Impromptu briefing

Posted on Tue Nov 3rd, 2026 @ 10:28am by Commodore Xavier Carey & Lieutenant Talsi Carey & Lieutenant Sherri Element (Carey) & Captain Antonia 'Tony" Stoffels & Lieutenant Commander Tony Johnson & Lieutenant Commander Melor Pallara (Stoffels) & Lieutenant Commander Etan tar-Lexros & Lieutenant Commander Sky Carey & Lieutenant Morgan Stone & Lieutenant JG Callie Stone (S.Carey)

Mission: The Next Watch
Location: Conference room
Timeline: current

With no time to give the information to the Captain, Xavier had decided to do the briefing himself. He would give the information to the crew, however it would be the Captain to decide what would follow. The meridian, was one of his ships that had gone missing, and now it was their jobs to find out what happened. He walked into the observation lounge... "Senior staff to the conference room."

Leaving their twins in safe hands Sky made her way to the conference room, walking in she gave Xavier a smile as she took a seat nearby. She was still buzzing from being promoted.

Toni hurried in next a little confused that the commodore can call for this meeting without telling her.

On her heals was Melor who looking at her back suddenly realized he had not told her about his change of position yet and cursed inwardly.

Morgan came from the bridge so he arrived before Callie. Entering the lounge a few moments later. He gave a quick nod at those already present. He quickly found two seats together, one for himself the other for Callie.

Callie was next into the room offering a polite nod of her head to all present as she took the seat next to Morgan.

Tal walked in, having relinquished con to the ensign, she took her usual stance in the corner... being cramped sitting down for the past several hours was highly constricting.

Tony walked into the room next, spotting the Commodore and Captain, he simply nodded and took a seat.

Sherri walked in, looking around. Her first briefing as chief engineer. At least for now it was hers. Taking a seat near the end of the table, she waited for the meeting to start.

[OPEN]

As the other officers filed toward the conference room, Etan looked at his panel and nodded without saying a word. The fact that they were acting outside of regulations was enough to leave him uncomfortable - and the ship was en route to combat. When Toni stood up, Etan blinked, looking around. He stood up as well and gestured to the other two Ops officers thankfully on the Bridge. As the last member of the senior staff on the Bridge, the conn automatically fell to him. "Lieutenant Milton, you have the Bridge until a senior officer's return. Ensign Hardy, take Ops 1. Any anomalous readings or navigation interruptions, report immediately. Don't try to solve problems before we have data. Get at least two teams working on fabbing those neodymium plated wild weasel casings, though. if there's a danger of Jem'hadar, we want something's more polaron-absorbent than our hull."

Etan walked into the conference room, not liking the sense he was getting of the situation one bit. Violations of protocol, Toni's command being unofficially jumped over, and the way Xavier had responded to the name of the ship in the distress. That didn't seem like just 'a ship' he was responsible for. Memories in the back of his mind from his parents' work in diplomatic relations came back, and Etan walked into the conference room with a grimmer expression than normal. He sat down stiffly and looked at Xavier. "What was the actual, classified, mission of the Meridian which you are most worried about, Commodore? Why did it represent a valuable target to the Dominion?"

It was strange for him to be the incisive one, but this situation smacked too much of his past. Too much cloak-and-dagger, too many things to be avoided. Things that the usually quiet tinkerer hated.

Sky looked at her husband waiting for his response to Etan’s question.

"The meridian wasn't on a classified mission." Xavier replied replied, "I do apologize Captain, my briefing to you was actually going to be this afternoon. The meridian, was going to be officially listed as MIA, at 1300 hrs this afternoon. The distress call has brought this briefing all the more closer." He paused as he brought up the sector that the meridian was sent to investigate. Supply station 46, for the past several weeks, supply ships going to and from that station have been experiencing ghost contact sensor glitches. The meridian was sent in to investigate those reports and attempt to determine the cause. Supply station 46 is crucial for ships in the area looking to resupply on anti-matter, medical supplies, anything that could keep it out here longer without having to go all the way to a full starbase. As of right now, that is all the information I have for you. The call for help is all that I have for information. The floor is yours captain."

Commander Johnson had so many questions that he wanted to ask regarding Supply Station 46 and its strategic importance. But he felt it best to hold up with the questions, until the Captain said what she had to say regarding to task at hand. For all he knew, she night answer his question in the intial part of this briefing alone.

Toni had blinked a few times and tried to hide her feelings about Xavier putting her on the spot like this without giving her any more information before the meeting and then handing over to her. But did he remember that she had been to supply station 46 before and that she remembered the lecture her father had drummed into her about the vital importance of supply stations very well.

