Staff Meeting
Posted on 08 Jan 2023 @ 9:25am by Commander Thaddeus Zayne & Lieutenant Commander Esazi Zh'Athrun & Lieutenant Commander Sikan & Lieutenant Commander Limmi Ovim & Lieutenant Commander Maurice Rubens & Lieutenant Commander Torvyn Rue
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: OC, Command Briefing Room
Timeline: MD08 0930HRS
3293 words - 6.6 OF Standard Post Measure
Station Operations had not been on Torvyn Rue's career plans. Although he had served as first officer in many short-term capacities aboard ships and facilities as called upon, he often returned back to his work in the sciences. That one of those assignments had been on Planet Obsidian made him something of a regional specialist and that he had often led departments something of a good manager. But the scaling up to the scope of Obsidian Command was giving him something of a steep learning curve. He found himself doing what he often did in such new-to-him scenarios- projecting confidence while relying heavily on the established non-commissioned officers in the department.
It had come to his attention thanks to the Quartermaster's highlighting, that several senior staff members had all recently boarded the station and some of them had already been assuming their stations and responsibilities. The unique situation with the Yellow Alert and defensive scramble had taken all of the Executive Officer's general attention and the Station Commander had been unconventionally replaced by Admiral Sepandiyar himself.
Catching the Executive Officer momentarily in the passageway between the Operations Center and the Commander's Office, Lt. Commander Rue had asked him if there was any way in which he and the new Senior Staff might be able to contribute to the objectives at hand, whatever objectives those might be, and Zayne had simply said, "Set up a briefing," as the door shut Torvyn out in the hall once again.
And so he inspected the conference room now, ten minutes leading up to the briefing he had scheduled. But he himself was as much in the dark as those who would be arriving. Almost.
It didn't take a tremendous leap of logic to connect the fact that the wreckage he had towed to the station with DeHavilland aboard the Pathfinder had immediately become a top security matter to which he was no longer permitted access, and that the yellow alert had set in only a few hours later. He'd been aware of the detection of Subspace weapons and thalaron radiation traces. There was concern over someone not just able but also willing to use banned weapons technology. That much Rue was capable of deducing.
He concluded his walk around the conference table, content that all of the charting and display units were online. He took an additional moment to program the room with appropriate security level protocol that would only allow for the invitees to enter and would secure all devices from recording or outputting any signals intentionally or otherwise, as well as to be sure that any displays used would not retain the information in temporary memory files but be immediately purged following use.
The curly haired Vulcanoid-Betazoid folded his hands and waited at the door like a proper host, anticipating meeting his new peers.
Moments later, the door slid open with its usual hiss and Rubens stepped through, taking a quick glance around the room before focusing on the Vulcan. Rice didn’t smile in greeting, simply gave the man a quick nod.
“Any chair?” he asked.
"Yes, aside from Commander Zayne's" Torvyn extended a hand to greet the man in purple.
The last few hours had been puzzling and alarming, never good combinations this close to any border. Stepping off the USS Plover to discover the station on yellow alert, with no clear indication of why was enough of a concern. Trying to report in, Rice had discovered the Captain wasn’t even on the station and, probably due to the alert, the XO couldn’t receive him at the moment. Instead, Rice had the odd experience of reporting into the station’s Computer, which simply informed him that it had logged the event.
Then Rice found his department was significantly understaffed, with most of them decamped to the Obsidian’s surface to deal with some Romulan refugee situation. The two remaining officers, who’d only been aboard for a few days, had only a hazy understanding of the situation. Of course, his staff looked extensive to that of the Intelligence Department. He wondered if the Tal Shiar had infiltrated every nook and cranny on the station yet.
To say this briefing was coming as somewhat of a relief was an understatement.
“Lieutenant Commander Maurice Rubens,” Rice said as he sat down, “Chief Diplomatic Officer.”
"I'm Lt. Commander Torvyn Rue. I'm currently serving as Operations Chief. I guess I've made a service reputation as a pinch hitter." He smiled. "I hope it doesn't put everyone off of getting to know me, as they're expecting my stay is temporary until Lieutenant Haille returns."
