Cutting it short

Posted on Mon Aug 10th, 2015 @ 11:18am by Captain Elijah Michaels & Lieutenant JG Elliot Keller & Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Mickey McClane & Lieutenant & Captain Brenda Sinclair & Ensign Moriloth & Ensign Honey Flanagan & Lieutenant Valeria Mordin

Mission: Commanding the Elements
Location: USS Victory, Conference Room

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The Commander had arrived back onto the Victory following his meeting on the Planet and then with the Station Commander, they had been repaired after their altercation with the Dominion but now was the time to get back on track.

Haven Colony was in trouble and Victory was part of the Relief efforts.

"All Senior Staff and selected Crew please report to the Conference Room at once." He said pressing the Comm Panel on the table and uploading data to the aboard behind him.

Honey was one of the first to arrive, a little bit confused about why she had been invited in the first place. She was only a lowly scientist, with an assistant chief and a chief above her in the hierarchy. Still, she was invited, and as such she would show up well on time. "Commander." she greeted Elijah, moving to take a seat.

Wyatt Cadwell, a padd in hand, had entered into the briefing room. Being the new guy, though his demeanor was relaxed, he was a bit apprehensive. Most of the senior staff were established, and no doubt had chosen their seats a long time ago. It was odd how people were possesive of just things. Upon entering, he had seen a familiar face, and was relieved. A small smile had formed at seeing the biologist. His gaze shifted to his CO, and a slight nod followed. "Hello, Captain," he said as he eased into a seat next to Honey.

A small smile that was answered by a sheepish one, one that was quickly replaced with an over-the-top serious expression as she glanced away. Yes, Wyatt was very handsome. Yes, that was a very inappropriate thought to have during an important meeting. That hadn't started yet.

The next face through the doors was a weasely one at that: the Chief Engineer, and resident Thux, Cor Cordale. He held a PaDD in his living hand, while his prosthetic held a larger-than-regulation mug of coffee (that smelled oddly of cinnamon), that he raised in salute to all present. The mug had a cartoonish caricature of Cordale with two thumbs up, with the phrase "Thux to be you!" written underneath the image.

"Mornin'." He sounded off to those present, and found one of the seats that had a hollow for those species with tails that didn't neatly fold away. He didn't offer any of his coffee this time around, but with a swig... even his fur seemed to wake up more.

Dr Antos came in shortly after the others. He kept quiet with several pads in hand as he took a seat at the far side of the table as he tried to close his mind. As nodded to the captain quietly knowing he acknowledged him and the others silently. he turned back as he noticed Valeria walk in as He gave a small wave as she passed him.

Following next was the resident rabbitess, Valeria. Running slightly behind schedule due to finalizing paperwork, Valeria followed the pattern of sitting in groups, and thus she sat next to Honey, and gave her two section-mates a soft smile. "Mister Cadwell, Honey. Familiar faces." she said with an amused tone as she tidied herself up then gave the rest assembled a nod of welcome. "Captain." she acknowledged with that same soft smile. "That's... hardly a regulation coffee mug." she noticed, amused.

"I'm hardly a regulation coffee drinker." Cordale countered with a smirk.

"Fair point." she relented.

All Antos could do is smile at the mini discussion, as his smile faded as the doors opened again then closed. He kept quiwt unless spoken too.

"Sorry for the delay, Captain," Bertrand strode in, "One shift away from security and it goes to hell. I have three of my people who started a fight in a bar and are being held by station security. If they are lucky they will be held there and miss our departure window. If not, I will get to decide how such behaviour should be rewarded. Good to have you back, Sir."

He sat down in the usual 3IC position rotating his right shoulder as if it was causing him some pain.

Mickey And Aladdin had came in and took their seats quietly without saying a word. He looked around the room but nodded to everyone in the room, acknowledging them all. "Very comfortable seat" Aladdin said as he sat next to Mickey. "Hi Doc!" Aladdin said nicely to him

"Hello Aladdin." Antos said quietly and a bit dryly to the Ensign. He nodded at Mickey briefly as he returned his attention to the meeting,

Elliot arrived shortly afterwards, the young Diplomatic Officer smiled at the Commander and with a polite nod took the seat opposite Honey and the Science Boffins, he was here at the request of the Diplomatic Department who were otherwise occupied.

With a coffee in hand, Brenda entered the room with an easy gait. The walk of someone who knew who she was, and was happy with it. "Afternoon all, she said in greeting, before sliding into one of the vacant chairs.

