TSF Chapter 4

I pushed through the swinging door into the humid room. The smell of chlorine hit me the moment I walked in. The rough rubber surface pinched at my paws as I walked on it. Closest to me was a large, shallow pool that was used as a bath. There was no chlorine added to this water and instead fresh water was continually cycled in from the river that flowed not too far from the base. Beyond it was a large pool divided into lanes. It extended past the bath on the left side and to the left of the bathing pool was the diving pool. The small pool extended down instead of sideways. Just to my left, lined up along the wall, were the showers. I approached the closest one, ignoring the two canines that were already in the bath. They had been talking when I entered but once they noticed me they had gone silent and were just watching to see what I would do. I entered the open stall and pressed the lone button on the wall. Warm, soapy water sprayed out and ran down my fur. Once I was thoroughly soaked I pressed the button again. This turned off the shower. I fought the urge to shake the soap off as I turned and walked to the bath. The circular pool was designed with stairs around the entire perimeter that went all the way to the center where a small dais sat a short distance under the water like a sand bar. The stairs were large enough that a large canine could lay on them comfortably at any level. I ran forward, the rough rubber floor allowing me to avoid slipping, and leapt headfirst into the water. The cool liquid closed over my head for a moment before I broke the surface and shook the water out of my eyes. I pushed forward and swam quickly to the dais in the middle. Pulling myself out of the water, I shook out my fur, sending droplets spraying in all directions. The soft murmur of the two canines speaking once more formed a nice background as I stared into space and thought about some possible strategies for our advance. The door opened again and I blinked, returning to reality as a female I recognized instantly walked in. She was one of two second lieutenant scouts and her name was Mocha. Solid brown in color, she was fitting to the name. The bottom half of all four legs and the tip of her tail were white. She walked over to the wall on the far side of the diving pool where various pieces of equipment were stored. She approached the tub marked with the light blue of scouts and pulled it off the shelf. The loud noise it made as it contacted the floor made me jump. She removed the tablet from her holster and placed it on the floor, sitting down as she did something on it. I smiled and rose to my paws, the water dripping from my soaked belly fur, and leapt into the water once more to swim over to her. I shook off the water again as I walked over to the female. “Hello Lieutenant. What are you doing here so early?” I asked her as I sat down in front of her.

She looked up at me, blinking once before looking back down at her tablet. “Early?” She replied. “I think you’ve lost track of time. Scout training begins in half an hour. I’m here preparing. We’re doing driving training today.” She rose, pulled a plastic tag out of the box, and laid it on the floor. She then turned and walked over to the wall where there were black straps hanging. Each one had a clamp on one end and a round weight on the other. They were arranged and labelled by length. She pulled off one of the ones near the middle and brought it back to where I was. A swift movement of both her muzzle and paws had the tag attached to the strap. She picked the whole assembly up by the strap near the weighted end and carried it over to the diving pool. A quick flick of her head sent it through the air and it sank into the pool with a splash. I walked over and looked down into the water. The weight settled on the bottom while the tag floated at the length of the strap.

“Would you like some help?” I asked her as I turned back around.

“If you need something to do that badly.” She teased me without looking up. I laughed for a second and walked forward, taking the strap she had just retrieved from her and attaching the tag to it. While she looked up the length for the next tag, I threw the combined strap and tag into the pool. There were an even hundred scouts so I knew we would barely be able to finish in the half hour we had.

“Has Inali told you about the new standing orders yet?” I asked conversationally between tags.

“If you’re talking about the orders that we will march in a month, then yes.” She replied. “She’s only told her officers so far but if I understand correctly she’ll be giving the news to the rest of her soldiers during tomorrow’s training.”

“I expect that will be a very interesting meeting.” I commented.

“I expect she will simply tell them and then immediately dismiss them so they don’t have a chance to ask her about it.” Mocha countered, repeating my own words back at me. “She seemed to not be too pleased about the news herself and I’m guessing she will tell them simply out of obligation. When I tried to talk to her about any special training she was very dismissive as if she hadn’t fully wrapped her head around the information herself.”

“Makes sense.” I said, half to myself. “She is the youngest of the colonels after all and she commands the second largest force. That has to be a lot of stress on her. She is good at what she does but I have to wonder how much of her maturity is forced.”

