OOC: Correct. T'Lara is Counselor. T'kres is Communications Officer

"Yes Captain" she replied over the comms.
Eager to help, T'Lara didn't waste a moment and brought up the files they received from the station, starting with the personal files, and then moving on to read the entire mission logs.

   Abdool acknowledged the Captain's orders with a simple "Understood, Sickbay out." before she closed the communication and then leaned forward, interlacing her long fingers together and steepling her first fingers and read over the information that had been sent from the Station. The more she read, however, the more her thin brows knitted together. She mouthed the words Chaktir and Ithik slowly to herself repeatedly as she remembered a trick she'd been taught on how to memorize words and convert them from short-term to long-term memory.

   A few things stood out to the Doctor, from the fact that the people had survived the explosion of their sun, to just how they'd managed to survive for this long, to how they were able to sustain themselves. Either the race had become exceptionally hardy to their circumstances, or they had survived largely due to a series of lucky breaks comparable to how Humans had managed to make it to manned spaceflight. Seeing the Ithik's rough, pitted ebony skin covered with small nodules wasn't the best-looking thing she'd seen that day, but it explained a little as to how they'd managed to survive the radiation for as long as they had.

  A pencil-thin dark eyebrow rose as she read further, then her mauve-tinted lips formed into a thin line when she finished. She didn't much care for what she'd read, but it was something that she'd have to bring up at the meeting later ...

---

  "Excuse me, Boss" came a deep-throated tone from a man who did more than just darken the door to the Abdool's office.  The short-sleeved white Medical shirt showed off his powerful arms, graced as they were with tattoos that extended just past where the fabric stopped. The tunic also varely contained his broad, barrel chest - a sign that he spent as much of his time in a gym as he did studying. Tanned hands rested on either side of the Doctor's doorway, and she could tell by the tanned skin that the man was likely born on one of the Central Pacific Islands. "Not meanin' to be harsh, but something bodda you?" The way the big man spoke, the last words came out sounding more like "Bad-dah-yuu?"

   Abdool looked up as the other thin brow rose to match the first and the Doctor regarded the barrel-chested man with a curious glance. "No, nothing's wrong. Can I help you with something, Mister ..?"

   "Kama Kalani," the man smiled widely, some of his teeth showing underneath. "Petty Officer, First Class, in charge of da kine EMT's. Friends call me King."

   Despite his sudden appearance, Abdool blinked once at the man's choice of words, then composed herself. "I'm good, Petty Officer. Appreciate the thought. But if you're looking for something to do, you can get the others and give Security a hand. They're likely setting up the shuttle bay to receive incoming ... guests."

   The big man nodded his head. "Rajah dat, Boss. Anything else?"

   Abdool shook her head, the small bun of hair slid slightly from side to side. "Nothing more, Mr. Kalani." the tone was final and indicated that he was dismissed and free to go about his duties.

   "Got it, Boss. Tanks." the man said, then pushed off from his hands and moved out into the Sickbay proper. The doorway groaned slightly afterwards, but no damage was done to the structure.

    Abdool's brows lowered after the encounter with the Petty Officer, then turned back to address the computer.

   "Computer, these nodes on the skin of the Ithik ... with the expected changes in the rise of gamma radiation that will strike the planet, can they survive its effects. And if so, how will the radiation affect them, and in what way?"

The ship's computer responded in a robotic monotone to the doctor's query.

"Full data on the Ithik not available," the computer said.  "Survival of radiation levels in the path of the black hole's jets extremely unlikely."

An hour has passed as the senior staff of the Independence confers...

   As she walked down the corridor, Doctor Laila Abdool occasionally glanced down to the small tablet she carried that held her notes medical and social notes on the Ithik she'd compiled over the last hour before she headed to the Conference Room. She remained mindful and nodded to those that passed her - she'd only begun to see to the needs of the Independence's crew, so she was an unknown quantity, at least for the moment.

   She looked up before she reached the doors of the Conference Room and stopped just before the sensor. A quick hand moved over her features to check and make sure as little as possible was out of place, and took a moment to push one of her black ringlets back into the small bun she kept her hair in while she was on duty. A quick run down with her eyes showed that her white tunic and pants were spotless, and the rank pin was properly placed where it was supposed to be - underneath the entwined snake caduceus that served as a badge of her station as Chief Medical Officer.

   Although she'd met some officers over the course of her short period aboard the Independence, most of the Senior Officers had little reason to visit Sickbay, so she was as much introducing herself to them as they were to her. Be prepared for some awkwardness, she told herself, This will be a learning experience for both sides.

