Mission 3

[Amanda Rose]

Blake spoke up, "Dr. Hamilton, you always have had a gift for exaggeration. Antietam is a bloody battlefield, nothing more. It was the single most bloody day of the American Civil War..."

As Blake continued, Brian's mind spun on the last sentence. The worst day of arguably the bloodiest war and O'Connor wanted them to beam down into the middle of it and act like tourists? How were they supposed to observe without getting shot? How were they supposed to look inconspicuous without carrying guns and firing them periodically? Even if she relented and let him modify their phasers, what effect would it have stunning people who would, without their presence, have been shot or doing more shooting? The effect of that on the timeline could be many times worse than the Connel business...

"Fine. We will have three away teams. They will be small teams, two or three persons each. Since this is a battlefield, everyone will be armed. Pendragon, did you modify our phasers to look like the armaments of this time?"

Brian returned his attention to the meeting at the mention of his name. "Yes, ma'am... sir... um, the phasers won't be a problem, but..."

"Yes?" O'Connor prompted him.

"...well... er... that won't be enough to prevent us from being shot. Would you like me to investigate personal forcefields, or would disguised kevlar be acceptable?"

Tag - O'Connor

Just then, a call came over the comm from Myers, =/\= Captain, this is Engineering. The narrow slingshot caused some leakage in the warp core. It will take 72 hours to fix. =/\=

O'Connor replied, =/\= You have twenty-four. =/\=

"Ma'am, shouldn't I be...?" Brian so wanted to be back in Engineering. A warp core leak sounded so much safer to him than a battlefield with musketballs or whatever whizzing around.

"You have an assignment," O'Connor replied, then addressing the others as well, continued, "The Lee team will consist of the historian, Young, and Sinclair. Delaney will be on standby. The McLellan team will consist of the historian, Solar, and Reynolds. Chekov will be on standby. Finally, Pendragon, I want you to find as safe a place you can on this battlefield to monitor it and make sure all goes as history said it would. That means you need to study. It also means you need to compare history. Find a way to disguise Mr. Soban and also take Jessie. She won't like being dressed as a field nurse but I do not see any other way to explain her presence down there. Dismissed everyone."

"Oh flip, I've got the cat," Brian thought to himself. "How the heck do I disguise him? And I'll have to remember my meds... Then there's the whole history thing..."

He nodded to the Captain and left the room. As he walked down the corridor, he thought to himself, "... I hated history at school. It wasn't much better at Academy and she's leaving it in MY hands?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ensign Brian Pendragon
Engineer

[Amanda Rose]

Brian strode towards Engineering, his mind whirling with so much to think about - Connel, phasers, forcefields, disguises, finding a safe place from which to observe the battle...

He was so intent on the matters in hand, he totally failed to notice he was still wearing his clothing from the away mission.

TAG - Jade, or anyone else on the way to Engineering who notices...

The best way to deal with this would be to delegate, but he was only an Ensign - who the heck could he delegate to? He slid into the seat at his favourite console.

"Computer." It flashed into action, ready to take his instructions. "Folder One - Connel." Where did Dyson get the information from on her demise? Standard records weren't introduced until much later - the death of an orphan from natural causes hardly seems likely to appear in a newspaper - not unless there was something remarkable about the circumstances. "Pull all records from local publications for the period specified - scan for..." he really didn't want to say it... "d... d... dead bodies found in the city."

He shook his head. There had to be more he could try... Yes!

"=/\=Pendragon to Sickbay =/\=."

"=/\= Sickbay, McLeod here. =/\="

"=/\=Are you likely to be taking any samples from our new arrival?=/\="

"=/\=We've been asked to run a physical, but no one mentioned anything invasive...=/\="

Brian sighed. Maybe that would have been too easy.

"=/\=Would you mind including a swab, then? I'd appreciate having her DNA scanned so I can check for any descendants in the database.=/\="

"=/\= That we can do. McLeod out. =/\="

Brian turned back to the computer. "Folder Two - Phasers." He had been quite please with his design, but it really needed testing by someone who understood firearms...

