PH/D02 - Officer's Lounge

[Jennifer Braggins]

==Roughly square in shape, the Officer's Lounge is on the port side of Deck Two, on the opposite side of the ship to the Enlisted Mess. An L-Shaped Bar is located immediately by the entrance, with four bar stools. Behind the bar is a locker for various drinks, while the Replicator Station is next to the bar immediately beside the door. Four square tables take up the majority of the room, three with four chairs and the fourth with only two.
 
These tables can be packed away easily for gatherings taking place in the Lounge, such as parties or the weekly movie night.==

[Jennifer Braggins]

==Lt Jenifer Sharp, Quartermaster (Human Female)==

The orders had come down from the Bridge to prepare the Officer's Lounge for company; the orders had not specified just how many extra chairs they were going to need, but the rumour going around the ship was that they were in company of the Artemis and that some kind of mission briefing was going to be held aboard the Philadelphia. Why that was, Sharp didn't know; the Artemis was the larger ship, Crawford the senior CO, and Cera Morgan quite possibly one of the most efficient Quartermasters in the fleet; Sharp had briefly served with her on the Avenger when she was still Crawford's Yeoman and Sharp herself the ship's Assistant Purser.

Of course, the Officer's Lounge wasn't especially big and the reduced manpower in her department had made the job more difficult. Twelve metres by six metres it was already a squeeze for four tables, fourteen chairs and the bar; they were needing to at least double the amount of seating. First to go had been the bar, easily disassembled and moved into the Enlisted Mess while the briefing occurred; the stools now lined the outside of the room; the two Crewmen assigned to tend the bar had been ordered off the ship, so it wasn't like it was needed. The tables had been arranged into something resembling a line, and extra chairs had been brought in. Now the room's occupancy had been roughly doubled, from eighteen to twenty-odd. 

It wouldn't be the most comfortable, but so long as they didn't stick around for too long, their guests would hopefully have no complaints about the Philadelphia's hospitality.

[Jennifer Braggins]

Given that she would be delivering a good portion of the meeting, Jenny knew it was best that she likely be the first to arrive; usually she was the kind of Captain who preferred her officers to be seated and ready to go, but there wasn't going to be time for that; the journey to Parhelia wasn't long, even at the Philadelphia's comparatively-sedate maximum cruising speed, and there was a lot of work still to be done. 

And none of it easy.

The tables had been laid out in a line, with chairs on either side but none at the head or foot of the table; Jenny assumed this was Sharp's idea of ensuring equity between the crews, and no impression of one crew being "senior" or "better" than the other. Name tags had been set out on the tables for the senior-most officers; four from the Artemis and four from the Philadelphia, organised by seniority as per tradition (not that the Artemis crew did the whole "tradition" thing. Everyone else had been relegated to chairs or stools around the periphery, which Sharp had had thoughtfully arranged so nobody blocked the view of the holoprojector in the middle of the table or the viewscreen mounted to the wall opposite where the bar had once stood.

At least the alcohol is still here; I feel we may need it.

Resisting the urge to light a cigarette, at least until the briefing had started, Jenny instead satisfied herself with standing by the forward viewport and watching the stars fly by. Given how things were likely to go down in the near future, this was probably the last peace and quiet she would get for a while.

==OK, so we have a seating chart! Well, kind of, anyway! 

Starting from the wall furthest from the door, on the Artemis side we have Crawford, Coleman, Elias and Morgan. On the Philadelphia side, Braggins, Jensen, Murphy and Kurasa. Everyone else can stake claims to chairs or stools based on rank, seniority, rock-paper-scissors, or knife-fight (first blood only). ==

[Peter Jensen]

Peter showed the Artemis arrivals to the Officers' Lounge, and when he entered, he nodded as he saw that the Captain was already here.

"Allow me to introduce Captain Jennifer Braggins", he gestured respectfully to the Captain, then proceeded to introduce the other officers to her, in turn, starting from highest-to-lowest-ranked.
He had to admit to feeling some slight apprehension as to what the nature of their mission would be. He had a gut feeling and it wasn't one he liked

[Aeryn Miller]

<< Transporter Room 1 <<

While the journey to the Officer's Lounge was relatively short, Aeryn liked what she saw and, while she was still getting used to the Artemis, could definitely see the appeal of a smaller ship like the Philly. Then again, she did have a fondness for the nova class and how they could be quite formidable in their own right. Of course, wherever they were headed was still a mystery, a mystery that was about to be revealed and as they were led inside the lounge, Aeryn appreciated the organisation and skill that had gone into accommodating both crews.

Taking a quick look around as was customary, Aeryn then shifted her attention to the sole occupant of the lounge, as Jensen introduced them all to Captain Braggins and nodded respectfully to her, when her name was called. Not wanting to cause any obstructions, Aeryn waited then took a seat on one of the stools, knowing that Mara would likely sit next to her.

== Tags ==

[Robin Mayfair]

<< Transporter Room <<

The room wasn't large but had been set up for company. There were tables with name plaques, but Robin's wasn't among them. Commander Jensen introduced the Artemis officers and Captain Braggins who the purple-haired nurse gave a grin to. As far as she was concerned Jenny was still Artemis family, and since the nurse had gained a couple of pips she didn't feel intimidated by Braggins like she had when she'd been nothing more than a lower decks Middie.

She took a seat close to the table and put her kit on the chair next to her, saving it for the new Midshipman, Emily Star, who had just been assigned to her department. New officers getting thrown into the deep end of the pool was something of an Artemis tradition, and Robin was all about tradition. Granted it was just a briefing, but whatever was going down was serious and the Artemis CMO wanted to make sure her officers were ready for the trials that awaited.

== Tags ==

[Benjamin Elias]

>>Transporter Room 1>>
==Coleman moved with player permission==

Benjamin followed along with the crowd as they made their way to the Philadephia’s officer’s lounge. It didn’t seem like they would have lost their way on the small ship, but they had been kind enough to offer an escort so he wasn’t one to argue.
 
He and Coleman followed the group, and he couldn’t help but smile when he saw Jenny up at the front, and heard the FO introduce his captain. Benjamin nodded his greetings but, knowing that time was short, he followed his own FO towards the front. He wasn’t surprised that he’d been placed at the head table – after his briefing this morning, he knew he had a fairly large role to play – but he still felt his feet involuntarily stop when he saw the name next to him.
 
Lieutenant Cera Morgan, Quartermaster.
 
Several different curses went through his head just then, mostly aimed at himself, but he swiftly kept walking. He caught up to the FO and took his seat, panic still running through his head as he set down his two padds and his cup, though it nearly fell over when he set it half on one of the padds. It was a minor miracle he caught it in time.
 
He tried to think of what he was going to do, what he was going to say, but pushed it out of his head. There wasn’t time. For a moment, he considered asking her if she got his message but even he wasn’t oblivious enough to think that was a good idea.
 
Instead, he focused on the mission. He still had the specs of his plan on the padd in front of him, along with the Waverider schematics. He’d started working on how to get the connections made, but until he could actually lay eyes on the Philadelphia’s Waverider he couldn’t make a final decision. And, of course, that lack of progress that he could make just let his mind wander to the seat next to him.
 
You’re an idiot, Ben, he told himself, and kept looking down at the padds as he waited for everyone else to arrive.

[Shione Kurasa]

Shione had spent sufficient time in front of the mirror to ensure that she projected as professional an image as possible.

Her hair was up and neatly presented, the uniform fresh from the replicator, and boots polished. Meeting the senior officers from another ship, let alone the USS Artemis meant putting one's best foot forward. It was the senior ship in their assigned fleet and it also was Captain Braggins's former posting as First Officer and she suspected that their CO would want to make the best possible impression when the officers met.

Once ready she boarded the lift and made her way to the lounge. As she entered Shione noted that a number of the Artemis's senior officers were present, along with the Philly's CO and FO. Arranged facing across the tables allowing each crew to sit with their fellows, she took the chair assigned for her leaving a spot between her and Cdr Jensen for the CTO to sit.

Seated across from her counterpart she offered a nod of acknowledgment, and catching Damian's eye she grinned for her friend's benefit. He had come a long way since they last met, and she was glad to see a genuinely gifted officer achieving their due.

Turning she also nodded to her crewmates and then laid her Paad on the table and composed herself, waiting for the meeting to start.

==Tags==

[Teresa Black]

After a few more minutes after the order was given to assemble in the lounge, Maz moved down to deck two and entered.

Entering the room, there were several faces that she didn't recognise. Obviously from the Artemis. Ordinarily, she would have moved to the far side of the room and put herself in a position where she could observe the entire room and better see who else was entering. But that wasn't her job any more.

Noting that the Commander and Kurasa were near the head of the table, and the Captain was looking out the window. Maz looked about and picked a stool against the wall about half way along so that she could see and hear most of the room, but was far enough out of the mix so that she hopefully blended into the background,

[Emily Star]

<<Transporter Room 1<<

Emily walked into the slowly filling room and admired the tightly knit cluster of tables and chairs. It was obvious this space wasn't usually used for this many people and whoever had been tasked with adjusting the layout had done an admirable job.  As she scanned the room, she caught sight of her new Chief. Mayfair motioned that the chair with the kit was for and knowing that she wouldn't be standing in the back caused the knot in her gut to loosen. Walking over, she did her best to avoid making eye contact with the higher ranks. She was here to observe, to learn and to be invisible. 

Taking the seat next to Mayfair, she settled in and, for the first time, allowed herself to gaze at the others in the room. A mix of departments and ranks, it was a relief to know she wasn't the only lower rank in the room. Tucking her hair behind the tip of her pointed ear, she turned her attention to Mayfair. In a low voice with a slight lean in her direction she said, "Thank you for this opportunity." 

==tag==

[Robin Mayfair]

She reminds me of me a couple of years ago.

Robin had been painfully aware of rank and position when she'd joined the crew. It hadn't helped that she'd met both of her commanding officers at a wake in the days after the devastating battle with the Megasphere. The young officer, fresh out of the Academy, had quite literally been bumped into by both Tyra and Jenny and hadn't been ready at all. Combined with the stress and grief and general exhaustion of so much grim work it was a wonder that Robin hadn't melted into a puddle of goo on the spot.

"Thank you for this opportunity."

"You're welcome. It may seem overwhelming, but don't fret too much about it. Believe it or not you kinda get used to these things."

== Tag ==

[Mara Calleja]

<< Artemis <<

Mara hadn’t said much on the way over to the crew lounge, beyond a brief ‘hey’ to the Philly’s FO when he’d greeted her.

Formal events bothered Calleja. She was conscious of the need to give a good impression whilst equally aware that she was not the conventional image of a Star Fleet officer. Standing at 6’1” with the build of the powerlifter she was, with a side-shave haircut, pronounced accent and a combat blade in her holster next to her phaser, the Bandaran was not someone who could blend into the background no matter how hard she tried. On Artemis she felt comfortable enough with the situation and her crewmates. But different crews often had different viewpoints, and her alongside martinet fellow officers had proven a combustible mix in the past.

The layout of the meeting wasn’t helping Mara settle any. It was just her opinion, but it seemed almost adversarial to have the two crews split and on different sides of the room. She felt like those at the table were pretty much on a pedestal and everyone else was just here to listen.

I know they weren’t exactly given a ton of time to plan this, and findin’ the space for us all is a supreme feat of packagin’. I’m probably just bein’ hyper-critical and need to get over myself.

Mara sat herself down next to Aeryn Miller as the room started to fill.

“Is it just me that wants this over with quick as possible?” she said, her voice low. “All feels a bit… Unnecessary? Dunno if that’s the word. Give us the briefin’. Tell us what we need to know. We could do that via comm channel. Why have we got half our crew here? And why do I feel so… so superfluous when they got that table up there for the important people? Do they want us to clap their wisdom or somethin’?”

The Lieutenant was trying to mask her discomfort with what she meant to be humour, but her heart clearly wasn’t in it and she was just coming across as borderline hostile as she shifted on the chair.

My actual biggest worry is somethin’ gets said that riles me up, and I end up runnin’ my mouth in front of 2 sets of seniors. ‘Cause I have still not figured out the noble art of shuttin’ the hell up.

== Tag Aeryn! ==

[Emily Star]

"You're welcome. It may seem overwhelming, but don't fret too much about it. Believe it or not you kinda get used to these things."

Emily nodded, "I haven't had time to get used to much, so I'm just trying my best to take it all in stride. They always say at the Academy that things move fast in Starfleet but whenever they said it, I assumed there was a generous lead time or buffering time." She shrugged, a slight grin, "Apparently my definition of fast is more of a gentle rushing. I need to adjust to a new vocabulary it seems." 

A few more entered and Emily asked, "Do you know some of the others on the Philadelphia? Or are they all new faces?" 

==tag Mayfair ==

[Maggie Murphy]

Maggie found herself either being or feeling like she was the last one to show up to the briefing. She looked around at all the unfamiliar faces, thinking, Oh jeeze, I hope I’m not holding everyone up. It was a cramped room, and finding a space to sit was made harder by finding a way to squeeze around everyone, but at least there were name tags. For the Philadelphia, the Captain was seated farthest from the door, followed by the First Officer, then herself, then their Chief of Security.

Great, Maggie thought, taking care to not roll her eyes. I get to sit next to Kurasa. The result was most likely a hard expression resembling “resting bitch face,” but she tried not to glare directly at anybody as she sat down. Kurasa was shined up to the nines, and here Maggie was next to her, a perfect contrast of hair pulled back but loose, and having come directly from her seat on the Bridge, her posture probably left something to be desired. Hopefully not drawing too much attention to herself, Maggie made it a point to straighten her back.

It was weird to have a briefing with more than the senior officers present. It was one thing to have two sets of senior officers, but random Junior Lieutenants, and even Midshipmen? She looked around, trying to figure out if they had in fact been seated across from their Artemis counterparts, and either way, which unknown officer here was their CTO. At the very least, there would be someone who would have similar thoughts and emotions as her to whatever they were about to hear.


==Tags to Miles Grant, if you’re around?==

[Robin Mayfair]

Emily nodded, "I haven't had time to get used to much, so I'm just trying my best to take it all in stride. They always say at the Academy that things move fast in Starfleet but whenever they said it, I assumed there was a generous lead time or buffering time." She shrugged, a slight grin, "Apparently my definition of fast is more of a gentle rushing. I need to adjust to a new vocabulary it seems."

Robin chuckled. "If only there were buffer time. Seems like there's always some new crisis brewing."

"Do you know some of the others on the Philadelphia? Or are they all new faces?" Emily asked.

"The only one I know is Captain Braggins. She was the First Officer aboard the Artemis when I came aboard as a Midshipman. She's a lot like Captain Crawford; a force of nature. Although they'd both probably disagree with me about that" she said with a light laugh. "It took me a while to learn not to be intimidated by superior officers. Respect them, yes, but they're people. Heck, they both gave me a chance when no one else would. I owe them."

Robin gave Aeryn and Mara a wave as they came in. The crews were mostly keeping to their own. Robin hoped she'd get the chance to talk with the Philly's CMO. She got so few chances to speak with others in her position.

== Tag ==

[Miles Grant]

<<Transporter Rooms<<

The journey from the Transporter Room was somewhat brief, but still allowed time for Miles to take in the other ship, a Nova class Scout/Surveyor. It was, to him, a nice ship, though he still preferred the Artemis. It may have been a feeling of being cramped, given his size and stature.

Although, thinking about this, he had to wonder why a meeting of so many officers was taking place on the smaller vessel instead of the Artemis. Not his call, in the end, but something that piqued his curiosity.

As they were brought in and left to gather and mingle before the briefing, Miles scanned the room. He noted quite a few of his crew mingling with others, usually with what looked like others they knew. Miles recognized some of the Philadelphia crew from DS9, but his eyes continued scanning until they fell on a woman in Tactical Red, with the Department Head's jacket, and Lieutenant Commander pips.

Based on that and what he knew from personnel files, he believed she would be the Philadelphia's Chief Tactical Officer Murphy, his contemporary, unless she was from another ship and here as a Specialist. Not out of the realm of possibility, but he approached her nonetheless. He gave a nod before speaking.

"I'm Lieutenant Junior Grade Miles Grant," he introduced himself. "Acting Chief Tactical Officer of the Artemis. Commander Murphy, I presume?"

==Tag Maggie. ==

[Eun Ju Han]

<<Engineering<<

The Turbolift opened, but Ju was not alone in the Turbolift because it had picked up various people from various decks as they went towards the lounge. Ju was nervous, but trying not to show it. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small red-wrapped candy, the scent of cinnamon filled the air for a moment as she pulled the twisted ends to open the candy wrapper and pop the candy into her mouth. For some reason, sweet things soothed her nerves and it was not uncommon for Han Eun Ju to have a pocketful of various candies to pop in when she needed to concentrate a little bit harder or when she was nervous and trying to calm her nerves. She tucked the now empty wrapper back into her pocket.

The Lounge was already filled with various officers. Many were still finding seats, many already had them, but she recognized a few faces on the far side of the room and figured that was mainly where she was supposed to be. She was fairly certain not all these people served the Philly but then she had no idea where they could have been placed for Quarters. Perhaps they were going to have to share now, but there were a lot of people in this lounge. It wasn’t a large room, but at least it wasn’t too small, they wouldn’t have a lot of room but they wouldn’t be uncomfortable.

Ju saw a stool across the room that was currently empty and figured that being a wallflower was probably for the best right now. It seemed that the bigwigs had the seats and tables and that was just fine for Ju because she wasn’t much of a spotlight person. Rather, she preferred to be in the spotlight because she was doing a good job not for anything else.

As she made her way through the other people in the room she noticed that Commander Good-Looking had arrived as well. For a moment confusion washed over her face because she knew for certain they weren’t assigned to the same ship. Either they were borrowing him for something or perhaps there was a collaboration effort? Maybe, they were under audit or something. Offering the Commander a bit of a smile she headed for the stool she had picked out earlier.

Ju pulled herself up on the stool and sat down, still sucking on the candy she had popped in her mouth earlier. Perhaps she had been right and this was some sort of dual-ship mission, she was excited to find out but a bit nervous. For everyone to be called off their stations for a meeting of his caliber made her feel really anxious about what they were getting themselves into. Still, this was the job they signed up for when they went through the Starfleet Academy and signed up to move onto a ship for the rest of their lives.

I hope everything is okay, Ju’s leg was bouncing slightly with her nerves even the candy wasn’t helping at the moment, but at least they would find out soon.

==Tag Coleman==

[Amaterasu Ichika]

Tera was in the science lab finishing up the Inventory assignment when she heard the captains voice over the comms asking all officers to go to the lounge, this intrigued the midshipman luckily, she had just finished her work and was ready to make it to the Lounge. Midshipman are hardly never asked to go to the lounge with the higher ranking officers, This must be big like life changing you smashed your dads favourite dishes big… Anticipation washed over Tera like a wave to the shore, her legs numb and her heart raced as though she was caught in the act of something terrible.

Ichika looked herself over and once everything was in order, she left the science labs and made it out of the labs and into the Turbolift.

Before Ichika had even taken a second breath, she had found herself on the floor where the lounge was located, she could hear distant chatter and the slightest of chuckles, so she just followed the sounds until she saw a very small room full of officers and to be honest it felt rather daunting on her. This is crazy, wait they can’t all be from the Philly…could they? She thought looking around at her fellow officers. It’s getting a bit crowded maybe if I sit quietly at the back I can hide and not give myself to much attention. She sighed and walked slowly avoiding chairs and people’s personal space as much as she could. Tera had found a nice corner where she could observe without making a sound, she was happy to sit there just reading the data on her PADD.

Tera sat down on a surprisingly comfortable stool that was left there, what was even more shocking that no one had claimed it yet, I wonder how many more people are going to be here? She said while studying the room. Ichika noticed several of her crew including En Ju, she noticed some of the officers she saw at the Bridge also. This is cool n all but wonder what’s going on are we going to be split into teams…. what’s going on with this mission exactly?

==Tag anyone==

[Tyra Crawford]

>> Transporter Room >>

The trip from the second transporter room hadn't been a long one as Tyra had suspected. It wasn't as if the Philadelphia was a monstrously large vessel as demonstrated by the size of it's officer's lounge.

As soon as they stepped foot within, Tyra regretted agreeing to let Jenny host the meeting, even if it had made sense logistically. This was like cramming sardines in a sardine can, except the sardine can had gotten shrunk and the sardines were abnormally large. She also found it a little odd that the room was laid out as if they were drawing battle lines for a negotiation with each crew stacked behind their respective senior members, but she'd also been in enough joint briefings to know that tempers and egos could flare up to cause problems. It was a lot easier to deal with said problem when your officers were within striking range, literally.

Her blue eyes had very quickly scanned the room, initially accounting for her own officers before looking for familiar faces within the other crew. She had momentarily paused on the young woman sitting next to Robin, a face that was familiar from the personnel files on her desk but not one that had been ordered to come. It seemed Robin had taken it upon herself to bring one of her new minions along and while Tyra's gut reaction was to go send the young midshipman back as this was a sensitive meeting, the presence of other midshipman in the room made her pause. After all, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a second medic on hand for this assignment, even if she would have preferred Sydesh.

Ah the Artemis Special: Baptism by Fire.

With that decision made, her gaze turned to the rest of the room. Most of the faces were just faces in the crowd but she did recognize one familiar face sitting at the main table. She hadn't seen Maggie Murphy since shortly after the disaster with the Avenger but it was good to see the tactical officer had moved up in the ranks. She'd been a good tactical officers, even if she had joined the Avenger at the worst possible moment, and frankly, Tyra couldn't blame her for transferring out shortly after that. It had been a mess.

With the scene quickly surveyed, she made a beeline to where Jenny and her first officer were standing.

"Did y'all not have a smaller closet for this shindig?" she asked teasingly as she gave her sister-in-law a warm smile. Under normal conditions, she probably would have given her a tight hug but there were too many eyes for that. Instead, the redhead turned her gaze to who she knew had to be Commander Jensen with a friendly smile.

"You must be Commander Jensen, I've heard quite a bit about you. I certainly don't envy your job keeping this one in line," she said, offering the man a firm handshake.

== Tag! ==

[Tyra Crawford]

>> Transporter Room >>

== Lieutenant Commander Cera Morgan ==

The room was packed and Cera had to wonder why exactly they'd chosen to have an important meeting in such an enclosed space, where the constant bumping of elbows was liable to distract from the actual purpose of the meeting. However, that was above her pay grade she decided as she surveyed the room.

