Deck 2 - Captain's Ready Room

A small conference room dominated by a large metal and glass table surrounded by broad comfortable chairs. An array of programmable work stations line one wall, while the other provides a vista looking out over the forward saucer section of the ship.

A plaque on the wall reads:

USS Phoenix
NCC-65420
Nebula-class
"No matter where you go, there you are"

-----> From Outside the Ship



The Captain finds a prompt reply waiting on the PADD in her office:

From: Admiral Kirchner
To: Captain T'leera
CC: Starfleet Outpost 4

Captain, please count me among the many Starfeet officers who have undoubtedly reached out to offer congratulations on your recent command appointment. I am confident you will do us all proud.

We have reviewed your concerns regarding the appointment of Lieutenant (jg) Norn as you Chief Engineer and agree that, while a very capable officer, they are too junior to hold a position as departmental chief on a Nebula-class starship.  We have therefore alerted personnel command and will ensure that an officer of proper rank and adequate experience is available to join your crew at Outpost 4 when you report to Sector Z-6.

We are very confident that Lieutenant (jg) Norn will benefit greatly from a period working as a deputy department chief under an experienced officer before they are ready to be promoted.

Thank-you for bringing this matter to our attention. In the uncertainty that has followed the setback at Wolf 359, these sorts of administrative foul ups are being rectified.

Go boldly!
Kirchner

<------From Sickbay

T'leera walked into the Ready Room but did not assume her seat at the table. She walked to the window, stood there and looked out; her agile mind considering the reports she had received from Engineering and Operations. To say they were...troubling, was an understatement.

She had suspected there were members of the crew still loyal to the previous CO but their resorting to sabotage was...unexpected. She expected better of Starfleet personnel than petty revenge and vendettas.

Amongst the many other things she had to do as Captain was root out those willing to go to such lengths.

From Main Bridge  —>

Iren entered the Ready Room, saw the Captain standing at the window, gazing out.  Not wanting to interrupt (especially not this captain) he stood to the side of the door, hands behind his back, waiting.

"Please, feel free to sit, Commander," the Captain said, still looking out the window. "We will begin as soon as everyone is present and ready."

<------From Main Bridge

Commander Brynn arrives, data pad against her hip. She stops before she sits, looking over the table and seats. Then she moves to the First Officer's traditional seat- just to the right of the Captain's chair at the head of the table. She doesn't seem particularly concerned, one leg crossing the other. Recalling whatever bit of reading she had been doing and slipping in a few more passages before the meeting truly began.

Relocating action to Ready Room

Iren wanders around the table, pausing at a seat mid-way down the table, on the captain’s left,  Then it sinks in that after the captain and the XO, he’s going to be the most senior officer present.  He walks further up the table, looks at the seat directly at he captain’s left, hesitate a moment and then sits.

Activating the workstation, he calls up the Treaty of Algeron, to refresh himself on the terms.  This could get tricky,

From: Main Bridge

Valéria entered behind Commander Brynn, and it was clear from the hard set of her features that she was significantly less relaxed than her XO. Indeed, she took the chair opposite the door, so she could keep an eye on it. As if she expected a horde of Borg to break it down any second.

"Captain, I know you must have much to go over, from our...unusual technology to the current events, but might I suggest going to Yellow Alert immediately? If I have been monitoring the situation correctly, there were multiple unauthorized uses of former Captain Maxwell's security codes, one of which has already caused an injury. That speaks to some sort of sabotage in my mind. I would rather be thought paranoid by jumping to Yellow Alert than have something even more dire occur. I will need some time to search through all the logs and see exactly what Captain Maxwell's codes exactly did, and make sure someone didn't cover their tracks afterwards. O que, sabendo da minha sorte, eles provavelmente sabiam. Bastardos. That individual could still be aboard this vessel," the tactical Officer said seriously, knowing that she was breaching etiquette somewhat, but feeling that these concerns were exceedingly important.

The Captain raised an eyebrow. "Espero que sua 'sorte' seja melhor do que a última coisa que me falou," the Captain replied.

