Balls
Posted on Fri May 19th, 2023 @ 8:48am by Major Cornelius Tremble
Edited on on Mon May 22nd, 2023 @ 5:38am
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 14 - The Poseidon Adventure
Location: Poseidon Station Ball room
Timeline: MD007 1900 hrs
Neil glanced about the chamber, looking things over with a critical eye. It was two hours before the receiving line would kick in, and most things were under control.
His contact projected a checklist on his HUD that was continuously updating as his AI assistant registered and recorded updates from the well-oiled machine that was the Marine Corp Birthday Ball.
The ballroom was already set. The dance floor (newly installed and polished) was in place off to one side and the banquet tables were partially preset. The caterer they’d lined showed everything was prepared and, at Neil’s insistence, was currently drilling the servers to ensure the tables would be all served properly.
Once everyone was seated at a particular table (or the Head of Table) signaled everyone was there that would be there, the servers would appear and place the dishes in front of the diners and remove the cloches all at once. The Caterer assured him she had enough personnel on hand to serve two tables at a time and the entire room would have their first course in under ten minutes.
Currently dressed in black and tans, Neil paced the floor, triple checking things. Off to one side, the bar was being set up and a station engineer was working on the band stage.
“Neil,” a voice called out and he turned seeing Dr. Sobel walking toward him.
Tempest walked hurriedly across the ballroom floor and smiled as she closed on the Marine. “My, I do like your working rig,” she said, eyeing the young major. Then she cast her eyes around the space. “You’ve done nice work getting all of this set up. I have the flowers coming in and we’ll be going over the table settings before the balloon goes up. And I’ve checked with the caterer: the food tasting went nicely. I think everyone will be pleased.”
“Hope so, Tempest,” Neil said, mindful of her threats from before. “There’s a lot of fish.”
“It’s an aquatic world,” she said, smiling at him. “Lots of vegetarian options as well.”
“Too late now anyway,” Neil said as more reports filed into his HUD. He began walking toward the main entrance where two marines were finishing a table.
Tempest followed him and sobered slightly as she saw Neil checking the table for the fallen.
A six-person table was fully set, the glasses and goblets waiting to be filled. Five the chairs were leaned forward, backs against the table, marking reserved spots and name tags sat upon the plates of each. The sixth, final chair rested normally without a name plate, indicating there was always room at the table for another fallen comrade.
Neil nodded to the marines and ran a critical eye over the table. “Double triple check the measurements for everything and then go get into your dress uniforms,” Neil ordered. Glancing to Tempest he asked, “Look right to you?”
She took in the scarlet gold and white linens, the china, crystal, and flatware and nodded. “Yes, I think it looks right.”
Straightening, Neil turned and cast a look over the ballroom one last time and nodded. “About as done as it’s going to get. Guests start arriving in ninety minutes.” He did a last scroll through the checklist on his HUD and then shrugged and closed things down.
Tempest patted him on the shoulder then said, “Only ninety minutes? I need to get ready then. So do you, Major. You know Francis is trooping line with the Kingsmen and he mentioned you should be there.”
Neil made a face and said, “Aye aye, ma’am. I guess at least the rest of the Cure doesn’t need there with dogs and ponies.”
“Shush,” Tempest told him, a smile, “He’d never admit it, but Francis loves the pomp and ceremony. And it’s only fair if they must be inspected, you got stuck with preparing the Ball.”
“Right,” Neil drawled out, “It’s definitely fair.”
She punched his shoulder than and said, “Shut up, Major and get busy. And I look forward to meeting Lieutenant Mira.”
Eyeing Tempest warily, Neil said deadpan, “Who?”
“Nice try, Neil,” Tempest laughed at him. “Who indeed. Now shoo.”
Feeling like a schoolboy suddenly, Neil snapped to attention, clicking his heels and did an about face and headed out the ballroom doors.
He was pretty sure he’d thought of everything.
Tempest did one more trip around the ballroom, checking out the carpet runners, the parquet dance floor, the band, and checked to be sure the white, scarlet, and black bunting was in place before she did a pass by on the tables. She paused as she saw something different on several of the tables and snickered as she saw they were set aside for the Kingsmen.
Neil had even thought to include crayons for the Poseidon Station’s marines.
Laughing, she headed for the doors herself. She had to get into her own party attire and check on Francis.
Major Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Commanding Officer, The Cure
RSS Feed