Posted by Mar. Captain River Styxx (OIC Marine) in First Contact…Staff meeting (open to all crew)…when the past does not match the present or the future

Posted by Commander Heathcliff Rinker (Chief Medical Officer/ Psychiatrist) in First Contact…Staff meeting (open to all crew)…when the past does not match the present or the future

Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in First Contact…Staff meeting (open to all crew)…when the past does not match the present or the future
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
OOC: So I tend to use these threads as a way to catch people up with the prior story parts. I will go over need to know facts but if you have questions just pipe in as if it were a real staff meeting. I will put up a more detailed synopsis as a ship wide bulletin today about the next section of the story. ~ Kate

Kelly sat in the conference room waiting for the rest of the senior staff to arrive. It had been a long month. Between the court martials and attack on the Atlantis, she was ready for some shore leave. For now, it was time to regroup and reconnect. The staff meeting was less formal and more casual or at least that was how Kelly was planning it. Instead of coffee, tea, and pastries which normally was place on the table, Kelly had pizza, beer, and several bottles of real booze. Taking a swig from her bottle of beer, she waited for the first of the officers to show up.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

Cara entered the conference room giving a wave to her ever present shadow. Two years and Royo was still tasked with making sure she didn’t get lost and wander out an airlock. It amused her greatly except the fact she did get lost. Not nearly as much as she did when she first arrived. It seemed that her horrible sense of direction would never greatly improve. There was no reason for Royo to hang around though, his boss would be along shortly. The COS would make sure she didn’t get lost.

The CNS scanned the selection of drinks and poured herself a strong whisky and then grabbed a Guiness. She glanced around the table and took a seat next to the large oversized reenforced chair. “Captain.”

Lt. Mardusk, counselor

“Cara,” Kelly responded giving the woman an impromptu toast. “Helluva month wasn’t it.” That was the understatement of the year from Kelly. Everyone filing in had either been court-martialed or just arrived and replaced someone. Kelly was glad to have the new people but she was thankful everyone survived their arch nemesis.

Cara grabbed a slice of pizza with a heavy sigh, “That’s one way ta put it.”

Kelly nodded and took a long draw on her beer. People were still on edge, even though they had been cleared, and their records expunged. Kelly didn’t need to ask how many hours of overtime Cara had put in quelling the anxiety of those involved. She guessed it was a lot. Luckily the crew of the Atlantis was built to weather any storm.

“So how is settling into married life been?”

Kelly Bordeaux CO

“I think I can say that I’m no happy at the brass for tryin’ ta end my honeymoon phase early.” Cara gave her a wicked grin, “They’d have ta be a whole lot more stubborn than both Gravel and I ta be successful. And that’s no possible.”

Rinker walked into the conference room and made a mental note to get Kelly into his office sooner rather than later. Still that did not mean he would pass up a drink. At least this CO was not a prude with booze. Taking a seat, Rinker selected his drink and looked at his commanding officer. “Is this bad news or good news,” he gestured to the spread on the table.

Rinker CMO

“I like to call it a respite for now,” she admitted.

Cara nodded to Rinker. She’d worked under him for the past two years. They hadn’t interacted except in an official capacity. She found him competent and experienced. She wondered how he felt being made CMO. She knew from his record he was more than qualified. She idlily wondered which he preferred. “I’m hopin’ it’s a reward,” she said to Rinker’s question.

Valerie walked in the room a few moments after the CMO. Not wanting to disrupt the conversation that seemed to have already started to take place, she nodded and smiled in greeting to everyone present, and silently settled on a seat that was far away enough from the few people present that she didn’t feel imposing on them, but close enough to the conversation that it didn’t seem like she was completely antisocial. After all, this was her first official staff meeting and she wasn’t entirely sure how they were conducted on board the Atlantis just yet. Though judging by the beer and other alcoholic drinks set on the table, Ashford was sure they were ran… unconventionally. In fact, if there was anything that she had learnt from her first few weeks on board, was that the Atlantis and her crew were not the conventional bunch. That was not at all a bad thing, but after Valerie’s previous posts, she knew that it would take some getting used to on her part.

