Mission Briefing

Posted on 13 Sep 2014 @ 5:24pm by Captain Harvey Geisler & Commander C. Kos & Lieutenant Commander Thaddeus Quint M.D. & Lieutenant Avery Stuart Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Ivan Dash & Lieutenant JG Harold Sherman & Lieutenant JG Noxa & Lieutenant Hictus Dicon

2,813 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Razmena
Location: USS Black Hawk || Observation Lounge
Timeline: February 4, 2388 || 1000 hours

===[Briefing Room]===

Ivan came strolling into the briefing room and came to a sudden stop. The room was empty save himself. He glanced at the control panel next to the door for the time. Yeah, it was 1000 hours. Ivan shrugged and took a seat next to the head of the table. If he was going to be the first one here he might as well also take the best seat in the room.

Lieutenant Noxa had been summoned to the Observation Lounge for another one of Captain Harvey Geisler's mission briefings. She had walked into the room and quickly spotted Ensign Dash and Lieutenant Dicon. Noxa knew Ivan Dash more than she did Dicon. So, naturally, she took a seat next to the helmsmen.

Dicon slid through the corridors towards the corridors towards the briefing room, irritable that he was late for the staff meeting. He strode into the room and glanced around the entire room finding only Ivan present, "My apologizes for my lateness, the central computer was giving a console lock-out." He placed himself across from Ensign Dash.

She leaned over and whispered in his ear "I hope we sort this mess out soon."

Ivan watched as Dicon came into the room and gave him a short, polite nod. Ivan had not yet met him. Then as Noxa walked in he could not help but grin at her. As she leaned over and whispered into his ear he reached up and tugged on his collar, flashing the new pip to her.

Noxa looked at the new pip that had appeared. She shook her head and let out a small shrilling squeal. "Congratulations, Lieutenant Dash. I'll have to keep a close eye on you now. I may have to call you Sir one of these days."

George had been doing flying drills with the Squadrons all day and nearly forgot about the meeting, he had rushed from the Flight Deck still in his flight suit to the meeting. Walking in he looked around and was releaved that he was not the last one there and that the CO hadn't arrived yet.

Moving to one of the vacant chairs he sat down, he studied his fellow Senior Staff members.

Dr. Avery Stuart arrived as directed, eager to meet her colleagues and even more eager to observe the dynamic amongst them. Being new, this was a prime opportunity to witness the interactions within the group without the bias of knowing them too well. She smiled at each person as they caught her eye, but otherwise made no fuss other than to offer polite greetings to those who looked her way,

===[Ready Room]===

Harvey always preferred to be on time. In fact, he preferred to walk in the door the very moment his briefings would start. Most of his senior staff was new and would not know that, not even his XO.

A quick glance at the clock on the desktop terminal told him it was 1002. He tapped a button on the terminal to alert his yeoman, then turned his attention back to the freighter captain who had just made things complicated.

"What the hell do you mean?" Harvey demanded, circling the desk to stand nearly nose to nose with the Karemma.

"You heard me the first time, Commander." D'rimo fired right back, almost indignant that the human dare fake a misunderstanding. He was not going to repeat himself.

"There's plenty of member worlds within the Federation!" Harvey nearly shouted. "Over fifty of which are represented on this ship. You mean to tell me that those on Razmena will recognize every single one?"

D'rimo grunted. "Your own senior staff, by my observation, are human or Ferengi. We all know Vulcans and Klingons, and a few others. It's too risky for me to arrive at Razmena with infiltrators among my crew."

"We're not infiltrating," Harvey replied. He had to step away, attempting to calm himself. After a moment, he spun back around and said, "The Federation caused hell for you all, fine. I'm sure the Dominion was better, but how much better is it under tyranny and exploitation."

Harvey immediately placed a hand up to prevent D'rimo from responding. "Look," he said as calmly as he could. "We can't simply provide aid without knowing what we're aiding. "What good is it to provide replicators if they'll be stolen? What good is it to provide supplies if they'll be sold behind our backs. Sure, there's no magic reset button, but somehow there's a way for us to work together."

Harvey lowered his hand and looked D'rimo in the eye. "For the sake of your own family, don't you want a better life?"

===[Briefing Room]===

Yeoman Carter stepped in the room to find a partially completed senior staff. "The Captain sends his apologies," she announced, doing her best to hide her surprise at the tardiness of some. "Some... complications have arisen and he assured me that he'll be here as quickly as possible."

Ivan could not contain the shit eating grin on his face. Noxa's reaction was exactly what he was hoping for. She had quickly become Ivan's friend and her excitement at his promotion made him beam with pride. His attention was drawn away from Noxa as Carter walked into the room and made her announcement. Then he leaned over to Noxa and whispered "Not that it matters, half the senior staff still isn't here..."

