The Paradox of Moatia Rhaden

Season One Episode Twelve

Anneli blinked her eyes open, groaning as a calm melody filled her small cabin aboard the Paradox. She attempted to stay in her bed and just let the music play.

That was all ruined when the song ended and a commercial played instead.

She grumbled and rolled over, reaching desperately for her alarm. She landed on the floor with a 'thump' and a new ad came on. Anneli blew some hair out of her mouth.

You would've thought the Republic would have provided the fancy paid-for, ad free subscription, but it turned out they were cheapskates.

She slowly opened her eyes and rested her head on her arms. She stared across the floor, her eyes struggling to stay open. The alarm continued to play loudly, the calm melody becoming slightly annoying. She wanted to sleep.

Anneli figured she had better get up. She stood up and threw her blankets back onto her cot with a yawn. She hit her alarm button and turned it to the radio instead. Anneli waited for a moment before changing the channel.

She didn't like that song. She flipped through some more channels. Then she flipped back to her personal playlist. Grinning widely as one of her favorite songs started playing, Anneli began to dance.

She mumbled along to the music as she spun around her room.

As the song ended, she did a little hop and then dissolved into giggles. She didn't know what she was doing. It certainly wasn't behavior expected of an Admiral of the GAR. Anneli briefly wondered what her instructors back at the academy would think, before deciding she didn't care. They always were a bunch of sticks in the mud.

She turned up her music and hummed along as she stepped into the fresher.

Anneli leaned over the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, and she clearly forgot to take off her makeup last night as it was smeared all over her face.

Well, she didn't sleep much last night. She was waiting anxiously for the General, Commander, Gamma Squadron, and Phantom Squadron to return. Whenever people left her ship, it made her anxious. She had been so relieved upon their return, she had returned to her quarters and promptly collapsed on her bed and passed out.

Anneli turned her attention back to her tangled hair and smudged face. No matter, it could be fixed. Anneli grabbed a makeup wipe and scrubbed the smeared mascara off. She quickly ran a comb through her hair to make it look a bit better before she grabbed her uniform.

She wriggled into the shirt and hopped into the pants. Anneli pinned on her badge showing her rank of admiral and looked proudly at herself in the mirror.

How she had worked for this rank. Her hopes and dreams from her childhood had come true. She still didn't quite believe she was an Admiral.

Anneli allowed herself one excited squeal before continuing to get ready. She leaned forward towards the mirror and carefully patted on her foundation before moving on to eyeliner. The foundation was just a little blotchy and the eyeliner wasn't even, but Anneli found herself too tired to care. It was close enough. She highly doubted any of the men aboard her cruiser would care either. She doubted half of them combed their hair. She felt the ship rock lightly as she pulled her tube of mascara out of her makeup bag, but dismissed it and continued singing along to her favorite song.

Right as she raised the mascara wand to her eye, the ship rocked.

"Ow!" Anneli yelled as she stabbed herself in the eye. She blinked back the tears and saw the mascara had made a line across her eyebrow.
She mumbled and went to grab a rag when the ship rocked again.