Clean-Up The Briefing Part 2

Posted on 05 Oct 2020 @ 5:16pm by Captain Jasmine Somers FCapt & Lieutenant Colonel Alexandria Somers & Major S'arila Donovan & Master Chief Petty Officer Lucy Armitage & Captain Maia Sterling & Lieutenant Commander Alexanderia Cahill & Lieutenant Commander Remington Dodd & Lieutenant Paul Winchester & Lieutenant Lamia ‘Mia’ Kildare & Lieutenant Matthew Thompson

3,683 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: S03 Ep 02 Trouble in the Sticks (Main Post) Galen IV Phase 1
Location: Tomcat Conference Room
Timeline: S3 Mission 3 MD 11

[ON]

“We do know that when the bluegills left the host body, they released a toxin that destroyed the brain stem. None of the admirals who were infected in the incident you described survived their parasites it’s to the Queen was incinerated by massed phaser fire, but no one else infected survived either.” Matt continued.

The Captain looked at Thompson and Winchester and the others and clearly stated “get this clear the both of you, the only one that cannot be saved is the Hive Queen host, all other hosts are drones and aside from some PTSD and some after effects the other drone host will be okay” she said “but well done on the comments both of you” she added. Then the Captain looked at her Chief Intelligence Officer “yes Lieutenant, that is exactly what it means and I trust you Starfleet has not made this choice lightly, but I fear orbital strike would be useless anyway, but the PTSD will still be there without the BDZ order, those hosts will be traumatized by their experience” the Captain responded.

Maia looked at the Captain. “We could try to beam them out of the host body, it will be traumatic, but we might get them before they can release the toxin that destroys the brain stem. Maia suggested.

“Sadly, Commander, that cannot be done, while the host of the Drones will survive, there will be at least one life lost and that is the Queen’s host,” The Captain said.

Doctor Cahill overheard their conservation and responded, “We in Starfleet Medical have developed procedures to force the drones from the host, but even then, it is still sometimes fatal to the drone host. We in medical want everyone to be home with their loved ones but still cannot save them all.” Cahill continued, “We are constantly experimenting to find new ways to help but it is still an uphill battle.”

Iria shook her head slightly, “The records from the previous encounter said that the regular hosts were able to make a full recovery once the Queen had been killed. We found the nest, we have the location, why do we need to kill them all when removing the Queen’s host is the only very regrettably one to remain unsaved?” She didn’t understand me the drone’s hosts had to die as well. It wasn’t an acceptable loss in her opinion. Not without more reason.

After that, Somers looked at her Chief Engineering Officer “Lieutenant Dodd, could you fine-tune the transporters to get past whatever defences there is around the hive queen’s sanctum?” she asked Dodd.

“Sir, I will have my personnel get right on that and the transporters will be our top priority,” Dodd replied.

“Excellent Lieutenant, thank you,” the Captain said and looked around the room all had concern on their faces about this BDZ order, she knew Starfleet did not come to this easily and they meant total BDZ, but if there was a way that they could save the majority she would do so.

“I’m sure we can find a way to punch through their shielding,” Taggert offered. “If the Orions could slip in through our shields, we can find a way to slip through theirs too. Every door has to have a key… even if it has to be a crowbar…”

Meanwhile, Sombra remained under the table, in his service vest, the tension in the room was rising, his training told him to go to comfort someone, yet there were so many. In the end, his primary duty was to his ‘Alpha’.

“Okay, Commander Sterling, Commander Cahill and Lieutenant Dodd work on a way to beam those at the queen’s location and the hive queen itself into space, where we will incinerate the bodies with Phaser fire, Lieutenant Parker I want you to locate the power supply to the whole area including the reinforced area the Hive queen would be, then destroy that power source or sources so the target building is vulnerable, then with the assist of Science and Medical Lieutenant Dodd can beam those in the particular build-out. *pauses* To use a Vulcan Axiom The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, but doing this course of action we avoid the Base Delta Zero-order and deal with the problem” the Captain then looks at the names she said “are you four able to do this?” She asked, “otherwise it is a Limited BDZ” the Captain added.

“Yes, Sir. I am willing and able to exterminate the pests once and for all, so to speak.” Dodd replied.

“On it, Captain, I have a couple of ideas we may use to identify the ones to be beamed into space for them to be incinerated, Captain,” Cahill responded.

“Oh, what do you have to suggest Doctor Cahill? Maia asked.

