Senior Staff Briefing

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."


<Taggles: Marlo and then anyone>

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

<Taggles>

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.


<Taggles: Anyone>

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

Gan eyed the coffee that Lillian had given him. It probably had things in it like milk and sugar. Such things did not deserve to be in such a beverage. He liked his coffee to be able to degrease engines and sometimes maybe peel the paint off walls. He smiled warmly and nodded his thanks to her before everyone started to file in for the meeting. He acknowledged Marlo, wondering if he could ever turn to tea. But his time in starfleet had given him a lot of bad human habits, and he was not about to give up his coffee. He enjoyed it too much.

At Lt. Commander Ritter's entrance, he avoided locking his gaze with the man. They had gone through a lot when they had lost so many members of their Senior Staff. They were the old relics, so to speak. He nodded and looked down to his PADD, adding the details the man gave him about the sensor readings and nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will take that into account. I apologize for the late nights, but we will be settled down soon enough to take a load off everyone's shoulders, I would think."

As everyone else filed in, he nodded his head to Taylor, Bridget and Cecily. He noticed Lilly taking notice of the new MCO and shook his head, smiling softly to himself. Not that he was old or anything, but young people was the thought that crossed his mind. He remembered how they felt, and he certainly found being around attractive women enticing still. But with everything on his plate, he didn't think he could handle another serving of anything right now. He nodded to Cecily last as she commented on the trouble in the Science Labs, but he knew she could handle whatever came her way. "Thank you Lieutenant. I'll take the PADD after the briefing." He just wanted to make sure that everyone would get along, though he supposed in the case of Lillian and Taylor, perhaps not too well. Fraternizing with other officers wasn't necessarily against any codes, they were of more or less the same rank and in two completely different departments so he couldn't chastise her for chasing him. He wouldn't mention it unless it came up as an issue, though he would have to take a little caution in his Briefing Room. He didn't want to scare anyone off their jobs. He needed them to stay in those jobs. He picked these people because they were the best for the position.

Gan glanced around for a moment counting heads and making sure that the PADDs he had gathered got to the right people who needed them. "Good morning everyone, I won't hope that you are well rested as my emphatic Lieutenant will. Not that I hope that you did so otherwise, but because I know that you all have been working just as hard as I have, and probably have not achieved sleep very much over the last few weeks. I thank you each for striving to be the best that you can be. I know it's been hard, but we are reaching the point where we can perhaps get back to a state of normalcy and everyone won't be quite as sleep deprived. I've handed you out checklists for green mission status, just a last couple things before I can let Starfleet know that we're once again ready as a response station. I hope you and your marines are adjusting well to the station, Lieutenant Lucas. Thank you for all your hard work, and getting here so promptly. I'd like to talk to you after the meeting though, for just a moment." They had to work together and he wanted this to be an open environment where people could ask questions or voice concerns. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of his Staff members each for a moment, even Max.

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

Gan eyed the coffee that Lillian had given him. It probably had things in it like milk and sugar. Such things did not deserve to be in such a beverage. He liked his coffee to be able to degrease engines and sometimes maybe peel the paint off walls. He smiled warmly and nodded his thanks to her before everyone started to file in for the meeting. He acknowledged Marlo, wondering if he could ever turn to tea. But his time in starfleet had given him a lot of bad human habits, and he was not about to give up his coffee. He enjoyed it too much.

At Lt. Commander Ritter's entrance, he avoided locking his gaze with the man. They had gone through a lot when they had lost so many members of their Senior Staff. They were the old relics, so to speak. He nodded and looked down to his PADD, adding the details the man gave him about the sensor readings and nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will take that into account. I apologize for the late nights, but we will be settled down soon enough to take a load off everyone's shoulders, I would think."

As everyone else filed in, he nodded his head to Taylor, Bridget and Cecily. He noticed Lilly taking notice of the new MCO and shook his head, smiling softly to himself. Not that he was old or anything, but young people was the thought that crossed his mind. He remembered how they felt, and he certainly found being around attractive women enticing still. But with everything on his plate, he didn't think he could handle another serving of anything right now. He nodded to Cecily last as she commented on the trouble in the Science Labs, but he knew she could handle whatever came her way. "Thank you Lieutenant. I'll take the PADD after the briefing." He just wanted to make sure that everyone would get along, though he supposed in the case of Lillian and Taylor, perhaps not too well. Fraternizing with other officers wasn't necessarily against any codes, they were of more or less the same rank and in two completely different departments so he couldn't chastise her for chasing him. He wouldn't mention it unless it came up as an issue, though he would have to take a little caution in his Briefing Room. He didn't want to scare anyone off their jobs. He needed them to stay in those jobs. He picked these people because they were the best for the position.

Gan glanced around for a moment counting heads and making sure that the PADDs he had gathered got to the right people who needed them. "Good morning everyone, I won't hope that you are well rested as my emphatic Lieutenant will. Not that I hope that you did so otherwise, but because I know that you all have been working just as hard as I have, and probably have not achieved sleep very much over the last few weeks. I thank you each for striving to be the best that you can be. I know it's been hard, but we are reaching the point where we can perhaps get back to a state of normalcy and everyone won't be quite as sleep deprived. I've handed you out checklists for green mission status, just a last couple things before I can let Starfleet know that we're once again ready as a response station. I hope you and your marines are adjusting well to the station, Lieutenant Lucas. Thank you for all your hard work, and getting here so promptly. I'd like to talk to you after the meeting though, for just a moment." They had to work together and he wanted this to be an open environment where people could ask questions or voice concerns. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of his Staff members each for a moment, even Max.

For a moment Taylor seemed a bit worried why the captain would want to speak to him in private. He hadn't done anything wrong, at least nothing he could recall. "Yes...sir...." he said slowly as he allowed his mind to go from cockpit to briefing room. It was a different situation and environment so it required a different mindset. "Only eight of us sir so it wasn't long till our fighters were stored along with munitions, equipment...we're used to being part of a carrier group so guarding a static target will take some getting used to but we'll rise to the challenge. We can also act as a small ground unit if needed but...we're not big on numbers, sir."

<Tag: Open>

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

Gan eyed the coffee that Lillian had given him. It probably had things in it like milk and sugar. Such things did not deserve to be in such a beverage. He liked his coffee to be able to degrease engines and sometimes maybe peel the paint off walls. He smiled warmly and nodded his thanks to her before everyone started to file in for the meeting. He acknowledged Marlo, wondering if he could ever turn to tea. But his time in starfleet had given him a lot of bad human habits, and he was not about to give up his coffee. He enjoyed it too much.

At Lt. Commander Ritter's entrance, he avoided locking his gaze with the man. They had gone through a lot when they had lost so many members of their Senior Staff. They were the old relics, so to speak. He nodded and looked down to his PADD, adding the details the man gave him about the sensor readings and nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will take that into account. I apologize for the late nights, but we will be settled down soon enough to take a load off everyone's shoulders, I would think."

As everyone else filed in, he nodded his head to Taylor, Bridget and Cecily. He noticed Lilly taking notice of the new MCO and shook his head, smiling softly to himself. Not that he was old or anything, but young people was the thought that crossed his mind. He remembered how they felt, and he certainly found being around attractive women enticing still. But with everything on his plate, he didn't think he could handle another serving of anything right now. He nodded to Cecily last as she commented on the trouble in the Science Labs, but he knew she could handle whatever came her way. "Thank you Lieutenant. I'll take the PADD after the briefing." He just wanted to make sure that everyone would get along, though he supposed in the case of Lillian and Taylor, perhaps not too well. Fraternizing with other officers wasn't necessarily against any codes, they were of more or less the same rank and in two completely different departments so he couldn't chastise her for chasing him. He wouldn't mention it unless it came up as an issue, though he would have to take a little caution in his Briefing Room. He didn't want to scare anyone off their jobs. He needed them to stay in those jobs. He picked these people because they were the best for the position.

