Settling In

Posted on Thu Aug 5th, 2021 @ 2:19am by 2nd Lieutenant Alexander Tanner

Mission: Season 5: Episode 2: Operation Save Humanity
Location: Marine XO's Quarters
733 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Alex Tanner was in his quarters on the USS Elysium putting away the last of his effects, he had deliberately not accumulated a great deal of personal items over his years in the Corps, he thought it was rather impractical to traipse all over the galaxy with a whole household of items in tow. That wasn’t to say that he lived like a hermit, but he was acutely aware that his position aboard the Elysium as Marine Executive Officer, gave his quarters that were far more spacious than any other he’d been assigned, so maybe he should collect a few more knickknacks.

He moved over to the coffee table in the middle of the room and took a cigar out of his humidor, a Montecristo Desperado, he absentmindedly flicked on the purification device he had brought with him, most Starfleet Captains were not overly impressed with their ships smelling like tobacco. Cutting the end of the cigar he lit the stick and inhaled the sweet, slightly spicy smoke, cigars, he admitted were not the best habit to have picked up, but they made a great stress relief.

He glanced around the room at the small number of items he had stored on the walls and shelving space he had available, there was a small frame bearing the different insignia of the previous units that he had served with, with a similar one next to it, his father’s. There were a few framed pictures of family and friends, none of them included his stepfather, or as Alex referred to him ‘The Replacement’. He blocked the negative thoughts that came from thinking of the man, and how he had been betrayed by the person who should have been the closest to him, the one he had nearly decided to spend the rest of his life with.

Shaking his head, he looked around the room again at his collection of swords, hung from two brackets on the wall was the first pair of swords, the first was a long two-handed European style longsword, the second a rapier. Alex knew how to wield both of these ancient weapons, fencing had been a lifelong passion of his, something the had shared with his late father. He smiled at he looked at the remainder of his collection, a matched pair of daisho, Japanese samurai swords, he not only used these swords in practice and exercise, but he also used them on the holodeck in historical reenactments.

He pulled his mind from his musing and turned his thoughts to the ships present mission, when he had received his orders to report to the Elysium he hadn’t really had any idea what it was that he was getting into, and certainly not to the level of seriousness that the situation appeared to be. In the short time he had been aboard he’d had several meetings with his detachment CO and had been brought up to speed on the current situation planetside. Deploying any kind of Marine element to a civilian quarter was always going to be problematic, not only was the terrain going to act against them, but there was also the risk to the civilian populace.

He checked the chrono on the wall and saw that he had less time that he thought he had before he was to meet with the detachment’s First Sergeant, if there was one man who knew the Marines and the best way to deploy them to their individual skills it was going to be him. He had a few ideas percolating in his mind, but he would keep them to himself until after he had conferred with the Top. Unlike the Sergeant Alex was yet to head down to the planet’s surface and he hoped to get a better understanding of the lock situation from someone who had firsthand knowledge of the situation, he had served with some officers who thought that Non-Commissioned Officers were only there to follow orders and leave the real decisions to those with Officer’s Commissions, Alex though such individuals fools, but he had observed and learned from their mistakes and knew he would not repeat them.

He stubbed out his cigar into the crystal ashtray on the coffee table and stood up, straightening his uniform as he did so, there was work to be done.