Mission briefing

Posted on 22 Oct 2025 @ 7:12am by Captain Bane Plase & Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast & Lieutenant Commander Stovek & Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters & Lieutenant T'Lara Ahmad & Lieutenant Maralen Seitha & Lieutenant JG Cajag Lagnas & Ensign Khalest T. & Commodore Xaeralan & Commander Krea Rh'Vareth

2,528 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Shakedown
Location: Conference lounge
Timeline: Current

Bast was the first to arrive in the conference lounge, which gave him the opportunity to take in the sight of this majestic room. He hadn't had a chance to come here since the refit.

The major feature of the room was the long table, which was cut from a massive piece of wood, a dark maple with strong veins, and the inevitable circuitry inserts that would allow them to control the viewscreens that occupied the walls at both ends of the table. On one side of the table, viewports that stretched from floor to ceiling offered a breathtaking view of the starbase. On the other side, a piece of Elysian artwork reminded them of their port of call. Twelve chairs were arranged around the table, and there was room for more. And of course, the ugly carpet was gone.

Bast took a seat that would be at the Captain's right, and waited for the others to arrive for the mission briefing.

Caj was the first to enter following the first officer. He took a pause after entering the room to admire the new décor and take in the moment of attending his first mission briefing. He smiled to himself then almost bounced keenly to find a chair.

In contrast to the somewhat excited Caj, Maralen entered the room with his usual calm, precise movements. He did pause to take in the room, the changes that had been made to the old design. This room was beautiful. He had to admit that he liked the wood for the table with its inlaid circuitry. It spoke of nature blended with technology, both existing in balance with one another. It reminded him of some of the public places on his homeworld.

That thought would have caused nostalgia followed by remembered pain and loss had he not immediately buried it, marking it for later processing during his next meditation. Having taken in the room, he moved to one of the chairs, settling himself in it, tail wrapped around his waist.

"Commander, Lieutenant," he greeted.

Khalest had entered just behind Maralen and took a seat beside Caj. She also admired the new set up, with the sleek, pristine look of the rest of the ship, with technology joining nature in balance.

The CMO arrived next and surveyed the room. She took in the fact that none of the others had taken drinks to bring to the table and so avoided that temptation herself. She nodded in acknowledgement to all who were already seated, smiling at Caj and at Khalest too but she didn't speak until she was level with Bast.

"Sir" she said rhetorically as an extension of the nod she respectfully gave him. She then also nodded to Maralen and sat on the other side of the Security Chief, putting her PaDD on the table in front of her.

Khalest returned the CMO's smile with a nod, and turned her attention to the head of the table. Was this everyone?

Caj to returned Ravi’s smile with a cheesy grin.

Maralen returned Ravi's nod, giving her a slight smile. Not everyone was here yet, so he decided to get a tea from the Replicator. Turning to her, he whispered, "Would you like a beverage? I'm going to get a tea."

Stovek strolled into the Conference Lounge, his hands folded casually behind his back in a relaxed pose. New technologies were abundant on the refitted (one could say rebuilt) Cygnus; as an Operations manager, it was the Vulcan’s responsibility to harmonize these new gadgets so that they worked the best for the ship’s mission and crew. He acknowledged each person present with the slightest of nods.

The doors hissed open eight-point-three seconds after the scheduled start time. Lieutenant T’Lara Ahmad strode in with controlled precision, but there was no disguising the ripple of surprise that moved through the room — Vulcans were not late. Vulcans were never late. Her expression was unreadable, posture immaculate as she crossed to the conference table. She did not apologize, did not offer an excuse. Her dark hair was secured in a flawless twist; her engineering blacks were immaculate. The only concession to haste was the faintly elevated set of her shoulders — a tension so subtle most would miss it, but every Vulcan in the room would have felt it. She reached her seat, hands folding behind her back in rigid at-ease. The urge was there to explain, to somehow justify - but the words were only barely formed when the distinctive 'hiss' of the doors echoed in the conference lounge again.