There had been a moment of panic when she'd caught sight of the seating arrangement at the head table, seeing exactly where she was placed. Or more accurately, who it placed her next to.

Her dark eyes had moved around quickly to try to find a suitable replacement for her. After all, she preferred to remain behind the scenes and not front and center. Her eyes had landed on Mayfair before her brain could catch up with her but she didn't follow through with the instinct.

No, she had no reason to be panicked. She had tried to be the bigger person, had tried to apologize for her role in this mess or get any response from him at all but she'd gotten crickets, even once she knew he was back. He had chosen to go drink and get drunk with his engineers over working things out and if that didn't speak volumes to his priorities, she didn't know what did. His message as they were being recalled had been too little, too late and he had to know by now that there wasn't a chance in hell that they were having dinner to hash this out, even if they both wanted to.

She approached the table without a hint of hesitation, setting her PADD down at her designated spot before looking down the table.

She offered Coleman a friendly smile and nod. "Commander, good to see you. I see your new friends are here as well," her tone was almost teasing as she hadn't missed the way one of the girls had been looking over at Coleman. Considering it was the one that hadn't gone to medical, Cera had to wonder exactly where that night had gone.

When she looked at Elias, her smile had shifted to its diplomatic form, less warm but still seemingly cordial-- if only because she wasn't going to make a scene.

"Hello, Commander," she greeted formally as she sat down, folding her hands over her PADD. "Glad to see you made it back in one piece."

[Benjamin Elias]

Benjamin looked through his notes for the tenth time, making minor edits to his verbiage as he went. What he knew, he knew, what he didn’t know, he didn’t know, and he knew an eleventh pass wasn’t going to give him any different results. But he went back to the top yet again, keeping his head focused on the padd and trying his best to just let the noise of the growing crowd in the room roll off of him. He’d look up whenever they started the meeting, he told himself. No point in looking around before then.
 
But then it happened. He’d known it would, and he couldn’t help it. He looked up as yet another person walked in, but it just another person.
 
It was her.
 
She greeted Coleman sweetly, a good smile on her face and a friendly nod. Then she turned to him and it all disappeared, replaced by something that was diplomatic and polite. He’d seen it a number of times, a look that told the person receiving it that they were little better than vermin or their droppings. The last time he saw it, it was directed at Beka “The Mad Whistler” Sydesh.
 
And now it was being directed at him. And what’s more, he knew he deserved it.
 
“Hello, Commander,” Cera said as she straightened her padd on the table and sat down. “Glad to see you made it back in one piece.”
 
Knife. Gut. Ow.
 
He wanted to apologize, to break down and pour it all out. But he knew this wasn’t the time or place. He knew how much it would embarrass her and how making her the target of her own rumor mill would be an unforgivable sin to her. Because no matter what the consequences were from his decisions – and he knew they were going to be large and irrevocable ones – he wanted to at least let her be happy once it was all said and done.
 
But he couldn’t just say nothing. He would break if he didn’t. So keep it simple and succinct, he told himself.
 
He kept his voice low, turning towards her and away from Coleman though his hands for some reason wouldn’t let go of his padd. “Sorry they dragged me to Ori’s party last night; I didn’t see your message until they were grabbing me, nor the error messages from when I was at my dad’s,” he said, trying to just stick to the facts. “I’ll do what I can to make it up; you name place and price. But either way, we need to talk.”
 
Even as he said it, he knew it was a terrible thing to do, to say, especially here. But he couldn’t just say nothing, and he prayed that Tyra and Jenny would start the meeting soon and cut them off.
 
==Tag Morgan==

[Tyra Crawford]

== Lieutenant Commander Cera Morgan ==

It was subconscious habits that had Cera leaning ever slightly towards Elias as he turned, his voice low and quiet as he tried -- and failed miserably - to explain why he'd left her in the dark for days. If they'd been in private, she'd likely have laughed outright at the excuse that they'd dragged him to a party and she was sure they'd also taken out a funnel and forced the alcohol down his throat as well. Sweet, sweet Whitby hadn't known exactly what she was doing when she'd passed along the juicier parts of that evening.

What Cera did know was that she wasn't a lovestruck teen capable of believing that he hadn't had a single opportunity to acknowledge her. He just had decided it wasn't important, maybe because he thought she'd always be there. Or maybe he'd just been a coward.

"Such priorities, Ben," she practically purred. She moved her PADD as if she was showing him something on the screen, though all it showed was the current inventory for cargo hold 4. "It must be nice to be so high on that priority list. Clearly, I wouldn't know."

She managed to say all of that without it showing on her face, which has stayed perfectly poised as she made a show of pointing to something on the screen. Her voice, though barely above a whisper, sounded resigned.

"What I do know is that you have terrible timing so would you like to schedule that talk while you're elbow deep in Cardassians or maybe afterwards [I]if[/] you all get lucky? Both seem like great opportunities."

== Tag Elias, Victim of the Drama Machine! ==

[Benjamin Elias]

Benjamin listened as she spoke, even though each word was a dagger in his ear. He knew that Cera's tongue was frequently her best and favored weapon, though as close as she was with Tyra he figured she was well versed in most other weapons as well. He just hadn't been on the cutting edge of it until now. Suddenly, he was having sympathy for Sydesh.

"What I do know is that you have terrible timing," she finished, "so would you like to schedule that talk while you're elbow deep in Cardassians or maybe afterwards if you all get lucky? Both seem like great opportunities."

He sighed, knowing that not a single thing she said was untrue. He'd been trying to avoid inflicting the pain he knew he had to, both to himself and to her, and put it off until it was too late, and that the simple fact of not saying anything was a pain on its own. He'd been not just a fool, but a damned fool, and this was what he got for it. But there wasn't anything for it now.

"I don't exactly plan on dying," he said, "and I don't think we can do this in the minute and a half we both can spare from the mission. Name the place and I'll be there; I'll even bring a selection of knives you can stab me with if you'd like." It wouldn't be any less than he deserved, he knew, though he knew she would never stoop to such things, particularly herself.

He tried to focus on the mission, though he knew it was going to be rough during this briefing. "For now, though," he said and sent a file to her padd, "I need a particular crate from storage sent over here; should be going right to their Waverider, but I don't know how you and Philly's quartermaster need to work things. Fewer people that know, the better." The listing was for crate C-86237 down in cargo bay 7; he knew she'd recognize it, though he didn't know if she actually knew what was in it. He'd never told her, but she had a way of finding out anyway.

For her safety - as well as everyone else in the room - he made sure not to say.

==Tag! Sorry to cut short the drama, folks==

[R'Kaar Ragarri]

<<Previous Post: Transporter Room 2<<

R'Kaar, though he had led Captain Crawford to the Officer's lounge, found himself a nice, boxed in side of the room to aim for, but the attention of the Artemis's medical officers drew his gaze as well. His tail slightly twitched, as he slipped through the packed group. Taking a seat opposite Robin Mayfair, the Caitian smiled and said, 

"Its not often Medical gets a table to themselves. I'm Lieutenant R'Kaar Ragarri, Chief Medical Officer of the Philadelphia. I'd have arrived sooner, but, Commander Jensen needed the help."

R'Kaar looked over at Emily Star, and noted her Midshipman pip, 

"I see you have a new arrival to Medical as well. Is this your first posting outside of your cadet cruise Midshipman?"

==tag Star and Mayfair==

[Jennifer Braggins]

==I think we have nearly everyone here, so let's get this show on the road!==

Though the Officer's Lounge was seventy-two square metres, the number of bodies filling the room was making it feel slightly overcrowded; she doubted she felt as cramped as some of the taller officers from both ships, or as hemmed-in as people used to larger ships and their more spacious and lavish facilities. Still, she knew her ship was on the smaller side, and that was exactly why it had been chosen for the mission - the only smaller classes in active service were either warships or convoy escorts; more likely to draw attention than the diminutive science ship. 

When they said size matters, I don't think this is what they meant.

Her augmented hearing meant she picked up on most of the tidbits of conversation happening around the small room; there were complaints about the size, introductions between the two crews, and some tension brewing between Cera Morgan and Benjamin Elias.

What is going on there? I'll need to check in with Tyra if there's going to be drama...

As if on cue, her sister-in-law appeared, escorted by the Philadelphia's new Caitian CMO. Why Jensen had chosen him rather than one of the Philadelphia's more senior officers, Jenny didn't know, but she wondered how a ladder-climber Kurasa would feel knowing she'd been kept out of getting to introduce the ship. If it meant rubbing shoulders with Starfleet's best and brightest, she was really missing out on this one, and no doubt she'd have regrets later.

"Did y'all not have a smaller closet for this shindig?"

Ouch! Well, we've briefed in smaller; remember the Madison? The Voltaire?

With everyone now at or near their seats, Jenny took position by the viewports and hit the control to make them opaque and waited for the conversations to die down.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Operation Ursa Major."

With a nod to Sharp who stood by the door, a bystander and observer more than an active participant, Jenny motioned for the lights to dim and everyone to take their seats. Once they were in place, Jenny thumbed the remote in her hand and the holoprojector sprang to life; a large spinning view of a Luna-class starship with the words 'USS Callisto, NCC-80109 - DESTROYED 2401' in red underneath. 

"Two years ago, the Callisto was dispatched under the command of Admiral Jal to the Parhelia system on the Ferengi border to assess a claim that Parhelia Two had a rich vein of Benamite; the Ferengi prospectors, at the behest of the Grand Nagus, were offering mining rights to the Federation. During negotiations, the Callisto crew discovered that a group of Cardassians had also staked a claim to Parhelia and were already secretly extracting Benamite for their own purposes. The Callisto was attacked by a single Hideki-class Frigate assigned to the Cardassian Eighth Order, and was lost with all hands - the only exception being the eight-person diplomatic party and the Callisto's Waverider, the Siren."

Jenny had taken her 'briefing tone'; everything was being delivered in a manner that was neutral yet not dull, though her voice had a tinge of disgust when mentioning the Callisto's destruction. Was it because of the death count? Or that a fully-fledged starship, albeit a science vessel, had been so decisively beaten by a mere Frigate? Jenny wasn't even entirely sure she knew, but she was making a conscious effort not to stare at the elephant in the room. Or rather, the Cardassian.

"The ship was declared lost, Admiral Jal was removed from starship command, and the entire mess was swept under the carpet; Command didn't believe the Cardassians would ever get a Slipstream Drive to a functional level, so it was not considered a priority. That was until the attack on Utopia Planitia a few months back; Breen agents attempted to steal Quantum Slipstream plans and Intelligence began to hear rumours of a secret Cardassian/Breen alliance; the Parhelia system was then placed under more careful surveillance."

With another click on the remote, the projector shifted to an image of Parhelia II taken from a surveillance probe; it was grainy, but clearly visible in orbit of the planet was a Nor-type station and a small grey speck.

"The Cardassians have fortified the system; constructing and commissioning Curil Nor to act as their primary Benamite refinery. Ordinarily, this would not be a concern given the state of their economy and technical base, except for this; discovered by the Crusader under Captain Colso."

Jenny zoomed in on the small grey speck; the resolution was terrible, but it was unmistakably a Federation starship. The placement of the nacelles and the presence of what looked to be a mission pod made it highly likely that the ship was of the Luna class.

"Presenting the Callisto. Not destroyed as initially believed, but recovered and repaired. Intelligence assets within the Cardassian Union report that a full-power test of the Callisto is due within the month. If successful, they will be in position to activate the Slipstream Drive and use the Callisto as the benchmark for their own system; not to mention false-flag attacks on any number of our neighbours."

The holoprojector switched to a starmap of the Parhelia system with Parhelia II in the middle, Curil Nor and the Callisto labelled with a white dot. Red dots indicating Cardassian vessels moved around the system, their patrol routes as up-to-date as the most recent surveillance reports from the Crusader. A green dot labelled the Philadelphia skirted the outside of the system.

"The overall objective of Ursa Major is to get the Cardassians out of Parhelia and secure the Benamite for ourselves. That part is being left to a task force being assembled in the Maxia system. Our objective is the Callisto herself; the Philadelphia is to enter the Parhelia system and deploy a strike team to the Callisto; the team will either recover the ship, or scuttle her to prevent a working Slipstream Drive falling into enemy hands."

Best not to tell them that Command's plan was about as tactically sensible as showering in Sulphuric Acid, and that Tyra and I had to come up with our own ideas on the fly...

"Command has decreed that Cardassians and their Breen allies cannot be allowed to develop their own Slipstream technology; it would allow them to strike at the heart of any stellar empire in range without warning, the strategic and diplomatic implications of such a threat would throw the entire Quadrant into turmoil and inevitably lead to an arms race that risks sparking another war. To that end, Command has also decreed that anything up to and including total losses are acceptable so long as the Callisto is kept out of Cardassian hands."

Exhaling slowly, Jenny let that sink in before continuing.

"Command expects us to clear up their mess as usual, and they expect this to be as close to a suicide mission as they can put on paper. Whatever Admiral Jal's faults, whatever mistakes were made two years ago; it's our job to correct them, and I for one would rather not die trying. Captain Crawford will now brief the strike team's part of the mission."

Whatever she has is going to be better than the drivel the armchair tacticians back at HQ gave us...

[Aeryn Miller]

As the lounge continued to fill up around them with people from her own crew and those from the Philly, Aeryn offered a polite and friendly nod to anyone who looked in her direction. A skill that the security chief was able to maintain as Mara sat down and spoke in a low voice. The redhead understood why her assistant chief felt that way, given the unknown nature of this briefing, the set up, and yet she couldn't shake the sense that this was something big, and relayed that to her friend, in an equally low tone.

" Yeah, I get that feeling too, and we're probably not the only ones who want this over quickly. That being said, I can only imagine what the reason is for us all to be brought together like this".

Aeryn also knew that they weren't the only ones talking amongst themselves, as was evident by the noise around them, no doubt sharing the same type of conversation or general talk that came before meetings such like this got started. In some ways, it allowed some normality until you found out why, and with it looking like a joint mission, Aeryn also didn't want to miss a single thing or give off anything other than professionalism and showing her strengths, especially when working with people for the first time.

The time for answers, however, was soon upon them as Captain Braggins got proceedings under way, silencing those in the room by dimming the lights and activating the holo-projector. Aeryn quickly focused on the images while listening intently to the Phillys' CO. Picking up on the nuances easily as the explanation was expertly delivered, while finding herself unable to look away from the Callisto, having only heard stories about the Artemis' sister ship. With each click of the remote, Aeryn began to build a picture, a picture that she didn't particularly like, as she was reminded of the incident on Utopia Planitia, and what had happened after her first mission.

Then came the revelation that the Callisto hadn't been destroyed as first believed and the objective of why the two crews had been brought together. Surprisingly, Aeryn didn't feel shocked by any of this, as it all seemed to slot together and confirm what she had already begun to suspect, in regards to the seriousness of what they were about to face. There was always some kind of mess to clean up, and Aeryn shared Jenny's sentiments about not dying, despite the potential for losses, because preventing the possibility of another war was far more important. In fact, the security officer sat up a little straighter as everything sunk in, and she prepared to listen to her own Captain about the strike team's part of the plan.

== Tag Mara ==

[Robin Mayfair]

The Philly's CMO joined the two Artemis medics as things started to settle down. Seats were taken and people turned their attention to the situation at hand and the senior officers. "Its not often Medical gets a table to themselves. I'm Lieutenant R'Kaar Ragarri, Chief Medical Officer of the Philadelphia. I'd have arrived sooner, but, Commander Jensen needed the help."

"No worries," Robin said with a friendly smile. "Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant. I'm the CMO of the Artemis, Lieutenant Robin Mayfair, and this is a new arrival, Midshipman Emily Star."

Captain Braggins addressed the room. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Operation Ursa Major." She told the story of the Callisto, a ship thought lost. It was a shame; the Callisto had been one of the Pathfinder Expedition's ships, and she had met several of her crew during the operation. The news that the Cardassians had evidently seized the ship was sickening, both from a personal and a strategic point of view.

Braggins mentioned the attempt to steal the Slipstream Drive on Utopia Planitia, and Robin suddenly smelled burning flesh as her enhanced memory snapped back to the research facility. She had been the one who had killed the Breen spy. It hadn't been her intention and it had been done to save the life of herself and Aeryn Miller, but it was still a sickening memory. She had to close her eyes for a moment to suppress the grim thought.

They keep hitting us. They attack our ships, kill our crews, and Star Fleet sweeps it under the rug. Is war inevitable? Have they learned nothing from the Dominion War? Or is Cardassia nothing more than a schoolyard bully, hitting until he gets his nose bloodied? They certainly can't afford another war.

Robin was disgusted. Recently the Cardassians had boarded the USS Brittany, a doomed ship filled with plague victims, rigged the transporter to steal Captain Crawford, and set the ship to self destruct. Thankfully the crew of the Artemis had escaped their little trap, but not without mental and physical scars... and not without a loss. The young woman was a kind soul who hated conflict, but the cold and calculating Augment part of her personality (that she didn't like to think about) thought that the Cardassians would continue to poke the Federation until they got knocked down. Hard.

And their idiotic little game could have unwittingly unleashed an Augment plague on their own people.

But the news kept getting worse. This might well end up being a suicide mission. Not only for the strike team, but but for the ships involved. Would that be swept under the rug? Probably. The Federation didn't want war. Still, the Cardassians and Breen could not be allowed to get their hands on a Slipstream Drive.

However bad the news was Robin wasn't ready to write them off. The odds were bad, but she had seen worse, and the two Captains were the absolute best Star Fleet had. She didn't know much about the tiny Philadelphia, but the Artemis was a powerhouse, technologically advanced and armored like a tank. The ship had taken the firepower of a good chunk of a Borg fleet and survived. And that was supposed to have been a suicide mission too.

All right, stay positive then. We'll figure it out. Somehow.

== Tags ==

[Tyra Crawford]

== Lieutenant Commander Cera Morgan ==

Never in Cera's life had she so wanted to break her cardinal rule and make a scene. Her instinct was to use the hand that was gripping the edge of the table as a push off point and storm out like a dramatic starlet from Earth's early movie days but there was a part of her, tiny and tucked away, that wanted nothing more than to grab Ben by the collar and punch him. Cera had never understood the desire to strangle or punch someone out of frustration but right that moment, she thought the only balm for the roiling storm of frustration might be the satisfaction from the glimmer of surprise on Ben's face right before she punched him, though admittedly, she wasn't sure she even knew how effectively. She'd never taken Tyra up on the offers of boxing lessons over the years but now, she might have to.

Instead, she stared at Ben for a moment, wondering if his inability to just simply apologize was due to a male defect or the fact that he wasn't particularly sorry. After all, they had long left the road paved by both of their mistakes and were now walking a road built from bricks of his selfishness. It was only fitting that a refusal to apologize -- because apologizing for the engineers "dragging" him out wasn't an apology -- was the latest brick in the road. Everything since the fight had been on Ben's timetable so it was only fitting that the apology would be too. And the fact that he thought a nice meal would placate her was insulting at best.

Famous last words. Do you know how many people plan to die when they do?

"Fine "

It wasn't what she had wanted to say. She had wanted to comment that his body couldn't contain the amount of stabs it would take to make her feel better. She had wanted to tell him that what they had was irreparably broken by the ten days of silence, the talking wasn't going to fix anything, and that his cowardice wasn't exactly an attractive trait. She wanted to ask why he'd pushed everything off, prolonging this fight unnecessarily to a point where it might never be resolved because the universe rarely cared about the desires of man when it weaved it's tapestry.

But she didn't, which left him an opening to dig his hole even deeper. As if that was possible.

"For now, though," he added before sending a file to her padd, "I need a particular crate from storage sent over here; should be going right to their Waverider, but I don't know how you and Philly's quartermaster need to work things. Fewer people that know, the better."

If he thought he had gotten the cold shoulder from her previously, the icy stare she gave him as he laid out what [b]he[\b] needed from her was a different beast altogether. After all, how was it suppose to look when you avoid someone for days, make a half-ass attempt to address things and then, ask for a favor? It looked like you only made the half-ass attempt because you had to, which seemed about right for this. Nothing Ben had said made her think he was sorry -- maybe sorry that [b]he[\b] felt guilty --, he just needed something from her. And considering everything for the last ten days had been about what Ben needed or wanted, it was fitting.

"Of course, the sooner that's gone, the better," she responded quickly, knowing exactly what was in that particular crate. Did he really think she didn't know what was in her own cargo holds, particularly something that could cause major problems? "I'll get it sent over to the Philadelphia immediately."

Her dark eyes shifted back up to meet his, words clearly on the tip of her tongue, but Jenny began the meeting before the words could escape into the air. It was honestly for the better.

She leaned back slightly as Jenny began to fill in the pieces to the puzzle she'd begun putting together shortly after she's been called to the Ready Room.

As the child of diplomats, she could view the underlying elements of this assignment from a birds eye view. She knew the history of Federation-Cardassian relations, the challenges with any attempts to negotiate, and the unbending wills on both sides. She truthfully doubted that the Federation had made a good faith effort to handle this problem through diplomacy but from what she'd seen of the recent antics from Cardassia, to include the Brittany incident, she suspected they wouldn't have worked. Cardassia was operating like a schoolyard bully who had yet to meet anyone willing to stand up to them but this was risky with a great potential to backfire.

The Fleet couldn't have picked a better set of crews to entrust their fate to but there were times when the mantle was too heavy, all the same, and Cera worried this might be it.

Before Jenny handed the floor to Tyra, Cera already knew her role in all of this. She would be sitting center chair of the Artemis; if things went to plan, the Artemis wouldn't be needed but if it didn't, she'd likely be pushing her command skills to the limit. If it didn't, the Artemis would likely be down a captain and all of its senior staff. A sombering thought.

Only a fool thinks they can control destiny but you are a fool, aren't you? she quietly wondered with the tiniest of glances towards the person next to her.

[Altairi Hydish]

<<Engineering<<

It took longer than he'd expected to make it to the Lounge. The lights had begun to dim and the holoprojector flicked to life. Altairi shuffled through the crowd of officers already gathered, finding one of the empty seats in the corner of the room.

Half of the group was made up of people he knew from the Philadelphia. He looked over the other half-- unfamiliar officers he had a feeling he'd seen before, but he couldn't quite figure out where.

