Briefing

Posted on Thu Jul 9, 2015 @ 9:08pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Samantha Raylen & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

4,577 words; about a 23 minute read

Mission: All this has happened before...
Location: Observation Lounge

ON:

AJ stepped out of the turbolift and walked onto the darkened bridge. Looking from station to station, he could see that everyone was awake but slightly sluggish due to having been awake for the better part of a day. Walking over to the Tactical Station, he tapped his Leading Chief Petty Officer on the shoulder. Peter 'Buffer' Tomaszewski was a rather large and imposing man who was one of the best at his craft. He had served during the Dominion War and gone toe to toe with a few Jem Hadar. Now he was on the fast track to becoming the Command Master Chief for the Joint Counter terrorism Task Force and he had only come aboard Victory as a personal favor to AJ.

"You going to be all right here for an hour longer, Buffer? There's a staff meeting that we probably need to get to. " AJ asked him.

Buffer chuckled quietly. "Only if you buy me a round when this is all over." he joked.

AJ did a mental tally. Thus far, he owed Pete about twenty rounds of Aldebaran Whiskey- AJ made a note to just buy him a case of the stuff when they got back to Spacedock. "You got it, Buff. Thanks. Anything to worry about?"

Buffer pulled up a screen on AJ's end of the console. "So here's the Bethesda at 2300 last night-" Buffer tapped away again. "-And here's the Bethesda at 0600 this morning. Notice anything different?"

AJ looked at both sensor images for a moment. There appeared to be moving orange heat blooms from the later image- they also appeared to be getting bigger. "Buffer, transfer those to my PADD, the Captain needs to know about this." Turning around, he walked into the conference room and sent the images from his PADD to the viewscreen to show the staff during the meeting.

A large set up from the galley rested in the center of the conference table. Coffee, tea, fruit juice, and water in carafe's along with a few smaller trays holding fresh fruit, bagels, cream cheese. The Captain was present, and in the process of fixing herself a large mug of coffee. Turning towards the sound of the opening door, she smiled at the new arrival and said, "Mr. Taggart, help yourself while we wait for the others." With a nod of her head towards the provided drinks and food.

AJ hadn't noticed the spread or the Captain in the time that he had rushed in to display the images on the viewscreeen. Politely nodding to the Captain, AJ made his way over to a seat and gingerly picked up a danish from one of the neatly arranged platters. Plopping down, he took a bite and chewed thoughtfully.

Alec had made sure the briefing notice had gone out and then headed to the briefing room. Arriving, he saw Rhea and Taggart already there. "Captain," he greeted pleasantly. "Mr. Taggart," he said politely. As he found a chair and dropped into it.

Cradling her coffee mug in her hands, the Captain nodded and replied. "Commander..."

Alec saw the coffee mug in Rhea's hands and while he didn't want coffee, water or fruit juice sounded alright. Pushing himself out of the chair and feeling more tired than he should, he carefully navigated his way over to the center of the conference table and grabbed a bottle of water. Then deciding that here wasn't a bad place to sit, plopped into the nearest vacant chair.

Blackburn entered with a PADD in her hand. She wasn't too happy thus far with this mission. She felt she was being kept on a need to know basis which literally rendered her useless to the Captain and XO. She simply nodded as she entered. "Captain, Commander." She glanced at Taggert. *Asshole,* she mentally acknowledged before speaking to him. "Mr. Taggart."

AJ clenched his teeth and gripped his cup slightly tighter as Nina greeted him. He didn't appreciate the venom or the saccharine sweetness in her voice. "Miss Blackburn." he replied begrudgingly, attempting to keep his tone civil.

Nicole walked in with Evans by her side. She nodding approvingly at the assortment on the table and plucked an apple out of the fruit pile, sitting down next to AJ. "Morning," she said evenly to everyone, not meeting the XO's eyes.

Cassandra walked in a minute later, sitting down quietly and sitting back, crossing her legs. "Good morning everyone," she said kindly.

Alec heard Blackburn come in He raised his head which felt like it weighed two tons at the greeting. "Lt. Blackburn." he replied. Next he heard Nicole walk in with Evans. Forcing himself to sit upright, he turned his head to look at her and found that she wouldn't meet his eyes. He sighed inaudibly at her actions. But replied anyways, "Morning Doctor, Mr. Evans." Next was the Counselor. Trying to maintain the same posture he had with Nicole and not let Cass know how bad he felt, though he suspected she knew. He replied, "Morning Counselor."

