Double Senior Staff Briefing

Posted on Sat Jul 18th, 2026 @ 6:35pm by Lieutenant Darla Kennings & Captain Adrian Kellan & Commander Colton Rogers & Lieutenant Commander Robert Brant & Lieutenant Commander Casey Virel & Lieutenant Rayven Mist PhD & Lieutenant JG Zaire Byrne-Solwick & Lieutenant JG Kaayu Shir & Lieutenant JG Aurora Winters

1,625 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 2: Mine of Taurus
Location: Briefing Room
Timeline: A Few Hours After Rescue

The Scharnhorst transporter activated once again, and a cluster of newcomers appeared on the transporter pad. Captain Anderson stepped off the transporter pad and nodded to the transporter chief, then turned to smile at the person she wanted to see most. "Hello Darla," she said, smiling.

Darla smiled back and hugged her godmother tightly. "Welcome back, Captain," she said.

"Thank you, Dear," Nicole said.

Once she finally let go, Darla grinned and went and hugged the next Human in line. "Hey, Penny," she said, brightly.

"Heya, kid," Penny said, grinning. "Good to see you again."

Darla gave a warm smile to the Human and Vulcan who stepped down off the padd. "Welcome to the Scharnhorst," she said.

Commander Sorek nodded politely, raising his hand in a traditional salute. "Peace and Long Life," he said, calmly. Commander Alexis Price smiled and nodded as well. "Thank you for the assist," she said.

Darla returned the salute and smiled at Commander Price. "You're very welcome."

The final member hadn't moved and Darla's eyes flicked up towards him. He was a tall, physically imposing Orion with scars across his face to his ears. His eyes were obscured by a large, obsidian band across the upper part of his face, and his security uniform was covered in a gold mesh studded with dozens of small jewels.

"Hello, Darla said. "Welcome to the Scharnhorst." The Orion turned slightly to face her, but didn't offer more than a curt nod.

"Lieutenant K'ahn is not the chatty type," Penny said in a stage whisper. "I'm working on him, though."

Lieutenant K'ahn gave a grunt and while his eyes weren't visible, the implied roll was felt.

"See?" Penny said, grinning. "A few months ago, he wouldn't even have grunted.

"All right, stow it," Nicole said, then turned back to Darla. "Are we ready to begin the briefing?"

"Yes, the senior staff should be in the briefing room by now," Darla said, then looked at the whole group. "If you'll all follow me."

She led the procession down the corridor and to the briefing room. As they stepped inside, she saw the heads of the senior staff turn to face her. "Everyone, may I present Captain Nicole Anderson of the USS Herophilos."

Nicole inclined her head. "This is my First Officer, Commander Naroot; my Chief Science Officer, Commander Sorek; my Chief Engineer, Commander Price; and my Chief of Security, Lieutenant K'ahn," she said, gesturing to each officer. "Thank you for having us."

"Commander Rogers." Colton identified himself. "First officer on the Scharnhorst. " He nodded at Penny who he had met before.

"Lieutenant Rayven Mist Chief Science Officer," Rayven replied.

"Lieutenant Aurora Winters, Chief Counselor," Aurora introduced,

“Lieutenant Commander Casey Virel,” said Casey, raising his ever-present coffee mug in salute. “Chief Operations Officer. Welcome aboard.”

Adrian just sat there as he let his senior staff introduce themselves. He had already met nicole, even though he hadn't met most of her senior staff, he wanted to let his senior staff go first.

Zaire spoke next. "Lieutenant Junior Grade Byrne-Solwick." He said with a smile. "Chief Engineer." His eyes then went to the captain to see what happened next.

(Tag the last few introductions)

"Doctor it's been 3 hours, we have a lot of people in this room waiting for some needed answers, what has your investigation found?" Adrian asked, has he looked over to Nicole and to the rest of her senior staff and then over to his own crew.

As the rest of the guests moved to stand in the back of the room, Nicole walked to the front of the room and brought up an overlay of the area. “Here are the facts we have thus far:

“The USS Becquerel was assigned as a research vessel to Taurus II three years ago, one of a series of science ships whose official mission was to study the unusual radiation of the Taurus system star, and the surrounding planets. Unofficially, they’re a patrol ship, navigating the system and periodically a bit further into the sector, waiting to see if any of the Taureans return to the planet, or any of their ancestors come looking for them. Given they claimed to be the last survivors of a dead world, the possibility of contact was slim, but Starfleet didn’t want to take the chance of missing out.”

