Chapter One
This is a first draft. When I post I do a quick review before posting. Grammar and punctuation are a secondary edit that will be corrected later during the review/editing process that will happen after the story is complete. if you will have a major issue with this please stop and wait for it to be completed and edited.
Reviews are always welcome but please remember that unless stated this is a first/rough draft. There will be mistakes until corrected which will be done at a later time. Reviews should be on the storyline/plot before anything else.
No matter how much she hated being at her house on the weekend, she hated Mondays even more. The idea that she was couped up in the new home she had bought trying to make it look like less of the mess it was was enough to drive her insane. The job she had been given at the new facility was even more intensive than her last post, but she enjoyed what she did for the most part. Being the eyes and ears for the militaries elite forces was an intense job.
The move which had happened over the summer brought them all together for the first time so though they all knew their jobs and how to d them they all had to learn each other and the quarks that made them all the best. This new larger team was a new concept for the forces in itself. They all knew they were the testers, and when they were really put to the test, it would be them under a microscope. It would be the ultimate test of their trust and strengths, as well.
They had not reached that point yet. The bosses of the base, which was brand new and made just for them in the middle of the desert, had not reached the level of confidence in the team as one working factor yet. They were still four distinct teams that worked together instead of the idea that they were one team working as a whole. They were trying to force something that generally took years to build and happen in a matter of months. She was a primary key. She was a civilian and the only one on the team. As a medical doctor, she was not only the teams go to doctor. She was also the lead scientific officer though, without the title of such.
It was hard enough for her to function in her own team as the amount of paperwork that each man produced was beyond annoying and time consuming she was never taking really seriously because she had not gone through the same test and trials they had to move up the ranks. She had learned to keep her mouth shut and her head down because trying to explain that she had, just not, in the same way, had become cumbersome.
She had worked her way to this point. She had put in the hours. She had dug her own way up through her sweat and even her own blood. However, all they saw was the giant C on her sleeve, marking her as not one of their ranks. She hated that patch. What she really hated, even more, was when someone had found out her military connection. Her grandfather had been an admiral and one that most people had heard of through his contributions during the last world war. Her father a senior chief in the navy as well. She was highly connected throughout the military, but instead, she didn’t want it to be known. Once her secret was out though no one looked twice at her unless she really pushed.
She dreaded going into work every day, but it got her out of the four walls she had begun to think of as the inside of her coffin. She had never thought of a house in that way but the more she got done in it, the more she really didn’t want to be there. It wasn’t like she had any friends stationed there, so she had no one to hang out with. It was her and her cats. She had to admit the cats , more like friends and less like pets. She could be found talking to them and then she would be shocked that this had become her life. It was not supposed to be like this.
This Monday, she got to her office yet another set of four white walls she dreaded and found a note on her desk that there was a meeting in the conference hall at oh eight hundred. She thought to herself that she hadn’t heard there was to be more training though it didn’t surprise her. She fixed herself some coffee and started to dig into the pile of folders on her desk. The collection itself had grown over the weekend as she smiled to the fact she knew it would. She just had to review a few more things in each file before she was able to sign off on them. Within an hour, she had somehow managed to clear all of them. She lifted the pile and made her way to the record room. As she neared the place, she could almost hear the happy laughter coming from the room itself. She knew as soon as she opened the door, it would cease, and they would look at her as if she was just an interloper on their blatant happy feelings. She was, in a sense, and she knew it. She opened the door and snuck in as she placed the files down on the table in the front of the room. She left without saying a word. She didn’t want to see their faces either as they stared at her.
The building was new. You could not only sense the newness you could smell it too. The wall had been freshly painted, and the fact there was only forced airflow through the building and no freshness the scent hung in the air. Though you could smell the bitter coffee, the teams so desperately craved as well. Silence was always in the air, as well. The teams were housed in different parts of the sizeable warehouse-type building. There was hardly any interaction though the building was almost entirely full at any given time. Rarely you could see a member of a team pass by on their way to another part of the building, but no one ever stopped to mingle with anyone else. It was simply too quiet all the time.
