Mission Briefing

Posted on Thu Mar 27th, 2025 @ 11:08am by Fleet Admiral Mike K`Wor Bremer & Captain Paul MacLeod & Colonel Danny Lennox & Commander Jonathan Roebuck IV & Commander Leksander Draven & Commander Robert Stark & Lieutenant K`Wor & Ensign Luke Conway & Tom Vercetti & Christopher Bremer & First Ramata`tar & Admiral Deela T'Lar & Colonel Ezekiel Bagwell & Lieutenant Colonel Sam Kyle & Lieutenant Commander Ariana Monroe-Wayne & Lieutenant Commander Anna Bagwell & Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Coleman & Lieutenant Percy McWire & Lieutenant Arev & Lieutenant JG Deezell Vox & Fleet Admiral Sevlek

3,302 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 120 - Guardian at the Gate
Location: Starbase 400, Tactical Operation
Timeline: Following 'A Shift in the Wind'

ON:

Following his meeting with Fleet Admiral Sevlek, Mike made his way over to the new Tactical Operations center. Like Ops, the move of the center allowed for some growth. Tactical Operations was now about fifty percent larger than before, thanks to being on a Level with a bigger footprint. This allowed a holo-display in the middle of the room, while the larger monitor used for mission briefings had more space for everyone to gather. The station in front of the display also now had an improve holo-display of it's own. Of course, there were still smaller monitors with briefing tables on the room's outer edge as well as a handful of work stations to monitor long range sensors, comms traffic, and incoming intel.

Mike liked the design of the updated CiC, while it was familiar, it was improved. He walked over to the input table just in front of the display. He uploaded some data from his Pad, then added in more from his convocation with Sevlek regarding the Gladiator's mission. The large display lite up with a tactical map of the transwarp conduit, the Borg Singularity ship, the three Starfleet vessels already on station, the conduit itself, and the inbound track of the task force from Starbase 400. The holo-display showed the location of the Starbase 400 ships once they were on station, in reference to the conduit and Borg Singularity ship. He then shut off the holo-display, then sent word for his senior staff and select officers to join him.

However, before anyone arrived, Mike's comm-badge beeped.

Tapping the badge, Mike wondered who could be responding as quickly "Bremer here."

"Um, Mister Bremer, this is Ms. Sterling, Christopher's teacher. We need to speak about your son's recent behavior." The voice sounded annoyed, almost angry.

"This isn't a good time Ms..." Mike started to reply before he was interrupted.

"When will be a good time? I know you're busy running this station, but your son is more important." Ms. Sterling replied, growing more annoyed.

Mike paused, "Of course. What can I do for you?"

"Christopher's been in another fight. While he didn't start it, the other student has been sent to Sick Bay with a broken nose and dislocated shoulder. He'll be fine, but this fighting has to stop. He's being suspended for the rest of this week." Ms. Sterling replied.

"Where is he now?" Mike asked, now annoyed himself.

Ms. Sterling quickly replied. "Sitting here with me."

Mike let out a breath. "His older brother will meet you and escort Christopher to me, now."

"I'll turn him over to K'Wor when he arrives, and schedule a meeting for us that works with your schedule." Ms. Sterling closed the comm.

Mike let out another breath as he looked up. "Please help me."

Closing his eyes for a moment, Mike took a deep breath, then slowly let it out, opening his eyes just as the door opened.

Dee entered the Tactical Operations Centre. It all looks very impressive. She had been feeling a little off for a few days, but she had put it down to something she had eaten, after all, she had been trying some new dishes lately at the Bajoran restaurant on the promenade. She would discover, at a most awkward time, that new dishes were the least of her worries.

"Greetings Admiral, is everything okay, you look troubled." She asked.

“That was Just what I was about to ask” Ariana offered a smile as she followed Dee into the Operations Centre. “If there’s anything you need to talk about once the briefing is over I can stay behind?” She offered Bremer an understanding gaze.

Anna walked in, hearing the tail end of their conversation. “Hello everyone.” She greeted them. Her eyes then went to Mike. “My services are available as well, if need be.”

"Teenagers." Mike replied to Vox and Monroe as he shook his head. "Christopher has been getting into fights lately. It started out with him defending a smaller student from a bully. Now it's escalated to him picking a fight last week. Today's...I don't know the reason yet but I'll find out after the briefing."

