Mission Briefing

Posted on 15 Jan 2014 @ 12:07am by Captain Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Jason DeVries & Lieutenant Harper Dane & Lieutenant Commander Landon Milo MD & Lieutenant JG Ross Armani & Lieutenant JG Harold Sherman

5,610 words; about a 28 minute read

Mission: Echoes
Location: Observation Lounge
Timeline: December 28, 2387 || 0850 hours

Harvey took a look in the mirror of the Ready Room's washroom. Orders had come through that morning, just as Alpha Shift began. Immediately he asked Yeoman Carter to request all Senior Officers report to the Observation Lounge at 0900. He knew the Senior Staff wasn't complete by any means, yet the Task Force felt it was time for the Black Hawk to get underway. There was, after all, a schedule to keep.

He planned to arrive immediately at 0900, so for now he would wait in the Ready Room. He moved back to his desk, picked up the PADD with the orders to review just one more time.

Landon was in Sickbay with his four legged partner in medicine, Julian, when he received word that a Senior Staff meeting was schedule for 0900. Landon had just started his morning tea when the summons was sent out. "Damn it" he muttered to himself, Julian's ears perked up.

He was hoping to have a nice hot red leaf tea in order to take the edge off from yet another restless night. However, duty called, not his physician duty but rather his Starfleet duty, not always one in the same. At times, sitting in on a Senior Staff meeting meant staying awake and keeping his mouth shut. However, sometimes something medically related would come up and Landon would take the spotlight.

Given that nothing was really going on as far as medical emergencies, Landon prepared himself for another one of those classic Resolute and Venture meetings where he was just there, but not really there. But he had high hopes that Captain Geisler would be better suited than Captain Hunter had been with Resolute and his brief time on Venture. He headed out the doors of Sickbay, ready to bring his 'A game' as Lieutenant Commander Steel would have advised him to do.

The turbolift ride had been faster than expected, or maybe he had nodded off for a few seconds. Who was to tell? He was just glad that if he had taken a few seconds idling that nobody was around to see it. When the lift came to a full stop and the doors opened without so much as a hiss, he nervously walked out onto the Bridge. He was a little timid about being on the Bridge as last time he had done so, was to face reprimand by Commander Krull Larkon, his last Commanding Officer.

He scooted across the Bridge and to the Captain's Ready Room. Those doors slid open with ease, parting immediately. Though he felt a bit nervous about entering, he knew he was expected to. Landon walked forward, entering the Captain's Ready Room and quickly finding himself alone in the Ready Room with the Black Hawk's Commanding Officer.

With a small smile, Landon looked at Harvey Geisler. "Okay, then..." he trailed nervously. "Guess that I am a little early" added Landon. He then took a seat. "Are we all going to fit in here, Sir?" asked Landon, looking around. This was yet another reminder that he had given up a Galaxy-class starship for this.

Harvey looked across the desk, not quite expecting to have company. He lowered the PADD to the table and replied, "The briefing is next door, actually." Not that they could simply walk through the Ready Room to the Briefing Room since there wasn't a door. They'd have to leave the Ready Room, walk past the viewscreen and then into the Observation Lounge. "Something on your mind, doctor?"

It was one of those...what did Tex, that Cardassian kid call it 'a face palm moment?' Landon had been so anxious, nervous, and maybe a little sleep deprived that he had just gone to the Ready Room. What the hell was he thinking? "Sorry, Captain. I guess that I am a little too used to being called in to the Ready Room" admitted Landon.

"There's always on my mind, Captain. But it isn't anything to concern yourself with. I just need to get used to everything here. It is still new to me" said Landon, pushing off what had been eating at him since he requested a transfer. "I'll walk with you" offered Landon as he stood up.

Harvey glanced at the chronometer on his desktop terminal. "It's not 0900 yet," he replied. "It's 0852."

He could tell from the Doctor's expression that this situation was becoming more uncomfortable by the second. "I'm a punctual man, doctor," Harvey explained. "My briefings will always start on time, and I arrive exactly when I they're supposed to start unless there is something pressing to attend to."

He leaned forward in his chair and clasped his hands together. "That gives you a little less than seven minutes if there is something you would like to go over."

He tried to come up with something to diffuse the situation. "I have been looking over medical files for the ship's personnel, even have done some physical examinations myself. So far, it looks like you have a healthy and fit crew. However, a certain member of this crew has yet to pay me a visit" Landon said trying to take attention off himself and place it elsewhere.

