Senior Briefing

Posted on Mon Jul 24, 2017 @ 4:15pm by Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Xylia Lischka & Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant Colonel S'er'in'e & Lieutenant Marisa Cheshire & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant Commander Kelani Tetanal & Lieutenant Gilah & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes

Mission: Strange Matter
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: MD 27 || 0900 Hours

The call had gone out to all senior staff to report to the Ready Room and the newly minted Commodore stood at the head of the conference table which was black at this point in time. He held a coffee cup in his hand as the last person to come in the room, then he looked at Lieutenant Lischka and gave a nod.

"Let's hear what you found out, Lieutenant," he said before he looked at the other assembled senior officers. "For those of you who don't know, Lieutenant Lischka is our new Mission Advisor and will be giving the briefing today."

Xylia rose to her feet and moved to the head of the table where the Captain once stood. It felt odd to her being collared in red instead of her usual gold, and that was going to take some getting used to. "Thank you, Captain," she said, offering him a polite smile before looking back to the faces present. "Our new orders have come through from Starfleet."

She paused briefly to look down at the PADD in her hand she'd taken some notes on. "A Nova Class starship was on a mission to the Belkan’s Drift asteroid field in the Gavarian Corridor. Their mission was to confirm the rumored existence of a dark matter asteroid within the already mapped out Drift."

En route, they picked up a repetitive signal between the Drift and the Romulan border. Since the nature of their current mission demanded no deviation from their course, they took what little scans they could and reported them to Starfleet Command," the new Mission Advisor spoke, watching the faces of those in front of her. This was the second time she was standing up here like this, and it was just a little less nerve wracking than the first time.

"Starfleet Command know that the Triumphant can handle herself in an engagement, and that her crew can handle themselves in a diplomatic situation if something were to happen with the Romulans, they've dispatched us. What little information they have has been passed on to us, and we've been ordered to investigate further," the German woman continued. "Once our mission is complete, we are to leave all information, samples, scans and the like with the Nova class ship."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Lischka," Michael said. "You can take a seat for the moment." The Commodore looked around the table at his fellow officers before his spoke again.

"I know that some of you have had dealing with the Romulans in the past and that since Romulus was destroyed, they've been desperately trying to rebuild the Empire. As such, they've been known to go to great lengths to claim everything they can and we can be assured that we'll be up with them at one point. If and when that happens, I want everyone to be at their most diplomatic."

Kelani had listened quietly and attentively to the briefing. Now she spoke, asking, "Was any analysis done to the material the other starship gathered? Also, if or when we contact the Romulans, how likely will it be that they may become--belligerent?"

S'er'in'e sat near the opposite end of the table away from anyone else for a variety of reasons. With the amount of females in the room it would only be a matter of time before a headache set in because of the mixed scents and his bonding process to Kasia in full swing. His size meant that in a standard chair his bulk of frame meant he was close to the person next to him which if it were a female would be unacceptable to touch without permission, and helped avoid any unfortunate accidents with his tail being trodden on as is hung behind him.

By contrast the ship's highest ranking Klingon Doctor Gilah had made the right side of the table her own as soon as she had entered the room. Having already stared down any curious looks she placed herself slap bang in the middle of that side, her perfectly manicured fingers interlocked in a pyramid that rested on her lap, her elbows wide on the arm-rest of the chair. Her position still and straight ahead she turned only her head to follow whomever was speaking, largely ignoring everyone else in the room.

Michael looked at Kelani. "The first is unknown until we get there, Lieutenant. The second is anyone's guess. The Romulans are still fighting for control of what could loosely be called their Empire and while one may readily accept our assistance in exchange for goods at an uneven exchange, another may be completely hostile."

"So when you say diplomatic," Marisa said, leaning back in her chair with her arms folded. "Do you still want us maintaining the CCZ (Carrier Control Zone) around the Triumphant?"

"Yes, Lieutenant," Michael said to Cheshire. "But do not fire unless fired upon."

Master Chief Barnes adjusted his posture in his chair as he listened to the mission briefing. All in all, it seemed like a relatively simple matter, but he couldn't help but recall the events of their last encounter with the unknown. "Operations will be ready," he stated. "We've implemented some new computer protocols that should safeguard us from anything new we find, and I'll make sure our defensive systems always have additional power on standby."

"Given how close we'll be to the borders, I want every sweep possible done to detect cloaked ships," Michael told Barnes before he looked at the Security and Tactical Chiefs.

"Lieutenant Cusack, are the internal and external defenses upgraded to your satisfaction to prevent another mishap like last time?"

With all of the planned upgrades installed and thoroughly tested Martha was happy to proceed. She was sat in the far corner of the room reading information on her PADD.

