USS LOTUS: Senior Officers Briefing.
Posted on 02/08/2016 @ 8:30pm
Edited on on 02/27/2016 @ 9:24am
Mission:
The Stars Be My Judges
Location: Conference room, Deck one.
The turbo lift doors swished open to allow Rogers access of the bridge of the Lotus. Turning right David made the few steps across the rear of the bridge and entered the small access hallway leading to the main conference room. The door opened as he walked to it showing Captain Felez already present.
Silently, Doctor Nasaro-Myth was following him like a shadow, freely offering his charming smile to everyone around. His bright purple eyes however shone with a definite seriousness in anticipation of what would be discussed beyond the swishing door.
"Good evening gentlemen, please take a seat, well be starting shortly." and motioned at the replicator, hinting that the meeting might be a long one.
"Don't mind if I do," the Deltan said jovially as he walked to the machine. "MacKintosh apple juice, chilled."
Once the glass of amber-colored liquid materialized, he went to the other end of the table opposing the captain's seat and sat with a contended smile on his face as he took a swallow of the sugary fruit juice. It was his habit to sit this way, as doctors often had to be the voice of conscience for many a commanding officer on board starships... and offer the feeling of full crew support when acknowledging a command decision across the whole table. Having been born and raised on a galaxy class starship, Elliago was in a starship environment just at ease as a fish in water.
And from this vantage point, he could also observe the whole command staff and the captain; he knew how that could also be helpful to a captain and to a mission.
Elliago didn't knew their assignment yet, nor this new ship and crew and captain... but he knew his duties and responsibilities quite well.
Once the doctor had selected his drink from the replicator and moved away David ordered a coffee and, taking the steaming beverage from the unit, turned to take the seat beside doctor Nasaro-Myth, facing captain Felez and the windows behind him. With a cautious sip, he set the coffee down on the table in front of him and, looking from the Deltan to the Efrosian, decided it was best to formally report aboard, pleasantries not withstanding. Standing up, he took his orders PADD from his pocket, offered it to Captain Felez, and formally introduced himself.
"Commander David Rogers sir. My orders."
Remaining in this stance Rogers awaited confirmation for boarding the Lotus.
"Of course commander, my apologies." And took the PaDD. "Working as a station administer for the last two years seems to have made me protocol deficient."
As he started reviewing the PaDD he noticed that Rogers was still standing. "Please, sit commander, as I understand it 'coffee' loses something when its cold." He tried this coffee stuff after his old commanding officer, Captain Redding, suggested it.. revolting.. even cold.
"I assume, Doctor, that every one coming aboard has been given a clean bill of health? we may be going into a few 'out of the way' places soon, I would hate to have to detour for space mumps or the like." He forced a light smile to show he was attempting humor.
"Rest easy, Captain; everyone aboard is fit and ready to serve," the Deltan answered with a smile that came easily to his sensuous lips. "And this ship is well equiped with state of the art medical facilities. And with the PIDs we now all wear as belt buckles, I will know about you getting mumps before you even felt it."
The humor was acknowledged, but behind it was the statement that he would be reliable as expected from the CMO of a flagship... even if the Lotus didn,t had that glorious title anymore; but she was still worthy of having once being just that.
"Good to know Doctor." Felez said with a nod.
He folded his hands together. "Let us begin shall we."
"Although it has not been made common knowledge, most of us know about the disappearance of the Horizon's sister ship, the USS Diamond Star from its dock at Utopia Planatia a little over a month ago." He looked around the room at their expressions.
While not true empaths, Efrozians were capable of picking up and accurately reading bio-impules in living organisms. The only limitation was they had to be within 2 meters of their subject.
But it was no surprise to Felez that the assembled personnel already knew this news, seeing as a sector wide hunt followed directly after the ships disappearance.
"Lesser known is the fact that two days ago the Diamond Star inexplicably reappeared over Utopia Planatia in almost exactly the same condition it had left in with the exception that its primary and secondary memory cores were wiped of the entire event." He again looked over the reaction of his officers to this news, his eyes stopping momentarily on Rogers, his face and eyes remained without hint of emotion.
"Were you already aware of this, Mr. Rogers?"
David shifted slightly in his seat and set his half empty cup of coffee onto the table in front of him. Looking back up into his captains eyes he responded.
