First Mission Brief

Posted on Sun Apr 20th, 2025 @ 3:23am by Captain Qierress & Lieutenant Commander Mateo Rodriguez Acosta & Lieutenant Ikuyo Kita & Lieutenant Gregory Turner & Lieutenant Aelia Painswick & Lieutenant JG Ava Bailey

1,690 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: 1 - Third Contact
Location: Briefing Room
Timeline: MD02 - 0700

The previous day, Qierress sent out a message to everyone indicating that their first briefing would occur at 0700 in the Briefing Room. She invited all of the Chiefs of Staff to their first briefing so that if individuals had not met each other thus far, that they could do so in the meeting.

Qierress had a yeoman decorate the room so that there was a multicolored crystaline centerpiece that hung over the table like a chandelier. In addition to that, the yeoman placed out an array of bagels, cream cheese, donuts, croissants, and other light snacks that people could eat while they talked. Cups of cool water sat before each chair in the briefing room. Qierress, however, remained standing. Behind her was the metal staff with the crystal head, just within reach, a reminder of who was the Captain.

Lieutenant Aelia Painswick looked around as she entered the briefing room, her eyes landing on Captain. She gave her a small nod, eyes going to the metal staff. "Captain," she greeted her, before she went to take a seat that allowed some distance from the other so she could observe. She wasn't exactly sure that a Chief Counselor was going to be bringing the real talk to this briefing anyway. It was so early though, and she had knocked back her coffee the moment she had rolled out of bed and practically crawled to the replicator...so she did help herself to some water to drink and hydrate.

Gregory Turner was the next to walk into the room. The mulicolored crystaline centerpiece was the first thing to catch his eye. Captain definitely had discretion on how they wanted to decorate these rooms, but this was definitely different. Looking over he saw the Captain with a metal staff. This was definitely going to be a serious adjustment. "Captain, Counselor, he addressed both individuals before going over and reaching for the bagels and cream cheese.

When the counselor came in, Qierress acknowledged her immediately. "Did you ask about the singing?" She allowed her teeth to show in what must have been a smile.

Aelia looked at her before she shook her head, taking a deeper breath. "Not yet. You have to work up towards it. Slowly. With mime and tap dance and a bottle of scotch."

"I don't see why all of those things are necessary, but I trust you, Lieutenant."

When Turner walked into the room, she acknowledged him and thought to herself that all security officers looked the same: strong. He looked rather muscular but she wondered if she could take him in a spear fight. She suspected that she could. "Enjoy," she told Turner.

Walking into the briefing room, Mateo's eye went straight to the hanging crystal... thing in the center of the room. All he could think was that if they took a hit hard enough to override the inertial dampeners, that thing would be an immediate hazard to anyone near it. Of course, if they were in a position to take a hit like that, they would probably all be at their stations, not in the briefing room. That didn't stop him from looking for a seat nowhere near the potential flying hazard.

Still, it was clear there was a theme to his new captain's decorating choices. Mateo tried to remember if any of the Science officers he'd served with previously had specialized in geology. Because it was clear he was going to need to brush up his knowledge.

"Good morning, Commander Acosta. I am glad to have you here this morning," the Captain told him, acknowledging her Chief Flight Control Officer's presence. "Please, have something to eat or drink."

"Of course." He grabbed the first pastry at hand, which turned out to be a raspberry danish. Food at meetings was a new thing, but he was getting the feeling the Quebec would be a lot of new things.

The doors to the room opened and Kita, the ship's new chief engineer walked in. She beamed at the others officers. "Morning all!" she greeted them.

"Did you catch your gremlins?" the Captain asked Kita.

The door opened and in walked Ava. Hearing the question that the Captain asked the Chief Engineer. "Gremlins?" she asked, walking over to help herself to a bagel and some cream cheese. She also grabbed a water. "Good morning."

"Yes, Lieutenant Bailey. Yesterday, Lieutenant Kita was explaining that the ship had gremlins during my morning worship of the dilithium crystals. I am hoping that she caught them. Speaking of crystals, did you finish your proposed designs of my ready room?"

"Yes, I did. When we have the time today, I will need to get your opinion and also see if you wanted to get any adjustments made. Very important to have the Ready room to your liking." Ava gave a nod towards the others and took a seat.

