Cooperation or Coercion? Part 1

Posted on Tue 29th Nov, 2022 @ 10:01pm by Commander Mikaela Locke & Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant Commander Alora Baro & Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller & Lieutenant Ricardo Shepard & Lieutenant Claire Minelan & Lieutenant JG ii-A & Olumorron Eirie 'Xin'

1,510 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: A Fresh Perspective
Location: Conference Room SB109, Attina
Timeline: MD 3, 0800 hours

OOC: Austen- This post is Starfleet, Olumorron, and SB109's scientist Savario. Staff meeting about expanding SB109's research capacity with Aquatic decks and Olumorron's research team, diplomatic outreach in the Triangle, and expanding intelligence operations. Figure we'd do a scene in a conference room on a 3-way call.

(S) Title is up for change to something better any time.

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Within Attina, a wonderland of 29th century engineering afforded Olumorron one of the best mobile labs in the galaxy. Even knowing this ship was well protected, the bare hull to space was too close for comfort. Every moment in space was anxiety, dread, and unrelenting insomnia. The ship operated with a circadian sun rhythm, and the "sun was down" presently. Most slept in the dark, there was no privacy here and the rules for cohabitation were very strict on his ship.

A chime announced the meeting was beginning soon, a formality to set the plans in motion that he was already bored to attend. A resonance from within sounded in the Xindi Aquatic way, to prepare the conference room, sending a personalized message to his friend Fiejago of Starfleet that they were all logging in. Their kinship had gone on for several years now, though Olumorron didn't like working with Starfleet, but they had made every concession possible to accommodate. So here he was, settling into a gentle rest at his workstation waiting to see what happened next.

Savario signed in to the meeting with his usual cheer. "Olu, my friend," he boomed. "Welcome to my world! I can hardly wait to see you, introduce you to the fine scientists we have collected here, and join forces wherever you need us! It's been a while since we had the chance to work together. Who've you got on board Attina with you?"

Pride was hard to convey verbally, but one attuned to his tonal patterns would have understood the nuance as he explained, "Fiejago! It has been a long time, friend! You must come see her; Attina has fourteen distinct species, five of whom are air breathing. We have brought the best and brightest of this year's graduating class out of the Institute; there are sixty-one of us in all, with a vast array of experience in a myriad of fields. Oh, and Itabo. He comes with the ship. I couldn't say no." The odd laughter did translate well enough.

"Itabo! It'll be like OLD HOME WEEK, as the Terrans say!" Savario boomed over the intercom. "Could you rotate the camera in the conference room there, so the rest of us can see who is on board? If we're going to be working together, we need to get used to each other." He waved a flipper at the fresh fish snacks floating in front of him. "I'd love to share, but that's one of the drawbacks of this kind of meeting." He wolfed down a fish, and gave his version of a smile ... which actually looked quite smile-like, in human terms.

"After all of us meet all of you, I'll introduce my colleagues from SB109. We are not all scientists, but we are all Starfleet."

Jasmine sat in her seat and listened with a smile on her face. She was anxious to meet the others. This would be a unique experience for. She'd met most species at least in passing, but she'd never been afforded an opportunity to work with some this closely.

Paul entered the conference room, a mug of hot tea in one hand, a PADD in the other. He set his mug down on the conference table and smiled at Jasmine as he seated himself. "Good to see you. This looks to be an interesting meeting."

"Good morning." Jasmine acknowledged the man with a smile. "And I agree. I'm actually very excited to be on this team. I've never had the opportunity to work so closely with a non-humanoid species before."

Lt. Commander Baro entered wearing a Starfleet working uniform full of pockets and random gadgets including a computer mounted along one arm like a bracer. She smiled and nodded to the others as she found a seat.

Mikaela Locke brought up the rear of the Starfleet trio who had all entered in close proximity to one another. Similar to Graves, she carried a mug in one hand - hers containing coffee, rather than tea - and a PADD in the other. She nodded in the directions of Collins-Keller and Baro, and seated herself in her usual seat at a conference table: the seat immediately to the right of the head of the table - the seat Captain Navarra would soon occupy. Truth be told, she'd had very little time to review the briefing notes, so she was hoping to get away with sitting quietly and consuming the research paper she'd been sent, while the others talked about the specifics of the request in question.

Flame-haired Lieutenant Minalean had entered with a blue-skinned woman with a darker blue hair that was almost black. Her hand was three fingered, and she moved with an ease in the air that spoke volumes about how graceful she'd be in the water. A pair of webbed gloves hung at her belt.

Captain Navarra entered the conference room with her PADD in hand and was followed by Ensign Crowley. She looked around the room and gladly saw that her staff had arrived before her. She made eye contact with Commander Locke and gave a curt nod.

"Good morning everyone!" Navarra said as she made her way to her seat beside Locke. "How are we all doing this morning?" she asked as she took her seat.

"Oh, we're all fine, Ma'am," called Savario from his water-filled cubicle on the water decks. "We're just about ready to meet the scientists from Attina. As each of you have sat down, I've entered your name and position on a seating chart for the Xindi contingent, and I'll do the same with their people as they are introduced.

"As our leader on the starbase, you should probably take over the meeting, along with my friend Olumorron Eirie 'Xin', leader of the group on Attina from the Xindus Institute." Savario nodded at the two, indicating he was gladly turning over his job as moderator to the two of them.

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Navarra stated as she pulled the renovation plans from her PADD to the main conference room viewscreen. "I take it everyone has had time to review the renovations schematics that were distributed out? What are our major concerns at the moment?"

"From a safety standpoint, everything looks up to current code," Paul said. "I'm not the greatest at reading schematics, so I'll defer to Commander Baro in case I've missed anything."

Jasmine reviewed the schematics on the screen in front of the group. She'd had days to pore over them and look for mistakes or any changes she might recommend, however, she hadn't seen anywhere that she could make any improvements. Whoever had drafted this plan had been thorough and the plans seemed impeccable.

The screen displayed the Aquatic's face, and put on the spot, the Xindi stammered out, "I am Olumorron, and I am the leader of this Academic venture."

Olumorron was useless, unless it was a lecture in class; he tried to speak with a authority but was out of his depths talking to Starfleet. Off the visual feeds, Olumorron indicated for his associate to bring up the holographic slideshow that would do the legwork of the presentation. Within their shared scope, a 3-D image of the Starbase appeared, internal connections to public waterways highlighted.

"Starfleet is a necessary part of this arrangement so yes, greetings... we have sent our specs and you have all seen to those... adequately."

The rotation of the schematic showed off the submerged decks, open spaces, and connected waterways to the public spaces. It had all been built to their needs, but Olumorron was actually impressed that Starfleet went to such effort. As a setback of their own faults, the translation was rough.

"We will require variable gravity inside the tanks, we cannot experience the depths but the pressures are nice to feel which also helps us to regulate our rhythms. To accomplish this will require your engineering teams to install considerable infrastructure, so it was not included with our initial estimates."

Off screen someone spoke to Olumorron, "Itabo has raised concerns of the Attina's reactor causing interference with Starfleet EPS, so we will need all EPS systems associated to Attina's berth in Stardock switched to Alternated Energy circuits before we can continue our research.

"In addition to that, we require vetting on involved persons within your base to come aboard Attina. There is to be no attempt to scan or divine the Builders technology as our treaty outlines."

The whale-like creature had communicated all of this in a series of song tones and ultrasonic clicks, and hated the translation as it was relayed back. Olumorron waited to see if there was comment before continuing.

More coming soon ...

 

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