New Business

Posted on Sat Mar 30th, 2019 @ 1:54am by Captain Benjamin Ingram Dr & Lieutenant Commander Mara Ricci & Lieutenant Commander Meilin Jiang

Mission: S1E3: Moments Of Consolidation
Location: Canopus Station, Conference Room, Space Dock Overlook
Timeline: MD6 10.00AM

Home again, home again.

The office had only been his for a week, less than that come to think of it. And yet the angled panes of glass, the commanding view over Starbase Operations, and the desk behind which he sat sipping his tea really did set him at ease. This was a place in which questions with answers of great import could be fathomed and pondered without the static of the mundane getting underfoot.

His fortress of solitude, as a younger Benjie might have named it.

He raised a hand, gesturing to the desk system to begin displaying the day's schedule along with any reports that broached the threshold from borning to potentially interesting. The Xilosian’s were settling into the Agri Dome nicely, the final work on combining the Service Module with the Command Module was nearly complete, and the engineering decks had been given a clean bill of health both in a metaphorical and literal sense of the term.

Soon there would be power enough to spare with the operation of the Matter/Antimatter Reactor, even with a goodly chunk of its output going directly into the Phase Space Transceiver that would reconnect them with the Alpha Quadrant and Starfleet Command. Which reminded him to ensure the proper permissions for information retrieval were altered, least the poorly inform reach out for things beyond their understanding.

The only problem left on the docket that was troubling him was the question of what to do with the Marines. Not all of them, per se, just the two platoon’s worth who’d gone traitor. The soft interrogation performed by Chief Security Officer Theylan th’Zohan had been quite illuminating. Along with some intriguing medical data being provided from passive scans of the compromised Marines, along with the anecdotal stories of the Xilosian’s, a much clearer picture of the Concordance was coming into view. Maybe there was some spot on Carpathia they could be put? A penal colony of sorts. A place with a nice view.

And speaking of view, he narrowed his eyes as one line item popped out of the message queue at him.

He opened the file, and read it twice before he sat back in his chair and furrowed his brow. He really shouldn’t be surprised that a desert world like Carpathia would have an oasis of sorts.

+++

“It was discovered yesterday during a high orbit survey of the far side of Carpathia.”

Ingram stood by floor to ceiling glass viewport that looked out into the interior docking bay of Canopus Station. Most conference rooms on a starship would have a view of the stars, a grand swathe of vasty nothingness. A Stardock, on the other hand, was a centre of commerce, trade, and shipbuilding expertise. It had a quiet pride in that role, and the view out into the massive interior volume was stunning...until you looked to the right and saw the barnacle-like encrustation of the Rish Enclave. It had surely grown bigger, now reaching the top of the dome and the base of the unpressurised area.

But for now, the viewport that took up the entire back wall of the conference room was dominated by a sandy yellow map. With a wave of his hand, the image shifted into a false colour radar image. High backed mountains became angry red gashes, whilst depressions and valleys began to glow in various green shades.

And in the centre of the map was a splotch of white.

With a tap of one finger against the splotch grew to encompass the entire wall, and then returned to a natural light image.

“Its a jungle. Or at least an area of heavy vegetation,” Ingram corrected. “Thirty miles across, perfectly circular, seemingly green and healthy plant life on a world of sand and rock. And at the centre of that forest is...something.”

The image zoomed in closer, aiming for the centre were an odd off white circle resided.

“Judging by shadow length compared to the time of day, the structure in the centre of the forest is about four hundred meters tall, and nearly a hundred wide. And that's all we know. As you saw from the radar image the entire jungle is opaque to anything but optical light. Radar, lidar, even a neutrino wave sensor did nothing to it and those things can look through a light year of lead,” he turned to look at his assembled crew.

“Commander Ross, I would very much like you to lead the away team. Our Op’s Chief Mr Madrid has made some headway with the locals on the planet, and would be an ideal liaison with them,” Ingram beamed.

Meilin stared pensively. "We have just explored and subsequently bombarded a mysterious tower on Xilos. Now we return to Carpathia only to find yet another mysterious tower." She did not like coincidences. "I recommend scans, spectral analysis, full bandwidth, and preferably from orbit, with planetary evacuation protocols on standby in the event this tower is determined to be of Concordant design."

"Agreed, to a point. The designs are different, and so far we have found no evidence this moon harboured any other life forms save ourselves at any point in its past. No cities, no impact craters, nothing save a patch of jungle and a white tower. That suggests to me water, and a favourable climate," Ingram said as he eyed Meilin. "Also the fact our scanner's are bouncing off of what every sensor shielding technology is covering the entire jungle, a closer inspection is required. An Arrow class Runabout from Landerfell and one from Canopus Station will make the journey. We'll rig them as self-contained exploration craft in case a prolonged stay is required."

He turned to look at the image on the display on the view port.

"Not that you will be accompanying them."