Reaching for a slice of pizza, and purposefully avoiding the alcohol, she placed her PaDD on the table next to her and started to review her notes. She had gone over her department’s reports, as well as over anything else that she thought could be important for a staff meeting. Yet, looking around, she couldn’t help but feel woefully unprepared.

Lt. Cmdr. Ashford, CSO

Cara turned to greet Valerie. She noticed her uncertainty. “Hello Valerie.” She leaned in with a wink. “Don’a worry about this. It’s a ruse. Every once in awhile the captain has a ‘senior staff meetin’ that is really a party. That way the JOs don’a bother us and we get ta relax and socialize tagether. We’ll do a little work ta keep it all official.”

“Oh, hello Lieutenant Mardusk.” Valerie said cheerfully looking up from her PaDD. It was clear by the more formal way of address that she was still very new to the crew. “I see. I’ll keep that in mind.” She said with a chuckle.

“Or the lower decks are throwing a banger party and I promised to keep all of you senior officers busy and out of their hair?” Kelly let a wry smile curl around the corners of her lips. There was enough food and beverages to go around to flood sickbay with hours or hangover patients.

Valerie laughed at the Bordeaux’s words. The familiarity of the Atlantis’s crew was definitely a change of pace from what she was used to, and she was finding it more of a breath of fresh air than she cared to admit. With a wide grin on her face, Ashford returned to her PaDD.

Kelly watched Valerie come in as she bantered with Cara and Rinker. Kelly had no idea how much the woman knew about the past month and could not decide if it was better to come in with some prior knowledge or a blank slate. Taking a sip of her drink, Kelly prepared to offer a brief update on the events of the past month.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

River was next to arrive as she entered she politely nodded to the captain and the others, so as not to interrupt thier conversation and then headed to the table. She passed on the booze, River wasn’t one to drink only when she was in a certain mood, did she ever touch the stuff. But right now her mood was mixed and she had no intention of drinking anything that could effect her control. She did however grab a slice of pizza.

“River,” Kelly nodded to the Marine Captain who entered the room. Everyone had had their careers attacked however Kelly knew some past events were like open wounds for her staff. Kelly was damn proud to have Styxx a part of her crew. River knew Kelly had her back but no one wanted painful moments of their past brought back out for public consumption.

She saw Ashford sitting away from the Others and thought she might as well join her. River didn’t really know much about her. And she doubted she’d work with her a lot, as the marines and the science department very rarely crossed over. But there was no harm in making introductions. After all she and her Marines stuck out, a blob of green department colour. In a sea of Red, Yellow and Blue.

Cara smiled at Styxx. She liked the marine captain. She was, as her father would put it, good people.

“Glad to see I’m not the only teetotaller and this meeting” she said her tone friendly, well friendly for River at least “Marine Captain River Styxx. I’m the commander of the marines. Welcome to the mad house” she added extending her hand across to the table.

Mar. Capt Styxx (Marine OIC)

“Hey I prefer the Pandemonium Express,” Kelly countered River’s nickname, “which I thank you for not getting off.”

“It was close. But hey I guess you’re stuck with me” River said simply. What River was referring to was up for interpretation., But fundamentally it could be two things. If her trial had gone south or the fact that River had sent the Captain a very long, very strongly worded letter about Jessa and where River thought the kid should be. To River she was a danger and should be in juvenile detention not strutting around the ship. But the Captain had made her stance clear and River liked her marines enough to stay. In the end no matter what people said River was a professional.

Halfway through her slice of pizza, Valerie looked up from her PaDD. “Well, only a teetotaler on work related matters.” She replied with a chuckle. “Force of habit. My parents are both in the legal field, and even though I’ve been away for many years I can still hear the disappointment in their voices if I was ever to mix work with alcohol.” Ashford said lightheartedly with a smile, shaking the offered hand. “Valerie Ashford, Chief Science Officer.” Her handshake was surprisingly firm. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Captain Styxx. And well.. thank you. If there’s anything I have already learnt is that life on board the Atlantis is definitely not the standard. Definitely keeps you on your toes!”

