Mission Briefing

Posted on 26 May 2015 @ 7:35pm by Captain Jasmine Somers FCapt & Captain Maia Sterling & Lieutenant Commander Sheela Swiftpaws
Edited on on 19 Nov 2016 @ 1:39pm

3,783 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Season 2 Episode 1: The New Frontier
Location: Admirals Office SB39/Main Conference Room USS Tomcat
Timeline: Mission Day 1

[ON]

- SB39 Sierra - Admiral's Office -

Jasmine only managed to have a couple of days shore leave as the sector Commander, a Rear Admiral, had called her into her office, before she knocked to enter, she made sure her uniform was straight and she was herself composed. When she felt ready she knocked.

"Enter Captain." A well-modulated voice spoke.

Jasmine entered and saw a Vulcan female Admiral, Jasmine remained standing until invited to sit, when she was, she took a seat and crossed her legs as she sat back.

"You sent for me Admiral, am I to assume that judging from the new equipment the Tomcat has not long had installed means we will be going outside Federation borders?" Somers asked.

The Vulcan looked at her with a raised eyebrow oO So composed, and speaking in a tone close to what we Vulcan's use, her logic is astute, her file does her justice Oo The Vulcan Admiral said. She steepled her fingers and touched her mouth with them "You are quite astute in your observations Captain, you do your file credit." The Admiral said.

"Thank you, Admiral, while it would be.... pleasing to have a discussion, I do believe that you have other duties and I have a new mission!" Somers said.

The Vulcan again raised an eyebrow, she found the Captain to be quite logical for a human "You are correct captain, so your mission is as follows" She paused our last explorer ship to UXSys 2355874 turned up some interesting information. The first one we sent out back in 2368 has the explorer ship encounter an advanced species, they never made visual contact only vocal, as our ship posed no threat they were allowed to explore and leave the system but were warned to stay away from the inner planets. So they returned and turned in their findings to Starfleet's exploration headquarters."

*Pause*

"Then we sent no explorer ship for twelve years, as you know new mandates came in and the next explorer ship was sent to Unexplored System 2355874, what that ship found in 2380 was the system which was binary had an outer class M planet; smaller than earth but habitable, there was a 99.95% match energy reading, but the planet was a wasteland, the race that the energy signature belonged to had vanished, in its place were faint Borg signature traces" Here the Admiral paused to see the Captain's reaction, when Jasmine merely raised an eyebrow the Admiral became intrigued by the human's composure. Usually when the Borg were mentioned a normal person tension level went up and their face flushed slightly and their iris's contracted a fear response, but this human before her, not a twitch.

Jasmine listened to the Admiral's brief and when she mentioned the Borg, she was not surprised, but felt a flutter of trepidation but quickly hid it, especially as the Admiral was studying her closely. "So Admiral do you think the Borg will return to that system anytime soon?" Somers asked.

The Admiral looked at the Captain who asked a valid question, if not somewhat insightful one, she could only think of a human term to associate with the Captain and that was 'As cool as a cucumber' She herself did not understand the phrase beyond the reference of it, but it applied here.

"No they are not expected to, there are no further advanced technological species in the system, but there is a pre-industrial civilisation on the fourth planet from the larger of the twin suns." She paused. "Then in 2390, a Vesta class ship was sent out that way and got in closer to the fourth planet around the larger of the suns and as the species on that planet had advanced into the technological age, they had sentient made satellites around their planet indicating a slightly more advanced civilisation. The ship we sent in a stealth probe and that brought back some interesting recordings. They showed that the humanoid species was pre-warp and that the beings on that planet, they varied in size, but the tallest seemed to be six foot in height, they resemble the humans in bone structure and mass, but their skin is varying colour of blue, the females were a lighter blue while the males were a darker blue and the children were a pale blue all of them had dark blue hair."

*Pause*

"Their eyes were set up in the human norm, but all their iris's were yellow in colour, also a sample of their speech matrix was recorded and after 22 years we have come up with a translation matrix that is roughly 99.98% accurate, but that is going to the last scan of their language, what it will be like now is open to guesswork, but the Prime Directive applies here."

"Understood Admiral, Prime Directive in effect, what of the Borg signatures?" Somers asked.

"Negligible traces Captain, it seems these species do not have anything the Borg could want, but just in case your Quantum torpedo compliment is being doubled and you will be supplied a large stock of Transphasic torpedoes, use those sparingly. Your ships Point defence unit has been upgraded, it will now fire a large spread of micro quantum torpedoes. Your weapons, shields and armour have all been upgraded with the latest anti-Borg technologies that have been tried and tested by Starfleet Research and Development. We can only give you the tools Captain, what happens after will be up to you and your crew." The Admiral said.

