Home By Now

Posted on Sat Aug 27th, 2016 @ 6:09pm by
Edited on on Sat Aug 27th, 2016 @ 6:12pm

Mission: Zero Week

After the doors to Medical closed, Briggs had to go somewhere and deal with the frustration that filled him. He'd done everything wrong from the get go and now he'd soured his relationship with his new CO before he even started his first duty shift. Why didn't he just keep his mouth shut?

Of course the lieutenant knew more than he did...he was a lieutenant for crying out loud! A doctor! And it was something he probably did by choice - learned what he needed to learn, studied hard and went to school to learn the difficult field of medicine. Who was he to question a lieutenant and a doctor? He was just a nobody from a torn up colony who was only a corpsman because he was randomly assigned to the field.

He started to walk down the hallway, away from Medical when he stopped, turned around and went the other way, until he was several paces past the door to Medical and then stopped again.

He had no idea where he was going. He had no idea where to go. He didn't know anybody on this ship and anybody that he would know would be in Medical and he already screwed that up. He had quarters but, then again, wasn't sure which bunk was his. What if he claimed one that was already claimed by another person and then screw up harmony in the quarters he'd be sharing with others.

He'd already eaten so there was no reason to go to the chow hall, he could go to the arboretum but all he could do in there would be sit and stew on what just happened. He was enlisted so that limited the places on the ship he could go to just be alone or to work on forgetting about what the stupidity of what he just did.

Which left him, standing in the middle of the hallway, vaporlocked and covering his face with his hands to keep from screaming out because of how frustrated he was. He considered, several times, going back to Medical and trying his best to apologize for his behavior and hoping to not make it worse. But...the possibility of making it worse kept him from trying. Which left him right back where he was, standing in the middle of the corridor with nowhere to go.

If he'd only kept his mouth shut.

He tightened the shoulder straps and belted the waist strap to keep his pack from moving around, or the weight of it digging into his shoulders. There wasn't any hope for it, he'd just have to risk going to his quarters and hoping whoever's bunk he was on would be understanding and direct him whichever one would be his. From what his Lieutenant said, he was more sure than ever the other bunks were already claimed, since he appeared to be a late arrival to the ship.

His feet dragging all the way, while he stewed over screwing up the first meeting with his commanding officer, he managed to get back to his quarters. His plan, once he arrived and since he didn't have anything else to do until tomorrow morning, was to deblouse, take off his boots and stretch out, maybe take a nap.

That wasn't to be as he opened the door. The first thing he spotted was the gold uniforms of the two security personnel. His breath caught in his chest and he took a step back as they turned to look at him. It wasn't until the door started to close that he thought he was clear but why was security in his quarters? Had Lieutenant Rose decided that he was insubordinate after all and sent them to take him to the brig?

Again, he didn't fear being in the brig, only what it meant for his future going forward. It didn't help his sudden undecided anxiety as the door was closing and he heard "Briggs?"

"Briggs! It is you!"

His frown deepened. "Brownell?" he asked, more out of surprise then anything else.

"Well I'll be damned! I saw the name on the quarters manifest but I didn't think, I mean, what are the odds we'd both be on the same ship in the same ass end of space?" Brownell came right up to him and gave him a light punch on the shoulder. "How cool is this? And look at you! They put you in Medical?"

"Yeah," Briggs said, still confused. "Why are you in my quarters?"

"Our quarters, buddy, ours. Locke and I are assigned in there, as is Pardone, he's stationed in one of the science labs. Isn't that weird? Not just assigned to the same ship but the same quarters? Like old home week at boot isn't it? Only I'm not planning on getting up at o'dark thirty to go doing some useless PT and marching before breakfast."

Somehow Brownell and he arrived back at their quarters. "Locke! This is Briggs, you'll love him, accident prone as you are. Briggs, this is Petty Officer Brian Pardone."

Briggs shook the Terran's hand while he looked around. The room seemed much smaller with all four of them in there. "I, uh, I came by earlier, but didn't know which bunk was mine?"

The three looked at each other. "Well," Locke said - he was also Terran, but a large, bulking one with a shaved head and dark, suspicious eyes. For Briggs, growing up in a place where security were often more criminal than the criminals, he appeared to fit right in with the security forces. But as he spoke, his tone and mannerisms were very gentle, almost as if he were afraid that if he raised his voice, he'd break something. Or someone. "That's what we were just talking about. We got a difference of opinion regarding how to assign out the bunks."

"Oh, well, I ain't too particular 'bout it," Briggs said, but glanced at the top bunks, which he preferred. Back home, he often found lower spots that could be easily concealed - holes that could be covered, breaks in walls, abandoned cellars, that like. But, since joining Starfleet, he found he preferred the top bunks. Something about them made him feel safer and, considering the set up of them, safer.

"Locke and I think we need to be on the bottom because we're security, and if there's a red alert sounded, we need to be able to get up and out quickly because security has to respond so quickly. Much quicker than science personnel. Pardone here reasons that getting down from the top and out would be just as quick. But he discounts the time it'll take to dress and get out, where a bottom makes that faster."

"Okay," Briggs said, shrugging. He didn't really care, they all had the same mattress type so it wasn't as if anyone was more comfortable. And, at least, they weren't sharing the racks with others while they were on duty. "I mean, yeah, that makes sense," Briggs said.

Brownell smiled as he threw his arms out. "Well, you're the last vote, I mean, it was already two on one but Pardone said it wouldn't be fair until we had the fourth vote because it would affect our fourth roommate."

"You're really saying you agree with them?" Pardone asked, rounding on Briggs.

"I'm jus' sayin it makes sense, don't want them tryin' to jump off a bunk and rushin around while we also tryin to rush around. This way they get gone and we can get to our duty stations," Briggs answered, shrugging. "That mean I side with them, then I guess that's so."

Pardone shook his head. "Okay, well, I don't agree and like it, but that was the agreement." He patted the bunk on the left, claiming it, leaving the one on the right for Briggs.

"Well now, since we have that worked out and we're all here now, I think we need to get to know each other. How about we go up to the lounge and do that?" Locke said, already noticing the difficulty in moving around the space with the four of them in there at the same time. "Let's hope that we're not all on the same shift!"

"I'm game, how about you Briggs? This is so wild, wait until I tell Simpson!"

"He aboard ship too?" Briggs asked.

"Nah, they got him stationed in the Beta Quadrant, on a planetary base."

"Oh," Briggs said, not sure if he was disappointed or not.

"So I take it you two already know each other?" Pardone asked, heading for the door. "Which means that embarrassing incidents are about to be revealed!"

"Nah, Briggs and are I are too tight for that," Brownell said, clapping Briggs on the back and toward the door. "Which, interestingly enough, we only really became friends at basic after that first bivouac in our second week."

"Nah!" Briggs said, shaking his head. For a moment he forgot about his disastrous meeting with his CO in the possibility that story was about to be told. "Ya said you wouldn't ever tell 'bout that!"

"No," Brownell grinned, "I said I wouldn't tell any of our fellow recruits. Neither these guys are our fellow recruits."

"Oh, this has to be good!" Pardone said, rubbing his hands together.

Briggs sighed as he shook his head. Apparently what happened at Basic didn't actually stay at Basic. "It ain't my fault, I ain't never really been out campin' afore," he protested for himself before Brownell launched into the story, ignoring Briggs's protests of his embellisments to make the whole situation worse.