The First Senior Staff Meeting

Posted on Thu Jun 5th, 2025 @ 1:37am by Captain T’Kal & Ensign Emmanuelle Larose & Senior Chief Petty Officer C'Hira Summers & Lieutenant Commander David Erickson & Lieutenant Commander Valerie Novis & Lieutenant Commander Clay McEntyre & Lieutenant Karane Inda & Lieutenant CASTIEL 'Cas' Johnson MD & Lieutenant Megosho Gehente & Lieutenant JG Annika Johnson & Lieutenant JG Renata Novotná
Edited on on Thu Oct 9th, 2025 @ 7:46pm

2,768 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: ARYL 1X03: The Listening Post
Location: Deck 6 - Briefing Room A
Timeline: SD 8959.7 (6 August 2290, 13:00)

ON

The first two arrive was the young Ensign Larose. No longer nervous but still eager to please and to learn, she took the responsibility of ensuring that the galley prepared afternoon refreshments for the staff meeting.

The door opened less than a minute after she'd come in, and entered Senior Chief Summers, the quartermaster. "Good afternoon, nya" she said, smiling, cat ears perked up. C'Hira Summers, Emmanuelle knew, was the one who ensured all of the behind-the-scenes support work that made a starship function got done. Years earlier then-Commander T'Kal had given her the tip of befriending the lower-deck support crew to learn how ships really worked. She had listened to the advice and was now practically best friends with the quarter-Caitian support chief.

"Where do mew want these?" the quartermaster asked, tail flicking as she and another of her support officers carefully brought in an antigrav cart carrying a pair of large drink dispensers, labeled COFFEE and TEA, respectively, along with carafes of milk and cream, bowls of sugar and sweetener, a pitcher of ice water, a plate of mixed pastries, and enough cups, spoons, and saucers to make sure everyone could serve themselves a drink and a snack.

"By the windows," Emmanuelle suggested, gesturing to the low shelf that ran the entire length of the exterior bulkhead along which the room's few portholes offered views out into space.

Moments later, everything was deployed and the junior support crewman gone, leaving Manu to wait for the next arrival while the senior chief took her time setting things up just right.

True to her own pattern of being early, or at least for things that didn't involve being scanned, Valerie walked in next and held up a hand to stop any greeting as she circled the table slowly to make sure everything was in place. As she glanced over the refreshments, she sighed gently. Coffee and Tea, two of the banes of her existence, being carriers of the cursed additive caffeine. She finally dropped her hand and turned a smile onto Emmanuelle, "Looks good, Ensign, good job."

David walked in, eyes immediately taking in the room, its contents and then its occupants. He nodded to the three ladies and walked over. "Commander," he said, smiling and nodding to Valerie as he reached past her for a blueberry muffin with his right hand and tossed it up over her, catching it with his left. He set it down two seats from the head of the table, then turned his smile to the other two crewmen. "Ladies," he said, smiling. "David Erickson, Chief Navigator. And you?"

The support officer grinned at the charming navigator. “C’Hira Summers, Quartermaster, nya! Pleasure to meet ya! Um, sir!”

Larose bit her lip to stifle a laugh. She couldn’t tell yet whether Summers was friendly to everyone, flirty to everyone, or both. “Emmanuelle Larose, sir. I’m, ah, the Captain’s student, I guess? I was in your seat at launch.”

David smiled at Summers and gave her a wink, then looked at Larose. "If you're her new student, you've been in my seat longer than that," he said, grinning. "Enjoy the ride." He poured himself some cold water, saluted them and sat down in front of his muffin.

Clay entered without fanfare, talking an available seat and sitting down, reviewing a PADD with notes and information for the briefing on the status of his department and the training schedules for phaser and rifle certifications.

Renata promised herself that she won't be late from her first ever senior staff meeting. Yet, five minutes before the appointed time of 13:00 she was still painting her nails in her office. "Damn..." she cursed in herself when she glanced at the time on her desk computer. She quickly finished her nails then jumped up and rushed to Briefing Room A. Fortunately, it was located on the same deck.

"Good afternoon." she greeted the others and sat down quietly. She arrived on time. She metaphorically patted herself on the back.

David raised his glass to her and offered a smile.

"Good afternoon," Valerie greeted Renata and Clay and had given a wave to David as he'd entered. The glass of ice water in front of her was testament to her desire to avoid the tea and coffee, but the pastry told everyone she wasn't on a diet and she surely wasn't "Almost didn't make it, Lieutenant Novatna, glad to see you did... Now if the others..."

Slipping through the door to the briefing room, Meg was mid-swig of coffee. Waving the hand carrying her PADD at the assembled crew, she beamed a smile and gave a cheery 'hi!' before taking the free seat next to Novotna. 'I hope you're all looking forward to a wonderful afternoon,' she said as she set the mug down and thumb-activated her PADD to re-familiarise herself with her briefing notes.

"Getting better by the minute," David said, keeping a mostly straight face as he popped a piece of muffin into his mouth and chewed.

