Before we Begin

Posted on Thu May 6th, 2021 @ 1:35am by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles & Lieutenant Paul Michael & Lieutenant Elen Diari & Lieutenant Commander Hermia O'Rourke & Lieutenant Junior Grade Mira Jayde & Lieutenant Junior Grade Mignon Mejia & Corporal Sina Ravenna & Corporal Andrew Shy
Edited on on Thu May 6th, 2021 @ 1:39am

1,847 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Family Matters
Location: Bridge - Deck 1 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD004 1400 hrs

It had been two days since the USS Pioneer left Captain Tyler Malbrooke and his merry men of vacationers behind. The USS Pioneer was on final approach of the Jurtai Home World. Surprisingly Starfleet had not called or asked about Captain Malbrooke. This was a little surprising to him.

He could only assume, if they reached out to the Pioneer, in some part they might have to acknowledge some sort of responsibility for his actions. Better to let him fall on his own sword. Of course Quinn was just speculating. Maybe they were behind in their reports, and had not noticed a first officer of a starship, was leading a diplomatic mission.

Quinn started to leave the ready room, and with a big grin on his face, he was trying to be strong for the bridge crew. He looked over to Larim, his acting first officer. "Number One, are we almost in range the Jurtai Home World?" Quinn asked. At the moment he needed to focus on the mission at hand.

"Aye Captain." Larim said, rising from the command chair and standing off to the side. "Should be dropping out of warp in just a few minutes."

"Captain" Elen piped up from the engineering station "I've been looking at the long range sensors, studying their warp test flight trails. Things seem at bit odd, the ion decay is completely different to that expected for normal warp drive. Would it be OK to do a wide field scan using the main array when we get there, to work out why?"

"Make sure its passive scan, we do not take any steps to show aggression or hostilities." Quinn pointed out to Elen. He did not want to start an incident, during his first contact mission.

"No problem at all. A passive scan will give more information than an intrusive one anyway, given the way the sensors are set up. " She answered. "Perhaps sending out a hello message as we drop out of warp might show we're not hostile ?"

Jayde looked at the readings out of curiosity. They were familiar to her, but she couldn't remember from where. It could have been a ship she encountered early on, or something from her time in the Maquis. Either way, it made her cautious.

Michael sat at the helm, waiting for orders.

Shy removed his watch cap, scratched at his scalp and replaced the cover as he rechecked the bridge Marine Ops station and checked status for what seemed like the thousandth time. Frowning at one of the readouts, he said "Captain. We're still at status quo for Package one."

The marine corporal had designated Malbrooke's errand in cryptic terms to maintain some sort of mission secrecy, though keeping anything secret on the Pioneer was an iffy thing. Realizing his mind was wandering mid-report, he brought himself back and said, "I am detecting what appears to be broadband communication signals from an undetermined source. It's definitely within the system. Sensor's aren't giving me more than that just now, but I'm working on it."

Jaflok and Terra stood on the bridge of their warbird named Ascension. They remained at low power and under cloak. Their reason for the secrecy was to size up their potential friends. One thing that they embraced from the Romulans was the need for caution. "It seems that they have gone passive scans. This is to be expected, they are looking for us just as much as we are looking for them. Shut the sensors down.... We do not want them to discover us." Terra turned to a member of the crew. Jaflok remained stoic with his eyes on the viewscreen that showed the Intrepid Class USS Pioneer. What are they thinking? he wondered.

Ameri listened to those around her and then looked up at the others. She agreed that a welcome message sent was a good plan but that was up to Quinn to decide. Ameri was confident that Quinn would make the right decision.
Two Hours Later
"I think we have made them wait long enough. What is more is that we now know that we are equally matched should it come to it." Jaflok turned to Terra. She nodded her agreement and pulled her stark white pony tail a little tighter as she made herself look a little neater for the communication to follow. "Disengage the Cloak and open hailing frequencies."

Roughly three hundred thousand kilometers off the bow of the Pioneer and old warbird decloaked. It still bore the markings of the Empire that it once served. The pale green color of the hull with the red markings of a bird of prey could be seen on the Pioneer's viewscreen.