Ariana nodded. “Well if you feel he’d benefit from a visit please let me know” She offered a warm smile. “I’ve got the teenage years to come yet.”

Mike nodded his thanks.

"Well, if you ever need a sage old man to give him a pep talk, just let me know Admiral," Coleman said as he walked into Tactical Operations with a stack full of PADDs. He had been reviewing some information about a new stellar phenomenon that had popped up in a nearby system and wanted to keep an eye on it before the meeting.

Arev entered Tactical Operations with two PADDs in hand. One was for personal note taking, and the other was chock-full of technical specifications for Starbase 400, and all of its primary response starships. He acknowledged the few in the room with a nod, then found a place to peruse the specification of the Pegasus.

Percy entered Tactical Operations after Arev. He had a pad in hand where he kept the maintenance, repairs and assignments of his team and their progress of it. He greeted everyone as he entered.

Deela had been spending as much time with her daughter, Raivyn, as she could since returning from the mirror universe. Reluctantly, she left Raivyn to attend the briefing, a steaming cup of coffee in her hand. She walked in but didn't engage with anyone, her thoughts preoccupied with her daughter. Yet, as the XO of the base, she knew her responsibilities came first. She sat down in her usual seat.

Dee glanced around the table at the people who had arrived so far. "Morning everyone." She was feeling pretty chipper today, more than her normal cheeriness. On the table in front of her was her padd, ready to take notes, a glass of blood orange juice, no bits.

Ariana smiled warmly as she gave Dee a curious look. “Morning Dee” she couldn’t help but feel a duality about Dee, she’d have to talk with her later but that could wait for now.

Ezekiel walk into tactical operations Center, this room was filled with all kinds of activity. Being a Tactical Operations Command Center and he thought it was a little too open and exposed for his liking. He locked over to Fleet Admiral Mike bremer who seemed to draw everyone's attention. He could tell that the Admiral and is good friend was slightly annoyed so he was going to remain quiet. It looked like the others had already addressed his annoyance factor, and he didn't want to add to it. He walked over towards Anna and smiled as it did next to her.

Lieutenant Colonel Kyle entered after his CO. As confident and intimidating as ever. He towered over most in the room, a brick wall clad in Starfleet Armor and duty belt, he was always ready for action. He took his place at the table.

Dee smiled back at Ariana. So nice to see her.

As everyone was entering from the main doorway, Mike saw K'Wor and Christopher enter through one of the side doors. He took a breath and quickly walked over to his sons. He could see Christopher had been in a fight, his nose had a little blood on it still and his cheek was red.

In a low tone Mike addressed his youngest. "What the hell happened? I told you about fighting."

"Dad, it wasn't my fault." Christopher started before Mike cut him off.

"That's what you said last time, and the time before that. There's no excuse."

"Dad, listen, these older kids were picking on Quim. I couldn't let them continue to harass him." Christopher explained.

"Who's Quim?" Mike asked.

"That's Omang's son...the new Ferengi security officer that arrived last week." K'Wor said.

Christopher nodded. "He's small and only in primary school. Some of the old kids, seniors, have been harassing him. I reported it to Ms. Sterling and Mr. K'badda but neither did anything to stop it because they didn't 'see it happen'."

Mike let out a breath. While he was still angry his son was fighting, knowing he was protecting someone else, someone smaller helped him understand the motives. "We'll talk more after this briefing." Mike pointed to a chair at one of the conference tables. "Sit."

Christopher nodded then slowly walked over and sat down.

"Don't go too hard on him, his heart's in the right place." K'Wor added after Christopher walked away. "And being half Klingon isn't easy at his age."

Mike nodded. K'Wor was right. "After the briefing take him to our quarters, help him back for this mission."

"He's going along?" K'Wor asked, surprised.

"He has to. He's suspended from school and I can't leave him here alone. K'Temoc will have too much to do being in command of the station to check in on him. Maybe this will do him a little good." Mike replied as he walked back to the front of the room to wait for everyone else to arrive.

Ezekiel fear this would be his future. Having to deal with Gabriel's indiscretions at school. For the moment he remains silent but he also agreed with Mike and thought he handled the situation perfectly. Even though he couldn't understand everything that was being said. He understood enough, knowing that Mike was being a fair father and K'Temoc was being a good advocate for his sibling.

