Posted by Lieutenant Inola (Communications Officer) in Mission Brief Meeting - Conference Room-A

Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Mission Brief Meeting - Conference Room-A
[snip]

Once Glen would get the meeting going, information on their expected mission was available for review. What was there wasn’t much. It seems they would be following some ‘bread crumbs’ made up of 10 year old sublight radio transmissions, and more recently in the past month or so low key warp pulses which didn’t last much more then a few minutes and barely broke warp 1 in speed.

Transcripts of the radio transmissions when they got played were broken up due to age, distance, and lack of full translation of the alien language but some could be made out. =/\= This is unknown words. We of the planet unknown word wish to convey our unknown words, we hope that to the listeners of the Great Void unknown words....to one day concentrate together =/\= The computerized female like voice said.

Looking at the series of more recent warp pulses they formed a conical like shape of ‘jumps’ from a series of systems leading from about a week or two away deeper then into unexplored space. The systems closer to Federation territory had been surveyed almost over 10 years ago now. The surveys found for two of four systems where the warp pulses were picked up, both had been unclaimed and though containing mineral rich planets, moons, and asteroids had not contained any intelligent life forms. Due to the low key nature of the minerals follow up colonization efforts hadn’t happened yet. For the remaining two further out systems, basic long range scans existed, they indicated the third system likely had four planets and probably a large moon or two as well as likelihood of Class-M worlds but nothing showing likely intelligent life. The forth furthest system was beyond a unmanned survey drone scan passing by, though not entering the system, that it had six planets but details beyond that were null. The area of space was of course also unclaimed by any major power even the Federation wasn’t until now really interested in heading in that direction due to the low levels of things of interest. So in short the Merrimack would be the first manned mission to plumb the depths of this area of nearby space!

William examined the information with great interest, investigating new systems, and studying new planets was a big part of the reason he joined the fleet originally. It was the lack of translations that bothered him, he knew it was probably the signal degradation that was the cause but every single time the UT failed he got a slight tingle in the back of his mind, he was no linguistic expert, perhaps that would be his next field.

“The information is sparse. It will definitely be a play by ear situation. I guess we’ll be playing the same role the Vulcans did when Earth broke the warp barrier for the first time.” Kord said.

“I think everyone is here now,” Glen told Kord, “So, if you would like to present whatever limited information we have, and to explain what these maps and audio recordings all mean? And no disrespect intended to our Vulcan officers, but I hope our protocols have advanced somewhat during the intervening years. The First Contact between humans and Vulcan was a very cold affair, and the ‘Vulcan Hello’ following their disastrous First Contact with the Klingons is a notorious piece of bad diplomacy. In respect to that, the Merrimack’s First Contact with the Bolay positively shines!”

Saark seemed to take no offense to the Captain’s comment. Instead, he said, “It was not an ideal encounter. I’ve read about it.” And then, he once again fell silent, allowing for the information to be shared.

“Well,” replied Glen, “…that was a long time ago. Let’s not dwell on the past, but look ahead to the future.”

Tia was going over the warp signatures and their course. “Well, maybe I can get a read on how far they traveled by the degradation of the signature trails. If we can give a better guess of how far they came, maybe we will be better prepared than merely ‘tripping’ over them as we follow the proverbial breadcrumbs.” She wasn’t sure if it would work, but everything broke down in space. Perhaps it was worth a try after comparing them to their own warp signature and using that as a basis for the breakdown.

“And could the Warp signature tell us about the technology itself?” Glen asked her. “How the engine is designed and how it was built? The fuel they use? The materials employed? The shape of the nacelles and size of the ship? Maybe Emi’Ko can help us there?”

In answer to Glen’s question once someone deemed to do so, it was hard to say. Certainly there was enough evidence here to say the technology was barely within warp capability but beyond that further information needed fresher scans and eyes.

Standing at ease buy the door, Mooney observed the collection of officers. Tho he was buy default ‘Chief of boat’ he was surprised to be called apron to attend this briefing. The fact was there was few if any scenarios he could think off in which he wold be called to duty in which things hadn’t gone terribly wrong.
Still it was an honor, and he was intent on learning as much as he could, as it was a new and novel thing to actually know what command actually had planned.

Glen was a pilot, not a soldier. In matters of security or when facing down a threat, he had only his limited experiences in Command, not years working at the coal face. For many years, he had dined out on his firm response to the Starbase 16 hostage situation, and on his gung-ho rescue of Yeoman Hopkins and her mother, his sister, from the cult they had been with, however, in both of those he had been incredibly lucky. Despite passing off the Bolay First Contact as an unfortunate mistake, it had damaged both his reputation and that of the Merrimack, and he wasn’t prepared to let that happen again. So, he was keen to bring together every skill set they had at their disposal to this meeting in order to cover every possible eventuality.

“All we can really tell is that their early warp stage is advanced to the point of reaching new systems or, they’re a long lived species with a lot of patience for travel. Since we don’t know their actual technology levels I advise we try a duck blind style of observation before we try making contact.” Kord suggested.

“Divergent thinking; I like it!” replied Glen. “How do you suggest we do that?”

“Passive scans until we know what their sensors and ships are capable of so we know how to hide ourselves with electronic countermeasures since, because of the treaty with the Romulans that they break whenever it becomes inconvenient for them, we’re not allowed cloaking devices. Then it’s a matter of observation and evaluation to design the best method of contact.”

Kord looked around the table.

“Or, we could just wait here till one of their ships show up and claim it an accidental meeting and hope for the best.”

• Kord, XO

Inola walked quietly into the Conference Room, not entirely sure she was in the right place. She looked around carefully, catching the tail end of the Captain’s sentence. She breathed in deeply, straightening her uniform before speaking. “I’m Lieutenant Inola, the communications officer. I believe there were some translation issues?” she hoped she sounded confident, and that she wouldn’t embarrass herself too much.
-Inola, Comms

“Oh, yes! ” replied Glen, “Inola, I was expecting you to arrive at the space station, but you were lucky that you only just caught us before we left it. Don’t worry, you haven’t missed much of this briefing. These are copies of the communications and warp signature. It looks like a warp-capable new species ready for First Contact, but the universal translator has difficulty with a few of the alien language words. Later, I can have someone show you around the ship, and to find your quarters. it will be good to have someone permanently at Comms on the Bridge once again.”

-Glen, CO

Inola smiled warmly. “Thank you sir. I’m happy to be here. I’m sorry I’m a bit late.” She said sheepishly. “I can try to fill in any blanks in the communications. Is the universal translator not working, or is there some other cause?” She walked further into the room, considerably more confident knowing she was in the right place.
-Inola, Comms