Annika was next through the door, she was usually pretty prompt but had been slightly delayed. “Hello everyone” she offered a polite smile as she walked around to a seat and sat down.

Jin-Woo was next through the door. The one good thing about Jin-Ah not being on the senior staff meant that these meetings would be a guaranteed escape from his annoying sister. As he still hardly knew anyone else on the senior staff, Jin-Woo silently made his way over to the nearest available seat to the one person he spent most of his working hours with: David.

David looked up and gave a friendly smile, turning one of the seats next to him towards his bridge partner.

Castiel walked in, looking around, noticing Annika nearby, next to an empty seat, it would normally be unprofessional for married couples to sit next to each other, but considering they were in the same department, it made sense for him to sit next to her.

Annika offered Cas a smile, she knew that when they were on duty a certain professional distance was required between them, she wouldn’t want to give Starfleet any reason to reassign her away from Cas again.

The doors swished open and in walked a rather grumpy looking Karane. She didn't say anything as she took a seat.

Seconds after the digital clock on the wall changed from 1259 to 1300 hours, the conference room door opened to admit Captain T'Kal. She nodded to the gathered crew.

"I appreciate you all being so prompt," she said as she took her seat. "Before I dismiss you, Chief, is everything prepared for this evening?"

The cat-eared enlisted woman stood tall and grinned. "Yes, ma'am, nya! Deck Three Officers' Lounge will be ready by 1800, nya. Galley set to deliver appyatizers at 1830 and restock all evening!"

"Very good, Chief," the Captain said, nodding to dismiss the quartermaster, who trounced out of the briefing room. She spared a glance to the Chief Science Officer. "I like your nails, Lieutenant," she said. "Now, on to business. Ensign, have you prepared the material?"

David's eyes had raked over the Captain as she'd entered, as was his habit, and he'd noted a few decorative details, but the Captain's questions had him looking back and forth between her and the Quartermaster curiously. He took a second look at her hands, and his eyes lit up. A flick of her eyebrows, however, reigned in his enthusiasm.

"Yes, Captain!" Emmanuelle said, coming to her feet from one of the chairs along the wall. She activated a slideshow which displayed on monitors visible to everyone. On the first page was a map of Sector 262, with a dot flashing near the neutral zone border.



"We are on course for Station Delta Four, one part of the Delta Early Warning Line." Everyone in the room knew of it, one of several arrays of subspace listening posts which monitored Klingon activity across the Neutral Zone. The line which could -- in theory at least -- detect an incoming Klingon invasion before the first shots were fired. "Delta IV is the station which picked up the blip reported on by Starfleet Intelligence in the package the Captain had circulated."

"I presume you all have read it?" T'Kal said, looking about the room.

Renata almost spat out the coffee she had an hour ago when the Captain complimented her nails. Now that was something truly unexpected. She raised an eyebrow in a weirdly Vulcan fashion. "Yes, sir." she nodded, referring to the intelligence report and not her nails.

"Yes, sir." Jin-Woo nodded.

"Real page-turner," David quipped.

'Almost as thrilling as a Klingon opera, Captain,' Meg snickered as she acknowledged reading the document.

Reaching up, Valerie wanted to bury her head in her hand at the last comment, but instead continued the motion to brush her hair back, stifling the groan, but nodded sagely at the Captain.

"I skimmed it..." Karane muttered simply. "I'm an engineer not a student writing a book report."

Annika gave her new CO a guilty look. “Sorry Captain I’ve been up to my elbows in personnel files, but I will catch up on it as soon as the briefing is over.”

"Starfleet Command believes," Emmanuelle continued, "that a direct examination of raw data from the station by competent science and communications experts will enable us to decipher the signal and identify what happened beyond the Klingon border." The slide changed, showing a picture of Station Delta IV.



"Furthermore, the station reported malfunctions along one of its receiver antennae. They are presently undermanned and are requesting engineering support."

The Captain looked to the gathered senior officers. "Any questions at this time?"

"What about our neighbors to the south?" David said. "Any issues in Pydria? Or any of the unaligned worlds?"

"Relations with the Pydrians remain...difficult," T'Kal answered. "However we are hopeful we can negotiate an agreement with the Drenkul after we finish at Delta-Four to have access to their monitoring data. There is no indication either power is preparing to act militarily against either us or the Klingons in the near future."

"So, if I got it right, the Delta IV guys detected hyperphasic radiation coming from our Klingon friends across the border." Renata spoke up. "So I assume they're not grilling sausages out there but conducting some rather suspicious experiments instead," she quipped.

'Who isn't?' asked Meg rhetorically as she flipped backwards and forwards through the briefing document, 'but the Klingons are definitely trying to distract from whatever we detected - the comms traffic definitely spikes around that time, and the fleet comms are unusually loud for want of a better word.'

'Silence is deadly.' Valerie thought to herself, then reminded herself that would have been the Romulan way, not the Klingons. She considered the cultural differences between the two and a coverup of distracting comms would make sense for the rather... Blunt race of Klingons, "Current intelligence reports do have their primary testing grounds further within the Empire, so this would likely not be from that, however field testing could account for something new."

