Preparing For The Wor(Be)st

Posted on Fri Dec 9th, 2022 @ 3:49am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant JG Jenna Jade & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen & Lieutenant Mark Valleroy & Captain Natalya Markova & Lieutenant JG Faith Vianelli & Ensign Raven Windancer & Lieutenant F'Arra MD

Mission: Trade And Tribulations
Location: Conference Room

Calypso smiled at the group that had gathered into mostly familiar seats around the conference room table. It had been two missions already, one that had ended in disaster and the severe injury of herself and others, and the second which had almost ended in the deaths of the entire crew, but only eighteen had been lost in the end, all due to the boarding action that had been predicted, but not with the efficiency and brutality that it had happened with. She knew that those names would join the others that had already lost their lives as a part of Chimera's crew, etched into her heart, mind and soul forever.

"Good morning everyone." The words sounded hollow in her ears, despite that they'd been already underway for twelve of their estimated fourteen day journey and ample time for recovery had happened. "We're only a couple days away from Trarim and I'd like to share with you all of the details that we've got about the planet once more, along with any questions you may have come up with since you've gotten the briefing package. But first, let's get an update on all of your sections. Any problems, status of any repairs, let's get that out of the way." She gestured to one of the most junior officers to begin.

Ensign Jenna Jade cleared her throat as she lifted her PADD, glancing at it. She'd gotten used to being the go-to gal in settings like this and with the Captain, despite only having officially graduated from the Academy a bit more than a month before. She'd been on the spot far too often. "Engineerin' is in good shape. The Starbase helped us with the most critical repairs and we were able to load up on the non-replicatable spares and a brand new crystal set for the warp core." That last had been her own private hell acquiring since the ship had launched, "Minor repairs are still underway, but the ship is ready for anythin' we come across." She glanced around for the next person.

Natalya Markova sat in her chair, decidedly not looking at anyone. She felt out of place, as though a spotlight was blasting down on her, and all eyes were staring. She wouldn't have blamed them if they were. Supposedly kicked out, and then back in uniform - and a promotion to boot - without so much as a 'by your leave'. The best she could manage was an intent look at the mug in front of Cally. "The Marines are back in place, and fully settled." Present company excluded, she didn't add out loud. "Gear and equipment is stowed, and accounted for."

Raven could feel Natalya's uneasiness and tried to shoot her a reassuring smile. While their first meeting had been quite unexpected, as well as scary, Raven had learned that she was a fine Marine. "The final repairs have been made to Helm and she's purring like a Kitten again," Raven grinned, popping the kinks out of her neck.

Mark spoke next. "Security is...present. We lost some good people in our last mission, which makes things a bit more difficult when we didn't have a large amount of personnel in the department to begin with, and replacements have been few and far between so far. I've put in a couple of calls and may be able to get some more crew members, but we may have to get a bit creative in the meantime."

F'Arra consulted her PADD before looking up at the Captain. "Sickbay has been fully restocked, and no serious issues to report. Couple of appendectomies, and a rotator cuff injuy on the Holodeck, but otherwise I am happy with the health of the crew."

With most of the senior staff, the temporary science replacement aside, having spoken, Alexander — much more relaxed and cool than he had been in weeks — spoke up. “Overall ship condition is optimal, Captain.”

"Sensors are A-OK." A dark haired man in a blue uniform stated as he stared at a PADD. "The science labs are ready for whatever we find." Cally recognized him, but couldn't place his name for some reason. Lieutenant... Whatever.

"Well, Mark, our reinforcements will have to catch up to us in whatever sort of ferry circumstances we end up arranging, but keep your ear to the subspace comm for when they do start heading this direction." She glanced around the table of her senior officers again and tapped a few buttons on the table in front of her, a planet with seven moons flickering to life in a hologram in the center.

"We are going to be the first people from the Federation, at least from Starfleet, to visit this world. Trarim is what the locals call a Free World, where there are no claims from any governments in the region and all of them recognize the independence of the local governor. That worthy individual is an appointee of the Dashian Hegemony," She tapped another button and the image of a humanoid that bore a remarkable resemblance to Freddy Kreuger but with four horns crowning its head and a deep red hue in its skin and yellow eyes, "The Dashian Hegemony is the most powerful entity in the region and has been so for the last several hundred years, with starships that supposedly rival our own, but we've only received still images of those ships and haven't been able to evaluate their capabilities."

She brought up the image of one of the ships, which was angular and very aggressive looking, no curves to speak of. "One of their trade Captains has given us some examples of their weaponry, which is based on disruptor technology, but with some harmonics that give it an edge in cutting through shields, we believe. We had scans of the weapons their freighter is armed with, but we have never seen them in action. But back to Trarim." She dismissed the images of the ship and Dashian, "As a Free World, there are very few laws that apply to the world, only the most basic ones. Murder, theft, those have various punishments, but it is generally 'anything goes'."

