Stardate 52042.8

	Enoz lay still on her bed.  The EMH was moving a tricorder past her head, then
snapped it shut.  She looked up at him, blinking with all three eyes for the first time in
days.  The doctor spun around when another bed began beeping incessantly.  He jumped
over to Bruder's console and quickly reopened his tricorder.  "What the-?!" Enoz stood up
and walked up behind the doctor, seeing only one orderly on duty.
	"Doc, what's up?"
	"We had to induce a coma because of all the shock her system was suffering.
Between losing her arm and our removing all the alien technology, it's a wonder that she's
still with us."
	"Some people just don't know how to die, doc." said Enoz dryly.  "That's a lot of
nervous activity for a coma."
	"I know," said the EMH.  "Miss Bruder is having an allergic reaction to an
overdose.  We gave her a medicine designed to keep her unconscious yet stimulate growth
in her nervous system.  Someone gave her too much and now she's undergoing
hallucinations.  I'm also reading increased production of stomach acids, almost to
dangerous levels.  I'll have to give her medication to calm both symptoms."
	Enoz and the EMH both turned to the orderly, who coughed nervously.  Enoz
took the initiative.  "Name and rank, orderly."
	"Acting Ensign Gene Thomas, ma'am." he stuttered nervously.  "Look, I wasn't
supposed to be a nurse.  I had just started my second year of biochemistry at the Academy
when they bumped me out to make room for real students, ones they need for the war."
	That line of reasoning struck a chord with Enoz, who merely dismissed him.
	"Looks like Etely doesn't like the Gene therapy." muttered the EMH.  Enoz rolled
all three of her eyes.  "She's coming around."
	Bruder's eyes barely squinted.  "You can just call me Et."  The hologram glanced
at her queerly.
	"I just need to call home, talk to my parents." she mumbled.
	"Ensign, your parents are deceased" said Enoz.  Bruder opened her eyes and
bolted upright, disoriented, still hallucinating. "Where's Philip?" she mumbled.
	Enoz pulled a console closer to the bed, accessing the databanks, distracting
Bruder while the EMH scanned her.  "Philip who?"
	"Philip Emerson.  One l, he's a lieutenant."  Enoz quickly typed the instructions
into the computer for it to search for any Lieutenant Philip Emersons in the Fleet.  There
were three.
	"The first Lieutenant Philip Emerson is of Earth, assigned to ground deployment in
the Jen'Taka system.  Current status is Missing-In-Action.  The second Lieutenant Philip
Emerson is from Centauri IV, assigned to the U.S.S. Packard, which was destroyed two
days ago.  The third Lieutenant Philip Emerson is from Pacifica, serving as Chief Waste
Extraction Officer to Starbase 654.  Current status is active."
	Bruder put her head in her hands but only momentarily, tensing at the metallic feel
of her prosthetic arm.  The EMH put a hand on her shoulder.  "I'm trying to clone skin,
but I haven't overcome your body's biorejection yet."
	That didn't make Bruder feel any better.  She began shrieking and shaking
hysterically.  Enoz slammed her down on the bed and activated the restraining fields
before the doctor injected her with a sedative.
	"I almost forgot, Commander," said the EMH.  "Your eye will be fine.  It will be
out of focus for a few days, but you can return to duty."
	Enoz nodded, smoothed her uniform and strolled out the door.  She stepped into a
turbolift.  "Deck 1."  The lift began its ascent when a sudden urge overcame her.
	"Halt...-where's Syxx?"
	"Main Engineering."
	"Take me there."  The lift reversed direction and deposited Enoz at the end of the
long room.  Few personnel were on duty, most were about the ship repairing damage.
Enoz gazed at Syxx from a distance.
	The Bolian was facing the warp core, seemingly entranced.  Enoz was absorbed in
utter fascination by the variations of light radiating off his shiny head as the deuterium
injections pulsed down the injector rings towards their powerful demise. 
	Shaking her head at her own romanticism, she took a step forward, not entirely
sure her eyes were fine. Syxx barely turned to see her.  "You okay?" he asked quietly,
almost whispering.
	"Yeah."
	"Good...we should talk."
	"I know.  What happened down there-"
	Syxx cut her off.  "What happened down there will never change.  I will not lie to
you, Commander.  I do have strong feelings for you, but I must resist them."
	Enoz, now too, turned and gazed up at the warp core.  She had inwardly hoped
that she and Syxx could have continued their relationship, but knew it was nearly
impossible to do so.  Seeing Syxx silent, she finished his thought. "Starfleet doesn't meddle
in it's officers' personal lives too often, but over half the crew on this ship answer to the
two of us.  With a war on, Starfleet is losing more than ships and lives.  We're losing faith
and hope.  That means that minute by minute, our subordinates depend on us more to be a
constant, unchanging."
	"You're more right than you know, Enoz." whispered Syxx, lowering his eyes to
the deck.  "That research project you're doing with Lenoz and Zenoz.  Even those who
care nothing about it are impressed."  
	The Oblokoni gazed at him inquisitively, and he met her look with one of humble
admiration.  He said, "The galaxy is on fire, and it takes all we've got just to survive.  And
yet, somehow, you still chase a dream and find a way to live.  Even if we drive the
Dominion back through that wormhole, if they change us in anyway, we'll have lost
something.  As long as you chase a dream, wearing our uniform, we're winning on at least
one front."
	She suddenly understood Syxx.  He was holding her at arms length because he felt
professionally obligated to, but was also revealing that a connection between them still
existed.  Most officers treated her as if she had come from a Federation world, but it
flooded all five chambers of her heart to hear Syxx flatter her as more important than a
Federation member.
