The Illusion of Isolation
Posted on Thu Sep 24th, 2020 @ 3:50pm by Lieutenant JG Saffiya Hadat
Mission:
Discovery
Location: [OOC: to be decided] Tabula Risa
Timeline: Pre-launch/shore leave
ON:
Saffiya stretched her shoulders, an ache still niggled where she'd over extended during that mornings gym session. It was an old trick a Marine had taught her, lower the local G and intesify the training. Though, perhaps, she had over done it this morning. She took in a moment to take in her surroundings.
The shuttle craft rested on a narrow plateau between some striking snow-capped mountains and wooded and overgrown, steep sided gulley’s and valleys that ran down to the azure sea below. Apart from the breeze rustling the treetops it was eerily quiet.
Though the illusion of silent isolation was broken by the echo of voices carrying up from the beach on a salt-heavy breeze.
Saffiya had arrived at the Penn while most of the crew were on planet-side R&R and, after dropping off her travel bag and meagre belongings in her new quarters, she’d gained permission from the Beta Shift acting CO to take a shuttle down to the planet.
She turned as she heard footsteps on the loose scree and gravel to see who had managed to find her. She felt relaxed as Saffiya had checkied the planet’s strange bio-signs, fauna and topography there was nothing here that warranted a phaser or other sidearm.
Frank had received an advanced notice that the Pennsylvania’s new Mission Advisor was headed down to the planet’s surface. He walked over to the clearing that served as the shuttle landing area and watched a young woman egress the craft and immediately scan her surroundings, *definitely some tactical training or experience there* he thought to himself as he approached her.
She looked down at this short, bearded individual and it took some imagination to see that he was the Captain of a Nebula Class starship though, for once, she kept her thoughts to herself.
“Greetings Captain… You found me” Saffiya said, keeping her tone neutral though she raised an eyebrow. She had hoped for some time to herself. ‘Oh well’ she thought.
“Welcome to Tabula Rasa, Lieutenant; I trust your journey here was uneventful” Frank began, “I’m Captain Kamar, and I’m here to officially welcome you to the crew of the Pennsylvania. It’s a bit unusual to meet up on shore leave like this, but I appreciate your flexibility.”
"Good morning yourself, Captain. I needed some fresh air after being cooped up on transports and, on the way here, the USS Aurora's had little in the way of leg room for a supply ship" Saffiya replied.
“Good Morning, Frank said as the woman finished speaking ,”There’s never enough leg room on a supply ship, but now that you’re here leg room won’t be an issue.”
"To be honest, Captain, my posting as Mission Advisor to the Penn was a little... vague. So I appreciate you taking your time to meet me and answer a few questions" Saffiya said hoping it didn't sound to blunt to her new CO.
“I understand, Starfleet tends to assign roles and titles and they don’t always define the job duties. As a Mission Advisor Aboard the Penn, you will have the second highest security clearance on the ship, only the command staff, which is currently the XO and myself have a higher clearance. Your role is to help watch the bigger picture, prevent tunnel vision so to speak. Your role is to basically help us figure out the worse case scenarios and mitigate it as much as possible. We have a pretty young crew aboard the ship and we need someone with your experience to help us. I apologize for prattling on, please feel free to ask anything you wish.”
"I've been studying the Delta Quadrant, well those aprts that the Penn is set to study and map on our mission course" Saffiya replied. "To be honest I have a personal interest in our mission destination. You may not be aware though my brother was aboard the USS Belisarius. The ship was lost with all hands some three years ago" she explained.
"I did read that in your Service record last night, I also saw that they've not found any traces of the Belisarius, you have my condolences," the Captain replied sincerely.
"As you know my previous roles have been in Tactical and Security and I would be happy to help out without stepping on Lt Sh'veqan's toes or undermining her authority" Saffiya added.
"Thank you Lieutenant, I do look forward to working with you and having you along with us. Maybe we will get lucky and find some trace of the Belisarius eventually, the Delta Quadrant is a large place though," Frank replied.
