Posted by Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland (MACO) in Gym - Early Mornings & Daily Routines

Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Gym - Early Mornings & Daily Routines

Posted by Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland (MACO) in Gym - Early Mornings & Daily Routines
Posted by… suppressed (24) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It was early in the morning ship time, and the only signs of life were the night shift occasionally walking across the hallways getting from one location to the next. This time of day was Rachel Grey’s favourite, it was the only true quiet time afforded to the ship’s Medical Officer. Although there were fewer than sixty people on board the ship it still felt crowded to her, which admittedly she did enjoy, but quiet was necessary to balance out the hectic life aboard a Starfleet Vessel.

As Rachel entered the ship’s gym, she could hear Chef preparing the morning meal. She’d gained some kinship with the ship Galley Chief, the Chef enjoyed the challenge of cooking for a Vegetarian with almost no inhibition in what constitutes vegetables. She’d spent much of her trip on the Sojourner being a guinea pig for different dishes especially those with alien flora. She shook her head in amusement at the thought as she entered the empty gym and hopped onto the treadmill. Her Starfleet-issue exercise clothing was surprisingly comfortable which was, she thought to herself, important as exercise was one of the few group pastimes available to the crew.

She grabbed the small headphones from the pocket of her unzipped hoodie, the hoodie she tossed over to the side next to the exercise towel and water bottle, and placed the electronic device into her ears. She used the gesture command to start the recording she’d prepared for this morning’s exercise, an artificial reading of a series of Medical Journals she’d picked up the last time they were on Earth she hadn’t been able to get through. She hit the treadmill panel to increase the incline and set the pace at a brisk walk.

Rachel Grey

Some time would pass into Dr. Grey’s work out before Jack entered the Gym. He wasn’t a comfortable Gym user, but he still made the effort. He believed it was important to try and look after the physical self aboard a Starship. Plus, he thought he ought to lead by example, a Doctor ought to be healthy, right?
He wasn’t expecting to find the CMO in the Gym at this hour. It had been his intention to go early in the morning to avoid people and the awkward conversations that usually come with them. But, nevertheless, he was here now so he may as well get on with it. He thought it best not to disturb Doctor Grey, especially as she had her earphones in. Jack wasn’t all that clued in with Gym etiquette, but he knew better than to disturb people listening to something.
He made his way onto a Treadmill and set the pace to a light jog. He chose to forgo listening to music and chose instead to pay close attention to his breath as he jogged along.

Ensign Jack Fletcher
Medical Officer

After finishing her warm-up Rachel made her way to the free weights, she grabbed a pair of the square magnetic dumbells and set them to what she considered her medium-weight, sat down and began a simple incline press for chest, once she finished her first set she seemed to realise that she wasn’t alone. As she took her momentary rest she removed the headphones from her ears and attached them to her exercise top with a magnetic click “Good morning Ensign” She said to her subordinate with her characteristic Chesire smile “Haven’t seen you down here before”

Dr. Grey - CMO

bump

“No Ma’am, I’ve only been down here a couple of times. I tried to work out quite regularly back on earth, but I’ve fallen out of the habit, so I figured now was the time to start trying to take care of myself a little”

Ensign Jack Fletcher
Medical Officer

Another figure darkened the door of the gym. This time it was a thin woman of midland height (@5‘6”) with striking silver hair and sharp features. The oddity perhaps was that she was using a thin metal cane. Pausing at the door she looked - almost inspected - the two there. “Ah, I was told I might find you here,” she said. Her voice had a ‘librarian’ tone to it. All that was missing was the glasses. She wore a light blue track suit and ‘sensible’ sneakers. “I’m new with your group. Just shipped in. My name is Misty. Officially Misty Glass Havens. Given the nature of the name I prefer just being called M.” She paused. “You would be Ensign Fletcher and you, LT Grey.” There had been a roster notation of a NLtjg shipping aboard before launch. Nodding to each one, she said, “May I join you?”
- NL Misty Havens

“Please, by all means” Jack said politely, his exhaustion from his workout beginning to show.