“Well that could be a problem,” Kelly mused. “There is rarely a time we are not mixing alcohol with anything.”

Peter entered the room holding a small wooden box. His uniform jacket was unzipped showing straps over his undershirt where he usually stored a plethora of tools and blades but today each holster was empty. He grabbed a bear and put the box on the table before sitting down and taking a sip “You know Cap, I don’t think I ever need to go back to working solely for intelligence again, the Atlantis has more enemies than I could hope for” He said with a grin to Captain Kelly and opened the box. A small diamond-shaped drone floated out and hovered over his head silently, the centre opened up and a soft humming sounded from it, inside the box were a handful of other diamond-shaped devices and thick brown cigars. He put one in his mouth but brought no lighter nor cutter to prep the rolled bundle “Gift from my lawyer, Tellarite dessert tabac cigars and a smoke sucker drone, proprietary Hekla Corp tech”

CIO

“At least it comes with its own fumigator,” Kelly said looking at the drones moving around the room to take up designated positions. The spacing was perfect to ensure not an ounce of smoke escaped what was essentially going to be a bubble around the occupant. Peter was not the first man to light up a cigar on the ship. A few years ago Ethan Nash roamed the halls with a cigar permanently wedged between his lips. Kelly had learned to deal with it and find a place for it on the ship. Everyone had their vices. If you did not look the other way contra band tended to turn into a larger problem than what it was. This meant that the supply crew had strict orders to label with the typical contra band as hot medicinal cargo.

A few times it ended up in sickbay but Kelly figured Rinker had a better understanding of the purpose for the stuff that might have fallen in with his true supplies. So far Heathcliff hadn’t said anything about it so she was letting that sleeping dog lie. Kelly noticed Peter did come in with it lit so she grabbed a slice of pizza and made a rolling motion with her hand. “Well lets see if Hekla Corp is as good as its reputation.” This was an impromptu party so Kelly was going with the old saying light them up if you got them.

Peter smiled a toothy grin with the cigar clenched between his teeth “Yes ma’am”

Cara wasn’t too familiar with Peter. He’d avoided her office, and that was something she was going to have to address in the near future. That could wait until after the meeting to address. She watched the drone hover with interest. She tried to imagine Ronan’s filled with those and the lack of smoke and scent of the various tobaccos. She thought Ronan might be lynched if he tried it.

It would have been impossible to miss the CIO’s arrival, especially for Valerie. But even if she hadn’t noticed the man, Ashford’s attention was immediately drawn the moment the small drone made its appearance. For a moment she seemed completely enthralled by it, watching it work. Then, she took another bite of her slice of pizza, scribbled something on her notes, and looked back at Styxx. “As I was saying… definitely not the standard.” She said with a soft smile.

Lt. Cmdr. Ashford, CSO

River chuckled slightly “You’re certainly a scientist.” she said her tone amused “Out of everything in this room the drone is what hold your interest the most” she added it was clear River wasn’t being catty or funny she was just bantering.

“I thought the Conference Room was a No-Fly Zone!” Came a familiar chuckle from behind Ashford. A moment later, CTO Zach Hartley settled into the chair next to Ashford, opposite Styxx. “To say things were interesting around here would be an understatement.” Hartley laughed as he popped the top off a Thistly Cross cider. The CTO looked as relaxed as the last time Val had seen him, though this time in a shiny black bomber jacket with the Advanced Tactical Systems Laboratory patch on the left chest. Formed in the Holloway family colors with the HHI crest in the middle and the old earth NASA delta superimposed behind it, the ATSL bore the rocker ‘Crescenta Valley’, where the lab had called home for centuries… originally founded by CalTech in 1936 as the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory and was later known till the mid-21st century as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Kelly watched her CTO enter the room with a certain swagger. It was the typical gait many of them possessed. It was purposeful and professional but had that small FAFO pace which made people take a send glance. Tactile officers always seemed to possess a disarming charm until they were given the task of taking you down.