"=/\=Pendragon to Kirk.=/\="

"=/\=Kirk here =/\=." For a moment Brian hesitated. There was something about that phrase that demanded respect, whether the speaker was male or female.

"=/\=Ma'am, would you be able to join me in Engineering? The Captain has asked me to disguise our phasers and I would appreciate your input.=/\="

"=/\=I'm on my way.=/\="

Tag - Kirk

That meant Brian would have to set off the rest of the ideas he had to manage themselves in the background. He couldn't waste time leaving them to be addressed one at a time.

"Folder Three - personal forcefields." O'Connor had tripped it off her tongue as if it were easy. Heck, if it was every Security officer would wear them and no one would ever get shot. If only. No, they drained the power packs quickly and often overheated in the process. "Cross reference latest design specs against supplies held on board." Might as well start with what's possible and take it from there...

"Folder Four - Disguise. Get me Soban's statistics." He couldn't imagine managing to disguise him in any way that would pass close-up, so maybe there were alternatives... "And check for designs of tents for the period."

"Folder Five - A safe place from which to observe the battle. I want a correlated analogue of the troop movements and engagements overlaid on a topological display of the area, with a running timeline. I'll need the ability to project actual movements taken by the sensors live and to highlight any deviations." That was going to be the important part. On the one hand, he needed to spot any changes to history. On the other, he needed to be able to warn the other away teams if they were likely to be in direct danger. Avoidance would be worth ten forcefields, any day...

The computer began processing his orders and Brian leant back, stretching his knotted shoulders and unhooking his brain from the issues just enough to realised he really needed to grab a cup of tea before Kirk arrived.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ensign Brian Pendragon
Engineering

[Amanda Rose]

Returning to the console with cup of tea in hand, Brian sat down again. Most of his queries were still running, so it wouldn't hurt for him to concentrate on the phaser conversion for a little while. He raised the cup to his lips, but the heated CO2 reflected back from his breath on the surface was enough to tell him it was too hot for now.

He put the cup back down and opened the drawer he had secured the prototype in. Although he was normally a modest sort, even he had to admit he'd done a decent job - you couldn't see the join unless you knew exactly what you were looking for.

He had searched the archives for a suitable sound effect for the weapon he's selected to base it on and had managed to get that to play when the trigger was depressed, so he now had a thing that looked like a pistol, shone a hazy blood-red blob on the target when the trigger was semi-depressed, but without the full beam normally used for ease of targeting and then made the noise of a pistol when the trigger was fully depressed.

He still wanted to add either a palmprint recognition system if he could, but time was short, so he settled for a tiny, remote-controlled self-destruct option; that way if they lost any, they could at least ensure they didn't inadvertently introduce the technology ahead of time.

Time... time... here we go again - out into the past where absolutely anything can go wrong. Into a bloodthirsty massacre, just to have a look. Stomping around the past, leaving temporal footprints all over the show. What on earth were Starfleet thinking, giving us a mission like this? Do they want something to go wrong?

He started to reach for a reassuring sip of tea when Jessie's voice made him jump.

"Okay Ensign Pendragon let's see what you've come up with."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ensign Brian Pendragon
Still in his away team clothing
Likely to end up with a cold cup of tea
Engineering

[Amanda Rose]

Brian's hand swerved from the cup to the pistol. He rose, holding it by the muzzle and offering the butt to Jessie. "Ma'am, may I present the prototype disguised phaser," he declared proudly, his faith in his ingenuity temporarily overcoming his customary shyness.
Jessie took the weapon in her hand an examined it. She had always had a fascination with ancient weapons and was considered somewhat of an expert on the subject. She just wished that it was a real example. "Looks good Ensign. How does it work?"
"I've hollowed it out and inserted the workings of a phaser one. The trigger is still the firing mechanism, although the hammer will still act as if it were part of it." He pointed to various parts of the pistol as he continued. "The beam is transparent, but shines a red light on the target. I've tried to make it a fuzzy edge and as dark red as I can calibrate it to so it could be mistaken for a bloodstain at a distance." Time for the piece da resistance... "And there's a sound chip to make the sound of the pistol firing. It doesn't quite happen in the right order, but I'm hoping it's in such quick succession that that won't matter too much. It's set to stun as default if you'd like to try it out."

