Everybody loves rules

Posted on Wed Feb 3rd, 2010 @ 2:09am by Commander Acle Walex & Lieutenant Commander Abigail Valera & Lieutenant JG James Riller & Lieutenant JG Lucas Jameson & Lieutenant JG Jourdan Abbott & Lieutenant Bradley Openhouse

Mission: Borderline Diplomacy
Location: USS Iapetus Conference Room
Timeline: MD07 - 1934hrs

Acle walked into the conference room and moved to stand behind a middle seat. He did not take the chair that was usually reserved for the Captain. He tapped his commbadge then spoke into it.

=/= Commander Valera, Lieutenants Abbott, Jameson, and Riller; and Petty Officer Williams report to the conference room. Doctor Openhouse, please attend as well.==

He paused, then nodded to himself as if in confirmation that he had everyone he needed before getting himself a cup of some steaming liquid.

Abigail sat in her office when she got the call. She called out and told Bonnie she was in charge before leaving. Upon entering the conference room she saw Acle there, "What's this meeting about Acle?" She took her seat and waited for the others to join.

...Ashley was in her room showering as a call came in to report to the conference room, so she decided to forgo her normal uniform and put on a black jumpsuit with her rank insignia on it and zipped up, then put her boots on, she decided to enter the room in style so she did a site to site transport to the Conference room itself. She waved at everyone and went over to the replicator to get a towel as she was in a hurry and didn't bother to dry it...

"Hey Commander." She said with a seductive smile on her face. She walked over to a seat nearest to Acle and plopped down as she dried her hair while she waited for everyone to show up.

"Okay, what's up?" Lucas said, walking in "I was in the middle of working on some maintenance in Engineering. Hope this is quick."

He stopped, realizing that it wasn't just him and the first officer in the room.

"Hey, how you doing?" He said to Ashley with a smile "Lieutenant Lucas Jameson, Chief Engineer. My friends call me Luc."

Acle nodded to each of the crew as they entered the room, although he remained silent. He did raise an eyebrow at Ashley, but, turned back to sipping his steaming liquid and casually reading a PADD. He was clearly not going to say anything until everyone arrived nor take a seat.

When James heard his name on the comm. He stood up from the helm, as once of his flight team took over, as he leaned over and said, "Remain in orbit and in station", before he left him, and headed towards the Conference room, where he was one of the last. "Commander", he said with a nod towards Acle before taking a seat, wondering what the meeting was about.

Bradley was on his way to his office when he got the call to report to the conference room. Telling the computer to change his destination he arrived just outside the room.

Brushing out his uniform he entered. Before going to his seat he went over to the replicator and got a steaming cup of hot chocolate and made his way to his seat beside Abigail.

"Hello Bradley. So what do you think this is about?" Abigail said with a smile to her friend.

"I have no idea. You?" he said.

"None what so ever," Abigail replied.

Jourdan entered last and slipped into a seat, she remained quiet and looked around at the senior staff, she felt like she was the new girl all over again.

Acle looked up, glancing around the room. He took another sip from his cup before putting both the cup and the PADD on the table. Acle straightened, smiling at the assembled group. He still did not sit.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen." Acle began. "As you are all aware, the Captain has embarked on his away mission to the planet's surface. It is a mission of diplomacy, and an extremely touchy one. This makes it imperative that we not do anything up here that could somehow hamper, or worse yet, ruin the diplomatic mission down there." Acle paused, glancing around at the assembled crew. "Normally, that would involve us simply sitting here, showing the flag sort of thing." Acle let loose the grim smile that he had been holding back. "Not so here in the Bevrudl system."

Abigail stared at Acle, unsure of what he was talking about, besides the mission the captain was taking.

Luc sat there, paying attention as best he could to the first officer, trying to decide if he liked the sound of that or not.

"An hour ago I received a communique detailing certain regulations that we are to follow while we are guests of the Bevrudl." Acle said, handing each of them a PADD. "You will find that I have given you the regs to follow within your area of interest, although I will review them now so we are all aware of them." Acle said, before sighing.

"Helm, we must maintain a certain distance down to the meter from the planet's surface. Also, we are to maintain a geo-synchronous position about it. The meters and the coordinates are loaded on your PADD Lieutenant. Furthermore, we are to restrict thruster usage to only vital orbit keeping maneuvers." Acle said to James before continuing.

James nodded attentively as he listened to his instructions, "Understood", as he looked down at his PADD.

"Mr. Jameson, Impulse engines are to remain off-line for the duration of the negotiations. Also, the warp core is to not exceed 60% power at any time. 'No discharge of atmosphere or any substance from this starship under any circumstances'. That is directly quoted." A flash of annoyance flickered across Acle's face, but, he did not remark.

"Fine, we'll keep things boring." Lucas said with a scowl, biting back a few words he was sure no one wanted to hear at that moment in time.

"Miss Abbott, long range communications without prior authorization. Shut down everything for now, I do not want any external communication going out except for one directly after this meeting. Inform Starfleet Command about the communications black-out, then cut everything, but, priority one messages. They will have to live with that."

"Aye sir" Jourdan said as she started to tap at her console slowly shuttind down the Iapetus. Deck by deck went dark as the power dwindled.

"Miss Valera, they are telling us not to use any scanning equipment, directed at the planet or the system at all. For now, limit all scans to passive and make sure they are undetectable. We can't afford to irk them."