"By the way" added Landon briskly, "Do you have any known allergies to animals... say a rather large Saint Bernard?" asked Landon carefully.

Harvey grunted, taking note of the sudden change of subject. "My sister had two Great Danes when we grew up on Earth," Harvey tactfully replied, realizing the Doctor was attempting to squeeze a possibly lengthy evaluation into a small window. "You could have just asked me to come by sickbay. Or at least go through my Yeoman instead of opening the wrong door."

Landon smiled "I was kind of anticipating a fellow physician to be on auto pilot when it comes to medical matters. You do remember what a Sickbay looks like, I assume?" replied Landon somewhat mockingly. "Well, I am glad that you are fine with dogs. If you've reviewed my personnel and my transfer request, you no doubt noted that I did not come aboard alone."

"I did not," Harvey attested. He rose from desk and walked around to the other side, PADD in hand. "Starfleet picked this crew for me, and I had little say in the matter." He paused for a moment and considered the Saint Bernard. "Is it trained?"

"Are you?" countered Landon. He was protective of Julian's rights on starships. "No disrespect intended Sir, but if you had no say in the matter, then someone did. Someone who read my service record and hopefully my research. That being said, they knew about Julian and read his service record as well. So, yes Captain, he is trained."

Landon smiled slightly. "He has earned respect from previous Commanding Officers, one even gave him a provisional enlisted rank on her starship, but he'll settle for a good meal and is belly being rubbed" added Landon. Though he was also privately thinking 'Actually, that is more or less all I require.'

Harvey kept his eyes locked onto the doctor during his speech. Harvey really didn't mind pets, though he was not apt to keep any of his own. "Very well. Regardless of who said he could be here, I get to set the ground rules. Julian is to remain supervised when out of your quarters and will be expected to be restricted the same areas you are. And, should nature call in places where it shouldn't, I won't expect crewmen to clean it up. I'll expect you."

Landon nodded. "He'll be in my Quarters and Sickbay mostly. Also, you will not have to worry about nature's call, he is trained in that matter as well."

Glancing at the chronometer on the PADD, he added. "0858."

"That's my cue to leave" joked Landon. He stood up and headed out the doors, across the Bridge and into the Observation Lounge where he took a seat at the table, close to the head where he expected Geisler would sit.

'I'll have to keep an eye on this one' Landon thought to himself with a mild chuckle and sigh.

(Observation Lounge)

Harley entered and found a seat on the side that gave her a view, automatically, tucking one foot under her bottom as she sat down. She smothered a yawn with her hand, having worked long hours yesterday to evaluate the ship and prepare a readiness report. She thought longingly of a Raktajino but didn't know how the Captain felt about such things and didn't want to put her foot wrong on her second day. She wore her hair in a loose braid today and contented herself with playing with the tip of the braid while she waited for everyone to arrive and settle into place.

Finchley had been sat in the Observation lounge for the last fifteen minutes alone, waiting on the time for the briefing to begin. He'd used the fifteen minutes productively to look over the new upgraded Security measures he'd be recommending to the CO. Whilst he'd call the current Security measures 'loosely useful', they weren't up to his existing on duty high standards, and that just wouldn't do, no, that just wouldn't do at all.

His badge chirruped and he hit it saying "Kerr."

"Morning areshole" the voice of Karadis floated out of the communications device.

"That's Lieutenant Arsehole to you Karadis, what do you want?" Finchley replied to his Assistant Chief of Security.

"Well a transfer would be nice to begin with Sir" Karadis said.

"Too late, you're in it up to your preverbials, just like me CWO, what do you actualy want?" Finchley asked.

"Baker squad, they need authorisation to withdraw the phaser rifles they need for their patrol" Karadis came back at him.

Picking up the PADD next to him, Finchley tapped in a series of commands and security codes, then put the PADD back down.

"Ok, that's the authorisation sent, Baker sqaud can ick the rifles up now, Kerr out" Finchley said.

"Thank you dear" Karadis began laughing.

"Up yours" Finchley replied, and closed the link.

Though he outranked Karadis, Finchley had a very professional fondness for his Chief Warrant Officer. They'd been through a lot together, seen action on many many occasions and witnessed the horrors and bravery of war. Now, many years down the line, he allowed her to be 'familiar to a degree' with him, but still respect his position as her boss. She, being that little bit older than Finchley looked on her boss as a naughty little schoolboy who still needed to be looked after

Landon just sat in the observation lounge doing as the name of the room suggested. He was observing, observing the unusual members of what would be Geisler's Senior Staff. "Good Morning" Landon said to everyone who had arrived.

