Stage-Two

July 21, 2410, 2212 Hours

After another full day of testing, she had finally completed the requirements that Captain Syntron had put in place for her to continue with the installation throughout the ship.  She made her way up one deck from the secondary core to main engineering and tapped her combadge, “Decatur to Commander Rodgers, testing of the nanites in the secondary core is complete. I’m ready to begin installation of the main data network and to remove isolation protocols from the secondary computer when you give the word, sir.”

Only then, when she stepped into main engineering did she realize that Gamma shift was now working. With a quick glance to the chronometer on a nearby panel she mentally kicked herself. Damn it, that’s twice I’ve bugged him late. She was, as always, quick to recover.

Rogers awakened at the chirp and message of his comm badge, placed as it was still on his tunic draped over the chaise near the bed. As he listened to Decatur's voice, he glanced at the chronometer nearby. He had just barely fallen asleep.

“I’m sorry about the time, sir…it kind of got away from me. It can wait until morning. I’ll need some substantial help from your crew anyway unless we want this to take months. We can talk more at alpha shift hand-off. Sorry to disturb, sir.”

Once the Lieutenant had finished, David responded.

"Understood Lieutenant. The word is given. Good night Lieutenant."

 Rolling over again, David closed his eye's and attempted to return to sleep, thinking abstractly as he did so.

'Does having two entities in one body preclude a normal sleep schedule?'

As soon as her and the Chief were done speaking she started making her way toward the transporter room. She was alone this time, having dismissed T’mur at 1600 hours. She felt there was something she was forgetting and as she exited the turbolift on deck 3 she sighed. “Computer, activate EMH.”

The somewhat old-style but comfortingly fatherly figure of Theodor Gray materialized beside her.

"Good evening, Lieutenant. Guess you have that cup of coffee ready for me?"

Of course, 'guess' was a figure of speech. Being directly connected to the ship's internal sensor grid and the internal comm system, the sentient EMH was not only aware of everything that had been done throughout the ship regarding it and the heath status of all personnel on board, but he was never truly 'off;' at least as long as those systems were active. 

Being built from the newest Mark VI design, he did not either use the old-fashioned opening sentence or needed to be explained circumstances of his activation; nor even the formal address to the computer. 'Doctor Gray please report' would be just as good as 'computer activate EMH.' Stephanie new that, as any of the youngest generation of technical people in Starfleet; but hold habits die hard.

So, Theodor didn't mind. Since The Doctor on Voyager and the retiring of the Mark 1, there had been extremely few sentient holograms emerging in the last forty years... and no hologrid accident. The innumerable accidents on holodecks with 'safeties off' and the famous lawsuit and moral uproar that came out of the Mark 1 case in general and Doctor Joe in particular, not to mention the Moriarty and Enterprise Emergence Incidents, had quickly forced the Federation and Starfleet to impose hardwired safeguards against such risks occuring from their own technology. Since the Mark II, numerous failsafes were now physically integrated into computer and holographic systems. For decades now, no holographic system could be activated with 'safeties off' and sentience was a carefully controlled decision-making process, as in the case of Doctor Gray. To do so would now required nothing short of completely dismantling the entire system and re-install an old-style one in it's place... inviting severe criminal charges on everyone involved, unless authorized by the proper authorities, as in the case of sentient holographic parents desiring children.

All in all, as far as the holographic system was concerned, there was therefore no actual danger for the crew even if something did go badly wrong. There was concern only for Doctor Gray; and he didn't seem at all worried now as he smiled at Stephanie.

Stephanie nodded in greeting to the sentient EMH, a small grin appearing as he aptly described what it would likely be like for him when the nanites would be activated: A double-shot of caffeine. She knew that she was using an archaic method of summoning him, but she was simply too tired to care at this point. As soon as she had stepped off the turbo-lift it hit her like a ton of bricks. “Doctor Gray.” She started without even slowing down on her way to the transporter pad. “I wanted to let you know that tomorrow morning we’ll be removing the isolation protocols from the secondary core and sensors and begin installing nanites throughout the bio-neural circuitry. The process could take anywhere from a few days to several weeks depending on the manpower assigned.” She blinked a little longer than normal, trying to get herself back on topic of what she had really summoned him for, “I want to make sure you’ve had a chance to isolate yourself from the installation until it can be tested, as the Captain wishes?”

By the time they had finished she was standing in front of the transporter room doors, which slid open upon detecting her presence. The fatigue from more than a week without real rest was present on her face and in her voice. 