Gan glanced around for a moment counting heads and making sure that the PADDs he had gathered got to the right people who needed them. "Good morning everyone, I won't hope that you are well rested as my emphatic Lieutenant will. Not that I hope that you did so otherwise, but because I know that you all have been working just as hard as I have, and probably have not achieved sleep very much over the last few weeks. I thank you each for striving to be the best that you can be. I know it's been hard, but we are reaching the point where we can perhaps get back to a state of normalcy and everyone won't be quite as sleep deprived. I've handed you out checklists for green mission status, just a last couple things before I can let Starfleet know that we're once again ready as a response station. I hope you and your marines are adjusting well to the station, Lieutenant Lucas. Thank you for all your hard work, and getting here so promptly. I'd like to talk to you after the meeting though, for just a moment." They had to work together and he wanted this to be an open environment where people could ask questions or voice concerns. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of his Staff members each for a moment, even Max.

For a moment Taylor seemed a bit worried why the captain would want to speak to him in private. He hadn't done anything wrong, at least nothing he could recall. "Yes...sir...." he said slowly as he allowed his mind to go from cockpit to briefing room. It was a different situation and environment so it required a different mindset. "Only eight of us sir so it wasn't long till our fighters were stored along with munitions, equipment...we're used to being part of a carrier group so guarding a static target will take some getting used to but we'll rise to the challenge. We can also act as a small ground unit if needed but...we're not big on numbers, sir."

"I'm sure they'll remind us how nice it is to have marines on the station," Lillian piped up, glancing at Taylor and offering up a smile before looking around at everyone else except for Cecily. "I do, however, stand by my previous statement and I know it's a very doctorly statement, but it's true. I know that things are hard and we're rebuilding and there aren't enough hours in the day, but sleep and a hardy breakfast are the keys to success and it helps to keep our bodies less stressed out. Just try to stay healthy so I don't have to call people into my office because despite my friendly demeanor, I can get very forceful when my crew is suffering."

She shrugged a little bit because she wanted everyone in the room that didn't know her as well as they would like to understand that she meant business. Yes, she enjoyed flirting and she was normally incredibly bubbly, but she also cared about everyone's health and she didn't want anyone to work themselves to death...there had been enough death in the last month and she wasn't ready for more. Besides, she was the doctor and it was her job to make sure that everyone was fit for duty and if she thought they weren't, then they were on leave from work and she knew how that annoyed more people than it made people happy and she hated being the one to have to issure that order, but it happened.

"Captain, will it be possible to get a shipment of terakine? I'm running a bit low and I like to be overly prepared just in case." Lillian explained, changing the subject a little bit as she looked at the list in front of her.


<Tag: Open>

|Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

Gan eyed the coffee that Lillian had given him. It probably had things in it like milk and sugar. Such things did not deserve to be in such a beverage. He liked his coffee to be able to degrease engines and sometimes maybe peel the paint off walls. He smiled warmly and nodded his thanks to her before everyone started to file in for the meeting. He acknowledged Marlo, wondering if he could ever turn to tea. But his time in starfleet had given him a lot of bad human habits, and he was not about to give up his coffee. He enjoyed it too much.

At Lt. Commander Ritter's entrance, he avoided locking his gaze with the man. They had gone through a lot when they had lost so many members of their Senior Staff. They were the old relics, so to speak. He nodded and looked down to his PADD, adding the details the man gave him about the sensor readings and nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will take that into account. I apologize for the late nights, but we will be settled down soon enough to take a load off everyone's shoulders, I would think."

As everyone else filed in, he nodded his head to Taylor, Bridget and Cecily. He noticed Lilly taking notice of the new MCO and shook his head, smiling softly to himself. Not that he was old or anything, but young people was the thought that crossed his mind. He remembered how they felt, and he certainly found being around attractive women enticing still. But with everything on his plate, he didn't think he could handle another serving of anything right now. He nodded to Cecily last as she commented on the trouble in the Science Labs, but he knew she could handle whatever came her way. "Thank you Lieutenant. I'll take the PADD after the briefing." He just wanted to make sure that everyone would get along, though he supposed in the case of Lillian and Taylor, perhaps not too well. Fraternizing with other officers wasn't necessarily against any codes, they were of more or less the same rank and in two completely different departments so he couldn't chastise her for chasing him. He wouldn't mention it unless it came up as an issue, though he would have to take a little caution in his Briefing Room. He didn't want to scare anyone off their jobs. He needed them to stay in those jobs. He picked these people because they were the best for the position.

Gan glanced around for a moment counting heads and making sure that the PADDs he had gathered got to the right people who needed them. "Good morning everyone, I won't hope that you are well rested as my emphatic Lieutenant will. Not that I hope that you did so otherwise, but because I know that you all have been working just as hard as I have, and probably have not achieved sleep very much over the last few weeks. I thank you each for striving to be the best that you can be. I know it's been hard, but we are reaching the point where we can perhaps get back to a state of normalcy and everyone won't be quite as sleep deprived. I've handed you out checklists for green mission status, just a last couple things before I can let Starfleet know that we're once again ready as a response station. I hope you and your marines are adjusting well to the station, Lieutenant Lucas. Thank you for all your hard work, and getting here so promptly. I'd like to talk to you after the meeting though, for just a moment." They had to work together and he wanted this to be an open environment where people could ask questions or voice concerns. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of his Staff members each for a moment, even Max.

For a moment Taylor seemed a bit worried why the captain would want to speak to him in private. He hadn't done anything wrong, at least nothing he could recall. "Yes...sir...." he said slowly as he allowed his mind to go from cockpit to briefing room. It was a different situation and environment so it required a different mindset. "Only eight of us sir so it wasn't long till our fighters were stored along with munitions, equipment...we're used to being part of a carrier group so guarding a static target will take some getting used to but we'll rise to the challenge. We can also act as a small ground unit if needed but...we're not big on numbers, sir."

"I'm sure they'll remind us how nice it is to have marines on the station," Lillian piped up, glancing at Taylor and offering up a smile before looking around at everyone else except for Cecily. "I do, however, stand by my previous statement and I know it's a very doctorly statement, but it's true. I know that things are hard and we're rebuilding and there aren't enough hours in the day, but sleep and a hardy breakfast are the keys to success and it helps to keep our bodies less stressed out. Just try to stay healthy so I don't have to call people into my office because despite my friendly demeanor, I can get very forceful when my crew is suffering."

She shrugged a little bit because she wanted everyone in the room that didn't know her as well as they would like to understand that she meant business. Yes, she enjoyed flirting and she was normally incredibly bubbly, but she also cared about everyone's health and she didn't want anyone to work themselves to death...there had been enough death in the last month and she wasn't ready for more. Besides, she was the doctor and it was her job to make sure that everyone was fit for duty and if she thought they weren't, then they were on leave from work and she knew how that annoyed more people than it made people happy and she hated being the one to have to issure that order, but it happened.

"Captain, will it be possible to get a shipment of terakine? I'm running a bit low and I like to be overly prepared just in case." Lillian explained, changing the subject a little bit as she looked at the list in front of her.

"No need to bother the Captain with that kind of request, Lieutenant," Max said quietly. "Forward it to me and I'll see that the necessary paperwork goes through." As he said that he looked down at the PADD in front of him and typed in a reminder, mostly to avoid having to make eye contact with the rest of them. He had seen the look that Lillian had given the new MCO, and it did nothing to lighten his mood.

