Briefing at 1300

Posted on Mon Jan 25, 2016 @ 9:12pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Senior Chief Petty Officer Samantha Summers

2,682 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: The Fall
Location: USS Victory
Timeline: [1 day after learning of the attack on SB900; 13 days from arrival at Helios Colony]

[1 day after learning of the attack on SB900; 13 days from arrival at Helios Colony]

0900 hours

Walking down the corridor towards the 'lift to the Bridge, the Captain's attention was more focused on the data padd in her hand than on exactly where she was going. The overnight sensor reports had detected no Borg ships in the area, however long range scans had picked up faint energy readings which could potentially be indicative of recent Borg activity through the region. The readings were too decayed to make a positive identification, it was equally possible that the energy signs came from other ships in the area. They knew of four warp-capable civilizations which transmitted through this region of space.

Communications was monitoring all comm traffic picked up, apparently for about 4 hours over night the comm staff had been regaled with the problematic sex life of a Mawasi trader who evidently had 8 wives, 7 of which were pregnant the 8th having given birth three weeks ago and .. apparently all 8 were declaring that he must subject himself to something called the ha'vek after learning that he was cavorting freely with an impressive number of unattached females at the various stops along his trade route.. several of which had contacted his home to report themselves now also with child.

Busy guy. She was amazed he had time to conduct business.. Though the transcript of the argument was decidedly amusing to read. Rhea had a feeling the fellow might just opt to take his ship and seek business elsewhere.. permanently.

Rubbing one hand at her temples, she almost considered going to sickbay to get something for the headache that had settled in, but.. yeah the Doctor would likely come up with a litany of excuses to keep her there and poke, prod, and examine her for hours..

Entering the 'lift, the Captain said "Bridge."

When the 'lift stopped and the doors parted, she stepped out onto the Bridge and immediately asked, "Status report?"

"Sensors are clear. We have exchanged information with 3 civilian ships.. each of which has opted to alter course and start back to Helios Colony as well." Lt. Davenport reported.

"Very good.." the Captain answered. "Maintain course. I'll be in my Ready Room. If anything pops up.. call me at once."

"Aye Captain," Davenport replied.

"When the XO arrives, let him know where I am.." she added as she retreated to her Ready Room and immediately lowered the lights, then sat back on the couch set by the viewport and leaned back.. hoping the headache pills she'd taken before heading to the Bridge would do the job to tone down the ache which had settled in her skull right behind her eyes.

When Alec did arrive on the bridge, Davenport did tell him where the Captain was and Alec headed for the Ready Room and stopped. Rhea had a rough go these last few hours he decided to let her get some much needed alone time. He returned to the command chair and awaited her reappearance on the bridge.

...

1020 hours

The sound of the door chime resulted in the Captain's eyes snapping open. She touched a control on the table to bring the lights up to normal and then called out, "Enter."

Davenport entered, "Captain.. we just received a fleet status report from Admiral Diego Macedo at Helios Colony. The information has been downloaded to this data padd for your review." he told her, thinking as he did that she looked like his mother used to when she had a migraine..

Accepting the padd the Captain said, "Thank you Mr. Davenport.." her tone clearly dismissing him back to the Bridge where he was on duty at the flight control station.

Swiping the padd with her thumb, Katrijn began to read the status report. The numbers were...

Staggering.


At last, she tapped her comm badge and said "Attention all senior staff. Report to conference room 2 at 1300 for a status update and situation briefing."

Signing off, she thumbed the lights down a little.. and then got back to the report on the data padd.


===========

1300 hrs

Inside the cubicle (what she called it, anyway,) that she called home, Senior CPO Summers looked over from her bed to the PADD on her desk. Still a bit groggy from her short nap, she forgot the ledge over her bed and whapped herself on the noggin as she attempted to get up. "Son of a b..um!" She shouted. She walked a bit unsteady to retrieve her PADD and then checked her 24 Hour clock. "Thirteen Hundred. Time enough to check with Lieutenant Taggart in Security before the meeting." Brushing her hair a bit she then got together her PADD and headed out to her destination.

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

Yarin walked into conference room 2, looking around he spotted a new crew member, one with which he had not yet acquainted himself with he quietly sent her a telepathic message. Greetings, I am Yarin, I look forward to working to serving aboard this ship with you. he thought to her, turning a calming shade of blue.

