Mount Tarin (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 29 Jul 2022 @ 5:30pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Ensign Mimi
Edited on on 29 Jul 2022 @ 5:31pm

3,372 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 5, Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 08, 1656 hrs

Previously, on Starfleet Hearts...

"Good." Morgan picked her fork up and stabbed it back into her eggs. There would be no scheduling conflicts to the detriment of the ship's operations. She resumed eating which produced another long silence. After devouring more of her breakfast, she glanced back up at them. "Both of you will report to Holodeck One with me this afternoon at 1700. We're going on a hike."

And here is the punishment... Aria thought, but kept her features neutral. She would have to push the reports until later then. Good thing there was caffeine in the world, who needed sleep? "Yes ma'am," she said, her voice oddly flat, a confirmation of an order received.

And I guess I am in trouble again... Mimi thought, her ears twitched slightly at the thought, no doubt it was extra physical training or some other devious punishment disguised as something 'helpful' "Aye Sir."

Shoveling the remainder of her scrambled eggs into her mouth, Morgan presented a rare smile to Aria and Mimi before biting into her sausages. "It'll be fun. I promise," she added in between chews with a wink - a wink that symbolized the hidden nature of the exercise they would soon embark upon together.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Alpha shift aboard her new science vessel command had concluded promptly at 1600 hours. The primary bridge shift had been unremarkable -- littered with typical minor status reports and devoid of pertinent intelligence updates. The special mission assigned to the crew was underway and despite the apprehension she was inclined to feel, Commander Morgan Tarin found the journey peaceful in an unorthodox way. Too peaceful, perhaps. In her experience, an excess of quiet meant too little work being doing. There was always something to do aboard a starship...even in the depths of uncharted space.

This personal conviction of hers was why she now stood in front of the door to Holodeck I wearing casual PT gear. Her black athletic shorts came halfway down her thighs and revealed her long, toned legs; her gray Starfleet vest was without an undershirt and exposed her forearms and biceps; her shoulder-length curly hair was tied back into a rare ponytail. Tarin glanced at the chronometer on the holodeck's door panel and impatiently waited for her two compatriots to arrive.

Aria Rice was still in her uniform as she came in, having had something to eat while she did reports before rushing to the holodeck. She stopped when she saw what Tarin was wearing, but pushed it aside. In theory, you could do anything in uniform. After all, it is what you wore on away teams. "Ma'am, reporting as ordered," she said, straightening her back a little where she stood.

"Lieutenant Rice," acknowledged Tarin. She looked both ways down the corridor for any sign of the other gold-collared officer who was expected to arrive. "I appreciate your punctuality." Her gaze continued to sweep the emptiness of Deck 5. "Where is Ensign Mimi?" Hopefully not sleeping again.

"Right here Sir." Mimi said moments before she rounded the corner at the end of the corridor, her sharp hearing having hear Tarin's question before she even saw her. She had eaten a fairly light lunch straight after her shift, a lighter one than her body would have preferred but she didn't know what Tarin had planned so decided to be cautious. She wore her uniform top layer but had some more athletic clothing underneath just in case.

The delay was short which Morgan privately appreciated. "Good. You're here." She tapped on the holodeck's LCARS panel and queued up a training program she'd used throughout her career in Starfleet. "Computer, load Tarin-Beta-Alpha-Zero-Eight" The ship's computer chirped while it processed the request then replied back in a soothing voice. "Program initiated. Enter when ready."

Morgan held out her arm to the two officers with a polite gesture, indicating for them to enter the holodeck first. "I hope neither of you had a heavy lunch."

When the holodeck door swished open, the scene inside could easily be described as apocalyptic. The sky appeared dark gray with shades of purple, completely covered in thick overcast clouds. Barely any sunlight penetrated the atmospheric conditions which included occasional gusts of high winds and ashen volcanic debris floating down from the stratosphere. On the makeshift world's surface, the landscape was jagged and devoid of all life. Gray and black earth tones permeated the visual spectrum. In front of them was a large dormant volcano peak several hundred meters high. Its summit was barely visible from their position.

