Lt.Cmdr. Drex - Shared responsibility
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Drex Drex
Apr 20, 2026, 3:43:33 PM (3 days ago) Apr 20
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((Briefing Room - Deck 4 - USS Eagle-A))
The meeting proceeded smoothly. Drex was not used to attending interdepartmental meetings, much less leading one, so he opted for a very simple approach: throw a stone and see how the ripples spread. In truth, he had thrown more than one.
Drex: I honestly don’t know what to think. The Alomian culture is too young, but their ancestors may have witnessed a visit from the Collectors. I asked Minister Epoma to grant me access to their mythology and historical records—see if there are any similarities with Sol III mythology.:: He took a long sip of his juice before continuing, his gaze briefly lowering to the table as he gathered his thoughts:: What about our sensors? Both on the Eagle and now, it seems there is something in this region of space that interferes every time we need them the most. Do we have any suggestions to improve them, or any analysis we can run to understand why this area is different from any other?
Kettick: We have two issues: knowing what to look for and getting through what gets in the way. For instance in the current case, we had no reliable scans of the Alomian physiology, let alone the mutants', that would have allowed us to pinpoint them by looking for them specifically. Which means that we would have needed to broaden the spectrum of detection, scan for anything with a heartbeat for instance, and that mechanically increases the ambient noise to the point of uselessness rather fast.
Williams: I see your point, but keep in mind that many things can be hidden. Mostly deliberately by those who want to harm us.
Lim: Would adding sensors that have different ways to sense things help even if they might not be as useful?
Kettick: More vectors increase our chances, especially if we can cross-reference the results, but they increase the computational power requirements, not to mention that we only have so many sensor array attachment points to work with. And again, that is when we know what we want to look for in the first place. To find a sample of Collector technology on a given moon, I would have to scan the whole volume of the moon through all available sensor spectra, and then sift through all the data hoping to find the bit that stands out.
Williams: Looking for a needle in a haystack is what we call it. If there is a needle to begin with…
Stapledon: Archiving a bunch of data on moons in the region and then having AIs sift through it asynchronously, is that an option?
Drex: That’s not quite what I was asking. ::He replied calmly:: On more than one occasion, we went suddenly blind, mute, or deaf, or any combination of those, if not all at once. This time, we lost our Captain and beamed an Alomian aboard…
Kettick: That's another issue, and one that we can develop countermeasures around. The principles of Alomian technology seems roughly similar to Federation standards, but different in significant enough ways that their shields misdirected our transporters instead of blocking them completely. We will have to negotiate access to their shield technology in order to understand the interaction and make something of it.
Drex considered that for a moment.
Drex: It’s a fair question…We might discover something useful. It’s possible this region is shaped by unique phenomena, and those who evolved here have developed technologies specifically adapted to them.
Kettick: The other hypotheses revolve around subspace anomalies creating interference, but that would be mister Stapledon's speciality, not mine.
Williams: There is more to this… When a biological threat also becomes a systems threat, where does primary responsibility actually sit? With medical, science, or engineering? Because, from a tactical standpoint, it might help to have that clearly defined before the next incident.
Stapledon: With all due respect, this might be the wrong question to ask, sir. Neural gel packs are everyone's responsibility.
Williams/Kettick: Response
Stapledon: Well.. It seems to me like the issue is more around how do we ensure that... ::She glanced over toward Lim:: Medical or science can deal with a biological threat to an engineering system. And how do we get engineers a better understanding of the vulnerabilities of the biological components of those gel packs?
Lim: I feel like we all have a good ‘understanding of the vulnerabilities’ of the packs after this mission?
Drex let the exchange settle for a brief moment, his gaze moving from Williams to Stapledon before returning to the group as a whole.
Kettick: Response
Williams: One more thing.
The Denobulan turned his gaze to Alexander, with a hint of curiosity.
Williams: Is anyone going to take that last chocolate croissant?
Lim: I’m good if you want it.
Drex: Please, help yourself, commander.::Gesturing to invite Williams to take the it.::
Kettick: Response
Williams: Excellent!
Drex gave a faint smile watching the Chief of Security reaching for the chocolate Croissant.
Lim: Back to Commander Willams’ earlier question. I do believe that better defining roles in the case of a biologic threat to the ship to avoid a jurisdiction dispute that wastes time that would be better spent fixing the problem.
Drex: Williams is right to ask. ::He shifted on the chair, getting into a more comfortable position:: Clarity matters. But Stapledon is also right. When a biological threat becomes a systems threat, it stops belonging to a single department.
Kettick/Williams/Stapledon: Response
Lim: From my understanding most of the responsibility bio-neural gel packs falls under engineering since their responsibilities have them acting with the packs and the network far more regularly.
Drex: That makes sense for routine operations. But when something else happens, responsibility expands with it. Engineering may lead on the gel packs, but they shouldn’t be facing a biological threat without Medical and Science already involved.
Kettick/Williams/Stapledon: Response
The First Officer nodded once, as if closing the loop on the discussion rather than continuing it.
Drex: That’s the point. If the network fails, all systems are affected, so all departments are already involved. Each department should consider a shared diagnostic plan and, ideally, a group of specialists working across disciplines.
Kettick/Williams/Stapledon/Lim: Response
On paper, it was a clean plant. In practice, the Denobulan knew it could easily become another layer of coordination that slowed them down instead of helping.
Drex: We can’t pretend to solve it now, but I invite you to think about it. ::He leaned forward reaching of his glass once more.:: Anything else?
