Posted by Crewman George Lee Sherridan (Engineer) in Main Sim - Bridge - Interview Broadcast
[snip]

Just as the XO spoke the screen faded a bit and a broadcast room came up. Around a half curved silver table, sat on the right Habitat Master Dol, to his right his wife and cultural councilor Sal, and to their left a younger female of Dol’s species who seemed to be the head news caster for a media circuit on the station called HNM or Habitat News Media. Behind the trio were different angle still photos or time lapsed videos of the Merrimack in station keeping orbit near the Habitat. On smaller screens nearby were other news casters from four other news stations on the habitat also tied in via some kind of conference call, finally on the lower right were the Sybl. They were indeed quite short barely reaching 2ft in height or so and most had brown or tan like skin tones with bits of light fur covering. Sort of like a humanoid squirrel, this was completed by a small furry tail, they wore leather like clothing in places and their ship’s height and such deck wise seemed to match all this.

Turning to face the camera the female caster for HNM smiled to the camera and began to speak, =/\= Good evening to all Habitat members! Tonight as you all no doubt have heard by now HNM, as well as HNA, HSN, and HBN come to you live with an exclusive interview from our new friends from the distant stars. As well as older friends from the Sybl recently arrived eager to make new trade connections no doubt. With us is our esteemed Habitat Master Dol, and his wife and newly reelected Cultural Councilor Sal. =/\= She said.

Dol nodded as did Sal, =/\= Good evening everyone, we are excited to be here. =/\= Dol said.

=/\= Indeed, it has been some time since we had peaceful new friends from distant stars find us. =/\= Sal said.

The news caster spoke nodding, =/\= Indeed, I am just now being informed they are fully tied into our communications feed. For everyone on our lovely habitat we take you live to our feed to the command center of the USS Merrimack, coming from a space agency called the United Federation of Planets. Their lead interviewer will be a Lieutenant Commander Joe Milligan a human I am told. =/\= She said.

A small green dot appeared in the lower corner of the view screen, and the comm NE nodded showing they were now likely being seen by more or less the whole Habitat and Sybl. =/\= Ah there we go, hello to you Lieutenant Commander Milligan I presume? You are now live on HNM and all other media outlets. Please introduce yourself and the Merrimack and your Federation if you could please for all our listeners and viewers? =/\= the caster asked.

GM CockRoach

Joe seemed to become all business in a warp second. He snapped quickly to parade rest position. Feet spread apart, back straight, shoulders back and hands clasped behind him in the small of his back. As the newscaster finally ceased to speak Joe said in the friendliest voice anyone would have heard from him in some time. ” Yes! You would indeed presume right. I am indeed Lieutenant Commander Joseph, Patrick Milligan wishing you all a good evening from the bridge of the USS Merrimack. ” Pointing over to Tia he said,” And over here I have out Chief Engineer Tiastri Ezial whose job it is to make sure a simple-minded Commander like myself makes no technical errors.”

Joe moved a bit then in the direction of Tia so that the watchers could see a bit of the consoles and redouts behind her. ” As for the Merrimac she is a Mariner class starship. The classes are broken down by ship designs and capability. As for the federation itself? ” Joe paused for a moment as if he were going over what he had said in his mind and wasn’t quite sure how to continue. Finally, after the pause he began again saying, “When my own species first acquired the capability to travel between the stars, we were lucky to come across other spacefarers who were friendly. Who were looking for much the same things we were. Better places to live, the advancement of science and a way to keep peace and meet other people. Unfortunately, we found that space like most things in life is not always good. There are people who are not friendly. People who don’t want to meet you to establish trade or to negotiate treaties. This is why the Federation and Star Fleet was formed. A governing body backed up by a fleet of ships which can be used for cargo or for defensive purposes. ”

Joe seemed to nod to himself as if proud that he’d done that well before he took a breath looked at the screen and once again with a smile he asked. “Any further questions?”

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

Where the XO stood afforded Tia the ability to lightly touch his arm without folks seeing on the screen. She whispered from behind him, “They’ll have several. Be patient, Sir.”

She tried her best not to laugh as the poor man stood there in the spotlight, the representative of the entire Fleet.

Tia CE

Joe smiled at Tia and spoke saying Blarney I have its patience I’m short of although I’m trying my best.”

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

After a pause, the lead media announce spoke, =/\= Thank you Lieutenant Commander Milligan and your brief but concise introduction yourself, your ship you serve on and your space agency. I personally do not have any questions so I will open our media broadcast line to any call ins! =/\= She said.

A beep was heard within the news studio and an audio driven male voice likely some local caller on the habitat spoke, =/\= Uh good evening! Thanks for taking my call. I am Gal Free 2nd lead engineer among one of our Habitat’s hydro-electric generation divisions and waste reclamation facilities. If you could indulge me and my fellow workers we are curious how your ships and Federation handle hydro reclamation and waste management? As well as how these points of power generation and waste management are handled through your Federation? =/\= he asked.

Joe looked around for Tia so that she might field this one. It was certainly nothing he wished to address. Making one think of things like this made a person want to carry your own crated supplies on board a starship.

OOC: Not sure Tia will reply and need to move this on. -Dave

George stepped up to answer this one, having spent some considerable time working in waste reclamation, “Whell, we have this here mowleculaar synthesizuurr device that there uses matter-energy conversion technology ta create food ayn’ some objects, but witch also wawks on waste ta produce feedstock too. There are some heavy metals ayn’ some fowevuurr chemicals remaining aftuurrwarrds, but they get recycled too being as they are rare elements and mowlecules.”

• George, Engineer

Joe grimaced at how close George may have come to giving away some hints to their technology. But you couldn’t put the words back and how much can leftovers advance a society anyway? At the end of the day there wasn’t much could be done differently to recycle things that most people didn’t want to know about anyway.” Ah there we are! That was our expert George. ” Turning then to George, Joe said cheerily, “Thank you George, when it comes to waste no one does it better than you!”
Then despite his overwhelming urge to get to his quarters, get a shot of whiskey and good meal Joe kept on as he turned toward the viewer and spoke saying, “Well that was a great question. We have anymore?”

LtCmdr. Joe Milligan XO