Senior Staff Briefing

Posted on Sunday November 19, 2023 @ 3:04am by Captain Cahal Vellv & Lieutenant Commander Thisbe Bocal & Lieutenant Commander River Morgan MD & Lieutenant JG Sakara & Petty Officer, 1st Class Karri

2,766 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: Master of Illusion
Location: Conference Room

The Tellarite captain, walked into the conference room. A yeoman had been in and set up the conference room so that they could start right away. Being early and the first one there, he did a quick inspection. They forgot to dust the window seals. I need to talk to our Chief Engineer about why the environmental systems aren't cleaning the air. This is ridiculous! He though to himself. The rest of the room, he couldn't complain about, which disappointed him. He stood staring out the window at the inside of the stardock, as he awaited the rest of the Senior Staff.

The CMO was next to arrive, looking (and feeling) surprised to be the first one to enter after the CO. Determined not to feel or seem awkward, River approached the large meeting table and put down her PaDDs on the table top and her Medkit onto the floor under a seat a couple back from where the CO was already settling himself.

She approached the CO and held out her hand. "Lt Cmdr Morgan Sir, pleased to meet you. I'm the CMO..... am I okay to park myself back here?" she said, standing with a formal stiffness that wasn't "to attention" but not too casual either. She waited for the CO to shake her hand before continuing.

When he didn't, with all of them distracted by the Chief Engineer's eventful entry, River dropped her outstretched, untaken hand and took it as if it had been a rhetorical question, sitting herself down anyway and arranging her PaDDs, covering her embarrassment by looking busy.

The Chief Engineer made her appearance next, not one to keep a Captain waiting. She knew better-if she was behaved, she was left alone, and she liked that. "Lieutenant Commander Thisbe Bocal, reporting, sir," she said. "OH, geez, it smells terribly in here. Just a minute," she said, moving a wall panel out of the way. "I've got my tricorder," she said, in a muffled voice. A moment later, her face reappeared. "Damn it, an mis-wired outtake hose. Give me a minute, and I'll have it fixed," she said. She crossed the room again, opening the tool case she always carried with her, and extracted a few things, and then shouted into her Comms badge. =/\=Turner, I've got an mis-wired outtake hose in the Senior Staff Meeting Room. Transport me an extra one, please. Size 33cm. Thanks.=/\= She disappeared again, behind the hull. "You'll let me know when Turner delivers that hose, won't you?" She asked. Thisbe Bocal was many things. Among them was a self-starter.

Max walked in sidestepping the Chief Engineer who was suddenly tinkering with something. The smell hit him and he decided it was clearly for the best. He almost slid into native Italian ready to say ~Buongiorno~ but caught himself and said in standard, "Morning Captain, Doctor, Commander," he said taking a seat to the right of the Tellerite Captain. He pulled out his own PADD and placed it in front of him as they waited for everyone else.

Sakara was on his heels, her customary glide walk expertly navigating around the engineer, something her human Grandmother had often commented on stating 'Your like a nun on wheels. Make some noise when you approach me from behind you silly girl'. Quickly she processed the smell in the room, which in truth was no worse than what on any normal day assaulted her olfactory sense. Vulcan females had a markedly more sensitive sense of smell than their male counter parts and being in a room full of beings of a mammalian descent was rather more pungent to her than when on Vulcan, Vulcans having developed on a more arid planet meaning their bodies had developed counter measure against loosing water through sweat pours. She brushed it off and took the seat next to Commander Vero, nodding a greeting to the Captain and the other gathered officers.

Thisbe's pretty face peered out from the panel again. "Hello!! Sorry. It's a small fire in this panel-as soon as Turner gets me a hose, we can help the stench. It happens-new boats always have SOMETHING," she said, making a face. She climbed out from the panel and took a seat. "In the meantime, let's begin, shall we? Engineering is please to report that all systems are go, I am currently co-ordinating with Ops to ensure that we're fully prepped for Launch. Between my team and them, we've got the best in the Fleet, and I, for one, am excited to bust some hoses and slip some streams," she said. She stopped speaking then, and settled back. She was not your traditional Engineer, but she was VERY good at her job.

Sakara looked between the Chief of Engineering and the Captain and First Officer, taken somewhat aback by the brazen approach of the Betazoid, a single eyebrow raised wondering how the Captain might react given control of the meeting had just passed from his hands to that of his Chief Engineer.

