Exploring Titan

~30~

A fight erupted on the other side of the screen as everything on my end froze and time stood still.

I couldn't breathe, couldn't move.

They're cutting me off.

My breathing come out in low shallow gasps as I fought to get any kind of air into my lungs

They're abandoning me.

The room began to tilt and spin

I'm going to be alone.

Everything slowly started going dark around the edges of my vision.

"P-please don't...." Was all I was able to beg, in a choked whisper.

Chairs scraped and papers went flying as everyone stopped arguing and looked at me.

I took a breath that did nothing to elevate my hyperventilation and forced out the next words from my dry as fuck throat.

"D-do not....leave me alone out here."

"That's rich, coming from the chick who shot herself into space to get away from us." The burly words of the General, who clearly had no heart at this point, said to me with zero empathy displayed all over his face.

My eyes lock onto him with a vicious glare.

"Don't give me that look, we've done everything to provide you with constant support and keep you safe. But you fight us every step of the way!" He flings his hands out, as if dealing with the most unreasonable creature in existence.

"I'm not a soldier under your command!! YOU help me because you OFFERED to, not because I begged or owed you anything!!" I spat back venomously, pointing my fingers straight at them.

"Well, we don't want to help you anymore!! Doesn't seem to stop you from begging now, does it?" he mocked me right in my face.

"General..." A cautionary voice tried to restrain him, but I was took focused on his smug face to even glance to see who had said that.

"She's been nothing but a pain and nuisance!! Everyone here thinks so and agrees!!" The belligerent man continues to rant, "Hogging up all our essential space resources, and brainwashing pop culture to not shut up about her with her online cult of fans!!"

"You only ever sent me ONE aid package, that you deployed poorly and got it trapped in Mars' orbit for weeks, that I ever accepted!" I fire back. "Now you act like you're the literal reason I'm still alive!!!"

"AND SHE'S UNGRATEFUL TO!! THAT AID PACKAGE COST BILLIONS TO SEND AND YOU STILL USE THE SEEDS IN YOUR INFERIOR LITTLE GARDEN"

"I NEVER ASKED FOR YOUR HELP!!"

His eyes squinted at me with rage.

A moment of pause descended, almost making me believe the worst of it was over. But then-

"Keep talking like that, and you can say goodbye to the final goodwill aid package we plan to send to you later this week."

"What?"

"We are aware of how low your supply is currently. And how you've run out of 98% of the amenities you left earth with and are surviving purely on replenishables." Doctor Lady says.

Then she awkwardly continues, "It would be....cruel. To ignore all that and....."

"Leave me out here to die?" I finish for them. Saying the quiet part they were unwilling to say out loud.