She looked at her watch and made her way through the silent halls to the conference hall and took her regular seat in the back. No one noticed her as they all began to file in. no one seemed to care either. The sounds of the people filled the room as she thought the sounds of the men and women talking and interaction was a welcome thought for a moment. Then the reality of the situation was they were all interacting. All the teams were in front of her laughing and talking while again, she was on the sidelines. She would always just be on the sidelines here no matter what she did. It all hit her hard, and she had to blink away the mistiness in her eyes as the emotions came up to right under her skin.
As the speakers, all got up and started on the new exercises that would help ensure a strong team, she wanted nothing more to get up and walk out. She was mentally packing up her belongings as she was going to request a different post. She was writing her resignation in her mind when the main speaker said there would be a two-week retreat for survival skills, and every person would have to attend. If she gave her two-week notice it would be in the middle of that she would have to return and pack up. The twist for the retreat. It would be done in pairs drawn at random and from different teams. It would also count as a team-building exercise. Everything in her was screaming at the highest level. She had no issues with survival skills. She had been trained from the earliest age in those. She had made up her mind. It was time to leave here.
It was time for her to give in and stop the fighting for an absolute respect she knew she would never receive. The idea though that she could easily beat every one of them before she left was too much to resist. It didn’t matter who she got paired up with she would blow every one of them out of the water in every event. Then she could leave. Her smile turned wry for a few moments, and then she really smiled. A lesson she could teach them was never to judge people by what they look like or who they were connected too. She would gladly show them all that. She could finally feel like a human, and then she would quietly pack up her things and go somewhere else.
She left the meeting with a purpose. It felt kind to her to have that purpose. She began to write her resignation from the post and a request for a new one. Just having it on her computer was good enough for the time being as she looked around her office and knew she needed four boxes. She called the vet on base to see if she could drop off her cats to them for the kennel, and after that was squared away, she sat back in her chair and began to think of everything she could do to make her next three weeks worth it. Her boring life of waiting for something to happen was finally not going to be boring. She could go be outside. She could show herself and everyone else that she was equal to them. She started to thinking of packing up her house. Though the idea filled her with an absolute dread, she was finally going to be free from this place and maybe the feelings it seemed to invoke. She could be around people again that made her feel human. That made her feel like she mattered.
“I don’t think you should go to the retreat.” One of the commanders said as he rounded the corners of her office.
“Why?” she asked as she looked up as she was snapped back from her daydreaming.
“I don’t think you can handle it.” He said bluntly.
“I assure you I can.” She replied.
“I feel that you will be a drain on your partner and not able to hold your weight in this challenge.” He said.
“Because I am female?” she asked, trying to hide her disdain for this man who thought he was a god among men.
“That too. You just haven’t received enough training in this to be anything but a hindrance. It isn’t like you need it. We will never send you into the field.” He stated. She could feel her temper soaring, but she was trying to reign it in.
“I am going to do this. Everyone will see I am not just the person behind the screen. Regardless of formal training, as you suggested, I have been trained. Probably more detailed training then any of you have. I will be perfectly fine.” She said.
“I am sorry my mind is made up on this subject.” He said as he stood.
“Well, I suggest you change it, sir. Otherwise, others will hear of you holding me back and the reasons why. If I am supposed to be a member of this team, then I am fully. If you wish me to hang my head and only be helpful when I am needed by you or one of the teams then it is pointless for me to here. The choice is yours.” She said as she stared at him.
“Fine, go.” He said, knowing that she had just threatened him. The fact was to many still in Washington still had hope that this could work, and it would change the way things were done. If one of the commanders was the holdout and the reason the whole team could not function together as one team, it would not go well for that commander. She knew that, and now so did he. She smiled as she looked at her computer with the letter still there plainly visible. It was time to change some minds on what she could really do.
Author’s note
If you don’t like my choice of names, fine, I respect that. Stop reading. Do not comment on it. It will be deleted.
My stories DO NOT have mainstream names. All stories unless the location is said are based in America where we have many cultures blended together. A man might not have any features of the typical stereotype of a region but might be descendent of one of them with a family name.
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kat
