Judgement – A Run About - And a Not So Civil War
by Commander Richard Dunham & Commander Karen Villiers & Lieutenant Jana Kasikova & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Lieutenant Mathew Totti & Commander Chelsea Dunham & Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Lieutenant Commander Bruce Freeman
Post Details
[Ops]
“It’s a mess, that’s what it is!” Commander Villiers said as she read the situation report.
So that was it, the situation on Feltor Prime had escalated and the new regime had declared their intention to secede from the Federation. It was early days for the new order and the Federation Government asked that Starfleet ‘observe’ the situation for now. But for now at least the people of Feltor Prime were still Federation citizens and the fact still remained that the people were suffering in the aftermath of the war and the Federation, from the base of Deep Space Five were close enough to provide aid to the civilian populace.
But ‘Observe’ did not imply ‘assist’.
It could be a week, an hour or a day before the final decision on Federation membership was taken, a narrow window to do some good – if they went in after it was closed they would be breaching all sorts of edicts unless the new government invited them in to help … but if they were already on the ground …
“Get me Lieutenants Totti, Tan, Freeman, Kasikova and Carstairs, Commanders Dunham and Adams, Ensign Dell, and [any other names to be added – this is not necessarily who will go but the officers invited to the initial briefing]. I want them in the Conference Room in fifteen minutes.”
“Yes Commander,” Lieutenant Bennett replied and sent the necessary messages.
[Senior Officers' Conference Room Deck 14. 07:45]
Fifteen minutes gave Karen enough time to replicate a double espresso and to prepare an initial briefing for the team. She sighed then breathed in the warm aromatic steam that rose from her cup. “I really need to cut down on this,” she said to herself.
A government overthrown first thing in the morning! What else could possibly go wrong? Though she did not yet know it that was a question that Karen would have an answer to before lunchtime.
Dunham was the first to enter, he was still in his flight suit and was slugging on a bottle of water, he seemed to be a little worn down from physical exhaustion, but his eyes were bright, aware and attentive. As always he had a smile on his face as he entered the room. "Commander." he said politely by way of introduction.
"Good morning, Commander Dunham. Have a seat," she said. "Early start?" she asked with a nod to his flight suit.
"yeah...." said Dunham with a wry smile and small shake of his head. "first thing on the agenda was G force training and atmospheric flight manoeuvres." He stretched before sitting himself down. He laughed a little. "Everybody in my muscle is aching. How are you Commander?"
"Sounds like an interesting way to shake off the sleep," Karen remarked, unconvinced that she's try that any time soon. "Not bad, I finally got time yesterday to get a bit of holosuite time, nice run up Ben Nevis and down again. It certainly cleared out the cobwebs, though I'm a bit off my record of an hour and forty minutes," she added, "so you're not the only one creaking this morning."
"Here's to the creaking." Said Dunham toasting with his bottle of water, the unceremoniously tagging another glug of water.
Vincent Tan was the next to enter. He nodded his greeting to commanders Villiers and Dunham as he entered. He took the folder tucked under his arm, opened it and placed it on the table as he sat down. "I think it was an English artist that said, "People who get up early in the morning cause war, death and famine." I hope that's not what we're up to. To be fair, my shift doesn't start for another hour and a half and I'd rather be sleeping."
Ensign Dell stepped into the room shortly after Tan. The acting chief of operations still wasn't used to early morning meetings with senior officers and wondered if there was a problem. "Morning Ma'am," she said, "Sirs," acknowledging Dunham and Tan. The young human woman slid into a chair next to Dunham, and set her padd before her.
"Take a seat, both of you," Karen said with a nod, "and thank you for your prompt attendance. The others will be here soon, and then I'll explain why I have asked you here. Help yourself to something from the replicator," she added. "You too, Carstairs," she continued as the Lieutenant from the JAG offices arrived. She thought this mission might need a lawyers hand somewhere along the line, and if not Lieutenant Evan Carstairs was quite capable of handing out supplies where needed.
