Briefing

Posted on Thu Jun 2nd, 2022 @ 11:10pm by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant Ashlesha 4827/A & Lieutenant Anna S. Thesia M.D. & Lieutenant JG Avarak & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis
Edited on on Fri Jun 3rd, 2022 @ 1:24am

Mission: New Harrington
Location: Briefing Room
Timeline: Just after receiving the new mission

The USS Sunfire warped towards the New Harrington planet, her crew scrambling to find out more than the sketchy details they were already aware of.

Ashlesha had wished she had been on board the bridge when Sunfire had gone to warp but she had been finishing up the last of the supply requisition forms. Sunfire was a beast that consumed an unbelievable amount of, well, everything. It was still taking some getting used to the logistics necessary to keep her going. Gray stepped onto the bridge, cup of hot cocoa in her hand. She spotted the Chief Science Officer and pointed to him with her free hand, smiled and gave a wink as she made her way to her station-

And she froze.

Who the hell was in the captain's chair? Was there a new Captain? How had she missed that? How long had she been on board?!

Avarak was at his station, minding the sensors when he saw an woman exit the turbolift onto the bridge. They locked eyes, she pointed at him and winked, then continued walking. This was the same woman who repaired his sonic shower but her collar had the two pips of a lieutenant. It had appeared that he had made a grave mistake in his attitude dealing with her earlier that day. He only hoped that she would understand his mistake — after all, she was wearing coveralls which covered her rank insignia and he had waited for quite some time to get his sonic shower fixed, so his reaction was only logical.

"Ops, call all department heads and specialists to the conference room in 30 minutes for a briefing"

"...Right, yes," Ashlesha murmured as she took her station. Maybe she was on the wrong ship? No...everyone else she knew was the same. Maybe it was an imposter and everyone was under some insidious mind control and the quantum connection between her three brains made her immune...

Sitting in the XO's chair, Savar heard the message calling for a briefing. he looked over to Rhenora, "A briefing on New Harrington Captain? He inquired softly.

Aurora was on the bridge as well, hearing Savar’s question she waited to see what Rhenora’s response was.

"Correct, we have only limited information so far, I'm hoping someone may have some insight we're not aware of, or Starfleet may send further detail. At the very least I want to bring the senior staff and specialists up to speed on what we do know before we get there." Rhenora replied equally as quietly.

“I can’t say I’ve heard of New Harrington before” Aurora looked at Rhenora and Savar. “I’ll be interested to see what information we’ve been sent by Starfleet.”

"Likewise, I've heard of it but not been there personally" Rhenora echoed.

"Attention all department heads," Ashlesha intoned over ship's intercom, "There will be a staff meeting in the conference room in thirty minutes." she switched off the comm, turned in her chair and after a moment's pause said, "Ah, Captain? I don't think we've met. Lieutenant Ashlesha, Chief of Operations."

She glanced at Savar for some measure of guidance...

"Captain." Savar interjected "Lieutenant Aslesha came aboard the Sunfire as our new chief operations officer. I believe you will find her talented and an officer of singularly unique talents."

'Singularly'? Ashesha involuntarily smiled at the Vulcan. Had that been a joke? If so she thought it had actually been a pretty good one.

"Lt Ashlesha, please to meet you, and belated welcome aboard I believe. I'm Captain Kaylen Rhenora" Rhenora stood and shook the hands of the new Ops officer. "I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to catch up with all the new faces since coming back from Bajor."

Ashlesha quickly stood and accepted the captain's handshake, "Thank you, sir. Everyone on board has been very friendly. Lieutenant Hadleman has been especially helpful in helping me hit the ground running.

Oh good, Ashlesha thought. I managed not to mention Hadleman and pregnancy in the same sentence. I must be finally getting used to it...

"I'm glad to hear it. We try not to terrify our new crewmembers on their first few weeks..." There was a laugh that she hoped would convey the humour in her words.

Ashlesha smiled in return, "Ah, so there will be terror later on. Good to know." she returned to her station to make certain no unpleasant surprises cropped up during the meeting.

