Return to Mount Tarin (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 04 Nov 2024 @ 6:15pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Lieutenant JG Saelihn Valenis & Lieutenant JG Selon Illialhlae & Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeysa Zeror

2,466 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 20 - Reconstruction
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 5, Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 03, 0251 hrs

[ON]

The early hours of the morning aboard USS Galileo-A had quickly become a treasured period of time for Commander Morgan Tarin. Gamma shift - the mid watch - was usually the most stilled collection of personnel the ship had to offer and the working environment they occupied most often presented itself as calm, organized and subdued. The various corridors and compartments' running lights were dimmed to promote circadian rhythms, and with the mess hall and ship's lounge closed, most crew members off watch were retired to their quarters or performing routine maintenance. It was a small window of opportunity for her to wander the ship in some semblance of silence while performing daily checks and allotting several minutes along the way for personal reflection of the previous day's happenings.

Today, however, was not one of those mornings.

Galileo's tall captain currently stood in front of the large door to Holodeck I on deck 5 with a small gym bag slung over her shoulder. Her shoulder-length brown hair was tied back behind her head in a rare ponytail which highlighted her bare shoulders, arms and upper chest while a tight PT tank top tautly clung to her torso and revealed more of her athletic frame. A simple pair of Starfleet-issue exercise shorts descended halfway down her thighs and showcased a pair of long, toned legs which were capped by a set of dark gray hiking boots. Tarin pulled a PADD from her bag and checked the chronometer. 5 minutes. She sincerely hoped she wouldn't have to go headhunting for a no-show.

0250 was no time to be awake, especially to be awake and forced into physical exercise but here, by her own foolish attempt to persuade her Captain to relax came Jeysa. Walking down the corridor towards holodeck one, her long blonde hair bound into a tight banded ponytail shortening it to a level where it shouldn't get in the way too much. Her dark spots were on full display as she wore shorts and just like Tarin, a tank top. "Captain." She said greeting Tarin as the woman came into view.

The young yeoman was a hard woman to miss while in uniform when her blond hair sharply contrasted against her red-collared uniform. She was even harder to overlook while in PT gear, especially with her distinctive Trill markings now much more visible than usual. "Zeror," Tarin acknowledged while being silently pleased the junior petty officer had been the first to arrive following their contentious exchange not too many hours ago. Punctuality demonstrated character, which the captain privately took note of.

Selon had elected to power sleep the last five hours in preparation for the 'rucking' excursion on the holodeck and while his body groaned that after yesterday it was not nearly enough time, he was able to get up, get dressed and wolf down a protein shake in the last ten minutes. He was as prepared as he was going to be and as he rounded the corner he was pleased to see he was precisely on time. It was a bit jarring seeing Captain Tarin in considerably less than her normal uniform but dressed himself in high cut shorts and a stringer tank top he could hardly judge. "Captain, and... I don't believe we've met." He said doing a second take at the young Trill woman. "Selon Illialhlae." He said with an outstretch of his hand.

Jeysa took Selon's hand either way but was a little confused, she had been in the transporter room when the scientist had beamed onboard though they had never introduced themselves to each other. "Jeysa Zeror, Captain Tarin's yeoman." She replied

"Pleasure." Selon nodded and turned around to take stock of the others as they waited for Captain Tarin to reveal the landscape they would be traversing.

You couldn't beat an early morning PT session. It could set you up for the whole day ahead, sharpen your mind and make you feel like you could tackle anything thrown at you. Saelihn had put on her usual training gear, a training tank top that showed off a toned body even if she didn't look all the powerful with muscle. She too wore tight fitting shorts that matched the yellow colour of her department. She approached the group outside the holodeck and immediately noticed she was the smallest of the group. Not that it mattered but she'd always felt a little insecure about her height. "Hi everyone, captain." she singled out her CO as a sign of respect of status. The other two she hadn't formally met yet. She'd seen the yeoman before, mostly in passing or chatting with the captain but the other person was new to her. He had a kind of roguish look about him that caught Saelihn's eye for a moment before she quickly returned to a more broad look at the group.

"Valenis. Illialhlae." Tarin curtly greeted the other two arrivals who appeared properly dressed for the coming adventure. That would be, until the first of them went down knee- or shin-first into the rock beds. Hopefully it wouldn't be anything a dermal regenerator couldn't fix. "Let's get started. We all have a busy day ahead of us." She walked up to the holodeck's LCARS interface panel and began to tap several entries into it and load a training program she was all-too-familiar with.

"Computer, load Tarin-Beta-Alpha-Zero-Eight." The ship's computer chirped while it processed the request then replied back in its recognizable female voice, "Program initiated. Enter when ready." Tarin skipped the pleasantries and moved to enter the simulation first.

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.

Tarin stepped inside the holodeck. Her boots started to crunch some of the bedrock beneath her feet while she walked into the simulation before coming to a halt and turning to look back at the Trill, El-Aurian and Romulan hybrid. "Welcome to Hill 873."

The sheer scope and scale of what was in front of Saelihn almost knocked her backwards. Although it may have been that she was staring so far up she almost lost balance. "I feel a little under-dressed for volcano climbing..." she commented as she felt some ash rest on one of her cheeks. Wiping it caused a little greyish smudge as she looked back at the captain. "Is this how you spend your early mornings captain?" she asked before thinking. 'Some people just have a coffee or go a run...'

"When I feel compelled," was the captain's nonchalant answer to what might have been a rhetorical question. She took a deep breath and re-familiarized herself with the distinct smell of sulfur in the air along with the warmth radiating from the ground below them. "Do any of you recognize this location? Or know its significance?" she then asked the group.

