Human Hubris (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 21 May 2016 @ 2:43am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Ensign Calin & Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Haeften & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Natalya Kirilova & Lieutenant JG Noah Khoroushi & Lieutenant JG Randolf Eklund & Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Jerico Stark & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen & Ensign James Langley & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Anthony Duval & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Ambassador Caymen Greener & Sable Iroh Ph.D.

1,703 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Transporter Room 1
Timeline: MD 01 - 2120 hrs

[ON]

At the designated rendezvous coordinates located only a half-lightyear outside of the Sol system, Galileo and her crew impatiently awaited the arrival of USS Semmes. Delays were to be expected from time to time during deployments and it was often times due to circumstances outside of anyone's control. The best laid plans were vulnerable to the occasional warp reactor malfunction or random system glitch -- and sometimes it was due to the head of Starfleet's Applied Sciences Division apparently experiencing a last-minute complication in her latest pet project.

Normally such a minor inconvenience would not have bothered the Orion rear admiral except in this case, their departure schedule had been meticulously planned to coincide with their arrival at Celes III in order to avoid a predicted plasma storm in the planet's upper atmosphere that might interfere with landing procedures. Lirha knew there was not much that could be done at this point, but nevertheless, it seemed their first mission back in space since the Mirror Universe was headed off on a bad foot.

A bright flash in the stars near the Nova-class' position signaled the arrival of the large colony ship whose quad-nacelle configuration and large, modular component bays made her almost the size of an Excelsior-class starship. The starship quickly located Galileo and set speed at low impulse to close the distance and rendezvous with her escort.

At one of the aft Mission Ops consoles, Andreus Kohl recognized the new sensor contact and so he tapped a sequence of commands on his LCARS interface. The bridge's viewscreen activated, it's image centred on the starship that was stalking through vacuum towards Galileo. Even without another object on the screen to provide a sense of scale, there appeared something massive about the other starship. Kohl turned his body towards the command well and he announced, "USS Semmes has caught up with us, Admiral."

As the colony ship slowed to a stop, Miraj turned the Galileo about to slide the small frigate gracefully along side the larger vessel, until there was barely a hundred meters between them, and Galileo was nestled outside the viewing ports.

A signal came up on screen. "Incoming message from the Semmes, Admiral."

"On screen," instructed Saalm who straightened herself up in her seat and pushed a renegade lock of dark hair back behind her ear.

"Aye, ma'am." Noah opened the link and transferred it to the main view screen.

Commander Reyes' familiar face appeared and he presented the bridge crew of Galileo with brief yet apologetic smile. "Admiral Saalm, once again I apologize for our delay. We are assuming formation and preparing to warp with you to the Celes system."

Lirha responded with a casual wave of her hand. Now that the colony ship had arrived and they were already delayed, she wanted to use the opportunity to give her crew a chance to speak with the prestigious doctor about her work. "If you do not mind, commander, there are several of my officers who would like to meet Doctor Iroh and learn more about her project. Is she...available?"

Reyes was about to reply when, as had happened the first time, the doctor suddenly poked her head into the viewer to answer for him.

"Available for what exactly?!" The woman butted in, eager to know why exactly some military hotheads were trying to drag her away from her research.

"Do you not think I have better things to be doing at the moment Rear Admiral? Things are on a very tight timescale!"

Saalm gave a single nod to show her agreement. "I do not believe it will take much of your time. I understand you are busy and we do not wish to keep you from your work. Perhaps an hour at most? A chance for some of our inquiring personnel to learn more about your project and perhaps...met him? Her? It?" she proposed.

Iroh sighed as she acknowledged that in the pursuit of science, sometimes compromise had to be made, even if it was compromise for a level of intelligence that fell far short of her own. In reality she doubted that the people she would be meeting with would even grasp the fundamentals of what she had achieved, but if nothing else they would at least be aware of her genius.

"Very well...we will transport aboard in one hour."

"We will be over shortly, then. Thank you, doctor," replied Lirha. "I look forward to meeting you soon. "Galileo out." The transmission ceased and the viewscreen reverted back to its holographic bulkhead.