Ensign Kitiuas Thenis was just wrapped up putting the Xenozoology laboratory back in an organized and coherent manner, and was just beginning to work on her office when she heard the ship’ intercom "Attention all department heads, there will be a staff meeting in the conference room in thirty minutes." She was about to resume her tiding up when her viewscreen started beeping, she peered at the screen and on it her name appeared with orders to report to the conference room in thirty minutes. Strange she thought I am not a department head but best get there sooner than later, if Lieutenant Avarak is like other Vulcans punctuality is a must in an individual. She got up went through her lab, stopping only long enough verify the forcefield was around the stasis tray, sighed and made her way to the conference room; curious as to what the briefing was about.

Chief Ronson Mitchell added several chairs to the long conference room table, setting out glasses and water jugs and the several plates of snacks that a long meeting could entail. Blank padds lay at each officers right hand, perfect for jotting any essential notes on. A large self heating pot of coffee lay near the Captain, and a tea close to Commander Savar's seat, several other pots of hot beverages were placed in the centre of the table. He had just finished when the officers started arriving.

Having left the bridge ahead of Savar and Rhenora, Aurora made her way to her seat smiling politely at Mitchell as she did so. “Forever organised Chief, I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

"Now that's what I call proper meeting preparations", Anna said as she walked in. "Thank you, Chief." She immediately helped herself to a cup of tea and some scones before sitting down next to Aurora.

The Captain strode in a few moments later, pads in hand and determination flashing in her eyes. This was what she lived for, what she joined Starfleet for. Taking her seat at the head of the table she poured a steaming mug of coffee and took a glorious sip, waiting for the rest of the officers to arrive.

Ashlesha Gray handed off Operations to an eager eyed ensign as the other two of her stepped onto the bridge, each one carrying a folding stool. All three entered the conference room. Violet and Green set up the stools in the corner and sat while Gray sniffed at the different beverages, cooing with delight at the smell of the hot cocoa. She refreshed her cup before finding a seat near the end, not sure yet of the inter-ship hierarchy...

Ensign Kitiuas Thenis stepped through the doors into the conference room still unsure of why she was being called to this briefing. She did a quick look around and saw a Blonde Bajoran female with the PIPS designating her as the Captain , which fit what she had read on her assignment brief. She also saw the ship’s doctor Anna Thesia there. Then she did a double take as she saw what appeared to be identical human triplets, an extremely rare occurrence in humans. She was unsure where she should sit so she chose instead to stand near the back of the room, close enough to the triplets they could catch the very smallest whiff of a mixed fragrance of cinnamon, roses and vanilla. She noticed she had beaten her department head to the conference room.

All three Ashleshas did a double take when they saw a second Orion serving on board Sunfire. Belatedly she realized that might have looked terribly prejudiced. As Violet and Green turned to look at anything else, Gray gave the ensign a smile and motioned for her to sit next to her, wondering what her department was.

Kitiuas noticed the strange human triplets do a double take at her, no doubt because of the rarity of an Orion serving in Star Fleet; much less two on the same ship. She caught a subtle but definite emotional sameness from all of them then one began looking around one way, while the other in the opposite direction, with the one actually seated motioned for her to take a seat next to her. She smiled at all three of them and took the seat next to the one who motioned for to sit. She put out her hand and introduced herself “Hello, I am Ensign Kitiuas Thenis, resident “Monster Hunter” on the ship.” There was definitely a light scent of cinnamon, roses and vanilla surrounding Kitiuas.

"Ashlesha," Gray replied, taking the ensign's hand and noting that...delicious scent surrounding the exotic woman. She blinked and realized what the ensign had said and as she let her hand go Gray asked, "'Monster hunter'? That's an interesting specialty. I'm in Operations."

Kitiuas smiled “Actually I am the new Cryptozoologist or Xenozoologist, and I am a Specialist in Entomology/Arachnology. Add in a dash of Geobiology, Astrobiology, some Geochronology, and Thermochronology. Pepper it with a little Computer Software Engineering and Information Science when you go through Star Fleet Academy and presto one certified ‘Monster Hunter’.” As she relaxed the smell of cinnamon, roses and vanilla slowly began to fade away.