"Even better than that, Lieutenant," answered Gray. "I've... fully cloned myself, in a rough manner of speaking. My entire program is stored in a portable holoemitter as I said earlier; we can therefore fully test your upgrades on me and, in case of any serious problem, simply bring me offline or even delete my program with no further risk to ship and crew nor to me. But I don,t anticipate such a situation; nevetheless, I am fully prepared and safeguarded, thanks to Doctor Nasaro-Myth's concern, Commander Rogers' experience and your expertise. "

The soft eyes of the EMH narrowed slightly as he looked at the small Trill woman.

"Lieutenant, I am detecting low levels of electrolytes and glucose in your system and elevated levels of adrenaline and muscle tension with erratic brainwaves and heart flutters. You have been without sleep and under self-imposed pressure for too long. You require rest."

Before she could protest, as most dedicated and driven young officers, as well as a few starship captains, were prone to, he lifted a finger and his tone became more authoritative.

"Eight hours of sleep, starting immediately, Lieutenant. No buts; that's an order. And rest assured I'll be monitoring you to make sure you do comply."

She arched an eyebrow at him as he described copying himself. She understood computer backups and had thought that would be one way to go with protecting the Doctor but at the same time was concerned about the moral and ethical implications of cloning, be it an artificial or biological life-form. If she had more energy she would have inquired, but as it was his assessment was correct, she knew all too well.

“Doctor, with respect, I have to be on shift at 0600. I’ll do what I can, but I will not be late.” She smirked at another thought, “The ships external sensor data feed is still isolated from the rest of the ship…in effect, they are offline outside of the network’s quarantine. It would be hard for you to monitor me anyway while I’m in my quarters on the starbase.” She saw the stern look he gave her and nodded, “I promise, Doctor, I’ll get as much rest as I can, and as soon as the installation is done I’ll be sure to rest up.”

Gray's tone became slightly more stern.

"This is not a negociation, Lieutenant. Your shift will be reassigned for when you will be rested and available, not before. This is not an emergency situation; there is no justification to rush it so any timetable can be adjusted. Furthermore, doing so and having key personnel not fully fit to lead it will augment risk of something going wrong; and I for one am personally concerned that nothing should go wrong, especially not due to negligence and overeagerness. Eight hours, Lieutenant, not a minute less."

Then he became a bit friendlier.

"Do not worry about me having any difficulty monitoring yourself properly. As long as we are still tethered to the starbase, I also have access to the base's internal sensor grid and with full clearance to intervene in medical situations there, especially  regarding people assigned to this ship, even if only on a temporary status. I'll be watching over you, rest easy."

Stephanie just rolled her weary eyes and sighed in defeat. "All right doctor.  I'll be in engineering at 0800 instead of 0600. Make sure Commander Rodgers  is informed, he's expecting me at 0600." She turned and started through the transporter room door but stopped and turned back to the doctor with a look on her face that spoke of the internal battle she was fighting to decide if she should say something. 

"Doctor...." She said finally, "Can I make a personal request?"

Doctor Gray signaled for her to follow him in an adjecent corridor, unoccupied ast mostly lead to maintenance storage and jefferies tubes access so that they could be in relative privacy. 

"What's on your mind, Lieutenant?"

"The captain hasn't given the order yet, but I'm sure he will follow protocol. I have not gone through a medical exam since being temporally assigned to the Phoenix...." she paused trying to make sure her words were not racially charged, "I'd rather you performed the physical in stead of the CMO."

The EMH blinked at her but his face remained open.

"That is an unusual request... and against regulations. The CMO is the one who has to personally perform all first arrival examinations to confirm assignment and fitness for duty... unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise. May I inquire as to the reason why you make such a request?"

She blushed and looked down, “I…please Doctor.” She took a deep breath before looking at him, knowing by the look on his face that he would indeed require an explanation. She stepped back into the hall and let the door shut behind her before speaking softly, hoping to keep her issue with the Deltan doctor private.

“He’s Deltan…his people have…historically not treated me well.” She could hear how racist her words sounded and began to elaborate, “In the academy, a group of Deltans thought it would be…humorous…to prank a freshman student by using pheromones to alter their state of mind and distract her focus during a final exam.” She looked more embarrassed now than ever. “I almost failed that class…and it became a big joke to them…the little trill that was overly affected by them.” She paused and took a ragged breath, “The Chief Medical Officer of this ship tried to alter my chemistry with pheromones already without my consent. Please Doctor, I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but please don’t make me endure being examined by him.” It was clear she was so disturbed by this that she was on the verge of losing her emotional control.

