SS Sojourner
Main Sim - Sickbay - The Sargent's Checkup
[snip]
Rachel had been attepmting an upside down nap, attaching her legs to the ceiling, hands in pockets and white lab coat hanging down. She awoke when the door slid open and her eyes widened at the sight.
“Sorry to be a bother,” Rick, the Petty Officer, said. “Captain suggested bringing Sergeant Nessa down to get looked at. Has been asleep in a crate. Uh, she was loaded by mistake.”
Rachel quickly undid her leg restraints and fell down, just barely managing a spin and landing with a quiet thump, knees bent. then immediately moved towards the dog with a cocked head. “A wee dug” She said in a quiet voice.
The tall Ensign added, “She is very well trained. Perhaps you can use her here? She has had training as a therapy and morale dog.”
Rick shifted the box in his arms before setting the crate down on a bed. Kneeling down he gave Nessa a good pet. “She’s a good girl,” he added, “Apart from likely being hungry, Captain just wants to make sure she’s hale and whole.” Rick looked wistful at the dog. Barb’s folks had an aging, mostly black cocker spaniel named Elouise who was the most jealous but adorable thing. He missed Earth, and Barb.
Rick and Sasha
Nessa came striding in, her stance was of a well trained, well mannered and cared for dog. Where Rick sat the box down Nessa came over to it on the floor and took a seat on her hindlegs as if this was now her spot to be on station at and on duty. The dog looked about as if waiting for someone to give it further orders or attention. It so far seemed to accept that the crew were now its trainers/care takers and that her duty was to them.
GM CockRoach
Rachel squatted next to the dog, head still cocked staring at it as if she’d never seen a canine before. She put a hand absentmindedly in her coat pocket and removed a hand scanner that she turned towards the dog and started a scan “Wee Nessa has a rank” She said in an equally absent manner “Sargent, MACO dog I presume?” She asked a little more lucid.
Dr. Grey - CMO
“Vampires. Werewolves. We should name the ship the Transylvania, not the Sojourner,” Sasha murmured as the doctor touched down to the deck. “I need to watch when I give blood.”
Rick glanced at the taller Ensign and raised a dark brow. Evidently there was superstitious side to this Moscovian. What kind of bedtime stories did he grow up with anyway? He looked down at Nessa, and muttered himself, “Slouch a little,” he said, referring to the Sergeant, sitting at ‘attention’. “You’re making us look bad.”
Sasha, however, took it to meaning him and stooped forward. “Like this?” the Ensign said, puzzled.
“Not you,” Rick replied, his head making tipping gestures toward Nessa. “Her.” To the doctor, he answered, “We appear to have inherited our first MACO aboard.” Idly he looked at Nessa. The positive thing, he thought, was that yesterday he passed by the ship’s small Arboretum while he was chasing down a warp coil monitoring unit on D-Deck. Our good Nessa would likely appreciate the Arboretum to do her Sergeant-ey business there.
Nessa looked quizzically at Rick’s words directed to her, evidently they weren’t something she outright recognized and seemed to expect a clarification or another command.
“Sir,” he said to Sasha. “Pass me that tablet. I think I saw that she was going to Mars to finish her training. Might be worth seeing where she was at for her training and what commands she knows so we can use them.” He waited for Sasha to pass it over, then, as he was looking, he said, “Would be just my luck that Nessa would know more commands than me.” He glanced back to Sasha. “Uh, don’t tell my girlfriend that. I don’t need the competition.”
Rick and Sasha
When Rachel began her scan, the dog laid down and then onto her back, as if the sound of the scanner was a trained thing for her to do to allow a better reading or scan for problems. Or maybe it was to instill a sign of trust and service to those ‘caring’ for her/Nessa. In either case the scans showed the dog was in physically in overall good health, probably in better physical health the most usual dogs of her breeding stock. Her mental acuity scans also showed in a high average compared to an average breed of hers. Otherwise the dog showed fading residuals signs of a sleeping agent used by Earth for animals like this for transport. It basically put them into a sort of sleep hibernation to reduce their need for biological needs/food/water etc. The dog would probably desire a good meal/drink though soon, and shortly after a spot to do her business in the next hour or so at most.
When Sasha passed the tablet to Rick he would see a profile with the following:
The first couple of lines were your usual, MACO service tags, name, current rank, current assignment (originally for the 6th Alpha S/R Training squad on Mars colony), current handler (formerly listed as to be a Corporal Samantha Haynes of said squad), as well as her MACO service tag number and DNA listings related to her breeding/parents/litter mates. After that was a list of her current health status before being shipped off from Earth, it showed she was up to date as of four days ago on all shots, vitamin aides, and enhancements given to such animals and that such would not be needed again for another 3 years or situations changed to warrant an update. The last section showed her current finished training lists and those which still needed to be finished.
The finished list of trainings first were for parade/march/off duty commands, ‘Sit’, ‘Heel/Stay’, ‘Rest/Sleep Time’, ‘Go Eat/Play’, ‘Attention!’ (said with a sharper command tone), ‘At Ease!’ (same command sharp tone), ‘Fall In!’ (again same as before), ‘Parade Rest!’ (same as before), ‘Salute!’ (same as before), ‘Handler’ (which seemed to be a command where one pointed to who was in charge of the dog for a ‘mission’, and finally ‘Release’ which was to indicate to the dog the current handler was no longer such. Beyond these there was also those related to completed training for morale/phycological care of squad mates like, ‘Observe’ (which seemed related to watching a designated person for signs of stress or the like), ‘Report’ (which was usually combined with other commands like Observe for the dog to do so for a trained period of time then report back with either one bark for ‘no’ and two barks for ‘yes’ signaling same person had a problem), ‘Physical Care’ which seemed to be for the dog to attempt to get a target doing something physical to distract them from a perceived issue, and ‘Mental Care’ which seemed to be for the dog to attempt to lure the target to someone else for mental well being care, last in this list was ‘Help’ where the dog would either help the designated person to something they pointed at in some way say by helping to drag a bag or something, or attempt to locate help for a person who called for such if say they had fallen or were injured etc. The last bit of completed training commands it seems were related to simple ‘find, locate, and/or retrieve’ commands where she could be given various scented things, simple pictures of an item or person, and then attempt to locate them within a certain range of the handler usually about 50 yards or so if the dog found what was indicated, or failed after this range/time it returned to the handler and gave one bark for ‘no’ and two barks for ‘yes’. No meaning it couldn’t find what was sought, or yes meaning it found such but could not reach it/return with it. The last bit also showed she was conditioned for light combat engagement at the squad level so in theory should not cower or run off unless directed if fighting started, though in such cases the dog was trained to stay close to its handler and take cover until ordered otherwise.
The list of training for on Mars for the dog to complete was related to things like search/rescue of a person or target, alerting patrolling forces of threats, drug/contraband search, bomb location, and the like, as well as commands related to restraining/attacking/etc of an enemy target. None of this had been done to completion however.
GM CockRoach