DeBrief and New Orders (Part 1)

Posted on 09/12/2020 @ 11:23pm by Captain Cian D'Anvers & Lieutenant JG Niun & Lieutenant JG Larissa Syndel & Lieutenant JG Siobhan Richards PhD
Edited on on 09/18/2020 @ 12:26pm

Mission: S2E2: The Auction House
Location: Briefing Room, Deck 1
Timeline: Day 41 at 0800

Having had time to go through the data found both on Skunil and on the shielded base, the department heads were asked to join the Captain in the Briefing Room at 0800 hours. And at the Captain's request, the chief had been asked to supply something appropriate; as to what that would be, he left it up to her imagination with the admonishment that it was not his intention to provide a full on, sit down meal. There was, after all, work to be done.

0800 hours felt like it had traveled in at high warp and arrived no sooner than J.J.'s head hat hit his pillow. He had an alarm set for much earlier, but even giving himself that buffer time had led him to feed himself a quick morning snack, hop into the sonic shower, and become somewhat presentable as a "human being" again by the time for the meeting came upon him. He was in his uniform and ready to go with enough time to make a few detours and swing by the Briefing Room on Deck 1. Whether or not her was entirely awake yet was debatable.

The First Officer made his way into the Briefing Room and observe what was there before fetching himself a drink and taking a seat at the table. He had brought a PaDD along with him for some 'light reading' which was not recreational. It was some of the more recent incident reports that he would be needing to look into and discuss with the Security Chief, likely after this meeting ended.

The Acting Chief Engineer was the next to enter. He was carrying four padds. He was reading one. And making notes on another. The third had a schismatic of a warp core. He sat at the table. And acknowledged those in the room. But mainly, he was totally engrossed on what he was working on.

Chet was most certainly not a morning person, thank you very much! He had never liked getting up early and avoided it whenever possible. In order to accomplish this, he had streamlined his morning routine. Showering before bed saved him fifteen minutes. Keeping his hair cut very close meant that he didn’t have to comb it, saving him another couple of minutes. He had, at one point, considered sleeping in his uniform so he could just roll out of bed, eat breakfast, and leave, but had abandoned the idea as he didn’t want to show up in a rumpled and wrinkled uniform. But even so, his alarm was only set for fifteen minutes before his shift started- just enough time to get dressed and eat a quick breakfast. And so, by the time he strolled into the briefing room, he was fairly well rested, but still grumpily nursing a cup of coffee. “Morning,” he said to those already in the room.

Siobhan entered the room with a friendly if not cheerful smile. She was after morning workout and she felt energized. Her muscles gently ached but in a good way. "Good morning." She said as the door behind her closed and her eyes swept the room. Gracefully, she approached the table and took a seat. Putting her hands on the table, Siobhan meshed her fingers in front and she studied everyone with curiosity.

"Morning everyone." Larissa said somewhat groggily as she entered the briefing room, the morning had not been a good one so far for her. Woken up feeling uncomfortable with no appetite and absolutely no interest in a brief morning workout, ordering a ginger tea from the replicator she sat down.

Tahlin entered the briefing room, PADD in one hand, and raised an eyebrow. "Morning... I hate being late." She sniffed the air. "Coffee--thank goodness..." She poured herself a cup and found a seat by the Ops officer. "You okay?" she asked quietly. "You look like hell."

Kiernan was an early riser, mostly because his pug Otis was an early riser. The dog demanded to be fed every day at 0630 hours and then taken for a quick walk. The tradition continued on Nightingale and the tradition would continue on the Crazy Horse. The sassy pug didn't care where he was, as long as his schedule had been adhered too. This morning, however, he wanted to be sure he was on time, so he left a sleepy Oskar to tend to the dog. He stepped into the briefing room, his insides were twisting and turning, but he remained composed on the outside. Briefings were not new to him by any means, but this was a new group of people he would be dealing with. He also would be dealing with the ship's senior officers, which now included him. This would be different than running the environmental sciences department. He moved forward, eyes on him, and he offered a small smile, a nod to his head, and then he took a seat - hoping of all hopes that he wasn't sitting in someone's chair. He placed the Padd on the table before him and folded his hands in front of him and waited.

After a long night combing through reports and tracking down details, sleep was a charitable way of describing the few hours he'd spent thrashing about in his bed. Smothering a yawn, Niun entered with a good-sized pot of tea in hand and a PADD tucked neatly under one arm. As he poured himself a cup, he said, "Fresh made tea if anyone is interested. I hope you are all feeling significantly better than I am." He found himself a seat and set the PADD on table before settling back, cup cradled in his hands, to blow gently across the surface. "If ever there was a morning for strong tea," he murmured softly.

"I'm never good in the mornings," complained Chet. "I'd like them better if they started at noon. I move to change morning to noon. Can I get a second?"

Cash got up from his seat leaving his padds on the table. He walked over to the replicator. "Computer, ractijino. Extra strong, extra hot." He said. and withing a second, one was shimmering on the serving area. Cash took a sip. his face scowered slightly. then he sighed. "I'm going to need to adjust the temperature settings on this unit." He said returning to his chair, and his work.

"I second the motion," Niun said, his expression caught somewhere between a smile and smothered yawn. "I have always preferred the night myself."

Chet said nothing, but raised his coffee cup at Niun in a sort of mock solute/toast.

Cian entered the briefing room, nodding to the assembled department heads as he did so, and poured himself a cup of Niun's tea. Made fresh every day, the taste never quite the same, he'd come to anticipate that small gift. He took a sip and sighed with pleasure. "Excellent as always," he said as he met Niun's gaze. "My thanks."

