Staff briefing

Posted on Sun Jul 5th, 2026 @ 6:41pm by Captain Marc Steyn & Lieutenant Commander Maximo (Max) Vero & Lieutenant Dazad Targaryen & Ensign Robert Wayne & Lieutenant JG Maec O'Donnaghue & Lieutenant JG T'Chiara MD
Edited on on Sun Jul 5th, 2026 @ 7:24pm

2,159 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Prologue: Joy is in the journey

ON

Wayne walked into the briefing room and found it deserted. He had checked the time of the meeting before leaving his quarters, so he knew that he was probably a little early.

Smoothing the fabric of her dress, T'Chiara stepped into the briefing room, the heels of her boots making a soft clicking sound against the deck plating. Her dark hair was falling down in a loose braid down her back, the delicate tops of her ears just visible. Piercing eyes scanned the room before she made it towards her seat. "Ensign," she greeted, giving him a brief once over before returning her attention to the cup in her hand.

Out of habit, something drilled into him at the academy, Wayne stood up when a senior officer entered the room. "Lieutenant" he responded, and he remained standing until she sat.

"Doctor," the young woman corrected him, "I prefer to be addressed as doctor. At ease Ensign, there is no reason to risk spraining anything on my behalf."

"Of course, doctor. I apologize for my error." Wayne stood at ease. He went into "at ease" posture, but remain standing.

The young doctor sighed as she sat down. "Sit down ensign, and relax. There is no requirement for you to remain standing until the captain arrives."

Wayne sat down after the doctor did, "They drum it into a cadet to stand whenever a senior officer enters a room." He smiled. "Hard to remember how to act any other way."

Max walked in uncomfortable in his wrist support. "Good morning," he addressed everyone before taking a seat next to the doctor.

Sakara followed Max into the room, once again tugging the skirt down on her uniform which had started to ride up. She was aware of the updated uniform that Starfleet intended to rollout across the fleet, a jumpsuit, white for command officers and it had trousers. She knew it was illogical but she looked forward to the day it became standard duty uniform.
"Good morning" she greeted as she turned a chair at the head of the table before sliding down into it.

When Max walked in, he came to attention, and the captain soon followed. He remained standing until they sat down.

T'Chiara seemed mildly amused at the ensign's behaviour, choosing to remain seated at the entrance of the command pair. "Captain, commander," she greeted in return.

Jonathan walked into the briefing room, "Good morning Captain" he said as he walked over to the chair and took his seat, The room around him was new to him, but these feelings were certainly old, He had more experience than most with these things, He had settled in nicely and gotten his new office in order and had started the routine checks of staff and reports.

Dazad stepped into the briefing room with a presence that felt deceptively youthful yet carried an underlying weight of decades spent charting the unknown. He didn't offer the rigid, academy-fresh posture of the young ensign; instead, he moved with the fluid, practiced grace of a man who had navigated through the fringes of the Delta and Beta Quadrants. His dark hair was cropped short, and his gaze was intense, the look of a survivor who had "listened" to the mechanical hum of the Borg to keep a refugee flotilla in the shadows.

"Good morning, Captain," Dazad said, his voice a steady, resonant anchor as he offered a crisp, efficient nod to the captain and the assembled staff. He settled into his chair, his focus immediately shifting to the briefing table. To him, the "charted" space of the Alpha Quadrant was merely a small corner of a much vaster, more dangerous map, and he was already calculating the spatial variables of their next heading.

T'Chiara turned her head to look at the striking newcomer, sensing something different about him. His appearance didn't match up with how he held himself and she found it in one word, fascinating.

With everyone now in attendance Sakara was able to call the meeting to attention. The general hum of the engines the only thing that could be heard once the assembled officers quieted.

"Good Morning. The intention of this meeting is to discuss our general orders but ahead of that the First Officer and I would like a departmental status report and the over all level of moral on board given recent events"

The Captain of course was referencing the recent suspected murder. Most of the crew were of Human descent and as such she was aware something of that nature could have impact on the more emotional aspects of the Human psychological makeup.

Dazad let out a slow, measured breath, his fingers resting lightly against the edge of the briefing table. While the Human officers in the room shifted with visible discomfort at the mention of the suspected murder, Dazad’s expression remained an impenetrable mask. "The helm is fully responsive, Captain," Dazad stated, his voice serving as a calm, resonant anchor in the room's tense atmosphere. "Primary navigational thrusters and Warp Field alignment have passed triple checks. From a tactical and operational standpoint, the hardware is perfectly synchronized."

He paused, his intense gaze shifting briefly toward Doctor T'Chiara before settling back on Captain Sakara. "However, the crew's internal telemetry is fluctuating. Humans require predictability to maintain efficiency, and an unresolved threat disrupts that baseline. If we want to stabilize morale, we need to treat this crisis like a localized subspace rupture. We neutralize the variable, lock down our security rotations, and keep the ship moving forward on its course."

Ensign Wayne listened intently, and occasionally taking notes on his PADD. He thought, "Murder?....in this day and age?"

"Indeed Ensign" Sakara's tone unflinching in its impartiality. "It has been deemed an accident at this time but with the timing of our launch and Oberth being a new design it is hypothesized that third parties may have been seeking details on this new class of vessel".

By third parties she meant Klingons or Romulans but with no empirical data to evidence that she kept it as vague as possible.

"Then," Max said, "In that possible scenario, we may have a spy. Chief," he addressed the new Chief petty officer. "What are your suggestions?"

