Setting Goals

Posted on Mon Feb 10, 2020 @ 2:13pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Commander Cullen Walker & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Arashi Tanaka Mr. & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD

2,444 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Nibiru
Location: Briefing Room - Deck One

Once the storm had passed, Captain Kennit planned for two shuttles to return to the planet surface and get back to work. With that thought in mind, she issued orders for Cmdr Walker, Dr. Anderson, Lt. Tanaka, Lt. Taggart, Lt. Lévesque and Cmdr Torres to join her in the briefing room on deck one, adjacent to her ready room at 1430 hours to discuss a plan for accomplishing the goals she wished to set.

Entering the briefing room at about 1423, the Captain settled herself down with the snack she’d obtained from the replicator in her ready room as, despite the size of everything else on this ship, the briefing room here had no replicator installed. Taking her seat, she dug into the banana split with gusto while awaiting the others arrival.

Kennit wanted security measures in place at the temple complex, with motion sensors and a low level force field surrounding the complex to help keep wildlife out. A mobile lab would be set up as well, providing a place to rest as well as monitor the security systems, and a small lab space with tools to assess any artifacts discovered inside the temple. And of course, a viola. To analyze samples of the wild life, which was one of the Captain’s primary goals...

Arashi had arrived three minutes after the captain had and was munching on an apple. He had just gotten the call for the meeting so he did not have the time to eat breakfast. So he had hit the mess hall to grab a piece of fruit and headed to the meeting. He saluted the captain as he sat down and waited for the others to arrive.

Kennit returned the salute, if somewhat sloppily as she was eating when Tanaka entered and sat.

Walker came into the room. He had glass of sweet tea. He nodded to the Captain and and to Arashi. "Afternoon."

“Number One.” Kennit said, having swallowed her spoonful of banana and ice cream. “I trust all is as it should be..”

Miguel entered the briefing room and went to his normal seat.

AJ followed soon after and took a seat close to the center of the table. Giving a respectful nod to Commander Walker, Captain Kennit, and Lieutenant Arashi in turn, he set a PADD down and waited for the others to enter. He had set out some new departmental goals but they were vague at best, considering he really had no permanent place aboard the ship.

Camille was next. She had lost track of time in her biolab and feared being late, but her frantic journey from the lab to the briefing room was fast enough that she arrived, if slightly unkempt, on time. She pulled some loose locks of hair back into place as she took her place. "Pardonnez-moi," she asked with a sheepish smile from her seat. Hair in place, she adjusted her glasses and waited for the last few people to come in and the meeting to start.

Licking a stray drop of chocolate syrup from her finger, the Captain gazed about the table thoughtfully. Walker was there, Tanaka was there, Torres was there, Lévesque was there.. "I requested six personnel be present.. we seem to be missing one." she said. Tapping the comm control on the table, she said "Captain to Dr. Anderson. The briefing is ready to begin except.. we seem to be missing one member of the discussion team. We are waiting.."

Two minutes later, Nicole walked into the room. She looked distracted and barely acknowledged the others, save for Camille whom she smiled at, without quite making eye contact, then sat down in the empty chair next to her. She looked up at the Captain and crossed her legs. "Sorry," she said.

“Nice of you to join us Doctor,” the Captain said. “With everyone present, let’s get to work.” Tapping a control on the desk, three holographic projections of the planet appeared. One showed the planet itself, as viewed from orbit. The other was a display of the landing site, and the last showed what they had termed the temple complex.

“Computer projections of the current storm system have it clearing out in approximately 48 hours. Once the area is safe, we are heading back down. This time we’ll take two shuttles, one will return to the landing site to continue evaluations of the planets geology and life forms documented on the surface. The other will return to the temple complex. I want team one to conduct aerial sweeps, as well as collect geological samples from sites as yet not selected. This planet looks like Earth, I want to get some samples from bedrock and see what we find.”

AJ raised his hand. "Ma'am, I'd recommend having the SRU pilot the shuttles or assume a separate overwatch in the Valkyrie EOCs. This'll keep essential personnel on the ground and allow us to provide overwatch and potentially switch to a SAR Mission Profile or provide coverage for a quick extraction, should things get to that point." he said,

"Penny gets a bit possessive of her toys," Nicole warned AJ, then turned back to the Captain. "Plus I'd like her with me as part of my medical team."

"Penny can deal. Lt. Taggart is correct and his suggestion sound. Since we have already had an experience with shall we say..an urgent retreat, it is prudent to have SRU team personnel handling the shuttles. They're trained for any contingency, and it free's personnel up for other duties, such as your desire to have Lt. Naroot on your medical team. She can't do both." With a nod of her head to Taggart, the Captain said "Select who you deem best suited to man the shuttles, and I'll allot two Valkyrie as well for over watch flights."

“We need to set up duty assignments for each team. I need to put together a team with the specific purpose of gathering biological material, samples of tissue, scat and urine from the lifeforms we have identified, as well as detailed samples of plant life. Collected samples should be placed into stasis containers to maintain sample integrity until it can be studied. Suggestions for who to send...” the Captain asked.

Nicole sighed in resignation, knowing what the Captain had in mind. "Maggie and Penny will stay on my team, along with Camille and her science team. I'd like a security detail as well, in case the wildlife turns dangerous again," she said, looking at Arashi. She turned back to the Captain and broke out into a decidedly evil grin. "I'll assign Doctor Meldor to stick with you. I'm sure he'll have many, many fine suggestions."

Kennit rolled her eyes. Meldor didn’t worry her.

Camille grinned. This was the sort of work she lived for.

"I can do that. I think we also need to come up with contingencies to deal with the dangerous wildlife if the shields fail or things of that nature. " Arashi said "That dangerous monster we saw right before we left the last time we were on the surface is going to have to be dealt with if it returns."