"What's going on?" Bruce asked walking into the room still carrying his tools. "As usual I have a ton of people wanting everything fixed now." He said as he sat down in an open seat.
Dunham chuckled at the over worked engineer. It was a sympathetic chuckle, as Dunham well knew that the man's time was sparse. But he gave him friendly pat on the shoulder as a show of sympathy followed by a smile.
Mathew was on his way back from the Diplomatic office, when the call came through to meet the commander. He hadn't seen her since the incident with Squink's fusion cooking. He was reading through the file that had come through the night before about the events on Feltor prime, and was taken-a-back by how fast these events had taken place. The last he'd heard about it was minor rioting. He reached his target, and stepped in.
"Good morning Commander, I haven't seen you for a while," he said with a smile.
He looked around and noticed he was one of the only ones properly awake.
Dunham proffered his water bottle in a toast to the latest entry into the room, he did not recognise the man, but he wore the uniform colours of the diplomatic core.
"Thank you for joining us, Lieutenant Totti," Karen said. "Do take a seat. We're almost all here, so as soon as the doctor joins us, I'll begin. Meanwhile I've prepared a briefing on the Feltor Prime situation and what has occurred during the last hours," she drained her espresso, "have a read, and then I'll continue."
Chelsea arrived looking flushed. "Sorry I'm late, Commander, I had a medical emergency crop up....." she explained and took a vacant seat.
Jana came in right behind Chelsea. "Sorry I'm late too...got held up in the Science Department." Jana took the next closest empty chair.
Chelsea shot a look at Rick and smiled, then turned her attention back to Commander Villiers.
Dunham gave her a wink back, he unconsciously played with the ring on his finger, twisting it from side to side. He smiled to himself.
Vincent noticed all this and feigned a vomitting action, which brought a smile form Rick and glare from Chelsea.
Mathew walked over to the replicator and ordered a breakfast smoothie, then sat down and smiled at Chelsea.
Dell looked up from the briefing. "Feltor Prime, ma'am?. Hasn't the Federation been kicked out of there?"
Mathew decided he'd pipe up "The federation has not been kicked out; yet. But the planet is in it's final stages of a civil war." He took another drink of his drink then eyed Karen to keep going. he suspected she'd been told as much as him.
"Five hours ago the war ended. The administration that brought Feltor Prime into the Federation was removed and its leaders pplaced under house arrest. The new regime, has reiterated its intention to secede from the Federation. They've made it their battle cry, their cause has been to blame Federation membership for local issues and now that they've won they are going to be under pressure from their supporters to follow through." Karen paused for breath. "Reports from sources on the ground loyal to the Federations have just started filtering through, we can't guarantee that communication will remain open. This was no bloodless coup, most of the fighting was in heavily populated urban areas, this new order were not too particular in their targets," she explained. "Until the new government formally leaves the Federation we can help and they can't stop us."
"When you say "help", Commander, I get the impression you don't just mean handing out milk and cookies," Vincent raised an eyebrow. "Depending on who we help and how much help we give, it is possible that what we see now is not the final stage of a civil war, as Mr Totti put it, but in fact the start of an even bloodier one. Therefore, my question is what is our scope on this job? Do we simply observe civilian massacres or can we intervene? Under what circumstances? With what level of force?"
"We have a limited window, Lieutenant," Karen said, "an intention to secede is not an official declaration. Until that comes it is still a Federation world and we can still intervene. You are correct that we believe things will get worse, particularly for those people from other Federation worlds who chose to migrate there and integrate with the local populace. They have to be our primary focus. If Feltor leave the Federation while we are in situ, our aim will be to get those who want to leave out. I'm looking for volunteers to go to Feltor Prime, a team of specialists. Lieutenant Carstairs will be along for legal advise on the situation as it develops, I'd like representatives from Ops, Engineering, Science, Medical, Diplomatics ..."
"In that case, Commander, may I be the first to volunteer?" Vincent piped up, looking forward to getting off the station and escaping his official (and unofficial) duties. "In the event of a mass evacuation, we're looking at a lot of space craft, large and small, all trying to get away at maximum warp. A traffic controller could make the whole process a lot easier."
