The Melbourne Mission

Posted on Mon Jul 18th, 2011 @ 3:29am by USS Melbourne & Admiral Ricky Wegener

Mission: In Our Time of Need
Location: SB900
Timeline: Shortly After Arizona Reports In

To meet ones superior officer for the first time is always a nerve racking experience. Unfortunately James Warrington had just discovered that when your CO is a Rear Admiral and your about to take one of his ships out to play with it was much much worse. Walking up to the Admirals office for his brief for the Melbourne's first mission James was keen to know just what lay in store for his crew. He had already been given some snippets. And rumours of the Arizona's incident had spread already as things do on a Station, and if even the least dramatic was to be believed things could prove to be interesting. Rounding the corner to the Admirals Office James approached his aide.

"Commander James Warrington. I have a briefing with the Admiral. Could you let him know I have arrived?" First impressions started with the aide. If you gave them the wrong idea that would always make it back to the boss.

Hope slid her finger to the comm and simply said, "He's here."

=^= Send him in =^= came the voice from the other end.

She tapped a series of buttons and the large doors to the office clicked open, allowing him entry.

With a quick straightening of his uniform James turned and walked into the Admirals Office. Walking to the front of the desk James Saluted. "Commander Warrington Sir."

"We're not Marines, Commander," Ricky said. "We don't salute. But welcome nonetheless. Please, have a seat."

"Ah sorry sir. Marine CO on my last post and haven't quite broken the habit yet," James answered as he sat down. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this has something to do with the Arizona?"

"It absolutely does," the admiral replied. "And time is of the essence."

"Well I think the longer we wait the worse things will get. So let's get started. What do I need to know?" James asked.

"It seems that Section 31 has taken a foothold down there and have tricked the Arcadians into thinking they were maintaining contact with us when they were actually talking to Section 31 operatives. For some reason, they're trying to run us out of this system, which I don't have to tell you would be an enormous problem if that happened." He sat up in the chair and handed Warrington a padd with the full report from the Commodore. "Here's the whole kit and kaboodle on what happened. Now, don't get caught up with S31, they're not your concern right now. What I need you to do is more of a diplomatic nature: contact the Arcadian government and give them this," he said as he handed the Commander another padd. "This contains information on a secure data stream that can only be authenticated here on this base. And if they'll implement the protocols on their end, they will be able to authenticate that we are calling them."

He leaned back in his chair and huffed. "It's not going to be easy to straighten things out with them. They've been dealing with Section 31 for so long, without knowing it, that they may now know who to trust. If 31 wins this battle, it will mean the end of this task force being in the Delta Quadrant."

James gathered his thoughts for a moment before replying. "The biggest problem I foresee is getting them to trust us enough that they'll even let us near their new leaders to hand over the information. Heck they think we just blew up their last council and then broke out our crew. And I think we both know only one of those 2 are correct." He took another look at the first padd and scrolled to the remaining leaders. "I think we might have a way in. Their agriculture leader wasn't present at the bombing and we have good relations with his department. Maybe he can get us in the door?"

"Sounds like a plan. Hell, if need be bring a few of them up to the station to meet with me. If this isn't proof enough that we're the actual Starfleet representatives that they've been working with," he said as he gestured around the room, meaning the station itself, "then I don't know what else to do."

"Another question for you. S31 arn't what the Melbourne is going to deal with. But should the need arise to say... Silence them. What are the rules of engagement?" This was the bit that concerned the new CO. If S31 had put so much effort into destroying the relations with the task force and Archadia then it'd be highly unlikely they'd back down without a fight.

"I'll be sending some of my intelligence crew down to try and infiltrate them or find out some information on the key individuals. Their orders, at this time, are classified, but I will make sure they share any pertinent information with you." He steepled his hands a moment before speaking again. "Rules of engagement for any hostile stay the same--if they attack, defend yourselves. If you find bonafide Section 31 operatives working down there, and can do so, you are to place them into custody for immediate transport to the Starbase detention cells. We will need to extract as much information from them as possible."

"Understood sir. The Melbourne has a load of marines on board so if need be we can defend ourselves. Once we make contact I will also offer our assistance in the investigation of the bombing. And if the materials come back as federation ill send small teams to starports to investigate signs of Federation material. I think that's all the questions I have so with your permission I would like to get my staff briefed and underway as soon as possible." James lifted the two padds and added his security codes to them just in case. One never knows what can happen to a padd on a base.

"Just remember two words for me, Commander: Diplomatic Incident. If you send the marines down swaggering through the planet's towns that is exactly what we may have on our hands, which would not look good on either of our walking papers. Try your hardest to deal with things quietly and effectively. The last thing I want is the Archadians thinking they've sided with a pack of neandertals." As the man was ready to go, he dismissed him and watched him leave. This would be a good test of his mettle as a ship captain. It wasn't a major battle, but this was an extremely important issue he had been dispatched to deal with.

Hopefully, Ricky had put his faith in the right man.

--------------------------------------------
A joint post by:

CMDR Warrington
CO, USS Melbourne

&

RADM Wegener
CO, Task Force 38
CO, Starbase 900