The shuttle rattled and hummed as it came to a halt and slowly brought itself to ground. The doors slid open, and Coin stepped out, with her duffel bag and rifle case in hand. Her sidearm was holstered to her waist; for once, she was in military fatigues instead of a lab coat. The fatigues were customary for Coin every time she received a new assignment; she didn’t want to give off any wrong impressions. It had happened once during a reassignment. Coin had arrived at her new ship in her lab coat and the captain had screamed at her asking “what the fuck a fucking nerd is doing on his fucking ship” for about twenty minutes before someone alerted him to who she was. That was an unpleasant experience.
In any case, the fatigues were comforting. Coin was, by rights, just a Petty Officer in rank. However, her unique career choices meant Coin had, in a way, fallen out of traditional military progression. As a formality, Coin was given the rank of Commander. As such, she still served on ships and answered to a ship’s captain, but there weren’t too many people that she really had to report to. Of course, if you wanted to get technical, Coin operated almost entirely outside of a typical command structure.
Coin was welcomed by a tall Asian man in full dress; from the looks of it, an admiral. Coin smirked. Ooh, I’m important, she thought, setting her bags down saluting the admiral.
“At ease, Doctor. First things first, my name is Admiral Lin. I’ll be your point of contact in the human military during this assignment.” The admiral extended a hand, which Coin met apprehensively. She was still getting her bearings, and here was Admiral Lin who seemed about ready to slam her with information. He did not disappoint.
“Second thing you need to know is that you have been selected to join an inter-species initiative. To keep it simple, this team is going to be under Assembly jurisdiction and your primary objective, to my knowledge, will be to maintain galactic stability.” Coin nodded. She had figured as much.
“Last thing is that you are the only member of humanity coming from our military, and even that’s a stretch. You and I both know that you’re not exactly a standard example of a human soldier. Regardless, do your best to place our military in a positive light. That shouldn’t be a problem for you” The admiral paused, letting Coin wrap her head around the information. “Any questions, Doctor?”
Coin folded her arms. That last bit caught her by surprise. She hadn’t really expected to be the only representative of humanity’s military, nor did she consider herself to be the best representative. To start, she could be lazy, didn’t really have much respect for a command structure, and had little tolerance for stupid people that couldn’t do their jobs properly. But, the admiral hadn’t said that she was the only human on the team, so at least she wasn’t representing all of humanity by herself. That was reassuring.
Ultimately, Coin shook her head no. “No questions, sir. Where do I report?”
The admiral motioned to another shuttle waiting about a hundred feet away from them. “Take that shuttle to the Bureau of Joint Intelligence. Leave your bags in the shuttle; we’ll take care of it. There’s going to be a meeting in two days; until then get comfortable and we’ll fill you in as you go.” Coin took the hint; the admiral didn’t know what the hell was going to happen beyond that. She nodded, picking up her bags from the ground. As she turned to go, the admiral spoke up again. “And, Doctor?” Coin stopped, turning to face him once more. “Lose the fatigues and wear a lab coat. You don’t need to worry about giving off the wrong impression.” The admiral grinned, and walked off towards the hangar’s exit.
“Yes, sir,” Coin smirked, heading to the shuttle.
--
When Coin disembarked from the shuttle the second time around, she was in her typical lab outfit; white lab coat, white tank top, and cargo pants. She took a moment to straighten herself out, clean her glasses, and fix her hair before entering the Bureau’s lobby.
The first thing Coin took note of was the bizarre architectural design. Most buildings adopted the cultural stylings of whatever race the building belonged to, but the Bureau seemed to try to take the best of each race and mesh it into one combined style. It wasn’t pretty.
The second thing she noticed was that she was not the first one to arrive. Two Rothians, two Masulu, and two Dirophyds. She overheard one of the Rothians ask about the meeting. Well, at least she was in the right place.
Coin couldn’t help but feel out of her element. She was on an unknown world, surrounded by people - hell, species - that she didn’t know, on an assignment that was more or less ‘play nice with the aliens.’ Sure, she had studied all these cultures pretty rigorously in college, but reading a book and listening to a college professor drone on about aliens couldn’t hold a candle to firsthand experience with aliens.
Coin inched towards the small group that was forming in the center of the room, eyeing the Dirophyd in the corner in her peripheral vision. She leaned in slightly, folding her hands behind her back. “I’m guessing this is where the party’s starting? I think we’re all here for the same thing, right? I’m Natalia. You can call me Coin,” she smiled warmly, tossing a small wave to the group. The nerves were killing her, and she hoped it wasn’t showing.