Just Briefly

Posted on Tue Jan 5th, 2021 @ 8:30am by Commodore Keiben Haistro & Commander Lillian Carter & Commander Peter Horn & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D’BrooNi- Haistro & Lieutenant Commander Junjie Han & Lieutenant JG Sher'ra Verona & Senior Chief Petty Officer Jonathan Stoun

2,177 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - Echoes Of An Empire
Location: Deck 1 - Conference Room
Timeline: Mission Day 6 - 1600 Hours

ON

The day had been one creating an unsettled feeling within the pit of Keibens stomach. His relationship, possibly his friendship was in tatters when it came to Doctor D'BrooNi after their set too earlier in the day and it had left him feeling confusion and worry. It was something he needed to set aside in favour of the task at hand. With several new arrivals over the last few days and Mels revelations with the T'Kon translations had spurred on this meeting.

Lillian entered carrying her PADD with her navigational notes on. Ensign Phillips had relieved her at the helm. "Afternoon Captain." She said as she took her seat.

Sher’ra was the next to enter from the bridge. Thankfully this time all she had to do was follow Lillian so she wouldn’t get lost. “Greetings Captain,

Ensign”

Mel walked in looking both tired and pale. She was not having the best day at all. Keiben, then Charlie. And now what must Neshia be thinking. "Captain," she said simply and took a seat next to Sher'ra. She wanted to get this over with and then try smooth this whole targ turd of a day over.

Tamaska arrived, carrying a mug of Raktajino, she normally wouldn't drink the stuff, but today she felt she needed the boost. She took a sip making a wry face, even the small taste of it, perked her up.

Chief Stoun walked in and found a wall to stand against for the time being. He looked around at the group of other officers around the table and nodded to the ones he knew.

Late in the afternoon, Peter had actually wanted to spend some time with his youngest children, most of which Ylias who seemed to have trouble settling in. Still, duty seemed to come first so he entered the conference room with the feeling that this may yet become a very long day indeed.

"As you are all here, how are things in each department now we are in flight?"
Keiben turned the floor over to the assembled officers making that his first port of call. It would also give him chance to gauge the 'temperature' of Mel's mood.

" Science department is ready and awaiting our arrival to begin the investigation Sir." Said Junjie.

Lillian added "We're on course. Warp and impulse systems functioning normally."

“Security staff are on stand by and all tactical system check out. Starfleet Intelligence report no issues in our area” Sher’ra reported.

"Medical are slowly working through everyone's annual medicals," Mel said almost on autopilot. She turned to Lillian, "We need to get yours scheduled Ensign."

"So far the other departments are reporting that things are running well and good." Tamaska replied, then looked at her mug. She should have added something to take away the bitter taste. Hopefully this wasn't going to be a premonition of what the day was going to be like.

Lillian looked at Doctor. She did not need to be a Betazoid to pick up on the doctors mood, which was frazzled to say the least. She forever a smile “Of course Doctor. Maybe tomorrow...” she added, not fancying a visit to sickbay with the Doctor in her current state.

Tamaska, looked up from her perusal of her mug's contents, and paid a bit more attention to those in the room. She looked at Keiben, then Mel, then the others. Just what was the underlying mood, paying more attention.

"Ship hasn't imploded yet, so I count that as a win. Overall, all systems are checking out within tolerances of standard operational capacity, and I just got done fixing the replicator on deck five." Jon had moved back to the table from his perch on the wall to join the other officers.

"We need to schedule your medical too Chief," Mel reminded him. She might as well get it on everyone's agenda while she was here.

"I umm washing my hair that night." He sighed. "Put it on my calendar. I promise I'll show up"

Tamaska, almost snorted at Chief's excuse, finding it funny, and looking at the lack of hair on Chief's bald head.

From his position at the table, Peter took his time to study those assembled. He realized that it would take time to just view things from a counselor's perspective, and not that of a security officer. He glanced towards his old friend and then around the table again. "She does not bite... much," he commented dryly, "I do recommend those still requiring their physicals to do so as soon as possible. Also, those still in need of psychological evaluations may schedule them right after their medical."

"That is my favourite excuse yet chief," Mel managed a hint of a smile despite how wretched she was feeling while pulling her PADD up and scheduling Stoun there and then. She did add a note - offer follicle stimulation regeneration. If the man wanted hair, she could certainly help there.

"I'm sure I could come up with a few extra from time to time if I needed to." He let out a wry smile.

Junjie looked around the table. What the heck is wrong today? Half the room seems to be in a foul mood, Why? Is this just a departmental briefing or a mission briefing? He thought to himself.

Even Keiben could feel the tension in the room fuelled by his own anxiety's and others were starting to pick up on it. Time to move the meeting forward.

"The main reason why we are here. Our mission is to investigate what we believe to be T'Kon ruins on Oriana Omega Three, its been dubbed 'The Garden' by Starfleet Science... but adding to this our good Doctor has uncovered some interesting things from her previous hosts... Doctor, the floor is yours!"

“Oh.. Oh, ” Mel said not having expected that she would be briefing people. “Right...” she could sense Hal squirming uncomfortably in the back of her psyche. Had he ever presented findings she wondered.

“No no no... Tell your betaziod beefcake no.... I don't wish too...” her host snapped.

