Taking Stock

Posted on Sun Aug 17th, 2025 @ 4:10pm by Commodore Jacob Kane & Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Alexis Ryan & Lieutenant JG Astrja Kyan

Mission: Aeon's End
Location: USS Athena - Briefing Room
Timeline: MD-01
1232 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

It was foolish to expect that the news would not have spread across the ship in rather rapid fashion; they had been pulled into the future. A future where Starfleet didn't seem to exist. And that doppelgangers of themselves, if that was the correct word for it, were fighting some unknown enemy.

Kane had been somewhat quick to call a meeting as soon as his counterpart had left.

"Let's begin with a report on damage and repair efforts," he began, indicating that Keating and Kyan likely had the best information on that subject.

Astrja stood. "Whatever tossed us forward in time took a toll on the electronics, nearly eighty percent of the primary systems suffered damage much of it extensive, dropping to sixty percent of the secondaries, with the tertiaries lightly touched at twenty percent. So, less than ideal. We should have the main sensors at near full functionality shortly." She looked around at the other officers. "In good news, there was almost no damage to our main computer core and we have the capacity to repair most of damage given sufficient time. Unfortunately, that sufficient time would be months, so we are prioritizing sensors," She looked to see if anyone had questions.

Finn exhaled and gave a short nod. “QSD is damaged. Warp drive is still viable for short range bursts after we reinforce the injector system and reroute some of the control relays. So we’re not stranded, but we’re not jumping anywhere significant without a couple weeks of serious engineering work. Magnetic containment fields are holding for now, but they’ll need recalibration before we can safely spin things back up.”

"Do what you can with the people at your disposal. If the other...if Admiral Kane is correct, then we likely can't stay here too long. They may have some limited supplies or personnel that can get us underway again," Kane instructed.

With that clarified, he looked to Ryan and by proxy, Zora too.

"As much as I'm sure you're dying to know how we ended up here, the pressing concern is going to be how we get back," he said. "Do we have any options on that front?"

Guilt was not only unpleasant, it was unhelpful. Alexis had spent the last few minutes trying to pummel that into her head, at least wedged deep enough that it could cease to be an intrusion. It was difficult to meet Kane's gaze though, a reluctance that only made her angrier and lead to overcompensation. Just own it.

"It's going to take a while to process the data we were able to retrieve," she replied, her gaze locked on the Commodore's rather than risk casting it to bounce around the others in search of accusation. "Without the Quantum Slipstream Drive, there's no option to try to reverse out and in our current state, we might not even survive an attempt anyway."

Zora didn't need extra-sensory perception to know that Ryan was deep in her feelings right now. Had it been any other officer, she might have guessed the reason for this was fear of their current situation. However, this didn't seem like Ryan's style. So it had to be something closer to self-blame or guilt; yes, that was much more like Ryan. She made a mental note to catch up with the Lieutenant after the meeting. "Is there any chance at all of repairing the QSD?" She asked, never one to give up on the small chances of hope.

Finally breaking eye contact, Ryan's gaze skimmed past the Executive Officer's before landing on Keating's; grim, pragmatic but forced towards resilience because what other option was there? The Science Chief relaxed some of the tension in her shoulders and turned towards Zora with resigned fortitude. "Jury's still out on that but we're going to give it a red-hot try. The chances of us getting anywhere, particularly in regards to us being able to trust it under these kind of conditions again...not great. But," she conceded, "still worth ruling out."

Zora turned to their commanding officer, trying her best to guess what his next move might be. "Sir, as much as getting out of here needs to be a priority, I think given the turmoil state of the region, and the quadrant at large, we need to focus on our tactical repairs first." She had never been a fire-first-ask-questions-later kind of officer, but desperate times...

"As much as I agree, the information from...the Admiral..." He wasn't sure he was going to get used to saying that. "Suggests that staying mobile might be our only actual survival method. They've stayed safe by using guerrilla tactics and relocating their operations frequently." His expression was pensive. Running wasn't his style either. "Do what you can with what you have, best efforts should be made to get us underway so we're not a sitting duck in the middle of nowhere, then we prioritise defensive systems after that. Coordinate with the other Athena."

Finn nodded. "I’ll coordinate with the other Athena's engineering teams and see what resources or field fixes they’ve developed that we can adapt quickly. The QSD will have to stay benched until we’re sure containment is solid, but I’ll have a warp readiness report to you by the end of the day. If there’s any shot at getting us moving and keeping us that way, we’ll find it.”

"Do we know how adept the enemy is at intercepting communication? Should we be working on some way to minimize our communications visibility?" asked Astrja.

"Assume that local ship-to-ship is secure," Kane responded. "Without the subspace relay network, standard long-range communications is likely to be severely limited anyway. Keep prioritising sensor resolution; if these enemies are out there somewhere, then I'd like to know if they're coming our way."

"Sensors, engines, weapons," Zora repeated, mostly for her own benefit but loud enough for everyone to hear. "I'll issue a new duty roster straight away. Anyone who has even a basic understanding of engineering or ship operations will be drafted in to repair the ship, including myself, I guess," she added with a weak smile.

Astrja nodded, her fingers dancing across her datapad as she set to work reassigning personnel within Ops to the new priorities.

"I'll have my staff allocated to focus on the sensors," Ryan confirmed, her expression ostentatiously neutral. The flick of her eyes back towards Keating was the first hint of a more pressing priority. "And I'll handle the sensor feed from the displacement myself, see if I can isolate anything useful." Repairing the QSD was a long-shot but, in the likely event that it wasn't possible, they'd need somewhere to start patching together a viable alternative. Inventing time travel wasn't high on her list of career aspirations but that hardly seemed to matter now.

"I will coordinate with Lieutenant Ryan's team, with their help we should have full sensor coverage fairly quickly," said Astrja. "Let me know if you need any assistance with displacement analysis," she said to Ryan, "I may not know much about time travel but I am good at sensor analytics."

"Have some of your people assigned to assist Lt Commander P'rel," Kane noted. "I have a feeling she'll need the computing power. Let's get to work, people; as ironic as it sounds, time isn't on our side."