Assessment Meeting

Posted on Tue Oct 5th, 2021 @ 9:02pm by Captain Dirk Taggart & Lieutenant Commander Arianna Sky Kamar & Major Naomi Sylan Griffiths & Lieutenant Shri'Rao Sh'veqan & Lieutenant Commander James Trallos MD & Lieutenant JG Simon Hunter & Lieutenant JG Vespa Kale & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD

Mission: Buyer's Beware
Location: Observation Lounge
Timeline: 24 hours after arriving in orbit - 0845

It was 0845 the morning after they entered the orbit of Ketram. The away missions had returned with some parts and information. Captain Dirk Taggart called the meeting to give the Department Heads a chance to share what they had been able to find, and what was needed to attempt to trade for today. He had been early to the meeting and took a seat at the head of the table, Dirk enjoyed the opportunity for small talk before meetings. He had known some Captain's that would enter the meeting at the last minute and leave as soon as it was over. This was not the type of leader he was or wanted to be.

He took a sip of the hot coffee in his mug, it was a black cup with a gold engraving of the outline of a Nebula Class Starship with the name of the USS Pennsylvania in block letters beneath it. as he took a sip he could see the hidden letters engraved inside, 'From Abby.' He set the mug down and pulled up the list of items they had compiled from the previous meeting and was hoping to be able to check off most of the items. The noise of the opening door drew his attention away.

Walking in with a large mug of hot tea in her hand and Padd in the other and despite being sleepy Naomi was impeccably dressed, she took a sip of her tea as she entered the room and took her seat, she looked up from her mug "morning Captain" she said.

Taggart nodded, "Good morning, Major."

The doctor then came in a little more alert than usual. He was up earlier than normal for a minor injury but was feeling a little more chipper for some odd reason. He made a mental note to check his blood work when he got back to sick bay. "Morning Captain, Major." He said and took a chair across from the Major. He sat down and his lab coat got in the way. He stood a quick and pulled it out some and sat more comfortably now that he had full range of motion in his arms.

"Morning Doc," Taggart replied, "Not too many shore leave injuries I hope," he said with a chuckle.

"Morning Jim, I trust all has gone well with shore leave injuries or lack of them?" Griffiths said taking another si of her tea.

The doctor shook his head. "Nothing major, Major. Was quiet while I was gone and quiet when I got back. The way I like it."

Shri'Rao arrived next wearing her sunglasses looking every bit a gamer on the prowl.

Griffiths looked at the Andorian "very festive Lieutenant, must remember to change into civilian attire before we go down to the planet" Griffith responded.

Camille was next, not wanting to arrive late to her first department head meeting. Most around the table she hadn’t met yet, but she smiled and waved to them all before finding a seat.

as Simon entered the meeting he said," Morning everyone," as he held a hot mug of coffee in his hand he continued, " I hope everyone had a good nights sleep," as he had been up half the night finishing operations reports from his section chiefs and their evaluations of the teams that should have been done months ago. As he took his seat he wondered if any of his staff were overworked and if so they needed rest days.


The captain waited a few moments for any stragglers before speaking. "We have a couple of personnel changes before we get started. Lieutenant Commander Rouni, our 2XO and Chief Helm has taken another position and has transferred off of the Penn. I would like to introduce all of you to Lieutenant Levesque, who is our new Chief Science Officer. Please take some time to meet her when the meeting concludes."

Camille gave the rest of the crew a small smile and a wave with her fingers.

Taggart looked at his PADD a moment before continuing, "Doctor Trallos and I ran shuttles most of the day yesterday, we did meet with a couple of the local dignitaries but didn't really get a good feel for anything going on down there on Ketram. I'd like to start with our XO and Chief of Security. Major, what did you ladies find out yesterday?"

Looking a little startled "IT is like a version of Old Las Vegas down there, the currency they use is called 76, but they are not First Contact species as there are numerous aliens on the planet, we do not seem to know which species is native to the planet" Griffiths said then looked over to the Security Chief "over to you Chief" she said with a smile.

"Once we beamed down, we both took note of the local area. Trying to blend in with local inhabitants. It wasn't really necessary as this seemed to be a resort community. I believe the reason they don't want technology down there is that it is less a planet for colonization as it is a gambling chancery. As far as we could discern everyone was equal but obviously the more money you had to spend the more equal you are. The local politics seems to be an oligarchy of the 50 richest families. Major Griffiths and I gambled and generally won, the more we won the more attention we attracted. Soon after we won 10 times what we beamed down with, we attracted the attention of a drunken slate ambassador, His name was Tamaal."

"He was a rather heavy drinker who could give a Klingon a run for his money. At least that's how he presented himself. We were soon at his table being celebrated for luck and ability to gamble, carouse and have fun. Turns out Naomi is pretty good at a game called 7/11 and I am a natural at Sabaac. He in turn introduced us to his friends which seemed to be several heads of state and ministers in and out of the local system. We asked where one might acquire parts and systems for a starship, and they told us about the Kairn who were shipbuilders and natural miners like the Tellarites. The only problem is that they are very xenophobic so we would have to go through intermediaries to deal with them, and that is if they had what we needed. We met representatives of Enari Prime a warp-capable species. they were there on vacation, though it was unclear if their tech level was on par with ours."