“A couple of ideas one we use a die to tag the ones infected by Bluegills or two we use the darts that the Orions used to grab some of our people. Replied Doctor Cahill.

Both are up for debate along with other ideas others may have.”

Parker cleared his throat before speaking, “I have nothing to add at the moment, it’s not a problem I can blast or fix with explosives,” he said attempting to inject humour.

Just mention of the Orions made Lamia’s skin crawl, she was still pretty raw about the whole slave ordeal, but it was something she was slowly learning to cope with.

Nicci quickly drew her breath in, attempting to control her reaction. She squeezed her hand and pursed her full lips, though she couldn’t control the look in her eyes at the mention of the Orions. But her mind began running through options for using the Orion transport tag devices to track the little alien infection and how they could modify their transporters to get through possible defences.

Aldana spoke up, addressing each the Captain, XO, and hir boss with a level gaze. “Sir, I am a doctor, and I will always want to save as many as possible. I know I am not alone in the belief that all life is precious, and as Members of Starfleet, we owe it to our oaths that we try to the very end to save every life. Perhaps if there were some way to capture the queen and not destroy her? Morality dictates that we must investigate the possibility of a peaceful resolution with the bluegill as long as we remain able.

Cahill replied, " Capturing the Queen is a Bad Idea. The Queen is to only one that can make new Bluegills to infect others. I the Queen is captured she will make more Drones and the drones as small enough to slip past the security and allow for them to infect others and if it happens on a starship they then can go to any other planets they choose and infect others there and spread through the entire federation space as well as other space areas like Romulan, and Klingon for example. Killing the Queen is the best option at this time.

“Understood Captain,” Maia said solemnly.

Nicci was relieved to hear they wouldn’t need to kill people. There was enough of that already in space, and she’d nearly beaten that Orion to death not so long ago. Maybe it was her body getting the better of her, but her emotions were closer to the surface than usual and she felt the wave of relief wash over her.

Serina, still upset but understanding what needed to be done was silent. She couldn’t help being sad, but then she had read about a similar event in the past, and it helped ease some of the guilt. John held her hand in understanding what she was feeling.

After the last meeting that he had attended, Paul had decided to keep his mouth shut and not argue with the other department head’s. As he winced at the memory of the colonel and her punishment.

Lamia had sat quietly taking in the briefing. “I’ll make sure sensors and transporters get an extra boost from the power grid. I’ll also make sure we’ve got spare power available in case of any surprise retaliation against the ship.”

The Captain looks at her Chief of Operations “Thank you, Lieutenant, now we have established that Science is going to locate those in the building and beam them out into space, where this ship will vaporize them *looks at Parker* Cody I will need you to target the Power station on the planet and the auxiliary one that would have been set up by the infected, exact shots minimal collateral damage, then when they are in space I will need you to atomize the floating bodies, got it?” The Captain asked, well aware of how her crew felt about these actions as she felt them herself.

“Understood Captain, it appears I will be able to blast something after all,” Cody replied.

With a nod “okay before I mention one more thing, are there any questions any of you have?” the Captain asked.

Serina shook her head, “No captain. We are good here,” she said.

“No questions from me, captain,” Dodd replied.

“Yes Captain, I am concerned that we don’t know which is the queen, we are not even entirely certain of her location,” Maia said.

*Looks at Sterling* “I thought you managed to lo jack them?” She asked concerned

“I did but so far one bluegill looks like any other on sensors Captain, apparently we will need more refinement in the process for future missions,” Maia replied.

Aldana spoke up again, s/he had a question. “Didn’t report from the Enterprise-D indicated that any infested being under heavy stun forced the infecting bluegill to evacuate the host – returning the host to normal – and the bluegill were then observed fleeing directly back to “mommy?” S/he paused for a moment before continuing. “Then wasn’t the original queen/mother reported as being in a centralized room set up as almost a thrown-room? It seems to me that a “thrown-room” would have been heavily fortified and defended. If we look for that, wouldn’t that be the most likely place to find ‘her’?”

Cahill responded, " The Queen is the only one that can produce new Drones and removing her from the host is not possible now without killing the host.

Matt decided to speak. "Is there any way we can use the biofilter in the transporter itself to filter out the bluegill from the host organism? Thompson asked.

The Captain looked at Thompson "sadly Lieutenant, it cannot, if it could we would have evicted all the drones and quickly disposed of the queen Bluegill" she said in response.

It is true to kill the queen the Drones die. But capturing the Queen is too dangerous. She could find a way to infect a starship and then they would be almost unstoppable at that point.

