Mission Briefing Meeting, Listen to Kel talk. :D

[Kel Marya]

<<USS Hawking – Deck 1, Captain's Ready room>>
<<March 7 – 0859 Hours>>

Jacob Orley has been the first to arrive besides the Captain herself, and had seated himself on Kel's right. The screens were set up to interactive mode, and the senior staff briefing table looked as shiny and official as ever, complete with senior staff seated around it. Iliari Maran, Michael Falkner, and Travis West were among them, as well as a dark-eyed Terran man from Operations who seemed to be tapping his fingers and smiling along to some internal beat.

When the last of the chairs was filled, Commander Kel stood and looked at her crew. And a fine group they are. “As you've all been notified via emergency channels, we launch today.” Murmurs and eye rolling all around. “I don't see this as a problem. I see this as a privilege. We're being launched early to do what we're all here to do—explore. Discover. Learn.” This is it—my first Captain speech. The woman's signature grin hit its mark. “At fifteen-hundred today, we'll launch. We will pass through the Iconian Gateway into the Delta Quadrant. From there, we're to proceed to our designated target, an asteroid belt in the Lek Cluster. It will take us roughly two weeks to arrive at that belt, a week of that spent getting to the gateway. The Nova isn't known for speed.” Surprisingly, no one groaned. They were taking the timeline better than Kel had.

“We'll be testing out our systems on the way—changing warp factor, checking sensors, modifying vital systems as needed. Hopefully, everything will be one-hundred-percent active when we arrive.” A touch on the panel, and the lights dimmed. Another touch, and a holographic grid appeared over the table. It was a starmap, with the asteroid field they were headed to filling up the space. “This is where we're headed. According to scans, there's an anomaly taking place. That's why we're headed out five days early. Time may matter in this case, so we're going to get there as soon as we can.” Important enough to rush us out, unimportant enough for them to send a repairing ship lacking crew. “When we get there, Petty Officer Maran is going to head a team for close scans, as her birds are more maneuverable. The scans will be channeled through to science. Stellar cartography and engineering will also receive the reports, but science is going to have head on this topic.

Questions?”

[Iliari Maran]

Since she had been spoken of last, Iliari forced herself to go first. "Captain, two questions," she said, maintaining an audible volume but not much more.

At the nod she received, the Elaysian continued, "First, are my Condors going to be fitted with sensor packages for the scanning, or are we using the Icarus class shuttle? Secondly, what kind of anomaly are we dealing with, and where is it in relation to the asteroid fields?" It was much easier to speak when it was all business.

[Kel Marya]

"It's in...this general area," Kel replied, though in truth she knew it was a little unhelpful, seeing as her gesture encompassed the vast majority of the field (what it didn't include was only left out due to the woman's reach). "There's some radiation keeping it from being pinpointed. That, or it really is the size of the asteroid field, though I doubt that. The information I was forwarded points to a black hole type of occurrence, though that obviously isn't correct, seeing as the matter in the area is intact. Why, then, would someone suspect a black hole?" Kel folded her arms and smiled. She'd been waiting to say this. "Because there's Hawking radiation detected in the area."

At least the oriental-looking human smiled at the half-joke.

After giving him a slight nod, Kel continued. "We'll be using the Icarus for slow, detailed scans. Your Condors are, in fact, going to be equipped with sensor packs. That'll be your job, Mister West."

From the far end of the table he leaned forward and nodded solemnly.

[Iliari Maran]

Iliari nodded and demurred. That answered her questions.

[Michael Falkner]

Michael crossed his arms, and asked, "Captain, this Lek Cluster, is it occupied by anyone?"

Michael's responsibility was the security of the ship, and knowing who their potential aggresors were was vital.

[Iliari Maran]

The Lieutenant made a good point. Iliari leaned forward to better hear the answer; if Gold Squadron was going to need to run cover, she wanted to know about it.

[Jacob Orley]

Jacob, too, listened intently for the Captain's reply to Michael's question.

He seemed to recall that the Lek Cluster was in Federation space, and primarily uninhabited, but many borders and conditions had changed since the end of the Dominion war, and Jacob could not be one hundred percent sure his memory served him rightly in this matter.

"I doubt Starfleet would send us some place contentious, though, not on our shake-down run" he thought.

[Kel Marya]

"The Lek Cluster is not, in fact, majorley inhabited. Most of its space doesn't even contain life, with no intelligent life known in the region, and no warp-capable civilization. There are a half dozen systems. We're working in the Trell system." a touch on the control and the holographic view pulled back, allowing for the view of the system, with their objective circled in red with a marker above it. "One sun, with three revolving planets. The gas giant in the system has seventeen satellites. Our objective, as you can see, is closest to one of the moons, named with typical scientific lack of creativity, ESRP-10295. This moon supports no life, but appears to be a chunk ripped off of one of the terrestrial planets closer to the sun.

Were we approaching some six hundred years in the future, we would have to worry about the gravity of one of these terrestrial planets--the smaller one seems to be pulled in a figure-eight orbit between the gas giant and its sun. But we don't need to worry about that. As far as I can see, we don't need to worry about much of anything besides the anomaly. It isn't the only of its kind, various anomalies of a similar sort have been popping up in that region for the last few months. Security, Mister Falkner, should be a very easy job for you this time out."

[Iliari Maran]

Iliari shifted uncomfortably for another few moments. When no one spoke, she said, "But, ma'am, what kind of anomaly is it, exactly? Wormhole? Subspace vortex?"

[Kel Marya]

Kel grinned a little before responding. "We get to hear the death rattle of a black hole."

[Iliari Maran]

The Elaysian blinked a few times. "Of course, ma'am." She sank back into her seat and said no more.