Altairi's eyes flickered over to Braggins-- the captain who'd trusted him enough to make him chief engineer, and who'd only a few hours ago seen him as a delusional mess crying for his mother. She was well within her rights to demote him and ship him off to Starbase 80.

So why hadn't she?

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Operation Ursa Major." Braggins' voice broke the silence, and summoned the image of a not-so-dead starship, which then turned into that of a Cardassian-held system.

Altairi swallowed a lump, and began to wish he were on Starbase 80 instead.

[Miles Grant]

Before further conversation could be had, it appeared that the meeting would be ready to start, so Miles took his place opposite Murphy on the Artemis' side of the table. It seemed Captain Braggins would be leading this meeting, or at least starting them out, which would partially explain why this meeting was taking place on the Philadelphia instead of the Artemis.

Miles listened intently as Braggins began, bringing up the Operation name, Ursa Major, as well as a projection of the ill-fated USS Callisto. Braggins outlined what had happened to the ship. Or rather, the official report on the circumstances of it's loss. Her tone was "professional", but Miles was sure he heard the tinge of disgust as she went over the destruction. It told a different story.

Which was exactly what Braggins spoke of next. What actually happened. Not destroyed, as originally reported, but even repaired. And in the hands of the Cardassians. Miles' brow furrowed as the implications rode in, especially with the recent events of Utopia Planitia and the Brittany.

They were getting bold. And, if this continued, it would eventually lead to all out war. Which is what this mission was for. Be all secret, get things done, avoid a war. All while Command sat back and waited to write the "official story". Not getting their hands dirty for their own failures.

The crews would either be silent heroes, silent martyrs, or scapegoats, depending on how this mission went. It made Miles grit his teeth, but he remained silent. Braggins finished and turned the floor over to Captain Crawford, who would be discussing the strike team. Miles continued to listen intently, on what was sure to be a better plan than anything the pencil pushers back at HQ had come up with.

[Peter Jensen]

Peter was starting to get the image in his mind of a clowns in a clown car with how stacked they were, and while he was not claustrophobic as such, he was definitely starting to get uncomfortable. He wished for this brieving to be over. He wished to know what they were doing. He didn't like being kept in the dark.

When Crawford approached him, he shook her hand happily. "I am. All good I hope", he replied at her comment about having heard of him. Then added: "It's an honor to meet you, and returned her smile, though he did not comment on the comment about keeping Braggins in line. He felt that comment had been a bit inappropriate, especially in front of two sets of senior staff, but, again, that was not his to comment on.
He sat back down and waited for the briefing to start.

But once it did....oh boy did he wish that another ship had gotten this task.
First of all, the name of the operation was a bit cringy. Great Bear. A story from mythology of attempted and interrupted matricide. But the name was not the worst part. The worst part was the background to the mission, and the more Braggins told them, the more blood he felt leaving his face. Until he felt it rushing back into his face as anger and frustration. He remained silent, however, but he definitely thought a lot of things.
Of course the very concept of the Cardassians keeping this ship was out of the question. Forget about two ships - better destroy the entire system than let that happen.

When she was finished, Peter remained silent for a moment to clear his mind. He was already thinking tactically, and felt that Crewman Brele would likely be a great asset to the strike team. Not just because he was a Cardassian, but because he was a great soldier in his own right. Though of course the former was important too in this particular case.
Had this been back before his ascension to XO, Peter would have volonteered to lead the strike team himself and still felt an itching to do so. But he also recognized his greater duty. Unless otherwise ordered, he'd remain at his post. What if, God forbid, something were to happen to Braggins?

We're about to head to war, he thought. Not just because of our strike - though that is casus belli on its own - but the other strike force. And then there's the Borg threat too.

He listened intensely as Braggins gave Crawford the floor and looked at her.

[Teresa Black]

More and more people filed into the room. Space was becoming premium, and even though the air conditioning was doing its best, the room was also heating up, ever so slightly making it imperceptibly uncomfortable.

The one other observation that Maz made in her new scientific role as everyone entered was the Artemis crew seemed to have a rather inordinate number of ginger people amongst them.

Her thoughts however were put on hold when Captain Braggins began the briefing.

She spoke of an incident that had happened just before Maz had rejoined Starfleet, and so had no knowledge of it. But she could also see that several of the Artemis crew obviously were familiar with it from their expressions. Or maybe they had already been briefed and this was just the round robin for everyone else.

As she listened further, her old tactical training was taking more notes than her new operations role.

“...  the Philadelphia is to enter the Parhelia system and deploy a strike team to the Callisto; the team will either recover the ship, or scuttle her to prevent a working Slipstream Drive falling into enemy hands." The Captain was saying.

If we're running the insertion, are we the extraction too if they have to scuttle?

Going in hot and getting out was easy. Having to hang around just in case could make things rather awkward.

Another thought also entered her mind, just as the Captain handed over to her Counterpart from the Artemis.

If the ship was thought lost with all hands, what happened to the crew in that case? Where have they been for the last two years? Are they still in the system? Were they taken elsewhere? Are they even still alive?

These were questions she was going to probably ask if no one else did first. But first, she waited for the second part to be explained. That's where the answers may already be.

[Emily Star]

"I see you have a new arrival to Medical as well. Is this your first posting outside of your cadet cruise Midshipman?"

Emily nodded, “Very first, Sir.” She felt her response was a little clipped but she wasn’t used to conversing with department heads and her etiquette was still very young. 

"No worries," Robin said with a friendly smile. "Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant. I'm the CMO of the Artemis, Lieutenant Robin Mayfair, and this is a new arrival, Midshipman Emily Star."

Emily offered a polite wave to punctuate the addition of her name. Just then, the lights dimmed and the meeting started. The entire vibe in the room changed. The briefing had started off with a bit of history then moved into the current situation. There’d been a gasp or two amidst the room when it was shown that the Callisto hadn’t been destroyed. 

The mission itself caught her off guard. When Mayfair had asked Emily along, that was exciting. Was she to take part in this? She’d always envisioned her first few weeks aboard the ship as mundane. This was not mundane. 

"Command expects us to clear up their mess as usual, and they expect this to be as close to a suicide mission as they can put on paper. Whatever Admiral Jal's faults, whatever mistakes were made two years ago; it's our job to correct them, and I for one would rather not die trying. Captain Crawford will now brief the strike team's part of the mission."

Strike teams? Surely they’d need medics nearby. Would she be included? Her eyes turned to her Chief and then looked to the Philadelphia's Chief as an attempt to gauge their reactions to base her own on. 

[Benjamin Elias]

Benjamin watched Cera's anger boil, and sat impassively under it. Not because he didn't recognize the danger, for he knew full well what she was capable of; instead, it was simply because he knew that he had earned it, and that she was in the right. He had made choices - some right, some wrong - and this was the bill coming due. He simply hoped he could salvage something when it was all said and done. He simply noted her reactions, including when he asked her to send that crate over - a little more heated than he'd expected for that, as she usually could pivot to business better, but then this wasn't exactly charted territory - and nodded. "Thank you," he told her simply.

For a moment, he considered saying something else. He reconsidered the apology he'd almost said earlier. He thought about trying to do something, anything, that might clear some of this up. But even if he could have found the words - doubtful at this point anyway; he wasn't the smoothest of talkers in the first place, and he didn't even know what words would have helped - he definitely didn't have the time. Jenny stood and began the presentation, and it was done.

Thanks to his earlier conversation with Tyra, he knew at least some of the information being presented, but he took notes anyway. He noted that Callisto was being held at a Nor-class station; he hadn't been aware of the station before, though it didn't exactly change the situation. It made it more difficult, sure, but their insertion was always going to be a difficult one, and their method was just as likely to work with a Nor as it was with just the ship sitting around in orbit.

As he listened with half an ear, listening for new information, he idly thought about what the Cardassians and Breen would be like with slipstream tech. Being familiar with the dynamics of the system, he couldn't imagine that their current ship designs were compatible with the technology, at least not for more than a few minutes of travel at a time. Of course, that's still enough to cross a sector or two, and that surprise factor could be the difference between life and death. He was sure similar calculations were taking place on the other side of the border, with the enemy wondering just what the Federation could do with it. He knew that the UFP would never attack like that without provocation, but then again here they were considering a preemptive strike to prevent them getting this technology.

Maybe we're not quite as different as we thought, he pondered to himself sadly as Tyra prepared to start her part of the briefing.

He thought again about the crate and it's contents, and wondered if he were on his own darker path. He didn't believe so; after all, he was trying to protect the peace, not provoke a war. He just wondered how it would be seen after the fact.

[Tyra Crawford]

After speaking to Jensen, Tyra had settled into her chair as Jenny began her overview of the mission. For all of Jenny's head strong tendencies, she was an amazingly gifted tactician and was equally as talented as laying out operations and their backgrounds. It told a story, even if it was one that most would likely rather not be here to hear.

Because Tyra had sat in the initial briefing, she didn't stay glued to Jenny the entire time. Instead, her gaze moved across the officers within her view, mostly Philadelphia officers due to the set up of the room, and took note of the changing body language. There were some that took in the information like seasoned pros, externally unphased, but there were others that looked rightfully uncomfortable. It was no doubt a mirror of the reactions along the wall behind her and it was to be expected. Anyone that didn't respect the potential for chaos and death was an idiot of epic proportions.

By the time Jenny's portion of the briefing has begun to wind down, Tyra's thoughts has once again turned to the struggle between the ends and means. With maturity and experience came nuance, an understanding that the world was not merely black and white. There were shades of gray hidden in even the most mundane moments. Right and wrong weren't always distinguishable and sometimes, the good guys were anything but.

What she hadn't decided was whether Callisto was worth the means. Callisto, the ship, was not. She had been lost due to errors, poor decisions and difficult circumstances but the ship itself wasn't worth this effort. However, Tyra understood geopolitics well enough to understand that they weren't retrieving Callisto to salvage wounded egos or make the survivors feel better. As it stood, the warmongering of bullies was kept in check because someone else had a bigger club but if they ceased to have that advantage, it would be significantly harder to keep certain powers in check. Some might cynically view this as just a way to keep the Federation in control but for Tyra, this felt like a way to, maybe, ensure that her child or her nieces and nephews didn't grow up under a looming cloud of war.

Assuming we aren't the opening volley... she thought mirthlessly as she stood up and moved a little more towards the front of the table.

"Thank you, Captain," she said to Jenny before turning to face the rest of the room. "As Captain Braggins laid out, the objective of the strike team is to either recover or scuttle the Callisto."

"As has become unfortunately common, the powers that be are asking for the moon but only giving us a cardboard rocket to work with. Fortunately, most of us have gotten very good at rising to the occasion."

"The strike team's plan has three phases: system insertion, infiltration and recovery. Each phase has more variables than the last but we'll cover the most likely options here."

She nodded to Jenny. "With Captain Braggins' permission, the team will utilize the Philly's Waverider for phase 1.  Lieutenant Commander Elias will be in charge of making some adjustments to the vessel to assist with the approach. In addition, depending on the system's condition on arrival, the Waverider will likely be brought in with systems reduced to help stay under the radar. The vessel cannot be detected before reaching the Callisto."

Tyra wasn't certain the latter would be necessary but she also understood that it would probably make the team members feel more confident on their approach.

"Phase 2's biggest variable is whether the Callisto has shields online or not. Ideally, with the Callisto being worked on, her shields should be down still but we need to be prepared for the worst case scenario," Tyra continued before  pausing to tap on her PADD, which brought a schematic of the Callisto onto the projector.

"Meet the thorn in our side, Callisto," she stated.

She paused to let everyone glance at the schematic, whereas Tyra had memorized it. Instead, she had to note the connection that seemed to keep tying them together; Callisto had been a lover of Zeus, turned into the constellation Ursa Major to protect her from Hera, depending on the telling, but before all of that, she had been a beloved companion of Artemis. Here Artemis was trying to save her from her fate.

"In an ideal world with shields down, the team will be aiming to dock the Waverider here," the screen zoomed into an area of the Callisto under the saucer, "where the Callisto's own Waverider resided. We have been given the Callisto's fleet code and assuming they still work, they will be utilized to bring down the sensors and security programs until control can be gained. If they work but shields are up, we will use them to bring down the shields. "

"If the codes don't work, the team will use the element of surprise while they can and beam aboard. While this should allow the team to take over the needed areas quickly, it will also alert reinforcements. It will create a messier situation but that's where some creativity might be useful."

She pressed on her PADD again and the Callisto shifted to the left side as two particular areas of the ship, the bridge and engineering were magnified on the right.

"The strike team will be split into two groups, Alpha and Bravo. Alpha will be tasked with taking the bridge and holding regardless of what happens. Bravo will be tasked with taking engineering and holding it. If one of the teams can quickly gain control of environmental controls , the usage of modified neurozene will likely become advantageous for subduing incoming forces. If not, let's hope we have better luck than the Alamo."

"If everything goes to plan, the team will have operational control of Callisto quickly and can begin the process of getting her the Hell out of the system. If there are any stowaways, they'll be dealt with as soon as possible," Tyra continued, her tone controlled and steely. Despite how simply the plan was laid out, Tyra knew exactly what the plan was asking of each member of the strike team and she didn't take that knowledge lightly.

"If recovery is infeasible or the cost becomes too great, the Callisto will be scuttled. Ideally, the Waverider will be the egress option for the team but that will be a dynamic decision made when needed. The goal is removing Callisto from Cardassian hands and we will do that, one way or another."

Now, she looked down at the PADD in her hand, her eyes skimming over the names with a heaviness as if she was reading a list of the damned. After a deep breath, she looked back up at those present.

"Strike Team Bravo will be led by Commander Coleman with Lieutenant Commander Elias, Lieutenant Miller, Ensign D'Mar, and Lieutenant JG Devereaux. They will be responsible for taking and holding engineering," she read off the names with a nod to each person as she went.

"Strike Team Alpha will be lead by myself with Lieutenant Mayfair, Lieutenant Harriman, Lieutenant JG Grant, Lieutenant Calleja and Midshipman...," she paused, her blue eyes seeming to size up the young woman next to Mayfair, "Midshipman Star. We will be responsible for taking and holding the bridge."

"Bring the standard load out plus gas masks. Miller, please work with medical to modify some neurozene cannisters. Elias, make sure we've got what we need to put her down if needed. Also," she pulled at the shoulder of her uniform," leave these at home. We'll be using the black jumpsuits. If we fail, the name of the game will be plausible deniability and that will make it slightly easier to say we just went off the rails."

The fine line between martyrs and scapegoats, she silently mused.

"If none of you feel you are capable of filling your assigned roles, now is the time to speak up. Otherwise, I'll turn the floor back over to any questions or concerns...."

[Emily Star]

"If none of you feel you are capable of filling your assigned roles, now is the time to speak up. Otherwise, I'll turn the floor back over to any questions or concerns...."

Two things came to Emily very quickly as the Captain spoke. If Mayfair hadn't brought her along she wouldn't have been on a strike team with the Captain and her new Chief, and even though there was an option to exit said team, she wasn't going to touch it. Nope. 

Looking to Mayfair, she offered a smile. A small way to say quietly, 'I'm ok'. If this was going to be her first experience with the new crew, she was determined that they were going to look back on her performance positively. Or at least they wouldn't remember her taking an out when offered. 

Taking in a calming breath she looked back towards the Captain. Crawford was someone she'd wanted to meet, she just hadn't assumed it would be this soon or in this type of scenario. Black jumpsuit. Gas masks. Hold the bridge. 

[Peter Jensen]

Peter listened to Crawford's explanation and hung on her every word. There were far too many variables outside of their control in the plan for his liking. But....well, there was no alternative, really, was there? The Callisto and its technology could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands. And he did think of the Cardassian Union as an enemy.
One part of the plan bugged him, though. Well, truth be told, the entire plan bugged him. And he had been unable to keep from smirking for a moment when Crawford had compared the mission to getting to the Moon with a cardboard rocket. Unfortunately there wasn't a realistic alternative given the circumstances.

However...

"If I may, Captain Crawford?", Peter spoke up. "I like the plan, given the way things stand. There are no really good solutions here, but this looks like the best possible plan under the circumstances. The part of it that bothers me", he said slightly cautiously as he did not wish to offend anyone, "is that, and you'll forgive me if I'm mistaken, I have not yet gotten completely acquainted with the Artemis' crew manifest, strike teams alpha and bravo consist of the entire senior staff of the Artemis. Not just yourself and Commander Coleman, but the rest of the department heads too", he looked around at the people in attendance.

"I don't mean to be all doom and gloom, but as everyone here is aware, this mission makes "extremely high risk" seem like an understatement on par with the statement "the Sun is big". If this mission goes sideways, as there's a decent risk it might, the Artemis would be left not only crippled with both its Captain and XO gone, but made a quadriplegic with every single department head captured, or killed. Precisely at a time where a clear chain of command and clarity as to who's in charge and that person being an experienced commander is paramount, because that is what will be needed if we find ourselves in the middle of a fight with a fortified Cardassian position. Also, the Cardassians are not idiots. They're gonna be aware of the assembly of the task force Captain Braggins mentioned, and put two and two together", he said, then sighed.

"I know I'm just poking holes and not contributing", he admitted. "But at least as far as my first concern goes, I do have an idea, though, admittedly, not one many people are going to like very much. I don't particularly like it myself", he said, before going on: "Mix the teams. Have one of the strike teams led by either myself or Commander Coleman, while the other is led by either you or Captain Braggins. Not both you and the Commander at the same time. Mix the other team members too. I know the danger in mixing teams that are not used to work together. There is something to be said for unit cohesion", he said seriously. "But the dangers of leaving the Artemis potentially completely in disarray outweigh the other risk. And besides, all of us are professionals", he finished, hoping that he had not made too much of an ass of himself. But he would have been negligent in his duty if he had not pointed out the flaws as he saw them.

[Shione Kurasa]

Shione understood the reasons for planning the mission as they had. The teams would have trained together and adding Officers from the Philly would not have been possible. She was surprised and unexpectedly proud that Commander Jenson spoke up in support and waited until he finished before speaking.

"Captains; I believe it is likely that you both already know but I personally have a familial connection to that ill fated mission. My sister, Lieutenant Commander S'hiarra Sothrick was the Chief of Security. I know only what details were not classified, but there was possibly another stellar Empire involved in the deception which drew the Callisto to where it was ambushed; that being the Ferengi. The Admiral and other officers were aboard a space port negotiating with the Ferengi, when the crew aboard announced that they were being attacked.

S'hiarra guarded and escorted the away team to safety while listening to the final words of the officer aboard who initiated the scuttling. It is, I believe a possibility that the Ferengi could still be involved. Clearly Star Fleet has done their due diligence, but I feel that it bore mentioning."

She paused before going on. Shione was glad that she would never be allowed to tell S'hiarra these details and that she could enjoy her retirement without that memory.

She continued;

"As regards this mission, Captains; I share Commander Jensen's personal and professional disappointment at not having any our crew included in the strike team. All of the reasons why that is, I am sure have already been gone over between yourselves. Having seen this team perform superbly on a recent and dangerous away mission I feel a professional pride in their comportment and capabilities and wanted that added to Commander Jensen's affirmation in this regard."

She nodded to both Captains and sat quietly.

[Peter Jensen]

Peter visibly cringed for a moment when Kurasa spoke before he got his body language back under control, and before anyone else could say anything else when she was done, answered:

"For the record. This is not a matter of disappointment of not being "included" at all", he said, the air quotes over the operative word almost audble.

"It is a matter of what's best for the success of the mission. All other concerns are secondary. Now, I believe what I just said, but at the end of the day, it's neither your decision, Leftenant Commander, nor mine.", he looked at Kurasa. "And let's not waste time with theories about the Ferengi now. That's immaterial. What matters is keeping the slipstream out of the Cardassian Union's hands. All other concerns, including personal anecdotes, can wait", he finished, then turned his attention back towards the Captains.

[Tyra Crawford]

The first concern out of the gate was the one Tyra had anticipated being front and center, though she hadn't expected it to come from Jensen himself. Her reading of Jensen was that he very much didn't like to rock the boat but it seemed he felt this important enough to go against that perceived nature. In his shoes, she would have done exactly the same, though she probably would have tried to tip toe around the implication that Tyra was just leaving her ship out to dry to the Cardassians.

Her blue eyes had briefly shifted to Coleman as they had discussed this concern when they were trying to come up with a better idea than what command had provided, a literal suicide pact. If Coleman hadn't been comfortable with the plan, they would have adjusted course but he had been as confident as she was in the skills of their second and third string.

Tyra's gaze had returned to the table as a female began to speak before Tyra could answer Jensen's concerns. The redhead's brow furrowed as the woman, the Philly's Chief of Security to be exact, began to talk about her sister and the Ferengi involvement in the loss of the Callisto. She wasn't exactly certain what the point of it was as there was no indication of the Ferengi in any intel report nor did the involvement of the Ferengi change the risk factors. In fact, Tyra was confident their odds of success would go up with bumbling, money hungry idiots involved.

Get to the point, dammit!

"As regards this mission, Captains; I share Commander Jensen's personal and professional disappointment at not having any our crew included in the strike team. All of the reasons why that is, I am sure have already been gone over between yourselves. Having seen this team perform superbly on a recent and dangerous away mission I feel a professional pride in their comportment and capabilities and wanted that added to Commander Jensen's affirmation in this regard."

Now, Tyra understood. It was wounded pride that was causing this meandering tale followed by the true concern, the Chief's well trained people were missing out on the fun, as if possibly dying to right someone else's wrong was fun. It seemed the Chief hadn't learned that sometimes duty called for sitting some out with the bigger picture at play, like not gutting the Philly's entire security department to fill a strike team.

Jensen was quick to jump back in after the Chief, trying to smooth it over likely before anyone else could pounce. Admittedly, Tyra did have a reputation for pouncing on officers for their verbal miscues but she wasn't likely to do that to someone else's officer.

She held up her hands. "Alright, that's enough. Let me actually get a word in here, please."

"There have been no indications of Ferengi involvement; we would have mentioned it if we had. The Ferengi might have facilitated the situation leading to Callisto's unnecessary loss but I highly doubt they have taken up arms to assist the Cardassians in defending it. They're not exactly a fighting force and I wouldn't let that distract from the actual issue at hand. But if you feel we've missed something, you're welcome to look through the intel pictures to see if you can see something countless analysts missed," she said to Kurasa, her tone even and neutral.

Now, she turned her gaze to Jensen and offered a slight smile. "I appreciate your concern for Artemis and the bigger picture but believe me when I say I wouldn't leave my ship lightly or in anything other than the best hands."

