Senior Staff Briefing

Posted on 09 Aug 2012 @ 4:13am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Tarishiana Barel & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Ensign Im'er Mor'an

4,417 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Observation Lounge
Timeline: MD 08 - 0400 hrs

[ON]

Four hours had passed since the brutal attack on Galileo. Battered and bruised from her engagement with Klingon warships, the small Nova Class had managed to escape her pursuers and take refuge in the nearby Z'Tarnis Nebula...yet they were far from out of the woods. The unfortunate death and abduction of several crew members had been a shock to the senior staff, and the mood was quiet and grim as the remaining senior staff slowly gathered in the observation lounge to reassess their current situation.

Standing in the turbolift, Pola leaned her head back against the wall for a moment. "Computer stop..." As the turbolift shuddered to a stop, the Doctor placed the heels of her hands against her eyes, pushing in hard as she took her first breath in what seemed like days but in reality had only been hours. Even now, she'd left we staff behind, still trying to deal with the backlog of patients.

Taking a few deep breaths to try calm herself, she pulled away her hands and straightened her back. "Computer resume." After a few moments, the capsule shuddered to a stop again, this time on deck one. As she walked to the observation lounge, Pola made an attempt to straighten her uniform but gave up as she saw how blood stained it was. Opening the jacket zip, she left it this way, hoping the blood would be less obvious to the people around her, unknown to her was the streak which went unnoticed near the corner of her chin.

Entering the room, she realised she was the first to arrive. Grabbing a water from the replicator, she took a seat at the table, relishing the opportunity to have a few moments moments to herself after the chaos of sickbay.

Delainey arrived shortly after Pola. Like her, she hated to leave Sickbay, and also like her, she was too solemn to speak. Her head accepted her place was in the observation room, but her heart was still in sickbay. Carlisle took a seat next to Pola and met her eyes with a smile that was weak but she hoped still reassuring. Delainey understood as Chief Counselor it was her job to provide comfort and strength at a time like this, even if she was personally still reeling.

After the turbolift deposited her on the appropriate floor, Mor'an made her way towards the lounge, not really prepared for this briefing. It was an unexpected duty given her due to Remington's untimely death and she wanted to make a good impression. Entering the lounge, Mor'an took the first seat she saw, greeting Pola with a gesture as she did so.

Smiling slightly, Pola nodded her head in acknowledgement of Mor'ans gesture. She wasn't sure of the Cadet's customs or how to reply but exhaustion had her just doing what came naturally. As she watched her take a seat, Pola frowned slightly as she noticed the woman seeing to be supporting her left arm more than would be expected. She made a note to have a word when the meeting was over, just to ensure she was ok.

Sleep had not come easily to the XO, in fact it had been nearly impossible to manage more than a couple of hours without some kind of interruption, either a power conduit overloading, an overhead cable sparking, or something in his mind insisting that he wake up and pay attention to the situation around him. Having a briefing in such situations was not exactly something he was looking forward to.
Entering into the conference room, his immediate instinct was to take his usual chair as XO, but that wasn't going to be the case today. Sighing, he collapsed into the chair at the head of the table, and waited for his team to arrive.

Lilou pressed her spine against the wall, inhaling deeply so that her ribs expanded. Her hands hanging at her sides flexed, knuckles cracking. She could do this. She had to. It wasn't that there was no one else. Willis would have been able to fill this role equally, if not better. He had more experience, specifically with the way Quinn liked his projects run. But Quinn had entrusted her with this position, and that was what forced her to step up, grit her teeth, and bear it. Another breath, in and out, and she pushed off the wall, rounding the corner and entering the lounge. She was exhausted, but adrenaline and the demands of the situation were powerful motivators. The idea of sitting in on a senior staff meeting was a strange one, but seeing cadet Mor'an there was a small relief. She wouldn't be the only one out of her element. She hoped. She took a seat close to the door and transferred her com alerts to her PADD so updates on the repairs wouldn't interrupt the meeting for the others.

