The Right Question

Posted on Fri 4th May, 2018 @ 9:36pm by Commander Mikaela Locke & Lieutenant Colonel Brooklyn Wellington & Lieutenant Jacen Miller & Lieutenant Damion Ildaran & Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels

863 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Brushfires
Location: MAG Conference Room
Timeline: MD13, 1345

Wellington stood with her arms crossed at one corner of the briefing room, waiting for everyone to arrive. To say she wasn't happy was an understatement. Her pilots should have known better than go for a kill shot on the ship but to instead disable it and allow Starfleet to capture the ship.

Mikaela Locke stood a few feet to Wellington’s left, her arms also folded in front of her. She rarely found herself in the aerospace group’s domain, but today Colonel Wellington had invited her to attend a debriefing. From what she could tell, the situation had both angered and concerned the MAG Commander. She glanced across at Wellington, but said nothing. This was the colonel’s meeting - her briefing room, and Locke had no intention of doing or saying anything that might undermine that.

From her runabout, Captain Beck checked in, setting a privacy screen around herself. "Colonel, Beck engaging from Arrow 5 for the debriefing. My assistant is still monitoring our patrol. Debris at the site is reported as mostly the size of grains of sand, but they've snagged a few pieces as big as a humanoid hand."

That report didn't sit well with Wellington and made her even angrier at the two fighter pilots. "Understood, Beck. And thank you." She had learned to trust Beck as a very capable pilot.

Kellian Michaels entered the Marine conference room and gave it a curious glance around before bracing to attention. "Lt(jg). Kellian Michaels of Security, Ma'am," he said to Lt. Col. Wellington and also made eye contact with Commander Locke. He'd never been to Marine Country before and presumed that the Marines must have discovered something that impinged on station security. "Lt. Perry is on her way."

Wellington nodded. "Welcome, lieutenant, and thank you."

Kellian gave her a nod in return and then seated himself and created a file on his PADD for note-taking.

Jacen Miller strolled casually through the door to the conference room, glancing around, taking everything in.

"Colonel Wellington?" he inquired. "I hope you don't mind the intrusion, but I would like to sit in on this debriefing. It may prove to have information connecting to the Samurai incident."

Only a few steps behind him, another lieutenant wearing an Intelligence uniform entered. "Lt. Damion Ildaran, Colonel, Commander. I'm working with Lt. Miller on this."

"Welcome, and please be seated," she said gesturing to the table. "And hopefully we can establish a connection to the attack on the Samurai."

With a whoosh of the door, Isabella strolled into the conference room and was taken aback by all the others who had beat her there. She looked over to Kellian and gave a stunted nod, thankful that someone she knew was in the room. She then glanced over to the Colonel. "I apologize for my tardiness Colonel," the security officer said as she presented herself before Wellington. "Security Chief Isabella Perry".

"Welcome, lieutenant. Find a seat," she said as she waited for Cassidy to arrive..

Isabella nodded in understanding and found a seat beside her friend Kellian. "I see you found your way here." She said with a smirk on her face.

"I'd have picked up doughnuts along the way, but it didn't seem like that kind of meeting," Kellian said with a faint smile. Isabella knew he was completely lying. Kellian never touched doughnuts at meetings.

=^=Colonel Wellington,=^= a voice said in her ear, =^=your two pilots have arrived.=^=

"Before these two mosey in," Major Cassidy said from her seat across the table from the Fleet officers, "Do we have a clear read on what happened? And what line we want to take on this debriefing?"

"I always find it helpful to establish a consensual timeline of events before moving into any serious questions. It allows everyone involved to feel each other out. After we establish the timeline, we can move into the debriefing proper. We will, of course, want to establish that the rules of engagement were indeed followed. Hopefully the pilots can shed some light onto what tactics the bogeys used." Miller paused, "I am most interested in where the bogeys came from, who they were working for, and where they were able to obtain those ships. However, that may be something for myself and Lieutenant Ildaran to look into outside of this debriefing."

Beck glanced at Nordstrom, who nodded at her. Then she spoke up in the meeting, "We can help with a timeline. Warrant Nordstrom has already sorted one from the recordings made here on Arrow 5. They aren't as close as the fighter recordings, but I think we have all the events, enough for the overview of the sequence of pertinent points, at least. The question both of us would most like answered is whether destroying the ship was the best answer at the time. As a former fighter pilot myself, I know, in the heat of the moment, it's much harder to make that decision there than for us, with cool heads, after the fact."

Major Cassidy nodded. "There'll have to be a reckoning. And I reckon it's time to reckon."

 

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