"The decision was partially based in math. The Philly has an entire crew compliment of 80, assuming you launched with everyone, whereas the Artemis has a crew compliment of 500. If I asked y'all to even fill one half of the strike team, I would be taking almost 10% of your crew, crew that will very likely be needed in the mess that will come once the strike team is noticed. The Philly will not be sitting idle and she will need every person she has. The strike teams aren't even a drop in the bucket of Artemis' personnel capacity. With that capacity comes depth."

She motioned to the side of the room where her crew were sitting and standing. "These people are very gifted and are my most senior individuals but they are not where the talent stops. Miss Morgan, who will be captaining in my absence, will be assisted by Commander Tucker, my long time second officer from the Getty and Avenger, and Lieutenant McKenzie, a former first officer in her own right with more combat flight experience than most of us can count. Under them are countless members of different departments that quite frankly should have all gone on already to have their own departments but are still with us. We also run regular ship-wide and departmental doomsday drills, where we remove the top two layers of command and see if the ship or department can figure out a way to run and operate without their typical leadership. They've done amazing and I have no doubt, they'll make me very proud," she explained.

"But you are right. Everyone here is a professional," she glanced at her side and there was a touch of a smile at the corner of her lips, "Well, almost everyone."

"We could cobble a team together from people in this room and make it work. However, this is too important for making it work. It needs to be damn near perfect because while command might be willing to write off great losses to reclaim Callisto, I am not. If the strike team is going to make it out alive with the mission accomplished, it needs to be a cohesive unit, on both sides and between the two, that has dealt with shit shows together and is willing to quite literally lay it all out for success. I believe that if Philly had more personnel, you all would be able to accomplish the same thing that I hope we can but if we fail, we may very well need Philly to have every ability to finish things for us."

"I hope that doesn't come to be but it's the truth of it."

What she didn't say was that she also wasn't going to lead someone else's crew to their death. It was one thing to lead her own, who trusted her and knew she wouldn't ask anything of them she wouldn't do herself, hence her presence on the team, but it was another to tell another captain that their crew was expendable while her crew sat safely at home.

[Peter Jensen]

Peter hung on Crawford's words as she explained. He felt a slight embarassment as he had apparently managed to forget that the Artemis was much bigger than the tub they were currently on, and had a much larger crew. Of course it made sense that there'd be people able to pick up. He nodded along as she explained, the pieces of the puzzle immediately falling into place at that first crucial piece of information.
And the point about unit cohesion was definitely well made, and when she finished her explanation, he gave a nod of understanding, signalling that he'd understood.

[Aeryn Miller]

Aeryn's gaze moved to Captain Crawford, who began her portion of the briefing, and made references that only emphasised what Captain Braggins had relayed to them all. Command were certainly asking a lot, but as Aeryn had learnt in recent times, when faced with the impossible, the crew could make the best out of a bad situation. As Tyra then explained the first two phases that the strike team needed to accomplish, the Artemis' security chief committed them to memory, aware of how important this all was, and didn't envy those who had been chosen to undertake such a risky and dangerous mission.

That being said, the redhead's attention quickly latched onto the schematic of the Callisto, the proverbial thorn as the Captain had aptly described it. Taking particular interest in the section that was highlighted, Tyra continued and briefed them on what the team had to achieve, including the pros and cons depending on what they found when they arrived. If luck was on their side, then they wouldn't have to use the element of surprise and avoid the messier option, but Aeryn understood that as long as it got them inside, they could deal with the rest as it happened. Of course, these were just her personal thoughts as the schematic changed once more.

Again, listening to what needed to be done once the team was on board the Callisto, and Tyra was right it was all about keeping the ship out of Cardassian hands, one way or the other even if there was a possibility that none of them came back. Then came the list of names who would make up teams Alpha and Bravo. Her breath hitched in her chest slightly at the sound of her name. The fact that most of those names were senior officers didn't go unnoticed, and as Aeryn processed all of this, she heard her name again as the Captain asked her to work with medical.

Understanding her role, what was needed and the preparations involved, Aeryn answered, " Yes Captain". There was no urge to stay behind, or back out of the task that she had been given and would be as mentally and physically prepared as possible. With the floor being turned over, it was Jensen who spoke first with his concerns. Whether or not something would come from that, wasn't Aeryn's call to make as her Philly counterpart spoke up. Aeryn didn't know how relevant it was as Jensen stepped in. Tyra was quick to tackle what had been said as well as quell the concerns that Jensen had brought up. Pride emanated from Aeryn, because she might not have been on the Artemis for very long, but the Captain was right and Aeryn would play her part to the very last moment, whilst hope and sheer determination prevailed.

[Miles Grant]

Miles' full attention was on Captain Crawford on her segment of the briefing, which would be the overall plan and strike force composition. She laid out the variables and how they would approach each situation given the most likely scenarios. Miles nodded along with everything, even if he wasn't particularly pleased that they were doing this mission at all.

But, whether or not he was "pleased" didn't matter. This was their duty as Star Fleet Officers. He listened to the teams being called out, and found himself not surprised when both he and Harriman were assigned to the Bridge. Although, he thought momentarily, if the shields are down on the Callisto, it would be better just to scuttle the damn thing and leave. He shook his head of the thoughts, as there was more at play here, and destroying the vessel was last resort.

He had noting to say as Captain Crawford opened the floor, though he did note that Philadelphia's First Officer, Jensen apparently did. Whereas Miles could understand his concerns, a lot of the reason for it being Artemis crew only came down to crew complement, something he gave Jensen the benefit of the doubt on as maybe not considering that factor.

Kurasa's words definitely rubbed him the wrong way, but Jensen and the Captain were quick to quash that particular train of thought (at least Miles hoped), before the Captain continued and explained the size of the Artemis crew as compared to the Philly, which seemed to dawn on Jensen.

As things were opened a little more for discussion, Miles didn't have anything to add, instead considering his possible roles within the strike team he had been assigned. He didn't say anything, as he felt that such assignments would be in the following steps of the briefing. If it wasn't, he would then field the question.

[Robin Mayfair]

Robin suppressed a sigh as the details unfolded and the discussion became animated. While people were trying to remain polite there were obvious issues and frayed nerves. She wondered why none of the Philly's crew was assigned to a team, and while Tyra had a good point that the ship had a small crew it had been made clear that the stakes were high and even the loss of the two ships was acceptable to stop the Cardassians from getting their hands on Slipstream technology. Jensen did have a point.

For that matter, why has Star Fleet assigned us to this mission at all? This seems like the sort of thing the SEJO was designed for, not a starship crew. Sometimes I wonder if they have it in for us, or if they think we're spies and commandos. Oh well, it's not my problem. Ours is not to question why. My problem is to keep the members of the strike teams alive in what could easily turn out to be a suicide mission.

But there was another issue. Strike Team Alpha had two medics while Bravo had none. If there were wounded they would be forced to rely on the first aid training of the team members. That might not be good enough. And she couldn't assign Emily to be Bravo's medic, not all by herself, not fresh out of the Academy. The Artemis CMO raised her hand, surprised at her lack of hesitation. The Robin of a couple years ago would have sat there meekly and just gone along, the purple-haired nurse had to admit.

"Captain Crawford, Bravo doesn't have a medic. With your permission I'd like to assign Dr. Östberg. He's served with the SEJO and has extensive field experience."

A lot more than me, in fact, even if he did punch out his CMO during the Megasphere battle. After this, if we survive, he'll probably want to punch me out too.

But the truth was that Östberg was a good fit, and he wanted his shot at redemption and to regain a pip. If there was anyone on her staff outside of Beka or Sonaalk who she could count on, it was him. She wasn't happy assigning even more medical staff to this deathtrap, but she didn't feel like she had a choice. Beka was still on the mend, and Sonaalk was a cardiologist with little field experience.

And besides, if something happens to me then I'll need someone to take over Sickbay, and whether she thinks she's ready or not, whether she's recovered or not, that would be Beka.

She waited for Tyra's response.

== Tag ==

[R'Kaar Ragarri]

“Very first, Sir.”

R'Kaar nodded at that and was about to reply, when Jenny laid out the entire mission plan along with Captain Crawford. 

Hmm. This is what my younger brother lost, or rather, his successor lost. So much for Kzinti superiority.

Then Shione brought up her sister, and their connection to the Callisto, and along with Jensen, expressed their disappointment with not being included. In R'Kaar's mind, Captain Crawford's decision to exclude the Philadelphia made sense to him, as the crew would function better with each other, rather than with another crew. 

"We could cobble a team together from people in this room and make it work. However, this is too important for making it work. It needs to be damn near perfect because while command might be willing to write off great losses to reclaim Callisto, I am not. If the strike team is going to make it out alive with the mission accomplished, it needs to be a cohesive unit, on both sides and between the two, that has dealt with shit shows together and is willing to quite literally lay it all out for success. I believe that if Philly had more personnel, you all would be able to accomplish the same thing that I hope we can but if we fail, we may very well need Philly to have every ability to finish things for us."

R'Kaar then to accentuate the point, said to Shione, 

"Commander Kurasa, having a personal connection to the Callisto also complicates things. You'll have that connection on your mind when dealing with the mission, and it could very well jeopardize the mission. A Star Fleet officer doesn't need that sense of pride weighing one down in a life-or-death situation." 

R'Kaar looked back at Captain Crawford and added, 

"Just to add something constructive to these plans, I seem to recall from my refresher geology classes at the Academy that benamite slowly decays once its been installed in the drive. Considering that's one of the drawbacks of the drive, its likely that the Cardassians won't install the benamite until they're ready to begin the test. But there were rumors in the geology field that someone was developing a synthetic form of the crystal, and had a high stabilization time. Captain Crawford, it might be a good fallback plan to engage the quantum slipstream drive as either escape mechanism or a scuttling, and having synthetic crystals on hand that can sustain a short burst of the drive, or fracture under long-term stress and create a fatal overload in the drive, could be useful to your plan. I believe Commander Jadaris, formerly of the USS Callisto, was working on such a project, before it became classified, so it should be possible for your science department to utilize the synthesis process if you can gain access to the research data. Given your ship has a full science lab, it might be worth looking into for your science department."

Having a geophysicist for an adopted brother was nice, but R'Kaar tried to keep in contact with Jadaris as much as possible. The last time he had communicated with his brother, Jadaris had just resigned his commission for an assistant professorship at the Vulcan Science Academy. Given the classification on the project though was high, R'Kaar thought that Captain Crawford would likely have the clearance for it, as well as Captain Braggins. But the Artemis would be the logical choice for the usage of such a material.

==tags==

[Amaterasu Ichika]

Amaterasu was listening to the conversation at hand she could almost feel the tension in the room from her crew, some seemed edger to rush in and take back what was federation property some where nervous like she was as this was not going to be a mission without some casualties, and this could go pair shaped so easily. Thing about Ichika was she always worked on worst case scenario so what was going through her head right now was worse than could possibly happen.

Tera eyes darted to the Captain as she begun to brief the crews on the mission. ‘’ The Philadelphia is to enter the Parhelia system and deploy a strike team to the Callisto; the team will either recover the ship or scuttle her to prevent a working Slipstream Drive falling into enemy hands." Ichika froze Did these people steal a federation starship just to get the upper hand on there enemies, all she could think of was the crew of the Callisto, Tera may be new to all of this but even she knew the chances that the crew are still alive after all this time….well chances where no in there favour.

The Captain of the Artimis spoke breaking Ichika out of her thoughts, the Captain was going through some of the plan step by step and in a bit of detail, it kind of made sense to the Midshipman but she wasn’t 100 percent confident about it for some reason, when do formulated plans ever work out in reality?. "Phase 2's biggest variable is whether the Callisto has shields online or not. Ideally, with the Callisto being worked on, her shields should be down still, but we need to be prepared for the worst case scenario," Tyra continued before pausing to tap on her PADD, which brought a schematic of the Callisto onto the projector. The shields could be a problem and if we try to put them down we could be detected…then it hit her they could possibly use Nanites to feed on the shields energy, they are hardly detectable and they can be used as a distraction while we recover the ship maybe…Tera sunk down a little her imagination was to wild maybe she will talk to her CSO about her idea after the meeting.

Then she continued talking about what her crew and what there assignments where, she had hopped Captain Braggins had something for the Phillies crew to do also, it might not be as exciting or dangerous, but she felt this crew wanted to help also.

Now’s not the time to daydream, but the Cardies crossed the line when they stole our property and hurt members of the federation, she hoped that the Cardassian Union would answer for this crime at least.

It was also true what Captain Crawford had said, the Phillys crew was smaller, but they had a fire behind them that could make hades blush. What concerned the Captain made sense though we need to keep calm and be logical any mistakes could mean we give the Cardies more federation technology and that was a big no.

Ichika continued to listen to the conversation maybe she could come up with some ideas to help somehow.

[Maggie Murphy]

==Ok, this moved really fast, and I was slow to post, so sorry about this being a long-ass catch-up post!==


It seemed as soon as she started looking for him, a man clad in red Tactical appeared. “I'm Lieutenant Junior Grade Miles Grant.” The man said, giving a nod that one gave another when recognizing a like-minded officer. “Acting Chief Tactical Officer of the Artemis. Commander Murphy, I presume?”

“Yessir!” Maggie replied, grinning. “Nice to meet ya, Miles.” Unfortunately, there was little time to chit-chat, as the crew of both ships crammed into the Philly’s conference room, waiting with chests sucked in for the joint briefing.

“Welcome to Operation Ursa Major.” Braggins said, oblivious or ignoring the raised eyebrow that was Maggie’s response. But an image came up of the USS Callisto, destroyed in 2401, and Maggie paid rapt attention.

While Mags tried to remember what Benamite was (she just remembered it was rare), it was made clear that it had to do with the Slipstream Drive, an engine type that was far beyond Maggie’s understanding. As Tactical, sometimes you just accept that the Engineer definition of something was “it makes us go fast.”

The Callisto was back. Or really, the ship had presumably been restored by other forces, and was now looking as if it was going to pose as a friendly, and then enter the Federation ala Trojan Horse style. There was a Cardassian in the room, from the Artemis, and though Maggie wasn’t one to question loyalties, she made a pointed effort to not look at the Engineer.

“The overall objective of Ursa Major is to get the Cardassians out of Parhelia, and secure the Benamite for ourselves.”

The Chief Tactical Officer (of the Philadelphia) took a big breath from her nose. That by itself was a big ask, and Braggins wasn’t done.

“That part is being left to a task force being assembled in the Maxia system. Our objective is the Callisto herself; the Philadelphia is to enter the Parhelia system and deploy a strike team to the Callisto; the team will either recover the ship, or scuttle her to prevent a working Slipstream Drive falling into enemy hands.”

Rescue or burn, Maggie thought, envisioning it now.

“Captain Crawford will now brief the strike team's part of the mission.”

Oh, so the Strike Team’s in the room? I wasn’t sure if there was yet another ship that was gonna have its crew crammed into this room. There was only a hint of sarcasm in that thought.

“With Captain Braggins' permission, the team will utilize the Philly's Waverider for phase 1.  Lieutenant Commander Elias will be in charge of making some adjustments….

“Phase 2's biggest variable is whether the Callisto has shields online or not. Ideally, with the Callisto being worked on, her shields should be down……”

Maggie started to get the distinct feeling that Crawford was talking to her own people. Maybe she was imagining it, but the woman seemed to be looking only at Artemis crew, which was fine, that was her crew, but if anyone from the Philadelphia were to be on the team, wouldn’t she be talking to them, too? You’re imagining things. Maggie told herself.

“If recovery is infeasible or the cost becomes too great, the Callisto will be scuttled. Ideally, the Waverider will be the egress option for the team but that will be a dynamic decision made when needed. The goal is removing Callisto from Cardassian hands and we will do that, one way or another."

But nope, the Strike Team was all Artemis. That was fine with Maggie; she wasn’t sure the Philly had the people to spare. They had 80. Artemis had 600. Jensen seemed to have an issue though, and spoke up to Crawford, making note of the Artemis taking the lion’s share -or should she say the Ursa Major’s share- of the mission.

Then the Philly’s Security Chief took that opportunity to speak up as well, informing Crawford that her own sister had been on the ship, though she herself did not know the details. She had a conspiracy about the Ferengi, probably because the incident had taken place near the Ferengi border. The COS also clearly wanted a cut of the Strike Force’s pie.

The Philadelphia crew was starting to catch a case of FOMO - “Fear Of Missing Out.”

Jensen shut down Kurasa’s musings about the Ferengi, and Crawford agreed that talking about the Ferengi was a waste of time. She also mentioned the numbers game, and Maggie furrowed her brow. 500? Wasn’t it 800? She’d have to check her sources again. Maybe the Artemis was a maximum complement of 800, and typical was 500. Either way, it was like comparing a Great Dane to a Robo Hamster.

Their brand new Chief Medical Officer brought up the Benamite, which Maggie found respectable, and tried her best to follow along. He lost her quickly, however, and though her eyes glazed over slightly, what stuck in her mind was the quick life the Benamite seemed to have. They could use that to their advantage, if that moment should come.

Maggie looked across the table at her counterpart, and tried to catch his eye. She wondered if he found this more daunting than she did, considering it would be his ship to take the lead.


==Soft tag to Grant, I suppose==

[Teresa Black]

The second half of the briefing detailed which officers would be deployed along with how.

It still didn't however answer any specific questions that Maz had thought of while she listened to either half. For a moment, she thought there might be a formal Q&A, opening the floor to questions, to clarify details. But the Commander quickly spoke as soon as Captain Crawford finished speaking.

Then Kurasa began. Maz sat back as best she could on the stool listening to the to and fro, and watching the faces of the Artemis crew as their names were said, and the discourse between the senior officers went on.

To a degree, it was what she pretty much expected. Something that she didn't expect was the Caitian in the medical uniform to begin talking about geology.

Maybe he should have been made science officer? She thought briefly before she decided that the brief lull that had appeared in the conversations might be a good tie to ask her questions.

“Um, excuse me. Captains. I have a bit of a question for you.” She said trying to think of the best way to ask it. “Lieutenant Black” she added for clarification for Crawford. “You both said that the Callisto was believed lost with all hands. Yet the ship has emerged seemingly intact. What are the odds, that the crew survived also? And if so, what happened to them?”

Would the Cardassians have held over 300 Federation citizens captive? For two years? Is there another part of the Task Force mentioned earlier that was detailed with extracting them if they too were in system? There were so many other questions popping up now in her thoughts that if she voiced them all, it could go on for some time.

[Lucy Devereaux]

<< Transporter Room 2 <<

It really was an officer’s lounge. Lucy looked around the room and tried to find a spot she could settle into. The Captain, Cera and R’Kaar and several others had found their seats. It could only have accommodated a little over twelve officers comfortably. This was snug. There was a roughly Lucy shaped gap near the door she was able to claim without impeding any additional arrivals. There were almost a dozen conversations going on and over Lucy’s head metaphorically. Cera and Ben seemed to be having a serious conversation. It didn’t look pretty.

Captain Braggins started the briefing. It was certainly informative. There was a lot of it. The unfortunate side effect of what she was hearing was that Lucy was having to suppress a lot of frustrated swearing. Especially after what the Artemis had been through. Between Utopia Planitia and the Captain’s kidnapping there appeared to be a picture forming, kinda. The Breen had been after the plans to the slipstream, but why take the Calisto and what purpose was served in attempting to kidnap Tyra Crawford. Pissing her off further didn’t seem like a valid excuse.

The Calisto had been with the Artemis going into the Delta Quadrant, but returned before them. Maybe Starfleet hadn’t realised that other folk would want the slipstream technology for themselves. Lucy wondered if there was something particular about Benamite. It had to be in one of her books, if it wasn’t already classified. Captain Braggins handed over to Captain Crawford for the other half of the briefing.

Ursa Major pain in my ass. This ain’t pretty and we’re on clean up?!

The Captain laid out the bones of the plan. The Artemis crew were taking the Bridge and Engineering in two teams. Lucy was surprised that the Captain was happy enough to have her on a mission of this magnitude. Possibly the only mitigating factor was the presence of Damian and Aeryn on Strike Team Bravo. There was a lot of input after she’d finished. Lucy had a couple of thoughts spinning her hamster wheel. She hoped her line of thought wouldn’t make the Captain change her mind about letting her take part in reclaiming the Calisto.

“Captain, are we doing this in uniform or civilian clothes? If we a trying to remain incognito throughout this would it make sense for the senior officers on the teams to be equipped with something spicier than phasers, but only in accordance with weapon clearance? Not sure it’d help us if we encounter whoever’s guarding the Calisto and give them the impression that here’s Starfleet back to reclaim their ship.”

Putting thought into words was a pain and making them the right words was worse. All Lucy could now was doubt the coherence of her words. Pirates and thieves rarely bothered with a uniform. The trick would be convincing the Cardassian’s that somebody other than Starfleet was after the Calisto. The bit Lucy didn’t like was taking the Parhelia system back from the Cardassians. The easiest option was to explosively disassemble the Calisto so that the slipstream drive couldn’t be acquired.

Why was the slipstream project still active? The Artemis and the Calisto had proved how effective and dangerous it was. It the only days the powers that be would have pitched a fit if somebody had mislaid a nuke or two. It had taken the Crusader discovering a very specifically shaped dot to make Starfleet realise that the Calisto wasn’t destroyed as thought.

Lucy hoped they were leaving the Artemis somewhere out of the Cardassian’s reach. It was a tougher target, but it wouldn’t do to advertise that she would be operating on skeleton crew for a brief period of time. Best result would be take the Calisto and clear the system. That would be a lot of bodies. She was happy enough with a type-2, but there were times that you really needed a disruptor or three.

== tag ==

[Mara Calleja]

"Yeah, I get that feeling too, and we're probably not the only ones who want this over quickly. That being said, I can only imagine what the reason is for us all to be brought together like this."

Aeryn’s words didn’t do much to settle Mara down and the Bandaran grunted in acknowledgment before folding her arms and leaning back in the chair.

The big reveal of the mission and the plan they were having to follow pretty much erased any lingering vestiges of faith that Mara had in the tactical and strategic thinking at Star Fleet Command. Throwing two ships at a Cardassian facility, and the Philadelphia being the one that would face any engagements from hostile vessels, made no sense to her. And sending Artemis and Philadelphia, and not two vessels with actual special ops experience or crews, was even more crazy.

