Senior Staff Briefing - Season 6 Commencement

Posted on Wed Nov 2nd, 2022 @ 5:35am by Commodore Phoenix Lalor-Richardson & Captain Gary Taylor & Lieutenant Commander Aurelia Taylor & Commander Sthilg & Lieutenant Colonel Azhul Naxea & Commander Arrianna Salannis an Vantar & Lieutenant Commander Alicia Kelea-Salik & Lieutenant Etrara Khalten & Lieutenant Victor Barclay de Tolly & Lieutenant Commander Rin & Consul Andrinn Orin & Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Commander Kyle Reece

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Various on the USS Elysium
Timeline: MD1 01/09/2397 - 08h00
1943 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

The cargo bays were stocked full of supplies so full it reached the roofs of each bay. The supplies were for a struggling base and several colonies on the Federation/Romulan border. Commodore Lalor walked around the cargo bays, looking over each manifest and report. Operations had been her place, more so than flight control and she enjoyed the minutiae of it. She stopped and examined several boxes that contained housing materials and such for the building of new buildings. Making sure they were all there she marked off her mental checklist.

Departure was in a few hours and she wanted to be on the bridge for it. She wanted to make sure the ship was ready for anything. The Romulan neutral zone was still a place to be wary. Despite the current diplomatic ties, rogues were still around and they hit unprotected colonies at whim. But first she had to brief the Senior Staff. She had already sent out the all call and knew they should be all assembled by the time she got there. She moved to the nearest exit and headed for the turbolift.

Five minutes later she arrived in the briefing room to find her senior staff already there. “Good Morning” She said brightly as she walked into the room.This would be her first briefing as a Commodore and she wondered if the new pip would calm the natives. Knowing her luck, most likely not.

Stepping to the head of the table she glanced around at the faces. She hit the console lightly. “Okay so as most of you are aware, we have a simple task. Supply transport. Yes I know it sounds boring. But it is also a fly the flag mission. We are headed to these colonies along the Romulan neutral Zone. Deliver the materials we have stored in our overly full cargo bays, show that we are not neglecting this area of space and come back. Simple. And as it is simple, it will also be a good time for you all to undertake evaluations of your teams, run drills and the like."

Etrara put her coffee down. “Tactical is now at full strength, although we are still having meetings with other departments to see how we can integrate our responses to whatever we may, or should I say will encounter. There will now be a senior tactical officer on duty constantly.”

Captain Reece spoke up. "Well, as this mission could certainly be seen as a teachable one, I'd like to suggest that my junior and senior cadets be assigned out to the various departments, to give them practical, hands-on training of what it takes to run a starship."

Alicia nodded. “Actually that’s a good idea.” She looked towards Phoenix. “Those of us in Medical rarely get a chance to cover bridge stations, especially in an emergency. Ops was one of my specialties at the Academy, but I rarely use it. Perhaps between evaluations and appointments those in the Counselling department could spend some time brushing up on bridge operations?”

Naxea began to speak just as the life inside her dealt a swift kick as she winced from the pain. She was nearing the end of her pregnancy and the kicks were becoming stronger and more frequent. As the pain subsided, she continued. "The Marines will be practicing boarding actions. Both offensively and defensively."

Gary sat at his usual place at the table to the right of Phoenix. He listened as the others spoke and made their recommendations. Finally, there was a pause and he spoke. I cannot stress enough that we do not get complacent in both doing our jobs and thinking this is a simple mission. There is no such thing. All missions carry inherent risks, so take nothing for granted. Stress that to your people as well.

Victor who had just gotten married a few days ago on shore leave was still feeling euphoric. Smiling he spoke up, “Engineering is at top efficiency and beyond.” He looked around as he saw some were not as jovial as he was so he did his best to hide his happiness but his smile said otherwise.

" I sssee no need medical can't operate at full ssstregth." The gorn replied from his seat having just come from assigning some of his new staff to their shifts.

Orin had been sitting near the back of the room, as the Earth saying went, and was listening to everything being handed out. While they said it would be typical, Orin knew that it wasn't always the case and wanted to make sure his team was ready for anything.

"Commodore, our diplomatic team, along with our Diplomatic Protection team, are prepared for anything that might be needed of us for this mission. I know this is supposed to be run of the mill, but just in case it's not, I'll make sure that we're prepared for anything that might arise, ma'am," Orin said when there was a break in the various conversations between the Department Heads.

“Hey team,” Victor interjected, “If any of you need one of my team to support your team, just ask. I have several like Bordeaux, O’Rourke and Marcellus and Joral who have indicated to me they would want to be Chief Engineer one day and I feel ones like Jordan, Bond and Tarr have potential as well. Just helping my team to level up.”

"Aefvadh. (Be Welcome)" Lia said as she stood up, "Security has noted that various factors of our upcoming mission might compromise the safety of the ship, but that if we work alongside the Marines there shouldn't be any problems. Oh and as a side note, learning Romulan might be a good idea." She smiled at the assembled people, then sat back down.