Kettick/Williams/Stapledon/Lim: Response
TAGS / TBC
The meeting proceeded smoothly. Drex was not used to attending interdepartmental meetings, much less leading one, so he opted for a very simple approach: throw a stone and see how the ripples spread. In truth, he had thrown more than one.
Drex: I honestly don’t know what to think. The Alomian culture is too young, but their ancestors may have witnessed a visit from the Collectors. I asked Minister Epoma to grant me access to their mythology and historical records—see if there are any similarities with Sol III mythology.:: He took a long sip of his juice before continuing, his gaze briefly lowering to the table as he gathered his thoughts:: What about our sensors? Both on the Eagle and now, it seems there is something in this region of space that interferes every time we need them the most. Do we have any suggestions to improve them, or any analysis we can run to understand why this area is different from any other?
Kettick: We have two issues: knowing what to look for and getting through what gets in the way. For instance in the current case, we had no reliable scans of the Alomian physiology, let alone the mutants', that would have allowed us to pinpoint them by looking for them specifically. Which means that we would have needed to broaden the spectrum of detection, scan for anything with a heartbeat for instance, and that mechanically increases the ambient noise to the point of uselessness rather fast.
Williams: I see your point, but keep in mind that many things can be hidden. Mostly deliberately by those who want to harm us.
Lim: Would adding sensors that have different ways to sense things help even if they might not be as useful?
Kettick: More vectors increase our chances, especially if we can cross-reference the results, but they increase the computational power requirements, not to mention that we only have so many sensor array attachment points to work with. And again, that is when we know what we want to look for in the first place. To find a sample of Collector technology on a given moon, I would have to scan the whole volume of the moon through all available sensor spectra, and then sift through all the data hoping to find the bit that stands out.
Williams: Looking for a needle in a haystack is what we call it. If there is a needle to begin with…
Stapledon: Archiving a bunch of data on moons in the region and then having AIs sift through it asynchronously, is that an option?
Drex: That’s not quite what I was asking. ::He replied calmly:: On more than one occasion, we went suddenly blind, mute, or deaf, or any combination of those, if not all at once. This time, we lost our Captain and beamed an Alomian aboard…
Kettick: That's another issue, and one that we can develop countermeasures around. The principles of Alomian technology seems roughly similar to Federation standards, but different in significant enough ways that their shields misdirected our transporters instead of blocking them completely. We will have to negotiate access to their shield technology in order to understand the interaction and make something of it.
Drex considered that for a moment.
Drex: It’s a fair question…We might discover something useful. It’s possible this region is shaped by unique phenomena, and those who evolved here have developed technologies specifically adapted to them.
Kettick: The other hypotheses revolve around subspace anomalies creating interference, but that would be mister Stapledon's speciality, not mine.
Williams: There is more to this… When a biological threat also becomes a systems threat, where does primary responsibility actually sit? With medical, science, or engineering? Because, from a tactical standpoint, it might help to have that clearly defined before the next incident.
Stapledon: With all due respect, this might be the wrong question to ask, sir. Neural gel packs are everyone's responsibility.
Williams/Kettick: Response
Stapledon: Well.. It seems to me like the issue is more around how do we ensure that... ::She glanced over toward Lim:: Medical or science can deal with a biological threat to an engineering system. And how do we get engineers a better understanding of the vulnerabilities of the biological components of those gel packs?
Lim: I feel like we all have a good ‘understanding of the vulnerabilities’ of the packs after this mission?
Drex let the exchange settle for a brief moment, his gaze moving from Williams to Stapledon before returning to the group as a whole.
Kettick: Response
Williams: One more thing.
The Denobulan turned his gaze to Alexander, with a hint of curiosity.
Williams: Is anyone going to take that last chocolate croissant?
Lim: I’m good if you want it.
Drex: Please, help yourself, commander.::Gesturing to invite Williams to take the it.::
Kettick: Response
Williams: Excellent!
Drex gave a faint smile watching the Chief of Security reaching for the chocolate Croissant.
Lim: Back to Commander Willams’ earlier question. I do believe that better defining roles in the case of a biologic threat to the ship to avoid a jurisdiction dispute that wastes time that would be better spent fixing the problem.
Drex: Williams is right to ask. ::He shifted on the chair, getting into a more comfortable position:: Clarity matters. But Stapledon is also right. When a biological threat becomes a systems threat, it stops belonging to a single department.
Kettick/Williams/Stapledon: Response
Lim: From my understanding most of the responsibility bio-neural gel packs falls under engineering since their responsibilities have them acting with the packs and the network far more regularly.
Drex: That makes sense for routine operations. But when something else happens, responsibility expands with it. Engineering may lead on the gel packs, but they shouldn’t be facing a biological threat without Medical and Science already involved.
Kettick/Williams/Stapledon: Response
The First Officer nodded once, as if closing the loop on the discussion rather than continuing it.
Drex: That’s the point. If the network fails, all systems are affected, so all departments are already involved. Each department should consider a shared diagnostic plan and, ideally, a group of specialists working across disciplines.
Kettick/Williams/Stapledon/Lim: Response
On paper, it was a clean plant. In practice, the Denobulan knew it could easily become another layer of coordination that slowed them down instead of helping.
Drex: We can’t pretend to solve it now, but I invite you to think about it. ::He leaned forward reaching of his glass once more.:: Anything else?
Kettick/Williams/Stapledon/Lim: Response
TAGS / TBC
============
Lt. Commander Drex
First Officer
USS Eagle-A
D240011D14
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