Jessie smiled and twirled the weapon on her finger. "That's alright, I have full trust in your abilities. How soon can you have enough of these ready for the away team?"
Brian cocked his head to one side as he thought. "With some help from the others, it should only take an hour. There are some other things I'd appreciate your input on, though."
Jessie nodded "I'll get you all the help that you need." she said. "What else did you need?"
Brian moved back to his console and brought up his findings so far. "The Captain's asked for personal forcefields, but they really haven't been perfected for sustained use. I've come up with a design, but the power pack's the weakness. At the moment, it's based on a phaser rifle as the best portable charge, but even then I doubt it would take more than a couple of hits before the power gave out. We'd have to pull people out once they'd taken a shot or two to be on the safe side. Is that going to be good enough?"

Jessie frowned slightly, more technology that shouldn't be there. Well the Captain knew her objections to this whole thing so there wasn't any point in restating them to Pendragon "Maybe if you use a second power pack and the focusing crystal from a type 2 phaser to modulate the field you might be on to something." she said taking a look at what he had already done.
"The real problem is the Captain stated it needed to absorb the impact rather than just deflect, so I've had to make it a variable field that's much thicker than standard, so the bullet slows. That's where the power's gone... I'll give it a try, though... I'll see if I can add a readout somewhere so the wearer gets a warning signal too..." He scribbled some notes on a nearby pad.
"Another thing you would probably know more about that I - we need a good vantage point to observe the battle unnoticed," Brian continued. "We'll still be able to get a picture extrapolated from the ship's scanners, but being able to watch too would be best. The snag is, the two armies will be starting from the nearby high ground, so I'm not sure what that leaves us. Could you take a look at these maps," he brought up a couple of schematics, complete with contour lines, on the console, and let me know what you would recommend?"
Jessie looked over the map for a moment. "One team here and here." she said as she pointed to a hill first and then a small ridgeline. "They should get the best vantage while maintaining maximum safety."

Brian nodded and updated the map, downloading it to his already-disguised tricorder.
"One last thing, ma'am..." He didn't really know how to phrase it, so he decided to be direct. "Soban. The Captain wants him to beam down with us to monitor whether the battle is following history correctly, but we need to disguise him... which isn't easy."
Brian brought up a series of pictures on the console - grizzled, battle-weary soldiers. Some had a good deal of facial hair, but the way the trousers of the time were tailored, Soban's tail would be difficult to hide. Knowing most cats to have very expressive tails, Brian was wary of asking the Huanni to bind it to himself in any way.
"I don't think uniform's going to be the way to go, but maybe this..." He brought up a picture of a lady of the era. She was wearing a large hat and a gingham dress with gloves. With a large fan in front of her face, every part of her skin was concealed and the large, hooped skirt would allow plenty of space for a tail to swish without detection.

"Given that we are supposed to be out of sight, it shouldn't be an issue, but in case we are spotted, at least this might serve as a half-decent disguise. The trouble is convincing Soban..." Brian looked pleadingly at Jesse. "Perhaps if the suggestion came from you, Ma'am...?"

Jessie frowned "Ummm personally I hate those things and I'm sure that Mr. Soban will object strongly. He will however comply or not go on this mission. The Captain can just be mad about it but as a Starfleet Officer it's our jobs to make sure the Prime Directive isn't violated and I think a giant talking house cat would qualify as a violation."

Brian shuddered, he'd had quite enough of temporal violations as it was.