She listened to the conversation, the corner of her expressive mouth slightly upturned, though she said nothing. Overlooked had its uses especially when she was still thinking about things that needed doing. "Good morning," she said in return.

Landon looked at Lieutenant Dane whom he had already met albeit briefly. He knew enough about her to know that she could 'hear' in ways that others could not.

Narrowing his eyes on her, he opened himself up and hoped that she would do the same. 'Hey, what is up with that guy? I thought this was a Starfleet crew, not a pirate ship' Landon thought and projected for her to receive.

A merry chuckle filtered through the link as Harper turned her attention to the doctor. 'I have no idea but the language is certainly colorful. Just what IS an arsehole?'

Landon held back a good snickering. It is just showing his accent. He's calling the other one an asshole. It is a rather vulgar offense term. The Doctor tried to explain without going too far into detail.

Now finished with the Security review, Finchley rose from where he'd been sitting and wandered across to the head of the table where he assumed the CO would be sitting and placed the PADD on the table.

As he started to walk back to his seat, his COMM badge chirruped again. Sighing, he tapped it and said "Yes Karadis, what do you need now?"

"How did you know it was me?" Karadis replied, somewhat surprised.

"I had a sense of forboding and that only happens when you come calling" Finchley answered.

"Ah, a happy coincidence then" Karadis said, then continued "You wanted to know when the container would be arriving. It's just being brought in now, I thought you'd want to know."

"Ok, have it stored in cargo bay one, and get Baker squad to stand guard over it till I get there. No-one is to open the container under any circumstances, is that understood, no-one, Kerr out" Finchley replied closing the link and re-taking his seat.

Landon immediately spoke up. "What the hell is in that container, Lieutenant?" asked Landon firmly. "I would appreciate being made aware if there is ever anything brought onto this ship that may be a health danger to this crew."

Finchley kept looking straight ahead of himself. There were times when he would react to things and times when he wouldn't, depending on his mood of the moment. Right now, his mood of the moment was he'd decided he wouldn't over react to the rude manner of questioning from the Medical Officer. Instead he replied "It's on a need to know basis Lt Milo, and you don't need to know...suffice to say that it's not anything that is a health risk or danger to the crew. 'If' it's decided by the powers that be that you get clearance to know, then you'll be notified, till then..." he left the sentence unfinished.

Doctor Landon Milo took the response and nodded in agreement. "So long as it is not a pandora's box of famine and disease, virus or bacteria of any sort that could be a potential health risk, then it is in your domain, Lieutenant. I meant no offense, simply a concern for the crew" replied Landon calmly.

Ensign Halord 'Hal' Sherman just notice that being so close to be late for the Mission Briefing. He entered the Observation Lounge when two Lieutenants in conversation. He only heard who he assumed by his uniform, who would be the ship surgeon, walked to spot to sit and took his seat and waited.

At precisely 0900, Harvey stepped through the Observation Lounge door, PADD with the mission orders in hand. "Good morning, everyone," he said, taking his seat at the head of the table. "Before we get to the task at hand, I doubt everyone has had the chance to meet each other. I'm Lieutenant Commander Harvey Geisler, Captain of the Black Hawk."

He then paused, hoping someone -- anyone -- in the room would take the hint.

Landon had already had some friction with the Captain, though it was not as bad as his friction had been with Captain Hunter or Larkon had been. Things were actually looking up for once. He knew what the Captain was aiming for and decided to keep the ball rolling.

He raised his hand halfway, just somewhat above his head and smiled. "Dr Landon Milo, Chief Medical Officer" announced Landon with a somewhat nervous smile.

Finchley sighed quietly then said "Lt Finchley Kerr, off duty town drunk, on duty sober sheriff."

Sherman almost let out laugh, "Ensign Horald Sherman, Chief of Operations."

The doors to the observation lounge opened and all that was heard was Ross Armani reprimanding a warrant officer that was far too eager for 0900 hours in the morning. His departing words of 'I am sure you have something better to do than to follow me down the corridor making me sign stuff - go play with warp reactor!' echoed through the observation deck before he realised it had already started and he had just interrupted.