The doors slid open again, and Lieutenant Commander Sikan came in next, carrying his PADD in hand. The Vulcan glanced at Torvyn standing near the door, and nodded his greetings, then did the same for the diplomatic officer at the table. “Gentlemen,” he said as he took the nearest chair, introducing himself as he sat down. He knew some information about the yellow alert, but there was still some information that wasn’t clear. It was good that this briefing had been called.
Limmi felt similarly despite her familiarity with navigating confusion, evinced by her assured entry despite setting foot onto the station two hours ago and also reporting in via computer. Upon its disclosure of the briefing, she directed herself to a cursory tour of Tactical. Her initial assessment was that it'd been used more to complement other departments' aims, unsurprising given the lack of consistent senior leadership to develop, much less maintain their own. Getting in tune with the current strategic situation would certainly help set that into motion.
She quietly took one of the attendant chairs, her focus preoccupied by filtering the ambient elements garnered by her deployed perceptions. However, she was mindful to seek eye contact with anyone she could and cast an acknowledging nod.
Rue politely returned the nod of the woman he knew to be the Tactical Officer. There was only one more Department Head to arrive and— as he was thinking of the Andorian Chief Tower Control Officer, she entered with her active stride looked about and settled in at the conference table with the rest.
Esazi entered the Command Briefing Room. She paused for a moment and looked around. Finding an empty chair, she took a seat.
The doors opened a final time and Commander Zayne stepped through, running a hand along the side of his head to keep his hair in place, lest it look out of place and bely the frustration bubbling just at the surface of his mind. Up until now he'd considered himself a man of few frustrations, that wasn't easily frazzled and thus an ideal candidate for the center chair. But days after DeHavilland's departure, he was finding his nerves frayed at the edges and ready to snap at a moment's notice. He begrudgingly had to admit, he wasn't as 'ready' as he thought he was. Following him was a woman in command yellow who didn't say a word as she took a seat at the table.
"I'm not much for pleasantries. I'm Commander Zayne, First Officer of Obsidian Command."
"I have assembled our most recent additions to the senior staff." Rue began, naming them in order of their arrival, and by coincidence, their seating. "Lieutenant Commander Maurice Rubens, Chief Diplomatic Officer; Lieutenant Commander Sikan, Chief of Security, Lieutenant Commander Limmi Ovim, Chief Tactical Officer, and Lieutenant Commander Esazi zh'Athrun, Chief of Tower Control." Rue took his own seat. "I myself am Lieutenant Commander Torvyn Rue," He reintroduced himself, "Serving provisionally as Chief Operations Officer. Everyone called to this meeting is accounted for, Commander."
Thad nodded, "This is Commander Rochambeau, of the Casablanca. She's volunteered to provide support. Now. Let's get to business," Zayne declared matter-of-factly. "As you can see, Captain DeHavilland isn't here, she's aboard the Pathfinder, one of this station's support vessels as ordered by Admiral Sepandiyar who has taken command of this station in her absence," he began quickly and without fanfare. "We have several ships in OC space, to include the USS Alexander - the Admiral's flagship. The USS Exeter, Mississippi, Praetorian and Texas are nearby as well," he continued. "You are all senior staff of this station. What I am about to show you is privileged information. It stays within the senior staff until otherwise instructed," he explained, looking to each of them firmly as he did.
He tapped the controls on his desk and brought up a holographic image of the ship they'd captured and brought back. "This vessel belongs to a species known as the Pyrryx, a species that has not been recorded in the Federation database as of yet," he explained, now bringing up a holo of one of their warriors as seen by the marines of Camp Falkirk. "This is the only image we have of their species."
Rice nearly stood up with excitement. It was if he’d been obliviously wandering down a street lost, only for someone else to point out that his house was right there. Everything clicked into place: the Captain's absence, the yellow alert, the increased security patrols, and this hush-hush briefing: these Pyrryx must be some sort of threat. It was almost like he was in a meeting back on Earth…
With that thought, his outward calm was nearly nearly shattered. A few weeks ago, he’d been a senior member of the United Federation Planets Threat Analysis Council. Several executive departments and Starfleet met weekly to review major issues just like the discovery of a new spacefaring species. But this was new information to him. He was furious that Starfleet would keep this from the council. It also scared the shit out of him.