"Admiral, what's the latest on Starbase 51? I know it's being built out in the Mira Sector on the edge of Federation space." Jasmine asked.

"It has work crew quarters and basic facilities even a holodeck for the work crews, but it is far from complete, it will not be completed for some time, any other questions?" The Admiral asked.

"No Admiral, I will go and brief my crew now," Jasmine said and stood.

The Vulcan Admiral also stood and gave the Vulcan hand gesture. "Live long and Prosper Captain."

Jasmine looked at the Admiral and returned her hand gesture. "Peace and Long life Admiral," Somers said and left the office and headed straight for her ship.

While she was en route, she tapped her Commbadge =/\= Captain Somers to all Tomcat crew, return to the ship, Senior staff kindly gather in the Main conference room, Somers out =/\=

- USS Tomcat Main Briefing Room -

Now she was in the Conference room waiting on her crew to arrive for the mission briefing, while she waited she looked through all the information the Admiral had sent to her on their next mission. She sensed movement and looked up to see her Senior staff start to trickle in.

"Good morning all!"

Dr Cahill had left Sick Bay and was on her way to the Main Conference Room. She arrived and walked in. "Good morning Captain." She said as she went to the replicator and got herself a hot coffee and a small snack. "I am looking forward to what is next. The Sick Bay upgrades are complete and we are ready for whatever is needed." She handed the Captain a padd of the upgrades and what was changed. "We have all the best and latest available in Starfleet now; some of it normally goes to a Galaxy class or larger."

Jasmine nodded to the Doctor as she watched her CMO grab her a mug of something hot and a small snack and took a seat, now all that had to be done was for the rest of her Senior Staff to arrive.

Maia's shuttle had landed just 15 minutes prior to this meeting. She barely had time for a shower and change of uniform before getting to the briefing room.

"Sorry, I'm late," Maia said taking her seat.

Sheela moved through the star base with her usual manner. After updating her gear and getting the latest information packet. She was back en route to the ship to secure the latest stuff she had gotten. It seems that she was on a more permanent assigned to the Tomcat. Even though she ruffled feathers and fur the wrong way at times. She seemed to have the better luck with dealing with the Marines. Since she was civilian, not Fleet, she blended in better with the crew and marines aboard the Tomcat. She had called ahead and gotten the same quarters as before once her orders had been confirmed.

Sheela scowled as the call to assemble on the ship in the conference room. She still had to make several stops to pick up even more gear she had specially ordered from the shadiest merchants that did business on the Star Base. She looked thoughtful as she paused at a junction. Whether to continue to the ship or go get the stuff in advance of heading back to the ship. She shrugged and took off away from the ship to pay a visit to the Merchants first.

Jasmine wondered where some of her other crew were, Sheela was at the top of the list followed closely by her Chief Counselor, she decided to give them a bit longer, but just then the new Marine entered the briefing room, she gave him a smile as he took his seat.

K'Muss smiled back. "Captain," he said, checking in. He then walked over to the replicator and ordered a hot chocolate before taking his seat.

Iria walked in a moment later her hair pulled back in a tight braid, her eyes alight with playfulness, she smiled at those present and took an empty seat, setting down her cup of hot chocolate (it had whipped cream and chocolate shavings on the top, next to the PaDD that had been in her other hand. "Good morning," she said lightly, the only person in the room she knew on sight at the moment was the Captain, the rest she would be learning as things progressed.

K'Muss took the opportunity to introduce himself. " Lieutenant." he said, "Warrant officer K'Muss," he said, offering a hand. " Folks call me Kit," he added

"Iria Walon, Counselor, pleased to meet you Kit." she said with a smile as she shook his hand, she noticed the cup beside him was also hot chocolate and her eyes twinkled with a playful light, "Looks like we have drink preferences in common unless that is not hot chocolate you have there?"

"It is!" Kit replied. "Good eye. Pleasure to meet you," he said.

Iria grinned, she had a feeling it was going to be quite interesting working with this group of folks, she'd met so far and she was looking forward to meeting the others as well.

Alexanderia stood up and smiled, she shook his hand. "I am LT Alexanderia Cahill the CMO on the Tomcat. Welcome aboard Warrant Officer. Hope you have a long career and prosper."