Next through the door was the klingon/romulan hybrid who gave everyone a polite smile before taking her seat next to the empty seat of Commander Bertrand.

Antos acknowledged the new arrival with a nod and nothing more.He felt a bit uneasy with the new arrival but he did his best to hide it.

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Elijah stood at the head of the long table and at the rather eclectic bunch of Officers he had assembled before him. "Right good afternoon everyone, I know you should all be debauchering yourselves in some sleazy Dive down on New Kingston or the Starbase, Yes Cor I am looking at you....."

"Normally yes, but I've been forced to raise my rates. Lousy economy." the Thux offered with a wide smirk.

The Commander chuckled at his Engineer before returning to his briefing, "But a pressing matter has meant that leave has been cut short." He pressed a command into the panel on the table to pull up the image of a Planet. "Haven Colony, established circa 2378 by the Bajoran Provisional Government, the Vulcan Agricultural Administration and the SCE"

Bertrand read the information as it scrolled on the screen and frowned. This was not on their proposed route. What was going on?

"Weren't they having sssome sssort of meteorological issssuesss?" Honey volunteered. "I remember reading sssomething like that sssomewhere, I think."

"The Helliax System has seen some highly unusual Solar activity in recent weeks, as a result it has disrupted the weather patterns on Helliax IV where Haven is located." Elijah said highlighting updates of the weather on the 3 Dimensional Display. "Their Science Team has calculated an unprecedented number of storms and floods to hit the Colony in the coming days."

Well, that was certainly odd. Wyatt studied the the three dimensional display carefully, he didn't have much to add yet. Floods weren't uncommon, for sure, they used to happen on Earth quite often. This was certainly going to be worth studying. Though, he was certainly worried for the inhabitants. Floods were certainly not easy to deal with, neither were constant storms.

"Could the changes have caused issues, medically?? Sir!! " Antos popped off, finally saying something, then clammed up after that.

Michelle raised an eyebrow at this report... "Do we have any theories on what could be causing that?"

"Stars have deadly tempers, and short fuses. There could be any number of reasons for the increase in stellar activity. Shifting masses of nuclear fuel, internal currents shifting, or this could be something cyclic over the course of thousands or even tens of thousands of years." Valeria offered. "If we had the time and the records stretching back far enough, we could see about constructing a trilithium stellar compensator to ease the pressure." A pause, "Though, from the urgency, I take it time isn't a luxury we have?"

"Antos is right," Bertrand cut in, "This is not an academic question of cause and effect. There is a colony full of people in danger. This report says they have some underground bunkers, can they use those for shelter?"

Elijah shook his head. "No, the Colonial Committee has requested a full evacuation of it's people, every single one."

Bertrand considered, "How many people are we talking? What time frame?"

"25,000 people are on the Colony that need to be evacuated." The Commander said to his Staff. "They're expecting it to hit in the next day and a half."

Mickey had calculated the time and effort to travel to that planet. Even if the Engines are at 100 percent from their last battle it would take a miracle to get there. "Commander Bertrand, the only way to get there would be to push the engines to maximum warp. It would take us three hours and twenty five to get there. But I don't feel like burning out Mr. Cor's Engines" He looked at the engineer and nodded.

"You're math's a bit off. It'll take a lot longer then that to get there. If we maxed the engines, pushed the reactor, killed the auto-disconnect, and got out and pushed, it'd take under 14, but we'd be long dead by then. Auto-disconnect shuts the engines down after 12 hours of continuous max propulsion. Which adds to our transit time because you can't do a start immediately after a shut down." he paused, "That's assuming that pushing the engines and the reactor for that long didn't cause permanent damage. Permanent damage that'd leave us stranded between stars with impulse only."

He gave a shake of his head, "Know how long of a walk it is to a starbase on impulse only? I'll give you a hint, name your kids now. Their grandkids might make it back to the base."

Bertrand closed his eyes and did the maths, "If we stick to Warp 9 that would take us 16 hours, but not kill our engines?" He glanced at Moriloth for confirmation.

She stared aside for a few moments. "Using full auxiliary power, a Sovereign can safely sustain warp nine 'p nine. We should arrive quickly."

"That would give Cor time to do more of his repairs in transit. Of course it assumes we have been given permission to break the Standard Warp 5 rule."