Noxa chuckled and whispered back "That's okay. The ones that matter are here."

Doctor Thaddeus Quint walked in slightly after 1000 hours, seeming unabashed at his tardiness. He was long removed from the days of being an eager officer to show up ten minutes early all the time and didn't really have much to prove given this would be(hopefully) his last tour on a starship. Though Starfleet had already made and broken that promise once. Sure enough, the room was half empty anyways, with the brass no where in sight.

"Morning," Quint grunted out, with little more than a curt nod to those already in the room. The doctor seated himself in the chair nearest to the door. Plucking a PADD from one of the pockets of his cream colored lab coat, Quint diverted his attention until the purpose of this royal summons was made clear.

Lt (jg) Harold Sherman was reading his PADD as he was reading some of the reports of what happen while he was out of action during the previous mission. He nodded toward the Doctor and smile and noticed that few others were still detained, then again they had barely finished their previous mission as they had started this mission, so it was only natural that several would be running late. Oddly the Captain was still in his meeting with the Freighter Captain now that would be conversation that would be worth listening to he was sure of.

"So, how is everyone feeling now we have fixed the great flying brick? I would like to know what is next for that thing. Dear me the computer system was tiring. Still I should not go on like this." Dicon stated in a almost forced friendly tone.

Lieutenant JG Chad Cavendish stepped into the briefing room, a few minutes after 10. Upon entering, he felt immediate relief. The CO wasn't here yet, so Chad wasn't all that late. Looking around the room, Chad saw no one he knew. Counting himself lucky that he hadn't made any eye contact with anyone yet, Chad looked back at the PADD in his hand, which displayed a progress report from the astrometrics lab. Not interested in making any conversation, Chad sat down at the nearest chair, across from Doctor Quint. Chad reclined in his chair, and continued the reading the report.

===[Bridge]===

Mackenzie was running late, which was very atypical. She stepped off the turbolift and onto the Bridge just in time to see Geisler step out of his Ready Room. "Captain."

Harvey stepped aside to allow the security detail to take D'rimo back to his quarters. "Commander," he replied sternly to his First Officer. He was sorry for his tone, but after the last conversation, he simply couldn't help himself. "I hate complications."

"Don't we all? But they can make life more interesting, right?" she offered.

With a grunt, Harvey led his XO into the Briefing Room where the staff was already assembled. He nodded to Yeoman Carter, who quickly slipped out of the room. Harvey sat at the head of the table, still fuming, and looked at the officers assembled at the table.

"Right," he said at last, folding both hands on the table. "The last couple of days have brought a bit of chaos to what should have been a peaceful integration of a new crew." He quickly scanned the new faces around the table, noting that only Lieutenant Sherman was the only person in the room that had been there before.

"Of course, as we've been learning out here in the Gamma Quadrant, nothing ever goes as planned. You've all done a fine job, reacting quickly to a crisis, even though it was nothing like what most of us have ever expected. There's a good chance everyone at this table doesn't know each other, so let's at least get that over with. I'm Harvey Geisler, Commanding Officer."

Harvey then looked to the person beside him to continue the greetings.

"Lieutenant JG Ivan Dash, Chief flight controls." Ivan stated with a small wave.

Quint briefly shook his head as he set his PADD down to the table, hoping the meeting would eventually get going. A roundtable introduction, where they back in grade school? It took some force of effort to resist rolling his eyes, but he managed.

"Doctor Thaddeus Quint, Chief Medical Officer," the doctor tersely stated, when his turn came.

"Doctor Chadwick Cavendish, Chief Science Officer," Chad said right after Quiny finished.

"Lieutenant Bridger, CAG," George piped in after Chad had finished. He looked to the next officer.

"Lieutenant (jg) Sherman, Chief Operations Officer," as he smiled as came to his turn as he waited for the others to chime in.

"Lieutenant (jg) Hictus Dicon, Chief Engineering Officer" Dicon added flatly, fiddling with the PADD he had brought in with him.

"Lieutenant Avery Stuart, Chief Counselor," Avery greeted politely. "I look forward to working with you all."

Mac was glad to see another woman in the senior staff. No reason she and Noxa should be the only ones. "Lieutenant Commander C. Mackenzie Kos. Executive Officer. Call me Mac."

"Lieutenant Noxa" said the Ferengi sharply with a intrigued gaze. "I am the ship's Chief Tactical Officer and Chief of Security."

"Now that that is concluded," Harvey said, rising to his feet and moving towards the large viewscreen beside the table, "let's get to it."

