Senior Staff Briefing, Part 2

Posted on Wed 2nd Oct, 2013 @ 1:55am by Lieutenant Colonel Cara Karikkar & Colonel Horatio Drake & Commander Brian Windsong & Lieutenant Colonel Tallus Karikkar & Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller & Lieutenant Samantha O'Dell & Lieutenant JG Xavier Lee & Commander Mikaela Locke & Lieutenant JG Lys Greystone

1,958 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/5
Location: Deck 14: Senior Officer's Conference Room
Timeline: MD-01: 1230

Part 2 begins.

"Chances of it being a rogue element of Starfleet ... or someone who has taken over a Starfleet vessel?" Cara asked after swallowing her mouthful.

"All Starfleet ships in this sector have been accounted for" Once again he changed the display on the screen. "There are still two Intrepid Classes that are listed as missing, presumed destroyed, from the Dominion War... but this was well over a decade ago now. The chances of it being one of them are slim". Drake said, replying to the insightful inquiry from his Executive Officer.

Jade remembered the last few times the Romulans weren't too happy with the Federation. The Tomed Incident had caused the death of thousands. Incidents involving the Klingons and ... the Enterprise, if she remembered correctly, had caused another war. this time between Romulans and Klingons. Incidents with the Borg had brought the Romulans closer to the Federation, but that hadn't lasted long. Years of agitation on the part of Romulans, and then the Dominion War. More recently, things between the Romulans and the Federation had been more amicable, but she thought it wouldn't take much to push the Romulans into battle mode again. Was that someone's goal ... to start another war?

"You know," said Brian, "I remember reading about in an incident a few years ago, where pirates I believe it was, were attacking a variety of merchant ships. They were able to disguise their signatures so people thought that a number of different races were attacking. Fingers started pointing back and forth and we almost had a way before someone figured it out. Could this be something like that?"

Drake smiled, the Chief Diplomatic Officer never ceased to impress him with his train of thoughts. "I would be thinking along the exact same lines, if it wasn't for numerous visible sightings of the ship. All accounts point to the fact that this is an actual Intrepid Class."

He sometimes felt like the Devil's Advocate in these briefings.

Samantha was thinking, "warp trails are a lot like a fingerprint especially with older ships, it was how intelligence used to keep track of special missions." She offered up. "We might be able to narrow down exactly which ship this is if we bounce the warp signature against Starfleet's database."

Drake nodded, "An interesting point and definintely one worth following up on. We know that the signature matched that of an Intrepid Class... go through the database and see if you can match it to a particular ship". Drake knew that warp signature's were not an exact science. It was the neutrino emission that produced a warp signature, but that pattern was produced by the exact position of the warp nacelles. That being said, the warp signature of one class of ship to the next, in the same class, could be indistinguishable. To make matters worse, Intrepid class ships had one of the most confusing kinds of signatures due to the re-positioning of their warp nacelles.

Sam's gave Drake a sharp nod. "Aye, sir."

"Any pattern to the attacks?" Cara was wondering if they could guess where they would be and be there waiting. "And is anything taken in the attacks?"

Brian sat back waiting to see what Drake's answer might be.

"There is one other possibility. It could be a form of cloak, just instead of cloaking the ship it changes the form of the ship. It is not unheard of. And getting the parts required to manipulate signatures to appear Federation is also easy enough." Tallus said thinking. "It is also a possibility that someone has gone though a very elaborate plot and created another Intrepid class ship. Strictly speaking it is the most logical and easiest thing to build. It is small, and still used by the Federation today. The design schematics aren't even classified."

"The rogue Fleeter is the most reliable explanation." Nyx mumbled to herself before looking up. "It's happened before. I've read some of the reports. A ship's captain has issue with the Romulans and decides to take it upon himself to extract a little revenge."

Cara nodded at that. "Its very possible."


"There are many possibilites," suggested Brian, "We can sit around here debating the issue till tribbles grow teeth and not come to any conclusions. We need to get some facts, do some detective work, until then we are just speculating. Until we get some evidence we are just wasting our time."

"I'm presuming there's no comm-traffic to give us any clue?" Mikaela Locke spoke up from the far end of the room.

"Nothing ... radio silence to all communication attempts. Colonel Drake and Lt Colonel Karikkar are taking a team of volunteers to check it out." Cara sighed and crossed her arms still annoyed that she wasn't allowed to go by the two men given her condition. Seeing the looks round the table she added "As of now I hold the title of Senior Executive Officer ... I am in charge of all day to day workings for the station. Anything military will go through Tallus as Executive Officer - he's in charge of anything on and off station where fighting is necessary."

Jade was startled. "The base commander is going on an away mission that could be dangerous, even deadly?" she asked, glancing at Drake. "Isn't that asking for trouble?"

