Planning for Rojar I

Posted on 19 Feb 2013 @ 6:49pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Nesh Saalm & Benjamin Dale Ph.D. & Amril & Crewman Athlen
Edited on on 20 Feb 2013 @ 8:09pm

3,462 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Observation Lounge
Timeline: MD01: 1545 hours

[ON]

Ensign Taylor was the temporary bridge officer for the rest of Maenad's shift and possibly, though unlikely, into Maenad was expecting that it wouldn't take longer than an hour to get her department apprised, she had made the final preparations and notes from her station on the bridge. When Taylor arrived, perfectly on time, Maenad stood and thanked her. There was nothing to update her with, so Maenad passed over the station. She told Amril that she would see him in a few minutes as she walked up the flank of the bridge to the turbolift down to deck two.

Maenad stepped into the observation lounge, thinking it was probably one of her favourite rooms aboard. The oak and onyx table topped with a piece of glass made everything seem more important than it really was. She activated the full wall display and loaded the information on her PADD, to make sure that it all worked properly. As expected, it did. All she had to do now was wait.

The science chief, about to give her first mission briefing aboard the Galileo, was more confident than she was nervous. Smiling to herself, for some reason thinking her parents would be proud, she sat down at the head of the table, crossed her legs and stared out the range of windows that stretched the entire length of the wall opposite the display.

Amril arrived shortly after her, reflecting that he would be quite noticeable once everyone else started to arrive, a gold division officer and a vorta surrounded by a bunch of Federation scientists. He smiled and took a seat with his back to the window exactly halfway down the table.

"I am very eager to see how your meeting progresses, Lieutenant," the vorta offered to Maenad.

"Yes, I am sure that it will go smoothly," Maenad said down to him. Her body faced the window, but she turned her eyes to his direction. "It should be straightforward. Miss Cho and Mister Kramer will be giving a small presentation as well, so it won't be just me doing all the talking. And, feel free to pose questions yourself," she gave him a pointed smile and returned to watching the stars.

"Thank you, Lieutenant."

Kiri arrived promptly, arriving straight from the sensor dome where she had spent most of the afternoon so far. Given what had happened so far everything seemed to be going well. Other than the fact she didn't have an office any more. She was also feeling rather distant from Maenad after how their last evening together had gone. Entering the room she gave a small smile to the two occupants as she moved not to interrupt them.

Benjamin Dale followed the young lieutenant down the corridor and into the meeting room by about four steps without saying a word. He'd had no reason to speak to her as yet and saw no reason to go blathering on about hellos and how do you dos when they were about to go find out actual interesting information beyond 'what's your favorite color' and 'do you like soup for dinner'. He dropped into a chair near the end of the table and watched the Chief alertly. It was about time they found out what they were all here for.

Dr. Kramer entered the observation lounge with an oversided PADD under his arm, clutched next to his body, while looking down totally focused on another PADD in both hands. He paid no attention to anyone in the room, he found a seat near one end of the table and sat saying nothing.

Shortly after Kramer, Athlen ambled through the door, nodding and smiling at various people. He sat down in the first available chair, and like most of his colleagues he had a PADD in hand which he placed on his lap under the table. "Good afternoon everyone," the Rigelian said, folding his hands together in front of him.

Ensign Nicholas was next to arrive. He wasn't sure why he had been invited. He was merely a language specialist and a lowly Ensign at best, though he might not even be that for long.

Jacob soon entered the room. His long strides seemed to amplify not only his huge physique but also seemed to promote his confidence. He smiled and nodded to his colleagues and sat up front, well after he found a chair that actually suited him best. He smiled at Dr. Panne and at Lt. Cho, brought up his PADD and prepared to take notes.

After the last of the Galileo's science personnel arrived, the newest, greenist addition to the team poked her head through the door with a self-deprecating look on her features. So she was late. What? It was a big ship! It took time to run all the way from her quarters down to the observation lounge! Nesh Saalm waved to them all and moved in a rush to sit down right in the middle of a smiling Vulcan and some guy with dreadlocks. This ship was weird. "Sorry," she whispered to Maenad. "Hi," she offered a winning smile and clutched her PADD to her chest, leaning over the table to Seriously Pay Attention.