Martha nodded. "Yes. I've updated everything we have to the latest versions and they've been tested three times. I'm satisfied with the results of the tests we've carried out. We also have a protocol which will automatically close off any part of the ship where there is any unauthorised weapons fire"

"Lieutenant Mallory, I want double patrols established at all critical areas on the ship," Michael said. "If you suspect anything of going wrong, secure the area immediately."

Douglas had been following everything closely. The conversation about being diplomatic raised an internal conflict in his mind. On one hand, he was the Protector, trained and charged with safeguarding the lives under his watch. On the other hand, he had also been trained as a diplomat, keeping peaceful contact as long as possible. The conflict arose when being diplomatic might endanger those he was sworn to protect. But the ca-commodore, he noticed, had covered that.

As to doubling the detail guarding sensitive areas, he considered that par for the course when going into places that were known to be potentially hostile. "Understood, sir." he answered, sending messages to those he wanted on those guard details even as he spoke. "My people are already moving on it, sir."

"Lieutenant Rho, I want you to check for any new updates from that area for Romulan activity," Michael said.

Alex had been listening to everything that was going on and taking it all in. "That I can do," said the Intel Chief. He wasn't quite sure if he'd find a lot or just a little. After all, they were trying to get their hands on what they could and that could have made a lot of 'noise.' But then again, they had always been a secretive group.

Michael turned his attention to the Chief of Science. "Lieutenant Tetanal, are all the sensors upgraded?"

"Yes, sir,". Kelani answered after referring to her PADD. "The tests show them to be running at peak efficiency." She paused for a moment, then asked, "Shall I begin long range scans of the area?"

"Is the new upgrades to Sickbay sufficient for your needs, Lieutenant....Gilah?" Michael asked the Klingon woman, not entirely sure of the pronunciation of her name and pronounced it Gee-lah.

Gilah's Slightly crazy eyes had settled on the Commodore at the mention of sickbay and had got progressively crazier, firstly as he had referred to her as Lieutenant and secondly as Geelah.

"Gilah." She corrected him in a low tone, her lips moving around clenched teeth in a typically Klingon fashion. "Doctor Gilah. With an I. As in fight.... or die."

Her voice remained calm and her face fairly neutral apart from her eyes which suggested that there was a chance at any moment she might leap across the conference table and rip the Commodore's head off.

Despite the look in the Klingon woman's eyes, Michael had to admire her boldness and inclined his head to her. "My apologies, Doctor Gilah," he said and pronounced her name correctly. "Have you found Sickbay accommodating to your needs?"

Gilah's eyes returned to their normal level of crazy and she continued in a more measured fashion.

"The upgrades were completed and are functioning as expected. The EMO has also had its... ,personality… removed." Something she said with a look of extreme distaste, brightening slightly at her next comment. "The facilities are… impressive…for a starship. They will work well. Whether the medical staff are equally capable remains to be seen." This was intoned as pure fact, something entirely irrefutable.

"Good news about the EMH," Michael said. "It was rather...interesting."

"Colonel S'er'in'e," Michael said to the huge Marine Caitian as he retrieved a PADD to hand to him. "You have different orders. You're to take Major Patrova, Second Lieutenant Aravan and no more than three fireteams in Victorious and go to Tolara Prime. A group calling themselves the Freedom of Alien Rights' Group have kidnapped the daughter and wife of an official and are threatening them if he doesn't step down from office. The details are on the PADD."

S'er'in'e looked over the information he was given and read through it in depth. He wanted to make sure he understood the tasking profile. "A few questions if I may." He spoke, the softer tone bringing out the feline inflections in his voice. "Are there any Starfleet political concerns I should be aware of? What are my rules of engagement? Am I authorised to eliminate hostile forces or capture preferred for legal trial purposes?" S'er'in'e knew the intricacies of missions which held a political element, he'd been engaged in them many times in his past.

"Here's where it gets tricky, Colonel," Michael said as he addressed the huge Caitian. "Technically, we're not supposed to be there at all. However, it is preferred that you capture the enemy if you can. Observe them for twenty-four hours and then decide on your plans of attack. You'll be alone out there and unsanctioned despite having official orders. That's why we're just sending you and a small team. The Victorious will be your base of operations and backup."

This was not the first time S'er'in'e was in a situation where he was not supposed to be where he was going. "If we do get into an engagement it will leave signs of our presence, are there any concerns regarding collateral damage after an intelligence sweep for information?" It was easier to destroy a place to remove traces than leave it standing and considering explosives were common, it would not be hard to conceal Starfleet presence.

"I'm certain that you'll figure out the right thing to do, Colonel," Michael said, but gave him a direct look that said 'sanitize it if needed', but he couldn't say it out loud. "That's why you're a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the Marines here."