"The same goes for the rest of you. In my capacity as Executive Officer I'll handle departmental allocation requests and the like to keep the Captain free for matters of more pressing concern. Just try and forget about my gray uniform when it comes to such matters. I promise not to have the Intel department overanalyzing your personnel reports," he offered, giving a weak smile to try and keep the feeble joke from faltering.

"That being said…if you have any matters that require the attention of the Chief Intelligence Officer rather than the Executive Officer…don't hesitate to contact me through the proper channels." Max hoped that statement left just enough unsaid to get the point across, however each individual listener chose to take it.

<Tag: Open>

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

Gan eyed the coffee that Lillian had given him. It probably had things in it like milk and sugar. Such things did not deserve to be in such a beverage. He liked his coffee to be able to degrease engines and sometimes maybe peel the paint off walls. He smiled warmly and nodded his thanks to her before everyone started to file in for the meeting. He acknowledged Marlo, wondering if he could ever turn to tea. But his time in starfleet had given him a lot of bad human habits, and he was not about to give up his coffee. He enjoyed it too much.

At Lt. Commander Ritter's entrance, he avoided locking his gaze with the man. They had gone through a lot when they had lost so many members of their Senior Staff. They were the old relics, so to speak. He nodded and looked down to his PADD, adding the details the man gave him about the sensor readings and nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will take that into account. I apologize for the late nights, but we will be settled down soon enough to take a load off everyone's shoulders, I would think."

As everyone else filed in, he nodded his head to Taylor, Bridget and Cecily. He noticed Lilly taking notice of the new MCO and shook his head, smiling softly to himself. Not that he was old or anything, but young people was the thought that crossed his mind. He remembered how they felt, and he certainly found being around attractive women enticing still. But with everything on his plate, he didn't think he could handle another serving of anything right now. He nodded to Cecily last as she commented on the trouble in the Science Labs, but he knew she could handle whatever came her way. "Thank you Lieutenant. I'll take the PADD after the briefing." He just wanted to make sure that everyone would get along, though he supposed in the case of Lillian and Taylor, perhaps not too well. Fraternizing with other officers wasn't necessarily against any codes, they were of more or less the same rank and in two completely different departments so he couldn't chastise her for chasing him. He wouldn't mention it unless it came up as an issue, though he would have to take a little caution in his Briefing Room. He didn't want to scare anyone off their jobs. He needed them to stay in those jobs. He picked these people because they were the best for the position.

Gan glanced around for a moment counting heads and making sure that the PADDs he had gathered got to the right people who needed them. "Good morning everyone, I won't hope that you are well rested as my emphatic Lieutenant will. Not that I hope that you did so otherwise, but because I know that you all have been working just as hard as I have, and probably have not achieved sleep very much over the last few weeks. I thank you each for striving to be the best that you can be. I know it's been hard, but we are reaching the point where we can perhaps get back to a state of normalcy and everyone won't be quite as sleep deprived. I've handed you out checklists for green mission status, just a last couple things before I can let Starfleet know that we're once again ready as a response station. I hope you and your marines are adjusting well to the station, Lieutenant Lucas. Thank you for all your hard work, and getting here so promptly. I'd like to talk to you after the meeting though, for just a moment." They had to work together and he wanted this to be an open environment where people could ask questions or voice concerns. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of his Staff members each for a moment, even Max.

For a moment Taylor seemed a bit worried why the captain would want to speak to him in private. He hadn't done anything wrong, at least nothing he could recall. "Yes...sir...." he said slowly as he allowed his mind to go from cockpit to briefing room. It was a different situation and environment so it required a different mindset. "Only eight of us sir so it wasn't long till our fighters were stored along with munitions, equipment...we're used to being part of a carrier group so guarding a static target will take some getting used to but we'll rise to the challenge. We can also act as a small ground unit if needed but...we're not big on numbers, sir."

"I'm sure they'll remind us how nice it is to have marines on the station," Lillian piped up, glancing at Taylor and offering up a smile before looking around at everyone else except for Cecily. "I do, however, stand by my previous statement and I know it's a very doctorly statement, but it's true. I know that things are hard and we're rebuilding and there aren't enough hours in the day, but sleep and a hardy breakfast are the keys to success and it helps to keep our bodies less stressed out. Just try to stay healthy so I don't have to call people into my office because despite my friendly demeanor, I can get very forceful when my crew is suffering."

She shrugged a little bit because she wanted everyone in the room that didn't know her as well as they would like to understand that she meant business. Yes, she enjoyed flirting and she was normally incredibly bubbly, but she also cared about everyone's health and she didn't want anyone to work themselves to death...there had been enough death in the last month and she wasn't ready for more. Besides, she was the doctor and it was her job to make sure that everyone was fit for duty and if she thought they weren't, then they were on leave from work and she knew how that annoyed more people than it made people happy and she hated being the one to have to issure that order, but it happened.

"Captain, will it be possible to get a shipment of terakine? I'm running a bit low and I like to be overly prepared just in case." Lillian explained, changing the subject a little bit as she looked at the list in front of her.

"No need to bother the Captain with that kind of request, Lieutenant," Max said quietly. "Forward it to me and I'll see that the necessary paperwork goes through." As he said that he looked down at the PADD in front of him and typed in a reminder, mostly to avoid having to make eye contact with the rest of them. He had seen the look that Lillian had given the new MCO, and it did nothing to lighten his mood.

"The same goes for the rest of you. In my capacity as Executive Officer I'll handle departmental allocation requests and the like to keep the Captain free for matters of more pressing concern. Just try and forget about my gray uniform when it comes to such matters. I promise not to have the Intel department overanalyzing your personnel reports," he offered, giving a weak smile to try and keep the feeble joke from faltering.

"That being said…if you have any matters that require the attention of the Chief Intelligence Officer rather than the Executive Officer…don't hesitate to contact me through the proper channels." Max hoped that statement left just enough unsaid to get the point across, however each individual listener chose to take it.

"Then I suppose that I should come to you to ask about some renovations to the labs?" Cecily asked Max with a little smile.

She didn't know what to make of Max regardless of working with him before, but she knew that since Lillan spoke highly of him sometimes, that there was something there. Maybe it was nonexistent and maybe Lillian just liked to talk up her peers, but if Lillian trusted him, then maybe Cecily shouldn't trust him at all. Still, he was a Lieutenant Commander and he was the XO of the station and she knew that she shouldn't provoke him. Provoking him would be the surest way to get herself fired or demoted and so she might be able to deal with him with a smile that said she could work with him and a meaning behind it that said she didn't trust the CIO farther than she could throw him.


<Tag: Open>

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

Gan eyed the coffee that Lillian had given him. It probably had things in it like milk and sugar. Such things did not deserve to be in such a beverage. He liked his coffee to be able to degrease engines and sometimes maybe peel the paint off walls. He smiled warmly and nodded his thanks to her before everyone started to file in for the meeting. He acknowledged Marlo, wondering if he could ever turn to tea. But his time in starfleet had given him a lot of bad human habits, and he was not about to give up his coffee. He enjoyed it too much.

At Lt. Commander Ritter's entrance, he avoided locking his gaze with the man. They had gone through a lot when they had lost so many members of their Senior Staff. They were the old relics, so to speak. He nodded and looked down to his PADD, adding the details the man gave him about the sensor readings and nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will take that into account. I apologize for the late nights, but we will be settled down soon enough to take a load off everyone's shoulders, I would think."