She pulled up an overlay of her ship’s flightpath. “We received a distress call from the Becquerel yesterday, and altered course to respond. Thanks to Commanders Naroot and Rogers looking over the data, we’ve now confirmed it was a legitimate distress call from that ship. When we reached this point here,” she brought up a red circle on the screen, “we encountered a hostile ship. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was laying mines.”

She cleared the flight plan and brought up a grid of the sector, overlaying it with several red dots. “With the combined data of Commanders Rogers, Naroot and Brant, and some sensor tweaks from Commander Sorek and Lieutenant Mist, we’ve established this grid as a minefield being laid by the assailants, the center of which is Taurus II.”

She hit another button and another path moved through the field. “Commander Brant is confident that now that we have an idea of where the mines are, he can navigate through the field and reach the center, and we can determine what these people are doing on the planet.”

She switched screens to the sensor logs and viewscreen images from her ship. “It’s not a recognizable ship form. It’s large, it has Klingon disruptors, but also Romulan disruptors. Its shields have Andorian frequencies, and the engines don’t have a clear signature and look welded on. In short, it’s a hodgepodge of stolen technology, not even remotely looking like its original self.”

She put her hands behind her back and looked over the assembled teams. “Starfleet cannot get another ship here to deal with the situation in any reasonable time. If we’re to figure out what’s going on, it’s up to us. My ship can assist once Commander Price gives the repairs her seal of approval. She’s estimating it will take…” she looked at the Engineer, raising an eyebrow.

“Twenty hours,” Alexis said from where she was standing.

“About that long,” Nicole said. “If are able to scout ahead and see what the lay of the land is, that will give us an edge.” She looked at Robert. “How long will it take you to reach the planet?”

Robert did the calculations in his head again and gave a slight shrug. "Juts under three hours."

Nicole nodded. “Questions?”

"It sounds like a sound plan." Zaire spoke up. "I will be monitoring our engines and the surrounding area diligently from engineering. Two eyes are better than one."

"I know a cyclops who might disagree with you," Nicole said with a wry smile. "But I'll take every advantage I can get."

"And if the assailants show up while we are steering around these mines." Colton said to Captain Kellan. "It could become interesting." He wasn't afraid of a fight if they had to take one on, he was just making certain all angles were covered.

"I have sent you what data we have on their ship and it's capabilities," Lieutenant K'ahn said.

"I'll keep sensors on a continuing sweep, if anything is out there sensors should find it," Rayven responded.

Casey tapped his right index finger several times on the table. "You will need additional computer processing power, Doctor Mist. I can see to that."

Kaayu was listening to the others as she kept quiet over all what's going on. She didn't have much to say at the moment at the meeting.

"Have we studied the mines? I'm a little worried about going back into the system not knowing after more minefield waiting for us. And we cannot assume that they don't have cloaking technology." Adrian pointed out to everyone. "I don't want to get caught off guard. Doctor Anderson still has the lead on this mission, but the overall safety of our ship and Captain Anderson's ship is top priority."

"Nothing we've seen indicates a cloak," Penny said. "They didn't bother with one when they confronted us, and they didn't use one to get away. Either they don't have that technology or they're very confident."

"Given the relative positioning of the mines," Commander Sorek said, "it would be logical to assume they did not hide further cloaked ones that would risk cutting off their ability to navigate as well. I am relatively confident that our path to the planet is secure."

Nicole's eyes were boring into Lt. Shir, waiting for her to speak up, but when nothing was forthcoming, she gave a mental shrug and looked back to Captain Kellan. "Well, there we have it. Do you think you can get us some information on what's happening at the planet and avoid trouble for twenty-three hours?"

"It's your mission Captain; we'll follow your lead," Adrian said, knowing her ship had the lead. Temporarily Darla was helping Nicole, and being their main point of contact.

"All right, then," Nicole said. "Captain, please investigate Taurus II and find out who these people are and what they are doing there. Try not to engage unless it is unavoidable. We will join you as soon as we are able."

"Y'all heard Captain Anderson. Number One, prepare to head into the Taurus system," Adrian said as he looked over to Colton. "Let's get some answers." Adrian said as the scene fades away.

END

 

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