"We'll be running scenarios for the support operation before you've even left," Karen said. Bradshaw and his operation were an obvious choice to enlist to gain 'neutral' vessels if Feltor Prime did turn their backs on the Federation and given what she now knew of his operation he would be persuaded to assist, if not from the goodness of his heart to demonstrate that his 'business' was of some use to Starfleet and to Deep Space Five.
"Hmm." Bruce said, "I'm not too sure if I am up for this. What exactly are you needing from us in engineering?" He asked trying to better grasp if he would be the best one to go or if there would be some one else qualified enough to go in his stead. He was still getting over his last stint with Jarred. However if he would be more than willing to go if it meant helping someone in need.
Karen nodded as she listened. "If we reach the ground before the secession there are going to be issues with infrastructure, with communications. We don't yet know the extent of the damage but repairs will be necessary, also we believe on the basis of communications received that the new regime is putting in place a grid to block external contact ... we need to find a way to bypass that." Karen paused. Perhaps she should have said it at the beginning but she had hoped ... "People, the new Regime have stated an intention to 'remove' anyone not native to Feltor Prime, despite the dubious legality around this operation we cannot let this pass, there are innocent settlers, there are people who have married into the populace, there are people in business ... " Karen ran a hand through her hair. "They went there because it was a Federation world and this new regime ... you've read the report, you know what they intend," she said in frustration.
Dell flicked back and forth through the briefing. "Given the amount of biological, chemical and technological nasties that got thrown around it could be useful to have decent eyes and ears down there. Especially if the new administration decide to start throwing them again. I'm going to send Petty Officer Garan. She's a sensors expert, make sure no-one ends up contaminated. There's also a nujmber of other Specialists - transporter, tractor beam, comms - I can send that would be useful in the event of mass evac, and provide some extra support for strategic ops and engineering."
"Thank you," Karen said, "We need escort vessels too, we may have to place a ship a safe distance away and use that as a base of operations, that is something our simulations will provide."
Bruce looked over to the acting ops officer. "As the transporter, tractor beam, and communication specialists are in my department I can assure you they were already on the list of engineers." He then turned to the XO. "And as I have just recently had some command time on the Nautilus and you need some esscort vessels. I offer to resume being her acting CO. My team and I can use her as our base of operations as long as there is not any opposition. That way we can be a separate entity of sorts and have an extra Wallace on stand by should things take a turn for the worse." He really didn't want to do it but no one else in engineering had the experience in command, and having a non engineer at the lead could prove to be disastrous.
Mathew was slightly overwhelmed with all the tension in the room, but pushed it aside for the moment. "Commander. I would like to try and open up a dialog with this new government." Mathew paused and thought for a moment "We could take a Diplomatic shuttle and send back some reports of what obstacles you may face trying to land."
"That will be a useful distraction," Karen nodded, "keeping them talking might buy us a bit of extra time to get things moving down on the ground."
"How do we know that our presence won't provoke this new regime into using more aggressive methods?" Vincent noticed some glares from his colleagues. "Forgive me everyone. I assure you I am as eager to render assistance to any Federation citizen in need as you are. But surely you can all see that this is a volatile situation. Our presence, or the presence of *any* uninvited party, could act as a catalyst and accelerate the descent of Feltor. Especially in the hands of an insecure regime, flushed with new found power and a thirst for blood. I merely seek to be the voice of caution and mean no offence."
It was a valid point, and one that was under consideration. "The simple answer is that we don't. My hope is to get in before the new regime take the final step and leave the Federation, up until that point we have every right to be there and they have no right to forbid us access to the system. If we're very lucky they'll see sense and abandon their plan to leave. It'll be up to Totti and Carstairs to come up with an argument that will persuade them to this end," she said. Unfortunately Karen did not think that the odds were good.
Chelsea sat pondering this situation. "Obviously, there will be a medical contingent, naturally as large as we can safely transport and protect. Ben will probably volunteer, my ACMO but IF he doesn't then i'll step in and leave him in charge here". She offered, looking apologetically at Rick as she spoke.