"There were also representatives of the Sikaran's there as well, but they used something called a projector to get to this Vegas in space. It was very unclear, however. This projector they use seems to be something like an Iconian portal, They step through and they are there. They claimed their planet was over 25, 000 light-years away. We also met representatives of Taresia, they claim to have advanced Polaron technology, powerful enough to protect their whole planet with defensive shielding. They are a Matriarchy and all their males are slaves. They were all on vacation and were pretty drunk though. Major Griffiths and I were invited back and given a voucher for a stay in their luxury presidential suite for a week. The cuisine was luxurious and amenities were above any standard I'd ever seen, including Risa." Shri'Rao said.

Shri'Rao put down over 75,000G in 76's in bricks...

"Back to you Exec," Shri'Rao said.

Still, in her comfy shoes, jeans, blouse and leather jacket, her hair was in a ponytail at this point she first looked at the Security Chief then to the Captain "Wow, that is a lot, I posing as a police officer I sought out the darker side of the nightlife and boy is there a nightlife Captain, I had to use some of my funds to buy some information, ironically it was from some drug dealers, there is a particularly potent narcotic that is like the old human drug Meth, I think they called it Sigkriad, the universal translator had a little trouble translating that, but for the sake of ease I have decided to call it Meth" Griffiths said and paused to see if the Captain had anything to say before she continued.

"Please continue, Major," Taggart said as he made notes.

"So, I found that two of the planets council members have dealings with this alien Meth, one is hooked on it, the other is the distributor, the dealer would not give me the names, I could not get them out of him by offering all I had on me, so we have a large drug ring with two crooked Senators, one is a drug addict the other distributes the stuff," she said then looked sad as she looked down.


Taggart wasn't surprised at the news, he'd been security for diplomats visiting Earth, there were quite a few skeletons in those closets. He made further notes as the Major continued speaking.

At the prompting she looked back up "we will not be able to speak to the dealer contact, as when I went to find the Lieutenant I heard that a rival gang had shot him, so that line is dead, but I tell you Captain that planet is like the storied I heard about old Las Vegas on earth back in Prohibition days, it is a powder keg waiting to blow. Sadly most of the Peace Officers, is what the locals call the police down there are corrupt, there are a few honest Officers, but they are not in a position to do anything, and that is what I found out" Griffiths finished.


Taggart took notes as they spoke, "A drunk Slate Ambassador, that's intriguing, also I'd not heard of a portal like that before for the Taresia. Please be sure to document what you both saw, you never know when it will be useful information." As their conversation wrapped up Captain Taggart made some notes on his PADD. "Ok Commander Kamar-Sky, I didn't notate who you went ashore with but I was hoping we could discuss what you were able to find."

"Not much in the way of parts. I did find however certain components for my missing warp coils. They are not an exact match but, I believe I can work them into the coil housing giving us a better speed. I also found some of the optical wirings, but I found it strange that it was an exact match to what I was looking for," Arianna remarked *looking at Taggart*

"So you have some wiring for the coil housing, that is outstanding, What do we need to be looking for today?" asked the Captain.

"Today is the day I need to find the parts to fix several replicators, especially our industrial replicator. Also some detueruim and antimatter. Found we had a small leak that hurt but needs to be replaced. I could use some titanuim to replace some of the patches on the inner hull plating," Arianna said.

"All right, let's make a note on that and see if we can get the industrial replicator fixed first. I think that's the priority," Taggart said.

Next the captain looked around the table and checked his list, "It appears that Lieutenant's Vespa and Hart are not here." This wasn't like their normal behavior, they were both responsible officers. A rising fear grew in the pit of his stomach.

=/\= Lieutenant Hart and Lieutenant Vespa, report to the observation lounge immediately.=/\=

He waited a few minutes but heard no response, the silence growing in the lounge was turning into tension.

=/\=Security, check the quarters of Lieutenant Vespa & Hart immediately=/\= the Captain ordered.

A few minutes later a young-sounding Ensign with a thick accent reported back, =/\=Captain Taggart, both of their quarters are empty, their beds look like they've not been slept in. =/\=

With growing fear in his gut for his officers, the Captain began to attempt to take control of the situation. "It appears that the Counselor and Assistant Chief of Science did not return last night. We need to return to the surface and figure out where they are."

“Do the planet’s countermeasures against technology block sensors from orbit?” Camille asked. She had not had the opportunity to see her bridge station yet, or handle any of the ship’s sensor arrays. She had taken the opportunity to skim the files of the ship’s senior officers and many members of her own department. “Lieutenant Kale might be difficult to find, but if we can get clear enough sensor resolution, a half-Human, half-Betazoid should be detectable. Maybe not precisely but it would give us somewhere to start.”

The doctor glanced around and thought for a moment. "Doctor Lévesque may be on to something Captain. What if we took a shuttle and modified its sensors for maximum range and resolution and activated them on the landing pad? That should help some assuming they did not get too far around the planet. Might let us get at least some sensor power below the dampening field. He looked at Lévesque, Sky-Kamar and then to the Captain and shrugged. "Out of my field if it will work, but it's what I got at the moment."

"Why don't we continue this on the bridge where we can continue discussing the absence of Hart and Kale, while we work our way through this.," without waiting for a response Captain Taggart stood and exited the room and headed to the bridge.