Ross turned on his heel with a look of embarrassment on his face. He knew his introduction with the captain wasn't the best and now he'd damaged that even further - why he felt like a liability right now was fairly obvious. He quickly scampered over to one of the few remain seats. "Ross Armani, the Chief Flight Control Officer - i'm the one going to be flying you all around" he said introducing himself and then realising how obnoxious that introduction might have just sounded. he looked to his only Allie, the Doctor, and gave him a very guilty - yet slightly awkward smile!

'fly me around' thought Landon privately, though who there was no telling if his Deltan-Betzoid crewmate had any interest in eaves dropping on thoughts. Landon sure liked to. The Doctor could hardly contain the small chuckle that was trying to force itself out at Armani's introduction.

Harper smothered a chuckle at the Armani's comment, understanding the double entendre and wondering if it were deliberate or not. She let the comment pass, reminding herself firmly that this was a new ship, with a new crew, and no one here understood her well enough for her to make any of the ten comments that sprang easily to mind.

"Lieutenant Harper Dane, Chief Engineering Officer here," Harper said. She kept her shields firmly in place, effectively blocking out the thoughts of others as she often did during briefings where the emotions and thoughts of others tended to 'batter' her telepathically. And safely behind those shields she thought longingly of the raktajino she was going to get once the briefing was finished.

Harvey rose to his feet, setting the PADD he brought in on top of the second PADD waiting for him at his chair. "As you may all be aware, the Black Hawk is assigned to the Fourth Fleet, specifically Task Force 9 that patrols the Gamma Quadrant." He stopped next to the large display on the back wall and tapped a control to bring up a map of the Area of Operations. "The Treaty of Bajor forbids the Federation from colonizing the Gamma Quadrant, but we are certainly allowed to explore, discover and study what is there."

Harvey folded his arms in front of him and took a step back. "Since the Dominion War, the Gamma Quadrant has been in a state of peaceful unrest. Former exploited territories have formed republics and stabilized themselves. Others have seen the rise of crime and piracy. Throughout our adventures, I'm sure we'll be cleaning up what we encounter, but as of yet, I don't have a lot of details of what we will encounter. The Black Hawk will be assigned to a year-long mission exploring the Gamma Quadrant, and always be on standby to warp out to support the needs of the Task Force."

Jason furiously studied the PADD in his hand as he felt the turbolift slowing and finally coming to a stop on the bridge, the chronometer in the top right corner clearly showing 0902. He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He had only arrived on DS9 a few minutes before 0900, not nearly enough time to get to the briefing on time. He hated being late for anything, and he most certainly wasn't happy about being late to the first mission briefing on his new ship, especially with this being his first day on the job as an XO as well. He walked out of the 'lift and over to the doors to the Observation Lounge. As the doors slid open he heard the Captain talking about the Treaty of Bajor and blushed furiously at having walked in while he was talking. He quietly made his way to the only remaining open seat and slid into it with what he hoped was an appropriately apologetic look on his face.

"Everyone," Harvey said, removing his right arm from the fold and gesturing to the new arrival. "This is our Executive Officer..." Harvey stopped himself realizing that he had forgotten his new XO's name.

Landon said nothing as he was quite speechless, at least verbally. Well hello Mister XO thought Landon, looking down and away from a brief moment to recompose himself. Briefing, focus the Chief Medical Officer reprimanded himself.

Catching onto the hesitation from the Captain Jason realized the man most likely couldn't remember his name, a totally understandable thing to happen. He cleared his voice and stood up, folding his hands behind his back, "Lieutenant Commander Jason DeVries." he said, nodding to the people sitting around the table. "Please forgive me for my tardiness, it won't happen again." he added before sitting back down.

He quickly changed subjects to keep the moment from souring further. "Our first mission will not be as, shall we say, adventurous as what awaits us." He pressed a button on the controls beside the monitor. The screen zoomed into the lower left corner of the map. "Three years ago, a Federation science team was granted permission to be deployed to the Altair System to investigate a long lost race. To make a long story short, time is up and we've been ordered to retrieve them."

"What's the catch...Sir" Finchley asked "there's always a catch with this kind of mission. Wait a minute, let me guess, have we not heard from them recently, was there a garbled communication sent?"

"That catch is, we are dumping you off at the nearest planet" joked Landon with a quick smile at Finchley. Landon then directed his attention back to the Commanding Officer. "Please tell me we have been able to maintain contact with them" said Landon with a tone of concern.

