Feedback on Mission Objectives - Briefing

[Capt Rian Kwai 0]

Feedback on Mission Objectives - Briefing

Joint Log with Admiral BluRox and Capt Kwai

 

Rian slouched down in the conference room chair until it cradled her head as she stared up at the ceiling. In her mind’s eye, she was trying to puzzle together what the crew had learned so far, what she hadn’t had a chance to ask yet…because she hadn’t thought of it yet, and what the next objective should be if they continued with the mission.

 

After a few moments of quiet contemplation (or spinning her wheels) she heard familiar foot falls as someone entered the room. Rian didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. Years of sitting at the OPS station with her back to the rest of the crew had taught Rian how to identify who was on the bridge just by the sound of their gait. With the exception of the junior crewmembers or those, like Dr Weber, who rarely made an appearance on the bridge, she knew who was heralded by every slide, thump and click of the heel.

 

“The away team used weapons of deadly force in a confined space in an area of questionable construction. It’s a wonder we even bother with phasers set on stun any more.” Rian slowly sat up and swiveled in the conference room to face Admiral BluRox. She smiled wryly. “I need help here. No shame in asking for it, is there?”

 

“Not in the least,” Blu replied as she crossed the room, pulling out another chair and taking a seat. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat talking to myself pondering that same thought.

 

“Ok, so the first thing I can suggest is that you clarify, just what is your mission? Why are you here? What are you trying to figure out? Should I just get out of Dodge? No, no….that last one was a joke,” Errrika paused a moment. “Wait, not exactly. It is a valid question that you have to ask yourself. Are the risks of this mission worth risking my teams?”

 

"Well, my thought is an investigative mission. We might not necessarily be able to help these people, but we can figure out what caused it so we can learn from their mistakes, as well as determine if this planet is still a danger to space travelers in the area.” Rian folded her hands on the table. “As far as the mission risking the away team members, that I’m still evaluating. I forgot to ask Joy and Weber about the air quality content, but then again, they still may be analyzing that. We know there are unfriendlies down there, but that’s not unusual in an exploratory mission. So right now, the risks are still being measured. Except for one….” Rian paused for a moment, then glanced up at BluRox. “This might be too risky only because of the crew’s capabilities. I’m feeling like our people can be more of a danger to themselves than whatever they might encounter on that planet.”

 

Blu chuckled a bit at Rian's last statement, "Yes, they have that amazing capability, don't they?” She continued, "Ok, let's step back and look at your first objective. Why are we in the Gamma Quadrant? Ok...that’s easy enough, we're here to survey what changes have taken place since the Dominion War and the Founders becoming pretty much ‘hands off' of many of the known worlds here when they went off to become more....’at peace’ ... with themselves,” she drew quotation marks in the air with her claws. “We are also to look at those areas that we had previously little access to, due to Dominion control, which is why we are where we are today. We're to find what planets are capable of life, resources are in abundance, and who or what may be controlling them.” Blu paused a moment, noting that the young captain had been trying to get a word in edgewise, “I'm running on here, why don't I give you a moment to comment Rian."

 

Rian nodded, "Okay so have we met the first objective yet? We know that this planet has the capacity of intelligent albeit primitive life, has full resources to support such life, and they appear to be governing themselves for the most part. Interestingly enough though, they don't appear to have had Dominion control or influence. It's not necessarily an out of the way system, so that's not it. Maybe the Dominion felt that this planet’s resources were not sustainable to their mission. Or that this place was just too much of a danger."

 

“I'd be willing to be on the latter. The Dominon used to rule with a heavy hand and marshaled their resources like the well fed army that they were. No, I'd bet that they left this area alone, out of fear of whatever destroyed this civilization. Perhaps they chose not to fight an enemy, that they could not see?” Blu shrugged.

 

Kwai leaned back in her chair again, "That's my thought as well. Whatever this was, it appears to be self-generated. At least that's what I theorize from the translated transmissions. It wasn't a naturally occurring event. More like something that was engineered into the food products to make them 'better' but instead, poisoned the population unintentionally."

 

Blu shifted in her seat, “Ok, so we've established why we are here. So, now we move on to our second point. What are we trying to figure out? What is the evidence pointing towards already? What have the crew found from their preliminary investigations? List out what you know already, starting with the overall planet.”

 

Rian began her accounting of what they’d learned so far, “An M-Class planet. Sparsely populated with intelligent life forms. Most in small communities located some distance from what was perceived as once being large population centers or cities. Those urban areas have been left to decay approximately one thousand or so Terrain years...at least from our estimates." Rian took a deep breath and continued. "Translations from transmission recordings recovered from derelict planetary satellites indicate some sort of biological disaster with the food sources resulting in the deaths of thousands, perhaps millions of individuals. Those translations also report people fleeing from the densely populated urban areas, and possibly quarantines of those centers."

