Executive Decision (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 20 Sep 2012 @ 1:01pm by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D. & Rachel Hardaway Ph.D. & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes
Edited on on 20 Sep 2012 @ 1:12pm

3,197 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Observation Lounge
Timeline: MD 10 - 0600 hrs

[ON]

The day started out well, but circumstances had just taken a turn for the worst. Despite the XO's successful and valiant rescue mission, the captain still remained unconscious in sickbay, and word of her condition had spread across the small ship like a wildfire. Thankfully, Lieutenant Coleman was in better shape and her return to duty was not prolonged. Along with the medical chief, still acting 2XO, a critical and important decision had to be made to ensure Galileo's survival.

Outside of the nebula, Klingon warships were running out of time. A task group of Federation ships had been detected inbound at far range, most likely an indication that the Nova Class' distress signal had indeed been received. With time working against them, they no longer had the luxury of searching for and attempting to capture Sienna. Their mission was now to destroy Galileo and the technology she carried.

Starting at 0430, their vessels had begun launching modified spacial charges into the nebula. Though not extremely accurate, they were large and powerful enough to force Galileo from her current position and on the run. Slowly, they were being flushed out of their hiding space, and eventually they would be pounced upon with no chance for survival. Something had to be done.

Quinn entered the Observation Lounge and stood at a large window, looking out to the space that was passing by. He looked down to his artificial limb and made a fist. Things were not going so well.

Silently cursing internally, Pola strode into the observation lounge. In a frustrating gesture she ran a hand across her hair which had come loose from the bun she had it pinned back in. Even though she understood she had a duty as acting second officer, she felt she should be down in sickbay with their unconscious Commanding Officer. She had every belief that the EMH would look after her but... Letting out a frustrated sigh, she acknowledged Markum before taking her own seat.

Markum smiled and sat down next to her. "Hiya, Doc. Thanks again for the arm. You have a great staff."

Realising she needed to concentrate on what was happening in this room now, Pola turned her head to smile tiredly at the Chief of engineering. "They are a good group of people alright, even the EMH. How are you finding readjusting to the new limb?"

"Great, thanks. Ensign Kohl has been helping me with my rehab. Hell of a nice guy, Doc. He knows his stuff, and he keeps this grumpy old bear in place." Markum replied with a warm smile and a light chuckle.

"He's been an asset to us in sickbay. His rehabilitation skills have been invaluable with yourself and Drusilla." Noticing a movement at the room entrance, Pola turned her focus to seeing who was entering now.

Coleman entered the lounge, adjusting the top of her new uniform. She saw the other officers that had arrived earlier. "Hello." She nodded as she moved to take on of the empty chairs. She was eager to get back to work and with the Klingon's recent actions, she wanted to get back to work.

Even a meeting of Department heads? Kiri was reeling still, thirteen days ago she was leaving the academy on her first real assignment. Now she was going to be in a room full of Lieutenants and doctors, what was she meant to do? Entering the room her discomfort seemed to shine, finding a space a few seats down from everyone else Kiri flashed a small smile to the room and hoped for now they ignored her.

Evelyn's eyes caught the young Ensign taking a seat near her. She returned the small smile at the ensign, but didn't look away. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a rounded cube similar in size as a game die and placed it on the table before turning her head away from the young Ensign. Eve's gave then shifted to the good Doctor and Chief Engineer. "You all doing ok?" she asked.

Markum, still smiling, gave a nod, "Fine, thanks. Just glad to be alive."

Remembering the last time herself and Coleman had been in a room similar to this, Pola smiled her own welcome to the woman. She wasn't sure how but so much had happened and changed since that meeting, it almost seemed as if it had been another time and place, not merely days ago.

Ensign Rhodes entered the room and sat in one of the last open chairs. He felt bad for being so late, but with all that had taken place, preparations had to be made and final status of the damaged phaser arrays. As he sat, he nodded to others in the room. Theron was dead on his feet, with only a couple hours sleep. He had found that a short nap and a quick shower and clean uniform does wonders for the psyche. But he still felt dead tired.

With a PADD in hand and a steaming raktajino fresh from the replicator, Holliday made his way into the meeting room, nodding to his senior staff as he headed to his familiar seat before settling down and taking a large draw of liquid from his mug. For the first time in days he felt successful, that things were going well, now however they just had one last task to accomplish.

Walking by the side of her husband, Rachel ran a tired hand across her hair. It had been a long and stressful few days, neither of them could have imagined that this would be the outcome when they set about making their dream real. "It can't be good if they are asking us to attend this meeting."

"If it involves Sienna, we should be involved in all their decisions," Anthony replied, "At least they have enough sense to see that."

The doors to the observation lounge opened and the doctor fellsilent as he walked in and took a seat beside his wife. He did not bother to acknowledge anyone but Commander Holliday, with a brief nod.

