Fleet Mission: "To Boldly Go..."

[Steve Malloway]

STARBASE THRINACIA
Conference Room
1804 hours

The meeting was running late already, and it was only 4 minutes in. Steve did not like it when his timings were scuppered. He decided the waiting was over.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats as I’d like to begin!” Steve called aloud, his voice carrying well over the hustle and bustle of others talking amongst themselves and catching up, or querying each other as to if anyone knew the nature of the briefing.

As the noise died down, Steve took a quick glance around the room. He noted each CO present, recalling them from their manifests he had gone through earlier, some XOs he wasn’t so familiar with due to most being newly appointed or he hadn’t dealt with them yet. Draco was present, sat to Steve’s left, Emma also ready and raring to his right. Sat to the top left of his small podium with various PADDs upon it sat the latest report from John with his and his team’s statuses.

“Right, thank you all for coming so promptly…” The Admiral mused, noting some smiling at his intended meaning, others slightly embarrassed from their own late arrival. “I’ll get straight to it as we have a lot to get through and plenty more to get done after.” Some confused looks from the masses. Upon picking up a small remote control device and one of his PADDs, Steve stepped aside to allow the screen behind him to display the statistics for an M-Class Planet, not far off a replica of Earth. Infact, the resemblance was uncanny.

“This, is Planet-45604 - yet to be named obviously,” the image began to rotate on it’s axis. “Similar to Earth in many ways, but yet so many more.” Steve began to read various stats from John’s data on the PADD. Whereas Earth’s water surface was at a little over 70%, 45604 was nearer 80%. The remaining land coverage was, for the most part, dense forest or rainforest with a total of only 3 desserts across the whole planet. The atmosphere was almost identical to Earth’s if not a little more humid to allow the vegetation in the rainforest to grow to its splendour. As the Admiral read various facts, the display would change to show images taken by research teams. Beautiful rainforests, large lakes, rivers, local wildlife, the oceans themselves. The beaches themselves looked divine, Steve had noticed. Crystal clear water, white sands. Save for some that weren’t so picturesque, but they were few and far between. Then he looked back to the officers around the tables. “No humanoid life forms, in fact there is no civilisation beyond the wildlife so far studied. Which has made it rather easy for us to colonise.”

Several of the officers smiled. Obviously the thought of decent R&R in the sun and on the beaches were appealing.

“Now, the tricky part. This planet was discovered on a scientific expedition through the Iconian Gateway,” several murmurs from COs were allowed. It was no secret there were a number of officers in the Fleet who would not even consider an opportunity to go through the gateway on missions. “I know the varying sceptical opinions regarding the gateway which is why I have never forced any of you to explore through without volunteering. In many ways I’m glad none from the 14th Fleet have as it has allowed for us to perfect the technology, which I am assured is prime for use, Commander Jezebel?”

Steve moved aside to take his seat, allowing the Commander from the Gateway Control Station to take the stand and explain further. She went on to inform the officers of the latest advancements; the beacon that controlled the opening and closing of the gateway was fully functional with help from Vulcan scientists using Borg technology previously kept classified. And now, another gateway had been found. The original was large enough for a Galaxy Class starship to get through, with room for wider and taller at that, but the latest was personnel sized, roughly 5m in diameter at it’s widest point,  just over 4m at it’s thinnest point. Jezebel confirmed the suspicions that many had held – the additional power to the Control station was to keep the gateway hidden from those unauthorised which had worked. Luckily. With finding the smaller gateway the resources were much smaller than that for the first larger and progress was quicker. A smaller gateway control beacon had been constructed, which was now being installed in all Colony-assigned personnel commbadges and Flag ranking officers’ to act as an ID beacon to confirm they were Starfleet. This beacon was also fully-functional to keep the link between gateways open – yet another advancement. If a gateway was opened but only at one end, then the past was lost once closed. But, if one end was linked to another, it could be re-opened.

“Which,” Steve stood to take the floor again, “is where Planet 45604 comes in. We have established a Colony; Colony Aurora. At that end is a fully working gateway which has been locked in for re-opening and another Gateway Control Utility established. Some may note that Admiral Morgan is not currently present… he is heading up the team on Aurora.” The Admiral stopped, they were already nearly 50 minutes into the meeting and the information hadn’t stopped coming. Time for questions.

“Before we continue, does anyone have anything they wish to ask about what has been said so far? I know there is a lot to take in, and there is more yet to come too.”

TAG: ALL

OOC: Apologies, post written whilst running the restaurant so may not make sense in places or rambles – hence the Q&A!