" A pleasure, Doctor," K'Muss said. "Likewise."

"I am Commander Sterling the Exec and Chief Science Officer, Welcome aboard Mr K'Muss. Maia said.

A few moments later, Sheela shimmered into existence at the end of the conference table and nodded to everyone as she slung the pack she was carrying off her shoulder by the straps and set it on the floor next to her chosen seat as settled down in the seat at the opposite end from where Captain Somers sat. "Squeakies all," Sheela spoke in her usual manner. Taking in the crew old and new. At least to her perspective.

The doors parted again to reveal a massive walking nightmare who calmly walked towards his seat. His face was demonic, his mouth filled with long sharp teeth moulded into a permanent grin.

"You must be Lieutenant Krezak. I am Commander Sterling the Exec and Chief science officer, My my you do present and imposing figure. Welcome aboard Lieutenant. If you need any special accommodation please let me know". Maia said. Lieutenant Krezak was by far the scariest looking person Maia had ever seen straight out of an old horror video. Maia was glad he was on our side. She would make it a point to get to know him very well.

o0 He is so TALL, and the word predator fits very well for his features. I can not wait to see what type of personality he has.0o Iria thought quietly to herself.

The monster bowed his head slightly before rumbling in a deep artificial voice. "Greetings, I am Lieutenant Krezak, I will be serving as the Chief of Security and Tactical." He glanced over at Somers. "Apologies for my tardiness Captain, the installation of the neural translator took a little longer than expected."

Alexanderia did not act surprised because she had seen the race of the new crew member before and treat him like she would any other member of the crew. "Welcome to the Tomcat Lieutenant Krezak. I look forward to serving with you."

The alien gave her an acknowledging nod as he sat down in the relatively small chair.

Now with all her Senior Staff present Jasmine began by clearing her throat.

"Welcome crew of the Tomcat, those that are new to the ship Lieutenant Krezak, Walon and Staff Warrant Officer K'Muss, welcome to the ship and your first mission with us, I will let you get to know the other officers here after the briefing!" She paused.

Iria nodded her thanks not offering any further words as the Captain seemed to want to move to the heart of the meeting as soon as possible. She settled back in her seat and took a delicate sip from her hot chocolate being careful to not leave a whipped creme moustache behind...

"Seems that all are present and accounted for Captain. May I ask the nature of our current assignment?" Maia inquired.

"Okay," She began to bring up a strange system on the holo display "This system is catalogued as Unexplored System 2355874, I know it still has a catalogued number even though explorer ships have been there, but currently no one has thought to give it a name. But let's continue on, not much is known about this binary system, save that it got two suns, one is Sol size the other is smaller. All scanned planets are from around the larger star."

*Pause*

"Now the more confirmed data we have is that there are three outer system Gas Giants, no classification on them, one of those Gas giants has a Class M planet orbiting it. Said planet has the remains of an old but highly advanced civilisation upon it, last explorer ship that went there scanned and found a large circular hole in the ground where a city once stood, but there were faint Borg energy traces. The last explorer ship there detected negligible Borg energy signatures and nothing else, any questions before I continue?" She asked and paused to let what she had said so far sink in as a rotating hologram of the planet stopped above the large perfect circle where a city once stood.

"Are there any sentient life forms there and if so what is their current level of technological development? Are the traces of the Borg signature the reason we are going there?" Maia asked.

Looking at her First Officer "Only indigenous life-forms on the fourth planet of this binary system, last exploration scout out there showed nothing but the Class M fourth planet and the out Class M planet that had ruins on, as for the Borg signatures last info we had was faint traces, but just because they are faint, does not mean the Collective will not return." Somers responded.

Iria had none at the moment, she was watching the hologram, it looked like it was going to be an interesting mission ahead, she sat still listening and quietly watching reactions of the others. When she had something of value to say she would add in her opinion.

As the Briefing continued Alexanderia found it to be very interesting. And when the Captain finished she spoke up. "I was wondering if anything is known of the medical advances in the star system and if we will be allowed to help them advance their medical capabilities, Captain?"

"Does the Prime Directive factor in?" K'Muss asked.

Looking at her CMO "I will answer your question along with Chief K'Muss's "As the Prime Directive is and will be in effect, we will not be able to advance them in way doctor, but we may need you to surgically alter away team members to look like some of them so we can get a good close-up study of them."

