White Alert!

Posted on Saturday, 11 March 2023 - 12:11pm by Captain Pippa Whitley & Commander Soral & Lieutenant T'Lanna Vali & Lieutenant K'Var & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley & Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt

Mission: Operation: Lobes & Liberties
Location: USS Standing Bear | Deck 07 | Transporter Room 1

Ensuring that guest quarters were prepared was not something that Captain Whitley usually oversaw personally, but when a priority one message comes through at zero two hundred hours to leave Cardassian space immediately and rendezvous at coordinates with a Federation Ambassador class starship on the fringes of Federation space, a Captain like Pippa Whitley not only orders guest quarters prepared, they personally do a walk through to inspect it with a white glove on and run a finger hard across every surface.

At maximum warp, they did not have that much time to be ready, and very little information had been passed along to Pippa. They ordered their senior staff, bar the Chief Medical Officer to be up and at em. The Captain went so far as to ensure the the banquet hall was on on standby and that culinary specialist were on alert that they may have a VIP aboard.

It was getting closer and closer to the estimated time of arrival at the arranged coordinates when Captain Whitley did receive clarification that, yes, they would be taking on one individual from that the Ambassador class starship, USS Crown Victoria had been ferrying for several days. Dress uniforms thought Whitley.

From their Ready Room, the Captain used the intercom for the announcement. "All hands, white alert. White alert, all hands. Selected Senior Staff to transporter room one." Newly enlisted crewmen and fresh out of the academy ensigns were undoubtedly turning to more seasoned crew for clarification on what the hell a white alert was. It was certainly not something taught as the academy or given as reading material in bootcamp.

White Alert for Captain Whitely was code for 'there is a very important person' coming aboard and everyone needed to be at their best, and those dress uniforms should be located or replicated immediately and adorned by the welcoming party which was Whitely's selected members of the senior staff, and walked into Transporter room one, giving their dress uniform a tug, and relieving the transporter operator from his console. "I'll handle this from here," Whitley said. The last thing Captain Whitley needed was losing some dignitary or ambassador or high brass admiral in a transporter accident. Not taking that risk thought the Captain.

Adrianna was one of the first to appear. She had never worn a Starfleet best before. She ran her fingers around the collar in a display of discomfort. "My gawd, how do you wear this shit," she cussed in her native tongue before smiling to the captain, "hello, captain."

"You don't" responded Pippa with a quick smirk. "At least I try not to, but when you get to be Captain of your own ship, you are in them more than you'd like to be which is never. Sorry to wake everyone this early to get into our best, but it seems we have a very early morning VIP coming aboard."

Next to enter was Lieutenant Kingsley, catching the end of the captain’s reply. “Do we know who this VIP is yet, Captain?”

Pippa looked at Alex "I'm afraid not. They have been peculiarly tight lipped about this."

T’Lanna walked through the door straightening her uniform whites as she did so. “I certainly hope whoever our visitor is, that he, or she appreciates the trouble we’ve gone to.”

"Even I am not sure," Adrianna shrugged, though more out of discomfort than to merely punctuate her absence of knowledge.

"When even the Chief Intelligence Officer and the Captain are left in the dark, it is somebody important or someone with information that Starfleet or the Federation did not want sent over communications channels" surmised Pippa. She looked at Alex and smiled. "Maybe Soral has more insight than us?"

Soral strolled into the room wearing his dress uniform. He gave a nod to the crew and took his place. It had been a while since something interesting happened and his Mirror half was bored with paperwork. He walked over to the CO. "Captain." He turned back to the crew. "All stand ready and at attention." Curiosity was not present but nonetheless it was an interesting happening.

K'Var hated wearing the dress uniform, she would be ready for anything and everything on the away mission. The officers joining her well she was responsible for their lives.

TAG

"This ought to be interesting," said Pippa standing at the transporter console. The Captain read a message that displayed on the screen at the console. "Tranporting now" announced Pippa. A shimmering silhouette began to take form and it took a while for the features to begin to present.

When all was completed, a woman in a Starfleet uniform, a warm smile, darker skin and dark hair placed a hand on her hip. "Well jeez, you rolled out the red carpet for me and everything. Love what you've done to the place, really took away that mirror universe shoot first and ask questions never vibe" said the woman.

Commander DeVala Victrix stepped off the transporter pad, practically leaping off of it. "Soral, Alex, Adrianna, and T'Lanna. Now that's a welcoming party I could get used to."

Soral raised an eyebrow. "Welcome back Commander. As for the décor I preferred the dark academia slash horror house this is too...friendly." He stepped up to the transporter pad and offered her his arm to step down.