"Your suggestion is logical. I was also going to station security at key junctures on the ship: on the bridge, the entrance to Engineering, Sickbay, the deflector dish, and the access tubes to the module.

"For those of you as yet unaware of this - we have a saboteur or saboteurs onboard. The loss of power to sickbay was not accidental. Additional malicious code has been found in other areas of the ship and have been or will be repaired. Lt. Sirin, the floor is yours."

"Isto é. Ainda estou vivo, não estou? Além disso, eu gosto de um desafio," the Lieutenant replied with a wry smile.

But after that, she was all business. She quickly tapped her com-badge and began issuing orders.

"Yellow Alert! Security Teams to critical systems, to key junctures of the ship, and reinforce security stationed at the access tubes to the module! Possible intruder alert! Crew take note of any unknown person or persons, or any other suspicious activity. Report any oddities or concerns to Security immediately," Valéria said tersely, noting with satisfaction when the yellow indication lights began to flash on the panel walls.

That done, she sat back and waited for Lieutenant Junior Grade Norn's report for this conference.

Having arrived just barely in time for the start of the meeting, Devon simply took the nearest seat and settled in.  She expected at least the first part of the meeting to be bogged down with formalities and details, so it was a pleasant surprise when the captain instead got straight to business.  There was unfortunately a moment when things got sidetracked, but thankfully they returned to the subject of Sickbay almost at once, and the mention of the trouble there being the result of sabotage caught all her attention.

She looked over at the two lieutenants, wondering if they would be able to save her the trouble of having to track down the saboteur herself.  The one good thing about the situation was that at least she wouldn't have any trouble getting everyone to take the outages seriously.

Norn watched the exchange, silently. It was clear he did not approve of what had just happened, but said nothing, just started his briefing.


"Regarding the sickbay issues, the initial problems were caused by the wiring and power buffer faults that have been plaguing the ship.

Buffers were placed in sickbay to prevent exactly this thing from happening in such a critical area, the buffers were disabled using Captain Maxwell's old codes.

We can disable the command codes for the future, in fact I suggest we reset them immediately after this meeting. We could also trigger outdated access codes to trigger an immediate security alert.

Of course, now that they were on Yellow alert, they would have to be staggeringly dumb
to try that again, but hey, it was possible.


I feel I must warn that the capacity for a any registered crew member, regardless of access level, to do damage to this ship is quite vast, even in non-critical areas, even with the most basic of tools.

I should also point out that running our systems on Yellow Alert for an extended period will increase the odds of wiring and CPU failure, assuming we are also maintaining combat readiness standards for yellow alert.

With your permission, Captain, I will increase implementation of some stopgap measures designed to prevent this, such as installing buffers and slave processors, particularly in astrometrics which should help mitigate problems.


He looked over at their operations officer with a look to invite him to add anything he'd missed.

We can also talk about the cloaking device, but that was a seperate topic
This message was lightly edited by the player at 21:41, Sun 13 Mar 2022.

"I am aware of the risks, Lt. and I agree with your suggestion. Please proceed with implementation and keep me appraised of your progress. We will have to proceed with caution until these saboteurs have been located and their threat neutralised."

She looked around the room. "Does anyone else have anything to address before we move on to the next topic?"

“With regards to the sabotage, I I fear we may have fallen into a deeper crevasse.” Iren adds, looking up from the workstation.

He folds his hands in front of him..  “Relying on systems happening to fail - even with the known problems - seems inefficient.  When repairing the main systems, I suggest you check for evidence of sabotage there.  In particular you should look for signs of a trigger device.  The known sabotage may only serve to ensure the effectiveness of the other sabotage.  The other systems targeted should be assumed to be compromised, too. At the least, liable to fail. “

"Logical and efficient. Please coordinate this work between your two departments, Commander Thatyil, Lt. Norn.," the Captain said.

She looked at Lt. Krenn. "I believe you have also found something, Lt. Please, now is the time to inform the rest of the senior staff."

Kotar waits his turn to speak up and then shares what he has learned about the illicit command codes being used.