 

"While no direct visual confirmation was made, it appears that some descendants of the planetary people may be hunting or scavenging or something...in the decaying ruins of the cities. What we don't currently know is the extent of biological disaster on the descendants of the planetary inhabitants and if it still poses a risk to those who visit this place. Anything I'm missing?"

 

"From what I've read, that pretty much sums things up. I'm pleased that you've stayed abreast of all the reports.”

 

"I'm trying to. It's a lot to sort out,” Rian answered.

 

“Ok,” Errrika paused a moment, steepling her fingers. “It always is. I've yet to find in the job description where they promised me anything would be easy. Though, I'd love just to have one mission that was nothing but easy, for a change," she grinned back at Rian.

 

"Alright, as I was about to say, you've defined your mission parameters. You've determined the basic scenario that you are about to enter. Now down to the finer details. Looking at what the crew has found on the satellites, there is evidence that this was some sort of biological disaster, which you already noted. Looking also at the probes and scans of the planet and the larger cities, the decay of the buildings and infrastructure shows it seems to be a natural decay, not weapons induced, such as an explosion. Although that was questionable in a few locations across the planet. Further scans seem to warrant that some sort of destruction of these areas took place. But overall, no. The broadcasts on the recordings also noted what you had defined....the biological aspect. And you managed this well by sending your Away teams down in Biosuits until they could ascertain if the location were still of any danger. So far, you're getting an A. This takes us to the Away Teams. Tell me who you sent, why, and what they found. And, of course, any results.”

 

“I sent a team of six lead officers, there were several junior officers also in attendance. Cmdr Kawalas was to lead the mission. She's mission XO.” Rian paused, trying to describe her decision at this point. “I...well...it was either her or myself and as mission CO, I felt I was needed to remain here on the ship and direct traffic so to speak. Dr Weber and Lt. Commander Joy were sent for their obvious science backgrounds in medical and general atmospheric studies. Johnson, as a representative from engineering and Robinson and Bardolph to provide security. Originally Jax was to join the away team, but I pulled her at the last minute because far too many of our senior officers were assigned. Mr Johnson substituted."

 

“As to what they found. Mr Johnson reported they located a governmental headquarters. Several interesting hieroglyphs or other writing that they're trying to decipher. Nothing negligible was found as far as the soil samples. Nor any tissue samples taken, but that's not a surprise considering how much time has passed. I don't know about the air samples yet. And then there's the encounter with the unfriendlies. Ensign Jorge was a victim of some sort of fatal assault, but with no witnesses, we don't know who or what caused it. Of course, that's when all hell broke loose and the away mission dissolved into chaotic beam out.”

 

“Yes, we've got to work on that beam-out bit. The last few missions...way too close,” Blu commented.

 

“Or our away mission protocols need to improve!” Rian snapped, still steaming over the incident.

 

Errrika sighed, “I’m thinking my next away mission, might be permanently away. I just may decide to retire and let you have the bloody ship.”

 

“No, you are not retiring. You're not allowed to. Over my dead body in fact, " Rian got up and started pacing.

 

Errika grinned, “Not retiring? You do realize that some criminals serve life sentences that are less than the 15 years I’ve already been on this ship?” Rian’s only answer was to scowl at the Admiral.

 

BluRox continued on, “Alright, so the away teams. They were only assigned to check out the largest city, looking for data as to what happened. Has anything been done to check out the small enclaves of inhabitants living out in the forest and mountainous areas? And this will bring us to another whole question I'll have to pose to you after your answer. Besides going back to the Away team data first of course, but I’m getting ahead of myself.”

 

"I want to send an away team back down to check out the smaller groups, but I also want to make sure they do it in a safe way, both for themselves and for the inhabitants. This means no grenades and no use of deadly force unless absolutely necessary. Dr Weber wants live tissue samples, but I don't think we can go about getting those without permission. So there has to be a way to scan passively and get the material she and Joy need to analysis. Whether it’s to find a recently abandoned camp site, or scanning a group from a distance, or even using recent burial sites, they’re still trying to determine what might be best."

 

“Ok...let's go back. So, the teams split up, they didn't find much more than what we already knew, but we lost a crewman. Whose team was he on?”

 

“Robinsons, from what I understand. Kawalas had taken her team to another portion of the area. So that would have been Robinson, Johnson and..." she frowned. "I'm not sure I was clear on whom third member of the team was. Let me check my notes.”

 

The Trill paused in her pacing to take a moment to scroll down her padd, "Weber, that's right."

 

“No matter on each team make up, I was just curious who the head of his team was. Will should know enough to keep an eye on his less experienced team members.”