"Good morning, Commander," Cass said. She looked him over, glanced at Nicole who was examining an apple with rapt attention, then looked back at him. "Commander, are you a fan of steak and eggs? Breakfast of champions, so they say."

Alec considered Cass's question. Not that there was a lot to consider, either you liked steak and eggs for breakfast or you didn't. However he felt the counselor deserved more than a yes or no answer. She had done a lot for him recently. So faking some enthusiasm he replied. " So I have heard it said." He answered and continued, "I would say I am Counselor, lots of protein and no sugar."

Penny bounced into the lounge and almost twirled to an empty seat. "Aloha," she said to all of them, waving.

Cass and Nicole exchanged a quick glance and Cassandra pulled a padd out of her handbag, beginning to make notes. She pointed a finger at the plate of bagels having one slide over and subtly passed her hand over it, picking up the now lox and cream cheese-covered bagel and taking a bite, chewing thoughtfully She thought of her best friend, always rushing to morning briefings with a bowl of something in her hand and she felt a brief pang of homesickness. She briefly wondered how near the Castel was.

"Beep beep, Penny," Cass said quietly. Inwardly she was glad to see Penny as her usual exuberant self, but perhaps a confined briefing room wasn't the time or place.

Her eyes scanned the room quickly. They were almost all assembled, but her eyes rested on Nina. She didn't like the look on the other woman's face and made a mental note to check up on her later.

Yarin walked into the conference room, quietly examined the various edibles before settling on a compressed wheat disc topped with white fermented cheese and fish strips. He sat down in his seat and began to eat.

Nina's mood lifted at seeing Yarin enter. She made a mental note of disgust at seeing what he was eating however.

Aiden walked in a small smile playing at his lips. He had about a day's worth of stubble on his face, which on another man, may just have been heavy five o'clock shadow. His eyes were slightly bloodshot as he hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night, but he wasn't too concerned about that. He thought the night had passed rather pleasantly.

He saw Chris out of the corner of his eyes, but didn't really look at him. He didn't want to draw attention to himself, or Chris. He didn't want others to be asking questions about them. He found a cup of an amber colored juice, he detested coffee, and a large helping of the fruit, and two of the lox and bagels. He'd used up a lot of energy the night before and was famished. Famished and immensely curious about what was going on.

Miguel walked into the briefing room, half the staff still looked as if they were waking up. That was one good thing about early morning workouts is that he was already wide awake by the time everyone else was just getting out of bed. Of course the added endurance didn't hurt when it came to some of those late nights he liked to put in. "Good morning everyone."

Tom, holding a half-full mug of coffee (most of it consumed in the last three minutes), entered the briefing room. He wasn't surprised to find it mostly full, especially since Tom had to take a detour to check in on a couple departments at the start of the shift. The surprise was actually the assorted foodstuffs on the center of the table. Normally, he didn't frequent these meetings, but after recent events, he knew he'd have to keep the ship's rumor mill under control. "G'morning!" he said with a nod before picking up a bagel and sitting beside Penny.

Taking her seat, cup of coffee in hand (in defiance of both her XO and her CMO's opinion of her coffee intake), the Captain said "Good morning. I'm glad to see everyone here on time. Lets get to business shall we? How about we start out with department reports. Who wants to go first?"

"Tensions are still running a bit high among the crew," Cassandra piped up. "A lot of people are hesitant to think we've escaped the Bethesda's fate. My docket's been somewhat full lately, but I'm making time. For most of the crew I'm suggesting more focus on recreational group activities. Focusing on how good others are faring will help avoid them worrying about themselves. Now is when people notice that little patch of dry skin they'd overlooked, or take an unexpected scrape the wrong way. I'm working to minimize that. A few of the more hypochondriac-prone have been frequenting my office quite a bit." She looked towards Nicole for confirmation.

Nicole sighed and nodded. "I've had several people coming in with psychosomatic symptoms. Ensign Goldwyn from Engineering in particular. He was in nine times in two days for "excessive thirst." I finally had to inform him he had inveterata stultitia and might have to forego having offspring."

She heard Penny giggle, Cassandra sigh and a couple others let out a small snort of laughter. She met the XO's eyes finally and saw his confused and curious expression. "Chronic stupidity," she clarified.

"Ahh. Thank you for the clarification Doctor." Alec answered smoothly. His eyes meeting hers.

The Captain was using a stylus to make notes on a data padd, "Keep an eye on those who seem to frequent sickbay more than normal. Our mission parameters are not meant for personnel with a tendency towards hypochondria. We are on the frontier. If there are some members of the crew who seem to be having difficulties with the responsibilities and stress of our mission then I need to know who they are, and possibly have them transferred out."