"yes sir. As you may well know, skuttle-butt is faster than transwarp. An old aquaintance of mine at Mars informed us yesterday."
Glancing slightly at the doctor nearby, David returned his gaze back to Captain Felez and continued.
"By us I mean the Lotus base engineering commanders sir. Standard gossip, although by today I suspect the entire base is whispering theories across whatever beverages they're consuming."
"Ships don't usually go on a stroll by themselves..." Elliago stated with a frown on his handsome countenance. " At least not since the lifeform emergence from the computer core of the USS Enterpise D and the running away of the AI controled USS Nemesis. So... does Starfleet has any clue who did it , how and why?"
Rogers got up and returned to the replicator for a second cup of coffee while the Deltan spoke. Once it had materialized David returned to his seat and sat himself and the cup down. Glancing once at the doctor, David added to his facts.
"Yes Doc, and there was also the old M-5 multitronic unit, back some one hundred forty years ago. It became self-aware and destroyed a federation ship. But the Horizon class uses Bioneural systems, just like most every other star fleet vessel now."
Picking up his coffee for a sip of the still steaming beverage, David continued to address Nasaro-Myths last statement.
Picking up his coffee for a sip of the still steaming beverage, David continued to address Nasaro-Myths last statement.
"We should be able to figure out the 'How' at Utopia Planitia. As to the 'Who' and 'Why', well ... . That may have to wait until the 'How' is determined."
"The ship yard is our first stop."Felez added in. "The Diamond Star has been placed in a secure dock and is currently undergoing a rather sever sensor sweep. But so far, it seems we can rule out any idea of AI wonder-lust as a motivation. No, this one is the oddest case I've ever heard of."
He took a drink of his fish juice.
"To say it was an inside job is to state the obvious, but the situation is baffling. At best guess a small team of infiltrators or possibly even traitors within the Federation stole the newest, largest Federation Lotus class vessel in operation out of the most secure shipyard in the Federation, and all without setting off a single alarm I might add."
He gestured with his off hand as he went on.
"And the only apparent point to the greatest theft in Federation history? a joy ride, perhaps to prove it can be done."
The Deltan doctor smiled as he spoke, but there was no amusement in his eyes and much seriousness in his tone.
"Even Undines or changelings would have had a hard time doing it with the quality of biosensors and the experience with such beings we now have. Equally, sentient holograms would not be able to operate unchallenged for long on a starship, especially on such a new and state of the art design it's birthing facility and at the very heart of Federation space no less. Moreover, the Diamond Star if I recall is the testbed of the Lotus class; those starship testbed platforms are the only ships already mostly automated so as to allow even a small team of technicians and engineers to make it operational for such testing, isn't that so Commander Rogers?"
Elliago resumed his thoughts after a moment.
"So, full knowledge of Starfleet engineering protocols, security measures and starship operations of Utopia Plenitia in particular and Sector 001 both. Also, fully automating such a large vessel, especially without raising any suspicion or alarm and leaving no trace in computer banks, sensor records or security systems inside and outside of the ship speaks of extraordinary technical knowledge, experience and expertise. And after all this, the perpetrators allowed such an invaluable prize to return undamaged to Starfleet; a very peculiar act from a mere thief or spy. . Thus, an inside job is not only the highest probable assumption, it is the only one that makes sense, short of genuine magic. This should considerably narrow down the list of suspects."
He gazed at Rogers and Felez in turn before finishing his deduction.
"Even before the who, the how should be the simplest one to find out, especially with an engineer of David's caliber and an experienced starship commander like you, Captain. And my scientific expertise with life forms may help identify any new threat we might not have yet encounter that could have unforeseen capabilites to accomplish such a feat. As for the why... Someone needed a powerful starship capable of speeds and range beyond standard starship capabilities; it is certainly no coincidence that the only fully operational transwarp vessel was selected, especially considering that it was certainly the most well-guarded and the only one of such vessels available for full automation. Someone wanted to go quite far very fast and complete his objective before Starfleet could marshall enough ressources to find them and stop them. Whatever that objective was, it had to be done quickly and without incriminating the perpetrators beyond what was strictly necessary, as the return of the ship intact seems to point to."
Now amusement crept into his dazzling purple eyes.
"If I didn't know better, I would conclude this has all the marks of Captain James T. Kirk assisted by Captain Data and a couple of Bynars."