“First contact didn’t go well?” he asked flatly, somewhere between a question and a statement of fact.
"First contact implies mutual respect," Thaddeus answered curtly. "To the Pyrryx there is only the Imperium, and those under its boot. They do not subscribe to any form of diplomacy, nor do they see any other species as their equal in any respect. These are not the sort to be reasoned with," he continued shaking his head. "Which is why we are on high alert. We have no idea what their plans are, or what their intent is, only that they are dangerous beyond reason and utilize technology banned in nearly every corner of the galaxy."
An ill-tempered whisper in Rice’s head urged him to open his mouth and disgorge a fiery retort, but he took a deep breath in through his nose instead. The Commander was operating under considerable stress, Rice could appreciate that and may, in time, even forgive the oversimplification of diplomacy. Mutual respect? What a lovely dream. He could only assume Zayne had no experience negotiating with Romulans. Or even Ferengi, for crying out loud.
“My apologies, Sir,” he said, encouraging a little charity into his voice, “I know you’ll want to move on, but it’s rare for a species to totally shun diplomacy. Even the Tholians engage in dialogue from time to time. I would be in a better position to offer advice on diplomatic approaches if I could see the pertinent intel, debriefs, and files.”
Thad smirked slightly at the optimism of his fellow officer. "I'll share what I can, but it's not much. From what we do know, every race that the Pyrryx has made 'first contact' with, they have enslaved as a sub-culture to their own. But again, that information is extremely scarce and highly classified. Our focus needs to be on the defensive needs of this station and the protection of the civilians aboard it."
"What's happened to elevate the Pyrryx to an imminent threat?" Limmi finally spoke aloud and evenly to bolster Commander Zayne's desire to continue. Of similar mind to Rubens in wanting a proper preface and an expectation other than shooting at any likenesses to the vessel or being shown to them, she nonetheless knew that circumstances often curtailed interaction options. Even if a chance for diplomatic relations had been left on the table at first contact, rarely was addressing it as simple as backtracking. Especially when the briefing up to this point suggested that like some of the Federation's more challenging relationships, the Pyrryx were jingoistic.
Rue steepled his own fingers, leaning in with his elbows on the table and showing particular interest in Ms. Ovim's question. "Am I right to presume the alarm is related to the discovery of the alien wreckage we towed back with the Pathfinder?" he added on. Empathically, he could tell the Diplomat was fuming over some part of Zayne's manner of address, and admired the composure Ruebens was keeping despite the difference in opinion.
"The concern with them currently is that they're well beyond the established borders, at least as we understood them," Thaddeus explained, pausing from continuing to bring up a holographic map of the surrounding sector overlaid on the middle of the table so that everyone could see it. He pointed to a certain point, "That is Camp Falkirk, at the utter edge of Federation space, and here is the Aurelian Belt, originally the border but now contested by the information we're gathering on the Pyrryx. We're not certain if they claim the belt, or beyond the belt, or if they even recognize 'borders' at all," he explained, now adding to the holograms the wreckage in storage as well as the computer reconfiguration of it. Lastly, he brought up the version of one of their ships that they had solid scans on.
"This is what's in the cargo bay now. This is a scan of one of their vessels that attacked the USS Ardeshir, a Luna-class vessel. That ship barely survived the encounter. In fact, the Vesta-Class USS Mississippi came to the aide of the Ardeshir and the two of them only just managed to take this ship down," he explained.
Esazi whistled. "Impressive little ship," she said. "I'd bet latinum that Mister Tann would love to get a look inside that thing."
