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

Posted by Lieutenant Rachel Grey (Chief Medical Officer) in Gym - Early Mornings & Daily Routines

Posted by Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland (MACO) in Gym - Early Mornings & Daily Routines
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
snip
“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!”

Misty, in thought, stroked the underside of her lip with a fingertip. “And?” She urged. “Don’t keep us in suspense? Did you speak to her?”

OOC: Pasting in ..
Jack chuckled. “Of course I did!” He smiled. “Although I made an idiot of myself - but that’s not too difficult for me to - because it I’m sure it was a dumb question I asked.”
As Jack reminisced he thought how recent the events he spoke of actually were, but in all that had happened to him since, it seem like a long time ago.

Misty mulled that over and glanced at the CMO with a raised brow that made her sharp nose stand out. “No, Mr Fletcher, it was only dumb in your own mind. You spoke up and that is admirable. It is only a lesser being who makes one feel small because of what question they are asked.” Yes, for Misty this was a roundabout way of implying that the insufferable Vulcans had implied the question was less than worthy of their vaunted attention. “I’ll wager that you are one who mulls over things before speaking up, and if you speak up before that you feel it is less than your best. Am I close to the mark?” Her tone was not derisive though she was focused on Jack with a curious eye.

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

The sergeant, now off the breathing inhibitor, and on the floor was noticeably engaged in a stretch. She watched him do a mental count; that was always easy to spot. At least for that. When he relaxed, and before he was able to switch legs, she asked, “Sergeant, we are talking about our first contact experiences with aliens. Do you have one to share?”
- NL Misty Havens, Med
Travis looked up from his leg, collected himself and stood up. He thought about it a little , he was not cleared to tell them about the last mission that he had been on and those had just been video images and not really his first contact with aliens. “Sir,” he said acknowledging her, “I can’t really say, we did have a Vulcan security expert come and train us on some of their surveillance methods. ” he paused and moved to engage them more socially. “I can’t say the conversation was all that interesting but they sure knew their field very skilled.” he said with a slight chuckle.

Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland
M.A.C.O

“I’m curious to their real world examples of their surveillance methods,” Misty said with a tip of her head. “And why they would need them in the first place. Where do they employ their methods? On us?” She had gone back to her upper body stretching. Slow, exact exercises that would not bring anyone along into any stringent fitness regime or even close. Misty was very careful about every move she made in her exercises.
- NL Misty Havens, Med

Travis shifted his weight slowly to his other leg changing his position before he slowly laid down across the other leg as he spoke. “Well, ” he said with a pause that said he was still processing the question a little ” Cap never got a straight answer to that question.” he noted with an extremely masked sadness in his voice.

“They said it was mostly for keeping teams and vessels safe during diplomatic missions, and first contact.” he responded he had significant doubts based on some of the techniques employed. Some of them had seemed more like counter intelligence that surveillance even though they could be applied that way. “They were rather guarded when it came to practical applications.” he said finally as he extended his stretch slowly.

Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland
M.A.C.O

Misty let out a kind of ‘sniff’ that may have marked a certain disdain for the Vulcans in general. “Sergeant, if there is one word that could encapsulate the Vulcans it would be what you said. Guarded. Almost like when they locked up their emotions they locked up a whole lot more in the process.”

Slowly standing she said, “I must be off. I have a coffee appointment soon with an engineer. His father is not well and I want to see how he is doing.” She turned to each one of them and bade them fare well before moving off in her usual stiff gait.
- NL Misty Havens, Med

Travis gave a small nod in understanding. “Nice talking with you Sir,” he said as she turned to walk out.

Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland
M.A.C.O

Travis stood and went over to the weight machine and began his should pulls. His mind drifted to thoughts of the past and the things that he had seen and done. He loved his job there were always new challenges, but they never prepared him for the emotional things the regrets or the flashbacks the came at odd times with familiar smells and sounds.

The weights drifted up and down as he worked his shoulders.

Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland
M.A.C.O

Rachel lowered the weights she was using, watching the medic leave with a thoughtful expression. She absentmindedly wiped off some sweat from her forehead with the small towel on her shoulder “If you ever get the chance, Staff Sergeant, I suggest you read up on the Andorian-Vulcan conflict. It makes for interesting reading, growing up I never thought of Vulcans as a particularly combative people and with the time I’ve spent with the blues, well interesting reading in any case.”

Dr Grey- CMO

Sutherland looked over his shoulder continuing to pull the weight sweat now beading up on his exposed traps and arms. It was the doctor who had examined him the first day.
“Sounds like an interesting read Lieutenant, I feel like there is still a lot about the poin..... er Vulcan’s that we don’t know ” he paused , watch yourself sergeant he thought to himself. He tried to press the conversation forward. “They act all high a mighty but there is an air of secrecy about them that gives me pause.” he said as he finished his last rep, moving to the bench press.

Staff Sergeant Travis Sutherland
M.A.C.O

The door to the gym whooshed open and an older looking human stepped in. His broad shoulders strained his uniform jacket. He had short cut greying hair and a beard and moustache that were both silver white. He stepped forward far enough that the door closed behind him as he took stock of the gym and its equipment. Mostly mats resting against the wall, skipping ropes with other smaller equipment and the weights. The room wasn’t very large.

His eyes rested on the CMO and the Staff Sergeant.
“Good morning, sorry to disturb you. I am Lieutenant Commander Alexander Stewart, the new Chief Armory Officer. I am just checking out the ship before I head to the armoury and see to my men.”

~Lt. Commander Alexander Stewart CAO