Post and Relief Part I
Posted on Sat 8th Jun, 2013 @ 8:17am by Colonel Horatio Drake & Commander Brian Windsong & Lieutenant Colonel Tallus Karikkar & Lieutenant Colonel Cara Karikkar & Lieutenant Adam Keller & Lieutenant Thomas Jorrel & Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller & Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant JG Xavier Lee & Lieutenant JG Lys Greystone & Lieutenant T'Sai & Lieutenant JG Giellun Hitchins & Ensign Sean Warren & Petty Officer 1st Class Dae Bhen & Jalor & Meryret Penre & Jessica Karikkar
2,346 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Starbase Protector > Deck 45 > 75th Shuttlebay
Timeline: Current
Tags: Covington, Jennings
ON:
A historical part of the Starfleet Marine Corps was the Post and Relief ceremony of senior enlisted marines. Much like a Change-of-Command for officers, this usually consisted of the entire command, in this case, the 75th Marine Battalion, in dress uniforms, information, in front of the leadership of the Starbase. It was a massive production to show both gratitude to the outgoing, and commitment to the incoming. With the exception of being a speaker, officers had little involvement except sitting, watching and listening to the words said. Everyone was encouraged to attend, but not showing up in the proper uniform was seen as an insult to both senior enlisted Marines involved.
Since early this morning, junior Marines and Starfleet personnel were pulled into the shuttlebay to clean and straighten up nearly everything. Traffic had been redirected to other shuttle bays as chairs were set up and the podium which three speakers would be speaking from was positioned in its correct spot. Behind it, a long row of tall flags stood motionless, one for the Federation, one for Starfleet, the third for Starfleet Marine Corps. Each flag repeated the pattern throughout the entire line. Behind those flags, the 1,700+ strong 75th Marine Battalion stood in perfect formation. Platoon Sergeants were in front of their platoons, and Company Gunnery Sergeants were in front of their companies.
All were standing at parade rest, legs apart, hands behind their backs with fingers closed and thumbs interlocked. They looked serious and focused. No one's eyes were shifting around and no one looked nasty. All were clean shaven or had the appropriate size earrings in. Those Marines today not in one of the formations, were escorting people to their seats, standing around answering questions or a part of the Color Guard currently standing at parade rest at the entrance of the hanger. Behind the massive formation of Marines and behind the podium, was a red carpet that lead directly from the podium to two shuttles, placed out from each other in a perfect V. The entire set up looked spectacular as the Starfleet Marine Corps Band, opposite of the Color Guard played entrance music for the guests. The speaker for this ceremony was first, the commanding officer of Starbase Protector, Colonel Drake. He would introduce the current Sergeant Major of the 75th, Sergeant Major Covington. Covington would in turn introduce Sergeant Major Jennings and then board her shuttle with her wife.
Today would be one day however the 75th Marine Battalion wouldn’t soon forget, Jennings had made sure of that.
Pomp and Circumstance, formality, was something humans did well. In her many years of association with them, Jade had learned to appreciate the subtle nuances. She had to admit that Marines seemed to have a lock on first place in the contest for most formal, however. Seeing the large group of Marines in uniform, all standing in one place was definitely impressive. For a few minutes, Jade stood and soaked in the atmosphere, then began to meander through the crowds who were not yet seated. She expected to run into another civilian sooner or later, though there weren't many people out of uniform of one sort or another.
T'scholk couldn't help but smile and admire the ceremony. Even during the Dominion War when the Romulans ordered all their commanders to monitor Federation personnel, he admired the ceremony and the men and women of the Starfleet Marines. It made him proud that he would be a Federation citizen. T'scholk was aware of some of the glances he received. He was sure some were wondering if he was here to spy on the starbase and its personnel, but most were friendly, at least friendly enough to say hi and leave him alone.
