24010212.1333

“Deep space 47, Uss Dragon requests clearance to dock.” Viameli brought the Dragon to a stop at the station’s outer markers as she waited for clearance and coordinates to their berth.

“Uss Dragon, please wait for the Osiris to clear the station. You will be in docking ring alpha ports 12 thru 16, operations requested that you dock on your port side.”

“Understood and acknowledged, holding for the Osiris.” Viameli turned toward the Captain in his center chair. “Sir, The Osiris, wasn’t that your prior command?”

“Yes,” he stood and walked forward to stand between the two helm consoles. “Computer, can you change the main view screen to show the Osiris?” They watched as the view screen zoomed in and focused on a Reliant class ship as it started to undock and back away from the station.

“Aye, ain’t she a thing of beauty Lad. We left her in good hands. Heard she made Lieutenant Mathisson her Exec, good choice. Skagath said as he came over to stand next to his godson and captain.

“Yes, I heard the same thing. Wonder where they are going?” They watched as the Osiris finished backing away from the station and made her way to the outer markers. After a few minutes, they watched as she jumped to warp and vanished in a flash of light.

“Well sir, from the direction they were facing when they went to warp I would guess toward the Breen border.” sustram stated as he watched the telemetry data pop up on his holo displays.

“Hmmmmm.”

“Uss Dragon, you are cleared to approach. Welcome to Task Force Forty-Seven and the Thomar Expanse. Captain Kr’Antren, welcome back.”

Kr’Antren nodded. “Thank you, flight control. Viameli, take us in nice and slow, nothing fancy. First impressions make lasting impressions.”

“Yes, sir.”

Viamelie and Sustram spend the next few minutes bringing the Dragon into the assigned docking spot. “ Captain, We are docked with Deep Space Fort-Seven, docking portals have been extended and are in the process of locking in.”

“Very good,” as Kr’Antren returned to his seat.

Aryanna leaned towards him from her seat/console. “Isn’t it a bit odd that they had us dock sideways? From my understanding, this type of station usually uses the saucer method.”

“I was just thinking the same thing to myself, and you’re right from my experience with DS47 most ships usually dock saucer in, they must have their reasons though. Guess we will find out when we go check in with the Task Force command team.” Kr’Antren responded as he tapped on the internal comms button. “Lieutenant Zaishii, let’s go ahead and power her down to station operation levels.”

“Already in the process Captain, I’m going to have my teams run some diagnostics on the warp and impulse systems. I didn’t quite like the way things felt as we came through the Badlands, nothing wrong per se but she was just feeling a bit heavy if you know what I mean.”

At hearing this Aryanna chuckles and shrugs her shoulders. “Chief engineers and their ships.”

Kr’Antren chuckled.

“Well Ayranna, let’s go introduce you to the boss and see if they have anything to add to the mission packet we received before we left Bravo. Skagath, for what it’s worth, parked at a station, you have the conn.”

“Aye, Lad. I have the conn.” 

24010214.1300 – Deck 2 observation lounge/Command Messhall “The Dragons Den”

“Something different, grab a plate and join us at the table.” Kr’antren pointed toward the buffet setup on top of the room’s bar space, as he sat down with a plate in hand. “This shouldn’t take long. I just wanted to go over the latest on our next mission, so we can start putting our ducks in a row. You should all have received a copy of the mission orders this morning and hopefully have had time to read through them in some capacity.” He watched as the rest of his staff, including Commander Thornton, filled plates from the buffet and took a seat at the table. He took a sip from the tall glass of water in front of him and picked up his PADD.

“First things first, we depart in 72 hours. I want all the crew onboard in sixty, that should give everyone enough time to sleep off anything that they may have gotten into before we depart.” He looked around the table and he heard a few chuckles. “This one is going to keep us on our toes, Ladies and Gents. Per the Brief we will depart from Deep Space 47 and head towards the Breen Border, once arriving on the outskirts of the area that they claim is under their security jurisdiction we will turn and follow the border heading toward what many in the Task Force have started calling the Ultima Thule line, this is the line that marks the end of what the Federation has mapped and explored. More on that in a minute.” 

He took a second to take a bite of his chicken Caesar salad and another sip from his glass.” We have been tasked with a few other pieces during our travels. First, we will be mapping the region as we travel taking note of anything out of the norm and if deemed we will explore the anomaly a bit further. Second, we have been tasked with launching three communications and sensor arrays, this is the tricky piece as we expect the Breen confederacy to not be very happy about this. But we need the arrays to help the Task Force communicate and to know what is out there. If we run into any trouble the USS Osiris is also in the area conducting patrols, though I hope we won’t have to call for help.” A few more chuckles from around the table. “Commander Thornton, please get with Aryanna to discuss a few operational points during these tasks.”