"That reminds me, Ma'am. I'm building in a remote control self-destruct into any of our items we're taking down. We can either set it off manually from the tricorders or the ship or it will trigger automatically if the item is taken out of range of our communicators. Nothing major, but it will melt any fragile components... I didn't want to risk blowing anyone's hand off if they picked up the wrong one, but I didn't want us leaving anything behind either. I hope that's OK."

Finally someone had said something that made sense during this whole thing. "I like it. Just make sure that it won't kill anyone and you have a plan there." Jessie said. "Now if you don't mind I'm going to go to the range and test this out before we issue them."
"Aye, ma'am. I'll get the team onto the rest of the phasers and work on that forcefield design some more." Brian stood, politely, as she left, then turned to the console where, sure enough, his cup of tea had gone cold. He sighed and went back to work.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A joint post by Lieutenant Commander Jessica Kirk and Ensign Brian Pendragon

[Amanda Rose]

(Back post)

Young tapped Karibo on the shoulder to relieve her from the Science
station. He turned to O'Connor, "Lee's team is back aboard with
minimal problem. Ensign Sinclair is in Sickbay being treated for a
bullet wound. Lieutenant Delaney will inform us when she knows more
about his condition. How's it been here?"

O'Connor replied, "Quiet for a change. We're staying out of the visual
site of Earth by hiding in the Moon's shadow. What exactly happened to
Ensign Sinclair?"

"We were in the North Woods," Young started, "outside the Dunker
Church where we were supposed to beam down. Unfortunately, there were
too many life signs around to beam down within a mile of the
structure. We were heading toward the Church in a lull when rifle fire
and artillery shells suddenly started. Ensign Sinclair was hit by a
rifle bullet. After that, Dr. Hamilton and I drug Sinclair back into
the shelter of the woods before beaming back to the ship."

He stared at the viewscreen and the outline of the moon. "And I'm not
even sure where the bullet was shot from."

O'Connor asked, "Does it really matter? I'll speak to Pendragon about
his shields."

After the update and exchange with O'Connor, Young turned to the
Science station to still see Karibo sitting in the chair.

"Is there a problem, Master Chief?" he asked.

Karibo held her voice down as she said, "I'm not quite sure about this
trajectory for the next slingshot. The computer simulations haven't
been too favorable. Then again, I'm a xenobiologist, not an engineer.
There may be some variable I've left out in my simulations. The margin
for error is very slim."

Young nodded. "It always is with slingshot trajectories. Too close to
the star and you'll fry. Too far away and you'll never achieve the
slingshot. It's a precise calculation that needs to be made. I'll get
with Lieutenant Myers to discuss your simulation results. How about
your other research? Have you found anything in the data banks about
multiple jumps?"

Molis just wished she had been told that it was an experiment. She
would have gotten everything set up for it. She finally shook her
head, "I don't know, sir. There's very little research to look
through. Right now, the America is the only starship that has done
multiple time displacements within the confines of a week."

Young nodded. He knew it was probably a hopeless task, but the
possibilities for future research were limitless. "It's alright,
Karibo," he said. "Get with Dr. Delaney and have her tell you if she
comes into contact with anything out of the ordinary."

"Aye, sir," Karibo said as she started towards the turbolift. "I'll
make sure that there's an answer sometime, Commander."

"That's all I ask," Young smiled.

Young started to chuckle to himself. O'Connor furrowed her brows and
asked, "Something amusing you, Commander?"

"Nothing really, Captain," he said. "Master Chief Molis is researching
something that's never happened before. Somehow, she expects to give
me an answer."

O'Connor replied, "Maybe we should have the Master Chief jump to the
future and then the answer will be evident."

tag - Young

O'Connor and Young finished their reparte and she continued to stare
into the slightly younger stars, wondering when the ship would be
ready for its next jump. Suddenly, a small voice sounded from behind
O'Connor. "Umm Captain? What's this place called?"