Tarishiana hadn't wanted to leave sickbay. She had wanted to just tell everyone in her department to just go on without her. Markum was hurt and she wanted to stay with him. Granted she had started off wanting to kill him. The thought of sending Cho in her place had crossed her mind but in the end she knew she couldn't or at least she shouldn't. Science was her department and she would do her job. Entering the Observation lounge she quietly took her seat.

Dea was tried and sore. There had not been a chance to get any decent sleep. Even though she'd returned to her quarters there had been interruptions and when things were quiet her mind refused to quiet. Nodding quietly to the others as she took her seat in the Observation Lounge.

Lamar Darius entered the observation lounge with a swish of the doors and quietly looked around, taking note of the various officers already assembled at the table. His fatigued eyes finally settled on Lilou and he gave her a small appreciative smile as he rounded the large table and took a seat at the far end. His side was still a bit sore from his wound but she had been an invaluable help while tending to him in the corridor. With a silent sigh, he continued to look around the room at the other officers, and took a mental note of those who were missing. Being the only enlisted crewman present was a change of pace for the Chief of the Boat, but it was nonetheless his duty to assist the XO...CO, with his daily duties.

The team, well, at least most of the team, had gathered around the conference table, and even with their reduced numbers, John was still impressed that the entire senior staff had managed to attend - it seemed that with the ship as damaged as it was, trying to get any number of crew members together was a rather substantial task.

"Good morning....I...realise that we aren't exactly in the best shape right now and some of our colleagues are...absent...but protocol is still protocol....I need a status report from all of your departments...so let's get to it."

Looking around the table, Pola figured she had better go first. Noone else seemed intent to want to give their own reports. She needed to urgently get back to sickbay and couldn't afford to be held up. "As of 0330 hours this morning, our number of crew members lost had risen to 12, this figure includes scientists from the starbase. We are still being overrun with injured at the moment, with my staff and Counsellor Carlisle's staff being rushed off of our feet but we are just about coping. We are using all available space within sickbay, the corridors and surrounding science labs."

Lilou bit her tongue to keep from blurting out a question on the Chief's welfare. Holliday didn't need to listen to her keen over her mentor. He needed her in fighting shape.

Nodding for a moment as he thought on the situation in Sickbay, John took a few seconds to tap a series of memos into the PADD in front of him, remembering to account for the reduced crew members during the next duty shift roster...and an unfortunate reminder to request replacement staff once they reached Federation space again, the thought still brought a bitter taste to his mouth even now.

Lilou pinched the skin between her thumb and forefinger hard to force herself alert and present. "Power junctions on the main bridge are spotty, which is causing console flickers, but the ODNs are secure and memory is intact. The failed gel pack in section fifteen is being replaced as we speak. Escape pod launch systems are still off line; the pods are self-sustaining, unaffected by the power shortages, but the launch sequences need to be reset and rerouted before they'll operate. We're working on that. I got transporter room one back online; the power is still a problem, but it works. Holodecks are still offline due to the EPS overload, but those are a last priority. I patched the hull breach in section twenty-seven alpha with a weak containment field, but we need to reinforce it still. We're containing the radiation leak on deck three, but it's cut us off from the access shafts leading between decks two and four for anyone without an EV suit, which is slowing us down getting into the aft torpedo systems. And sections twenty-five through twenty-nine need to remain sealed and off limits until we get those hull breaches secured." She glanced down at her PADD to double check her next report, "Hull breaches in sections fourteen and fifteen on deck four have been contained; our damage specialist is working on the other two and the second transporter room. Ventral phasers are still inoperable, but I've got my people working on solutions. Power to the scientific laboratories is offline due to a network disconnect; I've pushed that to a late priority," she added, glancing towards Tarishiana, "due to power demands and availability, unless there's some reason we need them operational right now."

"I agree, for now we just need to be in a condition to fight. Unless you have any objections Lieutenant Barel?" John replied, adding his glance to that of Peers towards the Chief Science Officer.

