Suzanna was studying the PADD in her hand as she stepped into the turbolift. She had spent the last two days researching data on the Romulans, and more particular their technology. She had come across a few interesting possibilities that she wanted to discuss with the Chief Engineer. And sickbay had confirmed that he was back on duty.

She turned the corner and walked into Engineering. It's been a long time since I was here, she thought. During those first few weeks on board she had almost spent more time in Engineering than she had in the Science labs. She found Robin in his office, "Good morning Commander, I trust you are feeling better."

"Aye, what brings you down here?" he asked.

A small smile was visible in her eyes, "I had forgotten what the warp core looked liked actually. And while I refreshed my memory I would like to discuss some ideas about detecting Romulan technology. If you have the time that is."
Robin gestured to a chair and she sat down. "My research shows a number of possibilities, besides the standard Tachyon sweep. But you know more about cloaking devices. I have found some references to the use of antiprotons, en Tetryon emissions."

Robin sat and pondered for a minute. "Actually I dinna kane a that muckle aboot cloaking devices. They wir only introduced recently and are still mare o a turn on, turn aff thing. A that I kane about them is that they emit a field that allows light tae pass straight through and that a faster thin light particle can distort the field. Antiprotons probably wouldn't work as they hiv practically the same properties as normal protons. Noo as for tetryon emissions, I heard that they wir for scannin wi, bit as for detecting cloaks," He stopped for a minute to mull it over "it may be possible. When we finally do get Tetryon emissions under our thumbs though that will probably definitely be one of the things we'll be able to do." He stopped and thought about for a bit longer; this was definitely something he'd be looking into.

Suzanna thought about his words, "The reference I found was in a science database, that, in this dimension, the Jem'Hadar used antiprotons to detect a ship that hat a cloaking device of Romulan origin. There was no further information as to the how it exactly worked though." She looked at her PADD for a moment. "Similarly a I found a reference suggesting that a cloaked Romulan ship emits Tetryon particles."

Robin took a moment. This was news to him and he wasn't quite sure what he could say about it. He thought again. "I hadn't heard of that one. Could be dangerous though, putting so much anti-matter into space. Although would anti-protons could as matter. And as for the transmitting Tetryon particles bit, I'm surprised." he said with a puzzled look on his face. Then it hardened. "If a Romulan cloak produces Tetryons then I wonder whether ours does. A phaser can be pointed in two directions you know." he said, feeling proverbial all of a sudden. "We should carry out tests, you check on the anti-protons and I'll check on the Tetryons. Now one final thing," he said as he passed her a PADD that he had on his desk "What do you think of this?"

Suzanna took the PADD and nodded. "It was news to me too. And you are correct, if their cloaking devices emit Tetryons, so could ours." She studied the PADD he had just given her and raised an eyebrow in surprise. "That is quite a theory, Robin, and if it works," she searched for the right word for a moment, "one hell of weapon. Would it work? I always maintain everything fits, otherwise we will make it fit. I would like to study it more closely, if that's OK with you."

"Go ahead. Suz," Robin replied, "just keep me informed."

"Will do, thank you, Commander."

"Robin.. I am called Robin! And I expect to see you in Ten-forward too tonight."

"Noted, Commander." A mischievous smile crossed her face for a moment before she returned to the science lab.

Suzanna walked into her office with the PADD that LtCmdr Sutherland had given her in her hand. His idea was ingenious, a unique theory. It would take quite a bit of research into the theory to find out if it could really work, not to mention the ability to then put this theory of his into practice. Someone once said to her that ‘everything that the mind can conceive and believe, man can achieve’. It was where her own philosophy of ‘everything fits otherwise we will make it fit’ came from. Yet sometimes things were just not always practical or knowledge and technology had not reached their point of readiness yet.

But first things first, they had to be ready if and when they would run into the Romulans. She tapped her comm badge, “Blokpoel to Ensign Nemesian, please report to the science lab”
“Acknowledge. I am on my way” came the reply. Suzanna put the PADD down and downloaded the information into the console on her desk, and set up some information searches through the science database.
A few minutes later, her assistant walked into the office, Suzanna looked up from her console. “Mr Nemesian. In preparation for what may await us, I would like you to liase with Stellar Cartography and ensure that we take as many reading as possible of all the star systems we are passing on our way to the Starbase. We need to make sure that our maps are as up to date and detailed as possible, just in case we do run into trouble.”
“Aye sir”
“Also, Mr Nemesian, I was wondering, have you had any further thoughts or ideas on improving our ability to detect the cloaked Romulan ships?”

What ensued was a two-hour discussion on technology, anomalies and particle tracking. Most stimulating, Suzanna thought once Nemesian had left and she started to work on her report.

The theoretical research into the detection of cloaked Romulan vessels has produced a number of possibilities besides the standard Tachyon sweep.
Records have found the following possibilities, the first was that a cloaked vessel at warp speed radiates a slight subspace variance that sometimes can be detected. The references found were fairly old and reported limited success. Another possibility was that Chroniton particles are normally emitted in small quantities through the normal operation of Romulan cloaking devices. A Chroniton is a sub atomic particle that transmits temporal quanta. The quantities of particles emitted may be too small to be detected at long range, but on the short range it should have an effect. The third possibility was that Tetryon particles have also been reported in the near presence of cloaked vessels. Tetryons are subatomic particles that can only exist in subspace. They are unstable in normal space. The decay of Tetryon particles results in Tetryon radiation. Depending on the levels of particles or radiation detected this can either be a subspace rift (high levels) or a cloaked vessel (low levels). Final possibility was that what she had seen in the reports regarding antiproton beams. Antiprotons are subatomic particles of antimatter, which are identical to a proton but have opposite electrical charge and spin. The references found indicated limited success with the antiproton beams. The other thing she included in her report was that she had found references that the shield strength could in theory be increased by a factor up to 10 if the shields are remodulated to emit a Beta Tachyon pulse and then to emit a anti proton beam into the shield bubble. Appropriate sensor pallets have been installed, including the four extra ones prepared by Ensign Nemesian.

With only two days to go until they reached Starbase 202, tension overall had been building. She checked her chrono, she was supposed to be in Ten-forward tonight, and it was almost time. First she needed to check her messages. Suzanna tapped on the console and noticed the Starfleet Academy message, quickly she opened it, and she was expecting the results of the course she had been taking. A small smile crept onto her features when she read it, 98%. Her hard work had paid off, and she allowed a sense of satisfaction and pride to surface for a moment before her Vulcan half suppressed it.