“I don’t want it harmed. We are not here to kill or otherwise impact this worlds biosphere. We can track it. Use sensors to find it, then put a remote tag on it to enable ground teams to monitor its movements. I want tissue samples from it as well, we need a dna analysis especially of the T-Rex, assuming that is what it is. I want samples of its scat and urine as well.” Kennit said, the scientist she had been long ago resurfaced, the change to study such a creature thrilling to her.

"Yes, Captain!" Camille said happily. Despite centuries of paleontological study, no one really knew whether dinosaurs actually even urinated, or combined urine and feces into a single mass like most modern birds. There was some evidence that liquid was expelled separately, but it was possible that Camille was about to confirm one way or the other, admittedly using an animal from another planet, but they were operating under the theory that evolution on Earth and this planet before them happened virtually identically. The scientist grinned at those around the table.

AJ whistled a short tune from an ancient children’s show that came to mind. “So we’re essentially chasing a giant dinosaur? I’d suggest we employ heavy weapons if this thing turns hostile again or if it turns out there’s more than one. I can also work with Lieutenant Lévesque and Commander Torres to fabricate a dart or six that can be launched from the mounted launchers on the Valkyrie.” He said, tapping out a note on his PADD and looking over to Nicole. “Doctor, you wouldn’t happen to have any tranquilizers floating around that can take down something that size, would you?” He asked slyly.

"I took them all before the briefing," Nicole's sarcasm buttered by her suddenly overly-calm tone. "I'll see about a cocktail for you."

"I'll help with a dart," Camille said, "but we'd need to make sure they're calibrated right. If we over-do it, we kill it, and I won't be responsible for killing a creature defending its home. And if we under-do it, we'll just make it mad."

"And you'll get spit on again," Nicole teased, prompting a grin from Camille.

“I don’t want to risk harm to the animal by using a chemical cocktail on it. We have no idea how it’s biology might react.” The Captain said.

Walker looked at the Captain, "Halvor used to be an Operations Officer. Apparently, he is gifted. We can have him install your replicator in here. Keep him from pissing off Dinosaurs, again."

Looking at her XO, Kennit paused a moment then asked, “Do we need a replicator in here?”

Walker looked at her. "Your coffee isn't hot anymore. The issue at hand. I'm not sure I want him around dinosaurs right now."

Tanaka looked around and decided to speak. "I don't think we have a choice for using the tranquilizer. What's to say that someone won't die on this mission if we don't use it. The only other option, Captain, is to kill it, and I do not want to harm an animal defending its home anymore than anyone else does but if we don't use the tranq, then we'll have to figure out a way to kill it. If we don't do something about it, this mission is going to end up with us running back and forth away from that creature.

Walker looked at Nicole. "It has organs and a nervous system. Why don't we strike the hepatic nerve cluster?" He knew she would know what he was talking about. "I support what Tanaka said, I would rather not kill it."

Nicole growled slightly. "Unfortunately, Tyrannosaur physiology is not one of my specialties, so finding it might prove difficult. That would also require it to have one that is, a) reachable, and b) guaranteed to affect it enough. Not to mention we'd have to get close enough to strike it and hope it doesn't just get more enraged in the process. And as amusing as it would be to watch you get thrown across a jungle by a dinosaur you pissed off, I am forced to agree with Lieutenant Tanaka that a tranquilizer is safer and more humane than hurting it."

Walker looked at Nicole and Camille, "Anything in the scans that would confirm that they were nearly blind at Sunrise and Sunset? Or had issues seeing things that stood still in general?"

"Entirely fictional," Camille observed. "Terrible traits for a predator to have, especially one that probably fed largely on carrion. It makes for a good scene in films and holonovels. Non, that creature seems to have excellent eyesight. But it had other weaknesses. We didn't see it move that fast. There are theories that it's maximum speed might not be that high. It probably understood that it might be seriously injured if it tripped and fell. Is there something we can use to outrun it, like a ground vehicle?"

“I don’t know if we have any all-terrain ground vehicles onboard or not.” Kennit said.

Tag others? I have no idea..do we yay or nah?

Walker OOC, I'm Down for us to have them.

Walker looked at them, "I do have an understanding of things beyond bar brawls and insertion tactics." He wasn't being crude. That is what the tactics of entering a heavily fortified area are called.

“A force field set up along the perimeter of the work areas should be a secure deterrent against intrusion by native wildlife..” Kennit said.

"I'll get my people to work on the emitters for those right away." he said finally feeling that he had something to say.

“I want a 2 teams assigned to document what other life forms are on this planet. We don’t have the resources for a full study, but I want a sampling of insect, as well as aquatic, avian, and terrestrial life forms. They will also need to collect samples of plant life. Something to start with and place into the report we will have to file with Starfleet.” Kennit said. “We will task two shuttles for this purpose, allowing for a greater range for sample collection and the ships sensors can be used to determine safety concerns in the area before they set down.”

Walker looked at her, "Scans and blood or full Bio Specimens?"

“For plant life, full bio samples when possible. Obviously a tree won’t fit safely in the lab.” She answered, wondering why everything always had to be so damn hard and idly thinking almost wistfully when her duties were much simpler. A target ID for retirement. Simple and direct. “In cases where a full Bio Specimen is not feasible regardless of reason, scans and samples of plant matter is sufficient. For insects, same considerations. Also soil samples, water samples, scat and urological samples of reptilians, saurian, mammalian if seen, avian and aquatic. We don’t have room for hundreds of live animals so scans and what samples can be collected without harming the creature are sufficient.”

The Captain stood up. “Anything else? No? Good. You have your orders. The storm is estimated to clear and the target landing site is safe for a return in the next 18 hours. As soon as it has, we will get back to work. Dismissed.” and with that, she swept out of the room.

 

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