Staff Meeting: Our First Assignment. Part 1

Posted on Wed Jan 31st, 2024 @ 5:39am by Captain Remy Johansen & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Major Clay McEntyre III & Lieutenant Jules Mundy & Lieutenant JG Thivi & Lieutenant JG Joey #640 & Chief Petty Officer Nevan Kayto & Attaché Phesg Tel'im
Edited on on Fri Feb 16th, 2024 @ 4:31am

1,359 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Artifact or Artifiction
Location: Deck One, Bridge Conference Lounge
Timeline: MD: -2, 36 hours to Launch

Remy stood at the head of the table and looked at the team of officers she had assembled for the staff meeting today. To her right was Commander Lorut, and to her left, Lt. Commander Winters. In front of her was a black box.

"Thank you all for your support during this rather hectic onboarding period we've had this week. I know it's been a bit unusual, not having a lot of information, and I'm about to throw most of the room for a loop yet again," Remy said. "Other than Commander Lorut and Commander Winters, you all are the first to hear that we will be departing tomorrow with me as your Acting Captain for our first mission. I don't have all the details about why, and frankly it doesn't matter. I'm pretty excited about the details of this first mission, and I'm hoping you all are as well," Remy smiled widely.

"There's an abandoned ship dead in space nearby. We know very little of its origins. And we get to go explore it," Remy announced. Remy opened the box in front of her and took out a glass case. Inside it were two bronze bracelets along with a cylindrical item approximately 5 centimeters in diameter and 12.5 centimeters long. Strange hieroglyphics imprinted on the three items.

"You should all read the reports that Dr. Lorut and I prepared regarding these items before we arrive to the abandoned vessel. We believe the creators of these artifacts are likely of the same civilization who once operated the abandoned vessel. That is to say, some caution will need to be taken when we board. The universal translator is only able to translate fragments of the language. Hopefully with more of a language sample, it will become more efficient."

Remy stopped and looked to the room. "I am sure there are questions," she said as she sat down, opening the floor.

"Dr. Lorut, did I leave anything out?" she asked.

"No," Vila said. Well. Except the fact that, as far as Vila was concerned, they were haunted.

"I think it does matter, actually," the Tellarite spoke up from the far corner of the conference room table. "This is a Galaxy-class ship- it's one thing for a Commander to be in charge of some dinky little Oberth-class, but we've got a thousand people on board a test bed for a new slipstream drive on the rapidly decaying Romulan border! What, Starfleet couldn't find a second barely-qualified Human with a smug face, five o'clock shadow, and four pips on his collar?"

Remy rolled her eyes and gave the Tellarite science officer an appropriate smirk. "I can assure that I am more than qualified to run this ship, and the only reason they haven't given me one of my own yet is that I have a mouth like yours and have been given a little too much access to the boys and girls at Starfleet Command in the last four years. Back to the mission then," Remy said. "I can tell you're interested if that's the only thing you have to complain about then?"

" Hmph. "

Vila raised an eyebrow. "She really is. I've known Commander Johansen for a few years. I'd trust her with my life, and my child's life. I have before, actually," she said. "She's up for the task," Vila said. Vila wasn't sure she was the best choice for XO, but when the chips were down, the Bajoran had the gumption to get them out of any pickle, even if the Prime Directive had to be...stretched to do so. Her command style was somewhere between Benjamin Sisko and Katherine Janeway, with a hint of recklessness thrown in for good measure.

Commander Winters tapped on the table top to get everyone’s attention. “Lieutenant, now is not the time or place. Commander Johansen is currently our Commanding Officer and we shall treat her as such. Back to the mission at hand, from an engineering standpoint, do we know how long the vessel has been here? I’d like to get my hands on any ship’s database or logs. Might answer a lot of questions, even bring about more.”

"Here? Not long. Adrift, who knows," Remy answered. "The supernova gravitational shift is bringing in a lot debris, now it brought us a ship. We don't have data logs because the ship is DEAD. We will be starting from zero to try to get the thing running again. Once we do, we don't know that the universal translator will be much help at first. The writing inside is the same as these markings," Remy said tapping on the glass case.

"The UT only knows as much as it does now because it had help from Lt. T'lenn in the science department. There will be some old fashioned deciphering involved, and Ops and Engineering will have their work cut out for them."

“I’ll rattle around some ideas and get a team together. We’ll be ready when you give the word, Commander,” Nash said assuredly.

"Gentlemen, calm down. We're a team here," Vila said. "I'll see you both in my office if I need to. That said...everyone, for the time being, please welcome Lt. Ghiram as the new Interim Chief Science Officer. Everyone will report to HIM for those appropriate questions, comments, and so on," she said. She gave the Tellarite a look-"do not let me down." Still. She had spent the night before carefully reviewing his file. He was the best choice for the task currently, even if it killed her to turn it over.

“It’ll cut into my research, but I’ll babysit your staff for you- they clearly need it.”

Hearing about the amount of cultural research that was going to be required to try and pinpoint where these artifacts may have came from, Nevan finally spoke up. "My team can assist the science department, I'm sure there's going to be a lot to look though and Specialist Fletcher's parents were archeologists so he may have a trick or two up his sleeve. I'd say give me a couple hours to get them up to speed once we're done here and we'll report to Commander Vila afterwards for assignment." The mood in the room had leveled back out once more, Kayto could feel it in his bones so to speak.

Remy nodded. "We're being given what they know, but I think it will mostly learn when we get there. A minimal team is securing it for us now. But we'll be carrying some special equipment to try to interface with their power systems. It's quite a bit different than what we use - Dakeon crystals are what they are calling them. They come in different colors. Not like dilithium. The crystals themselves don't seem to require the type of reaction we run on our ships."

"Winters and Mundy, shortly before 1300 you should go to Jupiter Station's Science Lab three so you can oversee what's being brought over here for that purpose. There should be a few scientists that can give you some additional information," Remy added.

"Understood, commander." He looked at Winters to see his response.

“Sure thing, Lieutenant,” Nash acknowledged. He hadn’t spent that much time with Mundy since either came aboard, but was looking forward to working with him. He would need all the help he could get on this mission; he thought to himself how Ops and Engineering could mesh together well.

Joey listened to the officers fighting like children over a toy not being shared, making notes to check up on them.

>> To Part 2 >>

Commander Remy Johansen
Commanding Officer
USS Astrea

Commander Vila Lorut
First Officer
USS Astrea

Commander Nash Winters
Chief Engineer/Second Officer
USS Astrea

Lieutenant Jules Mundy
Chief Of Operations
USS Astrea

Lieutenant Ghiram Korin
Chief Science Officer
USS Astrea

Petty Officer 1st Class Nevan Kayto
Civil Operations NCOIC
USS Astrea

Lt. Junior Grade Thivi
Head Nurse
USS Astrea

Lt. Commander Clay McEntyre III
Chief of Security
USS Astrea

Lt. Junior Grade Joey #640
Chief Counselor
USS Astrea

Attaché Phesgm TelIm
Romulan Affairs
USS Astrea

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