Ensign Jack Fletcher
Medical Officer

Misty gave out a little harumph at Jack’s labored response. It was polite. He was a good boy by the sound of it. She settled on the edge of a bench and began a slow but precise run of stretches. It was noted that she was very careful and seemed to have no inclination to overdo anything. “When I was young I overheard a doctor say to a patient that he, the patient, needed to do something that made him puff. I would say that you are succeeding.” She paused to focus on her upper body stretches. “Is this a kind of team building event with only the medical group together here?”
- NL Misty Havens

OOC: Bump .. Gene

Jack turned the speed down on his Tredmill before he answered the question. “Not quite” Jack chuckled. “I’ve been meaning to get back in gym for some time now, so I’ve guilt-talked myself down here and the good Doctor just happened to be here when I arrived.” Jack smiled.

Ensign Jack Fletcher
Medical Officer

A thin brow rose giving Jack perhaps the impression of a librarian looking down at him over an overdue book. “Whatever works,” she said after a moment. She looked at Jack and at Dr Grey. “There aren’t many of us on board a ship this small. Us three. An equal number who are general corpsmen and support. I wonder if it would be an idea to have a kind of team fitness challenge. Our department meeting regularly to exercise to give the others impetus to do the same. Then we can do regular check ups to award the department who has improved the most. What do you all think?” She did a slow lean and twist in a stretch as though she were concerned with overdoing it.

Rachel cocked her head at the junior medic “It’d be a decent Idea, just make certain to keep a close eye on Pilot Laursen, she has bad luck in regards to safe training” Her expression seemed both fond and distracted as if thinking of twelve different things. As they spoke she returned to lifting her weights.

Misty paused a moment and her gaze went sharp in her focus. “I remember seeing her. I think she sits too much. Needs to move more. Stretch more. Pilot’s job is too sedentary. We’re crossing space for goodness sake, not doing an obstacle course.” She nodded as though to herself then continued, “You’re right doctor. Everything should be worked from the baseline examinations we have on record. We want an evolution, not a revolution in health.”

When she leaned back up she asked, “What are your specialties?”
- NL Misty Havens, Medical

The Sojourners Cihef medical officer snorted at the question “General Surgery, Xenobiology, and I trained with a MACO unit for a few years for Combat Casualty Care as a medic.” She answered in between pumps.

Dr. Grey - CMO

“I’m impressed,” Misty said. “Combat medic. My condition doesn’t allow me to be quite so active. But I have my own battles. General psychology, dentistry, GP light. How about you?” she asked Jack as she stood, moving up to a bowflex like unit and sat, taking deep breaths before working her arms with overhead pulls. The others would note that she took care in what she did. There was nothing excessive on her motions almost like she was taking care not to strain herself.
- NL Misty Havens

OOC: Steve .. I didn’t see any specialty on your bio and don’t want to step on any medical toes here. If you had envisioned any of the above that Misty mentioned just mark that in and I’ll edit mine. She’s a NE as it were so do not want to steal any thunder or anything you had envisioned for Jack. .. Gene
OOC: Pasting Steve’s post in here ..
IC:

“I’d be up for a fitness challenge!” Jack agreed enthusiastically. “It would definitely give me the impetus to get myself fitter and stay that way”

Ensign Jack Fletcher
Medical Officer

Rachel openly stared at the woman doing her exercises, she had an interested glint in her eyes “I think the Armory staff have team exercises on occasion, they’d be a good basis for any future regiments”

Dr. Grey - CMO

Misty pulled the bar down to the back of her shoulders and held it there. Rachel could tell the woman was mentally doing a count as she did so. “Are you saying, Doctor, that we should be in attendance to .. assess them?” Her lips curled up into a small smile then she let the bar raise slowly, carefully letting the weight come to rest.

Rachel nodded “Yes that could be useful, I’m used to Tier one training which doesn’t really suit this idea” She said clearly not making any connection with her smile.
“Oh? Were you participatory in that training or were you medical support? That kind of training is .. beyond my ability. Observation. Physio is about my limit. Still with your inclusion in that they must have liked what they saw in you. What drew you to a combat support role?”