Maenad smiled to Nesh, but decided it best not to say anything. She turned her chair round, stood, and walked to the wall display with a PADD in hand. She activated it, and used it to control the display remotely. "Hello everyone," she said, glancing at few of the assembled staff. "This shouldn't take too long. This will be quite straightforward," she looked at the PADD, tapped a few commands with her long fingers. A system of six planets appeared on the display behind her, which Maenad briefed raised eyes to observe.

"This is the Rojar system," she began. "It has six planets orbiting a type G1V star, which as you all know is very similar to Earth's. What makes it of interest to the Federation is that it has an S class super giant in the habitable zone. Gas giants are typically found in a star's hot or cold zone; it is very rare to find one around the star-type most conducive to intelligent life," the screen zoomed in Rojar II and its many satellites. "Rojar II is inhospitable to life as we know it; it has an atmospheric composition of metallic hydrogen and helium. The exact percentages are as yet unknown, but long-range scans suggest something in the vicinity of ninety percent hydrogen and ten percent helium. Trace amounts of ammonia and methane are anticipated." Maenad looked up at the display for a moment. "While beautiful, our interests will be mostly concerned with the eighty-one moons around the planet. Scans have revealed the likelihood of at least two M class, which could double the potential for intelligent life."

Looking away from the screen and at the staff around the table, Maenad lowered her PADD to address them. "The Federation has an economic interest in our research," she didn't say that she was concerned by this. "Initial scans have detected high concentrations of plentiful deposits of dilithium crystals and latinum. I do not want these perceived profits to lead any of you astray as we are scientists. With or without the acquisition of these resources, our lives will be unaffected."

Dr. Kramer glanced up at Lt. Maenad and rolled his eyes slightly at her comment. He could not believe that any true scientist would dismiss the possiblities of any planetary body without proper surveys and study.

Maenad looked away from the screen again, back to the staff. "We will spend the first week exploring each planet individually. Our studies will range from collecting surface samples and atmospheric composition to spacial analysis. I will assemble away teams as necessary, and teams will be led by Lieutenants Pendleton and Cho - especially when we get to the gas giants and have moons to explore. At the end of the first week, we will investigate several asteroids of interest. The final week of our mission will be devoted to a more detailed exploration of the massive lunar system around Rojar II. This will be our busiest week, I anticipate, and we will all be spending time off ship at some time or another." She gave them a small grin to reassure them. "Before I get into what we do in case we should find life, are there any questions?"

"You mentioned latinum and dilithium deposits," Ben chimed in. "Did the Venture take scans of all chemical compositions on these planets and their moons? Or did they just go looking for specific things? There could be entirely new elements in this system, it's possible with every star. Did they bother to check?"

"They did not, unfortunately," Maenad said back to him. "The Venture only ran a passive scan. They did nothing with any detail, other than acquire faint readings."

Kramer was looking down at his oversized PADD going through the actual survey information from the Venture. He thought, They need more true scientist aboard those missions and not just get a random passive scan, but we will get it right for them.

Ben snorted. "Super. So I guess that's all on us, then."

Looking around at everyone else so not to interrupt Kiri leaned forwards slightly, "Have the probe routes been set for scans yet? And are there any properties other than resource scanning?" It was the sort of thing that she enjoyed doing and fell partly inside her remit. There were so many bodies involved that it would be a challenge to set out all the orbital paths. She knew they were to explore the unknown, but that didn't mean there weren't priority tasks.

"Not yet," Maenad said. "Doctor Kramer has a probe plan that he will be presenting shortly," she explained. "I would like the two of you to work together on that project, but as I said, we will hear of the details in a few minutes."

Kiri nodded, that was fine, but she considered that a preparation for the project rather than the project itself. This was her first time exploring a real new system though, so she did take note of the order things were going.