   Abdool lowered her hand, satisfied that she'd done all she could, and blinked as she stepped forward into the Conference Room. Much to her surprise, no one had arrived as yet, so she moved near to the end of the table where the larger monitor normally used by the Science Officer was and sat in the chair next to the wall. Her brown eyes quickly glanced over the room to make a few mental notes, then settled in by thumbing the tablet and opening it to her notes and began to silently rehearse what she would say when she was called upon ...

T’Lara was next to enter the room, a short moment after Doctor Abdool.  Like the Doctor, she was wearing the same pristine white uniform that distinguished her being part of Starfleet Medical Branch.  The faint, worried, smile she exchanged with the Commander and Leila suggested that she had something on her mind.
“Hello Commander, Doctor” she said as she placed her own tablet on the table, her eyes lingering on it for a brief moment before turning to the two.

Jav'Ker bustled into the room and halted. His understanding of terran greetings was limited. He nodded curtly and looked back to his tablet andthe modified EV-suit hed been ordered to give a briefing on. It was an inconvience he had little time for

   Abdool smiled warmly as Counsellor T'Lara entered. Although she didn't know the Vulcan all that well, she could see the small crease in the other woman's smile that told her that something was amiss. "Lieutenant-Commander, it is good to see you again." she said, as she glanced to one of the chairs nearby, then looked back. T'Lara was more of a known quality than anyone else and thought that having her close might ease some of the bottled anxiety that she felt.

   When the next officer entered and stopped, Abdool noticed the modified environmental suit the Tellarite wore. Must be Engineering she mused silently, Not sure what the 'suit is for, but we'll likely find out soon enough. When she caught the alien's short nod, her mauve coloured lips thinned and pulled slightly back in the beginnings of a smile as she mimicked the Tellarite's gesture, then returned back to her notes.

The door to the conference room slide open as Captain Rakoto arrived.  Nodding curtly to her staff she seated herself and began, "I recognize an hour is not much of a window to gather information but we are under a tight schedule at the moment.  What have you been able to learn?"

She offers the floor to any who would take it.

ch'Pertha followed the Captain in, dutifully at her heel.
He took his appointed seat, and sat quietly.



Having not had much time in the last week or so, I have asked nothing of the ST and have nothing new to add to this meeting.  Sorry

Hating that he's a little late, hoping that won't be held against him, Mcreeg makes his way into the conference room and finds a seat, not sneaking, yet not making a big show if it either.

He sits at attention, hoping the others have useful information, his own work not having made much of a difference in learning anything all that new, but in helping shore up systems and fine tune them to keep them going as best he can..

“likewise” she was equally happy to see Leila, but before she could say much more Rakoto marched into the room and the  Vulcan tensed up once more.  She had very little interactions with their new Captain, and it was very important for her to make a good impression and appear as professional as possible. Thinking that, she patiently waited until the senior officers were seated before sitting down herself right next to Leila.

She reached down to her tablet and slid her gentle fingers over the screen, thinking on the best way to present her report.  It was only after a long moment of silence that she realized no one volunteered to go first yet.   She hoped someone would:  what she planned on saying wasn’t pleasant, and she preferred to end the meeting with it, as a way of a ‘by-the-way’ commentary.    In fact, she considered whether she should speak at all.   She really hated being a critic, but if she wouldn’t she might place all of them in greater danger.

With a heavy heart, she lifted her eyes from the screen and looked at Rakoto.

“Captain; I’m worried about the scientific methods used by the research team of Abyss station.  Mission logs confirms that they managed to open the entrance to the alien artifact by pure happenchance" 

She looked at the faces of the crew to check their reaction

"I can sympathize with the desire to be ‘the first’, but this unbridled ambition and carelessness has proven themselves to be dangerous.  The artifact is the size of a planet, clearly more advanced than anything we’ve seen before, the purpose of which we can only guess at.  Hitting buttons and pulling levers at random?" 

She shook her head

"I don’t know if we can trust any their away team to not cause further harm, especially since communication with them is down and they are stranded there after losing their shuttle.  They're bound to be desperate enough to try anything.   This is a recipe for disaster, Captain"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:34, Tue 17 Sept 2019.

Having filtered in with the others, T'kres steepled her fingers and regarded T'Lara cooly.  "Unbridled emotion often is a recipe for disaster, Counselor," she said dryly.  "Logic suggests we make efforts to contact the landing party and ascertain their status, as well as what they have learned. Perhaps this will soothe their... desperation."