"You should get comfortable with with too friendly on a ship named Standing Bear" she said. "I hope you've all been well, it's been too long."

"Indeed." He turned to Whitley. "Captain, this is Commander Victrix. She is strong wise and has been known to make people pee their pants." He raised an amused eyebrow. Commander Captain Whitley, they who indulge unusual Vulcans, I must say I am quite...curious as to this visit." He looked between Victrix and Whitley hoping for some clarity.

"Commander," Whitley said with a nod. "I read some of your logs when you were Acting Captain of the previous Standing Bear, but I wasn't expecting you to be..."

DeVala cut it in. "Showing up uninvited at the crack of sunless dawn," quipped the woman. "Yeah, sorry about that. You look like you were expecting an Admiral, not little me. Well, I'm here because I need your help...all of your help."

"I am every at your service." Soral gave a bow.

"Glad to hear it, Soral." Victrix looked around. "Ooo Caitian, hi Lieutenant" she said to the Security Chief.

"Greetings, sir" the Caitian said offering a nod and smile.

The Commander took a deep breath. "We are going to be heading outside of Federation space and into alliance territory, Ferengi Alliance. Our friends have lobes of problems right now."

“The Ferengi? Wonderful!” T’Lanna offered a disappointed expression, before smiling at Victrix. “It’s good to see you again Commander! So what are the Ferengi at now?”

For her part, Kingsley allowed Soral and T’Lanna to take front and centre. The introduction their first officer had made had brought an almost Vulcan like raised eyebrow from the science officer. Considering the unmitigated disaster of that first talent night she didn’t expect the commander’s sense of humour to be something he brought up. For her part though she was more interested in what exactly had warranted all of this and what exactly the Ferengi needed from Starfleet.

Commander Victrix retrieved a PADD from a satchel that she had brought with her. "I have some small luggage waiting to be transported over, but this was more important, Captain," she said handing the PADD directly to Captain Whitley. What was on the PADD was information that Pippa would mull over, but Victrix knew what could openly be shared.

"Nice to see I have a captive audience," she stated and smiled. "It's only a matter of time before the announcement is made, but we need to get ahead of the storm before it begins to manifest. The Grand Nagus will be abdicating the sceptre and for lack of a better work, throne. You can probably surmise what that will do to the Ferengi economy."

"A bit more of a hiccup," Adrianna nodded.

Victrix nodded. "It will send Fereginar in a tizzy, and as much as we have abolished currency within the Federation, some of our allies have not, and even those that are not allied with us play an important part in the galaxy functioning. The Ferengi do business with practically everyone, ourselves included to an extent."

Captain Whitley had skimmed the PADD and looked up at Commander DeVala Victrix. "Commander, this is a lot be hit with at this hour, and if I'm reading these orders correctly..."

Victrix smiled. "I trust you are reading correctly. There are a lot of moving pieces to this. It's going to take everyone doing their part. We'll make for Ferengi space and prep the auxiliary craft."

Pippa glanced over at Kingsley. "You've been looking to science, Lieutenant. I suggest you start packing a mobile lab."

“With any specific focus?” the science officer queried, already considering options. Of course with a narrower scope, she could pack less and avoid taking anything unnecessary.

Commander Victrix looked at Alex Kingsley. "You have degrees with honours in biology as I recall? That's going to be useful."

Captain Whitley chimed in, interrupting Victrix albeit politely. "How do you feel about plants, and was meteorology included in your vast array of studies?"

Alex arched an eyebrow, “I don’t especially mind them one way or another, and not especially. We covered the basics. I will do some studying while I pack up. Do I even want to ask why that particular combination of subjects?”

"Because," said Victrix. "You'll be leading a small team to the planet Balancar, an agricultural-industrial world within the Ferengi Alliance, a key producer of Ferengi squill syrup, a major export to Luria. The weather has been having ill effects on the crops and the Federation Science Council has approved the installation of a Federation weather modification network on Balancar."

“Very generous of them,” Alex commented. She still had questions but she was too tired to debate why the Corps of Engineers wasn’t going in. “How big a team can go in?”

Victrix looked at Pippa then at Alex. "Runabout size," she replied. "We can discuss it more in detail in a bit, but our generosity comes with a price of course. You can't exactly give the Ferengi something for free..."

Pippa stepped aside for the transporter operator to resume their station. "Indeed not. Free to the Ferengi is downright insulting. Commander, I'll escort you to your quarters and let you get settled in while everyone else finds some raktajino. We'll start digesting all this information."

Soral gave a nod and was the first one out the door. The rest were soon to follow the Vulcanoid First Officer.