Crash Landing

the present

~Mae~

Bleep!

Bleep!

Bleep!

The beeping sound of an alarm going off was enough to startle me back to reality in the form of my head accidentally banging against the wooden desk table beneath it as I was startled awake from the sharp, shrill noise.

A groan of pain and tiredness escaped my parted, chapped lips as I rubbed the rapidly forming goose egg size bump on my head.

That was surely going to smart later on, I'll see if I can get Indie to give me some pain meds for it.

Don't want anything to interfere with the project I've been working on as of lately.

Sighing under my breath at the dreaded conversation I was going to have to have with my best friend and future primary care physician on the Celestial, Indigo Tove, since I knew she was going to poke and prod me on why I needed pain medication all of the sudden.

I scrubbed my grease covered hands down my face, fatigue overpowering my senses as I tried my hardest to conjure any sort of energy up inside my veins.

If I was being completely honest though, all I wanted to do was go back to sleep and forget about everything that was dumped on my plate recently.

But I couldn't exactly do that.

I'd get in trouble with Commander Ophelia if I hadn't already with my staying late at my workstation when it was mandatory for any younger workers to be in bed at approximately 9 p.m. sharp.

And yet, here I was, the digitized holographic clock that I set an alarm on to go off every hour or so to wake me up in case I fell asleep again still beeping but the sound was quieter.

Though I couldn't say the same thing about the voices in my head.

They were always at the forefront of my every decision, my every move.

Anything I did was commented upon, it was like dealing with an annoying parental guardian but you'd be the only one who could hear their voice.

Gosh, now I really am going insane with all this crazy talk.

I really should get some drugs to help me sleep, maybe Indie can prescribe me something when I ask her about those pain meds.

Normally, I wouldn't be contemplating asking my only friend in this confined metal cage for synthetic drugs that may or may not work but my senses have been a bit more on edge then usual.

Plus, being locked up in the Celestial could wreak havoc on one's body, as it turns out.

It was quite common for the younger generation to experience anything from brain crushing headaches to nose bleeds to even partial paralysis over time.

No one quite knows how the unusual conditions develop but there is a theory being passed around that the Commander secretly filters the leftover residue from our oxygen tanks back through the quarters of the younger workers as we were expendable and could be easily replaced if we developed a condition that impaired our ability to focus and do our jobs correctly and efficiently.

I pushed that thought aside for the time being though, I highly doubt that the Commander who was in charge of everybody's life on this station was willing to jeopardize half of the population's lives just for a hair bit of personal gain when it came to saving money on missions and equipment.

I've only had the pleasure, and a bit of displeasure, of meeting Commander Ophelia a few times in the eight years I've been stuck on the Celestial but let's just say she wasn't exactly a friendly face that anybody wanted to see in their free time.