Survey Briefing
Posted on Tue Sep 8th, 2015 @ 2:40pm by Commander Ashley Kennedy & Lieutenant Lhravitelim th'Endirhc & Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco & Lieutenant David Windsor & Lieutenant JG Charles Kramer [PNPC: Rackham]
Mission:
The Belle of Bellatrix
Location: Briefing Room
[ON]
Commander Ashley Kennedy inspected the assembled officers and crew before her in the briefing room with a confident mien that betrayed none of the inner turmoil churning her guts at that moment. She was about to take the Farragut on a mission without the captain! It wasn't a big mission, really just a quick sticky-beak at a nearby anomaly before turning back to pick up Rackham and the away team. Nonetheless, it was an independent command and she was determined to do a good job.
She'd just finished laying down her ground rules and expectations and delighted in the silent acceptance from the crew that followed her invitation for questions. "Excellent," she said, with a nod. "Now to the details of the mission." She activated a control panel on the briefing table and the viewer flickered to life.
"This is what people in these parts know as the Delta Triangle," she began, pointing at the display and the glowing red triangular prism that encompassed a region of several parsecs. She turned back to the assembled crew. "Despite the fact that it is a three dimensional area of space, the name has stuck. Our mission is to conduct a preliminary survey of this region of space. Nothing too fancy, just a quick probe sweep and catalogue of any unusual activity. Any questions so far?" she added, this time in a tone that conveyed her willingness to actually accept questions.
Lieutenant Kramer sat in silence, his fingers tap, tap, tapping away at the stenography device which he used to take notes on most of the senior staff briefings. It wasn't his place to really offer anything, but it did help him to listen.
"I'm curious what we know of the mythos surrounding the area?" David asked, leaning forward excitedly. "Surely some of you have heard the stories out of this area of space. Gods and goddesses, angels and demons. It's got as much mystery and lore as the Bermuda Triangle back on earth in spacer circles," He was down right giddy. A chance to attach scientific explanation to all of that lore! He couldn't wait.
"Oh, Windsor.. Time to switch to decaf." DiMarco sighed over the rim of her coffee mug, which was decidedly not decaf either. "I think you'll be horribly disappointed to find that 90% of spacer stories come from the bottom of a bottle of booze. The rest various stages of panic and dementia. Don't get too keyed up hoping for anything else."
"I am a man of Science, Ms. DiMarco, I don't get into fairy-tales and such. I am, however, fascinated with how such things translate into reality. I'm not looking for the fantastic, I'm looking for the factual that the fantastic as based on," He told her, smiling brightly.
"And that's exactly what we are ordered to do," Kennedy interjected, bringing the conversation back to her briefing. "The tall tales surrounding this region notwithstanding, our job is to find that factual basis for fantastic, as Mr Windsor put it. We'll be conducting a preliminary survey of one section of the Triangle. We may not find anything, but we may just find something that's worth a closer look."
The XO looked at the assembled officers and paused before turning to Windsor. "Mr Windsor, obviously this mission is right in your purview. Science will have a lot of work to do with gathering data and conducting analyses. Ms DiMarco and her team will lend a hand with outfitting probes with appropriate equipment."
"Excellent, Ms. DiMarco and I work quite well together," David said, giving Ri a smile.
Kennedy turned to the chief engineer, "Ms DiMarco, I also want you to keep a close eye on all of the ship's systems. Lots of those spacer stories include tales of malfunctions and equipment failure, so be sure to report anything out of the ordinary."
"Can do," Ri said with a nod of her head. "I'll keep you in the know."
Next, the XO's eyes settled on the Andorian helmsman at the far end of the table. "Mr th'Endirhc, I'll need you to be all over the navigational situation in the Triangle. We don't have very many accurate star charts for this region so a lot of it will be fly by the seat of your pants stuff. Make sure you're ready for it."
"That's what I'm here for," Telim answerd. Truthfully, that was probably the one part of him which he could understand Gunning wanting to recruit him for. Exploration was a huge part of Starfleet's remit - aside from defence against the Klingons - and so every trainee pilot spent months on end training on how to deal with 'seat of the pants flying' as the commander had put it. Telim was one of the few pilots who had scored top marks on that particular part of the syllabus. Flying without star charts was his forté.
"One last thing," Kennedy said to the table, with a grave tone. "I want everybody keeping an eye on each other. There's a chance that this region may affect us in some way. Hopefully, that's just more spacer nonsense, but we need to be vigilant. If you begin to feel unwell, or observe crewmates acting out of the ordinary, let Medical know immediately." She paused and glanced around the room again. "Any further questions?"
Nobody raised a hand as Kennedy looked around the room. After a moment, she nodded and said, "Excellent. Dismissed."
Commander Ashley Kennedy
First Officer / Weapons Officer
Lieutenant David Windsor
Science Officer
Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco
Chief Engineer
Lieutenant Lhravitelim th'Endirhc
Helm Officer
Lieutenant (j.g) Charles Kramer
Records Officer