Tarishiana had been listening to the Engineer while she looked over the status reports for her department. As long as her sensor bay was working she was going to offer to delay the repairs on the labs. They wouldn't be seeing much activity with the current crisis. "No objections from science. In fact I was going to suggest that if you hadn't already decided it."

"I've got teams running manual surveys on decks five and six; we lost all our sensors on those decks," Lilou continued. "Warp engines are still offline, but Willis and I are throwing all we've got at it and she'll come around. She will; I'm confident we can get her back to at least fifty percent. Maybe closer to seventy. Hard to get there, what with the nacelles taking the battering they did. And hard to repair those out of port, but we're doing our damndest- best, sir," she corrected herself. "We're doing our best. The cargo transporters are offline and those... the primary energizing coils were destroyed in the- well, they took a beating. They need to be replaced. And until we can get the engineering replicators back online, we don't have the parts. We're leaving the artificial gravity net in sections fifteen through twenty-eight off line on deck seven to save on power consumption until we get the warp engine back online. If there's any other sections of the ship we can shut down and turn off gravity and life support on, that's going to save us a lot of power."

"Just as long as nobody needs to get into that section....the cargo transporters sound like a lost cause until we get back to port....consider them low priority for now, as long as we have the main transporter rooms online they should suffice." Holliday interjected as he took in yet more notes from the most recent damage report.

"The deck eight artificial gravity net is offline entirely, not by choice. Power couplings need to get replaced and there's another ODN disconnect between six and eight. We've got hull breaches down there in sections thirteen through seventeen alpha, the antimatter pod ejection systems are currently non-responsive, and the landing struts aren't going to be deploying any time soon. Warrant Officer Slak is down there on manual survey of the tractor beam assembly and I anticipate a report from him in the next hour on the full extent of the damage down there. We shouldn't have any personnel going down there without an EV suit, and even then... it's not safe right now. Slak's taking it slow and using hook and winching." She pressed her lips together. "That's... all I've got for now."

Listening to Lilou, Pola started to realise that sickbay really was in a world of it's own. A world every bit as important as the crew was every bit as battered and bruised as the ship but still....Letting out the breath she's been holding, Pola rubbed a hand across her forehead, waiting for the rest of her colleagues to continue.

Lamar cleared his throat briefly before speaking. It was disturbing to hear the damage report from Peers, but all things considered, the chief was pleased with how well the ship had held up under stress. Both from a mechanical and crew point of view. The fatalities would be hard for some to deal with, he knew that, but they would get better with time. Right now, they had a mission to complete.

"Despite our casualties, we're managing to stay organized and begin our repairs." Lamar began as he gave a status report on the ship's enlisted crew. "Apart from Commander Remington, we haven't suffered any critical losses in any of the departments. And the crew is responding well given our circumstances. I would recommend switching to a dogged watch rotation for the immediate future. It would give the crew a chance to rest and recover but keep us efficient in all departments." he suggested. Unlike the standard eight-hour duty shifts, a dogged watch would cut the time of each rotation in half, allowing the crew to get more rest and stay sharp throughout the crisis.

"I second that recommendation, sir," Delainey replied. "I suspect many of the crew will struggle with insomnia and nightmares in the coming weeks, and I'd like to minimize the time the crew is expected to maintain sustained concentration as they ease their way through hypervigilance and overall irritability."

Carlisle looked down and pressed a button on her PADD. "All of you should have received a copy of red flags to keep an eye out for. These are the indicators for post-traumatic stress reactions. You and your staff will likely exhibit many of these symptoms in varying degrees. The most important thing any of you can do to ensure productivity and to protect the emotional health of the crew is to reassure people what they're experiencing - whether it's feeling numb or highly emotional - is normal. Try to avoid the slightest suggestion that one person's behavior or reaction is preferable over another's. You may hesitate to give someone who's been sobbing an important task, but consider asking him or her if she or he feels ready to do that task before assigning it to someone else. The crew will be honest with you about their fitness if they're assured honesty won't be punished. Don't assume a lack of emotional reaction indicates someone is doing fine, either. If extremes on either end of the spectrum persist, don't hesitate to let me know."

