the starboard nacelle? That still functions does it not. How would we manage just relying on that one for the short term until we are in a position to make substantial repairs? "We can maintain warp speed on the one nacelle, but there are serious limitations due to the nature of the damage we have taken. When the warp coils in the damaged nacelle were ruptured, the emergency systems redirected the plasma flow to the starboard one as designed too. However as some of the hypergolics in the wing were damaged by the EMP, so the redirected plasma flow to the other warp engine was irregular. The overheated plasma has degraded the integrity of our remaining warp coils and I believe we would not be able to push the craft past warp 2 without doing irreparable damage to the weakened coils." Dukat took in the enormity of what he'd been told "So you're telling me we now don't have the warp abilities to overtake a two hundred year old Tellarite ore freighter let alone a Klingon warship?" "Yessir. As much as I hate to say it there are other problems too. We now have to use the warp field from one nacelle to surround the entire ship, not a symmetrical field from two; this will increase the demands on our energy reserves about three hundred percent at warp. It's those wings sir, the warp bubble finds it hard enough to encompass them when both are active, with only one up and running the stresses on forming a stable warp field are magnified considerably. This ship may be aesthetically pleasing but it does produce practical problems especially when not at full operational status."
It was Damars turn to speak now. "Can we not just jettison the damaged wing?" Braktor replied instantly, "No sir, we would need a starbases class five plasma arc cutters to physically remove it and reconstruct the surrounding hull that would have to be extracted as well, as it that heavily embedded into the hull. We attempt to pull it out with the onboard equipment we risk splaying the aft hull so badly it will break apart at the seams." Braktor certainly knew how to make them all feel better with his analysis of their plight.
Dukat added his own assessment "We could just shear the wing off at the point where it meets the external wing mounting I suppose, but we would have the double problem of being stuck at only being able to fly at warp 2, and that we would be instantly recognisable as a rogue one winged bird of prey. Ok men begin work to restore computer control as we make preparations on how will proceed in light of this setback." "Setback", that was putting it mildly to say the least. He knew that they were in dire straits mission wise with the damage they had inflicted. Braktor was right; the ship would need extensive work at at one of their major shipyards, assuming that even those shipyards could provide anything like the compatible parts for this alien ship to run at full capacity again. He wasn't sure that in this climate of capitulation, that the government would order a starbase commander to seize the ship as it limped into dock; a threat to their long peace. Anyway even a ship yard that could service the ship, and that had personnel Dukat knew were sympathisers to his cause was months away at warp two. Attempting to cannibalise parts at a junkyard like Qualor 2 or Menaal was all but impossible, both were over a hundred light years away, which may as well have been the other side of the galaxy due to the state the Neprem was in.
Dukat felt physically drained, one minute they had been on the cusp of their greatest victory and a second later it was all snatched from them by the capriciousness of a Klingon contraption with shoddy parts. Dukat headed for his ready room, he would have to make arrangements for someone else to seal the still stricken and defenceless Gespagh's fate – it was like being the captain of the Groumell all over again, denied the chance to personally destroy ones enemy – the bloodlust was there, the technological means to do so less so. It brought bitter memories back that made him wince internally. That he had been so humiliated by the Klingons in front of Major Kira of all people. He'd burned with angry indignation then and he did so now. Though they had managed to beat the odds and gain victory that time around, Dukat wasn't sure that fortune would favour him so generously this time. It seemed his mission to take war to the Klingons was over. Permanantly.