Task Force: Gamma

Liam McTavish · Task Force Crewman Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 286

Location:Bridge
Current Station: Helm
Stardate: 53772.5

Bridge Watch Officers Log: Ensign Liam McTavish reporting:
I assumed the Helm from Ensign zh'Rel, while the Ensign is away from the ship preforming pilot duties on the runabout Columbia. The ship is in standard orbit around the Class-L planet where the Cardasian Ship crash landed. Lieutenant Junior Grade Suran has resumed his post at Tactical so the rest of the bridge crew should be returning to stations now that the Department Head meeting had come to a close.
I have continued scanning the system, leaving the planet itself to the science department, looking for any abnormalities. So far long range scans have come up with nothing out of the ordinary. Please note that the planet itself tends to produce ghost images of our own ship. These ghosts are easily resolved but may cause confusion should the ship come under attack. I recommend that if the ship should come under attack while in this orbit, we either move to a deeper orbit to maximize the number of ghosts produced. Or we leave orbit completely to maximize our maneuverability.
I will send copies of this report to Tactical and Operations to get their opinions. Bridge Watch Officer report complete.

Ensign McTavish's fingers moved across the display to send his report to Operations, Tactical, and to Yeoman M'Rowl. He then returned his attention to long range scans.

uvek · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:54 pm Post subject:

Uvek's screen flashed and a low beep reached for his attention. He opened the comm channel and read the report sent by McTavish moments ago. He smiled. The new ensign was looking ahead, which was good, but seemingly unaware of the first tactical maneuver; the cloaking device. With the ships sensors tied into the shields, the automatic activation should buy them enough time to move further out into space, and allow them room to use the cloak to its fullest effect without having to leave the ground team unprotected. Still, there was a lot of adjusting going on right now, so he (Uvek) would be the last to criticize.

He reviewed the cloak's status just to make sure his thoughts weren't going to bite him in the backside, and resumed his watch of the away teams preparations and departure. This would be one of the most critical moments of the mission, followed closely by their first contact.

ArjimCalodan · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:09 pm Post subject:

Taking his station from the Ensign who had manned it while he was in the Department Head briefing, Calodan noticed a flashing notice that he had a message to read. He pulled it up and quickly scanned the information it contained.

"Not a bad plan, " he thought to himself while rereading over the finer points, "But it disregards the cloak." He keyed in some more info into the recommendation and began fleshing it out into a proper plan. "This could work well though, if we have problems with the cloak." After his additions, he sent the info on to Uvek at tactical.
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Captain David Brennon · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:27 pm Post subject:

The Captain stepped back onto the bridge and took his seat. As if appearing out of nothing Yeomen M'Rowl came to the Captain's side and offered him a PADD.

"Sir, Commander Qech and her team are in preflight. Shuttle Ops estimates departure in less than three minutes."

Brennon nodded as he took the PADD, quickly signed off on the paperwork she was handing him and returned them to the hands of the Caitian, a thankful smile on his face.

"Very good Yeomen, thank you for the update..."

"Of course sir. I've noticed something sir." she interjected midway through the Captain's sentence.

Quickly the Captain looked back down at his console, expectant. "Hmm?"

"You've failed to make an appointment with Counselor Zera, Sir."

With his best shocked look plastered to his face the Captain looked back towards M'Rowl. "Really, is that true?"

"Yes sir, it is."

The Captain shifted uncomfortably in his chair and cleared his throat, though he did his best to keep it very quiet. For her part, Yeomen M'Rowl stood stoically in front of her charge, PADD in hand.

"As I'm sure it was a simple mistake, a mix up of appointments, I'd be happy to enter a time for you to speak with her. Tomorrow morning perhaps?"

"Er... I..."

"Very good sir." She tapped a few commands into the PADD, stood to attention and stepped away, an accomplished look on her feline face.

The Captain, on the other hand, looked distinctly displeased.
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uvek · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:38 pm Post subject:

stardate: 53772.95 - bridge:

Uvek's console chirped, flashing the incoming message signal:

He thumbed opened the channel and read the 2nd Officer's report, detailing maneuvers to maximize the bridge officer's original suggestion.

Uvek filed it with the other report, and made a mental note to enter manuevering guides into the computer when the away team was safely on the planet.