Jana leaned forward after listening to those around her speak. "What do you need me to do? I have some medical training...but..." Her eyes darted from Chelsea to the rest of the people around the table.
"That's good," Karen reasoned, "The science stuff would be useful too, if they've been using anything chemical down there there could be the need to find out what and counteract it," she said.
Jana nodded, "right I will get my gear ready as soon as we are done here."
"We can fit you aboard the Nautilus if you have no objection to being with a bunch of Engineers." Bruce suggested.
"Not at all." Jana replied.
"Ben *will* be disappointed" Chelsea smirked softly with amusement. "but i'm sure you could console him later." It was more rhetorical than anything and the look she got back made her smile all the more.
"Chelsea!" Jana whispered to her friend. "Perhaps I will object to being with engineers so I can go down with Ben." She leaned in to whisper to Chelsea and winked.
"Right lets get to it then shall we?" said Dunham with a quick slap of his hands, "I'll get you guys a pilot for the runabout. When you want to go."
"I will need a little bit of time to get my team and get together. In a few hours minimum atleast for Engineering." Bruce replied.
Karen exhaled, it seemed there were no more questions ... for now. "OK, folks, have your people meet in docking bay nine in one hour. A full brief will await them."
This day could only get better ... couldn't it?
OFF
Commander Karen Villiers
Executive Officer
CAG Squadron Leader
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dunham
Lieutenant Mathew Totti
C.D.O
Ensign Dell
Acting Chief of Operations
NPC' by Notty
Lt. Cmdr. Chelsea Adams
CMO - DS5
Lt. Jana Kasikova
Alien Archaeologist/Anthropologist
Lt. Bruce Freeman
CEO
Lt Vincent Tan
Chief of Strategic Operations
Et al
by Commander Richard Dunham & Commander Karen Villiers & Lieutenant Jana Kasikova & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Lieutenant Mathew Totti & Commander Chelsea Dunham & Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Lieutenant Commander Bruce Freeman
Post Details
| Title | A Run About - And a Not So Civil War | |
| Mission | Judgement | |
| Author(s) | Commander Richard Dunham & Commander Karen Villiers & Lieutenant Jana Kasikova & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Lieutenant Mathew Totti & Commander Chelsea Dunham & Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Lieutenant Commander Bruce Freeman | |
| Posted | Tue Sep 21, 2010 @ 7:20pm | |
| Location | Ops | |
| Timeline | SD35. 07:30 |
“It’s a mess, that’s what it is!” Commander Villiers said as she read the situation report.
So that was it, the situation on Feltor Prime had escalated and the new regime had declared their intention to secede from the Federation. It was early days for the new order and the Federation Government asked that Starfleet ‘observe’ the situation for now. But for now at least the people of Feltor Prime were still Federation citizens and the fact still remained that the people were suffering in the aftermath of the war and the Federation, from the base of Deep Space Five were close enough to provide aid to the civilian populace.
But ‘Observe’ did not imply ‘assist’.
It could be a week, an hour or a day before the final decision on Federation membership was taken, a narrow window to do some good – if they went in after it was closed they would be breaching all sorts of edicts unless the new government invited them in to help … but if they were already on the ground …
“Get me Lieutenants Totti, Tan, Freeman, Kasikova and Carstairs, Commanders Dunham and Adams, Ensign Dell, and [any other names to be added – this is not necessarily who will go but the officers invited to the initial briefing]. I want them in the Conference Room in fifteen minutes.”
“Yes Commander,” Lieutenant Bennett replied and sent the necessary messages.
[Senior Officers' Conference Room Deck 14. 07:45]
Fifteen minutes gave Karen enough time to replicate a double espresso and to prepare an initial briefing for the team. She sighed then breathed in the warm aromatic steam that rose from her cup. “I really need to cut down on this,” she said to herself.
A government overthrown first thing in the morning! What else could possibly go wrong? Though she did not yet know it that was a question that Karen would have an answer to before lunchtime.