She straightened a bit stiffer, if that was possible. "Unfortunately, the skin of that... base... is made of neutronium, which blocks all our communications."


She turned to the captain, next.  Of all the crew, she knew her CO the best, having transferred along at her request from their old ship, the Oberth-class USS Goddard.

"The station personnel have compiled enough of the Ithik language that we have been able to program the universal translator to function with their language," she said.

The Chief Science Officer had rushed in just behind the Captain and XO, too distracted by the contents of the over-sized data tablet he was scanning to be properly flustered. He sat in the nearest available chair without looking up or acknowledging any of his fellow officers, except for a quiet grunted apology when he almost tried to take the seat already occupied by the Chief Engineer.

Decker continued to tap furiously but quietly at the tablet as the Captain began the meeting, speed reading last minute reports sent in by his teams. He frowned absently as T'Lara made her comments, but said nothing. Finally, as the Communication's Officer gave her report, he finished his preparations and looked up to the Captain.

   Once she'd exchanged greetings with Cousellor T'Lara, Laila Abdool returned her attention to the datapadd she was using to correlate her notes. Her chocolate brow furrowed slightly as she kept reading and missed most of the other entrances made by the rest of the crew; her determination on a project had helped on a few occasions when it came time to work on a project at the Academy, or on a disease vector that might eventually be used in order to find a cure ... but it also meant that she could focus to the exclusion of all else - something that had happened to her in the past, and she'd been called on. Commander Bissonette, the XO on one of the science ships she'd been posted on had told her that she shouldn't be so absorbed in the facts, but to take time to 'smell the coffee' from time to time.

   She kept the notepad open and typed some notes at the others spoke, adding them in a separate column as she listened to the others give their own takes. From what she was beginning to gather, the science team had blundered their way about in their haste to be the first, and things had gone south shortly thereafter. Now, there was going to be trouble.

   "I'm afraid this recipe, as we've taken to calling it," Abdool said as she crossed one leg over the other, then continued, "Is worse than I'd thought. The Ithik, as they call themselves, are a species hardened by their environment and have made several genetic leaps in order to survive. Technically, they shouldn't have made it, but I'm just a Doctor, not a planetologist, of course ...

   "Their dark skin and catlike pupils have served them well over the time that they've been on Omega Draconis A. The skin is covered in small 'nodule'-like structures that I can only believe help them with the high doses of radiation that bombard the planet daily. But despite their adaptations, they will have no chance to survive the coming tilt of the black hole that will deliver lethal doses of radiation to them.

   "The problem I have with all of this is one thing - the Prime Directive. The 'Ithik' is a pre-warp civilization that the scientists either didn't realise - which should have been obvious with the clandestine observation posts - or simply overlooked in their rush to discovery." She paused to take a breath, but her demeanour indicated showed that she would be none too pleased with the scientists if she were to meet them in person. "Also, the Ithik believe that they are a blessed race, one that considers themselves above any extinction-level event. If they believe that they've been lucky or blessed enough to have survived to this point, their cognitive dissonance will show if we try to convince them that they need to leave the planet. Provided, of course, we suspend the Prime Directive ..."

“I don’t think the Prime Directive is still relevant in this matter” T’Lara piped up  “It was a Federation Research Team that created the entire mess to begin with.  If it wasn’t for us, the Ithik would have gone on living just fine” 

She would have argued for saving the people even if it ran contrary to the Directive, but she felt they had good enough justification to do so without going into a philosophical debate about the sanctity of life.

"The Lieutenant Commander is right, the mess is already made, what we're discussing is going in and fixing it, putting things back the way they were, leaving the people as close to the way they were found as can be..and isn't that what we're supposed to do? what the Prime Directive wants?"

Mcreeg can't help but speak up and add his opinion, to him there's already too much talking and not enough doing, things he wants to do not just because they need to be done to help, but because his curiosity has been picqued and there are things to learn..to do..even as he looks at his arm and wonders...
This message was last edited by the player at 07:38, Sat 21 Sept 2019.

"Certainly the Prime Directive is still relevant - the whole of the Directive. At its core, it's about preventing the disruption of the natural development of a species by outside influences. Even if a Starfleet team hadn't triggered the station's activities, we'd still be authorized to take action to prevent or minimize disruption to that development, although we are obligated to do so in the least disruptive manner possible."

Decker leaned forward and tapped a series of commands into his tablet. On the conference room screen, a diagram of the system appeared, showing the planet and two stations orbiting the central black hole, and its relativistic jets already off-axis, swinging imperceptibly towards the plane of the system. Figures appeared detailing the gravitational fields as well as the radiation jets.