Cally began to look around at each of the officers, "Whatever we have on the world is available to each of you. What I would like is for the senior officers to take the lead in exploring Trarim. It's less of a civilized world than a very large city with a population of about twelve million as estimated by Captain B'Talian Ghorresh of the Dashian Hegemony. No matter what, I don't want anyone going alone, groups of two or more at all times. I'll open up the floor for discussion at this point."

Faith had remained silent, just listening to the discussion happening around her. This was one of those moments that her thoughts were largely irrelevant. Whether or not she even went to the surface was still something to be determined. Given her inability to control her thoughts during the last mission it was entirely likely she would be better off remaining on the ship.

"You think there's gonna be some fancy flying involved?" Raven asked, running her hand through her hair to channel some of her nervous energy.

"There might be, there might not be." Calypso shrugged, "Not on the way towards the planet. I've got safe-conduct codes for the Dashian fleet detachment that's standing neutrality guard. However, we truly don't know what we're going to run into on the ground." She tapped her chin for a moment, "It wouldn't hurt to be ready for it, Raven."

"Aye, Captain," Raven was having a hard time calming the butterflies in her stomach. "I wonder who all's gonna get to go down anyway," Raven thought nervously.

Cally glanced around the table, meeting the eyes of everyone at the table briefly, "I'm going to grant all of the shore leave you could want for this stop in our trip, but remember that it's less 'shore leave' than it is an information gathering operation. I want to hear rumors, solid information, basically anything that piques your interest or attention, but with as much detail as you can manage." She smiled brightly, "We are all ambassadors on this world, which is why you are authorized to extend the 'leave' permission to basically all of your officers, plus senior enlisted from oh... Petty Officer First Class and above, but any group of enlisted requires three or more in the away team, and I don't want anyone, period, going down there alone. Oh, and of course we're going to have to make sure that we keep a bridge watch at all times, we'll rotate Officer Of The Watch around anyone qualified or with a supervising officer for those who desire to become qualified. Good chance for experience here. Any questions? Concerns? General outrage?"

"This is going to be one heck of an adventure," Raven smirked softly.

Nat took a breath. It was time she started acting like an officer. If someone had an issue with her.... fuck em. "I can take some Bridge shifts, Captain. I spent far too long in the hornet's nest recently. I'd like to relearn Chimera."

"I might also suggest opening that up a bit to include other positions that people might wish to cross train in or log time in," Mark said. "I certainly volunteer to help coordinate and supervise that as warranted."

The XO nodded his agreement. A brilliant idea. If they’d be out there a while, it really was a perfect opportunity to train whoever wanted it, really in whatever skill they might benefit from.

"Granted with prejudice, I always love an officer that volunteers for extra duties." Calypso grinned with a mischievous grin, "Might be I should learn how to be a medic, learn to treat my own injuries, right?" She couldn't help it, given that she'd already been badly injured in the few months they'd been on board.

F'Arra couldn't help a chuckle. "I'd be happy to help set up some training slots for anyone interested in First Aid, or field medic skills." Her yellow cat's eyes locked in on the Captain. "Though, all injuries and treatments still need to be logged.... regulations."

Raven couldn't help giggling at the Captain and Doc's banter. "Count me in, Doc. While I plan on doing as much planet side snooping as possible, field med and First Aid'd definitely be an asset," Raven gave F'Arra a wink.

“I recommend some variety in landing teams,” Alexander suggested, going back to the topic of Trarim planetside. “Try to split departments up a bit. No engineers all together, security all together, et cetera, unless a unique situation calls for it. A diversity of experience in each team should lead to better insight. Also, if anyone learns something crucial, it gets communicated to me and Captain Skyie immediately.”

Calypso nodded at that, "And Officer of the Watch will have a list of who is where down there. Any problems, report them." She smiled, "If there are no further questions, let's be about it. Initial downside requests and buddies, let's try to get those in within the next twenty-four hours. Dismissed."

Raven nodded, keeping her seat until most of the room had emptied out before approaching the Captain. "You got a minute, Captain? I have a bit of an odd request," Raven stood at ease, wondering if Cally would agree to her idea.

"Go ahead, Raven, I always encourage ideas. Besides, what the worst I can say? No?" Cally quirked a smile at the young woman.

"Well I was thinking, racers always seem to know a bit about pretty much everything within a twenty to thirty mile radius around a track, so I figured if I took an Engineer, perferably Jenna, and maybe a nurse, I could check out the track and see if we could dig up some good dirt," Raven grinned as she leaned against the table.

"If they've got one, go find it." Calypso laughed, "But who knows what they're racing. Just be careful and keep in touch with the ship, Raven." The Captain flashed a bright smile, then left the conference room. She had her own preparations to make.

*OFF

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