A Different View

Posted on 01 Feb 2014 @ 11:42am by Commander Scarlet Blake

562 words; about a 3 minute read

"It's unbelievable, if I'm totally honest," Scarlet shook her head with a soft laugh, looking down at her clasped hands that were resting on the desk as the screen recorded her log.

"Don't get me wrong, it was on my list of future goals, becoming a First Officer," she admitted with a half smile, looking up into the screen. "I had missed my rank in the Marines. I wanted to keep climbing the ladder, push my career forward. But I had never imagined that I would become First Officer so soon. Not when I joined this ship as a counsellor. I guess that means I'm doing something right," she laughed at that, shaking her head at herself.

"Mummy, you talking to the ship again?"

Scarlet looked down to the tug on her sleeve, chuckling when she saw her daughter looking up curiously. "Yes, come and say hello..." she reached down, taking hold of the young girl and lifting her to sit on her lap, pointing to the screen. "There."

"Hello, Gally!" Lily waved to the computer screen with a bright smile.

Scarlet laughed softly, stroking the long, dark hair of the small girl. "I was telling her about my new job."

"You don't fix heads anymore?" Lily asked seriously as she turned her face upward to watch her Mum.

"No," Scarlet chuckled at the way she put it. "I will do a little bit of that though. Now, I am the First Officer. It means I have to help the Captain look after the ship."

"Hm..." Lily mused on that, her head tipping gently to one side. "So....now you fix the ship, not people's heads?"

Scarlet bit her bottom lip gently to try not to smile at her reasoning it out. "Sort of. I have to make sure the crew are happy and have what they need. I make sure they're doing what the Captain wants and what the ship needs to keep flying."

"Ah....so you are like the ship's Mummy too!" Lily laughed at the idea, a hint of playfulness in her voice that made it tricky to tell whether she meant it or whether she was teasing her.

"Well, I suppose if you think of it like that, it means that Captain Holliday is the Mu...." Scarlet stopped herself quickly, having got lost in the metaphor for a moment before realising what she was actually saying. No, she doubted Holliday would appreciate being called the Mummy of the ship. "Yes, yes, I suppose I am," she replied instead, to end that line of questioning.

Lily giggled, covering her mouth with it. "So Captain Holliday is like a Daddy then?"

Scarlet was silent for a moment, realising she was heading into a dangerzone. Lily didn't have a father. It was just Scarlet and Lily as a small family. So she tended to avoid the subject of fathers as much as possible whenever she could. "More like a big boss."

"A King?" Lily lifted her hands to either side to indicate a question, watching her with large blue eyes.

"King Holliday, huh?" Scarlet chuckled just at the idea of it. "Don't ever call him that."

Lily laughed at that, her hands patting her head. "King Holliday! With Gally the dragon!"

Scarlet laughed softly, shaking her head as she looked back to the screen recording them. "Keep that one to yourself..."

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