Application Received: USS Galileo - Commander Scarlet Blake

Posted on 05 Dec 2017 @ 5:00pm by Commander Scarlet Blake

597 words; about a 3 minute read

Scarlet let out a long breath as the 'application received' message flashed up on the screen. Thank goodness that was done and dusted.

It wasn't that she was concerned about being judged on her record. In fact, she preferred to let her record speak for itself most days; the good and the bad. At least it was guaranteed to speak succinctly and plainly.

Which, to be fair, was how Scarlet preferred to speak too. And in all honesty, most of her application had been filled out in that manner. But she was also aware that it probably wasn't the best way to approach the sections of the form where an applicant was meant to sell themselves...for lack of a better word.

No, even those parts of the application Scarlet had made short, sweet and to the point. How she would prefer most communication in life to be. Perhaps it went back to her teenage years. She was sure Lake would have a lot to say about that.

No, she'd put everything she'd wanted into the application. Pointing out her record to date, her experience, her ability to balance the needs of the individual with the needs of the crew. Her combat and marine experience that ensured she had no naivety to the real world and what it sometimes took to survive in it, along with her experience as a counsellor that allowed her to understand people, what they needed to keep fit and grow stronger and how they had to come together as a crew.

Other people may well have taken the opportunity to list all their strengths and dress up their weaknesses....but Scarlet, as was often her way with the spoken word, kept it short and pointed. Besides, a good Captain would see plainly what her strengths and weaknesses were by looking through her service record; at both the achievements and the losses.

She just hoped that Lily wasn't considered a weakness.

Scarlet frowned, not even realising she was doing it, as she contemplated that. Once, she might have thought the same thing. After all, Lily had been the reason she had left the Marines and joined the regular fleet. But her daughter had given her more strength and motivation than anything else in the universe ever had.

It had also forced her to look at her own experiences as a child. Thoughts and feelings she'd deliberately shut away and ignored over the years. Her love and protective instinct for Lily had forced her mind to memories of her own parents. And it was making her angry.

She rubbed the side of her thumb against her forehead, the frown deepening with irritation at herself for even dwelling on it. It had happened years ago. They were gone and out of her life. What did it even matter.

She knew it made her a hypocrite, when, as a counsellor, she had been blunt with her patients, telling them that if they ignored their trauma it would make them worse in the long run. She didn't care. It wasn't that she thought she was different and somehow immune to the effect of pushing down her emotions. It was more that it made her angry, what a waste of energy and focus it was. If she'd learnt anything, it was that calm, cool focus got the job done. She'd learnt early in life that she could bury emotions to achieve her goals.

"Perfectly healthy..." Scarlet murmured wryly to herself, reaching for her glass of wine, knocking back the last of it as she brushed the thoughts aside.

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