The Captain tapped her comm badge. "Bridge to engineering."
Her badge popped, "Engineering, Kelly here."
Captain Velasquez took a deep breath, "Are we ready to try again, Leiutenant?"
"Just say the word, Captain." came the confident reply.
Velasquez turned to her first officer. "Perhaps now would be a good time to say a prayer."
"I've been doing that all morning, Sir." Kirk replied with a nod.
"Leiutenant. The word is given. Switch us to internal power." She grabbed the arms of her chair tightly.
"Stand by," Kelly's voice stated, "disconnecting shipyard umbilical power." Moments after he said that, the ship went dark again. This time, however, the emergency lights kicked on almost immediately. The bridge was covered in red light.
"Well, that's a good sign," the captain said hopefully. Her first officer looked around somewhat nervously. He believed in the power of prayer, not necessarily the power of untested systems that have been rigged together with gum and wishful thinking.
"Captain, we have a strong signal from the containment system. We're releasing the anti-matter locks to flood the dilithium chamber." In the background, she could hear the engineers count off.
"Lock one disengaged."
"Lock two disengaged."
"Lock three disengaged."
"Lock four disengaged."
"Lock five disengaged!" The entire ship shuddered momentarily with the pulse of energy coursing through the chamber. There was a low hum from behind the walls of the bridge. After several moments, the hum quickly raised in pitch. Suddenly, the bridge was bathed in incandescent light. The computers booted. The sensors began their chirping. Cheers came from all over the ship. The bridge crew stood up and clapped.
"Kelly, you did it!" Captain Velasquez screemed into her badge. "The chief engineer's status of miracle worker has been restored!" She slumped back into her captain's seat and let out a heavy sigh of relief.
From engineering, Leiutenant Kelly could see the blue light of the warp coil pulsating up the chamber. He saw the light feeding the primary tubes that would power the warp nacells. Behind him, the main power distribution center was happily pulsing power to the various parts of the ship. He found himself humming with the low hum of the engines, grinning ear to ear. He and his team had done a lot these past eight days, but nothing matched the sense of accomplishment of having the ship running under her own power...FINALLY.
Ensign P'rr's slinked past Tom with a smile. "I was rrright. You ARRRE imprrressive...forrr a human."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah...I'd like to thank all the little people who made this moment possible." Tom replied for all to hear with a sly smile. With the most pressing challenge behind them, he could afford to be himself. He waved his hands broadly as if accepting an award. The other engineers smiled at his exaggerations. "Seriously, everyone...thank you all for your hard work. Most of you have been at this much longer than I have. For your dedication, and apparent mental imbalance, you have my gratitude." The engineers all laughed and clapped. Although he was giving them credit, most of them realized that Tom was the sole catalyst for almost all the major repairs. "Now, we'll see about getting a real rotating shift started!" The engineers cheered louder.
As P'rr's continued to walk past him, he intentionally bumped her with his hip. She quickly turned to him and mewed coyly. He smiled. As she turned back around, she had to smile as well. Looking back, she was glad she took the opportunity to discuss her species with her senior officer before anything more uncomfortable occurred. As she discovered, within human culture, her species is badly misunderstood. Hopefully, she'll get similiar opportunities to talk with her other crewmates.
Tom watched her walk past and let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness," he thought to himself. "Now that I know a little more about her, we can let our hair down a bit more. I'll have to watch myself, though."