Yes as a Doctor my oath says first do no harm, but in this case of capturing the Queen, it would do more harm and endanger more innocent victims.

Dodd got a surprised look to him because he had not sensed anything that would be hindering the mission.

Walon was also just as surprised because she had supplied the intel. for this part of the mission. “I know I gave the location of the nest in my reports to the Captain, the Queen of the Gills I can agree with the need to be killed but the drones, they don’t need to die. Once the Queen is gone the drones die and allow for treatment. If you are telling me that from the 2360s to now, we have lost our ability to save the effected Drone host after the Enterprise-D had managed full recovery then there’s something seriously lacking.” Iria said in a clearly upset tone of voice, her expression was a mixture of confusion and concern.

oO The needs of the many… Oo Nicci thought to herself, using the Vulcan maxim to calm her own feelings about the situation. She wasn’t innocent in taking life, sure, but that didn’t mean you had to enjoy doing it when you had to do it.

The Captain looks at Walon “Lieutenant, our targets will be those around the queen and the Bluegill Queen itself, I do not intend to kill those that can be saved” she said. “right then if there is nothing further, I have one more item, this will happen for Phase II of this current mission” the Captain said as she looked at Colonel Somers, who suddenly looked uncomfortable at the Captain’s look.

Iria shook her head firmly, "Captain a moment ago you said that you wanted us to 'work on a way to beam those at the queen’s location and the hive queen itself into space, where we will incinerate the bodies with Phaser fire,' that would kill all of them. Not just the Queen host but the drones as well." Iria said in a firm determined tone as she looked at Captain Somers.

Cahill responded, "Yes killing the Queen does kill the drones. And it is medically able to treat most of them. But some will die no matter what we do medically and it is a very long and painfully slow death for the hosts. So we need to look at the whole picture. And in some cases, their Bluegills will still kill there hosts no matter what we do" she responded.

"Excellent, I know Command will feel better by not having a BDZ of any level on their hands think of the paperwork and the diplomatic meltdowns that will happen, the Klingon's will accept the situation, but I do not think the other races would, especially the Romulan's," the Captain said.

“After all festivities are completed at Starbase 51 and before you guys go out onto Phase II, I will be leaving for a bit I have some T.F.C.O. duties that cannot be missed, so for Phase-II I will be handing over temporary command to Lieutenant Colonel Somers,” the Captain said and braced for the response, which was a lot more restrained than she expected from Alex.

“WHAT!! You want me to command Phase II, Captain, why? I know you had a plan to have me on this ship for this mission, but think what you are going to do to me, I will be commanding a ship without a First Officer” Alex said and looked at Sterling “Congratulations Commander” she said and returned her attention to Jasmine.

Maia nodded. “You will be commanding a very well trained and combat-ready crew and you will also have the second officer Cahill to assist you with starship operations, Colonel Somers,” Maia replied.

“You have commanded a ship before against the Orions,” the Captain coolly said hiding the fact that she was enjoying seeing Alex squirm.

“That was commanding an overwhelming fleet, one that made the aggressor stand down, the Tomcat – a fine ship she maybe – is a lot smaller than a Sovereign-class. Is there no one else Captain?” Colonel Somers asked.

“None immediately qualified… …you chicken Colonel?” the Captain challenged and saw that trademark stubbornness creep in, she had challenged the Colonel, but there would be some griping before she accepted things, what was weird was how restrained she was being and how she reacted. “what is the issue here Colonel?” the Captain honestly asked.

“On the ground, a vehicle or a building gets breached you have oxygen and your survival chances are fifty-fifty, in space the ship gets a hull breach and guess what there is no oxygen in space and if some crew are unlucky enough to be in that area before the emergency fields go up, they get blown out into space, suffocation is a worse way to die than getting shot nine times out of ten the weapon hits you and you die instantly or you get vaporized that is a quick death suffocating in space is the slowest most horrible death one can face. I have the same views on space flight as the legendary Doctor McCoy did” Colonel Somers said, she looked away a little ashamed.

“I think that you do not consider these officers your crew yet, well-commanding Phase II will make them yours during the mission. Yes, you will be without a First Officer, but you have to get to know the crew’s strengths and weaknesses on duty, not just off as I will not be commanding this ship for too much longer, I will be handing it over to you at some point as TFCO duties are becoming more, but what is more this will be the second part of your bridge training. Your first was commanding an extremely overpowered fleet – your assessing officer praised your actions – now Command wants to see how you cope with a ship like the Tomcat. Okay, she is not a Sovereign-class, but she is faster and has more offensive weaponry and has three squadrons of fighters and over 450 Rifles. This ship has teeth. Regardless Colonel, you will command Phase II of our current mission challenge or not it is happening” the Captain said.

