Flight Path Briefing

Posted on Thu Feb 3rd, 2022 @ 8:48pm by Captain Ivan Petrov & Commander Cyrus Cain & Lieutenant Johnathan Anderson III & Lieutenant Lionel Morrison

Mission: S1 Episode 1: Caretaker, Part I
Location: ISS VENGEANCE, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 8 - 1000 Hours
1819 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Lionel barely glanced at Anderson as they moved to the door of the Captains' ready room. This meeting was taking up his time but it had to be done. He briskly hit the chime and waited.

The door parted and the XO stood there, standing aside to allow the two senior staff members to enter. Captain' Petrov was standing by the window which gave a view of the inside of Spacedock, a steaming metal mug of tea in his gloved hand.

"Lieutenants." he greeted them, his back turned to them.

Lionel ignoring the LT JG beside him stepped in and stood at attention. "Captain, Commander" he stated.

"You have a plan for us, I hope?" Commander Cain said, his arms folded under his chest. "A covert route to Quonor.."

Lionel nodded "Yes Sirs, Lieutenant JG Anderson and I have come up with the quickest covert route, based on current intelligence and navigational maps."

Commander Cain reached over to the Captain's desk and called up a holo-projection in the middle of the room between him and the two officers which superimposed a 2D image of the quadrant onto the floor.

"Show us then." the Commander said, taking note as the Captain stepped down from the raised area to observe.

Lionel input the trajectory without so much as a glance at Anderson. It glowed yellow on the holographic map.

Johnathan chose to say nothing, for now. What Lionel didn't know was, he hadn't given him all of the flight paths. He saved a few to present to the Captain and XO himself. For now, he allowed Lionel to attempt to pren and try to take credit for the work. Work that he had zero part in creating.

So the young pilot waited patiently.

"Through the Badlands?" the Commander asked, looking at the display. "It's a very volatile area of space. Can we even remain cloaked in there?"

"The power concerns for that is Engineering's domain" Lionel said calmly.

Johnathan pursed his lips slightly, but still said nothing. If he was going to throw Lionel under the Starbase, then he would do it correctly and respectfully.

“Yet it was your job to plan our travel operations, Lieutenant.” The Commander said, looking at the man seriously, his eyes narrowing harshly. “Is this a game to you, Lieutenant? If we’re discovered, the entire operation will be blown and a battle could risk the detonation of these bombs on this ship! So we’re going to need a better explanation from you than ‘its Engineering’s job’.”

Lionel's facial expression did not change. "We have sent the requirements to Engineering and they are aware of their role Captain." And if his incompetent assistant had not done that then he would kill her this time.

"I see, so what you're saying is that this report isn't ready for the Captain's eyes?" the XO said, a frown on his face that was getting deeper and deeper. He banged his fist on the Captain's desk. "Damnit, Morrison. How can we execute a stealth flight plan if we don't know if the fucking cloak will work on the plotted course?!"

"Commander! Commander!" the Captain cut in, putting up his hand to stop his second in command. "Please calm yourself. It is a...large oversight...but I trust one which can be fixed before tomorrow, is that right, Lieutenants?"

Lionel gritted his teeth. Yes Selin would pay for this. "Yes Captain, i shall contact the Chief to make sure she is aware."

"Good..good." Petrov said, and then his eyes drifted to his Chief Pilot. "What about you, Johnathan? What do you think about this plan?"

Johnathan looked into Petrov's eyes and nodded. "With respect to the Lieutenant, Sir, there is a better path to take." He pulled out his PADD and activated a command. On the holographic map, his new path was colored in gold, to differentiate it from Lionel's. "As you can see, Captain, Commander, this path, while a slightly longer trip, perhaps two hours, gets the Vengeance to her destination without the threat of detection much more effectively." He paused, then continued, following Kassandra's suggestion of making her, and in the end Lionel, looking bad.

"After going over the intelligence information that Lieutenant Morrison had Ensign Selin bring me, I saw several...inconsistencies. So, I reached out to a friend of mine, Lieutenant Donovan, over at Headquarters. We were both in Red Squad together, back at the Academy. Always, he is currently assigned to Fleet Intel HQ. I asked him if there was better information available, he checked and said there was. With his information, I was able to construct this flight path."

He pointed out areas of the route as he spoke. "As you can see, Sirs, at maximum warp, and under cloak, the trip will take 35 days, eight hours. That takes into account dropping to impulse twice, to allow the warp nacelles to cool off. If we were to stay at warp the whole time, would cause undue stresses on the assemblies, Captain, as I'm sure the Commander would agree." He looked at the XO and grinned. "She really is a beautiful design, Sir."