*Pause*

"Okay the specs on the species will be sent to you in medical doctor, now what we do know is while Pre-warp they are at last pass to be known to be at the same tech level as late 20th Century earth, so they will have satellites in orbit, possibly a space telescope too, but we will prepare for the worst case scenario. All currently scanned planets are located around the largest star, the species on the planet in question" She said and paused as she changed the image to the species found on the fourth planet.

"As you can see they vary in height and weight, they look for the most part human, the only difference is their dark blue hair, blue skin and yellow Iris's, if their culture follows in any fashion of human evolution in the late twentieth century, then expect high security and some paranoia. As for how fast they develop, we have no data on that, but I expect they have chemically fueled space ships. So when we get there we will park the Tomcat around the closest Gas Giant and send in an auxiliary craft. We currently have three Klingon Mark two cloaking devices, one will be fitted on our venture class scout, which will get in close to get some updated info. A small type 6 shuttle has also been equipped with a cloak to land an away team, the third will be fitted to a larger shuttle and that will be a SAR team; *pause* so any questions before I issue initial assignments?" Somers said.

"I have no questions now Captain, I have downloaded all I can about the race there for my records. I do look forward to getting to know more about them and their culture." Alexanderia said.

Sheela sat at her end of the table and listened to the exchange between the officers. She hated first contacts like these as it left her in the dark. She would have to send out inquiries to get caught up and to find something that others missed but was important. She began to review the what they had so far and sent out inquiries to all of her sources.

"I presume I will be staying on the ship for the duration of this mission then?" Krezak spoke up in amusement. No extent of surgery could change his face into anything remotely humanoid.

Kit let himself chuckle. " I guess me too," he said.

Jasmine looked at them with some amusement. "Sadly yes, trying to make a Caitian and a Krakozian look like blue skinned and yellow-eyed humans would be extremely hard." Looking around, "Are there any more questions before I move on?"

Alexanderia smiled, "None Captain, I look forward to seeing what is to come."

"We may be able to tap into their data net and further render ourselves undetectable, it might also give us a better idea of what their cultural beliefs are as well as systems of government as well as why the Borg were there in the first place, It doesn't fit their MO, they usually only consume what would be advantageous to them by adding to their biological or technological distinctiveness," Sterling replied.

Looking around and fixing on Sterling. "Excellent, see it done Commander; okay final call for anyone who wishes to speak up before I continue?" She asked again.

Iria did not add any questions, everything was being answered by the others' comments. There was no point in adding commentary when everything she wanted to know had been spoken about so far. She would continue to listen and if she had a question then and only then would she speak up.

"What is our actual mission Captain?" Maia asked.

Again her XO was keeping her on her toes "The actual mission Commander, is essentially an exploration mission to gather data, albeit a more heavily armed exploration mission, hence the extra equipment we have taken on and the upgrading of the Tomcats Science suite packages, so Science will have access to the latest analysis sensor and research tech." Somers said and looked at Sterling "That help Commander?"

"Aye Captain". Maia replied.

Alexanderia looked at some information though limited they had on them. oO They are much like Humans medically, but their hearts are closer to the right side instead of the left and they are actually a little weaker... Oo She looked at the CO and smiled "Captain, Doing this is going to take some time but we should be able to pull it off. With the time we will have between here and there."

Looking at Cahill. "Excellent, I will send all info we have on them to medical hope you are good with alterations Lieutenant?" Somers asked.

Dr Cahill smiled. "It is more like what was called Halloween on Terra Captain. Actually, the skin tone will be the hardest part. Contacts can be replicated to take care of the eyes and she wanted to be sure the skin tones could be reversed. Perhaps someone from the science section can assist with this so it is done right.

Looking back at Cahill and nodding in acknowledgement, Somers responded. "I will assign Commander Sterling to you on this Doctor."

"As you wish Captain," Maia replied.

"Thank you, Captain, I have some ideas but want to be sure that it is not able to be removed or is not so temporary that it comes off during the mission," Cahill replied.

Looking around the room "Okay, briefing over, get your departments and items ready we leave in four hours from now, dismissed." Jasmine said and the crew began filing out of the briefing room.

[OFF]

Captain Jasmine Somers
Commanding Officer
USS Tomcat

Commander Maia Sterling
First Officer/CSO
USS Tomcat

Lieutenant Commander Sheela Swiftpaws
Chief Intelligence Officer/Communications
USS Tomcat

Lieutenant Alexanderia Cahill MD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Tomcat

Lieutenant Jg Iria Walon
Chief Counsellor
USS Tomcat

2nd Lieutenant K'Muss
Marine Commanding Officer
USS Tomcat

 

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