Jade spotted T'scholk winding his way through the crowd and angled her path to intersect his. "Planning to enjoy the show?" she asked. She'd wondered several times if the man were a spy, but he didn't give off any emanations that confirmed that. His aura was soft pastel blue, signifying peacefulness, clarity and communication. There was no muddy gray overlay showing guardedness or deceit. Until proven otherwise, she intended to take him for exactly what he seemed to be, a bit of competition, but not really vying for the same crowd she attracted, and a genuinely helpful person.
"Why Miss Jade, it seems we all are in need of entertainment that doesn't involve a frying pan or a bottle of some odd colored alcoholic beverage," T'scholk said with a smile that seemed to never go away. "How are you doing on this lovely morning?"
"Is it morning, then?" Jade asked. "I haven't paid attention! I'm well. The circus has brought a lot of business in. Shall we find seats and chat about cabbages and kings?" She didn't expect him to get the reference to ancient literature, but he was a man of surprises, and even if he didn't, it made some sense in the current circumstances.
Penre Meryret entered the shuttlebay wearing a flowing but simple gown of burgundy synth-silk. It set off the silvery-white of her hair and had to be more comfortable than the formal dress uniforms all of the Starfleet personnel wore.
To her surprise, she caught sight of Jade Lantz and T'scholk making their way toward a row of seats. She decided to join them. It made sense for Promenade merchants to sit together.
Cara stood in dress uniform beside Tallus with Jessica holding onto both their hands. She smiled down at Jess who had taken to Tallus like a duck to water and was thriving under the attention he had been giving her. Raising a hand to her neck Cara let it drop again at the sideways look from her bondmate as she mentally sent ~Do they have to make these collars so tight?~ It was more that she was uncomfortable at the stares some of the junior Marines had given her recognizing several high level medals that only 5-10 living Marines in the Federation wore, while she would prefer no one ever knew she had them today was a day to honour two of the highest ranked NCO's in the Federation and because of that she was wearing all her medals and her number one uniform that showed her as a Shadow Marine (one who did jobs others couldn't).
~Indeed they do. Keeps Marine's on their toes.~ Tallus said as he nodded at the passing people.
She sent him a mental picture of her making a face even as she kept her face impassive like his and nodding to the people. ~They are evil.~
Tallus just nodded his head to passing people. He sent a mental smile to Cara though.
"Bloody Hell" Drake said under his breath as he entered the shuttlebay with Graves. "When did they set all this up?" He half asked the question and half spoke to himself.
Once again he found himself tugging at his collar, as some highly polished Marines guided the two of them to their seats at the front of the ceremony.
"Paul," Drake nudged the Counsellor, "Does this uniform look tight on me?" He asked, in all seriousness.
Paul had to stifle the urge to laugh at that question but also could not resist the thought of having a bit of fun, especially in light of the extremely serious Marines standing arrayed throughout the shuttlebay.
"I am afraid, sir, it's not the uniform that makes you look fat!"
He nearly lost his solemnity of expression at the dirty look Drake gave him but went on. "For me, it's the bloody shoulders. And if we must wear what is essentially a white tuxedo jacket, the least they could do is include the tails."
Still, the cut was tailored to be flattering, and the look suited Drake very well, Paul thought. He gave Drake a swift glance that was frankly appreciative.
He greeted others as they made their way through the crowd to their seats and concentrated on maintaining his shields. This was a much larger gathering of people than he had heretofore joined during his time on Protector, and the mental 'noise' was considerable. But this was not the first formal military event he'd ever attended. He would get through it just as he had all the others. Paul forced himself to relax. Perhaps it wasn't the uniform that was making his shoulders feel stiff.
Xavier was impressed with the grandness of this ceremony even if it did mean having to wear his dress uniform. He was sure the last time he had worn it, it had felt a lot looser around the mid-rift and a trip to the gym, or even the tennis courts was definitely in order. The one good thing was that Giellun, who always looked very good anyway, looked especially good in his uniform. The pair walked side by side, nodding and smiling to the various officers and civilians who crossed their paths.