Dunham was the first to enter, he was still in his flight suit and was slugging on a bottle of water, he seemed to be a little worn down from physical exhaustion, but his eyes were bright, aware and attentive. As always he had a smile on his face as he entered the room. "Commander." he said politely by way of introduction.
"Good morning, Commander Dunham. Have a seat," she said. "Early start?" she asked with a nod to his flight suit.
"yeah...." said Dunham with a wry smile and small shake of his head. "first thing on the agenda was G force training and atmospheric flight manoeuvres." He stretched before sitting himself down. He laughed a little. "Everybody in my muscle is aching. How are you Commander?"
"Sounds like an interesting way to shake off the sleep," Karen remarked, unconvinced that she's try that any time soon. "Not bad, I finally got time yesterday to get a bit of holosuite time, nice run up Ben Nevis and down again. It certainly cleared out the cobwebs, though I'm a bit off my record of an hour and forty minutes," she added, "so you're not the only one creaking this morning."
"Here's to the creaking." Said Dunham toasting with his bottle of water, the unceremoniously tagging another glug of water.
Vincent Tan was the next to enter. He nodded his greeting to commanders Villiers and Dunham as he entered. He took the folder tucked under his arm, opened it and placed it on the table as he sat down. "I think it was an English artist that said, "People who get up early in the morning cause war, death and famine." I hope that's not what we're up to. To be fair, my shift doesn't start for another hour and a half and I'd rather be sleeping."
Ensign Dell stepped into the room shortly after Tan. The acting chief of operations still wasn't used to early morning meetings with senior officers and wondered if there was a problem. "Morning Ma'am," she said, "Sirs," acknowledging Dunham and Tan. The young human woman slid into a chair next to Dunham, and set her padd before her.
"Take a seat, both of you," Karen said with a nod, "and thank you for your prompt attendance. The others will be here soon, and then I'll explain why I have asked you here. Help yourself to something from the replicator," she added. "You too, Carstairs," she continued as the Lieutenant from the JAG offices arrived. She thought this mission might need a lawyers hand somewhere along the line, and if not Lieutenant Evan Carstairs was quite capable of handing out supplies where needed.
"What's going on?" Bruce asked walking into the room still carrying his tools. "As usual I have a ton of people wanting everything fixed now." He said as he sat down in an open seat.
Dunham chuckled at the over worked engineer. It was a sympathetic chuckle, as Dunham well knew that the man's time was sparse. But he gave him friendly pat on the shoulder as a show of sympathy followed by a smile.
Mathew was on his way back from the Diplomatic office, when the call came through to meet the commander. He hadn't seen her since the incident with Squink's fusion cooking. He was reading through the file that had come through the night before about the events on Feltor prime, and was taken-a-back by how fast these events had taken place. The last he'd heard about it was minor rioting. He reached his target, and stepped in.
"Good morning Commander, I haven't seen you for a while," he said with a smile.
He looked around and noticed he was one of the only ones properly awake.
Dunham proffered his water bottle in a toast to the latest entry into the room, he did not recognise the man, but he wore the uniform colours of the diplomatic core.
"Thank you for joining us, Lieutenant Totti," Karen said. "Do take a seat. We're almost all here, so as soon as the doctor joins us, I'll begin. Meanwhile I've prepared a briefing on the Feltor Prime situation and what has occurred during the last hours," she drained her espresso, "have a read, and then I'll continue."
Chelsea arrived looking flushed. "Sorry I'm late, Commander, I had a medical emergency crop up....." she explained and took a vacant seat.
Jana came in right behind Chelsea. "Sorry I'm late too...got held up in the Science Department." Jana took the next closest empty chair.
Chelsea shot a look at Rick and smiled, then turned her attention back to Commander Villiers.
Dunham gave her a wink back, he unconsciously played with the ring on his finger, twisting it from side to side. He smiled to himself.
Vincent noticed all this and feigned a vomitting action, which brought a smile form Rick and glare from Chelsea.
Mathew walked over to the replicator and ordered a breakfast smoothie, then sat down and smiled at Chelsea.
