167: All We Can Do

By Lt. SG Avery Breaux and Ensign Rada Dengar
80225.15
After A Debt Repaid

-=Engineering; USS Serendipity=-

Rada and Dane had now finished checking the ship without killing each other, Rada thanks to his incredible will power and Dane because Rada kept him very busy. Now that it had been confirmed that the EPS Conduits onboard the Sera were in reasonable working order Avery and Rada had thrown themselves into some more work. They both were dreading their next scrap of time off because they knew where they would be going and were afraid of what they would find. After what had happened to the Alchemy they had convinced themselves that it was imperative that they worked on enhancing the emergency force field systems to prevent a repeat of that event.

Avery and Rada were standing side by side at two consoles quickly typing various irrelevant commands.

"I was thinking that we could improve field integrity by generating a secondary field with a multiphase frequency occurring at alternating intervals throughout the conventional system essentially making it impossible to calculate a resonant weak spot" Avery said, whilst keeping his eyes fixed forward.

"If we were to couple that with an irregular alignment pattern we may be able to force any attack to rely heavily on a wider dispersion on their weaponry," Rada replied, whilst not really looking at the Lieutenant.

"We may be able to increase resistance by twenty-five percent with those measures alone" added Avery "Then if we could develop a way to inhibit overload at the source of the field itself then we could feed increased power into the source allowing us to pre-empt damage."

"I may have a way to do that," replied Rada and the two of them kept working rapidly at their consoles.

They both kept typing for another thirty seconds and then Rada stopped and turned towards Avery.

"This is ludicrous, isn't it?" Rada asked and Avery stopped and faced him "The emergency force field was hit by a weapon capable of combating a ship such as the Sera with a Multi-Layered Shielding System. We both know that no emergency force field could have been expected to combat that"

Avery sighed. They both knew that he was right. All they were doing was trying to keep themselves busy. Avery didn't even have to say anything. They both knew what they had to do.

-=Sickbay; USS Serendipity=-

Avery and Rada both stepped out of the Turbolift into Sickbay. They didn't see Commander Salvek standing by Kellyn's side as they had expected but rather they saw the Vedek seated between them. Sickbay did look peaceful in its way, they both considered stepping back onto the Turbolift and leaving things be but they couldn't, they had to know what was happening.

Rada immediately turned to Avery, hoping that all of the readings around them meant something to him. Rada had spent years helping install medical equipment but still didn't understand the shear bulk of what it did.

What he did understand was that Kellyn looked the epitome of a peaceful struggle, she was still but she was fighting. Rada knew this look all too well; he had spent years learning to disguise it.

Avery was glad to see that if nothing else she was still fighting; there was a moment onboard the Alchemy when he had thought she was giving up. That was what he'd been dreading, that feeling that she would be dying and there would be nothing he could do because she wouldn't help him do it, there is nothing worse for Doctor or Starfleet Officer alike.

They spent minutes just standing in silence next to Lair's biobed. The med staff had allowed them to check on her, but really provided them with no details. Avery looked at the signs on the various gadgets surrounding their comrade, but he wouldn't comment on their detail. It seemed more appropriate to allow Lair her struggle...with the two of them nearby.

"We really haven't had time for any of us to get to know each other-we were just thrown into the fray..." Breaux quietly stated. "It's become tedious over the years," Breaux continued thinking out loud. "Comrades come, go, disappear..." he raised his eyes to the ceiling, "...I didn't used to be so damned morose...ravages of time I suspect."

Rada listened and allowed Avery to vent.

"You get frustrated...the injuries...the death...and you ask yourself if it's worth it...damn it hurts," Breaux let his words hang in the air.

Rada did envy Breaux's poetic nature; at times such as this silence was usually the best way Rada could manage to articulate how he felt.

Breaux turned and looked at his Engineering mate, "Sorry...you have to slap me if I descend into some maudlin state."

Rada had never understood how a maudlin state could be considered to be a descension, it was an honesty which Rada envied, they say it is in fear that we are revealed but Rada could never believe it to be so simple. He believes it to be despair that defines us, in fear we act consciously for ourselves; we act for our ship, our friends but it always for ourselves. In despair however there is no acting, in despair a false hero can hide and a known coward can freeze. For in the overtly sentimental truth we are nothing but what we are. So perhaps Rada did understand, being revealed was what he for so long feared. It is truly sad when the acrophobic man envies the birds.

There was a moment of communicative silence before Rada turned and looked frankly at Breaux, it was not a look he was accustomed to giving.

"I know..." he told Breaux, his voice reflecting a sudden tiredness. "I know how futile it can all seem. I come from a world built on futility. So many people. . .so many people were slaughtered and we could not fight back, our only solution was to turn on our own and to strip them of everything that defined our world. There was so much that was lost and there was nothing that we could do."

Rada took a moment to look down at Lair before continuing, "That's why I'm here now," he explained "To learn what it is we can do."

"There's only one thing we can do now," said Breaux softly with a moment of pause. "We can wait...and you and I...we aren't going to make that damned mistake of not getting to know each other...first opportunity...we have a long dinner and talk."

Lt. SG Avery Breaux
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012


and

Ensign Rada Dengar
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012