The sentient EMH could see how she felt just by reading her physiological data, but he could also see the expression of he rface, of her eyes and what came from the tone of her voice. His voice became very gentle.

"It is my experience that prejudice goes away once people get to know each other better, especially if they make the effort of doing so. That being said, our CMO is comitting a breach of ethics with the kind of behavior you're describing. As a medical officer, I would have to report this to the General Surgeon's Office... "

He saw immediately that this caused definite discomfort to her.

"Tell you what; I will speak to him about it and recommend that he comes and apologize to you. I would also recommend that, in addition to stop misusing his abilities like that, and because of this, you need to be examined by someone else.... which would be me since all two other doctors are also Deltans...  until you can recover from that bad experience... Which means that you however would have to see the chief counselor for support and help to overcome this. Does that sound adequate to you?"

Stephanie bristled when he talked about telling the doctor about it. “Sir…” she began, “I’d rather not talk to him.” Her emotions were racing from extreme to extreme. She felt relief that he understood that she felt violated, and that it wasn’t simple racism. She also felt fear at having to talk to him. She knew that she was projecting her bad experiences onto the Deltan CMO which only made things worse. And she knew that the EMH knew that too. “I won’t be onboard long enough for it to be an issue aside from the physical exam, Doctor. Please…can’t we keep this between us?” She was on the verge of begging.

The EMH nodded sympathetically and smiled at her.

"Of course, Lieutenant. This falls under doctor-patient confidentiality which even an order from the Captain of an Admiral can't break. But I have to address this situation with Doctor Nasaro-Myth. Don't worry, if you do not press charges for harrassment, there is no need to have you involved in any way in this, even by name only. I can simply scan for such an occurence and then go to him and address the problem directly with him, including in the process your official examination being done under my supervision. And do not worry about any later repercussions. You will not beleive me right now, but, regardless of that pheromonal problem, Doctor Nasaro-Myth and the rest of his team are nothing like those Deltans you met before. He cares only and deeply for the welfare of everyone aboard; and if this means that you have to get your mandatory medical examination from someone else, he will understand."

Relief spread across Stephanie’s entire being as the doctor agreed to keep her out of the issue, and to ‘protect’ her from having to interact with the CMO during her short stay on the Phoenix. “Thank you doctor.” She sighed, “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your confidentiality.” She just barely suppressed an urge to hug him before simply nodding and turning to go back into the transporter room and back to her quarters on the station.

"Nothing personnal; just being professional, " he said. Somehow, it didn,t seem quite as casual as his words implied. And as she moved away, he smiled... but then, his face became more serious and he disappeared.

He now had a meeting to call with his Chief Medical Officer.

"A dedicated officer that still minds her own health... that is quite... refreshing." the sentient hologram said with a last smile before vanishing.

0600 hours, Main Engineering

Rogers entered the large room and stopped at the pool table to study the status. Everything was showing green across the board so he started toward, then around, the tall warp core projecting through the floor and up through the ceiling. The small, almost decorative looking guard rails allowed one to almost touch the outer core walls, but their apparent fragility belied their strength. Spaced equidistantly around this rail were six consoles, each a part of the containment railing. These small waist high consoles allowed adjustment and operational direction over the matter/anti-matter reaction chamber. Each of the six could control everything within the chamber; From magnetic quenching and gas flow to manipulation of the dilithium crystal for mediation of the required six degree tolerance within the dilithium crystal articulation frame.

Having passed by the core, Rogers grabbed the nearest ladder and began down to deck fifteen. The light glow of the low power core on standby lit the walls in a bright, pale blue hue. Stepping off the ladder, David left the core area and walked the few dozen steps to enter the secondary computer core control room. The main panel showed that the nanite program had been running since about midnight last night.

David studied the readings flowing across the panel. Specific interconnect umbilicals where the secondary core was cut off from the ship showed a bright red slash across their lines, indicating the absence of data flow along those umbilicals. This was part of the isolation procedure. Taking his PADD from it's holster on his left hip, David compared the Phoenix's secondary core readings with the readings from Lieutenant Decatur's test on the Nova class vessel a few days previously. There were no obvious discrepancies between the two tests, and David decided that this stage two test was a success. Not a glowing one, but successful none the less.