"That many colonists in danger, I think they'll waive that limiter quick." Cordale mentioned. "Either way, yeah, there's still a repair roster that needs attending to. Nothing that'll stop us on the way."

The Commander had to quickly reign in it all in. "See to Repairs ASAP, take who you need from OPS to help out, plus commandeer Staff from the Starbase." He said looking at Cor.

"I promise to be firm yet fair." the Thux replied, and gave the Commander a nod. "Volunteers first, before I have to draft."

"Starfleet managed to get 4 other Starships to divert to assist us." Elijah then displayed the Ships involved. "An Intrepid, An Oberth plus a Steam Runner and a Miranda and the Colonials have patched up every Ship they can get to do their part, but the bulk of it falls to us."

"That's..." Bertrand's rarely used maths brain was struggling. "Twenty... maybe another five thousand spaces if those freighters get out of the Atmos. That is very little wriggle room. They better pack light."

"So here is the plan of action, we convert the Cargo Bays and Mess Hall into temporary living assignments along with all the guest quarters." The Commander said laying it out to the Staff. "I want all hands on deck to help process the Colonists, all Shuttle and Runabout Pilots on standby to do multiple trips."

"I will be meeting the Committee at their request to co-ordinate the evacuation and the XO is with me, so Bertrand you have the Conn."

"Aye Sir," Said Bert not really listening, his mind on the task ahead. Then the phrase set in and he startled, "I have the ... what, now?"

"The conn." Michelle said. "Or the big chair... Don't worry.... It doesn't bite. Just nibbles a bit."

"I know what he meant, its just..." Bertrand glared at the captain. He wanted to remind him that he had only agreed to the promotion on the grounds he would NOT be put as acting Captain. He wanted to remind Elijah of a promise to slap him.

But the conversation had moved on.

Still, he was only standing in for a few hours with the captain in radio contact. it was not like he was ACTUALLY in command.

"Wyatt, Honey I want you two with me to assist in moving all the Agricultural Specimens and samples." He then smiled at Valeria. "Valeria I need you here to monitor the Weather Fronts and help get our guests settled."

Wyatt gave a tip of his head to his orders and followed that up with an, "Aye sir." He was dismayed by all this, them against the elements was going to be a tough one.

"Yes Sir." was Honey's simple response. Outwardly she was calm but inside a storm raged. Did this mean she would be going to the surface? An away mission? During the very first mission on her very first posting? She would set foot on a planet for the very first time in her life?

"Understood." Valeria replied with a nod. If it was one thing she could easily handle, it was organization. "I'll keep the rest of the chain informed about any sudden shifts in solar or meteorological currents."

"Captain Sinclair you will have to Pilot a Shuttle to speed things along." Elijah said to the Marine. "Get me as many Marines you can to assist in the evacuation."

Whatever concerns Brenda may have had about the time limit for evacuating 25 000 people, they were washed away at the realizing that she would have to be piloting a shuttle. "Uh... aye sir?" Two failed tests, and three years to finally pass. Great. "I'll wrangle a couple of squads to aid in the evac."

"Cor, I need your expertise on the ground to help set up Forcefields and Sensors." Elijah nodded at the Thux. "We can at least attempt to save the bulk of the Habitats before the flooding kicks in."

"Done. I'll pack my umbrella." Cor stated, which was a lie. He didn't own an umbrella. "I have a few models in mind already."

"Sela I want you to get people loaded on to the Evac Transports any way you can." The Commander looked at the Lieutenant. "Take who you need."

" On it sir. I'll get the teams in position and start working with the colony security forces. We'll get them on-board." They hybrid said as she stood up from her chair. " Am i dismissed?" She asked wanting to get down to security as soon as possible.

"Make it happen, Lieutenant," Bertrand sent her off.

"Doctor, I will need you to deal with injuries and reassure people on the ground, I have got a Runabout lined up for the Hospital patients."

"Aye Sir!" Antos said shortly. "We might need to use what free space we have for trauma centers or back up relief stations for other crew not injured," Antos offered. "Also if any of the evacuees that have piloting experience might be helpful in the evac of the other evacuees. If at all possible," Antos added.

Elijah turned to Mickey. "Mickey, there will be lots of people going to the different Ships in Orbit." The Commander looked at the Ops Manager. "I would like you to sort that out, help manage the traffic so to speak."

"Of course commander, i shall see to it that there is less traffic during this rescue mission" Mickey nodded at the task of his job.

