Seeing What Sticks

Posted on Fri Jan 20th, 2012 @ 1:08pm by Lieutenant Jasad Broca & Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Marion

Mission: Crises and Consequences
Location: Conference Room Three
Timeline: Shortly After Much Ado About Romulus

Jasad sat at the head of the luxuriant conference room table, PADD in hand. While the Sovereign class had a slightly more military design style than the Galaxy, it was no less a luxury liner by Cardassian standards. It was, in fact, one of the more cavernous and amenity-filled ship classes in the Federation fleet. His time in the service had partially consisted of awe at how each ship class was more roomy than the last, with multiple redundancies and ample entertainment facilities. This progression culminated in the Galaxy and Sovereign classes, which had almost as many resources devoted to relaxing as they did for filling their Exploration and Military roles. Not that the Federation ever liked to admit to the Military roles.

"Thank you all for coming," he said. A pointless pleasantry, since attendance was not optional. "I'll be recording this session for Cadet Filmore, who is doubtless challenging the Admiral's patience on the bridge while we have our meeting." A few smirks came at that. "Now, as you are all doubtless already aware, we are traversing Romulan territory. You may not all know why. It turns out that the Romulans have an unusual Nova waiting to occur in one of their sectors. They have expressed some concern over evacuations, which leads me to believe that they are desperate. Their exploding star must be primed to become one of the more catastrophic disasters of the century."

"All of this is merely exposition for our chapter in the story, however. If evacuation should become necessary, we won't be able to evacuate enough people. Millions will die. Perhaps even Billions, depending on how far this disaster reaches. Our jobs will be to mitigate these numbers, even if only by one-one-hundredth of one-percent. Every body we retrieve and ferry away from the disaster is one body who didn't die. Not much statistically, but rather important to the individual in question. I have already received authorization for bunk beds and hot bunking on three shifts if we need to. You'll notice I've taken the liberty of making sure Ops is bunked together, to make shift briefings and coordination all the easier. It'll also fray nerves as there is no escape from your coworkers. We will all have to endure for the duration of any emergency."

"Other more standard evac procedures are also going to be implemented. We'll be converting holodecks and cargo bays and even hallway space if we need to. Non-priority Science labs will be packed away and made into quarters. But I'm not content with that. I want more ideas. That's what this meeting is about. As the Terrans say, we will throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. I want to hear the fanciful and the ridiculous as well as the tried and true."

"So... suggestions?"

"Well, have we considered how we're going to be feeding everyone?" Lieutenant Junior Grade Elizabeth Marion asked, the first to pipe up, "I understand the sleeping arrangements aren't going to be very comfortable for a while, but what about life after sleep? How are we going to handle hygiene, nutrition, even distractions for our guests?"

Jasad smiled slightly. "I have not considered that, but you all are about to."

Sekera, the ship's quartermaster, cleared his throat. "Well," the Bolian said, "we do have an ample stock of self-heating rations aboard. Enough to feed thousands for weeks. But... they may not be optimized to Romulan tastes or nutritional needs. Also... variety of flavors is lacking."

Jasad nodded, "All right, Crewman, you are our official foodstuffs ambassador. Go ahead and contact the Romulan Public Affairs office and see if they'll be kind enough to share recipes for Romulan rations. We'll have to start replicating them long before we take passengers, so make this a priority. Once evacuation procedures start, we may not have the energy to spare for replicating anything. Pick five statistically popular flavors and make them by the ton. Supplement our industrial and food replicators with shuttle and Runabout replicators as necessary to have everything ready in time. I'll inform the Admiral that we are shifting the entire crew to our own standard rations immediately and throughout the replication period so that our energy and food bank resources aren't unduly strained. We'll use the diplomatic kitchen to prepare his own meals, and the hydroponics facility to provide ingredients for his chef, which I think will be his solitary objection. Might as well get some use from Hydroponics before we have to shelve it to make space."

"On the matter of hygiene... I will contact Engineering about arranging portable hygiene stations suitable to Romulan needs. Now... what about entertainment? It will have to be something that can be undertaken with a minimum of space. Any ideas?"

Liz had to stifle a giggle when Lt. Broca mentioned Adm. Cowell having some private chef. The gesture passed by unnoticed which forced her to comment on it, "That old man doesn't have a cook. The replicators are the only thing keeping him fed... but don't tell him I told you that. He actually threw a fit when Starfleet tried to station one here, said it was a waste of time, effort, energy, and someone's talents. Now, you hear Dad tell it, and he's the best damn chef this side of the universe, but the most I've ever seen him make is toast and sweet tea. You might want to leave his replicator working... I'd hate to see what that grouch pot is like if he doesn't get his evening tea."