Looking at the Chief of Engineering, the Tellarite Captain turned from the window and looked at the woman. "Well Lieutenant Commander... I would appreciate it if you would allow me to start the meeting. Not all the staff is even here." The gruff voice echoed through the conference room, "I do appreciate a proud comment, and I am sure you think highly of our team, but prove what you say. I am sure you will get your chance. So we will see."

Thisbe nodded. "I am sorry. I get a bit excited. Excuse me," she said. She fell silent, and simply gave a nod. "Understood." She looked around, but didn't say anything further. She often got a bit ahead of herself-she liked her work, truly, and also had to be constantly active. If she wasn't, her idleness led to boredom, which led to self-destruction, and that was bad for everyone.

Well that was slightly awkward, Max thought. He turned his attention back to the CO thinking perhaps moving quickly past it was the best for everyone.

The Chief of security was last to arrive, and she mentally kicked herself. Being the lowest rank in the room she quietly found herself a seat."

Looking around at the senior staff that sat around the table, the Tellarite Captain started the briefing, "For those who have not met me yet. I am Captain Cahal Vellv. Welcome aboard the Pisces. I am getting straight to the point." Standing up, he walked to the display screen, "Starfleet has received distress calls from Federation Cargo Service ships, stating that they were being hunted and destroyed by Klingon ships. Not surprising, after what has transpired." He paused to let that sink in, "The strangeness about these reports, is that they are claiming that they don't see the Klingon ship, until they are about to be destroyed or boarded. So far, the number lost is 4 destroyed and 6 captured, crew taken as prisoners. Our mission is to find and capture one of these ships."

"Captain" Sakara spoke up first, her mind already running possibilities but one seemed to be floating to the top of the pile. It was however nothing more than conjecture on her part with no solid backing with fact or evidence to support. "Has command provided any supposition as to the alleged means that the Klingons are achieving this, if it is indeed Klingons?"

Now that it was time to be serious, Thisbe pulled herself together. "Most likely cloaking shields," she remarked, absently. "Do we have any reason to think it's not the Klingons?" She asked. She knew much about the schematics of many races' ships. It could be any number of people, really, but given the recent unrest in this section of the Quadrant, she thought the KDF was a good guess.

"Well other than they have a serious infrastructure problem now with Praxis blowing up, its difficult to understand how they can go from that to pushing out serious new technology. Obviously it's not impossible," Max said, "One has to consider that to date no one has managed to build a cloak you can use while attacking. This has always been down to the substantial energy requirements required to run both the cloak and other hefty systems. If these reports are true, either the Klingons have found a way round that and are throwing everything into it for reasons, even taking prisoners or another party has and we now potentially have a new unknown enemy."

Thisbe nodded. "I don't know of a way, either," she said, but tapped out a note to herself to look into it. "But I can ask around-another Engineer might know more than I do," the Betazoid replied. "I have heard rumors of a warrior species of lizard, but that seems...honestly, farfetched." She let out a sigh. It would be easier if she could see this in action, but of course, that was dangerous.

River didn't have anything to add that would further the discussion so she silently sipped her drink and kept listening to all the opinions being expressed. She was rather shocked to think of ten ships already attacked and it made her sad to consider both the lost crews in the destroyed ships, hundreds dead, and also those taken prisoner, perhaps already injured in the capture of their vessel by forceful and probably violent means. This was all bad news.

Karri sipped a coffee and took in the conversation. All this fit with the Padd the captain had given her. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but cloaked or not its still a ship right? Even though we can't see it its still there. Which means that there's a way to find it." Karri said. "Its wake in space. Engine heat. Something."

"Indeed" Sakara added coolly. "Every vessel emits certain recognizable emissions that can be picked up, similar to sonar, via a communications array and a sharp ear..." she was uncomfortable with the earth saying, but it applied even if it was something of an unintentional humorous self jibe that she noticed the Commander picked up on. "...can distinguish it from the general background noise unless the vessel is rigged for silent running".

Max did a double take. Did their Communications Vulcan officer just make a joke? Curly hair and a potential sense of humour. He raised his left eyebrow amusingly in the universally now known Vulcan gesture in her direction.

Just as quickly he was right back to business. "That might work. But there's a lot of noise in space. You need more that just one strategy. There's the looking for neutrino surges. That would ping up if they are close. Well assuming they have not managed to find a way round that.

"It would be simple to coordinate our efforts between the Science and Communications divisions and link in with Tactical, we would however need some time to determine how we would coordinate said efforts!"