Samantha glanced at Yarin, nodding.

Tom entered the conference room, surprised to see he'd beaten more of the senior staff to the meeting. He nodded with a smile to Lieutenant Yarin and the new face in the room. He hadn't been aware of any Senior Chiefs aboard the Victory. Tom mused that she must've been a very recent transfer. "Welcome aboard, Senior Chief," he greeted.

Samantha looked over at CPO Barnes, and nodded her head. "Thank you Chief, good to be here."

Miguel walked into the room reading a padd. All the ship's systems were operating well within design specs. But he was already looking into making additional power consumption improvements that would not only help them in normal modes, but also while in combat. The other thing he was working on was a side project he had started when he had arrived on the Victory. That was a long way off and he wasn't even sure if the experiment would work. So he just worked on it on the computer for now. "Hi Tom." he greeted one of them he had come to think of as a friend. He then looked over and saw newest non-com in the room. "Afternoon Senior Chief..." he said in greeting since he didn't know her name as yet.

"Commander," Tom replied to Miguel with a nod. Despite the closeness he felt with the officer, Tom preferred to stick with protocol when around the rest of the crew.

Samantha nodded her head in the Lt. Cmdr.'s direction. " Samantha Summers, Sir. Call me 'Sam,' if you'd like." She replied.

Nicole and Penny walked in together, the former holding the latter by the arm. Penny stiffened for a moment but Nicole poked her and guided them to a pair of seats down the length of the table. Nicole's eyes had large circles underneath but she looked around alertly as she sat down.

From further down the corridor, Captain Kennit's gaze followed the Doctor and Lt. Naroot as they entered together. She had yet to receive a report from the Doctor regarding whether or not the Lieutenant's illness had been sufficiently treated to allow her to return to active duty.

Cassandra walked in last, a lack of spring in her step. She hadn't slept much since the announcement and was beginning to feel the wear. She sat down quietly, nodding to those present.

The doors opened again and Captain Kennit entered the room, a data padd in one hand.. a cup with coffee in it in the other. "As you were.." she said automatically to forestall the usual stand up, greet the Captain etc etc and so on.

She walked to her place at the table and sat down. Looking at the assembled group, Kennit said "First things first.. status reports. Who wants to go first?"

Alec followed silently behind her, his face an unreadable mask of stone and took his seat just to the right of her. He was anxious for this meeting to get started.

"Engineering reports all systems operating at 100%. My team are also working on improving power efficiency as well as conservation methods since it will be awhile before we can get to a base for replenishing. We're using the industrial replicators to create spare parts that we don't normally carry and would just have a starbase supply us with. This will include extra torpedo casings as well." Miguel stated.

"Medical supplies have been inventoried twice over," Nicole said. "Equipment inspected and all bugs have been reported to Engineering." She nodded in acknowledgement to Miguel.

The Captain frowned slightly at that, and looked towards the Doctor and her Chief Engineer quizzically. "Which is it? All systems are operational and online at 100% operational capacity, or there are 'bugs' in need of extermination in sickbay's systems?"

Nicole huffed slightly. "Computer systems are fine. I have some diagnostic equipment that has a few blips. It's nothing critical, but I was being thorough. Mister Torres is correct that Sickbay's major systems are at 100% efficiency."

"Are they? That's good to know then.. I trust that the 'blips' will be worked out as soon as possible.." Kennit answered mildly.

"Now that we've made sure all of the main systems are were they should be... my people will knock that out right away." Miguel promised.

"The crew is understandably on edge," Cassandra said, wearily. "Many are having difficulties coping with the current situation fully. I've had people from almost every department in my office around the clock to vent their emotions and everyone has the same question: What do we do now? For the moment, work, routine and constructive means of expression their very rational fears are helping, but they are going to need some form of mass closure, and soon."

The Captain's voice was quiet, yet unrelenting in tone and clearly heard by everyone present as she echoed "What do we do now?". She paused a moment to let that sink in. "We do our job. That's what we do now. Our orders are to return to Helios Colony where we will report in with Admiral Macedo, once there we will offer every assistance we are able to provide to the survivors of the Borg attack and if that means we go into combat against a secondary wave assault, then the Victory will be the ship leading the fight."