 

Kwai frowned, “He was also the one detonated the grenades."

 

“We'll have to come back to that. So, they found the ensign dead, a rather grizzly death if I recall.”

 

"Yes, the throat and stomach lacerated. Liver removed. We weren't able to retrieve his body."

 

“If I may, I have two possible observations. One, many tribal hunting cultures, will often once killing an animal, will take the liver as a trophy or to eat, as it is one of the most nutritious organs of the body. Second, if you've ever seen wild animals hunt, often once they kill their prey, they will often disembowel the victim, eating the liver before anything else. So, it's possible that what attacked the ensign, could have been some sort of sentient that was either hunting or hungry, or, that some sort of creature killed him, also due to hunger. Just a hypothesis of course. You said that nobody saw the attacker?”

 

“According to those on the Ensign’s team, he had become slightly separated from the group when the attack occurred. No one in his group saw what had happened, they had only found him afterwards. They said it only took a few moments for the attack to occur...so who or whatever did this was a very skilled hunter.”

 

“Hmmm, Ok, so now on to the part where the team felt threatened. Something was approaching, and a grenade was used, without finding out if the target were sentient or not? What happened to Starfleet Regulations and weapons on stun? And yes, I know this is not the first time. I am also taking note, that they did also get the rest of the team back alive after using them though.”

 

“I don't know what happened or why they thought this was appropriate action. We don't shoot to kill around here. We're not Romulans or Klingons for goodness sake. And to......" she paused, realizing she was ranting, her arms flapping at her side as she madly paced. Whether she realized it or not, BluRox had given Kwai and opening to vent her frustrations. Rian barely reigned herself in before her rant got herself off track.

 

She glanced over at Blu and willed her arms to stay still. "How do I ensure that proper protocol is followed? I know I can reiterate that must be followed, but how do I ensure that use their heads next time?"

 

“You're in charge, so it's not my place to tell you how you should do this. Each commanding officer has their own method that works best for them, while still garnering the respect of the crew. I do not wish to undermine your authority, but some things to consider would be retraining, counseling, disciplinary action It's going to have to be your call. If I make a decision that they clearly know is mine, they'll look right past you to me, which is why I've been trying to stay out of the way. Normally for these qualification missions, I would not even be on the ship.”

 

“But we're in the Gamma Quadrant and it's not like we can drop you off at the nearest Starbucks." Rian cracked a smile. "I'll figure something out. Not sure what, but... I'll muddle through that one."

 

“Better a Starbucks than a Cinnabon store?”

 

“Cinnabons can be bad for your health. Especially if thrown.”

 

“Well, we both survived that at least. That was not one of my most stellar missions either. We lost several crew members if you recall. Most notably of those lost, Commander Kawalas's husband Ace. She's never quite been the same since. And that was my fault.”

 

“Ok, now back to the outlying settlements, and in fact, for the city as well. This culture, though they had satellites, really was never a space faring race from what we've seen. We have to now think about the Prime Directive. Should we even be bothering this place? As for approaching and taking samples, my first thought would be no. As for defiling burial grounds for remains, again, I would say no way. But that is me, not you. This is your mission, however disturbing burial grounds could upset a race so badly, and it might never recover. It sounds foul, but perhaps the first plan would be to collect.... waste. The body sheds epithelial cells in the digestive tract. I'm sure the doctor could isolate some and run her tests from that?”

 

“Actually, that's not a bad idea. Don't most archeologist find loads of valuable information through garbage dumps?”

 

“I wasn’t speaking of their food waste. I was thinking of, how's a nice way to say it. Scat.”

 

“I know that's what you were thinking...I'm thinking a bit more broadly. If we're going to examine the latrine, then why not the trash too? In for a penny, in for a pound? I mean, if I'm going to send down a team on poop patrol.........." The Trill shrugged."

 

“Oh, that's fine, trash is an excellent way to go, I just meant if they wanted DNA samples that the scat was the scat was the way to go.”

 

Rian nodded. “It's a less intrusive way to handle the situation. It's either that or I contact Starfleet and let them send a team who might specialize in this type of social study.”

 

“Alright, so as I see it, you have a few choices. Pack up your ball and go home. Or, you continue to investigate. I can't make this call for you this time. Sorry.

 

“I know, but at least you've given me a few things to think about. Thanks for the feedback too.”

 

Blu stood and stretched a bit. “I think I'm going to go hit the gym for a bit, then go take a nap. I'll leave you to your thoughts. You've got several very important decisions to make. You also have an XO to bounce ideas off of as needed. Don't forget your department heads too.”

 

The Trill nodded, then glanced back at her PADD before her. While she had to still sort through the direction this away mission was to take, her thoughts were at the very least a little less muddled.