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Thread: Star Trek RPG - Mission #2: "Primum Nil Nocere"

  1. #251
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    T'Var's blue-and-black uniform is immaculate, as always (is she wearing pants or a dress, BTW, out of idle curiosity?). Things were quiet in Sickbay overnight, Dr. Villa tells her.

    Fujishiro takes her chair, and she and Collins have a friendly breakfast together in the Mess.

    Delaney learns that all's well in Engineering. Terezis and Raza are ready and willing to help him with his special project.

  2. #252
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    Since Pourtash had gone to bed early, he'll rise early as well and prepare himself for his day before going to the Mess for a simple breakfast, consisting of flat bread, paneer and fruit.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

  3. #253
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    T'Var prefers to wear pants, but does -- on occasion -- wear a dress.
    Last edited by WES; 29 Dec 2011 at 08:10 PM.

  4. #254
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    Pourtash enters the Mess just as Bennett does, and she greets him warmly. They both see Fujishiro and Collins at the same time.

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    Collins beckons to Pourtash and Bennett to join Fujishiro and her.

  6. #256
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    Fujishiro is happy to meet her crewmates under less stressful circumstances. "I, for one, am happy that the captain is returning."

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    Delaney wonders into the mess andsays good morning to the others.

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    Collins pulls another small table over and motions to Delaney. She asks her crewmates "How did you all sleep last night?"
    Last edited by anyrose; 03 Jan 2012 at 01:24 PM.

  9. #259
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    Dr. T'Var is gratified that all is well in Sickbay. It is still a bit early to head to the Shuttlebay, so she goes to the Mess Hall for a cup of Vulcan spice tea.

    The doctor notices the group of officers sitting together and wanders over.

    "May I join you?" she asks.

  10. #260
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    Hearing Collins, Rangin pulls out a chair and sits. "Well enough. I usually do after that much adrenaline. Now I'm going to be second-guessing every last thing that happens."

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    "I slept well after puzzling over some help for yesterday's problems. I think the space mines may well be useful."

  12. #262
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    "I could kick myself for not noticing the discrepancy in the panel sooner. Yes, Doctor, please sit. Not that I'd have done anything differently, I think."

  13. #263
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    "Thank you," T'Var says at she sits, then takes a sip of her tea.

    "Are we discussing the 'test'?" she asks. "If so, I believe we all performed to the best of our abilities. Of course, there will always be room for improvement."

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    There is a pleasant hum of conversation, and the aroma of good food drifts through the Mess. Collins notices Ens. Hayes and Lt. Dahlquist enter, hand in hand, and go to get their breakfast. Hayes says something to Dahlquist, who laughs.

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    "Aw, how cute," Collins thinks to herself, sarcastically; then wonders if she and Ben will look like that one day.

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    Dr. T'Var notices the friendly banter between Hayes and Dahlquist. She is not sure whether romantic entanglements aboard a starship is a wise choice. Perhaps she should research this from a medical perspective.

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    "I wouldn't be too hard on yourself about it, Collins. You were more aware of something being off than any of the rest of us," Pourtash offers,
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

  18. #268
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    "Hush", whispers Fujishiro with an impish grin, "we want others to enjoy the surprise test, too."

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    "That is what Mr. Roble ordered, or so I understand," Bennett says, buttering her toast and spreading it liberally with raspberry jam. "Mum's the word."

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    "A logical course of action," T'Var says, then takes another sip of her tea.

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    Collins finishes her coffee and stands. "Shall we?"

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    Lt. JG Bennett leaves on an errand, and Delaney sees that it's almost time for the Captain's shuttlecraft to arrive. Breakfast complete, you all go to the small reception room adjoining the Shuttlebay on Deck 19. Lt. Cmdr. Roble is already there, and he greets you. After a few minutes the intercom's bosun's whistle sounds, and Ens. Leventhal reports, "Bridge to Science Officer. Shuttlecraft Tesla is on final approach."

    Roble hits the com button. "Acknowledged. Standing by."

  23. #273
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    Delaney does a few checks to verify they are actually in the place they are suppose to be. This is a new little habit of his.

  24. #274
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    Rangin glances down, flicks a smidgen of toast from breakfast from his uniform, and stands at attention.

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    What checks does Delaney have in mind?

    Rangin satisfies himself that he is eminently presentable.

  26. #276
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    Dr. T'Var stands calmly in the Shuttlebay with her crewmates, awaiting the captain's return.