Taking a drink, Zach asked. “How’s things settling in for you Val?”

Hartley, CTO

Valerie had turned to face Hartley, watching him with an eyebrow raised, but a smile on the corner of her lips. “Alright. Getting used to a new ship is always an adventure in an of itself, I would say. This time is no different.” She pushed her PaDD aside. It was clear that the time for a final review of her notes was over, and she could only hope that she wasn’t as rusty at this as she felt. “How about you? How are you settling in? Nice jacket, by the way.” She said in way of small talk.

Lt. Cmdr. Ashford, CSO

Kelly watched the interaction of the CTO and CSO and found it interesting that they seemed to know each other. It was possible they met during their onboarding or had crossed paths in their careers.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

Cara looked up at the sound of a new voice. She recognized Hartley from the photo in his service record. She had seen it in the recent stack of new arrivals. Another officer she needed to make sure scheduled their eval. She turned back to the captain and their conversation as they waited for the last few people to arrive.

Lt. Mardusk, counselor

“Okay let’s get this briefing going,” Kelly clicked on the wall PaDD which projected maps and charts along with the images of four people. “So a month ago the Federation received a signal from deep space. Eventually, we determined it was from a galaxy called Vela Astria in the Caelum supercluster which is one point four billion miles from Earth. The Caelum supercluster is the largest supercluster in the universe containing over 550,000 galaxies on the boundary of the known observable universe.” Kelly let that sink in for the new science officer. The facts were mind boggling still and Kelly had lived with them for the past month.

“The Atlantis was the closest ship so we were sent to intercept. The four individuals shown were beamed over to the ship and then proceeded to attack the crew.” Kelly put up the images of two males, one female, and a child barely a teenager.

“The first male went by the name of Da Mu. He was the defacto leader of the group as we could tell however they all seemed to share power. The other male was known by the name of Rogan. He was blown out of the air lock. The female was known as Zala Tsu. All three were sociopaths or psychopaths.” Kelly looked to either Rinker or Cara to make the distinction if they cared to elaborate.

Rinker pondered her question. “Well. we really don’t use the term sociopath in clinical circles, officially, but it’s generally considered to be someone with antisocial personality disorder who may still have a limited capacity for empathy and remorse. A psychopath has a profound lack of empathy. Psychopaths display manipulative charm with a complete absence of conscience. These Elders were a very interesting case study in mental health as they moved about the categories based on the perspective. They appeared to have a strong link to each other much like cult members with complete disregard for anyone not in the cult,” he made air quotes. “Now since I cannot say for certain they would not turn on each other like piranhas so I think bat shit crazy is a better blanket label captain.”

“When one is convinced of ones own righteousness. there is very little if anything that can make them think they are wrong” River remarked as she listened to the briefing.

“We were able to subdue them but the juvenile named Jessa was critically injured. She was taken to sick bay. The others were remanded to the brig. Seven days later they escaped,” Kelly took a moment to calm her composure, “with Jessa’s help and some other third party.” Secrets destroyed more than they protected. Kelly could not hide the facts about Jessa nor did she want to. Still, it felt like airing her dirty laundry to everyone on the ship.

River had been of the stance that Jessa should never have bene allowed around the ship or near any of the ships systems. But she had been ignored and overruled. It was still a sore spot for River. If they had just listened to her then maybe the whole situation could have been avoided. However River was practiced at hiding her emotions and thoughts and only those who knew her well enough or could read body language to the highest degree would be able to tell she was angry and bristled at the situation.

Rinker watched Kelly carefully. As the legal guardian of Jessa, it was not up to him about how much she shared about Jessa. He could empathize with his boss. It was life changing for her and Ian not only to take on a kid, whose paternity was questionable, but one that was part of the group that tried to murder the crew in their sleep.

“Once the four individuals escaped they attacked several key systems on the ship and ended up being subdued on the Promenade. The two males were killed. The female has disappeared and the juvenile is still on the ship. ” There was going to be a lot of circling back however Kelly wanted to get the key talking points out first.