As everyone else filed in, he nodded his head to Taylor, Bridget and Cecily. He noticed Lilly taking notice of the new MCO and shook his head, smiling softly to himself. Not that he was old or anything, but young people was the thought that crossed his mind. He remembered how they felt, and he certainly found being around attractive women enticing still. But with everything on his plate, he didn't think he could handle another serving of anything right now. He nodded to Cecily last as she commented on the trouble in the Science Labs, but he knew she could handle whatever came her way. "Thank you Lieutenant. I'll take the PADD after the briefing." He just wanted to make sure that everyone would get along, though he supposed in the case of Lillian and Taylor, perhaps not too well. Fraternizing with other officers wasn't necessarily against any codes, they were of more or less the same rank and in two completely different departments so he couldn't chastise her for chasing him. He wouldn't mention it unless it came up as an issue, though he would have to take a little caution in his Briefing Room. He didn't want to scare anyone off their jobs. He needed them to stay in those jobs. He picked these people because they were the best for the position.

Gan glanced around for a moment counting heads and making sure that the PADDs he had gathered got to the right people who needed them. "Good morning everyone, I won't hope that you are well rested as my emphatic Lieutenant will. Not that I hope that you did so otherwise, but because I know that you all have been working just as hard as I have, and probably have not achieved sleep very much over the last few weeks. I thank you each for striving to be the best that you can be. I know it's been hard, but we are reaching the point where we can perhaps get back to a state of normalcy and everyone won't be quite as sleep deprived. I've handed you out checklists for green mission status, just a last couple things before I can let Starfleet know that we're once again ready as a response station. I hope you and your marines are adjusting well to the station, Lieutenant Lucas. Thank you for all your hard work, and getting here so promptly. I'd like to talk to you after the meeting though, for just a moment." They had to work together and he wanted this to be an open environment where people could ask questions or voice concerns. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of his Staff members each for a moment, even Max.

For a moment Taylor seemed a bit worried why the captain would want to speak to him in private. He hadn't done anything wrong, at least nothing he could recall. "Yes...sir...." he said slowly as he allowed his mind to go from cockpit to briefing room. It was a different situation and environment so it required a different mindset. "Only eight of us sir so it wasn't long till our fighters were stored along with munitions, equipment...we're used to being part of a carrier group so guarding a static target will take some getting used to but we'll rise to the challenge. We can also act as a small ground unit if needed but...we're not big on numbers, sir."

"I'm sure they'll remind us how nice it is to have marines on the station," Lillian piped up, glancing at Taylor and offering up a smile before looking around at everyone else except for Cecily. "I do, however, stand by my previous statement and I know it's a very doctorly statement, but it's true. I know that things are hard and we're rebuilding and there aren't enough hours in the day, but sleep and a hardy breakfast are the keys to success and it helps to keep our bodies less stressed out. Just try to stay healthy so I don't have to call people into my office because despite my friendly demeanor, I can get very forceful when my crew is suffering."

She shrugged a little bit because she wanted everyone in the room that didn't know her as well as they would like to understand that she meant business. Yes, she enjoyed flirting and she was normally incredibly bubbly, but she also cared about everyone's health and she didn't want anyone to work themselves to death...there had been enough death in the last month and she wasn't ready for more. Besides, she was the doctor and it was her job to make sure that everyone was fit for duty and if she thought they weren't, then they were on leave from work and she knew how that annoyed more people than it made people happy and she hated being the one to have to issure that order, but it happened.

"Captain, will it be possible to get a shipment of terakine? I'm running a bit low and I like to be overly prepared just in case." Lillian explained, changing the subject a little bit as she looked at the list in front of her.

"No need to bother the Captain with that kind of request, Lieutenant," Max said quietly. "Forward it to me and I'll see that the necessary paperwork goes through." As he said that he looked down at the PADD in front of him and typed in a reminder, mostly to avoid having to make eye contact with the rest of them. He had seen the look that Lillian had given the new MCO, and it did nothing to lighten his mood.

"The same goes for the rest of you. In my capacity as Executive Officer I'll handle departmental allocation requests and the like to keep the Captain free for matters of more pressing concern. Just try and forget about my gray uniform when it comes to such matters. I promise not to have the Intel department overanalyzing your personnel reports," he offered, giving a weak smile to try and keep the feeble joke from faltering.

"That being said…if you have any matters that require the attention of the Chief Intelligence Officer rather than the Executive Officer…don't hesitate to contact me through the proper channels." Max hoped that statement left just enough unsaid to get the point across, however each individual listener chose to take it.

"Then I suppose that I should come to you to ask about some renovations to the labs?" Cecily asked Max with a little smile.

She didn't know what to make of Max regardless of working with him before, but she knew that since Lillan spoke highly of him sometimes, that there was something there. Maybe it was nonexistent and maybe Lillian just liked to talk up her peers, but if Lillian trusted him, then maybe Cecily shouldn't trust him at all. Still, he was a Lieutenant Commander and he was the XO of the station and she knew that she shouldn't provoke him. Provoking him would be the surest way to get herself fired or demoted and so she might be able to deal with him with a smile that said she could work with him and a meaning behind it that said she didn't trust the CIO farther than she could throw him.

Lillian opened up her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by a beep that was followed by a rushed voice on the other end of the comm. A message was being patched through directly to the captain even though they were in the middle of a briefing, so it had to be important because otherwise the man would lose his job. Pausing a moment and listening intently, Lillian forgot about all of her personal problems and instead listened to what it was that the message had to relay.

"We're in terrible trouble," came the distorted voice of a man, "heavy casualties. We need assistance. Armed forces. Medical experts. A ship to take us away. I don't know how much time we have. Milos System. Fifth planet. Help us. Please."

There it was...Starbase 12 was once again the Response Station that it was set up to be and someone needed their help. They had no idea what was going on or why the people needed their help in the first place, but they had to act, didn't they? The last time anything had happened, everyone had gone out and so very few had come back, but they'd been rebuilding just for this very moment and Lillian supposed as she chewed on her lip and ran through medical supplies to pack, that it was Gan's choice...it was in Gan's hands.


<Tag: Open, and it's time to start up the mission so say your last words and Gan will assign the Away Team>

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

Gan eyed the coffee that Lillian had given him. It probably had things in it like milk and sugar. Such things did not deserve to be in such a beverage. He liked his coffee to be able to degrease engines and sometimes maybe peel the paint off walls. He smiled warmly and nodded his thanks to her before everyone started to file in for the meeting. He acknowledged Marlo, wondering if he could ever turn to tea. But his time in starfleet had given him a lot of bad human habits, and he was not about to give up his coffee. He enjoyed it too much.

At Lt. Commander Ritter's entrance, he avoided locking his gaze with the man. They had gone through a lot when they had lost so many members of their Senior Staff. They were the old relics, so to speak. He nodded and looked down to his PADD, adding the details the man gave him about the sensor readings and nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will take that into account. I apologize for the late nights, but we will be settled down soon enough to take a load off everyone's shoulders, I would think."

As everyone else filed in, he nodded his head to Taylor, Bridget and Cecily. He noticed Lilly taking notice of the new MCO and shook his head, smiling softly to himself. Not that he was old or anything, but young people was the thought that crossed his mind. He remembered how they felt, and he certainly found being around attractive women enticing still. But with everything on his plate, he didn't think he could handle another serving of anything right now. He nodded to Cecily last as she commented on the trouble in the Science Labs, but he knew she could handle whatever came her way. "Thank you Lieutenant. I'll take the PADD after the briefing." He just wanted to make sure that everyone would get along, though he supposed in the case of Lillian and Taylor, perhaps not too well. Fraternizing with other officers wasn't necessarily against any codes, they were of more or less the same rank and in two completely different departments so he couldn't chastise her for chasing him. He wouldn't mention it unless it came up as an issue, though he would have to take a little caution in his Briefing Room. He didn't want to scare anyone off their jobs. He needed them to stay in those jobs. He picked these people because they were the best for the position.