"While we've encountered a handful of incorporeal entities or species who might survive, as Doctor Abdool already said, the Ithik clearly will not. Our options are to reverse the black hole's shift - and by 'we', I mean that station - or to remove the Ithik from their planet. Or try." He paused for a moment, his frown deepening, "We had best hope that the original survey team is still alive inside. I've examined the reports and I have no reason to believe that the team was behaving recklessly. If you have an issue with us being here at all, I suggest you take it up with Starfleet Command or the Federation Science Council. But I tell you, that team is our best chance of reversing this. Because if it is up to us, in the time frame we have to operate in, we really will be blindly 'hitting buttons and pulling levers at random.'"

"We need to get a team down inside that station and try to make contact with them. Sealed up inside that station they may not even be aware of what's transpiring. We should be prepared to support them as best we can. And, if necessary, we should be as prepared as possible to try and stop it ourselves."

"I'm not optimistic."

The modifications the scientists have made to thier suits were drastuc. we'll severely limited in the time we can use them in the field.

However we will best be able to ascertain what the did to gain entry to the sphere from there.

With regrards to the rescue operations, we've made as much additional space available by utilizing the cargoholds in a more efficient manner.
One of my team suggested the shuttle bays may offer yet more space. By using the bays and towimg the shuttles. However radiation interference with transporters means that the shuttles are for now our safest mode of transport.

"I don't know if you're looking for volunteers yet, or if it's even my place, but I'm volunteering, if anyone's going to fly into all that, I'd like it to be me"

Mcreeg's voice is steady and determined, part of it not wanting to risk anyone else, part of it curiosity..and more than a little of it that he thinks he's better than everyone else at the job, something he's never had trouble admitting to himself.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:32, Sun 22 Sept 2019.

Decker gestured to the display, "We're going to need a skilled pilot. While the additional gravitational distortions created by the alien base do interfere with navigation, sensors, communications, etc. all major ship functions still, well, function. Even with the anti-grav modifications to the shuttles, however, landing on the surface of that base should prove to be quite challenging."

He then turned towards the Chief Engineer and smiled slightly, "The good news is, once there we should have no trouble getting inside. The teamed maintained telemetry and voice contact with Abyss Station until they went inside and the airlock closed. We will, by the way, want to try and rig something up to keep that hatchway open so that we can relay communications inside. And keep a team on the outside, perhaps a second shuttle craft, so that if the door does close, someone can open it back up after a predetermined length of time."

Absorbing the reports from her staff, Captain Rakoto nods, "Locating the station team inside the artifact and working together to reverse the tilt of the black hole appears to be our best option.  It sounds like we know how and where to start."

Nodding to Mcreeg then looking around the room she adds, "I need our best on this.  Everyone in this room is authorized to join the away team entering the artifact.  We have no idea what the station personnel found in there, we have to be ready for anything."

"In the meantime, I'll contact Starfleet and begin the conversation of relocation of the Ithik should we be unable to reverse the tilt of the singularity.". She sighs before adding, "I'm not hopeful.  Even if there's agreement that this is a Federation created situation the elephant in the room will still be 'Why?'. Why would the Ithik ancestors create a device that would destroy their planet?  Is this the race's responsibility?  Are we interfering by countering the choices of prior generations?"

Shaking her head  Mara grimaces, "We don't have the answers yet but I think it's time for a final conference with Abyss Station.  Maybe an hour's reflection has allowed them to consider any other tidbits of data they can share."

Thumbing the console at hand, Captain Rakoto hails the station on the conference room view screen.

"Abyss Station, we'll be proceeding with operations to enter the artifact and locate the away team there.  Is there any further data you can provide at this time?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:39, Mon 23 Sept 2019.

"I don't know how much use I can be down there" she said meekly "But I can at least be a part of the second team, the one waiting outside, and make sure the hatchway remains open"

ch'Pertha sat quietly, listening to the reports ... and discussion.
He contributed nothing, though, for now.

He noted, though, that the assumption was being made that the Alien Artefact-Planet was built by the Ithik predecessors.
Pulling up his notes, he noted that their initial report had said that 'Starfleet anthropologists hypothesize that it was built by the Preservers, Iconians, or T’Kon empire sometime before the supernova'.

He wondered if he'd missed something, that connected one of those elder races to the Ithik.

But the fact was, unless he was taking the chair, his duty here was to safeguard the ship, and its personnel, including those planning on boarding said Artefact-Planet.

And so for now, he listened ... and continued planning.