[center][h1]Thomas Dunn[/h1][/center]
[hr]
Thomas was decidedly conflicted. On one hand, he was, by now, more comfortable on starships than he was on solid ground. The Coalition Army spent a lot of time in orbit, for being wholly dedicated to ground-based warfare. Not that he minded. The alternative was Hephaestus, after all. Besides, he actually enjoyed spaceships. He didn't get cabin fever like some people did. The idea that he was traveling at near-or-above lightspeed in a massive metal tube, hurtling through surprisingly un-empty Space, was more than enough to interest him. 

On the other hand, there was little that Thomas liked more than a change of scenery, and he'd be damned if this wasn't the ultimate change of scenery. He'd been on every colonized planet. The great jungle-cities of Rhea, the great wilds of Kepler, the...dust of Hephaestus. No, Thomas hadn't seen it all, but he was making good progress, he liked to think. This planet, this Volturnus, was something entirely new, though. He had seen nothing like it. Something entirely new. 


Thomas and his two subordinates, the nurses Alicia and Daveth, sat around a folding table in the temporary ER Tent. Crates of machinery, textbooks, and medicine were stacked to the ceiling, waiting to be unpacked. Thomas blew out a sigh.

"I presume we're going to start unpacking soon?" He said, in question. His legs were kicked up at the table, and his chair was tilted on its back two legs. It was an obnoxious way to sit, he supposed, but it had a purpose. His leg hurt less when he stretched it out. 

"Didn't we just finish moving the boxes in here?" Alicia asked. She was a tiny thing, barely up to his chest. She had a page-boy haircut, dyed a loud shade of orange. Thomas had learned that she was more than competent when dealing with patients, but getting to do things like paperwork, or unpacking crates, was a chore. 

"Twenty minutes ago." Said Daveth. Daveth was a thick-necked former Coalition Marine. His face was chiseled and square, and Thomas was fairly sure his biceps were bigger than his head. He was, undoubtedly, the most intimidating man that Thomas had ever met. Which made it all the more amusing that Daveth was the sweetest, most mild person he'd ever known. 

"Let's get it over with, eh? Faster we do this, the faster we can get to all the exciting shit." Thomas said, rising with a grimace. He limped over to one of the crates and opened it. In it were about a dozen cases of clinical-strength ibuprofen. It was less than a twentieth  of their total medicine store. He groaned. "This might be an all-nighter."

"'So, Alicia, what did you do the first day you stepped foot on the surface of Volturnus?'" Alicia said. "'Oh, me? I unpacked some boxes.'" Daveth laughed, harder than necessary. Alicia smiled, blushing. Daveth blushed back. Thomas wanted to scream. They were so obviously crazy about each other, but neither had the courage to admit it. Every time something like this happened (and it had happened a lot, over the year they'd all known each other), Thomas wanted to shove their faces together and be done with it. He didn't know how much more "will-they-won't-they" he could stand.

"Oi! Awkward flirting later, unpacking crates now." He said, turning back to the ibuprofen. He smiled, though. Sure, his subordinates' love lives were driving him insane, and sure, he was stuck unloading boxes on the first day he arrived on a brand new planet, but things could be worse. After all, they were on a [i]brand new planet[/i].

[i]What do I have to be sad about?[/i] He thought, surprisingly content.