"It does seem a more efficient route, yes, but I fail to see how it addresses the central problem with Lionel's route." Commander Cain said, folding his arms still. It was bad enough these men were presented different plans when they had been asked to word together, but now it seemed that oversights had been made on both ends.

"A very good question, Sir," Johnathan replied respectfully. "If you magnify these three sections," he pressed a command on his PADD and three dots formed along the route. "These sections are devoid of any ship activity whatsoever. During these legs of the trip, we would be safe enough, to drop the cloak long enough for Engineering to make any required repairs. Then," he activated another symbol, this one by the galactic eastern border of the Badlands. "We can enter this section of the Badlands, while still under cloak. Once inside, we can then drop it, until we get closer to our target, here. At that point, the storm activity is low enough the the cloaking device should work without any issue, Sir."

Cyrus crossed his arms, his mind working through the information being presented to them in the hologram. He was an engineer by training, and his blood, sweat, and tears were in these bulkhead and deck plates. He was familiar with the ship's systems. He looked to the Captain with clear nod.

"This plan seems to check out, sir. We won't need the repair time, but we should be able to use long and short range sensors to keep our eyes peeled for any Alliance ships, whether we are cloaked or not. I recommend we stay cloaked as long as we can, however, as Alliance ships might be cloaked as well and our orders are to get there in secret."

"Yes, Commander, best to avoid a fight. Otherwise someone might notice us before the...evil deed is done." Captain Petrov said, seeming pleased with the plan. "Good work, Lieutenant Anderson. Crosscheck these readings to confirm the path still works, and if it does, we will pursue your plan tomorrow. You are dismissed."

"Lieutenant Morrison, you, on the other hand, should remain." Commander Cain said, his eyes lingering on the senior of the two officers with intensity.

Johnathan knew when you leave and when to loiter. Now was definitely the former. Snapping to crisp attention, he saluted, then performed a textbook about-face and marched out of the ready room. As the doors closed behind him, the ghost of a smirk started to cross his face. Now he had to get word to Kassandra to be ready for Lionel's wrath.

Morrison didn't glare or even show any emotion though deep down he was steaming and ready to kill the person he blamed for this mess. He merely kept his gaze on the captain and executive officer.

“Lieutenant Morrison, do you take your job here seriously?” Cain asked tersely, his arms still crossed. The Captain still watched from a few steps away.

"I follow my orders and yes Commander I do" Lionel replied his tone cool.

"Oh, do you? How does ignoring regulations and punishing a subordinate past what is permitted for everyone on this ship except for the Captain himself compute with following orders?" Cain countered, stepping into the man's face now. "Is that part of your good officer act? How about being late for shifts and leaving early? How about pushing all of your unwanted work onto the same officer you have been illegally torturing?"

"As the Second Officer refused to allow the punishment I ordered to be continued, I have given the disobedient officer more work. Nothing illegal about that Commander. And I am on duty for the full time of my shifts. I may not be on the bridge, but I am working. Just because some mal contents have said something does not make it true."

Captain Petrov stepped forward now, his wild eyes resting on the man. He clearly didn't buy it.

"Those malcontents are my senior officers, Lieutenant." he said somewhat gruffly. "And your reports on the 'disobedience' of this officer leave alot to be desired. In fact, one of them included being present at the senior staff briefing, something I told her to do."

Captain Petrov cleared his throat then, leaning in toward the man with an almost dangerous expression.

"Whose orders, between the two of us, do you suppose Ensign Selin should follow first?"

"While the Ensign should follow your orders Captain, she then chose not to follow mine. I cannot and will not have such disobedience in the Intelligence Department. If my fellow Senior Staffers want such a weakling on their team, they can have her."

"As in she didn't crawl when she was told. Terran officers are not slaves, Lieutenant. You don't make them crawl like dogs!" The Captain spat. He then turned his head to the side. "Or, otherwise, I might make you crawl on your hands and knees around my ship for the next four days. What might you think about that?"

Lionel was half tempted, to ask if Kass was fucking the Captain now. But he restrained himself. "It would be below you Captain to do so" he replied.

"That's true." Ivan said, clearly done with the man. "I'm glad we see eye to eye on the merits of crawling around on the ground. Commander Cain, take Lieutenant Morrison down to the full-sized Agonizer and...give him an hour's worth of reality adjustment."

"With pleasure." Cain said, looking at Morrison darkly, moving toward the door with his eyes on the man to make sure he was coming along.

Lionel merely saluted and followed. They would pay, but first he would make sure Selin paid the price.