The abrupt afterthought was not lost on Meilin. And in fact it was a breath of fresh air. Her points were raised in preparation to argue delaying further study until she could get caught up with her cultural survey and catalog of the Xilosians, which said nothing of her backlog of the Rish Enclave and the Carpathian settlement of Landerfell below. And now Ingram had resolved her conundrum with one pithy remark.

Meilin suppressed a smirk and gave silent thanks to the Tao. Nonetheless she knew better than to deny Ingram his petty sleight. "Oh? And why is that, Commander Ingram?"

"You already have commitments with the Xilosian's and the Rish, I'd not want you to neglect your duties as the stations Cultural Liason. And who better to introduce our new Security Chief to them than you? I believe we already have a fellow to assign to the expedition, a Dr Birch? Sending two of our best scientific minds on what will amount to a field trip seems wasteful," Benjie said with a sly smile. "Besides, I know Chief Ricci is keen on investigating strange alien technology given her service record. And with the Station almost ready for reactor ignition, her unique skill set can work wonders for us on the surface."

If anyone had been paying attention to Mara at that point, they would have seen the barest hint of a sly grin that flashed across her features for a fraction of a second. More alien tech! She couldn't wait to get her hands on it.

Dania who was to the back of the group, remaining fairly quiet as she listened to the new information being delivered and the old one re-presented. She was curious as to the presence of another tower, albeit on a different planet. She wondered if she too would be denied the trip, as Jiang had been. Though she suspected that a) Ingram wanted to prevent another case of stray people adoption which Meilin seemed to have a penchant for, and b) that Meilin was actually glad not to go. Her question just didn't work with someone who genuinely wanted to know why they couldn't go. Jiang and Ingram seemed to have this push and pull relationship.

"Blaise Birch is our leading expert on planetary sciences," Meilin said, giving a bow to Ingram that hid her smirk, " and given that he was denied a position on the away team to Xilos due to his...condition... I must yield to your wisdom in this matter."

"Well that does make this a red letter day," he said turning to the crew. "So Commander Ross will lead the exploration party alongside whatever civilian contingent the colonists come up with. I fully expect the Starfleet science team to be carrying the full weight of the endeavour, but whatever we can throw the colony team's way to salve their wounded pride is something to keep in mind. Mr Madrid, given you've spent more time with them than anyone here that'll be your job to make sure they stay out of the way doing the real work. Does anyone have any further business they would like to bring to our attention?"

Madrid was still on the planet, but had been listening in via the runabout's commlink. The advantage of this was that he could attend the meeting with his tunic unzipped and his feet propped up on the flight deck console. "=/\=Sir, we're making progress down here but I'd like to requisition additional materials and equipment. They've lost quite a bit. I could use a pair of fusion generators, pre-fab shelter components, a workbee with a heavy-duty tractor emitter, and other things.=/\=" There were many items on the list, but Elias didn't feel like going over it all.

"The fusion generators are currently keeping our lights on Mr Madrid, so until the main reactor can spin up to full power they'll have to make do with the solar collectors. Fortunately, Carpathia gets a good deal of sun. Prefab shelters we can probably be more giving with, seeing as the Xilosian's came with their own. And all the Workbee's are currently on inspection duty repairing the Service Module from its poassage through Xilos's atmosphere. The Carpathian's have been on world for a few weeks, they can survive another few days. Just make sure your survey team is ready to go by mid day," Ingram said, looking around the room. "Anyone else?"

"Permission to tag along, or send a tag along with the Away Team, sir? While the science teams do their own research, someone needs to catalogue everything for our records." Dania said.

"I don't see why not," Ingram said after a moment's contemplation. "Commander Ross & Storm, Dr Birch, Chief Ricci and Mr Madrid will make up the Canopus Station contingent. Best behaviour from the lot of you, we have a lot of ground to cover making up for the Travellers first impression. Whilst you're doing that, Commander Meilin and Lieutenant th'Zohan will get to know our Rish friends better. I think that's it...Oh. No, wait there is one final piece of business. Rather trivial really."

He returned to the conference table, and plucked a slim sheet style PADD from where it had been charging on the surface. With a flick of the wrist, the flexible computer stiffened into a slate, and data began to appear on it.

"By order of Starfleet Command, dated prior to departure from the Milky Way Galaxy, upon the successful arrival of Canopus Station to its mission area we hereby promote Benjamin Ingram from the rank of Commander to the rank of Captain," he said in a voice made for speaking in an informed tone to a room of tired grad students. He looked at the flexi, smiling a little as he re-read the phrasing. No doubt someone somewhere had enjoyed a suitable serving of crow to write it, and that made it almost as good as the fourth pip. With another flick the thin computer relaxed, and he let it slip back onto the table to charge wirelessly.

"Like I said, a little housekeeping to keep us all up to date," he grinned. "Now, let's get to work shall we?"