XO the intro Part 2

Posted on 28 Jul 2021 @ 5:13pm by Captain Mazal Falk & Captain Patrick Jackson

3,161 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: General Sim Postings
Location: Tomcat Airlock 18
Timeline: Day after Arrival

[ON]

It was an enjoyable walk from the Marine office deep in the Starbase to the boarding tube for the Tomcat. Patrick and Mazal continued to chat and get to know each other. They were Marines, so no matter what, things would be performed fast and accurately, but the more they knew each other and how each other thought, the more efficient they would become as a team, knowing what the other person was going to say, ask or need.

Most of the conversation had been talking shop. They talked about hypothetical combat situations, training development for both officers and the enlisted, details about their own service history and briefly touched on hobbies before they reached the Tomcat, where it became an informal tour on their way to the airlock.

"Okay let me get this straight, you fish and when did you start fishing, and what made you get into fishing? You also like to read, What books do you like to read? I've got a favorite that has been a good road map, Art of War by Sun Tsu." Mazal sort of walked backwards as she talked to Jackson, then would go back to walking side by side. "I also want to know, do you dance?"

"Well, fishing is probably a generous name for it. Mostly in a boat with a line out drinking a beer." He laughed. "Just picked it up a few years ago. Ran into an old lifer who finally retired. Said he wished he started sooner for his health. So I took his advice and it's been pretty nice. I've read a summary of that book, but have not got as far into that book as I should. It's on the list. My old CO gave me a fairly long list of reading material, mostly leadership books. They have been useful, at least the ones I have finished." He looked over at her after she turned back to his side and walked forward. "Dancing? Can't say that I do." He paused a moment in thought. "Also, can't say that I've tried yet either. I was deployed during the last Marine Ball so don't think I've had the opportunity. You?"

"Well... if you'd like, I can give you dance lessons, ballroom, that sort of thing. It can be fun, can help a person get into rhythm, and it helps to make connections on a deeper level. In dancing there are subtle signals that the one who is doing the lead, can give to the other to have them go a certain direction. My mother even had me and my siblings learn ballet. I can give you lessons in ballet as well." Giving a shrug. "Or not. But I can tell you this, those lessons had helped me out in battle situations." Mazal had a serious expression when she mentioned that.

"I would give the ballroom thing a go. I'm sure it's good for coordination and aerobic exercise. That and if I ever do make it to the ball, last thing I want is for one of the brass wives to ask to dance and I break her foot. Would be latrine duty for the rest of my career." He joked. "I would be fine with learning, at least until Dr. Cahill is tired of healing your stepped on foot."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll wear my steel toed combat dance shoes so you won't worry about that." Mazal replied laughing. "And don't worry, I have been able to teach other marines to dance without any bad mishaps." Noticing that they were approaching the entrance of the Tomcat. "And now its on to business. And let me know when you'd like to start your combat dancing training."

Once on the Tomcat, they ran into few people. When the phrase "Shoreleave approved" was issued, Marine and Starfleet alike abandoned ship as soon as possible. The was of course a skeleton crew rotating and checking things, station workers coming on to repair, replace or upgrade various parts of the ship during her short visit, but it was always much less then the standard compliment since no major refit was scheduled. The pair rounded a corner and came to a near full sized door with a heavy locking mechanism that was clearly labeled "Airlock 18."

"And here we are. Say Falk, when was the last time you were EVA?" Patrick asked punching in a security code to begin unlocking the door.

Mazal thought for a moment, then said. "Its been about six or seven months or so since I've been EVA." looking at Jackson then towards the airlock. "I liked it the first time, it took my breath away."

He reached opened the hatch. "So reasonably recent." He said and opened up a locker. "New combat EVA suits. Not nearly as bulky as the other suits. More form fitting and better mobility with a little bit of armor to help protect from accidental damage." He pulled a suit out of the locker to show her.

Mazal looked at the EVA suit pursing her lips in a low whistle of admiration. " I love it, looks like a newer design than what I have used. I can hardly wait to try this on." looking at Patrick then back towards the EVA. "I am excited like a girl who found the perfect dress." giving a cheeky grin.

He returned her grin. "Well, it's not a little black dress, but it's a little black form fitting EV suit." He pulled one out for himself. "I like a girl who has fashion sense. This is much more fashionable than what the rest of Starfleet has to wear."

"While I prefer a red dress over a black dress, red just doesn't cut it for when needing to be stealthy." accepting the EV suit from Jackson, "So for these EV suits fit over the uniform or, be down to the under garments like scuba gear?" Mazal asked, giving a cheeky smile.

He chuckled to himself. He almost called her on it, but figured he shouldn't haze his XO...to much. "Up to you Falk. Skivvies are I'm sure more comfortable in the suit, tactically it would go over the uniform to be ready to go once you are pressurized again." He raised his hands in a mock gesture, "but whatever floats your boat. We're Marines, no judge here."

