Brand New Day, Brand New Beginning
Short Story Part 2
Lea Johannsen
Short Story Part 2
Lea Johannsen
Vice Captain Mark opened his eyes and found himself looking at the ceiling of his cabin. It was made of a dull grey plastic. As he stared at it Mark had a sudden vision of Elina’s eyes. They were grey just like the ceiling, yet radically different. Elina’s eyes, Mark thought, reminded him of a sword. They reflected the light off of them with a glint, and were hard, cold, and sharp. Elina never bent or swayed. She was a strong person, both in mind and body. Mark gave a sad chuckle as he realized he was thinking about Elina again. She was probably still asleep, and not worrying about him or anyone else. Oh well, Mark thought, and got up to start the new day.
Mark exited his cabin soon afterwards fully dressed in uniform: white tunic with black and gold trimming, grey pants, and brown boots. As he strolled down the halls Mark greeted each crew member he passed, and they all responded back with smiles and waves. This was the usual morning routine for Mark, but it was disrupted when he passed Elina’s door on the way to the bridge. The door slammed open and Elina stormed out, dressed in a T-shirt and grey pants, grinding her teeth in anger.
“I can’t take this, I can’t take this, I can’t take this,” Elina growled under her breath. She was so angry that she didn’t notice Mark walking down the hallway and practically bowled him over. Mark found himself shoved against the wall with those steel grey eyes inches away from his brown ones.
“Mark!” Elina yelled, pushing herself off of him “You have got to take that thing away, I cannot handle it anymore!” Mark, whose mouth was hanging open a bit from the mental shock of the moment, and whose face felt really hot, blinked a couple of times before realizing what Elina was talking about.
“Oh, you mean R. Andrew. Why, what happened?” Mark peered worriedly through the door of Elina’s room, half expecting to see a pile of dismembered Andrew parts. Luckily, Mark merely saw a rather perplexed R. Andrew sitting in the middle of Elina’s floor. The android appeared to be unharmed, but Elina’s room looked as if a tornado had hit it. Turning to his captain with one eyebrow raised, Mark asked the obvious “So, what did happen?”
