And We're Off!

Posted on Tue Aug 21st, 2012 @ 12:49pm by Captain Alexsa Kendrick & Captain T'mpest Michaels & Commander Cailean Fox, M.D. & Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper & Lieutenant JG Marcus Augusta PHD & Lieutenant JG Lucy Carter & Anaia Viel (Halliwell) & Captain Elsie Halliwell

2,949 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Sowing the Seeds
Location: USS Ranger
Timeline: Mission Day 1, 0800 hrs.

ON:

"Warp five, Mr. Zhukov."

Zhukov nodded and hit the appropriate controls to prepare the warp core to engage.

Elsie slid back in her chair, grateful to be back on her ship again and yet a little nostalgic for the quality time she had managed to gleam with her makeshift daughter.

The imaginary vibrations of the warp nacelles locking into an inverted V shape rumbled through the hull of the Ranger as the blue hue rippling from their sides glowed with a hum as the slimline vessel shot forth into the space beyond.

Elsie looked up to the viewscreen with her right eye - still keeping her main focus on the central command display - just in time to see the first streaks of light spearhead either side of her ship. Yeah. It was great to be back in command again with a clean bill from Internal Affairs.

She stood up, walked over to Zhukov and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Lock it in, Commander, and then join the rest of us in the Briefing Room." She then turned to T'mpest and gave her the nod. "No time like the present," she indicated, striding over to the starboard side of the bridge and disappearing into the conference room.

T'mpest nodded and tapped a button on her console. "All senior officers, please report to the briefing room."

She waited for a moment to be sure there were no issues. T'mpest stood and nodded to the Officer Of The Day to take over as she, too, headed for the briefing room.

Zhukov swung his chair around to the side, made sure his replacement was on hand, and headed for the briefing room.

Jimmy's stomach was growling. Gotten used to a lax shore-leave schedule, his morning routine this morning consisted of hastily putting his uniform on, and without breakfast hurrying to the bridge. Fortunately, Commander T'mpest's call came as he was in the turbolift, so without much delay he slipped into the briefing room, where some of his collegues had already seated. Nodding to Captain Halliwell, he sat down quickly.

Still on the bridge Lieutenant Blake had been avoiding the Captain's eye since the crew had returned still embarrassed by what had unfolding during leave. To his knowledge she hadn't spoken a word and had yet to speak of his 'punishment'. Either way he wasn't looking forward to the briefing nor the next few days as he lived on tender hooks. Obliged however he followed the steady flow of officers into the adjacent room and took his customary seat.

"How was your shore leave?" T'mpest asked Jimmy as soon as he was situated.

Suppressing a snigger, Jimmy turned to the Commander. "An age-old experiment in oversleeping and synthohol. I must say, it's not a very good idea for the first day on the job. Yourself, Commander?"

"I spent 72 hours on the holodeck. It was wonderful," she replied, smiling happily. It wasn't so much the 72 hours, but the fact that she'd spent them with Vlad. "It's always nice to have a break from time to time."

Blake kept his eyes fixed on the long polished table praying the question wouldn't come round to him next.

He was saved, more or less, by Lieutenant Shepherd, who strode into the room before anyone could ask Blake anything. With a simple and polite "Good morning, everyone," the big security chief found himself a seat and keyed on his PADD.

Marc had been half way through a duty shift on the bridge when the captain had call senior staff. He had been waiting for one of the junior officers to take his position before making his way in. He entered just behind the Lieutenant Shepard, standing quietly to the side of the room so as to leave seats vacant for incoming department heads.

"Please, Mr. Augusta. Have a seat. People looming over me make me nervous." The captain extended a hand out to a vacant chair to her right and offered it to him.

Marc glanced around the room to ensure he wasn't taken the potential space of a superior officer regardless of the captains offer. Once he was satisfied he simple sat quietly.

Jensar strolled down the hallways of the Ranger in a fairly leisurely pace. He had been back onboard her decks for about a day, and had stowed all his gear away in his quarters again. Knowing that all the Senior Officers had been summoned to the briefing room, Barim felt that it was fine time for him to really meet the rest of the Senior Staff, now that there was nothing spectacular going on, like before. As such, Jensar made sure that he has cleaned up well, put on a fresh and clean uniform, and strolled on his way.

Exiting the turbolift, Jensar paused on entering the bridge, closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. Exhaling through his mouth, Jensar opened his eyes, and made his way to the briefing room. Walking through the doors, Barim acknowledged Captain Halliwell with a slight nod, then took his place at the table.