“Well tough, ” Mel thought back.

“So T’Kon ruins are something that the Trill have also been interested in and have found some in our space. One such time was, ” she flushed. There was no way she was getting out of having to share how old they were now, “about 900 years ago. My first host came across something and managed to work out some rudimentary translations with a team.

There was information on a civil war and differing factions. Something termed the cults of zero and one. And possibly coordinates. To something. We need to run the information through stellar cartography and....” she tried hard to remember Keibens words but had to admit she had been distracted.... “Compensate for a lot of... Stellar drift, ” she looked at the captain finally hoping she had in fact got that correct. Locking eyes with him, she knew even though she was a little upset at him right now she didn't want to be.

Junjie pulled out a PADD and quickly started inputting information. He paused and then half way raised his hand. " Excuse me, You did say the cult of zeros and ones? We could be looking at a group that turned the binary code into a religion or something similar.

“Or,” Mel said, “They were people revered.”

"And once we find the clue to break the code, we should be able to follow the breadcrumbs to where this civilization may have been, maybe at least an area they had, populated as in a colony?" Tamaska asked.

"That is my hope but with that in mind, Lieutenant Han, would you mind spending a little time with the Doctor and see if you could extrapolate current coordinates using the data Doctor D'BrooNi has been able to provide... this could end up being a huge puzzle piece or a punnet of lemons... we won't know until we decipher it".

Junjie looked up from his PADD. " I'D be delighted to Sir."

He truly believed it to be the former however. "So very little is known about the T'Kon beyond the encounter with the T'Kon Portal by the USS Enterprise-D in the Delphi Ardu system back around 2364".

Keiben looked around the room once more, his own excitement taking over at the prospects this new information offered. "This does offer up some tantalising possibilities though... Any questions?"

"Not to sound all spooky with this, but dead empires sound a bit like you are walking over someone's grave. I mean ghost stories and cults. Sounds like another night that I'll be washing my hair." The engineer laughed a bit at the comment. What kind of support do you need from engineering?" Jon looked at the eager scientists.

From his position at the table, Peter glanced around, studying each person in turn. His perception was mixed, gathering the different emotions that were flying across the room since he was a telepath. He did wonder why Melanie had never spoken with him regarding the T'Kon, during their decades long service together as well as their friendship, somehow it had never come up and now he found himself wondering why. "What can I do to help?" he asked.

"To answer your question Chief... It'll be a full planetary survey and archaeological adventure. We need you running point with the shuttle maintenance, make sure the Hunley is ready to go as well as it looks from preliminary reports their could be sub-aquatic structures to investigate, we may also need your technical expertise on the away teams".

Next the Captain turned to Commander Horn. "We likely wont have need of a Counsellor with the survey however how would you feel about leading one of the away teams?"

"Certainly captain," the counselor answered without pause, "I am all for being useful."

"Chief, I will get some time in with you," Mel said to Junjie. "And bring down the Captains T'Kon books for you. Also I'm going to fly the shuttle on the survey I'm helping you with. I got some practice in. I don't need a pilot now."

"That is fantastic!" Tamaska said enthusiastically to Mel.

Keiben's eyes widened at the idea of Mel flying a shuttle, his palms turning sweaty at the thought given his previous experience with her in the pilots chair, and thankfully that was a simulation in the holodeck.

Junjie perked up hearing something he was currently unaware of. " Sub Aquatic structures? Interesting. Not knowing how old the structures are, I would suggest the team investigating that area be fitted with micro rebreathers in case of a collapse. I would also suggest that all teams going down be issued a transporter lock armband in case they may be in an area were the signal is weaker and we need to get them out quickly. "

" And Captain you mentioned a civil war? If you find ANYTHING that that looks shining and pretty let someone know asap. It could be a boobie trap, We may need security to check and disarm an item. And all teams be careful for automated defense systems."

" Medical team, We'll need a survey of the region were we'll be working of any hazards natural, biological or otherwise. Catalog the local flora and fauna for possible general or medical usage. "

Junjie turned to Haistro. " Sir could we have the ships sensors run a full level 3 Geological survey of the planet? I know it will take longer, but since we're dealing with the T'Kon I believe it will be worth the time, effort and energy. It may very well reveal other areas of interest for us to investigate."

"So long as you can run the scan from the surface. There are unusual electro-static signatures in the upper atmosphere that would make it impossible to run any surface scans from orbit... Yes, we will be landing the ship on the surface!"
Not something that was done regularly with Starships but that was why Copernicus has been chosen for this mission, her complete versatility. The only thing she lacked was manpower, at eighty strong she was still one of the smallest classes in the fleet.

Lillian's face blanched slightly but she didn't speak up. Although she had practised it in a simulation, she had never actually landed a starship before. The computer did most of the calculations but still, there were a lot of things that could go wrong very quickly. She took a deep breath and entered some notes on her PADD to go through some more practice runs on the holodeck.

Keiben caught the stray thought coming from his Flight control officer and made a mental note to make sure he spoke to her before they arrived at the planet.
"Well, if there are no other matters I say lets get this show on the road! Dismissed!"

Lillian stood. “I better be getting back to the helm.” She gave a nod of respect to the Captain and Xo before heading back to the bridge.

END

 

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