After giving a few moments for the final members of his team to arrive, Holliday finished up with his PADD and laid it to rest on the desk in front of him. Taking another drink from his mug, the XO stood up, and headed towards the large monitor at the end of the table before tapping in a few command lines and pulling up the current situation report.

The vast nebula appeared in front of them in two dimensions, the boundaries of the gas cloud clearly visible, as well as the positions of Klingon ships extrapolated from the trajectories of their kinetic charges that had rocked the Galileo for almost two hours now.

With a second set of commands, the position of the Galileo appeared, shown by the Starfleet emblem along with the Nova class' registration number.

"So... we have a problem. We can't stay in this nebula... and I won't risk running the gauntlet out there... even at maximum warp the Klingons can keep up with us... and I don't need to remind you that we're in no shape for a fight. So... I've made a decision."

Moving his hand quickly over the control panel again, Holliday changed the image, watching himself as the pictogram viewpoint changed and zoomed in on the Galileo, now represented by the outline of a Nova class starship, in amongst the dense nebula gases. Eventually, a dotted line appeared showing a course trajectory.

"We're going to use Sienna."

Evelyn looked at Holliday but remained silent. If this was suggested a few days ago, Evelyn would have responded with colorful reaction such as "You've got to be shitting me." However today she remained silent. Her mind fixated on the path at hand. She then spoke up, "I concur." she replied lightly.

Holliday himself was a little surprised that Evelyn had decided to actually agree with him. For the last few minutes or so, he had been preparing himself for an argument with the El Aurian who he had assumed would no doubt have some reason or other story why his idea was a bad one, but it seemed that for once, they were on the same wavelength.

"I know it sounds crazy... the very idea that Lieutenant Coleman and I are agreeing on something is enough to set alarm bells off in my head... but I feel it's the only way."

Kiri recoiled at the suggestion before settling herself back down, trying to slip back into her masked contented expression. To say anything now would mean she would be developing a track record for disagreeing with the XO. Seeing that the Captain seemed already disappointed in her, calling her a liar. Yet it was a terrible idea. She didn't have access to the data on the project but from what she could tell, it had never been tested. Not even on living matter let alone complex lifeforms. There were billions of things that could go wrong and that was only if they ended up where they were meant to go. It couldn't be the only option, could it?

"It's our only option." Evelyn commented. "I read over the damage report you provided to me last night, Commander, and while I have half a dozen tricks up my sleeves for situations like these, none of them are possible with the Galileo in her current condition." Evelyn explained sighing. "I personally feel Sienna is a failure waiting to happen. I have a hunch that this will become the 24th century's failed experiment like the Transwarp Drive was 100 years ago." she said not caring that the scientists were sitting right across from her. "If we use it for a very short period of time, it will be stable enough for us to get out of here safely."

Rubbing her forehead, Pola tried to make sense out of what was going on. She never pretended to understand how Sienna worked but she knew it was important that several issues where weighed up before going ahead with this. "Ok... in making the decision to use Sienna, has everything been weighed up about the effects using this technology will have on both our people and our ship? The ship is still very badly damaged and this unknown technology could have adverse effects on humanoids also."

"I prefer the risk of adverse affects to death by Klingon disruptors given the option Doctor."

Holliday retorted, having spent hours himself trying to weigh up if this was indeed the best move he could have chosen to make. John had no idea what Lirha would have done in this situation, but with his captain out of the picture, at least for now, the XO had to step up.

Watching Jonathan, Pola let out a breath as she continued to rub her forehead, still not right after what had happened earlier. Sitting back in her chair, she turned her focus to the other people in the room to see what kind of ideas could be came up with.

Ensign Rhodes was unsure and remained quiet. He had not been briefed on the details of the device, but he had seen the uncertainty by the crew and especially the scientists involved in it's development. 'Should I ask the question and look foolish?' he asked himself.

Quinn sat with a smile on his face. "It's about time we use that damn thing. I have reviewed the schematics for it very, very, closely. It's scientific functionality is not perfect, but neither is Warp Theory, but it works. The hardest part will be trouble shooting it for use with our reactor as a power supply. If we can get come up with a working calculation and assembly guide, the engineering team can work it. Although, I imagine we will only have one shot at it, so their science had better be spot on or...PUFF!"

Evelyn's focus then went to the small rounded cube in front of her. "Chief," She spoke addressed Quinn, "Theoretically could the issue with our reactor serving as a power supply be diminished if we found a way to increase the energy output?"

"Well," replied Quinn, "I suppose that could be an option, but I'd have to work the numbers first. I don't want to give a premature calculation."

Holliday was by no means an engineer, in fact beyond the standard suite of mechanical capabilities that every officer was required to have, and a few tricks he had picked up during his time in active service, he wasn't even a patch on the abilities of a seasoned professional like Quinn.