"Moriloth, you're on Shuttle Duty get as many as you can off the Planet first." Michaels said to the Ensign. "Then I need fancy flying at Helm to get them to the Starbase and then back here, clear?"

"We will be prepared, Sir."

The Commander took a step back. "Alright, everyone this is going to take several trips even at best possible speed so we need to be organized but not too slow." He looked at his Officers. "We are the lead Ship on this one, so I need our A Game, questions?"

"Any idea how long these rogue weather effects are gonna' last? I mean, are we talking 'weather the storm', or something more from humanity's Bible?" Cor voiced. "Cause there's a big difference between a field that has to hold for a few hours, and a field that has to hold for a few weeks."

"Maybe placing temporary weather control satellites might help??SIR!!" Antos commented.

Valeria gave a soft smile towards Antos at his suggestion, and a nod. "I know a few of the more efficient short term designs. We can also place a probe near the star itself to warn us of incoming solar flares or general spikes in solar activity."

Bertrand shrugged, "I doubt we can put anything in place that the Vulcans haven't already thought of. Our sensors are set towards nebular, not stellar anomalies." He looked closer at the list of ships, "The USS Tesla, that's Lt Secar's ship isn't it? Oberth ships tend to be kitted out with all sorts of Science stuff, and hardly any room for evacuee's; maybe 40-50 at most. Perhaps it would be better to post her as our eyes and ears on the Stellar flares?"

"I think if we could forgo the warp drive. I believe there could be a faster way. a project of gravametric waves to open a singularity to get us there within a matter of minutes. Using are own warp drive. We could open a gateway in space to get us to the planet without having to go without warp drive. I call it the Gravity Drive, were we would jump from one point in space to another. Cor, what would you say to it?" Mickey asked for the chief engineer's opinion.

Cor actually held up a single finger in the 'Wait a minute' motion before he took a long pull on his coffee. Now that he had woken up his brain, Cor started, "Your theory is sound, but backwards. You wouldn't use a gravity drive to create a singularity with the purpose of creating a gateway in space, you'd use it to create an artificial black hole with a relative distance of 'always two hundred kilometers ahead of the ship' or something, so that as the ship fell towards the singularity, the gravity plane slid forward relative to the ship. Then you could get around both relativity AND the light speed wall by cheating. See, you aren't accelerating, you're falling perpetually faster and faster. There's two tricks to it. First, focusing enough gravity to generate a black hole. Two, stopping when you reach your destination."

Valeria took a moment to blink. She was certainly impressed with Cor's knowledge base.

Cordale continued, "See Mickey, I doodled technical specs on bar napkins too." the Thux smirked. "Using a singularity as a gateway into another dimension is tricky, fantastic, fictional, and ill advised. Assuming we survive, we have no idea where we'd emerge, what time it would be, or if we'd be able to survive longer then a fraction of a second. Suppose we emerged in an entire universe composed of anti-matter instead of matter matter? We'd barely exist long enough to take a sensor reading to find out why we're annihilating spontaneously."

Another swig of coffee. "Though, if it was something that'd work, I'd be against it anyway. Spontaneously teleporting to various parts of the cosmos would almost put us all out of our jobs as explorers." he chuckled.

Mickey rubbed his head to clear it up and all that, he wasn't trying to confuse anyone. But Valeria was right. "There was a moment when Lieutenant Barclay, had pulled it off. But also at the same time, he was under the influence by aliens. The Enterprise-D had pulled that off. What if we were to get the data from the Enterprise-D's Logs and we try to recreate the singularity even though we would be for a moment in a quantum acculturation delay we would be there. But as this is an emergency to save people we would only use it in extreme emergency's, Valeria." Mickey spoke of his opinion to both the science officer and chief engineer.

"And if we're off by this much..." Cor pressed his fingers together, tightly, "... we die. Or arrive in a parallel universe where empty space is replaced by strawberry jam. I'm not re-configuring the engines of this starship to chase a quantum hunch of an accidental surge of alien-inspired genius just because on the one in infinity chance that it worked that somehow we can replicate those results exactly." he paused, "And in time to help these people."

Cor turned towards Elijah and the others at the head of the table. Chasing quantum dreams wasn't something he was going to do while the clock was ticking. It might not even be something he'd entertain without the doom clock ticking away.