S'er'in'e was experienced enough to read between the lines, zero trace, in and out, hostages, prisoners were optional. "Understood."

"So what kind of signal is it?" Marisa piped up after she was sure the matter of operational organisation had been concluded "Are we talking about standard EMF, some kind of subspace waveform, or something else entirely?"

"A Romulan distress call," Xylia answered since she was the one who got their mission details. "The call that was sent out is encoded, which is why the Nova class vessel thought it as nothing more than a repetitive signal. Why they didn't investigate it further is beyond me, but that's what we're for."

Marisa had to stifle a chuckle. She would say with relative certainty that the crew of the Nova did investigate further and subsequently wiped their records so as not to have violated Star Fleets policy on answering distress calls. She didn't mention any of this though, an encoded distress probably indicated it was a black operation, and more than a science vessel was able to cope with. "Sure is a mystery." She said with a slight smile as she took on a thoughtful inflection. "None the less, if it's encoded there's a good chance it's covert military, doubly so if it's near the Romulan DMZ. If it's an on going operation" She looked towards Rho "I'd expand your search to include civilian transports. Look at their flight routes and see if you notice a tendency for them to do a course deviation in a 5 light year radius from the signal location. That's generally enough to not draw the attention of Sec-Com's analysts."

The Commodore looked over at Cheshire and raised an eyebrow. "While I'm certain that our Chief of Intelligence knows his job very well, Lieutenant Cheshire, let's let him handle the various aspects of it, especially since we don't know what is going on, which is why we're going to check."

Marisa swallowed a little, composing herself as she shifted her attention to the commodore. "I'm sure he does sir, but I'd rather make a fool out of myself at the briefing table than ignore what instinct and experience is telling me and loose lives as a result." She made sure her cadence was even and slightly self deprecating so as not to challenge the Commodore's authority, though there was a glimmer of defiance in her eyes.

Maddy, who had been fairly quiet, chose now speak up and address the situation at hand. "Miss Cheshire... I can assure you Mister Rho knows exactly what his job entails, just as you know exactly what yours does. He does not sit in the middle of a briefing and tell you which flight path you and your pilots should take to search for something," she stated. "Leave handing out assignments to the Command staff, and try to refrain from doing this in the future."

Marisa would actually welcome a bit of extra information from intelligence, if they had any information that made doing her job easier she'd take it, then again she would find too much interference annoying. "I didn't mean to encroach on anyone else's position. Like I said I was just speaking my mind, and making suggestions inline with the Commodore's orders."

"Suggestions which I will take into consideration as I manage the Intelligence department as the Chief Intelligence Officer," said Alex. "And as Second Officer, I suggest that your pilots keep their eyes open for all types of ships, whether Romulan military, Romulan civilian, or anyone else that may have also picked up the signal. As far as Sec-Com's analysts, I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't know how to not draw attention to myself."

"Understood." Marisa said finally. Though she made a mental note to ambush the Lieutenant for more information about the little holes Sec-Com protocols after the briefing.

Michael watched Cheshire, then looked at Rho before he let his gaze travel over the rest of the senior officers. "As soon as we get more information, you'll be the first to have it," he said. "For now, you're all dismissed."

Alex stood and took a couple steps back from the table. With all of the work that he and Hartley had in front of them in determining the activities of a post-Hobus Romulan, he activated his transporter armband. The Intel Chief had no time for a walk down to Deck Forty-Four. If they were going to get ahead of this, he couldn't waste any time. He dematerialized from the conference room.

With no time to be wasted Martha stood up from her seat and decided to return to her office to get back to work. There were plenty of things that needed to be dealt with and Martha wanted to make sure they were finished by the time she was needed on the bridge. Making sure she had everything before departing on foot the Tactical Chief made a brisk departure from the briefing room.

Tom had maintained his silence throughout the briefing. His function was operations, and while he didn't have any specific orders, he knew he'd have to do his best to support everyone during this mission. Tom pushed his chair back, stood, and left the Ready Room, as he had much to accomplish. There were two ships to prepare, and that would be no easy task.

Kelani gathered her PADD and rose, plans already forming as she considered this mission. It seemed atraightforward, but so had the last one.

With a respectful nod to the Commodore, she left the Ready Room and moved to the main lab to brief her people.

Seeing that the party was breaking up S'er'in'e rose himself and picked up the PADD that he was handed which contained within the brief of his orders. All he had to do now was brief his officers and select his team. The doors opened and to no surprise a slight duck lest he bang his head on the frame as he walked out.

Douglas acknowledged the Commodore's dismissal, stood with his PADD and exited the briefing. He had sent his people to their tasks when the order had been initially given, and he trusted his people to be on task. He would, however, still check. One in his position, with the security of the ship on their shoulders, never assumed.