Penny was staring at the table, not quite paying attention, but periodically reviewing the conversation at high speed in the back of her mind. It wasn't until Nicole elbowed her that she looked up and realized no one had spoken in a moment after the Captain's statement, and the Captain was looking at her expectantly. "Helm is responding well and at your disposal, Captain," she said quietly. "We're on schedule to Helios."

The Captain hadn't missed the fact that Lt. Naroot was not paying attention to the briefing, nor was she oblivious to the fact that it took a physical nudge from the Doctor to garner a response from the Lieutenant. Making a note on her data padd, the Captain gave a nod and answered "Very good." She looked up from the padd then, once again considering the lack of a status/progress update on the Lieutenant following her medical emergency, her gaze locking with the Doctor's for a moment before turning away.

Samantha was listening to the briefing, and switching looking at Lt. Taggart wondering when he might give his report. She silently frowned at the idea of fighting the Borg, but kept her council to herself.

AJ was next. "Ma'am, Security and Tactical is mostly. I've left us at a standing Yellow Alert, which will allow us to at least keep shields up and weapons at the ready. I've tasked Senior Chief Summers and Master Chief Tomaszewski with working out a phaser and shield frequency modulation program. Weapons inventory has also been completed and we should have enough phasers to arm the entire crew. My main concern, however is that our existing personal weapons will be inadequate in close quarters once the Borg adapt, so I'm requesting authorization to replicate and modify the TR-116 for rapid fire. Once modifications are completed, I'll be issuing them to all security personnel along with sidearms."

Samantha looked at AJ, slightly frowned, then looked a long time at the top of the briefing room's table.

Kennit nodded in agreement, "Authorization granted. We won't have much time if the Borg do make an appearance. I'd also like for you to work out a plan oat action utilizing the Victory's ability to separate as a means of closing off sections of the ship to isolate any Borg drones to prevent them from moving into other areas of the ship.. By that I don't mean actual separation by activating the MVAM systems, but instead using the airlocks and security systems to close off sections of the ship if necessary to allow our own personnel to maintain control while isolating and then terminating the drones."

Yarin had been sitting quietly listening to the various conversations trying to gain as much information as possible. Suddenly he had an idea. "Captain I have a menagerie of 'experiments' that I believe will be useful in fighting the Borg."

"Experiments." The Captain echoed in a flat tone of voice. Shaking her head, she said "No Mr. Yarin, I am not going to put the safety of my ship and the personnel aboard who are my responsibility on experimental methods of combating the Borg."

She didn't stop there, and instead said "At this time, I should also note that there are a few changes in personnel which need to be accomplished. Due to unforeseen issues, when we arrive at Helios Colony Lt. Blackburn, who no doubt you've all noticed is not present.. will be leaving the Victory. In her place, I am promoting Lt. Taggart who previously held the position of Chief Intelligence Officer aboard the Victory and is therefore best suited to take on that responsibility once again. Additionally," she continued. "Lieutenant Matt Casey will be moving up to fill the position as Chief Security Officer to allow Mr. Taggart to focus on his duties with Intel." Not quite finished, the Captain then said "We will also be loosing Mr. Evans when we reach Helios Colony. In the wake of his departure, I am promoting Mr. Barnes to the position of Chief Operations Officer."

Tom shifted in his seat in surprise. He certainly knew he was qualified to handle the position as he'd served in that capacity on other ships once before. He also knew that this would greatly change what he would do aboard the Victory as a permanent member of the senior staff. "Thank you, Captain," he said, doing his best to maintain a professional demeanor. He also glanced over at Penny, thinking that this would give them a lot more face time, even though neither one of them was keen on the other at the moment.

The announcement stung AJ to the point that he winced. The feeling of having his position ripped away from him again was heart wrenching to say the least. Was he not qualified? Did he not do his duty to the best of his ability? All that he had were questions and no fathomable answers. It filled him with a sense of bitterness and disillusionment that burned him to every edge of his core.

"We are 13 days away from reaching Helios Colony," the Captain pointed out. "I want to maintain yellow alert throughout the course of our journey, and I want constant sensor sweeps to identify everything that is within range."

"Aye, Captain," Tom replied with a nod, making a note to ensure that ample power would be supplied to the sensors at all time. There could be no risk of allowing sensor echoes and ghosts to fool with their equipment, especially if the Borg were afoot.

After a moment of silence, the Captain asked "Is there anything else? If not, we have jobs to do."

~*~

 

RSS Feed