Somewhat notorious on the Pelican for quiet entrances, the trend, at least from her perspective, continued aboard Ranger. Clad in a slipover top variant of the uniform, which she still preferred despite the largely supervisory nature of her positional ascent, Mikaela Stensrud became a resident of a sparsely populated section through claiming one of the far corner chairs. Disinclined as she typically felt towards chatter, avoiding others wasn't quite the point, especially since the Intrepid class' briefing room lacked the abundant space and seating more one designed to accomodate state functions might possess. Instead, she sought to observe her peers, as her familiarity with most stemmed from the ship's database.

As always with half an eye on everyone else, Doctor Fox sidled into the Conference Room and took his customary spot at the table. Despite paying attention to everyone with half his attention, the rest of it was on the large data PaDD in his hands with the latest from Starfleet Medical's joint research program with the Pahkwa-thanh Medical core. Fasincating was hardly the half of it; it was Cailean's fifth time through the article.

Kendrick was one of, if not the last to arrive in the briefing room after the call came in from Commander Michaels. Wearing a clean, pressed uniform and trying her best to hide the solemn expression she wore earlier in the Captain's Ready Room beneath her vertical scars, she took a seat on the far corner of the table, almost directly oppsite Halliwell. She didn't take in any glances from around the room. Instead she leant back, clasped her gloved hands in front of her, elbows resting on the arms of the chair, picked an imaginary dot on the table, and stared deep in thought.

T'mpest raised an eyebrow at the sight of Kendrick. The investigation was over, so why was the woman still on board, she wondered. However, she didn't think this was the time to ask. She would likely find out during the briefing.

Once everyone had settled, Elsie cleared her throat and opened up her hands in a surrendering gesture. "It looks like Command is going easy on us for the next couple of months!" she exclaimed, looking about the room and positively beaming. "A simple survey mission assisting the already active Dubai to chart the Calamai Sector." She cocked her head and then pre-emtively added, "And I know that's a rather similar sounding premise to how the last mission started but the Dubai is already well on her way with it. Let's get back to how what we're out here for." She paused, and then looked to Kendrick. "Captain?"

Blake shifted his silent gaze to Captain Kendrick slightly bemused that she was still aboard having expected her to depart that end of their previous mission. Though yet to cross her path he'd heard a chorus of unflattering comments about the icy woman, one that had given Haliwell a rough ride. Meanwhile he kept any rising comment regarding the Calamai Sector strictly completely to himself not quite believing the Captain's beaming positivity regarding the apparent ease. He'd learnt since leaving the academy nothing was easy in ship life.

It was a moment before Kendrick looked up to the woman addressing her, and then noticed that all eyes had turned back to her. Given her usual profession on a starbase, in a court, she was used to being the centre of attention. That did not mean that she had to like it. She liked behind the scenes, and the situation here right now on the Ranger, on this mission, she would have much preferred being anywhere else. That was likely the crew's mentality as well. But she was, and it was high time to get back to business.

"Thank you Captain," Kendrick started as she stood and stiffly walked over to the large briefing display, the tightness in her legs giving her particular difficulty today. "The section of space we are to assist in mapping and cataloguing with the Dubai, dubbed the Calamai Sector, is one of the largest known expanses of space left largely unexplored by the Federation. Laying between the Romulan Empire and the Breen Confederacy," Alex continued activating the display bringing a circulating map of the area, "it is, or was home to several distinct species long since scattered or extinct. It's been left virtually lifeless for many years, though how many we aren't too sure, one of the purposes of the survey. That and to determine if there are any areas of strategic or economic value."

Alex paused briefly to take a breath and returning to her seat, she went on. "Despite the official line of us being sent to assist the Dubai due to the size of the area to be covered, I believe the Admiralty has an ulterior motive for sending a second ship out to the middle of nowhere. In the last communication between Headquarters and the Dubai, it was hinted that there could be some issue on board. Details are based on rumour at best, and despite best efforts to contact the vessel's commanding officer, I have been unable to speak to him at this time. Suspecting this to be true, we may have to pick up where they left off, to enable them to return to port."

"So that, in a nutshell, that's what we're heading out here for, any questions so far?" Alex finished, fully expecting their to be at least one.

Mikaela bit.

"I'm not usually one to advocate trying to make hearsay useful, Captain, but are there at least enough consistent accounts to glean a basic premise for the Dubai's difficulties?"

The human compulsion of listening and participating in rumour mills, even if they did not admit to being part of the action, was so in-character--even so, it was a valid question. "Unfortunately no. This is only based on my own conjecture, the seeming unwillingness of an old acquaintance to speak, the differing stories of several members of Command, there a lot of conflicting reports and statements flowing around. Across the outskirts of the Calamai sector, there appear to be dense pockets of ionising radiation, harmless to life or systems, but it does make subspace traffic unstable. It still gives me pause though due to the lack of clear communications between the CO of the Dubai, and myself."

