Chapter Eleven

Lieutenant Commander Hatoko Kobayashi walked through the double doors and walked out into the center of Main Engineering, stopped, stretched, stifled a yawn and put her hands on her hips and looked up at the towering warp core as it pulsated with its tremendous and basked in its soothing blue glow. She was a creature of habit and did this every morning when her shift began.

"Ma'am, what are you doing here? Your shift doesn't start for another… four hours." The young engineer in charge of the night shift told her.

"Nani? Its 0700, Lieutenant." She corrected.

"No Ma'am, its half past three in the morning." He said checking the time readout at the console he was at.

Hatoko quickly tapped her comm-badge. "Engineering to bridge. We got a problem."

"So you're telling me its four AM in engineering, and almost half past nine here" Marion Andrews said trying to get her mind around the situation.

"That's not all, I've got patients coming in saying that scars that they've had for years are disappearing, while others are reappearing. Same goes for injuries as well; they just seem to manifest themselves." The doctor reported.

"He's right; I've had a scar from a Jem'Hadar bayonet on my shoulder ever since the battle of AR-834. It's gone now." James said, rubbing his shoulder, tracing the line where the scar used to be.

Jon Renolds stood by the observation window nursing a cup of coffee. He had only gotten four hours sleep when he got called to the bridge. "Well, Amber, it seems you were right. These anomalies seem to getting worse the closer we get." He took another sip of his coffee. "Commander Kobayashi is there any indication that these time distortions are affecting ships systems?" he asked.

"There seems to be some evidence of stress on the ships super structure. I've already compensated by diverting power from minor systems to the structural integrity field."

"How's the crew?" The Captain asked his Chief Medical Officer.

"Well, most of them feel like they haven't slept in days, and from what I've just been told, that may be true, and like I said, some crew's injuries are reappearing. Ensign Samantha Langley was brought in this morning with a wound that could have only come from a Cardassian phaser rifle."

"How is she?" Jon inquired with a hint of concern. Samantha Langley, the ships transporter chief, was one of a few crew members who where assigned to the Divination fresh out of the academy and had served under Captain Renolds their entire Starfleet careers.

"She's stable, its lucky that she was struck on her shoulder."

"The time distortions seem have subsided for now, captain. Time on the ship seems to be returning to normal, give or take a few minutes deck by deck." Amber reported as she read a padd that a science officer handed her and left the room. The captain took another sip from his coffee cup and sat back down at the head of the briefing table.

"Marion, increase speed to warp nine. What ever is going on here, I want to find out what is causing this and how to fix or put an end to it." Jon ordered.

"Aye, sir." She acknowledged.

"Alright, let's get back to work." Said the captain, and with that the senior staff filed out the briefing room and to their stations. James watched the main viewing screen as the stars started to stream past at an increased rate, and involuntarily he started to crack his wrist, and on the quiet bridge, it was loud enough to be heard by everyone.

"Sorry, old habit." He admitted. He was just about to give some explanation when he was interrupted by Peter at the ops station.

"Captain, I'm detecting a vessel half a light-year out. It appears to be adrift, but I can't get a clear reading."

"Is it the Antarctic?" Jon asked.

"Could be, but I can't be sure, sir." The young ensign responded. The captain gave his first officer a glance and nodded.

"Helm, alter course, and slow to impulse once in visual range." James ordered.

"Aye, sir. Changing course, we'll be in visual range in twenty minutes at current speed." Marion stated, and then did her best to hold back a yawn.

"Ensign Andrews, how much sleep did you get?" Jon asked.

"About one and half hours sir, but I've functioned on less." She responded. "I don't know what it is sir, I feel like I haven't slept in a day or two. I haven't been this tired since the war."

"Can't have my helmsman half asleep at her post, you're relieved. Go get some rest."

"Aye sir, Thank you sir." She said, and walked off the bridge.

"Commander Soul, take the helm." The captain ordered.

"Aye, sir." James said a bit too enthusiastically as he got up and took the post. "Computer, load helm configuration Soul-4 from my personal data base." He instructed the computer, who did as it was told with a twiddle-beep.

"Show off." Amber said, disguising it as a cough. James just chuckled to himself and studied the helms read outs.

"Are you two always like this?" Peter asked.

"You should see us when we play poker. You ever play poker with her, Ensign." James asked.

"No, sir…" Peter said, getting cut off in mid sentence.

"Don't. Not unless you like losing a months pay." James warned. Peter tossed a glance at Amber who had an evil half grin on her face.

"We're coming into visual range now, sir. Slowing to three-quarters impulse." James said as he worked the controls with the ease of a seasoned pilot.

"On screen." Jon ordered. The stars on the main viewer were instantly replaced by a small grey object in the center. It was small, but you could easily make out the oblong saucer and the upper sensor pylon of a Nebula-class star ship.

"Star ship registry confirmed. It's the USS Antarctic, NCC-62547."

"Life signs?" Jon asked

"None sir." Amber reported solemnly.

"Is the vessel functioning?"

"Main power and the primary computer core are both offline, life support and a few other secondary systems are online, blearily." Peter Golden reported. Jonathan paused for a moment then made his choice.

"Commander, move us into transporter range then assemble an away team."

"Aye, sir. Closing to five-hundred kilometres." James reported, and once in position, he got up. "Commander Fox, Lieutenant Valco, you're with me." James ordered as he tapped his comm-badge. "Soul to Main Engineering, Commander Kobayashi report to transporter room one for an away mission with an engineering detail."

Just as the three officers were about to leave the bridge, their captain stopped them. "Good luck." Was all he said. With that they left. In the turbo lift, James leaned up against the back wall, being very quiet.

"What's wrong James? It's not like you to look nervous." Amber asked

"Oh, I'm fine, this isn't the first derelict I've boarded, but then again, this isn't a Jem'Hadar battle ship, and I don't have a squad of fully armed Marines behind me, and something about this doesn't seem right." James said with a serious look on his face, just as the lift came to a halt and the doors slid open. He let the other two leave first. Transporter room one was a short walk from the turbo lift to where Hatoko was waiting with two other engineers. She was adjusting the shoulder strap on her engineering kit when she noticed Halee, Amber and James walk into the room.

"Ok, we're going to beam over to the Antarctic where we are going to split into two groups. Cmdr. Kobayashi, you and your engineering detail will go down to the ships Engineering section and see if you can get the primary computer core online so we can access the ships logs and maybe some of the other systems back online. The rest of us will head to the bridge and other area's of the ship where crew gather to try and figure out what happened. Any questions?" James asked, but got no response. He took a hand phaser and a flash light from the transporter room's weapons locker and got on the transporter pad. "Alright, let's go."

The rest of the group followed suit. "Energize." James ordered, and then room faded into a blue haze and faded away.