---------------------------------
SD: 170426.1900
MD: 01.1700
Scene: USS EXCALIBUR - Ready Room
---------------------------------

D-warp presented itself to the bridge-crew with its gray and flowing
clouds. Space was faintly visible but appeared misty. It suited well to
the overall feeling sentient beings experience when leaving this strange
continuum.

Although everybody felt rather strange after leaving d-warp it was
negligible compared to what usually happened to computer-dependent
systems. Computer cores always had had their trouble after a d-warp
transit and a CIRCE-class ship is highly computerized. The SCIMITAR
tactical system would be out of order for 20 minutes or so. Other
systems would usually be down or unreliable for a similar amount of
time.

Well, the ship's crew had worked out a plan to shorten the time-gap of
computer-availability. All unused systems were simply shut down after
entering d-warp or replaced by non-computer-controlled electronics as
far as necessary - even life-support. The only crucial point as always
would be the power-grid when the systems were brought back online after
the d-warp transit.

The former ENG-officer and now OPS had shaped out and realized a little
concept to make this work. The offline systems were connected to it via
a small computer called "Black Box". This small computer was offline
itself but could be booted with a simple mechanic switch at the CO's
and/or XO's chair. The power-supply was independent from any other
ship-systems because it ran on battery-power. The only program running
on that small computer was a simple I/O-routine bringing all offline
systems back to life during booting and an automatic shutdown
afterwards.

They had tested it during their docking time and it had worked fine.
Well, it had been a dry test because D-warp was nothing to play around
with for a simple system-test. Miles had assured it would work correctly
and Mike trusted him. Even Prog had stated that he couldn't find any
problem. The expertise of two engineers assured Mike everything was ok -
at least as far as the crew could influence it. The whole thing should
cut the computers' dizzy-time down to 5 minutes instead of 15 or more.

They were under D-warp for 7 hours now and that was 1 hour ahead of
their schedule. Engineering and Operations had sent him a list of names
the department heads thought they were overdue for some sort of credit
for their service during their emergency-departure. While sitting in his
Ready Room Mike made commendational notes to the service-jacket of
several crew-members. Mike studied the list again and was satisfied with
the names he read on it. The officers had not only suggested other
officers but also enlisted- and warrant-rates.

Chang had handed him the list of appliers for the SpecOps-teams. A lot
more than needed had volunteered for the two teams. They needed 12 and
51 had applied. Well, it was always better to have some more options
than necessary.

The marines had checked their whole eqipment. Coleman seemed to take her
job very seriously. Her marines seemed ready at a word. Mike liked that,
but on the other hand Coleman might tend to overdo it in the future. He
would have to keep an eye on that.

With a sigh Mike signed all the credits Miles and Prog had suggested and
put the padd aside. Padd-work bored him a lot. The only thing solacing
him was that other CO's had the same boring tasks included in their
jobs.

<NRPG>
Juan: Good posts! I guess Megan will work out not so good with the
fleeters during the SpecOps-training? She may bring some interesting
character development into the plot.

Respectfully submitted,
Stefan Wiedner
aka
CAPT Michael T. Gibson, CO USS EXCALIBUR
VADM Robert F. Drake, COMLOG