"He'll be well protected." Devyn stated. "Myself and Dalton will be on the away team as security." He nodded. "And with Karikkar along, the Commander will be in good hands."

"I'll trust you to bring him back in good shape, and all of you return the same way," the representative of the Promenade Association said, then smiled. "I'm just getting used to him."

Kell smirked. "Drake comes back at all costs. That's my duty." He answered her. "As well as the rest of the team under my protection." He looked at Nyx. "As for me, I have a beautiful bride and daughter waiting on me."

Cara let them all talk themselves out "Anything diplomatic related will be dealt with by myself, with support from Commander Windsong ... as Diplomatic Head of department it will be his dance ... I'll be along to add weight. This may seem unconventional but unlike a starship we are dealing with a huge number of crew and civilians." She made a slight face at a mental nudge from her mate "That and I am medically unable to fight at the moment unless last resort ..."

"Excuse me, Colonel, but what is the medical condition to which you refer?" Jade hoped she knew, but there were many possibilities.

"I'm just under 2 months pregnant." Cara didn't look at Nyx or Kell as she said it. She had told Kell but they had made the call not to tell Nyx in case she freaked or thought Cara was doing it for attention. "Wasn't planned but ... well." Cara shrugged as she placed a hand over her stomach protectively.

Kell put his hand on Nyx's leg and gave a quick squeeze. He had promised Care not to say anything to his wife about her pregnancy but he'd sworn not to keep secrets from Nyx again. He had told her about the baby and gauged her reaction. She was surprisingly happy about Cara's pregnancy but when Kell dug a little deeper he understood why. She wasn't so much happy for the couple or for the new life that was being brought into the world...In Nyx's mind, this was a reassurance that Cara and Karikkar would be out of her life just a little bit more. It meant that they had a connection that Devyn and Cara didn't. Devyn remembered being upset with her thought process but it had calmed her dislike of Cara down even just a little.

Not getting a snarky comment from Nyx Cara released a breath she didn't remember holding and relaxed back in her seat a little.She dropped her other bombshell hoping it would calm Nyx further. "Tallus and I are also engaged."

"Then congratulations are in order all around, to both of you. How wonderful!" Jade responded, sensing anomalous tension around the table, but not sure of the source. "That means more parties to plan," she smiled. "Perhaps we can work around the upcoming away-mission parameters."

Cara gave her a grateful smile for both reasons "That would be great Jade ... I'm not much good planning parties."

"It'll be nice to attend a party for Cara and Tallus won't it?" Devyn asked Nyx as he felt her tense at the mention of planning parties in Cara's honor. He gave her hand a warning squeeze to keep her silenced.

Tallus watched as everyone each had their separate reactions. None here had liked Tallus when he had first arrived. He hadn't made the best first impression. Even still people did not like him, even if they did appreciate his abilities when it came to threats. Nyx still didn't trust him. Eventually she would see that all he did was try to help, but until then he would have to bide his time.

Samantha smirked at them from across the table, she wanted to be happy for them because guilt and remorse from the away mission with Brian left her feeling a bit jealous. She did her best to be calm and pleasant, she really was happy for Cara. She just needed to focus on work a little while longer before getting over her own loses.

Brian looked over at Sam, glad that he was able to see again after all these years, especially to look into the face of his beloved, but at the same time wishing that he could not see the guilt and pain in her eyes.

"Is there anything else we need to know, Colonel, about this possible rogue ship?" Jade asked. "Is a general announcement being made to the station population, or is this under wraps for now?"

Cara shook her head "Lets keep it under wraps for now ... we don't want to cause a station side panic."

It was at this point that Xavier walked into the briefing room. He didn't normally make it a habit of being late but he was finishing some work for the Colonel. He carried a PADD with him that he now handed to Drake. "The Indefatigable is prepped and ready to go."

Xavier had been in Ops when this all occurred and made it his mission to get the support ship ready to debark as soon as was needed. In all honesty he was looking forward to the away mission. No one could say life on a station was boring, especially The Protector, but to get back out there, to tend to an actual working engine again, there really was nothing like it. He made his way over to the buffet and poured himself a cup of coffee, he stood there cradling the steaming cup as the meeting continued.

Nodding Cara smiled at several confused looks "What better way to see whats going on than making yourself a nice juicy target?" She looked round the table "Everyone that is wanting to go on the mission needs to put their names in to Colonel Karikkar in the next 6 hours ... He and Captain Drake want to leave in the next 12 -24."


Lys tidings say anything. As a science officer she had two choices stay and work on repairing the base, that included the arboretum, the gardens and all the various systems. Or head out to the great beyond. She took a sip of her drink and made a decision. She would stay on the base unless eh shad to go with the away team for some reason.

"I will be awaiting your requests." Tallus said nodding keeping a minds eye everywhere.

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