Ashatia made it to engineering, “Lieutenant Sandoval and Ensign Cordon we are heading over to the Eldara. The ship’s main power is offline so we will need EV suits. Get your equipment and head towards the docking port.” Ashatia replied as she headed towards her office to get her tool kit she always kept with her or in her office.

Livvy looked away from the diagnostic display she was going over and nodded, “Aye ma’am.” It was a matter of only a few steps to retrieve her tool kit. In an emergency, you didn’t want to run halfway across the ship to get it.

Neva reached down to her knee & grabbed the strap of her tool kit perched there. Swinging it over her shoulder, Neva terminated her work & left her console. A spurt of air fluttered her hair as she answered, “Aye, sir.”

“We are to work on restoring power, so the other away team can get the sensor logs to figure out what happened,” Ashatia said as she emerged from her office as they all headed out towards the docking port to get their EV suits on.

“Can I assume that there will be no resistance then?” Liv asked falling into step. “What’s the status of the antimatter containment fields? Do we know? It would be a real inconvenience to beam over just in time to be annihilated.”

“No, the other team is going to look for survivors.” She responded while they walked down the corridor. “From my scans they are stable,” She replied.

Livvy nodded. Thanks to Deep Space Nine, Starfleet had a very good working knowledge of Cardassian systems. In addition to that Professor O’Brian had been one of her instructors at the Academy who wrote the book on the subject. Still, this was going to be a challenge as she had never actually put her hands on any Cardassian technology.

“We should bring a portable generator so we can tap into the ship’s replicators. We will likely need several replacement parts before we can restore main power,” Livvy suggested.

Neva nodded at Livvy’s suggestion and peeled off to grab the generator. “I’ll meet you at the docking port with that, Sir.” Out of long practice and study of the ship’s schematics, Neva found the generator and hustled back to the others.

After they reached the area where the EV suits were located, taking a deep breath as she began to put on the suite. She had to take something for her nerves before she headed down here, going on the Cardassian ship made her a bit antsy. Once she had it on she looked to the others, “you ready?” She asked as she was trying to keep things under wraps.

Livvy had just snapped the helmet into the place. “As I’ll ever be. I hate these things. Heavy, uncomfortable, and more than a little claustrophobic, but I’m ready.”

“Here goes nothing,” she said as they all walked aboard the Eldara and a sudden rush of memories started to rush forwards. She stood there for a few moments to gather her thoughts and her composure before she proceeded towards engineering.

“Oh boy,” Livvy commented feeling her stomach-churning. “Probably shouldn’t have had that burrito before coming here. Artificial gravity is a little wonky.”

She nodded at that statement as they began to make their way through the ship towards engineering, after what seemed forever, they finally reached their destination. “Well, here we are” Ashatia replied before looking back. “Livvy and Nevanthi work on connecting the portable generators, I am going to check the warp core to make sure things continue to remain stable until you get that operational.” She added looking at the both of them, the last thing they needed was the ship to blow.

“Yes ma’am,” Livvy replied and turned to Nevanthi. “There should be a power tap over there,” she said pointing to a console on the other side of Engineering. “What do you think? Start with just one or daisy chain the two generators? I doubt one will be enough to restore emergency power.”

Neva’s fingers danced over the controls on the 1st generator. She plugged it into the ship’s systems. A dim glow lit the room & Neva shook her head. “Looks like 2’s the magic number after all.”

Livvy opened her tricorder, scanned the generator, and nodded, “I agree. Cardassian technology runs best on 240 volts, make sure you have adjusted the output.”

Quickly, Neva did the adjustment & stood up. “All set.”

Livvy walked over to the flickering power distribution console and started entering commands trying to help the generators along.

Neva echoed Livvy’s actions on the navigation console, trying to see what course was set. Chirps & clicks answered her.

“Livvy, their course was 10 degrees off our current course. They were bound to crash, despite any warnings to the contrary.”

Liv gave Neva an approving nod and went to the Environmental Control console. She wanted out of this infernal EVA suit. “There are several hull breaches. Emergency force fields are offline, but emergency bulkheads are in place except on Deck 3, Section 28 Gamma. Something is preventing a seal.” There was a pause as she worked the controls. “I have sealed off deck three, rerouted emergency power from deflector control to environmental systems, and reinitialized system…” There was a pause, and Livvy popped her helmet off. “Atmosphere is a bit thin but breathable at 71 kilopascals. It’s a bit chilly at 10 degrees, but we should reach a full 28 degrees in a couple of minutes.”

