Not-So-Brief Briefing

Posted on Mon Aug 5th, 2024 @ 12:17am by Captain Aisling Banerjee & Commander Maxwell Fitzroy & Lieutenant Commander Subak Ren & Lieutenant Damian Leath & Lieutenant Lirien & Lieutenant T’Ux & Lieutenant JG Dorian Duranik & Lieutenant JG Shijo Yara

4,756 words; about a 24 minute read

Mission: Crew Shakedown
Location: conference room, deck one
Timeline: 79457.72

Aisling sat at the head of the table, her cane set before her as she pondered the information on the padd in her hand.

"I don't know," she said aloud, "It seems so...far fetched."

"Does it?" Elle replied, sounding...reserved? Distracted?

"You still aren't brooding over what happened in Sickbay, are you?" Aisling asked. When Elle did not respond right away Aisling said, "S'Lace has not requested a transfer so whatever the situation I feel it will work out between you."

"Maybe," Elle replied after a moment, then: "I...suppose part of me enjoyed it? Like I was getting away with something. It was...fun. And then..."

"Then you got caught."

"...Yes. At the time that was the principle reason I was upset. But now..." she hesitated, "I was very...immature back then. I became a...I think the word 'brat' best applies to me. No wonder Devin seemed so tired and distracted, wondering what I was going to do next."

"Self reflection is a sign of maturity," Aisling pointed out, "So is contrition. I-"

The doors swooshed open, admitting the first attendee...

Fitzroy makes his way in and nods to Elle and the Captain.

"Ah, Commander," Aisling said as she sat up and adjusted her tunic, as Elle glided over to the replicator, "Where do you like to sit. Beside me to provide a unified front? Or at the opposite end of the table so we attack from both ends?"

"Running the other side of the table sounds good." Fitzroy smirks and looks over at Elle "How are you doing?"

He takes his seat and looks over the Data Pad in front of him.

The door the the conference room opened again, and Lieutenant Lirien entered briskly. She turned and nodded curtly at the three others. "Captain. Commander. Elle." She circled the table and stood at attention in front of the seat closest to the XO's side, arms clasped behind her.

"By all means, sit, lieutenant," Aisling said to Lirien as she stood, "There are no assigned seats."

T'Ux entered the room, looking slightly annoyed... wait no that was just his regular expression. He'd pick a seat between the Captain and the XO, and just steepled his paws looking into space without a word to anyone, deep in thought. Such lack of manners this fellow. Seemed he swung between two modes.

Shortly afterward Damian enters as well. "Hello" he says as he sits down on Fitzroy's other side. "What is this meeting about Captain?"

Aisling reached the replicator, over her shoulder she said, "Mission briefing, Mister Leath. You get to find out why Starfleet is seemingly so desperate they opted to allow an artificial intelligence on board," she turned back to the replicator, hesitated, then: "Chai, extra sweet."

Lt. Commander Ren arrived shortly afterward, already carrying a steaming mug of potently fragrant raktajino, no sugar, in his left hand. His right arm cradled a padd, currently displaying a lock screen. He took an empty seat next to Lt. T'Ux, sipping his absolutely necessary caffeine concoction. "Sounds like an exciting mission," he said. "Though of course personal enjoyment is secondary to the needs of the Federation."

"'Exciting' is certainly one way to describe it," Elle noted neutrally to Ren's statement, eyeing Doctor T'Ux with mild antipathy.

Aisling retrieved her cup and eyed it. She really should have taken the time to save her files, her preferences when leaving Cigni, but she had had her mind on other things. She took a tentative sip. Her eyes widened in surprise. She sipped again then smiled in pleasure. How-

She glanced at Elle, who smiled slightly.

"I had a conversation with Cygni's computer systems," the AI noted, "I had all your files transferred."

"Thank you, Elle," Aisling murmured as she sat back down at the conference table. She sipped again, feeling suddenly at ease. Her chai tasted perfect, all was well with the universe...

