Swamped

You follow Sergeant Greenwoods out of the docks and down the halls, back to more familiar parts of the base. Still, you don't recognize the door you stop at.

The sergeant lets you in, and you find it filled with an assortment of wood and a small toolbench. A short while later, Jackson walks in.

"Oh! Am I late? Sorry, Sarge, had to clean up a mess."

"It's all right, Jackson. We just finished the last lesson a little early. Now that you're here, though, you can get started on showing Marshall the art of carpentry."

Jackson nods.

"Start simple, right? Just saw some boards and nail 'em together, don't worry if they look like anything yet."

"That's the usual first lesson, yes."

"Right, well." He gets over to a sawhorse and puts a long board on it, then pulls out a saw. "Just move the saw back and forth, like this. Careful where you keep your hands, of course." He demonstrates for a little while, then looks up and passes the saw to you.

It moves fairly easily. Before long, the board is cut in half, more or less.

"Now, hammering. If you end up on a repair team, most of what you'll be doing is nailing planks to other planks." He lays two longer boards on their sides, and positions the shorter ones near one end. Then he pulls out a hammer, puts a nail in the board, and strikes a few times until it's securely in.

"Did you get that? I'll do it again, just to be sure."

You watch closely as he hammers in another nail next to the first. Then he hands the hammer to you.

"Just like that. Two nails on each end of each board. Think you can handle it?"

You can. You've done a little of this back at the farm, usually when the barn was damaged after a storm and Harrison had other things to take care of. Still, it's not exactly something you've had a lot of practice with, and this hammer feels a bit lighter than the one you used to use. It takes you a while, but you soon get the boards nailed down.

"That's the basics. There's fancier stuff, but usually you won't do that unless you're on a repair team full-time. Our squad's still more of odd jobs; we may be out of training, but that doesn't mean we're not still learning."

"Well put, Jackson. Good work, both of you; since this was an introductory session, that's really about all we're doing right now. Next session, we'll work on a more intricate project, but still something small scale. For now, Marshall, that's all your classes for the day. And Jackson, you can use the rest of the period as you see fit before getting back to work."

Well, as the sergeant said, you're free for the day. What are you going to do with your time?