Aria watched the landscape, glancing at Mimi, then back at it. Yep, punishment. I mean, at this rate, it might be more efficient to throw me out of the airlock and note is as an unfortunate accident she thought, even as she rolled her shoulders as if to limber up.

Mimi looked at the scene before them, she had hiked some mountain trails before but none had the added difficulty of a hostile looking atmosphere.

Tarin stepped inside the holodeck. Her boots started to crunch some of the bedrock beneath her feet while she walked into the simulation before stopping and turning to look at Rice and Mimi. "Welcome to Hill 873."

Aria looked at Tarin for a moment. "What are your instructions, Commander?" she asked, remaining where she was for now. She wanted to know what was expected on this. That transfer off the ship is not looking bad around now.

It'd been several years since Morgan last completed this exercise. For some unknown reason, she found it to be the most satisfying of all the PT regimens she'd been exposed to throughout her career. "We're going on a ruck," she answered with a deep, heartfelt breath. "60-pound packs. Five miles up and five miles down. Three-hour time limit."

That was more than half of Aria's body weight. She swallowed, frowning slightly at the words. I wonder if I will have the energy after this to write up that transfer request. I might not survive this, full stop.

Mimi looked at Tarin. The distance she could do, the time she could do but with an extra 60 pounds of weight on her already lithe and light form was far from ideal. "So this is your idea of fun Sir?" Mimi asked there was a somewhat intentional hint of sarcasm in there. "Making us carry nearly half of our bodyweight extra, over very rough ground with a high chance of injury. And it is to make us better people?"

The holodeck door swished shut behind them then shimmered away, replaced by a perfect projection of the landscape. Three large and robust Starfleet backpacks complete with belt accessories materialized in the immediate foreground. "Better people?" Tarin smirked at the notion. "I'm not a counselor, ensign. Only you can do that for yourself. I'm here to make you both better officers. To help you believe in yourselves." She'd seen the expression on Rice's face when the security chief first observed the challenge ahead. The frown and the subtle swallow; the Nekomi's trepidation parading as sarcasm and concerns of exertion.

Morgan walked up to the assembled gear then turned to face the two young women. "You're both leaders in Starfleet. That's what it means to be an officer and to wear our uniforms. The crew's junior enlisted and senior NCOs look to you for guidance and to set the example. If you don't have confidence in yourselves, it will be noticed and trickle down to the rest of the personnel under your command. You both know this - it was taught to you at the Academy in your leadership coursework." She paused then extended an arm to Hill 873. "I won't lie to you...this ruck will be a challenge. Do you know what this location is and why I chose it?"

"I do not recognise the location." Mimi said with a slight shake of her head, it was a location that was far from her first choice to go hiking at.

Aria just shook her head, but didn't speak. She didn't know the location, and she didn't know Tarin so couldn't really see what this had to do with being a better officer, to give more confidence. All she felt as she watched it was defeat. She pushed it aside, focusing instead on what she could control. Her face. Her breathing. Her stance. She would be able to lift the bag, she could use the momentum to swing it onto her back. She would need to adjust her balance, there was a risk she would fall on her backside.

A short history lesson seemed overdue for the two officers who were still both in their 20s. Tarin was a decade older than Rice, who was older than Mimi, according to their personnel files. The passage of time mattered. They'd grown up in a different world than Tarin had -- a post-Dominion War world with the luxury of espousing traditional Federation beliefs. The simulation they were now presented with was anything but that.

"This peak is an inactive volcano located on a barren world designated AR-187 in the Chin'toka system," Tarin started to explain. "It was here where a major ground battle was fought between Starfleet and the combined Cardassian-Dominion forces during the war. In '75, to be exact." She turned away from them and looked back up to the summit. "Three hundred Starfleet officers and enlisted personnel held off a thousand Jem'Hadar shock troops and Obsidian Order soldiers over the span of three weeks, using their elevated position. Most of them lost their lives. Those who survived called it 'Hill 873'. That's the unofficial number of Cardassians and Jem'Hadar killed, including several Vorta."