Yara arrived, the swoosh of the doors the only sound, he moved quietly to the far side and took his seat. Duke slipped through the doors moments before they closed without spilling a drop from his mug, he settled into a seat and took a sip as he regarded both senior officers at opposite ends of the table.

Aisling allowed everyone to grab refreshments and to get comfortable before nodding to Elle's hologram. Elle nodded in reply and said to everyone, "First of all, I am going to provide a bit of a history lesson. And before anyone asks if it is necessary I ran through this briefing with the captain first so yes, she thinks it would be informative. And yes, all of this is true; I will allow you access to classified files to verify every event; since you are going to be going on this mission you now have clearance to them."

Elle disappeared and holograms appeared on opposite sides of the table, mirroring one another so people did not have to turn their heads. Images of Captain James T. Kirk and his staff appeared along with members of his crew, they appeared to be on a planet. Elle said, "These are dramatizations, albeit as accurate as can be based on log entries. Captain James T. Kirk, lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, Doctor Leonard McCoy and lieutenant Nyota Uhura beamed up from the planet Halkan during an ion storm. What they beamed up to..."

The scene changed and now the four appeared in different uniforms, and they were greeted by a Vulcan in a goatee. Lt. Commander Ren raised an eyebrow at the image and stroked his own goatee. On the transporter room door was a symbol of Earth with a sword driven through it.

"...a different Enterprise in a different universe, one where humanity had formed an empire that subjugated other races. Kirk and his people had a very narrow window in which to escape this 'mirror universe' but before he did the captain managed to speak to his first officer's counterpart who ultimately aided in their escape, pointing out the empire's inevitable demise and the potential to hasten it, to replace it with something better."

The scene now changed to an image of Jean-Luc Picard, much younger, the captain of the Enterprise D, "Decades later, another incident occurred. The Enterprise D under Captain Jean-Luc Picard was drawn into this same mirror universe by their 'evil' counterparts in an attempt to start an invasion, the goal presumably to replace our people and infiltrate our universe. It was discovered that in their universe their arm of the Milky Way is slowly separating from the rest of the galaxy and this would limit territorial expansion, thus necessitating the need for new worlds to conquer. Picard and his crew managed to defeat their opposite numbers and return home. And now..."

The scene changed and what now appeared was the crew of what some might have recognized as the staff of Deep Space Nine from twenty or so years ago.

"...this is where it gets very interesting. Because Deep Space Nine had several encounters with a mirror universe. Only not the same mirror universe. For you see, in the first, Spock failed to change anything. In this one he did, and it weakened the Terran Empire enough that a combined Klingon/Cardassian coalition was enough to conquer them..."

Two images of a Bajoran woman appeared side by side, the first wearing a Bajoran major's uniform, the other, her twin in more decadent garb, a wicked smile on her face.

"This meant that there were multiple universes. And so, using the raw data gleaned from these different encounters, Federation scientists were able to create a 'dimensional drive', a device that would allow a starship to pierce the dimensional barrier. A ship was outfitted with the drive, the USS Lionheart..."

An image of an Akira class vessel appeared.

"...commanded by Devin Hadenbeer..."

The image changed again, this time an image of a bridge crew appeared, the woman in the command chair looked like a slightly older version of Elle.

"...was sent on a simple exploratory mission to test the drive. And they got lost because the scientists did not account for how mass affects cross-dimensional computations. Lionheart sustained sixty-four percent casualties over a three-year period. Only two people in that image are still alive..."

The image grew gray, with only Hadenbeer and one man, a young helmsman with dark hair, bronze skin and an easy smile remained colored.

"...Devin Hadenbeer and Jack Sunbear."

The holograms faded and Elle reappeared, looking somber, "Any questions before we move on?"

The first officer raises his hands "I am a little hazy. I know we have General Order 1. I know we have the Temporal Prime Directive. What is the policy for multiversal policy? Knowing the spaces between the words matter." Fitzroy seems largely unsurprised by what he hears.

