Suzanna walked fast through the corridor, there had been plenty of questions for Captain Hawke in the meeting but he'd had answers to few. This had been a great surprise for many people and basically, the Federation was now at war wtih the Romulan Star Empire. The Cortez was five days away from Starbase 202 at maximum warp and the ship would be at high alert the entire time. Battle drills would be conducted and Suzanna was on her way to an emergency meeting that she had called with her team leaders. There was a lot of work to do. Adapting sensor pallets, from scientific to moer war related functions. A number of the pallets could be serviced from inside the ship and those would be dealt with. Life signs, bio signatures, tachyon sweeps, vessel detection, those type of actions would be carried out the most. Besides of that, there was the preparation of the labs. War meant that the ship was likely to see action and that would mena that the ship would shudder, shake and rock about as it took fire. Experiments would need to be rescheduled, equipment would need to be secured and protected, the bacteriology lab would need to be closed temporarily. It would be far too dangerous to continue to work there in such uncertain circumstances with a high chance of unexpected ship movements.

Besides of that, Suzanna wanted to make sure that her team was prepared, weapons ready and able to render first aid if need be. And she herself wanted to read up on the Romulans of this dimension. See what information was available so that she could refine her sensor sweeps and support of the ship better, and compare it to the Romulans of her dimension. At home, they were a mysterious race, related to the Vulcans but very introvert, they did not move out of their Empire much, there was much secrecy and little was known about them and their technology.

There had also been some positive news at the meeting, Jon Neillya had been assigned as the new Executive Officer, as soon as they would arrive at Starbase 202 a new tactical officer would arrive and help out, but until then, Jon would have to multitask. Nia Jones had requested a Leave of Absence and she had left the Cortez when they had met up with a transport ship several hours ago, before this message and new orders had come in. Captain Hawke would never have approved her departure from the ship had he known. Suzanna found the thoughts of war and imminent battle unsettling, she was a scientist and an explorer, not a soldier. Yet at the same time, she had known and accepted that this was a possibility that could happen. her mother's words spoken nearly ten years ago when Suzanna had announced her intention to attend Starfleet Academy, now rang in her ears again.

((To be continued))