Crew Recall and Briefing Part 2

Posted on 28 Sep 2022 @ 10:27am by Captain Jasmine Somers FCapt & Lieutenant Colonel Alexandria Somers & Lieutenant Commander Remington Dodd & Lieutenant Commander Cody Parker & Lieutenant Commander Alexanderia Cahill & Lieutenant Leland Hawksley & Lieutenant Lamia ‘Mia’ Kildare & Lieutenant Matthew Thompson & Lieutenant Serina "Reaper" Donovan & Lieutenant JG Tosrol Ze & Lieutenant JG Faith Benson & Lieutenant JG Jarel Haze & Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair MD, DVM & Lieutenant JG Thyra Sh'shraaqir & Captain Mazal Falk & Lieutenant JG Ted Silver & Lieutenant Paul Winchester & Lieutenant JG Todd Hewitt

3,958 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: S3 Episode 5: Diplomatic Incident/Hydaransz Again (Main)
Location: Tomcat Main Briefing Room
Timeline: MD: 00

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Cody quickly stowed his go bag in the guest quarters that Somers had directed him to. He had barely enough time to grab his insulated cup and replicate some piping hot coffee. For the last 24 hours, he had slept very little due to the ongoing investigation. He entered the briefing room, slightly surprised at the number of officers that were already assembled. Cody sat down in an empty chair near where he used to sit. Old habits die hard he thought, as he took a sip of his coffee and awaited the sweet rush of caffeine to augment his adrenaline.

Jasmine saw Cody enter and gave him a smile, just then another Officer entered a bit late, but she was new "and you are Lieutenant?" Fleet Captain Somers asked the new Officer.

Jorel had hoped to slide in unnoticed. Obviously a foolish thought. In a room full of officers, he would have had better luck than a drop of blood in a pool full of sharks. He smiled warmly and stood up straight as he introduced himself. "I am Lieutenant JG Jarel Haze. I am the new engineering officer. I was told to report to this briefing." He responded kindly, spotting an unoccupied seat. He planned to make his way to it as soon as he was able.

"Welcome to the Tomcat Lieutenant Haze, we will talk more later, please have a seat," the Fleet Captain said and then looked at the assembled "Okay, to start off before I hand you over to Colonel Somers, I will be briefing those who will be going to the Hydaransz System, as I am one of the few remaining officers who are familiar with the system, I will be briefing you on the finer points and what to expect, Colonel Somers!" the Fleet Captain said.

"Thank you, Captain," Colonel Somers said standing up as she looked around "sorry to cut your leaves short, but a potential diplomatic incident has arisen in this area of the Federation and we being the closest ships currently not assigned have been given this mission, I will brief you on what I can, then I will hand you over to Commander Parker, who will then hand it back to me," Colonel Somers said.

At this moment in time Fleet, Captain Somers is still not fully strong "excluding those who have just arrived, you all know what I went through on our last mission, for our esteemed guest and new officer, I was captured by a humanoid who had Nausicaans working for him, he was upset as he lost his planet, a planet infested with mutated Bluegills from a previous mission before last *takes laboured breath* that planet was given a BDZ order, reluctantly from Starfleet High Command" pauses for a laboured breath.

"Apologies I am still on the mend, for those who do not know BDZ stands for Base Delta Zero, simply put orbital bombardment from space, we could not save the planet more than the survivors down there as they had mutated when the mutated Bluegills took them, these Bluegills tried to infiltrate the Federation back in the late 2360s if it was not for the Crew of the Enterprise D. Anyway I digress when I was captured on my way back from TFCO 11 duties at the time my shuttle was disabled and I was taken Captive, I will spare you the gory details, but I was beaten, tortured and abused both physically and mentally, this is why this current mission will be led by the Colonel after I brief those going to a hostile system I will be transferring over to the Starbase to heal, Colonel," Jasmine said.

Colonel Somers spoke up "okay what little information I got from the Admiralty is as follows "On Starbase 39 Sierra a Federation Ambassador was abducted, there was no trace left at the scene, while the Admiralty had their suspicions, wish they had shared them with me, but what I read from that is that someone with clearance or with hacking skills wiped the sensor logs of the abduction and managed to get out of the area undetected" she paused.

