Mission Briefing

Posted on 10 Feb 2015 @ 3:49am by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Emily Carter & Commander C. Kos & Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Hictus Dicon & Lieutenant Avery Stuart Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Ken Rogers & Lieutenant JG Perei

2,750 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Boarded
Location: USS Black Hawk || Conference Room, Deck 3
Timeline: MD 1 - 1450 hours

When the turbolift stopped, Mac stepped off and walked down the abbreviated corridor to the Observation Lounge's rear entrance. As she approached the doors, they swooshed open. For the first time in her career, MacKenzie Kos was the first one to arrive for a staff meeting. She entered the room and stood, gazing out the window at the starscape.

Jayla bounded into the observation lounge, cheerful as always. She grinned even wider- if that were possible- when she spotted who she thought was the ship's XO by the window. "Good afternoon, sir," she said cheerfully, joining her at the window and beaming out at the stars. "Or do you prefer ma'am? Or Commander?"

Looking at her new viewing 'buddy', Kos quickly sized her up. As Executive Officer, she was kept appraised of all crew changes, so she knew who the newcomer was, though she had not met her yet. "Both 'Commander' and 'sir' are acceptable based on regulations," she responded, keeping her face neutral. "Use of either while on duty is appropriate."

"Very well, then, Commander, sir," said Jayla with a grin. "Anything interesting out there?"

"Loads. Just not here," Kos said, her mouth curling in a smirk. "I'm sorry that we haven't had a chance to meet sooner Doctor. I'm Lieutenant Commander MacKenzie Kos, Executive Officer."

"Quite all right, sir," said Jayla, still grinning. "Doctor Jayla Kij. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Lt. JG Ken Rogers was in a hurry; first deposting his gear in his quarters, then hurrying off to his first on board briefing. After a quick run around the ship and cornering a few folks for directions, he had found the room. Upon entering, Rogers forgot to duck. "Ouch!" He yelled out loud. He shook his head, then sought out the Captain. Not seeing him at the moment, he smiled and the spoke to the group. "Hello everyone, I guess I'm your new CSO." Rogers took a seat. " I should introduce myself - Lieutenant JG Kenwood Rogers, but please call me Ken, when we're off duty." Rogers gave a shy grin and then began to read over his padd. He looked up at the Doctor. "Mam, I would have headed over to SickBay for my 'boarding' check up, but right after I arrived, I heard the summons, and thought it best to come here first. If you'd like, I can drop by anytime after this for my physical?"

"Whenever you've got time is fine, I'm sure," said Jayla, turning her winning grin on the science officer. "I haven't got anything planned except paperwork for this afternoon, so a physical would be a welcome distraction."

Rogers flashed a grin back at the Doc. "Mam, if there is nothing Earthshattering behind this meeting, I'll report 1/2 after it. That ok?"

"That'll be just fine," beamed Jayla. "I'll make sure we're ready for you."

"Nice smile," Ken thought to himself.

Dicon, for the second time that year, was late. He despised lateness in his staff; and had expended a great number of words in saying so. He hurried into the meeting room, glanced around; failed to spot the Captain and sagged slightly. He nodded at the table and again for the second time, placed the slight less the mountainous stack of PADD's on the table. He glanced around again and spotted the commander, standing alongside Commander Jayla. He strode over and smiled; a rare event. "Greetings Commander, and Commander."

Eric walked into the Briefing room and looked at those that had gathered so far, he nodded to them and then took a seat near the end of the table.

Jayla grinned, first at the familiar face of Dicon, then at the newcomer whom she had yet to meet. "Hi, again," she said to Dicon. "Had a good morning?"

Dicon grimaced. "Mostly boring, more repairs and tune ups then one could shake a Sonic-screwdriver at." Dicon winked at Jayla. He now turned toward Kos, "Commander, I have a report you might find extremely interesting, may I stick my head in with you after the meeting? Providing you are not at all busy?"

"It just so happens that I have half an hour to fill right after the meeting," replied Jayla, her grin turning sparkly. "Speaking of which, we should probably take our seats. We've got about half a minute before the meeting starts.

Avery entered the conference room and quickly slid into her seat. She offered a polite smile to the new CMO and looked forward to a time when she could get to know her better.

Normally, Harvey preferred to hold his briefings in the room adjacent to the bridge. With the addition of several new senior officers, and knowing that there was little time for them to have settled in so far, he had chosen a different location. Deck Three was relatively quiet as his stroll down the corridor showed him. Beside him walked Petty Officer Carter. Though she was no longer his yeoman, it was her assistance in the last month that had developed Harvey's plan to further the investigation. As such, she would help share some information.

