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Deep Freeze

Posted on Tue Jan 20th, 2015 @ 7:55am by Captain Enalia Telvan & Aewia Larani & Lieutenant Commander Aelyn Radt & Lieutenant Commander Trevor St. John III & Lieutenant Richard Lockheart & Commander Angelica Fairchild & Lieutenant Ventarus Nosplet & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi

Mission: Reman Z
Location: Conference Room

Heading out onto the bridge from her ready room, Enalia walked out to the area between the 2 forward consoles and handed a PaDD to the ensign at the helm. "Set course for these coordinates. Warp 8. Have the people listed report to the briefing room as soon as possible."

Turning on her heels, Enalia headed straight back to the conference to await the arrival of the others. A few of them were optional, but she needed to see Nexi, Aewia, her new XO and CMO, her chief of security, and her ops chief. The fewer that knew about this, the better and that was her list of people she thought needed to know for now.

Getting a cup of tea, Enalia sat down at the head of the conference table to wait for everyone to arrive, looking over another PaDD. This wasn't how she liked doing meetings, but the sooner it was over, the better.

And fortunately Trevor had not been in the middle of any sort of major treatment when he received the summons to the briefing room for a meeting with the Captain. Making sure to save his work and close his console, he got to his feet and left sickbay in the hands of his nurses, and then headed for the briefing room. He arrived a short time later, cup of coffee in one hand and a PaDD. in the other. "Captain." he said as he walked in, moving to take his seat at the conference table.

Having been on the bridge when Enalia came out, Angelica was surprised to see her summons appear on her console as text rather than Enalia just asking her to follow just then. Whatever was going on, it was something strange. Paging one of her officers up to take over the tactical console, she went into the conference room a moment later. Already there was a human male with a teal collar, the new doctor they'd picked up. That was odd. How had he gotten from sickbay to the conference room so fast?

Aelyn left her office upon receiving the summons and headed for the bridge, crossing it swiftly to arrive at the conference room. Taking a seat at Enalia's right side, she looked to her Captain questioningly. Aelyn was still getting caught up on the recent events, but she felt confident that she could get through a briefing without an update first.

Enalia wasn't saying anything, a grim expression on her face. Setting the PaDD she had been looking at on the table, she slid it over to Aelyn. It contained the entire mission briefing regarding the Romulan virus cold storage and research facility R-134A. It wasn't going to be pretty. Once again, she'd be asking an away team to volunteer for a probable one way mission. "As soon as the last three get here, I'll start."

Aelyn simply nodded and took the PaDD, looking it over as they waited for the last three...

Ven came in only moments later. He was glad to see he was not the last one. He took his seat while nodding to everyone. "Captain..." he said to Enalia.

Richard entered quietly, nodding to the captain before sitting down in his chair.

It took a while longer for the last two individuals called to arrive. The door to the conference room opened, but no one entered. The occupants of the room could see a couple of shadows in the doorway, but they weren't entering.

"It's okay, I promise, you're not in trouble," Nexi said to her sister to try to coax her into the room.

Aewia wasn't having any of that though. "No. I remember what they do. Conference rooms are bad. People yell in them. I don't want to be yelled at anymore."

"What if I told you it wasn't a conference room? Would you go in there if it was a... um... a dining room? I know you just ate, but they're... they got pie and ice cream in there," Nexi said, hoping someone in there would hear her and take the hint to get some pie and ice cream for Aewia.

Which Enalia was inclined to do, getting up and punching the order into the replicator. Betazoid berry pie topped with chocolate fudge ice cream. Taking the plate and sitting back down, Enalia had it ready for Aewia.

Aewia, on the other hand, was starting to come around to the idea of entering the room. "You say it's a dining room... but it feels like a conference room. There's really pie and ice cream inside? And no one will yell?"

"I promise, no yelling," Nexi assured her and tried once again to urge Aewia into the door.

The half-Caitian sitting to the right of the Captain had heard clearly this unusual exchange. Aelyn's ears were erect and twitching curiously. She leaned closer to Enalia and asked in a hushed tone, "Does it usually require bribery with pie and ice cream to get your crew into a staff meeting?"

Leaning in closer to Aelyn, Enalia whispered back. "First time that I know of."

Peering into the room, Aewia spotted the plate waiting for her. The ice broken, she went in and took the plate Enalia was holding out for her, taking a seat towards the end of the table. "Thank you."

Relieved that Aewia was finally cooperating, Nexi sat down beside her sister, dipping her finger into the ice cream for a scoop, then licking it off her finger. "Sorry we took so long getting up here, I had to frisk her for tribbles," Nexi offered in explanation for their tardiness.

Enalia smiled softly at Nexi and Aewia. "Understandable. There seem to be a lot of them on the ship for some reason." Clearing her throat, she started the meeting. "Thanks to Aewia we now know what we're looking for and where it is. The Romulans have a virus cold storage and research station deep in a nebula where they're developing a virus that can mobilize corpses as soldiers. It seems to be based on a cross between Borg nanotech and a virus that a race in the Delta Quadrant uses for reproduction. Last night a probe was launched and the location and defenses of the station has been confirmed. There's thankfully no guard ship in sight, though there is an antique Romulan ship docked with the station. There's minimal weaponry on the station, but the shielding and armor seems to be pretty thick over most of the station. We'll again need an away team to go in and destroy the research and data. Resistance is expected to be light so I'm asking all of you to go. The down side is that you'll have to wear EV suits. Any questions so far?"

