What We Need Is A Plan

Posted on Mon Jun 12th, 2023 @ 1:53pm by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Lieutenant Commander Cynfor Rees & Lieutenant Commander Rhiana t'Aegis & Lieutenant Commander Jörgen Leed & Lieutenant Tor Ezzo & Lieutenant Owen Woodhouse & Lieutenant Phoebe Baxter & Lieutenant Jackson Smith & Warrant Officer Arlan Harlan & Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens Jr.

2,603 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Long Hard Road Ahead
Location: Conference Room, USS Firebird
Timeline: 23 August, 2396, 1030 Hours

[ON]

In the thirty minutes he'd allowed himself since being notified by Starfleet Command that the Firebird was released from captivity, Malcom had undergone a drastic change. He felt as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He was full of energy and even excitement at the prospect of doing something that mattered at last. Kipp had finally tired of his incessant babbling and had gently pushed the Captain out of his Ready Room so that the yeoman could straighten up the room.

Malcom settled into his chair at the head of the conference table, realizing that he hadn't been in the space since their shakedown cruise. So many months lost he thought, shaking his head. He rested his head against the chair and waited for his department heads to arrive.

When he received the news of the change in mission Cynfor smiled. He became filled with relief and joy. This was not directed at the ship's removal from the doldrums. But it was directed toward the Captain and his return from seclusion. Rees walked into the Conference Room with a small bounce in his step and took his seat to the right of the Captain. "Morning Captain. Wonderful to see you."

Lieutenant Woodhouse came into the conference room and nodded at the two that had arrived ahead of him. "Captain, Commander," he said tensely as he picked a seat somewhere in the middle of the table. He wasn't overly excited about a trip through the wormhole to investigate a 'possible attack,' but he also secretly welcomed something of a break from what had become routine.

Charles had been scrambling to gather what sparse intel he could grab on the Starbase and its surrounding area. it wasn't much and he was still reading over it as he entered the conference room like it was old hat. As he walked over to his usual seat he noticed a Lieutenant he was not familiar with was sitting in it. He looked up from his PADD at the occupied chair then at the CO/XO, and then adjusted his path to a different chair. As he sat down it felt very uncomfortable.

After the doors slid open, Leed scanned the room in a glance that ended at the head of the table. He nodded to the captain. "Quite a turn of events this morning." Given the nature of the alert, he left an open seat to the captain's left for Rhiana and say down. Jörgen clasped his hands in front of him, his face relaxed as he nodded to his companions already in the room.

Jackson followed close behind Leed. His face was grim as he contemplated the information that he had received from Yumi. He got a bad feeling about what she had sent him. There were a lot of unknowns around the station and heck the whole quadrant was filled with unknowns. As he sat down he scanned the room, he saw the excitement and happiness throughout the room as they were finally going to do something. Jackson put a big grin on his face and let the atmosphere of the room soak in. No need to damper anyone's spirits, just yet.

Malcom smiled as his senior officers filed in one by one. He knew that they were all rushing from all corners of the ship.

"I won't get started with the briefing until everyone arrives, but I do want to tell you who are here already how happy I am to be meeting to discuss something other than our unloading and loading problems and the possibility of the industrial replicators overloading," Malcom said with a grin. "It feels like I am waking up from a long boring dream."

Just then, Harlan arrived. He looked as he usually did, with a slight scowl on his face as he grumbled internally at all the projects he had to manage now that he was much higher on the food chain than ever before. He knew where he was going though and snapped out of his reverie. "Captain," he said with a nod of acknowledgment as he found a seat. Ship seats always looked the same, but there was usually one hiding that was far more comfortable than all the others. It was important for someone who spent lots of time in tubes to find that particular chair.

Rhiana entered just a moment or two after Harlan. She was not late, of course, just not the first (or even second or third or sixth) to arrive. Since she definitely was not late, she was not apologetic either as she strode into the room in her usual business-like manner. After a brief scan of the officers present, she walked over to her seat to the captain's left and nodded at him and Rees. "Captain. Commander." That done, she placed her PADD on the table and sat down. The changed atmosphere in the room was palpable but Rhiana preferred not to join in the goofy smiles and instead kept her usual neutral expression, though she was rather glad that there would finally be a change of the seemingly never-ending transport duties.

Ezzo heard as the door to the ready room closed in front of him. He had just been relieved at the CONN and was arriving 5 mins early and as the door opened he noticed the room was full of the senior officers of the Firebird. He nodded at everyone as he quietly took a seat he tried to observe the room to see if he could pick up any non-verbal conversation between the officers at the table. Ezzo was new aboard the ship but many of these officers had been serving together and Ezzo was still trying to learn the social circles present aboard the small vessel. As he sat quietly waiting for the captain to start he pulled out a PADD and began to scan the latest reports he had qued to go over.

Phoebe was the last to arrive, examining each of her fingernails for any signs of the potting soil she'd been covered in when the announcement had come through. Sliding into an open seat, she attempted to fold her hands neatly on the table but could not stop adjusting the placement so she could continue her examination. She'd stayed in that sonic shower for as long as she could, but she just didn't feel clean.

Malcom smiled as Lieutenant Baxter sat down. He nodded at his assembled staff. "Thank you for coming on such short notice. It has been a while since. Frankly, there hasn't been much reason to gather together when every day and every week have been so much the same," he said and then his face grew serious. "I always knew we'd get the call eventually and odds were it would be something like this. As I said when I addressed all hands, Deep Space Eighteen has been attacked by unknown forces, which has knocked out all communications to and from the station. Making matters worse, the USS Consitution departed the station a week ago to visit Earth for some much-needed refits. The station itself is only a third complete and no known enemy forces were thought to be in the area. Clearly, that analysis was wrong. We are to make our best speed to the Gamma Quadrant, assess the situation, and render aid as needed. What I need to know from you is whether your departments are ready, if you have anything to add to our available intelligence, and what insight or advice you might have for me?"

