A Letter Home

Posted on Wed Feb 16th, 2022 @ 5:10am by

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Personal Quarters, PO1 Golightly
552 words - 1.1 OF Standard Post Measure

As Aspire used her PADD to organize her thoughts, she wondered for the umpteenth time if anyone else's messages home were as weird as the ones she sent to her parents.

For one thing, Aspire never sent a message directly to her parents. Aspire had been advised her mother had become very upset when she had seen her daughter's image without being able to feel her daughter's essence. From that point on, Aspire sent her messages to the Assistant Administrator for the Federation mission to her world, who would then convey Aspire's message to her parents. Aspire's mother was content to hear her daughter's communications second hand, as long as she had somebody's emotions to associate them with.

Aspire wasn't sure where to begin with her next message home, since this would be her first message since being stationed on the Elysium. A lot had happened since Aspire reported to the Elysium.

First, there was her...relationship?...with Gunnery Sergeant Nenaa. The Gunnery Sergeant's normal pheromonal suppression suit had been "erased" by the recent temporal flux episode. In the interim, sickbay had provided the Gunnery Sergeant topical medicine to neutralize her pheromones, until the Marine's suppression suit could be replicated.

Unlike their male counterparts, most humanoid women were either immune to the effects of the Gunnery Sergeant's pheromones, or had mild negative reactions, such as headaches.

In the case of Anjurwan females, they "interpreted" female Orion pheromones as "homey" scents and "fuzzy" emotions. Being around Nenaa bombarded Aspire with every happy memory from her childhood. It was so overwhelming that Aspire's normal empathic abilities had been rendered useless.

After Aspire had left Marine Country, she had been too embarrassed to go back.

Aspire had made a lot of friends on Elysium, the majority of whom were pet owners. Aspire had quickly gained the reputation as the Elysium's "pet whisperer." Aspire didn't mind that reputation in the least, though she had been surprised at some of the animals that qualified as "pets" for Elysium crewmembers.

Aspire absolutely loved her time when she was on duty. The staff was both professional and friendly, and Aspire's rotation had her doing everything from helping the CMO with his eclectic menagerie to working in the maternity ward.

And there was the rub. The Elysium was big enough to have a dedicated maternity ward, but not a dedicated maternity ward nurse. If Aspire wanted to follow her newest dream of being a maternity and/or pediatrics nurse, she was going to have to transfer to a bigger facility, such as a starbase.

Serving on a starbase would allow Aspire to serve in a single specialty. Or, at worst, dual specialties. She could go to Warrant Officer Candidate School, get further specialized training...the possibilities were endless.

But, outside of her one disastrous foray into a hypothetical romantic relationship, Aspire was loving her time on the Elysium. On the other hand, if Aspire wanted to pursue her newest dream of being a maternity nurse, or even her original dream of going to the Starfleet Medical Academy, the Elysium wasn't going to be the place to make that happen.

Maybe composing her video message home would help her get the pros and cons sorted in her mind. With that thought in mind, Aspire got herself ready to record her message.