Cheerleaders, Cheerleaders; Ra, Ra, Ra. "
By: Krystal, Pixie Hologram , [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1555

==Computer Core==

"It's all a matter of robbin' Peter to pay Paul..." Maxine instructed as she planted her rear back into her chair and buckled herself in.

"Who's Peter and who's Paul?" Krystal asked. "Are they in Engineering?" A frustrated frown marred the little hologram's brow when she couldn't access the computer to look up the data.

"No, not Engineering," Max glanced over at the pacing pixie as she worked on shutting down some of the non-essential systems, hopefully giving Silvio the power he was demanding for the weapons. "It's an old Terran saying. It means taking parts from one thing and using them to fix something else," she explained.

"But then you have something that's broken," the pixie pointed out.

"Not broken. Just temporarily non operational. In our case it's taking power from places it isn't needed at th' moment and putting it some place where it is," Max continued to explain around the isolinear chip in her mouth.

"So where are you stealing the power from now?" This whole idea seemed to fascinate the little pixie and she perched on the computer display and watched with rapt attention.

"Not stealing. Borrowing," Max clarified.

"That's semantics because you didn't ask," Krystal pointed out.

"That's because I don't 'ave to," Max informed her. "Sonic showers."

"Sonic, what?"

"Showers. The Sonic showers in the Freshers are temporarily unavailable. See?" Max pointed to the graphical display and the little pixie's wingtips fluttered to keep her balance as she nearly lost her perch when she tried to get a better look from her vantage point.

"What if someone's in the shower?" Krystal asked curiously.

The ship rocked when it was fired upon by the Steamrunner's phasers and the little pixie started to tumble, catching herself with a flutter of wings.

"We're in th' middle of a battle, Pixie. If there's anyone in a shower it's time for them to get th' bloody 'ell out." Max snorted softly as she shifted her center of gravity to compensate for the rocking ship..

"Oh right... What are you taking power from now?"

"Replicators in th' personnel quarters..." Max spoke almost distractedly now as she rerouted some of the grid around the damaged conduits in decks 2, 3 and 4. "We've got a hull breech on 5..." she mused.

The Zion rocked as two torpedoes fired by the USS Rockwell detonated off the port shield.

"Crikey.." Max braced her feet to keep her own balance even though she was strapped in.

"Are we going to die?" Krystal blinked huge blue eyes at Max and fluttered over to cling in her hair.

Maxine chewed on her chip for a moment before answering. "Nah. Not today, Pixie." They both continued to hang on while the ship made a hard turn to port. "Th' computer is behaving beautifully and we're probably kickin' their butts," she grinned. At least she hoped they were kicking something.

"Yay!!! Go Zion, Go!!" The little pixie fluttered out of Max's hair as she gave a cheer, fluttering back to the top of the display only now she had a pair of pompoms in her hands and her hair was up in pigtails. "Ra, Ra, Ra."

The ship shuddered hard.

"Whoa!" Krystal fluttered in place, stopping mid-cheer. "Are you sure we're not going to die? I don't want to die, Maxie. What are you doing now?"

"Yup. Captain Hunter's good at what he does," Maxine reminded her. "And th' computer's marvelous. I'm putting th' unused 'olodecks in standby mode and making th' power available where it's needed. I'm pulling some of th' power from th' unused computer systems and putting it in th' same pool. Shutting things down that aren't being used like th' game room and th' gym, and letting that power be used by other things like Sickbay and th' shields and weapons,"

"OH Yeah! I should go check on Cappy," she announced and preened her wings in preparation.

"You can't. He doesn't have the right equipment," Max tapped one of her holoemitters. "And I wouldn't call him 'Cappy' to his face."

"Oh, right... We should get him one," Krystal nodded decisively. "Can I go back to the computer now? I can do all that stuff faster than you."

"Not by much you can't," Max tapped her neural interface. "And what *are* those?" She pointed to the pompoms.

"Pompoms."

"Pompoms?"

"For Cheerleading."

"Cheerleading?"

"I'm Capt'n Hunters official Pixie Cheerleader," Krystal announced. "Go Captain, Go!" she did a little cheerleader routine as she shook and waved the pompoms, and wiggled her butt.

Max blinked. Good gods.... "Uh... Does he know?"

"Not yet," the little pixie preened. "It's a surprise."

"I hope he likes surprises...." Max muttered