Neva took her own helmet off & shook her head, letting her hair fly loose. “Cold has never been my friend,” Neva said sheepishly. She coughed & turned all business.”You keep on environmental & I’ll see if we can get the ship to use its own power. Those generators only work for so long.” Neva reached out tapped on the console. Sighing, she quickly dropped down to the floor & turned over. Pulling off a panel, she pulled her kit up closer & got to work. Sparks danced around her tools, but she ignored them. After a few minutes, Neva pushed up & away from the underside.

Looking up at Livvy, Neva sighed & shook her head. “The main power’s somewhere else on the ship.”

Ashatia looked at them, she knew enough about Cardassian ships to know where it was. “Ensign it’s actually over here,” she replied pointing to the console next to her. “If you want to assist me in getting it operational I need you to work on fixing the eps relays that are tied into the main power over there,” she replied pointing to the farther wall the opposite of where she was. “Once those are fixed or replaced I can see about getting the power restored at least long enough for the other team to get what they need and see if there are any survivors,” Ashatia replied though she didn’t think anyone survived.

“There could be crew in emergency shelters,” Livvy added as if she had read Ashatia’s mind. Though, the truth of the matter; was a natural assumption from one to the other. “We’ll need at least auxiliary power to bring the main computer online,” Livvy continued.

Looking back at her, “I realize that Lieutenant but we still need to get some of the eps relays repaired before we can even do that.” Ashatia replied looking back at Livvy, she just wanted to get done and get off the ship as soon as possible.

Livvy nodded looking up from her PADD where she had downloaded a schematic of the Cardassian ship. With the main computer down sensors were useless and diagnostics were incomplete or could be unreliable. “There’s a good chance that the EPS regulators or relays were blown out at junction twenty-three Alpha. According to this, it’s where the plasma from the warp and the fusion reactors are intermixed. It’s common enough on Starfleet ships, and if I recall correctly Cardassian power grids are far more susceptible to power surges. I can check that out if you’d like ma’am.” The sting of that “Lieutenant” was still fresh in her ears.

She looked at her for a moment and nodded, “Sorry Livvy to tell you the truth I rather not be here as it just brings back bad memories. So I didn’t mean to snap at you,” Ashatia replied looking at her, “If you want to take Ensign Cordon with you in case you need assistance.” Ash replied looking at her.

Livvy looked over at Nevanthi busy working and shook her head. “No, I don’t think so ma’am. It’s a common problem, but there’s a chance this is a wild goose chase. She’s busy, and no sense in sending someone down a Jefferies tube that doesn’t need to be sent. I can take care of it.”

Neva half-listened to the conversation but mostly buried herself in putting the EPS online. As ever, she worked alone.
Being reprimanded & embarrassed by the Lieutenant brought a frown to Neva’s face. ‘Par for the course, I guess,’ she conceded.
Honestly, she admitted to herself, she’d never been on a Cardassian ship to fully know their systems.
She shook her head & turned her thoughts back to the job at hand. Hopefully, her work here would be fruitful.

Livvy collected some spare parts from a storage locker and on her way to the access junction she kneeled next to Neva and glanced over at her progress. “How’s it going, Neva?”

Neva started at Livvy’s voice. The tool she was using fell from her hand, bouncing off her forehead before hitting the ground. “Oh! Hiii Livvy! Sorry, I was trying to get the connections on this relay, I got hyperfocused.” She grabbed around for the tool beside her head & gave a half-smile. “It’s going. Some connections & such are fried, but I think I can bypass those & have it running shortly. You ready for your trip into the bowels of a Cardassian ship?” A bigger smile hid the rock in her stomach for her. ‘Another gut instinct? Nah….’ Neva thought.

Livvy grinned and held up the replacement parts, “As I’ll ever be. Looks like you got this. I guess I better stop procrastinating. My knees are already hurting.”

Neva did a rare thing for her-she laid a hand on Livvy’s. That sinking feeling reared its head again, but Neva tried to push it away. “Be Careful, ok? Please…” Neva took her hand away & quickly went back to work.

Livvy smiled and patted her on the knee, “I’ll be fine.” She stood and manually forced open the maintenance tunnel.

Crawling inside she moved down nearly a hundred meters to junction twenty-three. Sure enough, the EPS intermix chamber and relays had overloaded. Getting comfortable she opened her tool kit and went to work.

After a while, what seemed like hours though in reality was less than an hour of working they were able to get power online. Though she knew that it wouldn’t last long with the damages the ship sustained in whatever attacked them. She would continue to monitor until the other team gets what they need.

“Commander Koerner, power has been restored for the time being though I suggest you get what you need as soon as you can. I don’t know how long this will hold sir,” Ashatia said to the Executive Officer over the comms channel.