But we’re goin’ ahead anyway. ‘Cause of course we are, she thought. Her mood was darkening rapidly, and it was black by the time the Philadelphia officers spoke.

If they’re so f*ckin’ desperate to get on this mission with us, let them. This is a glorious opportunity to waste our lives. More the f*ckin’ merrier.

Calleja sighed and straightened up. She knew she couldn’t let herself think like she was. She needed to engage with the process, and do her best to get as many people home as possible in as few bits as possible. But something was nagging at her, and she waited until Captain Crawford had negotiated the latest round of questions from Philadelphia officers and Deveraux before speaking up herself.

“Cap’n,” Mara said, her voice easily carrying. “Are there as yet undisclosed secondary objectives that we need to achieve?” she asked. “‘Cause otherwise I’m strugglin’ to understand the team compositions here. Both teams are to hold areas at all costs, but we’re only takin’ 2 Security officers and we’re split. I mean no disrespect to anyone, but why so many non-combatants? We need more Security present. This is incredibly dangerous for the Medical officers and Engineers, and they’re not trained for it.”

And just in case she hadn’t made enough enemies in the room already, she wasn’t finished.

“And with the greatest of respect Cap’n, you should be absolutely nowhere near this boardin’ party and you know it,” Calleja said, meeting Crawford’s gaze and holding it without flinching. “The Cardassians put a hell of a lot of resources into abductin’ you before. They are targetin’ you. They know your face and the moment you show up on Callisto, your presence will put the rest of the team in increased danger ‘cause they’re gonna come for you again. Is there a reason you have to be there? I will do everythin’ in my power to keep you clean. But there’s only 1 of me, and the risk of exposin’ you is way too high for me to be remotely comfortable with it.”

Mara didn’t expect Tyra to recuse herself at all. Quite the opposite - she was expecting the renowned CO to double down. But at the least she was hoping to convince the Captain to bring some more Security reinforcements. The pair of Tactical officers had Security training and both Crawford and Coleman were Security officers originally. All the same, that made them part-time combatants at best. Given what the strike teams were being asked to do, Mara wanted as many fully trained Security officers as possible around, to keep her crewmates safe and do as much damage as possible to any Cardassian attackers.

I tried. If she dismisses me, that’s her right. But I tried. Any Cardie tryin’ to get to her has to get through me first and I wish them the best of luck with that. All the same. She shouldn’t be going and if she wasn’t Tyra Crawford, this wouldn’t even be a conversation.

== Just to be clear, these are Mara’s thoughts, not mine. Her views are not my own.  ==

[Benjamin Elias]

Benjamin listened a bit more intently as Tyra spoke than he had with Jenny. Again, there were some things he knew – like the part about taking Philadelphia’s Waverider for the insertion – due to his earlier discussion with the captain. Other parts, he hadn’t been entirely clear on.
 
"The strike team will be split into two groups, Alpha and Bravo,” Tyra said. “Alpha will be tasked with taking the bridge and holding regardless of what happens. Bravo will be tasked with taking engineering and holding it. If one of the teams can quickly gain control of environmental controls , the usage of modified neurozene will likely become advantageous for subduing incoming forces. If not, let's hope we have better luck than the Alamo."
 
He considered that for a moment but let it be. Environmental controls would be fairly easy to secure from either location, but the fact they wanted to use modified gas could be a problem, as it might mean bringing it over themselves. He trusted the Captain to have that in hand, however.
 
"If recovery is infeasible,” she continued, “or the cost becomes too great, the Callisto will be scuttled. Ideally, the Waverider will be the egress option for the team but that will be a dynamic decision made when needed. The goal is removing Callisto from Cardassian hands and we will do that, one way or another."
 
Or, to put it another way, this becomes a one-way mission. He’d been around enough to understand the statement hidden between the lines. He stole a glance at Cera, and wondered just how much he might wind up regretting putting off their reconciliation, even if it was realistically the only option. Of course, if the op went south and they didn’t come home, he wouldn’t actually regret that choice for very long.
 
He continued to listen as she divvied up the teams, and was pleasantly surprised that he and Coleman would be working together. He hadn’t worked with him much since he came aboard, but they had worked well together. His only questions came from Devereaux and D’Mar; the former due to her actions at Utopia Planitia, and the latter simply due to how new she was. He simply hoped he’d made the right call in bringing the young ensign along.
 
“Elias, make sure we've got what we need to put her down if needed.” He nodded and made a note, though it was generally much easier to take out a starship than one would think. However, a double handful of demo charges never hurt. He also noted the request to change to black jumpsuits for the mission, the better for deniability.
 
He listened then as a few questions were asked, including about the team makeup. Some of those Tyra addressed straight away, particularly about the reason she had only used Artemis crew, rather than a mixed group. He agreed wholeheartedly with this, as he could predict how his crew would do – well, most of his crew. He simply hadn’t worked with the Philadelphia crew enough to feel the same.
 
However, he felt the need to speak up on one of the questions. “If I may, Captain?” he said, and stood up. “Lieutenant… I’m sorry, I don’t know your name,” he said. He pressed a control on his padd and stole a quick glance down at the list of Philadelphia senior officers, and got lucky. “Lieutenant Ragarrii. The synthetic Benamite wasn’t really considered for this because first, if we fail we don’t want the Cardassians to get it and consider making their own. It’s bad enough they’re trying to steal the drive, but if they manage to crack that as well it would be even more of a disaster. For another, I did take a look at the research progress before we came to this briefing, and it still hasn’t been fully tested in a starship yet. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I don’t particular relish the thought of attempting that while in a combat situation. A good thought, but we’ll have to save it for another time.” When we’re not all likely to die just from the mission itself, he added to himself, much less from untried and untested science.
 
He nodded at Tyra and sat back down, letting her handle the other issues. He wasn’t exactly qualified to speak to potential prisoners, after all, or even questions about their weapons and armaments. He did, however, make a note to break out some of his display pieces. He’d worked on several different firearms and bladed weapons; he hadn’t really intended them for combat, but they were all up to that standard anyway because he’d never been one to do something halfway.
 
Mara started talking, and Benjamin had to look up and watch her to understand her through her accent. As he did, though, he almost lowered his head in embarrassment. While the team composition was odd, he could understand some of the reasoning behind it. Having people from each department ensured that they were covered on most angles, and besides, there wasn’t a person on Artemis who wasn’t combat qualified, at least beyond their newest members.
 
As she finished, Benjamin grabbed his metaphorical hat and held it for dear life. He had known that Cera was angry; he anticipated that the fireworks from Tyra would make her roaring fire of anger look like a tea candle.
 
==Everyone… duck!==

[Eun Ju Han]

==Mini-novel incoming==

More and more people entered the lounge, Ju was glad she had been able to snag a seat before it got too crazy. Though there seemed to be enough seating, or almost enough, for everyone, it was about to get warm and uncomfortable. I wonder if we could cause a temperature control malfunction in here due to all the body heat in one location, Ju wondered for a moment as her dark eyes shifted around the room to all the people squeezing past others. There was a steady hum of conversation, people cross-ship who knew each other and were greeting each other, there was a cacophony of ‘excuse me’ and ‘pardon me’ as people worked their way to find a place to sit or stand in some cases. Ju didn’t know enough of the ship to really put together how segregated the two sides of the lounge were, but, she assumed where she was could be considered Philly territory. Now it feels like the Westside story..

The Captain threw the viewports into opaque mode and began to get everyone’s attention. For someone of small stature, the Captain had a presence easily twice as large as her physical visage. Ju found herself focusing on the woman as she began to talk about the mission at hand and just what they were in for. Ju hoped they would actually get to work with some of the crew members from the Artemis, so far she had met Damian and Cera, but Cera to a much lesser extent. Both had seemed nice and it would be nice to see them in action. She also had no experience with people from her own ship, as this was her first mission the rookie was curious how everything would flow considering how complicated the mission seemed.

I wonder if they’re all like this..

The image of the USS Calisto and the date of destruction colored the room after the lights had dimmed. The Captain filled them in on some backstory of how the Calisto was lost and what exactly had happened to it by accounts. Problem was that the Calisto had been equipped with a Slipstream drive. That got Ju’s attention and her spine erected slightly as she watched the whole presentation with more interest than before. She ships image was replaced with a grainy picture of the planet that had been fortified by the Cardassians in an effort to protect their research and their ventures. However, as the Captain zoomed in on the grainy picture something stood out.

Leaning forward on her stool slightly she found herself looking at the familiar outline of the Calisto. But wai-, she thought for a moment. Braggins began to talk about how the Calisto was not only not destroyed but that they had fixed it up and they could very well be planning to use the slipstream. I bet they are, the Cardassians are far from stupid and that kind of technology could give them a real leg up against all other enemies.

The Captain began to lay out the plan for the mission. The Philly would put together a strike team with the sole responsibility to nix out the Slipstream or make sure the ship would never be in commission again. They had the option to recover the ship but, she doubted that would be done easily or that it was the top choice in this situation. It was going to be hard enough playing around in Cardassian territory much less trying to play ship-rescue.

That was when the Captain of the Artemis stood up and began addressing the group much like Braggins had but with a completely different energy. She laid it out straight, but there was a distinct difference between the two briefs. The strike team would have three phases; insertion, infiltration and recovery. At least, they hoped that that last one. She began to give out more details of how the infiltration would go. How they would be using the Waverider at a lesser capacity to avoid discovery for as long as possible.

We’re space ninjas, or .. I guess the infiltration team will be.

The schematic for the ship came up on the screen causing Ju’s eyes to glance at the screen rather than Crawford. Her eyes eating up as much information about the layout and possible defenses that the ship would have if it was running. She listened to more of the briefing eager to get as much information as she could. This was the kind of mission that kids dreamed about when they were young Starfleet wannabes Now, she was here, knowing she would probably stay back with the Philly but proud to be some part of this mission in any way. Crawford began to read off names of the strike team, her name was not among them, and that was okay. She didn’t expect to be out there first mission; she knew she still had to prove herself.

Then the fireworks began.

Someone she didn’t know spoke up, then someone else agreed, but took it further. Ju was half Betazoid and had been trained to keep her empathy to herself at a young age and so for the most part ignored all those kinds of things. However, you didn’t need empathy to read the room the moment that all the words hit Captain Crawford at once. She shut them down with quick information and facts that you couldn’t really rebuke. Ju wasn’t upset she hadn’t been assigned, again, she was only happy to get to be part of the mission in whatever capacity and as the Captain explained it made more sense to pull from the Artemis.

[Jennifer Braggins]

With the amount of people in the room, the years of experience, and the disparate species and personalities, Jenny should have expected ego to start to strike. She hadn't expected it to come so soon, nor from members of her own crew which, while skilled in their own ways, lacked the seniority and experience of the Artemis crew. More worrying was that the first embarrassment came from her own First Officer, who seemed to be having a case of FOMO in not being included. Kurasa joining in was to be expected, if she couldn't deal with not being on the Bridge it was hardly surprising she'd be unable to deal with not being at the front of the action. Name-dropping her "sister", the clone from the Dominion facility that for some reason had been allowed to live and serve within Starfleet, did nothing for her cause. Without the ability to get a drink, at least until the meeting was over, Jenny resorted to simply standing by the viewport, adjusting the controls so she could just barely see through, and watching the stars fly past while she smoked under the extraction vent.

It was all she could do to refrain from putting a hand over her face and shaking her head.

Woman wouldn't be happy unless she was on a one-woman scout vessel where she could do everything.

She listened to the meeting progressing behind her, keeping her own counsel until her expertise was needed. There was more back-and-forth as the briefing began to wind down into the Question and Answer section; with some confusion among the junior members of the Artemis crew about what they were doing, and why. It was Black who raised a great point about the possibility of encountering survivors; it was a very real possibility that at least some members of the Callisto crew had survived the Parhelia fiasco, but there had been nothing in the plan provided by Starfleet Command regarding that specific contingency.

"Starfleet Intelligence has not confirmed the presence, or even the existence, of any survivors from the Callisto. The orders from Starfleet Command were written on the basis that there were none. If we come across any, it's our moral duty to bring them home."

Content to return to being a fly on the wall and only chiming in when her expertise was required, Jenny prepared to turn around again when one of the Artemis' Security Officers chimed in; she seemed very sure of herself, and completely unsure of the composition of her team. It had always been Jenny's experience that the words "I mean no disrespect, but" were often followed by some very disrespectful statements. 

Eyes narrowing, Jenny turned her attention on the young woman. Calleja, the gutter-rat from Bandar. She was a recent addition to the Artemis crew, having come aboard at around the same time as Jenny's departure, so it stood to reason that she was probably basing her opinions on outdated, not to mention faulty and inaccurate, information. Exhaling a cloud of smoke through her nostrils that was immediately sucked up by the vents above her head.

"Captain Crawford is leading the mission because she was ordered to, Lieutenant; she has the required skills and experience in dissimilar combat tactics, boarding operations, and starship command to pull this mission off. While a SEJO Team might be better equipped in a firefight, they're not the most delicate of people and most Operators don't know squat about starship operations; remember this is a recovery mission first and foremost."

She didn't need to mention that Tyra had been inducted into SEJO's predecessor, SFSOCOM, when she had assumed command of a Combat Search and Rescue Team in the Sol Sector eleven years ago; she hadn't actively served with a unit since then, but once you were in you never really got out. She also didn't feel it necessary to point out that Tyra was Starfleet's most decorated Captain since Kirk, and a woman who had battled literally every major antagonistic power from three Quadrants, and won.

"It makes sense politically, too. If this goes south, and the teams are captured or killed, the politicians can write the whole thing off as the actions of a rogue CO and her crew of misfits, out for revenge against legitimate Cardassian interests due to emotional fatigue from their experiences on the Brittany."

Glancing up at Tyra, a small smile crept into the corners of her lips. Jenny might not be her First Officer any more, but she was family, and in situations like this she was always going to have her back.

"When it hits the fan, because we all know it probably will, you're going to count yourself lucky to have her watching your back."

[Tyra Crawford]

Jensen seemed satisfied with her answering, providing a little nod, and Kurasa, whether out of understanding or rebuke, said nothing further either. Ultimately, it was a relief as Tyra didn't particular want to waste time on a measuring contest.

Mayfair was up next, asking a reasonable question while also highlighting something that Tyra hadn't expressly addressed but had hoped people would pick up on. The lack of infinite space.

"Captain Crawford, Bravo doesn't have a medic. With your permission I'd like to assign Dr. Östberg. He's served with the SEJO and has extensive field experience."

The redhead looked at the doctor for a moment before her gaze briefly shifted to the midshipman next to her. It took less than a second to decide this wasn't a discussion for the whole room, not when it would involve the capabilities of one of her officers.

"Let's discuss that to the side after the briefing, alright?" She answered, arching her eyebrow slightly for emphasis. It wasn't really a request after all.

Then, Ragarri spoke up, though he sounded more like a scientist than a doctor as he began to describe yet another family connection to Callisto that led to the description of a classified project to create synthetic benamite. To be honest, he came damn close to losing her altogether, though she was able to understand most of what he was saying. Fortunately, Elias swooped in to answer, coming to his feet, as he explained the issues with it. Even if the research had been tested and found sound, Tyra didn't think they had to travel time to complete the synthesis anyway.

"Thank you," she said with a nod to Elias before turning her gaze to Ragarri. "I have to agree with Elias. If we fail, it's bad enough that the Cardassians will have the drive. We don't need to give them the fuel for their new toy too."

Next, the Lieutenant Black asked about the possibility of survivors and how they would be handled. Honestly, Tyra didn't have an instant answer; there were already too many variables to plan for and that was just one more. However, what Tyra could promise was that she wouldn't leave people behind; if it became between saving the Callisto or scuttling her but saving captives, she didn't think there would be a second of hesitation on that decision.

Jenny beat her to the punch though, offering her first answer of the meeting. "Starfleet Intelligence has not confirmed the presence, or even the existence, of any survivors from the Callisto. The orders from Starfleet Command were written on the basis that there were none. If we come across any, it's our moral duty to bring them home."

Tyra nodded. "We won't leave people behind if we find them," she said in agreement.

Next, was her own problem child in science, though at least she had kept her arms to herself for this meeting. “Captain, are we doing this in uniform or civilian clothes? If we a trying to remain incognito throughout this would it make sense for the senior officers on the teams to be equipped with something spicier than phasers, but only in accordance with weapon clearance? Not sure it’d help us if we encounter whoever’s guarding the Calisto and give them the impression that here’s Starfleet back to reclaim their ship.”

There was the tiniest of sighs released as the first question was one she had addressed, though clearly not well enough. "We will be in black jumpsuits. As for weapons, as much as I'm sure everyone would love to play out their pirate fantasies, we need to use the tools we train with. It isnt out of the realm of possibility that a rogue Fleet element is still using their Fleet equipment and that's what we'll be going with," she answered, her tone tinged with a strained layer of patience.

If only she'd known that Lucy's question was mild and unirritating compared to what was going to come out of the mouth of one of her own security officers.

Cap’n,” Mara said, her voice easily carrying. “Are there as yet undisclosed secondary objectives that we need to achieve?” she asked. “‘Cause otherwise I’m strugglin’ to understand the team compositions here. Both teams are to hold areas at all costs, but we’re only takin’ 2 Security officers and we’re split. I mean no disrespect to anyone, but why so many non-combatants? We need more Security present. This is incredibly dangerous for the Medical officers and Engineers, and they’re not trained for it.”

Tyra's head tilted slightly as Mara talked, though for once it wasn't because she was struggling to understand the security officer. Instead, she was wondering what about commandeering and then, flying a ship out of an enemy station didn't qualify as a secondary objective needing a variety of personnel, like say engineers and pilots. And she was wondering where exactly Calleja got her high and mighty ideas regarding the inabilities of so called non-combatants. Yes, some ships babied their non-security officers but Artemis had never had that luxury. Tyra has surivived the unexpected appearance of the Borg with "non-combatants", had stood toe to toe with the Kazon with "non-combatants" and had manhunted a Breen through Utopia with those same allegedly helpless officers. And those were just the recent examples.

Tyra's mouth opened to defend the capabilities of her other officers but unfortunately, Calleja was not done digging her hole.

“And with the greatest of respect Cap’n, you should be absolutely nowhere near this boardin’ party and you know it,” Calleja said, meeting Crawford’s gaze and holding it without flinching. “The Cardassians put a hell of a lot of resources into abductin’ you before. They are targetin’ you. They know your face and the moment you show up on Callisto, your presence will put the rest of the team in increased danger ‘cause they’re gonna come for you again. Is there a reason you have to be there? I will do everythin’ in my power to keep you clean. But there’s only 1 of me, and the risk of exposin’ you is way too high for me to be remotely comfortable with it.”

Rationally, Tyra knew that she would have felt the same as Calleja in her shoes but she also knew she would have had the respect and common sense not to have that fight in front of two different crews. Derrick would have probably stunned her just for the disrespect and based on the fact that she could hear blood pounding in her ears, she understood the desire immensely. What she absolutely hated was the implication that she should go cower somewhere like a coward because someone didn't like her and the idea that she should send people to their deaths for a mission that was assigned to them because of her experience and expertise. Experience and expertise that it seemed like Calleja felt she needed to justify but then again, Calleja seemed to hold contempt for anyone not in the security uniform as if the uniform was an armor that gave them an advantage over all else. Even if Calleja didn't have her blood boiling over her comments directed at her, Tyra thought it likely would have boiled on behalf of her crewmates.

[I]Was I that damn arrogant when I wore that uniform? Protective? Yes but not arrogant. But this superiority complex on display needs to go before I beat her with it.[\i]

Fortunately, she and Jenny had served together for years, long before Jenny ever put on the crimson, Tyra took a fourth pip or they became literal fanily. While Tyra had become proficient at keeping Jenny from breaking small delicate bones often located in fingers and hands, Jenny had become proficient at keeping Tyra from verbally eviscerating officers, at least fatally. And it seemed that her promotion to the center chair herself hadn't taken Jenny's ability to foresee that attack coming, a skill Coleman was still working on.

This time, Jenny saved her from having to justify her experience and existence in the role and she gave Tyra enough time to unclench her jaw, lower her laser glare to more of a smolder and consider whether bringing Calleja at all was a good idea. And for that, she was eternally grateful, giving Jenny the tiniest of smiles and a mouthed "thanks" both for the save and the touching defense.

After a moment of silence following Jenny, the redhead cleared her throat and looked at Calleja with a look that suggested she was in a deep hole but that the hole wasn't going to be filled in with an audience present.

"We'll have a little chat after this briefing is over but to the first part of your concern, this isn't a traditional siege and hold. If it was, we'd be stacking up two small units of just security officers, believe me, but we're stealing a freaking starship. And as a former security officer, I will be the first to call us knuckle draggers incapable of running a ship on our own. We'd likely blow it up before we got out of dock. We need engineers to unscrew whatever mess the Cardies have made. We need tactical to fly and likely shoot our way out. We need medical to keep us alive long enough to do all of those things."

Tyra looked down at her PADD now. "The Waverider doesn't have infinite space, comfortably housing 8, which we are already exceeding without considering equipment. We also need to be able to move stealthily, which becomes difficult with larger numbers. Hence the team composition so we can still run the Callisto like a ship. Not to mention, if we do find prisoners, we'll need even more space if an escape and scuttle is necessary."

Now, the redhead looked up again, blue eyes boring into Calleja as she spoke. Her tone had a bit of an edge to it as she spoke, her eyebrow arching occasionally for emphasis. "I get you're big, bad and tough; you train for this shit. But just because they don't wear a security uniform doesn't mean they're not capable in a fight. You haven't been here long enough to see it but I have. I would happily trust my back to those so called non-combatants. I have before, I will again and I'd suggest you find a way to as well. Otherwise, I'd suggest you tag out with a more open minded security officer," Tyra motioned to the door on that last word, her expression seemingly a challenge.

[Lucy Devereaux]

Lucy was starting to wonder how naive she was. She hadn’t considered the existence of a rogue fleet. There had been the Maquis, but they didn’t bother with uniforms. They also used more than standard phasers, but she wasn’t going to argue that point. The Captain did have a point about playing out a pirate fantasy. Lucy really wanted to feel like a badass. Strike Team Bravo had enough between Damian and Aeryn, so she was adding an unnecessary component.

Damian and Aeryn were effectively the muscle. Ben and Jay covered the engineering requirements. Lucy was somewhere in between, not quite enough to be one or the other, but could help if needed. It’d certainly broaden her experience and add a few skills, long as she put in the effort.

