A voice over the intercom in his quarters  roused Ensign Varyn K’lev from what had – until the rude awakening – been a rather pleasant dream.  “Ensign K’lev, please report to briefing room Kilo-7.  Ensign K’lev to briefing room Kilo-7.”

”On my way,” he grumbled, not quite caring if the speaker heard him or not.  K’lev rolled out of bed, stretching as he crossed to his closet to get dressed; if he was being paged in the middle of his night, well, it probably wasn’t by someone wanting to go out for drinks, so he’d probably be reprimanded for not at least trying to be in uniform.  Dressing swiftly, but not exactly snappily, in the first uniform that came to hand, he called “Double espresso,” in the vague direction of his replicator, then grabbed and chugged the drink before lacing up his boots and heading for the door.

Entering the turbolift, he gave the computer his destination, then yawned and looked down at himself.  He was in quite a disheveled state: his tunic open, combadge askew, and undershirt untucked.  K’lev sighed, then started trying to pull himself together a little, though he did leave his tunic partially open, a small act of revenge for the abrupt wake-up.

As he finished, the lift stopped, and the doors opened; another figure entered, a female Trill, wearing the insignia of a midshipman and carrying a gym towel over her shoulder.  The two exchanged nods in greeting, then the new entrant instructed the lift to the same room; K’lev looked over curiously.  “You got called too?” he asked.

She nodded.  “Yup.”  The Trill looked him over, then stuck out a hand.  “Midshipman Ophelia Lotharys,” she said by way of introduction.

“Ensign Varyn K’lev,” he replied as he shook the proffered hand.  “What do you think they want us for?”  It had better be good, whatever it is, he thought to himself.

”No idea,” she answered with a tinge of anxiety.

K’lev nodded his agreement, both to the sentiment and to the nerves, but the lift’s swift arrival forestalled any reply.  The duo stepped out, crossing quickly to the briefing room; K’lev hit the chime, and the doors swished open to admit them.

The room was already occupied.  Seated around the table were a human midshipman, a Tellarite senior cadet, a Ferengi sophomore cadet, and two freshman cadets, one a Cardassian and the other an Andorian.  Lieutenant Faras stood at the head of the table; when K’lev and Lothal entered, he motioned for them to take seats.

“Now that you’re all here,” he began, activating a viewscreen on the wall, “we’ve received word from Starbase 86 that one of the nearby new colony worlds, Theral 4, needs assistance.  They say that their power grid is fluctuating and they’re having trouble finding the problem, and there are concerns about issues at their water distillation plant possibly making colonists ill.  Starbase 86’s crews are busy, so they asked for us to send them a team; that’s where you all come in.  Ensign K’lev, as ranking officer you’ll be in charge; get things taken care of on Theral 4, then you and your team report to Starbase 86 for further orders.  I’ve transferred the relevant data to your PADDs, and we’re prepping a shuttle to take you there; a shuttle from Starbase 86 will meet you there, and take you on when you’re done.  Good luck.”

The group stood and saluted, before being dismissed by Lieutenant Faras.  They trooped out, back to the turbolift and to their assigned shuttlebay; the group was largely silent, all reading the mission dossiers on their PADDs.  Their contemplation lasted until the shuttle had left Starbase Bravo and gone to warp; as excited and nervous young personnel are wont to do, in short order introductions had been shared, and with the ice broken conversation and gossip naturally followed as they got to know each other.

A few days later (at high warp), the shuttle touched down at Theral 4’s capital, the seaside settlement of C’thil, and the crew went to work; Ensign K’lev led the engineering team personally, and assigned Midshipman Lotharys, whose specialization was the sciences, to lead the scientific and medical team.  The power grid proved easy to stabilize, after replacement components were fabricated; several conduits had partially ruptured in a cramped and difficult-to-find area, but Senior Cadet Pelix proved incredibly agile, deftly slipping in and replacing the damaged connections with replacements of his own design that were actually more efficient than the conduits they replaced, resulting in an increase in energy efficiency for the settlement.

The water purification plant, however, was proving to be the bigger challenge.  When K’lev and his engineering team joined Lotharys’s science/medical team at their work area in the colony’s hospital, the midshipman looked up.  “How’re things going here?” Ensign K’lev asked.

“It could be better,” Lotharys responded, nodding towards Hilava, the Ferengi sophomore cadet, who continued.  “Whatever’s going on doesn’t appear to be bacterial or viral, and the plant manager says that their biofilters aren’t picking up anything out of the ordinary.”  She sighed, nodding towards the row of cots in the outer room, several filled with sick colonists.  “Something’s making these people sick, though, and I’ll bet it’s in that plant.”

K’lev nodded.  “Then we need to get in and look around.  Ophelia, Pelix, and Teles, why don’t you all come with me.  Ari,” he turns to the human midshipman, standing nearby, “you keep an eye on things here with Hilava and Tyrisa.  Do what you all can for these people while we’re gone, and hopefully we’ll come back with answers.”

Everyone nodded, though it sounded like Pelix may have muttered something under his breath about “having to bail everyone out again…”, then K’lev led his group to the purification plant.

The plant manager proved difficult at first, adamant that his plant could not possibly be the source of the problem, but Teles, studying to be a counselor as he was, was able to reassure the manager that the team was not looking for blame but to help; so mollified, the plant manager let them in.  Using her science team’s data, Ophelia was able to identify the same odd readings found in the suffering colonists in one of the plant’s recently-replaced filters.  K’lev and Pelix examined the filter, and determined that the source of the problem was a fabrication issue: the filter was of a new design and made of a different set of materials, which were having an unforeseen reaction with elements in the water.

Thus aware, Ophelia and Teles took the data back to the hospital and synthesized a counter-agent that successfully treated the sick, while K’lev and Pelix replaced the filters with a traditional set and collaborated with the plant’s staff on starting to design a version of the new filter that would not have the same unforeseen effects.  With the situation on Theral 4 stabilized and the colony’s condition much improved, the seven boarded the shuttle to Starbase 86, ready for their next assignment.