So she cleared her throat. "We will speak about this in more detail later, with all the department heads. Right now time is limited and saving the Meridian comes first. But...our supply stations are vital. Remember you can lose a war if your supply chains are not in order. Station 46 is one of our vital ones holding much more than just food." She looked round the table. "It is of vital importance to the war effort that our task force defend it. After the Meridian that will be our prime objective."

Sky looked between Toni and Xavier. “So it sounds like these ghost contacts could have been more than just ghosts, or glitches. There could be a whole enemy fleet out there waiting for us.”

"At this point, the mission is going to be rescue the meridian, if she is still intact. After the ship has been found. If need be, we follow up with what they were doing." Thomas paused and slunk back into his chair. This was getting harder than he had thought.

Morgan listened to first the commodore and then Captain Stoffels. It seemed these was still a great deal of information missing either purposely or just not there. In any case he would do a detailed search of the space surrounding Station 46 for any warp signatures, plasma leaks anything that would indicate the presence of other ships.

Callie had listened to all being said her Intelligence experience said that this could be a bad situation. “Given the importance of supply station 46, it would be one hell of a good place to set up the perfect trap. Starfleet’s ships coming to supply would be easy targets for a hidden fleet, though quite how you’d hide a fleet without detection is another thing entirely. Plus the enemy would have all those supplies for themselves. It’s ringing alarm bells for me.”

"There's still quite a bit that we don't know about the Dominion," the security chief spoke up. "Jem'Hadar can shroud themselves at times. Who's to say they couldn't do the same for their ships. Not to mention, parts of that sector which are unexplored. They could be hiding a task force in a nebula or behind some moon. If the Resolution prioritizes rescuing the Meridian crew, then we need to prepare as if we're walking into a potential trap."

"That is what is expected. We are under the assumption that they don't know about the message being sent. Being on a priority one distress signal. We have confirmation that the dominion dont pick up the channel. Even if it did... they wouldn't be able to decrypt it." Xavier replied as he leaned forward again. "We are hoping that they are only going to expect a patrol ship, or supply ship... of course we are expecting a trap. But right now, we are hoping our size is big enough to deter any further escalation in the area, for at least the immediate time frame."

"None of the other ships in the taskforce are close enough yet to join us?" Toni asked hoping against hope really.

"They are caught up evacuating some colonies near the border with rising dominion activities."

"Understood. So it will be down to us. We will go in, do the rescue and get out again as soon as possible." It was the only thing they could do really.

Callie nodded, she just hoped they weren’t flying into a situation that they wouldn’t be able to handle.

Etan nodded, and for the first time found himself doubting something Xavier said. Things weren't adding up in his head - he wondered for a moment if it was one of the side effects of the (prescription) drugs he was taking to stay functional through the stress and chaos. Still, the job in front of them was simple enough, for now. What happened in two hours would be a problem for that time, and if he had to delegate, he would. He straightened again and looked at Toni. "Captain, we're currently fabricating 'wild weasels' out of a set of probes, using neodymium shells as polaron traps and ID beacons matching the Resolution to throw off the Jem'hadar sensors. We know their weapons are inaccurate and work by magnetic confinement. We'll be able to deploy those distractions from our torpedo tubes, secondary craft, and bulk transport. The data packet included with the distress call showed at least 8 unique polaron signatures, so we may encounter a significant enemy presence. If needed, I can shift Cargo Bays 3 and 4, we can take over for the supply station for at least a week."

"Great ideas, commander. You have my full permission." Toni said.

He thought for a moment about the 'shrouding' Johnson brought up and turned to his fellow Second Officer. "Commander, after this briefing, would it be possible for me, you, and a sensor specialist to meet in Holodeck 1? We should try and avoid this 'shrouding' interfering with our sensors; we use displacement, ambient heat, and tachyon emissions to find cloaking devices, perhaps there's a similar method we can program to identify their vessels more effectively. While we'd both want more than an hour, anything we figure out could help."

"That's actually a great idea," Johnson agreed. "We can get to that immediately."

Sky looked towards Toni. “Perhaps we should have a practice drill for non-essential personnel? Make sure everyone is prepared incase we need to separate the saucer section? Last thing we need is people running around not knowing what to do, or where to be in a real emergency situation.”

"I am afraid we are out of time. We will reach the Meridian within three hours. A drill like that takes a lot of time, I want everyone ready and hyperfocussed at their stations." She said in a tone that did not invite further discussion. She was the captain and this was not a debating club.

“Understood” Sky nodded giving Toni a smile.

Toni smiled back briefly letting Sky know she was not angry or anything but she had to be the captain right now not a friend.

The security chief looked over the Captain and then to the rest of the senior staff. "The Captain is right. Besides this crew has been training for dealing with the Jen'hadar for months. Whatever we encounter, we'll be prepared."