The Waverider was going to be a squeeze. She’d have to pack as light as she could. A type-2 phaser, working scientific tricorder and a basic engineering toolkit were on her wish list. She wasn’t sure if she could trust that the Cardassians and others hadn’t raided the Calisto for anything that didn’t affect the running of the vessel. Also maybe a PADD with a guide of Cardassian language and alphabet. Lucy didn’t want a repeat of that part of Utopia Planitia, and she didn’t know if they could rely on Jay for translation duties.

The temperature in the room sank as Mara aired her concerns.

Oh ****!

There was no doubt that the Captain could hold her own in a fight and Lucy has agitated her already. It was a fine thing to have concern about the Captain’s safety. Airing them in a cross-ship briefing. The objectives of the mission had at least been stated clearly, aside from using the two crews as scapegoats if things didn’t end with the possession or the destruction of Calisto Starfleet didn’t have any additional ulterior goals.

Lucy felt sorry for Mara. She’d been on the Captain’s half of the Away Team on Utopia Planitia and even with the attempted abduction of the Captain she had more reason to be confident that Tyra didn’t need any hand holding. The Captain had been serving for longer than any of them. It was a risky mission, but…

Awkkkwaarrrdd.

[Robin Mayfair]

"Let's discuss that to the side after the briefing, alright?"

Robin nodded, but her thoughts weren't really on the Captain's expected response, nor was on the simmering argument between Tyra and Mara. Her mind was spinning as she thought over something the Captain said... 'If we fail, the name of the game will be plausible deniability and that will make it slightly easier to say we just went off the rails.'

Will they try and really pretend that we went rogue, that this was the command crew of the Artemis acting on its own? No one is gonna buy that, least of all the Cardassians. They're paranoid, and they're most certainly not stupid. And I doubt most of the Federation population would buy that the crew of the Artemis, of all ships, went out of control.

The young Augment was growing coldly angry, the frayed nerves in the room not helping. She tried to control it but the feelings remained.

Not only are we cleaning up Star Fleet's mess, if we fail they might very well sell us out to try and smooth things over. This is NOT what I signed up for. If Star Fleet Command can't have the courage to stand up for us when we're following their orders, risking our lives, what do they even stand for at all? The Cardies have already attacked our ship, and it's not the first time. Trying to smooth things over with them is pointless, because they're just going to keep poking the bear until they start a war they can't win.

She struggled to regain her center as Tyra glared at Mara. That certainly wasn't helping. She thought about the young Midshipman she had dragged into this mess. Should she order Emily back to the Artemis, replace her with someone more experienced? It didn't solve the problem, and regardless Bravo needed a medic.

If someone went giving first aid meant two people would be out of the fight. The team might be stuck in the horrible position of having to leave someone behind to the tender mercies of the Cardassians. Mara was right, in the nurse's opinion. She appreciated Tyra's faith in her and the rest of the staff, but this mission would no doubt go south, much like every other one had. Having teams of people who had little to no real combat training or experience having to hold a position was a bad place to be in.

They had 11 people. They needed to find room for someone else.

== Tags ==

[Mara Calleja]

The first sign that Mara had got her tone wrong was when Tyra glared absolute murder across the room. And it caused the first flicker of doubt to bloom in the Security officer’s hard head.

I’ve misread the room and aimed this all wrong she thought. For f*ck’s sake, not again. I thought I was gettin’ better at that. But no. I let everythin’ get to me and now I’ve blown it.

Mara had her strengths - right now, nobody in the room was going to be considering those - but she was painfully inexperienced when it came to dealing with situations such as this one. A lot of her attitudes came from having been a front-line officer and she was adjusting to her new title (having held it for around 30 minutes at this point) and the exposure to Captains and Commanders and staff briefings that came with it. Although judging by the reactions, it would be some time before she’d be allowed anywhere near another briefing without being given a script and some kind of shock collar in case she tried to freestyle it.

Any point I might have had is about to disappear ‘cause my CO thinks I’ve just called her incompetent. And I didn’t. At no point did I say she can’t do the job. I didn’t say she can’t fight. I said we need more Security, and we do. I said she’s at much higher risk personally, and she is. I said her presence increases the risk to the rest of the team, and it does. Nobody bothered about any of that though ‘cause I got all the grace and tact of a Romulan in a Klingon temple.

I f*ckin’ hate this sh*t. Let me at the f*ckin’ Cardassians right now ‘cause violence is a language I can speak clearly.

The consequences of Calleja’s fumbled intervention rang out as Captain Braggins intervened, her words part rebuke and part defence that bought Crawford time to rally. When the redhead did speak, her words stung, not just because of what she was saying but why she was saying it.

Mara knew she was supposed to show contrition at this point, defer to the superior officers and show that she had taken the correction. But whilst she knew she’d made a complete mess of how she expressed herself and embarrassed Tyra, she still believed she was right to make the points that she’d made.

What was I supposed to do, wait until everything is settled and then try to unpick it all when we’re on the launchin’ pad? When was I supposed to speak up?

When Crawford glared at Calleja in challenge, the Bandaran held that icy blue stare without flinching, her dark eyes guarded.

“Thank you for the consideration, but I’ll stay,” Mara said carefully. “I look forward to that chat.”

She leant back and finally looked away, her gaze out of the window and into space. It was clear from her manner that she still had plenty to say but she also wasn’t going to actually vocalise any of it.

I’ve done me enough damage.

[Benjamin Elias]

Benjamin sat and listened as first Jenny, and then Tyra responded to the questions and for lack of a better term allegations. They didn't meet that definition, obviously, but he didn't have a more appropriate word to describe them. He'd known that Mara was a firebrand, but this wasn't the time or place for it.

He sighed, and looked across at Ensign D'Mar. He wondered for a moment whether bringing the young ensign with them was the right call. He knew that his CO was concerned about having a Cardassian, even a half-Cardassian, on the mission, and that D'Mar herself was concerned about it. But he had to weigh that against what he knew of the mission: retake Callisto and bring her home, and scuttle her if not. He needed solid engineers for that, and with Ori having left he was short of engineers whom he trusted unequivocally. She had the makings of a good one, however, and he hoped that growing up on Cardassia might help her if they had to get through any equipment that wasn't Starfleet original.

If nothing else, he thought, she can help me get through any Cardassian text. No, he'd made the best decision he could, he felt. With the team as small as it was, he was limited on choices, and felt that this was the one he needed to make.

He lowered his gaze back to the schematics in front of him, and sighed. He still wasn't entirely sure how he was going to fit the necessary equipment on the ship, particularly with so many people crammed into so small a space. The Waverider class was designed for a crew of 8 with all of their associated gear. They were cramming in approximately half again as many people, plus their gear. In addition, he was planning on bringing several spare parts he considered they might need, not to mention explosives with which to scuttle the ship if needed.

If I try and install this thing in the cabin, he pondered, I'm going to have to put it in the bathroom. Which wasn't really an option, both because he knew how bladders tended to get when both a life-or-death mission was imminent and told they couldn't use the clearly-right-there toilet. He kept looking and found a couple of options, none of which were good, but that he knew he'd have to live with. Assuming that I survive the install.

He did perk his ears up when he heard Mara reply, duly chastened. Part of him wanted to be a fly on the wall of the 'chats' that were going to happen after this, but he didn't have the time.  He had too much work to do, too many materials to gather, and too little time to do any of it in.

[Jay D'Mar]

Ens Jay D'Mar sat on a stole in the back row of the crowded officer's lounge trying to be inconspicuous. She listened intently to the mission briefing. As soon as Cardassians were mentioned her stress level rose rapidly. Her first thought was to speak immediately after the briefing to LCdr Elias and ask to be excused from the mission. She could be a liability just because she was a Cardassian and they were going to fight Cardassians. Other members of the team may... no... will mistrust her!

She sat on the stole in the corner squirming on the inside trying not to look at anyone as she thought about why she was chosen for this mission. Yes, she could speak Cardassian, she leaned it at the Aceademy, although she was a little rusty but, her Cardassian was passable and her accent was close to genuine. She had very little experience with Cardassian equipment and tech, as she did her engineering degree in Bajor, and the Academy concentrated on Star Fleet. She had some minor experience with Cardassian tech on DS 9, it was old tech, but that was very minor considering the things the team may... hmm... would encounter. 

The worst of this same road of thought in her mind as the briefing continued was: -

If I'm captured, I am DEAD! The curse of my life is I look like a Cardassian. The mission was suicide, the brass said so anyway. The Cardassians tried to kill me when I was little and I survived that.

She immediately began to use her mental health strategi. 

I can't change any of this, I'm here now and I will live through this and do my best. Concentrate on the stuff in the sphere of my control. Concentrate on the stuff in the sphere of my control... I have to talk to Cdr Ellias. I could jeopardize this mission.

==Tag. Anyone? ==

[Aeryn Miller]

Robin speaking up caught Aeryn's attention, particularly at the mention of Bravo not having a medic, before her friend asked if she could add another member to the strike team. While she was pretty confident in her field medic abilities, having just refreshed them not so long ago, the security chief hadn't found it odd when Captain Crawford had told them who would be going with whom. Given the nature of the mission and the odds that were piling up about whether they would retrieve Callisto or scuttle it, Aeryn didn't think the decision would have been easy to make when deciding who from the Artemis was going.

Others from the  Philly then added their thoughts, including someone else with a connection to Callisto, who also brought up something about the benamite, before a question was asked about potential survivors. Considering how the ship was taken, Aeryn could understand that there was a possibility that some of the crew had survived, although she shuddered to think about what had been done to them. Then Lucy spoke and for a second Aeryn had to control her expression, as surely the science officer had heard the Captain mention the black jumpsuits. Hoping it wasn't a sign of things to come, Aeryn then refocused on the conversation.

The Artemis COS and her newly minted Assistant didn't always share the same view,  but the moment that Mara spoke up and shared her concerns amongst her questions, Aeryn looked at her, but it was too late. Personal opinions were one thing, and while there had been a valid point in terms of extra security, it was a lesson to be learnt the hard way, as Aeryn had experienced, and how, ultimately, it all came down to trust. What followed seemed like a blur, not to mention the change in atmosphere, as Elias intervened about the benamite before Captain Braggins and Captain Crawford answered the questions raised and Mara's concerns.

It wasn't the best outcome and Aeryn could only imagine what was going through Mara's mind right now, but thankfully, she chose to stay rather than leave. Okay, there was still the matter of having a chat with the Captain, but Aeryn hoped that a cool head would prevail and if there was time beforehand, then she would catch Mara. If not, if not, then there was always after to initiate a conversation of her own.

[Emily Star]

Being new in a room full of people who had history was always a guessing game. Were they always this argumentative when discussing new missions? In mere moments the vibe had changed from one of curiosity, to shock and awe, to a mix of confusion, frustration and annoyance. There wasn't a single person near Emily that was feeling confident and comfortable in the mission. 

Honestly, she couldn't blame them. Even she had her reservations. If things went wrong and she was apart of this, her first mission would be one that Starfleet would deny. 

Slowly her attention shifted to her new CMO. The waves of emotion coming off her were pretty intense. Although she barely knew Robin, Emily wasn't one to allow a fellow crewmember to sit too long in an uncomfortable vibe without at least attempting to help. 

Finding her voice she leaned over and said, "Ma'am." There was a pause as she caught her attention, "You're validly angry, but you also aren't the only one. After this meeting, there's time to iron out everything that doesn't make sense. As for me," Emily gave a reassuring half smile, "I may be new, but I can handle a scuffle." 

==tag==

[Teresa Black]

It was Captain Braggins who was first to reply to her question.

"Starfleet Intelligence has not confirmed the presence, or even the existence, of any survivors from the Callisto. The orders from Starfleet Command were written on the basis that there were none. If we come across any, it's our moral duty to bring them home."

"We won't leave people behind if we find them," Added Crawford nodding her concurrence.

“Thank you.” Said Black with a nod seconds before other members of  the room began their own questions and issues  at the commanding pair. Maz couldn't help but notice it was mostly the crew of the Artemis who seemed to have the most issue.

Instead, she looked down at the PADD she had in her hand that she'd been transferring the briefing data onto, wondering what beyond their primary insertion role was going to be Philadelphia's continuing role in the mission.

Pulling up the data they had on Parhelia. They were going to want to know everything about the system before they entered it. Intelligence she knew could only get so much information from long range scans, and at least Philadelphia had a top of the line sensor suite just waiting to start collecting all new and more importantly, up to date data.''

Glancing back briefly at her only staff member at the back of the room, she began making notes of what information she would have wanted if she was piloting the ship for later, for Ichika to set up the Astrometrics lab when this briefing was all done.

[Robin Mayfair]

Robin sat there, listening but also stewing in her anger.

"Ma'am." Emily leaned over and whispered. "You're validly angry, but you also aren't the only one. After this meeting, there's time to iron out everything that doesn't make sense. As for me," Emily gave a reassuring half smile, "I may be new, but I can handle a scuffle."

How? I wasn't really showing... oh. Half Betazoid, half Vulcan. I must be sending off waves of just how ticked off I am at this situation. Oh, crap, and if she can sense it that means Cera can too.

With effort Robin calmed herself. The Midshipman was right. There would be time to argue about the details later, and she intended to make her displeasure at Star Fleet's behavior known later. Now wasn't the time, and she needed to get a hold of herself. She leaned back to Emily and whispered.

"Thanks. And I'm not worried about you. You'll do fine."

The new Middie seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, and she deserved the chance to prove herself. Robin just hoped her first mission wouldn't be her last.

== Tags ==

[Tyra Crawford]

Tyra's gaze remained on Calleja for a moment longer, taking in the way the other woman gazed out the window like a sulking teenager. She was certain their impending chat was going to be truly a delight, probably so delightful that Tyra would consider taking on the Cardassians singlehandedly if it meant not having to deal with her.

She had to remember, though, that most of the the officers in this room had the luxury of coming up through the ranks during a time of mostly peace. There had been some flare ups, such as the Megasphere, but the cloud of war that Tyra's generation of officers, and even Jenny's, had grown up within just wasn't something these officers had experienced. They didn't know what it was like to be promoted, not because you earned it, but because you were the last man standing. They didn't know what it was like to be sent to certain death only to come back, knowing that the next time might not be as fortuitous, and to know for certain that there would be a next time because there always was one. They didn't know what it was like to live and breath nothing but death, and because of that, they didn't have that desperate need to avoid that at all cost.

Maybe that was why Tyra wasn't as angry as she should have been. It wasn't the first time she'd been asked to brief a team unlikely to survive and this cause was far better than some of the ones in the past. And she understood immensely that if they didn't do this and war did break out, they'd saved themselves nothing because they would be on the front lines. The front lines of a war that, maybe, could have been prevented.

After a moment, Tyra shifted her gaze around the room. There didn't appear to be any more questions and with a glance at Jenny to make sure she had nothing further to add, she gave the tiniest of nods.

"If there are no other questions, I'll draw this briefing to a close. Artemis, you all have thirty minutes to get your gear and yourselves back over here for transport to the system. I expect each department head to inform Lieutenant Commander Morgan who will be acting in their absence and making sure that individual is aware."

"Lieutenant Calleja, take a seat at the table and I will be with you shortly," Tyra added, pointing to the table where her own seat had been. However, she didn't return to her chair and instead, turned towards where the medical officers were clustered.

As she passed Coleman, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "If you'll stick around, I'd appreciate it."

The redhead made a point of moving through the still packed room quickly in hopes of avoiding further distractions or arguments before she cleared her current list. Oh, she had known that she was likely going to get some pushback -- there always was with a mission with such a high failure risk -- but she had hoped her people trusted her enough to believe that she wasn't suggesting this lightly. However, it seemed she'd forgotten that this wasn't the Avenger or even the Gettysburg, these weren't the good ol' days of loyalty and trust built over years.

What I wouldn't give for Claymore or Ramius right now. Or Aldren. Or Az. Or Jack. Or Zephyr. Is it too late to see if Jenny wants another hurrah?

She was rubbing the bridge of her nose when she came to a stop in front of the medical huddle, though her frustration was being tightly contained. The only real sign of it left was that she only managed the weakest of smiles at the Artemis' newest medical officer, even though Tyra was more than capable of the diplomatic fake smile when she wanted to. She just didn't want to right now or maybe, she was conserving energy for the upcoming slug fest.

"Midshipman Starr, I was not expecting to meet you so soon but it's good to see that you're wasting no time getting involved," Tyra said, even though what she really wanted to ask was why Mayfair had brought her along to what had been a sensitive briefing. However, for her own sanity, she needed to pick and choose her battles and this wasn't a battle worth fighting.

Now, she turned her gaze to Mayfair. "I'll cut to the point. I can't give you a third spot on the team; if I'm able to somehow fit another person onto that godforsaken ship, it's going to be a gun totter, not medical."

"There are two options if you are concerned about Bravo's coverage: if you feel Miss Starr is capable of operating on her own in a complex and volatile environment, I can split y'all up. Alternatively, if you feel that Doctor Östberg would be a better replacement for Miss Starr or yourself, then send him. I trust your judgement on who is an optimal choice but I did select you because I feel you can handle it."

Tyra had her suspicions that the events on Utopia likely weighed more heavily on Mayfair than had been outwardly conveyed. After all, she wouldn't be the first member of medical to react poorly after coming face to face with the realities of service in a military organization but Tyra had also found in her dealings with Mayfair that, while Mayfair could be extremely reasoned and logical, she also had a sensitivity to her that contrasted greatly against Tyra's experience with other augments. It was one of the reasons Tyra had trusted the nurse from the beginning but it also likely left the nurse exposed to the emotions that came with the grimmer side of service. And while Tyra hated putting something like this on Robin's shoulders, she also was very confident that she could handle it, more confident than she was about other members of her staff.

[Robin Mayfair]

"I'll cut to the point. I can't give you a third spot on the team; if I'm able to somehow fit another person onto that godforsaken ship, it's going to be a gun totter, not medical."

That doesn't solve the problem.

"There are two options if you are concerned about Bravo's coverage: if you feel Miss Starr is capable of operating on her own in a complex and volatile environment, I can split y'all up. Alternatively, if you feel that Doctor Östberg would be a better replacement for Miss Starr or yourself, then send him. I trust your judgement on who is an optimal choice but I did select you because I feel you can handle it."

Robin had a grim look in her eye. "I can handle it, Captain, whatever comes. Don't worry." It wasn't that she'd felt guilt over being forced to kill someone on the Utopia Planitia mission; she did, but the nurse had come to terms with it as best she'd been able, and the situation had truly been kill-or-be-killed. This mission wasn't shaping up to be any different. The problem had been her cold, callous feelings as she'd pulled the phaser trigger; like she was swatting a bug. Her next shot would have gone through the Breen's head without the slightest concern. She'd been worried she was one of those Augments, the kind that killed simply because someone was in their way and felt nothing at all while they were doing it. She'd talked with some people with more experience who'd helped, and had gotten some counselling, but it was a lingering thought in the back of her mind. It probably always would be.

"And if I felt like Doctor Starr was unable to fulfill her duties I'd be sending her back myself." She paused. "A big concern is that Bravo's effectiveness will be compromised the moment someone is injured and they have no one to treat them. And if that someone is Commander Elias then the whole mission might very well be scrap."

That had just happened a few weeks ago aboard the Brittany. Elias and Whitby, the other engineer, had both been taken out of action by an Augment virus, and it had only been dumb luck or the grace of God that they'd been able to prevent the derelict ship's self-destruct before they'd succumbed. It had been a close thing.

The Captain was making a good point; the shuttle was already overloaded. And she wasn't eager to send Starr into a dangerous situation without backup, but it might be the only solution. "Doctor Starr," using her earned title as a sign of respect, "I know you feel you're ready for this, but it may be more complicated. We may need to assign you to Bravo. They need a medic. If you feel you're not ready then no one will think any less of you, and I mean that. We can assign someone else." She awaited the medic's response.

"That being said, Captain, I'm tiny and I'm willing to sit on someone's lap." She was only half-joking; if that would squeeze more space then she'd gladly do so, as uncomfortable and possibly dangerous as it was. "If we can scare up a little more space, then maybe a paramedic like Thorsdottir? That way Bravo would have another gun totter and at least some medical backup. Might make Lt. Calleja a little happier before you drop the bomb on her."

== Tags =

[Aeryn Miller]

With the Captain bringing the briefing to a close and only having thirty minutes in which to gather as much gear as possible, change and then get back to the Philly, Aeryn knew she had to make good use of that time. Of course, she wanted to stay in order to support Calleja, but upon seeing Captain Crawford catch Coleman, Aeryn knew better than to linger. Giving Calleja a reassuring and supportive look, the Artemis COS did manage to say something to her assistant, before she sat down at the table.

" You've got this, and I'll put together your gear for you" she said quietly, wishing she could say or do more at that moment. Until Calleja returned or if Aeryn got back well within the time frame given, she would be there for her as the Chief then made her way out of the lounge.

Contemplation and the magnitude of what they were about to attempt rang in Aeryn's mind. Allowing herself this opportunity to do so, as once they were underway, she needed to compartmentalise her emotions and be as clear-headed as she could possibly be.

>> Transporter Room >>

[Emily Star]

"Thanks. And I'm not worried about you. You'll do fine."

Emily smiled at the confident statement but hesitated to return the calming words. Her level of respect for the officers in this room was too high for her to dismiss their worries casually. She was new, young and inexperienced. All of that would show if she had too eager of an attitude towards a mission that had so many seasoned officers on edge.

"If there are no other questions, I'll draw this briefing to a close. Artemis, you all have thirty minutes to get your gear and yourselves back over here for transport to the system. I expect each department head to inform Lieutenant Commander Morgan who will be acting in their absence and making sure that individual is aware."

Emily didn’t move, although others cleared out as soon as they could. She waited for her CMO to make a move. Surprisingly, it was the captain who made the move first. Emily could sense her frustration and respected the tone that came out despite it.

"Midshipman Starr, I was not expecting to meet you so soon but it's good to see that you're wasting no time getting involved," Tyra said, even though what she really wanted to ask was why Mayfair had brought her along to what had been a sensitive briefing. However, for her own sanity, she needed to pick and choose her battles and this wasn't a battle worth fighting.

Emily gave a nod in greeting but kept her comments about diving in feet first to herself as the Captain changed her attention to Mayfair.