"I know of only two entities capable of doing such a thing, Section 31 and the Tal'Shiar, one of my contacts in S31 confirmed it was not them but a renegade faction of S31, while he did not say if these Renegades had help, from what the message said they did and the one entity that loves to sow the seeds of discord are the Romulan Tal'Shiar. Anything else about the Ambassador's disappearance is purely speculation, but the Rogue S31 agents would explain how they got away so cleanly and that is all Admiralty could tell me, but the Commander will know more" she said then looked at Parker "Commander Parker!" she added knowing like the rest she would find out more.

"Thank you, Captain," the Colonel said without looking "the unknown Lieutenant Commander sitting at this table used to be this ship's Chief of Security, he left some time ago and is now working for Starfleet Ambassadorial Security, please say hello to Lieutenant Commander Cody Parker, when I finish with my bit, he will brief you further," the Colonel said and paused.

"Thanks, Colonel Somers, and crew of the Tomcat, Lieutenant Commander Cody Parker began, "I wish I were visiting under better circumstances but with things the way they are I will get straight to the point. Ambassador Striven was en route to the new Starbase for the opening ceremony and did not arrive. Initial scans of the area by some of the local ships and their crews turned up nothing."

Cody looked at his coffee cup a moment before continuing, "As the Ambassador's Chief of Security it was my job to protect him, having failed this, this is now a search and recovery mission. The first goal is to locate the ship, my hope is that ship is just disabled and everything is okay. The worst-case scenario is an assassination, though I hope to the gods this is not the case. We will hope for the best and prepare for the worst."

"With the Tomcat as the closest starship we are going to backtrack the Ambassador's planned flight path, and then we will proceed from there in whichever direction the evidence leads. Any questions?" Cody asked before sipping his coffee.

Lamia looked toward Parker. “Commander, may I ask what race the Ambassador is? I’m wondering if this could possibly be something political, or those out for revenge for whatever reason.”

"Ambassador Striven is Tellurite, he has worked within the Diplomatic Corps for nearly 30 years. His speciality is commerce and trade agreements, where his advice on economic policy remains unparalleled. His attitude like most Tellurites can be considered crass, but as far as enemies there are none that I am immediately aware of. There are always fringe groups that we try to monitor, but nothing that indicates the Ambassador as a primary target."

"Welcome back on the Tomcat, Commander Parker," Dodd stated to his former crewmate. "I am curious about what sort of territory we might be taking the ol' girl into. I was once in the Hydaransz system and it was not pleasant. So I was merely curious if the territory of the system was better or worse than it was the last time the ship was there?" Dodd had not served long as the XO and he was thus thinking about the engineering side of things he realized it after he asked his question but it was a worthy question as the Hydaransz system was not peaceful the last he knew even after all that the Federation had done in the area.

"Thanks, Commander Dodd," Parker replied to the new XO, "Congrats on making First Officer, XO is a big deal. To answer your question," Cody continued," The Ambassador was at Starbase 39 which is close to the core worlds of the Federation's presence here. The Ambassador was heading to the Galen System looking at opening negotiations there for a new trade agreement. He was then heading straight back to Starbase 39 where I decided to divert to SB 51 first to meet with the intel team here to discuss other matters unrelated to this incident."

Faith was just listening for a moment before chiming in slightly. "I think our best thing to look for when we do get there is the sign of the attack. Thinking in terms of evasive manoeuvres they may have taken could help in determining what way the ship went also." It wasn't exactly a question but she thought it relevant.

Ze sat listening intently to the world around him he knew this mission was important and would require a meticulous amount of preparation, "I happen to agree with my deputy captain and commanders I think it would be sound an idea to scout out the area an of attack and plan accordingly"

"I thoroughly agree with both of you, we should check to see if there was an attack, the problem is, there is no distress signal coming from the ship and we aren't sure exactly where they went offline, so to speak," Parker explained. "I think our best bet is to head towards the Starbase using the planned travel coordinates. I have submitted them to the Skipper already. Again Our hope is to locate the ship as soon as possible. We will most likely need Science and Ops to boost the scanners as much as possible so we can locate the craft. Once located we can begin the next steps whatever they may be." As he finished speaking he once again took a large gulp of his coffee.

She nodded her head just slightly in Parker's direction. All but respect for his expertise. "Of course, I was simply thinking, we already know the planned travel coordinates. We should also know where they went silent as well. Thus two options really. Find logs of ships that left there or followed the same path, or skip going there and go to where it was last detected. Follow that area for its unique signatures or others that match the travel ways. Trader and other." Faith put her hands on her lap.