Aurora was surprised to see all three Ashlesha’s in the same room, she knew Ashlesha was unique but to see all three of her in the same room was like seeing a family of rare triplets.

Bonnie received her notice to attend the conference, though she was unsure why. She stood, secured her station, smoothed out her uniform and walked to the conference room. When the doors parted an immediate mild panic attack shot up her spine and she froze. Her eyes darted around the room at all of the many faces, some of them multiple times. So many new faces. And then her brain went into overdrive as she panicked about where to sit, about the fact there was an Orion woman, Anna who made her heart thump and... And... Clones. They were clones but not identical meaning someone changed their DNA. They were made, by someone. Bonnie had sooooo many questions.

She spotted an empty seat near Dean and slid into it, before shrinking down to hide her tiny presence. She did manage a nod to the Captain who she knew held her in high regard whether she felt she deserved it or not. Mostly she tried not to stare. One had green eyes, another grey. The third had violet eyes, and all of them were pretty. It made her think of Sapphire, what with all the colors.

Thriss entered the conference room having just come from Main Engineering. He had a two padds in one hand and a travel mug with iced raktajino in the other hand. While when he drank coffee it was either Andorian or normal Earth coffee, a raktajino was a nice change of pace.

He set his coffee and reports down in the nearest vacant spot and took a seat.

As everyone settled the room quietened to a hushed whisper, the Captain casting a glance around the table to make sure she had everyone's attention. Whilst this was a mission, she had included a number of specialists in the briefing, not just department heads, due to the complex nature of what they were heading into.

"Good Morning Everyone" She started, making eye contact with each and every person in the room as she spoke. " As you are probably aware we have been assigned a new high priority mission from Starfleet Command to render assistance at the New Harrington colony. It is a terraformed world with a high end sophisticated weather system that has recently been badly malfunctioning. Our mission will be two fold - rescue and relocate those in regions effected by natural disasters, and to repair and reinstate the weather system."

Ashlesha found herself distracted by her neighbor's scent, albeit pleasantly so. She redoubled her efforts to pay attention to what the Captain was saying. Rescue and relocation. That meant transforming Sunfire into a mobile refugee camp. No wonder she had been given instructions to requisition all those supplies! Gray's head bent down as she began to furiously write notes as Violet and Green leaned forward to stare at the Captain. Well, Violet did; Green kept throwing glances Kitiuas' way...

"Do we have numbers on how many will require medical attention, and whether the colony's own medical facilities are affected?" Anna asked. If the major hospitals were unavailable, that would be a fairly big problem. One small Akira class could not be expected to take care of many sick and injured. They might have to set up field hospitals on the planet's surface.

"Not yet, all we know is that large numbers of people have been displaced. Different regions have been affected by different disasters. One continent is flooding while another is burning. The capital cities seem mostly unaffected for now so we may be able to utilize their facilities. The regional areas have been the hardest hit, but reports are the weather is getting more extreme." The Captain pressed a series of controls and a holographic projection of the colony planet appeared above the briefing table, rotating slowly on its axis.

"If comms are working, I'll try and get into contact with medical personnel on the planet", Anna said. "We'll hopefully have a plan of what to do before we get there." She figured she'd soon find out when that would be.

Half raising her hand before second guessing and lowering it quickly, Bonnie asked, "Um, you mentioned a sophisticated weather control system in orbit. Am I to assume a tech team will be needed to get it working again, um, properly?" If the weather control was causing the planet-wide destruction, Shirley that was a place to start in fixing the situation. Like a two fold attack.

Aurora sat and listened with interest, she had no doubt her part would be helping with the evacuations, and settling any refugees until the disasters were contained.

Kitiuas began to understand why she was asked to this briefing, if the natural disasters were as bad as they said, then the ecological consequences would be horrible. The natural zoological order would be disrupted and, well, from the entomology stand point alone she was sure there was many insectoid life that would act as vectors for diseases. She would need to play catch up and read up on the zoological lifeforms and entomological lifeforms on the New Harrington colony.


TBC