Harvey was a punctual person, and just as he planned, the doors to the Conference Room opened at precisely 1500 hours. The Captain walked in and set his PADD at the head of the table, but did not sit. Emily sat near the middle of the table to patiently wait her turn.

"Good afternoon," Harvey said, calling the meeting to order. As the standing officers took their seats, he continued, "Before we begin, I want to commend all of you. Today is a day of transition for the Black Hawk, and an uneasy one at that. I see we have a few new faces today," Harvey looked quickly at Kij, Moore and Rogers, "and we're grateful. Hopefully, the rest of the transition will remain smooth, and I'm counting on all of us to make that possible."

Harvey folded his arms behind his back. "We'll forgo the introductions as I know there is still a lot of work to be done. For those who have just joined us, 2388 has been an interesting year. Our missions have been far from routine, and I feel we've just gotten started."

Picking up his PADD, the Captain moved to the large display screen that was beside the table. With one tap of a button, the presentation he'd prepared instantly appeared on the screen. "Two months ago, we first encountered an organization known as the Golden Stars. They had a vested interest in one of our research stations. As it turns out, our researchers had stumbled on a powerful and ancient weapon, which we have permanently disabled. Our station, however, had been raided by these Golden Stars. Among the stolen items were a replicator and subspace transceiver."

Harvey tapped another button. "In the time that followed, we happened upon a string of hit-and-runs by the Golden Stars involving several freighters belonging to the Golden Stars. What we found aboard one of the freighters was simply disturbing."

The display changed to several images of the refugees they'd recovered. "Our first true insight to these sectors of space came from these individuals who were indentured. Each one entered their service knowingly and willingly, and doing so to ensure a certain quality of life for their families. As it seems, life in these sectors is rough and difficult. We also learned that the Golden Stars organized to ensure a certain quality of life after the Dominion withdrew. It still left us with quite a few questions and a deeper mystery."

Another button was pushed and the image of a space station appeared. "We tracked the stolen replicator and transceiver to Razmena, a trading outpost. A team attached to Commander Kos, our first officer, observed the sale of the items to a mysterious group called the Syndicate. We did not learn very much about them, and I'm sure more information could have been obtained at the cost of a few of our officers."

Rogers held up a hand. "Captain, it *sounds* like these 'Golden Stars' folks are in the 'Protection' racket, to use an 20th Centuary Earth term; i.e.. ' You pay *us* what we want, we'll make sure 'nothing' happens to you?' " Rogers then cocked his head to the left. "Sir, do we know that they still have the replicator, and the means to use it? Even a 'replicator' needs servicing every so often - if they don't have a way to work on it, it's only good for them as long as it works and if they can 'plug' it into their ship's systems."

Dicon muttered "Protection...."

"Actually," Harvey said, realizing his accidental omission, "Commander Kos and the team were able to recover the stolen goods. We have run some tests on them since their recovery and did find that there were attempts to extract frequencies and weapons construction, among other experiments."

Rogers spoke again. "Captain, 'attempts' but nothing pirated?"

"Not that we can tell," Harvey replied. "It's likely that they did, but there's no way to confirm or deny."

Harvey crossed his arms and added, "And that's all we know. I can't speak for the rest of you who have been aboard for a while, but I haven't slept well since we first encountered the X'annon. I may be a Captain, but medicine is my first duty. I cannot help but think about what is transpiring out here on the fringe. We may be one ship, and since the Gamma Quadrant is a bit outside of the red-tape jurisdiction in the Alpha Quadrant, we owe it to those we've encountered before to at least ascertain the situation. I intend to make a full report to Starfleet when we're done, but until then, we're going to be on our own."

He paused to let that sink in for a moment.

Rogers sat back in his chair, slowly nodding his head and looking over the others seated around the table. "Sounds like an interesting ship and mission," He mulled over in his head.

Jayla nodded in agreement. She couldn't think of anything to say that would be important, though, so she kept her mouth shut- but grinning, of course.

Avery had been present for the 'excitement' that was the Razmena mission, and she was glad to be in one piece. She was sorry she missed offering shelter and care to the refuges, but she hoped to be able to offer similar support in the future. It was the sort of mission she believed in. "I'm proud of our efforts to help the vulnerable thus far. Alone or not, I'd like to believe it's what we signed up for."

Eric listened to everything that was being said, he certainly was in for an interesting ride on the Black Hawk. He typed some things into a PADD to go over later with his Security Department about things they have noticed about the tactics of these Golden Stars.