Dell looked up from the briefing. "Feltor Prime, ma'am?. Hasn't the Federation been kicked out of there?"
Mathew decided he'd pipe up "The federation has not been kicked out; yet. But the planet is in it's final stages of a civil war." He took another drink of his drink then eyed Karen to keep going. he suspected she'd been told as much as him.
"Five hours ago the war ended. The administration that brought Feltor Prime into the Federation was removed and its leaders pplaced under house arrest. The new regime, has reiterated its intention to secede from the Federation. They've made it their battle cry, their cause has been to blame Federation membership for local issues and now that they've won they are going to be under pressure from their supporters to follow through." Karen paused for breath. "Reports from sources on the ground loyal to the Federations have just started filtering through, we can't guarantee that communication will remain open. This was no bloodless coup, most of the fighting was in heavily populated urban areas, this new order were not too particular in their targets," she explained. "Until the new government formally leaves the Federation we can help and they can't stop us."
"When you say "help", Commander, I get the impression you don't just mean handing out milk and cookies," Vincent raised an eyebrow. "Depending on who we help and how much help we give, it is possible that what we see now is not the final stage of a civil war, as Mr Totti put it, but in fact the start of an even bloodier one. Therefore, my question is what is our scope on this job? Do we simply observe civilian massacres or can we intervene? Under what circumstances? With what level of force?"
"We have a limited window, Lieutenant," Karen said, "an intention to secede is not an official declaration. Until that comes it is still a Federation world and we can still intervene. You are correct that we believe things will get worse, particularly for those people from other Federation worlds who chose to migrate there and integrate with the local populace. They have to be our primary focus. If Feltor leave the Federation while we are in situ, our aim will be to get those who want to leave out. I'm looking for volunteers to go to Feltor Prime, a team of specialists. Lieutenant Carstairs will be along for legal advise on the situation as it develops, I'd like representatives from Ops, Engineering, Science, Medical, Diplomatics ..."
"In that case, Commander, may I be the first to volunteer?" Vincent piped up, looking forward to getting off the station and escaping his official (and unofficial) duties. "In the event of a mass evacuation, we're looking at a lot of space craft, large and small, all trying to get away at maximum warp. A traffic controller could make the whole process a lot easier."
"We'll be running scenarios for the support operation before you've even left," Karen said. Bradshaw and his operation were an obvious choice to enlist to gain 'neutral' vessels if Feltor Prime did turn their backs on the Federation and given what she now knew of his operation he would be persuaded to assist, if not from the goodness of his heart to demonstrate that his 'business' was of some use to Starfleet and to Deep Space Five.
"Hmm." Bruce said, "I'm not too sure if I am up for this. What exactly are you needing from us in engineering?" He asked trying to better grasp if he would be the best one to go or if there would be some one else qualified enough to go in his stead. He was still getting over his last stint with Jarred. However if he would be more than willing to go if it meant helping someone in need.
Karen nodded as she listened. "If we reach the ground before the secession there are going to be issues with infrastructure, with communications. We don't yet know the extent of the damage but repairs will be necessary, also we believe on the basis of communications received that the new regime is putting in place a grid to block external contact ... we need to find a way to bypass that." Karen paused. Perhaps she should have said it at the beginning but she had hoped ... "People, the new Regime have stated an intention to 'remove' anyone not native to Feltor Prime, despite the dubious legality around this operation we cannot let this pass, there are innocent settlers, there are people who have married into the populace, there are people in business ... " Karen ran a hand through her hair. "They went there because it was a Federation world and this new regime ... you've read the report, you know what they intend," she said in frustration.
Dell flicked back and forth through the briefing. "Given the amount of biological, chemical and technological nasties that got thrown around it could be useful to have decent eyes and ears down there. Especially if the new administration decide to start throwing them again. I'm going to send Petty Officer Garan. She's a sensors expert, make sure no-one ends up contaminated. There's also a nujmber of other Specialists - transporter, tractor beam, comms - I can send that would be useful in the event of mass evac, and provide some extra support for strategic ops and engineering."