Dazad folded his hands loosely, letting his physical presence recede into complete stillness. The conversational currents of the room flowed around him like solar winds, each officer's nervous cadence a variable he quietly cataloged. He didn't speak or interject with navigational data. Instead, he relied entirely on his El-Aurian inclination, letting his senses "listen" to the underlying friction beneath the words. His intense eyes moved smoothly from Max to Jonathan, measuring their reactions to an unseen threat in the dark.

Speculation was not something Sakara was comfortable with, it had no basis in fact and relied on 'gut' feelings so she quickly turned the rooms attention to their mission.

"In relation to our mission, the Van'a'daal Cluster is an expansive region of space that is bordered by the Gorn, Talarians and Klingon Empire. We have been tasked with exploring this region of space starting with a star system designated as Tau Lorenti. Commander"

Sakara turned the floor over to her Science and executive officer to brief the room in regards to what was known, however insubstantial that may be.

"It is quite interesting data that's back so far," Max said taking over. He pressed a button and a rudimentary holographic image came up. "The system itself consists of a twin star and from what the long range scans are telling us is possibly two class M planets. There is also a class T gas giant further out. However to get to this system we will have to pass through or navigate round a nebula. So there will be some electromagnetic fields to navigate. Because of the plasma at present I have not been able to determine much more. Once we get closer the sensors should hopefully be able to see more."

"Depending on the composition of the nebula, I recommend going around it until we have studied it," T'Chiara suggested, "some nebulae are known to have an adverse effect on humanoids, Humans in particular while others are known to have a disastrous effect on Vulcans."

Dazad remained perfectly still, watching the slow rotation of the stars spinning above the briefing table. While the word "spy" still rippled through the room's atmosphere, the shift to astrographics pulled him back to the here and now. The Alpha Quadrant's charted corners always felt small to him, but a nebula blocking a path to twin Class M worlds was a tactical map he could appreciate.

"The sensor interference from a high-density plasma nebula won't just block long-range scans, Captain; it will blind our proximity sensors," Dazad said, his steady, resonant voice slicing through the speculation. He didn't look up from the display, his hands loose but ready. "Even if the radiation holds no biological threat, navigating blind with a potential third-party adversary in the sector is an unacceptable variable. If we attempt to skirt the perimeter, we extend our transit time by thirty-six hours." He drifted his attention from Captain Sakara to the holographic cloud. "I can calibrate the navigational deflector to counter the localized electromagnetic spikes. If we drop to Impulse and use a passive sensor sweep, we can 'listen' for the Warp signatures of anyone waiting for us in the shadows before we commit to a heading."

"I assume this data is factoring in the enhanced sensor platform that Oberth is equipped with?"
Sakara directed the question to both Vero and Dazad as this seemed to fall into their area of expertise.

Dazad inclined his head, his intense, hazel eyes locking onto Captain Sakara. "It does, Captain," Dazad confirmed, "The primary sensor array is tied directly into our main computer core. On paper, it can pierce standard ionic interference; however, a high-density plasma nebula doesn't just block a sensor beam; it refracts it, scattering the return signal into a hall of mirrors. If we rely on active scanning, the Oberth’s sensors will broadcast our position to the entire sector. By shifting to a passive, harmonic sweep, we bypass that refraction."

Max nodded. "I concur with the the Lieutenant."

"What if you re-polarise the beam to account to the mirror effect?" the doctor asked, "refocus the scanning beam so it will not scatter?"

"Repolarizing the primary emitter would work under standard atmospheric interference, Doctor," Dazad turned toward Doctor T'Chiara, his expression an impenetrable mask as he considered the physician's hypothesis. "But high-density plasma behaves like a fluid, non-linear lattice. If we narrow the scanning beam to force it through the refraction, the thermal buildup against our deflector shields will spike exponentially. We would effectively be turning our own sensor array into a beacon that screams our exact coordinates to any vessels hunting on the perimeter."

"Understood" Sakara interjected, pulling the room back to focus. "I trust you will both be working closely with each other in this regard so I entrust this matter to you both".
She immediately focused onto her old friend, something she had said catching her attention. "Doctor, I trust you will be readying the standard treatments given our proximity to such a nebula?"

"Captain." Ensign Wayne spoke up. "If we get too close to the nebula, we may have problems navigating. I might be able to boost the helm controls."

Dazad remained motionless as he evaluated the enthusiastic offer with the patience of a traveler who had guided desperate fleets through the shadows.

"The Oberth’s helm responsiveness is not the failure point, Ensign," Dazad countered smoothly, his resonant voice slicing through the chatter. He kept his hands loose against the table, an ancient anchor among the younger crew as he spoke out, "We need to stay quiet, and we need the Doctor to ensure the crew stays functional when the viewscreen goes dark."

Suddenly the ship lurched, knocking the assembled officers like rag dolls before the red alert klaxon started to sound. Sakara was stumbling back to her feet, disoriented by the sudden movements and deck lurching her to one side.
The familiar whistle of the intercom sounded.
"Captain... We've just entered the Wolf 359 system and, well I'm no......." the young woman's voice was cut short with the sound of screeching metal, twisting and contorting superstructure before once again being thrown to the ground, everyone in the room struggling to find purchase to right themselves as the inertial dampeners fought for some form of normality.

Sakara was gripping the table, her Vulcan strength only just enough to keep her from being pinned to the floor as many of the others were. "Bridge, reports" she cried over the din seconds before the desktop console erupted peppering her with shrapnel. No longer able to support herself she fell, nothing more could be done as a blinding light filled the room.

TO BE CONTINUED

RSS Feed