"I'll cut to the point. I can't give you a third spot on the team; if I'm able to somehow fit another person onto that godforsaken ship, it's going to be a gun totter, not medical."

"There are two options if you are concerned about Bravo's coverage: if you feel Miss Starr is capable of operating on her own in a complex and volatile environment, I can split y'all up. Alternatively, if you feel that Doctor Östberg would be a better replacement for Miss Starr or yourself, then send him. I trust your judgment on who is an optimal choice but I did select you because I feel you can handle it."

The Captain was making a good point; the shuttle was already overloaded. And she wasn't eager to send Starr into a dangerous situation without backup, but it might be the only solution. "Doctor Starr," using her earned title as a sign of respect, "I know you feel you're ready for this, but it may be more complicated. We may need to assign you to Bravo. They need a medic. If you feel you're not ready then no one will think any less of you, and I mean that. We can assign someone else." She awaited the medic's response.
Emily took a moment to process her words and the situation as best she could before addressing the CMO and her Captain at the same time, “Ensuring each team is equipped increases our chances of success. I am confident in my ability.”

Was her response too Vulcany? She cringed internally but kept her face still.

"That being said, Captain, I'm tiny and I'm willing to sit on someone's lap." She was only half-joking; if that would squeeze more space then she'd gladly do so, as uncomfortable and possibly dangerous as it was. "If we can scare up a little more space, then maybe a paramedic like Thorsdottir? That way Bravo would have another gun totter and at least some medical backup. Might make Lt. Calleja a little happier before you drop the bomb on her."

She failed to halt the laugh that wanted to erupt and instead released a short snort, "Apologies." Emily said as she took a moment to look away from their conversation and compose herself. She didn’t know who Mayfair was talking about but she made a mental note to get some backstory.

[Tyra Crawford]

"And if I felt like Doctor Starr was unable to fulfill her duties I'd be sending her back myself." Robin answered before pausing. "A big concern is that Bravo's effectiveness will be compromised the moment someone is injured and they have no one to treat them. And if that someone is Commander Elias then the whole mission might very well be scrap."

Tyra merely nodded her head at that. It was a consideration that had determined much of the team's layout and where they were placed, if Tyra was being honest about how she and Coleman had worked through it. They couldn't bring just one engineer because some jobs required two knowledgeable hands and they needed an additional engineer should something go wrong. The same consideration had been made on the bridge; they needed two tactical officers, both fortunately were security trained as well, to ensure someone was capable of flying the Callisto. Tyra herself was the third option for flying but her weapons skills were far superior to her flight skills so she hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Because they [b]needed[/] those skills sets, they'd been prioritized above the others, which led into Calleja's complaint about not enough security. The spiteful part of Tyra wanted to see exactly how far an all security attachment could go with no further skills than percussive maintenance and very basic flight skills -- engineering and security weren't a common cross trained duo as Tyra has found out when she combed through the roster during planning. The closest they got were some EOD techs with basic engineering skills -- but she didn't particularly want an entire unit wiped out due to pride and spite.

"Doctor Starr," Robin said, addressing the midshipman, "I know you feel you're ready for this, but it may be more complicated. We may need to assign you to Bravo. They need a medic. If you feel you're not ready then no one will think any less of you, and I mean that. We can assign someone else."

Star responded with all the enthusiasm of a new officer and likely just as much naivety. However, Tyra remembered being that young and eager, wanting to not only be apart of the team but capable of supporting the team, and being rather oblivious to the true nature of the risk. But how could you truly know the real risks when you've never been in the life and death circumstances outside of a Holodeck?

"That being said, Captain, I'm tiny and I'm willing to sit on someone's lap. If we can scare up a little more space, then maybe a paramedic like Thorsdottir? That way Bravo would have another gun totter and at least some medical backup. Might make Lt. Calleja a little happier before you drop the bomb on her," Robin said, her tone partially joking but not really.

There was the tiniest of snorts from Tyra as she shook her head. "Nothing would make Calleja happy except giving her an entire battalion and letting her at the Cardies herself."

The redhead paused and rubbed her forehead again. "The most frustrating part of being a captain is everyone thinking they can do your job better than you. It's exhausting and it wastes a shit ton of my time."

But then, Tyra shook her head and waved the PADD in her hand as if to move herself past that thought process. "I've got a list of individuals that I'd love to cram on that vessel if possible. Miss Thorsdottir is one of them as is an EOD tech and a few other potentially helpful cross trained personnel. However, I won't know if that's even possible until I'm looking at the Waverider with Elias and determining how much space we actually have to work with."

She and Coleman had discussed at length which team needed reinforcements and had agreed that it was the Bravo team, if it became an option. While the bridge was imperative to hold, it was also the easiest to hold with limited space and limited access points. From experience, Tyra knew that two trained officers could hold down a bridge effectively, though they'd be exhausted after, and that was under siege. If they had time to shut down turbolifts and essentially rig up the ready room and briefing rooms, they'd have an easier time of it whereas Engineering was huge with more access points. If extra room was found, that was where the extra manpower would go.

"The Waverider's emergency numbers are best case scenario with people crammed in nuts to butts and no bulky gear. If we're evacuating, I'm going to assume we'll have wounded that need more space, not to mention if we have survivors that we've located. And I have no intentions of leaving anyone behind in that instance."

What Tyra didn't and couldn't mention was that there was also a piece of equipment going onto the Waverider that was going to take up essentially a person and a half worth of space. It was imperative that remain under wraps until launch to protect everyone; it was bad enough that Tyra and Elias would likely get their asses handed to them over it, [b]if[/I] they both survived, but they didn't need to take others with them. If this was her last run as Artemis' CO because of it, she, at least, needed to make sure it was successful.

"We'll make it work. If possible, Midshipman, I'll get you some back up," she said, though a beep from her PADD caught her attention.

The message from Cera was brief, merely stating that she would gather Tyra's bag and gear and have it sent over since it seemed unlikely she'd make it herself. It caused the slightest hints of a smile before Tyra let it slip away for a more grim, neutral expression.

"If either of you need additional gear and it's not available in Sickbay, get with Commander Morgan and she'll help you acquire it," Tyra said, pausing to turn her gaze fully on Star instead of bouncing back between the two of them. "Security can get you any weaponry needed if you don't have an issues weapon. Midshipman, how comfortable are you with a phaser? I know you qualified like everyone else does at the Academy but do you truly know how to utilize it?"

= Tag! ==

[Emily Star]

The redhead paused and rubbed her forehead again. "The most frustrating part of being a captain is everyone thinking they can do your job better than you. It's exhausting and it wastes a shit ton of my time."

Shit ton? Emily hadn’t thought she’d hear those words so casually from her CO’s mouth. At least not on their first meeting. Slowly she began readjusting everything she thought she knew about higher ranking officers.

"We'll make it work. If possible, Midshipman, I'll get you some back up," she said, though a beep from her PADD caught her attention.

The words directed at her pulled her back from her musings and she nodded. Holy hell. She was really going to be the lone medic for Bravo.

"If either of you need additional gear and it's not available in Sickbay, get with Commander Morgan and she'll help you acquire it," Tyra said, pausing to turn her gaze fully on Star instead of bouncing back between the two of them. "Security can get you any weaponry needed if you don't have an issued weapon. Midshipman, how comfortable are you with a phaser? I know you qualified like everyone else does at the Academy but do you truly know how to utilize it?"

A grin formed on her lips, “Most effectively. If it wasn’t for my obsession with xenobiology I would have branched off into Security.” Well that and her Vulcan Father’s lecture on how Security was a waste of her skills. Her adoptive father was a little kinder, but he was human. Kindness was in his nature.

[Robin Mayfair]

The redhead paused and rubbed her forehead again. "The most frustrating part of being a captain is everyone thinking they can do your job better than you. It's exhausting and it wastes a shit ton of my time. I've got a list of individuals that I'd love to cram on that vessel if possible. Miss Thorsdottir is one of them as is an EOD tech and a few other potentially helpful cross trained personnel. However, I won't know if that's even possible until I'm looking at the Waverider with Elias and determining how much space we actually have to work with."

Robin nodded. "Understood, Captain." She'd made her concerns known and her suggestions, and that was that. The decision was Tyra's, and she'd at least take them into consideration. It was all the medic could ask.

"The Waverider's emergency numbers are best case scenario with people crammed in nuts to butts and no bulky gear," Tyra said. "If we're evacuating, I'm going to assume we'll have wounded that need more space, not to mention if we have survivors that we've located. And I have no intentions of leaving anyone behind in that instance."

We might end up stacked on top of each other, but it is what it is. No sense fretting about what may be. We don't know how this will go.

"We'll make it work. If possible, Midshipman, I'll get you some back up," she said, though a beep from her PADD caught her attention. "If either of you need additional gear and it's not available in Sickbay, get with Commander Morgan and she'll help you acquire it," Tyra said, pausing to turn her gaze fully on Star instead of bouncing back between the two of them. "Security can get you any weaponry needed if you don't have an issues weapon. Midshipman, how comfortable are you with a phaser? I know you qualified like everyone else does at the Academy but do you truly know how to utilize it?"

“Most effectively," Starr responded. "If it wasn’t for my obsession with xenobiology I would have branched off into Security.”

Kinda funny how many Star Fleet officers dabble in Security before settling in somewhere else.

After Tyra responded Robin said "Thank you, Captain. We'll let you go. We're heading back to the Artemis to get the neurozine ready, and I'll speak to Lt. Miller. See you in a few."

Robin's enhanced brain was already crunching numbers, though a lot of it was guesswork. She intentionally overestimated the amount needed based on her experience with the Kazon in the Delta Quadrant.

Let's see... based on the size of the Luna class four Type-C canisters would be enough. So we'll take six, just in case. Better to have too many than not enough.

"Mayfair to Artemis Sickbay. We're beaming back and we don't have a lot of time before we have to leave again. Prepare six Type-C neurozine canisters, and get an engineer to make sure that they'll work with Luna class environmental systems. Pull gas masks for Ensign Starr and I and check them."

== Tags ==

[Benjamin Elias]

“If there are no other questions,” Tyra said finally, “I’ll draw this briefing to a close. Artemis, you all have thirty minutes to get your gear and yourselves back over here for transport to the system.” She continued for a moment, including having Calleja remain for what he was sure was going to be a very exciting discussion, before the meeting was officially ended.
 
Benjamin stood and gathered his padds with a sigh. He turned to Coleman and said “I’m going to head to the Waverider here for a moment for a quick survey before heading back to Artemis. Shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes.” After the first officer nodded, he turned to Cera and nodded. “I’ll get everything to you in a couple minutes,” he said, “and we’ll…” He stopped and took a breath, knowing he had to at least say something but not having anything to say. “We’ll talk as soon as we can.” He stepped away from the table before he said anything more idiotic.
 
Coming around the table in the packed room, he finally found Ensign D’Mar and gave the young engineer a smile. She looked… almost shaken, he noticed. Part of him wondered if the ensign was feeling unwell, but he thought there were likely other causes. “Come on,” he said, trying to forestall any discussion for the moment. “I know we’re on short time, but we should take a look at the Waverider here before we finalize the equipment list.” He motioned for her to follow, and then broke a trail out the door and to the turbolifts, heading down the pair of decks to the yacht’s dock.
 
>>Philadelphia Shuttlebay/Waverider Dock, Deck 4>>

[Lucy Devereaux]

Lucy got to her feet and followed the rest of Artemis crew to the Philadelphia’s transporter room. That left Mara, Damian and the Captain behind in the Officer’s Lounge for a heart to heart. She had thirty minutes to gear up and get changed. She was relatively certain she knew where to find the various bits and it wouldn’t take long to upload the relevant files on Cardassian alphabet and language. An optical translator would be better, but that would require the right equipment and development time.

Lucy didn’t even know who the Chief Science Officer was as Commander Gregg had officially retired from active duty. Judith Tucker was the ranking officer, so that meant Lucy didn’t need to assign anyone to cover the duties of the Chief Science Officer. With any luck Cera knew who was looking after the department for the time being. Lucy didn’t mind whoever it was as long as she could get on with them. The mission was weird enough without thinking about who was meant to be running the department.

[Eun Ju Han]

Is this… what it’s like on a ship? You can just.. speak your mind?

To say that Eun Ju’s eyes weren’t wide, would be a complete and total lie. As the briefing came to an end, the jobs dolled out to the people they felt best suited the position on this very dangerous journey, others began to be incensed. Some believed that not enough people from the Philly had been chosen, others were offering up certain officers they felt fit the bill, while others still were asking questions and trying to sort out whether they possibly wanted to be part of the mission at all.

Ju had been raised heavily that elders speak and those below them listen. It wasn’t that she was afraid to speak her mind and had she had felt she had something to offer she would have done so. However, being only a Midshipman meant she was still wet behind the ears and knew that she had nothing to offer anyone that they likely hadn’t heard before. These were people with years and in many cases decades of experience in Starfleet, who was she to question any of them. To watch some people who were ballsy, while others were outright brazen, was definitely eye opening.

Maybe this is the Artemis way..

Crawford was very good at not shutting her people down, and Ju had to hand it to the woman who seemed to know when to answer, how to answer, and when to side-bar as necessary. She was definitely inspiring to a young officer like Han. Finally, between Crawford and Braggins they called the meeting to a close, likely tired of the barrage of questions, and eager to get the show on the road as it wasn’t like they had the leisure of time. This was a covert mission and the longer they sat, cloaked or not, the more likely it was they could become detected.

Everyone seemed to be dismissed and those who were assigned to the front lines given their orders. Ju let out a breath and slid off her stool. She didn’t have a chance to be social and this lounge didn’t seem like it was the warm and welcoming place it might be during off hours. Right now, she had a feeling that more discussions were going to come about once the room cleared out a little and some breathing room was had. Standing up, Ju waited while some of the people cleared out of the room. Since such a mass of people were leaving at once there was a bit of a traffic jam at the door, so she hung back a few minutes waiting while those who were in a hurry left first.

Once the door was clear enough that people were flowing more fluidly, Han headed towards the door herself figuring that she was due back in Engineering and she still needed to figure out what was going on with that temperature sensor. I’ve been gone a while now, time to see if the sensor has gotten worse.. better.. or hopefully stayed the same.

>>Engineering>>

[Robin Mayfair]

== Sorry, made a mistake in my last post. It's Midshipman Starr, not Ensign. ==

[Miles Grant]

Miles hadn't had anything of significance to add to the briefing, though the back and forth of everyone wanting more of their own department added to the roster was something that irritated him. It was a Waverider, a vessel only made to fit eight comfortably. They were already exceeding that number as it was, so additional personnel was really out of the question.

He could understand, to a degree, the want for more Medical staff, especially given the two Medical Officers would only be with one of the teams instead of one designated to each team. Calleja's want for more Security Officers, while not necessarily a bad thing, didn't fit with the needs of the mission. Her treating the other departments as apparently lesser, or that they wouldn't be able to hold their own, was a bit of a slap in the face, but one that Crawford quickly quashed.

It didn't help that her point of view made little sense given the amount of cross-trained or those who had come up through Security, to include the Captain, Commander Coleman, and himself. They would be pretty covered if anything happened. But the other jobs were important as well.

More was said, more was ironed out. In the end, only a few had to stay back while the rest were dismissed. As Miles made ready his departure, he glanced over to Commander Murphy. Though they hadn't said much to one another, she had, if he had interpreted correctly, checked on him during the briefing to see his reaction. He had kept his visage of being ready for anything.

And he was. He would do his duty. He had his concerns, his worries, but nothing that altered how he felt about doing his job. The only thing he didn't really like was that Star Fleet Command was already prepared for the "rogue" element story if things went sideways. It peeved him to no end. He felt people who didn't have the integrity to take ownership of their own mistakes shouldn't be in a position of power or authority.

But, at the moment, that was neither here nor there, as he made his way to prepare his delegate and proxy to fulfill duties of Chief Tactical Officer in his absence. He had a few options, but in the end, Lieutenant McKenzie was going to be his best bet. He did have a few others in mind in case McKenzie would be unable to fulfill the role, but he didn't think that would be an issue.

>>Waverider>>

[R'Kaar Ragarri]

Elias explained to R'Kaar the unfeasibility of using the synthetic benamite, and R'Kaar mentally agreed. The Caitian stayed silent at that point, until Captain Crawford announced she was wrapping up the meeting. When the CMO of the Artemis began to talk about what they should take, R'Kaar leaned in and said, 

"Lieutenant Mayfair, I might have a suggestion for you. Pack some extra doses of Tri-ox compound. The Waverider's life support will be taxed by the amount of people that are being jammed inside of it, which should alleviate any hypoxia such overcrowding will cause. The other thing you might consider, is a biosign alteration system, to make the strike teams appear Cardassian to internal scanners. From my own experience with them, they can be especially tricky, and might also thin the atmosphere inside the ship as a security precaution, so the Tri-ox might come in handy for that too."

He looked over at the Midshipman as well, and then back at the CMO of the Artemis and added, 

"If things go wrong, remember that the critically injured stay critically injured inside of a transporter buffer. And even the mortally wounded can be preserved for treatment. Don't discount the tools others have at their disposal."

==tag Mayfair==

[Emily Star]

"Mayfair to Artemis Sickbay. We're beaming back and we don't have a lot of time before we have to leave again. Prepare six Type-C neurozine canisters, and get an engineer to make sure that they'll work with Luna class environmental systems. Pull gas masks for Ensign Starr and I and check them."

Emily was comfortable handling the Neurozine, at least in her head she was. She'd never actually dispensed a gas to incapacitate people before. Theoretically, it shouldn't be too difficult. Right?

Then again, textbook theories and real-life aboard a starship rarely went hand in hand. It was constantly spoken of by instructors and higher-ranking officers. Expect chaos. Mitigate the chaos. 

"Lieutenant Mayfair, I might have a suggestion for you. Pack some extra doses of Tri-ox compound. The Waverider's life support will be taxed by the amount of people that are being jammed inside of it, which should alleviate any hypoxia such overcrowding will cause. The other thing you might consider, is a biosign alteration system, to make the strike teams appear Cardassian to internal scanners. From my own experience with them, they can be especially tricky, and might also thin the atmosphere inside the ship as a security precaution, so the Tri-ox might come in handy for that too."

What was his name again? Emily drew a blank and made a note to find out. He was offering fantastic ideas. 

"If things go wrong, remember that the critically injured stay critically injured inside of a transporter buffer. And even the mortally wounded can be preserved for treatment. Don't discount the tools others have at their disposal."

"W-would we be able to beam them over? I'm assuming shields will be up." Emily realized she'd struggled to find her voice and composed herself, "It would definitely be a life-saving thing to be able to do if we find ourselves in need." 

==tag==

[Mara Calleja]

Mara was half-listening to the rest of the conversations that took place. She knew basic first aid, was clueless when it came to science, and had just about enough of a grasp of engineering to get by with help as demonstrated on the Brittany but no more. There was nothing useful she could offer there so she felt OK with leaving it to the specialists.

"If there are no other questions, I'll draw this briefing to a close. Artemis, you all have thirty minutes to get your gear and yourselves back over here for transport to the system. I expect each department head to inform Lieutenant Commander Morgan who will be acting in their absence and making sure that individual is aware."

At that, the Bandaran stood, stretched herself out to her full height, and was halfway to the door. Her mind had already moved off to other things, like what equipment she was going to want for the fight and trying to remember what she knew of the layout of a Luna class, when the next words came out of the Captain’s mouth.

"Lieutenant Calleja, take a seat at the table and I will be with you shortly," Tyra added, pointing to the table where her own seat had been.

For f*ck’s sake. Fine. Make sure I know how much trouble I’m in for speakin’ out, and that everyone else knows I’m in trouble as well so they don’t do the same.

"You've got this, and I'll put together your gear for you." The voice was Aeryn Miller’s, and it did not help at all.

“I do not got this,” Mara replied softly. “But she gonna give it to me anyway. And don’t worry about me, I’ll get my own gear when I get back to the ship. Assumin’ I still need it.” Most of her gear ended up being custom sized because none of the standard sizes could cope with human women that were over 6 foot tall and nearly 200lbs of muscle. It was just practicality - she knew what worked for her and what didn’t.

With Miller gone and Crawford talking to the medics, Calleja went and stood behind the indicated chair and leant on the back of it facing the room. She wasn’t being wilfully truculent, she just felt she’d been sat down long enough already in a chair that was too small and she wanted to stretch out. That was especially true as she knew that if she was still on the away team, she’d be crammed on board the tiny auxiliary vessel and pretty much everyone else’s nightmare seatmate.

There’s also the part of me that isn’t willin’ to sit like a guilty schoolgirl waitin’ for teacher. I know I f*cked up. I’ll face the consequences of that.

Broad shoulders rose and fell as she sighed silently.

She’s probably comin’ over here thinkin’ I wanna fight, and I don’t. I wasn’t challengin’ her. I’m just sh*t at how I express myself. I needed to think more about how I made the points I wanted to make. I don’t need her to tell me that.

Quietly, Mara waited her turn.

[Tyra Crawford]

The midshipman answered confidently. “Most effectively," Starr responded. "If it wasn’t for my obsession with xenobiology I would have branched off into Security.”

It was unusual for security and medical to intersect in an individual's preferences. Most officers preferred one or the other because they were contrasting fields. There were, of course, exceptions, such as the paramedics that served in security and some of the front line doctors that were quick to take up arms to defend their medical facilities during war, but they were rare. The chasm between 'do no harm' and 'protect at all costs' was usually too wide to overcome and Tyra wanted to press further to understand how this young officer had swung from possibly pursuing security to being neck deep in medical. Maybe, if things went well, she'd get answers to those questions.

"Good. I hope you don't use it but better prepared than blind sided," she answered simply.

Subsequently, Robin excused them to begin preparations and Tyra merely nodded. However, she didn't immediately move back towards her seat and instead, looped around the room, taking the long route back to the table. Her blue eyes briefly considered the viewport along the wall, taking in the stars as she gave herself a moment to settle before continuing round the table

It was interesting how the different aspects of her life intersected and affected each other.  Her career had made the challenges and complications of motherhood seem less overwhelming; what was one little human compared to a ship of 600? However, motherhood had also tempered her in some ways, taught her that there were effective ways to correct and manage situations that didn't involve yelling. There was still a time and place for that, particularly when shit was hitting the fan, or people were on the verge of getting others killed, but this didn't seem to be one of those times, yet.

