Ensign Jovenan – The Roll Call of the Semi-Skilled
Jovenan
((First Officer’s office, Deck 2, USS Artemis))
Jovenan rang the bell.
Adea: It’s open!
The door slid open, and she took a step inside. Doctor Adea was by the desk, in his new, red uniform, smiling friendly upon seeing her. By a chair she could see another person, a Trill judging by the spots, one she couldn’t recognize.
Jovenan: Doct… Commander. N- Nice to see you, sir.
The small slip didn’t do any good to Jovenan’s confidence, but the Commander didn’t seem to mind it at all, but instead welcomed her in.
Adea: Jovenan, please come, take a seat. How’re you settling into the Artemis?
First Officer Adea seemed to be just like Doctor Adea had been, which alleviated much of her anxiety. Smiling a little to the senior officer present, she walked in further and sat on a remaining free chair in the room, next to the Trill officer in blue.
Jovenan: It’s a nice ship. Smaller than the Excal, but it has everything I need. The sensor pod in particular has exceeded my expectations.
She saw as the Commander’s eyes shifted towards the other officer, and she turned to him as well. She could see the single pip on his collar. Judging by the blue uniform, collar pips and the fact that she hadn’t yet met the third officer the Commander had invited to his office, she could deduce this person was indeed their new Ensign.
Kag: I know I'm pretty new, but the Artemis feels plenty big to myself. ::laughs:: I guess I'm a little behind. Is this ship like, brand new, or—
The Commander laughed and shook his head.
Adea: Not brand new, just new to us, Ensign.
Jovenan: The Artemis has been in reserve and on docks for some time and was only relaunched a week ago. Much of her crew came from the Excalibur, including me and Commander Adea. ::pause, then smiles widely:: Hi, I’m Jovenan! You must be Ensign… Kag, was it? I read your service file. Welcome aboard!
Before the pleasantries could go any further, the doorbell chimed again. Jovenan turned to see who was coming.
Adea: It’s like the Utopia Planitia in here… ::calling:: Come!
The door opened, and Lt. Silveira entered. Jovenan smiled and nodded in greeting. She met him a few times during their previous mission on Excalibur, albeit only briefly. Working with new people, particularly those of the higher rank, was always a matter of slight nervousness, but Silveira had appeared professional and pleasant the times she had met him, so maybe she didn’t have much reason for jumpiness. Still, she had little idea what they would be doing with an ensemble of an XO, two scientists and a tactical officer.
Silveira: Greetings.
Right after the greetings, Commander Adea stood up and began to talk. It was time to get to the business of the day.
Adea: Hello Vitor. Right, ::he stood up and leaned on the desk, pushing a PADD to each of them:: let’s begin. ::he gave them a few seconds to read the file:: You’ll see we’re heading back to Da’al, after a meteor strike. You three are to accompany me to the Palace of Culture, where a triage centre has been established. We will aid the relief efforts in any way we can.
Jovenan skimmed through parts of the contents on the PADD. Da’al were one of those independent peoples on the list she had went through when assigned to the Borderlands, but that was roughly what she knew of them. Warp-capable, local to the Borderlands. There was some other information on their species and homeworld, but she’d need to familiarize herself with all that on a later occasion. She’d need to focus on the mission briefing.
One statistic caught her eye. The awful feeling rushed to her stomach.
Jovenan: Over 10 000 deaths, and large numbers of wounded, injured and homeless. I don’t know much the four of us can do.
Kag: Response
Silveira: What will be the protocol regarding our equipment? Do we need to bring anything more with us? And are we allowed to carry phasers?
Jovenan raised her eyebrow slightly at the last question. She had to acknowledge the area might be unstable and the people might not be pleased to receive assistance from off-worlders. She wished, however, that she would not be carrying one herself.
Adea: We will be beaming down with medical supplies, food, water, replicators, etc. All the basic relief equipment. ::he looked at them each in turn:: I would like your input as to anything else you think we should bring. ::he then held his gaze on Vitor:: You, Lieutenant, will have a hand phaser… set to stun, and for defensive use only. These people have asked for our help after all.
Jovenan: Hmm, those are the most important, I believe. We would need to see the situation at hand, but they might also lack bedding and clothes. There are many homeless people after all.
She kept wondering what else they could do to help them and in particular what was her role. Her planetary science experience wasn’t much use in a triage centre. She had studied some biology in the Academy, maybe she could help evaluate the injured patients, but her skills in actually treating people was limited to first aid. Was the situation so desperate they needed even the half-skilled on the planet’s surface?
Kag: Response
Silveira: Do we have an escort or someone accompanying us? I assume they won't just let us down there and help unsupervised.
Adea: We will be met by one ::his eyes flicked down to his PADD:: Jiah Kleebohn - they’ve been put in charge of the relief efforts. But I imagine they will have their hands full, so I expect we will be left to our own devices a little.
Jovenan: Can we expect them to allow us to work on our own?
Kag/Silveira: Response
She looked at the image of the planet on the PADD. Da’al, or Meranuge IV was a nice-looking planet, blue and green and white, not much different from Earth for example. The major difference was the rings around the Da’al homeworld. She expected to see some beautiful views of them from the surface. Planets with rings were often subjected to asteroid hitting the atmosphere and even the ground. A species who lives on a planet like that must have some level of preparedness against hits. She wondered what had gone wrong this time.
Adea: You’ve got copies of the floorplans on the PADDs; the Palace is massive so we will have plenty of space, but I want to use every square inch. So all suggestions welcome.
Jovenan: I think the material distribution might be in most need. Medicine and equipment for the medical teams. Water distribution points, food lines… Since their infrastructure is also badly damaged, maybe we could provide communications and offer to move patients to critical care units with our transporters. Would that be possible?
Silveira/Kag: Response
Jovenan nodded as others stated their ideas.
Adea/Silveira/Kag: Response
She looked down to her PADD.
Jovenan: The last landing team – the Resolution, apparently ::looks at Adea:: – found higher than usual levels of UV radiation. It’s possible the locals have evolved to sustain high UV levels, but our teams might need some protection. Either staying indoors or wearing suncream and getting checked after returning to the ship. Otherwise, the planet itself wouldn’t be dangerous to us. There might be some dust in the air from the strike, though.
Adea/Silveira/Kag: Response
TAG/TBC
----
Ensign Jovenan
Science officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11