Marine Exploration

Posted on 28 Jun 2010 @ 8:24pm by

1,364 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: M5: Transitions
Location: Marine Department

ON:

It seemed that every time she and Edom moved to another ship, Edom wanted to meet the marines. Of course, she couldn't blame him- they were an impressive department. She also tended to find marines very attractive. She led Edom to the doors of the Marine Department. They made their way inside.

"I hope we get to meet some marines," he said excitedly.

"Most likely. Many of them usually stay in this part of the ship, if they're not exercising...or eating," she responded.

John had been staring at reports all afternoon long. Starting up a Marine detachment from the ground up was a lot of work, Thank god some of it was already generated and he just had to finish up. He decided to walk down the corridor to get some fresh air. Turning a corner he nearly ran into a child and his mother. "Wooow, excuse me little man, I should be more careful."

Anara looked up at the man with the tattoo under his eye, it looked like a weapon. Edom slipped his arm around Anara's leg, but looked up in curiosity, "He has markings on his face, mommy."

Anara nodded at her son, "Hello- sorry about that. My son is very curious about the marine department. My name is Lt. Meru Anara and this is my son- Meru Edom."

Edom looked up at the tall human, "Why did you mark your face, sir?" He spoke in a polite voice.

"Well, nice to meet you two." John knelt and extended his hand to Edom. "This is a tattoo of a drawing that my daughter had made for me when she was about your age." Johns eyes went from the boy to his mother. "Major John Cole, I am the commanding officer for the Marine detachment.

Edom offered his hand to John and gave it a light shake. He smiled when John mentioned another child. "You have a daughter? How old is she now?"

Anara offered her hand to John, "A pleasure to meet you, Major Cole. Would it be okay if we took a look around? Edom loves to explore."

John answered Edom first, "She would have been twelve years old next month." John said with a solemn face. John stood, taking Anara's hand. "Of course, would you like a guide or would you prefer just to wander on your own?"

"A guide would be wonderful. I am sure you would be able to answer his questions better than myself, " she replied. She waited to see what he would show her first.

"To tell you the truth, there isn't a lot to see, a side from the barracks, armory and my office. It's a 36 man detachment, our primary purpose is to repel boarders if the need should ever arise and the be the main boarding party should we need to retake a Federation ship. Other than our regular jobs we spend a lot of time training on the holodeck for possible scenarios." John paused before continuing, "Would you like to see the Barracks first?"

Edom nodded as he let go of Anara's hand. He moved to stand by John, following beside him. "What do you have to do to be a marine?" he asked as he followed him to the Barracks. Anara followed not too far behind them.

John walked slowly as he spoke to the boy, "That would depend on the career track you choose, Enlisted or Officer?" I was first enlisted, went to boot camp straight out of high school and right into war."

"Wow! You were in war? Was it scary? Mommy says wars are scary. My grandparents fought against the Cardassians when mommy was a little girl," Edom spoke with confidence. His eyes were open for the Barrack room.

"War can be scary, I fought in the Federation/ Dominion cold war, the Federation/Klingon war and the Dominion war." John replied.

"Did you know that the Bajorans fought the Cardassians for their freedom? They won, but none of our family members fought in the war," Edom spoke with a tone of matter of fact.

Anara listened to her son give John a history lesson on Bajoran independence. When they walked into the Barracks, Anara took a look at the beds, "Are those comfortable..?" They didn't look comfortable at all.

John shook his head, "They are not made for comfort, not really. They are made to save space. Marines also give up a lot of their privacy. See the small box at the foot of their beds?" John pointed to the small 3 foot long box. "That's their foot locker where they keep most of their belongings."

"Oh, wow.... that's not much space at all," she responded.

Edom came into the room and he put his hands on one of the beds. He seemed to be testing the softness of the bed. "It's not very soft, mommy."

"Hopefully our beds will be better than these," she said honestly. She then turned back to John, "What's next?"

"We have the armory where all the weapons are stowed." John replied.

Edom jumped up and turned around. He ran out of the room, but then stopped in the corridor, when he realized he didn't know where it was.

Anara laughed at his energy, "I think it would be best if he didn't touch, but he can look." She said to John, making sure he knew not to place a weapon in her son's hand. She then followed him to the armory.

"With your permission, we could let him hold a nonfunctional ones." As the trio entered the armory, they could see the weapons of various models all stood in their racks, dress right dress and secure.

Anara pursed her lips as she saw the look of excitement on Edom's face, "I suppose that would be alright. I don't want him to miss out on educational opportunities."

Edom jumped up in excitement. He moved to John's side, curious as to what weapon he would be able to hold.

"Hummm, let me see..." John looked at the Armorer, "Let me have a non functioning TR116 and a pulse rifle." The Armorer had been working on a TR116 rifle that now was nearly complete. He pulled the bolt back and handed it to John. John inspected the weapon to make sure that it was clear before kneeling in front of Edom with it.

Edom eagerly moved his fingers over the weapon, "How does it work?" He was clearly interested in the functioning of the weapon.

Anara watched quietly, but didn't interfere with Edom's observation.

John offered the weapon to Edom, "Would you like to hold it?" John smiled, "It's okay, it will not fire."

Edom nodded eagerly as he took the weapon. He pointed it at a wall, "How does it work?" He took in the length and width of the weapon.

"This particular weapon uses projectiles instead of energy, like the phaser does, which does limit its capability, but is perfect in certain circumstances. It fires a chemically propelled tritanium bullet. I keep one of these and a pistol version in my quarters." John explained.

Edom pressed the button and noticed that the weapon did not respond. He fired it a couple of times. "That's fun, but I wish I could see it fire for real."

"Uhh...maybe another time, sweetheart. I think we've taken enough of John's time. I need to introduce you to your new nanny," she said.

She looked up at John, "Thank you for the tour. I'm sure he'll remember this for quite some time." She moved the weapon from Edom's hand, struggling a little- giving her son a firm look and then she had in her hands with satisfaction. She handed it back to John.

John took the weapon with a slightly confused look and nodded, "You're welcome, please come back anytime."

Anara nodded at John and then began leading Edom out. He could hear Edom's voice speaking excitedly about all of the weapons that he saw. He obviously wanted to return in the near future.

OFF:


Major John Cole
Marine CO
USS Achilles

&

Lt. Meru Anara
Chief Science Officer
USS Achilles

&

Civilian Meru Edom
Little Marine Wannabe

 

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