Reliquary / TF25 Briefing
QuodEroSpero
Member, Moderator, Admiralty
[Starbase Bravo - Meeting Room A]
[Day 02 - 1300 Hours]
Commander Amanda Greystone made one final pull on the sleeve of her uniform, before stepping up to the dais of the utterly packed auditorium. 200 of what she had been told were Starfleet’s best and brightest were in attendance, and the Task Force leadership had selected her to provide the briefing. She looked out at them, smiled, and gingerly took a sip of the glass of water that was provided to her before starting.
“I’m Commander Amanda Greystone, project lead for the Reliquary Exploration Initiative. Despite our seeing it as the greatest archaeological find of our lifetimes, I’m sure most of you have no ungodly idea what ‘The Reliquary’ is. Well, officially as of a few hours ago, it’s the headquarters for a new Task Force.”
Smiling, she continued, “The Reliquary is...orders of magnitude bigger than anything we’ve encountered, or built. It’s a massive installation, in stable orbit of the accretion disc of a black hole. We discovered it out on a routine patrol, near the galactic core, when it sent out a massive data packet to anyone who could hear it. But how we found her, and how we started out can all be found in your debriefs. That's not why we're here today.
“Basically, the Reliquary is a massive set of databases, run by an AI that calls itself Voss. And it has points of interest regarding life across the galaxy. And I mean **across ** the galaxy. There’s points of interest stretching through every quadrant. With Starfleet finally reinstating our mandate of peaceful exploration and humanitarian aid, this lends us the perfect opportunity. Task Force 25’s mandate is to discover and study these points of interest, and to catalogue them.
“Thus far...we’ve had data points as close in as Trill, and as far out as the back end of Founder space in the Gamma Quadrant. Using these two as examples, the data point near Trill was...I don’t know how to describe it other than absolutely incredible. We found archaeological and biological evidence that the Trill symbionts could have evolved from an entirely different species, and somehow migrated their way to the Trill star system. We’re still working that theory, and obviously it would throw a wrench in what a lot of the Trill people know to be true about their civilization, so...well, let’s be honest politics and science rarely get along, but it’s absolutely fascinating and we’re looking forward to digging in and seeing what the evidence holds. As for the one in Founder space...we have no idea what it is. We haven’t heard back from the Dominion about it yet, and to be fair, we might not. What we do know is that the data point was estimated to be a record of the discovery by proxy of a non-humanoid sentient species that could have rivaled the Founders had it flourished. Who knows if they’re still out there or not.
“So you know a little more about what the Reliquary is. What the Reliquary isn’t, is an answer to any of our societies’ woes, a huge technological leap forward in any field, or a location that’s easy to exploit for trade or profit. So if you were hoping for that...well, sorry about your luck. We have actual, scientific work to do. Including exploring the station itself.”
Pausing for effect, she looked out across the auditorium, and continued. “But...that doesn’t mean that we can’t, to borrow a phrase, look boldly into the future of what a find like this represents. The station may be older than anything on record, its tech may be...archaic at best. But it’s survived this long in an area of space that’s frankly known for some turbulent shi...uh, turbulent activity, both from a political and an astronomical standpoint. It’s ancient, it’s massive, and it’s...it’s just there, in orbit of a black hole. It’s very much the watchtower we never knew we had.
“Without waxing poetic, we owe it, as stewards to the long-dead civilization that built the damn thing, to find out what its purpose was, what it was documenting, and what we as a society, can do to continue the work it was built for.”
“So basically what I’m telling you is that it’s a super exciting time to be a scientist or an engineer, and everyone here is really, really excited about the opportunities this presents, and nerding out over the data! If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them.”
A post by
Commander Amanda Greystone
Project Lead | Reliquary Exploration Initiative
Comments
Captain Celia Rhodes was intrigued by the magnitude of the scientific possibilities. Although she was assigned to Task Force 72 any discoveries made by Task Force 25 would have resounding effects throughout the Federation- possibly further.
The blonde woman raised her delicate hand. “Commander Greystone, are we able to discern how many data points fall within Federation controlled space? And to that end, how many fall behind non-aligned borders?”
Commodore Camilla Dougherty
Task Force Executive Officer, 86
Commodore Catherine Waldorf
Commanding Officer, USS Hypatia
Ashex Oo
Head of The Family, Stardust City
Amanda nodded her head excitedly, and replied, "We are! Although than number keeps changing on a daily basis as we bring more and more databases online. When I left Reliquary to come here, our count was tens of thousands within Federation controlled space, and hundreds of thousands outside.
"When the data points fall within another government's jurisdiction, we've done our best to send the information along to them, to see what they'd like to do with it. A few of them have allowed one of our starships in to investigate, but...we've not had the greatest of luck with the Romulans, Klingons, or Breen, in that regard. Not a huge surprise, but so it goes, I guess."
Commander Amanda Greystone
Project Lead, Reliquary Exploration Initiative
Commodore Juliet St. Clair, of Task Force 93 rather than 25, sat in the back and listened intently. She knew the basics of what had been presented but to this point had not had the authority to see the specifics. These discoveries truly were fascinating.
"Pardon me, Commander," she said, lifting her own hand, "but I have two quick questions. First, what, if anything, is being done with any discoveries that interstellar security implications? Discoveries which may have negative impacts?" The last thing the Galaxy needed was another technology like Genesis being discovered and made available to local powers, be they friendly or not. "And second, are there plans to collaborate with ships that might be assigned to other Task Forces, which might find themselves on the doorstep of a Reliquary discovery? I'm sure my science officers would jump at the chance to collaborate, if we were conveniently the closest ship in range to one of your discoveries."
Commodore Juliet St. Clair
Executive Officer, Task Force 93 | Commanding Officer, USS Saturn
"Great questions," Amanda responded with a nod. "To the first point, we have yet to discover anything that would pose a security risk to any of the galaxy at large. If we do, we have plans in place that we've worked through with a few other governments to make sure that nothing untoward happens. So no need to worry about things like Thalaron weapons or big scary stuff like that. We've mostly got it handled, just needs a little finessing to really put a lockdown on it.
"As to your second point, we are absolutely working with other Task Forces, as much as we can. The unfortunate reality is that each Task Force has its own mandate, so they don't always have ships to spare. And that's fine, we have quite a few of our own, so we can manage. I'd say if you're interested in checking out one of the datapoints, toss it up your chain of command and see if they can spare you for it. Heaven knows we'd love the help!"
Commander Amanda Greystone
Project Lead, Reliquary Exploration Initiative