Gan glanced around for a moment counting heads and making sure that the PADDs he had gathered got to the right people who needed them. "Good morning everyone, I won't hope that you are well rested as my emphatic Lieutenant will. Not that I hope that you did so otherwise, but because I know that you all have been working just as hard as I have, and probably have not achieved sleep very much over the last few weeks. I thank you each for striving to be the best that you can be. I know it's been hard, but we are reaching the point where we can perhaps get back to a state of normalcy and everyone won't be quite as sleep deprived. I've handed you out checklists for green mission status, just a last couple things before I can let Starfleet know that we're once again ready as a response station. I hope you and your marines are adjusting well to the station, Lieutenant Lucas. Thank you for all your hard work, and getting here so promptly. I'd like to talk to you after the meeting though, for just a moment." They had to work together and he wanted this to be an open environment where people could ask questions or voice concerns. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of his Staff members each for a moment, even Max.

For a moment Taylor seemed a bit worried why the captain would want to speak to him in private. He hadn't done anything wrong, at least nothing he could recall. "Yes...sir...." he said slowly as he allowed his mind to go from cockpit to briefing room. It was a different situation and environment so it required a different mindset. "Only eight of us sir so it wasn't long till our fighters were stored along with munitions, equipment...we're used to being part of a carrier group so guarding a static target will take some getting used to but we'll rise to the challenge. We can also act as a small ground unit if needed but...we're not big on numbers, sir."

"I'm sure they'll remind us how nice it is to have marines on the station," Lillian piped up, glancing at Taylor and offering up a smile before looking around at everyone else except for Cecily. "I do, however, stand by my previous statement and I know it's a very doctorly statement, but it's true. I know that things are hard and we're rebuilding and there aren't enough hours in the day, but sleep and a hardy breakfast are the keys to success and it helps to keep our bodies less stressed out. Just try to stay healthy so I don't have to call people into my office because despite my friendly demeanor, I can get very forceful when my crew is suffering."

She shrugged a little bit because she wanted everyone in the room that didn't know her as well as they would like to understand that she meant business. Yes, she enjoyed flirting and she was normally incredibly bubbly, but she also cared about everyone's health and she didn't want anyone to work themselves to death...there had been enough death in the last month and she wasn't ready for more. Besides, she was the doctor and it was her job to make sure that everyone was fit for duty and if she thought they weren't, then they were on leave from work and she knew how that annoyed more people than it made people happy and she hated being the one to have to issure that order, but it happened.

"Captain, will it be possible to get a shipment of terakine? I'm running a bit low and I like to be overly prepared just in case." Lillian explained, changing the subject a little bit as she looked at the list in front of her.

"No need to bother the Captain with that kind of request, Lieutenant," Max said quietly. "Forward it to me and I'll see that the necessary paperwork goes through." As he said that he looked down at the PADD in front of him and typed in a reminder, mostly to avoid having to make eye contact with the rest of them. He had seen the look that Lillian had given the new MCO, and it did nothing to lighten his mood.

"The same goes for the rest of you. In my capacity as Executive Officer I'll handle departmental allocation requests and the like to keep the Captain free for matters of more pressing concern. Just try and forget about my gray uniform when it comes to such matters. I promise not to have the Intel department overanalyzing your personnel reports," he offered, giving a weak smile to try and keep the feeble joke from faltering.

"That being said…if you have any matters that require the attention of the Chief Intelligence Officer rather than the Executive Officer…don't hesitate to contact me through the proper channels." Max hoped that statement left just enough unsaid to get the point across, however each individual listener chose to take it.

"Then I suppose that I should come to you to ask about some renovations to the labs?" Cecily asked Max with a little smile.

She didn't know what to make of Max regardless of working with him before, but she knew that since Lillan spoke highly of him sometimes, that there was something there. Maybe it was nonexistent and maybe Lillian just liked to talk up her peers, but if Lillian trusted him, then maybe Cecily shouldn't trust him at all. Still, he was a Lieutenant Commander and he was the XO of the station and she knew that she shouldn't provoke him. Provoking him would be the surest way to get herself fired or demoted and so she might be able to deal with him with a smile that said she could work with him and a meaning behind it that said she didn't trust the CIO farther than she could throw him.

Lillian opened up her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by a beep that was followed by a rushed voice on the other end of the comm. A message was being patched through directly to the captain even though they were in the middle of a briefing, so it had to be important because otherwise the man would lose his job. Pausing a moment and listening intently, Lillian forgot about all of her personal problems and instead listened to what it was that the message had to relay.

"We're in terrible trouble," came the distorted voice of a man, "heavy casualties. We need assistance. Armed forces. Medical experts. A ship to take us away. I don't know how much time we have. Milos System. Fifth planet. Help us. Please."

There it was...Starbase 12 was once again the Response Station that it was set up to be and someone needed their help. They had no idea what was going on or why the people needed their help in the first place, but they had to act, didn't they? The last time anything had happened, everyone had gone out and so very few had come back, but they'd been rebuilding just for this very moment and Lillian supposed as she chewed on her lip and ran through medical supplies to pack, that it was Gan's choice...it was in Gan's hands.

Bridget sat quietly, nodding along when appropriate. She dared not speak up. Nothing could quell the wild thrum of her heart. Nerves stilled her lips, leaving her a mute. If they needed for her to do something, she would do it.

<tag>

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

Gan eyed the coffee that Lillian had given him. It probably had things in it like milk and sugar. Such things did not deserve to be in such a beverage. He liked his coffee to be able to degrease engines and sometimes maybe peel the paint off walls. He smiled warmly and nodded his thanks to her before everyone started to file in for the meeting. He acknowledged Marlo, wondering if he could ever turn to tea. But his time in starfleet had given him a lot of bad human habits, and he was not about to give up his coffee. He enjoyed it too much.

At Lt. Commander Ritter's entrance, he avoided locking his gaze with the man. They had gone through a lot when they had lost so many members of their Senior Staff. They were the old relics, so to speak. He nodded and looked down to his PADD, adding the details the man gave him about the sensor readings and nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will take that into account. I apologize for the late nights, but we will be settled down soon enough to take a load off everyone's shoulders, I would think."

As everyone else filed in, he nodded his head to Taylor, Bridget and Cecily. He noticed Lilly taking notice of the new MCO and shook his head, smiling softly to himself. Not that he was old or anything, but young people was the thought that crossed his mind. He remembered how they felt, and he certainly found being around attractive women enticing still. But with everything on his plate, he didn't think he could handle another serving of anything right now. He nodded to Cecily last as she commented on the trouble in the Science Labs, but he knew she could handle whatever came her way. "Thank you Lieutenant. I'll take the PADD after the briefing." He just wanted to make sure that everyone would get along, though he supposed in the case of Lillian and Taylor, perhaps not too well. Fraternizing with other officers wasn't necessarily against any codes, they were of more or less the same rank and in two completely different departments so he couldn't chastise her for chasing him. He wouldn't mention it unless it came up as an issue, though he would have to take a little caution in his Briefing Room. He didn't want to scare anyone off their jobs. He needed them to stay in those jobs. He picked these people because they were the best for the position.

Gan glanced around for a moment counting heads and making sure that the PADDs he had gathered got to the right people who needed them. "Good morning everyone, I won't hope that you are well rested as my emphatic Lieutenant will. Not that I hope that you did so otherwise, but because I know that you all have been working just as hard as I have, and probably have not achieved sleep very much over the last few weeks. I thank you each for striving to be the best that you can be. I know it's been hard, but we are reaching the point where we can perhaps get back to a state of normalcy and everyone won't be quite as sleep deprived. I've handed you out checklists for green mission status, just a last couple things before I can let Starfleet know that we're once again ready as a response station. I hope you and your marines are adjusting well to the station, Lieutenant Lucas. Thank you for all your hard work, and getting here so promptly. I'd like to talk to you after the meeting though, for just a moment." They had to work together and he wanted this to be an open environment where people could ask questions or voice concerns. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of his Staff members each for a moment, even Max.