Cahill replied," I have been to the Hydaransz System, it is unfriendly plus has some problems for Federation Ships in the system. Something there is causing our ships to lose communications. So any ship going there is basically on its own. They cannot call for assistance or receive any communications.

This has resulted in some ships going there and not returning. And no one knows why. If a Federation ship was able to discover why this happens. We may be more able to explore the Hydaransz System. And be able to patrol there in safety. The ship I was on was attacked by pirates and was lucky to get out without being destroyed.”

Jane simply sat quietly and listened. She was glad to hear that her superior officer had experience in this area. Even if it wasn’t a positive experience.

Jarel had been listening and jotting down notes on his travel Padd. The mention of lack of communication made him sigh deeply. It answered one important personal question for him. He made a side note to try and get one last message out to his girls and his wife before they got out of range. He wouldn't want them to worry. He knew he wouldn't be able to tell them where he was going. Still, he could make an excuse for the long absence and give his mother-in-law the good news he might just die as she always wished for. Good news all around. The other half of his mind wanted to get into engineering and see just what he could get his hands on to help with.

Leland listened to Lt. Commander Parker. He seemed to know what he was talking about and offered invaluable information on the Hydaransz System. Engineering would be in tip-top shape and performance.

There would need to be damaged and emergency containment protocol exercises regarding the Engineering Department team. Hawksley wanted to go into this mission to understand the Tomcat’s vulnerability from an Engineering perspective. He did not have any questions yet, as there was little more than carte blanche information given due to security reasons.

Taking a drink from his mug, Leland relaxed in his seat, watching his PADD and wrist chronometer. He would call an Engineering Department meeting to ensure everyone was on a preparatory exercise and maintenance enhancement of the ship's warp drive systems.

They were surely getting tired of hearing from here at this point. So instead of just speaking up again, Faith raised her hand a little. Looking at Cahill for a moment. Meaning to elaborate or say something about what the Commander just mentioned.

Lamia looked up from her PADD “Do we know if there are any Betazoid or other telepathic species aboard the Ambassador’s ship? With a lack of communication in that area of space, perhaps a more unusual method of communication may prove useful. One using telepaths? It can be done.”

"The flight path was designed to stay outside the Hydransz System due to the recent events there. A diplomatic or foreign dignitary has the ability to log classified flight plans at their discretion. Hence the reason for providing directly to Captain Somers before dissemination to the rest of you. As far as a telepath, there was a yeoman aboard who was from Betazoid," Parker continued "But the extent of his abilities were limited due to a human mother. Any further questions?" Parker asked trying to help inform everyone without losing his patience due to lack of sleep.

Jarel could think of nothing to ask or say that might contribute to the conversation in any form. Thus he elected to remain silent and wait for further instructions from the powers that be.

Faith lowered the hand that had been waiting, "What about the tethering together micro-probes to keep a line of communications we can use as we go?"

"Commander, may I ask what business was the ambassador in route to settle and is that vital to be dealt with while we are looking for him? I only ask as maybe we need to send an away team to maybe deal with that side of the business at hand as the rest of the crew on the ship deal with the search and rescue efforts." Dodd added feeling that was more of the XO response and not an engineer's response.

"Commander Dodd," Cody began, "The Ambassador was headed back to Starbase 39 from the Galen System after beginning trade negotiations. Starbase 39 recently completed a retrofit and was having a grand reopening of the Promenade. As the closest Federation Civilian Affairs Officer, he was supposed to be there for the ribbon cutting. The ceremony actually begins in," he paused for a moment checking his watch, "about an hour. The Commander there at the Starbase has already made other arrangements."

"Thank you, Commander. I was not aware that Starbase 39's refit was complete. I was merely curious if there may be other tasks to work with but glad his purpose on the station was for publicity and not more of a pressing issue." Dodd replied. "Thank you for indulging my curiosity."

It was good to see his old boss again, as he knew that Parker would want to see him again, and so did he Paul smiled at the thought, as his wife gave him a shove to bring him back to the here and now.

Ted raised a hand. “This problem with the Hydaransz System is going to need some juicy scanning equipment. How long will we have to build it?” Ted asked.

Chirping up "Lieutenant Silver the Hydaransz system is not part of the main Diplomatic incident part of this mission, besides Rogue Section 31 Agents and Tal'Shiar would give it a wide berth as there is too much trouble there so no need for questions about the Hydaransz system, as selected officers will be going there, the rest of us dealing with this" the Colonel paused and looked around "Let me make this clear the diplomatic part of this missions will not be taking place in the Hydaransz system, so please no questions about it at present" Colonel Somers said.

