With the Culver City at red alert and well on her way to a rendezvous with the rest of her ad-hoc task group, Lieutenant K’lev sat in his command chair on the bridge.  The ship was sprinting at her maximum rated speed of warp 8, so the engineer-turned-commanding-officer was keeping a somewhat-close eye on the status of her engines; thus far, all was well, but with the older components installed aboard one couldn’t be too careful.

Culver City was around 15 minutes out from the rendezvous point – in orbit of Rhontaka B – when an alert suddenly sounded from the sciences station.  “What…?” muttered Ensign Ophelia Lotharys as she consulted her console’s display.

“What is it?” K’lev asked, half-turning in his chair.

Her brow furrowed.  “I’m showing a power drain in the starboard lateral sensor array,” she answered.  “Just came up out of nowhere.”

He stood, crossing quickly to her console and reviewing the data; sure enough, the starboard-side sensor array was running under-powered, and the drain was accelerating.  “Reroute auxiliary power to the lateral sensors; let’s see if that helps,” K’lev called over to the petty officer at engineering.

Rerouting power helped some, but the drain was still present.  Lotharys looked to K’lev.  “If we can’t get this fixed somehow…” she started.

“We could be blind to starboard by the time we reach the border,” he finished the thought they both shared, then activated the ship’s intercom from her console.  “Bridge to Engineering.  Pelix, we’ve got a drain in the starboard sensor array; you seeing it too?”

“Yeah, I see it,” came the gruff reply from Ensign Pelix, the chief engineer.  “Already got a team looking into it, too, before you ask me that one as well.”

K’lev and Lotharys exchanged glances.  “They replaced that array during the refit; could the new one be faulty?” he asked.

She shook her head.  “No way; Pelix oversaw the install himself, we both checked it out afterward, and it’s passed multiple diagnostics since.”

K’lev nodded.  “All the same, let’s run one more, just to be safe,” he said to Lotharys, then looked back upwards as she started working.  “In the meantime, keep looking into it from your end, Pelix, and keep us advised the moment you know something.”

As the minutes ticked down, the intercom activated again.  “Engineering to Bridge.  We’ve completed the inspection; a couple of conduits had shaken a bit loose, but we’re still showing a drain even with them locked down again,” came Pelix’s voice.  “There’s no sign we can find for it.”

“Thank you, Pelix,” K’lev said, then a thought crossed his mind, and he glanced at Lotharys.  “Bear with me on this, but what if we rebooted the array’s power flow sensors?”

Lotharys looked at him askance.  “What…?  What’re you thinking?”

“The sensors say it’s a drain, but Pelix can’t find it.  What if there’s nothing to find?  That is, what if it’s not an actual drain, but a failing power flow sensor?  Rebooting it could tell us; if it goes away when the sensors come back up, then it’s a sensor, not an actual drain.”

“Then we just replace the flow sensors!” Lotharys finished, her expression one of excited relief.

“Exactly!” K’lev said.

“I’m starting the flow sensor reboot,” Lotharys started rapidly entering commands into her console.  “Pelix, do you see anything?”

“Hang on, hang on…” Pelix grumbled.  “Okay, getting data again… and no drain.  Good call, sir; we’ll get on those flow sensors.”

“Thanks, Pelix; good work,” K’lev said.  He patted Lotharys on the arm, then returned to his seat.  “Hopefully that’s our surprise for this run.  Ari, steady as she goes.”  Culver City continued her sprint for the border, dropping out of warp a few minutes later and proceeding to rendezvous with the task group.