Into the Fold

Posted on Mon Apr 20th, 2009 @ 11:03am by Captain Elsie Halliwell & Lieutenant Commander Wesley Kemmer & Lieutenant Jack Parsons & Lieutenant Cress Maven & Lieutenant JG Ador Shran & Ensign Turoc & Lieutenant JG Lucy Carter & Master Warrant Officer Sam Jackson

3,088 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
Location: Briefing Room, Deck 1
Timeline: Current

ON:

Commander Lane sat in briefing room on Deck 1 alone. He had paced around the table three times in an anticlockwise direction, slowly padding out his thoughts, before he sat down and took to his black coffee with reverence.

A Senior Staff briefing had been a long time in coming, and even though he knew what was developing in each department, he had realised over the course that maybe the other departments did not. Communication was key to the success of not only this mission, but to the Archimedes as a whole.

Tapping the panel that was embedded into the grey of the table's surface, he spoke.

"Commander Arkham and Captain Harwood report to the briefing room."

Arkham groaned a little and opened her eyes as she received the page, leaning back further in her favorite chair. She'd been in that spot quite a bit lately since returning -- she was a little more sore than she liked to let on. Rising shakily, she smirked a little as she saw Alex Harwood standing in the doorway, arms folded across her chest.

"Perhaps you are getting too old for this," Harwood said, raising an eyebrow and managing a slight smirk.

"Oh, shut up," Arkham said, hobbling out into the corridor. Thankfully everything was at least a rather short walk around the science vessel-- if there was one thing Arkham had learned in ten years, it was never to allow Alex Harwood to know that she was right.

As the two women walked into the room, Lane smiled at them, forcefully. "Captain, Commander," he said, nodding. "I thought it about time we had a senior staff briefing. Introduce Captain Harwood to the crew and get a departmental breakdown of what's going on where."

"Excellent," Harwood said smoothly, as she poured the Archimedes' First officer a glass of scotch. Seeing the officer glaring at it suspiciously. "Oh, you had enough trouble getting out of your chair, and you know full well that you were going to want a glass anyway, so stop being stubborn. What difference does it make who poured it?"

Arkham gave an audible snort before taking a sip, smirking a bit. "Back to the subject at hand, indeed, it sounds like an excellent idea. The staff deserves to be apprised of the situation...as much as we can do so, anyway."

"Good," he said with a confident nod, the ghost of a smile creeping across his face.

Tapping at his combadge again, he mustered, "All senior officer's report to the briefing room for a departmental breakdown. Come prepared."

"On my way, Commander," said Brendan Dernah, new SOO on the ship.

"Aye Commander. With your permission I would like Ensign Turoc join me." Ador replied.

Lane tapped his combadge. "Agreed, Mr. Shran."

=^=Shran to Turoc meet me in the Captain's Ready Room.=^= Ador said to his com badge.

=^= Turoc acknowledged on my way.=^=

After hearing the COMM Badge go off for a senior meeting, Jack entered the nearest turbolift and headed to the briefing room. When he got there, he nodded,

"Captain...Commander", then sat down on one of the nearest seats.

Another thing packed and another check to the list, and then something happened that would break all sense of Kemmer’s timing to get to the surface of Citadel Prime; the call for a staff briefing. Commander Arkham had been back aboard the Archimedes for a little while now, and while the CIC on the surface was coping admirably with the situation, it was felt by all that someone from the Archimedes senior staff should be on the planet to supervise how far the negotiations were to go downhill.

With a call to all staff to report there, it wasn’t really necessary to respond his acceptance of the request, which would just tie up internal com traffic further. Instead, he exhaled his disapproval of the timing, placed the PADD that he held in his hands in the small case that he was to be taking with him, and left the confines of his quarters to join the briefing.

When he arrived, Mister Parsons was already there and seated, and Commander Lane was stood at the head of the table with Arkham, still sipping on the infamous scotch at a staff briefing no less to which Kemmer almost scoffed and thought ‘if you have to drink, at least keep it out of prying eyes and in personal quarters’, and one Captain Alexandra Harwood, self proclaimed Mission Advisor of the Archimedes. Without drawing too much attention to himself, he looked hard at the Captain as if the face held something familiar, nodded his greeting at the chief helmsman and approached the group, “Captain Harwood, a pleasure,� he smiled, “Lieutenant Commander Kemmer...�

“Mister Kemmer,� Harwood interjected, “yes I know who you are.� She said confidently with a hint of a smirk as the two shook hands.

“I’m sure you do...� Kemmer said, his smile fading, seeing something in Harwood’s eyes though couldn’t quite place it. He was usually a good judge of character and knew when someone was being insincere or when they had something to hide, being very good on the matter himself, but this one he couldn’t quite lock into place, though knew something was amiss. Turning to Lane, he went on nonchalantly, “I do hope this won’t take long, I’m sure you know I need to get to the surface.� Finally nodding to Arkham, “I hope you’re feeling better.�

Arkham smirked a little, sipping at her drink. She could sense Mr. Kemmer's disapproval -- it was all too clear, what the officer was feeling, and Arkham knew why. "Better is one word, I suppose, Mr. Kemmer. Another would be--"

Harwood silenced Arkham with a look, while Kemmer imperceptibly noticed the slight eye movements of Commander Arkham, knowing what just happened but drawing a blank at this present time as to why. Wordlessly, Harwood and Arkham seemingly argued through glances for several moments before Arkham said, managing a slight smirk the belayed a possible hint of congeniality, she said simply, "Yes, Mr. Kemmer. Hopefully I'll be completely up and about relatively soon."

