New Orders

Posted on Sun Jan 8th, 2012 @ 4:08pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne

Mission: Old Relics
Location: USS Endeavour, Conference Lounge
Timeline: MD 16 0945hrs

Benjamin stood between the long curving table that he held his senior staff briefings at, and the room's largest viewscreen, set behind the now-inactive holographic memorial wall, depicting the Endeavour's forebears - through from the HM Bark Endeavour, the NASA shuttle OV-105, and on through the various classes of Starfleet ship that had bore the name. It felt odd to be in this room for a conference alone, but then it was unusual circumstances that necessitated communication between the captain and Starfleet Command to take place in this manner.

The captain stood comfortably with his hands clasped behind his back as he waited and watched as the standard for the United Federation of Planets was gradually replaced on the screen, as each of the participants of the conference came online. It appeared that his discovery here had turned quite a few heads.

There were six remote members of this conference call; Admiral Sanchez was the one Benjamin had dealt with most recently, as the 11th Fleet's commanding officer based out of Cestus III, the Endeavour had carried him to the meeting with the Metrons two years ago for what was supposed to be a diplomatic meet. Was it really that long ago? he wondered. Also present was Rear Admiral Colburn; Benjamin knew him only by reputation, and knew that he had been a Rear Admiral during the Dominion War, and was heavily involved in the strategy of the conflict. The short caption under his image indicated that he was now working under the Exploratory Division at Starfleet.

Commodore kr'Ravik of Andoria was also present, representing Starfleet's Corps of Engineers, as was Captain Hakkent, representing Starfleet Intelligence. The last two participants of the meeting Benjamin was especially surprised to see; an old friend in the form of Commodore Richard Gates, the man who had first offered Benjamin a command during the Dominion War, and chairing the meeting was Admiral William Ross, one of the most influential flag officers in Starfleet.

The captain took a few moments to collect himself in front of so many senior officers, before nodding his head to them all politely. "Admirals, Commodores, Captain," he said, addressing each of the rank groups in turn. "Captain Benjamin J. Byrne, Commanding USS Endeavour, reporting as ordered."

"Still making waves at Headquarters I see, Captain," Gates said, smiling at his old friend's expression. "At least no-one can fault you for what the waves are about this time round." Benjamin remembered the time that the Commodore was talking about. He was a Lieutenant Commander who had been put in charge of a Defiant class starship during the war - the USS Hendrix. Commodore Gates had been the one to offer the command to him, and many at Starfleet felt he was too young and inexperienced to be given a command of his own at that time. The decision stuck though, because of war needs.

Admiral Ross coughed to get everybody's attention. Then, seemingly ignoring the Commodore comments, he ploughed ahead with the meeting. "Captain," he began. "We have all read your reports on the station that you have discovered, but please for the sake of clarity and in case anything was not mentioned in your report, brief us on the situation."

Benjamin cleared his throat. "Two days ago, we detected some unusual and faint power readings coming from this sector of space. Upon locating the source of these power readings, we discovered this station in a relatively unpopulated system, near its asteroid belt. We were unable to find any signs of life or occupation of the station, and I sent an away team to investigate."

"From what we have been able to learn thus far, the station appears to have been purposefully abandoned a thousand years ago or more. All of the generators that we have located and brought online seem to suggest that they were powered down in a planned and orderly fashion. The language of the station's computers is proving difficult for the universal translators to understand, but we haven't get come across any sort of database to explain why the station was abandoned, nor to whom it belongs."

"Could it be a Tholian installation?" The question came from Admiral Colburn, who was understandably thinking of the strategic in the situation. Benjamin could understand the concern, too. The Endeavour was currently in unclaimed space, but if Starfleet began a concerted push into this sector, it could be seen by the Tholians as an attempt to flank their territory; they would become surrounded by the Federation on three sides, or at least the core of their territory would. Benjamin understood that they had some more extensive territory out to the West of where Cardassia had once attempted an expansion into.

He shook his head at the question. "Nothing we have found appears to conform to any known standards used by the Tholians, past or present. The environmental controls inside the station also have the temperature set at slightly below what is considered comfortable for humans and most similar species; Tholians wouldn't be able to survive in that kind of environment."

"What sort of technologies have you discovered so far, Captain?" the Andorian engineering officer was stereotypically concerned with one thing, and one thing only. Benjamin shook his head. "Not much, I'm afraid. We have only just discovered what we believe to be the station's command centre, and we're still working off what my teams believe to be a series of back-up generators. We believe that there will be a much larger power generator somewhere near the heart of the station, but until then we're limited to what we can bring online. In truth, we need more personnel out here if we're going to conduct a prolonged study of the station."

Admiral Sanchez nodded at that and made some notes on his PADD.

"Since you arrived in the region, have your sensors picked up any activity in the area? Particularly anything that might indicate that other species in the region have become aware of your discovery, Captain?" Now it seemed to be Captain Hakkent, the Tellarite whose turn it was to quiz him.

"None," Byrne responded. "We've had our long range sensors operating at full capacity, and there has been no sign of any starships or installations within range, and certainly none aware of our presence. Unless one of Tholia's subspace telescopes is directed to this region of space, I doubt that we'll be noticed for a while yet."

"Captain," Admiral Sanchez's American-Spanish accent seemed to carry with it much more authority than any of the other speakers could muster. "What is your professional assessment of the station? If powered and repaired, could it become a viable Starfleet outpost in that region?"

Benjamin nodded. "Most definitely. Our scans indicate that is seems to have all of the facilities needed for it to be an almost wholly self-sufficient outpost."

The Admiral nodded. "Then I have your new orders, Captain. I am transferring your command to this new outpost until a replacement can be found and transported to your location to relieve you. Starfleet will immediately begin transmitting orders for as many new personnel to be sent to this station as soon as possible to assist with the restoration efforts, and the USS Antarctic will be relieving the Endeavour of her patrol duties in that region. Deep Space 19 is your new home for the foreseeable future. Starfleet Command out."

Commodore Gates kept his connection open just long enough to smile meekly and say, "Good luck, Ben." before he was once again left alone in the conference room.

------------------------
Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer
USS Endeavour / Deep Space 19

Admiral Roman Sanchez
Commanding Officer
11th "Pegasus" Fleet

Admiral William Ross
Starfleet Flag Officer
Starfleet Command

Rear Admiral Colburn
Exploratory Division
Starfleet Command

Commodore Richard Gates
Starfleet Flag Officer
Starfleet Command

Commodore kr'Ravik
Starfleet Corps of Engineers
Starfleet Command

Captain Hakkent
Starfleet Intelligence
Starfleet Command