Janice left the Senior Officer's meeting in a daze. She hadn't slept through the whole night before, with all the work she had to do with the Engineering Report. *Speaking of which, I got my half done, but I still don't know about Kaitlyn...* She sighed. Over the past three days, her mother had died, a secret that she had been hiding for half her life had been discovered, and she was pressed with a report to do in a very inadequate time. *The life of an engineer.* she thought, grimacing. *It seems that the command crew always wants the impossible done in as short a time as possible. Not that I've ever failed at coming up with a solution. But if I had been human...* She shook her head. She had been through this same train of thought millions of times within the past day. She needed to relax - find a place where she could sit quietly and think, or better yet, get this report finished. She stepped into the turbolift, and without thinking, said, "Computer, Main Engineering."

She smiled to herself in the empty turbolift. *Well, at least I know where my priorities are...* she thought with a grin. As she felt herself near engineering, though, instead of feeling more relaxed as she always did, she began to tense up. Her brow furrowing, she clenched her fists. Usually, the hum of the engines nearby put her at peace - now it just made her stomach twist into a knot. Janice had felt this before. *Something is terribly wrong with the ship. The engines.* Her heart began beating faster as she willed for the turbolift get to Engineering.

Finally, the doors opened. Janice practically ran out in her haste to find out what was wrong. She stopped suddenly, overwhelmed by the feeling of nausea she suddenly had. She was suddenly overcome with a dizzy spell. She reached out and quickly steadied herself on the nearest console. Swallowing heavily, she closed her eyes, then opened them again slowly,

willing the room to stop spinning. Finally, she got control of herself long enough to walk towards one of the main consoles. Sitting down heavily, she looked around the room. The five officers she had left here before were still running about, but much less quickly now.

She couldn't understand it. What could possibly be wrong with the systems that they had just checked only hours ago? Quickly, she calculated how long a level 4 diagnostic of the warp drive would take. *Approximately 47 min. and 32 sec.... Helps being an android...* Perfect. Just enough time to get it done before the commencement of the meeting. She began the scan, looking for anything, any tiny change that could account for what she was feeling. She noticed some of the officers looking at her curiously, but as she had hoped, they trusted her enough to let her be.

*Well, at least one good thing came of this morning...* She turned the display speed up several notches, making sure no one was close enough so they could see that she was reading at a speed impossible for humanoids to.

Something caught her eye. She scrolled back quickly, examining the scans. There was just one off reading, one of the plasma coolant tanks. Janice filed it away. It was still well within specified limits... but as she began to start the scan again, her mind kept wandering back to the coolant tanks. The scan finally finished, without another hitch. *I knew it. I have to learn to trust my instincts and save time.* Because she did have

instincts. When it came to machines, she could just innately tell when something was wrong. And she could quickly discover the answer - if she trusted herself long enough to.

She began a scan on the coolant tanks, one by one. But this time, she listened to her instincts. Within a matter of minutes, she figured out which one it was. She scanned it quickly, discovering that the coolant tank was fractured. *How in the world could that have happened between last night and this morning?*

She shook her head, unhappy with the results on the screen. *These readings definitely indicate a fracture. But...* She stopped, stunned.

*This shows that the impact must have come on the outside of the tank!* She tapped her commbadge decisively.

"Lt. Brennan, I need to see you immediately."