Captain Bane was mid conversation with a Starfleet Commander none of them had ever laid eyes on as the two entered into the Conference Room. He was saying, "Oh yes, I agree Commander. The history is quite interesting and worth further study. Ill be sure to add your vast wealth of knowledge and good taste in my official report to Starfleet." Clearly the Captain and this full Commander were friendly with each other. The Captain then looked to his assembled Senior Staff. "Thank you all for coming, and welcome back aboard the Cygnus. It has been too long." Bane sat at the head of the table. The Commander sat in the empty seat to Bane's left, directly opposite Lieutenant Commander Bast, which was at the right of Bane.

"Before we begin, please allow me to introduce Commander Krea Rh'Vareth," Bane said indicating towards the newcomer. "She will be accompanying us on our shakedown cruise to help us get more familiar with our new systems and technologies. Commander, may I introduce my senior staff." He started with Bast, then worked his way around the table, from highest to lowest rank, including their position on the ship, ending with the new Chief of the Boat, Senior Chief Petty Officer Harrison.

As he was introduced, Maralen gave the Rihannsu lady a nod of greeting. He said nothing as there was no need for him to, and he generally did not waste words.

Khalest waited her turn to be introduced, which took a while because she was only an Ensign, for now. Though in the future, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Khalest did sound rather enticing. But that was far off from then.

Rh'Vareth entered the room with a pleasant look on her face, a tight smile on her lips as she chatted informally with the Captain. Once inside however, her face hardened and her eyes narrowed as they scanned quickly over the assembled officers around the table. She gave each a once over and formed prejudiced opinions for each without so much as bothering to find out whether there was any evidence at all for her assumptions.

Maralen noted the change in expression, but he did not allow any feelings to escape his Calm Precision. The look spoke of someone who had decided who they were before even speaking to them. That was, at the very least, inefficient as it would make working with the crew harder for her in the future. Therefore, his training said, it was a flawed thought pattern. However, he was not going to fall into the same trap, assuming that she was prejudiced against them before even speaking to her, so he put his analysis away in that deep place in his mind and merely watched and listened for now.

As Bane introduced her, Rh'Vareth looked down her nose at each in turn. She lingered a little when attempting to summarise Bast but could only deliver an obligatory nod before there was another name to take a look at, a person at the end of the introduction, equally given 'that look' which was about to become infamous as time went by. Completing the round of obligatory nodding to each, Rh'Vareth had allowed her eyes to bore into the whole of the assembly before returning her gaze to the Captain upon which transfer back, her face appeared to soften a little again and the thin smile returned just for Bane's benefit.

"I am happy to meet you all and look forward to getting accustomed to you each in time." she said, not actually unaware that the phrase should have been *acquainted* but she was showing no emotion, no recognition of the mis-choice and most certainly no remorse whatsoever.

The look had shifted. Cool. Evaluating. Emotionless. It was not quite the Cold Precision of the Executive, but it was certainly close. Still, he maintained his outward calm, but he filed this, too, away for later thought.

He did note the word choice, and as someone who wasted no words, he considered it for a moment. In some contexts, it could mean that she was not comfortable with them but hoped to be at some later point. However, the use of the words 'look forward to' that preceded the odd word choice gave him the context that she was not necessarily sure of them but was indeed hoping to become so later. That, he added to all of what had preceded it.

When Caj received the Commanders ‘look’ he smiled and gave a small wave from the lip of the table edge.

Lieutenant T’Lara inclined her head a mere degree, hands folding neatly atop the table. “Commander Rh'Vareth,” she began with crystalline formality, “your word choice is… curious.” Her tone was not confrontational — but it was very clearly corrective.

“‘Accustomed’ denotes a process of acclimation to an unfamiliar environment, stimulus, or burden. It implies tolerance through repetition.”

T'Lara paused, a single brow arching with surgical precision. “Should we infer, then, that your assignment among us is something you must endure until habit numbs objection? Or did you intend to state that you will become familiar with us in the course of service?”

The silence that followed was cool, deliberate… and entirely Vulcan. “In either case,” she added primly, “clarity prevents unnecessary speculation.”

