A Helping Hand

Posted on Mon Jul 11th, 2011 @ 8:03pm by Major Jake Harper & Lieutenant JG Toshie Minamoto

Mission: Too Close for Comfort...
Location: Bridge
Timeline: After Machine Minders

With PADD in hand, Jake exited the turbolift to find himself on the Bridge. As always the nerve center of the ship was busy with activity. While normally the Major was tend to stick his nose into the situation at hand, he had other issues to deal with. It had been quite sometime since he had taken on such a task, and building and integrating a marine department of a starship was difficult for anyone, even someone with his background and experience. To make matters worse, the majority of the detachment on board were new and foreign to him. While the six marines he transferred with him from his last assignment were accustomed to his expectations and command style, those marines who were transferred from the Starbase some days ago were a little rough around the edges to say the least.

Still, he had business to take care of nonetheless. He found himself now on and errand to meet with the ship's Chief Engineer, whom now sat in the center seat before him.

"Lieutenant Minamoto... can you spare me a moment of your time?" The Major said aloud as he made his way to the center of the Bridge.

Toshie, just in the chair again after Lieutenant Broca left, looked up at the Major and stood up in her chair in front of him. "Yes, Sir, of course. What can I do for you?" She was weary, that was sure, but she still knew how to act in front of a superior officer. Truth be told, she hadn't been around a lot of Marines in her career. Her last posting, the small Endurance, didn't have any on board, as it was a small science and scout ship.

Harper studied the young Lieutenant for a moment. Truth be told, the new marine crewmembers had caused some tension and disagreements with their new shipmates. Jake had handled the mishaps and misconducts of those under his command personally as they arose, however rumors and idle talk made their way around the small community on board in no time. It amazed him how sometimes the word of mouth was faster than the bio-neural circuitry lined in through the walls in the ship.

"I know you have your hands full with repairs, but I have finalized the compartment reconstruction for the new Marine contingent. Nothing flashy, simple mostly. But it'll give me a place to conduct business with my people...." He paused as he handed her the PADD. The schematics detailed the retrofitting of several storage and crew compartments to be converted into a briefing room, armory, and a holodeck for training purposes.

Toshie took the PADD from him and looked it over quietly. She projected the air of someone who was very serious about the work she did and preferred not to beat around the bush. After a moment, she nodded without looking back at him, "This shouldn't be too bad. As soon as I have some free manpower, we'll get to work on this. The holodeck will take a little more time, since we have to run the dedicated power for it and install the generators, but the rest won't take any time at all."

She finally looked up at him, "Segregating yourselves from the regular Starfleet personnel, Sir?"

Jake was taken back a bit, but he could respect someone who didn't pull punches. "Not at all. You have your place to work, I simply want my own. Besides, as leaders we can't afford to allow lines to be made between those under our command. If I have learned anything over the years, it's that a little mutual hard work goes a long way to build bridges. If you don't mind, I know there's a good bit of work to be done across the ship and I'd like to offer some man power. They may wear a green undershirt, but we all wear the same uniform. I think some of my men have seem to have lost sight of that."

Toshie grined at his answer and gave a firm nod, "I can understand that completely. I'm not used to having a bit more space to work with. Last assignment was on a tiny Nova class. We were basically banging elbows against each other." She looked down at the PADD, then back up at him again, "Well, how many Marines do you have on board? I haven't had a chance to go over the crew rosters yet, too much repair work that's needed doing."

'Nova-Class vessels typically were void of Marine personnel..' Harper thought to himself. This situation would be a perfect moment for his self appointed 'Public Relations' campaign to help paint the a better picture over the stereotypical 'Big Bad Marine' persona. "Twenty seven bodies including myself. I have a few technicians amongst them, but the majority of them are capable of basic damage control and repairs. Put me to work Lieutenant..."

"I'll see what I can do, Sir. We are pretty short of hands down below right now, so anyone who can hold a spanner or push a grav cart can be useful. After my stint on the bridge is done, I will look and see what we need and where you and your men can help." She glanced back at the viewscreen, then to the Marine again, "Hopefully that should be soon, when we pick up the Commodore from the planet."

The Major gave a curt nod before making his way back to the turbolift in the rear of the Bridge, where he departed for the lower decks once again.