Kita blushed as she sat down. Trying to explain to the Captain what a 'gremlin' is was tricky. "Most of our systems are good now. But one thing Captain... Can I ask that you leave the dilithium crystals alone from now on? They're pretty and all, but they are important to our warp drive."

"And they deserve my prayers. After all, they will be sustaining us and I will not let them be neglected," Qierress answered.

Overhearing the term Gremlins and how it confused the Captain was a bit hilarious to Gregory. This was going to be an interesting assignment. Crystals, spears and whatever else Qierress was going to subject the crew to was going to be a one big daily surprise.

Once the chiefs had all settled in, Qierress asked, "So, is everyone ready for our first mission? It seems that we are in charge of cleaning up another mess by the Cerritos. It seems that on a second contact, they unleashed some strange energies while cleaning some buildings. The energies took over Commander Ransom and nearly endangered the system. Our mission is for a third contact, both to repair relations that the Cerritos frayed and to rid the Apergosians of any fears of other strange energies."

Lieutenant Turner thought about the news about the Cerritos once again screwing up another early contact. In all honesty this was the first time that he heard the name Apergosians. "How bad did this second get? Is there a possibility that we might get fired upon?"

Painswick raised an eyebrow, looking at Turner. "If there's a third contact and Starfleet's sending us? I'd say a fifty-fifty chance..." she considered it for a moment before she shrugged and looked over at the Captain.

The Captain answered, "As you know, the Cerritos had a misstep with my people too, handing us a wood totum. So, it is thought that my experience may assist in smoothing third contact." She then continued, "From everything that I have read, the Apergosians are all about numbers as they have sacred meaning to them."

"This means we're going to have to make certain all of the numbers balance as it were?" Ava wanted to know. And hopefully they will be able to get things to sum up correctly. She took a bite of her pastry as she waited for the answer.

"Yes, and I want you to research whatever we can about the strange energies and how they were conveyed to Commander Ransom, Ms. Bailey. You should probably work with Lieutenant Turner to determine the threat they pose and ways to contain it, should it occur again. The rest of you, anything that you can contribute to the success of this mission would be appreciated. Now, do any of you have other thoughts? Othe concerns?"

Ava gave a nod towards the Captain, as to her request, "I will do so, Captain." Ava looking towards Lieutenant Turner, he was someone she's not truly met before so, this would be a moment of two birds one stone situation.

The Chief Security Officer returned a similar look in Ava's direction. "We'll get it done."

Ava was in agreement, "Perhaps after the briefing Lieutenant Turner?" She had no problem with that if he didn't mind at all.

"Of course."

Matteo frowned. "If numbers are important, will our approach vector to the planet be something they look at? It would not do to offend them by the way we turn up on their doorstep, so to speak."

"An interesting point," Qierress conceded. "Perhaps you should research if they have a standard docking pattern or whether they would want us to come with some sort of greeting to them."

"Are we considering presents If so, why don't we just give them a PADD with Sudoku as a present and then just...let them go wild," Aelia finally said, having listened with the sort of feeling that they were walking into a minefield of something...weird.

Ava listened to the other items as per this mission. She hoped that they would be successful in this third contact mission.

"Sudoku?" Qierress asked. "What is that?"

"Isn't that a numbers game?" Ava asked, "Maybe that will work out rather well for a present. as long as they are familiar with the game."

"Does this culture even really care about gifts from complete strangers?" Turner questioned.

"Who does not like gifts?" Qierress asked curiously.

"Some cultures might take a gift as an insult thinking that you're trying to bribe them or up to something nefarious," the security officer explained. "You don't get something for nothing as the old Earth saying goes. Tellarites would insult any gift you brought them, just for the sake of arguing which they value more."

"They are a strange species," Qierress commented. "Nonetheless, science can research what we have done before and what works so we can replicate it."

"And that is exactly what we are going to be doing, Captain," Ava replied with a firm nod. "Rignt after the briefing is concluded," Ava was eager to find out exactly what was going to be needed in order for this third contact to be successful.

"In that case, you are all dismissed," the Captain answered and watched as people filed out.

 

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