"Aye Captain," Nicole said. "I'll make sure their hypochondria is cured post-haste." She gave the Captain a wicked smile.

"And I'll make sure they aren't too traumatized by that experience either," Cassandra said, evenly. "However, Captain, the plain fact is that the crew is stressed. We have all been setting an example by going about our business as usual, but perhaps an extra moment to give a subordinate a little comfort would be in order."

"Cursory glances at a few of the crews skeletal structure have shown no ill effects, though to be more thorough I should take a closer look. What an interesting opportunity to study up on human physiology." Yarin said.

Nicole rolled her eyes. "I'll put you under my scanner next. I'm sure I'd find that far more fascinating."

"I do understand that the crew are stressed by recent events. That does not negate the need for optimal performance and focus on our current task. If anything, it only proves the need for diligence. We're trying to find out what happened to the crew of the Bethesda. The families of those who lost their lives deserve that much, to understand why their loved ones died. At the same time, we can't afford a mistake. The possible consequences are deadly," Kennit answered.

Cassandra inclined her head. "Aye, Captain. Everyone will be at the ready."

AJ listened intently as each of the other staff gave their reports. Taking careful notes, he was noticing a trend of members exhibiting symptoms including the one for excessive thirst. It could be hypochondria but it was also a border symptom of radiation sickness. AJ himself had been consuming more fluids than usual but he didn't think anything of it. Most crews on starships came back 'dosed' with some form of cosmic radiation- it came with the territory of zooming through the stars at warp speed.

Sighing slightly, AJ delivered his report. "Security and Tactical is operating at reduced efficiency, 7 of my people have been in and out of sickbay with radiation related illnesses and it's taking everything I have, short of issuing formal reprimands or throwing them in the brig to get them back on duty again. However, there is something more urgent that I need to cover. " Standing up, he walked over to the viewscreen at the fore end of the conference room. "Computer, dim lights and run presentation index- Bethesda-Zeta-One. Primary view mode: Infrared"

As the lights dimmed, a wire frame holoprojection of the Bethesda appeared over the table. "This, as you all know is the USS Bethesda. The projection you're looking at is referenced as of 2300 last night. Notice that the ship appears cold with minor heat activity, likely from the radioactive corpses on the deck-" AJ made a rolling motion with his hand and advanced the time stamp. "- and this is the Bethesda as of 0600. Notice the heat blooms have grown and moved. I had Master Chief Tomaszewski run another scan for lifesigns and our sensors have picked up multiple signatures but they are muddled." Looking to address the rest of the staff, he leaned against the table "Was there any indication that there were any mutagens on board?"

That had caught Miguel's attention. Even though he hadn't gotten the chance to beam over he felt that the aftermath of the away team's trip to the Bethesda had ended way to easily. None of his own people were complaining about any of these symptoms that the others were reporting. He was wondering if that was because none of them had beamed over.

Aiden shook his head, "Not that I observed,"he said. "We can always go back and observer the data from our tricorders, but this all appears to be something new."

"Confirmed," Nicole said, eyeing the projection and turning a bit paler at the thought. "Every corpse I saw was a mummified husk. Nothing should be any semblance of 'alive' over there. Are we sure the lifesigns we're reading aren't residual radiation signatures from the bodies being misinterpreted by the sensors?"

The Captain meanwhile, was frowning thoughtfully. After a moment, she shifted position slightly in order to access the Victory's main computer using a data padd and entered a query. Then, "There was a notation in the ship's logs from the travels of the U.S.S. Voyager through the Delta Quadrant.. dated 51244.3.. Voyager encountered a race called the Srivani who were performing medical research and experiments on Voyager's crew. They considered themselves scientists and considered their techniques to be as benign as they could make them, justifying their actions and the deaths which their experiments caused as acceptable because their research benefited millions of their people, who lived longer and healthier lives as a result." The Captain looked at Taggart sharply, "Could we be dealing with another Srivani 'research' ship?"

AJ shook his head. "That was one of the first things I considered, so I had Crewman Frame run scans at every potential phase variance and we turned up nothing. We also ran a check to detect any of the signatures of the Srivani medical scanners and got the same results."

The Captain frowned, not liking this turn in events.

Miguel remained quiet, he really didn't know that much about Voyager's time here. He had read some of their logs, but he was only up to their second year in the Delta Quadrant so far. Just to much to do with the ship to read every single report on every species that Voyager had encountered back then.

