Starfleet Recruit Depot, Treasure Island, San Francisco, 2288 The group of forty recruits stood in ranks of ten in the field, shivering in the brisk morning air on the little island in the middle of the bay. There was a stiff breeze out of the north this morning. On the one hand, this had pushed away the fog leaving an expansive view of the bay and the city beyond it. On the other hand, it was colder than most of the recruits standing in the field would have preferred. Already disoriented by their whirlwind arrival and administrative processing in the middle of the previous night, and tired from adrenaline and a lack of sleep, the cold air just served to make them more anxious then they already were. And, of course, they had no real idea what to expect next. This was something Petty Officer Second Class Amelia Tsuchida counted on as she strode from the barracks building onto the adjacent field where the recruits waited. “Detachment, atten-SHUN!” Tsuchida said in a loud, commanding voice as she arrived in front of the waiting group. “All right, let’s settle down and SHUT UP! ‘Attention’ means you stand still, facing forward, arms at your side, and your mouths SHUT!” Standing in the middle part of the front rank, Jason Culver, while careful to keep his eyes forward, could see the source of this sudden commotion on the field: a small woman of Asian descent who couldn’t possible be more than five-foot-two dressed in a perfectly creased fleet-issue coverall-style uniform. He curly black hair was drawn back into a perfectly tied braid at the back of her head, the expression on her faced one of total confidence. Seeing the group in compliance, the Petty Officer continued: “Took long enough, but we’ll have you…recruits in shape soon enough. All right, then. I am Petty Officer Second Class Tsuchida and this is the Starfleet Academy Screening Course. You are here to enter Starfleet Academy. I want you all to look over there,” she said pointing over her right shoulder to San Francisco, “that’s where the Academy is. You should take note that while it is all the way over there; you are all the way over here. And here, on my island, you will stay until I am done with you. For the next eight weeks I am the center of your whole universe. You will do nothing that I do not tell you to do or give you direct permission to do first. “The first and last words out of your miserable cake-holes will be ‘Petty Officer’. Do you understand?” A ragged chorus of “Petty Officer, yes, Petty Officer” emanated from the group of recruits. “Oh, goddesses save me. Are you kidding? Louder!” replied Tsuchida. “PETTY OFFICER, YES, PETTY OFFICER!” “Well, that’s marginally better, I suppose. We’ll work on it.” For reasons that Culver still didn’t quite grasp twenty-one years later, he chose this exact moment to laugh. Tension? Maybe. Nerves? Perhaps. A mistake? Definitely. Tsuchida immediately zeroed-in on the hapless recruit. “You finding this amusing, are you recruit?” “Petty Officer, no, Petty Officer!” “You sure sounded pretty damned amused a second ago? Did someone put a tribble down your pants, then? Tickled you, did it?” “Petty Officer, no, Petty Officer!” “Aha! If you weren’t being tickled, then you must have been amused! So. Either I do amuse you, or you’re a liar, recruit. Well, which is it?” Culver knew immediately that there was no correct answer to be given here, and that he was in for a rough morning, pretty quick. “Petty Officer, neither, Petty Officer!” “Neither?” replied Tsuchida, “NEITHER?! Well, we’ve got ourselves some kind of logical conundrum here, don’t we? And you not even Vulcan, either. Well, then, let’s just think this one through, shall we? My friends all seem to think I’m a reasonably funny person, so I must be amusing. So, therefore, that makes you a liar, Recruit Culver, doesn’t it?” “Petty Officer, no, Petty officer!” replied Culver. “Wow. A liar, and unable to follow simple logic as well. Oh, you’re going to be a fan-tas-tic Starfleet officer, aren’t you? What are they sending me these days?” Culver started to answer, but Tsuchida cut him off: “That’s a rhetorical question, you ignorant pile of Gorn droppings! Drop and give me fifty push-ups! Do it now, do it now, DO IT NOW!” As Culver dropped to comply, Tsuchida was instantly kneeling beside him yelling into his left ear. “Oh, we’re going to have a wonderful eight weeks together, you and me. Yes indeed. You are my new project, and we are going to have sooooo much fun…” It was at this point in his life that Jason Quincy Culver was regretting having gotten off the shuttle the night before, having gone in the Starfleet Recruiting Office back in McMurdo the month before, and certainly having made the mistake of having been born eighteen years earlier. Main Gangway, USS Stephen W. Hawking, Starbase 33, 2309 Captain Jason Quincy Culver strode down the gangway to his new assignment. His new command. The newly minted rank insignia of a Starfleet captain gleaming on his uniform jacket. He’d commanded ships before. Two years out on the Neutral Zone in a perimeter action ship, another three with the light cruiser Amchitka. But this. This was a brand-new starcruiser. Not even fully commissioned yet, but soon to be heading out past the border markers to places and things that lay beyond the Known. There was nothing that could make this day any less special to him than it was. Nothing. As Culver came around a bend in the gangway tube he caught first sight on the ship’s main gangway hatch. Spotting a non-commissioned officer and a Marine guard standing at the hatch, he shifted his duffel to his left hand preparing to salute. As he approached, he suddenly recognized the NCO. Standing there, barely over five foot tall, her black hair now slightly graying tied back into a perfect braid, the insignia of Senior Chief Petty Officer on her sleeve, stood Amelia Tsuchida. “Well, she can’t possibly recognize me,” thought Culver. “It was over twenty years ago and she had to have trained thousands of recruits.” Culver stopped in front of the two personnel at the hatch, and presented a text-book perfect hand salute. “Permission to come aboard?” The Marine Corporal snapped to attention and rendered a perfect salute. Next to him, Senior Chief Tsuchida also came to the position of attention. Somehow, she made it look casual and parade-ground perfect at the same time. She looked at the captain a moment, and the smallest hint of a grin came to her features as she reached out to shake hands with the new arrival. “Permission granted Captain, and welcome aboard, sir. Seems you did amount to something after all, didn’t you?” “Seems so, Senior Chief, seems so” replied Culver trying very hard to remain outwardly amiable, and to hide the total fear that this woman still inspired in him twenty-plus years later. The only thought in his head now was how long the next five years might actually be. TO BE CONTINUED…
I like it. I almost thought I was seeing a Star Trek version of An Officer and a Gentleman. Great opening. More, please.
It was thirty-five years ago, but I can still remember playing "Pick em up / Put em down" the first night at Lackland Air Force Base...........