Athlen smiled to himself. Maybe Dale didn't think it was interesting, but it was. Fascinating, in fact. So many new planets to explore and catalog. How could anyone find that boring? "I don't have much to contribute to this conversation, aside from the fact that there might be intelligent life. Either way, this is really amazing." He gestured at the screen, sitting forward to rest his chin on his hands, folding his fingers together contentedly. "If there is, intelligent life, what will happen?" he asked Maenad, looking up.

"Sorry," Ben held up a couple fingers. "I don't mean to bore you lot, but before we get to the fuzzy potentially talking things that everyone gets excited over, and I'm sure it is 'exciting' and everything- what about the other moons? There's two Class M's and then... what? Just because the other moons aren't suitable for multi-celled organisms, they're ignored? Elements. Micro-organisms. Viruses. Bacteria. Mold. Fungi. Minerals. Chemical compounds we've never seen. Do we have anything about any of that? And we're supposed to do an analysis of over eighty moons, just in the 'habitable' region, not including all the other planets that might have incredibly complex extremophiles, in two weeks?"

Maenad sighed. "No, Mister Dale, no one is suggesting that we ignore, anything." She held up her PADD and tapped through a few menus, doing some quick mental calculations in her head. "One hundred and forty-four moons," she corrected him. "We will spend as much time as we need to at any given place, but probability has it that the vast majority of planetary bodies will be lifeless. We will have a thorough scanning of each planet and each moon. Every planet will be visited by away teams. Every moon that is worth standing on, will be stood on. We have almost three weeks to explore almost two hundred total locations, Mister Dale. I hope that you'll be as inclusive when the time comes as you're insisting right now," she spoke flatly, like she were disinterested in his candor.

"I will get to your question in a minute, Mister Athlen," Maenad looked at him. "Are there any other questions before we move on?"

"Oh, three weeks," Ben held up his hands. "Forgive me. If I'd known we had a whole extra week, I would have found the idea of investigating one hundred and forty-four moons totally reasonable."

Dale broke the silence with his insubordination, and now he set Maenad off. "Mister Dale, perhaps you would like to be somewhere else?" she looked at the ceiling, shaking her head before glaring back down at him. "The warp plasma coils always need cleaning; I am sure that Ensign Peers would love a volunteer."

"Thought we were supposed to be asking questions," Ben muttered under his breath, but sat back and crossed his arms. How were they supposed to 'thoroughly' scan a six planet, hundreds of moons solar system in three weeks? Three weeks was barely enough time to spend on one of the Class M's. Ridiculous.

Jacob also gave Dr. Dale a death glare and then asked, "In regards to the passive scan by the Venture was there any returns that even would remotely cause us to think there might be any possibility of sentient life? Those spectral returns you showed seem to me to be pretty significant if they hold true, what a great find if we did come across sentience!" There was excitement in his voice. He couldn't wait to get to Rojar now.

Athlen shrugged at them all and smiled again, apparently completely unfazed by any of it. "I think he is right, in a way. It is regretful that we do not have more time, every aspect of these planetary bodies is worth cataloging. But we have what we have. From what you're saying, we have to do most of these scans ourselves, and then do the exploration as well. We won't know if there's sentient life, until that happens, so we shouldn't focus on it right now." He gave a small consoling frown to the tall human man across from him. Nesh listened to the briefing and blinked, eyes wide. She didn't have the slightest idea what to do, and she really didn't want to sound stupid. Athlen laid a fleeting, reassuring hand on her arm and then settled back into his chair before giving a small, regretful sigh. There wasn't a whole lot he knew about scanning, or sensors. He regretted that he couldn't be more useful.

Yes, yes. Thought Dr. Kramer, Everything in due time. Everyone wants to find a new micro organsmis, Sheest! Dr. Kramer couldn't wait to explain the expected multi sensor probe scan system.

