Earthquakes and Lightning

Posted on Sat Jan 11th, 2020 @ 2:44pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant Commander William Gunnison & Lieutenant Nikki St. John & Lieutenant Alexis Aenera & Chief Petty Officer Benjamin Thor & Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Commander Calvin Morgan & Lieutenant Commander William Rogers
Edited on on Sun Jan 12th, 2020 @ 8:40pm

Mission: Dead Moon
Location: Observation Lounge

Walking into the Observation Lounge, Abigail smiled. Ichiko had outdone herself. She always seemed to go above and beyond when it came to hosting these staff gatherings. It seemed the Ts'Usugi took their roles as hosts very seriously indeed.

She slid into the seat at the head of the table, wrapping her hands around the steaming hot mug of Chai Latte that had been placed in front of her almost immediately and cast a glance at the Rabittess. "All we need now is the crew," she said with a smile. "I'm not looking forward to delivering this briefing... but it has to be done. Ready?"

"As ready as anyone can be." Ichiko offered in support, wondering who would be the first through those doors.

Lieutenant Styveck entered the Observation Lounge and took his seat. He set his pad down and opened it in order to take notes where relevant.

Before the door could fully close, it swooshed open again, though not as fast as Calvin anticipated as he almost walked into it. He looked back at the door, as if had it out for him, before focusing on taking his normal seat. He leaned forward far enough to grab the coffee and pour himself a cup. After inhaling the emanating steam, he leaned back in his chair to see the Captain's face. He sighed quietly, guessing this was not going to be a pleasant conversation.

Ben watched Calvin go through the door, and hearing a slight creaking noise as it opened knew that he should get someone to have a look at the motors. Upon entering the room he hovered around not taking a seat, not quite sure what was going on.

Buck entered shortly after the Petty Officer, whom he gave a friendly, and far less forceful than last time, clap on the shoulder. He helped himself to several pastries and a large coffee before sitting down next to Calvin. "What's up Doc?"

Calvin smiled at Buck, "Oh you know, waiting to hear how our shore leave has been extended and all the other wonderful things I'm sure will come out of this meeting."

Nikki entered, a PADD tucked beneath her chin, as she finished tidying her ponytail, moving directly toward an empty seat. She set the PADD down, stretched out far enough to snag a muffin and pour herself a cup of coffee and slid gracefully into her seat. Years of workouts and 8-mile runs meant that her muscles obeyed her even when she was tired, an almost constant state since coming on board the Astraea that she hoped to alleviate soon. She nodded respectfully to the Captain and First Officer while peeling the paper away from the sides of the muffin. It had been said of her that she ate like a teenager and that was true enough but then, she never seemed to gain an ounce either so it worked out.

Will entered, and took a seat after grabbing a glass of orange juice. Of course, being the one parent in the room with a kid on board meant he usually had breakfast with his son before going on duty.

Alexis slipped in as casually as possible, stopping only to grab a cup of coffee before seating herself delicately in the assigned chair without a word.

>> keep adding arrival tags!<<

Ben eventually sat down taking one of the last seats wondering where Mica was.

Abigail waited until everyone had taken a seat and helped themselves, her half empty chai already having been silently replaced by Ichiko. Drawing in a slow breath she glanced around before she started speaking. "As I'm sure you've already guessed, our intended shore leave has been cancelled. We're being redeployed, effective immediately. Our new orders are to proceed immediately to The Charybdis Sector. Intelligence reports indicate that Romulan sensors have detected an unknown vessel entering the sector. The vessel and the warp signatures don't match anything on file. Our orders are to enter the sector, find the vessel, remove it to clear space and detain it until Intelligence arrives."

Buck sat up a little straighter at the mention of the location. "Did you say Charybdis, Cap?" His brow furrowed. "I didn't think anything was able to fly in there."

Ichiko took the moment, "We've been granted special dispensation to enter the region, either due to a peculiarity of the ship's design in regards to the region, or by process of our proximity to the region."

"Time, it seems, is of the essence." she motioned over to him, "Can you tell us anything additional about the region?"

