A New Day, A New Task

Posted on Sat Oct 4th, 2025 @ 1:46am by Captain Mikoto Misaka & Lieutenant Commander Lurath, Son of Grogori & Commander Eila Juutilainen 'Illu' & Lieutenant JG Kenneth Hunt & Lieutenant JG Erskin Mon & Lieutenant JG Feeva Drylo

2,554 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Preparations
Location: USS Ermiana, Bridge & Observation lounge.

The Ermiana orbited around Starbase 375. The Starfleet outpost was only small, but was there designated command post for the entire Kalandra sector. Situated only nineteen lightyears from Deep Space Nine and the Bajoran system, the starbase was home to the Fifth Fleet which operated primarily along the Cardassian Border.

Several other ships were also orbiting the starbase. Many of them older designs such as Excelsiors and Miranda's, the work horses of Starfleet. The arrival of a Galaxy Class always caused a stir, especially at a location like this. It wasn't a class of starship that showed up every day along the border.

[USS Ermiana]

Captain Misaka had been in her ready room with Admiral William Ross for the last hour. No doubt that their conversation was concerning why the Ermiana was present at the starbase. Eventually Ross left the ready room and stepped immediately into the adjacent turbolift, it's doors shut as he made his way back towards one of the Ermiana's transporter rooms.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Feeva Drylo was the Bridge medical officer today. She normally preferred to be down in medical, but the Captian had asked her to come up today. "Medical is prepped," she said, quietly. She hated to draw attention to herself, preferring instead to work quietly.

At the Bridge Operations console, Lieutenant Erskin Mon couldn't help but glance over and watch as Vice Admiral William Ross exited the Captain's Ready Room and entered the turbolift. It was a little exciting to see Admiral Ross aboard the Ermiana, a fact he could explain away through youthful exuberance if he had to, especially with the Admiral's track record. He wondered why he'd met with the Captain for so long, but he had a feeling they'd all learn that answer soon enough.

Eila, for once, had been idle in the First Officer's chair. A PADD in her hand, the First Officer was overseeing personnel transfers on and off the ship. This latest round included several members of the senior staff, and Eila had been instructed to simply sign off on transfers while Misaka was preoccupied speaking with Admiral Ross. When the ready room doors opened, Eila's head instinctively perked up briefly when Ross walked out, but soon dipped back down to the PADD. From experience, she had learned not to stare, especially not at flag officers. Eila figured that admirals already had lots of eyes following them around whenever they stepped on board starships, and resolved that she would do her part to try and keep one less pair off them.

Lieutenant Hunt stood at the tactical station and watched as the Admiral walked past him onto the turbolift. It was always interesting how when people got so high up the preverbal food chain that they could walk inches from another officer and not even acknowledge their presence. But in all honesty, Kenneth was curious about what was discussed in the ready room.

The doors of the ready room opened and Misaka walked out. She looked directly at her XO. "Commander. Gather the senior officers in the observation lounge. We have new orders."

"Yes, sir." Eila nodded in the affirmative, shifting functions on her PADD to send a message to all the senior staff to alert them of this development.

Misaka nodded, crossed the bridge and walked through the doors to the observation lounge.

[Observation Lounge]

Misaka sat at the end of the table, she had replicated a fresh cup of tea and was sipping it slowly as she reviewed the contents of a PADD.

Eila, in the meanwhile, had replicated a cup of strong black coffee, and as she sat next to Misaka, she sipped to piping hot beverage slowly as she had gone back to reading over the crew rotations that were underway.

Lieutenant Mon entered soon after, grabbing a cup of Vulcan mint tea from the replicator. The first time he'd ever been in a briefing aboard the Ermiana, he chose to take a seat toward the middle of the table.

Lurath arrived at the briefing room. He nodded a quick greeting to those already there and headed to the replicator. With a few taps on the screen, he replicated an unfamiliar glass of thick liquid. It was a Klingon protean drink he often took to keep up his strength during his Mok'bara training. Being half Klingon, during his draining as a young warrior, he found taking the drink helped him keep up with the pure blooded Klingons in his class. This was no different. Since his old master Rorek arrived, he found it necessary to go back on it again. To fulfill his training, as the Dahar Master wanted, he had to push himself again. After taking a sip, he made his way to an empty seat and sat down.