He triple checked the cloaking device status, re-read his sensors, and switched to primary communications with the runabout. Nothing larger than 7 meters would be able to approach the ship without the alarms and shields kicking on, so the immediate need would be speed. He sent no less than 5 escape route calculations to the helm, including speed and risk assessments for each.

His mind returned to the runabout. They were leaving momentarily, and he wanted nothing to distract him from the threats that might arise during transit.

ArjimCalodan · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:55 pm Post subject:

Calodan monitored his boards as the runabout launched. because of the interference, Ops was pretty useless in this rescue and he didn't like that feeling. With that thought, he began working on a way to boost the angular confinement beam enough to beat the interference to enable transporter use..just in case.

While his fingers worked on a few simulations, his mind wandered to his recent promotion. Second Officer was a big responsibility. He was sure that Starfleet would never put him in a command position again after the events onboard the Hood, but it appeared that Captain Brennon had confidence in him. He was definitely going to work as hard as possible to prove the Captain right.

Through his introspection, a flashing yellow light caught his eye. His simulation had come back positive. He could tie the angular confinement beam into the Main Deflector and boost the transporter just enough to perform an emergency beamout..if they Away Team setup Transport Enhancers. After rechecking his figures, he turned in his chair to address the Captain.

"Sir, I believe I may be able to provide the Away Team a bit of a safety net. With your permission, I'd like to modify the Main Deflector to boost the Transporter. That, in combination with the stored copies of the Away Team's patterns and pattern enhancers on the surface should allow me to perform an emergency beamout should the need arise. I would have to pull the team one at a time, and reset the buffers manually between each transport, but I could have the entire team off the surface in 4 minutes."

He paused to check the Captain's face for some clue to how he felt about the plan. Nothing, no hint of emotion. "There are a few risks though, sir. We'll need to maintain a geostationary orbit directly above the beam-out site in a low orbit. Our sensors and shields will be compromised by the interference from the planet's atmosphere and long range communications will be limited to the planet's surface."
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uvek · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:05 pm Post subject:

Uvek balked at the 2nd officer's suggestions, but he was too well trained and self-disciplined to say anything aloud. (Besides, it was Calodan's job to bring up those quirky possibilities. Usually they were the very things that tipped the balance when things were tight).

There goes the cloak, he thought. Not that it matters, at least 3 of my escape maneuvers takes planet proximity into effect. And there is always Ensign McTavish's plan too.

He waited for the captain to finish his interaction with Lt. Calodan, then reiterated his question regarding Ambassador Rolen coming to the bridge.

Liam McTavish · Task Force Crewman Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 286

Location: Bridge
Current Station: Helm
Stardate: 53772.95

Ensign McTavish felt the rush of blood up his cheeks as his face turned crimson. How could he forget that the Hartington was equipped with a cloaking device! Ignorance of the cloaking devices intricaseys was no excuse. Such an elementary mistake was why he remained an Ensign. Taking a deep breath, McTavish read the incoming Escape route calculations and filed each into the Helm Console, giving each its own ID. McTavish double and triple checked the entries to make sure that at a moments notice, and the tap of a button the USS Hartington would leap into action.
McTavish listened carefully As LT Calodan spoke to the Captain. He quickly entered the commands under a new ID should Ops plan be needed. A Geostationary low orbit should pose no problems. Things might get a little bumpy a first but would smooth out as he made adjustments.

uvek · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:56 pm Post subject:

Location: Bridge
Current Station: Helm
Stardate: 53772.95

Uvek watches the shuttle depart, noting when the bay doors were sealed, and seeing no threats in the immediate area. His scans were still having difficulty penetrating the electromagnetic interference of the planet, however, and it was only a matter of moments before they proved a problem with his oversight of the runabout's flight.

He looked over to Lt. Calodan's station and raised his voice slightly above the standard chatter.

"Sir, we are still having difficulties with our scanners. I don't like it. They'll be in the atmosphere shortly. Perhaps there is a way to use the deflector array to enhance our sensor capabilities along the lines you suggested, without the need for geo-synchronous orbit. Do you see a way to boost our sensor gain any further?"

