A Patchwork Briefing
Posted on Mon Jun 27th, 2011 @ 1:11pm by Captain Elsie Halliwell & Captain T'mpest Michaels & Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd & Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper
2,244 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Taylforth
Location: Briefing Room, Deck One
Timeline: Current
ON:
The Ranger was now hurtling through subspace at a consistent yet sustainable warp factor. Halliwell had already grown accustomed and comforted by the dull hum of the deck plating beneath her. In fact, she wasn’t always sure she was aware of it. More of an afterthought that haunted her sleep when she awoke.
The briefing room as brightly lit as always, and two steaming pots of tea and coffee placed in the centre of the unusually shaped table. With the streaking stars behind her, Elsie sat at its head, several PaDDs before her and Commander Michaels to her right.
“I’ll be looking forward to seeing what the new crew bring to the table concerning the Taylforth mission we’ve been assigned,†she said, looking up to T’mpest as she poured out a cup of tea. “Would you care for some?â€
T'mpest wasn't much of a tea drinker, but she'd been to enough 'high teas' with her mother to understand their value. "Yes, please. Extra sugar. I read the last survey. I am curious to see what's changed in the last decade."
“I’m also sure that you’re rather looking forward to seeing your successor in action, too?†Halliwell added, selecting a cup from the tray and jingling in three cubes of white sugar before passing it to her.
"I will admit I'm curious to see how he handles this mission, es." She'd had such a short time as Chief Science Officer that she wasn't too attached to the department, but she still had a soft spot for it, and wanted the new chief to do well.
Just then, the door to briefing room opened as three officers stepped in. “Please,†Halliwell offered, pointing to the vacant spaces dotted about the table. “Take a seat.â€
Jimmy's hair were spikes today but slightly sagged on either side, making a line in the middle. He nodded to the captain and took a seat. As it was his first mission on the Ranger, Jimmy decided to listen mostly.
Contrarily, Birsi appeared slightly windswept from the neck up. Partly attributable to wearing her hair high since she wasn't one to spend time on permanent styling, she also cradled a few PaDDS, and moved edgily. Despite entering behind Jimmy, her adrenaline was still coursing from her sprint to the turbolift just moments ago. Mother-daughter banter about her eventful settling in via subspace took her mind off the time and might've drawn her ignorance past the mark if her adoptive father hadn't intervened with a reminder of an appointment for which they needed to prepare.
Adalyn, as would be expected in a diplomatic officer, was dressed and groomed impeccably. She was excited to be at this meeting, she believed this meant that there would be something for her department to do very soon!
T'mpest pushed a button on her PADD and a 3-D image appeared over the conference table. "This is Taylforth IV. Or what it looked like a decade ago when it was last surveyed by the USS Sullivan. The Ranger has been tasked with performing an updated survey."
The image changed to include two moons. "T4A and T4B are rich in Dilithium. This is one of the reasons the Federation is keeping its eye on the system."
T'mpest looked around the table. "We will survey the system and the planet and document the changes. Ten years ago there were multiple regional governments, all pre-warp. Captain Halliwell will determine if a team is sent to the planet. For now, we need to prepare for any eventuality. Questions?"
Elsie surveyed the three newer faces of her crew, her eyes slowly moving from one to the other in anticipation of any interjections. She smiled softly, allowing for a more welcoming and open demeanour as was her usual style. But before any of them could chime in, Halliwell continued to further clarify what her XO already had set out. "We'll be looking for any signs of industry close to warp capabilities and also their sense of state; Have they united under a single regime? Have they managed to mine the dilithium? And this is where, firstly, our scientific sensors and analytical judgment will come into play."
Jimmy decided to simply agree: "I'll have the sensors double-checked before we get there, captain. Perhaps we could prepare some probes for un-manned surveys?"
"Only if their technology is incapable of detecting them," T'mpest interjected. "We don't want the inhabitants finding our probes until we're ready to welcome them into the Federation."
"They probably can," Birsi mused thoughtfully. As an enlistee, her curriculum was the least encompassing of anyone's in the room. Still, First Contact theory was a course she took in order to fulfill her specialty application requirement, and as she did well in it, she felt comfortable threading in. "But even early pre-warp Earth technology was sophisticated enough that if scientists of the time pointed survey instruments at Vulcan, Andor or the path of an unwitting ship, they could've gotten proof of life elsewhere before the T'Plana Hath. That's just it, though; those instruments weren't sophisticated enough to. . .detect stuff at will. They had severe range and scope limitations that could be worked around, which is why I think probes are a good idea. If not to survey the planet, then to feel out its observation capabilities before we take the ship in. Even if they're already exploring space, which I doubt they're doing to any significant extent, I doubt they can match our detection abilities. I think we can pull our probes out before they so much as get a chance for a good look, Commander."
"We need to be sure before we try anything, Crewman," T'mpest said. "I want you to work something up, delineating all options and the chances of success before we arrive at the system."