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    Transit time of the lift & A quick engineering survey off the room vs. plans

  28. #278
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    Collins notices Delaney double checking the room and smiles.

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    The young engineer is sure this is "the real thing." Roble looks oddly at Delaney but says nothing.

    Through the viewports, you see the giant clamshell doors of the Yorktown's Shuttlebay slowly open, revealing the vast expanse of space beyond. The shuttlecraft Tesla is at first indistinguishable from the numberless stars strewn across your field of vision, but you soon perceive its movement, and it grows steadily larger as you watch. It soars through the opening between the doors and gently comes to rest on the rectangular, red-and-yellow landing target painted on the deck. The doors ponderously close again and the Shuttlebay is repressurized. When the lights on the bulkhead's small control console all turn green, you hear the Shuttlebay Control Officer, from her armored command post above, announce the all-clear over the intercom.

    The hatch on the Tesla's port side opens, and Capt. Singh, Cmdr. Vargas, Lt. Cheverez and Dr. Villa emerge. Roble opens the reception room door and the senior officers approach. You all snap to attention.

    "Permission to come aboard, Mr. Roble?" the Captain asks with a smile.

    "Permission granted, ma'am," the Science Officer replies.

    "I relieve you, sir."

    He nods. "I stand relieved. The ship is yours. Welcome back, Captain."

    "Thank you. It's good to be back. At ease, everyone." She shakes each of your hands.

    "How did it go with the board of inquiry?" Roble asks.

    Before the Captain can answer, Vargas laughs curtly. He says, "We discussed the Prime Directive and the abortive Banij fusion war at some length. I think it's fair to say that Adm. Komack's basic message to us was, 'Well done, but don't ever do it again.'" Delaney notices Cheverez frown slightly.

    A maintenance crew emerges from the other side of the Shuttlebay to look over the Tesla, and Chief Graves appears with an antigrav cargo sled to get the officers' bags.

    "How were things here while we were gone?" the Captain asks, looking around at you.
    Last edited by Elendil's Heir; 12 Jan 2012 at 08:42 PM.

  30. #280
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    Collins briefly glances at her crewmates. She hopes Pourtash will speak up first.

  31. #281
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    Dr. T'Var looks around, then says, "Bridge Duty was quite interesting and instructive, Captain."

  32. #282
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    Singh looks around at you all, raises an eyebrow and says, "Well, I thought it might be. Come with me, please, and let's discuss the Hegar's Pride simulation further."

    Lt. Cheverez and Dr. Villa excuse themselves to look in on their respective departments. You go with the Captain, First Officer and Science Officer, and are soon settled into comfortable chairs around the Theban marble-topped table of the Yorktown's Conference Room 1. You may help yourselves to coffee, tea or other liquid mild stimulants from the replicator. Singh continues, "I've reviewed the complete recordings of the sim, which Mr. Roble shared with me via subspace radio, and now I'd like to hear each of your honest reactions to it. What went right, and what went wrong? What did you learn, and how can you do better when something like this really happens?"

  33. #283
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    Delaney offers, "I think we need to act more decisively while worrying more about the safety of the ship then those we are trying to help. We cannot help them if we ourselves are disabled. Other then that I believe things went pretty well considering the situation and lack of any serious experience on the bridge. In the end, we are all fairly junior officers in terms of combat experience."

  34. #284
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    "it might be helpful," Collins offers, "if we were to have procedures in place as to which ship's functions could be shut down during a battle, in order to channel more power to the shields and weapons."

  35. #285
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    When Fujishiro turn to speak comes, she looks firmly at the captain and says, "Captain, the first thing that went wrong was the breach of trust that was used to perform the test. I am not certain that planting seeds of doubt in one's ship and superior officers will lead to healthy teaming.

    "The next thing that went wrong was the bridge crew's poor assessment of the threat posed by the Orion vessels. We need to better know what we're up against, whether by prior training, or the computer library and its predictions, or by making worst-case assumptions if nothing else.

    "I think we that we are collectively over-eager to help those in distress. That is a worthy goal, but our duty must always be to our ship and its crew, especially since we cannot often expect help from Starfleet.

    "Finally, I do think we performed adequately given the circumstances. We should have disengaged sooner, but to have avoided conflict altogether would have meant hardly trying to rescue the distressed ship. Which would have meant neglecting our duty to help others in favor of keeping ourselves perfectly safe. None of us joined Starfleet to remain safe."