Delainey paused, then offered,"Brayden, Scarlet, and I will be making the rounds to each of the departments to check on everyone, but we'll be relying on you to give us honest assessments of how your crew is holding up. Counseling is not a punishment or an indicator of emotional weakness, and I'd appreciate it if you could model that attitude for your staff. If we can swing it, at least one of us should be available in the highly populated areas during down time to prevent trauma related problems."

Changing duty protocol so quickly wasn't something that John was used to in, usually preferring to stick to the standard duty shift arrangements. But this ship was different, he wasn't stationed along soldiers and experienced crewmembers, this time it was scientists and green officers.

"Very well....adjust the shift patterns accordingly...but I want all critical stations manned at all times - we will maintain yellow alert until further notice."

Lilou chewed the inside of her cheek, eyes on her PADD. She could recommend rest to Quinn's staff, because that's what he would have done. But the idea of letting her team wander off so that they could go talk about their feelings, and by doing so, put the ship in jeopardy? She couldn't in good conscience suggest to them that they should do anything but look after the ship. Otherwise, it wouldn't just be their feelings they needed to worry about. At this point they cold lose life support in days, get stranded in the nebula, and then either freeze to death or be blown up by Klingons. She flexed her hand under the table, rolling her wrist and breathing in time with the torsion to swallow the panic, then looked up at Holliday. If they were done, she wanted - needed - to get back to the damage board.

"Unfortunately I don't feel our situation here to be safe....I need to know more about where we are....Miss Peers make our tactical repairs your priority, if we're going to rescue the captain then we need to be able to run and shoot." John nodded to his temporary Chief Engineer. If Quinn had seen fit to make her his assistant, then the XO was more than confident in her abilities.

Lilou bit the inside of her lip harder than before. She didn't want to disagree with him, but she couldn't see her way around it. Maybe in private. Maybe that would be best. She ducked her head and made a few notes, reviewing the new incoming damage reports with a solemn gaze.

"Miss Barel, Miss Mialin, I need to know what's out in this nebula - I want you to run a standard search grid of the immediate surrounding area - use the shuttlecraft, they're in better shape that Galileo and small enough to avoid the Klingons detecting them."

Tarishiana made note of the request and instantly began figuring out how she was going to delegate that assignment. She would have to make sure the teams were well balanced for what needed to be accomplished. "Yes, Sir." Was all she said to confirm that she had heard the request and would set to it.

"Understood. Flight Control's biggest issue is lack of personnel due to injury. We'll do what we can. Given flight operations of any sort I worry about fatigue but we have no other choice. I"ll get a flight roster and temporary shift rotation in place."

Mor'an spoke next. Her voice was clear and steady, giving a hint to neither her unpreparedness nor her apprehension at filling Remington's shoes for this briefing. "Operations has been working with engineering to get most of the damage under control, but it is slow," she began, looking down at her PADD, "Transporter room one is offline due to damaged memory buffers. Due to damaged coils, the cargo transporter is offline as well. However, transporter room two is usable, but only for low volume transports. Tractor beam has been disabled, along with the sensors on decks five and six.

"Our primary power junctions on the Bridge have been damaged, but we have people working on that right now. As for supplies, we are distributing them as best and as evenly as we can." Mor'an placed her PADD on the table in front of her and looked around at the others.

Dea spoke next, "As far as damage goes, we have some damage to the main flight control console on the bridge. Nothing major, it's causing us to bypass the malfunctioning circuits for the moment but it's not stopping us from accomplishing our job. Aside from that we're doing our best to reroute things around damaged ODN conduits that may otherwise impact our functions. We're also working on getting one shuttle that suffered minor damage up and running again so we can use that in our search as soon as its fixed."

