Mission Briefing

Posted on Mon Dec 6th, 2010 @ 6:50am by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Commander Fala Awen & Commander Christopher McNeil & Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson & Commander Michael Evans M.D. & Lieutenant JG Malia Jacy & Lieutenant JG Hannah Andeti

Mission: Episode 1.4 - "Confusion in the Cluster"
Location: Observation Lounge, USS Pandora
Timeline: Mission Day 01, 0800 hours

ON: [[Observation Lounge, USS Pandora, Mission Day 01, 0800 hours]]

The room was quiet as Iluvar stood near one of the large viewports, looking out toward the expanse known as the Black Cluster. His thoughts drifted back to the last time he had been to this region and the things they had experienced during that mission. It seemed so long ago and they had certainly come a long way from where they had been during that first mission. Even the members of his own senior staff had changed. Yet it seemed as if, in some small way, things had come full circle.

Dr. Evans entered early with his standard mug of coffee in-hand. He greeted his captain briefly but cordially, then stood a couple of viewports over also looking out at the mass of nebulous darkness. It looked ominous to him, and yet he was intensely curious about the phenomenon.

The counselor entered closely on the doctor's heels, enjoying the familiar process and surroundings. She nodded to the two men with her usual smile and took moment to appreciate their feelings on the mission. Apprehension and curiosity from the doctor...excitement and a strange sense of nostalgia from the Captain. She slid into a seat and turned her attention out the view port, unable to repress a small shiver. The darkness seemed to deepen the longer she watched it, an indistinguishable mass of undulating gases that she could almost feel inside the room with them.

Joe arrived to find three officers already in the room. He recognized one of them - the captain - and began a silent debate over who the other two were. Though he had been studying the crew files - especially for the senior officers - so that he could get to know his future shipmates better, he still hadn't put all the faces to names yet. Based on their uniforms, though, he knew they were in the science, medical, or counseling departments. Noticing the rank insignia on the man's collar, he suddenly remembered passing over the Second Officer's profile. As he recalled that the Second Officer was also the CMO, he was able to narrow down the other officer to either CSO or Chief Counselor.

PADD in hand, Awen walked into the lounge and noted those who were already present. Apparently although she was early, she hadn't been quite early enough to arrive before some of the others. Her eyes moved to Iluvar, standing near the viewports. The past few months had been...interesting, to say the least. Between the personnel assignments and the Pandora's missions, things had certainly changed for the Pandora. The Bajoran took the seat to the right of where Iluvar would be sitting and quietly observed the others present.

As he continued the internal guessing game, Joe made his way towards the table. Nodding and smiling respectfully at each of the other officers in turn, he reached a chair near the end farthest from the captain and took his seat. His decision to sit away from the captain was not because he didn't like the man, but because he had developed an inherent and extreme dislike for having people behind him. Also, this would allow him to more easily see the interactions between the others so he knew where best to fit in.

McNeil followed Fala into the briefing room, seeing Lt Commander Thompson sit down at the end of the table just after he entered. Doctor Evans was standing near the outer bulkhead, looking out the viewport, as was Captain Iluvar. Left to his own devices, McNeil would normally have taken up a position along the inner bulkhead to observe the proceedings, but given the changes in the Pandora's senior staff in recent months, he was now by necessity somewhat more involved in the day-to-day operations of the Pandora. As such, McNeil forewent his preferred position in the room in favor of the seat directly across from Commander Fala.

Malia had been boring her gaze into the back of the new officer's head the whole way as she followed him down the corridor and into the room. Sometimes the Ops officer wished she had the abilities of the Betazoids just so she could avoid asking awkward questions that she wanted answers too. While the man had known she was behind him, he'd never turned around once - something Malia found quite interesting. She slid into a seat next to the counselor and with her PADD in hand, she began the pre-meeting waiting process.

As Niala (NPC) entered the room, her eyes slowly took in those assembled for the briefing. She hadn't been a part of the crew for very long - having come aboard at their last stop at Deep Space 3 - and this was her first official briefing as a member of the Pandora. Well, interim member, at least. Due to the nature of their mission, they needed additional officers in the Science department, so she had been appointed for the time being. The El-Aurian took a seat at the table, carefully placing the two PADDs she'd brought in front of her.

Turning away from the viewport, Iluvar crossed over to the head of the table and placed his hands on the back of his own chair. He glanced over at the sound of the door to see Lieutenant Warrington (PNPC) enter the room at a rather brisk pace. It had been a rather pleasant surprise to learn that the young engineer had been assigned to the Pandora to fill the role of interim chief engineer and, though they were going on five months already, Warrington seemed content to remain in the post for as long as necessary.

Jake exchanged an apologetic glance with the captain before moving toward an open seat next to the executive officer. He placed the single PADD he had brought along on the table, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Hopefully, this briefing would give him something to bring back to his engineering team.

