MJ woke up early as usual, took his supplements, and started heading to his workout. He felt good overall, fully recovered from the injuries he’d received in the Gamma Quadrant. He was also almost back to the weight he had been lifting before the injury, but he knew it would take a bit longer.

He was halfway to his destination when he noted something was a little off onboard the Chimera. There usually weren’t that many people around this early in the morning, but the corridors seemed a little busier, and people were moving with a purpose.

Ensign Shau tapped his comlink. =/\=”Shau to Velez. Is anything going on I should know about?” NE Velez was working the night shift this week, so he figured the man would know more than he did.

“Actually happening? No. But the Senior Staff got called into a meeting a while ago, so something might be happening soon. We’re running through all of our checklists, and I could use an extra set of hands.” That made sense… MJ knew night shifts generally had fewer people than the day shifts. “Can you cover the armory inventory?”

“I’ll be there in 10. Shau out.”

+++++++++++++++++++

10 Minutes later, MJ arrived at the armory to see a dozen people already there, the senior person being a Major from the Marine detachment. “Morning, Sir.” Ensign Shau said by way of greeting.

“Ensign.” That verbal acknowledgement and a brief nod were the only responses he received.

Strictly speaking, the Major… any Major or Lieutenant Commander for that matter… could open the Armory themselves. This wasn’t an emergency, though; it was an audit. MJ was there to maintain accountability from the Starfleet side of things.

The Quartermasters would oversee the work, with a joint team of Crewmen and Marines conducting the actual ‘kick and count’, as they informally called these audits. This happened at regular intervals, but unscheduled inventories weren’t uncommon. Especially as a ‘sanity check’ if something might be about to happen.

Given the presence of the Major, the concern seemed to be coming from the Marine side of things. That’s interesting… I suppose we’ll have to see what information gets passed down. At the moment, everything seemed to be a case of Officers being proactive and trying to get ahead of any requests or instructions from their bosses. Sometimes that amounted to nothing, but just as often it helped prime the process of getting the crew ready for whatever operation was coming their way.

At the moment, Ensign Shau would focus on the task at hand of observing the inventory. Tedious as it may be.

Ensign MJ Shau - Security Officer - USS Chimera