First Department Meeting

Posted on Fri Jul 26th, 2019 @ 2:17pm by Lieutenant Commander Arianna Sky Kamar & Major Naomi Sylan Griffiths & Lieutenant Commander Yarinna "Fanthom" Hawkins & Lieutenant Malik Bancroft & Lieutenant Thegog Grun & Lieutenant JG Ryan North

Mission: Onboarding & Departure
Location: Observation Deck
Timeline: Episode 01 Day 005 Evening

Frank stood in the observation lounge, through the open windows the Starbase could be seen as well as other ships coming and going. Frank had called the meeting to make sure all of his Department Heads were on the same page and knew what was going to be taking place. There were trays of finger foods laid out on a couple of the tables and glasses of champagne for the obligatory first toast. Stroking his beard as he chewed on his unlit cigar, Frank swelled with pride and nervous excitement. In just a few moments his Officers would be arriving and he would be laying out the ship's transit timeline. His thoughts were interrupted as the door chimed and someone entered.

Arianna walked in, "Fra....er...Captain, Pleasure is all mine", she said walking to shake his hand.

Yarinna was right behind her, "Captain, Lt. Cmdr. Yarinna "Fanthom" Hawkins, reporting in sir", she said extending her hand.

Frank shook hands with both ladies, "It's nice to see you Lieutenant Commander Sky and to meet you, Lieutenant Commander Hawkins. Welcome Aboard. Please grab a snack and a drink, the others will be entering shortly. "

Thegog walked in with a PADD in his hands. He was frantically typing away. He barely took a second to look up to see others in the room. "Captain, Lieutenants." He then walked over to the food and absentmindedly started shoving things into his mouth between peck at the PADD.

Yarinna and Arianna were talking as they walked over to the tables where the snacks were. They had met before and were deep in a conversation about fighter skills.

"Arianna, I did tell you that I would be happy to teach you to fly in my off hours", Yarinna said.

"Yarinna, I know you did but don't you think it would be better to first show me how in the holodeck?", Arianna asked.

Then both busted out laughing together somewhat loudly.

Finally arriving Naomi enters and replicates a Bear Claw and a Raktajino and takes her seat close to the Captain she nodded to those who looked at her as she passed them, but for now, she remained quiet.

Ryan entered the observation deck and glanced around. He had never really gotten the hang of these sort of gatherings, though he blamed the M.A.C.Os for that. He crossed the room, mentally taking an inventory of who was all there and who had yet to arrive.

Thegog glanced up for a second away from his PaDD to see Ryan enter. He punched a few things in and walked over to him. "You are the Chief Science Officer, yes?" Without waiting for an answer. "Good, I would like to talk to you about procedures. I am Thegog the Chief Operations Officer, and I feel we will be working together quite a bit. Can we schedule something?" He said as he pulled up his calendar on the PaDD and looked back at the Science Officer waiting for a response.

Ryan cocked an eyebrow. Luckily, his time in the MACOs had him server with several Telleraite officers. He found them up frontness exceedingly refreshing.

"I can check my schedule when I get back to the lab," Ryan said. "I'm Lt. North by the way."

"Ah, yes, pleasantries." He said with a bit of a frustrated sigh. "I am Lieutenant Thegog Grun, but you can just call me Thegog, or Grung. Formalities are for when we are wearing dress uniforms. I will follow up with you after the meeting so we can get that scheduled." He finishes that sentence as he is already turning and walking away.

Mali entered the observation lounge. Getting himself a small plate of snacks he sat down and silently began observing everyone and their interactions with each other.

Frank picked up a champagne glass, as an Ensign carried the tray of glasses among the officers, tapping the glass he called for everyone's attention. "Good Evening Ladies, Gentlemen, and Marine," he said with a smile as he looked at his XO. He waited a moment for the laughter to die down before continuing.

Naomi simply gave him a less than amused raised eyebrow and stern look.

"I wanted to welcome each of you onboard Pennsylvania. As each of you knows we are heading into the Delta Quadrant once the refit is completed. According to my meeting earlier today with the Chief Engineer over Refits, he said that they will be finished in 48 hours. Once the refit is completed we will take the ship out into friendly space and give everything a test run, weapons systems, engines, and we're going to put her through her paces. We will return to SB11 to fix any discrepancies before we leave for the Graviton Catapult.

