Curiosity didn't kill the cat?

Posted on Fri Jan 22nd, 2021 @ 6:17pm by Cadet Senior Grade Kedar Rackthorn

Mission: Season 4: Episode 3: Guided by Starlight
Location: Cadet Quarters
502 words - 1 OF Standard Post Measure

"Did I do the right thing?" - Simple question, many answers, none of them being simple.

The young cadet sat in his quarters looking up from his studies at the window out to space. He was lucky to have a window at all, some quarters were interior and as a cadet, he assumed he'd end up bunked with many others in a squashed interior cabin.

Kedar looked at the stars blinking outside as they sailed through the inky blackness as Elysium sailed on. It's mission? He didn't know much. Why would he? He was just a cadet, he barely even knew anyone on board.

So far, he'd made a fool out of himself in front of the pregnant Counsellor he called his boss, he'd made a fool out of himself in front of the newly promoted Lieutenant Commander, S'hib as he literally walked into him in the hall and he'd had a weird conversation with the Doctor.

Did he do the right thing? He asked himself this every day now. Was joining the Elysium for his final academy days a good idea? He was lonely, isolated, out of the loop. He had nothing to do in his downtime, nobody to socialise with, nobody to flirt with and make good conversation with. It was just him.

Perhaps he was being hard on himself. Perhaps he just needed to find his own fun, his own purpose. But how does a young Cadet force his way into the room, the room where it happens. How does he get on the bridge? Into real work, real projects?

It was this he'd need to find out if he ever wanted to make an impact here on the ship. Heh, perhaps he'd even get the nerve to ask someone on a date one day soon, a daunting task he was sure. At least for now, he could study for the night, make sure he was ready for tomorrow.

He was due to start meeting crew members, to get used to spending clinical time with them, getting to know them, understanding them and going through their past posts, to try and truly build profiles for all of them. These, he believed, would prove vital for the ship in future missions.

With his boss, Alicia, on maternity leave soon, he knew he would have a chance to step up, take on some responsibility and truly get his hands dirty, metaphorically, with the crew.

Plus, even if there were some grey morals involved, meeting the crew in a clinical setting may even provide insight for his romantic life. He could meet "the one" or at least the "one for now".

Only he could change his fate, forge his destiny and make things happen and that is exactly what he was going to do. The Elysium was to be his home so it was about time he acted like it.

Watch out universe, curiosity may not kill this cat, but it will certainly be getting him into trouble, no doubt about that!