For a moment Taylor seemed a bit worried why the captain would want to speak to him in private. He hadn't done anything wrong, at least nothing he could recall. "Yes...sir...." he said slowly as he allowed his mind to go from cockpit to briefing room. It was a different situation and environment so it required a different mindset. "Only eight of us sir so it wasn't long till our fighters were stored along with munitions, equipment...we're used to being part of a carrier group so guarding a static target will take some getting used to but we'll rise to the challenge. We can also act as a small ground unit if needed but...we're not big on numbers, sir."

"I'm sure they'll remind us how nice it is to have marines on the station," Lillian piped up, glancing at Taylor and offering up a smile before looking around at everyone else except for Cecily. "I do, however, stand by my previous statement and I know it's a very doctorly statement, but it's true. I know that things are hard and we're rebuilding and there aren't enough hours in the day, but sleep and a hardy breakfast are the keys to success and it helps to keep our bodies less stressed out. Just try to stay healthy so I don't have to call people into my office because despite my friendly demeanor, I can get very forceful when my crew is suffering."

She shrugged a little bit because she wanted everyone in the room that didn't know her as well as they would like to understand that she meant business. Yes, she enjoyed flirting and she was normally incredibly bubbly, but she also cared about everyone's health and she didn't want anyone to work themselves to death...there had been enough death in the last month and she wasn't ready for more. Besides, she was the doctor and it was her job to make sure that everyone was fit for duty and if she thought they weren't, then they were on leave from work and she knew how that annoyed more people than it made people happy and she hated being the one to have to issure that order, but it happened.

"Captain, will it be possible to get a shipment of terakine? I'm running a bit low and I like to be overly prepared just in case." Lillian explained, changing the subject a little bit as she looked at the list in front of her.

"No need to bother the Captain with that kind of request, Lieutenant," Max said quietly. "Forward it to me and I'll see that the necessary paperwork goes through." As he said that he looked down at the PADD in front of him and typed in a reminder, mostly to avoid having to make eye contact with the rest of them. He had seen the look that Lillian had given the new MCO, and it did nothing to lighten his mood.

"The same goes for the rest of you. In my capacity as Executive Officer I'll handle departmental allocation requests and the like to keep the Captain free for matters of more pressing concern. Just try and forget about my gray uniform when it comes to such matters. I promise not to have the Intel department overanalyzing your personnel reports," he offered, giving a weak smile to try and keep the feeble joke from faltering.

"That being said…if you have any matters that require the attention of the Chief Intelligence Officer rather than the Executive Officer…don't hesitate to contact me through the proper channels." Max hoped that statement left just enough unsaid to get the point across, however each individual listener chose to take it.

"Then I suppose that I should come to you to ask about some renovations to the labs?" Cecily asked Max with a little smile.

She didn't know what to make of Max regardless of working with him before, but she knew that since Lillan spoke highly of him sometimes, that there was something there. Maybe it was nonexistent and maybe Lillian just liked to talk up her peers, but if Lillian trusted him, then maybe Cecily shouldn't trust him at all. Still, he was a Lieutenant Commander and he was the XO of the station and she knew that she shouldn't provoke him. Provoking him would be the surest way to get herself fired or demoted and so she might be able to deal with him with a smile that said she could work with him and a meaning behind it that said she didn't trust the CIO farther than she could throw him.

Lillian opened up her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by a beep that was followed by a rushed voice on the other end of the comm. A message was being patched through directly to the captain even though they were in the middle of a briefing, so it had to be important because otherwise the man would lose his job. Pausing a moment and listening intently, Lillian forgot about all of her personal problems and instead listened to what it was that the message had to relay.

"We're in terrible trouble," came the distorted voice of a man, "heavy casualties. We need assistance. Armed forces. Medical experts. A ship to take us away. I don't know how much time we have. Milos System. Fifth planet. Help us. Please."

There it was...Starbase 12 was once again the Response Station that it was set up to be and someone needed their help. They had no idea what was going on or why the people needed their help in the first place, but they had to act, didn't they? The last time anything had happened, everyone had gone out and so very few had come back, but they'd been rebuilding just for this very moment and Lillian supposed as she chewed on her lip and ran through medical supplies to pack, that it was Gan's choice...it was in Gan's hands.

Bridget sat quietly, nodding along when appropriate. She dared not speak up. Nothing could quell the wild thrum of her heart. Nerves stilled her lips, leaving her a mute. If they needed for her to do something, she would do it.

He looked over his assembled Staff and shook his head. He didn't know if they were really ready for this. But he couldn't just ignore their mission. He looked to Taylor for just a moment. "Well..we can handle this Lieutenant, if you can." He nodded and looked around the room, "But most of you will have to stay on station. Crae, you're with Lucas. We'll need a doctor on the ground, and I can watch sickbay for you while you're gone. She'll still be here when you get back." He pondered for a moment, "Take your squad with you Lieutenant, they could be of use. Keep me appraised of the situation. Oh and Commander." He looked to Max and pointed to him, "You're in command of the away team." He gazed around, "This is a good opportunity to show Starfleet we can handle green status for missions, so lets do the best we can people. Good luck out there. Meeting is adjourned." He stayed in his seat in case anyone needed anything, but people knew their places and what they needed to do.

||Starbase 12
||Briefing Room
||August 2, 2387
||0845

Gan had scheduled the Briefing for 0900 the morning of the second and was in the room early to set out PADDs for all of his senior staff with checklists he wanted to them to run over and the like. This would be their continued test to see if they could make this work out in the wake of the accident that left him here in command. He still wasn't used to it, and often fiddled with the extra pin on his collar. It was a weird thing, to imagine himself in the metaphoric big chair at the end of the table. He didn't think it was any larger than the rest, but he had never bothered to really measure. He shuffled around the various seats, assuming that he could guide them to where they would be sitting for the rest of their time together if they didn't remember from the first staff meeting where he had appointed most of his senior staff members. And he hoped nothing would pull them apart or that he would lose some of them..or himself. After all, things happened as was well demonstrated by the universe to his last CO and the men and women that had been there on the away mission. Their first meeting had gone well, and he seemed to get along with his chiefs of staff and his XOs. They were good people, and he trusted them. They knew what they had to do, but he wanted to make sure that everything was green before they had to go out on another mission.

He got all of his job done and checked off the list he had made for himself of things that he needed to take care of. He moved to the replicator, "Coffee. Black." He pulled the mug out of the machine and sipped at the steaming liquid, letting the caffeine do its work, waking up his neurons so he could run this meeting. It had been three weeks since the accident, and he certainly had not slept very much. It was a hectic job, making sure that everything was working and getting new people to fill shoes that they otherwise might not have been ready for. Sorren certainly wasn't ready for all of this, but he felt with Lt. Crae's assistance he could get this rabble to toe the lines that they were supposed to. Of this he had no worries, she was a good CMO and his staff had seemed to taken a liking to her. And he had their respect of course, but he felt that he would further earn their trust as well as he knew how.

