Delta Quadrant Briefing - Part 1
[Starbase Bravo - Meeting Room A]
[Day 02 - 0900 Hours]
Jonathan Knox was not a particularly imposing figure; in fact, he was quite average in nearly every way. A man in his late sixties, he was exactly the sort of person that you could meet a dozen times and not remember his name or someone who could easily blend into a crowd. Despite that appearance, though, he was someone who had the ability to instantly command respect, and the room quieted as he walked up to the podium. Knox had spent twenty years on the bridges of heavy cruisers, and had a reputation as a by-the-book, conservative commander who saw his ultimate responsibility as being the preservation of the lives under his command, but also as someone who saw exploration and defense as deeply connected: the safety of the Federation hinged on continuing to seek out the unknown, both to reconnoiter threats and to find new allies that shared her values.
“Good morning. Thank you for joining me here today; I know that many of you have made long journeys to be with us,” the admiral said, with a small smile, as the logos of the 4th Fleet’s Task Force 38 and Starfleet Command’s Delta Exploration Initiative both appeared on the screens around the room. “I recognize a few faces from the command training program while I was commandant at Starfleet Academy, and I’m glad to see that we have a new cohort of commanders and captains ready to go out into the final frontier.”
“When I was asked to deliver a briefing on the Delta Quadrant, I asked Commodore Beckett how many weeks I would have to sit you all down with my experts and thirty years worth of reports,” he started, with a chuckle, as the agenda came up. “Fortunately for you, I only have three hours. We’ll hear from some experts and when you leave today, you’ll hopefully have an understanding of why Starfleet is committing so many resources to a far-off corner of the galaxy.”
“As you may be aware, Starfleet assisted the Barzans in the stabilization of the Barzan wormhole in 2389. Ever since, we have been small numbers of ships through to the Gradin Belt, thanks to a fixed verteron array that has allowed it to open every ninety days. We’ve since increased the power to the array to allow the wormhole to open every thirty days, thanks to continued study, which makes it more feasible to send a larger number of ships to the belt and to three other areas of interest we have identified in the Delta Quadrant.”
“Our objectives are relatively straight forward: establish diplomatic contact with the powers in the Delta Quadrant for strategic and trade purposes, conduct scientific research on the unique phenomena found there, and to avoid the Borg at all costs,” Knox said, underscoring that point with a look. “Each area of interest we have identified has a unique scientific and political situation that I’ll leave to the experts, but suffice it to say: the Delta Quadrant is the wildest and most interesting area of space you’re likely to come across.”
Knox switched to a map of the Delta Quadrant with several areas marked off by gold boxes. "As you can see, our furthest area, the Nacene Reach, is 35,000 light-years from our nearest area, the Gradin Belt. In between, we have the Swallow Nebula, which is 2,500 light-years away from the Gradin Belt towards the Nacene Reach, and the Nekrit Expanse, which is on the other side of Borg space. The expanse forms a natural barrier that has allowed the relatively weak powers in that area of space to avoid attracting the interest of the more powerful ones closer to the galactic core."
"Each of these areas has quite a different political situation, though most of them exist in homeostasis, where no one power has dominance, at least based on our latest reports. In some cases, our ships will be the first Starfleet vessels back since Voyager visited them the first time, so those 'latest' reports are quite out-of-date. I'm going to turn it over to Fleet Captains V'Sal and Hayden for briefings on their particular areas of concern, so you can get a better sense of what you'll be up against."
A post by
Vice Admiral Jonathan Knox
Commander, Task Force 38
Director, Delta Exploration Initiative
OOC: The briefing will be posted in a number of different segments, to give you a chance to react to the things being presented, as there's a lot of ground to cover.
Comments
Jonas was interested. This was the 'to Boldly Go' that he had joined Starfleet to do. He wasn't overly interested in the science side of exploration, but he was interested in the meeting new races and new civilizations in the far off areas. He knew he would be assigned to Task Force 38, and hoped that Admiral Knox would send him on the far away missions. He wondered if Admiral Knox would send him alone or with a task group. He expected those questions would be answered by the time the conference was over and he received his assignment.