{this part was already posted in a JP with Connel and the Captain on
the way to sickbay}

Captain Kelly Jean O'Connor
Commanding Officer
USS America

[Amanda Rose]

O'Connor left Connel behind and walked into the briefing room. She
saw Pendragon was already there and already trying to remain calm in
her presence. O'Connor wondered what she was going to have to do to
him to give him confidence. She nodded in Pendragon's general
direction. Shortly thereafter, Kirk and Soban wandered in.

O'Connor started, "So, is history consistent?"

tag - Pendragon, Kirk, Soban

"Good," O'Connor continued. "What would be the risk of keeping Connel
on America?"

tag - Pendragon, Kirk, Soban

"Now, Mr. Pendragon," O'Connor sighed. "What am I going to do with
you?" She paused again, waiting for Pendragon's reaction.

tag - Pendragon

"You create some great gadgets. You have been very useful on this
mission. I had it in my mind to promote you to Lieutenant. However,
I am concerned by your haste. We came to Antietam to determine if
history was changed, as well as for these historians because you
failed to have a tricorder handy. Now, Sinclair is hurt because there
may have been a flaw in your design." O'Connor paused again for
dramatic effect and to watch Pendragon.

tag - Pendragon

"Therefore, I have decided that it is only right to promote you to
Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Don't make me regret it."

tag - Pendragon

O'Connor then turned to Soban and muttered to herself in a voice that
could be heard by anyone close, "Speaking of regretting...." She then
resumed a normal tone of voice, "I have also decided to promote you,
Mr. Soban to Lieutenant Junior Grade."

tag - Soban, Pendragon, Kirk

"Now, both of you and Engineering, please find a way to get us to
Chancellorsville in one piece."

tag - all

Captain Kelly Jean O'Connor
Commanding Officer
USS America

[Amanda Rose]

“Thus far Captain…” Keth said, standing up to offer his report. In doing this he had to actually look down at the captain, but he debated kneeling so as not to look like he was trying to upstage her, which was odd as there wasn’t a stage to stand on. Unless you counted the table and Keth really didn’t like heights all that much to begin with.

What was he walking about again?
OH! Right!

“Er...thus far through checking the main computer to that of the histories stored in the tricorder, ones that wouldn’t have been affected if a paradox accrued and altered our current ‘present’ within the temporal field matrix of the…”
He stopped, his own tongue begin to knot in places with some of the big words.

“So far nothing seems to have changed, but we’ll have a clearer picture on this when we return to our home timeline. But as for keeping Connel on the ship…that is some what dangerous. Her adult form might have introduced two people by accident and they descendents might have been the first people to land on Mars. Even small changes in the flow of time can have major and lasting effects.” He paused for a moment “But during this time there are many plagues and illnesses spreading through the world, and not many medicines to speak of. It is likely she would have died off.”

He sighed, thinking of his own grandchildren who were Connels peers and contemporise. Would they have lasted so long without family if Huan had had a Civil War? Well another one anyway but still. He hoped they would have in a similar situation.

As promotions were handed out later on the captain regretted promoting Keth to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade: Regretted…she seemed more broody or angry, or both. O’Connor was a odd human female, then again the only human females he had met were at the academy and their lack of fur was something that tugged on Keth’s heart strings. If his hearts had strings, which it did not, they were tugged very hard.

He had even devised a way to…well a plot for another time.

His lower lipped trembled slightly as O’Connor proclaimed his rank and his mission, to figure out a way to safely transit back to another time in earths semi-ancient history.

Keth threw a somewhat exaggerated salute, ears pinned back in pride at being given both a promotion, and a major project that would potentially place the ship and all who sailed on her in his hands!

Well paws really though digits were evolving slowly there were still enough feline in his bones to call them paws. And what handsome paws they were two, his second wife had told him that before he’d left for the Federation.
“We will not fail you my captain!” Keth proclaimed, turning to Pendragon and walking towards the door “Come Brian.”

