The Beginning

Posted on Fri Mar 22nd, 2019 @ 4:25am by Lieutenant MacKenzie Jordan & Lieutenant JG Danica ("Dani") Tyr & Lieutenant JG Haxin Mariwat & Ensign Nilis Adar & Staff Warrant Officer Victor Ward
Edited on on Wed Apr 10th, 2019 @ 5:37am

Mission: Array of Sun
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 1145

“Lieutenant MacKenzie Jordan, please report to the Administration level.”

He looked up from his PADD, as if he’d actually see the source of the voice summoning him. “On my way,” he said, his words entering the air and fading like vapor. Around him, built into the bulkheads, and on his chest, in the form of his comm badge, were microphones which captured his words and relayed them through the station’s comm network where they ultimately arrived at their intended target.

Standing up from the deck chair, he adjusted his glasses before leaving the pool area. With his ship, the Valley Forge, in port, the crew had been given shore leave. Fortunately, this particular starbase had very nice recreation spaces, including an expansive pool complete with lounge chairs, cabanas, both a swim up bar and one on dry land, all with a tropical theme. For the last several hours, MacKenzie had hung out by the pool, mostly just reading, but also doing some people-watching.

As he walked across the pool deck, his eyes darted around, looking at the swimwear-covered bodies; men in board shorts or trunks, women in colorful one pieces or bikinis. He looked down at his own clothes; bright pink square-cut trunks with black trim and a gauzy floral print shirt, worn unbuttoned. On his feet were simple black sandals. He thought, briefly, about changing into something more fitting for being summoned to what amounted to the command deck. In the end, he didn’t know what the point would be, so he proceeded directly to a turbolift.

“You should be in uniform, Lieutenant,” he heard the moment he stepped onto the Administration level.

“I buttoned up on the turbolift,” he replied, turning towards the source of the comment. Suddenly, he rethought his snarky quip. “Sorry, Admiral,” he stammered.

The Trill Flag Officer motioned for Jordan to follow her, and she began walking down a corridor lined with offices. She stopped at one door, which whooshed open. “In here.”

MacKenzie entered the small office and stood, waiting for the Admiral.

“Have a seat,” the woman ordered as she passed him on her way to the other side of the desk. “I’m Rear Admiral Yazro Pum, Office of Mission Operations,” she said, introducing herself.

Knowing he had already crossed the line, he just nodded silently.

“Are you familiar with the Scientific and Technical Assessment Team program?” Pum asked.

“No, ma’am,” he replied, reaching up with his right hand to adjust his glasses.

“Well,” the Admiral continued, “the program consists of small teams stationed throughout Starfleet, on starships, starbases, stations, outposts, and other Starfleet facilities. These teams are assigned to missions that are too small to necessitate dispatching and tying up a starship. The missions are also important enough to require action more immediately than might be possible if we wait for a ship to be available. As the name implies, the focus is on scientific and technical missions.”

MacKenzie nodded again. “Makes sense. Having a team on standby increases response time and increases flexibility for Starfleet.”

“Exactly. The STAT program has been around for some time, operating as a division of the Office of Mission Operations. We’re now looking to expand the program, creating some additional teams. And we’d like you for one of those new teams.”

This surprised him. His career had shown promise until the last several months. He’d been a standout cadet at the Academy, scoring well in flight tests, and topping his class in computer operations and data security. He’d been promoted to a supervisory position only a year after graduation. Recently, though, he’d been transferred out of a senior assignment due to his own poor actions.

“You need a computer specialist for this team?” he asked. “Or a pilot?”

Pum shook her head. “The team needs a leader. You’re getting another chance.”

*****

That had been six days previous.

His leave had been cut short as the starship his team would be stationed on, the USS Polaris, was about to leave dock. He’d gotten a list of the team members, a manifest of their assigned equipment (including three Arrow-class runabouts and several different modules for them), and had a chance to meet with the Polaris’ CO, Commander Boq’ta Vadosia, a goateed Bolian who was far less jovial than others of his species.

Now, Lieutenant MacKenzie Jordan stood in his quarters, back in a red Command division uniform, preparing to meet with his leadership group. It was a small group; in addition to himself it was his deputy, and the lead scientific, technical, and operational specialists. The Polaris had left dock and the team was about to start their first mission.

Adjusting his glasses and grabbing his PADD, he set off for the team’s suite of offices and labs. As he walked through the corridors, he passed members of the Polaris’ crew, most of whom were bustling about to or from duty stations. The nature of his team meant that they didn’t work within the same duty shifts as the rest of the ship, functioning instead as the independent unit they were.