"Interesting points Doc," David interjected casually. "And I might add to your list! Captain La Forge for one. Last I heard though, he was commanding the Challenger. Data's brother Lore, although I have not heard of his ... regaining? ... full awareness. Not to mention, any highly competent engineering officer in Starfleet, the Klingon Defense Force. Romulan Tal Shiar springs to mind."
David thought a bit more on the suspect list. Adding to the list would prolong the investigation. Not that he himself was above suspicion. And certainly not because he didn't want to be found as the guilty party. But the more time elapsed before his revelation as the thief and his sisters full recovery at Risa would be better. So? Throw more suspects into the investigation?
" How about my old familiars? The Ferengi Captain Nog is certainly capable. And Torres, late of the Voyager would be even more capable! Leah Brahms? O'Brien?"
"As I said, external forces like the Tal Shiar and KDF or special individuals like Lore are most unlikely," Elliago retorted. "Those would never had left such a prize as the Diamond Star out of their grasp... and if any of those would have been able to do such a feat, they would have been able to do far worse and far more profitable job than this... and for what gain?"
He shifted his gaze from the engineer to the captain.
"It is the return of the Diamond Star that is much more telling than the theft itself. It's the mindset of a thief that doesn't want to be a thief or admit that he is a thief... or the mark of a high-risk prankster. Or, this is the act of someone needing to do something wrong to achieve something seemingly right in one's own mind; like Kirk did when he stole the Enterprise in mid 23rd century to retrieve Captain Spock on the Genesis planet, acting against all orders and regulations to the contrary but according to his own conscience and sense of personal duty."
He took a sip of his apple juice and savored it for a few seconds before adding a few other thoughts.
"All those Starfleet officers you named may possibly have managed such a feat, Commander; but none of them, not even the famous hot-tempered B'ellana Torres, have ever been known to display such behavior. LaForge and Nog are by-the-book exemplary officers; Bhrams and O'Brien are by far not enough of the adventurous types; and Torres, a former Maquis, would simply quit Starfleet again to do things unrestricted if she needed to. And I'm sure Starfleet Security has already checked all of their wherebouts at the time of the ship's disappearance, and anyone else possibly as capable as them. So, whoever did this acted completely under the sensors; it must be someone otherwise relatively unnoticeable among his peers, with no previous history of insubordination, disobedience or cavalier attitude, able to provide himself with a solid alibi... someone invisible... but with a need, probably a very personal need, to risk everything in order to achieve it. A ghost, by any other name."
Felez regarded them both.
"It seems to be a popular opinion to the both of you that this was a one man operation. I was, at the very least, considering a small team with the backing of an inside man."
Both nodded slowly.
"But I see you are most likely correct, the near impossibility of several people working together and returning ship? No, with the possible aforementioned high risk pranksters that would be beyond belief, and a prankster would have some mark, some way of proving he had done it."
Elliago frowned a moment.
"I agree. So, if it was unlikely to be a prankster nor an outsider, that leaves little else but someone within Starfleet or at least very cognizant of Starfleet operations, more specifically with shipyards and starships. An efficient team would have a better chance of pulling it off than a lone operator but would also present a higher risk of leaving clues and make mistakes... and present a higher risk of slipping or betrayal just as well."
He sighed.
"Guess that's rhe farthest we can speculate about so far... and it,s not much. We don't have enough data to go all Mycroft Holmes on this one. We'll have to do it the hard way of his less talented brother, Sherlock; actual reconstruction of the crime, interview of any relevant people and examination of the hard evidence.
Rogers looked between the captain and the doctor once, then changed direction. This was a briefing anyway.
"I should report captain that the Lotus is ready, as per the PADD I gave you. Warp and transwarp capabilities are fully available. Shielding and armor are fully operational. Phaser arrays are checked and fully functional, as are the four torpedo launchers. Sensors suites are fully checked and optimal. So is the Syntron sonar and Pel early warning programming."
Pausing for a breath, David thought of what else needed mentioning. Being an XO was new to him. Coupled with double-duty as chief engineer would keep him quite busy.
"Both computers have passed level one diagnostics. The Decatur nanite enhancement has them, and of course most ship systems, running in the one hundred thirty percentile. The ship is good to go at your command captain."