Tarin turned back to them. "Starfleet officers from all departments led their teams in battle here. They weren't exceptional or the best of the best - they were just like you and I. But the choices they made here and their actions is what made them exceptional. And now, they're all remembered in Starfleet's history texts." The acting captain stepped close to the Lunan and Nekomi. "You don't have to be gifted with Klingon size and strength to be the best," her hazel eyes shifted to Mimi, "or prepare your entire life for the Academy. What you do here and now is what makes a difference."

She pointed her long index finger back at the summit. "Our people carried their wounded and supplies up and down this hill for 20 days, carrying more than we will and probably in less time. So we're going to do this, together, and live up to the standards of those who came before us. Understood?"

"Yes Commander," Aria said, her voice quiet. She had paled a little during the lecture, but she was always too emotionally attached to things from the Dominion Wars. What happens when I fail? she thought, moving to the pack. She took a deep breath, gripped it, and swung it around heavily to get it on her back. She shifted her balance to get the best core she could, considering the thing was half her body weight, and she fastened the strap.

The security officer certainly showed initiative, Tarin noted. Rice's lack of rebuttal or further questions was punctuated by her actions when she geared up without any further prompts. Morgan observed the shorter woman closely; the large pack now on her back was almost two times as thick as her torso, yet she still stood upright without much lean. Morgan stepped close to the lieutenant then helped her with some of the pack's harnesses, tightening the padded belt around her waist and adjusting her shoulder straps from behind. "Let your hips absorb half of the weight, not just your shoulders," she quietly explained before giving her a soft pat on her thigh. "You'll be fine, Aria. You can do this," she reassured in a rare moment of consolidation.

"Yes Commander," Aria said, although more in acknowledgement on the carrying advise. She looked away, feeling oddly cold and numb in the situation. She didn't believe Tarin, and she tried her best to hide it from her face. She looked over at Mimi, her hands going to the shoulder straps, thumbs hooking under them to try and shift the pack a little.

'Here goes nothing' Mimi thought as she went to a knee beside the other unclaimed pack, she adjusted the straps to a more appropriate length and slipped them over her shoulders then after a deep breath used her powerful leg muscles to push herself up, her tail flickering as it tried to adjust her balance point to the sudden addition of just under half of her body weights worth of extra weight. "Keelah, that is some weight."

"About half as much as one of us," commented Tarin who walked up to Mimi and performed the same checks on her as she'd done with Rice. Morgan helped the young Nekomi tighten her waist strap then pulled on several tabs of her ruck sack to minimize the slosh of weight distribution while moving. "Make sure that weight is sitting on your hips and not just your shoulders," she reiterated. "Are you ready for this?"

"No but I doubt I have a choice." Mimi said as she made a few adjustments to her pack.

Tarin gave Mimi a solid slap on the upper portion of her ruck sack. Her patience was starting to run thin. "You always have a choice, ensign." She looked over to Rice then back to the furred woman. "If you don't want to do this, just tell me. Both of you. Tell me you want to quit before we start, and this can end here and now and you can go back to your quarters. That's what you want, right?"

Aria looked at her before she let out a breath. "If I may...speak freely, Commander?" she asked, because it would help her gauge what she could say or not. Because this was shaky ground. They were being ordered to do something. Refusing, as in exercising that choice, was disobeying an order. Which meant the end of a Starfleet career.

A single nod ensued from Tarin. "Say what's on your mind, lieutenant."

"An order is an order, and I will follow it, Commander," Aria said as she met her eyes. "I must point out though, that the safety weight for training exercise is 33% of the person's body weight. I understand the scenario you are trying to recreate, all safety concerns were pushed aside for survival. No one cares if you have back problems a couple of years down the line, when the alternative is death. Considering the sort of mission we are on at the moment though, I feel it is necessary to raise this safety concern."