“ Understood,” Ted replied with a nod.

Using a voice amplifier Fleet Captain Somers spoke up "I will announce the names of those who will be going to Hydaransz System, so please remember that" the Fleet Captain said then fell silent as she started to cough eliciting a concerned look from her cousin.

"Excuse me, sirs. About my idea about the tethered microprobes or bodies for communications?" Faith tilted her head.

Jarel was very interested in Faith's question, Though for admittedly more personal reasons. He had been playing with the idea since she had first brought it up. It would be simple to design something that could carry and or boost communications throughout the mentioned area. They could be heavily encrypted for security purposes. Considering the nature of the current mission. They could be anchored and hid easily in pockets of high gravity like bread crumbs... He glanced at Faith and then the command staff to see what they might have to say on the matter.

"Your idea is a good one if we were somewhere where comms was an issue, the Ambassador's Flight Plan, was planned specifically to avoid those types of areas," Parker explained.

Serina listened quietly up till now. "Welcome home Commander Parker. It is good seeing you again. We can fly sorties and extend sensor ranges with my fighters*draws breath* and search as well".

"Thank you, Lieutenant, we will definitely need it when getting closer to where it is believed the ship was lost.:

Mazal sat silent, watching and listening to what was being presented. She didn't have much to add for the moment, this morning was one to find out the information needed for what was sounding like a SAR mission. Mentally she took a breath wishing that Jackson was here, but he wasn't. She was here as his XO to keep tabs on what was what. To see what was in store for her people, the 95th Rifles.

Hawksley added. “Captain, Fleet Captain. You have engineering resources at your disposal, and we will work hard, putting in the hours and management necessary to encourage the best outcome for this mission.” No matter communications, master systems onboard the tomcat, and drop ships for the troops, the Engineering staff would be dedicated to the mechanics at hand.
Hawksley nodded and turned to Jarel, his new Engineering assistant he was proud of already. Ideas were at the forefront of all work to be completed and augmented.

Lieutenant Thompson soon spoke up. "The technological skills to ferret away a Tellerite ambassador without a trace would be incredible, but certainly not beyond Federation technology. Do we know if this was an inside job or if the ambassador himself was not part of the abduction,? Thompson asked.

"Again we are working off of supposition, and assumptions. This could be something as simple as complete engine failure, we have not received any information indicating an abduction," Parker stated briskly.

Thyra sat quietly making notes. Up until now, she hadn't spoken up. She assumed as the Chief of Intel she would be handed a bunch of intel to sift through to assist in the mission. A lot of the crew asked some very good questions. "Is there any intel of any deviations to the Ambassador's flight plan? And do we have any last communication records? Surely the Ambassador or the ship he was on had communications prior to their disappearance? If there are, I would like to analyse them for any indication of abduction. It might help." She said the last part softly.

"Lieutenant, I will make sure the data of the flight path and location of their last communication is given to you for analysis. I've stared at it so hard already I see it when I close my eyes," Parker said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

With the final questions done the Colonel spoke up "Okay, now that all the questions are done, now for the splitting of teams, would the following Officers please remain behind, Commander Cahill, Lieutenant Thompson, Lt Benson, Lieutenant Donovan Lieutenant Falk, you are to remain behind" the Colonel said then looked at Hawksley.

"Lieutenant Hawksley, could you have Lieutenant Hewitt report to the briefing room please?" the Colonel asked the Chief Engineer as the rest of the room started to move as the officers stood up to leave.

Faith actually had started to stand up but stopped hearing her name. That was unexpected, "Yes, sir." Sitting back down.

"Of course, Ma'am." Leland nodded. He then tapped at his communications badge "Lt. JG. Hewitt, please report to the Main Briefing Room." He watched the Fleet Captain.

A short moment and the reply had come =/\= Hewitt here. On my way Sir, Hewitt out. =/\= The com closed.

Within a short few moments, there was Lt. JG Todd Hewitt, tall lanky and stout walked in and took a seat near Leland. He turned giving a bit confused look at his Chief. Leland remarked with a look back at the CO.

Mazal just gave a nod in recognition of the request to stay behind. She did wonder though if there was some information that the Chief of Intelligence could go through and maybe find some other information that could be useful.

Cahill smiled, Aye Captain.

Serina nodded quietly as she remained seated.

Matt remained seated as instructed apparently there was more info to be passed.

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