Now the readings made sense to Jayde. It was an older model, with the old markings. "Fascinating," she thought to herself.

"Sir!!" Michael called out. "Romulan War Bird has decloaked.....300,000 kilometers off our bow."

Quinn was a little surprised by the de-cloaking bit. A very romulan thing to do, he thought to himself, as he looked over to the tactical station. "Tactical analysis on the warbird." Quinn called out in a calm and collected a voice.

"It's an older model, at least twenty years old, maybe thirty," Jayde replied. "Markings are those of the old Romulan Star Empire. Analysis indicates it's been patched up a few times."

"Do they pose a threat to the Pioneer?" Quinn asked his tactical officer. He was still getting use to Larim sitting in his chair, and Jayde being in Larim's station.

"Not a significant one," she replied. "Weapons are not activated, indicating they may simply wish to talk."

"Very well, lets prepare..." Quinn started to say, as he heard Ameri start to chime in. He could tell by her tone, that she had a good reason to interrupt him. She typically did not do that.

“Captain!” Ameri called out. “They are hailing us and demanding to speak with you, Sir!” She waited for orders from Quinn while watching the console, ready to open a channel at his orders.

Larim adjusted his uniform as he prepared himself to see who was on the other side of the screen. He turned to Quinn. "At least we know where they are." he half chuckled.

Lan was sitting next to Larim on the bench. She had a padd in one hand. She was sitting up straight. This was an unusual situation for her to be in. For all intense and purposes this was her first time as CoB. But in her experience she wasn't unaccustomed to diplomatic missions. Not she was ever a part of the diplomacy. Her tasks was mostly weapons. But to her it would be interesting to what was going to happen. So in that respect it was an honor to be on the bridge right now. She just remained quiet and just observed for now.

Quinn just gave a small laugh at Larim's comment. As he called out in a calm but loud voice. "On screen." Quinn said, as he stood up and out of his chair. He was anxious to get this meeting started.

When the screen resolved two beings who looked decidedly Romulan. Aside from their stark white hair. "Greetings Commander USS Pioneer I am Jaflok and this is my partner Terra. We would like to welcome you to Jutus." The male and the female stood side by side. Little could be seen of what was going on around them.

Ameri looked up at the screen, studying them. They did have a similarity to the Romulans but there still was a slight difference, at least in her eyes. She looked over to Quinn for a moment and then back at her console.

Paul had programmed an evasive course in case this was a trap. All he had to do was tap the button and they'd would be running like a bat out of hell.

"Greetings and Jolan Tru Jaflok and Terra." Quinn said, with a humble smile on his face. He gave a slight bow, and opened up his palms in a sign of respect. He then continued on. "Tha"

"You honor us..." Jaflok continued. "We hope that your journey here was not an arduous one. Furthermore please come and join us on the planet for a reception in your honor." Jaflok was eager to prove that they were nothing like their Romulan kin.

"I would be delighted, this is my first officer, Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles." Quinn said, with a humbling smile, as he pointed out Larim to him on the main viewer. Larim happened to be standing right next to him.

Jaflok and Tearra nodded in acknowledgement of Larim. "We will send transport coordinates to your ship and see in shall we say 3 hours?" It was Terra who spoke this time.

Larim nodded. " I for one am looking forward to it. Thank you." he said, trying to sound as diplomatic as he could.

"I look forward to meeting you in person, in three hours." Quinn said, over the subspace call. He waited for Jaflak to confirm the orders, as he looked over to Larim, and had a look in his eyes, that this was going to be an interesting visit.

"Until then...Jutus out." Terra replied and the screen went blank.

Once the channel cleared, El looked over to the command crew "Captain, permission to miss the function ? There's an odd intermittent fault in the power grid I want to sort, before it becomes a bigger problem. " She asked, feeling nervous about the situation.

"Granted." Quinn said, as the scene starts to fade away.

A Joint Post By:

Commander Quinn Ó Flannagáin
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer