"Captain's log, stardate 56918.5... Commander Kirk reporting. We're back from vacation and everyone seems well rested. The ship's in pretty good shape, too. You can't even tell we trashed it just over two weeks ago. Kudos to the repair personnel at Spacedock. We still have a few major systems to install and a nagging problem with the main cannons before we're fully operational. We're also missing over half our crew compliment... not to mention a captain. Apparently, we got an early Christmas present. Lieutenant Kelly informs me our computer core arrived some time last week. He has invited Tony and me to watch it get installed... sounds like fun. End log entry."

Kirk and Moreau walked through the main door of engineering at the same time. It was the first time Tony had ever visited main engineering. The room was immense. In the center of the square room was the anti-matter/dilithium chamber, a two-story tube with flowing blue energy visible through the many windows along its length. From the ceiling over the chamber were two large pipes, one that led forward and a much larger one that led towards the back. He recognized the destination of the forward pipe. It led to the main power distribution center, which supplied power to the ships systems. The larger pipe in towards the back went behind the wall and, presumably, to the engines. What especially caught his eye was a second chamber, partially built into the back wall. Computer access panels abounded throughout the room. A half dozen cabinets were also built into the walls at various points. A central access console, that looked more like a rectangular table, was just in front of the main chamber.

Tony counted at least a dozen people in this room, including an extremely attractive looking feline-looking ensign standing at the central access console. Actually, the more he looked at her, the more he thought he shouldn't find her attractive, since she was VERY cat-like. Her frame was small and thin. Her thighs large and obviously powerful. Her arms looked disproportionally long, compared to a humans. Her entire body was covered in a reddish, brown fur. The hair on top of her head could have been more accurately described as a mane, except it was quite long in the back and wrapped into a pony tail. Her eyes were slotted and bright green. As odd a creature as she was, she was somehow... exotic. His evaluation of the rest of the room ceased. "Wow..." he whispered.

Stephen looked his friend over and followed his eyesight to the Catian. Kirk could understand. It was the look as well as the phermones. Stephen had served with a Catian mated pair previously. It had led to some... interesting... situations. As the commander looked around, he noticed that a number of males' eyes occasionally wandered her way. Kirk rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers in front of Tony's face. "Hey," he said in a friendly, but commanding tone, "I need you HERE."

Tony barely recognized the finger snapping, but shook his head and shut his eyes. "Sorry, Ste... I mean, Sir." He said finally, when his head cleared. He was still getting used to calling Steve 'Sir'.

They resumed their walk over to Lieutenant Kelly, who was standing next to a tall, thin container. Behind him, several panels in the floor had been removed. A pile of circuits, wires, connecting rods, and boxes sat on the floor next to the hole. "G'day, guys!" Tom exclaimed. "Come see our new toy."

They approached the container, and peered into the open panel. The blue pulses of plasma light from within the crate gave away its contents. Tony opened the door some more. "Oh, my God," he exclaimed. "Do you have any idea what this is?"

Stephen pursed his lips. "No, but I have the feeling you're going to tell me."

"This array is so new they don't even have a name for it yet." He pointed to the three cylindrical compartments on the tower. "Each one is a computing matrix of two-hundred and fifty-six positronic processors in ionized neural plasma. Each matrix could control a small city." He pointed to the dozen cables protruding from its sides. "Each one of those holds twelve six hundred terrabyte data connectors. This is incredible."

Kirk raised an eyebrow. T'Nia would have been proud. "Exactly how do you know all this if this computer is THAT new?"

"Um..." Tony shuffled his feed. "I did some poking around in the computer system on Vega while we were waiting."

Kirk shook his head and smiled. "Okay... officially I didn't hear that." He pointed to the computer core. "So, I presume you wanted us here to watch this thing get installed?"

"Well," Tom replied, "that's why I wanted him down here." He pointed to Tony, who stood tall and smiled.

"What about me?" Kirk asked.

"I was kinda hoping you'd keep him from drooling on it while we put it in." The three laughed.

Stephen pointed to the lump of computer parts and wires on the floor. "So... what's that?"

"That? That's our old computer... the one I slapped together with whatever I could find in the shipyards." His smile broadened even more.

"We went into combat with that?"

"Yeah..." Tom said, laughing. "To be perfectly honest, after I put that thing in, I was just happy the doors would open."