"Noted and dismissed." Tarin's own reasoning and calculations belonged to her individual purview as the now-commanding officer of the Nova-class starship. However impromptu the exercise might have seemed, it wasn't planned without considerations. Nor did she have any tenancy of disregarding the physical health of her subordinates. "You won't become disabled performing this exercise a single time."

Not disabled, but pretty sure either of us could get injured and it would be your fault because you want to teach us a lesson, Aria thought, but kept her mouth shut. "Yes Commander," she said instead, her features becoming neutral again as she shifted where she stood.

When Tarin said she could leave if she wanted to Mimi slowly looked towards where the exit had been replaced with the surrounding simulation then back up at the summit of the hill, repeating it several times as Aria and Tarin talked. As much as she wanted to leave especially as she agreed with everything Aria was saying and knew she would struggle heavily with it she also knew she'd probably get into even more trouble with the new CO. "Jebati den shall we start?"

Aria looked at Mimi, giving her a weak nod, taking a deeper breath. "Ready when you are, Commander," she said, looking at Tarin, trying to ignore the ache from standing with the pack. She kept having to lean forward to avoid it throwing her off balance.

"Good." Morgan knelt down next to the last remaining pack and slid its straps over her shoulders. She pushed herself up with her strong legs then adjusted her own belt and shoulder straps until she could feel the weight evenly distributed across her torso and waist. Her tall and muscular physique was well-suited to carrying the additional load. "On my lead. Let's go," she ordered.

Tarin, Mimi and Rice walked together for a quarter-mile until they reached the base of the hill. Volcanic ash continued to fall from the sky and lightly dusted the tops of their heads and shoulders. The smell of sulfur unpleasantly permeated their nostrils and the air around them was hot and humid. Beads of sweat were already forming on the acting captain's forehead. "Ensign Mimi, take point. I'll pull rear guard." Morgan started a slow, methodical jog up the hill and waved the other two ahead of her in order to monitor their progress.

Aria frowned as she walked, somehow able to push the smell of brimstone, and in the lowest deep a lower deep, Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide, To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven, away. Although she was now thinking in terms of John Milton, so maybe that was a sign she was losing the plot. She kept tripping as well, her balance off with the weight, but kept putting one foot in front of another. Although in her mind, it should be going downwards, not upwards.

For once Mimi was regretting having a very acute sense of smell, the sulphur smell was unpleasant for most species but it was close to intolerable for her, she walked plantigrade, speed wasn't a major requirement right now and she didn't want to try the extra weight on her more feline configured joints. "Careful here, it is very rocky." She called out.

"Thanks for the warning!" Aria called out, her hands coming out to her side for extra balance as she moved. She wrinkled her nose a little bit, her eyes on the ground. She moved slowly, with unsure footing, conscious of the weight.

The incline of the hill steepened after several minutes, slowly rising up to twenty degrees. A small, narrow footpath within the landscape of jagged volcanic rocks now presented itself for the small cadre to advance within. "Pick up the pace, Ensign Mimi," Tarin ordered from the back of their line formation. "No more walking. We're going to burn more energy taking it slow than jogging."

Mimi looked back at Tarin for a moment, just walking with the extra weight on her light frame was proving to be an interesting challenge but jogging with it was going to be hard, she tightened the packs straps a little more and accelerated her pace.

Aria frowned as she let out a shaky breath. Yes, but she wouldn't break her neck walking, but jogging...yes, well. That was safe. But she picked up speed, eyes forward, jaw clenched. Her neck was staring to hurt, as well as her shoulders.

Tarin turned around and performed a final scan behind the group out of habit, as if to identify any possible holographic combatants which she never remembered programming into the simulation. She turned back then transitioned to a light run to catch up with Rice before settling into a comfortable marching pace. Rucking wasn't easy; especially on an incline with the added pounds each of them were carrying. Morgan leaned her torso forward to combat gravity and steadily started the march up towards Hill 873's summit.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

Lt. Aria Rice
Chief of Security
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Mimi
Deputy Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

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