Yara watches, waiting for more senior crew to ask the questions.

"Ah," Aisling replied after a moment, "I asked that very same question of Admiral Janeway and she seemed...perturbed. It seems at the time Lionheart made her jump there was no policy in place; she was only supposed to come right back; no one expected her to get lost. So Captain Hadenbeer's...fourteen non-violations were not held against her. Since then...there is still not a firm policy in place. Some of these other dimensions are, well, weird. Beyond weird. Alien in ways you can scarcely imagine. What was that strange one, Elle. I mean, stranger than normal. The one where everyone became a color?"

"Yes, everyone became a sentient shade a green."

Aisling blinked, "What was that possibly like?"

"Well," Elle replied after a moment, "According to Devin, it left her feeling blue..."

Aisling visibly winced, she deliberately turned away from the hologram who was looking insufferably smug at that and the captain said, "Anyway, we are supposed to use 'common sense'. Which means if we screw up I am going to hear about it when we get home."

T’Ux just smiled at little when he saw Elle, but his attention was soon taken by the holo and display. The Caitian’s ears flicked lightly as he listened. Turning a shade of sentient green. That would be a good puzzle to solve, restoring people back to their original forms. Worst case they could always store a pattern in the transporter buffer if briefly.

“That being said sir, it does sound like getting home, even if you get chewed out, would be a better outcome compared to others,” T’Ux said quietly. He still maintained that steepled paws."

"So...." There is a long pause " Is the drive system similar to Borg Transwarp Technology?"

"In addition to the Caitian's question I am wondering, will I have to modify the drive?" says Damian. "While do specialize in Warp Drives, I am out of my depth with this device, and I'd hate for us to get trapped in a two-dimensional universe."

"Actually, it is closer to transporter technology," Elle replied, "But even then that is only a shallow comparison. And you should not have to modify the drive. Now, after Lionheart returned home under...not ideal circumstances, Starfleet's Admiralty had decided not to pursue dimensional exploration since they had years of log entries to study. Unfortunately, they could not wait. Months later, ships began to disappear. Fortunately, a Federation vessel, the Liverpool, recorded some unusual readings near one vessel that had sent out a distress signal. Piercing dimensions leave a sort of...ripple in reality the fades. But the abduction had occurred recently enough that Liverpool had gained readings. Then, The Provocateur..."

Elle showed an image of a Defiant class vessel over the table.

"...disappeared. This was the first Starfleet vessel to be taken and the Admiralty realized they could no longer wait. They installed the dimensional drive in to the Lionheart-B..."

The Provocateur disappeared, to be replaced by an odd looking vessel, a Chariot class.

"...with Captain Hans Adenauer in command. Captain Hadenbeer was sent as an advisor..."

Hadenbeer's image appeared now, she looked...worn out, her expression haunted.

"...despite her fragile mental state. She would not have gone but Jack Sunbear had been executive officer on the Provocateur. Months went by without success, but then they found Sunbear in an escape pod. And the story he told revealed something horrible."

Elle regarded the staff soberly as the images disappeared, "There are monsters out there. Alien to your...our way of thinking. Insatiable in appetite, And with a Federation starship in their possession, they could quite possibly learn all of Starfleet's secrets..."

Lt. Commander Ren had remained silent as yet, preferring to listen and hear what others had to say, the better to form his own opinions and conjectures. But after this history lesson, and the talk of 'what's out there,' Subak decided to speak up.

"So do I take it," he says, finding a gap in the conversation, "that our mission is exploratory in nature? Or is there someone else trapped in yet another parallel universe? Why send us at all, if there is such a risk that a hostile party might gain access to our secrets?"

Yara nods, wondering the same.