    Fujishiro then sits down and sips her water.

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    Cmdr. Vargas narrows his eyes and leans forward. "A 'breach of trust'? Tell me, Mr. Fujishiro, are we required to notify you every time we plan a drill? Would you not perform better as an officer, and learn more from the drill, if you didn't know it was a drill at all?"

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    Dr. T'Var clears her throat, then waits a moment until she has everyone's attention.

    "With all due respect, Commander, I believe Mr. Fujishiro has a valid point. While I understand the value of a test such as this, comprehensive training for difficult situations require a great deal of training beforehand so that each member of the crew performs at his or her best. I believe testing once training is complete -- even if the crew was unaware of the test -- would produce better results."

    T'Var hesitates a moment, then continues. "It might be a good idea to explore these possible 'trust' issues further."
    Last edited by WES; 16 Jan 2012 at 04:11 PM.

  38. #288
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    "We've been trained. At the Acedemy," Collins counters, "we're not so far removed from those days that we've forgotten everything. Or at least, we shouldn't have forgotten." I know I didn't, she thinks. "On the other hand, running unscheduled drills, that we know are drills, could enhance our training."

  39. #289
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    "I'm not so sure that I agree about the "breach of trust" issue. As Starfleet officers, we may be called on to perform tasks without full knowledge of our situation, possibly because the information we might need is highly classified; it's not so long since we were actually at war, after all. While it's a little extreme to limit that information during a drill, the stakes are also much, much lower during a drill, and it seems clear to me that the risks of any breach of trust are dramatically outweighed by the chance to test ourselves in a situation where we don't know that failure might result in our own deaths. If we know a test to be a test, we can take much greater risks knowing that the consequences of failure are of little lasting value, whereas in our test yesterday, we were forced to act more defensively and carefully than we might have otherwise, which is a great deal more representative of the realities of command in Starfleet. Consider a fencing match with blunted foils compared to an actual duel to the death-- the athletes will attack at greater risk and expose themselves for an advantage because all that's at risk is a single point in a match, while the duelists are more cautious, since their lives are on the line."

    Rangin continues, "I also find myself very much in agreement with Lt. Collins that encountering enemy ships of unknown design and capabilities in a test is perfectly reasonable, even desirable. After all, most of Starfleet's information about the capabilities of enemy vessels is derived from experiences little different than the Hegar's Pride simulation. I shudder to think what someone like Captain Kirk or even Captain Archer would think of Starfleet officers who cannot perform without detailed analyses of enemy vessels."

    "That said, I don't believe that we performed poorly in this test. Indeed, had it be real, we would have been duty-bound to try to rescue the Hegar's Pride in the manner we did, especially given our best guesses about the likely abilities of our enemies. After it became clear that we were badly outmatched and that we would not meaningfully improve the Hegar's Pride's situation, we retreated successfully, broadcasting a warning back to Starfleet about what we'd encountered and what a rescue ship might expect."

  40. #290
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    "Excellent points all around," Dr. T'Var says. "And yes, Starfleet Academy provides basic training that serves the newly minted Ensign well, however, perhaps advanced training for situations such as the one we were tested on, might be a more helpful tool than a secret test."

    T'Var pauses yet again, a bit upset with herself for allowing a tone of frustration to creep into her voice. She takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly.

    "I would have to check the library computer, but I believe I read something about Earth's military in the 19th and 20th centuries devoting a great deal of time to drills and training in preparation for dangerous missions in times of war."

  41. #291
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    Pourtash clears his throat. "I was most impressed with the simulation. I hope that drills such as this will be a standard tool of Starfleet, as I think you get far more realistic responses from officers who don't realize that they're only being tested. Being able to face down death and truly believing that it's a possibility, but still having to determine how best to carry out your duties is...an experience everyone should have before it becomes reality.

    "While greater preparation and intelligence could have aided us, relying too heavily on intelligence and believing ourselves fully prepared could have actually been a detriment in this situation. Tactics and the capabilities of any given group change. We approached it with some caution--perhaps too much in some ways and not enough in others--but recognizing that we were not fully prepared was an asset in this situation, I felt."

