"Doodling with ideas"
 by Lieutenant jg T'Kang
 Chief Tactical Officer - USS Tempest


T'Kang's duty rotation was finally over.  It had been a long 
double shift.  Between the battle with the Spectre Class 
fighters and the extended trip following the warp trail, the 
rugged Klingon was ready for a much need break.

Newly promoted Ensign Soran relieved T'Kang at tactical.  
He was still smiling over his upgrade in rank and seemed to 
look forward to taking the controls as the Klingon punched 
out of the system.  "She's all yours Ensign.  Have a good 
duty shift."  T'Kang nodded.

"Thank you sir.  I will."  Soran smiled.

T'Kang walked into the turbolift, turning his large frame 
around before calling out "Deck ten."  It was obvious the 
lounge was his destination.

The lift ride went rather quickly.  T'Kang thought Cowan was 
receptive of his idea to somehow mark the Tempest's 
fighters in some way to make it easier for the ship's targeting 
sensors to identify them during a battle with other similar 
fighters.  With any luck Engineering would come up with a 
plan that could be implemented before the next conflict.  
T'Kang could think of nothing worse in his recent career than 
what he'd just experienced on the Bridge.  Firing the 
Tempest's weapons and not knowing if it was the enemy or 
his own crew members he was aiming at; It was very 
disturbing.

T'Kang walked into Ten Forward which was busy at this time 
of day as the change of shifts commenced.  Working his 
bear-like frame through the crowd, the Klingon made it to the 
bar and ordered a bloodwine.  A minute later he took his 
drink, a stack of napkins and headed to a booth in the corner 
of the lounge.    Taking a large gulp of his beverage, T'Kang 
placed it down and began doodling on the napkins.  He 
roughly sketched out the hull of a Spectre Class fighter, then 
stared at it for a long time while savoring his drink.

*How can we uniquely identify these fighters to give us a 
targeting advantage over our enemies?*  he wondered.  
Taking his pencil, T'Kang began drawing some small plates 
at various points on the fuselage.  He thought that they might 
be able to attach thin sheets of some unique alloy there that 
sensors could easily detect.  But he soon crossed out those 
sketches, since if it was easy to detect, then their enemies 
could likewise scan for the metal and use it to their 
advantage.    Grabbing another napkin, T'Kang drew another 
Spectre Class fighter, only to discard that one as well.   
Inside an hour, over a dozen napkins littered his table with 
various sketches and ideas, but still the Chief Tactical Officer 
was no closer to finding the ideal solution to the problem.

"Looks like you've been busy there Lieutenant."

T'Kang looked up at the Ten Forward hostess.  "Yes.  I 
have."  the Klingon grunted in a tone that was so lacking in 
manners it was actually charming.

"Did you want me to clean these up? or are you still using 
them?"

"No.  I'll take care of these."  T'Kang waved her away, then, 
realizing he was being rude, pointed to his mug, "You can 
bring more bloodwine though."

"Coming right up Lieutenant." the hostess smiled and walked 
away.

A few minutes later she returned with a pitcher, filling the 
Klingon's glass.   Just as she finished T'Kang could sense 
that she paused, as if she saw something that shocked her.  
Instinctively T'Kang glanced up and realized what it was she 
was looking at.   Outside the Observation windows at the 
fore section of the Tempest, the Starship USS Avalon 
loomed in the distance as they approached.   Her hull was 
battered and beaten.  Dark scorch marks and hull ruptures 
littered her sleek body.  Small plasma discharges could be 
seen sparking out from various exposed ODN conduits in the 
darkness of space.   Before long the entire crowd in Ten 
Forward dropped of their after duty chit-chat and fell to 
silence at seeing one of their own starships so badly banged 
up.  It made everyone wonder what had happened to the 
Avalon, and who could have done this.