To Find

Posted on Fri Dec 15th, 2017 @ 9:02am by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Petty Officer 1st Class Tobias Beckett & Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles & Lieutenant Commander Vaebn tr'Hwersuil
Edited on on Thu May 31st, 2018 @ 9:57pm

3,559 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - The Enemy Within
Location: Officer's Briefing Room - USS Pioneer Deck 1
Timeline: MD001 0800 hrs
Tags: SD 71370.0800

Richard found himself falling back into some of his old tricks as the time for his first briefing came closer. He asked the computer for directions on how to get there from sickbay and memorized what he was told. He hated doing it, falling back on technology had it's risks but until he had everything ironed out as to it's exact location he was going to have to do something. As usual he had made sure he was impeccably dressed from well polished shoes to crips uniform, another old habit he just didn't seem to be able to break.

Reaching up to touch the small dots just below the words on plaque that indicated the room was at the Briefing Room he relaxed slightly realizing he was going to be on time. He stepped forward activating the door sensor and walked through before he realized he was the first arrival. The oval table was bathed in artificial light though the large windows on the opposite side gave a fantastic view to the crisply new room.

He glanced at the table noticing it's unique design and walked the short distance to the window to gaze out at the expanse of space while he waited for others to arrive.

Tightening the draw strings and smoothing out the wrinkles of his heavy apron, Thalk strode to the briefing with purpose. He had acquainted himself with the ship's systems as best he could; he had made plans for future upgrades, modifications, and retrofits. Still, there was a nervous energy that seemed to drive him towards the briefing room. As the door opened, he noticed a man wearing a medical uniform, staring out at the stars. Not keen to interrupt anyone's reprieve, the Klingon engineer took a seat at the table, and began going over energy consumption calculations, more out of a need to occupy himself than productivity.

Jax made her way from the bridge once she had been relieved. People didn't realize just what a helmsman did when the ship wasn't moving, but for her it was a matter of running diagnostics and checking for course corrections due to varies spacial anomalies. Either way she entered the briefing room and took a seat.

Richard heard the hiss of the door opening and closing a few times but stayed where he was enjoying the view before turning around smiling at the two new comers. Lieutenants," he began as he moved to take a seat, "it's a pleasure to meet you both, "I'm Richard Ballston."

The door hissed open and Vaebn walked in carrying his thermal mug full of steaming brew. He absently rubbed an eye with his empty hand. He heard the greeting as he stepped in, almost walking into the other two figures near the door. "Pardon me." he mumbled as he stepped around them to find a seat.

The door hissed open yet again. Larimw walked in, padd in hand. He made for an open seat and waved to everyone. "Hello everyone."

Patricia heard the mummered responces as she stepped through the door herself. She was happy to see the majority of senior staff had been prompt with arriving, with only two missing alongside their Captain himself.

Smiling to the room at large, the executive officer move to take her seat to the side of the Captain’s chair; placing her PADD in front of her as she left the screen blank in order to ensure she gave no information prematurely away.

T'Rish was nervous, well nervous for as a Vulcan hybrid could allow herself feel. This was her first briefing, ever. She was confident in her ability to perform her duties, but was untested when it came to strategy and communication with other senior officers. Standing outside the briefing room she straightened her uniform before entering the room and confidently taking a seat.

B’tak straightened the new command red uniform that she had replicated. Although the transfer to the navy had officially gone through over a month ago, she had still been aboard the Dublin until the transfer here, and as such had kept wearing the marine green.

As she entered the briefing room she took quick stock of the assembled crew. Her teeth bared ever so slightly as she realized fully for the first time that this was not a marine crew. Obviously she knew that, but she hadn’t quite let it sink in until now.

Tobais arrived right behind the Chief of the boat and slinked in to a chair almost unnoticed. He looked around the room and looked at the department heads and command staff. All were present except the Captain. He had read all their files but had yet to greet any of them. Quietly he took a sip from his coffee mug and waited patiently.

Sgt Flarn lumbered his way into the Briefing Room. Without an actual Marine CO he was elected to go to the briefing, being the senior member of the detachment. He surveyed the officers present and gave a gruff snort as greeting. Flarn was not a man of many words unless there was a mission to be had and like most Marines he hated meetings. The Tellarite decided to stand at parade rest in the back of the room.

Tyler was the last to arrive to the Briefing Room. If he had to admit it to anyone he was extremely on edge and more than slightly nervous. He walked in and found his crew assembled and waiting. As went to take his seat he took note of the Marine Master Sergeant standing in the corner of the room. He wondered where is Marine CO was. Well that will have to wait until later, he thought."As you were ladies and gentlemen as you were." He took his seat at the head of the table.

"Good morning everyone... Well the time has come... It is time to kick the tires and light the fires, our orders are in and they are confirmed." Tyler tapped a few buttons on the panel in front of his seat and a map and image of the swirling spacial body known as the Badlands appeared on the wall next to the briefing table. "Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the Badlands, and our destination. We are to head there for a two fold mission. The first is to map and chart the area, the second is to scan for any residual traces of the Caretaker. Any questions so far?" Tyler leaned back in his chair and sipped his coffee.

