SD241804.24 - Joint Duty Log - "Memories"

Posted on Tue Apr 24th, 2018 @ 4:23pm by Brigadier General Jonathan Grey

1,376 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Test Mission
Location: Versailles Briefing Room
Timeline: Current

=^= Recap =^=

The senior staff of Versailles gathered to discuss the state of current affairs, with a lot of Ambassadors and the command staff of the Endeavour joining them.

=^= And now, the conclusion... =^=

Marine Colonel John Grey poked at the padd in his hands, trying to figure out where he could put the seven of hearts. A moment ago, the Admiral had received a series of high priority reports and rushed out to handle something important. Though this was undoubtedly the right call, it seemed the briefing had somewhat stalled in her absence. The room was awkwardly silent as people who had arrived in a timely manner to get briefed were now...briefless.

"Ok, this is pointless." he said, casting the padd onto the table and rubbing his eyes. "If nobody objects, I'll host the briefing. Onwards and forwards." the marine declared. With both hands flat on the table he pushed himself to his feet and strode over to the head of the table, sinking into the Admiral's chair. She might be surprised to find him here if she returned to the briefing, but it sure beat waiting for an hour and hoping she'd eventually return.

"So, this says it's her agenda." John announced, peering at the little screen at the end of the table. "Step 1 is just a list of attendees. Senior staff, check. Ambassadors, check. Special agents, identity redacted, alpha and beta quadrants? Well, she's gone so they won't show up. The Endeavour is on a secure vid-link; thanks for joining us Commander. And, finally, we're waiting on the Timmis command team. I hear they're at DS9 right now, so
lets give them a moment to dial in."

Pete sat at the console and brought up the transmission “Timmis here, The Captain is indisposed at present I’m sure he will join us shortly but until then you're stuck with me” He said adjusting some settings “How are you receiving us?”

"We hear you loud and clear. Thanks for coming." John replied to the wall monitor, giving a cordial nod.

"Now all the attendees have arrived, we can get down to brass tacks." he declared, poking at the tiny screen to make it bring up the next item on the agenda. He felt a nail bend as he thumped the screen repeatedly with a muscular finger, flexing his hands to relieve the sensation.

"As you all know, a number of ships have vanished without a trace in recent months. Most of the time the rescue ships tracing their flight paths have revealed exactly squat. However, whoever or whatever is doing this made a mistake recently when the USS Jarrod was attacked by what appears to be the same force. The Jarrod managed to survive by the skin of its teeth, and was towed here for analysis and repairs. From the trace evidence found on the Jarrod, in addition to some clever work by the Admiral and her unnamed spooky friends, we have determined that the likely assailant was a group known as OMEGA; for which all information is...unavailable." John trailed off, thumping at the screen again. It seemed that the Admiral's security measures were quite paranoid, and were insisting on a security code before they would divulge details.

"Ok, can anyone here tell me what OMEGA is? All caps, spelt like the last letter of the greek alphabet?" he asked of the room, looking around to try and catch the eye of someone knowledgeable.

Pete looked concerned “You referring to the Omega Protocol?” He asked knowing all Starship Commanders were fully briefed on the Omega element and given until the Jarrod's attack he had been in command so was fully briefed.

Vorna, who had been observing Grey's veritable silliloquoy with a small measure of amused empathy, reclined slightly in his seat and intertwined his fingers, ultimately placing his hands in his lap. The extent to his knowledge of the group were the few minutes of conversation held with the Admiral upon his arrival on Versailles. It was not much to base an entire briefing on yet alone - in his estimation - mention whatsoever. Besides, he knew few of the people in the room, including Colonel Grey. Prudence dictated silence at this particular juncture. He glanced to the others around the room, curious to see if any of them would volunteer something of substance before he offered his limited information.

Down the table, the reactions were mixed. Some wore a puzzled expression, confused over that combination of words in that particular order. A few appeared carefully blank-faced as they either daydreamed the meeting away, or concealed any hint of what they knew. And a few, just a few, briefly sported an expression of unfettered fear.

Grey missed all of this because he was still wrestling with the little console, and cursing the tiny midget person who designed this stupid fiddly thing. He wondered how Cery ever managed to use it, and decided that, were some terrifying error of judgement to land him in control of the station, he'd rip this thing right out and replace it with a simpler interface. Like a speak-n-say.

"Omega what now?" he asked, finally twigging that someone had spoken to him. "Haven't a clue. How can you tell?"

"Unless anyone else conveniently has a command code...or some knowledge on OMEGA." Felix said, from his seat in the room. He had been briefly briefed on OMEGA for Security reasons, but wasn't willing or able to share this.

Capt Pentac finally appeared on the Vid screen. He was listening in the background at the chatter going on and as he heard the word “OMEGA” he stepped closer. He was quite aware that Pete haven’t noticed him standing a bit away. He was testing his new XO.

“If I may be so bold as to step in here,” John Pentac cleared his throat, “I believe that we are not dealing with the OMEGA protocol here but rather a group of some kind that have named themselves the OMEGA. I had a briefing with Adm Cerywyn as we docked with the Versailles a couple of days ago and was told about the group that appears to be able of stealth technology that we haven’t seen before. I would put my neck out there to even say that they are either using a blip drive or even a spacial tear. I guess its for us to find out who and what they are.” He settled next to Pete and nodded a greeting.

"Ok, well, whatever it is we should probably ask Admiral Cerywyn if, uh, hmm..." John began, trailing off as a confused expression crossed his face.

In the blink of an eye, and without warning, a ripple in the fabric of space-time passed through the room. The stars outside the window seemed unaffected, timeless and powerful as they were, but the effect inside the minds of those on Versailles was immediate.

"Long day." he apologised to those present at the briefing. "I meant to say Commodore Kraat'Loss. Admiral Cerywyn, of course, hasn't been the station's CO for at least fourteen months. Long before I joined the crew, actually." he added, partly to himself. What little he'd read about her indicated she'd just been holding the spot while a long-term CO was selected, so he hadn't the foggiest why her name was on his mind.

"Anyway, Old Carrot's agenda for this meeting says to take roster, which we've done, and start talking about the treaties, trade policies, and rising tensions along the borders.....identified in padd F. Which he took with him. Great. I'll chase him later and get a copy of the information sent to people." Grey assured the room, rolling his eyes.

Sensing that the meeting had reached its early end, people started to filter out of the room. It had taken a lot of duty-shuffling for everyone here to find a time when they were all available, only for Kraat to just vanish five minutes in.

All that effort, and nothing had happened.

Fantastic.


=^= End of Log =^=


Lt Colonel Jonathan Grey
MEU CO
Versailles

Commander Peter Birt
XO
USS Timmis

Gul Noral Vorna (Dawes)
Cardassian Ambassador

Lt Felix Preston
Acting CSEC
Versailles

Captain John Pentac
CO
USS Timmis

 

RSS Feed