Feeva reported to the Observation lounge, toting along a PADD and a steaming cup of Uttaberry tea. She did sometimes drink coffee-but only in the morning, before noon. She was a very regimented person, and hardly strayed from her strict personal schedule. It was how she'd managed to make it into the Fleet-the only Vissian there. She was making a new trail but she was worried that any deviance from absolute perfection would mark a stain on herself, and her people. And she couldn't have that. She took a seat near the far end of the table, quietly, and folded her hands neatly. She didn't speak, but did nod once to everyone.

Once everyone had arrived Misaka placed the PADD down on the table in front of her. "As you can see we're a few hands short due to crew rotations. However, we have new orders from Starfleet Command."

She looked around at her staff. "As you all know, The Dominion is considered an ongoing threat to the peace and security of The Federation. Therefore Starfleet has decided to upgrade and re-arm the Bajoran station Deep Space Nine," she told them all simply. "The Ermiana has been tasked with transporting those armaments to the station safely and quickly."

She tapped on the control panel built into the table in front of her. The screen on the wall behind her brought up a manifest of the armaments that were due to be brought on board. "All of these armaments have been shipped here to Starbase 375 over the past few months. We're looking at over five thousand photon torpedoes, forty eight phaser arrays and forty eight turret style torpedo launchers." She informed them. "The last shipment is due to arrive in two days, the USS Little Rock is bringing them here. In the meantime we are to modify our cargo bay so that we can store these armaments safely and securely, then start loading them onto the ship." Misaka explained to them all.

"The Little Rock?" Eila asked. "Isn't that Captain Hill's ship? What's he doing in this operation? Last I heard, he was more interested in hunting Maquis than arming Deep Space 9."

"The Dominion probably took priority to a bunch of rogue colonists," the young Trill interjected. "During first contact, our sister ship, the Odyssey, was destroyed."

"Not according to Cotton Hill, Lieutenant." Eila responded. "He has a very... Shall we say 'thinks its still the 23rd century' way of handling things. Makes me wonder how he ever got to Captain with an attitude like that..."

"Regardless of who is commanding the ship, it's still our mission to transport these armaments." Misaka interjected cutting the conversation short.

Mon nodded, respectfully, and went silent.

"Commander Juutilainen, you are to oversee the entire loading and storage process." Misaka said. "Commander Lurath, Lieutenant Mon. I don't have to remind you how dangerous this cargo is going to be. I want you to organise the cargo bay and ensure that all the armaments are loaded securely and safely." She looked at each officer in turn. "You three need to work together to ensure this goes smoothly."

Lieutenant Mon nodded crisply in response, already thinking about which Cargo Bays would be most appropriate for use.

"Understood, Captain." Eila nodded. As a former counselor, it was in her nature to ensure that clashing personalities could work together.

Lurath nodded his head in agreement of the orders.

"Some of the armaments can't be brought aboard with use of the transporter. You may have to use cargo shuttles to bring them over manually." Misaka added. "Use whatever auxiliary craft you need."

"Depending upon the size of the equipment we'll be transporting we may have to even utilize the Shuttlebays themselves to assist with the cargo transfer," the Operations Officer interjected.

"We'll also need to talk to Captain Hill, or whoever's in command of the Little Rock, and see if we can enlist the help of Little Rock Personnel to help get the job done." Eila added.

Lurath took a sip of his glass, which at this point was almost finished, before placing it back down on the table. He raised a brow slightly and looked over to Eila. "Why?" He asked curiously. "The Ermiana has more than enough people to get the job done. There doesn't seem to be a timeline so, even if we worked with a reasonable group, there is no timeline to meet."

"At the very least, the transfer needs to be initiated on the Little Rock's end." Eila shrugged. "It's their ship, so they're going to know how much they can transfer at a time."

"I can interface with their Operations Manager and get a feel for that," Erskin offered.

"Make it a top priority. We may not have a definite timeline. However Starfleet would like this done sooner than later," Misaka said. "Personally, I'm not too fond of the idea of us carrying around do many dangerous armaments. I'd like this to be done with as soon as possible."

The Trill nodded, "Yes Captain."

"I agree, Captain:" Eila nodded, already thinking of which cargo holds would be most viable for the assignment. "Having a single ship transporting that much weapons is a catastrophe waiting to happen."