"A lucky coincidence, but it happens that I know a few things about subspace physics." Renata grinned. "I can rig up something at sciences, so we'd be able to detect that radiation and identify the source more accurately."

"Is their tech anything like ours? I can probably fix it, but I'll need some sort of schematics." Karane said.

“The Delta IV station is somewhat outdated but Federation in nature,” T’Kal said to the chief engineer. “Schematics will be in the database. Upon arrival, Ms. Novis will lead an away team via shuttle to engage in remote repairs with Ms. Inda. Mr. Sung, be prepared to pilot them in. You will also need a comms officer, though I will require Lieutenant Gehente with me in the station head office.”

The Captain turned to the chief science officer. “Do whatever is required to enhance our capability of detecting and analyzing any future bursts such as this. I do not believe it was a one-off.”

The color could be seen draining from Jin-Woo's face, as the requirement of a communications officer that wasn't Meg meant there was likely only one other person for the job...

"Oh no..." Jin-Woo moaned.

"Yes, sir." Renata nodded firmly. "We'll do our best to find out what those jerks are up to."

Nodding , and making notes on what was required of her, Meg shot a glance at Jin-Woo. Having met his step-sibling she knew of the tensions between them, but opted not to blurt anything out in front of the senior staff. Sung would need time in the field, so this would be a perfect opportunity for her, but she wondered at the wisdom of pairing them both together at this point. Looking to the Captain and First Officer, she wondered if they would consider family dynamics as sufficient reason to keep two officers from serving in the same team.

'Understood - I'll accompany you to the head office,' Meg replied with a small smile.

“If there are no further questions at this time,” the Captain said, “I will ask you to get to work preparing for our arrival at Delta IV. Mr. Sung, what is our ETA?”

"At our current course and speed, I expect us to be there in about 17 hours' time." Jin-Woo reported.

“Excellent,” T’Kal said. “One last thing. This evening, I have reserved the Officers’ Lounge on Deck Three for a very important event. I lived on Earth for many years and in that time I’ve come to appreciate many of the sports humans have developed over the centuries. Tonight is the opening season match of my favourite football team, Paris Saint Germain, and thus I have asked the galley to prepare a menu of French appetizers and open a keg of authentic Kronenbourg 1664 lager. All staff are welcome, senior staff especially. Aside from fans of Olympique Lille, who will be invited to ship out when we reach Delta IV.”

There was a pause. Utter silence. Proverbial crickets.

The Captain turned to her Chief Navigator, her eyebrows turned slightly downward. “You told me my sense of humour was improving.”

David regarded her with a neutral expression. "Oh it definitely was. I very nearly laughed that time," he deadpanned, but his eyes twinkled.

Meg went a darker shade of green trying to suppress the burst of laughter that welled up inside her, more from schadenfreude than anything else. Coughing into a fist to relieve the build up of air, she smiled pleasantly, 'so long as Napoli fans aren't treated the same way it should be fine.'

Annika couldn’t help but smile. “To be honest I’m not a football fan, but that doesn’t mean I’ll refuse the invite.”

"Football is more Jin-Ah's thing than mine:" Jin-Woo muttered. "So long as you don't mind having a Pyongyang Sports Club fan in full regalia in the house..."

“Support your clubs as you desire,” T’Kal affirmed. “My attempt at humour aside, I welcome the spirit of competition, teamwork, and camaraderie that most Earth sports generate. And visible representations of club loyalty are welcome as well, in any capacity while off duty, and within the boundaries of uniform regulations while on duty.” She showed Jin-Woo and Renata her own fingernails, painted navy blue with a stripe of red, the colours of PSG.

“The broadcast begins at 1800 hours,” T’Kal affirmed while getting to her feet. “It is not obligatory, but I would…appreciate your participation. There will be food and beer. Until then, however, you are dismissed.”


END


Captain T’Kal
Commanding Officer, USS Ark Royal

Lieutenant Commander Valerie Novis
Executive Officer and Chief Tactical Officer, USS Ark Royal

Lieutenant Commander David Erickson
Chief Navigator, USS Ark Royal

Lieutenant Commander Clay McEntyre
Chief Security Officer, USS Ark Royal

Lieutenant Karane Inda
Chief Engineer, USS Ark Royal

Lieutenant Megosho Gehente
Chief Communications Officer, USS Ark Royal

Lieutenant Castiel Johnson
Chief Medical Officer, USS Ark Royal

Lieutenant jg Sung Jin-Woo
Chief Helmsman, USS Ark Royal

Lieutenant jg Renata Novotná
Chief Science Officer, USS Ark Royal

Lieutenant jg Annika Johnson
Counselor, USS Ark Royal

Ensign Emmanuelle Larose
Bridge Support Officer, USS Ark Royal

Senior Chief Petty Officer C’Hira Summers
Quartermaster, USS Ark Royal

 

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