A day on the Farm

Posted on Sun Dec 17th, 2023 @ 1:44am by Major Erin Ishikawa

738 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: First Deployment
Location: Sickbay, IGV Docana
Timeline: 3Wks after battle of Berengaria

Andorian sickbays certainly were moodier than Earth ones, Starfleet or MACO. It was all cooler tones, shades of dark grey and blue. It was less angular, smooth walls, tables even the people seemed more fluid and graceful. Human facilities were silver and cream walls because comfort apparently or something like that. There was one constant though; Antiseptic, that acrid disinfectant mixed with alcohol so sharp that it'll get deep into your nose and not leave for days. It was a common smell in every sickbay that Erin had ever had the misfortune to visit. It was almost funny that even an alien facility still used the same technique as they did. Or would be if the circumstances were different.

This sickbay had another commonality with many others Erin had visited, the smell of blood of death. She and many other wounded had been evacuated from Berengaria to the IGV Docana, a Warship of the Imperial Guard. Erin didn't remember the first day, really the first couple of days, she'd been so in an out. When she finally was and got over the shock of all the blue antennae bobbing around she settled in for what was going to be a short trip back to Earth. The shortest long trip in Erin’s life as she and a few of the more severely wounded were kept in the sickbay’s barracks rather than the cargo bays that had been converted of the rest of the MACOs.

Their little area had become a gathering place of sorts for many who wanted to get away from their impromptu areas and visit. Over the last couple of weeks she’d started to recognize the regular visitors, some from her unit who’d stop by to say hello to their CO before finding their friends. This was fine with Erin, she’d always been find with melding into the background, especially as an officer. Friendly, respectful, a resource for her people, but not intrusive. She either spent most of her time sketching in her bunk, resting from a procedure or visiting with the other Officers and Senior NCOs. Preferably she’d be able to sketch somewhere secluded, where she could truly concentrate on her vision or whatever she was modeling, but that was easier said than done on an overstuffed warship.

So Erin settled for her bunk, her immediate neighbors were away so she had some semblance of privacy. If the group of Troopers a couple of rows over weren’t so loud she might have even have believed she was alone. She didn’t mind they troops needed the release, many of them had come aboard and it was a toss up if they’d make it or not. Now they were well on their way and heading home, what wasn’t to like. They made a good subject for her latest piece too.

The topic of conversation had shifted a couple of times, all the usual things; deeds done, people they missed, messages sent, messages received, divorces and births, the good always coming with the bad. Which inevitably led to what they would do when they arrived home, would they see their families, make those trip s they always said they’d do someday. More than a few were going to try and hit every shore leave port imaginable. There was a war heating up after all who knows what would happen to them next. It got Erin thinking what would she do, sure there was a new assignment waiting but she didn’t have any special connection to Earth. Would she have time to go home? Travel to Mars wasn’t the fastest and really how soon would she have to report to this new ship? Would her family visit her? Come to the Stardock perhaps? The old biodomes were lovely and now that the visitor’s complex was finished it shouldn’t be a bother.

But would they do it? And most of all could she stand to hear her parents scolding her again about joining the MACOs instead of the Militia? At the very least she should check, the last they’d heard was that she had been injured and heading back to Sol. Fuck it, at the very least she could visit with her sisters and get really drunk before having to report aboard her next assignment.

Getting rowdy with those two was never a bad option.

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