"Not much that isn't in the records." Buck replied, a little apologetically. "I was with the Department of Temporal Investigations at the time. Some of the higher ups got it into their heads that what happened to the Aganora and the Reverie might be time travel related so they dispatched us to investigate. The whole sector's one big hedge-maze where the walls are constantly changing plasma storms. We found our sensors were pretty limited and any probes we sent in got trashed pretty fast. Best luck we had keeping them alive was to pilot them remotely at low impulse. Since there were none of the usual temporal markers we didn't take the ship in and chalked it up to the storms. I'll tell you what though, really felt like going above point two five impulse attracted the storms to the probes."

Ben sat there blinking, just trying to take in all this information, forbidden space, Temporal Investigations and a plasma storm maze of death. He muttered very quietly to complete his thought, "Whatever next?"

Styveck sat and took notes, shore leave was canceled, that will improve the morale around here he thought sarcastically before chiding himself. He was just the Counselor and the new guy in the room, he decided to wait to see if anyone was going to ask why we’re headed into a forbidden zone exactly.

"I remember reading about the sector," Will replied. "One of my professors my senior year at the Academy had us doing some research work on the region a couple of months before the ill-fated missions of the Aganora and the Reverie. It's not some place I'd recommend for our next shoreleave. What basis does Starfleet have for believing that this unknown ship is even still intact at this point?"

Abigail paused, contemplating over how best to answer the question. "We don't," she finally said simply. "But we've been ordered to go in there and find it, no matter how much of it is left intact."

Alexis raised a pair of fingers to get attention, then nodded and smiled slightly, "I'm familiar with the region where Aganora and Reverie entered the Charybdis Sector. My last assignment was to Minotaur where we were investigating and classifying some of the anomalies along the edge of the Sector in preparation for an investigation further inside, to ensure there was a clear path of retreat in case of problems. To call the inside area chaotic is an understatement, a couple brief forays we took within the borders of the Sector to check out specific anomalies were pretty harrowing. The plasma storms are seemingly random and sensors don't always give enough warning of changing conditions." She glanced around the room, eyes finally landing on the CO, "Ma'am, We're going to have to be extremely careful, some of these anomalies could rip us to pieces without any problem whatsoever if we get too close and they can be masked by the storms."

Again, another nod was given by the commanding officer. "We will need to be exceptionally careful. We will have to plot our courses carefully and move slowly. Lieutenant Morgan, you'll need to review any sensor data we have available and see if there is anything we need to do to prepare the crew, like radiation innoculations. We have a little shy of thirty six hours before we reach the sector. Three days after that, give or take, to find the vessel and get it back out of there before Intelligence arrives."

"I will start reviewing the data and let you know," Calvin responded.

"Lieutenant St John, we're expecting the Romulans to meet us at the sector and I don't anticipate it will be a friendly encounter. Make sure security and tactical are ready and any glitches in our security sensors are fixed," Abigail said as she turned to address the new Security officer on board.

Caught in a sip, Nikki swallowed and set the cup down on the table as she spoke. "Hopefully that glitch will be removed soon, Captain," she said. "I'll go over weapon stores and shift assignments which is a longer way of saying, we'll be ready."

Ben jotted down a note about glitches in the security sensors.

Buck took a swig of coffee before piping up. "I can see if the DTI will part with any of the sensor logs from the Thucydides from when we were at Charybdis, if that'd help?"

"If you do I would like to take a look at the crew records. It would be easier to cross reference possible medical issues with crew that have already been there," Calvin replied looking at Buck.

"That, would be of a great help I'd say." Ichiko piped up from the right hand of the Captain's chair. "The more information we have about this region, no matter how dire, can only help our chances."

To Nikki, the newest addition to the security forces, Ichiko gave a nod. Readiness was the name of the game here.

"I'll work with Navigation and make sure that the charts are fully updated to the most recent surveys and see if I can extrapolate any of the data I haven't seen yet to at least tentatively classify some of the unknown readings." Alexis pursed her lips in thought, then nodded and left it at that.

Nikki nodded in return even as she began to consider the stress that would bring to an already stressed crew. Security could not afford to be anything less than their best so she'd need to keep a watchful eye.

"Very well, you all have preparation to do. Any questions, concerns or anything, feel free to come and speak to either Commander Gail or myself," Abigail said calmly. "Otherise, you're all dismissed. Mister Thor, if you wouldn't mind staying behind, I'd like to have a quick word with you? Thank you everyone."