Steady As She Goes

Posted on Thu Jun 20th, 2024 @ 6:12pm by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Commander Cynfor Rees & Lieutenant Commander Rhiana t'Aegis & Lieutenant Commander Jörgen Leed

2,237 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Long Hard Road Ahead
Location: USS Firebird, Captain's Ready Room, Deck 1
Timeline: 25 August, 2396- 0900 Hours

[ON]

The changes over the past few days had been immense, but Cyn took it in stride. He stepped into the Ready Room. "Captain lots to discuss I would say. So much to do and less time to do it in."

Malcom, sitting at his desk, nodded and gestured for his XO to sit down.

"Yes, there certainly is. I know that you'd probably rather be the one taking the Firebird out to meet up with the Coalition representative. But the truth is that your background in Operations and Tactical, fill two of the biggest needs on DS18. Together I think the two of us can bring the station into a higher state of readiness more quickly."

"You are right on all accounts sir. I will have to take a turn in the comfortable chair some other time." Cyn said with a smirk. "From what I gathered about the station thus far it seems that we can get it operational in a relative quick time. However, torpedoes are another issue. Unless we get an industrial replicator online, or someone physically brings us some torpedoes we are going to be limited in that department."

"Yes, that's going to be a problem. Lieutenant Woodhouse and Lieutenant Soto will be spearheading our efforts to get the main power back online. I want to ask Commander t'Aegis what she thinks about that as well. She should be here any minute," Malcom said. He was inwardly pleased that his XO wasn't taking the change of station badly.

"If we get the wormhole open, it may be possible to transfer some of the torpedoes, and other supplies from the Firebird to the station. The Firebird would be able to resupply once we get home." Rees offered up a possible solution. Although, he had no idea how they would get the wormhole open again.

"Getting the wormhole open again is the key to our long term success here. But for now, I guess we will have to just focus on what we can control," Malcom said. His door chimed. "Come in."

He watched as Commander t'Aegis and Commander Leed both came in.

"Excellent. We are all here. Let's all sit over by the windows. There's more space," he said and got up and made his way to the couch.

"Captain, Commander," Rhiana greeted with a perfunctory squaring of her shoulders and straightening her already straight back to indicate a brief salute. Leaving the couch to Malcom and whoever else wanted it, she pulled one of the visitor's chairs away from the desk and turned it around so it faced the couch and windows. They offered a magnificent view of the stars, even though only a small part was visible because of the overbearing presence of the semi-built space station. Before taking a seat herself, Rhiana waited for the captain to do so first.

"Greetings, Captain. Commanders," Jörgen waited for the captain to be seated and then lowered himself onto a suitable chair. The enormity of the situation loomed large. A rogue wave waiting, trembling and tenuous, at the height of its power and moments before its crash. The crew gathered on this ship could determine where and how that wave fell. He folded has hands neatly on his lap and gave an easy nod of readiness to the captain.

Cynfor replicated a tray with some tea and coffee and all of the trimmings that went with it. He set it on a table before everyone and took a seat on the couch. Rees poured himself a cup and settled in to what he felt would be an interesting meeting.

"After that departmental meeting, it is clear to me that we have multiple pressing priorities. The station must be repaired as much as we can. We have to round up the Coalition forces that are not surrendering and also create some kind of holding space. We have ongoing medical challenges and not enough staff, even if we draft volunteers. The Coalition is calling for a meeting in an empty expanse of space to discuss terms for a permanent peace. Oh, and we have to figure out how to reopen the wormhole or else we are going to have a very, very long trip back to the Alpha Quadrant. Thoughts?"

Rees thought for a moment and although he did not come up with solutions for everything the Captain had just laid out, he did have some ideas. "Station repairs are coming along at a good pace. We are concentrating on main power, and tactical systems first and then we will branch out from there. However, we are going to need a complete engineering team before the station is completely operational. That brings up the wormhole reopening. I have a theory that would involve the use of an inverted tachyon beam. Plans to test my theory will commence once station power is fully restored."

Rhiana ignored the tray with beverages for now and instead concentrated on the problem at hand. There were too many problems to be handled all at once with equal success. "Engineering is the only department that is not severely understaffed, even with the sustained losses. That is the one advantage Deep Spice 18 has being a construction site. But we lack personnel in all other necessary departments. Our own crew is too small to provide much relief either. I suggest that we switch to four duty shifts instead of three to allocate personnel more dynamically. At the same time, there should only be a skeleton crew aboard the Firebird: enough to keep the ship operational, but few enough to keep losses to a minimum should the meeting with the Coalition not go as planned." Rhiana spoke calmly, matter-of-factly, as if she was not talking about actual people dying. "While my security staff is spread thin, they all have their orders and I have full trust in their capabilities. In the meantime, I can support the medical staff. I have medical training," she added after a brief hesitation. It was not information she volunteered easily and among those present here, possibly only the captain knew the full extent of that training. The others might have seen a note in her personnel file, if they checked it in the past six months, that mentioned a medical training course at Starfleet Academy during the crew's grounding.