Jax perked up at the word 'Badlands'. Some would be pissed to have to take a ship in there but she loved the challenge. The Badlands aren't named that because its easy. It is some of the most dangerous areas of space to fly through. She sat there like a giddy schoolgirl.

The Klingon engineer let out a long, slow breath. It'd hardly be honorable to sigh or groan audibly in front of equals and superiors. The Badlands. Plasma storms, gravitational anomalies, stellar winds, debris, and the list went on. Now he knew why they wanted an engineer with salvage experience: someone would have to put the ship back together, over and over again.

The badlands. Larim sighed. Normally he'd jump at the chance to see them. And part of him still was. But he knew from his time at the academy, both as a teacher and student. That murphy's law could always assert itself whenever possible.

Richard tilted his head and drew in a breath as he listened. He knew about the area but even during the wars he had been part of he had not actually been to the badlands. What he knew of it wasn't exactly the comforting. There would be injured as the ship took damage and what exactly was hiding in that place may not be any more inviting.

Patricia watched the senior staff’s reactions as she processed the information herself. Most of this wasn’t new to her but it was interesting to watch the various emotions from giddiness to concern face across people’s faces.

Vaebn groaned inwardly as he took a long drink from his mug. Remembering back to the later days of the Dominion War, the tracking outposts he served upon had tried to map the data from the assault fleets, but never had much luck. A chance to chart the unknown up close instead of afar, no that sounded interesting.

Tyler looked around and saw the looks of excitement and trepidation on his officers. "The Badlands will present problems for all departments. First and foremost is the navigational issues, there is also the issues with the sensors, and of course our shields. I expect the ship to weather these issues with flying colors. However we will need options to circumvent these issues. What we got?" Tyler turned to his crew and waited to see what they could come up with.

Thalk spoke, being sure to enunciate without sounding too threatening- too Klingon. "The most obvious and issue will be environmental wear. No matter what frequencies our shields are set to, eventually the plasma flares will disrupt them. The naturally occurring gravity wells will put strain on the ship as if it were constantly entering and exiting the atmosphere of a planet. Honestly sir, our best course of action is to simply build two of everything. I can coordinate with Operations to install backup sensors and electrical systems, and have modular replacements pre-fabricated and ready to install." He hoped they understood that under these conditions, machines would inevitably fail. He'd rather be ready for it than pretend otherwise.

Tyler looked at his engineer and smiled. "Make it happen Lieutenant. However, I would also like a plan to keep things running without having to stop and replace everything. Let's get a plan to repair on the fly as well."

He turned his head toward his Science Officer, "Lieutenant is there a way for us to come up with a warning system of sorts. Something that can warn us of the plasma flares before they start causing havoc for Mr Thalk and Ms Storm?"

Vaebn thought for a moment after listening the the Chief Engineer. "It's possible that we could modify a few Class 8 probes to act as a deployable sensor network surrounding the ship. It would act as an early warning system to help our navigation, like the whiskers of a felinoid creature. We can deploy the network to mirror our course changes and always remain a specific distance from the ship, the data stream from all the probes could then be relayed through the astrometrics systems and fed to the helm creating a virtual map of the approaching area. It would be much more accurate than the navigational sensors since most of our long and medium range systems will be useless in the Badlands."

He took a long drink from his mug. "I can monitor the whisker network from the science station or from astrometrics, so I'll make sure we have extra staffing to monitor the system around the clock. The guidance for the probes would have to be altered though, they would need to work off of each other to cover all blind spots around the ship; Lt Thalk, do you think you could assist me in making the modifications to the probes?"

Richard listened patiently then added, "I think we need to consider a secondary sickbay, one to use in case sickbay becomes either overcrowded or unusable." He looked around the room I know thinking about the possibility of injuries is not pleasant but this isn't a sight seeing trip and I know from past experience things can turn rather quickly. If we use say a storage area or even a holodeck as a secondary location and we all agree and know about it things may go a lot smoother."

"Doctor I think that would be a great idea as a preventative measure. If it would not disrupt the power consumption I think perhaps designing a holodeck program would be best for this. This way if it comes down to it we can transfer the EMH to the holodeck to deal with the overflow of patients. Thalk, T'Rish am I on the right track?" Tyler responded.

Thalk nodded in agreement. "We'll make the preparations."

"Depending on how long the holodeck sickbay is required to be active, we may have to make a few adjustments, but it shouldn't be a problem." T'Rish replied coolly. She could feel the trepidation of the senior staff. She had heard stories of the badlands, but felt it was illogical to worry.

Patricia allowed everyone to speak and give their ideas before throwing in her own thoughts. “Can I suggest that as shields are unreliable that secondary sickbay be based in a centralised location in the ship. It may require refurbishment but at least it entails a guarantee that in the event of a loss of shields it might be damaged straight away.”

Richard nodded as he looked at the executive officer, "I will seen what can be worked out for a centralized location."

