Fleet Captain Taybrim - A Ghost from the Past (Tags: ALL)
Jamie LeBlanc
OOC – all PCs are senior staff and therefore at the briefing.
((Briefing Room – The Hub – StarBase 118))
The call had gone out late last night for a briefing at 0900. As per usual there were an array of breakfast items and morning appropriate beverages from several different major worlds represented in the crew. And as always Sal sat with a fragrant citrus beverage, waiting for the crew to gather.
Unlike usual, Sal’s expression was grim.
He gestured for everyone to eat and make themselves comfortable and enjoy food and drink while the chronometer ticked ever closer to 0900.
Taybrim: ::Taking in a deep breath as everyone settled at the meeting time came to pass.:: Thank you everyone for joining me. I apologize for the short notice on this briefing, but we have received some very distressing news. ::He tapped a secure field – a lower level than the one he had used when talking about the cult and possible infiltrators, but a secure field nonetheless. After Fredericksen’s betrayal on the bridge Sal was not going to tolerate any unsanctioned eavesdropping.:: At 1824 last night we received a distress signal from the ECS Andromeda, a medical freighter carrying supplies and several necessary vaccines for colonies in the sector.
A picture came up of a standard Federation long range freighter. Nothing unusual so far.
Taybrim: The Andromeda was forced to take evasive maneuvers and fled at high warp into the Romulan neutral zone. They took targeted phaser fire and were able to send sensor data of their attacker before going completely off the grid.
He switched the view, bringing the sensor data up on screen. It was a hazy scan, similar to the distortion seen in their last mission within the Azure nebula, despite the clearer area of space. Slowly the image sharpened.
A Sovereign class starship… at least the skeleton of it, with cancerous growths of other ships somehow integrated onto its hull like mechanical tumors jutted out in all directions. The disruptor banks of a Klingon Bird of Prey, an extra nacelle from a Galaxy class starship, a chunk of hull from a Galor-class warship.
And yet through it all, a name was still visible on the hull: USS Nimitz.
Taybrim: What you are seeing is the USS Nimitz, a ship that was dispatched to aid a colony called ‘Duster’s Range’ a mining colony on Lecereon Omega. What happened there is unknown, but the result was that both Duster’s Range and Nimitz were assimilated by the Borg collective. ::he paused to let that sink in:: In 2388 the USS Constitution-B evacuated the surviving colonists from Duster’s Range and had an altercation with the Nimitz. The Nimitz disappeared after talking damage, showing back up in 2389 where it crossed into Cardassian space, and attacked the USS Mercury, trying to assimilate the Mercury and instill a ‘queen’ on that ship. Newly commissioned Captain Aron Kells and crew were able to fend the collective off and the Nimitz once again disappeared.
Eight long years it had been quiet. Eight long years it had been a myth, a boogieman story, a ghost. And here it was again.
Any: ?
Taybrim: From both interactions between Starfleet crews that survived and the Nimitz the logs are clear – the crews felt the Nimitz was not connected to the Borg consciousness as a whole, but was instead an independent collective. Certainly that makes it no less dangerous and it has been seen to be able to attack and assimilate other ships in the past.
Any: ?
::he leaned forward, taking in a long, slow breath.::
Taybrim: For eight years the directive has been to avoid and overlook. And I think too many in Starfleet considered the Nimitz dead and gone. Clearly we have evidence to the contrary. Furthermore Starfleet doesn’t actually know how Duster’s Colony or the Nimitz was assimilated, just that it happened, and now both are quarantined. Duster’s Colony is classified and I’m not sure I want to know how Starfleet dealt with it after evacuation and quarantine.
To be clear he could find out. But he had the keen feeling that the answer was something dark and viewed as necessary.
Any: ?
Taybrim: Our primary goal is to contact and rescue or evacuate the Andromeda. Secondary, saving her medical supplies is helpful but not above the lives of our crew or hers. Also secondary is to understand why the Nimitz has reappeared, what its looking for – how it was assimilated in the first place if we can figure that out. Information helps us stop it – for good.
Any: ?
Taybrim: Considering the very high risk factor the Nimitz presents were are to engage only if absolutely necessary. We don’t know the capabilities of an amalgam ship like the Nimitz and what she’s capable of. ::He said as reassuringly as possible.:: To this end we do have permission from the Romulans to enter the neutral zone. And we have a little over a day and a half to make preparations before we reach the neutral zone. ::he drew in a deep breath:: Commander Nijil, I want you to work with Lieutenant Meeks, Ensign Drevas, and Lieutenant Casparian in shoring up the Narendra’s defenses against the Nimitz.
Nijil: ?
Meeks/Drevas/Casparian: ?
Taybrim: I understand we’re once again working in the dark… but any preparation is better than none.
And the last fight they had gotten into – preparation was the difference between minimal casualties and a whole lot of dead people. Even if they were stabbing in the dark, the work they did was intelligent and worthwhile.
Taybrim: Commander McLaren, I want you to work with Lieutenant Blackwell, Commander DeVeau and Captain Luthas – dig through any records you can get your hands on from the Nimitz or Duster’s Colony to get insights on this collective. See if there are any patterns in what they attack, where they show up and when they show up. Basically – why here, why now?
McLaren: ?
Blackwell/Luthas/DeVeau: ?
Taybrim: I know, we’re digging through scraps, but any insights again could be the lynchpin of this mystery. Focus on any commonalities you can find.
McLaren: ?
Blackwell/Luthas/DeVeau: ?
Taybrim: Commander Galven – I want you to work with Ensign Taelon, Ensign Sladek, and Lieutenant Bailey. Your preparation focus is directly dealing with the borg, should we come into contact with them – how to protect ourselves, how to stun or repel them, and how to evacuate survivors.
This was, perhaps, the most sensitive topic of them all – and the most important, Underneath those assimilated bodies was a real life person and personality… somewhere.
Galven: ?
Taelon/Bailey/Sladek: ?
Taybrim: I want options, and I trust you have some varied opinions on how to approach this difficult topic. I am aware of this and hope you can all embrace that diversity of opinion and find a variety of possible solutions. We will make final decisions when we have more information on what we are really dealing with.
Galven: ?
Taelon/Bailey/Sladek: ?
Taybrim: And finally, Commander Maxwell, Counselor Stendhal – you’ll meet with me in my ready room after launch and we are going to dig through the history records and see if we can get more information on how this collective got started and what caused the assimilation in the first place.
Sal wasn’t convinced it was – as the public news records indicated – a rogue attack by a Borg cube. Beyond the fearmongering attitude, the logic was not present – Borg didn’t just attack a mining colony and a random starship without reason and then disappear entirely.
Which meant a possible cover up.
Maxwell/Stendhal: ?
Taybrim: We’ll launch the Narendra in ninety minutes, please gather you things and board as quickly as possible, we’ll have time to prepare and gather once onboard. Are there any last questions?
Any: ?
~*~
tags/tbc
~*~
OOC – team leaders, please start new scenes directly onboard the Narendra for
planning purposes!
~*~
Fleet Captain Sal Taybrim
Commanding officer
StarBase 118 Ops
~Julian Beck
E239010ST0