"And still..." Lurath countered. "We are tasked, by Starfleet Command, to bring these armaments from this location to Deep Space 9. The orders, as they were told to us by the Captain, does not mention an escort. These same armaments were brought to us by a single ship. If Starfleet wanted to assure the security they would have allowed an escort to accompany the Little Rock with them. They did not." He leaned back in his chair before adding. "If Starfleet feels one ship is all that is required, our orders, are to use one ship and not to go against our orders by adding another. We must trust that Starfleet did their due diligence and either prepared for such an event or saw no need to bring in another ship because their Intelligence shows there is no threat with the route they provided."

"We aren't getting an escort " Misaka stated. "Starfleet wants all these weapons transported at once. I didn't ask why, it's above my paygrade." She explained. "The threat of The Dominion is very real. Of they do decide to come through the Bajoran Wormhole, Deep Space Nine is the first defence."

Feeva had been quietly listening. She had nothing to contribute; she wouldn't be needed until something went wrong. Being Starfleet, it WOULD go wrong, just....when was the question. Finally, she spoke up.

"Perhaps a small contingency of us should beam over to this Small Stone-wait...that's not right...er...Little Rock. If this Captain is as Commander Elia says, he may be more willing to "help" if he can't say no to your face," she said. Her "family" back home had taught her that technique. IF she was going to break barriers, it's a lot harder for someone to tell you no or call you a slur to your face. It had worked for her before.

Misaka shook her head. "At the moment there are thousands of weapons stored on the starbase awaiting to be transported over. Let's make a dent in getting them aboard. Once the Little Rock arrives, we should get them unloaded quickly." She explained. "Once everything is aboard and accounted for, we'll set a course for Deep Space Nine."

Lurath let out an unsatisfied grunt as he placed his hand on the table while leaning back in his chair. Even though he was confident that Starfleet knew what they were doing when it came to their orders, there was a part of him that seemed put off. One ship for an important load. An easy target for anyone to attack them. He considered bringing this up to the Captain, even to the Dahar Master that was still onboard, but he already made his statement and was determined to stick by it. However, he wasn't shy on bringing up one other thing that he didn't like. "Speaking of Intelligence... where is our Chief of Intelligence to relay any important information? He's not here."

Before anyone had a chance to respond a voice came from one of the monitors. "Just because I am not there, Commander. Doesn't mean I am no listening." The monitor turned on to reveal Shandro sitting at a desk. "When the announcement came for the briefing I informed the Captain I wouldn't be attending in person, but I would be there to listen and relay any information that was important. I'm currently... well... I can't go into details, but I can tell you this. I've checked the route we've been assigned and coordinated with a friend at Starfleet Intelligence to ensure its secure. I also put in a word with a few contacts of mine who have their eyes and ears in the sector. If something comes up, Commander Lurath... The Captain will be the first to know. I can assure you."

The Half Klingon looked intently at the monitor and narrowed his eyes. He didn't care what work the man was doing, his priority should be with his own ship and crewmates. As he clenched the hand on the table into a fist a soft growl formed in his throat before quickly stopping once he remembered he was surrounded by others.

"I forgot you were listening in." Misaka said. "Anyways, we have our orders, so we'll ne proceeding as planned."

"Doctor." She said turning her attention to the CMO. "Take this time to prepare your department for the mission." Misaka said. "If something goes wrong then we could have a full blown disaster on our hands, we should be prepared for that."

Feeva nodded once. "Yes, ma'am," she said. "I'll open up the Auxiliary sickbay, too," she said. It never hurt to be prepared.

"Good." Misaka replied. She placed both hands on the table and pushed herself up out of the chair. "Lets get this done. I'll request for more senior officer replacements too. But as for now, let's get those weapons on board and get this supply mission done." She gave them all a final look. "Dismissed."

Posting by:

Captain Mikoto Misaka
Commanding Officer

Commander Eila Juutilainen 'Illu'
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Commander Lurath, Son of Grogori
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant JG Kenneth Hunt
Assistant Chief of Srcurity

Lieutenant JG Erskin Mon
Chuef Operations Officer

Lieutenant JG Feeva Drylo
Chief Medical Officer

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