Coleman had stuck around as requested and Calleja, while not having taken a seat as asked, was, at least, at the table. It was enough, even if she felt Calleja was trying to send a message that she wouldn't be ordered around. She'd never understood people joining a military organization based on hierarchy and order and yet, refusing to respect either.

"Sit down and keep your mouth shut long enough to listen," Tyra ordered, pointing at Calleja as she moved up to the table on the opposite side.

"Don't ever ******* do that again," the redhead stated, her tone harsh and sharp. And yet, as the redhead sat down across from Calleja, her posture wasn't that of an anger filled rager. Her posture slouched in a way that suggested tiredness and exasperation.

"Even if you are making the most valid point possible, you absolutely destroy any advantage you might have when you handle it like that. Challenging and insulting people isn't the way to get what you want, whether you meant for it to come across like that or not. And using not one but two versions of "I mean no disrespect" is just a cop out for heaping a bunch of disrespect. And boy, did ya."

"Do you know the most commonly utilized meaning of a non-combatant? It's typically used to refer to unarmed, helpless civilians. Is that how you want your crewmates to think you view them? They're officers in a military organization, on a ship that is a shit magnet and they train as such. Hell, some of them have more war and battle experience than you. I get what you were trying to say and while I don't agree with viewing them as helpless or unarmed, if that's how you actually feel about them, that is what it is but you don't tell them that! Not only are they not going to want an asshole with a superiority complex watching their back but in crisis, people rise to the expectations set for them and if they know their friendly neighborhood security officer thinks they're nothing more than a liability and helpless, there isn't much of an expectation to rise to."

The redhead rubbed the bridge of her nose before releasing a sigh. "As for the other part, whether you meant it or not, it came off as you knowing better after sitting through a ten minute briefing. Never mind the countless, experienced analysts at HQ, never mind Coleman and I. You know better."

Now, she rocked forward, her elbow rest on the table so she could look directly at Calleja. "Do you honestly think that I'm so far removed from the security world that my first thought wasn't let's dump a couple security teams on board, along with as you so nicely put it the non-combatants, and take it by sheer brute force? But that's not the mission profile nor is it something we have the capacity to do without either using the Philly itself or Artemis. And that sounds an awful lot like a blatant act of fucking war and putting a fuck ton more people at risk. Which is what we're trying to prevent."

Tyra wanted to tell Calleja that she understood where she was coming from, that Tyra had been in her place before with a terrible mission profile and looking down the barrel of trying to keep a lot of people alive. However, it was likely the words, while absolutely true, would come off as empty consolation but the experience was likely why Tyra wasn't laying into Calleja. She truly did sympathize with her viewpoint but now, she understood Derrick's viewpoint from that moment. There were other considerations beyond security, even if she hated to admit that.

"So my question for you is are you going to help me try to prevent a war or are you going to be a thorn in my side? I chose you for this mission and for Alpha because I felt that I can not only trust you to have my back but also to make sure that the mission is successful regardless of what happens. However, if you are incapable of treating me like a fellow officer and resisting the urge to coddle me, I will swap you with Lieutenant Miller and you can accompany Commander Coleman on Bravo."

[R'Kaar Ragarri]

"W-would we be able to beam them over? I'm assuming shields will be up. It would definitely be a life-saving thing to be able to do if we find ourselves in need."

R'Kaar looked over at Emily and replied, 

"That, might be an issue on its own Midshipman Star. But, talking to the Engineering department might lead to a solution that can benefit both departments. However, if the plan is to dock the Waverider in the Callisto's own port, then you might be able to do a site-to-site transport, but power could be at a premium. You could also induce a medical coma in the patient, or take along a single cryostasis unit from the Artemis's morgue to store them outside of the transporter, but if you do have a problem with a patient not responding in the field to resuscitation, I would advise taking a cytoplasmic stimulator, to keep the patient's cells from dying temporarily until you can stabilize them. Again, this is if you can safely take those devices with you, or fit them aboard the Waverider in the case of the cryostasis unit."

He looked back at Mayfair again and added, 

"The other suggestion, is that you connect with your counseling staff, as a mission of this magnitude in importance, may be the breaking point for many stress triggers, before and after the mission. Especially after the mission. Keep your patients physically and mentally healthy, but I have confidence in your abilities as a doctor and Chief Medical Officer of the Artemis, that you do both, and you'll get everyone through the mission in one piece."

==tag Medical==

[Amaterasu Ichika]

Ichika slowly made her way to her CSO hoping that she would give her an assignment or at least a task of sorts. ‘’Boss do you need me anywhere more specific?’’ she said while glancing inquisitively around the room as though she was just taking it all in. This was her first meeting as an actual officer and her heart was still racing from the drama and the hype of it all, yes their mission was dire somewhat and very dangerous nut she was still excited to take part even a tiny bit.

As Tera looked around her eyes lit up with delight, she saw a rather tall looking cat man in what she noticed was wearing a medical uniform, The officer in question was a Caitian, Ichika noticed the fur patterns and the colours, and they seemed to meld into each other like melted caramel and ice cream. Wonder if he is part of our crew? She thought to herself. Tera quickly looked away from the Medical officer Shaking her head, she managed to go back to the matter at hand. ‘’I wonder what our crew will be doing as the Artemis seems to have everything handled.’’ she said to him in a low whisper.

Tera wanted to do something useful and help with the mission she sensed that most of her fellow officers felt the same way, she really hoped that the entire crew wasn’t dead either, but what where the chances that they were still alive?....No she was not going to think that way she will remain positive….she will have a small amount if hope for those poor unfortunate souls.


==Tag LT Black?==

[Teresa Black]

With the meeting coming to an end, and their guests from the Artemis seemingly having brought their own drama with them, Maz decided it was time to leave.

She'd been tying on her PADD, and just as she stood and turned; “Boss do you need me anywhere more specific?” Said Ichika, who'd appeared out of the aether it seemed. Almost giving Black a heart attack.

“Bloody Hell!” She exclaimed taking a step back and nearly toppling over the stool she'd been sat on. “I know you want my job, but you don't need to kill me to get it.”

Taking a moment to straighten herself, she handed the PADD she'd been working on to Ichika.

“I'd like you to go down and set up the Astrometric Lab. If we're going in to hostile territory, I know that tactical and the strike team will want the most up to date live information we can give them on the Parhelia system.”

“I want you to run every long range scan you can of the system and get every single piece of information you can find. What type of star it it. How many planets. What class of planets. Which one the station and the Callisto are in orbit of, and any and all threat deployments and patrols you can find in and out of the system. Everything. Right up to and including the colour of the socks the Gul in charge out there is wearing. If we can't give them that information, people are going to die. And we wanted it starting 10 minutes ago.”

She gave it a few more seconds to sink in before she added. “Go.”


== You wanted a job. ==

[Robin Mayfair]

"The other suggestion, is that you connect with your counseling staff, as a mission of this magnitude in importance, may be the breaking point for many stress triggers, before and after the mission. Especially after the mission. Keep your patients physically and mentally healthy, but I have confidence in your abilities as a doctor and Chief Medical Officer of the Artemis, that you do both, and you'll get everyone through the mission in one piece."

Robin nodded. She was aware of the psychological consequences of these missions; she'd needed extensive counseling after her last two away missions. Being forced to kill the spy on Utopia Planitia had raised all sorts of doubts in her mind about whether her genetic enhancements came with a terrible price, and that was on top of her guilt. And then there was the USS Brittany, a tomb of a ship filled with corpses. It wasn't something you just got over, and that was only a few weeks ago. She could remember every detail vividly down to the smell.

"Thank you, Doctor. I will. And I hope you're right. Just to let you know, I'm not actually a doctor. I'm a nurse." She wasn't sure how he would react. A nurse CMO of a ship like the Artemis was unheard of. She hadn't had any problems with her staff doctors so far, but she guessed it was inevitable that she'd butt heads with some of them. Oh well, it was a matter for another time.

"If you'll excuse us, the clock is ticking and we have to prepare. It was very nice to meet you."

>> Artemis >>

[Mara Calleja]

"Sit down and keep your mouth shut long enough to listen," Tyra ordered, pointing at Calleja as she moved up to the table on the opposite side.

So much for facin’ my fate standin’ up.

Mara sat down, made a concerted effort to keep her expression as neutral as she could, and then mentally clamped her jaw closed to make sure she stayed quiet.

It didn’t take long for her to both regret that decision and be glad of it as Crawford launched into the verbal bombardment that had been building for the last few minutes. There were so many times Calleja wanted to interrupt and defend herself but she dug deep and literally bit down on the retorts that leapt right to the front of her mind. There were a couple of involuntary gestures that gave away the internal struggle, her eyes narrowing at times before she caught herself and the impassive mask reasserted itself. The cloying taste of blood from biting through the edge of her tongue settled at the back of her throat but she stayed silent.

Stoppin’ this train is a sure fire way to get my arse sent back to Artemis to stay. And I’m comin’ on this mission. I will not be able to sit and watch this one pan out from a desk.

"So my question for you is are you going to help me try to prevent a war or are you going to be a thorn in my side? I chose you for this mission and for Alpha because I felt that I can not only trust you to have my back but also to make sure that the mission is successful regardless of what happens. However, if you are incapable of treating me like a fellow officer and resisting the urge to coddle me, I will swap you with Lieutenant Miller and you can accompany Commander Coleman on Bravo."

There was a moment’s silence as Mara thought out what she wanted to say, swallowing down the blood and with it any hot-headed impulses to make a fight out of this.

“This ain’t the time for an impassioned defence of what I do or don’t believe,” the Bandaran said, picking her words as carefully as she could. “I was wrong to imply you were defenceless. But I need to be able to treat you as you are. A high value target for the Cardassians and mission critical for us. You aren’t just another member of the crew. There’s only one of you. You can’t be replaced or switched out for someone else. You have to come back. And I have to accept that we need your fightin’ ability where it matters if this is goin’ to work. That’s a hell of a balance to find, for both of us.”

The passion had crept into Mara’s voice slowly at first but by this point, she was wearing her heart on her sleeve.

“I get heated ‘cause I care,” the Bandaran admitted. “I don’t need to tell you of all people about that protective streak that runs right through the f*ckin’ middle of every decent Security officer. If anythin’ happens to anyone on this team, I’m goin’ to take it very personal. I’m sorry if I gave anyone the opposite impression. Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, sorry. This is a lesson I will not need teachin’ again ‘cause I know exactly what I did to any point I had.”

She caught herself, realising she hadn’t actually answered the question.

“You better believe I will give you everythin’ I have to make this mission a success,” Mara said. “I’ll put everythin’ on the line to bring everyone home. But I’m not just going to nod and salute when I feel I have somethin’ to offer. I need to know I can speak up. I’ll rein in that instinct to shoot from the lip ‘cause I know I gotta be much better when I got somethin’ to say. And I will be.”

“So that’s my answer. I know I got no right to ask you for anythin’. But I’m askin’ anyway. Let me look out for you. Give me that and you’ll get the best version of me I can give you, and I will be the asset you need me to be,” she finished.

Calleja had talked far more than she had intended to, the infamously closed-off Bandaran revealing more than she was comfortable with about how her mind worked in order to try and reassure the Captain that they were on the same side. If she had lost that trust then that would be absolutely devastating. The one thing above all else that the Security officer prided herself on was that those around her knew they could count on her no matter what.

And if I ain’t got that, I’m finished here and I know it.

[Emily Star]

"Thank you, Doctor. I will. And I hope you're right. Just to let you know, I'm not actually a doctor. I'm a nurse." She wasn't sure how he would react. A nurse CMO of a ship like the Artemis was unheard of. She hadn't had any problems with her staff doctors so far, but she guessed it was inevitable that she'd butt heads with some of them. Oh well, it was a matter for another time.

"If you'll excuse us, the clock is ticking and we have to prepare. It was very nice to meet you."

A nurse? The first thought that came to Emily's mind was that Mayfair must have been one hell of a nurse to take on the Chief position on the Artemis. Her respect level for the purple haired lady tripled. 

Turning to the kind Caitian doctor with the copious amounts of good advice, 'It was nice to meet you Doctor. I look forward to seeing you again, without the threat of impending doom," Emily offered Ragarri a nod and stood to leave, "Be well." 

Leaving the once cramped lounge, Emily felt a wave of nausea pass over her when the doors closed. Thankfully she was naturally tinted green, but in this moment she felt exceptionally so. She looked to Mayfair but said nothing. Instead, she followed her and prepared to learn.

>>Artemis>>

[Tyra Crawford]

“So that’s my answer. I know I got no right to ask you for anythin’. But I’m askin’ anyway. Let me look out for you. Give me that and you’ll get the best version of me I can give you, and I will be the asset you need me to be,” Calleja finished.

There was nothing about Calleja's answer that appeared to be fake or ingenuine. Tyra truly believed that Calleja was being honest in her apology and what she laid out but she also believed that a tiger couldn't change their stripes overnight. Calleja was headstrong and the redhead had no doubt her instinctive protectiveness would lead to headbutting if Tyra didn't make a few things very, very clear.

For a moment, Tyra was quiet, hands folded on the table as she considered the faint tan line on her finger where her ring sat when she wasn't on duty. It was a regular pondering on how dark that tan line might be if she was in a position to wear it more often but that wasn't today's pondering.

"You can air your grievances like this anytime but I don't need someone to look out for me," the redhead said quietly before looking up. "I need someone to stand shoulder to shoulder with me and make sure that whatever sacrifices are made aren't made in vain."

"Because we are all expendable on this one, even me. My life is not worth more than this mission and I need you to understand that and accept it. I know that's a hard pill to swallow, it's one I've had to swallow myself, and I want to make it absolutely clear that I do not have a death wish either."

Tyra shifted ever so slightly, the tiniest sign of discomfort before it was tucked away. "You haven't met my daughter like some of the crew has but I have every intention of being around to raise her into a little hell raiser. However, I don't want her to grow up during a war. I don't want her to feel an obligation to put on this damn uniform and lay it all down -- I've paid enough for both of us -- and I will do anything to make sure that doesn't happen. Anything."

The redhead lightly rapped her knuckle on the table, a small sigh escaping. "Plus, if we fail but somehow survive, Artemis will be on the front lines and I can't imagine our good luck holds out for long under that strain. So we need to get this right, regardless of what it takes, and I need to know that you understand that."

"I want each and everyone of us to make it back and I will do what I can to make that happen, just like I know you will, but it is imperative that we stop the war machine in its tracks because if we don't, we're fucked. Understand?"

[Mara Calleja]

"I want each and everyone of us to make it back and I will do what I can to make that happen, just like I know you will, but it is imperative that we stop the war machine in its tracks because if we don't, we're fucked. Understand?"

What struck Mara as she listened to Tyra was the weight behind every word. They really were walking right into the middle of history here. If this went wrong then they would be remembered as the ones who started the war.

That’s… That’s a lot to process.

The Bandaran was quiet for a few seconds as she took all of that in. It would have been easy to say ‘yes sir no problem’, jump up and go get on with prep. But it would also have been a lie, and that’s why she couldn’t do it.

I’ve gone into situations knowin’ that the odds were, I wasn’t comin’ back. Several times now. None of those have had this much on the line, and none of them have had so many friends and crewmates comin’ right along with me. This really is, we do what we have to do. Do or die or both.

F*ckin’ hell.

Now the full weight of the situation crashed down on Mara’s shoulders and just for a moment, she got a taste of what it must have been like for Tyra to wrestle with those kinds of decisions. And with that revelation came the understanding of just how unhelpful her own ‘intervention’ had been in the scheme of things. Her words could have undermined confidence in those decisions and that couldn’t be allowed to happen. Not now. Not on the eve of this mission when everyone had to believe in what they were doing.

The possibility of standing down never even entered the Bandaran’s head, even now as she understood clearly the real importance of the mission.

“I get it,” she said eventually, and it was clear from her expression that she did. “And I’ll stand with you. We won’t fail.”

Mara pulled her lips back in a feral smile.

“Not least ‘cause you still owe me that drink. And I hate welchin’.”

The joke was risky but the tension - that she caused, admittedly - needed to be dispersed. 

Everyone around this table knows what’s bein’ asked of them. I’m allowed one last moment of levity before I go get strapped, right?

[Peter Jensen]

Peter sat in quiet contemplation for the rest of the briefing. He'd said his piece, and he saw Crawford's point. The rest there was to do was discuss the specifics, and as he wouldn't be involved in the strike team, he felt that he'd better not talk that much about it unless things went completely off the rails.

And in that case, it's the captains' responsibility to bring the gathering back to order

One concern he did have, however, was with the question of what to do with any potential survivors of the Callisto crew. He felt like a right bastard for even thinking it, but the fact of the matter was that this mission was touch and go even as it stood. Adding the element of hostage rescue just brought the mission even closer to impossible.
Thinking was one thing. Saying was quite another. He'd bring this point up with Braggins in private, not in plenum, because he realized that this very real concern would not do anything good for morale.

He jerked a little bit at Calleja's frankness, but instantly admired her more for it. Not so much for the remark about non-security officers. He'd been a Starfleet Officer long enough to know that engineers and scientists could fight with the best of them sometimes, so that wasn't a comment he was very well pleased with. Certainly not as the comment to cast doubt on their fellow officers was made in front of the very same officers, to their face.
But the pointing out that the Captain shouldn't be anywhere near the boarding party was one he admired. And agreed with wholeheartedly. He hadn't said it himself, because, well, he'd learned enough by now to not do something like that, and as Coleman was Crawford's XO, it was his job, not Peter's.
He also realized, though, that the young officer was starting to dig herself a hole the depth of Earth's Marianas trench.

The response was as predictable as it was justified.

When the briefing was eventually called to a close, Peter got up again, and nodded politely and smiling to those present before he exited the room, and headed for the bridge, more eager than ever to find out what, exactly, they would be doing while the strike teams did their magic.

== Next post: Bridge ==

[Amaterasu Ichika]

When her CSO yelped in panic so did Tera she stumbled backwards and blinked in confusion. “I know you want my job, but you don't need to kill me to get it.” said Black while trying to gather there composure. ''I no...I mean uhh no sir I would never...I am so sorry'' she said trying to see if Black needed Medical attention.

Tera felt a sudden urge to panic, her heart was racing her brow slick with sweat and her nose ready and twitching, she was in fight or flight mode for some reason and then it happened she did nothing, she stood there on the spot and just did nothing out the ordinary, was this personal growth maybe.

Luckily for Ichika Black survived the Ichika Ninja art style, it seemed she would scare members of the crew by popping out of no ware it was impressive and frightful. Tera listened to her CSO as she gave her specific instructions, this excited the midshipman as gathering data was a hobby of hers. ''GO'' said Black to her Midshipman and to which made her run out the room to Astrometric Lab with haste. ''I'm going to scan the hell outta those Cardies'' she said jumping into the lift.

>>Astrometric Lab>>

[Teresa Black]

With Ichika despatched to the Astrometrics lab, and others leaving the lounge, Maz considered getting a drink from the replicator before heading back to the bridge, but there was still enough of the Artemis people present to make her feel uncomfortable doing so.

All in all, they looked and seemed, on the surface, an impressive lot. But when the briefing was given, and the back and forth between them went on, it felt a little like there was maybe some tension under the surface that. She hunted for the word. Leaked?

They're a little on edge. I mean, they have the hard job here, but they really do argue among themselves. I think I'm glad none of us will be stuck on the shuttle with them really.

Taking on last look about, she turned and headed back up to the bridge.


>> Bridge >>

[Tyra Crawford]

It was quiet as Tyra's own words hung there in the air but the redhead could see that Calleja was processing her words, not to come up with an argument but to truly understand what was being said. And likely what wasn't being said.

“I get it,” the tall woman answered, her voice sure and confident in a way that made Tyra believe that she had understood what Tyra was trying to convey. “And I’ll stand with you. We won’t fail.”

Tyra nodded, her posturing relaxing slightly as it became apparent that a knock-down, drag out fight would not be occurring.

“Not least ‘cause you still owe me that drink. And I hate welchin’," Calleja added with a smile that looked almost wolfish.

Tyra's own lips pulled back into a grin, tinged with a hint of sarcasm and something a little darker. "Don't worry, I think we'll be at a mutual bottle by the end of this and I'll make sure it's the good stuff."

The redhead paused, taking a deep breath as she let herself settle into her chair slightly before exhaling it slowly. "Back to the matter at hand. You need to get back over and get your **** together but I need you to collect some other items while you're there."

Tyra almost seemed to be mentally ticking items off as she spoke. "Make sure Miller is grabbing armour for everyone, maybe even helmets though I won't make anyone wear those if they don't want to or aren't comfortable in them. We need earpieces, which I'm sure she packed as well. The odd ball request is that we need both pattern enhancers and pattern scramblers, enough to cover the bridge and engineering."

The interesting thing about experience was that sometimes it helped one predict what others might do. On not one but two occasions, she had been the chaser of a stolen vessel, once as a security chief and once as a captain. And both times, she had handled the situation in similar manners, transporting in to the critical areas to take them back over. Both times she had successfully taken over the ships, though neither time had ended in a manner she would call overly positive. She'd nearly lost her husband as a hostage the first time, watching him be jettisoned into space had been one of the most nauseating moments of her life, and she'd lost the Avenger shortly after taking it back. Both experiences had ushered in significant changes to her life and rather permanent consequences; it seemed this situation was likely to do the same.

However, right now, that experience was invaluable; they needed to make it as hard as possible for the Cardassians to come back once they banished them.

"And bring some explosives. I've got some ideas for fortifying the bridge once we have it," she added as she began to stand up.

"Now get out of here and I'll see you at the Waverider," she said, motioning for the door before looking at Coleman. "You too. We don't have a ton of prep time left."

Tyra was close on their heels out of the room a few moments later but her course took her in the opposite direction to the transporter room.

>> Waverider >>

[Mara Calleja]

Mara allowed herself a brief moment of relief before focusing back in on what Tyra was saying, as the Captain gave her a ‘shopping list’ to collect before reporting back to the Philadelphia.

"Now get out of here and I'll see you at the Waverider," Crawford said, motioning for the door before looking at Coleman. "You too. We don't have a ton of prep time left."

“Yes ma’am.” Calleja rose from the chair and made her retreat.

I have got to stop gettin’ in my own way she chided herself as she headed down the corridor towards the transporter rooms. I don’t entirely know how I’m not headin’ back to Artemis in disgrace. No more excuses, I gotta make sure I learn from this.

>> Artemis Security Complex >>