"I was thinking on that....I remember during the Dominion war our engineers were always impressed at the power efficiency of the Jem'Hadar starships...apparently they had the edge on us in power distribution....we have a Vorta onboard....why don't we exploit that?"

Ensign Rhodes sat up straight in his chair in utter shock. His mind began to click through the security protocols for such a consideration. There were so many things to consider and compensate for . . 'The Captain has to be very desparate to do this.' Rhodes thought, and then considered, 'I wonder what this device does? I think it will be important for me to find out.'

Kiri didn't want to say anything, they were all planning, they seemed to know what they were doing much more than she did. Other little things started to force her though, he had to add something to the meeting, else they would think she was useless. She was also a science officer, the motto that she'd burned into her brain since starting the academy, it was her job to have a better idea. Doing her best to sound like she knew what she was talking about, that she wasn't scared, "If, I mean, if we can trust them. If they could help, could we use ships systems as capacitors, to build up enough power?" The not sounding scared part failed, her voice wobbling, sounding like she knew what she was talking about was up to the ears of everyone else. Her eyes settled on the gold shirts, maybe she was saying something they'd already thought of and dismissed, Kiri waited for the blow.

Having been about to make a comment on Jonathan's suggestion, Pola instead sat back in her chair to allow the ideas to be debated. Catching the XO's eye, she raised a eyebrow, uncertain why on earth he would suggest such a thing. Even though their guest had caused them no issues, there was still a lingering doubt. On the other hand, if they were facing death by staying here then what had they to lose?

"Before we let the Vorta anywhere near a console, let alone the power core, I want to... talk to him." Evelyn said looking at Holliday. "Vorta is the weakest member of the Dominion physically, however they are prone to deception and manipulation. I want to make sure any changes he offers won't result in blowing ourselves up." She then looked between Cho and Quinn. "I suggest we find alternatives just in case example, Cho's idea. Depending on how much we actually need, it could work." She looked at Holliday with a small smirk, "I still have a few..."magic tricks" in my little box here, just in case." she said using the description Holliday had for the El-Aurian technology. She then adjusted in her chair, "Or who knows we may get lucky from an omnipotent stranger who maybe glancing in our direction for a brief instance." She said shrugging taking a quick glance behind her shoulder, and the ceiling above before back at the group. "Whatever happens, whatever we decide, we do not have much time."

Sitting back down in his chair, Holliday realised that the two leading authorities on the subject at hand had remained strangely quiet. Originally the XO had expected them to either be excited at the chance of an actual test, or indeed they would be outraged that their technology was to be used when it was still a prototype.

"Doctors Hardaway." He began, addressing both of them at once.

"What are your thoughts?"

Silent and stern-faced up until that point, it was hard to tell what the Hardaways thought, until Anthony spoke... "No." He let that sit with them for a moment and then continued. "Sienna is not ready for field testing, and when you deleted Sienna files, several vital components were lost. Furthermore, it would have been questionable whether or not this ship could support the power levels necessary even if it were fully operational. You simply do not have the power now, in your current state; the core is too unstable and would cause a subspace implosion. One thing you can be sure of, you will never get Sienna operational without our assistance, and we are not prepared to give it under these circumstances."

Evelyn narrowed her eyes at the doctor. "Computer, open Intelligence file, Sienna 0333-A through D, decryption code, Coleman-alpha 111-5 omega epsilon 892-delta. Restore these files to Project Sienna's data core." She spoke out staring at Hardaway. After hearing the acknowledgement from the computer Evelyn spoke, "the deleted files have been restored, and I suggest if you want to keep these files from being permanently deleted along with the rest of Sienna, you will work with us to get it operational. After all we're only talking about a total use of a minute and five seconds of use, not a nanosecond more."

Hardaway smiled at Evelyn, there was something chilling about it. "I don't appreciate deception. But it doesn't matter, it only takes half a nanosecond for something to go wrong, and another half for it to be too late to do anything. Sienna is our project, and we will test it when we are ready." Why he seemed so averse to using his project he did not say, but he was clearly adamant in his decision.

"Doctor Hardaway, I respect your decision." Evelyn said, "any other scientist seeing what this ship and crew has done to to ensure the safety of the project, the fact the Captain and I survived torture keeping the information secure and you alive. What was the casualty report? Twelve dead? And to still say no, and say it with a smile." Evelyn leaned back and gave him a smile in return, "Fine, if you don't want to participate very well. On behalf of Starfleet Intelligence, Project Sienna is hereby confiscated."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Theon Rhodes
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

Chief Warrant Officer Markum Quinn
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer.
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Narrator
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Lirha Saalm

Rachel Hardaway Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
Project Sienna
NPC'd by Pola Ni Dhuinn

Anthony Hardaway Ph.D.
Lead Scientist
NPC'd by Amril
Project Sienna

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