	"Maybe after the war..." she said, knowing it was a sentence that had to be started,
but could not be finished.  The Bolian smiled and nodded.  She turned and strolled softly
out of Engineering, praying to her gods that they would poison all the ketrecel-white that
would ever exist, not for survival of the Alpha Quadrant, not for retribution, but so she
could one more private undistracted moment with a blue skinned engineer.
	When she got to her quarters, she marched through the doors before she could
muster the courage to face her triad, knowing if she took time to do so, she wouldn't. She
only took one step in the door and stopped, her mouth gaping.
	"Come on in and let the doors close, En." Zenoz said from the floor.
	"We don't want anyone seeing us like this." growled Lenoz, also on the deck.
Enoz stepped in and let the doors shut, but she didn't stray any farther. "What do you two
think you're doing?  A husband and mate have never done-that-without the wife around
before.  Never!  It's not possible-"
	"Well, we know it's not going to result in any biological possibilities." said Lenoz,
standing slowly, grabbing his uniform which had been draped carelessly over the couch. 
	"But, hey, it's not like we did anything wrong.  I mean, relations between only two
members of a triad isn't forbidden.  It's just never been done.  Just like your little episode
with Syxx down on the planet."
	Enoz glanced down at Zenoz, who was rolling around on what was left of the
coffee table, chuckling.  "What are you thinking, Zen?"
	"It occurred to us we were only angry with you because we were thinking like
humans, because we're around them so much.  But from a true Oblokoni perspective, you
did nothing wrong.  It had just never been done.  Heck, you were only being a Starfleet
Officer, boldly going where no one has gone before."  
	Lenoz, now pulling on a boot, burst out laughing.  Even Enoz had to giggle. 
"Your experience may even help our project, so we decided to throw another log on the
fire and try something new ourselves."
	"You know," said Lenoz.  "When those subspace ripples appeared, we had to
recalibrate the warp field with a new geometry.  Would you two like to see the interesting
patterns that can be formed when ripples appear?"
	Enoz and Zenoz glanced at each other confused, but both nodded politely to
Lenoz in agreement.  He just smiled and grabbed Zenoz by a foot and Enoz by a hand,
dragging them to the bedroom.

	Meanwhile, on the bridge, Mason, Ming and Beeg monitored some residual
subspace eddies, discussing how to neutralize them.  "Beeg," said Ming.  "Could we
dissipate one with an adjusted quantum torpedo?"
	"Possibly, Commander." the Pinx said.
	"Make it possible." ordered Mason, stepping down onto the command deck.
"We've been having so much excitement lately, I'd like to force the space around us to
become boring."
	"Actually, sir." interrupted Ming.  "We can do it faster if I call Mr. Weis the
bridge.  He can help us program them more quickly."  Mason thought for a moment, then
nodded to Ming, who called out "Kasper Weis, report to the bridge."
	In his quarters, Weis jolted upright in his bed.  Summoned to the bridge?  What
was going on?  He quickly donned his usual black slacks and lucky red tunic that had been
a birthday present once.  The civilian dashed to the bridge.  Once there, he reported to
Ming, "You called, Commander?"
	"We need your assistance reprogramming torpedoes.  Use the science station." she
said, nodding to the console behind her and Beeg.  Weis stepped up and began doing
calculations.  Moments later, they were ready for a test fire.  Mason approved the launch
and Beeg targeted one of the smaller eddies just inside firing range.  The torpedo sped
away and exploded against the ripple.  The Equinox lurched to one side as a massive
energy ring discharged from the impact.  Beeg landed on the deck beside Weis, the Pinx
yelling "You idiot!  You opened it up more!"
	Only Mason hung onto his chair, barking out "Red Alert!  Ming!  Activate the
deflector dish and try to neutralize the wave!"  The first officer hit some buttons and a
pulse lashed out from the dish.  The Equinox stabilized but began resonating.
	"Captain!" Ming said.  "The dish will close that ripple in seventeen seconds, but it's
also causing power feedbacks in random systems."
	"Ride it out!" Mason ordered.  "Engineering, compensate!"
	The seventeen seconds seemed to drag on like an eternity.  Mason counted them
silently in his head.  When he reached 16, a conduit behind him on his left shrieked and
exploded.  Pieces of red fabric went drifting over his head.  Down in Sickbay, the EMH's
emitters fluttered, then went off-line.  No one was there to stop the power surge in
Bruder's restraining fields.  A beam spiked and severed off her prosthetic arm.  She lay
there, still unconscious, blood pouring from her arm socket.
	Enoz stumbled onto the bridge, just as Ming reported all clear.  The Oblokoni
gazed at what little was left of her port side science station and the blood and guts of its
former user splattered all over Ming and Beeg.
	"Chief, which one of my officers was this?" she asked, fearing she had lost another
friend.
	"It was that civilian, Weis." shrugged the Pinx.
	"Oh, I only met him once I think."  She turned and walked across the bridge to the
other science station, muttering, "So many new faces, come and gone." 
	She sat and began going through the data when she noticed the engineer to her left
gazing at her.
	"Something I can do for you, crewman?" she said, not taking her eyes off her
console. 
	The crewman glanced over his shoulder, making sure Mason and Ming weren't
looking.  "Yes, ma'am.  I've got a text message on my console from Commander Syxx. He
wants to know if you're okay."
	Enoz held a poker face for the crewman, but smile inwardly.  "Tell our dear chief
engineer that all science systems are fully functional."