“We are fortunate that we have gravity,” she said, “else we’d be doing constant assessments. Have you run into anyone in your combat experience where some would utilize that ability to cheat, putting gravity lower, or try to speed up their exercise by increasing it?” Her head tipped to one side as she again held the weights in place. “What was Andor like for gravity?”
- NL Misty Havens

The tall redhead paused in thought, she did so whilst holding her weights high above her absentmindedly. It took her arms shaking for her to realise what she was doing and she lowered her arms and answered “I don’t have any actual combat experience, only simulating combat. But as I understand it it’s rare to change gravity suddenly on purpose without having highly trained elite soldiers as it can harm friendlies as much as the enemy” She put the weights down for cooldown until her next set “Andoria has about the same Gravity as Earth, main difference is that it’s real damn cold”

Dr Grey- CMO

“My pardon. I was in error in not being clear. I was meaning something like doing a treadmill in say 1.1 gravity, not any sudden changes in the midst of physical training. That would ..” she tipped her head while think of the wording, “.. give us more work than we’d like.” Her attention turned on Rachel. “I’ve never met an alien,” she said in a frank tone. “Not even a Vulcan, though I hear their distaste in us is well returned from the medical community due to their reluctance to share even in reformatory technology.” She sniffed in some deprecatory fashion. “I hope your Andorian friends were more open. I know little about them, or Vulcans, however have caught some rumor that they don’t much like one another.” She paused in thought. “Perhaps it would have been better had they found us first rather than the Vulcans.”
- NL Misty Havens, Med

Rachel shook her head “Gravity training does have its uses but it’s not good to do so often. I’ve heard that some freighter crews keep their ships at .5 or even .3 G’s. but if you take treatment for muscle degradation and bone density you should be fine but working in a constant state of higher gravity has odd effects.”

Misty pursed her lips, moving to a similar stretch of her arms and upper body. “After all the education and studies they still do that, exist in a lower gravity state and figure that a treatment would make up for it. Nothing short of abusing themselves figuring a pill will take care of it.” She sniffed at the thought.

She cocked her head at the Andorian question “No I found the Andorians to be quite abrasive, not exactly xenophobic but not friendly to Pinkskins” She said with a grin “I don’t much care fer Vulcans myself but they are less militant than the blues, we might have ended up as some sort of Client race, as it stands we’re just a primitive curiosity to them.” She blinked as she realised what Misty had said “Wait like no aliens?” She sounded surprised “Not even a guest lecturer in primary school?”

Dr Grey- CMO

“Abrasive. Some have said that about me,” she commented with a small snort. “They sound like they would be a fun bunch in time. Honestly I think I’d trust an Andorian over a Vulcan. It sounds like if an Andorian doesn’t much like you they’d make that known, but a Vulcan, to use an old expression, talks with a forked tongue.” Her displeased librarian expression came through for a moment before her thoughts rolled around to Rachel’s surprise. “I grew up in rural New Mexico, nor far from Roswell of all places. It had no interest in aliens and being a tiny town did not attract any special guest appearances. I went to school eventually in Santa Fe. Again not precisely a Vulcan magnet. I did see a few video lectures and interviews in some psych classes related to Vulcans but I’ve never met one. I suppose a focus on psychology and dentistry was kryptonite to a Vulcan.”
Misty, NL Med

Jack continued his work out as he listened in. His own first hand experience with what people on earth considered aliens was also fairly limited, but he tried his best to remain as open minded as possible

Ensign Jack Fletcher
Medical Officer

“What about you, Mister Fletcher? I’m guessing you must come in somewhere between myself and Doctor Grey? Tell us your story. What was it like to meet an actual offworld alien for the first time?” One could presume her tone to be something that may be on the edge of mocking - not Jack - but that of elevating an alien to something demi-god like, but there was too a tone that she was interested in what Jack had to say.