With an about face, Rogers left the monitor room and retraced his route back to main engineering one floor above, where he went to his office over looking the engineering room and took his seat behind his desk. After enabling his LCARS table, the entire top of his desk, David set up the protocols to release the restrictions on the secondary computer core and sensors but did not release them.

'I had best await the lieutenant's arrival,' David thought, allowing for professional courtesy that would have the young Trill nanotechnologist present at the end of stage two and to begin stage three. Having gotten ready for that, David rose and went to retrieve a cup of coffee from the office's replicator then returned to his desk. Taking a few cautious sips, he set his Star Fleet Academy mug down and tapped his comm badge, noting the ships chronometer as he did so. 0630 hours

"Engineering to Lieutenant Decatur. Please report to main engineering."

Stephanie literally jumped out of her bed as she heard her name coming though the comm. She didn’t even look at the time as she started cursing herself for oversleeping. “I’m sorry, Commander, I’ll be right there.” She was already at her open closet and nearly ripping her uniform off of its hanger.

Twelve minutes later she arrived in engineering, having beamed aboard the Phoenix and literally running from the transporter room to the turbolift, then to Commander Rodgers’ office. She had completely forgotten the EMH’s orders to report at 0800 instead of 0600. “I’m sorry I’m late sir.” She said as she stood in the doorway to Commander Rodgers office. Her appearance was uncharacteristically hap-hazard. Her uniform was on neatly but her unstyled hair gave her a short mop-top look. She looked like she literally rolled out of bed into her uniform and rushed to engineering…which was exactly what happened.

Glancing up and the slightly disheveled young Trill officer David got the impression, from her appearance, that she might have been working all night again. With a slight frown, he returned the Lieutenant's apologetic statement with one of his own.

"My apology lieutenant. I assumed you were already working this morning."

With a dismissive swipe of his arm, David dropped that line of thought. Decatur was technically under the chief of science's office, and not his immediate crew member. There was the issue with the astrometric's snafu still nagging his memory so David was reluctant to wade into staffing issue's in another department at this time. As long as the science's did not impinge upon engineering practice's, he would let the apparent lack of appropriate work scheduling of Lieutenant Hera's department slide at this time. Rising from his chair and walking over to the doorway, David offered the PADD to the Lieutenant. It contained the overnight monitoring information of the isolated secondary computer core and sensor sytems.

"Here  are last night's records on the test Lieutenant. I have already set up the system to enter the next stage. I thought I would await your diagnosis of this information before we drop the isolation barrier's to the rest of the ship."

With a slight bow of his head David allowed for the respect to show in his demeanor, adding a professional comment to his words.

"It is your project after all. Once you have gone over that information, inform Captain Syntron that your ready to proceed to the next stage. I have already set things up to restore full access to the Phoenix's entire ODN system."

Stepping around the short Trill woman, Rogers hesitated before continuing out into the main engineering room. He offered his office to Decatur so that she could study the records with some thought toward comfort and, apparently to himself, some rest..

"You may use my office to study that Lieutenant. Once finished, inform the captain for his assent and then use my console to continue to stage three. It is just awaiting input to open the network fully."

Leaving the Lieutenant to the work ahead, David continued out into the main room and went to the far end of the master systems display table to study the impulse drive manifold test's he had set up late last night with the engineering propulsion specialist, Master Warrant Officer Bradley Carroll.

Stephanie accepted the pad from him and listened. She spent a few minutes after he left going over the data. Everything seemed to be working as expected. She approached his desk and looked down, the system readout was showing that the ship was prepared for the next step in installing; all she had to do was unlock the isolation procedures and then find out from the Chief Engineer how many people were assigned to help her. She wished she’d had time to grab a cup of coffee as she tapped her com badge, blinking a few times to try to speed the process of waking herself up.

“Decatur to Captain Syntron,” She waited for his reply before continuing.

 Syntron engage the communicator.

"Acknowledged Lieutenant" the Vulcan commanding officer responded impassively.

“We’re ready in engineering to unlock the isolation protocols. As you are aware captain, we separated the secondary computer core from the ships secondary Optical Data Network and the primary Bio-Neural Data Network. We’re ready to re-integrate the core into both networks. Awaiting your orders to proceed with the project, sir.”