Niun bowed slightly in return but otherwise said nothing. The Kath had always performed this service for his people and while it saddened him that they would no longer light his days and nights, he was happy to take up the small service for others. Thanks did not matter. The act itself was enough.

"Good morning, everyone," Cian said. "I want to start by going around the table and getting reports from the department heads. Lieutenant Syndel, let's start with you. Anything from the scans of Skunil and the moon?"

Larissa grabbed a loose Padd off the table having forgotten to bring one preloaded with the information, she flicked through it for a moment before speaking. "We took some deep core scans last night, it appears there's a small group of Horta in the mines, maybe a dozen at most, not enough for a full colony of them yet."

"Interesting," Cian said. "They weren't there during the initial planetary survey or the settlement wouldn't have been approved which means they must have been brought to the planet at some point since." He turned toward the Counselor and asked, "was there any mention in the settlement records of Horta?"

Siobhan shook her head almost as soon as the captain addressed her with the question. "I read through most of of it, at least recent ones and I found no mention of it. It could be so recent that it wasn't officially recorded yet." She suggested. "The only new information I found was that the colonists were mining Pergium."

"Mr. Gallagher, I want you to investigate Hortan culture a bit. I'd very much like to know if this has happened before and if it was, was Pergium involved." With that he returned his attention to his Chief of Operations. "Was there anything else, Lieutenant?"

Larissa checked the Padd again. "There is a fairly faint trail of Pergium that leads out from the planet, given a little more time we should be able to track it and acquire a course if we wanted to investigate it."

Lieutenant Jodon Joral turned his chair slightly. "Captain, it may be worth investigating that further. At this point, it seems like various evidence and clues have been pulling us in various directions."

"I would agree, Number One. Investigation of that trail could provide us with an important clue with respect to what's happened here," Cian said. "Let's get through the reports and then we'll decide where to go from there. Lieutenant Lae'Or, your report, please."

"Of course, Sir." Tahlin cleared her throat. "Analysis indicates that there was mining on the surface, which would match with the reports we've already discussed. It appears that the Bajorans--at least some of them--approached an Orion about the mining. Said Orion appears to be from an up-and-coming family within the Syndicate--name of Gila or something similar... Its not confirmed, but I would hypothesize that the colonists we can't account for were carried off as captives for trafficking in forced labor." The Bajoran turned to Crazy Horse's chief of operations. "Lieutenant, I was under the impression the Syndicate had abandoned the slave trade in favor of what might be called 'corporate crime', and I hate to ask you to speak for them, as I know they are not representative of all Orions, but do you have any insights you could share?"

"I don't exactly keep track of what the syndicate is up to but even if they have changed there will still be people who would stick to the old ways; slaves, drugs, extortion." Larissa replied.

Cian nodded. "Thank you, Lieutenant," Cian said. "Now, "Lieutenant O'Hamlin." He turned toward the ship's Chief Medical Officer as he continued. "I understand there were medical records on the base. Can you share any insights with us?"

"Not much to tell," said Chet regretfully. "Standard colonist fair. You know the sort- mostly healthy, some high blood pressure here and low blood pressure there. That's to be expected, though, in a new colony. People working hard all the time, lots of physical labor, it elevates the blood pressure slightly, then it drops again, usually lower than it started out." He shrugged. "All that really tells us is that they worked hard. And we already knew that."

"Lieutenant Lae'Or, if you could go through the records the away team retrieved from the base, maybe we'll get lucky and tie the team into other similar activities elsewhere," Cian said with a slight shrug. "Probably nothing but worth a few minutes of your time, I think."

"Lieutenant Cash, do you have anything to contribute," Cian asked as he turned his attention to the ship's Chief Engineer. While he waited for his response, Cian settled back in his seat and savored a few sips of Niun's tea.

Cash took a sip of his ractijino before he answered. "Well, I don't know how relevant this is, But in their medical data base, or what functioned as one, we discovered that no Orions served there." He said. "Also, we do have sensor logs from a sensor array they kept on the settlement. I went over it, It was really corroded. But, here is what we have." He said putting a padd on the desk. "Also, I found what I think was the communication hub. Not only did it have no communications logs at all. But, I was rigged to explode if anyone messed with it."

"Now that's interesting," Cian mused. "Wiped and rigged to explode. Lieutenant Syndel, if you could take a look at their sensor logs. I don't anticipate any surprises but you never know." He turned his attention back to his Chief Engineer. "Anything else?"

Cash thought for a second. "Yes sir. It was a crude explosive. Like it was makeshift. Used sugar as an explosive. It was rigged to blow if someone messed around with it physically or mechanically. Using tricorders allowed me to not touch anything at all. Again, very crude. But effective. That's about it sir." Cash said taking another sip of Klingon coffee.

To be Continued in Part 2

A Post by:

Captain Cian D'Anvers
Commanding Officer
USS Crazy Horse

Lieutenant Jodan Joral
Executive Officer
USS Crazy Horse

Lieutenant JG Lae'Or Tahlin
Chief of Security
USS Crazy Horse

Lieutenant JG Chester O'Hamlin, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
USS Crazy Horse

Lieutenant JG Larissa Syndel
Chief of Operations
USS Crazy Horse

Lieutenant JG Siobhan Richards
Counselor
USS Crazy Horse

Lieutenant Kiernan Gallagher VII, Ph.D.
Chief Science Officer
USS Crazy Horse

and

Lieutenant JG Alexander Cash
Chief Engineer
USS Crazy Horse