“Will do.” he sat back and nodded toward the Executive Officer seated across from him.

“Third we have been asked to conduct a second contact. Due to this, it looks like we will be taking on a diplomatic officer; who from what I understand by reading their files has completed a first and a couple of second contacts in their career as part of diplomatic teams.” He looked around the table to see if anyone had any questions so far.

“Sir, from what I read the planet and the system it resides in sits just inside the Breen security area, and during first contact, there were signs of them being subjugated by the Breen. Do we have any further information since then? Could we be looking at a prime directive issue? “ Lieutenant Yatokii asked from the far end of the table.

“That last one was the first question I asked when we were briefed by Task Force operations. I was informed that we have been permitted to offer assistance as we can up to the point of breaking the Prime Directive. If they ask for that type of help we are to immediately pull back and contact Task Force command for further directions. From my understanding, they were accepting of the federation during first contact but were also not very forthcoming in the information or asking for any assistance due to the Breen confederacy being on their proverbial doorstep and having already been working on subjugating parts of the planet, which was three to four years ago. So we can expect things to have changed and probably not for the good.”

“Commander Thornton, this one may be a good time to use one or both of those Arrows, see if we can get a picture of what is going on before we send in the second contact team.”

“I was going to suggest that when I talked to the Exec. sounds just like the type of thing those ships were made for. I’ll start prepping a couple of crews on the mission.” he looked over at Scamandrius, talking while waving a chicken leg in the air in front of him. “Can we get a couple of your intel folks to join my crews, I have the flight crews just not the specialists.”

Scama looked at the commander and blinked a few times as the lens over his singular eye tried to correct itself and focus. “Yes, I can do that. Of course, I will be one of them. Two or three per crew?”

“Two will work. We have the room but I don’t think the mission will need more than that.”

Scamandrius nodded and made a note on his PADD.

“Now onto the good stuff, don’t expect to be coming back here anytime soon folks. We have been tasked to go beyond the Ultima Thule line. Task force command wants a better understanding of how far the Breen confederacy stretches into that area. We will keep the same distance from their known or assumed borders and work things from there; plan on lots of mapping and exploring into and around the confederacy border and surrounding regions of space.”

Skagath took a long sip from his glass, washing down the fried chicken that he was eating. “Finally, back to exploring like the good ol’ days. Miss those days. Never knowing what the next day held or better yet who would pop up wanting to shoot first and ask questions second. Aye, the good ol’ days.”

A round of chuckles and a raised glass from Commander Thornton followed Skagaths comment.

Kr’Antren finished another bite from his salad, looked at his PADD, and continued. “That’s all I have for right now, Aryanna or myself will send out more detailed departmental mission orders as we get more information over the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. For now, Lieutenant Zaishi make sure we have everyone in engineering up to speed on deploying those new platforms. Lieutenant Sustram, get all the information you can on where the Breen Confederacy is calling theirs and how far they are claiming security rights. I want us to ride the very edge of that line, not cross it but close enough that if someone on board sneezed it would push us across. If you catch my drift. Lieutenant Scamandriud, help Lieutenant Sustram with whatever information you can get. Oh one more thing Lieutenant, while you’re at it, see if you can get the latest and greatest from the Atlantis. 

Lieutenant Zaishi nodded and looked at her PADD “ Shouldn’t be too hard, Captain. Looks like these are the basic setup with frequency amplifiers and subspace repeaters with a short-range scanning capability and a space weather/storm tracking system.”

“I’m going down to the new stellar cartography lab right after this captain. I’ll have us riding as close as comfortable to that line.” Lieutenant Sustram stated between bites of what looked like a pasta dish of some sort with chicken fried steak.

Lieutenant Scanndrius nodded and replied with a low grunt as he made a note on his PADD.

Aryanna stood and placed her plate and glass in the replicator’s bin, pushing the button to have it rejoin the replicator system stores. “Captain, if it’s ok with you. I’m going to go see if I can find us a diplomatic officer that we can deal with before they send us one of those snobby, look down their noses at the rest of us types.” as she picked up her PADD, receiving a nod from Kr’antren, and departed the Dragons Den.