"That's alright sweety, you'll miss me before I miss you" Finchley replied, kissing his hand and blowing Landon a kiss.

"We have." Harvey changed the screen again to feature their destination. "Every month, they've been submitting prompt updates to New Bajor. In fact, their last communique indicated they just found what they were looking for. They begged for an extension, but with piracy on the rise, especially in our AO, the Federation feels its best to pull them out for now. That's one of the reasons why we're going."

He changed the screen to overlay the survey records. "The planet boasts a strong magnetic field, so strong it renders our transporters completely useless. Any other ship could provide an engineering crew to dismantle the base and beam it aboard, but few have a staging area for support craft to collect and transport the cargo. The Black Hawk, unfortunately, will be the only ship in the quadrant with such a staging area and the ability to fend off the unexpected."

Jason sat back and took in what he was hearing from his CO. It was apparently a pretty routine mission, though the idea of being the only ship in the area that could fend off an attack while also picking up the team and their base was a bit worrying. He was mulling over what he'd heard when a thought struck him. "I have a couple ideas that might help here, sir. You said something about an intense magnetic field. We might be able to use that to mask our presence from approaching ships, or ships scanning the system from further out. By doing so we could maintain the element of surprise should an attack come about." he said, hoping his idea made sense to others. As a prior intelligence operative he had a strong reflex towards staying out of the line of sight as it were. Stealth had always been his friend and he felt that in such an area it would be so again.

"My other idea was deploying a few of the fighters as we enter the system, have them maintain a long range scan further out than we'd be able to in such an intensely magnetic environment and they could contact us at the first sign of trouble. They'd be in a bit of danger, but nothing unacceptable and it might give us a fighting edge." he added, confident that such actions would greatly benefit the safety of the ship and crew.

Landon spoke up with some input of his own. "I'm not a tactical officer or engineer of any sort. But, I think my medical background has something to offer here. If someone is used to something harmful and over time, they could build a natural immunity to it. We are talking about entering a place that we have hardly any knowledge of.

"No shit Sherlock you're no tactician after our meeting earlier" Finchley said quietly.

The ships that are native here... they may have found ways to modify their starships to detect us. I would just like to put it out there that everyone who is native to this region of space or has extensive experience here will have home field advantage" commented Landon.

"All the more reason for precaution," Harvey added. "Mr. DeVries, I like your recommendation. Please set it up." Turning towards Doctor Milo, Harvey allowed his right arm to rejoin the fold in front of him. "The research team has been relatively undefended for the last three years, and they've made their check-ins on schedule. I doubt anyone will be itching to pick up five people, some artifacts and old computers."

Harvey changed the screen yet again, this time to show a Danube-class runabout. "We'll use the Mississippi and the Tigris, our assigned runabouts, to store and transport all personnel and equipment to and from the surface. Deep Space Nine has graciously loaned cargo modules for these runabouts. Lieutenant Dane, please make sure the Deck Chief installs them properly. As for the away team, Mr. DeVries will take the lead. Lieutenant Dane and Ensign Sherman will lead the deconstruction efforts, and Lieutenant Armani will supervise flight operations." To Armani, he added, "You're welcome to select the second pilot for the other runabout."

To his Chief Engineer and Chief Ops, Harvey said, "Take a team of ten to fifteen engineers. If I know these scientists, as I am one, I'm willing to bet they haven't even started breaking camp. We'll have to do it all for them."

"Yes, Sir," Harley said, having done this sort of thing before and already imagining scientists throwing themselves across their equipment screaming, no, no ... not yet.

Jason nodded to the Captain to acknowledge his instruction and then took the PADD he was holding and made a few entries about his upcoming duties. Judging from how well the briefing was going he felt quite sure this was going to be a very good mission.

"Don't mind me, I'll just sit here with my thumb up my arse and whistle Dixie" Finchley said. He adjusted his posture a moment then continued "I've listened to the suggestion from Commander DeVries regarding sending in the fighters for long range scans, but hasn't it occured to you that we can send in class four probes to do exactly the same thing, get exactly the same information, telemetry and scans, so there's no risk to life and we don't have to send anyone in risking life and limb, and before anyone pipes up, the probes can be adjusted to cope with very strong magnetic fields including the strengths of these ones. I've seen them being used this way several times during the war so I know what they can cope with."

