[Lt. Black's quarters]

Kitty Black's fingers twitched slightly as she slept, smiling slightly.Inside the safe place in her mind, she was playing cello as part of asymphony orchestra. Her fingers twitched again as the hauntinglybeautiful cello solo swept through her mind. The crowd was applauding,she heard calls of "Encore"... but then something sounded wrongunderneath her... the boat had stalled, they were in trouble, theshark-infested waters...

She blinked and snapped awake, sitting up in bed and looking around.The room sounded different.. quieter. A certain vibration in the floorhad changed. The undertones were different in the low hum of the ship'soperation. She would bet money that they'd just dropped out of warp.She glanced at the window and noticed that the stars were no longerstreaking by.

Kitty yawned and rose, stretching, then padded over to her closet andpulled out her spare uniform. She dressed and started combing her hair.As she reached for a hair elastic, she heard the engines kick back intowarp. She smiled and hurried over to the window, comb in one hand, toraptly watch the stars begin to turn rainbowy. Then she startled awayfrom her enjoyment of the scene and shrieked slightly as the yellowalert sounded. She glanced from side to side for a moment, secretlyglad that nobody had seen or heard her little moment of... 'surprise'.Then she pulled the elastic over her slender wrist and headed forEngineering.

[Main Engineering]

A couple of night-watch engineers gave their chief a second glance asshe strode into Engineering, her long, black hair swinging slightlyside-to-side behind her. She reached in back as she sat at her station,reading up on events as she absent-mindedly braided her hair and put inthe elastic. "Looks like we've got a real situation this time," sheremarked quietly to herself. Then she spoke up. "Alright, guys, let'sstep it up, I should have had the next diagnostic run on my station bynow." The engineers scurried as they picked up the pace.

Pretty rainbowy post by:

Lt. j.g. Kathleen Black Chief Engineer