Discussing Options (part 1)

Posted on Fri Jan 31st, 2020 @ 8:36am by Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn & Lieutenant JG Ronen Kym & Lieutenant Azusa Nakano & Lieutenant Trei Jansum & Lieutenant Remy Boudreau & Lieutenant JG Paris Deville & Lieutenant JG Tessa Nicoles

1,341 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Caverns of the mind
Location: Conference Room

ON

At the captain's request, Amber invited the department heads to meet in the conference room to brief them about what the away team discovered and discuss what their next steps should be.

As she led the away team, she would lead the meeting. She was the first to arrive, taking the time to review the data from the planet and the latest scans from the shuttle.

Kym walked in and smiled at the commander. "Hope you don't mind if I sit in."

Amber looked up and smiled. "Not at all. Your insight is as good as anyone's."

Kym chuckled. "Well, I can give you a psychological opinion."

"That could be valuable, after what we found."

Kym nodded and went to the replicator to get herself a drink. "Want something?" she asked.

"No, thanks."

Kym nodded and got herself a pomegranate juice before taking a seat at the table.

Trei came in next, a padd in his hand with his report, and a cup of raktajino in the other. His sister told him to try it with two measures of kava, and he had to admit it was pretty good.

He nodded hello at the commander. "Commander," he said with a smile and a nod.

Amber smiled back. "Hello."

He sat at his usual place at the table. That was when he saw Kym's face. "Good day, Counselor," he said, giving her another smile.

"Hello, lieutenant," Kym replied.

Boudreau strode into the Conference room with a padd clutched in one hand. He had assumed that he would be early enough to have a few moments to go over the Away Team's findings. Seems I'm not as quick as the rest. He nodded to the Commander and the other two present.

He replicated a quick cortado, and sat down. Boudreau extended a hand to the Lieutenants in gold and blue respectively, 'Lieutenant Remy Boudreau, your new Chief Science Officer. I don't believe we've been introduced.'

Kym shook his hand. "Ronen Kym. I'm one of the counselors. Welcome aboard."

'Thank you kindly, ma'am,' replied Boudreau with a smile. 'A pleasure to be here.'

Kym smiled. She definitely preferred this Chief of Science to the last one.

Trei looked at the man and had him pegged: a nerd. Then again, the Aurora was in need of a nerd. "Welcome to the Aurora, Lt. I'm Trei Jansum, Chief Sec Tac."

Boudreau smiled, and took a sip of his coffee. 'A pleasure to meet you,' he drawled.

Paris walked into the Conference Room, not a gesture or moment to say hello, but a tired look and a mug filled with some sort of liquid. He took a seat and stretch his legs out, taking a moment to pat the side of his boot, before taking a sip of his beverage. He leaned his head back and lowered a pair of shades over his eyes before taking a deep breath.

Amber noticed Paris enter, concerned about how tired he looked. She would have to ask him about it later.

Tessa entered the room with her PADD in hand. "AH waz collating some initial data... sorry" She offered and started to find a seat.

Azusa having to travel from Engineering, the furthest away location from the briefing room arrived pretty much last. She smiled at everyone queitly and found and empty seat.

While the others talked, Amber organized the images and data she wanted to use to fill in the others.

When it was time, she explained about the information found in the research facility, the slow lack of attention to detail, to research, and then to cleanliness. She showed a couple of the logs, along with images from the facility. "This is what we found on our initial search. Some of the logs referred to a clan of cave dwellers, so we next went to see if the scientists had gone there. They were, but not in the condition we expected. Each one of them had devolved, for lack of a better word and joined the cave dwellers as part of their clan. What we don't know is why. We're analyzing the scans from the planet, cave and atmosphere, but so far we've found nothing."

Boudreau frowned, and looked at the Commander, 'how devolved are the cave dwellers, do you think?'

"They wear clothing made of skins, use spears and clubs, and seem to be hunter-gatherers," Amber replied.

"Kinda makes you wonder... doesn't it?" Paris said aloud, his eyes still closed as his mug rested on his lap. "Makes you wonder how, a bunch of scientists in a hidden lab, are suddenly reduced down to a primitives..." He paused for a moment, taking a sip, before continuing. "...complete with spears and clubs. Or maybe if they were even aware of it. Or, even, if they cared enough to try to stop it." He laid his head back, on the cushion of the seat, and rested his mug back on his lap. Having never opened his eyes to glance at anyone.

"Which is why we're going to keep looking for answers," Amber said. "Lieutenant Boudreau, I'd like you to lead the investigation."

"By all means... let's run around down there with no regard for what exactly is causing this." Paris replied, chuckling slightly, before taking a sip. This time he couldn't help but open his eyes and looked to Amber before looking to the Lieutenant and raising his mug. "When you start feeling the urge to take off your uniform and start hunting antelope with a spear and loin cloth... let us know." He took another sip and shook his head slightly. "Do you at least have some kinda idea whats turned those scientists into primitives or are we just gonna risk a whole team who may, very well, get infected and end up the same way?"

"I didn't say anything about running around the planet," Amber said. "I said investigate. We start with analyzing data."

"You're investigation is to go down to the planet and gather said information." Paris replied, placing his mug down, as he cleared his throat. He spoke in a calm manner, trying to at least get his point across, without arguing or implying he was completely against the idea. "We don't know what affected these people? Could be something like food or water that we can avoid... however, it could also be something we can't see and will come in contact with us the moment we send someone down there. The air we breath. A plant we all touched. Something unavoidable. Don't get me wrong... I do believe we need to look into this thoroughly, without question, but precautions need to be put in place. Environmental suits if necessary. A team of people who will not return until this is done to protect the crew not affected so they can step in and try to help if the same thing happens to that team. We may be affected already... we have no idea... but this investigation should start with the data we collected and a team on the surface should only be once all other data has been poured through after multiple views." He paused and looked around, holding his hands up a bit, smiling as he said. "I am just saying we need to be sure that we don't spread this beyond who has already been infected. As a ship with a majority of scientists I would expect more caution and protocol for situations like this."

Boudreau ignored the jibe from the red-collared lieutenant and adopted a conciliatory tone. 'The Lieutenant does make some correct assumptions. The first being we will eventually have to return to the planet in order to retrieve our personnel.'

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn
Executive Officer

Lieutenant JG Ronin Kym
Counselor

Lieutenant Trei Jansum
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant Remy Boudreau
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant JG Paris Deville
Chief Flight Control Officer

Lieutenant JG Tessa Nicoles
Medical Officer

Lieutenant Azusa Nakano
Chief Engineer

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