Malcom cleared his throat and glanced at his XO before speaking. "I think your rotation is the right move. Let's start that as soon as it is feasible. As for you though, I have different orders. I've discussed this with Commander Rees and we will be adjusting our command structure temporarily." He took a drink before continuing. "The XO and I will be staying on DS18. I hate to say it but DS18 is the most important strategic asset in the quadrant. It also has lost most of its command structure, which was already limited. I'll assume overall command of the station and Commander Rees will be coordinating all the repairs."

Malcom paused and looked at Rhiana and Jorgen in turn. "I am appointing Commander t'Aegis as acting Captain of the Firebird and Commander Leed as acting XO. The two of you will take the ship to the rendezvous point and see if you can make a lasting peace."

"Thank you, Captain. We have few advantages and must make the most of them. I also concur with Commander t'Aegis that, should negotiations falter, we should keep as much personnel here where it will matter the most." Jörgen glanced at the crippled space station. "I want to add a simple thought regarding the need for holding space. Lieutenant Woodhouse's report noted several exterior and low-security, low-need sections on DS18 that are quite damaged. They have operational force fields, basic life support, and secure doors. Coalition prisoners could be safely kept there as long as nothing else jeopardizes the force field integrity."

Rhiana's left eyebrow rose at the appointment.
It was logical. Of course it was. She was second officer, after all. After the captain's announcement of him assuming command of Deep Space 18, Rhiana could have guessed that this was at least a possibility. But it had never crossed her mind. Rees was the executive officer. She had expected him to command the Firebird during the diplomatic mission.

It was not a big deal, she tried to lie to herself. In her previous life, she used to be acting commander of a warbird with a crew of seven hundred Galae soldiers and officers. The Firebird in contrast had a tiny crew and none of the intrigue, political manoeuvering and backstabbing. Commanding the Starfleet vessel for a few hours or a day would be easy.

And yet.
This time, it was different, somehow.
And she was being stupid and daydreaming instead of listening to the discussion.

Thankfully, Leed appeared considerably less fazed than Rhiana and was capable of coherent speech and thoughts. She gave herself a mental kick and took a deep breath, trying to listen to what the diplomat was saying. Holding cells. Right.

"If we have to rely on force field integrity, it would be advisable to find one room with as few exits as possible to make it easier to defend in case of a systems failure," she chimed in, her voice as steady as before. "Ideally, we should be able to cut off access to the main part of the station should the prisoners manage to escape and overwhelm the guards."

Internally Cynfor smirked, he had never seen the Chief of Security so thrown for a loop and for some reason or another this amused him. "I would agree we could make a makeshift Brig of those lower sections. Keep transport locks on the prisoners and if it looks like the forcefields are going to drop we can beam them out of there. I will make defensive systems and internal shielding the priority when we begin repairs."

"It is good counsel, Commanders," Malcom said, nodding at Leed and Rees. "Let's pass the information along to Chief B'rala and Lieutenant Kooba. They can run with it. Security types generally have a firm foundation when it comes to figuring out how to lock people up. Commander Leed, I know you are a very experienced diplomat, your record speaks for itself. Have you ever negotiated something quite like this with such limited information on your counterparts?" Malcom asked. He truly did want to know what Leed's strategy would be but he also recognized the shock in Commander t'Aegis' eyes. Not that she would ever have admitted such a thing.

"Nothing exactly like this, Captain. Limited information about their species, their coalition, their individual goals, our star base badly damaged and cut off from Starfleet. However, individual sections of the puzzle are similar to other missions. Those regions are where I will start to work. And, despite her training and probable distaste for Starfleet negotiating forms, Commander t'Aegis has acute understanding of tactics that I expect to be valuable." Jörgen gestured towards Rhiana. "This begs another question, Captain. Beyond the ceasefire arrangement, we have not determined our own goals. What are the top two priorities? Demand reparations? Form trade agreements? Mutual aid? A no-cross border? This meeting may not reach that far but without knowing what we want, specifically, the picture I try to form with them will be blurry."

Malcom listened to Leed, his mind whirling with the complexities of diplomacy. The question he asked at the end was a vital one.

"Our primary goal is to secure a lasting peace. After that, I think we would need to establish some kind of embassy for the Coalition on DS18, so that they have a presence and can have grievances heard. Finally, we need to know each of the Coalition members' motivation for joining against the Federation. If we don't know that, then we can never truly fix the rifts that have formed," Malcom said. "I leave it up to you to decide how and when these things occur. You have my full support, Commander."

"Thank you, Captain. I think we are very much after similar things. Their anger may fan into hatred if they do not have a way to materially present their grievances," said Jörgen. "We cannot dictate the outcome but I am confident that Rhiana and I will do everything that can be done for success. In a storm like this all we can do is keep it in front of us and sail through it."

"I have no doubt you and Commander t'Aegis will get the job done. Now, everyone, let's get to the tasks at hand. I'll be transferring to the DS18 Command Center as soon as I can," Malcom said and stood up. "Steady as she goes," he said and watched his officers file out of the room.

[OFF]

Captain Malcom Llwyedd
Commanding Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Lieutenant Commander Cynfor Rees
Executive Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Lieutenant Commander Rhiana t'Aegis
Second Officer / Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Lieutenant Commander Jörgen Leed
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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