The thing about running a space station was even though there were a lot of tasks to accomplish, there were a lot of people to accomplish them. Though his commanders, there were far fewer of them. He would probably have to rank up some of his lieutenants over then next month or two in accordance to their positions. They will have deserved that accommodation and more by then. He smiled and sat down in his chair, sipping his coffee from the mug as he waited for people to start to arrive. He wondered if he was a menacing figure at the end of that long table, unsure of how to sit that wouldn't make him look like he wasn't run ragged and haggard and possibly very upset. He couldn't help it though, perhaps it was just one of those weeks and his family, his shipmates would understand. He kicked his chair back a little and tried to put off an aura that he was relaxed and welcoming. He wasn't a bad guy, but he would have to make a lot of hard calls over the next few weeks about who was going to fit where and who was going to be in command of what. They had gone through a terrible process of change, but he felt it was a good sign that they were back on their feet and this briefing would in his mind would cement what they needed to do before they were go on mission status once more.

"Into the Lion's Den," Lillian said gently.

Smoothing down her uniform and making sure her jacket was zipped up, Lillian looked at Marlo to just double check their appearances before they entered the Briefing Room. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to walk with Marlo and smiled a bit when they entered the room and she saw Gan there with his sub par replicator coffee (she recognized the mug), which actually made her a tiny bit sad. There were just some things that were not acceptable and as the two had worked so close together when he was her CMO, she handed him her coffee before taking a seat, Marlo sitting down next to her. The two always tried to sit together and blocking any chance for Cecily to sit near her, Lillian felt safe.

"You can't actually drink that swill and survive, Boss. Have mine," Lillian said with a smile. "Start off the day with the very best that your Promenade has to offer."

“I prefer to start my day with some Deka Tea and a jumja stick. All my nutrients at the start to keep me going throughout the day.”

Marlo personally found coffee disgusting and bitter and didn’t understand why anyone drank it…especially a Betazoid with an overactive sweet tooth.
She settled down into her chair, stuck her jumja stick in her mouth and pulled out her phaser sticking it on the table, and opening it up. She might as well do something productive while she was waiting for everyone else to arrive. Pulling out her gun at a meeting probably wasn’t the best idea, but she shrugged and pulled out a mini laser, a hydro spanner, and a screw driver, laying her tools on the table in front of her.

“Let me know when we’re ready to start. I’ll just be over here…modifying my phaser.” Marlo muttered.

"Nice, Marlo...couldn't be more intimidating if you tried..." Lillian laughed, a smile on her face.

The doors to the briefing room hissed open and Max hurried in just then, looking more than a little haggard. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, and his uniform was merely acceptable, not immaculate. Still, he did his best to give a cheerful "Morning, Captain," to Gan. In truth the two surviving senior officers had seen little enough of each other since the disastrous away mission and subsequent losses. Max had his done his best to keep it that way. Guilt, maybe? No. he couldn't start thinking like that, not now. He had to keep it together, make it through this meeting, the coming weeks...and the investigation.

Arriving so close to the scheduled meeting time was so unlike him that it smacked of lateness, and Max tried to recover. "Those latest Tholian signal intercepts took most of the night to decode, sir, but I think once they're fully decrypted and processed I think we'll be able to extrapolate some significant fleet movements from them. Of course, that doesn't do much for my headache," he said, offering a weak grin.

With that he turned to glance at the other two in the room, the new CMO and CEO. Well, not really new anymore, but they still seemed new to him. Since the loss of their predecessors he hadn't had much to do with the senior staff of other departments other than official correspondence.

His eyes widened a bit at Marlo's phaser, but then again he had been so jumpy lately he still started a little whenever he saw a yellow uniform. No wonder he'd been spending so much time in his office. Nothing but gray shirts there. As for the CMO…well before the away mission, he might have had some unprofessional thoughts about her, but at the moment he was a bit distracted.

"Lieutenant…Lieutenant," he nodded to each of them, by way of greeting.

Lillian smiled at Max and nodded. "Max..."

Sure, she should have probably thrown a more professional greeting at the CIO, but at the moment she felt pretty good and didn't want to ruin that. She had certainly hit on him a time or two before the accident though afterwards it had never been appropriate and now things were on the mend and she was glad to see him up and about regardless of the fact that it was a Senior Staff Meeting and he was the XO. In fact, because he was the XO, it was probably best if Lillian made sure that she didn't overstep any boundaries there...a 2XO could easily be demoted or reported for sexual harrassment.

Taylor strolled into the briefing room with a sigh on his lips. Frankly he hated the idea of being on the senior staff but it was one of those niggling little details. The CAP had been organised, reports had been filed and then he hadn't had time to change out of his midnight flightsuit, his helmet tucked underneath his left arm and his compression phaser pistol tugged snugly into his thigh holster.

He stepped into the room and offered a salute to the captain before taking a seat, any seat, before placing his helmet on the table like it was a mere paperweight. He recognised a few faces but few names. Lillian of course stuck out. For some reason they bumped into each other more times than not.

Lillian's whole face lit up for a moment when Taylor stalked into the room, her eyes on him from his salute to his chosen seat, but away by the time he glanced at her. She certainly didn't want to be obvious and yet she was watching him out of the corner or her eye and drummed her nails on the table for a moment. Seemed as good a time as any to say something before the others arrived though, if for no other reason than to let everyone know that she was awake and prepared and in the mood to get some things out of the way.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you've all had a proper amount of sleep and breakfast--healthy officers are happy and prepared officers." Lillian said with a smile.

Bridget returned from the bathroom to find the room stock full of officer's whose ages far outnumbered that of her own. Great, now they'll think I was late. Running a hand down the front of her uniform, smoothing away any imperfections, she started for her seat. She quiet on arrival, nervous. It was not a quality often bubbling within her, but today was quite frightening. She assumed it would be the day they'd strip her of her rank and appoint someone with more years on their record to take over such a difficult, important position on the station.

She took her seat, looked about the room at all the happy, tired, and apathetic faces around her, and twiddled her thumbs in the hopes that Cecily might show to take the seat next to her, for opposite her now sat her new friend's arch nemesis, the CMO. The woman was stained to Bridget, a blemish to the station, but only because of the way Cecily went on about her. It still wasn't entirely clear why they disliked one another, but the snide looks/remarks were too bountiful to ignore.

"Good morning, sir," she whispered softly in the direction to the Captain. He seemed to like her. She wondered how gentle he'd be in dismantling her new title, though. Would he just come out and tell her to leave the meeting, or wait until it was over? Worry marred her features as she tried to feign a simple smile to all those that took the time to make eye contact with her.

She'd wanted to be early and get a good seat near the captain, but no...no, work had pulled her back to the labs and now Cecily was faced with entering a pretty full Briefing Room. The moment she entered, Lillian visibly stiffened up, but she relaxed because she hoped that no one would notice what it was that was going on. Trying to ignore her and avoiding eye contact with the CMO and smiling at Bridget when her eyes fell on her. Taking a seat next to the CSO, Cecily decided to focus all attention away from Lillian even though part of her was curious because something about Lillian was off today...Cecily just couldn't put her finger on it.

"There was an issue in the labs but I handled it, Sir," Cecily told Gan with a smile, letting her eyes wander away from Bridget for a moment. "I also have a PADD for you so you can be updated on what we're working on right now."

Gan eyed the coffee that Lillian had given him. It probably had things in it like milk and sugar. Such things did not deserve to be in such a beverage. He liked his coffee to be able to degrease engines and sometimes maybe peel the paint off walls. He smiled warmly and nodded his thanks to her before everyone started to file in for the meeting. He acknowledged Marlo, wondering if he could ever turn to tea. But his time in starfleet had given him a lot of bad human habits, and he was not about to give up his coffee. He enjoyed it too much.