"The power distribution buffers were shut down back in repair dock, just over 24 hours ago, during the welcome reception on Starbase 211. The overload was caused by the power fluctuations that Engineering has been working to fix and wouldn’t have been a catastrophic failure if the buffers hadn’t been sabotaged.

"There are four other instances of access using the same authorization. All from the same time. Three target overload buffers elsewhere in the ship.  Engineering can probably figure out how to solve those issues.

"The fourth lies deep in the communications array.  I can’t tell what it does or how it works, but I think we'll need to take the array offline to get at the potentially malicious code."

After making his report in a concise manner, he looks at the Captain.

"Can you tell us of any reasons or power groups that might want to sabotage this vessel, Captain? Is there any particular sensitivity about our mission?"

"The obvious answer is groups still loyal to her prior Captain. Given they have his command codes that also seems the most logical answer. But that only answers one question so, to answer the second, I must refer to the matter of most concern."

She tapped a few things on her PADD before continuing.

"I have sent all of you the revised Treaty of Algeron. To put things in context I shall enumerate several facts of which you are already aware. In 2364, 2365, and 2366 there were attacks on both sides of the Neutral Zone - entire settlements simply scooped off the face of the planets upon which they had been built. We discovered these attacks were the work of the Borg; a preamble to what was to come earlier this year: Wolf 359. Thirty nine ships destroyed, nearly eleven thousand lives lost. The undamaged Borg Cube entered Earth orbit and was preparing to invade when the Enterprise crew used a subroutine that caused the Cube to self-destruct.

"Prior to this the Federation sent out calls to the Klingons for aid and considered doing the same to the Romulans but did not. However, the destruction caused by the Battle of Wolf 359 was disastrous for the Federation. The Admiralty knew that we were in no position for sustained combat so they did something very atypical for the Federation: they called the Romulans on their treaty violations and demanded a return to the bargaining table."

She looked at the assembled officers before continuing.

"The Treaty of Algeron was addressed and the Federation made several demands. You can read the entire text for yourselves but the one that is of most note and germane to this ship is in Article Two, Section One. To wit: the development and use of cloaking devices by the Federation. The outcome of long deliberation was Romulan capitulation to the Federation developing cloaking technology and placing it on no more than twelve vessels. As we were undergoing extensive refits it was decided to place one on this ship. This, along with the weapon and shield upgrades means the Phoenix is now classified as a battlecruiser and we are to be the tip of the spear when the Borg attack again.

"I know all of you have questions and concerns so now is the time to raise them."

"Captain...meaning no offense to your position, nor personally questioning your integrity, but you have just shared several extraordinary claims. Claims that seem to violate what we already know of legal agreements between recognized interstellar governments, and long standing orders. I think it is our duty as Senior Officers to confirm these facts with Starfeelt Command, and the Federation Council. Especially considering the unfortunate history of this vessel. Would you accept the logic of this need?" the Tactical Officer asked with as much diplomacy as she had ever managed.

If the Captain was irritated by the question she gave no indication. "I have also placed proof in the form of the revised treaty in your PADD, Lt. but if that, and my word, are insufficient for you then you may, by all means, contact Starfleet and the Federation. I will remind you that Vulcans, by nature, do not lie and given this ship's less than stellar reputations I can ensure you that I would do nothing to tarnish it further. Quite the opposite; I have been given this command to restore integrity and honour to this vessel and her crew.

"I would also note that it would be quite impossible for me to obtain and install a cloaking device on my own."

“If I might list my concerns” Iren puts in

Ticking off his fingers he goes on,

“First, the ordering of announcements is strange.  A successful renegotiation of a treaty should be public knowledge.  That we should be briefed on it only when we are under way leaves me with misgivings.”

“Second, since research into cloaking devices was also banned under the treaty it is far too soon for Federation-built devices to be available, even as prototypes. Where was this device obtained?.”

“Third, negotiating with Romulans from a position of weakness seems unlikely to secure a good result.  And I find it even more implausible that the Romulans would permit cloaked ships to deploy to their borders.  That seems a concession too far”

“Finally I fear the possibility of a connection with the sabotage on board this ship, but more data is required”