Meeting the Crew - Part 2
Posted on 15 Jan 2021 @ 6:15am by Admiral Ayana Varon & Captain Ricardo (Rico) Montoya & Lieutenant Commander Dante Ambrogio & Lieutenant JG Lauren L'Vor & Klingon Lt Commander Kreval of the House of Torath
1,778 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
M-17: Blood Moon Rising
Location: Officers Lounge
Previously...
Kragg looked over to Executive Officer and said, "Hello, Commander. I'm Lieutenant Kragg, I'm your new Chief Engineering Officer. I'm very excited to be onboard. I'm soon going to have a meeting with my staff and also inspect the multiple warp cores on the Phoenix.
On:
"Excellent, sounds like you have a plan of action well thought out. I tend to run a tight ship but I am not usually a hard ass unless I need to be. Let me know if you need anything from my end and I'd like a report forwarded to me on the status of Engineering as soon as you have it."
Dante looked around the table at the others.
Kragg nodded his head in understanding. He continued his dish.
"Well, who's my next volunteer?"
Figuring it was best to speak up and get it over with, Ayana went next. "Hi. I'm Ayana Varon, head of Operations. Welcome aboard, sir."
"Thank you, and its a pleasure. I am sure we will be working in close proximity over the course of our missions," He smiled and looked to the next.
Ayana smiled and nodded.
Looking up Roge gave a smile and rose , his hands below the table as he gave a bow. "I am Lieutenant Roge; your new Chief Medical Officer, it is a pleasure to be here." And with that he sat again.
Dante nodded to acknowledge Roge, noting his actions with his hands but saying nothing.
Putting her juice down she looked up as the XO looked her way. "I guess that just leaves me. I'm Lieutenant L'Vor, acting Chief Science Officer. Everything is running smoothly, other than having an official department head. I would like to request..."
The door lounge opened and the Captain walked in, coffee and padd in hand. Immediately looking up at the aromas a smile formed as he looked at the gathering of his officers. "Well...what do we have here?"
"Ah, Captain, I wasn't expecting you to join us. Merely an impromptu get together so I can meet the heads of departments. Help yourself to some breakfast. Lieutenant." Dante looked back to L'vor. "You were about to make a request?"
She looked to the Captain thinking he would want to reply, but he simply gestured for her to proceed as he placed his hands on the back of an empty chair. Looking back to the XO. "Well sir as you have no doubt discovered the science department is significantly understaffed and has been for some time. I had an idea to augment the department by creating a holographic science officer. Just as an EMH is designed to augment a ships medical staff a science hologram would have instantaneous access to the ships databases and as my expertise is in the stellar sciences it would be of great help when knowledge of other disciplines are needed."
Rico looked from the L'Vor to Kragg. "Lt. Kragg, what do you think of her idea?"
Kragg didnt hesitate in the answer and said, "We can do that, for sure, Captain. I was actually thinking that each department could have a holographic crew member since the Prometheus class holographic emitters all over the ship. I would just have to meet my engineering crew. I haven't had a chance to do that yet.
Glancing to Dante briefly before look back to both Kragg and L'Vor. "Permission granted to develop the Holographic science officer. If successful we can then look at augmenting the other departments."
Rico rose to get a fresh coffee and a taking a piece of bacon from the platter. "Since everyone is here...we might as well knock out the staff briefing."
Sitting after finishing the bacon he washed it down and set the mug aside. "As you all know we left Terelis 4 the other day after they requested the Federation look into a distress call that was relayed to them. Given the...interesting developments during our initial encounter, and the Federation's need for their dilithium resources, we were assign the task of investigating the distress signal and finding their ship for them.
"We are already well passed the area of space that is known to the Federation so for all intents and purposes we are on our own. As it stands now the ship is more than a week overdue and hasn't been seen or heard from in that time. The signal originated from the far side of the Terelis trade zone and we should be arriving tomorrow afternoon. For those who weren't aboard the last time we were in the Terelis system let me fill you in. The Terelians, led by the Imersa counsel, have a trade zone that is comprised of several systems that are clients of the Terelis 4. In exchange for commercial compensation the client systems get to deposit all their criminals on Terelis 5...an entire planet turned into a prison.
"The Imersa Counsel gave us little more than the area the transmission came from and they grudgingly informed us of the boundaries of their trade zone."