Jackson sat up slightly from his normal relaxed posture. He looked across at each of the department heads. He had a bad feeling they were walking into something very dangerous. He nodded to the captain, "Sir, from what I have been able to gather so far implies a dangerous situation. There have been four documented fly-bys from an unknown ship about the size of our ship. It is believed to have some kind of disrupter weapon. The USS Constitution was not able to get close enough for inspection before the ship escaped. But even more worrisome is that SFI was beginning to suspect sabotage. The star base is seriously behind schedule. While one would expect a variety of problems to show up and even accidents. There has been an abnormal normal of accidents and other timely events that have caused increasingly more and more significant delays. The situation was only getting worse prior to the loss of communication. The base was about 25% operational but was receiving very heavy traffic. This means, lots and lots of suspects and possibly dangerous people. We are flying in blind, to an unknown enemy with unknown tech. And to me, it seems obvious this was being planned since the beginning of construction." Jackson leaned back into his seat. His face no longer held the smile he had before.

"Captain, you have my report already and it dovetails neatly and disturbingly into what Lieutenant Smith has posited. My correspondence with Starfleet and councilors on Bajor suggests no single force of opposition to the starbase. However, there have been minor disruptions: a moored barge broke loose and was damaged in a collision with a small freighter; grain seedlings meant for hydroponics were found to be barren due to irradiation; several ships have had repeated interference with communication channels. All problems that could happen to any such project except that events are happening more often, as though project managers are less efficient now." Jörgen sent a stellar map from his PADD to the large display.

"Here is a map of space within 12 light years of the base. The yellow planet is the colony Bajor is attempting to establish. Other planets, asteroids, and objects of interest are colored blue, red, and green. At least eight known species cohabitate in the region. None have accepted our requests to meet with them. Interplanetary communication has escalated. We have no knowledge of high tensions or existence, so we cannot say they are communicating with others of their own kind, or with other nations. What is very likely, as explained, is the attack was not a coincidence. It was coordinated, by unknown party or parties, with unknown capabilities, and unknown intentions. Lastly, they either do not know we are in the area or they do not care. We must find a way to gather information quickly. We must expect to be surprised."

Cynfor sat back in his chair and listened to the reports thus far. It got more and more disturbing the more he listened. "Do we have access to the last known sensor readings from the station? Surely if they were under attack they got a good look at what hit them. Tactical readouts, visual contact, anything that we could use to see what we may be up against."

Malcom absorbed the different reports beginning to see the depth of the problem. "Lieutenant t'Aegis, I want you to review all incidents with hostile craft in the Gamma Quadrant over the last five years. I'd like to see if any of them have capabilities that will match up with the type of damage that Lieutenant Smith has mentioned. I know that, given the circumstances, your department is going to feel the strain of a high op temp. With the Marines being gone, I am authorizing you to task other crew as auxiliary security forces as needed."

Rhiana listened attentively to all that was being said. She had a lot of questions, but some could only be answered by station personnel. "Aye, sir. My department is ready." They were certainly as eager as most of the crew to see some action again, if not more so. Especially the new ones who had not been aboard for long and who could not understand why Starfleet was keeping them on supply runs for months on end. "I suggest that we use the cloaking device for a more discreet approach. Without communications with the station, it will be difficult to determine the current situation. It may have been boarded by enemy forces or reinforcements of the enemy may be in the area."

Malcom nodded. "I suppose there's no use having fancy toys if we don't take them out once in a while. Let's give the cloak a thorough systems check before we arrive at the wormhole and plan to emerge in the Gamma Quadrant while cloaked. Lieutenant Woodhouse I'd like to talk with you later about the effect the cloaking device will have on our power systems." he said, looking around the table. "Commander t'Aegis is right. We are going to be walking into a lot of unknowns. We don't know who we are facing or what the condition of the station is or... well or any number of things. All we can do is make plans and then adjust on the fly, something that we are historically pretty good at. Mr. Harlan, I want you back in engineering and making sure that all systems are at peak efficiency. Does anyone have any other pertinent information to add to the discussion?"

Phoebe opened her mouth to speak, but then shut it quickly, not sure what to say. It seemed that all relevant information had been shared, and there was no sense in saying something just to say something. Her team would be on standby, ready to assist in whatever way they.... oh yeah, she could report that.

"Science Department is ready!" She announced, far louder than she'd meant. She had shouted it, in fact. She gave an awkward smile to the room, offered the captain a slight shrug as if to say 'sorry', and found a flaw in the surface of the conference table to focus on.

Jackson smiled at Pheobe's outburst and then immediate discomfort. He then looked up towards the Captain, "Nothing further here. I will update as soon as I can get more information."

Malcom nodded and looked around the table at his staff one more time. "Let's get to work, people. Dismissed."

[OFF]


Commander Malcom Llwyedd
Commanding Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Commander Cynfor Rees
Executive Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Commander Rhiana t'Aegis
Second Officer/Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Commander Jörgen Leed
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Jackson Smith
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Owen Woodhouse
Chief Operations Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Warrant Officer Arlan Harlan
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Soto Gantt
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298
Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens JR
Chief of Boat
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Lieutenant Phoebe Baxter
Chief Science Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Lieutenant Tor Ezzo
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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