At Lt. Commander Ritter's entrance, he avoided locking his gaze with the man. They had gone through a lot when they had lost so many members of their Senior Staff. They were the old relics, so to speak. He nodded and looked down to his PADD, adding the details the man gave him about the sensor readings and nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will take that into account. I apologize for the late nights, but we will be settled down soon enough to take a load off everyone's shoulders, I would think."

As everyone else filed in, he nodded his head to Taylor, Bridget and Cecily. He noticed Lilly taking notice of the new MCO and shook his head, smiling softly to himself. Not that he was old or anything, but young people was the thought that crossed his mind. He remembered how they felt, and he certainly found being around attractive women enticing still. But with everything on his plate, he didn't think he could handle another serving of anything right now. He nodded to Cecily last as she commented on the trouble in the Science Labs, but he knew she could handle whatever came her way. "Thank you Lieutenant. I'll take the PADD after the briefing." He just wanted to make sure that everyone would get along, though he supposed in the case of Lillian and Taylor, perhaps not too well. Fraternizing with other officers wasn't necessarily against any codes, they were of more or less the same rank and in two completely different departments so he couldn't chastise her for chasing him. He wouldn't mention it unless it came up as an issue, though he would have to take a little caution in his Briefing Room. He didn't want to scare anyone off their jobs. He needed them to stay in those jobs. He picked these people because they were the best for the position.

Gan glanced around for a moment counting heads and making sure that the PADDs he had gathered got to the right people who needed them. "Good morning everyone, I won't hope that you are well rested as my emphatic Lieutenant will. Not that I hope that you did so otherwise, but because I know that you all have been working just as hard as I have, and probably have not achieved sleep very much over the last few weeks. I thank you each for striving to be the best that you can be. I know it's been hard, but we are reaching the point where we can perhaps get back to a state of normalcy and everyone won't be quite as sleep deprived. I've handed you out checklists for green mission status, just a last couple things before I can let Starfleet know that we're once again ready as a response station. I hope you and your marines are adjusting well to the station, Lieutenant Lucas. Thank you for all your hard work, and getting here so promptly. I'd like to talk to you after the meeting though, for just a moment." They had to work together and he wanted this to be an open environment where people could ask questions or voice concerns. "Are there any questions?" He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of his Staff members each for a moment, even Max.

For a moment Taylor seemed a bit worried why the captain would want to speak to him in private. He hadn't done anything wrong, at least nothing he could recall. "Yes...sir...." he said slowly as he allowed his mind to go from cockpit to briefing room. It was a different situation and environment so it required a different mindset. "Only eight of us sir so it wasn't long till our fighters were stored along with munitions, equipment...we're used to being part of a carrier group so guarding a static target will take some getting used to but we'll rise to the challenge. We can also act as a small ground unit if needed but...we're not big on numbers, sir."

"I'm sure they'll remind us how nice it is to have marines on the station," Lillian piped up, glancing at Taylor and offering up a smile before looking around at everyone else except for Cecily. "I do, however, stand by my previous statement and I know it's a very doctorly statement, but it's true. I know that things are hard and we're rebuilding and there aren't enough hours in the day, but sleep and a hardy breakfast are the keys to success and it helps to keep our bodies less stressed out. Just try to stay healthy so I don't have to call people into my office because despite my friendly demeanor, I can get very forceful when my crew is suffering."

She shrugged a little bit because she wanted everyone in the room that didn't know her as well as they would like to understand that she meant business. Yes, she enjoyed flirting and she was normally incredibly bubbly, but she also cared about everyone's health and she didn't want anyone to work themselves to death...there had been enough death in the last month and she wasn't ready for more. Besides, she was the doctor and it was her job to make sure that everyone was fit for duty and if she thought they weren't, then they were on leave from work and she knew how that annoyed more people than it made people happy and she hated being the one to have to issure that order, but it happened.

"Captain, will it be possible to get a shipment of terakine? I'm running a bit low and I like to be overly prepared just in case." Lillian explained, changing the subject a little bit as she looked at the list in front of her.

"No need to bother the Captain with that kind of request, Lieutenant," Max said quietly. "Forward it to me and I'll see that the necessary paperwork goes through." As he said that he looked down at the PADD in front of him and typed in a reminder, mostly to avoid having to make eye contact with the rest of them. He had seen the look that Lillian had given the new MCO, and it did nothing to lighten his mood.

"The same goes for the rest of you. In my capacity as Executive Officer I'll handle departmental allocation requests and the like to keep the Captain free for matters of more pressing concern. Just try and forget about my gray uniform when it comes to such matters. I promise not to have the Intel department overanalyzing your personnel reports," he offered, giving a weak smile to try and keep the feeble joke from faltering.

"That being said…if you have any matters that require the attention of the Chief Intelligence Officer rather than the Executive Officer…don't hesitate to contact me through the proper channels." Max hoped that statement left just enough unsaid to get the point across, however each individual listener chose to take it.

"Then I suppose that I should come to you to ask about some renovations to the labs?" Cecily asked Max with a little smile.

She didn't know what to make of Max regardless of working with him before, but she knew that since Lillan spoke highly of him sometimes, that there was something there. Maybe it was nonexistent and maybe Lillian just liked to talk up her peers, but if Lillian trusted him, then maybe Cecily shouldn't trust him at all. Still, he was a Lieutenant Commander and he was the XO of the station and she knew that she shouldn't provoke him. Provoking him would be the surest way to get herself fired or demoted and so she might be able to deal with him with a smile that said she could work with him and a meaning behind it that said she didn't trust the CIO farther than she could throw him.

Lillian opened up her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by a beep that was followed by a rushed voice on the other end of the comm. A message was being patched through directly to the captain even though they were in the middle of a briefing, so it had to be important because otherwise the man would lose his job. Pausing a moment and listening intently, Lillian forgot about all of her personal problems and instead listened to what it was that the message had to relay.

"We're in terrible trouble," came the distorted voice of a man, "heavy casualties. We need assistance. Armed forces. Medical experts. A ship to take us away. I don't know how much time we have. Milos System. Fifth planet. Help us. Please."

There it was...Starbase 12 was once again the Response Station that it was set up to be and someone needed their help. They had no idea what was going on or why the people needed their help in the first place, but they had to act, didn't they? The last time anything had happened, everyone had gone out and so very few had come back, but they'd been rebuilding just for this very moment and Lillian supposed as she chewed on her lip and ran through medical supplies to pack, that it was Gan's choice...it was in Gan's hands.

Bridget sat quietly, nodding along when appropriate. She dared not speak up. Nothing could quell the wild thrum of her heart. Nerves stilled her lips, leaving her a mute. If they needed for her to do something, she would do it.

He looked over his assembled Staff and shook his head. He didn't know if they were really ready for this. But he couldn't just ignore their mission. He looked to Taylor for just a moment. "Well..we can handle this Lieutenant, if you can." He nodded and looked around the room, "But most of you will have to stay on station. Crae, you're with Lucas. We'll need a doctor on the ground, and I can watch sickbay for you while you're gone. She'll still be here when you get back." He pondered for a moment, "Take your squad with you Lieutenant, they could be of use. Keep me appraised of the situation. Oh and Commander." He looked to Max and pointed to him, "You're in command of the away team." He gazed around, "This is a good opportunity to show Starfleet we can handle green status for missions, so lets do the best we can people. Good luck out there. Meeting is adjourned." He stayed in his seat in case anyone needed anything, but people knew their places and what they needed to do.

Since he was ordered to remain behind, Taylor sat in his seat with a somewhat worried expression. He glanced from face to face as if looking for answers but instead remained silent. "Still want that word sir?"

Good place to end, I think and you two can fire off a separate JP now, or later when there's less crunch time. Up to you two. ^.^ I will post when home from work. If you choose latter for a JP, Gan, add to this to dismiss Lucas.