Crash Landing

the commander

The walls were empty as per usual for the Celestial, probably because the ship was a reflection of its Commander.

Pretty on the outside, empty on the inside.

Beyond the reinforced windows that must've cost a fortune to have made for those specific dimensions lay a starry galaxy that could've brought tears of wonder and amazement to my eyes had it been any other occasion that I could get a rare glimpse at the space that lay just beyond my fingertips.

But instead, my stargazing moment was ever so rudely interrupted when the door clicked open once before it slammed shut again, the action disturbing my moment of silence as I visibly jumped out of my skin just before a humorous chuckle responded throughout the room.

"Hmm…..Gorgeous, isn't it? It's not everyday you can honestly say that you're allowed to wake up to a view like that one."

The voice was feminine but brought a hard line of built up frustration and years of repression that only a masculine tone could deliver and I watched out of the corner of my eye as the Commander slowly walked into my line of sight, a smirk on her face as mischief twinkled in her dark eyes.

Commander Ophelia had aged a bit since I was a child and that was only natural to happen but part of me still wondered how she still looked so eternal even in her early 40s.

Barely any wrinkle lines around her eyes, her forehead, her mouth.

Her hair was still as dark as I remembered it being, still as black as a black hole but it was short now, the jagged cut barely reaching the tops of her well muscled shoulders.

Commander Ophelia was built to be stronger than most of the females upon the Celestial, myself included.

She practically oozed masculinity over femininity, something that might have worked as a scare tactic back on Earth to intimidate the men in her line of work but I saw through the misty cloud of bullshit.

Just because she was physically fit did not mean she was anymore of a hard ass then the next person, that part was guaranteed.

"Well, I seem to have forgotten myself for a moment. I am allowed to wake up to such a spectacular view unlike you, a mere mechanic with lesser skills and knowledge than that of a peasant farmer."

She said cockily and I bit my tongue to refrain from smarting off to her, she was just a bitch and anybody who came within her general vicinity knew that to begin with.

Commander Ophelia sighed almost disappointedly when she realized she was going to invoke a response from me that way and she casually strolled around to the back side of her desk, sitting down in the swivel chair before she crossed her legs elegantly over each other whilst clasping her hands on the desk before her.

With a stone cold expression on her face now, the Commander gestured for me to take a seat in one of the two available leather chairs.

"Sit down, Miss Minerva. We have lots to discuss, don't we? Starting off with the fact that you knowingly provoked a fellow worker before proceeding to verbally and physically assault him as well, isn't that right?"

At her casually tossed out words, I couldn't stop the huff that left me when I sat down in the leather chair, the material squeaking beneath me as I wondered just how many people sat in this chair before me.

Just how many of their hopes and dreams were crushed beneath the heels of her steel toed boots.

"You know as well as I do that he deserved everything he got, I could've beat his ass further too if your little brainwashed minions hadn't pulled me off him."

Commander Ophelia chuckled lightly as if she found this conversation to be amusing and she leaned back in her high back chair as she visually examined my appearance.

I felt like I was being put under a microscope with her gaze locked so intently on me and not in a good way either.

"Ahh, you're just like your mother, you know that? A little spitfire that burns everything she touches until she burns the wrong person."

Crossing my arms as I leaned back in my chair, I knew that she was playing a game with me.

Screwing with my head by using her manipulative words.

But two could play at that game.

"If I was just like my mother, then you would have no problem allowing me to reapply for an Explorer position, now would you? After all, I think I proved today that I'm both physically and mentally strong enough to carry out a successful mission."

And just for a second, I thought she was going to take me seriously, that she would actually reconsider her set in stone decision to ban me from ever applying to be an Explorer again.

But instead, the Commander only burst out laughing as if that was, single handedly, the funniest thing she's ever heard before.

It only pissed me off further and I gripped onto the armrests of the leather seat, digging my fingernails into the squeaky material to refrain from slapping that high and mighty bitch cleanly across the face.

"Wow, you really do know how to explode with that punchline, don't ya? God, your sense of humor is truly remarkable."

Commander said as she faked wiping laughing tears out of her eyes before she smirked right at my expressionless face.

"Just to make sure we're both clear on this, for as long as I'm alive, you will never be an Explorer nor will you ever have the chance to reapply. How shall I say this….You are simply not built to be one of our Explorer's."

She glanced pointedly down at my right leg, at the leg that beneath the material of my uniform was only half of my body, the rest of it was purely machinery.

My blood boiled in my veins, how did she find out about the deformity?

What dick wad in this station squealed like a motherfucking pig with this classified information to her?

And her next words had me almost ready to rear up from my seat and suckerpunch her right where it would hurt.

Her cold, blackened heart.

"Be thankful I'm not having you Cast Out. Now, you'll be on probation for the next two weeks and I'll have to revoke your pass for scheduled meal times with your fellow workers."

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-Ro♥️