"People always say it can never happen to you..."
Cadet Priya paused before adding, "It's simply not true."
Looking back at the screen behind her, she tapped a clicker on her index finger, and two pictures of a young Cadet Priya came up. One-clearly from USSFA bootcamp, and the other-set in an Indian jungle with a shorter Priya in pigtails.
"This topic is a sensitive subject for some, but I wanted to share my own experience so I reached out to the General when she asked for any anonymous case studies and anecdotes we had to share on the topic. Because sometimes putting a face to something helps you understand and empathize with it better," she stated, holding the microphone close to her chest.
Pointing at the first photo taken at bootcamp, she started, "I was eighteen years old when I started on this journey with all you guys. Nervous, excited, leaving New York for someplace new...I was ready for adventure when I finally arrived in Florida. Unfortunately, I had what some people call a triggering event."
Gulping, she continued. "One of the pool instructors that we were assigned to got unusually close to me. At the time, I didn't notice anything was off as I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and eager to please. Knowing my swimming was not the best, I struggled in that area of bootcamp. As the exam got nearer, that pool instructor offered to help me and other cadets. Helpful, right?"
The audience stared back, wide-eyed, and completely silent.
"It would seem so. Until one day, my new group buddies decided to quit, and I was the only one left...I found out from the pool instructor...on the day he tried to harass me," she said with tears in her eyes.
Cadet Celine squirmed in her seat; now regretting having bullied her in the past. How was she to know she had been harassed before?
"His breath that day...it reminded me of what had happened to me back when I was twelve years old, and I screamed. Administrators found me, and it was there that I burst out into tears and told them my story. My cousin was captain of the cricket team in my hometown back in India before I moved here to the US for high school. I had been born in the US, but my father had work based out of India, so we moved back after my birth. After a great victory, I went with my family and friends to my cousin's family's house and had a celebration. It was the middle of the night when someone covered my face, I woke up and saw a friend of my cousin, one of the cricket players."
Tears streamed down Cadet Quibilah's eyes as she imagined that moment vividly, even though she never had experienced it herself.
"My family pressed charges, but he was an esteemed high school student with prospects, and I was seen as a **** who wanted to ruin his reputation. So we left India, my parents hired therapists, and that was that. Even the people of DODMERB who saw I had depression for a year couldn't pry out the cause from me. But that day, I broke down and told people...I felt free. I thought I had forgotten the incident, but those nasty breaths took me back. And all I can say now is that to those in this room who won't take the training we do seriously, or say to yourself it could never happen to me..."
"Stop lying to yourself. There are yellow warning signs in the lockers rooms for a reason. Sexual harassment, or assault, can happen to anyone, and it's never your fault." After she finished, the entire student body except for a few stragglers clapped for her. Some boys made crude jokes, but instantly Cadet Priya's classmates swarmed her and told her how brave she was.
Lt Colonel Calloway then spoke out. "Cadets, I want to remind all of you that rules are there for a reason. Four years from now, I want the first class of the Space Forces Academy to be proud of themselves for graduating as elites! Sexual crimes do not only hurt others, as in my opinion the most perverse thing you can do against someone else, but harm your career. Should any one of you be indicted for one of these crimes, be it against man or woman, rest assured that this branch will not hesitate in expulsion from the academy. Is that understood?"
Silence followed as the cadets stole looks at each other. Expulsion?
"Is that understood, CADETS?", he roared.
"YES, COLONEL CALLOWAY!"
The Superintendent mentioned a hotline to call, and that counseling services were available before dismissing them.
Cadet Quibilah Abdel passed by in a daze the rest of the day. Even her Physics Pop quiz elicited no reaction from her.
"You got a bad score!", cried Cadet Rayapudi as she snatched her sheet away from her after class.
"I did?", she murmured.
Bad score, sexual assault, bad score, sexual assault...Obviously, which one's worse than the other is a no-brainer! (Sexual assault, that is.)
All the words she had heard that morning swarmed around her head as she shivered just thinking about something like that happening to someone.
"Quibilah?", her friends asked as she further retreated into her mind. Sometimes, she would get like this, so introspective that a sunny day could present itself as night with all the thoughts running round her head. When she was a child, her father would be the one to console her. Coming from school, she would dump on him the news of the day and pester him with endless questions about the world around her. As a working scientist, he probably would have been dead-tired from being on his feet, but he nevertheless entertained her, always putting her mind at ease.
Approaching her dorm room at the end of the day, she realized she had no one who she could talk to at home like this. Her mother, a flight attendant, was always away on flights and when she was home...she just stared at her daughter with guilt in her eyes.
Guilt for what? Not being around or for being a poor substitute for father! Why didn't she continue translating after dad died? Why was she left alone? Why was she reprimanded for choosing to enter the military? Also, why did her mother fear space so much?
So many questions swirled around her head as she plopped on the hard bed. Soft blankets enveloped her as she went to sleep without showering. Snuggling close to her stuffed animal, the only souvenir she brought from home, she whispered to Quack, "I miss daddy...", and sobbed.
An eighteen-year old woman relying on a stuffed animal and crying herself to sleep over not being able to talk to her dead daddy! What a sight, she mused as she wiped the tears away.
Maybe she was overreacting over all of this. Maybe tomorrow, she would be...
She was startled from a dreamless sleep in the middle of the night by a high-pitched shriek.
"What was that?"
________________________________________
Author's note: I don't write filler so keep that in mind as Priya is a supporting character we'll see more of. Also, Quibilah's personality type is ENFP so she tends to be a tad introspective even as an extrovert. The next chapter is...well, a bit horror in tone. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.
Author's note: Also, the clicker on her index finger is a technology from the future. Various points in the story there will be technology that's briefly mentioned, maybe elaborated on, that does not exist yet, or at least not in the US. It's part of the environment of the story as this is set in the 22nd century. Example: Advertisements on screens that induce your sense of smell, already in use in Japan.
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Aphelion
Science Fiction"It was all a dream come true...before it turned into a nightmare." In the near future, Quibilah is part of a group of students tasked with the mission to save the world, one school day at a time. The only difference between her and other students i...