"Forgive me Lieutenant" Rh'Vareth reognised the rank from pips on the collar rather than having remembered the young woman's name. "I do speak Federation rather well and I know what I said, but thank you for attempting to put me right. I haven't come here to endure anything unpleasant at all. I am greatly looking forward to my assignment here and I hope that in due course we may all work together for some very successful and rewarding time. I'm already interested in a Vulcan who dismisses logic in order to assume mistaken understanding of inference that wasn't there. I think you and I will do well working alongside one another." the Commander responded.

This time, T'Lara was treated to the slightly fuller lipped smile that Bane had been granted earlier, but Caj received a frosty glance that was microseconds long but cold enough to stab like an icicle. ~Another of those pointless Trills~ Rh'Vareth thought to herself in a split second before returning her gaze to the CO in anticipation of him presumably filling the meeting in with the details they were all anticipating.

Bane knew well the cultural difference of the Romulan people opposed to the rest of the Federation members. Up until the Hobus event destroyed the Romulan homeworld, the Romulans had been very isolationistic, only rarely testing the boundaries beyond their own borders, mainly with the old Enterprise-D. Their own Ensign Veenak in Operations was a Romulan, and she too had some difficulty fitting in. Bane thought briefly of the friendship that had grown between her, Lieutenant Lisald, Ensign Jin'Tok and Ensign Roberts. The latter two were now dead, one during the mission on Antioch III (where Dr. Elodin Devon now resided), and the other during the crisis which nearly destroyed the Cygnus, which further caused Lieutenant Lisald to ask for a transfer off the ship. Only Veenak remained, and she had assimilated well into the cultural norms of the ship, adding her own to the mix.

And why, Prophets tell, did Bane just sound like a damned Borg?

"Ah, anyways," Bane interrupted before the Vulcan and the Romulan could continue the verbal sparring, attempting to diffuse the situation, "As both Commander Rh'Vareth and I have stated, she is here to observe and assist us in our new technologies. For some of you younger folk among us," the Captain said, looking at Dr. Khalest specifically, "The technology we now have aboard is something you grew up with. Us older people, like the Chief and I, it is a bit of a steeper learning curve. We will be taking the ship out to the Vega Epsilon Sector where we have been ordered to make repairs and upgrades to a deep-space observatory. During these repairs and upgrades, we will test everything from the weapons systems all the way down to the waste reclamation systems and everything in between. The journey there isn't long, but will be an excellent time to do the testing on the warp engines and navigation systems. While the bones of this ship are the same, nearly every single other component within her are new, and need to be tested. There will be bugs we will need to work out of the systems and programming. There will undoubtedly be some uncomfortable strain over the next few weeks. But remember," the Captain said, "We are all on the same team here, and want nothing more than the Cygnus and her crew to be in the very best shape for our upcoming missions, once we have been cleared by the Commander. Questions? Comments? Concerns," he asked, opening up the room for discussion.

Bast turned to the assembled senior staff. Of course Commander Rh'Vareth's icy disposition hadn't been lost on him. Her cold and calculating stare was entirely typical of a Romulan, something he'd dealt with more often than he could count during his lifetime as Lamorra Bast. Her life experiences would undoubtedly be of great assistance in dealing with Rh'Vareth.

"Of course we'll be putting the ship through the wringer. I expect everyone to submit extensive and exhaustive systems tests. I will coordinate with Commander Rh'Vareth, who is a specialist on this new Nebula Class refit."

That was all a bit awkward thought Caj to himself as he looked around the room at his fellow officers to see if anyone had a question or two. Khalest wasn’t that young was she?

Khalest actually may have been the youngest aboard, at 22 years old. And the commanders cold, calculating glare was not lost on her. But she didn't return it, as she was far outranked by Commander Rh'Vareth. She just met her with silence for now. She was conflicted, though. As a Klingon would take that offensively or as a challenge, while a Vulcan may not mind that icy glare, finding it illogical to react violently.

Bane looked around the room. Satisfied he had waited long enough for someone to say something, he nodded once and spoke. "Okay, we all have our direction. I could not have put it any better than the Ex-Oh did. Make sure you report your findings to him and to Commander Rh'Vareth," Bane said, motioning lightly to both as he indicated them. "Dismissed."


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