Brief Briefing for those to be Briefed

Posted on Tue Jan 4th, 2011 @ 10:55am by Captain Nathan Cowell MD
Edited on on Tue Jan 4th, 2011 @ 5:55pm

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Conference Room, USS Arizona
Timeline: Five minutes after 'Sir? Is that you?!'

Captain Nathan Cowell had left his diminutive First Officer with the oh so daunting task of gathering the meager manifest of Senior Staff that had managed to make it aboard before the Brass had managed to ruin his day. 'And things were going so well, too...' he internally complained, more so because there was no one to complain to than anything. Doc Cowell had taken the liberty of setting a timer, more out of boredom than a need to keep track of his First Officer's progress. However unrealistic his timetables were, he would never actually chastise someone for failing short of an unreasonable expectation. this was a fact he would never share with his crew, but in his nearly thirty years spent as a Captain, he'd never once found a need to actually toss someone out of an airlock for being one minute shy of spot on. At least, not to a meeting...

The door of the conference room slid open and the first figure to appear was Major DeVries. Her stride spoke of confidence and assertiveness, which were good qualities to have in a Chief of Security. She sank into a chair of to his right and gave him a quizzical look.

"What's up, old man?" she asked.

"The ceiling," Cowell retorted, showing his unwillingness to field questions at the moment with sarcastic retorts.

"True," she nodded with a grin, letting the issue slide for now.

The next person to walk in was Lt. Commander Halsey, which made very little sense to him unless he and his First Officer had continued their lovely little banter after he'd left. He sat down in a chair one away from Cowell's immediate left. This was an obvious maneuver intended to leave Jack room to sit next to the Captain. Followed closely behind was Lieutenant Rixx, would sat next to Maj. DeVries without so much as a look in anyone's direction. Representative from Ops, Flight Control, Science and Medical also filtered in, the most senior of them being Lt. Junior Grade Marion. The addition of Jack followed by his Yeoman, Sweeney, rounded out the roster of butts required to fill the seats. Sweeney just happened to elect to stand for reasons known only to himself.

"Now that everyone's here, let me fill you in on what we are dealing with," Cowell said, tapping the command console that controlled the holographic display embedded in the table. Screen facsimiles appeared before the various people in the group, alleviating the need for everyone to crane their necks to see what was being outlined, and giving Doc Cowell the luxury of staying put without the need to play game show host.

"The map you see in front of you is the region around the Braken star system. Braken Three was expecting a shipment to be made by a freighter, the North Star, several hours ago. She never pulled in. Scans in the area put her about a light year and some change out. Not enough distance to say she was running behind in any way. Strategic Operations Command for this area reports pirate activity in this area as high, which means basically they haven't got a clue who might have made the hit. What bothers me more than anything about this mission is the ship was carrying a cargo that sends out all kinds of red flags," Cowell switched over to the very abridged copy of the ship's stores that he'd been given by Admiral Mooren before continuing, "Unspecified medical supplies, equipment, gear... things that should be shipped as little more than bulk replicator matter if this is to be believed. I took the liberty of calling ahead to the Braken colony and got the run around from their colonial administrators as well. Seems like no one wants to talk over long range comm-links. Bare bones of this, we're heading for a trap, no two directions to go in. Starfleet picked us to go handle it because in their infinite wisdom they gave us a Tactical Cruiser with more teeth than bark."

Cowell started to look at individuals as he cut the displays off, "Major DeVries, I need the Security Department ready to conduct an investigation if we find this freighter intact. If not I need you, Mister Rixx, to comb through the wreckage and see if we can't find anything to help us figure out who's responsible. Commander Halsey, I want you to get on the horn to whoever you know in the area and see if anyone's been targeting specific shipments and what those might be. If this isn't part of a pattern, maybe someone will recognize the tactics and perhaps be able to point us in the right direction. Also, if we find survivors, I want you to help the Major squeeze them for info. The more hands twisting arms, the better."

Nathan moved on to the department representatives, outlining their parts to play, though much of it was more reactionary instructions should something happen rather than urgent mission business. When everything had been laid out for the people gathered, Nathan leaned back in his chair.

"You've all got your assignments. If you have questions, save them for after we're out of the dock. Right now, you all have last minute business to square away so I suggest you attend to it. We'll be leaving Deep Space Six in two hours, so if you haven't gotten your shit squared away by now, you better hop to and take care of it," Doc Cowell said in the way of a dismissal. The blank stares he got from pretty much the entire room, save Maj. DeVries who just grinned knowingly, told him he needed to be more clear.

"Piss off! Go, shoo... I have shit to do, and so do you. Out!" he declared, this time getting the reaction he wanted, which was asses vacating seats.

"Jack, my Ready Room, two minutes," he said, catching the boy just before he'd left the room.