Mission Briefing: A Meeting of Minds - Part II

Posted on Tuesday April 20th, 2021 @ 7:36pm by Lieutenant Commander Curzon Bennett & Captain Tobias Bishop III & Lieutenant Commander Albino "Viper" Jackson & Lieutenant Steven Edgeware

Mission: Jeepers Creepers 2: Creepers In Flight
Location: Senior Officer's Conference Room
Timeline: Current

::ON::

"Good morning," he began in his soft, yet authoritative voice, "this meeting shouldn't be overly long - if we stick to the agenda before you, we should get going at a decent clip." Ithahr smiled thinly as he regarded the gaggle of officers, 'I have to confess, this is more people than I'm used to addressing, Deep Space Three is going to be quite the change from a shipboard posting.'

"We'll be holding these briefings as often as possible - every morning for the Heads of Departments, and a meeting involving all of us at least once every seven rotations. If we're all aware of what each of us is doing, it will smooth things along somewhat."

Holding up his own PADD, Ithahr continued, "I shall begin. As most of you know, DS3 is newly established, and we're looking to expand the amount of trade the station conducts. My primary focus for the next quarter will be to ensure our trading position improves. This will involve a few different aspects."

"I'm sure Commander Jackson, Lieutenant Chase and Ensign Grant will not be surprised I will be turning to them for assistance in due time - the itineraries are in your PADDs as you may note. Though we have some more pressing business to conduct before that.

"Commander Jackson, the CO and I have been talking and we'd like our fighter contingent to sortie out and show the flag a bit - we've been noticing pirate activity has been on the increase in recent weeks, and the attack on the Deliverance was the last straw, quite frankly. Can you develop a rotation through the nearby systems for our fighter squadrons? One capable of dealing with any trouble that may arise?"

"Pirate activity will definitely cut into profits and cause a black market to start," Jo said reacting pragmatically.

Langstrom looked at Alie and smiled. Alie picked up on his thought, Pirates. "Understood sirs we will be rotating several squadrons to patrol and sortie as well. I would like permission to do a few long range hops to police the outer markers as some information has trickled down to me that some pirate ships have cloaking technology," she said, as she waited for the CO's permission.

"Great minds think alike." Bishop replied, "I was actually just about to suggest that. Well done."

Meanwhile Lt. Maxx who was the Science Chief covered his mouth as he yawned. He was still exhausted from reorganizing the mess that was the Science Department. The records were poorly organized, the lab was a mess and the crew consisted of the unwanted scientists available. Maxx had his hands full alone just dealing with that. Now his CO was going to dump more work on him. As it was he barely even met the crew and only knew them by their files. He sipped his extra strong coffee to help wake up before it was his turn to stand and deliver his report. Maxx then spoke up, "morning."

Maxx didn't seemed nervous since he had the memories of many generations before him through his symbiont. So even though he looked young he spoke like an old man. Maxx continued, "Science, Operations and Medical will be dealing with the quarantined ship. I have already have my crew making the preparations as we speak in case of any biological dangers. Since we are in the dark we will begin by using probes to get a proper analysis of the situation, since it's far to dangerous to send the limited personnel we have. If we are unable to resolve the issue with drones and need to send a person they will be in a bio space suit to ensure safety protocols. Any crew working on the samples will also be wearing proper protecting in an isolated lab. I'll keep the staff update as we gain more data on this situation." Then Maxx sat down and sipped his coffee as he waited for the next person to speak up.

Listening to the briefing, Svetlana raised her left hand and was acknowledged ... Looking around, all she could see were pensive faces, all waiting for someone to give it a name. "The last Pandemic we had which occurred back in March of 2020 was the COVID 19 Pandemic, which killed off around 500,000 people in old United Sates, and had infected more than 25 million human. But that was just one country, before a new triple threat vaccine brought it finally under control in 2025," saidSvetlana.

Ithahr frowned as he looked at the PADD in front of him, "I don't think it's a pandemic case," he said calmly, "I believe Operations had noted that the freighter was missing a health certificate for some of its cargo, correct, Ensign?" Ithahr looked at Grant. He felt a little awkward putting her front and center like this - she wasn't even the official head of her department, but she was their senior-most officer.

"Missing would be an understatement Sir. It almost looks like a smuggling operation of some type. They were supposed to be shipping parts and supplies, there is nothing on the manifest about dangerous biological specimens of any type. My first hunch is that they were trying to develop some sort of biogenic weapon or at least experimenting with a pathogen to see how bad bad could get. I'm no medical expert by any means but from these schematics, there was a failure of the bio containment system, which released the pathogen. To make matters worse the inertial dampening system on the ship is malfunctioning. which means that even if we do get on board its going to be a dangerous and very bumpy ride, at least until it can be corrected, Sir." Jo replied.

