Aphelion

Old World

Smirking, she brought her shower basket and proceeded to de-stress herself before the big event.

"What do you think she'll be addressing today?", inquired Cadet Rayapudi once she made it out of her room dressed.

"Um...what's the theme of this month for the Space Corps?", she squeaked.

"Sexual Assault Prevention," exclaimed Cadet Nelson as he popped into existence by their side.

"You keep giving me a heart attack, Nelson!", Rayapudi chided, slapping her comrade lightly on the shoulder.

"Well, at least he's testing to see that your heart's still pumping," offered Cadet Liam Clarke as he got into place besides them in the passageway between the West Dormitories and the Main Complex, where the auditorium lay.

"I should be grateful for that then?", Celine joked, nervously grinning back at her friends.

Something was up with Celine today, and Quibilah noted that her normally upbeat attitude had dampened quite a bit.

"Cadets, sit in the seats according to your assigned squadrons. Squadron leaders, the rotation has been changed, look in your morning brief for more details," commanded Major Role as the cadets started to crowd the auditorium.

It was like this every month, a buzz of "Where am I gonna sit?" and "But this seat is taken?" Somehow fellow cadets still seemed to forget how to sit in the space or pretended not to know.

"CADETS!", yelled the Vice-Superintendent.

"YES, SIR," roared back the constituents of the USSCA.

"Today, we will be having a guest speaker talk about this month's theme for our branch, but before we get around to doing that, I have an announcement to make."

All chatter ceased as cadets wondered what the Lt Colonel had to say.

"There will be another Administrator joining us for this assembly, a Korean Navy Captain. Cadets, you are not to disturb his work during the next three months of his stay here, is that understood?"

"YES, COLONEL CALLOWAY!", called out the audience, still no clue what he was going on about.

Cadet Celine Rayapudi gasped, and then pointed at the new administrator, saying, "Quibilah, doesn't he look a lot like President Seon from Jeolgeon Inc?"

"Not all Koreans look the same, Celine," she whispered back. They were sitting in the second row and could see the backs of the faculty and staff sitting up front very clearly from their vantage point.

"I know that! But he has a unique appearance and he did serve in the Navy, I think."

"Shut up before you get us court-martialed," she teased to her only female friend.

The Superintendent, Lieutenant General Cameron, started her speech discussing anti-sexual harassment laws set in place by the military and different regulations the sexes had to follow.

Then, she remarked, "I know that it is the 22nd century, and I think all of you know how important this is by now. However, we have a speaker here to remind you that if things like that happen to you, it is not your fault and speak on how important paying attention to the training is because crimes like that can happen to anyone."

Suddenly, a girl got on stage and addressed the audience.

"Hi, I am Cadet Leah Priya, and I am a sexual assault survivor."

Cadet Celine gasped, and muttered under her breath,

"I am the worst human being alive."

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Author's note: The storyline regarding Cadet Leah was written from the very beginning. The idea came from the monthly assemblies, and controversial topics I often was asked to discuss in AF ROTC as well as meetings with survivors in my university who speak about their experience. I do not mean to offend any victims or survivors of such atrocities, and as you can see by the next chapter, this is not meant to be played for laughs. This story overall will deal with dark themes like climate change, racism, sexism, bullying, war, accidents, death, politics, sexual harassment, etc. (I mean most of this characters are in the military so there will be subject matter address that is exclusive to that environment as well.) Here-it is implied that Celine used to envy/bully Cadet Leah without knowing about her past. It was mostly cut out of previous chapters because it was not that important to the plot, but will probably be added back in for better reference. This chapter was originally longer, and contained her whole speech, but I feel that with the tone for the next chapter being more sad, this ends more naturally here.