Post Number 6 Briefing

Posted on Sat May 23rd, 2020 @ 10:39am by Commodore Cyndi Song & Lieutenant Tara Herculoid PhD & Lieutenant T’Mia Rahl & Captain Henry Redex

Mission: The Restroffs (Space Spiders)
Location: Briefing Room
Timeline: Current

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Cyndi returned from engineering, "Communications call all senior officers to the briefing room Lieutenant Herculoid I want you to bring what scans you have on that web ahead and of the spiders behind us.

"I'll have it, captain," Tara assured her, after downloading the recent scans onto a PADD Tara followed Cyndi into the briefing room and took a seat.

Amethyst arrived at the briefing PADD in hand. Walking over to the replicator she got herself a nice glass of refreshing lemonade before walking back to a seat and sitting down. Ever since they’d encountered the spiders she’d had an extremely excited five year old on her hands, wanting to see the space spiders that were outside the ship thought thankfully Christina had taken Kal to view them from a safe distance as best as they could. Her neckline was still sore thanks to the burns she’d received in engineering but she’d talked H’iri into letting her get back to work.

"Counselor," Cyndi acknowledged

“Captain” Amethyst smiled warmly. “Sorry I was miles away!”

JP had just finished a briefing with his squadron leaders. He headed back up to his quarters and was unpacking some of the gear he hadn't gotten to yet. As he was putting some things up on the dresser next to his bed, he looked out the window. Doing a double-take, he looked back and focused on what appeared to be a spider in space. Out of instinct, he tapped the window to see if it was something on the other side, as happens on his fighter on a planet, but it wasn't...it was just floating in space.

"Oh great, space spiders," he said out loud to himself.

=/\= "Bridge to all senior staff. Report to the Briefing Room." =/\=

"Computer, send an affirmative reply to the comm officer."

=/\= "Message sent." =/\=

Jackson tossed the shirts in his hand on the bed and headed out the door. "I'll probably never get this place straightened out."

Henry was finishing his daily workout and just had showered, so he put on a clean uniform and answered the call

=/\= Redex Here, On my way =/\=

Cyndi acknowledged the officers who had arrived "We're still waiting on a few before I'll begin this briefing." Cyndi watched as the final officers arrived and took seats. "Thank you all for coming, I'm sure by now you've all seen the gigantic space like spiders out there. Lieutenant Herculoid spotted a gigantic spider web stretched between three planets in our flight path and before we could reverse and get out of here The spiders closed in on us making escape impossible. Lieutenant Herculoid can you shed any more light on this."

Tara activated the holographic view screen-clearing showing the web "It's stretched as the captain said between three of the planets out there and scans have shown what looks like several ships trapped in the web. How long they've been there I can't tell and I'm not able to tell what the spiders are made of all I do know is they are alive."

"If that's not bad enough, several of them have attached to our warp nacelles and appear to be feeding off the antimatter of the ship. Commander Raymond and LIeutenant Clinton are as we call it souring things so the spiders cannot feed off the ship. But there is a lot of them and I'm not sure how long we can keep it up," Cyndi said, "I'll open the floor up to questions and concerns and suggestions as to how to proceed."

Amethyst was listening but her attention was slowly being drawn away by a voice in her head. She’d suffered a mild concussion as well as burns and she wasn’t sure if the voice she was hearing was really there or whether she was simply suffering from side effects. The voices and faces in the room slowly got further and further away until all she could hear and see was a single male standing before her.

<< help ... us! >> At first he simply stared. << you can see and hear me? >>

Amethyst wasn’t sure if this was real or not but she nodded. << Yes ... >>

Porter looked at the images on the screen along with the scan data that they were able to obtain. "What do we know about their body composition? Maybe we can use our ship-based weapons on low yield and zap them off the ship."

Amethyst suddenly snapped out of her telepathically induced state. “Captain! We can’t risk making these spiders angry ...” She looked around those gathered before looking back at Cyndi. “There’s people alive on at least one of those ships!!”

"I can't tell what their body composition is," Tara said "It's like something I've never seen before. What they are doing in engineering seems to be working."

"Counselor what do you mean? What did you sense?" Cyndi asked "Any idea which ship?"

“I’m sorry Captain, I didn’t mean for that to be such an outburst.” Amethyst took a deep breath. “I was just ... contacted telepathically by someone on one of the ships. He ... wanted us to know they were there.” She paused. “It was only brief contact but he said he’d contact me again. When he does I’ll try and get more information.” She massaged her temples. “Telepathic contact is very draining, I can only stay connected for short bursts unless medical have any ideas as to how I stay connected longer.”

"If you have any more messages please let me know and whatever you do take care of yourself. I know how draining this can be. On one of my junior cruises, my CO was a telepath and he often said how draining it was," Cyndi replied

Amethyst nodded. “I will, Thank you, Captain.”

"Anyone else has questions or concerns on this?" Cyndi asked

Will Raymond slid in and caught the tail end of the briefing. The first concern for Amethyst but even more to what they were up against.

" Update Captain. Engineering is currently stabilized. Shields holding and main thrusters optimal."