“Good.� Kemmer said simply, but without any real emotion attached to the word, and a brief exchange of glances were given by the four officers. Something wasn’t right here and it seemed that anyone with half a brain could see it, but maybe that was his Intelligence background and paranoid nature coming out for a breath of fresh, if a little stifled air.

Lane looked at his second officer and smiled. "I hope it won't, Wes," he said, looking about the room not exactly filling up with his staff. "In fact, I called this meeting to catch you before you left. I, as much as you, no doubt, want you on that surface sharpish."

“I guess we each go where we’re needed, sir.� Kemmer replied, never really taking his eyes from Captain Harwood until the last possible moment before he attended his own private corner of the briefing room.

Ador marched in to the room and stood off to one side and eyed the new arrival with a suspicious eye. He did not like surprises. "Commander reporting as ordered, Sir." He said as he came to attention.

"Take a seat, Mr. Shran, if you please," Lane offered with a smile.

"Aye Sir." Shran said as he stalked to a seat directly across from the newcomer sporting the Captain's pips. Something was off with this one and he wanted to figure out what.

"Commander my wife has a get well gift for you. She wanted me to let you know that she will be dropping it by. It's a bottle of Andorian Ale." He said quietly to Commander Arkham.

As Brendan walked into the room, he took note of all the high rankers there and wondered what he had gotten himself into. "Commanders, Captain," he said to the already assembled. 'Lord, you could cut the tension in here with a laser scalpel.' he thought to himself clamping down on his mind to keep from being brought to his knees with all the raw emotions in this room.

Ensign Carter slipped quietly into the room and was immediately hit by the sharp whiff of alcohol coming from Commander Arkham's area. She made a mental note to invite the Commander to her office for a chat about the past week's events and also the problem Arkham seemed to have developed.

Mabren walked into the conference room reading a PaDD that he had went back to get, he was concerned about the end result of the testing on the contaminated gel back. Looking around the room, he noticed that Commander Arkham had a drink. Again. Unable to stop his reaction, he glared at the Commander and her drink before taking a seat and resuming his reading.

Commander Lane sighed heavily and picked up his tall glass of water, beaded with condensation on the outside, and took a small sip. As the small teardrops of water slid effortlessly down the glass surface of the beaker, it collected at its base and hung heavily at the bottom before making a break for it, and hit the tabletop. He tapped his combadge again and looked out blankly across the reflective table.

"Commander Lane to Lieutenant Sheedy. When I requested all senior personnel to report to the briefing room, I meant all senior personnel, and that means you, too!"

Skanda's impulse was to snap back at the man calling her away from her work, but she smothered that one quickly. He was, after all, the Commander of the ship. So she put down her work, albeit reluctantly, and stalked out of engineering without a word to anyone. She didn't even let Commander Lane know she was coming.

Gliding through the doors of the briefing room, the yellow-eyed lieutenant sat down and looked over at Lane. "Sorry 'm la'e." Her tone indicated that she was anything but, but it was polite to say so anyway.

"Nice of you to join us, Chief," the Trill replied, snapping her a look.

Moments later Sam followed her through the door "Sorry I'm late sir"

Lane simply nodded and motioned to the free seat.

With the distraction of the Chief Engineering and Operations Officer's arrivals, few in the room noticed as Larkin slid in behind them. Had anyone taken note of him, they would have seen the perplexed expression that consumed his face. He was surprised to see that Mabren had managed to arrive before him, as the doctor had broken off to collect some data regarding their experiment. The scientist didn't think that he had been dawdling, but perhaps the man moved very quickly.

As Turoc entered the room, he stood attention. "Ensign Turoc reporting," he said as he looked at Andor. "Sorry it took so long, sir. I was finishing up some training evals when you called."

Clearing his throat, he looked out at the faces that adorned the boardroom. Faces he had come to know over the past weeks, and faces that just joined his relatively small crew. "People," he said, flicking his eyes from one person to the next, "let's get this started, shall we? Mr. Kemmer needs to make a break for the surface as soon as we are done here, so I would like to get this over with as quickly as possible. As you can see, we have a few new faces onboard with us. I'd like to introduce you all to Lieutenant Brendan Dernah. He is the Archimedes' new Strategic Operations Officer, and has been posted aboard due to the recent events that have transpired in the Citadel Tower." The Trill motioned over to Dernah, and smiled.

"Thank you, Commander, for the warm welcome. I am looking forward to serving with each and everyone of you," Brendan said with true sincerity.