"Understood sir." Abigail nodded understandingly. Hopefully she could pull it off without being detected.

"And in general for all of us... No use of transporters, even site-to-site transportation." Acle finished. He took a breath, then said "I know this is alot of regulations, most of them ridiculous. However, if this works out like it is supposed to, we will all be helping bring another race into the United Federation of Planets."

Acle stretched, then finally sat down, taking another sip from his cup. "Miss Williams... I have an assignment for you. Find out anything you can from internal records about these regs. I didn't see any of them, but, I did not have time for a full investigation. Furthermore, review scanning already done and tell me what type of scanning systems that have up to monitor us with."

Ashley nodded.

"Are there any questions?" Acle asked, clearly looking to conclude the meeting.

James shook his head, "No questions, just the hope that this diplomatic mission goes well".

"Umm excuse me for interrupting here but what does the Counseling section have in here?" asked Bradley

Abigail turned to Bradley realizing his point. What did Bradley have to play in this? She turned back to Acle to see what he would say.

Acle looked at the doctor and smiled. "Why doc... Psychology always has a part to play." Acle said before turning slightly serious. "But, I am going to ask both you and Commander Valera to stay after the meeting is over."

Abigail looked alarmed. Had she done something wrong? She looked at Bradley with a look of concern and then back at Acle. "Understood sir."

Brad's heart almost stopped but he composed himself and nodded. "Yes sir."

"Yeah, I got a question, though please note, I'm removing some of the more colourful metaphors because there are ladies present." Luc said "Why the hell is it we have to sit on our hands? If things go bad down there, and we're attacked, with impulse engines offline and the warpcore at 60%, we would be pretty stuffed."

Acle nodded "I realize this Lieutenant. In fact, I agree with you, we would be 'stuffed'. However, that does not change the fact that we will follow these regulations set before us. Our primary mission is to secure that treaty. We cannot jeopardize that with refusing to follow a rule that our hosts have put out before us."

"Fine." Luc said, the scowl back "But I'm keeping the start up protocols good to go from my terminal in my office. I refuse to get this perfect butt of mine blown up."

Acle raised an eyebrow, but, didn't comment for a moment, then said "That would be wise Lieutenant."

Acle looked around the table, then spoke again "If there are not anymore questions..." Acle paused, casting his gaze back around the table. "Then this concludes our meeting. Commander Valera, Doctor, again, please remain. Everyone else, dismissed."

Everyone except for the indicated officers stood and quietly exited the room.

Bradley sat beside his good friend Abigail waiting to speak with the Commander

Acle waited until the rest of the crew had filed out before turning to the two remaining. "I am sure that you are both wondering why I asked you to say. First, it is to make sure we are all on the same page. With the away team gone, I have become acting Captain of the Iapetus. Commander Valera, that makes you acting first officer. Doctor, that makes you acting chief medical officer. I'm sure that you were aware of this, but, tradition requires me to notify you both of such."

Abigail's heart leapt at the opportunity of getting a chance to try the first officer position out during the upcoming mission. She nodded to Acle with a slight smile on her face.

"Having said that... This is not going to be an easy mission. Lieutenant Jameson was correct, we are practically sitting ducks. We are blind without our scanners, deaf without our long-range communications, and for the most part dumb without intel of what is going on. At 60% warp charge, we will not be able to charge anything close to all of our weapons systems or bring shields fully up. Stress levels will be running at an all time high." Acle paused here and looked at Bradley "This is where you come in doc... This is a high-stress mission. It also has the potential to go south at any time. Doing a combat beam down while the ship is in combat to retrieve the Captain will not be fun, but, we have to be prepared that we may have to do that. Any questions?"

"I do. Can you give me some instruction as to what a first officer does? If I am to be the temporary first officer then I should be prepared, sir." Abigail replied her heart racing.

"Mostly that will be managing paperwork or filling in where needed. For example, your posting will now be mostly on the Bridge, where you will sit watch. Most of the reports coming in will go through you before they go through me. Disciplinary action, so long as it is on a minor scale will also be your prerogative." Acle paused, offering a smile. "It is nothing all that difficult, simply be yourself. The main difference is that you will be sitting in the big chair more often."

"Well having come aboard as the Assistant Chief Medical Officer before transferring to the Counseling Department I still know my way around sickbay and all of the staff." said Bradley

Abigail nodded. Here was her chance to sit in the big chair again! She remembered what it felt like when she sat in the captain's chair on the USS Lincoln on their way home from the last mission. Now Abigail would have the chance to prove herself again, but this time to Acle and the rest of the crew. "Is there anything else sir?"

Acle thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Not for now. This mission has the chance to be very eventful... Let us try to keep it from doing that." Acle looked at the two to see if they were going to say anything else, then said "Dismissed."

-----------------------
Commander Acle Walex
Executive Officer
USS Iapetus

Lieutenant Commander Abigail Valera
Chief Science Officer
USS Iapetus

Lieutenant JG James Riller
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Iapetus

Lieutenant JG Lucas Jameson
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Iapetus

Lieutenant JG Jourdan Abbott
Chief Operations Officer
USS Iapetus

Doctor (Lieutenant JG) Bradley Openhouse
Chief Counselor
USS Iapetus

&

Petty Officer 3rd Class Ashley Williams
Intelligence Officer
USS Iapetus