"I bet Romulans do this kind of stuff all the time right?" Xavier asked his boyfriend.
"Oh yeah," came the reply, "Nauseatingly so. It's tradition. I think the only difference is there is usually a bit more intrigue and the backstabbing tends to be more personal. And literal. Still it isn't bad. You know for a Federation gig.
Of course that's mostly because of who I'm with." He intoned flashing the Betazoid one of his signature smiles.
Xavier returned the smile, even as his mind raced. He was trying to imagine a Romulan gathering, of such. "HA, sounds like dinner with my family," Xavier replied with a grin. "You're going to love my mother so much."
Giellun had taken a half step away from Xaver suddenly froze in his tracks. He turned and looked into the Betazoid's black eyes. For a few seconds he was speechless. "Yo... you want me to meet your mother?
Really babe? I, don't know what to say."
Lys wandered around to find a local where she could stand and view what was going on and yet not be in the thick of it. She felt highly out of place but did her best to try and not look it. She stood to one side and placed her hands behind as if someone else would grab them and hold them. She blushed to herself and then crossed her arms instead. Lys felt more out of place then ever as her heart fell a little. She wet her lower lip and walked around a bit more looking lost.
"Put it away," Warren said, nudging Jorrel in the ribs.
Jorrel grunted as he scanned incoming information on the PADD.
"You made me get dressed in the monkey suit to come to this thing, now put that damned thing away before some overly serious jarhead somewhere gets pissed," Warren said. "And why the hell didn't you make Bajor come to this thing? He never had to participate in these colossal wastes of time, the least he could do is see how lucky he was."
"Little Tomas, child care problems," Jorrel said, absently as he digested the latest intel information coming into the PADD. Another file came up, updating him on the current state of repairs for the defiant class ship that was purpose tasked to his department. Well, to his command really.
"That's bullshit. I swear he uses that kid to get out of more crap!"
"You want to go babysit so he could be here?" Jorrel asked, looking up to see if anything's started yet. He'd been to a few of these, but now he had better seats as a department head and could see almost the entire formation. He recalled the times he had to participate in these things and - like Warren - he wasn't exactly sorry to see that part of his career ending. Now his job was just to be present and be seen. "No, no, no! Get the internal systems online first!" he muttered as he tapped out a message to the dock crews working on the Renown.
"Put it away or I'll find a place to put it," Warren said, standing as a group of ranking officers made their way toward them. Jorrel frowned as he closed down the PADD, standing as well. He had a moment to wonder, as he straightened the dress uniform, what people his size used to do before the advent of replicators and scanning technology that could quickly make perfectly fit clothing. Otherwise he'd have severe problems trying to find uniforms that fit.
Sergeant Major Covington and her wife stood around a group of Marines and others as they waited for the ceremony to begin. The slight looks a smiles of relief on some of the other staff NCO may not have all been directed at her, but she knew they weren’t sad to see her go. If it wasn’t for the non-Starfleet Marine personnel and all the officers present, no one would have said anything to her. The dress uniform, decorated accordingly, was perfect fit for her, women usually had a knack for keeping this uniform perfectly fitted, even more so around the senior enlisted ranks as they were worn often.
Getting a nod from her parents Jess took two packages and made her way to stand nervously in front of Covington waiting to be acknowledged
Looking down, Sergeant Major Covington looked down at the little one and smiled. She wasn't use to receiving gifts, so this was very much out of the ordinary for her.
Hopping from foot to foot Jess looked back at her mom and dad for support and at their nods she said carefully "Sergeant Major and Mrs Covington? This is a gest ... gest ... " She bit her lip hoping she wouldn't be in trouble for forgetting that word "Tok'n of appr'ation for all your hard work and the s'port you provided mom and dad with." (She's only 6) She held the gifts up and waited nervously as they were opened hoping the adults liked them.
[CONTINUED]
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