Alona had entered the briefing room quietly as the others were speaking, not wanting to disturb their train (or, trainwreck) of thought. She had stood off in a shadowed recess as she ascertained their current predicament through the words of others, and once they had caught up to the moment, she stepped forward. "A lot of good a stable engineering is without the ability to extricate ourselves from this trap. It is obvious these creatures can survive in the vacuum of space, which means they are probably silicon-based. We stand here twiddling our thumbs while they continue to walk all over our only home. If you want them removed from the hull then polarize it." Her eyes came to rest on the counselor. "Lieutenant Aloran, our ship is in danger. Making them angry, which would mean they are intelligent, maybe our only course of action. Or," she gave a slight, evil grin as she stepped closer to the Counselor and looked down at the woman. "We can leave all those alive on those captured ships to their fate. How very Romulan of you."

"We have soured the anti-matter output of the ship," Cyndi spoke up. "I briefly entertained the idea of sending out the fighters but thought better of the idea as I don't know how the fighters could stand up to those spiders."

" I agree. We need to make the first contact and try reasoning with whatever is out there." Will added.

Amethyst looked at Alona. “I am no Romulan ... Lieutenant.” She looked at Will. “Perhaps I can assist with trying to communicate with these spiders Commander?”

" Yes an away team of myself, the Counselor and Captain Redex and team. We can isolate the central hub and make the first contact?" Will suggested.

"An away team to where?" Cyndi asked "They live in space as far as what we know and those trapped ships out there we have no idea what or who is on them or even if they can support life."

" We should start with the ship Amethyst got a reading from. Beam them here or over to them if they are in the range of transporters." Will replied.

"You do realize that in order to beam you over there will mean lowering the shields and we have no idea which ship she received the message from or if the air is even breathable," Cyndi commented.

" Yes ma'am but we can't just sit here and become Spider food. That's probably why so many ships get trapped. Engineering has maneuvering power, maybe we can reverse course?" Will replied.

Tara had been quiet letting the other officers have a say, after sending a message out to her officer manning scene for an update on things."Everyone Ensign Simone just scanned the area behind us. There's a web now being woven behind us, the good thing is they can't get a good hold on us because of the shields. She also reports that the ship near the middle of the web is able to support life." Tara slid her PADD over to Cyndi

"If you're still wanting to beam over there perhaps a high power anti-matter burst for fifteen seconds should be long enough to beam you over to that ship. But I do caution you on this, I want regular check in's and you do understand we really don't know what is over there. I've read the science chief's update. Are you willing to risk it?"

" I am but only speak for myself. Is it a Federation vessel?" Will asked.

“I could try reaching out to the telepath that contacted me Captain” Amethyst looked at Cyndi. “It would help us to pinpoint which ship and I could be a conduit to any questions you want to be answered, but only for a short duration.”

"I can't tell," Tara said, "I'm not familiar with the markings on it or the other ships."

"Councilor you can reach out if you like," Cyndi said

Amethyst nodded. “I’ll need somewhere quiet, I’ll get on it as soon as the meeting is over”

" Security will accompany us," Will added.

"Keep me posted Amethyst on what you find and who that ship belongs to," Cyndi said turning to Will "I don't need to remind you I want regular check in's, I want you to take not only security but medical as well. I have no idea what is over on those ships." Cyndi looked around the room at her assembled staff "Anyone has anything else to add?"

Will said no more.

"No ma'am, I'll prepare the team and meet you in the transporter room 3", answered Redex already thinking on which one to take for this mission

"Stop!"

Alona had issued that one word, to cause a halt before people began running off. "Captain, you just said that these spiders are draining our antimatter. A key resource in attaining warp and maintaining power on starships. How in the Five Elements are we supposed to beam them to another ship, using antimatter as a catalyst, when our stores have been depleted? It's ludicrous." Taking a moment to collect herself, Alona continued. "I say we shut down the warp core, immediately, so as to stop trying to produce antimatter. Predators will move on to new territory if food is scarce. Add to that the density of these creatures will eventually cause the shields to collapse, and then they will have free reign to dismantle this ship. I say we fill an antimatter pod to the brim, put it on a warp shuttle, and then remote pilot the thing away from us, to draw these arachnids away from the Amandora so we can affect rescue operations for those ships out there."

Another pause as Alona looked around at them all. "Simple choices get people killed. I will bet my career that every ship out there, stuck in those webs, has burned out shield emitters due to the system overloading due to the mass of spiders on the hulls. We cannot sustain it, and then we lose. While we send the warp shuttle on its way as bait, then we use an impulse shuttlepod to send the away team to their first destination, much safer, and not attracting as much attention." She raised her eyebrows as she again looked around, waiting for responses.

Cyndi nodded "Your right, I'll get with engineering and get them right on it. There are several small shuttles that can be used for this. We'll get one readied so when the pod is ready we'll launch it and once it's away and those spiders are following it we can safely launch the rescue shuttle. Okay people, security get your teams ready, counselor try to determine which ship the survivors are on. Science I want you along, we'll need medical. Alona I'd like you to join the away team. Okay you know what you have to do, dismissed and keep me posted."

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