"I was on the Ardeshir during that firefight," Commander Rochambeau chimed in from the end of the table, shaking her head. "I'm with you," she said, pointing to the others. "Diplomacy is the way to start anything. But Commander Zayne is right - they don't listen. From what we could tell, they were receiving our hails. They just didn't care to answer with words. They answered with their weapons," she shook her head, "Which were extremely powerful. They were using subspace weaponry, effectively turning the space around us into as much of a hazard as they were. Whether they have any way of knowing what space will do in response to their weapons, we don't know, but it didn't stop there. Just about every tactical system they employed utilized banned weaponry technology. Even their phaser configurations are outside the confines of accepted radiation levels. Doctor Oakheart postulated that their weapons reasonably radiated fifty yards around every emitter. If that's how they treat their own people, what expectations should we have about how they'll treat us?"
"Every one we've faced has preferred to self-destruct than to allow us to get near it," Thad added. "So all we have is what we see here," he said. "But to be clear, the alarm is that this particular problem is no longer contained to the Aurelian Belt. If they're moving outward, we could be looking at the beginnings of a full-scale conflict with the Pyrryx. Command has kept this information restricted to the Captain's serving in this sector, but the time for compartmentalization is over. If they're now moving in the open, so should we."
"I hope this isn't an impertinent interjection," Esazi said. "But regarding the radiation issue, this is a species we know next to nothing about. Those radiation levels, while dangerous to most of us in this room, might present much less of a hazzard to them. Right? Or am I missing something?"
"I can at least speak to what we witnessed at the site Pathfinder found the wreckage," Rue picked up. "It appeared that when what I now understand to have been a Pyrryx ship found itself overcome, it attempted to take out everything in the immediate radius, including its entire crew, disintegrating all persons in the extent of it's reach. This was my only possible conclusion as not only were there no bodies to be found, there was no biological matter whatsoever. We did not find thalaron radiation, but it is my suspicion that an analog was employed. The only other explanation would be that the Pyrryx are not at all biological in their anatomy, at least in any way in which we might be able to understand, scan for, or other wise discover in the debris."
"It's entirely possible that they aren't fully biological. It's also entirely possible they're Elves or descendants of the House of Numenor. That's how little we know about these beings," Thad answered with a shake of his head. Had they been able to at least get their hands on one corpse they might finally have something of an idea what they're dealing with. One corpse, one data core. Something that could cut through the mystique.
"Doctor Oakheart wasn't postulating Thalaronic radiation," Rochambeau chimed in as well. "He suggested it was some kind of radiation related to the formation of dark matter. Something that, during any subspace rupture's which are almost guaranteed to happen after these weapons go off, eats up this radiation. His theory is that they may have some means of predicting the subspace tears and their patterns, to avoid them themselves. And then utilizing the same patterns to self destruct. Prevent anyone from finding them."
"The point being, we're dealing with an extremely dangerous foe, with very little verifiable information to go off of," Thad cut over. "I need everyone here at their best. This station needs to be prepared for the worst - that we'll have to deal with these Pyrryx head one without the luxury of being able to fly our vessel away from any phenomenon they set loose on us," he declared, trying to bring this meeting back to the point at hand. "Commander Sikan, we need to secure the interior of the station. We need to keep the civilians restricted to their quarters and the promenade. I don't want non-essential personnel traversing the station. We need to be able to lock it down quickly. I want double checks on all EVA suits racks on all decks as well."
"Commander Ovim, you and I will work on tactical scenario planning. I want all tactical stations at the ready. For your department, consider us at Red Alert. You and I will meet with Admiral Sepandiyar to further. I'm going to need your best, Commander," Thad said, indicating the Betazoid woman.
"Commander Rubens, Admiral Sepandiyar has given me permission to allow this staff access to the previously redacted and confidential database on the Pyrryx. I'd like you to work through the relevant data and develop your own evaluation of the Pyrryx. Optimistic as it may be" Thad smirked slightly, indicating him as well.
"Of course," Rice gave the Commander a nod and smile, but took note of the man's smirk. What a jackass, he thought.
"Any other questions? Ok. Let's get to it and everyone, no matter what you do, do not make the mistake of underestimating these Pyrryx," Thad said, looking around at all of them. "Dismissed."