"I am getting to that," Elle replied, "Jack was in a terrible state. Malnourished, it was obvious he had been under a great deal of mental stress. In the pod were found papers," Elle paused, and smiled slightly, "Yes, papers. With writing on them. You see, this new enemy had the capacity to erase and distort memories, scramble computer systems. They had been repeatedly hunting Provocateur, testing it, and sometimes removing crew members to...study them as well. So the crew, realizing what was happening, knowing they could not trust their systems, began writing down on physical media their experiences. And when they spotted Lionheart on long range sensors, Captain Ogunkoya ordered Jack into the pod and, unpowered, launched it on a ballistic trajectory toward the other vessel for fear their tormentors might hear a transmission.

"When Adenauer listened to Jack's story, when he examined the papers and the conjectures from his crew, he opted to leave and return to their home dimension. Devin...disagreed. She pointed out it was only a matter of time before the aliens tired of the chase and cracked Provocateur's codes and accessed all of Starfleet's secrets. That there were still some forty crew to rescue, not to mention the crews of those other ships. The aliens had bragged those others were placed in their larders, that their offspring were implanted in their victims and would eat their way out. Adenauer was not moved."

Elle paused, then said, "So...Captain Devin Hadenbeer assumed command of Lionheart, staged a daring rescue, defeated the aliens, and returned home."

Aisling sipped her chai and then murmured, "Skipped over a great many points there, didn't you, Elle?" Elle visibly winced, the Captain continued before the AI could respond, "In answer to your question, Commander, in the wake of the 'daring rescue'. the abductions ended. The aliens seemed to think twice about hunting anyone from our dimension. Until three months ago. It is happening again. And sooner or later, a Starfleet vessel is going to be taken, and sooner or later their database is going to be accessed and in our current weakened military state, we are vulnerable. We need to know more about these aliens. We need to know where they come from, how they are organized, their technological capabilities, and whether or not they can be reasoned with or...if it comes to it, if we need to go to war against them. And Kepler, ladies and gentlemen, has been given the task to act as scout and if possible envoy."

Ren continued stroking his beard pensively as he thinks. "One thing I think I need clarified," he said. "Are these abductions happening in our universe, or theirs?" He looked with a pointed gaze at the AI, and then at the captain. "I'm asking because you said 'from' our dimension, Captain. If it's the case that they are simply attacking any ships we send into their universe, then it would seem to me the simple solution is to withdraw all Federation ships and cease any future incursions. But if they have their own dimensional drive, and are coming to our universe..." Subak took another sip of his coffee. "That is another, quite more dangerous situation."

"There is only one dimensional drive," Aisling explained, "At the moment it is stored away in a secure facility. There has been no dimensional incursion on the part of any Starfleet vessels in some seventeen years. No, this is them invading us, Commander, as they had before. Unless it is someone new, but Intelligence is leaning towards it being the same party."

Ren nodded in understanding. Well, that does make it slightly more interesting, he thought.

T'Ux listened quietly, making a mental note to double check if he had filed his will properly, along with goodbye notes to the rest of his family members. "It does sound like we're prey to them... or a very fascinating toy." He did not speak but if they were to encounter aliens, he would be very happy to carry out an autopsy on them. "Did they manage to get any scientific notes on them?"

"Oh, yes," Elle murmured "You could say that..."

The holo re-activated, showing a horrific being covered in black skin, resting on six limbs, a huge maw filled with teeth and alien red eyes.

"They call themselves the 'Black Tide'," Elle explained, "They mass roughly two hundred kilograms and are about three meters long. Think the terrestrial tiger, only frightfully intelligent. Their limbs each have dexterous digits and they are apparently immune to telepathic probes. In fact, telepathic species grow quite uncomfortable around them, to the point of nausea.

"This," the image changed to what for lack of a better term appeared to be a 'space octopus'. An image of Kepler appeared beside it and the ship was dwarfed by the creature, "is their mode of transportation. They are roughly two kilometers in length. Our theory is these creatures are enslaved by the Black Tide, controlled through some means. They apparently feed on energy; photon and quantum torpedoes and phasers have absolutely no effect upon them. However, their tentacles can unleash devastating bolts of energy. However, they do have weaknesses. As beings born to space, they react quite negatively to gravity fields, and using the notes Provocateur's crew provided, Lionheart's crew created a 'gravity lance' that proved effective. And they are vulnerable to pure oxygen as well. Torpedoes were constructed with a hollow, harpoon like tip that injected liquid oxygen into the creatures. The effect was...dramatic."