Dante listened intently and look to all those around the table. "Do we have long range sensor contact on anything yet? Also, since we are going into the unknown and on our own we should run some shipwide combat drills; see that we have all of our newer officers used to the routines on board and that they know their duty stations."
"If I may Captain?" Commander Kreval interjected to which Rico waved him ahead.
"Commander, this ship had and unannounced battle drill 2 days before we departed Deep Space 5. While over all the crews reaction to the simulation there are areas to be improved upon and as you say new officers and crew not yet familiar with the ship or yourself." Looking to the Captain, "Additonal drills would be in order Captain."
"Very well... conduct your drills. Mr. Kreval, were you able to find any additional information on this region?"
The Klingon nodded, "Yes Captain. Several probes were sent into the area following the last Borg invasion. The information sent back indicated the possibility of several warp capable cultures but as those probes were looking for Borg the information is rudimentary."
"Are any of those probes still transmitting?"
"No sir. One was destroyed by natural phenomena, another two were destroyed by what is believed to be weapons fire, one was seized by a tractor beam from a ship of unknown design, and the last probes final transmissiom was that of a Borg sphere. However that was some distance from here."
"And what sort of probe compliment do we have on board Mr. Kreval? Do we have enough that we can send a couple out ahead of us to effectively extend our own sensor radius?" Dante peaked his fingers and looked over them as he spoke, offering a small smile and leaning in slightly in interest.
"We have a full compliment of probes at our disposal."
“Excellent, I propose that to be my first official order as XO of the ship then, organize a full probe scan of the system, I have some ideas I can share for effectiveness if desired. As for the Battle Drills, I want them commenced as of 1800 this evening, there is no warning to be given to the crew and I want full holographic enemies, including boarders to be included, with minimal security protocols in place.” Dante stood and clapped his hands together, looking to Rico and those around him before grabbing a thermos of Black Tea from the replicator and heading out the door.”
Minimal security protocols? Ayana thought. Did he realize that could cause damage to the ship and crew? She shook her head. If nothing else, she could protect some of the more sensitive areas of the ship from any unexpected consequences. She sighed and stood. There was far too much that had to be done if operations were to remain undamaged.
Dante pulled Ayana aside quietly outside of the room and in quiet tones gave her special orders concerning the battle drills as he made his way to the turbolift, inviting her along to avoid any undue attention "Lieutenant, I realize that my order of minimal security protocols puts both crew and equipment at risk, that being the case I want you to personally see to it that any mission critical consoles and areas are set up with full force level 10 forcefields for the drills, the ship does need to stay in combat readiness but the drills need to look and feel as real as they can possibly get without compromising that. As for the boarders, if you have any input into them, I want a mixture of traditional federation rivals and enemies, including Species 8042 and the Borg."
"Already planning on setting up force fields, sir," Ayana replied, surprised that he said what she'd been thinking. "As for the boarders, I think we should keep it to two or three species only and ones we're likely to encounter. I think the Borg and Species 8472 are too powerful and could cause more injuries than we can deal with--especially with security protocols on minimum settings. As was mentioned, we had a drill not long ago, and we used holographic projections to mimic damage rather than risk the ship and crew. It's something to consider." She didn't think drills that put ship and crew at risk right now were a good idea to begin with, and right after another drill to boot. But, she would leave that decision to the captain and first officer.
Lt. L'Vor didn't react at the mention of species 8472 but continued on her way. Taking the far lift to Engineering to meet with Ens. Huron about developing a holographic crewmember, but keeping her hears on the conversation until the doors closed.
Rico had waited as the rest of the staff filed out and watch as several stewards appeared and began dismantling the XO buffet. Grabbing another piece of bacon with a smile he headed for the bridge, catching the last of the XO's statement. "8472? Only a handful of officers have ever actually faced an 8472 and according to, then, Captain Janeway's report the potential for peaceful relation were laid. Let's not make enemies were none may exist. Let's keep the boarding actions to Borg, Breen, and or Romulan or Reman. Once we are back to normal duty those are the races we are more likely to cross.
Captain Ricardo Montoya
CO
Commander Dante Ambrogio
Executive Officer - USS Pheonix
Lt. Commander Kretorg
Chief Strat Ops Officer - NPC
Lt. Lauren L'Vor
Acting Chief Science Office - NPC
Lieutenant Ayana Varon
Chief Operations Officer
USS Phoenix
RSS Feed