He tapped a couple buttons to access the data recovered from the X'annon. An image appeared of a space station in an asteroid field. "This is Razmena, a trading outpost where the X'annon was heading before it was attacked. According to D'rimo, the refugees we've been caring for will be delivered here to complete their entry into servitude."

Turning to the crew, he continued. "It appears that this is routine. Family members sacrificing their comforts for the survival of their loves ones. What happened a couple days ago was not." Harvey tapped another button. The screen changed to show two images, a simple Federation subspace transceiver and a small replicator.

"One month ago, the Black Hawk was sent to recover a team of archeologists. That's a long story in itself, so I won't bore anyone with it. What I will tell you was that when we arrived, we found the camp had been ransacked. The two items you see here on the screen, though we never got to confirm it, were stolen from the camp."

The smile on Sherman's face slightly faded with the mention of the first mission of the Black Hawk. Some memories he wish would stay long forgotten, but that was in the past, now they had to deal with present.

"Pardon me Commander for interrupting, but even a small replicator would be only able to manufacture very low grade weapons or a large amount of normal rations. And the transceiver can't be rebuilt into anything offensive other then perhaps a concealed transmitter. Why were they stolen?" Dicon stated softly.

"That's what Starfleet is interested in knowing, Lieutenant," Harvey replied, taking two steps away from the screen. "There's too many unknowns about the sector we're in, and still too many unknowns about the Golden Stars. Normally, this would be a job for an intelligence team."

Lt Sherman didn't like the sound of replicator being put on auction. It was small enough, where he knew it was hoped it wouldn't be missed and at most it would be annoyance at most. But there were with the replication of food could be just as dangerous as any weapons known to any cultures. In the wrong hands.

The Captain crossed his arms in front of him. "The problem is, no one knows where the transmitter or the replicator are. The X'annon was attacked as part of a search. As far as we know, both devices aren't on the X'annon. They are, however, scheduled to be auctioned to the highest bidder tomorrow afternoon. An intelligence team won't be here in time."

Looking back to the viewscreen, Harvey continued. "We know that Razmena isn't under the control of the Golden Stars, which is why the sale is happening here. There's no better chance to learn about the social climate."

Harvey moved back to the head of the table, but did not sit down. "D'rimo has reluctantly agreed to transport a small Away Team to Razmena to observe the sale and collect intelligence. Commander Kos will be leading that team."

George had been listening in to everything that the Captain was saying, even if it was a low grade replicator it still could do a world of hurt in this quadrant. Mind you if it is only being used to create food then what really is the deal in taking it back other than possibly a few minor adjustments to making it not do any weapons at all. George thought.

Avery wondered if she would be part of the team and felt torn at the thought. Though she had just arrived, she felt obligated to assist the refugees aboard and provide whatever psychological support she could. Still, as a counselor, she was used to multitasking, especially given her diverse training in clinical and forensic psychology, which had her often pulled in different directions professionally and emotionally.

"Mister Dicon, I want you with me. You'll need to work on a way to locate the stolen equipment," Mac explained. "Counselor, your insight and interspecies skills will likely prove useful. Noxa, I wouldn't dare enter such a situation without you," Mac smiled at the Ferengi woman.

"Smart woman" said Noxa with a nod directed at Mac.

"Of course, I shall start working on a method right away, how long till we arrive?" Dicon shock his head as he delivered this statement

Kos turned to the Black Hawk's helmsman. "You've left a positive impression on me Mister Dash, and I would like to provide you with some more field experience. You're with me too."

That was not what Ivan had expected to hear. As the helms man, he figured the rest of his career would be sitting squarely on his butt in front of the mail view screen. He could not even imagine what he could have done to impress the second in command as he had hardly even seen her let alone worked with her. But not one to ever look a great opportunity with a critical eye Ivan gathered his jaw off the table and said " Aye Commander Kos, I am at your disposal. I look forward to getting my feet a bit more dirty."

Harvey stood behind his chair. "Engineering and the Flight Deck teams have been working on modifying a runabout for extraction purposes. It won't be ready in time, but it'll be at the station not long behind you. I haven't selected a pilot yet, but it will be there as soon as you need it.

"That will be that project you assigned shift four to sir correct?" Muttered Dicon levelly.

"As for the rest of us," Harvey continued, "we're going to stay out of the way. There's a Class 4 Nebula roughly four lightyears away from Razmena that we'll take the opportunity to explore. I also know with the addition of the Blackjacks, our new CAG will have his hands full with integrating the squadrons."

Harvey took one more look around the room. Nodding to his staff, he announced, "The X'annon's leaving in one hour. No uniforms, nothing that says Starfleet or Federation. Good luck, everyone. Dismissed."

RSS Feed