She waited for his response standing at attention as if he could see her. She still hadn’t seen the chronometer yet, and was unaware that she was ‘early’ for her doctor-ordered respite. She was still too tired to realize that T’mur wasn’t on board yet. Little did she know that the EMH had automatically sent the information about her delayed shift to ‘all relevant personnel.’

That personnel no doubt included the first officer, CSO, Captain, and her lab assistant on the station. Unfortunately, since Commander Rodgers was not in her chain of command, he probably wasn’t deemed ‘relevant’ since the Chief Engineer rarely has any interest in something as small as a single junior science officer’s shift being pushed back a few hours.

Looking attentively at a display of information along with a three-dimensional graphic representation of their current phase on his PADD as the nanotechnologist spoke, the Vulcan captain responded stoically.

"You are authorized to proceed with the next segment of your nanite project"

Syntron then added dryly "Although your timing  is rather interesting Lieutenant Decatur. According to a memo from Doctor Gray, he related concern regarding your apparent lack of sleep since your arrival here, if not before. Yet you are notifying me now at a time that is currently listed part of your resting period."

A long silent pause followed that statement.

Stephanie stood in the chief engineers office and swallowed hard, listening to the long silence and absorbing what he had just told her. Her head slowly swiveled to the wall display where she read the time: 0656

“Damn it!” she was unable to stop her outburst in time for it to be shouted into the office. Her hand cupped her mouth as soon as it was out. She knew she was too late and she had just cursed at her captain.

"Was that your rationale or merely a reaction to the question Lieutenant?" Syntron queried, with a slightly raised eyebrow and a somewhat bemused  expression.

“I’m sorry captain, I should have checked the time before reporting in…” She said meekly as she withdrew her hand.  She wished she could just crawl inside the warp core and hide in that moment.

As soon as the captain was done she closed the channel and before doing anything else, spoke as if to the room. “I’m sorry Doctor Gray, apparently someone didn’t get the message.” She knew he was integrated into the ships systems and with the promise of checking in on her from time to time knew that her speaking his name aloud would trigger his attention if she didn’t already have it. “I got a wake-up call and thought I had slept past 0800….I should have checked the time.”

As soon as the captain was was done she closed the channel and before doing anything else spoke as if to the room. “I’m sorry Doctor Gray, apparently someone didn’t get the message.” She knew he was integrated into the ships systems and with the promise of checking in on her from time to time knew that her speaking his name aloud would trigger his attention if she didn’t already have it. “I got a wake-up call and thought I had slept past 0800….I should have checked the time.”

Doctor Gray came to her then with a smile.

"That is alright, Lieutenant. The fault was mine. I should have made sure medical orders got sent to all command and duty officers aboard. I will suggest this for the CMO to validate with the XO before we launch."

He looked at her for a moment, and the scientist understood instantly that he was scanning her, his integrated systems working just like a medical tricorder without him having to uselessly hold one. Someone at the Starfleet Corps of Engineers finally understood that it was rather ridiculous for a diagnostic instrument to hold a diagnostic instrument to function.

"You had a sufficiently good night sleep so you should not experience any loss of performance today. But afterwards, I strongly suggest that you take again another good night's sleep and relax until launch. Try to enjoy yourself at the upcoming launch ceremony. You missed the one for the flagship and it was grand. Will do you real good to see faces instead of panels."

She was visibly relieved as he declared her fit to continue her shift; something she didn’t bother to hide since he would no doubt know anyway given the fact that she knew he was scanning her vitals. She cocked her head to the side as he started talking about the launch ceremony and then blushed when she said his last line about seeing faces instead of panels.

“One could argue that I see both panels and faces on a regular basis.” She lied. She was nervous again at the prospect of being surrounded by a crowd of people she didn’t know. Stephanie had never been to a ceremony like that. Dezerol had, but that was a different person. He had been headstrong, stubborn, self-assured, and confident about everything, at least outwardly. Stephanie was none of those things except when it came to her own intelligence.

When she saw the look he gave her in response she grinned sheepishly, “I’ll see if I can find the time to go, Doctor. And I promise I’ll get another full night’s sleep soon, Thank you.”

((If the doc has anything else to say, feel free to insert))

Stephanie tapped her combadge as soon as the doctor was finished and spoke, “Decatur to Commander Rodgers, I’ve gone over the data from last night and the captain is aware of our status. It looks like we’re ready to remove the isolation protocols from the secondary core and external sensor grid.” She leaned over his desk making sure it was ready to execute the pre-defined computer commands to release the lockout as soon as he gave the word. She was showing him the same professional courtesy that he had shown her: He was the chief engineer, and it was ‘his’ computer core, ‘his’ engine room, and ‘his’ ship. Engineers, she knew from past experience, tend to take ownership of equipment they were responsible for.