Valeria took this moment to chime in. "I'm afraid I have to agree with Mister Cordale. The math around even replicating what the Enterprise did is staggering. To actually recreate the event is almost mathematically impossible... and before you get your hopes up that I used the word almost, I defer to the fact that in our field there are truly very few zero percentiles."

Mickey just kept quiet about everything else. He was indeed wrong to share his idea because Cor was right and he saw the look from Bertrand. "Don't say a word, Commander, please." Mickey spoke to him in his mind

Bertrand nodded and spoke telepathically back - I am sure the boys at Utopia Planetia have looked into it already. Maybe when we are done you can find out if there is a development program on it and add your input. Now is not the time to be experimenting though. Lives first.-

Aloud he said, "We can make the trip in sixteen hours. That's established, so let's just stick with that. Getting there a bit faster isn't going to give us any extra beds for those refugees."

"Cor, i may have been out but doesn't starfleet have slipstream and haven't the modified them to these ships yet" Mickey asked the engineer again

Cordale turned in his seat to include Mickey in his field of vision. "Does Starfleet have Quantum Slipstream Drive tech? Yes. Is it used? No. Too dangerous, too random and unpredictable, and according to some of the data it's too prone to generating alternate timeframes through fracturing quantum realities."

Cordale finished his coffee, "Sixteen hours. Warp Field. Warp Drive. The avalanche has started Mickey. It's too late for the pebbles to bitch."

"As for shields," Bertrand continued, "this is a full evacuation. Those shields only need to last long enough to get people of the ground if the evacuation is slow. It may be faster to put your team to checking those freighters are actually space worthy. The more of those we can get in the air, the less shields we are going to need."

"Sounds more and more like I'm the Thux for the job. Patch jobs like that are..." and he grew distant for a moment, lost in a memory perhaps...



"... kinda my specialty. I'll get those freighters off the ground, even if I have to push."

"Hold on, I sense something off." Mickey couldn't explain it or feel it but something was a bit off. "Commander Bartlett, I feel that something is going to separate us from each other. I can't explain it but i feel like this one mission is going to be one that won't be easy because I feel that something is going to separate the group." Mickey spoke of his opinion, ever sense the mind-meld with Dr.Antos, he had become more alert and thoughtful of the future. "Bertrand, I know I am not a Betazoid and all that. But I have become more alert now." He turned to look at the chief of security.

Bertrand shrugged, "Captain has already said we'll be splitting up to do our roles, so no real surprises there. And I think you are mistaking Betazoid telepaths with mystic El-Aurian fortune seers. We don't glimpse the future any more than you lot. Regardless, even if we knew for a fact that half the crew ere going to die in this endeavor, we have a job to do and 25,000 colonists to save."

Cor actually gave a shake of his head, and muttered his own prophecy of doom. "Something's off alright. I'm out of coffee." though in the moment after, he turned to Bertrand, "Hey now, don't go spouting off your own doom here. If you're on the ground, then it's my job to make sure you evacuate safely too y'know." he reminded the security officer.

Antos looked over at Bertrand. "Humans and several other races do have the knack or a gift of foresight. You never know what it could be for-certain don't put people down for wondering or asking." Antos said quickly and calmly to Bertrand. "Beside mystics for eons have been an asset in the spiritial orders from earth and even on betazed." Antos said with a small smile, as it quickly faded. Antos wanted to leave know he did not know why.

"Captain I am not feeling well I will continue to listen and monitor the meeting from sickbay. " Antos said quickly not waiting for the captains answer. He was up and gone. He moved from the conference room across the bridge to the lift and headed directly to medical. "I am going to here about this later." He said to himself in the lift quietly as he set up his badge to continue the conference call till he reached sickbay.He darted out of the lift across to the sickbay doors as they opened to an empty room other then the EMH doing his work in the corner of the lab.

"Is everything alright Doctor??" the Emh asked as he saw the Doctor dart into his office. as the lighting went out. And he closed the curtains that gave privacy to him and the rest of sickbay."I am fine I need time alone." Antos commented almost snapping at the EMH. As the emh shrugged and went back to work. Antos honestly did not know what was going on and why he was taking this issue with Bertrand so hard. "Goddesses Please enlighten me why??" He commented a bit louder then he had atteneded as the EMH stopped again and heard silence again as he started back to work again.

Antos sat there in the dark trying to get himself back under control. As he adjusted the channel so he could hear the rest of the meeting. But had it muted till he was spoken too.

Elijah looked at his Officers. "We are all done here." He said looking around. "Dismissed."