Our mission into the Delta Quadrant is to continue to expand Starfleet's knowledge and understanding of the area. Our primary focus will be mapping new areas and making contact with races friendly to Starfleet to learn as much as we can. Our path may not always be easy which is why we have Major Griffiths on board with us. Her tactical knowledge will be invaluable as we face the unknown. We will also have a small Marine detachment on board consisting of fifty personnel to assist with security and away missions. There are also a few pilots attached to the ship, after this meeting the Chief engineer will remove them from the ship. I don't know who replicated the 20th-century duct tape to place them there but let's not have that again," Frank said with a chuckle.

"I know I have been a bit long-winded, but I want to finish by thanking all of you for being here, and with that let's lift our glasses in a toast," Frank lifted his glass and said, "To Pennsylvania, her crew, and the unknown!" Frank took a drink of his champagne then asked, "Before we conclude does anyone have any questions or comments?"

Thegog drank his champagne down in one gulp and went over to the window to look at the taped on pilots.

After taking an offered glass Naomi raised it along with the others "I have something Captain, if I may?" she asked

Frank lifted his glass as a salute to Naomi, “Proceed Major.”

Standing up and clearing her throat, she turned to face those assembled and hid her nerves, she was doing something that she had only done once in her Command course at the Academy "For those of you that I have spoken to, you know me, for those that I have not spoken to, you may be wondering why there is a Marine as the ships First Officer, essentially we are going into a hostile Quadrant and having a combat-experienced First Officer SFMC High Command believes will aid Captain Kamar in the advice, when required. First off a little about me, I will not bite unless I am given cause I am approachable and will carry out my First Officer duties as a Fleet Officer would, this is my first ship command so to speak and I feel honoured that I have an experienced Captain as my boss" she paused and took a sip.

"I am originally part of the 95th Rifle Regiment *points to the white band around her shoulders* this indicates that I was awarded the White Cord of Courage, I am by trade a Rifleman, but on this ship this means little, here I am simply your first Officer who will do her best for the entire crew, my duty is to the ship and you all and to that end I will do my best for us all as we venture forth into the Delta Quadrant.. Cheers" she said at the end holding up her glass "If there are any questions, feel free to ask them now" she added and thought to herself oO by the Prophets I hope that sounded good Oo she remained standing for a bit.

Thegog raised his hand. "I'm sorry, Captain I think we have a problem. It appears the pilots have become unattached from the ship and floated away. I don't see them." He looked a little concerned. "Should I scan for their life signs? Oh no. Were they even wearing EVA suits?" He then went back to looking out the window trying to spot one.

Naomi Looked confused "huh!" she exclaimed lowering her glass and looking at Kamar "how in the name of the Prophets did the pilots come unattached from the ship? I thought they were inside the ship?" she asked Kamar.

Frank chuckled, "It was a joke Major and Lieutenant Grun, on earth it is standard to use humour or sarcasm to break up a serious moment. The only pilots we have are inside the ship or the starbase. We only have a couple of them, they'll mostly be flying either the scout vessel or the science vessel, we won't have a full fighter wing," Frank explained.

Thegog gave the Commander a look of frustration and a harrumph. "Earther humour. I think it loses something in the translation." He then went back to were he was standing at the buffet and started eating again.

He then paused in mid-chew and with a full mouth. "Sir, I have a question." He realized we were spitting food everywhere and took a moment to finish chewing and swallowing. There was an awkwardly long silence while did this. Finally, "How close do we anticipate we will get to Borg space?"

"To be honest Lieutenant Grun, I'm not entirely sure, our overall mission is to map the unknown areas of the Quadrant. There is every possibility we may find Borg, but I would not lose sleep over it if I were you. Any other questions?" Frank asked.

She looked at Kamar as he responded to Grun "human humour, even with me being half-human I have trouble with such humour" she said to Kamar.

“I don’t always get either Major, but I do try. Human humor is like a broken clock, it’s right twice a day,” Frank said with a smile.

Yarinna stuck her head out from behind Arianna's back, "Captain....no fighters? What are you going to do with my fighter that is already onboard?", she asked worried.

"It will most likely be used as a scouting vessel, going forward," Frank replied. “Last chance, does anyone have anything else?”

"Another question sir." Thegog blurted out again. "Can you explain this catapult thing." He looked out the window in the direction of the catapult. "Is it safe?"

“It is safe and while I don’t know all of the science behind it I believe it uses a nearby planet’s gravity in the Iota system to basically launch a ship like a rock from a catapult, making a trip that would normally take years, now takes days. Now then We have 48 hours to prepare our departments for our departure, I want everyone prepared to test every ship system and piece of gear once we leave the starbase, if everything works normally we will head for the graviton catapult. Let me say again thank you for coming to the Penn, I look forward to traveling onward to the stars with each of you. Please feel free to mingle and meet, but the official part of this meeting is over.”