TAG-All

LtJr Keth Soban
Science Officer
USS America
SHINIES!!!

[Amanda Rose]

"Thus far Captain…" Keth said, standing up to offer his report.

O'Connor watched as Soban apparently was distracted by something. She
made a small noise indicating he should come back to reality.

He continued, "Er...thus far through checking the main computer to
that of the histories stored in the tricorder, ones that wouldn't have
been affected if a paradox accrued and altered our current `present'
within the temporal field matrix of the…"

He stopped, his own tongue begin to knot in places with some of the
big words.

"So far nothing seems to have changed, but we'll have a clearer
picture on this when we return to our home timeline. But as for
keeping Connel on the ship…that is some what dangerous. Her adult form
might have introduced two people by accident and they descendents
might have been the first people to land on Mars. Even small changes
in the flow of time can have major and lasting effects." He paused for
a moment "But during this time there are many plagues and illnesses
spreading through the world, and not many medicines to speak of. It is
likely she would have died off."

O'Connor said, looking up at the big cat, "That's right. But you have
forgotten, unless you are telling me that the computer is corrupted,
that Connel was supposed to die a mere three weeks after we left."

tag - Soban

[Amanda Rose]

Young got out on O Deck and headed through the main doors of
Engineering. "Lieutenant Wells, what do you have for me?"

Laura turned from her station to face Commander Young. Being someone
who had kept to herself a lot, she didn't really know him. Or many
others on the senior staff for that matter.

"Sir.." she nodded moving forward. "In the past, Starfleet always
pursued the light speed break-away method for time travel." she moved
to the computer and brought up a simulation he could see.."while this
produces the desired effect, it is difficult to calculate exact escape
velocity needed when to exit warp so you're in the correct time
period." Laura changed screens. "Damage also can occur to the
starship's superstructure leaving the crew stranded or maybe killed."
The ship exploded on-screen.

"However.." she changed screens again.."in the original mission of the
USS Enterprise, that starship became trapped in orbit and was
spiraling down due to the fact her warp engines had been shut down and
the intermix was cold." Her eyes moved to his."As we know, it's
supposedly impossible to refire a cold warp drive. Yet, the Enterprise
did it and escaped.."

She showed an old Constitution ship escaping a planet. "But, they also
did something else.." the screen showed a vortex.."they went back in
time 24 hours." Laura brushed her pony-tail back from her shoulder
behind her. "This was done by a little known inter-mix formula that
was covered up due to the fact, the possibility of it falling into the
wrong hands was very real. However, I've read a lot of engineering
logs from various starships and I remembered this entry by Lt.
Commander Montgomerty Scott."

Laura paused a moment to let this all sink in. "The formula was
designed by Commander Spock.. and hasn't been used since. In theory,
it should work for us as well as them. But, if we do it wrong.." she
winced.." we could go up in the biggest bomb this area of space in
this time has ever seen.."

Young vaguely remembered reading something along those lines in his
own research. However, he thought it read differently. "Lieutenant,
two questions. First, in the original Enterprise logs, I remember
reading something about being sent three days in the past, not one.
Second, are you sure that you can modify the intermix formula so that
we could actually swing forward in time instead of backward?"

The scientist in him hoped that she would say, "Yes! Absolutely!"
But the executive in him thought about the four hundred crew members
of the America. Would he ... could he ... put all their lives in
danger on an experimental idea? Time would have to tell.
+++

Laura thought on that. She nodded briefly. "Yes. I think I can. The
information came from an obscure engineering report and I didn't get
it through official channels, Sir. So it might be three days instead
of 24 hours. Still, I am confident that I can modify the formula and
using careful mathematical code be able to pinpoint fairly close to
where we need to be. I should probably work with science and the
ship's historian if that would help." She shut off the images. "It's
risk, but no more risky then continuing to use a method that will
either shake us apart or overload the engines and send us spinning out
of control or into the sun."

