<<USS Grail- Battle Bridge>>

Janice Hargen quickened her step from the turbolift and broke into a jog. She entered the Battle Bridge just as the rest of the crew was, she noted, relieved. She was afraid the longer trip from Engineering to the Battle Bridge would keep her from getting there on time.. and she didn't want to leave the engines alone for a moment, especially on their first real break into high speeds.

"Rerouting engineering controls to the Battle Bridge," she called out to the crew and to engineering, as she quickly tapped on the keypad before her. The familiar display popped up before her. She liked the battle bridge... it was closer to the engines. She could feel them pulsating all around her. It felt.... powerful.

"We are at 9.8, sir.", Alison Donucci said as she looked over her shoulder at Epic. Epic looked to her. Janice gave him a cold scowl, but fell to the task of coaxing the engines just a little bit more. *You have to give them wonders to make them happy... miracles, even!*

Janice worked even more frantically at the controls before her. *If the captain orders the impossible, you had better be ready to give it to them in half the time they want it.* She smiled - she had always thought of that as the credo of the engineers aboard starships. Nothing was quite like this thrill that she felt as she used any way possible to squeeze more speed out of the engines. If the captain asks for warp 9.9, she was supposed to give him warp 9.99. And she was determined to do so.

*Come on,* she gently coached the ship in her mind. She grimaced. It wasn't accelerating as quickly as she hoped. She just needed to push it a bit farther... it was a good ship. A strong one. Janice could feel the sheer strength that the ship held. She could feel it like a pressure building around her. And she could make it even stronger. Her mind was fixated on the job of speeding up the engines, when suddenly a call from Epic broke through her thoughts.

"Initiate Saucer separation sequence NOW!", Terrakian called over an open channel.

Janice's jaw dropped, astounded. *What in the world is he thinking???* She was about to argue the order, but immediately realized that they would have dropped into normal space before the sequence had completed itself. If she timed it just right, they would separate the second they fell out of warp. It would require such immense precision... that she was capable of giving the ship. It was just about now that she took her computer-like capabilities for granted. It was what made her such an exquisite engineer - when she put her mind to it, at least.

She almost smiled to herself as she prepared to decelerate the ship. She had gotten them here almost ten seconds faster than she had planned. It seemed minuscule, but in situations like this, every second counted. Now came the hard part. Saucer separation in the midst of a major deceleration of both ships. She grimaced, her smile fading away quickly. If this was to work at all, she was going to need control of both ships. Only she could time them perfectly.

"Hargen to Main Bridge. I'm going to need control of the saucer section during separation. I'll only need it for at most, 10 seconds." She waited for approval from Brinn, then reconfigured the station before her. She glanced at Epic. He was staring at the viewscreen, enraptured by the sight unfolding before him. *If only he knew what kind of sight was forming around here....* She closed her eyes, consciously blocking out everything in her mind. She was going to need to become perfectly in tune with the computer to be able to get this to work right - meaning she wasn't going to be able to deny her android side at all. If anything, she'd have to let it take over.

Janice opened her eyes. Calmly, she laid her hands on the console and began tapping buttons at a furious speed. "Deceleration commencing. Separation imminent," she told the bridge crew mechanically.

She positioned herself at a perfectly calculated angle so no one on the bridge could see her hands, which immediately quickened to a superhuman pace. The calculations she performed in her head were mind-boggling to a human. She relied on herself to perform them - it would be quicker than her moving to type them in. Besides, her hands were busy at the moment.

She took control. Gently easing each of the eighteen docking latches down simultaneously, she quickly adapted to how each section moved. Both vehicles suddenly behaved quite differently, at least from a flight dynamics point of view. The deceleration was almost complete. The saucer section, not having warp capabilities began slowing even quicker, and Janice quickly compensated to have the Battle section match it's velocity. She didn't want the saucer section to be too unprotected when it appeared.

Finally, the procedure was over. Janice almost jumped - she was suddenly filled with the need to revert back to normal, emotions and all. She blinked rapidly, the world fading out for a moment, then she was back. She focused back on the situation. The lights were blaring, sirens going off in her ears. People were calling in reports from every station.

"Saucer separation complete!" she called, a bit shakily, ignoring the other reports.

She turned back to the console, her back to the rest of the bridge. She quickly returned control of the saucer section to the Main Bridge, as well as the Battle section control back to Donucci. Closing her eyes for a moment, she took the time to ease the shaking in her hands. That she could separate her android side from her 'human' side as easily as the USS Grail separated from it's saucer section... it scared her.

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Lt. Comm Janice Hargen