ArjimCalodan · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:02 pm Post subject:

"It's possible Lieutenant. I've been working on a few solutions to the interference but so far none of them have been an improvement to the situation." Caldoan replied to Uvek. He tapped a few commands into his console and watched a stream of data roll by. "The second best option, after entering the atmosphere itself, is to launch a series of atmospheric probes into low orbit and tie their sensors into Hartington's computer. The arrays on the probes are more suited to scientific endeavors but would still provide us a bit of a clearer picture of the surface. Not enough for a transporter lock though."
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uvek · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:07 pm Post subject:

Uvek nodded and turned his attention to the scans...a few more moments.

"Captain," he began, addressing the ship's commander. "I recommend we prepare the atmospheric probes for launch as soon as the runabout has cleared the launch perimeter and entered the atmosphere. They could be in the planets stratosphere by the time the team is preparing to land."

Captain David Brennon · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:26 pm Post subject:

Captain Brennon nodded in agreement.

"Launch the probes Mr. Uvek, keep track of our people as best as we can. Mr. Calodan, you've been an Engineer, is there any possible way we can help Lieutenant Ghan get the Transporters working reliably?"
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ArjimCalodan · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:44 pm Post subject:

Calodan set up the sensor links with the probes and then sent Uvek the ok to launch them.

"Mr. Calodan, you've been an Engineer, is there any possible way we can help Lieutenant Ghan get the Transporters working reliably?"

He turned from his station to face the Captain. "Sir, I believe our best option would be to modify the Main Deflector to boost the transporter's Angular Confinement beam. That, in combination with the stored copies of the Away Team's patterns in the main computer and pattern enhancers on the surface should allow me to perform an emergency beamout if the away team were to need to leave in a hurry. We would have to pull them out one at a time, and reset the buffers manually between each transport, but barring any complications, we could have the entire team off the surface in 4 minutes. There are a few risks though, sir. We'll need to maintain a low geostationary orbit directly above the beam-out site. Our sensors and shields will be compromised by the interference from the planet's atmosphere, cloaking would be out of the question, and long range communications will be limited to the planet's surface. "

"As a second option, I might be able to tie into the Columbia and use her as a transporter relay. That is a long shot, but it could allow us to perform a relayed beamout. We would still have to go into a much lower orbit then we currently are to maintain a signal. I'm also concerned that if we had to use the runabout as a relay, we might burn out her transporters before we could get the whole team off the surface."

He paused for a second and checked a few figures on his board. "Sir, either way this is a bad situation. The interference in the atmosphere would make transporting very difficult in the best of situations and these definitely aren't it. I would strongly suggest having another plan besides the transporters if something goes wrong."
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uvek · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 6:53 pm Post subject:

"Launch the probes Mr. Uvek, keep track of our people as best as we can". Calodan set up the sensor links with the probes and then sent Uvek the ok to launch them.

Uvek had been sure that the captain would approve the probes, so he had primed them beforehand. Calodan knew his business and Uvek was growing in trust for his recommendations and ideas.

"Probes launched, Sir," replied the tactical officer. "Entering the stratosphere in 30 seconds. They are tied into the science console, buffering them through the tactical display. We should know simultaneously the conditions of the planet below and any threats to the away team."

His fingers moved over the console. "The shuttle has landed Captain." he reported. "I am unable to maintain sensor lock until the probes have achieved orbit and begin transmitting." He rechecked for local threats. Nothing. That was all he could do for now. Time to prepare for the probe returns.

Something Lt. Calodan said caught Uvek's attention. "Captain; Mr. Calodan," he started, "Would it be possible to launch the Willamette and hold IT in a lower orbit, acting as the actual relay, and coupling the power of the runabouts transporters together. With planetary pattern enhancers, run through the power cells of both runabouts and thus to the ship, it may give us the clarity we need."

He paused, not sure if he should have spilled that. Engineering, after all, was not his strong suit. But, if it kept the ship out into space, and able to defend itself, so much the better.

Liam McTavish · Task Force Crewman Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 286

McTavish smiled to himself. Yes, we truly are starting to think alike.

"Captain? Might I also suggest using the Willianette? She can better hold a geo-synchronous orbit than the Hartington.
I would also suggest an additional security team along should the crew of the Columbia run into any issues. The additional support would arrive much faster should it be needed.
And along with using the Williamette as a transporter relay we can use her as a sensor relay. The limited information we are getting from the Columbia, the probes and from the Williamette should give us a much more clear picture of what is happening down there.