Pacifica"
By: Sarik, Chief Science Officer, [PST]
Patia Zoei, Chief Counselor, [PC]
Melissa Jarvis, Chief Security Officer, [RNPC]
Giuseppe Silvio, Chief Engineer, [RNPC]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]
Jeff Westfall, Tactical Officer, [PST]
Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]
Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]
Dr. Alyssa Caitlin Northrop, Acting Chief Intel Officer, [PST]
Stardate: 58205.25 1300
[ON:]
Northrop stopped in the hallways just outside the Observation Lounge. She was nervous.....but if it was simply from this being her first meeting or whether that feeling of not belonging had returned...she couldn't tell. It was probably a little bit of both, she surmised. It was tough in that she wasn't sure of how to conduct herself in the situation. Yes...she was Senior Staff now...but that didn't mean a whole lot. Everyone in the room still outranked her.
The brunnette shook herself a little. This was stupid, she told herself. Hunter had promoted her because he knew she could do the job. Had he not thought so...he would have had the Fleet send them a replacement for Atwood. Looking down at her feet a moment, she calmed herself and then pulled her uniform jacket straight.
Walking forward, the Lounge Doors spread before her and allowed her to enter. Thankfully, she was greeted by an empty room. Now the only question was which chair to take. Somewhere near the foot of the table...that was her best bet. So...she moved down that way and selected a chair at random....picking the last one on the window side of the table.
Commander Wright entered the conference room to find the new Intel chief already there. "Hello Chief," said Wright, "Congratulation."
"Hello...and thank you, Commander.....," she felt like she should say more....but couldn't think of anything just at the moment. Part of Alyssa wanted to grill him...find out what he knew. But another part of her told her to relax because that's what the meeting was for. To find out what was going on.
Wright sat down and began going through the information on a PADD that he had brought with him. This was going to be a tough mission, he thought. The Federation had moved against Pacifica. Wright wished they had a few more ships with with them.
Patia puffed slightly, lifting her hair from her forehead. She clutched her PADD as she breezed into the meeting room. Silently she nodded at the senior staff members already assembled as she found her seat and settled into it.
"Good afternoon counselor," said Wright
Zoei smiled slightly, "Commander, good afternoon." Briefly, she nodded to him.
***
Teilani brushed through her hair. She had had a haircut and was quit please with her short coiffure. As she came back in sickbay an incoming message displayed that she was needed for an meeting.
It would probably have something to do with the yellow alert so after signing off some padd Xioa had given her she left for the meeting room.
As she entered she saw that Patia was already there. She nodded and sat down at the table.
Zoei smiled slightly and nodded in return.
Wright looked at the doctor something was different about her, "Hello Doctor," said Wright. He paused to look at her for a few second, trying to figure out what had changed and then again turned his attention back to his PADD.
"Goodmorning Sir," she said softly. Her keen eyes noticed that he used his arm almost to the fullest extent.
Silvio entered the room, he has just finished doing the full maintenance routine on the ship's cloaking device, he had a feeling that the yellow alert meant they might be needing it. "Hello everyone," said Silvio as he took his seat.
"Hello Silvio," said Wright
"Commander," replied Silvio with a smile.
Melissa Jarvis was the next to arrive for the meeting. She looked around the room, noticed the new face at the table. She found a spot at the table and sat down.
"Hello Lieutenant Jarvis," said Wright, "I bet you are glad to have an empty brig." Wright smiled.
"Yes sir," said Jarvis, returning his smile, "except, it is no longer empty. It would seem that a couple of crewman had too much Romulan ale last night and had a disagreement. I have them cooling their heels in the brig."
"Interesting," said Wright, "What was their disagreement about"
In truth, it was two crewmen from engineering fighting over a bet they had made regarding the nature of the relationship between their boss and the counselor. Melissa did not wish to put either of them on the spot here so she just said, "The usual drunken stuff Commander, I will file a report and let them out in a few hours."
Patia's head jerked up. She locked eyes on Chief Security Officer before she rolled them to the ceiling. Maybe they should just make a ship wide announcement. It would be the fastest way to settle the bets.
Wright nodded just as the Captain and Westfall entered the briefing room.
Sarik entered as usual just in time for the briefing. The past few days were rather busy again as he had been working on another project to get more information about the historical values of vulcana regar. It was obvious that his mind was still preoocupied as he merely nodded to all people when he entered.
Hunter looked around as he walked from the door to his spot at the head of the table.
"Let's get started." said Hunter as he pulled his chair out from the table and promptly sat down.
