=/\= Deck 10 USS-Charon =/\=
Brent was walking down the hall with his nose into a PADD. All of these new reports. Requisition orders. Had he mentioned that he had hated them before? Probably so, to anyone who would listen. He passed a group of his own marines and gave them a good salute as they drilled on by doing PT. A few months ago he would have been leading that.
Such was life though. He had to submit a monthly readiness report to HQ back home. Stupid busywork. What was it they had called it? Chickenshit, that was right. The brevet officer sighed passing by two people discussing some techweenie crap that Brent heard two sentences of before completely tuning out. Hopefully he could get this work done before dinner and enjoy an evening off.
Something caught his eye as he passed the two science nerds talking about exoflops or some shit, though, and when he noticed it he had to do a double-take. The woman whose back was to him was floating perhaps an inch off of the ground, suspended in air. Brent paused, his mouth open slightly, as if he were about to ask a question. What the hell sort of a question do you ask to a floating woman? "Excuse me, miss, you seem to be violating the laws of gravity, belay that before I call security"?
She was black haired, and at least from the rear profile, not too bad to look at. Not too bad from the front, if the bewildered expression on the science nerd's expression was telling the truth. A wise man once said that you could blind any engineer with the twin suns of boobies and science, and here it was in action right now.
Then her hand dropped behind her back, and she gestured in simple marine sign. "Sighted - One - Friendly - Six O'clock."
Brent nearly 'floated' himself into a nearby wall after catching a glance at the hand signal used towards him. He shook his head wondering just what this... Hologram? Was doing knowing marine hand signals. It took him a few moments before he stopped and waited for her to finish her conversation. He had to guess that she wanted to talk with him.
It didn't take too long. She smiled and said tank you to him (one of the few intelligible parts of the conversation) and he headed off to the lift while the hologram turned about to face him. She was grinning, and he thought it was from his reaction to seeing her.
"Hi. Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, brevit. You're from Gilgamesh Nine, aren't you?"
Brent looked over at the floating woman. "Yeah. Northern section of the colony..." Brent said and just barely stopped himself from going into a vast detail about his lineage. He stopped though and narrowed his eyes at the 'person' next to him. "How'd you know exactly. And if you don't mind me asking who are you? Are you a hologram?"
"Got it in one," she answered mildly, "I used to work alongside a Colonel from Gilgamesh. Excellent man, credit to his laurels. He ran me through basic. And you're the only other Gilgamite I've met personally since then."
His second question she didn't entirely answer, though with her turned around he could see the occasional translucency or flicker in the image, so he could confirm - he was indeed looking at a hologram. Though, they could make them a lot more substantial than she was, these days. Not that she was lacking in substance.
"My name is Savant. I was assigned to Charon as an operational assistant. So, if you have need of a secretary, I'm happy to help."
"A Colonel? Huh. I didn't know too many of us stayed away for that long. At least my parents always tried to make it seem like it was our duty to serve the Federation then come home and makes lots of babies there back home," he said with a grunt of annoyance. "Savant? Brent Warren. Nice to meet you," he said before it clicked what she had just offered.
"You said that you'd be willing to help out with secretary like duties?" Brent said with a slight smile.
She grinned as well, mischevious but otherwise inscrutable. "I'm a *very* sophisticated program. I'm certain I can handle whatever administrative miseries you seem to be having." The hologram descended and gave up some of its spooky flickering, assuming a less surreal appearance. She was about as tall as he. "Not enjoying your promotion to brevit?"
"You mean am I enjoying the fact that my men are now distant from me when a few months ago they relied on me for almost everything?" Brent said before shaking his head. "No I am not enjoying it but the alternative is to let some idiot third lieutenant get men killed," he shrugged. "If you could tell me just what they want on these readiness reports that would be a huge help. I have no idea on how to even start them."
Her smile waxed sympathetic, perhaps even a little doting, as she called up the forms in memory. She had grabbed the pointers to his biography when he came down the hall on the off chance that she would need them; they proved to be useful now. "Sure. Could you tell me, in your estimation, what you thought of their performance over the past week? Any areas they need to improve upon, anything that they are lacking in? Any resources they need to better perform their duties?"
"Their PT scores were good. They need to run through a few more simulated drills, and that will be much easier now that the holodecks are up and running again. They desperately need a few more replacement suits as we had to canibalize their spares to get a full few squad up and running," Brent said trying to think it over.
"Weapons should be fine as well as ammo. So I guess just those main items."
Savant held up a hand and a holographic representation of the report appeared above it - she had filled in all the tedious blanks, embellishing upon his description to come to to completed report. "With your authority, I'll file these to Ops for quartermaster control and we'll see about getting you those suits.
In the meantime, I happen to know a few excellent zero-gravity drills that they might not be suspecting. I've placed them in your inbox for review when you'd liek to see them, and I think there's a clear block of time in Holodecks One and Two in three days. Would you like me to book them for you? Three hours?"
Savant held up a hand and a holographic representation of the report appeared above it - she had filled in all the tedious blanks, embellishing upon his description to come to to completed report. "With your authority, I'll file these to Ops for quartermaster control and we'll see about getting you those suits.
Brent smiled. "Wow. Uh yeah that would actually be fantastic," he said. "They can make time then. I'll be sure to set up their duty rosters so they're all there. We can have quality bonding while recieving more and more bruises," Brent studied how she filled it out trying to remember it for the next time he had to do it.
"Reminds me of basic alright," she smirked, dropping her hand back to her side. The image in the air disappeared. "I've got you booked for both Holodecks starting 1400h in three days; I've set it into your schedule planner. I'll leave it to you to tell your unit, unless you'd prefer an anonymous announcement."
"No thank you though. I'll handle that Savant," he said with a nod. "Thank you for all of this help, you probably just saved me an hour or two of figuring out this paperwork crap," he said. "You said that you've known a Gilgamite before. Do you know where he came from on the planet?"
"Gilgamesh itself," she replied, referring to the primary colony site and largest city on the planet. Gilgamesh was either cursed or blessed with a large amount of iron in its core and a very large overall mass, making it very high gravity. that they could build cities at all was a testament to humanity's knowledge. That they could survive was testament to humanity's adaptability. Brent was a case in point.
"General Jeremy Ironside. Hm." She seemed wistful or nostalgic a moment, if a computer program could be said to be these things. Te expression only lasted a moment though. "I've always wanted to visit, but I've never had the opportunity."
"Ironside. Ironside. Sounds like a city name. My family moved north to help sustain the farms soon after landfall. Farming what they could. Having as many babies as they could," Brent said with a hint of distain. "Anyways enough of my family. Thank you again for the help Savant. If I have any other trouble may I give you a ring over the communicator?"
She smiled and picked up off the ground again, gravity no longer holding sway over her. As the hologram went translucent, she replied, "Just call my name, I'm listening." and then she was gone, back to processing whatever it was she was processing.
Brent looked around for a few moments and was sorely tempted to call her name out there to test her theory. However he restrained his juvenile urge and simply nodded before tossing his PADD up in the air. "Hot damn. A shower and a nice meal before relaxing. I could get used to this!"
______________________________________________
Brevet First Lieutenant Brent Warren
Marine Commander
USS-Charon
&
Captain Savant
Command Liason
USS-Charon