"Well I got sickbay ready," Nasaro-Myth simply repeated. "Although in view of our current assignment, I will be dedicating a good portion of it to forensics, I guess."
"Very well. On completion of this meeting, we'll set a course for Utopia Plenitia shipyards, warp factor 6."
Felez turned to face Rogers directly.
"I want you to assemble a team and work on how this was done, coordinate with station security and come up with a few possible scenarios. I'll fact check your work as I get it."
"Doctor, I'm assigning you to comb the personnel files and see if you can figure out who did this and if possible, why?" he motioned at Rogers. "Regardless of Mister Rogers assertion, it's unlikely that more than three people had the ability to perform such a 'prank' within the time frame given, but we can't leave out the possibility that any of them might be part of it, willingly or not. So, I will be conducting interviews of all persons of interest either in person, or by ship to ship communication, as needed."
He put his hands together on the table.
"Any questions?"
Elliago cleared his throat.
"Well, Sir, since it will be well over three months before we get to the shipyards of Sol IV, I suggest we use the holodeck and all the data Starfleet has on the ship, the facilities, security protocols and everything relevant to that case, including holograms of possible suspects, to try and recreate the circumstances of the theft. We could try to have different officers act as perpetrators or perpetrator teams trying to recreate a way or ways to steal the ship and return it without any trace of themselves, methods and motives. If anything else, this will help us rule out false clues and hypothesis by the time we get to the actual location."
He gulped the last of his apple juice.
"That will also allow me to test in simulation what I might find in the files with the help of a few talented holographic technicians."
Felez forgot to show it, but he was smiling. "You have an incredible gift for sarcasm doctor, allow me to correct myself."
He took a breath. "Set a course for Utopia Planitia, best possible speed." Why he had originally decided on warp 6, their cruising speed, was uncertain. He couldn't even remember the last time it was used.
Rogers stood up from his chair and returned his cup to the replicator. As the vessel disintigrated back into the system, David replied to Captain Felez' order.
"Aye captain. Trans-warp 3 to Mars."
"Great; now instead of three months I only have barely two days; typical Starfleet captain attitude," the Deltan grumbled wtih a false air of annoyance.
Born and raised on a starship, he was just as well versed in FTL calculations as in the want-it-all-want-it-now attitude of most starship commanders. And having just being transfered from the new flagship USS Horizon, he was one of the very few officers in Starfleet now familiar with transwarp travel. But he could not fault Felez about it. Getting there as soon as possible meant looking as soon as possible at hard evidence and the actual setting of the crime. There, his actual xenobiomedical expertise would be much more useful and effective than him scanning mere files and playing out simulations.
"Guess I should start right away, then. Unless you need me personally in that medical command chair of your bridge, I'll be in sickbay, reading... by your leave, Captain Sir."
And so saying, he brought his empty glass back to the replicator for recycling and headed out of the meeting room with a last smile to his commander and fellow officers.
As the exit doors of the conference room swished open at his presence David paused and turned back to address his captain again.
"Will you be taking us out of dock captain?"
Felez had already turned his attention back to his PPaD.
One of the biggest problems of being an Efrozion in modern Starfleet was that constant study was necessary, although the race excelled at single skill sets, multitasking was nearly problematic.
"Thank You Rogers, but I believe I shall leave this honor to you." and gave a slight nod.
It occurred to him that Rogers may never get another chance like this, so let him have his moment.
David glanced back through the open doorway at the bridge, then back at Captain Felez, a small lump in his throat. He had never taken a capitol class vessel out of space dock before, just shuttles and such. Although the posting of executive officer required the neccessity of launch, David had assumed this first launch of the Lotus would be under the captain's capable hands. Now, it was thrust into his own. With a nod, David acknowledged the captain's order.
"Aye, Sir."
Walking through the portal Rogers traversed the few meters to the step and down to the right. There, flanking a central small command console, where were the two original bridge command chairs, now with the added medical command chair as was now mandatory on all ships of Lotus Fleet. This new seat however was on the right side of the captain's seat instead of the opposite as on other, more recent designs. Passing the first one, David stopped in front of the captain's chair to its right and turned to face forward. He noted the helmsman below him, roughly five meters away toward the main viewer. Looking left and then right he noted the manned positions at tactical, engineering, ops and science. The crew were somewhat idle, as all preparations had been cleared just under an hour ago. They were merely crossing the t's and dotting the i's, as the Terran saying went. With a slight feeling of trepidation, David looked down and back at the seat behind him, then, almost gingerly, sat down in the command seat.