Dee moved over to Ariana. "Are you ok? You're giving me a bit of strange look this morning."

“I did?” Ariana waved it off not wanting to say anything about what she was sensing to Dee just yet. “Sorry I didn’t mean to make you think I was directing anything at you.”

"It's ok. I was just making sure you were ok. I'm doing fine, in fact, I'm feeling kind of energised, raring to go. "

“I wish I was” Ariana offered a weak smile. “I hate leaving the kids yet again. I know they’ve got Cameron to look after them, but I still miss them.”

"I'm sure they will be just fine, but I totally understand. I've been there. Well not me personally, but Azrel and Lerani have. I will probably experience that myself some day, having to go away and leave my children with Jaxon. "

Ariana nodded. “That’s true, but it doesn’t make it any easier.”

"No, it doesn't. Best to focus on the here and now I suppose." Dee replied.

“Exactly” Ariana nodded in agreement.

"Who knows what's going to happen next. " Dee added. Little did she know that something that was going to turn her life upside down had already happened and she would soon find out.

Deela sat quietly, her ears attuned to the buzz of conversation around the room. The topic, unsurprisingly, revolved around children. Life in Starfleet often meant long missions far from home, leaving families behind. Before she became a parent, Deela had questioned the wisdom of raising children while serving. But once she held her own in her arms, those doubts melted away. Now, as she waited for the briefing to begin, she released a soft, contemplative sigh.


Once everyone arrived, Mike spoke up. "Thank you all for your prompt arrival. We've had a quiet few months, but now we have a mission straight from Starfleet Command."

Mike activated the wall display to show a flight path from Starbase 400 to the Transwarp Conduit in the Alpha Quadrant.

"As most of you know, before the Frontier Day fiasco, Starfleet detected an anomaly here." He pointed. "A task force was dispatched under Admiral Picard's oversight. A non-hostile Borg ship came through and after some negations aided in deflecting and dispersing a radiation burst from the formation of a what's believed to be Transwarp Conduit. Since then, the Cooperative...the Borg...have kept a watch along with a handful of ship. Nothing has some through, yet."

Mike paused and looked around at everyone. "Since then, Starfleet has built a sensor array to try to scan into the conduit with little success. The array also listens for any transmission and so far has detected none. A handful of defense arrays have been built as well...just in case. That's the official story's abridged version." Mike briefly paused again. "What's not in there is how Starfleet sent a ship in to at least see what was on the immediate other side of the conduit. They've lost contact with that ship. Starfleet wants us to relieve the ships on station now, work with the Borg Queen of the Cooperative, and investigate the mission ship and her crew."

Again Mike paused to give everyone time to take notes. He then tapped in a command on the display and a list of ships appeared on the screen.

"This is a list of the ships going and your assignment. Any ship without a commander listed will be commanded by their standby crews already aboard."

Pegasus -Bremer, Arev, K’Wor, Draven
Essex -T’Lar, Vox, Monroe-Wayne
Lexington -Stark, Roebuck, AmHain, Ramata'tar
Visionary -Coleman, K’Lar, Sullivan
Repulse -MacLeod, Metsker, Conway
Kearsarge -Bagwell, Kyle, Bagwell, Lennox
George Washington -Pike, Grian, McWire
Adventurer -
Sutherland -
Warspite -
Conqueror -
Percival -
Vanguard -
Akagi -

Mike then tapped another button and activated the holo-display in the middle of the room. It shows the conduit's even horizon with the Borg Singularity ship and the Starbase 400 ships in their assigned formation once their arrived.

"Questions?"

The main doors whooshed open to reveal a new face scanning the room with apprehensive curiosity. The crewman entered and made his way towards Admiral Bremer, glancing over at the holo display wondering what he'd just missed.

"Lieutenant Gerard Sullivan, chief flight control officer reporting, sir. Apologies if I'm late, sir, it's been a bit of a whirlwind since I arrived, I'm still getting my bearings around here."

Mike gave a nod to the Lieutenant. "Commander Coleman will update you enroute."

"Since this is a newer transwarp conduit, are we going to have each ship go in one at a time, in small groups, or all together? Since we don't know what's on the other side, nor have good enough sensor scans of the conduit itself, what's the plan to get our fleet from point A to point B safely?" Coleman asked, seeing the amount of ships that would be accompanying the fleet.

