Crash Landing

cargo bay

*Mae*

"Ms Mabel Minerva? You are needed on level 4 for a routine maintenance inspection."

My name was announced over the small corner speakers inside my bedchambers and my eyebrows raised up, my young sister, Collette, who was eight years old and barely old enough to concentrate on her own schooling program on the Celestial perked her own head up from the bed that she was resting on, the bed that we temporarily shared for the time being.

But that was all about to change very quickly, as it turns out.

A permanent frown was etched into the contours of my face as I hopped up from the edge of the bed, long red hair that I could have cared less about sweeping across my back with smooth, easy strokes that belonged on a canvas to an artist and not upon my head.

I had my mother's genes to thank for such a gorgeous mane of hair but the trusses were a hassle to deal with and part of me wanted to cut it all off but I knew that I should feel lucky to have such well cared for hair.

Not many people could say that about their own layers of locks or those without any at all.

The smoothed out cracks of my heart still broke open from time to time when I thought about how fortunate I was compared to others, especially when compared to Indie.

I never wanted to think about it like that but many of the older generation upon the Celestial were all too happy to point it out, they weren't as forgiving or as pleasant to deal with when compared to the younger generation.

They had no problem telling me where I belonged and it wasn't on the Celestial.

However, I tried to ignore their snickering laughs and whispering voices down the hall and bouncing around the levels of the central space station.

I just tried to make it through each and every day flying under the radar as best as I could.

And so far, I've managed to achieve the smallest bit of normalcy, of invisibility per say.

But my small streak of luck was about to end, as it turns out, because I was about to be placed on probation for the first time because of a crime that was committed.

A crime that I had nothing to do with.

Or so, I thought but Commander Ophelia was sneaky that way.

And she wasn't about to let me out of her sight anytime soon.

I flashed a small, reassuring smile at my younger sister, the permanent frown of confusion marring both of our faces as we simply couldn't figure out why I was suddenly needed on another level after I had already finished up at my workstation for the day.

Why not somebody else?

Why was I the only one needing to leave their bedchambers for the evening?

"I'll be right back, Lettie. It's probably just something they found wrong with my workstation, I'm sure it's nothing too major."

Collette nodded as her attention went back to that of her holographic tablet screen before her, the device one of the many that she was allowed to use outside of learning hours as the limited number of instructors aboard the Celestial had to rotate the amount of devices that the students were allowed to use for strictly educational purposes, her green eyes alit with the sharp brightness from the screen.

"Okay....But I wanna eat soon. Can we go to the cafeteria later?"

I chuckled lightly under my breath, Lettie was a growing girl and she has always had an appetite for everything except patience.