Pangaea: Part 1

Posted on Wed Sep 16, 2015 @ 2:20pm by Commander Caden Aldrex & Commander Caleb Ryan & Lieutenant Kyle "Loki" Carter & Lieutenant JG Alistair Wood & Lieutenant JG Noelle Bennett M.D. & Ensign Kaliko Mahelona & Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Benj Amoran & Lieutenant JG Rhe'la Daughter of the Forty-ninth House

1,351 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Deck 14/Conference Room
Timeline: MD 4/0800
Tags: mission briefing, pangaea

Cade Aldrex issued a call to the senior staff this morning. He had just finished talking to Starfleet Command over subspace. The emerging set of circumstances surrounding the new planet was even more serious than he had initially thought. Entering the conference room alone, he took the chair at the table normally occupied by the captain. It was an odd feeling, sitting in her chair, but he couldn't allow her to return to duty. His concern for her as she drowned in inconsolable grief was one of the many weights upon him today.

Another empty chair normally occupied by Amia also caught his eye. He had gone to sickbay late last night to see her, only to find her already asleep. Not wanting to wake her up, he went home. He missed her.

The wall monitor displayed the subject of today's meeting, a computerized representation of the new planet next door. Underneath it was the data so far collected by their probes.

http://www.ds5.utopia-host.com/index.php/wiki/view/page/31

He sat quietly and read the initial reports on his PADD. Soon the others would show up.

Kaliko walked into the conference room with a small stack of PADDs in her arms. They contained all the research she was able to collect from the probe that was sent to the planet and the lists of items she would need to proceed with exploration.

"Good morning, Commander," she said cheerfully and smiled at him before taking her seat.

Entering the room looking slightly more put together than she had when she'd met with Aldrex earlier in the morning, Rhe'la took a glance around the room. After a moment her eyes fell on what had been described to her as the "engineer's chair." It was the one Commander Wyman had always sat in during briefings and Commander Freeman before him. Ordinarily she would eschew tradition and sit someplace else, but she also didn't want to risk someone else coming in and finding her in their typical spot. So with a sigh and a slight bow to Aldrex, Rhe'la took what would most likely become her usual chair.

Kyle walked in with a PADD in hand and gave an acknowledging nod to Cade then the other officers in the room. He took a seat near the end of the table. He had flight plans to run by Cade for the exploration and mapping of the asteroid field around the planet, but he was sure that would come up during the meeting.

Oh bollocks... I'm probably going to be the most junior officer here. As if I don't already stand out... Rhe'la thought as she watched the other department heads file in, each of them with an assortment of gold on their collars. All the more reason not to make a fool of myself...

Noelle Bennett entered the room feeling more solemn and reserved than normal in light of what the Captain had just been through and what they were all facing now. Normally she would make a point to meet the eyes of the rest of the people in the room to offer a smile or a greeting, but she found herself too preoccupied and simply took her seat.

Amoran was next to file into the room. He was a man with a lot on his plate, but then he knew that all the other officers here were under intense pressure too. He was just a bit less used to the HoD angle than some others, but he was learning in the fast-lane, as the old expression went. Putting down some essential PADDs of data on the table, he went to the replicator, ordered coffee, and asked around if any other refreshments were wanted by anyone else before they started the meeting. One or two spoke up and he passed them their choice before sitting down with his.

He wasn't sure where it was habitual for the CMO (or acting) would have sat, so he glanced at Cade with a questioning look as he hovered behind one that seemed empty next to the Chief Counsellor. He was happy to sit anywhere, it didn't seem to make any difference to himself personally, but he didn't want to start off by stepping on anyone else's metaphorical toes. On receiving a confirmatory nod from the XO he returned it respectfully and sat down. He then muttered a quiet but friendly acknowledgement to Noelle and sipped at his drink as he arranged his PADDs in the order he thought he might need them, waiting for the rest of the meeting to arrive.

Caleb limped into the room, forced to use his cane this morning. He had been up on his feet most of the night. Most of his security teams were working double shifts, and he’d gotten only a couple hours sleep, dealing with both the station security issues and the fallout from assaulting a Ferengi diplomatic vessel filled with teenage children – including his own daughter.

Ordering a coffee from the replicator, Caleb gratefully sank into a chair. He hoped he didn’t look as bad as he felt right now, though his dark, mussed hair and the black circles under his eyes likely confirmed it. He nodded to those around the table and took a grateful sip of his coffee, burning his tongue in the process. Well, at least it woke him up.

A little later than planned Tahhk sidled into the room, an oddly furtive move for an arguably rigid Vulcan. He took the nearest vacant seat.

Finally Commander Soran arrived, uniform immaculate, not a hair out of place. But there were deep shadows under her eyes. She gave Carter a tiny nod of acknowledgement and then ignored him.

In the end Alastair Wood walked into the room feeling the eyes of the others on him. He didn't mean to show up last -- in fact, he had planned to be the first to arrive – but, well... last minute details seemed to take longer than one plans. Plus he didn't take into account the extra time it would take for him to get from point A to point B, a mistake he would have to remember for next time. The chief smiled weakly and quietly took an open seat while doing his best not to draw an extra attention to himself. No eye contact was the first step in his plan to hopefully let this embarrassment all blow over.

With everyone seated Aldrex began, "Good morning, everyone. It's been a long night for all of us. We're all exhausted, so I thank you for your continued dedication to duty in the midst of all this."

He looked across the assembly of weary faces and added, "For those of you who haven't heard, I have relieved Captain t'Vaurek of duty. She attacked and killed one of the Fae on the Promenade. There's more to the story than that, but I won't get into it. She is not to leave the station pending a hearing to determine if her actions constituted defense of the station, or murder." He nodded to the doctor and the counselor. "As soon as possible she is to be given a thorough medical and psychiatric evaluation." Then looking at Caleb he said, "The station's security chief will open an investigation into the incident and prepare an official report."

The little lizard engineer's eyes bulged. What in the world had she gotten herself into? Based on what she had been told it certainly sounded like the captain acted in defense of the station, but Rhe'la also hadn't witnessed the events. It all served to make her head spin even more than it already was.

Caleb nodded to Cade, but didn’t say anything. He shouldn’t make a spectacle of the situation, he knew.

Noelle simply nodded. She was prepared to do what was required of her, and in many ways her ties to Starfleet Medical made her best suited to offer such an evaluation, but that didn't mean it was going to be easy.

To be continued ...

 

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