"Can we QSD it?" Miraj asked, calculating the various routes along the RNZ in her head. "We could cut total travel time to approximately 8 hours, as opposed to weeks and weeks and weeks."

The commodore was about to speak when...

Arrianna spoke. "Using the QSD takes a toll on our central computer core's processing capability. I suggest we do not overtask Avalon." Arrianna noted. "That faster you go in any kind of space.. The more Avalon has to compensate for error based on the gravimetric calculations of our destination. The margin for error is even worse than using Warp drive." She noted. "Add to that, I am currently working with Starfleet Engineering to provide further field testing of the QSD however.. This is still experimental technology, ladies and gentlemen. I advise caution with it."

"As we have used it several times without an issue, and Starfleet had cleared our use of it." The commodore stated calmly. "Yes Ensign Derani we will be able to use it," Phoenix smiled. "That said, there will be times when we will be expected to use normal warp drive as to show the flag."

Andrinn pipped in and asked, "What's the QSD? I'm assuming it has to do with some computer technology, but since I'm one of the newest people onboard, I haven't had all the time to catch up on the technical parts of the ship yet."

"Quantum slipstream drive" The Commodore said. "Basically Earth to say DS9 in hours rather than days. Ensign Derani here is one of only a few qualified to pilot a ship with it."She glanced at Miraj, "Which reminds me, I'd like a few more people trained on it. Can you organise that Ensign?"

"Sol to DS9 is approximately 13 minutes with our QSD,. 63 light years at 5 lightyears a minute." She gave Andrin a bright, slightly manic grin. "She''s fast." Then she looked at the commodore and shrugged. "I can train them. I'm not certified to validate anyone else as qualified." She needed more hours on the QSD herself for that. And putting more bodies through her stick-control simulator would probably generate a lot more evidence for that little project., maybe even enough she could talk the commodore in permitting a conversion of the helm.

Arri spoke. "Aside from the technological challenges, that would be quite the day if I do say so myself. One hour I would be on earth having lunch at Siskos.. and the next I'd be cleaning out Quark with how well I could theoretically count cards." She gave a smirk.

Miraj leaned back in her seat. "Say the word, I'll be your chauffeur. I can get you to Risa for happy hour too, if you don't stay too long at Quarks."

Etrara put up her hand. “I would be very much up for it Miraj.” She said quietly.

"Virgin for me please. Me and my kin have formidable intellects, Not so well wehn we consume intoxicants." Arri noted.

Seeing the conversation again start to swerve, Phoenix cleared her throat. "I expect every department to work together. We leave in 12 hours at 19h00. Get your teams on board, get your newbies settled in. Cargo bays are full. Senior staff are to be on the bridge for departure."

Gary looked out at the assembled officers, "You all know what needs to be done, so get it done and get it done right. No rush jobs."

Naxea nodded before pushing herself up to a standing position, unable to keep in a grunt as she did so. 'Make way for the whale,' she thought as she waddled her way towards the exit. 'My body better return to normal after this,' she finished her thought.

Watching Naxea, Lia now walked over to her. "When's the big day then? Are you looking forwards to it?"

"I have about four weeks left and yes, I am certainly looking forward to it, it can't come soon enough," Naxea replied. She was happy to have a child on the way, but she also hated not being able to train and deploy with her Marines.

Andrinn gathered his own items and headed towards the door to make his own departure. Heading to the nearest turbolift, Andrinn was kept quiet and listened to the conversations around him. He knew that he was still a newbie and wasn't familiar with many of the crew yet. Maybe this mission would help out with getting to know more of the crew better.

Rin approached Gary as the officers disbanded. "Sir, I need to be collecting a good amount of intel along that border," she said quietly but casually. "Rendezvousing with agents on planet, downloading data from sensors along the zone's borders. I just need the opportunities to do it discreetly. Agents can disembark handling cargo. I can get you a trajectory what will put us in range of the applicable sensors. Do you need anything else from me?"

Gary moved away from the others, taking Rinn with him. He listened as she laid out her plans for Intel. When she had finished, He spoke. "Sounds good Rin as always." The Intel chief always had her act together. Gary loved dealing with a professional. "Have the agents in the bays, doing as you suggested handling cargo. Get me the trajectory. If you have and issues or run into unforeseen problems, come to me straight away and I'll get them handled and out of your way, so you won't have any further issue with them."

"Thank you, sir."

"Of course Rin. Glad to help you." Gary answered.

“Rin,” Victor asked, “Do you need help of an engineer?”

"I'm sorry, with what?" Rin asked.

“Considering what you do,” Victor asked, “Like anything to do with sensors or equipment?”

Rin nodded. "I'd appreciate help calibrating the sensors, thank you."

“Sure,” Victor answered with a smile.