Tyler turned to the Doctor, "The Serenity is equipped with a limited Sick Bay, well it is more of a triage center but it has it's own shielding system that can be deployed if need be. Look into that as well as the holodeck. Monty, coordinate with the Doctor, on getting this done."

Tyler sat and listened as one by one his officers offered up their opinions and options. He took special notice as the First Sergeant representing the Marines did not say much. This was odd considering he was a Tellarite. When the conversation dulled Tyler cleared his throat and dimmed the lights for the next part of the briefing.

Tyler straightened his uniform and leaned forward toward his senior staff. "Listen up... The following is for the Senior Staff ears only for the time being. There is a second phase to our mission. There has been an outbreak of attacks by colonists in and around the Badlands. The first was an incident involving the USS Firebird." Tyler tapped a button on the console and a replay of the ship's record from the Firebird began. The audio was of communications between the Firebird and the USS Sagan.

"I am Captain Denores of the Sagan, I've got limited time before we lose communications. We have sustained damage to our communications array and I need to get this information out before it fails. We are an Oberth class science vessel conducting exploratory operations in the Badlands. We have been out here for a month. Last night we picked up a weak distress signal from a rogue Cardassian colony. They are in extreme distress due to an intense meteorological event. We were heading toward them when we were attacked by three small vessels claiming to be the New Maquis. We just managed to fight them off but we've sustained too much damage to make it to the Cardassians. We're headed back in your direction. My latest intel says you guys are the ones to call in this kind of emergency."

The response from the Firebird followed, ""Captain, this is Chief of the Boat, Senior Petty Officer Quincy of the USS Firebird, I'll have this ship on the way in the next hour. I've already pulled your transponder signal we will have assistance to you as soon as possible. Relay as much information about your situation as possible before you lose communication."

Captain Denores replied, "Thank you, Chief. I think we have our repairs under control. If you could though, have a cargo tug meet us when we get close to Empok Nor, that would be great. My XO is sending the data and logs from the distress message. I'm also including our own status report for you to transmit on to Starfleet Command."

The replay ended there, and Tyler looked around at the now solemn faces of his staff. "That was about two and half months ago. Following that incident there were no further incidents or sightings. That is until one month ago when the USS Fearless responded to a Galor class ship under attack from ship's bearing Federation signatures. They were colonists attacking a Cardassian ship of the line. They did not call themselves the New Maquis this time, but two and two will always equal four. Our task is to confirm or deny the existence of this New Maquis and put a stop to it if we can. Thoughts? Comments?" Tyler leaned onto his hands as he surveyed his staff waiting for their input on this latest development.

Jax being intersted in what she was going up against. "What class of ships where involved in the Fearless incident?"

"Jax it seems that they are operating with raider type vessels. The ships that were favored by the Maquis in the past. They are also using Federation type Freighters." Tyler replied.

This was Tobias' first Staff meeting as a department head and besides the Chief of the Boat he was the lowest ranked crew member in the room. He say listening seemingly uninterested until the mention of a 'New Maquis'. "Sir, when the Maquis emerged before the Dominion War many Starfleet personal were found to have been working for the cause. There were even incidents of Maquis undercover aboard Starfleet vessels." He looked around the room and realized even someone at this table could have already defected and be working with this new threat. "I will have the Intel team put together a full report of what the Maquis stood for and potential links to this new movement as soon as possible."

"Tobias see that you have that report to me before our arrival at the Badlands." Tyler nodded in the direction of his CIO.

The CMO's head tilted and he looked concerned, "if we know there are other concerns than a need to map this region is it wise for us to attempt to do so?"

Patricia leaned forward in her chair as she sought to reassure the medical officer, and anyone else who may have been feeling doubts. “No matter where we go there’s always going to be a high enough probability of difficult encounters, it comes with the brief that the Federation have outlined for ourselves. In this case, we are going into this situation with our eyes wide open to the possible dangers so as we can ready ourselves and not be caught unaware.”

"I'll drill my guys to be ready for anything." Larim said. "Better to be prepared for what might happen than to be caught with our pants down."

"See that you do Lieutenant, coordinate with Master Sergeant Flarn here as well. His men will be called upon to supplement the security team if needed." Tyler responded. "Right ladies and gentlemen this ship leaves in two hours. Two days after that we will be in the Badlands. I expect senior staff to be at their stations when the ship leaves the dock. As to assignments, I would like Vaebn to take lead on his whiskers plan let us get that going, work with T'Rish. Thalk I would like you to work with the Doctor on the supplemental sick bay concept, and coordinate with Commander Montgomery. Let us hope that we will not need to use it, but you never know. I would also like to achieve this with using as little power as possible. Jax work with Vaben or whoever he assigns to get a solid course in and around the Badlands. Tobias get your people working on that report. Larim coordinate with our Marines on drills etc. I want to be ready for anything. I expect reports on my desk tomorrow. If there is nothing else? Dismissed..." Tyler sat there and watched his staff leave they were a talented bunch, he hoped to put those talents to good use.

A Joint Post By

Commander Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer