Final Preparations
Posted on Tue Jun 30th, 2026 @ 2:55am by Captain Qierress & Lieutenant Ikuyo Kita & Lieutenant Gregory Turner & Lieutenant JG Miles Mercer & Lieutenant JG Ava Bailey
1,139 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
1 - Third Contact
Location: Briefing Room
Timeline: MD 03 - 1500
Qierress paced across the Briefing Room. Tomorrow would be her big debut. This not only meant a great deal for Starfleet, but all Gelrakians, so she wanted to make certain that this third contact went off without a hitch. She wondered what her crew managed to come up with regarding their upcoming meeting with the Apergosians. Did they have an adequate introduction. Had they been able to solve any issues regarding the Cerritos had when they were last there? Only the briefing would give her this information. She waited patiently for her Chiefs to arrive.
The door to the room opened as Lieutenant Turner entered the room. Over the last few days, he had been working diligently on his part, preparing for their meeting with Apergosians. Whether this would work out was still up in the air. "Captain, how are you this morning?"
Just as Turner asked his question of the captain, the door opened and Ava walked inside. "Greeting Captain, Lieutenant Turner. I am looking foward to seeing what we can do here. Hopefully it will be successful." Ava taking a seat.
"Miles Mercer from intelligence reporting in Captain." Miles said as he took a seat at the table.
Kita arrived fresh from engineering, humming a tune to herself as shs entered the room. "Morning everyone'" she greeted happily.
Once everyone was gathered, the Captain asked, "So, we are soon to make contact. Tell me everything that you have learned."
Gregory looked around the conference room before addressing the room. "The Apergosians are big into numbers. In their society, numbers have a specific purpose and hold a lot of value."
"Anything else?" Qierress encouraged hopefully.
Miles spoke up "I've read both reports from previous missions, Let's exercise caution around any ancient artifacts and structures, I know this sounds redundant saying that, but after reading the second contact reports let's keep aware." Miles said.
"He does bring up a good point. And we'll definitely need to make certain that the ensigns are careful when they set to their tasks. Plus I am hoping, Captain that we will be successful. I would hate for something else to happen." Ava said, giving a nod.
The meeting was interrupted by the communications operator at 15:11:13, who said over the comms, =^= Captain, the Apergosians are hailing us. =^=
=^= Put them on the screen in the briefing room. =^=
A moment later, a man with light brown hair, yellow-orange skin, and brown eyes with black rectangular pupils appeared on screen. =^= Good afternoon, Captain, I am the High Leader of the Apergosians. We will welcome you to our planet and appreciate you coming out. You should be aware ever since your Ensign Mariner and Commander Ransom have come here, that we have had a great deal more interest in the Ancient Ones. We have been studying them and desire more of your cleaning, as it is faster than ours. However, you will have to abide by very strict guidelines, as we have learned their code. =^=
=^= We should be glad to help,=^= Captain Qierress stated. =^= We can send a cleaning squad down. In the meantime, we can work on some of the other treaties. =^=
The Apergosian waved off Qierress and said, =^= Maybe at the appropriate times. I have another meeting at 15:13:17. I must go now. We will see you on the planet. =^= With that, the communication cut off.
Qierress turned to her chiefs and asked, "What do you all make of that?"
"I'm far from an expert on behaviour but they went digging around somewhere after the Cerritos was here and found something in an archive." Miles said.
"But why?" Qierress asked her chiefs. "Why would they do that? Cerittos basically reported that they were disinterested in cleaning their buildings polluted by industrialization. They also reported that they gave up on the perfect subspace communication access number after the incident. It does not make sense to me. Does it to any of you?"
Miles spoke again "Based on what I read from the reports they appeared to be caught off guard, but in truth captain after tumbling on something like this wouldn't you be interested in technology like this, or anyone here?" he said in a vague gesture too the room.
"They seemed more interested in having our people clean for them," Turner noted.
"Good point, but have you ever rummaged through a relatives house finding an old piece of tech or pictures and wondered about it?" Miles said "I'm just advising caution when we're down there examining artifacts."
Looking over at Miles, Gregory nodded in agreement. "So, who is going down on the away team to meet with the Apergosians? Besides our cleaning crew?"
"You don't have to ask me twice, academic opportunities like this don't come up very often, plus who knows what else will be found." Miles said not hiding the cautious optimism.
"We'll send some ensigns to do the cleaning. The rest of us can get to know the Apergosians better and try to sort out why they want us to do the cleaning instead of them," Qierress finally decided. "If anyone else has a better idea, now is the time to express it."
The Security Chief looked around the room to see if anyone else had any light to shed on the situation. Last thing he wanted to do was over speak and seem like was taking over the conversation.
"I can pull double duty here since the majority of this first trip down is in the same district, or has that changed?" Miles said the caution permeating in the question.
"I'll have the industrial cleaning equipment ready to go." Kita added. "Do they need anything specific?"
Qierress answered, "You know as much as I do. Just have the standard equipment ready and have something stronger should the need arise. As to the same district, I believe that is where we are meeting them based on the coordinates. Where the ensigns will be, I'm uncertain. I'm certain that we will get more information when we are down there."
"Sounds good enough, let's make a better impression this time." Miles commented.
"Anything else?" Qierress asked her staff.
Miles shook his head negatively, while looking around the room.
Looking around the silent room, Turner simply shook his head as well.
"I don't think there is anything more, Captain." Ava replied
She thought that the meeting went well.
"Well, if there is nothing else," Qierress responded, "we should get ready to beam down when we arrive. Let's make a good first impression on this third contact!"
Ava smiled, she was ready to get things moving forward.
Captain Qierress
Commanding Officer
USS Quebec
Lt. Gregory Turner
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Quebec
Lt JG Miles Mercer
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Quebec
Lt. Ava Bailey
Chief Science Officer
USS Quebec
Lieutenant Ikuyo Kita
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Quebec
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