The rear admiral slowly rose from her chair and stretched her back before looking across the bridge. "All officers, with me," she instructed, then tapped her commbadge to inform the entire ship. "All hands this is Saalm, any hands interested in Dr. Iroh's work please join us in transporter room 1."

Leading the way towards the turbolift, she stopped next to it and waited until everyone entered before stepping in herself to give their desired destination. "Transporter room 1."

The large cab quickly began to take them down to the next deck and the car stopped less than 15 seconds later at the center of Deck 2 where it deposited them in front of the transporter room doors.

In main engineering. WO2 Duval turned his head at the sound of the Admirals voice as it echoed through the large chamber. "Well... this is new." he admitted aloud, he never once entertained the idea of meeting this Doctor Iroh but he had heard of her. "I wasn't expecting the invitation..."

"You new Chief?"

"Yeah, first mission aboard."

The petty second nodded. "If you want. I can handle things while you go meet them?"

"No... I want to take care of my shift then indulge my interests afterwards... Plus I need to do some research on the subject.." he paused. "thanks though."

"No worries Chief." and the other man went back to his post. Leaving Duval to his thoughts.

Duval paused a moment as he recalled the statistics on this system. "You know what... yeah. I will go attend this meeting... thank you."

Allyndra definitely was curious as she got the communique general broadcast. She checked the time and while it was getting close to her shift she figured she might have time. She called sickbay to make sure they were covered depending on how long she would be there.

Greener had been told about Iroh and the AI, and he had been studying what he could. But some face-to-face interaction would be enlightening. If he needed to step in as the diplomat in some way, he would need to know as much as possible. The older man appeared at the transporter room, and gave a nod to the others there. He was in his traditional ambassadorial robes, but had his slightly-modified combadge - Starfleet communications-enabled, different logo since he was not technically a fleeter.

Greg had been stir crazy for the past few days. He wasn't used to serving on a science vessel, and the lack of people trying to kill each other in many ways was beginning to be monotonous. Which is why he volunteered for team security. While he was assuming a simple science and colony establishment mission wouldn't render any issues, he wanted to be certain.....and at least do something for the next day.

He snapped his utility belt on as he stepped through the transporter room doors. It had a tricorder on his left side, and a small type one phaser on the right. He decided on the type one in order to not spook any of the scientists with the size of the type two.

"Sorry I'm late folks, had a rough night." He said.

Holliday was next through the door, as XO it was only prudent that he join the CO and the rest of the command staff. He hated these pomp and circumstance situations as much as the next man, but again, orders had to be followed.

Following Holliday into the transporter room before the doors closed, Andreus Kohl felt as if he didn't know what to do with his hands. He crossed them over his chest, he dropped them by his side, and then he folded them behind his back. As challenging and uncertain as the assignment had been, some part of Kohl regretted leaving behind his post as Chief Science Officer at a time like this. That anxiety manifested in a tightening of his jaw. Other than that, he simply opted to do what Holliday would do.

Entering the transporter room she saw she wasn't the first to arrive. Clipping her tricorder to her belt Jaana noticed the phaser the security officer was wearing. "Uhm, am I at the wrong place," she asked. "I thought we were going to meet Doctor Iroh and talk about the experiment she's going to run on the planet?"

Greg let out a laugh. "It's a precaution ma'am. I'm fully expecting absolutely nothing to happen, hence why I chose the tiny phaser instead of the big one. Back when I was a cop, we carried always. Even when going to eat. Plus, if you read up on all the crap the Enterprise-D crew had to go through, even on normal scientific expeditions, you would see where I'm coming from."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Noah Khoroushi
Assistant COPS
USS Galileo

WO2 Anthony Duval
Engineer
USS Galileo

LCmdr Allynda illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Andreus Kohl
Second Officer
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Dr Sable Iroh
Chief Researcher
[pNPC Holliday]

ENS Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

AMB Caymen Greener
Diplomat
USS Galileo

CWO2 Greg Mitchell
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

ENS Jaana Voutilainen
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galileo

LT Wilhelm Von Haeften
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Reyes
Commanding Officer
USS Semmes
[PNPC Saalm]

And other Galileans...

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