SD241805.20, COPS Duty Log, Cmdr Rebecca Dawes

Posted on Sun May 20th, 2018 @ 2:29pm by Commander Rebecca Dawes

683 words; about a 3 minute read

=/\= Deck I13, Operations Center =/\=

With orders from the new CO in hand, the Operations Center - now augmented with a slew of auxiliary personnel for coordination purposes - was a seeming maelstrom of activity. Unfortunately, at this stage, most of it bordered on futility. The preceding years had seen the relationship between the station and colony continue to sour and, as YaDalla had come into their own, they had been relegated to an afterthought for planning purposes. Dawes, the ever fashionable Gamez, the seemingly omnipresent T`Lar, and several other section leads stood huddled around the main holographic display in the center of the cavernous compartment.

Dawes sighed heavily as the meeting rolled along, shifting her weight from one leg to the other as her discomfort grew. She had never been a fan of the Operations Center, preferring instead to stay below decks in Engineering whenever possible. Something always seemed to go wrong when she was there. T`Lar would undoubtedly destroy the premise if presented, countering that it was merely the fact that the chief only visited because of crisis that caused the correlation. Regardless, the news was not improving. "T`Lar," she interrupted, running her right hand down across her face in frustration, "you've undoubtedly dissected the disaster plans. Where do we stand?"

"I would classify it as a precarious location," she replied without hesitation, then began to change over the display to a brief summary. "Unfortunately, given other priorities over the past few years, disaster planning - and, subsequently, preparation - in regards to the colony had not been a priority. Of references to personnel and materiel resources in the most current version, nearly thirty percent are to positions, officers, or equipment that are no longer in the sector, nor under our purview. Another ten are to resources reallocated during the station's mission adjustment five years ago that were never returned upon its 'reactivation.' Of those ten, what can be produced here are already being assembled."

"Oddly that's not quite as bad as I'd thought," Gamez said with a irritated grunt, his hands firmly clasped behind his back. "I'm not looking forward to the inquiry after this."

"Inquiry after? We'll be lucky to make it that far." Dawes clasped her hands together and stared at the readout, sorting through the situation in her own mind. "T`Lar, do what you can to substitute Versailles for outdated references; for the more exotic items, please use Mr. Dean. I'm sure it would be in his interests to help where possible."

"Understood."

"What of the evacuation efforts?"

Gamez changed the display again and brought up a preliminary status report on the topic. "The efforts are proceeding, but coordination with civil defense officials on the colony has been understandably difficult. The Endeavour departs within the hour to spearhead efforts, and we are doing what we can to encourage civilian traffic to assist in the effort."

"Any takers?"

"The percentage is high; unfortunately given the traffic in the area, it doesn't translate into large numbers. A Far amount of current traffic are tugs pulling cargo containers with no life support outside of the operations areas. They won't carry many."

Vargas, who had been participating quietly, cleared her throat. "We could... outfit the containers with life support?"

"We could," Gamez replied, then took a deep breath. "But it wouldn't be a quick process."

"They wouldn't need gravity, just a power supply and life support... they could strap in." Dawes rubbed her chin as she reflected on the possibility. "How long?"

"Assembling and preparing the equipment for installation would take the longest. Six hours to gather what we need, we could have a batch of twenty ready in... twelve hours?"

"Do it. It'll be uncomfortable, but with the limited number of suitable ships in area, it's better than nothing. Continue to 'encourage' every ship you can to assist." Dawes took a cleansing breath. "Command is going to want to send engineering assets to assist eventually. T`Lar, prepare a roster at your earliest convenience."

"Understood."

=/\= To Be Continued =/\=

Cmdr Rebecca Dawes
Chief of Operations
Starbase 99 "Versailles"

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