The Day Duty Called

Posted on Tue Nov 5th, 2019 @ 12:27am by

Mission: Mission 1 - One Step forward
Location: Atlanta, George, Earth
Timeline: March, 2153
660 words - 1.3 OF Standard Post Measure

March 19, 2153, Hanlin’s Pub, Columbus, GA

The day had started out perfectly. Minna's husband Shintaro and son Shingo were attending an engineering conference in Miami; the former a panelist and the latter a student attendee, while Minna was visiting her sister Nami, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Military Assault Command Operations force, or MACOs, assigned to nearby Ft. Benning. It had been almost a year since Minna had seen the youngest of her three older sisters and the two women were on their second beer and almost finished with a shared order of fish and chips when a commotion started at the other side of the bar.

“They hit Florida” one man shouted.

“Mexico and Guatemala” a woman added.

“My god, all the way to Venezuela” a second woman cried as much as shouted before adding “Over a million dead”.

It was barely a second later when Nami Chang's communicator sounded and the off-duty officer quickly excused herself and stepped outside while Minna moved into the bar area proper to get a better look at the video monitors.

By the time Nami returned five-minutes-later Minna's face had gone completely pale.

"Come on Minna-ya, I've got a shuttlepod inbound. We'll find them" Nami said desperately, not knowing the exact location of the engineering conference her brother-in-law and nephew were attending.

"We won't Nunim, they were at the University, the entire area for four blocks in every direction was destroyed."

"They might have been at......."

"No. Their comm signals just stopped. Networks are up, but they both dropped off. They, I, ..." Minna couldn't make her lips move, just stood there, until she couldn't even do that, collapsing into her sister's arms.



March 20, 2153, MACO HQ, Ft. Benning, GA

"Kyungmi knows?" Nami asked about her niece, who was a 3rd year cadet at Starfleet Academy.

"Yes, she has a meeting with the dean today. They offered to recycle her, but she plans to ask for early graduation and assignment to whatever ship is going after the people who did this.

"What about you?"

"I want to go too. Please, there has to be something you can do. Give me a uniform and a phaser."

"You're no soldier Minna, you..." the older woman stopped in mid thought as she looked her younger sister in the eye. While Minna was 44-years-old, she still looked like a twelve-year-old kid, which was often how Nami thought of her. What she saw in the younger woman's eyes though was something very different, and terrifying.

Nami continued on another tack "The maximum age for recruits is 35."

"Get me a waiver. I'm healthy and strong, I'll complete the training. I need to do this, I need stop these guys from taking away anyone else I care about. I need to make their loved ones cry for them.

"I'll see what I can do. I know there's talk about Enterprise heading out to find them. The Xindi, they're called, and we're trying to get a MACO detachment on that ship."

"I need to be in that detachment. I don't care how hard the training, I'll do it."

"I'm sure you will. I'll work on that waiver" Nami said again, then added "Kyungmi made a similar request this morning, you know. She asked if I knew anyone at Starfleet who could get her assigned to that mission, and that if I couldn't, he said she would resign from Starfleet Academy to become a MACO recruit."

"No, not a MACO. I know Starfleet can be dangerous, but I'll not have my only other child going into combat. See if any of your Starfleet contacts can keep her from resigning, and keep her off the Enterprise."

"I'll do no such thing. She lost just as much as you did, and she has just as much right to seek retribution as you do. I already talked to Admiral Forrest, and Kyungmi will be fast-tracked to Enterprise's engineering department. You'll just have to protect her yourself, Minna."