*Mae*
"Ms Mabel Minerva? You are needed on level 4 for a routine maintenance inspection."
My name was announced over the small corner speakers inside my bedchambers and my eyebrows raised up, my young sister, Collette, who was eight years old and barely old enough to concentrate on her own schooling program on the Celestial perked her own head up from the bed that she was resting on, the bed that we temporarily shared for the time being.
But that was all about to change very quickly, as it turns out.
A permanent frown was etched into the contours of my face as I hopped up from the edge of the bed, long red hair that I could have cared less about sweeping across my back with smooth, easy strokes that belonged on a canvas to an artist and not upon my head.
I had my mother's genes to thank for such a gorgeous mane of hair but the trusses were a hassle to deal with and part of me wanted to cut it all off but I knew that I should feel lucky to have such well cared for hair.
Not many people could say that about their own layers of locks or those without any at all.
The smoothed out cracks of my heart still broke open from time to time when I thought about how fortunate I was compared to others, especially when compared to Indie.
I never wanted to think about it like that but many of the older generation upon the Celestial were all too happy to point it out, they weren't as forgiving or as pleasant to deal with when compared to the younger generation.
They had no problem telling me where I belonged and it wasn't on the Celestial.
However, I tried to ignore their snickering laughs and whispering voices down the hall and bouncing around the levels of the central space station.
I just tried to make it through each and every day flying under the radar as best as I could.
And so far, I've managed to achieve the smallest bit of normalcy, of invisibility per say.
But my small streak of luck was about to end, as it turns out, because I was about to be placed on probation for the first time because of a crime that was committed.
A crime that I had nothing to do with.
Or so, I thought but Commander Ophelia was sneaky that way.
And she wasn't about to let me out of her sight anytime soon.
I flashed a small, reassuring smile at my younger sister, the permanent frown of confusion marring both of our faces as we simply couldn't figure out why I was suddenly needed on another level after I had already finished up at my workstation for the day.
Why not somebody else?
Why was I the only one needing to leave their bedchambers for the evening?
"I'll be right back, Lettie. It's probably just something they found wrong with my workstation, I'm sure it's nothing too major."
Collette nodded as her attention went back to that of her holographic tablet screen before her, the device one of the many that she was allowed to use outside of learning hours as the limited number of instructors aboard the Celestial had to rotate the amount of devices that the students were allowed to use for strictly educational purposes, her green eyes alit with the sharp brightness from the screen.
"Okay....But I wanna eat soon. Can we go to the cafeteria later?"
I chuckled lightly under my breath, Lettie was a growing girl and she has always had an appetite for everything except patience.
"Sure, kid. I'll be back soon, don't do anything I wouldn't do."
Reaching out, I ruffled her hair playfully before I headed out of the bedchambers and glanced both ways down the long metal hallway, a bit disoriented by the sudden change of scenery.
It took me a second to gather my bearings but once I did, I was striving down the hallway with a bit of weariness and confidence gnawing at my insides, wondering why I was being needed outside of my bedchambers at such an ungodly hour.
How strange that saying is, considering the fact that many people could do such ungodly things and still be considered saints.
My thoughts surrounding the strangest of sayings that we as humans still used were pushed to the back of my mind when my feet, after walking up the flights of stairs to the correct level, were suddenly swept out from underneath me as two massive giants for guards, who I'm pretty sure could've passed off as Goliath's cousins, grabbed my arms so harshly, I was literally lifted off the ground with my feet dangling in the air.
A squeak of surprise left my lungs but it was quickly replaced with silence as from out of the corner of my eye, I watched with shock as Commander Ophelia strolled forward from the open doorway of her office with her arms casually crossed over her expensive uniform, as if she wasn't worried in the slightest bit about ruining her uniform which probably cost her a fortune to have repaired.
But that was something that she could obviously afford.
Us, all of the other workers and employees on-board the Celestial, we weren't nearly as lucky as the Commander to have such sought after privileges.