"Very well, in which case it sounds like we have a lot of work to accomplish...Miss Peers, your engineers are going to be stretched so feel free to rope in any additional crew members you feel necessary to complete the repair work - you have my authorisation to do so."

The XO made a few more notes on his PADD, recording the order that he had given, in fact the Commander himself felt that he would probably be getting his hands dirty sooner rather than later to get the ship back up and running.

"As soon as our battle damage is under control and we have a better idea of where we are, I intend to launch a rescue mission to recover Commander Saalm and Lieutenant Coleman....and then get us the hell out of here...I expect all of you to do your duties accordingly and be ready when the time comes. Now if there's nothing else? Dismissed."

Lamar stood from his chair as he was dismissed and made his way to the door. Even with the shakeup in staff the meeting had gone rather well, all things considered, he thought. The officers in the room had seemed calm and composed which was always a good sign. The rest of the crew, as the chief counselor had mentioned, probably wouldn't fare so well. But, that was one of his jobs, to look after crew morale and supervise the enlisted who made up the bulk of the crew. And now, those pesky scientists.


As everyone else had filed out, eventually the room was left with Jonathan and Pola left seated at the table. "Have you got a brief moment Sir? I need to rush back to sickbay at any rate."


Usually when a meeting came to an end, the "dismissed" was essentially a "get the hell out", but this time John was a little surprised to find one of his officers remaining behind. Putting down the PADD, the XO crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.

"Go ahead Doc, I'm all ears."

"I need to know what you now need from me. I feel my priority needs to continue being in sickbay but I realise that you now need me to step up as your XO until we get the Captain back." Pola tried to figure out how she'd gone from being a junior officer to the ship's temporary XO in the short period of 4 days. It was still all a roller coaster and she was having difficulty getting her head around it. Right now her focus was getting her head around it all, she knew that the rest could be dealt with when they rescued their crewmembers and got back to Earth.

"Sickbay it is. I can handle the Bridge and keep the ship running, you keep the crew patched up, how does that work for you? That said....if there is a rescue mission for the Captain....I intend to lead the away team myself...think you can handle the Bridge for a little while without me?"

Pola looked at Jonathan for a moment before shaking her head. "At this point am I not meant to argue with you over that? The ship can survive if I should be lost in such an away mission, how do you think the ship will survive in the worst case scenario we lose both you and our CO?"

"Sorry Doc, Captain's perogative, and for now, that's the way I intend to play things - I owe Commander Saalm at least to try and rescue her and Lieutenant Coleman...they'd do the same for me."

Rubbing the heels of her hands against her eyes, Pola knew she was attempting a half hearted argument as she knew he'd never back down. "And I don't suppose pointing out if something happens to you, you're leaving the ship in the hands of a woman with no command experience who was a junior officer until 4 days ago, could change your mind either?"

"You'd be absolutely correct - don't worry Doc, the ship will be in good hands. I'll do all the hard work in advance, you just need to keep my chair warm, I promise."

Smiling tiredly, Pola shook her head. "Nothing is ever that simple, but I'll keep the chair warm. I'll also look after the crew while you're trying to keep our ship together and plan a rescue. It fits in with my sickbay work naturally and at least it's something more." Pushing back her chair, Pola prepared to leave, "And Sir...keep me in the loop will you?"

"Of course....Number One." John replied with a wry smile on his face as he picked up the PADD in his hand and went back to work, watching as his new found command team member picked herself up from the chair.

Smiling slightly at his title for her, Pola made her way to the door, hesitating slightly as she looked over her shoulder, "Hey Boss....be careful.." After a brief hesitation she smiled, "I'd hate to have to mount a rescue mission after you as well and god knows who'd command the ship then." Smiling she left the room.


[OFF]

--

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lt JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Delainey Carlisle, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

MCPO Lamar Darius
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Lirha Saalm

Cadet Senior Grade Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Intern
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Tarishiana Barel
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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