Sakara invited the Commander indirectly as well as the ships Tactical Officer without directly saying that was her intention. The issue was not the individual efforts but how to coordinate them. The science team would be actively scanning for the tell-tale neutrino surge of a cloaked vessel which could in turn hinder her own efforts to locate the signals emanating from the vessel, or vessels. The next issue would be translating data from science or communications stations directly into targeting data that the tactical division could use.

"It would be beneficial if our three sections worked on this outside of this meeting!"

Thisbe shrugged. "I can't think of any way that would be possible, but maybe the Klingons..."discovered" a race that has some kind of tech that the Fleet isn't aware of yet." She said discovered making air quotes with her fingers. "Otherwise...that guess seems as good as any. I will initiate some research," she said before she fell quiet again. Where was Turner with that damned hose?! Staff meetings weren't her favourite-her tenacious personality and constant need to be moving sometimes caused a bit of a personality conflict with her superiors, though it was never intentional.

Max nodded. "Okay, you do that Chief and Lieutenant you get yourself, me and Tactical together to see if we can come up with anything."

"Are we close enough to assist with any casualties yet Captain?" River asked, thinking of the hundreds, even thousands of Starfleet crew affected already and possibly due to be affected the next time around as well.

"Once we launch, Starfleet will be sending out 3 decoy convoys to try and lure it out. We will be within range of each one, conducting a survey mission. Hopefully they won't see us as much of a threat and strike one of them." The Captain said with a smile on his face. "I want Communications, Security, and Engineering to work on finding a way to track the ship and locate it. Medical, get sickbays ready. Those are partially manned convoys. There may be casualties." Turning to his XO, "Oversee the departments, make sure they are ready."

A slight wrinkle crossed River's confused brow but she just responded "Aye Sir" and accepted the answer.

Thisbe nodded, and made a quick note in her PADD. Researching cloaking capabilities outside of what was known currently was going to be difficult. "Sir, I'll send Ensign Sar to finish that hose," she said, absently, her brain already working to think about things. She had heard rumors of the lizard folk from her former mentor and boss, Jamie Taylor, the engineer on the refueler she'd transferred from. He was much older than she and had seen a LOT in his time in the Fleet. Something was niggling at the back of her brain, but wouldn't present itself. She stood up to pace the room.

Sakara remained like cut marble, stoic, serene despite the knowledge of what was to come. She was also fully aware that the efforts of the Science, Tactical and Communications teams could mean the tides of battle turn in their favour should they get it right. She chose to believe they would be because the alternative did not bear thinking about.

"I will have a department status report compiled ahead of our meeting in the science lab Commander!" she addressed the first officer directly, already feeling the need to be ahead of the curve but she would also have a formal request prepared.

The Engineer was still moving-more serious from her earlier movement inside the panel. She was one of those kinetic types-had to constantly move or she'd lose her mind. Smart as whip, but annoyingly naïve about things not inside the realm of Engineering. "I will have a report for you at the end of the day," she murmured, wishing that whatever was ailing her would present itself. She issued some calming vibes into the room-mostly for her sake, as she sat back down.

Max nodded amazed he had not yet ordered any status reports but seemingly had two incoming. Perhaps both Thisbe and Sakara felt the need to show how efficient they were? No Vulcans didn't do that. But then they didn't do humour did they?

"Is there anything further sir?" he asked the CO.

River was startled by not being asked for reports but she didn't object. She began stacking her PaDDs and finishing the dregs of her coffee.

Thisbe sat back for a moment, forcing herself to relax, in case the Captain had anything more to add. If not, she'd finish the wiring, and get the hell out.

Shaking his head, "That is all. Report to your stations. We depart at 0500 tomorrow. Get what sleep you can. Who knows how much we will get once we are out there." Cahal ordered, "Dismissed."

Thisbe rose, and hurried quickly down the corridor for the Engineering office. She needed to get to work. As she hurried, she tapped her Comm badge. =/\=Sar, get to the XO's office and fix the hose, please. Turner, haul your six to my office ASAP.=/\= The Romulan was good enough with panels that he could handle the simple repair in the meeting room. She needed Turner's experience in her research.

Max stood up at the dismissal and nodded at the Captain before stepping to one side to allow the Doctor, Vulcan and Petty officer out before him. His mother had brought him up right after all.

Sakara proceed past the Commander, nodding once at the Captain as she passed. "Many thanks Commander!" she said politely as she passed him.

 

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