Seated with him in the conference room were Captain Bolerov, Commander Kirk, Lieutenant Commander T'Nia, Lieutenant Moreau and Lieutenant Davies. T'Nia thoughtfully contemplated Lieutenant Kelly's findings. Everyone else stared at him blankly. Eventually, Captain Bolerov spoke. "So... what you're saying is... you know why the cannons don't work?" His expression was quite quizzical.
"Yes!" Tom answered excitedly. "The agents used to fire the shot are momentarily melting the housing."
There was a general "Oh!" from the meeting participants followed by an eyeroll from T'Nia.
"So, can you fix this?" Bolerov asked.
Tom shook his head. "We can't make stuff that big here. We'll need to get a hold of Vega."
Bolerov shook his head. "Contact Utopia Planetia. They're bigger and closer. They'll get what you need faster."
"Aye, aye, Sir." Tom announced proudly.
Bolerov smiled, convinced that he was right; a little fire under the feet is a good thing. His expression became a bit more thoughtful. "What about our shield problems?"
Lieutenant Moreau spoke up. "Tom had me look into that, Sir. There was just a little glitch in the randomization program."
"What do you mean?" Andrei asked.
"Well, Sir, our shields randomize their frequencies, to make Borg adaptation more difficult. No one bothered putting any kind of a check in the programs to make sure the frequencies didn't cancel each other out. Because the frequencies randomize so quickly, the shields never had a change to fully negate each other, they'd just momentarily weaken. I put a check into the programs, so it's all good now." Tony smiled and nodded.
Bolerov clapped his hands and smiled. "This is wonderful! I'm not sure what we're going to do with a fully functional vessel." Everyone else smiled as well. "But, we are just in time. Lieutenant Kelly, if we reduced our charging percentage to 50, would that keep the cannons from overheating?"
Kelly thought for a moment. "It would probably take awhile for the trellium to restabilize, but they shouldn't overheat to the point of nonuse, Sir."
"Or explode, I hope." The captain winked at him. "Alright, ladies and gentlemen. We reach the neutral zone in three hours. Get your rest while you can. We will need all primary officers on deck once we cross."
"Captain," Kirk started, "I had an idea."
The captain raised an eyebrow. "Let's hear it."
"I was just wondering if we could use the sensor mask to become the Devoras for the reat of the trip. The real Devoras could fly behind us cloaked."
The idea intrigued Andrei, but he wanted to hear Kirk out. "You would have us looking for trouble, eh, Commander?" he asked, his eyebrow still raised.
Kirk gave him a sly look. "Not at all, Sir. But... if someone ELSE is out there looking for trouble, I'd rather they find us than the people we're supposed to be protecting."
THAT answer satisfied Bolerov. He smiled wryly as well. "I like it. Commander T'Nia, give Lieutenant Moreau deep sensor scans of the Devoras. Lieutenant, make the necessary preparations. Then, the two of you take a rest. I'll explain to our romulan counterparts what we're about to do." The russian captain chuckled. "This ought to scare the hell out of anyone attempting an assasination attempt. Dismissed."