“How long until we reach the Array, Carter,” Tani asked, watching the sensor readings.

“It’d be a lot faster if we could go to warp.”

“Alex and Priam are working on the deflector. We can’t warp until it’s working well enough to effectively do its job.”

“We can warp,” Logan said. “It’s just that the system doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”

“You’re the only one that disagrees with that,” Tani countered.

“I’m just sayin’, the system’s never met my piloting skills,” Logan smirked.

Tani opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Alex’s voice over the intercom, “Benson to the Bridge.”

Tani pushed a button on the console, “How are things going down there?”

“I think I figured out the problem. The deflector array should be coming mostly online, enough to safely warp anyway. But stay at impulse for now, we don’t have shields in case we run into trouble.”

Tani stared at Logan, “I couldn’t agree more Commander.”

“I’m going to check on Priam. I’ll let you know when we get the shields back online. In the meantime, let me know when we reach the Array. Benson out.” And the channel clicked closed.

The doors swooshed open as Alex entered Main Engineering. “How are things going in here?” he said, before noticing the room was empty. “Priam?”

“Up here Commander,” Priam shouted from the upper level. “I think I’ve figured out the problem with the shields. When the entity struck us, they overloaded the shield emitters on the port side. And that caused a catastrophic failure throughout the network.”

“Can you fix it?” Alex asked, looking up at Priam.

“Not completely. I estimate I can get about 84% out of the remaining emitters, but not for long. We’d have to get it fixed the next time we dock.”

Alex climbed the ladder to reach the upper level. “There seems to be a lot of that going around today,” Alex mused. “What if we rotated through the emitters?”

“That would buy us more time,” Priam pulled up a diagram of the ship. “The emitters here and here,” he pointed as he spoke, “took the brunt of the damage. If we rotated power, we’d have to overcompensate with these emitters here on the port side.”

“We’ll have to focus our shields then. And make sure Carter keeps enemies on the starboard side.”

“That might be easier said than done,” Priam said as his console beeped. “The emitter testing is done.” He pushed a few buttons. “Efficiency is at 82%.”

“It’ll have to do. Nice work Ensign.” Alex tapped his combadge, “Benson the Bridge, set a course for the Array, maximum warp. I’m on my way to the Bridge.”