*grumbles* “Understood,” Colonel Somers said.

The Captain looked around the room at all the reactions…

Paul looked shocked by the captain‘s announcement that the colonel was taking command of the Tomcat, but watching the colonel get a taste of her own medicine was amusing. Paul had a slight smirk on his face. He looked back at captain Somers, and said, “Captain, please for all that’s holy, don’t give us the colonel” as he chuckled slightly.

Colonel Somers looked over at Winchester "what are you smiling for Lieutenant?" she asked with a tone in her voice as she pinned him with a look and a slight smile.

"Ohh just watching you have your deer in the headlights moment" responded Paul with a slight smirk one more time, "and to see you squirm" as he chuckled.

The Colonel shot Winchester the dirtiest look, "have you forgotten that I will be commanding Phase 2, Lieutenant Winchester, you should be worrying more about yourself and less about my discomfort" she said and Winchester promptly fell silent.

Lamia looked surprised at Winchester’s comment. “With all due respect Lieutenant, as members of the senior staff, we should be supporting Colonel Somers.” She nodded politely to Somers. “Ops. will be ready when you are Colonel.”

“Counselor, I am having a joke with the captain and the Colonel,” he said looking back at them both, he continued “I will give the colonel my full support,” he knew that he was going to be watched by the colonel.

“Lamia is right, whoever is in command of the Tomcat deserves our loyalty and fealty. She is a quite capable officer.” Maia said.

Cahill smiled, “Congratulations Colonel Somers if you need anything of me let me know. I am CMO and 2XO on your ship. I am fully behind you.”

Aldana kept quiet, though silently s/he had hir reservations. S/he had never served under a marine before and that made hir a bit nervous. S/he nodded and smiled waving a hand briefly, “Assistant CMO.”

Iria looked at Winchester and shook her head he really needed to learn there were a time and a place for such childish behaviour. This wasn't the time to rock the boat for kicks. "Colonel we will give you the best of our abilities, Captain I wish you well for your Fleet duties don't make you a stranger."

"Engineering will be fully supportive of the command of the ship and all souls on board." Dodd replied, "Captain, God speed to your assignment. COL Somers will be in good hands with the Engineering Team."

*Looks around* "Thank you all, I know for most of you this will be your first time under a Marine, but I assure you I will run it by Fleet Officer rules unless someone annoys me then I will hand them over to Engineering as I am sure the Deuterium tanks and Plasma Conduits need a clean, is that right Lieutenant Dodd?" Colonel Somers asked as she looked at Winchester with an evil smile.

"Captain, I could certainly use the extra manpower to clean those along with the Holodeck waste tanks," Dodd replied with a very devious smirk.

"Don't look at me, I already have served my punishment" replied Paul looking back at the colonel, as he knew the joke between them. He continued "it is someone else turn to be whipped into shape and dragged into the holodeck,

Cahill looked at him and smiled, " I don't want it either" she said as she smiled at LT Dodd.

"Well if that is all, then, you are all dismissed, start your preparations," the Captain said as the whole room stood up and began to file out of the room she looked at the Colonel's face and knew Winchester was going to be in for a rough time of Phase 2, she pitied Winchester, she really did so sighing heavily she returned to the bridge.

[OFF]

Fleet Captain Jasmine Somers
Commander Officer

Commander Maia Sterling
First Officer/Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Commander Alexanderia Cahill MD
Chief Medical Officer/2XO

Lieutenant Remington Dodd
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant Paul Winchester
Assistant Chief of Security

Lieutenant Lamia 'Mia' Arderne
Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant Cody Parker
Chief of Security

Lt. Jg Iria Walon
CIO/Chief Counsellor

Lt. Jg Nicole Taggert
Assistant Chief Engineer

Lt. Jg Amiri Aldana 365 D.V.M./M.D
Assistant Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant JG Serina 'Reaper' Donovan
CAG/Raider 1/Helm Officer

Lieutenant Jg Matthew Thompson
Science Officer

Lieutenant Colonel Alexandria Somers [P: Somers]
Acting MCO

Major S'arila D'Tana Donovan[P: Somers]
Bravo Unit Commander

MCPO1 Lucy Armitage [P: Somers]
Captain's Yeoman

 

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