"I wonder if these have any relation to the alien species encountered at Farpoint Station by the crew of the Enterprise-D," Lt. Commander Ren mused aloud.

"Doubtful," Elle replied, "Those looked more like giant jellyfish rather than giant octopi," she hesitated, then added, "Ah, you would have to look up what a 'jellyfish' is, I suppose..."

She continued, "Two of these creatures were encountered, Captain Hadenbeer designated them 'Cthulhu' and 'Dagon'. Neither was destroyed but they were driven off. A theory is possibly the creatures reacted with such fear they might have temporarily broken the control of their masters. Or the Black Tide was so unaccustomed to an actual fight they retreated. But considering what Hadenbeer did to their spawning facilities I am not sure they would have let Lionheart escape."

I think we best take this slow if we can as they seem to be extremely dangerous from your description and I gather we know very little about them" says Damian sternly. "This Lovecraft quote seems appropriate to our situation; we live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far."

"Sooo.." said Yara, softly. "Our mission is to free the Octopi from the Tigers, making an alliance with the former to overthrow the evil empire of the latter?"

"We aren't even certain the ships are sentient, lieutenant," Aisling noted, "Which is why Starfleet wants us on this mission. We know virtually nothing about this Black Tide and we need to know more before any plan of action might be taken. These incursions might even be the work of another pan-dimensional species or polity. We are going in largely blind, which is why the fastest ship in Starfleet has been assigned the task," she smiled, "to quote a wise man, I like to feel we can get out of trouble quicker than we got into it."

She looked about the table, "Any questions so far? More complete information will be made available to, everything we know, everything we suspect. At this point any and all classified information regarding dimensional travel and the Black Tide is yours to study."

"Yes, I have one" says Damian. "How tightly do you follow Starfleet Protocol?" Damian eyes the captain intently, trying to gauge her reaction to the question. "You said this mission was assigned to us because were the fastest ship in the fleet, from that I can reasonably assume the faster the Kepler can go the better. I can push the warp drive well past it's current limits but it isn't regulation. The modifications are mostly safe, more dangerous than typical warp but not significantly."

"'Mostly safe' does not fill me with a great deal of confidence, Mister Leath," Aisling replied with a smile, "Bear in mind we will likely be far from any dry dock if things go very, very wrong. I am not writing off the idea entirely but for now let us not start tweaking things."

T'Ux eyed Elle quietly, before he checked his PADD to access some details on the Lionheart's commanding officer. What was her name again and details? The feline remained quiet. He hadn't much to add yet at this point. Not without digesting more information. But oxygen reacting... that was worth looking into. Oxygen itself has many properties. Flammable being one of them.

The captain of the Lionheart-A was Devin Hadenbeer, the Lionheart-B was originally Hans Adenauer and then Devin Hadenbeer. A great deal of her records were redacted but that seemed to cover the time the "A" was missing in other dimensions. Likewise there was redacted information during her time as Captain of the "B". As for personal information she was married, then divorced. Held a Doctorate in musical arts, notably musical composition. Two brothers, a niece (a doctor), parents deceased. Note about her being missing for seventeen years. Found guilty of insubordination, spent a year in a penal facility, reduced in rank to lieutenant Commander and served a year as an operations officer. Recently honorably discharged.

There was a lot to take in. "So to be clear? Starfleet may have accidentally started or fell into a transdimensional war. And its our mission to sort it all out? And if Diplomacy doesn't work to sort it out....well.....Starfleet command are they in a position to scale up for something like the Dominion war but across realities and different subspace realities? Or are we 'disposable"

"I think the operative word is 'expendable', Commander," Aisling noted, "And I am not sure if 'war' is the proper word to use in this case. We could be looking at the equivalent of pirates, for example. What if the 'Black Tide' does not denote the race but some faction?"

