[snip]

With the minutes ticking down the adjustments were made barely in time with less then ten minutes to spare. They were as ready as they could be to accept the dying protomatter’s energy to harness it to hopefully return home.

GM CockRoach

Caelian winced as the back of his head kissed the bulkhead, but the overwhelming sense of relief washed the pain away as he set his spanner down. The isolinear array hummed before him, indicator lights letting him know that it was operating as expected. It would have to be. Grunting the heavy panel back into place, the engineer snagged his toolkit and began to wriggle backward out of the jeffries tube. It was sheer willpower that kept him from collapsing once he was back in main engineering.

=^=Weir to Jackson,=^= he gasped, slapping his comm badge. =^=What’s your status?=^=

=^=Jackson here. The deflector is primed and ready, boss. No issues to report.=^=

Caelian nodded, tapped his badge again. =^=Weir to L’Nel. Status.=^=

=^=Assuming no further distractions,=^= the Vulcan’s voice came back dryly, =^=I am ready. All personnel have been cleared from the surrounding area.=^=

=^=Acknowledged.=^= Shaking his head at the host of numbers and equations crashing around in his head, Caelian dragged himself to his feet and keyed up a nearby console. After checking his work both visually and with a computer-aided diagnostic, he sent a quick message to V’alura to let her know that they were prepared.

=^=Weir to Bridge,=^= he called finally with a sigh, =^=Captain, we’re about as ready as we can be here. Remember, our integrity measures will only give us about five minutes after we begin collecting energy before we either need to use it or dump it. Safe hunting.=^=
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

=/\= Understood Ensign, good work =/\= She said.

A second later Drudoc’s voice came over ship wide. =/\= Attention all hands brace for a possible rough ride, we’re about to attempt to harness protomatter energy to return to our home. Secure all stations and standby. =/\= Andone said.

Drudoc Andone CO