The blue-white shimmer of transporter confinement beams lit up the darkened room that the away team had picked as their beam in site. Power had come up just long enough to warn the colonists of the contingents’ arrival before it had gone back out. The colony’s administrator and a few people who looked as if they might be some manner of subordinates to the man were the only other people occupying the room, each holding a hand lamp.

“Welcome to our shelter, Commander. I am Victor Manis,” the man introduced himself.

“Commander Rena Yuri,” the woman responded in kind, “Our Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Brak has brought a team of our engineers to restore your power grid and set up a dampening field network to assist in keeping your people safe in the event of a resurgence in storm activity.”

“That is most kind of you. Vural, would you be so kind as to show them to our generator room?” Victor turned to the Romulan standing to his right.

“Come with me,” the man he’d called Vural said with a brief wave of his hand. Lt. Cmdr. Brak frowned a bit but didn’t comment on how brisque the man had been in his instruction as he trudged off after him.

“I’ve also brought several of my science officers with me to assist in piecing together a timeline with your scientists. We have our own gear so you needn’t worry about providing us with anything but a bit of space,” Yuri explained the presence of the remaining people’s presence.

“Very well, Commander,” Victor said with a slight bow, “Follow me.”

The group moved slowly down several dark corridors, the clacking of various footwear striking loose metallic metal gratings that served as the floor of the facility was the only sound echoing around them. After what felt like the fifth or sixth random turn down one corridor or another, the team found themselves in a room occupied by roughly a dozen people, all of them sitting around the room in various states of what appeared to be listless boredom.

“This is our science team,” Victor spoke up, “Since the storm hit, they have been somewhat lethargic as our shelter does not provide much of a means for them to conduct their research.”

“I’m sure it’s been hard on them being unable to contribute anything without proper equipment,” Cmdr. Yuri said in a sympathetic tone.

“Who are these people, Victor? Where did they come from?” a rather incised sounding woman demanded from near the corner of the room.

“They are from the USS Hydra,” the man replied to the woman’s vitriol filled question, “They came with some equipment hoping to get a handle on the storm before it returns and they wanted your help.”

“Then say that when you walk in,” the woman hissed, pushing her way through her rather lethargic team to stand in front of Cmdr. Yuri, “I’m Doctor Tala Fores, the colony’s chief scientist.”

Yuri raised an eyebrow at how suddenly the woman shifted from being overtly hostile to almost disturbingly friendly. Squinting a tad against the dim lighting that came from their small hand lamps, the Commander could almost make out the signature spots of a Trill, which might have explained why she was so adept at switching personalities… that is to say if she was actually a joined Trill.

“Commander Rena Yuri, Executive Officer of the USS Hydra,” came the reciprocal introduction, “I’ve been told that your team had managed to piece together the storm’s path enough to forecast this lull in activity and I was hoping that with the help of my team and our equipment, you could help us fill in the gaps so we know what kind of timeline we’re dealing with before the storm makes its comeback.”

“Is it independently powered?” the Trill asked.

“Of course, we knew ahead of time you had power grid issues,” Yuri nodded.

“Excellent, lay it out on that table,” Fores pointed before slapping one of scientists sprawled out on the surface taking a snooze, “Wake up, idiot, we have work to do.”

“There’s no power…” the man complained, not bothering to lift his head.

“Well Starfleet came with a generator, so we don’t have to worry about that, now move!” the Trill said, kicking the chair the man was sitting on just hard enough to jostle him and cause him to look up. When he saw the science officers all holding various containers, he shot to his feet and dragged the chair out of the way.

“I swear…” Tala said with a huff, “Alright, let’s get your gear unpacked and get to work!”

While the science team was setting up their gear, the engineering team had also made it to the generator room. The space was dominated by several large structures that used various methods to generate power, all of which were currently half pulled apart as engineers from both the colony and the Hydra scrambled to locate the issues that were causing the blackouts.

“Find any couplings that need replacing over there?” Lt. Cmdr. Brak yelled at his team at the far end of the cavernous room.

“Just a few fried capacitors, nothing major!” one of his engineers shouted back.

The Tellarite shook his head as he looked at the Romulan, “It’s a wonder you’ve managed to wire all this stuff together and not have it explode on you already.”

“I could say the same thing about your starships, Commander,” Vural smirked in response.

“I suppose you have a point there. Growing up I never thought Federation ships would be such a hodgepodge of near impossible to manage garbage… And then I learned the truth,” Brak remarked with a grunt.

“And what truth would that be?” the Romulan asked as he closed up the access panel they’d just finished working on.

“I wasn’t nearly critical enough of just how bad it would be,” the Tellarite snorted.

“If it is that bad, why are you the Chief Engineer of a cutting edge starship?” Vural asked with a puzzled look.

Brak tossed a tool in a nearby tool case, “Because I’m as stubborn as the people who designed her, and I wouldn’t back down from the challenge of keeping her from flying apart just because they crammed too many bleeding edge, overengineered parts into one ship just because they could.”

The Romulan let out a small laugh before his merriment was cut off by a short flicker of light, followed by a low droning sound that heralded the return of stable power. The two men looked at one another and nodded.

“Looks like it’ll keep working for a while. Now I can move on to those dampeners. Hopefully they’ll work well enough to keep the power relays from taking hits again,” the Tellarite said, dusting his hands off as he made his way toward his tool kit.

“Brak!” the voice of Cmdr. Yuri echoed through the room. The engineer turned and saw the woman running frantically toward him. He frowned and moved away from the equipment crates to make it easier for her to spot him.

“What’s the emergency, Commander?” the Tellarite asked.

“We have to get back to the ship, we have to warn them!”