EV suits? Somehow, Angelica managed to maintain her composure and not groan. "Just the big one... what sort of weapons do we think are going to work against reanimated corpses?" Oh lord, that sounded like a terrible horror movie. How could this be remotely real?

"Anything effective against Borg, I'd imagine. I'm authorizing one TR-116B be replicated for now. I advise everyone use physical and energy weapons for this mission. And please watch your aim." Enalia replied.

Gee, that's helpful. Angelica nodded slightly. "We'll manage. One of the weapons lockers has a few projectile pistols in it... I'll have to see if they still work."

Re-animation? What is this, Apocalypse now? Trevor thought, then sighed. "Am I going to be completely destroying this virus or does Starfleet want samples of it?" he asked, leaning back slightly in his chair now. "We have the facilities to maintain a virus in cold storage, but honestly I would prefer that we not do that if we don't have to."

"Are we certain it's wise to bring something like that back onto the ship?" Aelyn asked. "To a point, I can understand needing to study it so as to devise a way to stop its effects should it ever get loose among an unsuspecting population, but this isn't a science ship, we don't have the facilities for that kind of in depth study."

Nexi said nothing as she leaned back in her chair listening to the crew talk. All she could think about was why it was necessary to bring Aewia up here for this when it was just gonna upset her, though she seemed content with the pie for now. 'Fuck, for that matter, why am I here?' Nexi thought as she stole another bite of Aewia's ice cream. 'I ain't gonna be all that useful in an EV suit...'

"We have enough facilities for what we need to do. If it's feasible to contain a sample of it, do so. If there's any risk, destroy it. Destroy everything. I don't care if that means destroying the station itself. I'd just order the station destroyed from the Hera, but according to the probe, our complement of four tricobalt torpedoes wouldn't even scratch the surface of that station." Enalia said, looking to each person in turn. "The next order of business is the Romulan language. Does anyone here besides Aewia know how to read it?"

Hearing her name, Aewia looked up from her pie and ice cream. She was in the middle of offering Nexi a bite of pie. "I remember Romulan. Dirty nasty letters."

Nexi ate the bite of pie offered to her, then looked to Enalia. "I have a device that translates everything to Ferengi for me. Does that count?" Nexi said around a mouthful of pie.

"If it can translate Romulan medical jargon, sure." Enalia said, grinning at the 2 sisters.

Oh no. Both of them? Angelica didn't do as good of a job hiding her apprehension about that. From experience she knew Nexi was hard to work with, more like impossible to work with, really. And Aewia... yeah, this was shaping up to be one hell of a mission, and not in a good way.

Trevor sighed heavily. "I won't need help translating what I'm reading," he finally said after a few moments. "I have a working knowledge of the Romulan language. I'm not fluent enough to speak it, but I can read it."

Richard smirked. "I attended a few Vulcan language seminars when I was an ensign. Romulan and Vulcan aren't exactly the same, but Romulan originated from High Vulcan."

Angelica shook her head. "They're different enough that you won't be able to read it, Lockheart. A modern Vulcan can't even read it, that's how different it is."

"It would be akin to a human trying to read ancient Latin. Aewia, can we count on you to help with this away mission? You don't have to go, but I'd like you to be on the bridge watching over Nexi while she's on that station." Enalia said with a soft smile in Aewia's direction.

Aewia nodded, mouth full of pie. "I can watch. I can help too. I can even eat pie and pet tribbles."

Nodding, Enalia was satisfied with that answer. "Excellent then. Once we get there, we'll launch the away team in a shuttle while the Hera takes out any patrols or defenses. Other than Nexi, Doctor St. John, and Lt Fairchild, do any of the rest of you feel like going?"

Richard nodded his head at the question. "If you think another guy will help, I'll go with them."

They get a choice, huh? Angelica bit her lip, not sure she wanted to go, but she knew she wasn't granted the luxury of a choice in missions like this. She was always going to be the first choice, given her position on the ship. "Whether or not it helps will depend on what we find. And I have a feeling what we're going to find is a lot of things that need to be shot, so extra firepower might be beneficial."

"Excellent. You'll all have to know how to use kinetic projectile weapons in an environmental suit so try to get a little practice in. Fairchild, do you think you'll need a couple security crewmen as well?" Enalia was glad the meeting was going so well, though she wondered how.

"Yes," Angelica replied immediately. "We'll need someone watching our backs."

"Then fill the shuttle if you feel it's necessary." Enalia said grimly. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah," Nexi spoke up around another bite of pie that Aewia was force feeding her. "Why are we going in? If we know this place has this virus thing, why don't we just wipe the place off the map?"

"For 2 reasons. To make sure it's there and to destroy it. As I said earlier, none of the Hera's weapons can penetrate the hull of the station. You'll have to destroy it from within." Enalia explained.

"Good thing I'm good at blowing up shit," Nexi said with a crooked grin.

Ven had kept his head down and his mouth shut. He was in charge of keeping Hera running. Not to go running about a virus infected space station with possibly reanimated dead. Yeah, not a place for someone like Ven.

"If there's nothing else, you're all dismissed. We'll be at the station in 22 hours." Enalia said. She may have dismissed them but she herself made no moves to go anywhere.

"Anyone who needs to brush up on projectile weaponry should meet me at the firing range in ten minutes," Angelica said curtly, getting up from the table and heading for the door. They didn't have much time to spare, and if they wanted to practice, they'd better do it quick.

 

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