    He pauses a moment, weighing his words carefully. "A more aggressive stance immediately upon arrival may have been warranted and an earlier retreat when the impossibility of rescue became apparent. That's where I would have changed things, were I to find myself in that situation again. However, we had to respond to the call, we could not lower our shields, the hostile ships were apparently prepared to bring in reinforcements, and we were too isolated to bring in reinforcements of our own. Rescue was impossible regardless of what we did, yet to not attempt it would be ethically abhorrent."

  42. #292
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    Fujishiro glances at Rangin, "Of course, while we can never expect to have complete information about an encounter, we need to have a better understanding of our absence of knowledge. We should be more cautious by assuming the worst in the face of adversaries with uncertain capabilities. Especially when that uncertainty is multiplied by several vessels."

    And to Vargas, "Commander, the issue of whether a drill is known or not is not my concern. My concern is that your bridge crew will now have a tiny doubt in the reliability of their ship and superior officers. That the situation is not what the sensors and officers say it is. When we are in a truly life-or-death encounter, the crew may not perform as if it is because the back of their minds think 'this is only a test'. That is, we risk wasting the edge gained during a dangerous situation by blunting it with simulations.

    "Please note that I am not questioning the decision to enact these simulations. The captain asked for our honest assessment of it, and I have done so."

  43. #293
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    "It is always a wise course of action to be as prepared as possible for any and all situations we may encounter as members of this crew. Had we been better prepared for an encounter such as this -- test or not -- I believe our actions would have resulted in a more positive outcome."

    T'Var sighs.

    "In my personal opinion, we were not properly prepared. We must find a way to rectify this. I do not believe future tests such as this one would help. Once again, Mr. Fujishiro makes a valid point -- as do the others."

  44. #294
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    Delaney looks up and notices a few of the senior officers looking his way, "I don't have a problem with the trust issue. I think we did fairly well as I said considering 0 hours of command time between us. I would like to have done better and I believe this drill will drive all of us to be thinking more about serious scenarios and what we can do in those situations. I believe we made some mistakes but part of that was time lost waiting for a senior officer that was not available. That is a nearly impossible situation for any junior officer. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I believe history will back me up in that assertion. I probably err on the side of the safety of the ship before the safety of those we hope to rescue. I also believe in all out disabling attacks on a single vessel when facing more then one enemy. Try to take away the advantage of numbers."

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    Collins had her turn. Anything she said now would only be echoing what has already been stated, and that would be counterproductive. She has no control over what the Captain and Commander Vargas will do with the information, but she has decided to ask Delaney about setting up a simulation she could run on her own time, to see if she could have done better.

  46. #296
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    Vargas seems somewhat mollified by what he's heard since Fujishiro's remarks.

    The Captain, who has calmly listened to everyone, puts down her coffee and says, "Thank you all for sharing your views. I appreciate your candor. I don't expect that we'll run any further such simulation without letting you know that it is a sim - it would be rather hard to unring that particular bell - but of course we want you all to do your best in whatever situation you find yourselves. You've all done well with your BCDO training, and this was no exception. I will tell you, frankly and intending no flattery, that I was impressed by what I saw. All in all, you each acted appropriately and reasonably at each stage of the sim. Mr. Pourtash, you had the toughest job of all, and showed the kind of thoughtful but decisive leadership that the situation demanded. You drew upon the expertise and good advice of your subordinates and did the best you could under the circumstances, which is all that anyone could ask of you."

    Roble quietly adds, "I agree, ma'am, and would add that I have a hard time thinking of anything I would have done much differently, given how the sim unfolded. I think you all struck just about the right balance between your duty to help others and your duty to the ship. You were put in a pressure cooker without warning and, all in all, did rather well in it."

    Vargas says, "You should also know that you are in fact the seventh set of officers, across the Fleet, to go through the Hegar's Pride simulation, and the Starfleet vessel has been 'destroyed' four out of those seven times. Both luck and skill play their part, of course, but you made it out alive, and for that I commend you."

    Singh nods and looks around the table. "Thank you, gentlemen. Any other thoughts or questions?"

  47. #297
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    "Thank you for letting us express our thoughts on this matter, Captain," Dr. T'Var says.

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    Collins stands "Permission to return to my station?"

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    Pourtash's brows raise a bit when he hears the Starfleet vessel was destroyed the majority of the time in the simulation. Now that would have been a stomach turning ending.

    "None, Captain. Thank you for this opportunity."
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

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    "No further comment but I am working on a few devices that may aid us in a pursued retreat. I will continue to log our progress."

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