Selon had grown up in the shadows of some of the greatest volcanic mountains in the Federation and at several hundred meters he was not over-awed at the sight of the active volcano serving as the nexus of a storm of color and ash. The fact that his boots were intact despite the heat and he was not choking on the air was not a mere facet of his Vulcan physiology but a sign that despite how impressive the holodeck's facsimile was meant to be, it was hardly an exacting recreation. "No secondary peaks, no vegetation within visual range, my guess is a world in its primordial state." Selon mused analytically. Something had hardened within him at the exposure to ash and heat, definitely his Vulcan heritage in this case.

"Class G...an acute observation," Tarin subtly nodded to herself. The science officer hadn't answered the question she'd asked but he'd provided some unique insight. "Anyone else? Why do you think I, specifically, created a holodeck simulation of this location? What's its significance, and why are we here right now?"

"Hill 873." Jeysa repeated, something about it did seem familiar. An active volcano, the heat, smell of sulphur. "This is the same 'hill' you fo.." She caught herself before saying 'forced' though from her friends description it sounded more like they were forced up it. "You, Lt Rice and Ensign Mimi climbed, I think she said there was a battle here during the Dominion War."

Tilting her head slightly to the blond spotted woman, Tarin's eyebrows lifted upon hearing a rare and correct identifier. Brief flashbacks from her previous holodeck session with the two mentioned officers pushed into her conscious memory while she gave a single curt nod to Zeror. "It is and it was," she confirmed while preparing to present a short history lesson of the location for almost the 50th time in her career.

"This geographic feature is an inactive volcano located on a barren world designated AR-187 in the Chin'toka system," Tarin began. "Here - many years ago - a major ground battle was fought between Starfleet and the joint Cardassian-Dominion forces. Specifically, in 2375." No matter how many times she'd given this briefing, the solemnity of it eventually escaped to the surface and forced her to turn away from the group while looking up to the mountain's summit. "Approximately three hundred Starfleet officers and enlisted personnel held off a thousand Jem'Hadar foot troops and Obsidian Order soldiers during a 3-week-long siege using their advantage of elevation perseverance. Most of them lost their lives; the few who survived called this place 'Hill 873' to designate the unofficial number of combined Cardassians, Jem'Hadar and Vorta killed during the engagement."

Tarin flexed her fingers while her gaze remained trained on the summit for several long moments. She turned back to them. "Starfleet officers across all departments commanded their teams in battle at this location. Officers just like you," her hazel irises flicked between Valenis then Illialhae, "and NCOs like you," she then looked to the yeoman. "I brought the three of you here this morning to help put our duties and careers in perspective...a perspective that's been seemingly lost over the years and needs to be reinforced."

The Nova-class' captain then pointed her long index finger back to the tall and distant 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. It's our duty, now, to replicate the standards and expectations of those who came before us and who lost their lives in the process. Clear?"

Saelihn had been around when the Dominion War was raging. Fortunately for her she wasn't in Starfleet then but still with her father furthering the 'profile' of Kaitos, the new El Aurian home world. Trade was important and her father never let her forget the need for allies and agreements made. She joined Starfleet six years after the war had ended but for some it never had. Places scarred with the memories of Dominion incursions, planets bled dry of resources and people still feeling the sting of that time even now.

She felt the captain was being a little presumptuous however. She didn't need this type of perspective to bring her duty and career into perspective. That kind of thing had been drummed into her by her own people but in reference to The Borg incursion that destroyed their old world. Yes, war was ugly, and yes, maybe Starfleet had became quite lax of late but not Saelihn. She always gave her all, her duty, her career were important to her.

However, not letting this show she nodded with a brow of concentration and determination. "Very clear captain." she replied confidently.

"Good." Tarin didn't wait for affirmation from the yeoman or science officer, for this exercise wasn't exactly optional. She shifted her attention to a nearby outcrop where four large and identical Starfleet-issue rucksacks were neatly pre-positioned against a small rock face. "It's five miles up and five miles down. The time limit is three hours. With 60-pound packs. Strap up your gear and let's begin."

The addition of weight, Selon guessed more than fifty pounds as he strapped the rucksack around his chest, would hamper his normal speed of seven kilometers per hour. He wasn't even factoring in the incline but considering his evolutionary edge over the others present, Selon was more than confident that he would have to worry more about showing up the Captain and the rest of the officers present than making a bad show. One he was all strapped up his powerful legs started bounding up the volcanic hillside and while his first step sent him irregularly up the higher ground, he quickly recovered with the adroit skill of a man whose people were used to such environments and who had trained his body to move through far thicker mediums.

A small smirk tugged the corners of Tarin's slim lips while she watched the Vulcanoid man ambitiously charge ahead up to the base of the mountain. She'd have to corrall him sooner than later it appeared, but in the meantime she hoped he wouldn't take his first inevitable fall without the rest of the team in the vicinity to administer aid. Whether Human, Vulcan, Romulan, Klingon or Jem'Hadar - Hill 873 always exacted its penance.

Tarin crouched and slid into the straps of the heavy rucksack then let out a muted grunt when she pushed herself back up to her feet. A quick tightening of the pack's shoulder and waist straps secured the load to her upper body. "Ready to move?" she asked the CSec and yeoman.

"This tank top was a very bad idea." Jeysa remarked as she attempted to get the heavy pack onto her back, its nearly half her body weight proving very awkward to get positioned correctly. She knew it wouldn't take long until its fabric and rough straps would begin to dig into her mostly exposed flesh.

"Your sweat will lubricate your shoulders," dryly jested the captain who would also have to deal with similar discomfort. "Let's go."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Saelihn Valenis
Chief of Security
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Selon Illialhlae
Anthropologist
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Jeysa Zeror
Yeoman
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

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