Once everyone had taken their seats, Iluvar lowered himself into his chair and surveyed his senior staff. The past few months had been frustrating for all of them. Perhaps this would be their chance to change all of that.

"The Black Cluster," Iluvar said without preamble, "A region of space notorious for its anomalies and yet, not fully understood. What do we know about it?"

Niala perked up at the mention of the Black Cluster. She'd known it was where they were going and had done additional research on the area, though she had already known at least the basics. "If I may, sir. As you noted, it is notorious for spatial anomalies. The region also absorbs energy...almost feeding off it, at times. Sensor difficulties have been widely reported. Also important to remember is that the Black Cluster will cause gravitational wavefronts; contrary to what one might think, it's best to not raise shields if we encounter them. The waves will only increase in proportion to the strength of our shields."

"Our shields are clearly an integral part of our defense network," Joe spoke up. "Without them, our ability to take damage will be greatly reduced. However, I took the liberty of looking into Captain Iluvar's previous foray into the Black Cluster; during that mission, some modifications were made to the USS Tethys to increase the effectiveness of the Ablative Armor and SIF. With a bit of work, we can probably do something similar with the Pandora. That should suffice, unless we have to worry about any Breen that might stray near us during the course of the mission."

"As far as the Breen go," McNeil interjected, "Starfleet has no indications that they've been active in this area recently." He had spent several hours reviewing Intelligence reports from every source that had any information about the Breen to see if there would be any likelihood of encountering them during this mission. "With that said, I've found that you can never tell what the Breen are going to do until they do it. So far they've followed the terms of the Treaty of Bajor to the letter, but not one iota further than that."

Iluvar nodded slowly in affirmation of what had been said thus far. It was information that he had taken the time to re-familiarize himself with en route to their current location, but it was also reminiscent of the information they had been briefed with prior to the Tethys' first assignment.

"Starfleet Command has expressed concerns over an increase in raiding on merchant shipping in the region over the course of the past few months," Iluvar explained as he tapped a command into the access before him to activate the display monitor along one side of the room, "Reports of mysterious attacks on merchant traffic have increased significantly, but there have been no leads as to who might be behind the attacks."

Awen frowned as Iluvar told them about the reports. While it was possible, it seemed odd to her that were no leads whatsoever regarding who was behind the attacks. If nothing else, they should have been able to at least narrow down the possibilities. The Bajoran was rather suspicious about the lack of information; perhaps it was just paranoia, but perhaps not. She could ask Iluvar about it after the briefing though.

Joe was liking this mission less and less. To go into the Black Cluster and not be able to use shields was one thing, but to go into such an area with the intent to investigate attacks...it was just asking for trouble. Sure, he had been trained with the philosophy of being able to do just that - go alone and nearly defenseless into an area to investigate it - but that was a single person on land, and this was an entire ship full of crewmen operating in space. He could tell already things were going to get tricky in the near future.

The sense of excitement was now shifting subtly to one of apprehension. It certainly wasn't a pleasure cruise they were embarking upon and at the mention of the Breen even the normally easy-going counselor tensed. She couldn't help but remember what they and the Jem'Hadar had done to her planet not so long ago and she was not eager to encounter them.

Malia waited to see if anyone else was going to voice the question that was swimming in her mind. When no one did, she spoke up. "While the raiding part is pretty self explanatory, what kind of 'mysterious attacks' are we talking about here? Physical damage? Systems short circuiting? Crew afflictions?"

"In most cases...total loss of the vessel," Iluvar replied grimly.

There was silence around the table as the captain's words sank in. It was pretty clear that this was a serious matter, at least so far as their assignment was concerned. There were men, women, and maybe even children who had perished because of these mysterious attacks. Yet no one seemed to know much about the source or motivation behind them.

"We are looking at essentially two concerns regarding the Black Cluster...our ability to see what is out there and our ability to defend against it, if necessary," Iluvar continued, allowing his gaze to pass over those seated around the table, "Lieutenant Jacy and Lieutenant Rylen, I would like the two of you to start looking at ways to improve our sensors to compensate for the effects of the Black Cluster. Commander Thompson and Lieutenant Warrington, I want you both to start working on the possibility of enhancing those defenses that are not affected by the Cluster. I am sure you would agree that the last thing we need is to be caught out here with no way to defend ourselves. I would also like you to coordinate with Commander McNeil, Mister Thompson. No doubt, it would be prudent that we have a better idea of what it is that we might encounter out here. Any questions?"

Hearing Iluvar's orders, Niala shook her head to indicate she had no questions. Having functioning sensors would be important, so it certainly made sense that she would be assigned to try to improve them. At this point she wasn't entirely sure how they would accomplish it, but perhaps she could do a little research or something would come to her before Malia came. She exchanged a quick glance with the Operations officer.