Mazal had a contemplative expression in her eyes, with her finger on her cheek as if she was trying to make a decision. "Okay over the uniform. It was a tough choice though. I decided I'd be nice." giving him a wink, and waggling her eyebrows up and down.

He was not sure I'd she was serious in her contemplation or just going with it, but he liked her. They were Marines and modesty could sometimes only go so far, so was not uncommon for skivvies only to happen, boot camp made sure you didn't freeze up because you were dressed down. He began putting his on and stopped before putting the helmet on. "How's your fit?"

Mazal had gotten her EV suit on over her uniform, and looked herself over. "So far so good." she said holding onto her helmet and looking at Patrick. "This should be fun." her dark eyes sparkling with excitement. Mazal was certainly liking her new CO already. So far he was dealing with her personality rather well.

Patrick nodded. "While it is new and supposed to form fit and cover everything like a regular suit, we better double check each other inside before we drop the pressure or it will be a fast training and an obvious flaw somewhere." He said closing the door into the pressure room.

Mazal nodded " Would hate to have had Smithson go through all that trouble putting me through orientation with security codes and us... taking a walk amongst the stars. and that wouldn't be too romantic with us dying." a teasing twinkle in her eyes. After all, mixing romance with work wasn't a good thing. "Oh by the way, are you allergic to chocolate?" Mazal asked. "If I ever receive a box of chocolates, could I give them to you? I'm allergic to chocolate."

Patrick shrugged. "That would just be filling out what was promised in the Marines. They romanticized well of traveling among the stars, meeting new species and people. It would just be a never ending walk by starlight." He smirked to himself. He really did have a dark sense of humor. "Good to know Falk. Can't have my XO going anaphylaxis because she ate a field ration with the wrong dessert. I'll double check that requisitions is aware." He said and rechecked the door confirming its seal.

He turned around to her. "I look out for you, you for me. We make sure all the enlisted have battle buddies, makes sense that command should have them as well." He lifted his helmet over his head and locked the seal. No deodorizer needed yet, but he may check with R&D for one. She had a point, too long and it could get ripe quick in these tighter suits.

Mazal before she put on her helmet, she walked around Jackson checking out the suit. "Heavens, that looks great on you!" she exclaimed. "Nice tone, good physique. That EVA definitely is aesthetically pleasing. And it doesn't make your butt look big." making a reference to what women sometimes ask 'Does this make my butt look big.' Also it didn't look like there were anything not covered.

Mazal flashed a cheeky grin and then placed her helmet on, locking it in place, she then checked the mobility of her EVA suit.

"Okay, so far so good. I hope." Bending forward and then backwards, leaning side to side to test the flexibility of the EVA.

He smirked. "You beat me to that one." He said and watched her stretch out and inspected to make sure she was sealed and ready to go. While not skin tight, it did look extra form fitting on her. He didn't recall it being that form on any of the other away team when they were on the surface. He also had combat on the mind, so maybe they all were like that and he just didn't notice.

"You look all sealed and snug in there. How does it feel?" He asked looking her over one more time. He was about to put them into a vacuum and wanted to be confident he did not miss anything with a wandering mind.

"It feels great." Mazal answered, "Question, does this give us readings and monitors in case a leak happens? Would be good to know. And the suit does feel like it was tailored just for me." Turning to face him, "And does it have the propulsion units as well as the life support system, just in case of being knocked unconscious?"

He thought for a moment. "No, nothing fancy like that. I know it comes with the magnetic grav boots but I think propulsion cost extra. Best I could do was the gold edition. Platinum was outside this Marines budget." He joked and hit the cycle. The pressure slowly worked its way down to zero as red caution lights spun. A final check and everything seemed good. "System readouts are on the inside of your left wrist. Easier to read when having a rifle shouldered."

"You good Falk?" He asked with a hand on the emergency pressure button. He was not going to open outside unless she was golden. It would not look good for him to lose his XO on the first outing.

Mazal grinned, "We may have to go into debt for the platinum edition." Giving a laugh. "Okay let's do this and I'm good to go, Jackson. And just don't get yourself killed, don't want to break in a new CO." she quipped. "I just got you and I don't know if you are under warranty." Mazal winked.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about my extended warranty." He grinned and activated the exterior door. The door pulled open and showed the twinkle of lights inside the Starbase. Smaller vessels slowly drifted outside from the main lock on their way to their respective ports hauling supplies or personnel. Patrick stepped outside and felt his boots lock. He made room for Mazal to come out. "Welcome to the VIP view of Starbase 51." He said and took the site in.

Mazal chuckled, then when the door pulled open, her hand went to Jackson's shoulder as she gazed at the view, giving a low whistle of appreciation. "I will never get tired of seeing something like this." giving Jackson's shoulder a squeeze before lowering her hand. "I feel very special indeed to be honored as a VIP" turning to look at him. "Shall we take a walk on the wild side now?"