Receiving the Lieutenants hail, Rogers turned back to the MSD display on the port wall of main engineering, replying to the Trill officer as he watched the graphic display of the Phoenix.

"Go ahead Lieutenant. Drop the isolation protocols."

She quickly set about integrating the systems. It took her only a few seconds to reset the ODN to normal functionality with the secondary core. The BNDN took almost a minute; since it was the network most affected she wanted to make sure she got it right. As soon as his desk read green and she finished and made her way out of the office and toward the pool table in main engineering.

David watched the red isolation slash symbols disappear off the secondary computer core and sensor grid ODN lines. As they individually dropped, each relay line re-established it's connection to the main computer core or sensor net and the corresponding ODN line returned to the normal green display. As the multiple relays established their connections again, David maintained a watchful eye on the display to make sure they all returned to normal green status'. Once all the optical data network relays were established, David grunted with satisfaction, thinking appreciatively to himself.

Nothing like a green board to start off the day.

Turning back to the 'pool table', Rogers took a stance again at the core end and awaited Lieutenant Decatur's arrival, a scant few meters from the table in his office. They now had to oversee stage three, and she would be requiring more officers from engineering to assist herself and her Vulcan assistant.

She saw him standing at the far end of the pool table and nodded in greeting as she approached, taking a stance looking directly over the table at him. She was dwarfed even by the table. The surface of the table was just below his waist, but to her it was just above her navel. She ignored her feelings of being completely overwhelmed by not only the size of the ship, but of the project.

“How many people can your spare from each shift? I’ll need to train each group on how to install it, and we’ll have to coordinate the installation.” Her voice was more confident than she felt.

David nodded an acknowledgement as the Trill nanotechnologist put forward her request. He was watching the 'pool table' as it ran a level two diagnostic he had started. The testing was on the tactical system sensors right now, but would soon complete and continue on to the ship's science and navigational sensor suites. Looking up as the first diagnostic completed, Rogers thought a second on his engineering shift roster before replying.

"Well, I suppose we can use two from each shift Lieutenant. From Alpha, I have engineering crewman Kennedy and Specialist Swift. Beta can give you engineering crewman McCauley and specialist MacGyver, with engineering officer Brady and specialist Moore from Gamma shift. Will that suffice Lieutenant?"

As he spoke, the table before them chimed softly and David noted the switch over to the next diagnostic run. He pointed toward the side screens visible at each corner of the display to bring the information scrolling on them to her attention.

"As a thought,I have started a level two diagnostic on all ship's sensor arrays, in order to get a base line reading before the ship wide stage three. We can use them for comparative analysis after your test has completed."

David hoped his slight grin would convey his sincere attempt at trying to aid her test. It really was an interesting technological upgrade, and highly profitable to the ship's computational systems as well.

 As he waited for Decatur's thought's on his six crew member's candidacy, Rogers continued monitoring the diagnostic currently running. It was now into the third set of sensor array's, or specifically, the lateral suite on the main hull. A light ping sounded and the number twelve sensor just forward of the running light on the rear tail of the ship highlighted itself in a pale yellow on the MSD. This indicated a small problem but nothing serious. But it would need to be checked anyway. As Lieutenant Andrews was off shift, David decided he could check it himself. The diagnostic still had about a half hour to run yet anyway. Intruding upon the trill Lieutenant's ponderings, David informed her of his destination.

"I need to go down to deck twenty five and check on something. I'll have those six report to you within the half hour."

 Not awaiting a reply, David walked around the 'pool table' and headed out of main engineering toward the nearby turbo lift, using his comm badge as he walked to summon the six 'volunteer's' to main engineering to assist Decatur.

Over the course of the next few days Stephanie worked almost non-stop alongside her assigned crew and T’mur. Between the eight of them, all pulling double shifts, they were able to complete the installation and final testing the day before the launch ceremony. After activating the nanites Stephanie kept her promise to the doctor and spent more than 12 hours off-duty in her quarters. She caught up on some recreational reading…and plenty of much needed sleep.

There was little left to do before the launch other than monitor the ship systems interacting with each other through the Bio-Neural Data Network and measure the response time. The rest of the testing would have to wait until the sensors were stress-tested during the shake-down cruise.