Communication Brief

Posted on Fri Jan 23rd, 2015 @ 11:48pm by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Mackenzie & Lieutenant Morgan Faye
Edited on on Sun Jan 25th, 2015 @ 3:14pm

Mission: The Ancient Art of Operations
Location: Starbase 80 Operations Deck
Timeline: Post 1 - Communication Anomaly
Tags: OT, Operations

Morgan lightly knocked on the wall by the door. She smiled as she asked. “Sir, do you have a minute…?” She fully knew what his answer would be especially after the bribe she was about to offer him. She stuck her hand in his office holding a cup of coffee. Just the way he liked it.

Ethan looked away from his screen at the grinning Lieutenant. He had quite a lot of work to get done but her bribing was working on him all too well. He motioned for her to enter without saying anything. He leaned back in his seat and watched as she stepped into his office. Coffee mug in one hand, a PADD in another, and a grin on her face. He waited for her to have a seat across from him and place the mug down.

Ethan leaned forward grabbing the mug. The coffee was hot but he couldn’t wait to take a sip of it. He took just one, slightly burning his tongue but nonetheless he enjoyed it. “I appreciate the coffee, but you do know that you're not playing fair.”

Morgan simply smiled at him. She played innocent. “I have no idea what you are talking about, sir.” She replied to him as she crossed her legs placing the PADD in front of her.

He placed the mug on his desk after taking another sip then replied to her. “I’m sure you don’t.” She smiled then looked at the PADD that rested in front of her. “I have a feeling you didn’t bring me coffee just because.” He made a gesture towards the PADD. “What’s on the PADD?”

“Uh oh, I’ve become predictable.” She said teasingly. “I should probably change that but that’s something I can work on later.” She sat up slightly in her seat. “This morning I met with a Senior Communication Technician who brought up a situation that they are dealing with to my attention.”

“Approximately, two weeks ago Communications brought down a number of arrays for maintenance. Maintenance went as expected. However, several days later they began detecting an strange signal within the communication stream. The signal itself would only appear for a brief period of time before disappearing. At first they thought that it was due to some time of interference. There was an ion storm that appeared near the arrays. However, the stranger signal had continued to appear for several days at the same exact time, lasting the same exact amount of time before disappearing.”

“They investigated the signal however their findings were inconclusive so another maintenance window was scheduled. Arrays had were affected had their configurations and logs uploaded to the CLS (Communication Lab Servers) and then they were wiped and reloaded with a new set of configurations. The arrays were then brought online and put into high state of monitoring. After several days of monitoring and not seeing the signal again they were put into normal operations.”

“Not even 12 hours later, they began detecting the strange signal again. Once again, it appeared everyday, at the same exact time. They haven’t been able to pinpoint the root cause of it nor have they been able to find out exactly what it is doing.”

During her brief of the situation Ethan had grabbed the coffee mug and had been sipping the coffee as she talked. It was an interesting situation to say the least. As she finished her last sentence Ethan looked at the PADD. “Is that a copy of the signal analyzes report?”

Morgan nodded. She picked up the PADD and handed it to him. “Yes, it is.”

Ethan accepted the PADD from Morgan. The findings displaying in front of him as his eyes moved from left to right as he reviewing the information. As he finished he placed the PADD on the desk and looked at Morgan. “I take it they would like to pay a visit to these arrays to find out what is going on.”

Morgan smiled nodding. “Yes, they have requested approval for an away mission. They feel that they have done everything possible remotely and would like to investigate in person.”

“Makes sense.” Ethan stated nodding. He looked at Morgan. “Correct me if I’m wrong but you have vast experience with Communication systems…”

She nodded yet again. “I do.”

“Good!” Ethan said with excitement in his voice. “You can inform them that the away mission has my blessings….and…”

She tilted her head to the side just a tad. She had a feeling that she might not like what was about to be added. “And sir?” She asked.

“I would like you to head the away mission.” Ethan added.

Morgan sighed. “Are you doing this because of my bribing you with coffee, sir?” Morgan asked. She didn’t mind going on an away mission but if she could avoid it she would.

“Have a safe trip, Lieutenant.” Ethan simply said with a grin. He placed the PADD on the desk and took the last sip of his coffee.

“Evil…” Morgan mumbled under her breath as she got up. “I will keep you updated sir.”

Ethan nodded to her with a grin. “Please do.”

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Lt. Commander Ethan Mackenzie
Chief Operations Officer
Starbase 80

Lt. Morgan Faye
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
Starbase 80