Having spent the initial part of the briefing networking her PaDDs, Birsi was almost certain that the only other option was waiting until the Ranger was within sensor range. A quick glance told her that Taylforth was pushing the reach of the nearest facility they could piggyback scans off of, a request Starfleet would likely shoot down anyway. During a conversation about her progress in First Contact theory, Birsi's adoptive mother told of how her suggestion to use a Neutral Zone outpost to preview a then-remote system was met with a shipmate asserting that she was the worst Romulan spy he'd ever met. He then elaborated by explaining that the bureaucratic ladder they’d have to climb for proper authorization was such that they’d be told no well after the usefulness of her idea expired. “Starbase Operations apparently doesn’t care about strange new worlds unless we think there’s a Romulan invasion force on them,†Krista recalled of her seasoned colleague’s summation, “they’ll just as soon tell the C-in-C we have warp engines for a reason, and he’ll agree for the sake of appeasing them, the moderates in the council, and keeping Romulus from playing twenty accusatory questions about border activity with the president.â€
Yet regardless of her confidence in her insight, Birsi ultimately met the request with a quiet nod. She had nothing to gain from forcing the issue, nor was she Sciences' last word.
"We could, of course, prepare the probes anyway, and see what we do with them when we get there." Jimmy felt the need to defend 'his' crewman - even though he has only been on the Ranger for a week or so.
Halliwell squinted at T'mpest -- a loaded, warm expression that betrayed an air of satisfaction and confidence in her new role as primary advisory -- as she paused to inhale slowly. She nodded to Cooper and smiled more widely, flicking her attention back to Birsi. "Agreed," she added with a final and defiant nod. "We can at least prepare a sample probe en route. But I am wary of showing our presence if their capabilities have advanced beyond what was predicted. In the latter half of Earth's 20th Century, technology leapt forward so rapidly that every year there was some major advancement or another. Whether you do attribute that to a speculated time-travel incident or not. We just don't know what to expect until we arrive. But there's we should prepare for any eventuality."
T'mpest nodded in agreement. Even though she felt it unlikely, there was no harm in having a probe ready, just in case.
Jimmy thought about the Dilithium moon as a way of shielding the Probe, but wasn't sure how they could get it there unseen. Presently, however, he just nodded. "I'll have it sorted out, Captain."
"You say that there were many regional governments," Adalyn said, "when the planet was last surveyed. I am sure that I will be able to find the information in the reports, but do we know what relations were like among the governments?" Diplomatically speaking, if the Ranger came upon tense relations, or even war, things could be difficult if they were observed.
"They were mixed," T'mpest replied, having spent time reading over the reports. "As the captain said, there is no telling what we'll find now. There could be one government, several smaller ones or interplanetary war. Too much time has passed to postulate a guess at this point. We should be prepared for whatever we may encounter."
"Our best bet is to prepare for anything and make a decision once we are in provisional sensor range," Halliwell continued. "I don't want to build a rod for our own back just yet." She smiled and then focused on Adalyn. "T'mpest will provide you with access to all available data we have. There shouldn't be too much that is classified. But, there's not much in terms of volume. We have no real idea of their culture, their values or their methods."
Birsi smiled, albeit toward her information since her amusement spurred from an epiphany on how they all wound up here. Captain Halliwell and the XO's sketchy answers up to this point suggested that the Sullivan's initial intent wasn't a detailed survey. . .at least not of populated Taylforth. Only ten a decade ago, she nonetheless knew that the losses imparted by the Borg and Dominion incursions greatly elevated dilithium's importance to the Federation. Whether to complete a new ship or reactivate a mothballed one, Starfleet needed lots of it, and she imagined that the Sullivan's crew thought they found a motherlode until someone turned her sensors to the planet. . .
"Was there any sign of non-warp spacecraft on the last survey? Satellites, Taylfortians on the moon, or any form of missile or propulsion technology which could've evolved since the last survey?" Jimmy couldn't help being curious about this planet.
T'mpest pulled out a stack of notes and leafed through them. "Yes. Non-warp craft, satellites. Signs of crude space probes."
"Well, at least they got their eyes in our direction then," Jimmy mused, "we might end up finding this age's Cochrane."
Elsie smiled, the enthusiasm of characters and conjectures washing over her. But she knew that as captain getting 'giddy' along with her crew was unprofessional. She allowed Jimmy's thought top filtrate through the others and then, still wearing her smile, held up her hand to bring the discussion back to some form of reality. "All right," she said, clearly enjoying the thought of a possible First Contact, "let's not get ahead of ourselves. You each know what we has to be done en route and so, if there's nothing more to add..." She raised an eyebrow in anticipation.
"Nothing more," T'mpest said. She looked to the others to see if they had anything further to add.
Jimmy shook his head. He had enough to think about, and he needed to find out whom of his crew was best in sensor alignment and probe preparation. In short, his evening would include a bunch of PADDs, his crew quarters and - oh, yes, 'Holly'...
"Then you're all dismissed," she said, nodding to herself. As the clash of red, purple and teal crewmen filed out from the briefing room, Elsie remained alone, looking out beyond the stars that striped past the window. If only she knew that, beyond the glass and across the distance, the world that they were hurtling towards with such speed and vigour was not what any of them expected at all. And that, far from any extrapolated directions Taylforth could have adopted, what lay in wait for the Ranger and her crew at the end of their journey was far beyond imagining.
OFF:
Captain Elsie Halliwell
Commanding Officer
USS Ranger
Commander T'mpest Michaels
Executive Officer
USS Ranger
Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper
Chief Science Officer
USS Ranger
Junior Grade Lieutenant Adalyn Mailloux
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Ranger
AND
Crewman First Class Sessan Birsi
Stellar Cartographer
USS Ranger
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