"Did Medical find any signs of symbiont life forms that could have matured within the corpses?" Nina asked, finally speaking up.

"Nothing," Nicole said. "It's all in my report. If there was something there, it was either pre-formed or something our tricorders can't pick up. Absolutely nothing was animate when we were on that ship, except us." She glanced at Cass and then back at the Captain. "Captain, request permission to return to the Bethesda and verify with new readings. With the radiation levels down, we should be able to spend far more time on board without danger."

"We'd have to send you back with a shuttle," the Captain said - her tone of voice indicating she wasn't too keen on the idea. "We can't turn the ship around and head back, the more time that passes the less likely it is that we will determine the cause of what happened."

"All right, shuttle it is. And in that case, I'd like to take Lieutenant Naroot with me, as well as an Engineer and Security officer of Commander Torres' and Lieutenant Taggart's choosing, respectively," Nicole said. "If anything is animate, we'll blow it out an airlock. If not, we'll be able to confirm it relatively safely."

AJ held up a hand. "Hold up, Nicole- Doctor. I don't like the idea of taking a team back in there- the radiation levels may be down but we don't know if those things are hostile and we can't afford to take the risk of losing anyone." AJ cursed himself silently for his cowardice and his slip of the tongue. Heading back into that environment, even with the radiation levels down could very well be suicide if whatever was over there ended up being hostile or predatory.

"We don't even know if there are 'things' there," Nicole said. *Another bloody ghost story.* She sat forward and laced her fingers together. "And if there are, what if they're survivors? What if we can help them? We can't sit here and list things go south for them." She looked at the Captain. "Of course, if they are 'creatures' now, we can always just sit on our collective backsides until they learn how to operate the Bethesda's systems and move on." She left that idea hanging in the air and sat back.

"Penny and I can be ready in 10 minutes," she said. "We had the least reaction to radiation the first time, and we're both good at skulking about. We could be in and out if there's any trouble, and we can have Mister Barnes watching our signals the whole time."

"Well since I just got my other assistant, and things for the most part are as well as can be in engineering... I'll go." Miguel said though the moment he said it he almost regretted it. But something about that ship had made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and he needed to know what it was.

"You're all forgetting that I have not given the green-light for a return to the Bethesda. If there's an issue aboard, the crew aboard it's escort as it's being towed to SB900 can investigate.."

Suddenly something snapped within A J's mind. "Captain, we need to stop that ship now. Under no circumstances can we allow that ship to dock with Starbase 900." Stopping for a moment, he snapped his fingers and whispered a curse. Turning to the Captain, A J's voice dropped. "Ma'am, I don't think those people aboard the Bethesda are completely dead."

Evans listened closely. He didn't want to go back to the ship that almost killed him, but he would if duty called for it.

Aidan exchanged a quick glance at Chris, the his eyes cut to the Captain and A J. "Why?" he asked.

*Because guv-tvi-rivak me, that's why,* Nicole thought. "AJ," she said slowly, "those corpses are desiccated, mummified, husks. Forgive me for sounding indelicate, but they are now jerky. There is no way they could be animate."

Alec had been quiet through the entire debate of whether the crew of the Bethesda was somehow still alive. He shook his head slightly as the CMO made her comment about the crew being jerky. "I know the crew members I came across on the bridge and in the Captain's ready room, one being the Bethesda captain, there's no way they were even a teenie weenie bit alive."

"You're assuming that the natural laws are in effect there, "Aidan voiced, "we can't be guaranteed that."

"I'm a doctor, not a physicist," Nicole groused, looking at Aidan, "but as a doctor I am telling you, that crew's run down the curtain and joined the bloody choir invisible!" She looked at the Captain again. "For what it's worth however, I agree with Lieutenant Taggart. That ship cannot dock at the Starbase until we're sure it's been completely cleared of anything harmful."

"Look." Alec said in an exasperated tone, "I'm not a physicist or a doctor but I know what I saw. Those people were dead and no amount of wishing otherwise was or is going to change that. So whatever heat signatures we're picking up as to be something else. Stands to reason."


"Then what is your explanation?" Aiden asked, "I believe it was Author Conan Doyle who said, "'Once you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

"I don't have one Mr. Mejia. I know what I saw as does every member of the away team. These heat signatures we're picking up may be a residual source from whatever killed the crew." Alec answered. "It's as good an explanation as any."

"Captain I request to join the away mission I may be able to find something the others missed," Yarin said suddenly.