Maenad clenched her jaw at Athlen's agreement with Dale, but she knew it best not to pursue anything. "Moving on," she breathed, fingering the PADD. "If we find life, and I am optimistic about our chances," she rose her eyes to give an excited smile, "There are several protocols that we must keep in mind. If the race is pre-warp, which is likely given the lack of noticed activity in the system, we will have the opportunity to do a duck-blind study. We may also have the chance to walk among them for a more detailed study. To do this, of course, would require we build an observation post. Depending on the civilisation's development, this could be anywhere from outside a tribal village, a nest in the mountains, or a room in a hotel. I needn't remind you that our work would be strictly that: work. Formation of relationships is prohibited. If anyone is suspected of being too friendly, I will not hesitate to throw them off the team. Be polite, succinct, courteous.

"If the life we find is a tribe, however, or in the equivalent of our pre-historic times, then we will not be mingling at all. We will observe from afar. We will make use of holo-technology to conceal our duck-blind. Any disturbance we make in the land will be corrected. We absolutely cannot interfere with their development," Maenad explained. "Exactly which course of action will be taken I cannot say until we arrive."

Athlen listened intently as she spoke, happy to follow the conversation as it went, and began taking down some notes as Maenad spoke. Listening posts. Holographic observation posts. Prohibited relationships. Although, he mused, it would certainly be nice to interact with a whole new culture. That had been why he'd joined Starfleet, after all. What else... he tapped his stylus against his chin as they all started talking again.

Nesh sat straighter in her seat, perking up at the mention of aliens. New aliens. That they would get to study. And learn about. She didn't care what that snarky dude with the hair said, that was definitely awesome. "What about like, I don't know," she frowned, "Will we still be taking all that stuff if there's people there? You said the Feds-" she coughed and frowned, awkwardly stuttering the slang term into proper form, "Uh, the Federation, has an economic interest. Like, we're going to be taking stuff. From the system. So, if there's people, we'll be taking from them." She looked up, eyes wide. "Which is bad, right?"

Those were Maenad's concerns exactly. "I believe that the Prime Directive will prevent that from happening."

Jacob asked, "Dr. Panne, what if we find a technologically advanced society that's just reclusive or just decided to be solitary? The Prime Directive might not be an option at that point? Should we plan for that possible contingency?"

"The Prime Directive. That's, like, don't interfere with the development of another species, right?" Nesh asked, but then answered for herself. "Makes sense, then. Yeah." She cocked her head to the side. "Probably if they're warp capable then we would just back out anyway? It'd be obviously their territory, right?" Nesh asked, biting her nails. "'Cause if we take from them, then they'd probably react, like, badly." The Dominion War rang through her head a little too soundly, even though she wasn't old enough to remember it, everyone around her sure seemed to. Encroaching on someone's space without knowing it, hostile reactions, wars... she shuddered. Wars were bad.

Kiri listened but didn't have anything to add or ask yet. The rules on contacting life still fresh in her mind from the Academy. Everyone else seemed to be more than vocal enough for now so she just sat neatly and listened intently.

Maenad nodded at everything she said. For a young girl of sixteen, she was impressed with her confidence. At that age, she doubted that she would have been able to communicate so clearly among such personalities. "If we do in fact find a species that is technologically advanced, Mister Pendleton, then whether or not we make contact will depend on what we find," she explained. "We will have to gauge their development before we introduce ourselves, and we to take every precaution so as not to upset their society." She looked at the screen. "But, this is all idle speculation. We won't know anything until we arrive at Rojar in a little over two days from now. We will be exploring the system planet by planet, but we will have a good idea of whether or not we'll encounter life pretty quickly.

"Lieutenant Cho has just finished upgrading the ship's sensors, so I will pass the floor over to her so she can explain the new systems," Maenad smiled to Kiri and reclaimed her seat at the head of the table to watch.

To be continued...


[OFF]

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Benjamin Dale, Ph.D.
Chemical Engineer
USS Galileo
(pNPC Lilou Peers)

Dr. Vincent Kramer Ph.D.,
Planetary Geologist
USS Galileo
(pNPC Theron Rhodes)

Crewman Athlen
Sociologist, SSC
USS Galileo
(PNPC Liyar)

Nesh Saalm
Scientist's Mate, CIV
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Amril
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

Lt. (jg) Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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