"What we're about to do is officially off the record. There aren't any orders to defy, but there won't be anyone looking for us either." He looked over to Petty Officer Carter and nodded.

Emily rose from her feet and traded places with the Captain. "While our crews were repairing the X'annon a few weeks ago," she began with her British accent and entering a sequence of commands into the display's controls, "I was able to retrieve quite a bit of data from their core, strictly navigational. That's how we learned the location of Razmena. I've been able to restore their course for the last six months."

At that moment, a map of four sectors appeared on the screen. Several navigational points plotted themselves on the screen. "As you can see," Emily said, gesturing to a massive golden nebula in one sector, "over seventy percent of the X'annon's stops were in this area. We believe this is part of the Golden Stars' territory."

"And where they definitely picked up the indentured servants before heading for Razmena," Harvey added, standing at the head of the table. "That's where we'll be starting. Officially, Starfleet believes that we'll be exploring this nebula, which we will as we continue our investigation. Mister Rogers, you'll have to make sure we come back with some interesting data. Unofficially... well I hope you all get the picture."

Rogers look at the Captain. "Yes sir." He replied, his mind already contemplating at the thought at getting his 'hands wet' on the Hawk's equipment.

Dicon, after shuffling through the PADD's and handed two to Rogers. "Here, list of equipment and an a inventory of all maintenance carried out."

Rogers began to look over the PADD's. He turned back to Dicon. "Sir, all this was taken?"

Dicon nodded. "All of it I and two assistants could catalog."

"Those fellows have been very busy." Rogers replied with a somber grin. "It doesn't 'appear' to be any material that one would use for martial exercises, yet their being able to construct weapons via this.." Rogers went silent and he continued to read. He then loooked up at the Captain. "Sir, what 'interesting finds' should I put in my 'official' report?"

"I'm sure we'll find those along the way," the Captain replied to Rogers.

Dicon smiled without humor "This gets more interesting by the day. Oh and Captain I have some very interesting news for us. May I borrow the projector for a moment?"

Harvey gestured at the screen, granting the engineer's request. Emily returned to her seat as well.

Dicon stood, and in doing so grasped a PADD he had left by itself. He strode to the projector and began inputting a large amount of information into its panel. It began displaying a cutaway of a Golden Stars starship, moving to a x-ray of the ships wing mounted cannons. He sighed and spoke thusly. " I had a great time pulling the data of the Freighter, its computer core was none too cooperative but I have the following interesting data. It seems our Golden Sun boys have been borrowing a great deal of technologies from the Cardassian's. The weapons employed are a variation on their spiral-wave disruptors. An interesting thing to note about these weapons, they are harmonizing, in that after three connecting blows the shields a bored ship were about as effective as paper in a warp-core. " Dicon breathed out again, having not exhaled throughout the minor speech.

Rogers wanted to jump out of his seat, but kept still as the Golden Stars ship was displayed before him and the others.

Perei hesitated to step into the meeting. She felt a bit unsure as to why she should be allowed in the meeting as the chief of her department was already there. She was going to snap to attention but felt that would be out of place. Her voice light as she spoke "Lieutenant junior grade Perei reporting for duty."

Harvey was momentarily taken aback, wondering why the woman had joined the meeting. He didn't recognize her, though his study on the manifest for new arrivals did indicate only one Vulcan was joining the crew. "Welcome aboard, Lieutenant," Harvey calmly said, gesturing towards an open seat next to the Chief Science Officer.

Perei nodded politely "Thank You, Captain" she moved to take the offered seat next to someone that she had only seen as a profile as crew, she smiled slightly at him and sat down. Perei crossed her legs, listened and waited. The newest member of the crew expected to have a continued conversation with the Captain after the briefing if available.

Rogers leaned over to Perei. "We'll chat in the Science Department after the briefing."

Harvey then turned back to Dicon and commented, "Thanks for that analysis, Lieutenant." If nothing else, that knowledge simply proved the effectiveness of the Golden Stars' scavenging skills. There were plenty of Cardassian ships and debris in the Gamma Quadrant. Knowing how easily Federation technology had been confiscated, it'd be hard to imagine what they hadn't procured from others.

"We'll certainly have to keep an eye out for anything, especially if we'll have to draw from every page in the playbook." Harvey sighed, thinking this mission could be a little more daunting than he thought.

"If there's nothing else," Harvey said, taking a couple steps towards the viewscreen, "then it's time to prepare to hoist the anchor. We depart at 1700 hours. Report to your stations."

~FIN~

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