"Even so," Alex continued touching a control to light a dot on the screen, "they have acknowledged the orders to rendezvous with us here, so we should be able to get a clear idea of the situation on board their vessel then at the latest."

Elsie looked up and with a subtle nod Zhukov confirmed that they were indeed en route to the location specified. She then relaxed into her seat a little, bridging her fingers before her chin as she then began to speak. "We'll go in nice and assess the situation and their progress once we enter the sector. Mr. Blake," she then said, whipping her small face to beam down on him, "have the sensors ready for long range scans once we're nearer. In light of recent events," she added, hinting to experience, "it seems folly to go into any survey mission blind." Her face denoted a little shared joke with the crew but she quickly returned back to business. "Have your teams ready for our arrival in three days. We should be entering the Calamai Sector then."

"Straight away Captain," Blake acknowledged her request.

"I have access to information on ancient races of the galaxy. I could see if there's anything of interest in the histories or cultures of the species that used to reside here. It's unlikely it will yield anything of interest, but if we're covering all our bases I believe it's worth a look," T'mpest said.

"Likewise, I will compile a report of any interesting anomalies in our database, Captain," Jimmy added, "any information we can get ahead of time, even outdated, could help us prepare for this mission."

"Very well," Elsie said, nodding to them both, "but bare in mind that this area of space had very little by way of mapping and known history. In fact," she continued, now intimating towards Kendrick with a gentle hand, "even the captain here herself knows very little outside the realms of myth when it comes to her homeland. I'm not sure that you'll discover very much before we get there. But I agree it's worth a look."

"Anything else that would be prudent, Captain?" Jimmy inquired.

"Not just yet," she replied, flicking her attention over to Jimmy. "Let's just get there and see what the situations presents.

Zhukov cleared his throat. "Mam?" he asked.

"Commander?" she nodded, cocking her head to the said as she listened.

"Giving this history in this particular sector, is there anyway we can get the old survey data from the previous starships that cataloged the area?" the Chief Flight Control Officer inquired.

"An excellent idea," T'mpest said, smiling at Vlad.

"I believe the captain can answer that for you either way," Elsie replied, opening the floor up once again to Kendrick.

"The only other starships that have been here prior to us," Kendrick began, "are either those from centuries past, those just passing through from neighbouring civilisations, and the Dubai. As you can see from the map, we're heading to the very outskirts of Federation space. Regardless, as soon as I get anything from the Dubai, that information will be disseminated around the various departments." Alex did not want to leak this next part without more substantial information, but curious eyes were still trained on her, unsure of whether to trust her or not. "I'm also pursuing a lead within the Romulan Empire, the closest major player that we have any kind of diplomatic relations with, to see if they can provide us with any further information. However, as was once said by a Romulan Warbird commander to a Federation officer, I doubt our objectives would be compatible. All I've been able to get so far, is only confirmation that this area of space was once heavily colonised by several species, but most or all have either died out, or moved on." She almost repeated from her earlier statement.

"Dig around in the Federation records," Elsie countered, now turning her attention to Milloux. "Work with Commander Michaels and her expertise with historical civilisations and see what you can dredge up from them about who exactly lived around this sector, if any of this information is still intact. I'm sure that Captain Kendrick here can secure you access to the nearest starbase's database." She shifted in her chair and leant a little forward to regard the entire assembled crew. "We'll meet back here tomorrow to establish what we've found, if anything..."

T'mpest hesitated for a moment. "My mother has connections with the Romulans..."

There was a poignant pause where all eyes seemed to stare at Commander Michaels. Considering the implications, Kendrick wondered if it was worth having yet another outsider attempt to get information on the Calamai sector. After all, the more people that knew the Federation's affairs in this area of space, the more trouble it could cause them. Alex had a hard time trusting people, especially these people, as much as they did her, but at the end of the day... "Perhaps you could talk with her, commander, with Captain Halliwell's permission of course?"

"By all means, Commander..." Elsie trailed, nodding to her. "If there's nothing else, then you're all dismissed."

The filing string of officers began to flood out of the briefing room as Elsie held her position and rigid stature at the head of the table. She waited until she saw Blake plant two firm hands on the table to heave his weight out of his chair and, rather unnecessarily louder than she needed to said, "Mr. Blake. I believe you and I have some unfinished business to attend to. Please remain."

Neither looking at him nor speaking directly to him, she knew that the message was received pretty clearly as she waited for the hushed whisperings of the rest of her senior staff to exit. Once the last crewman had, she looked him fully face.

"So, Lieutenant," she began with, returning her gaze playfully to her nail beds as she asked, "what would you prefer I dole out to you?"

OFF:

 

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