Making Decisions

Four minutes after the Captain had ordered her senior staff to meet, the conference room was filled with the head of each department. The Chief Engineer sat in his chair poring over the systems reports on his PADD trying to find a way to better the sensors. The Tactical and Security Chief was reading reports on all known civilizations in the area while the Operations Chief sat next to her making sure that all necessary equipment would be ready in case it was needed. The Science and Medical Chiefs were discussing the makeup of the stellar cloud and how it may affect the ship and crew. When the clock turned over to the Captain's announced time, all of the officers set down their PADDs and looked to her to start the meeting.

She stood at the head of the small table, in front of the captain’s chair. “Let’s start with what we know. There’s an anomaly out there that our sensors can’t seem to penetrate due to an unknown metallic alloy in the dust cloud. What appears to be a powered down starship is inside it. We can’t contact the ship, and we can’t scan for life-signs through the interference.” She took a breath and then looked her officers over, “Thoughts on getting a better idea of what we are dealing with here and who that ship might belong to?” she asked them calmly. She wasn’t naive enough to think that she’d have all the answers, and a wise leader uses her subordinate’s skills and strengths to the fullest. The issue she found with this scenario is that she hadn’t known these ‘people’ for more than a few minutes. She didn’t even know their supposed names, let alone skill sets.

The entire time the simulation had been running she hadn’t looked or acknowledged Captain Vincent’s presence. He was very good about staying in the background and she was acutely aware of his presence. She wasn’t ignoring him out of spite though, she knew it was a command simulation, and the buck stopped with her until after the test, not her professor.

Captain Vincent had followed Cadet Decatur into the conference room, but made sure to stay out of the way. He was standing in the corner of the room, behind Stephanie, when the meeting began.

The Chief Engineer was the first to speak up.

"I've been trying to figure out how I can increase the sensors any more," he said. "I think I've found a way, but I'd need to divert power from the shields to do it. The power conduits running to the shields are the only ones that I can reroute without having to tear the ship up."

"We could send an away team over," stated the Security Chief.

"The transporters won't work in that cloud," the Operations Chief interjected. "So they'd need to take a runabout."

"I don't like that," said the Security Chief. "If there was anything in there, the runabout would definitely be outmatched. We'd be sending them in there with almost no chance of surviving an encounter."

"So you'd suggest sending the entire crew into the unknown instead?" asked the Chief Medical Officer.

"No, I'd suggest we send a squadron of runabouts," the Security Chief replied. "At least they could hold out against a foe."

"These are good options," the XO said as he turned to face the Captain again. "Captain, what are your thoughts?"

She folded her arms across her chest and looked to the science officer, "What about modifying a class 12 probe?" she asked "We need to identify what specifically is causing our sensor and communication interference before we risk anyone. I can't put the crew in danger without knowing if there is even anyone on board that ship." She then turned to the engineer. "If we route power from the shields, how long would it take to get sensors up...and how long to have shields at full strength if we had to call a red alert?"

"I could modify a probe," the Operations Chief said, "but I don't think that'll help us much. Compared to the Renegade, that probe will have almost no power and will only be able to penetrate the dust for a few meters."

"As for what is causing the interference, it is the metallic dust," added the Science Chief. "It is acting like chaff from Earth's history, and reflecting our signals so they don't properly bounce back to us. It seems to be a natural occurrence and shouldn't have a harmful effect on the ship itself."

"It will take about five minutes to make the necessary changes to route power to the sensor array, and maybe four minutes to route it back because we'll know exactly what we're doing," added the Chief Engineer.

"A chaff..." Stephanie repeated quietly and paused for just a second. "Are we able to determine what the alloy is?" She turned back to the engineer, "And would it be possible to modify a runnabout deflector to extend its deflection screen to push the cloud away from the stranded ship if we got close enough?"

"The alloy is nothing we've seen before, but it is very similar to aluminum," replied the Science Chief.

"We could modify a runabout, but I don't know that the deflector on it would be powerful enough to clear a path all the way to the ship," replied the Chief Engineer. "We could use our deflectors to clear a bubble ahead of us for a few kilometers. If we move at half impulse, we would have some warning of trouble."

Stephanie nodded, "let me be clear, taking Renegade into this cloud is a last resort, we have no idea what disabled that ship; nor do we know if there is anyone alive over there." She looked to the engineer, "We are going to run a long range scan to ensure that if it was a hostile ship that took out our new friends, that they aren't around anymore. Then I want you to get started on diverting power to the sensors. I want to have shields back at full strength on a moments notice, understood?"

She then looked at her operations officer, "I want you to modify a probe and physically collect a sample from the edge of the cloud. It seems that, if nothing else, we have discovered a new metallic compound: lets not waste the chance to analyze it."

"Yes sir," replied the Science and Engineering Chiefs in unison.

"Dismissed." she said calmly. "Stay a moment Commander." she addes to the XO. She let the rest of the officers leave the room before she continued.

"I don't like not being able to look before leaping, I may have to do just that if we pick up life-signs on that ship and I want to know your thoughts." She only paused for a moment before adding, "you have permission to speak freely. If I'm overlooking something I would hope that you would point it out."

"It is illogical to enter into a situation without knowing the dangers," the Vulcan replied. "But I believe that we've exhausted all of our options. The cloud is not harmful to us, and there is no sign of imminent danger. If that ship is in need of assistance, it is our duty to assist them, or investigate their ship if they are already lost. If they are not in distress, then we must do what we can to make contact. Collecting this new material will provide our scientists with days of analysis, but I'm not sure how much more we can learn from our sensors." 

Staphanie noded in agreement before leading the way out to the bridge.