[tag Young/anyone in engineering]

Ltjg Laura Lynn Wells
Engineer
USS America

[Amanda Rose]

O'Connor walked into the briefing room. She gave Brian a strange look he couldn't interpret. So just how much trouble was he in? He'd tried his best, but it obviously wasn't good enough...

The others arrived and took their seats and O'Connor started, "So, is history consistent?"
Keth offered his findings first. They had found no discrepancies either at the battle or in general history itself. That being said, it had been a quite low-level check - matching every event in the whole of recorded history would take significantly more time than they had available.
O'Connor said, looking up at the big cat, "That's right. But you have forgotten, unless you are telling me that the computer is corrupted, that Connel was supposed to die a mere three weeks after we left."

"Ma'am?" offered Brian. "Those records unfortunately cannot be relied on 100%. Identities were not firmly established in this era. There were no DNA records, no identity cards. People routinely changed the spelling of their names, used middle names. Just because a child with that name is recorded as having died in the right place and time does not mean our Connel is that child."

O'Connor frowned. "And so...?"

"I asked Sickbay to provide us with a sample of Connel's DNA," Brian continued. "I have cross-matched it against all gene records held on Earth. Given that the matrilineal line is much harder to follow than the patrilinial..."

"Get to the point!" O'Connor interrupted.

"... oh... yes... well. It is very unlikely that Connel had any descendants living at the time of the first full population mapping. Of course, that doesn't rule out her having a line that petered out prior to then or that she may not have had an influence in some other way than procreation, but it does make it a statistically insignificant probability."

"In English," O'Connor really was despairing by now.

"Um... we should be OK?" Brian offered.

"Good," O'Connor continued. "What would be the risk of keeping Connel on America?"
"Again, negligible. If she is the one on the record we found, one line on the records might disappear, but there shouldn't be any major effects. Perhaps everyone who died subsequently might move one plot over...?"

The others added their considered opinions and O'Connor looked relieved.

"Now, Mr. Pendragon," O'Connor sighed. "What am I going to do with you?" She paused again, waiting for Pendragon's reaction.

He took a deep breath. "That is very much up to you, ma'am."

"You create some great gadgets. You have been very useful on this mission. I had it in my mind to promote you to Lieutenant. However, I am concerned by your haste. We came to Antietam to determine if history was changed, as well as for these historians because you failed to have a tricorder handy. Now, Sinclair is hurt because there may have been a flaw in
your design." O'Connor paused again for dramatic effect and to watch Pendragon.

Brian took a sudden interest in his lap, but a small voice at the back of his head wouldn't let it stay there. Come off it. I did my best. There was next to no time between the last trip and this one and I came up with some pretty darned good designs. No, there wasn't adequate time to test them, but why is that my fault? Would she have preferred we had gone down empty-handed? How would that have been better? He looked up again and took a deep breath.

"Ma'am," he replied. "I have a team currently checking my design and putting it through rigorous testing. I regret that we did not have time to do so prior to beaming down, but you may rest assured that it will have been improved on by the next away mission."

With a twinkle in her eye, she continued, "I have decided that it is only right to promote you to Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Don't make me regret it."

Brian's jaw dropped. Promotion? Maybe she had understood after all...

"Thank you, ma'am. I won't let you down."

Brian was lost his his thoughts for the next few minutes, but was dimly aware that Keth had also been promoted to the same level. He wasn't sure how he felt about that - it meant they would still be associating together and after the cat's behaviour before the Captain had entered the briefing room, Brian wasn't comfortable with that idea...

"Now, both of you and Engineering, please find a way to get us to Chancellorsville in one piece."

“We will not fail you my captain!” Keth proclaimed dramatically, turning to Pendragon and walking towards the door “Come Brian.”

Brian resented being summoned in such a way, but wasn't sure it was worth doing anything about. Instead he rose to his feet and nodded to the Captain and the Commander before leaving the room.

Lt jg Brian Pendragon
Engineer
Distinctly unsettled...