Ador eyed the new officer and gave him a nod. He was sizing up the man to see what kind of warrior he was. He hoped that he was not another fleetie too big for his britches. But he got the feeling he was not.

anyone

"Also," he continued, "aligned in that same thread, we have a Federation Mission Advisor: Captain Alexandra Harwood, here. She is a guest aboard the Archimedes and I trust you to treat her with the respect I know you all to posses."

"Thank you, Commander Lane," Harwood said coolly, She had noticed the Commander's tone, but was not feeling arguing with him, especially not in front of his crew. Turning to them, Harwood said, "Indeed, I am Captain Harwood, and I am here to represent the interests of the Federation in the Citadel Sectors. I will provide you with as much information as I can manage, and to assist you in any way that I can. Likewise, I expect your cooperation. Any questions?"


"Commander Lane, can you give me a little background on the species of the Citadel. The computer didn't have much," Brendan asked his new commanding officer.

A gentle smile raced across the Trill's face. "I shall provide you with the PADDs, Lieutenant, with all of the necessary information. This is not the time to be re-hashing the situation."

Mabren cast a quick glance around the table, looking for any cues that someone was about to speak, leaning forward; he said, "Captain, forgiven my bluntness, but then why are we here? Besides the introductions. Lieutenant Larkin and I are still working on the gel packs, and I personally, would like to return to it." Sitting back, he clamped his mouth shut, thinking he just stomped on more than a few toes.

"Doctor?" he asked, narrowing his vision on the Lieutenant. "You are here to report on your department… on what you and Lieutenant Larkin have been working on. I take it by your eagerness that you volunteer to go first?"

'One of these days,' Mabren thought to himself, 'I'll keep my big mouth shut.' Sitting up in his chair, he started, "Right, as you know; Lieutenant Larkin discovered a power anomaly with the gel packs after the power fluctuation. For the past few hours, we have been working on two packs. One from the computer network and a known good from storage. As we ran our analysis, eventually we figured out that the gel packs are producing several neurotransmitters that eventually caused a power overload. Currently, I'm running a DNA analysis and comparison of the packs to find out why they just suddenly began producing these extra transmitters."

Lane hummed to himself and shot a look towards Commander Arkham. "Doctor, you're dismissed to run the tests. I'll follow you down once we are finished up here."

"Thank you, Captain," Mabren said, pushing back from the table and getting up. He was almost to the door before he remembered the PaDD in his hand. Stopping, he turned and walked over to Commander Lane, "Oh, here are is a preliminary report. I was reviewing the results from the initial tests." After Lane took the PaDD, he spun on his heel and left the conference room. "At least my big mouth got me out of something,' he thought on his way to the turbolift.

"Larkin," Lane said, searching the room for his face. "Anything to add to this?" he said, waving the PADD in the air with his right hand.

The CSO had been lost in though throughout much of the meeting, although he was well aware of everything being discussed. A momentary glance that had caused his eyes to land on Ensign Carter had also reminded him of the incident in the Jeffries tube, and he couldn't help wondering if he should tell her about it. He wasn't positive, but he thought that she'd noticed the concerned expression on his face.

The CO's question snapped Larkin back to reality. "Oh, not at this time, Commander. Doctor Mabren covered it pretty well. I believe we have much more time before anything like the power overload we observed in the tests will happen in the Arch's systems, but, nevertheless, it's probably best that we get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible."

"Agreed, Lieutenant. Advise myself, Commander Arkham… and Captain Harwood should you happen across anything significant. All right?" He turned to look at the others in the room. "Ops, Engineering… Anything to report?"

"Not really sir, we've had a few more dropouts in systems but nothing critical and we're still no closer to a solution."

"I hope that Mabren and Larkin will be able to add to that once their research is complete."

"Mr. Shran, Ensign Turoc… How are things now that we're all back onboard?"

Turoc said with a solemn look on his face, "Sir, my only real concern is lack of physical fitness of most of security personnel and more still their lack of concern about it."

Lane turned to Mr. Shran and raised an eyebrow. "Lieutenant?" he asked, "I understand with you accompanying Commander Arkham to the surface that you may not have had time to fully organise your department, but it might be a good idea for you to team up with Lieutenant Dernah and see what you can both come up with on this."

He turned and looked towards the crew that was still assembled. "It looks like we have our work cut out for us over the next few weeks. And I'm anxious, but confident, to succeed in our mission."

The Trill turned to the Chief Intelligence Officer, and smiled. "Commander Kemmer, you're dismissed to take Arkham's place on the surface. I wish you luck with it."

He then turned to his Chief Engineer. "Ms. Sheedy, I want a full systems report from you within the hour." Her face dropped, and Lane almost detected a hint of a scowl cross her verdant features. He raised his hand slightly, and smiled. "I understand that you're busy, Lieutenant, but with findings of Mabren and Larkin being somewhat… inconclusive, we best on the ball with everything.

Turning to Parsons, he nodded. "Lieutenant, maintain current orbit and keep us afloat.

The rest of you, dismissed," he said.

As they filed out one by one, the soft murmur of voices could be heard. Over the hum, Lane called out. "Ensign Carter. Report to my ready room later this afternoon."

---

OFF:

A post by the crew of the USS Archimedes

 

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