"Thank you," Karen said, "We need escort vessels too, we may have to place a ship a safe distance away and use that as a base of operations, that is something our simulations will provide."
Bruce looked over to the acting ops officer. "As the transporter, tractor beam, and communication specialists are in my department I can assure you they were already on the list of engineers." He then turned to the XO. "And as I have just recently had some command time on the Nautilus and you need some esscort vessels. I offer to resume being her acting CO. My team and I can use her as our base of operations as long as there is not any opposition. That way we can be a separate entity of sorts and have an extra Wallace on stand by should things take a turn for the worse." He really didn't want to do it but no one else in engineering had the experience in command, and having a non engineer at the lead could prove to be disastrous.
Mathew was slightly overwhelmed with all the tension in the room, but pushed it aside for the moment. "Commander. I would like to try and open up a dialog with this new government." Mathew paused and thought for a moment "We could take a Diplomatic shuttle and send back some reports of what obstacles you may face trying to land."
"That will be a useful distraction," Karen nodded, "keeping them talking might buy us a bit of extra time to get things moving down on the ground."
"How do we know that our presence won't provoke this new regime into using more aggressive methods?" Vincent noticed some glares from his colleagues. "Forgive me everyone. I assure you I am as eager to render assistance to any Federation citizen in need as you are. But surely you can all see that this is a volatile situation. Our presence, or the presence of *any* uninvited party, could act as a catalyst and accelerate the descent of Feltor. Especially in the hands of an insecure regime, flushed with new found power and a thirst for blood. I merely seek to be the voice of caution and mean no offence."
It was a valid point, and one that was under consideration. "The simple answer is that we don't. My hope is to get in before the new regime take the final step and leave the Federation, up until that point we have every right to be there and they have no right to forbid us access to the system. If we're very lucky they'll see sense and abandon their plan to leave. It'll be up to Totti and Carstairs to come up with an argument that will persuade them to this end," she said. Unfortunately Karen did not think that the odds were good.
Chelsea sat pondering this situation. "Obviously, there will be a medical contingent, naturally as large as we can safely transport and protect. Ben will probably volunteer, my ACMO but IF he doesn't then i'll step in and leave him in charge here". She offered, looking apologetically at Rick as she spoke.
Jana leaned forward after listening to those around her speak. "What do you need me to do? I have some medical training...but..." Her eyes darted from Chelsea to the rest of the people around the table.
"That's good," Karen reasoned, "The science stuff would be useful too, if they've been using anything chemical down there there could be the need to find out what and counteract it," she said.
Jana nodded, "right I will get my gear ready as soon as we are done here."
"We can fit you aboard the Nautilus if you have no objection to being with a bunch of Engineers." Bruce suggested.
"Not at all." Jana replied.
"Ben *will* be disappointed" Chelsea smirked softly with amusement. "but i'm sure you could console him later." It was more rhetorical than anything and the look she got back made her smile all the more.
"Chelsea!" Jana whispered to her friend. "Perhaps I will object to being with engineers so I can go down with Ben." She leaned in to whisper to Chelsea and winked.
"Right lets get to it then shall we?" said Dunham with a quick slap of his hands, "I'll get you guys a pilot for the runabout. When you want to go."
"I will need a little bit of time to get my team and get together. In a few hours minimum atleast for Engineering." Bruce replied.
Karen exhaled, it seemed there were no more questions ... for now. "OK, folks, have your people meet in docking bay nine in one hour. A full brief will await them."
This day could only get better ... couldn't it?
OFF
Commander Karen Villiers
Executive Officer
CAG Squadron Leader
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dunham
Lieutenant Mathew Totti
C.D.O
Ensign Dell
Acting Chief of Operations
NPC' by Notty
Lt. Cmdr. Chelsea Adams
CMO - DS5
Lt. Jana Kasikova
Alien Archaeologist/Anthropologist
Lt. Bruce Freeman
CEO
Lt Vincent Tan
Chief of Strategic Operations
Et al