Rinker shifted in his seat. There were a vast number of people on the ship that had mixed feelings about Jessa. Kelly had drawn the line of deal with her on the ship or leave over the past few weeks. While he could respect Kelly and Ian’s stance as a parent, it did not address concerns some had. The child had been a part of the group that tried to kill the crew. The line was tricky here with Rinker straddling patient’s rights and adding to the staff meeting. “How is she adapting to school on the ship?” This basic question indicated Jessa was in treatment and sane enough to be in the general population but let Kelly reveal what she wanted or not to the crew.

“Once the threat was eliminated, Admiral Perkins decided it was all our fault and either court martialed us or transferred everyone off the ship he could. This however led to the acquisition of our new CTO and CSO. Welcome,” Kelly poured a shot of whiskey and held it up as if toasting everyone.

“I will say drink up and lets blow off some steam. We have currently been granted a month’s shore leave on Risa so all questions are up for answers as long as the booze holds out.”

Kelly Bordeaux CO

Peter raised the shot glass then froze at the mention of Risa and grimaced for a moment “A month’s R&R, excellent” He said turning his grimace into a smile in an instant.

CIO

Rinker

“I second that,” Kelly returned the toast before downing her drink.

Kelly Bordeaux

“And to screwing over Perkins once again” River added. She never made an attempt to hide her contempt for the man and for many like him.

Rinker listened to the Captain’s synopsis of the last month. It was concise and condensed but not untrue. “From court martial to cocktails. This ship is full of surprises.” Raising his glass, Rinker returned the toast

Rinker CMO

Mar.Capt Styxx (Marine OIC)

“Here here,” Kelly drum rolled the table with her palms.

================
Two hours later....
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Kelly hoped that everyone was experiencing some tension release in the room. Her crew had been on edge and on alert for a month. Pizza and booze would not immediately fix this. Only the monotony and boredom of a routine would fix this; however, it could not hurt. Part of being an officer was knowing your job while the other half was knowing the people you worked with past their job title. It was easy to compartmentalize one by rank and profession. These little unorthodox meetings helped people get to know each other so when the crap hit the fan, there was a connection.

Kelly looked around the room and realized why Perkins could never understand. Right or wrong this crew would stick together no matter what happened. They might not all be best friends, but they would never turn their back on each other. Her crew had wildly difference personalities but they were an unstoppable team. “So should we have at least one night of wild drinking on Risa,” Kelly asked the group but the response on anyone’s lips was stifled by a cataclysmic impact to the ship. Even with the inertial stabilizers, the ship was impacted as if an ancient schooner on the sea. The Atlantis pitched a full 90 degrees before it righted itself. Immediately the calm environment erupted with the piercing wail of klaxons. The warm white light turned a blood red reflecting off the walls and surfaces like a thin wash of blood. The food and drinks on the table that were not secured to the table or in a hand were tossed around the room landing in corners, on walls, and on uniforms if the officers if they were unlucky enough.

Kelly felt her body pitch to the right and her chair sliding towards the wall. Her fingers gripped the edge of the table but her lower body traveled with her chair. It twisted her and forced her to her knees. In saving herself, her beer flew from her hand spilling its contents down one sleeve before shattering on the wall that had shifted ninety degrees from its location two seconds ago. Almost as quick as the room tilted, it righted itself back to its normal position.

“Everyone alright,” Kelly yelled out already, getting to her feet and heading to the door as her hand reached for the comm badge on her shirt.

“Bridge what the hell just happened,” she asked. Luckily the ready room was connected to the bridge so her response from her comm badge was echoed by the voice replying on the bridge.

OOC: I am leaving this open for replies and reactions as the crew sees fit. The thread will continue in this thread https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf3/atlantis/posts/266255/ if you are following the Captain to the bridge. Regardless of rank or job everyone is welcome to come to the bridge. Please respond to the link above with any actions that would occur on the bridge. Remember to refresh when you use the link to the bridge. This will prevent the splitting of threads. ~ Kate