This was fairly new to him, but he had seen it performed dozen's of times on the Phoenix and the Spectre. Thus, with a low, quiet cough to clear his throat, David pressed the intercom switch on the console to his lower left and addressed the entire ship and her crew.
"Now hear this. We are getting underway. Mission flight time to Utopia Planitia is approximately forty six hours. Engineering? Standby for transwarp drive after launch. Commander Rogers out."
Reaching down and cancelling the intercom, David directed his attention to the comm.
"Contact starbase Lotus and clear us for launch."
"Aye, Commander," replied the dark haired comms Lieutenant. "Lotus base, this is the USS Lotus requesting launch clearance."
Almost immediately, the fair voice of Lotus base docking control came over the speakers.
""This is starbase Lotus flight control; clearance for departure through spacedoors two confirmed. Fair winds and good tides, Lotus."
"Disengage docking clamps, clear all umbilicals," David ordered with alacrity. "Forward view."
Helm engaged the large viewer at the front of the bridge and then reported dutifully back once the faint clangs of the clamps releasing and hisses of the umbilicals disconnecting had subsided.
"Ship is clear and at station keeping, Sir."
"Aft thruster's, helm. Port and starboard at station keeping."
"Aye, aft thruster's. Port and starboard at station keeping," repeated the helmsman.
The seven hundred thousand metric tonnes of the USS Lotus began to move forward. An interior view of the capital class star base showed the massive number two space doors flash its red warning lights and then, as they turned to pulsing white strobe's, the doors split down the middle and drew apart. At just over fifty-five meters in width, the Lotus glided through the yawning aperature with plenty of room to spare, her one hundred and forty four meters height cleared the upper and lower sills with ease.
At over one hundred and eighty thousand meters per second, the Lotus' three hundred and forty two and a half meters slipped out of star base Lotus in mere seconds, leaving her port, and relative safety, behind her. Rogers asked for the aft view before he gave the order to get properly underway.
"Aft view Mr. Goddard. Set course for sector zero zero one."
As he input the coordinates, Goddard repeated the instructions as per routine.
"Aft view aye. Coordinates set."
With a quick glance around the bridge to ascertain that all the crew were safely at their various stations, David gave the order to move out.
"Hit it!"
"Activating transwarp drive in five... four... three... two... one... mark!"
This crew had been briefed about transwarp travel and knew the transwarp technology aboard the Lotus had been experimental, a final stepping stone to the production of actual transwarp ships like the new Lotus class. It was functional but still a risky procedure aboard this much older and smaller starship design; yet, the only one sturdy enough for those early tests. Of course, since transwarp 1 was exactly the same as warp 1 and transwarp 2 merely equivalent to transwarp 8, it was at transwarp 3, equal to warp 27, that problems could really surface and the whole warp assembly burn out from the pressure of an added subspace layer over the original subspace field needed for standard warp travel. Warping already warped space-time was no easy achievement, even with the best technology available.
There was thus a definite tenseness as there was, on the screen, a stretching of starlight much brighter and denser than usual. The blinding flash that betrayed the breaking of Einsteinian space limitations was also brighter and longer than usual. And instead of the familiar warpspeed show of moving points of lights, there was a deep dark center from wich those far away points became blue to red streaks of lights at the edge of the screen.
"Holding steady and on course at transwarp 3," confirmed the helmsman.
His sigh of relief and smile of satisfaction was echoed and reflected from every other officer on the bridge.
By David Rogers on 02/08/2016 @ 8:31pm
Here is the start for you Captain Felez. :)
By David Rogers on 02/10/2016 @ 12:04am
Ok, we may have a discrepancy here. the Ready Room has 2 seats across from the Captain, where-as the conference room seats 8 persons. Which should we use? Stay here with the ready room?
By Connora'tu Felez on 02/11/2016 @ 8:27pm
In my post to the doctor I said "Meeting room" which I thought was the proper description for the conference room.
I looked it up on line.
But I should have just said conference room, so lets witch it to there.