Looking over to the XO, AJ chuckled and fought the urge to call the man dense. "Commander Hunter, let me just state for the record that quite a few things are moving over there and those profiles look distinctly humanoid so you may want to reconsider that they might be just a 'teenie weenie bit alive'." he quipped, waiting for a response. AJ was in a fighting mood and he wasn't going to allow some knuckle dragging troglodyte to just dismiss what he had seen.

Alec pick up Taggert's challenge, "Really Mr, Taggert? I was on the Bethesda just as you were. I was on the bridge, there were bodies and they were dead. The bodies in the Captain's Ready Room were dead. They weren't sitting around talking or playing cards, or wondering how they ended up looking like dried out wheat husks, they were dead."

AJ stood from the table. "You stupid bastard! Do you think I'm showing you this and presenting a theory for the sake of my health?

Alec glared at the man but to his credit held his tongue from unleashing a scathing retort. He simply looked to the Captain.

"Enough!" The Captain barked out, her tone uncharacteristically harsh as she glowered a both of them.

Cassandra cleared her throat at AJ, giving him a scolding look and did the same to Nicole who was growling at him in annoyance.

Before anyone else could respond, the comm system went off. "Sickbay to Anderson," Maggie's voice said.

"Go ahead," Nicole said.

"Doctor, we're getting some odd readings off of box one," Maggie said.

Nicole's eyes went wide and she pushed her chair back from the table. "Get everyone out of the room, I'm on my way. Anderson out." She stood up quickly. "Captain, if you'll excuse me," she said before tossing back over her shoulder, "Penny, you're with me," and rushing out the door.

Penny looked around, somewhat surprised, then with a nod from the Captain, jumped up and raced out the door after Nicole.

Less than five minutes later, Nicole's voice came through the intercom. "Anderson to the Captain, whatever you do, do not let the Bethesda near the Starbase! I need Mister Yarin down here immediately. We have....a situation."

Yarin got up and ran out the door. "On my way Doctor."

"Contact the crew of the tow vessel," Kennit said. "See if they can clarify what's happening over there."

"Aye, Captain, I'll get on it," Cassandra said, getting out of her chair and pulling her earpiece out of her handbag, placing it in her ear as she walked quickly to the bridge.

"Captain, it may be best to destroy the Bethesda," Blackburn suggested. "We don't know what killed the crew and it could be something that is contagious."

AJ rose from his chair. "Lieutenant, if we destroy the ship then we lose any chance of understanding how this happened." Glancing at the XO, he smirked slightly. "Looks like we do have a teensy- weensy problem," he said as he hurried out of the briefing.

Kennit activated the comm system again, signaling Sickbay. "Status report! What is going on down there?"

"We're extracting the stasis pod from the morgue," Nicole said, "and we're going to move it to Cargo Bay 16. I want the option to jettison this thing. We'll relay from the Aux Sickbay. Captain..." her voice paused, "there are radiation spikes along the containment field, like something is testing for weaknesses. And..." She paused again. "The cadaver is slightly animate."

Her expression unreadable, after a moment the Captain said "Slightly animate.. I'm not sure what you mean by that however, I want it kept contained is that clear?"

"Aye, Captain. Anderson out," she said.

*************************************************

Breaking into a jog, AJ reached the weapons locker. Pressing his thumb against the reader plate, the doors slid open to reveal multiple Type III Phaser Rifles and four Type IIs. AJ quickly removed a rifle and a sidearm just in case. Slinging the rifle over his shoulder, AJ entered the turbolift and overrode commands for all other decks, and the turbolift sped downwards.

=A= Scarlatti to Taggart =A=

"This is Taggart, go ahead." AJ said, tightening the sling.

"Sir, we've taken up position outside Sickbay. Crewman Frame is standing by for you to head inside."

"Very well. I'm on my way." Just as he finished his sentence, the turbolift doors slid open. Without wasting a second, AJ broke into a run. Tapping his commbadge quickly he opened a channel to the conference room. "Taggart to Captain. Recommend we set Condition Yellow throughout the ship in case this thing spreads contaminants or if it gets mobile." Coming to a stop, he unslung the rifle from his shoulder and armed it. Bringing it to a ready position, he acknowledged Crewman Frame who was waiting anxiously. "Let's head on in, Crewman. Allons-y, Alonso!"

Over the comm, the Captain answered "Agreed."

A moment later, her voice sounded over the ship wide alert system "Yellow alert! Yellow alert! Set Condition Yellow throughout the ship. This is not a drill!"

*************************************************

 

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