Jasad remembered his first job in the service of the Admiral- repairing his room's replicator unit. He mentally chastised himself for assuming that a man of habit would have taken on a chef just because the ship and position rated one.

Several of the gathered Operations officers looked at Lt. Marion quizzically but none of them came out and said anything... all of them except Chief Petty Officer Ascott Merriweather, "And how would you know about the Admiral's eating habits? I haven't seen you two spend that much time together in the lounge or anything."

"Oh... well that's because we normally eat in his quarters," Liz remarked in a matter-of-fact manner, "Dad isn't one to 'go out', if you get what I mean. I think I've seen him actually suggest eating in the lounge or at a restaurant when we're on shore leave only a handful of times. Most of the time he just ends up getting angry about poor service, or he backhands someone for mouthing off wrong..."

"Right..." Merriweather said with an upraised eyebrow, "Well that would explain a lot. Now, as for the Lieutenant's question, I believe the best way to divert people's attention would be to give them something to do. I'm sure there will be just as many people coming aboard that want to help as there will be people who simply want to simply sit and ponder if we actually do have to evacuate them for any reason."

"From what I've heard of the actual event they called us out here for, we're only a contingency measure and it isn't even a measure the entire Senate agreed on," Lt. Marion remarked, remembering a conversation she'd overheard on the bridge before the meeting had been called, "It's just as likely that we're going all the way to Romulus for nothing."

"Well, isn't this really a meeting to cover the possibility of it being for more than just nothing, Lieutenant?" Crewman Sekera asked.

Liz couldn't help but smirk at the young Bolian, "You're very right, Mr. Sekera. If we're going to stick with the notion that this isn't just a contingency mission and we really will have guests soon... I would imagine giving people something to occupy their time wouldn't be a bad way to handle them. If you think about it, we're going to have more people than we have crew to service them. At some point in time we're going to have to draft some of the refugees to help with food distribution, helping us with waste reclamation... you name it. As far as sensitivity goes, handing out rations and collecting packaging for reprocessing by the replicators isn't exposing the civilians to anything they aren't already familiar with."

"Yes, but not everyone is going to want to help, what will we do to distract those people?" Chief Merriweather asked.

Jasad leaned back in his chair, allowing himself the indulgence of a sigh. He wished they were transporting Vulcans instead of Romulans. Vulcans had a self control and acceptance of expediency that made many of these concerns moot. All they seemed to care about was scientific pursuits- which brought a thought to mind. "Nova class science ships," he said. Everyone looked at him quizzically, and he expanded on the thought blurb.

"Small, slow, sometimes assigned on extended survey assignments. Not much space for holodecks on board. But I remember reading that when the Equinox was in the Delta quadrant, they acquired some kind of system..." He gestured at his face, "A headset environment simulator of some kind." Starfleet was always incredibly concerned with recreational facilities, and an article on the devices had appeared in one of the fleet's Engineering publications shortly after Voyager's return. Unfortunately, his flawless memory wasn't serving him very well since he'd only glanced at the article for an instant before moving on to something more relevant to his job.

"When Voyager got back, information on the devices was published as a possible solution to crew fatigue on small ships." He wished he'd read the article rather than passing it over for the latest warp coil advancements. "Does anyone know what I'm talking about better than I do?"

Crewman Sekera was the first to speak up, "I thought that kind of technology was banned. I know some of the guys in my training group had some headband like device and they were taken from them... something about being bad for you or something. But then again, I was in training so it could have just been our instructors trying to scare us out of doing things we weren't supposed to be doing..."

Chief Merriweather sat back with a puzzled look on his face before offering, "Why don't we just give them PADDs and let them read or something. We have a large library of literature and other such... and it doesn't take much to replicate a PADD. Might not appeal to everyone, but it's the most practical of the suggestions I could think of."

"Maybe we can leave some of the gym facilities working, give people some measure of relief, get their frustrations out with a good run or a nice workout. That might help keep people occupied. We can afford to keep at least two of the gyms open, even if it is just a running track and maybe the weight room or something," Lt. Marion offered.

Jasad was frustrated with himself for not remembering the name of the technology he was looking for, but there wasn't time for self-chastisement. "All right. PADDs and Gymnasiums it is. But space isn't free, even if it's needed. I want ideas for replacing the space we lose by keeping the rec facilities open. I don't like the idea of telling evacuees that they will have to stay behind and die so that their neighbors can be entertained. Think on it overnight. For now, unless anyone else has something to add?"

He paused and glanced around, 'All right. We have a lot of work to do, people. Dismissed."