"Well, well, well. Look what we have here. Do my eyes dare to deceive me or am I in the presence of a rule breaker of the Celestial? A troublemaker, to say the least."
She scoffed at my surprised reaction, a humorless chuckle escaping her hardened exterior.
"What, did you think you could just get away with going out for a mere unauthorized spacewalk? Think you could just explore the stars and nobody would blink an eye or say boo to you because you're somehow more important than us?"
My eyebrows only furrowed together further, what in God's creation was the Commander talking about?
She was literally going cuckoo if she thought I would go out on a spacewalk and actually get caught for it.
I was dumb but I wasn't that dumb.
Give me some credit here.
"Commander, I didn't-"
She waved off whatever I had been trying to say with a flick of her wrist, dark eyes glaring at me with such frustration that she almost resembled Mama in a sense.
Maybe embodied her essence?
And if I was correct, which I usually was, there was also a hint of admiration sparkling behind that stone cold wall that she always had up, using it to guard her emotional reactions because she couldn't be seen as something as inferior as being human.
Her words, not mine.
"Enough with that nonsense. God, you're just as terrible as the rest! You always have an excuse for something! Your generation will never take responsibility for anything because it is always easier to blame someone else for your problems!"
Her voice raised as her expression darkened, I guess the Commander was extra cranky today.
Commander Ophelia rubbed her temples as if she was getting yet another migraine from having to deal with me, I couldn't blame her though, I was a bit irritating and annoying at times and that was putting it nicely.
But her next words still surprised me, which I didn't even think was possible given all of the surprises I've had in my life before.
"You've been placed on probation and seeing as you are still a minor, you will be suspended from any weekly payments from your work along with being sentenced to solitary. Your work will be supervised by an advanced member of your crew..."
Commander Ophelia's voice droned on and on and I could feel my heart sink into my stomach.
How could I have let this happen?
What was going to happen to Lettie now that I was being placed in solitary confinement?
"Mae? You okay there, space girl?"
My head jerked up when I heard Indie calling my name, when I felt her tapping my shoulder as I stared blankly down at the half finished project that rested on top of my workstation, my oil covered fingers lying idle against the greased up metal of the engine propeller that I was now currently working on.
I couldn't remember why or when I started working on the propeller, perhaps it was when I finished up my own secret project and the old supervisor that I was assigned, whose name I still couldn't remember but I had a sneaky suspicion that it was old fashioned sounding because the guy was older than dirt, decided to hand off the hard project that none of the other workers on this level could manage to fix out to none other than me, little Mabel Minerva.
As if I don't have enough problems already, now I have to fix a fucking propeller too?!
Am I the only one on this goddamn floor that knows how to do their own job or something?
Apparently, nobody on this floor could ever do their jobs correctly or else, I wouldn't be handed all of these projects that A, weren't mine to begin with and B, I never asked for them anyways.
But that was the tricky part of being on probation, you basically had to do whatever it was that the supervisor approved or else, you were expected to report your behavior back to the Commander.
Sounds just like a prison job but it's less exciting in reality.
However, despite my awful tasks, it finally dawned on me that Indie was speaking to me and my head shook a bit as I blinked a few times to welcome myself back to the land of reality.
More like the land of the boring, if you ask me.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm good. Just....uh....need something...to fix this thing with..."
I trailed off as I told a little bit of a white lie, I was as fine as I could be given the situation but not exactly in desperate need of finding a tool for the ruined propeller like I was making it out to be, but I needed an excuse to step away from my workstation because how else was I ever supposed to escape onto one of the few ships leaving the Celestial if I was stuck at work?
Okay, I may have left out a few key details about how that was going to happen so lemme explain that real quick.
I came up with the ingenious plan to escape using one of the Explorer's ships that were designed to hold up long-term when it came to space travel and finding the ship was easy since I was assigned the lovely task of installing their fixed equipment over the course of the next few days before their next mission.
The easy part was the fact that I could get close enough to the ship to sneak on without being detected.