“Thanks for being here,” he said as he walked into the STAT briefing room and took a seat. “I know we’re all still settling in, but we’ve got our first assignment.” He touched a control on his PADD and activated the display on the wall. A map appeared, showing the network of subspace communications array. “We’re all familiar with Starfleet’s comm network. Well, there’s a hole in the network right now,” he explained, touching another section of his PADD, causing the map on the wall display to highlight the affected section. “This is where we’re heading. Our mission is to investigate why this array is offline, diagnose, and repair it. Looks to be a pretty simple mission, but I’d like to take the whole team since it’s our first one. It will give us a chance to get everyone working together, see how they all interact.”

Adjusting his glasses first, he looked around the room. “Any questions?”

Adar looked up at the team lead, and queried, “What sector is it in, and do we know who the local belligerents are? It’s probably a milk run, but I’d like to go in prepared.”

MacKenzie looked at his deputy. The Trill security specialist, from what he had seen in the personnel file, was a recent Academy graduate. "It's on the screen," he replied, pointing at the highlighted section. "The array is near Neethia."

Adar squinted at the screen, and replied, "Ah. Alright then. I'm unfamiliar with the area, but I'll dig up what we have while we're en route and familiarize myself."

"Neethia?" Lieutenant Haxin Mariwat, the team's resident Bolian and astrophysict spoke up. "Isn't that where the Federation and the Alrakis Pact just signed their first treaty? Do we think the Tzenkethi or Breen were involved? Oh, maybe it's those Ravagers! Wait, no. Can't be. They can't get into Federation space like that. Do we have any final data from the array that we can look at before we get there?"

"'We' don't think anything," Jordan answered. The Bolian Science Lead was seemingly, for lack of a better word, excitable. "You can check the ship's database for the last recordings, but, from what's in the files they sent me, everything was just routine comm traffic."

"Oh," Hax replied, his tone dripping with defeat and disappointment. Most of the time, his mind ran several hundred miles an hour, and while he had no desire to go toe to toe with any of the Alrakis powers, he most certainly did not know he would be so disappointed by the declaration. "I'll certainly parse through the records. Does the array provide anything besides comm traffic? Is it just a communications relay, or is it some sort of Argus Array-like contraption?"

He could feel the involuntary roll of his eyes. "Everything I know," Jordan said, holding up his PADD, "is on this. And that's all up there." He motioned, again, towards the display on the wall. "And it's all in the computer. Check your mission files." He paused, adjusted his glasses, and looked at the Bolian. "But to answer your question, it's listed as a standard subspace communications array."

"Standard array it is then," Hax remarked, before standing to give the larger monitor a close inspection. The image was static, but was filled with enough visible information to wet his appetite. "Seems like we won't really know anything until we get there."

“Are there any early indications of what caused the failure?” Ward asked. “We’ll be ready for anything, of course, but any early information will help us focus our efforts.”

MacKenzie shook his head, causing his glasses to slide down his nose slightly. "Unfortunately not," he responded, pushing his eyewear back to their proper place on his nose. "It could be anything: the power plant could be offline, an antenna could have been hit by a meteor...anything. We do know that the array is still present and largely intact; long-range scans have shown that much. But the resolution wasn't good enough to determine much more than that. As we approach, we'll start getting scans and, hopefully, we'll be able to figure everything out before we actually get onto the array."

"I'll put together a spec," Adar reported, still looking down at his PADD. "We should go in being prepared for any eventuality, including hostiles still aboard the array."

Dani sat and listened to the conversation. She wasn't given to speculation without fact and so, left that part to the others. Now the logistical aspect was something she could get into. "I'll get into the supplies we'll be taking," she said. "If everyone could send me their requirements, I'll see about getting it all organized." Later, once they were there, other aspects of her skill set might come into play but for now, this was what she did. Organize and prioritize.

So far, his leadership team was working well together. He hoped it would continue. "Check out the files and get your teams ready. Once I speak to Commander Vadosia, I'll have a better sense of when we'll be departing. I want to capitalize on the Polaris' flight path and comfort for as long as we can. Anyone have anything else?"

"We're still developing our proposals for modifying the runabouts," Victor said. "Normally I'd suggest bringing the Ops/Repair model, but the new modules are still in the design phase. Lieutenant Tyr, I'll want to discuss those with you later. The standard Arrow loadout should work fine for this mission, though, so any will work. Which will we be taking?"

A broad smile crept onto Jordan's face. "All three. With the whole team going, might as well give all of the Arrow's a little run."

Victor nodded. “Understood.”

"I don't have anything," Hax confirmed with a shake of his head.

Jordan stood. "Get to work then."