Briefing

Posted on Wed Mar 10th, 2021 @ 6:27pm by Commodore Jacob Kane & Commander Taeler Santu M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Savin & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Xavier Leiko & Lieutenant Ausra Danton & Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D

Mission: By Artemis' Bow
Location: Conference Room
Timeline: MD-01
1196 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Kane eyed the assembled senior staff in front of him. They were still pending a replacement for Lt Sar, but aside from that the events of their previous mission together seemed to have passed - for the moment at least. It was a relief to have something new to be able to focus their energies on. He'd unpacked Starfleet's message to him already, now it was time to get stuck into some of the finer details.

"The Iuvat system," he explained, motioning to a holographic display. "A number of uncommon but not entirely unique phenomena. Binary stars, middle-aged. A few uninhabited worlds. Certainly not of any strategic value. Except for..." He zoomed the display in to the ringed third planet out. "The crystalline qualities of the rings here are particularly appetizing for these creatures Starfleet have called 'Pilgrims'. That's where they're mostly found grazing."

"Commander Taeler and Lieutenant Danton will lead on co-ordinating with the team on board the USS Cavalier. Whatever help they might need from a logistical point of view; we're not carrying a lot of scientific equipment but it's useful to know what they're doing. As always you can pull on Drs Reed and Savin, or Lieutenants Leiko and Keating for technical support."

"Pilgrims," Ausra said as if she wanted to confirm the pronunciation. "Grazing. They sound like space cows." She gave a small apologetic shrug in the Captain's direction.

"What exactly are we co-ordinating?" Savin asked, "what is the Cavalier studying? The creatures, or the crystalline structures?"

"The study is the creatures," Kane replied. "They're extremely rare and protected under Federation statute. Even with creatures this size, the Prime Directive applies and we have to make sure they're not interfered with."

Santu nodded along, she was excited to be able to interact with these creatures up close. She was going to be in charge of liaising with the USS Cavelier. An opportunity to show the Captain her worth, and after the time off and the opportunity to reset she was more than ready for it.

"We are not allowed to interact, only to observe?" the counselor asked, briefly shifting his gaze to the images, then back to the group. Though he had Jerant to sign or message him telepathically exactly for these kind of circumstances, he did prefer personal interaction. He saw Jerant from the corner of his eyes as his gaze shifted, but otherwise didn't acknowledge his presence.

"The prime directive covers all sapience," Santu turned to face the counsellor so that he didn't have to rely on Jerant or the closed caption onhis PaDD. She herself had also been very interested in engaging with the Pelgrims a lot more, but apart from it technically being a pre-warp civilisation they were also under a specific conservation act from the UFP, "I'm sure there's plenty of interesting insights we can gather at a safe distance."

P'rel blinked rapidly, an unintentional response to the Commander's comments. She had promised herself, and Captain Kane for that matter, that she would try to integrate and smooth out her relationship with Santu, but in any case sometimes the idiocy of dogmatic Federation nonsense had to be challenged; "I would hardly consider a bunch of interstellar cows pre-warp, Commander". The Prime Directive had no place here, she was sure of it, and the narrow definition of pre and post warp was absurd at best. "The warp threshold clearly doesn't apply in this instance; these creatures are interstellar and by definition have no culture to contaminate with interaction". She looked into Santu's eyes, note entirely sure if the Bajoran would defend her views being challenged; whilst P'rel had no intention of an argument for argument sake; the Commander was quite clearly wrong and both logic, and a small amount of antagonistic tendency, dictated she be pulled up on her incorrect assertions.

"Your considerations are not relevant in this, Lieutenant," Santu had to bite her tongue a moment when the intelligence officer initially spoke up, despite that she was calm and collected, "these are orders from HQ backed up by additional legislation from the UFP pertaining to this specific species," She wasn't going to go into a discussion regarding the applicability of the Prime Directive, especially since the specific conservation act implemented for the Pilgrims gave them even more protections than that, with an even and unwavering tone she finished, "this is not something that is up for discussion, is that clear?" She then looked around the table wanting to put a stop to this before it became a whole thing.

Looking at Santu squarely in the eyes, P’rel was ready for a fight on the issue. ‘Because the government says so’ was probably amongst the universally weakest arguments one could use, though she held her thoughts and with a deliberate effort to sound pleasant merely replied “Perfectly”. Their first meeting together back on Paratus had lit a spark to their antagonistic relationship like a roaring plasma fire, and P’rel still didn’t much rate Santu’s abilities a leader. As a person, truth be told, she had come to like the Bajoran Commander and was fond of her in a rivalrous, respectful kind of way; Santu had many of P’rel’s own character traits after all. They were both outspoken, confident, bold and refused to tolerate nonsense; at least that was now P’rel viewed her. They were both equally women of conviction and bloody-mindedness, and Santu was if nothing else a brilliant sparring partner.

"We know nothing about them, for all we know they do have a culture," Savin pointed out, "is that not why we are here to study them?"

"We are here to provide escort to the science team," Kane corrected. "In the meantime," he continued, "I intend to proactively locate these so-called traders and explain to them exactly who they are dealing with. Lt P'rel and I will continue to monitor the system for activity, and we'll remain at a state of active readiness to respond to anything out of the ordinary."

"Sir, yes sir," Santu wanted to reassure Kane that they would be ready for any challenge that these 'traders' would see fit to throw their way. With that she got up from the seat but waited to leave until he'd dismiss the briefing.

"Any final questions?" Kane asked. "Department heads to ready their teams by the time we arrive."

Xavier nodded his head in the Captain's direction, but didn't add anything specific. It all seemed rather standard, keep the ship going and powered so that everyone could do their jobs correctly. Though, judging by some of the tension in this room, the pirates were the least of their worries.

"Space cows," Ausra said though she had heard every word of the conversation, her brain liked to focus or fixate on one thing sometimes. 'Who would have thought?"

Finn shook her head indicating that she had no questions. Escorting a science team observing space cows sounded like an easy enough mission. At least, she hoped it would pale in comparison to the action they experienced on their last venture. She wouldn't complain about spending less time piecing together broken systems.