"So," replied Svetlana whose mind was on other matters, "if it is a smuggling operation, then what is the Security department policy's on handling smugglers? If it is a major smuggling operation, the once Security has determined that there is no viable threat, and Medical has gone in and determined if the ship is not quarantined, then my team will come on board to do the investigation, along with the Security Investigators. And since my two Special Agents are now indisposed, it looks like I'm going to be the primary special agent in charge.

"The job of SCIS gentlemen is not to do the job of Security but to enhance its capabilities, that means the job of SCIS is to prosecute the entire case, and follow up on leads that are not found on the ship in question, but where the ones in charge are on different planets within the Federation," said Svetlana.

"Did you want to join us on the away mission to make sure the crime scene isn't contaminated then?" Ensign Grant asked.

"If you don't mind," replied Svetlana, "I'll go along with the security team, one never knows if these incidents fall under the purview of SCIS."

"I think it would entirely depend on whether we can get those dampers back online - we could tractor the ship in, and hold it in the main docking area in a secured berth," Lieutenant Sakaan stated, arching an eyebrow.

"It would certainly make it easier on any Medical personnel that need to get in and out if we could bring them in," replied Ambrose in a deep, gravelly voice.

Finally after listening to everyone involved from Security to Medical, Svetlana said "I'll have Dr. Pinkey stand ready to move out with a small crime scene computer PaDD. He should be able to give the head of Security information that may be of importance..." replied Svetlana, and finally it was over for her, as she sat down, and fidgeted for a few more minutes, looking for another cup of coffee....

Ithahr looked to Grant again, "can Ops get those dampers fixed? We can give you what you need to do so."

"Well, Sir I might be able to jury rig something, but I will need a damage control team to help me, its not a one person job." Jo said. "It depends on how much damage there really is, and what caused it. I could replace some of the circuitry but if there is any structural damage it will require repairs at a dockyard. I am fairly certain that we can get that ship under control. It really depends on what you want to do with it. Do you want us to bring it here? Worst case scenario we shut the engines down and then use another ship to tractor it to a safe location". Jo stated.

Trensu thought for a minute. "So, to make sure I understand this you want a ship to be docked to the station that has a virus on board that can't be filtered out by transports. What makes you think that the station can filter it out? I don't think that ship should be docked at the station. We could use runabouts to help in the mission I don't like the ship being in or attached to DS3. One slip up and it could bring down DS3," he pointed out.

Jordan had remained quiet as she listened to everyone and raised her hand slightly as a pensive look crossed her face. “Negotiating contracts for trade with freight ships and other stations or colonies isn’t an issue that I can see. The pirate problem can become a mess for any civilian ships we might sign if we can’t provide them with protection for a certain distance. That aside, I would also strongly recommend against bringing the contaminated ship into dock until it can be cleared 100%. The slightest risk of exposure is not something that I am comfortable to report, and if we have to quarantine the station... Well, I do not think I have to tell you how well that will not likely turn out,” she said softly, reports of other similar incidents in Starfleet history coming to mind.

Nodding his head in agreement, Ithahr thought the diplomatic officer brought up a valid point.

Ambrose broke in before the Andorian could speak, "surely we can beam in and out of the ship without connecting it via umbilical? Hook up a few power lines to keep life support going and treat it that way?" The medical officer looked to Maxx for confirmation.

Lieutenant Maxx made a very big yawn before he shook his head to wake up. He sipped his coffee before he look at the medical officer. Maxx then looked to see they were expecting an answer from him so he swallowed his coffee and spoke up, "Well we could do it that since have to take measures. Since there is a concern for contamination of an unknown danger we can simply modify a few engineering drones and beam them aboard the ship to take some samples and test them in a quarantined lab while medical does the same for any bodies thy find. Then we will be up all night running countless scans in both departments so I hope we can keep up." Maxx sipped his coffee and popped his neck before he spoke up again, "So we can coordinate with Medical on this one." Maxx then sipped his coffee again.

Steven nodded.

Listening to the various comments, Svetlana had been listening to the entire briefing, but then she hit upon an idea...

To be continued ...


::OFF::

Captain Tobias Bishop III
Commanding Officer
Deep Space Three

Lieutenant Commander Ithahr th'Shrannok
Executive Officer
Deep Space Three

Lieutenant Commander Albino "Ghost" Jackson
Group Commander
Deep Space Three

Lieutenant Dr Steven Edgeware
Chief Medical Officer
Deep Space Three

Lieutenant Ahksu Trensu
Chief Security & Tactical Officer
Deep Space Three

Lieutenant Jordan Chase
Chief Diplomatic Officer
Deep Space Three

Lieutenant JG Talerian Maxx
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Three

Ensign Jo Grant
Operations Officer
Deep Space Three

SSA Svetlana Chekov, GS12
Starfleet Criminal Investigative Service
SCIS Team 95
Deep Space 3

Lieutenant Sakaan
Chief Intelligence Officer
Deep Space Three
[PNPC Lieutenant Commander Ithahr th'Shrannok]