"That's to be determined...if any ship goes in at all." Mike replied.

"If I may," Sullivan began, hoping he wouldn't trip up on his words, "there's a possibility that we could modify a transponder module from the station with a dual band frequency emitter. If we try to match the frequency from the conduit, as well as the station, on the emitter then there's a chance we would be able to detect and track it as it moves through the conduit. We would obviously have to boost the long range sensors and fit/modify the same kind of emitter within the long range sensor relay, but if it works it could tell us a lot about the transwarp conduit without risking a ship, or even an entire fleet..."

"I think you have a good idea there, Sullivan. That could work well. " Dee commented.

Mike nodded. "That's some good thinking Lieutenant. While enroute to the conduit, get that ready aboard the Visionary. We can deploy it using a Class IX probe."

Ariana sat quietly taking in the mission information, right now she didn't have much to add.

"First day on the job in the Lieutenant is already solving problems, I love it." Ezekiel said, with a half-hearted smile on his face. He still had a hard time expressing emotions but he was trying. He hoped Anna would be proud of him. He didn't want to sound so stoic, and unapproachable. But it seems like somebody should say something nice to the lieutenant.

Breathing a sigh of relief with his hands still clasped behind his back, Sullivan returned a smile to the Colonel and nodded, "thank you, sir. You know what they say about first impressions and all."

"I mean, as long as we don't go boom while trying to go through the thing, I don't care. I'm just glad someone knows what they're doing with the transponders and all," Coleman said with his own smirk and chuckle as he listened to everyone talk. He looked at Sullivan and said, "That's why I'm also glad that you're going to be on my ship as my helmsman."

Sullivan's relief turned into confusion at warp 9.99. This was the first time he'd heard this helmsman news. Surprised, but grateful he looked up at Lieutenant Commander Coleman and responded, "aye sir, thank you. I'm looking forward to it." Sullivan didn't recall being posted to an attached ship in his transfer orders. Maybe he overlooked that part. "Best check that when I'm back in my quarters..." he thought to himself.

"Hey, just make sure that you come with some more ideas like that, Lieutenant. I like a man who can think of something like that right off the top of his head," Coleman said with a reassuring smile.

Percy made a mental note that he is assigned to the George Washington and at same time brought up the schematics of the ship to familiarize himself with the ship. For now he had no questions to ask. He saw that Dee was assigned to the Essex. He informed his 3. in command that that he and Lt.Jg. Vox will be off on an assignment.

After the small talk settled, Mike spoke up again. "If there's no other questions..." He tailed off as he looked around. "...we'll depart within the hour. Dismissed.

While everyone started to file out the room, Mike noticed someone standing in the shadows of a corner. After shutting down the displays Mike walked over to him.

"Mr. Vercetti?"

Tom nodded. "I'd like to go along."

"For what purpose?" Mike asked.

"Cris was my friend, we went way back. His disappearance is still classified and I can't get a straight answer from anyone as to what happened. This...'gate', it's where he disappeared and I'd like to go." Tom explained.

"You're going to ask the Borg." Mike said firmly.

Tom nodded. "I figure Picard, Seven, Raf...they're all under orders not to discuss, Starfleet blah blah, but Jurati isn't held to those standards and regulations."

Mike took a breath. He already knew what the reports said, and while he wanted to tell Tom, maybe this journey would be good for him. Over the last couple of years Tom had been more reserved and closed than ever before. He'd really opened himself up when Splendora Sage came into his life and when she left it hurt the man. Thought the Dominion War and countless battles and extreme situations Tom had been through as a member of Starfleet and after, Mike had never seen him so...depressed.

"Vito can manage the restaurant, and other business related tasks. Please." Tom asked.

Mike nodded. "Of course, but bring a few bottles of champagne for when we find the Gladiator and her crew."

Tom gave a smirk before turning to leave for the Pegasus.

Mike took another moment to pause and take a deep breath. Not only would he come face to face with Borg again, and he knew it would bring up his own internal demons...and they had to find a lost ship and crew, but now he had a friend looking for answers as well as his youngest son who was also going through his own life issues coming along. "What could go wrong" he asked aloud to no one.


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