<<Captains Ready Room>>

"And that brings us to the S'slithi Ambassadors to the Grail...", Cochran said as he looked to the rest. Epic Terrakian stepped forward and spoke.

"The S'slithi, as you will learn from the report that will follow, are a polytheistic culture with a highly religion-motivated government.

"As such, their ambassadors to the Grail will be members of their Theocracy.

"The responsibility to the S'slithi Spiritual leaders falls to myself and Lt. Comm. Hunt. It is the duty of the Chief of Operations and I to insure smooth diplomatic relations and to provide the foundation for all future diplomatic missions."

Cochran turned back to the discussion and looked straight at Janice Hargen. "Even their Science is regulated by their church, and so, their Minister of Technical Sciences is also a Holy Man to the S'slithi. You, Commander Hargen, will be assigned to the Minister of Technical Sciences. Your assistant, Brennan, will support you in that role."

Cochran turned to Alison Donucci. "Lieutenant. The S'slithi will be making a gift to us of their starcharts, which encompass the majority of the Beta Quadrant. Quite a gift." Cochran nodded with his approval of the gift.

"That will save us a great deal of time while astrogating through that quadrant. Lieutenant, all that information will need to be assimilated into our Helm computers and made expediently useful. Much of our one week mission will be spent in accomplishing that." He grimaced in sympathy, realizing that Donucci got the most tedious of all the details. But, mentally, he shrugged carelessly. Donucci got to fly the big ship. Cochran, a Helmsman from way back, always considered the Helm the best job on the ship. He regretted, sometimes, letting them promote him out of that seat.

`C'est la vie.', he thought with dead regret.

"Now, I have little more to add that won't be covered in the report that will be released to you at 17:00 today. The Grail will launch at 15:30. We will follow a standard yellow alert upon our launch that we will maintain until leaving the Solar System at approximately 16:30. That means Alpha and Beta shift will be on alert for that duration."

Epic Terrakian spoke up.

"The five weeks that follow will be all the shakedown we get before we are plunged into the fire, people. Commander Hargen. Lieutenant Brennan. The next few weeks are going to be rough on you and your department. Get ready. Most things go wrong in the first week."

Epic glanced at the chronometer on the wall. "It is just short of 11:00 now. We will recess now for meals and will reconvene here at 12:00. At that time, we will review all the reports that you all have spent tough days and nights preparing."

Epic looked to Cochran, who seemed lost in his own thoughts. Finally, though, the man realized the silence.

"Dismissed.", he announced. Epic watched the others rise to go, but he did not follow. He waited and watched the Captain.

Epic really needed to talk to him.

<<OOC: There is an hour for lunch. During this time, I encourage everyone to cooperate on a joint dialogue. Basically, grab a `buddy' or two or three and interact however you wish. I am very interested in seeing the personal dynamics. Castle has already gotten that ball rolling a little.

<<After `Lunch Break', will come `Reports' which I will post Saturday Night. Responses for `Lunch Break' would have until Sunday/Monday to be done, before responses to `Reports' will be expected.

<<Following `Reports', `The Launch' will be posted. I am looking to post it by Thursday. `The Launch' is going to be a joint post that will include the input of most department heads.

<<Even though the files detailing all the known data on the S'slithi will not be available until after the events in `The Launch', the information will be available this weekend, just to give you time to get your perspectives.

<<I wont project beyond that. However, for the next week, we have material to work with. I will be e-mailing each of you individually over the next day to give you information and advice that will be important to your characters perceptions.

<<And, as far as NPC personnel, if each department, Chiefs and Assistants, could get together and create 5 NPC's for each of the 3 shifts, 15 NPC's in all for each department, and submit those names to the list, that would be great. Name and sex and race are really all that is required, but any extra details a bonus. I want these NPC's submitted to the list, because all of us should draw NPC's from these lists and use them. The more they are explored, the more real they will become.

[And more tragic will their losses be when I have the need to bump off someone for dramatic affect :)]

<<Aside from that, we have some very cool personalities floating around this group and I am eager to interact with all of them.

<<See you at `Lunch'.>>