By David Rogers on 02/11/2016 @ 8:43pm
I have edited my post to reflect going to port side of the ship to the main conference room.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Briefing_room#Intrepid-class
By Connora'tu Felez on 02/23/2016 @ 8:35am
Again sorry for the delay, one of our officers lost his mother this week so I'm covering his shift, as well as all my normal distractions.
It's considerably easier to answer the Polaris timeline as it's mostly reactionary.
And of course as the main story teller I have to add color and make sure I back up my facts.
That being said I should have time to do a full post later today.
By Kheren on 02/24/2016 @ 1:31am
np RL comes first.
BTW who's this Mister Roberts suddenly popping up at the meeting?
By Connora'tu Felez on 02/24/2016 @ 8:12am
My day turned out not to be as open as I'd hoped, my editor and fiance needed me to do some running after work.
I get home in time to help our handyman install a new hot water heater and then after all that my internet connection goes down.
So I literally shoehorned this in last half hour before I had to go to bed.
I said warp 6 because I was thinking of our cruising speed I'll keep that in as a mistake on Felez's part, and fix the name.
By Kheren on 02/24/2016 @ 3:04pm
I modified transwarp 2 to transwarp 3 because transwarp 2 is warp 2 X warp 2 X warp 2 = warp 8... and the ship can already go effortlessly at warp 9!
Transwarp 3 would be warp 3x3x3= 27 or 19,683 times the speed of light, making the 100 ly from trip Starbase Lotus to sector 001 in a little less than two days.
By David Rogers on 02/24/2016 @ 3:48pm
Well .... OK.
Captain did say best possible speed, and transwarp 3 has a 24% chance of burnout, thus the engineers reticence to use it.
By Kheren on 02/26/2016 @ 10:55am
as any engineer worth his salt should ;)
By David Rogers on 02/26/2016 @ 12:12pm
Meet your helmsman, Mr. Goddard. lol ... I had to throw a name in there somewhere!!
By Kheren on 02/26/2016 @ 2:05pm
Please take note of two little details:
First, only the assigned ship commanding officer is called captain on a ship, regardless of actual rank (i.e. Commander Sisko was called Captain on the bridge of the Defiant).
Anyone else taking command is addressed by his actual rank, never as captain, unless this is also his actual rank and the actual commander of the ship is not on board. (i.e. Ensign Kim commanding the night shift was addressed as Sir, never as Captain and Commanders Chekotay,Spock and Riker always as Sir or Commander; even when Commodore Decker took officially command of the Enterprise in Kirk's absence, he was not addressed as Captain; but when Captain Jellico officially took command from Picard, then he was addressed as Captain).
When there are two of such rank, the one not in actual command will be addressed as Sir (or M'am) by the crew for "duty talk" so as to make clear who is in actual command when two ranking-captains are on the bridge.
Second and just so you know, you might not want to mar Rogers Starfleet record or call attention to himself with a suicidal launching maneuver ;)
Despite what movies like ST III seemed to show, one quarter impulse power is an insane speed, especially inside a starbase.
Full impulse is stated as being a quarter of the speed of light thus = 300,000km-sec /4= 75,000km-s.
So, one quarter impulse power is 75,000km-s / 4 = 18,750km per second!
Consider that Starbase Lotus is 3km in diameter and you start from the center of it, this means you travel 1.5km at 18,750km-s; so you exit completely in 0.00008th of a second!
Better wait for those doors to be fully open! That's what Captain Kheren did once with the Artemis... and it was thrown back right into his face when he was dragged before a board of inquiry!
That's why regulations say "thrusters only" (as in ST VI); At a max speed of 500km/hour for thrusters, this means coming out of the base in barely under 11 seconds so at least the doors have time (barely) to open before you zoom out!
This is in fact more consistent with what we SEE on film than with what they actually say... although in ST III, Kirk was desperate, committing crimes up to and including stealing the Ent; utter recklessness was certainly beleivable in this instance!
So, you may want to rewrite a bit, either for Rogers to not draw attention on himself in this manner... or to portray the same recklessness and assume the possible consequences (but now at least waiting for the doors to be open before bursting out!).
I leave it to you, good Sir :)
By David Rogers on 02/27/2016 @ 9:26am
changed to thruster's only. good point. Also, perhaps time for a new chapter. this one is filled up nicely. ;)