“Are you questioning the abilities of my commanding officer Gin?” Mocha asked me, suddenly serious as she paused in her work to look up at me and I was forced to just stand there as the steady stream of straps and tags stopped abruptly.

“Of course not!” I quickly replied, surprised. “She wouldn’t be a colonel in the first place if she lacked the ability. I was just thinking about the amount of stress she already deals with and the fact that I had to put even more on her shoulders. It’s a lot to deal with at her age and she does a great job doing just that.”

Mocha nodded and the work resumed, although she looked more thoughtful now. One of the reasons I preferred to have friends in other branches was because it meant we could be more informal. Mocha reported and answered to Inali first, and I had no authority over her outside of battle, so we could talk more as equals without her having to worry about insubordination. “So how have you been handling all of that stress?” She asked me. “If Colonel Inali’s under this much pressure, then you must be under much more as the lead Colonel.”

I waited until we had added a few more straps to the pool before answering. “I don’t actually hold that title Mocha, but I manage.” I told her. “You should know as well. You learn to deal with your stress just fine don’t you? You’re the one responsible for training. You must feel some responsibility for lost battles because the strength of the soldiers rests with you.”

“True.” She replied. “I guess anyone can adapt to…” She broke off, and when I looked up at her I saw she was looking towards the door. I followed her gaze and saw a lean foxy lab assistant standing there. When he spotted me he pushed into the room and started walking towards the two of us.

“Wonder what he wants.” I murmured softly. “How can we help you?” I asked once he was in speaking range.

The tan fox dipped his head to me as he approached and waited until he was standing directly in front of us to reply. “Greetings Mocha. Nice to see you.” He said softly to her before turning to me. “Colonel Gin, Evan requests your presence in the lab.”

I blinked in surprise. What could have happened between that morning and the night before that he couldn’t have sent me a message for? “Does he need me immediately or can I come when it’s convenient?” I asked.

“He just wishes to see you sometime before lunch.” The older canine answered.

I nodded. “Then you can let him know I’ll be there in a half hour after I finish here.” The canine dipped his head in understanding and turned to leave. As he turned around I spotted a long scar running down the back of his head from his left ear to his neck. It made me wonder exactly what experiment he had been a part of. It was probably from before I was born. Most of the lab assistants were part of an experiment at some time or another. I turned away, not overly interested, and Mocha thrust another strap at me. We worked in comfortable silence until the stream of straps stopped and I looked over at the bin to see it completely empty. “That went a lot faster than I expected.” I observed.

“Only because you have absolutely no sense of time whatsoever.” She countered. “That seems to take longer each time I do it.” We shared a laugh and I reached out to bop her on the head.

“Flirting with my officers again, Colonel Gin?” Came the feminine voice from behind me.

“You know me too well, Colonel Inali.” I replied sarcastically as Mocha bowed her head in respect to her commanding officer.

She chose to ignore my comment and instead turned to Mocha. “Are the preparations complete Mocha?”

“Everything is complete and ready for training Colonel.” She replied immediately without missing a beat.

We all three turned to the sound of a door opening and saw the other scouts arriving, all ninety-eight of them. They walked over silently and arranged themselves by rank, waiting for orders from either Inali or Mocha. Inali finally spoke once they had all settled, explaining their training for the day. I slipped off to the side and stood there nonchalantly as I waited for them to start. At Inali’s signal the first three canines ran forward and jumped into the pool. They disappeared under the surface and did not resurface for a good while. They broke the surface one right after the other. Two had nothing but the third had one of the straps in his mouth. He swam over to the side and pulled himself out of the water, quickly dropping the assembly in front of Mocha and coughing a few times. She checked the tag and nodded to Inali that it was his and he was dismissed while the other two got back in their lines to wait for their next chance to try. The one canine that succeeded shook the water out of his fur and sat to the side to watch. I caught a glimpse of the band on his harness through his long fur and saw that it was a dark ruby, marking him as the captain. As Inali’s second in command I expected he would probably stay for the entire training session to see the current level the soldiers were at. He turned, meeting my eye and I held his gaze out of habit. I was still the higher ranking canine and could not show weakness by looking away first. As the next trio leapt into the water, he turned to watch them and I took my cue to leave. I had no business here and Evan had requested my presence.