= USS Chimera - Conference Room =
Natalia was busy inputting information into the computer terminal on the one end of the Conference Room as the Senior Officers began making their way one by one into the room. It would be the first official briefing in the new Chimera's Conference Room and the mood was light among the staff, despite recent events. When she was done, Natalia turned around and was greeted by the expectant faces of the staff, which made her feel somewhat like a teacher facing a class of students.
"Welcome everyone to the new Chimera's first Senior Officers' Mission Briefing," she said as she stood behind her seat next to Rojac who sat at the head of the oval briefing table. He was suspiciously quiet and the look on some of the staff's faces clearly revealed their interest as to why Natalia was doing the briefing and not himself.
"Commander Trzetrzelewska will be handling the first part of the briefing," Rojac explained briefly. "She's the expert on our new mission and will tell you everything you need to know."
"Thank you, sir." Taking her seat, Natalia tapped a command on the table and brought up a holographic display of the Romulan Neutral Zone and the Sensor Outpost Network. "What you're look at is the Sensor Outpost Network along the Romulan Neutral Zone. It's a series of 160 cloaked listening posts that have been designed to keep a watchful eye on the Romulans, each manned by a crew of six. The posts are small and vulnerable, but their cloaking devices are highly efficient with several safeguards against failure. SSF vessels patrolling the border also monitor the posts and are on standby in case one of the posts should need to be evacuated.
"A few days ago, Outpost 071 sent out a coded distress signal picked up by Taskforce Command," Natalia continued as the holographic projection zoomed in on 071, flashing in red to indicate its compromised status. "The message indicated that the outpost had been compromised. How, exactly, is unknown. The post is functioning normally, sending in data at regular intervals and reports no cloaking malfunction or breaches of any kind. The posts are also equipped with tachyon sensors and it would have detected any Romulan vessels in the vicinity... which it didn't."
Natalia pressed another button which brought up a schematic of Outpost 071. She got up and started pacing around the table as she spoke. "The posts all function independently and their information is disseminated and prossessed at Taskforce Command. There is no communication between the outposts and the reason for this is to prevent the entire network from being compromised should one outpost fall to the Romulans; the posts don't know the exact location of their counterparts. Only Taskforce Command, Captain Rojac, myself and the senior staff of the Rapier (which deployed the outposts) know the exact location of each of the outposts."
Having come full circle again, she stood behind her chair and looked at the holographic display. "There are currrently two theories: Either someone onboard the outpost is an infiltrator and managed to commandeer the post from the inside, or the Romulans have managed to upgrade their cloaking devices and make them impossible to detect with our current tachyon grid. As for how they discovered the location of the outpost... it's a well-known fact that the Tal'Shiar is the best intelligence agency in the Beta Quadrant. The fact remains that we need to resecure the outpost and find out if the rest of the network has been compromised. As I've said, the outposts are small and it's unlikely that a large number of Romulans would be on it, if indeed they are.
"Over to you, Captain," she said as she took her seat next to Rojac.
= End Log =
Commander Natalia Trzetrzelewska
Executive Officer
USS Chimera NCC 96899-C