Catching the look on Niala's face, Mali nodded in agreement. She didn't have any clue either, off the top of her head. They would do well to research reports from other ships that had been in the area; maybe they'd have some information on how to reinforce and/or enhance the sensors that could possibly be applied to the Luna class.

The modifications to the defenses were a necessary step, and one that would prove to be lengthy. Joe knew, however, that any modifications would be minimal; though he was prepared to work on them, he looked forward far more to working with Commander McNeil and learning what Intelligence had on this mission. Joe had a deep and abiding respect for Intelligence and their work, and he knew it would be invaluable to their mission here.

Dr. Evans shook his head at his coffee. Better run a disaster drill with the medical teams. No doubt they'd be needed before they were done in the cluster. And yet, it was always exciting when the teams go to use their skills. How macabre a profession he had chosen...

Lt Andeti remained necessarily quiet. Although her case load would surely increase under such conditions there was little she could contribute to what seemed to be a primarily tactical briefing.

Giving the information on his PADD a brief glance, Jake looked up and nodded his head to indicate that he understood. It seemed to be a pretty standard pre-mission briefing and, though they didn't know very much about their assignment, they at least had some information to go off of with regards to the Black Cluster. He certainly had something to bring back to his engineering teams after all this...modifications to the Ablative Armor, Structural Integrity Field, and the ship's sensor arrays were going to give the engineering staff plenty to do over the next several hours.

"If there is nothing else," Iluvar said, pausing briefly to look around the table once more for any last questions, "Dismissed."

Awen waited silently as the rest of the officers left the room. Once the last one left, she turned her attention to Iluvar. "Captain...is it just me or do you find it odd that StarFleet has absolutely no leads as to who might be behind the attacks? I would have thought they could have at least eliminated some of the possibilities, narrowing it down some for us."

It was a question that Iluvar had been asking himself ever since he’d received the communiqué from Starfleet Command that outlined their orders for this mission…and one that he was not entirely sure he had an answer to. “We know that this region of space is particularly volatile, and not just when it comes to natural phenomena,” Iluvar replied, “We’ve got the Breen, the Elyshans, the Cardassians…and any number of independent pirates. I could see where information might be difficult to come by.”

"Difficult, perhaps, but if there were attacks, there should be evidence. Evidence would allow us to eliminate some possibilities," Awen said, frustration edging into her voice. "I'm sorry sir, but it seems to me that they're sending us into a hostile situation without all the information we need." Really, it sounded like they were being set up to fail, but she stopped herself from coming right out and saying that.

Iluvar leveled a gaze in the direction of his executive officer, but did not immediately reply. She made a very valid point. They were being asked to enter a hostile situation without a clear idea of what they were expecting to come up against. As much as he wanted to believe that Starfleet genuinely did not have the information they needed, he could not ignore the distinct possibility that this was yet another demonstration of Starfleet Command’s lack of trust in him.

“Five months ago, I might have viewed this situation differently,” he said, “but a lot has happened between then and now.”

The Bajoran nodded, unfortunately she had to agree. "Should I ask Commander McNeil to see what else he can find out, sir?" If anyone could get them more information, surely the Intel department could. Or so she hoped.

Iluvar considered the offer for a moment, then nodded once to show affirmation. "It is possible that Commander McNeil could provide us with a little more insight regarding this matter," he agreed.

"I'll ask him to start looking into it," Awen replied as she stood. "Is there anything else you need me to do?" Despite having held the Executive Officer position for several months, she still felt a bit unsure at times as to what she should be doing. Of course, the last few missions hadn't exactly been a huge challenge; this one was the most interesting one thus far.

"Aside from making sure we don't tear ourselves apart when we enter the Cluster," Iluvar asked with a smile on his face. He knew that they were looking at several hours of work to prepare the Pandora for operations in this particular region, but it was certainly going to be time well spent. "Keep me appraised on the status of our upgrades," he said, "I'd like to get this investigation started as soon as possible, but there's no need to be cutting any corners."

Nodding, Awen replied, "Of course, Captain. Once I have some updates, I'll be sure to let you know." Picking up her PADD, the Bajoran headed for the door. Time to get started.

OFF

A JP by

Captain Iluvar
Commanding Officer
USS Pandora

Commander Fala Awen
Executive Officer
USS Pandora

Commander Christopher McNeil
Mission Advisor/Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Commander Michael Evans
Chief Medical Officer/Second Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Jacob "Jake" Warrington (PNPC)
Interim Chief Engineering Officer
USS Pandora
Played by: Capt Iluvar

Lieutenant JG Hannah Andeti
Chief Counselor
USS Pandora

Lieutenant JG Malia Jacy
Chief Operations Officer
USS Pandora

and

Lieutenant JG Niala Rylen (NPC)
Interim Chief Science Officer
USS Pandora
Played by: Cmdr Fala