Hunter leaned forward on the table and folded his arms, in turn his eyes meet each person at the table as he told them the news: "One hour ago the Zion was diverted from its return course to Qul Tuq. Fleet Command has ordered us to sector 4002 to intercept an armada of Federation vessels steaming toward the Pacifica system." Behind Hunter a large display panel illustrated the various theaters of combat and the location of Pacifica. "There's more, the Alliance has lost contact with Pacifica, it is believed they may already have fallen besieged." Hunter glanced at everyone. "We've been ordered to hinder the armada and attempt to slow it down. In less than 52 hours we will arrive at the intercept point. We'll need to be combat ready....we're on our own."
He paused to let everything sink in.
"Are there any questions?" asked Hunter.
Alyssa raised her hand a little, but didn't hesitate once she had Hunter's attention. "Sir...will there be no other ships joining us at all? I know the Zion is a capable ship....but one against an Armada?"
Hunter nodded, "indeed she is a capable ship manned by a capable crew, but, she is one ship." Hunter looked sternly about the room, "We will be outnumbered. Tango fleet has been dispatched as well, but they are more than 3 days out. This mission is going to be rough."
Westfall replied to the opening, "Captain Hunter, is there any Intelligence Report as to the composition of the enemy armada? It would be helpful if I had the composition of the opposition fleet.
"There is some data Mr. Westfall." Hunter picked up his PADD and scrolled through it. There 16 ships." Hunter displayed the data on the console so everyone could read it:
USS Devlin Galaxy USS Spinoza Galaxy USS Windstar Akira USS Girabaldi Akira USS Paris Akira USS Omaha Akira USS Lincoln Akira USS Lincoln Norway USS Avalanche Norway USS Whistler Steamrunner USS Madrid Steamrunner USS McDonald Steamrunner USS Edwards Excelsior USS Baron Excelsior USS Ford Excelsior USS Remington Excelsior
Hunter turned back toward Westfall who was studying the information. "I will forward this to you after the meeting. You can see there are some good ships there."
He looked around the room. Everyone was silent.
"Okay then." Hunter glanced at his PADD again, "There are some other matters as well. Lieutenant Atwood has been reassigned. He has already departed. I have promoted Dr. Alyssa Northrop as his replacement. She will be acting Chief Intelligence officer until further notice."
He turned to Zoei, "your assessment of the crew's combat readiness and mental wellbeing?"
"Overall, the crew is showing marginal improvement. There are still pockets of people who are having issues, but they are smaller than they were. I would anticipate this situation causing a resurgence in anxiety, but the crew is already battle tested. They will be fine through the duration, but expect more issues to arise once the situation has calmed again." Zoei looked over her PADD to see if she had missed anything. Her assessment was clear, concise and covered the major points.
Hunter nodded as he accepted her assessment.
"Westfall," said Hunter next as he turning in his direction, "tactical analysis?"
Westfall said, "If we work it right, between helm and tactical, we *might* even be able to get between two ships and synchronize assaults with the forward and aft weapon systems. It would be something that they would *NOT* expect to have happen, because it's not a standard offensive strategy. I've checked our sensors and data relays, and unless Ensign Tappert knows something I don't, they all seem to be in the highest percentile of specification".
All our weapons systems and emergency damage control teams are on high alert There's more that we need to discuss, Captain, but that's the "Executive Summary" for the moment". Westfall smiled, and tried to look like he was pleased. He had put a great deal of thought into this "Sales Presentation". He was determined to protect his ship, without anyone else making "The Supreme Sacrifice".
"Good Westfall."
Hunter turned his attention to Jarvis, "Security?" he asked.
"The brig stands ready to receive any prisoners we might have. It is empty with the exception on two crewmembers, which I will be releasing this afternoon. " Melissa gave Patia a quick glance, "I will begin organizing my men to defend the Zion as well as assisting with any evacuations, should they become necessary."
"Ops, what is your report?"
The Ops officer answered, "All systems are ready for a good fight Sir."
Next he turned toward Silvio, "Engineering status?"
"Engineering is operating at 100% efficiency right now. I will begin making preparations for battle as soon as we leave here," said Silvio
"Dr. Dane, sickbay report?"
Teilani remained quiet. Her mind was somewhere else and she did not hear the Captain’s question.
"Dr.Dane," he repeated.
She looked up. "Sorry Captain, Sickbay is ready as always. Our one remaining patient, the prisoner Mason as come out of his coma. You can stop by to talk to him whenever you are ready. "
Hunter made a note on his PADD, "Very well."
Next Hunter looked at Sarik, "Status of Science Stations?"
"All science station are functioning within normal parameters. I will have the antimatter program shut of until further notice and alert all subordinates to stand by for security and medical emergencies."
Hunter set his PADD down on the desk. He looked around at his officers. It was going to be tough. He was going to get to see what they were made of.