New Directions

Posted on Friday 23 August 2019 @ 07:19 by
Edited on on Friday 23 August 2019 @ 07:21

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Camp Quantico, Earth
Timeline: Concurrent to USS Merlin timeline
1250 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

The culmination of all his endeavours to this point had come to this very moment, finding himself sitting outside Major Winters office along with his fellow officer graduates of Force Recon training at Camp Quantico. It would be in the next few minutes that he and his comrades would find out where their exciting adventure of being in the Starfleet Marine Corps would take them. Starfleet’s reach was vast and covered over eight thousand light years in any direction you could think of. One hundred and fifty member worlds and plenty more protectorates and owned planets. Hundreds of ships, stations and facilities across the four quadrants, making it impossible to predict where you’d end up as a single person in the grand scheme of the colossus that was the Starfleet machine.

One of the instructors came out from the office and all twelve of the final graduates stiffened. Those assembled were just the commissioned graduates, the enlisted ones were waiting in their barracks to be notified of their fates. The instructor looked down at the PADD he was carrying then looked up and his eyes caught his, and Alex could feel his Adams apple trying to climb up his throat and escape.

“Richards, up front.” The seasoned Gunnery Sergeant said in a firm but calm voice.

Alex leapt up from his seat and moved swiftly forward and into the office as gestured to do so by the Gunnery Sergeant. The doorway led to a small office that was entirely filled by the desk in the middle of it. To call this room a broom closet would’ve been unfair to broom closets, but clearly it served the purpose for which it was intended. Alex moved to stand at attention in front of the desk, behind which sat Major Sadine Winters, the silver haired commander of the training company. She was a stunning woman in her early thirties but had natural silver-white hair that made her look like she had some Andorian in her genetics somewhere.

“Lieutenant Alex Richards, reporting as ordered.” Alex said, as he presented himself. Unlike in the movies, he didn’t bellow it at the top of his voice but spoke it in a conversational tone. You didn’t come in and shout at the company commander in her office – that was a tad impolite.

“At ease Lieutenant.” Winters said, looking up from the PADD she’d been reading and surveyed the young-looking officer standing before her. He didn’t exactly exude confidence in his physical appearance that he was much older than fifteen years old. However, he had come third in the overall rankings in this graduating class, which wasn’t an insignificant achievement. He’d ranked highest amongst the other commissioned officers, beaten only by two very determined Non-Coms, who had very much deserved their rankings.

“Well, lets find out what the number-crunching machine back at HQMC says you should be doing, shall we?” Winters said, picking up a different PADD and opening it up to review the data on what would be happening to 2nd Lieutenant Alex Richards. “Well, looks like you’re getting a front line posting Lieutenant.” Winters announced after reviewing the PADD. “47th Force Recon Group, 2nd Battalion, Fox Company based on the USS Merlin. You’ll report to a Captain Towers upon arrival.”

The USS Merlin… he didn’t know that ship. Where the heck was that ship located anyway? Not that it mattered since ships kinda moved around, so didn’t really count as being ‘located’ anywhere. His vague recollection was that Merlin was hanging around in the Beta Quadrant keeping an eye on the Romulans. Beyond that, he had no clue. Still, Starfleet in its infinite wisdom would somehow find a way to get him out to where he needed to go.

“Thank you, ma’am.” Richards said, accepting the PADD when Winters offered it to him.

“Best of luck Lieutenant.” Winters replied, offering a smile. “Dismiss.”

Richards snapped to attention and saluted before walking out of the office and out into the corridor, where he was greeted by the inquisitive faces of his fellow graduates who were all awaiting their posting assignments.

“What’d you get?” Lt Tyler asked.

“Merlin” Alex replied. “The 47th Recon outfit.”

“Nice! It’s not a cert we’ll get a Recon posting, so you did pretty good fella.” Captain Luther opinioned. He was the most senior in rank to all of them yet had graduated twenty sixth in their class. Rank meant nothing during training, and as a result, their friendship group had evolved beyond rank which would soon separate them.

“Nothing unexpected for brain-box here.” Lt Hughes smirked and grabbed Alex and put him in a necklock hold and ruffled his hair. She was always doing this to him because she viewed him like a little brother, and it was how she showed her affection. It was a tad annoying.

“Richards!” The Gunnery Sergeant called out. “Get your gear and head to the shuttle. They’re not a taxi service, so get your butt on the ride!”

“Yes Gunny.” Richards replied and gave his friends a smile and a wave after grabbing his musette bag and heading out. “See you guys soon, don’t stay strangers!”

“You too kiddo!” Hughes replied and gave him a big hug before he left, kissing him on the cheek. “Gonna miss you, you know that right?”

“I know Cynthia.” Alex said, looking up and seeing the tears in her eyes. He patted her on the arm. “I’m only a comm away you know.” He said, softly.

“Same goes for you.” She said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Don’t you go dying on me out there, or I’ll kill you, you hear me?”

“I’ll keep that very much in mind.” Alex smiled at his closest friend.

Cynthia Hughes had struggled from day one during the training, constantly falling behind and getting her ass chewed out. At night she’d cry herself to sleep and had been very close to ringing the bell. However, on one of their exercises she’d been paired up with Alex, and even now Alex wondered if this had been intentional by Gunny Xanders to do this. Once they were paired up, they saw something in one another that they found they needed. Alex pushed Cynthia through the training, helped her keep up, tutored her in the theory stuff in their down-time, and took her from being on the cusp of being a wash-out to being in one of the strongest teams of the company. A fair few people felt they must be romantically involved, and indeed they were even taken into the office to be questioned on it – but there was no romantic relationship, just incredibly good friends. There might once had been the chance it could’ve gone romantic, but in the circumstances of how they bonded and grew as friends – it came and went – now they viewed each other as pseudo-siblings rather than a couple. Besides, men and women could be best of friends without going romantic, so why did everyone assume they had to be sack-mates?

With a final goodbye to his friends, Alex turned and walked out of the complex and off to the shuttle pad for the ride that’ll take him on his journey to go meet the USS Merlin and his new adventure.