She took in the officers about the table, "This mission is at least as dangerous as Voyager's ill fated sojourn. We will be far from help, traveling to places no one has ever seen. And it might be frustrating to think there will be no aid, but Starfleet and the Federation are in a delicate position right now. Even with calling up retired personnel, even with an accelerated training program we are short handed and we are vulnerable. Janeway cannot afford to give any more aid. I feel Kepler is the ideal vessel for this mission with her sensor suite and speed."

She paused, then added, "But if you feel you cannot commit yourself to this mission I fully understand. If you wish a transfer then see me after the meeting."

Yara grimaces "it is a mission that needs to be done. We are here, chosen to do it. We must succeed."

Ren smiled. "It seems only logical that we do what needs to be done," he said. "You have my full commitment, Captain."

Duke had been listening intently, “Questions, One, why the AI do we think she can resist the aliens skill with computers? Two, the aliens look large. Can they pass through tight spaces? If not can we place physical barriers we can pass through that the aliens can not? Three are we equipped with weapons that can effect the squids?” Duke asked.

Elle and Aisling shared a look. Then the captain turned to Dorian.

"First," Aisling noted cooly, "She has a name, lieutenant. And second the fact is we do not know for sure if she will be able to resist the Black Tide's influence or not. But her presence in our systems as well as the more robust computer infrastructure gives us a greater chance than Provocateur and other vessels had. Third, that is an interesting idea, to produce physical barriers rather than force fields in key areas of the ship to hamper the Tide's movement. And finally, we are not equipped yet."

She looked about the table, "I will assume that everyone is on board with this enterprise. That being said I have three...errands for you to undertake tomorrow. Doctor T'Ux, you will find a pub in a place called Wales called 'The Knight's End', you will approach the owner and tell them Elle sent you. From there things will apparently become clear," she glanced over at Elle, "Are you really going to be mysterious about this?"


"Yes," Elle replied with a slight smile, "The 'AI' is going to be mysterious about this," she turned to T'Ux, "You should bring someone with you with some experience with ship's systems."

"To a pub."

"Yes."


"I'll go with the Doctor." Fitzroy says. "Its the sort of work I know."

Aisling blinked at Fitzroy and was about to make a quip about 'work' equally 'pub crawling', when-

As the resident Chief Operations Officer, Subak Ren was probably as familiar as any – more than many, perhaps – with ships' systems. "I'd probably fit that description," he remarked.

"Very well," Aisling noted. She turned back to the others, "Lieutenants Shijo and Lirien, I will require you to beam down to a secure facility outside of San Francisco to retrieve a crate, take whatever security with you that you think is necessary. And lieutenants Leath and Dorian, I will need you to head to these coordinates..."

She touched a button on the table and a star map appeared showing Alpha Centauri, "...where there is an orbital facility. You will contact the staff in charge and request access to berth four four seven. There you will remove a device from the deflector array, I have been told..." she glanced Elle's way, "...you will know it when you see it. Considering how mysterious Elle is being about this you may need help finding, uninstalling and moving it. Whatever it is I have been told it will fit into a type fourteen shuttle. You should leave this evening."

T’Ux flicked his ear curious why he was tasked. “Very well Elle, only cause you asked nicely,” he said plainly before nodding his head to Subak and Fitzroy when they volunteered. He made a mental note to double check his legal stuff was in order and to say goodbye to his family.

"All right," Aisling said after a moment, "Everyone has a full day ahead of them tomorrow. I expect these assignments to be relatively simple but that does not always mean they will be easy, so take care."

The Captain rose from her seat, "I will be in my ready room if you need me. If you need Elle, well, she is always within earshot. Unless, I am told, you are using a fresher. I look forward to everyone's safe return. Oh, and gentlemen..."

She glanced at the three men who were going on the mission to the pub and smiled with a touch of irony, "...try not to enjoy your assignment too much..."

 

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