Vannon desperately tried to stifle a yawn as he shifted to get comfortable in his chair. The yawn wasn't out of boredom from the subject matter or for Admiral Knox's style of presentation, but mainly because he didn't get much sleep. If the lack of sleep could have been attributed to a late night out catching up with his roommate, he might still have forgiven it and been in a better mood. But after chatting the evening away, he and Neve decided to go to bed at a reasonable hour like responsible adults and potential Starfleet command officers... until they realised the sonic shower wasn't working. Ever the fix-it types, both Vannon and Neve figured they could quickly solve the problem by adjusting the frequency of the sonic attenuator. The sheer hubris of two command division officers trying to do the job of specialist engineers resulted in an even more broken sonic shower that whined all through the night until at 4am neither of them could take it anymore and fled their quarters until an actual trained specialist from the engineering department could come and fix it.
Several cups of caffeine had done little since then to improve Vannon's mood and all the studying he'd done in preparation for the Task Force 38 briefing was starting to seep out of his brain. By now the irritability and lack of sleep was starting to morph into mild hysteria or delirium and he had to suppress a chuckle as he realised this type of stunt was exactly what he and Neve used to pull back when they were roommates at the Academy. However competent they were on their own, together they somehow only managed to create dysfunction.
When the officer next to him gave him a sharp glance, Vannon coughed once and tried to hide his grin as he refocused his attention on the presentation.
-
LtCmdr Vannon Dacour
Jack Ransom sat close to the front of the meeting room - but not too close to the front to look like an arse-kisser. He listened to Vice-Admiral Knox's opening remarks with a real sense of mounting excitement. This was what he loved - trailblazing, first contact and exploring the galaxy. As for Knox's third objective of avoiding the Borg at all costs, that was absolutely hunky-dory as far as Ransom was concerned - he had absolutely no plans whatsover of crossing paths with those monsters...
Captain Jack Ransom - USS Elysion
Leaning against the rear wall of Meeting Room A, former Commander Lewis listened with skepticism as Vice Admiral Knox spoke of the “final frontier” and “the wildest and most interesting area of space you’re likely to come across.” These platitudes were no different than the welcome ceremony yesterday with all its talk about a “mandate to seek out new life and new civilizations” and “to boldly go, together.” They were designed to energize a fresh new batch of Commanders and Captains and to sell them on an idealistic vision of exploration and discovery.
Mr. Lewis, however, didn’t buy the sales pitch. Starfleet was a mess. It had been only a few months since they’d cleaned out a cabal of corrupt Flag Officers and Command Staff from within the ranks of the Fourth Fleet. While Teylas Ramar and his new guard of Admirals painted an optimistic picture of the future, as if everything was good now, Lewis felt there still remained shadowy forces at play in San Francisco, Paris and elsewhere across the Federation. Some would say he was paranoid, but he’d say he was realistic. The pattern repeated again and again. Starfleet’s optimism and idealism made it uniquely suited to be influenced by bad actors, whether it was the Changelings, Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order or it’s own Dougherty, Jameson, Banda, Morgan, Leyton and Cartwright. The list went on and on.
As Knox handed things over to a pair of underlings, Lewis pondered why he was here. He wasn’t a Starfleet Officer, nor had he been for the last ten years, and he didn’t give a damn about all this feel good crap. He was a realist who’d spend his life doing what had to be done to let everyone keep on living in their optimistic, idealistic bubble. He’d gone so far as to give up his career for that, resigning in disgrace rather than telling the truth and damaging the Federation he swore to protect. But even after his separation, he continued to work, from the outside, to protect the Federation. It’s why he’d linked up with Allison Reyes last year... but why she’d invited him now to this event, he still had no idea.
Fleet Admiral Allison Reyes
Commanding Officer, USS Polaris, Task Force 93
Director, Advanced Science, Technology & Research Activity (ASTRA)
Captain Gérard Devreux
Executive Officer, USS Polaris, Task Force 93
Commander Jake Lewis
Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Polaris, Task Force 93
Raan sat near the back of the room on the end of one of the rows, arms folded as he listened to the briefing. Since he had no idea which TF he was going to be assigned to, he'd opted to try and take in as many of the briefings as he could, to get a general idea of all of them. So far though, this one seemed interesting. Definitely within the 'to boldly go' area, borg areas being a definite exception of course.
As always with these things, a latecomer almost trampled his feet and he politely stood, letting them through before resuming his seat. Why people did that he had no idea, but they always did... and always picked his row for some reason. Perhaps they wanted to see him fight with these finikety folding seat things. He was sure they were designed to fool mere mortals and probably needed about three engineering degrees to figure out.