Patrick glanced at her hand and back to her, double checking her stability. Going into space was always disorienting. Seeing she was OK he nodded at her. "Let's go." He said moving down the hull. "You mentioned repelling boarders. What do you think about exterior point defense?"

"Its necessary at times. Heck, I've done it myself. Pirates tried to board a ship and we were out on the hull going after them. Got a bit hairy there, however didn't have to send final notices." Mazal replied.

He nodded. "That's the important part. He looked over to one side of the hull and pointed. "So, let's say we're are in heavy combat. Enemy is occupying the bridge with heavy fire and they send boarding shuttles. How many fire teams would you recommend to send outside assuming each fire team had an Isomagnetic Disintegrator?"

Mazal moved from Jackson's side to get a visual of the ship. In her mind she envisioned the scenario he had just described, with the range of the Isomagnetic disintegrator being 5 meters for short range and 145 meters at max, with the length of the ship and the width. "I would say three to five fire teams. And that is being cautious, you'd have to take in account how many shuttles would be coming at us. Too many fire teams we'd have some trouble in possibly hitting each other. However my estimate maybe off. What would you say we'd need?"

He nodded with a smile. "Caution is good. I'd say that many fire teams per side of the ship. Grav boots make movement slow so each team would be limited to a region of the ship, but again, also depends on how many boarding craft we are expecting." He said and walked back over to Mazal
"I like how you think. Outside the box is just what we need."

Mazal smiled, "Thank you. Have you done some ship boarding yourself, Jackson? You probably have but I am curious about hearing about it." turning her attention to him.

Patrick laughed. "I've only had one instance of boarding. Fresh out of boot and we were deferred to intercept a ship with possible renegades that want to dissolve peace with the Federation. You know, pretty common stuff." He said and next to her as they made their way down the hull.

"We were in boarding craft and launched way out. They were trying to play dead so our boarding craft launched and then had to drift with thrusters only to reach the target ship." He said using his hand to drift to the target. "We slowed down and kissed the side of of that ship like it was a first kiss. Then the stealth side stopped and we blew in the hull and charged out. Trial by fire so I got point with my fire team and we start going room by room and level by level clearing the whole ship and targeting anything that moved." He said mimicking holding a rifle and doing a low crouch walk forward and swinging the rifle up, down, left and right.

"Turned out the ship was abandoned and left as a decoy." He said laughing. "So that was my boarding."

"That was quite a first event for a boarding party there." she said with a grin. " Several months ago, we boarded a pirate ship, and it went okay, lost a couple of marines, sad to say. We did end up finding someone whom StarFleet was really glad to get back, from what I later found out. There was an operative onboard that ship, who had been feeding StarFleet information. Helped to pinpoint some pirate stronghold that was burned to the ground, by us." Mazal commented.

Patrick nodded. "You did demolitions didn't you? I love that stuff but got tapped for Rangers instead." He said and looked at his wrist. "Oh, timers are on the bracelet. Want to head on in?"

"Yup did demolitions, it was fun, maybe even a blast?" giving a wink. She looked at her own timer and nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a good plan to me. Besides, my stomach is thinking I forgot all about it. Guess I had better get that taken care of that." giving a chuckle and headed towards the airlock.

He laughed. "Give a girl high yield explosives and you'll have make her happy." He smiled at her. "That sounds good. Tell ya what. We get out of these and I'll buy dinner tonight."

"Sounds great to me" Mazal grinned, as they stepped in to the airlock and waited for the greenlight. "You know, I was in Recon before I went into Demolitions." When it was safely pressurized in the airlock, Mazal took off her helmet then stepped out of the airlock when it opened. "That was enjoyable." Mazal remarked. "And I do like these more streamlined EVA suits." as she went to get out of the outfit.

"Yeah, it's a nice improvement." He replied dismissing his as well. "Recon huh? Same here. Always fun doing a little sneaking. Get in and out with no one noticing." He stepped put of the airlock and back into the Tomcat. "You're alright Falk. I think I'll keep ya." He said with a smile. "We're still technically on Shoreleave and I wouldn't mind ditching the uniform for a little bit. At least until I get a call from station security that some of the boots got into trouble. Why don't we go change and meet at the Aurora Lounge in an hour?"

"Sounds good, and you're right we are on Shoreleave, it didn't register in my mind, to be honest. I was all fired up to get to work. I won't complain though about having shoreleave. I'll meet you at the Aurora Lounge in an hour then." Mazal nodding in agreement, and smiling. "Then I can call you by your first name more comfortably, Patrick." her smile broadening out to a grin.

He laughed. "Alright. See you then Mazal."

[OFF]

Captain Patrick Jackson
Marine Commanding Officer

2nd Lieutenant Mazal Falk
Marine Executive Officer

 

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