Misty looked at Jack and, to her, saw someone who was more hesitant - more thoughtful perhaps? And nothing like putting him on the spot like that, she thought. Searching herself she drew out the memory of herself those years back in a classroom whose air conditioning was laboring that hot early summer day and where most of the class was fanning themselves with their tablet or resource notes. She had been leaning forward to not stick to the seat back; a fly had gotten in through an open window, a valiant failure to provide a breeze. It was worrying itself around the professor’s desk lamp. She smiled. That had been a miserable day. “For myself, when I looked at a Vulcan, if only on the screen, and heard the even, measured voice, I thought that he didn’t look that much different than us. Mind you, he needed a much better hair stylist! I think I was expecting something more out of Science Fiction, Creature from the Black Lagoon like. But there was the unmistakable - at least to me - tone of superiority and patronizing. That was straight out of Science Fiction that I knew. But I sat there, mesmerized thinking ‘that individual was from another world and was talking about the destructiveness of aberrant emotions like it was out of one of my textbooks’. It was astonishing and revolting at the same time.”
- NL Misty Havens, Med

“It’s been one of the most important and exciting things that’s ever happened in my life!” Jack beamed enthusiastically. “I haven’t met that many ‘aliens’, but my time on this ship is only just beginning.” You could hear how much Jack was relishing this opportunity from the excitement in his voice.
“What could be better than meeting people that are so different from yourself. To be able to learn about them, their culture and traditions. It’s amazing! But what’s even better is that despite all the differences that you may find, there are always similarities that you can relate too. It’s very reassuring.”

Ensign Jack Fletcher
Medical Officer

“What was it like, though?” Misty coaxed. “Who was it? How did you find them? What was your impression? What made it so exciting?” He was practically glowing. Whatever and whoever it was must have made a significant impression on him. She was very curious to know what happened given his own response.

“It was a Vulcan Medical Professional giving a guest lecture at med school, and honestly - it was terrifying.” He chuckled. “I knew I wanted to speak to her, purely because she was from off-world, so I knew I just had to ask her a question after the lecture. But I was so excited to speak to her that I had no idea what I was gonna ask her!”

Travis walked into the room noting that there were a bunch of officers in the room, he gave them a nod “Sir’s” he said as he walked to an open area place an O2 restrictor over his mouth and began to jump rope. His large frame started to hop up and down in rhythm as the rope skipped around his rather large muscular frame. He started humming a cadence under his breath to help him keep time and give his lungs a little bit of a stretch before he hopped on the tread mill.

Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland
M.A.C.O

“Sergeant,” Misty said by way of greeting. Her brow arched up at the noncommittal greeting. Either he was not excited about officers - MACO officers tended to be hit and miss in their qualifications. The ‘missed’ ones tended to not be ‘missed’ and suffered a higher degree of friendly fire incidents than those ‘hits’. Watching him skip she gave him the critical eye, checking his form. Relatively uninterested in his frame, Misty was keener on his method and moves. She had had more soldiers in ‘physio’ than she had had in any other group. It tended to be split between regular physical mishaps and anything else mixed in from exercises to showing off to actual injuries under fire. Those had been more limited and, truth to tell, motivated by Earth based actions that the miliary had been called upon to do. It was no accident that the fleet training was principally at military academies. Historically astronauts were plucked from the air force. One Ensign Gagarin could attest to that.
Misty Havens, NL Med

Travis continued his routine while the rest of his squad was off reviewing the mission debrief, they would be going over it with the Lieutenant later. He knew it all too well since he was the one that wrote it. He had never lost anyone before, Jack had been a great platoon leader, and his best friend. He was hard but he pushed Travis in a way that had made him a better Marine and a team player.

His mind wandered to the past as he changed to alternating crossovers with the rope and continued to hum. After another minute the timer on his watch began to chirp. ‘thirty seconds left’ he thought and increased the speed. The rope danced faster and faster as the timer ticked down. With a last double speed of the rope the timer finished as did he.

His breath was a little elevated but certainly not labored. He took a few deep breaths and set his rope down taking a seat on the floor. He stretched his legs out in front of himself laying flat against his legs and started a soft count from fifteen in his head.

Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland
M.A.C.O

Ensign Jack Fletcher
Medical Officer