"Back in sync" by Lieutenant jg T'Kang Chief Tactical Officer - USS Tempest The battle with the Spectre Class fighters had ended. The Tempest had come out victorious, but T'Kang was not at all pleased with his performance during the battle. Though Captain Lee had reassured the entire bridge crew they had performed their duty admirably before he left the Bridge to Cowan, T'Kang knew how miserably he had handled Tactical. When Cowan ordered the senior staff to take a break from the bridge, the burly Klingon wasn't going to argue. Cadet Borns was called up to man Tactical as a brooding Chief Tactical officer cleared the bridge in silence. The turbolift ride went unnoticed. The other officers exited on various decks while T'Kang pouted and pondered over the last battle in his mind. The tactical weaponry and targeting sensors of the Excelsior class Tempest were not designed to combat ships like the Spectre Class in close proximity. It made the job of defending the ship nearly impossible. The other major disadvantage in the skirmish that had severely handicapped the Tactical situation and options available for the attack was the Tempest's own fighters. It was nearly impossible to determine which Spectre Class fighters were friendly and which ones were the enemy as they dove and banked around the starship. T'Kang felt this added a tremendous amount of stress to the situation, since every time he fired the ship's phasers he didn't know for certain who it was he was targeting. They had been lucky this day. No one was killed because of friendly fire. But there was no telling what tomorrow's battle would bring. Some definitive way had to be devised to differentiate the Confederation's Spectre Class fighters from the enemy. And it had to be done quickly. T'Kang pondered over his thoughts and fears without concern for the time his break was taking. He sat in ten forward, alone, gazing out the observation window with his thoughts on the problem. The Chief Tactical officer's prior assignment had been as Senior Engineer on board the USS Intrepid, so the Klingon was not unfamiliar with what could be done mechanically to the fighters to help the ship's targeting sensors recognize them more readily. Before he knew it, over an hour had past. Chugging down his synthalcohol bloodwine, the Klingon returned to the Bridge to resume his duty shift. T'Kang walked over to a smiling Ensign Borns. Cowan had taken the liberty of presenting the Cadet with his full gold pip. The Chief Tactical Officer's evaluation of the fine officer had no doubt contributed to commands approval of the excellent young officer. "I see you have been promoted. Congratulations Ensign Borns." "Thank you sir." Borns smiled widely. "I will resume my post now Ensign." T'Kang said gruffly. "Oh, yes, of course." Borns said deactivating his access codes and standing aside from Tactical. With the excitement of his new promotion, Borns didn't even notice T'Kang had taken an extended break. The Klingon watched as Borns exited the bridge. He then set a scowl onto his face and began reviewing the tactical recordings of the recent battle with the enemy Spectre Class fighters. Cowan couldn't help but notice the Klingon was in an even darker mood then when he left to take a break an hour earlier. Standing he walked over to Tactical and stood within ear shot of the brooding Klingon Lieutenant. "You know, the purpose of taking a break from your station is to relax Lieutenant. . ." Cowan began, "You seem to have returned even more tense then when you left. You can stand down now T'Kang. The battle is over. We are presently cruising along at warp 8 following the alien warp trail." T'Kang looked up at Cowan. "Sorry sir. I have been going over the last battle in my head." "Ah. That was your first mistake T'Kang." Cowan nodded, "When you take a break, it usually helps if you think of something else *other* than what you were just working on." he smirked. "That is more difficult then it sounds." T'Kang grumbled. "The thing is sir, our weapons systems are not designed for this type of close quarters combat. And having the enemy using the exact same class of fighters as our own makes it extremely difficult to tell which fighters are ours and which ones are the enemy." With an understanding nod, Cowan agreed. "I see. Yes, that would make the situation that much more difficult and stressful. You never know exactly who you are firing upon." "Precisely sir. It was as though I had to hold my breath with every shot we fired, hoping it wasn't one of our own crew members I was about to destroy." T'Kang paused, realizing he sounded as if he were complaining like a DuSaQ be'Hom. "I'm sorry sir. I don't mean to make excuses." "No Lieutenant, you've brought up a very valid point. If we can come up with a way to distinctly identify our own fighters to help our targeting sensors tell them apart from the enemy's, it should go a long way towards tipping the odds back into the Tempest's favor." Cowan said optimistically. "I think Engineering should hear about this. There is likely something they can do to our fighters to help in that regard." "I was thinking either a coded id transmitter of some type, or possibly adding unique alloy plates or coatings to the exterior hull of the fighters. Something that we could tune the targeting sensors to pick up on easily. Then any Spectre Class fighters that gets locked on by the targeting sensors that do not exhibit that unique signature would definitely belong to the enemy and we would know it is safe to fire." "Excellent idea Lieutenant. Let's find out what our Engineers can come up with." Cowan agreed walking back to the command well to hail Engineering of the service needed. <>