Nico was staring at the duty board as his hands hugged the mug of coffee. He had been up for 8 hours and was running off of Caffeine and fumes at this point. Sometimes even though it was a full department, he had to wonder if he was the only communications officer. In fact he often wondered if there was an Operations Chief… Of course there was, but he had never met them.

“Right time to get to work…” he said outloud to no-one in the Comms Office. Made sense, a lot of them could of been injured, or worse yet, dead. Blinking he noted his duties for the day… the most urgent one seemed to be the Main Communication Array, the Damage control teams had managed to repair it, but they had to wipe the system in the process. He had to reinstall the OS, Firewalls, and ugh… technology.

Before the attack he had managed to back up the current OS version, but he still had to reinstall everything. Not to mention the frequency purges. This was going to take him all day.

Walking out of the office, he nodded at the passing damage control teams, civilians and crew members. Sips from his coffee was mandatory in the moment, it was his lifeline. Ever since he spilled his coffee on the CIO of the Denver, he had made sure that there was a no spill cup. Taking another swig he felt it fill his stomach. It was refreshing.

Ensign Caaral Topaz-Smythe studied a PADD as Nico approached. This was his first time in the Operations Section of Starbase Bravo. He held a toolkit by the handle with the same hand that held the tablet, free tapping away at the screen.

The Trill-human hybrid looked towards Nico, side stepping until turning to walk with him. “Say. I’m new here. I’m looking for Forward Sensor Array Two.. It’s attached to the Main Communications Array.” His dark eyes eyed Nico’s drink. He hoped to stop off at a replicator along the way there.

“You are correct, I am Lt. Kalogeropoulos, you can call me Nico. It’s this way Ensign. How are you finding station life?” Nico asked stepping over debris.

“Nice to meet you, Sir”, Caaral said warmly. “Well you know.. Times are tough with the Blackout and everything. I still feel like it’s the same day of the attack.” His eyes looked away momentarily lost in thought. “How are you adjusting to everything?”

If only the young Ensign knew… he is in the middle of a civil separation, losing everything in his personal life, losing the only love of his life. Adjusting to a new job, a new home, all alone. “I am adjusting thanks. I am still new here myself.”

Not new to the life of Starfleet, but new to the station. He didn’t have much of a chance to socialize before the attack, “We are going to be feeling this attack for a long time, especially if we don’t find a way around this communication problem.” Nico said stepping into Communications array.

Pointing behind him he said, “There is a Replicator and an Industrial Replicator, use as needed. Your Sensor Array Access Point is located at Station 047. I will be at Station 002 if you need anything. Don’t ask me about the numbering system. 002 and 047 are right beside each other, but you know, I said it to be more dramatic.”

Caaral laughed as he nodded. “No that makes sense. I guess it’s just where the access points wrap around the array.” The Trill was still young and optimistic. His experience on the day of the attack was his first brush with combat.

Even now, memories of fighting with that Security team had distracted him from finding the access terminal.  ” The name’s Ensign Smythe, by the way. I’m really not used to making repairs. It sounds like I just have to do some tuning. I’ve sort of done this before” He chuckled to himself as he curiously watched Nico set-up his workstation.

Nico raised his eyebrow at the Ensign, “Sort of?” He remembered being sent out on his first assignment, the sort of mentality would of gotten him killed. It was a different department and people had to learn somewhere right? “Well if you have any questions, I am sure I can help you find an answer.” he said reassuringly taking the final swig of his coffee.

He pulled out his padd, tricorder another bigger padd with the OS on it, and several other instruments. It was going to be a long process.

Ensign Topaz-Smythe set his tool kit and PADD on a nearby rail. The scientist quickly tapped a series of new settings into the access terminal. Caaral knelt to grab a specially calibrated quantum phase modulator. He would be isolating the harmonic distortion bands to filter out the extra gravimetric noise caused by the arrival of Underspace.

Caaral could hear Nico working, with just a small curved section between them.

Nico looked at the console and blinked ‘2’ he counted. He was counting how many times he was blinking. There was nothing else to do. If he was by himself he would be blasting music. His console beeped.

“Ensign, pardon the disruption, what are you using to disrupt the gravimetric feedback?” Nico asked.

Caaral tapped a series of commands with one hand as he held the device with the other. “We set up a phase multiplier to the frequency range of these distortions on the Quantum level. It should help the sensors cut through the darkness just a little better.”

The Ensign tapped a series of buttons on the tool to activate it. “You should start noticing the results in a few minutes. I’ll keep you updated.” He leaned towards the terminal and input the first of many system adjustments into the sensor array.