Kait walked out onto the Bridge and took a survey of who was there. There were no senior officers, mostly ensigns. The closest officer was an ensign manning tactical. Kait made the decision to ask this officer, but she feared that there was an almost certainty that he hadn't the foggiest notion of anything about the staff meeting.

Nevertheless, she approached him and said, "Excuse me, sir. Would you happen to know when the staff meeting reconvenes?"

Taking a last glance at his console, he said assuredly, "In about five minutes."

In a way, she was relieved because he did know and she wasn't late, but she was still surprised since that meant an hour had almost already passed by.

There really wasn't any time to do anything else before the staff meeting, but Janice Hargen must've thought otherwise for she came through Kait's comm. badge saying, "Lt. Brennan, I need to see you immediately."

Confusion seemed to be a common thing today. She needed to get more sleep from now on.

"Sure, but where are you?" Kait asked dumbly.

"In Engineering, of course."

Kait wasted no time getting into the turbolift. Before the TL doors shut, she could hear a door on the bridge hiss open.

"I'll be on my way," she responded to Hargen finally.

The TL doors were about to close when they re-opened and that same Cardassian from Ten-Forward entered the turbolift. Kait's eyebrows rose in surprise, but she soon replaced it with a stern, fixed expression.

He said, "Main Engineering."

She remained silent since her destination was the same. The TL doors closed and proceeded to its stated destination. *Please, don't let him be in my department. He's going to be trouble,* she thought. His gold uniform did not bode well for her hope that he wasn't an engineering officer. Perhaps he was tactical, she prayed, and that he was simply making a business trip down to Engineering.

Responding to her silence, he turned his head to look at her questionly. Kait was tempted to look away so as to avoid contact with him, but she thought she would appear timid so she looked straight up into his eyes.

A race, so often held in contempt, yet she felt no ill regard towards him. In fact, he looked rather young and inexperienced for an officer. As she looked up at him, he must've felt prompted to speak.

"Starfleet's been known to screw up like this," he said.

Kait, obviously bewildered, shook her head and asked, "What?"

She couldn't tell if his tone was contemptuous or commentary.

He closed his eyes for a moment, then said resignedly, "Nevermind."

The TL doors opened and Kait walked out with the Cardassian officer behind her. Janice Hargen could be seen about 9 meters away, standing in front of the warp reactor.