He turned to the CO and said "Sir, I'm here as your Tactical and Security advisor, and not to put to fine a point on it, so far, you haven't eluded to Security even once in all of this, and that's quite disturbing."

Ensign Harold 'Hal' Sherman cleared his throat, "I would agree that the use of probes would not put anyone in harms way, one thing that all those sensors have never really been able to totally replace Mod 0 naked eye ball watching." "I would suggest if the probes were used that we would have a CAP patrol of two fighters out while we have shuttles and personnel on the ground.", with smile. It was always the same, like when you contesting for control of land mass, you still had to put boots on the ground to control. "As for the lack of security element, either they can replace a couple of the Engineers we are taking with us. OR we could add another shuttle for the added Security personnel, in which they probably will be 'drafted' into helping take down the camp."

Finchley looked round at the Chief of Ops and said "You've got spunk son, you'll do well. As for the probes, what 'they' can't pick up the naked eye never will, that's why they're so widely used for situations, just like this one. If you'd listened carefully though, I was suggesting putting the probes in beforehand, that's before any personnel hit the ground, that way we know what's what. Now, as for Security..." and at this point he took the two gold pips off of each side of his collar and threw them across to Sherman "you put these on your collar son as you're telling me what to do with them. No point in me being the Chief of Security if you're gonna decide what we do, hell, I'll just take my three months leave that's due to me and just head back to Rigil VI and get myself one of those holo-vids. Just a word of warning though, when you go into your new office in Security, be careful around CWO Karadis, she can get a bit...edgy around new folk she doesn't know. She won't bite...hard..." and with that he slid down in his seat and pulled the tam-o-shanter over his eyes and went to sleep.

"Gentlemen!" Harvey cleared the screen and returned to the head of the table, but did not sit down. "Mr. Kerr, your responsibilities are to keep the ship safe from harm, not that we are expecting to warp into a nasty scenario, much less anticipate foul play. We'll keep the four fighters in the air, patrolling the system, and we will launch the Class IV probes as you suggest to cover the system as additional support. While I understand the objections, the need for security on the planet surface will be moot. If the game changes, then we'll adjust the plan accordingly."

He looked to Ensign Sherman and nodded as a way of thanking him for his suggestions. "We depart today at 1300 hours. Please make sure your departments are ready."

Briefly waking up to hear the CO's comment and see him nod to the Chief of Ops, Finchley thought to himself ~Why don't you both get a room~ then said "Don't expect the cavalry to come rushing in when it all goes tits up...Sir."

Ensign Sherman gathered his PADD and went back to the Bridge. There was to much to do than worry about any feathers that may have been ruffled. He had a lot to do and very little time to make sure his house was in order.

Finchley pushed the bunnet back on his head, rose from his slumbered position and walked over to the table where the CO stood. Reaching down, he picked up the PADD he'd prepared, deleted everything he'd prepared and said "Well, wasn't this just the biggest waste of time and effort."

About turning he left the briefing room and made his way towards cargo bay one to the container awaiting his attention. The Security Department undermined, it's staff shunned, there was only one way to deal with this.

Jason sat, stunned at how insubordinate this man seemed to be, wondering if his disrespectful and childish attitude was going to be something they all had to put up with on a daily basis. But, seeing as he wasn't the highest ranking officer in the room, or the one the man's ignorant vitriol was being poured out on, he left the situation for the CO to deal with. He did however file it away that the man would need close monitoring. He seemed like a powder keg just waiting for the right thing to set him off on a rampage.

Harley had listened to everything being said, surprised at some of the under currents flowing through the conversation, and wondered why no one had thought to bring her into the discussion on the probes. Of course it would be possible to configure the probes to act as an advance warning system. She knew enough about the Altair system to know that it was a single star system, with a sun significantly brighter than the one that shone down on the Academy, and that the area had been hotly contested at one time.

"Captain," she said in her softly melodic voice, the one that seldom carried over the din of arguing officers, "I don't see a problem with configuring the probes to act as an advance warning system. A Class 5 Reconnaissance probe would work. I can equip it with a countermeasure package and rig it to relay back information on approaching craft. If its alright, I can get with Security and see what other modifications, he would suggest."

In the stupor that was beginning to lurk over Harvey thanks to the actions of his Security Chief, he replied to his Chief Engineer, "Please do."

"I'll get right on it, Sir," Harper said and waited to be dismissed to her duties.

Harvey looked around the room at who still remained. "See you all at 1300. Dismissed."

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