The hard part was that I was barely allowed anywhere besides the restroom with supervision, I was being treated like a goddamn child by these idiots and it was really starting to get on my nerves.
Thankfully, I won't have to deal with any of them anymore or at least, for a few weeks or so.
Although I wouldn't be missing my co-workers or the Commander, a part of me did feel guilty for leaving Collette and Indigo all alone without telling them about my plan to head back down to Earth in hopes that I'd find Mama still alive down there.
But I just couldn't take the risk of telling them the truth.
I just couldn't.
Which is why I had to fabricate the lie of needing a spare tool from the maintenance supply room to Indigo and my supervisor which then allowed me to slip off after getting the green light from Mr Liver Spotted Still-Don't-Know-His-Name Old Dude and my dexterous hands scooped up the hidden satchel bag alongside my workstation, the contents inside only being that of what I could physically carry onboard the ship I was planning on taking control over.
Well, it's more like commandeering but that's just the technical term.
Honestly, I'm just gonna be borrowing it for the time being, Commander Ophelia should be thankful that I'm taking that piece of luggage off her hands in all truthfulness.
Though I highly doubt she's going to think of it as me simply taking it off her hands so she didn't have to worry about it for a few weeks worth of time.
But I was a bit more worried about the contents inside the satchel then I was about Commander Ophelia finding out where I was going, my heart racing out of my chest as I said goodbye to my best friend, which hopefully it wouldn't be my last goodbye to her, before heading down the long hallway towards the stairs that would take me down to the cargo holding area, the items inside the bag rustling and jostling with every movement against the back of my shoulder blades as I hiked the bag up higher.
Along with the necessary basic albeit heavy tools that I would need in case something went horrifically wrong with the ship, there were also more important items safely stashed away in the satchel.
Such as the only pieces of clothing that I owned or the only photograph of Mama, Collette and I all together that still managed to survive after all of these years of gradually wearing down.
To me, that photograph was worth more than the Celestial cost to plan and construct and it made this entire insane idea of a rescue mission that I came up with worth it.
So while it may be an illogical plan that I haven't exactly completely thought through yet, it was still a plan in motion that I was sticking to regardless of the consequences.
Which is how I found myself only minutes later searching in the darkened cargo bay for the right Explorer's ship and when the system alarms hanging on the ceiling went off for the unauthorized breach of the intruder, meaning moi of course, I made a noise of indecisiveness as my feet propelled my body in a circle while searching for the ship quite frantically now.
Fuck!
Shit!
Fuck this shit!
Where the hell is it?
It was as if time was moving in slow motion because it was now taking me for-fucking-ever to find this stupid ship and that was putting it in a nice way.
I was stressed and scared and anxious and I just wanted to get the hell off of the Celestial before anybody even realized I was gone in the first place.
Then, two things seemed to happen simultaneously, two somewhat bad things if I want to clarify here.
I couldn't find the Explorer's ship and there was suddenly a voice that I was beginning to familiarize myself with, an angry voice that was more than pissed off for the both of us, that was yelling through the speakers inside the cargo bay area specifically at me since there was literally nobody else in here.
"Ms Minerva! You have been ordered to exit the cargo bay immediately and report to the commanding office this instant!"
Commander Ophelia shrieked over the speakers, her voice sounding more shrill than a siren and that seemed to be the last straw that finally broke the metaphorical back of the slivers of my willpower and dignity that was left.
And somehow, I was soon finding myself seeking refuge in a nearby, half almost demolished spacecraft with no set plan whatsoever on how exactly I was going to leave now since A, the Commander now knew where I was and B, I couldn't find the goddamn ship that was supposed to be here.
Did it just like, magically walk away on two legs or something?
God, if you are out there, I'm asking you to save my ass or give me a solution right now because I am so severely fucked, more so then when Earth first came to be.
And I didn't think that was even possible but it clearly is.
Feel free to comment, like and share, y'all!
-Ro♥️