Character Perspective: Waverly

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Of course I had to go and blurt out something stupid to the Commander. Why couldn’t I just keep my stupid mouth shut!? We hadn’t even been on the stupid station for more than ten minutes and I already went and made myself look like a stupid friggin idiot!

Really the only solace I had at this point was that at least I wasn’t like the guy who seemed to make a b-line for the head with a hand covering his mouth as soon as we got inside of our barracks, but still, why did I have to open my big, stupid, mou-

“Let’s move it Spacefly,” A dark skinned girl with tightly pulled braids said as she gestured toward the stairs. “We’ve gotta pick our rooms and get ready for the Crew Meeting,” she added.

“I am NOT a Spacefly,” I replied, and I could feel my cheeks flush with embarrassment.

“We’re all Spaceflys right now,” she shot back, “I’m just poking fun anyway, everyone’s been balls of stress the last few weeks and everyone just needs to friggin remember that we are ACTUALLY here! Come on, let’s go get settled,” she added with a smile. I could feel the tension leave me as I realized that she was just being friendly. Obviously, we were all nervous, I didn’t have to be on my guard all the time.

I followed the girl, Reagan according to her pack, up the simple wooden steps into a short hallway with four total doors along wall opposite a large set of windows looking out at the courtyard that must have been on the inside of our building somehow.

Each of the doors was outfitted with an electronic screen in the middle of it that were so far blank. However, since there were only three of us women in Zeta flight, the door at the farthest end of the hallway had a large red X on its screen and none of us decided to test what we already knew that meant. Reagan opened the first door into the hallway and stepped through, a buzzer sounding as the indicator screen briefly flashed and then displayed ENS. TYRENE REAGAN in bold letters on the screen.

I wasn’t sure how the room had registered and made that swap so quickly, but it was likely that the bags we had been assigned were modified with all sorts of technological upgrades, but it was also possible that the travel wear we had been assigned for the trip up could send a signal to whatever database controlled the room. All the same, I found it frustratingly impossible not to see what was causing it.

Luckily, it was a simple thing to test and I walked over to the second door, popping it open before the taller girl following behind me could claim the room. Instead of stepping immediately into it though, I slung my pack over my shoulder and lobbed it in toward the single bed not far inside. Sure enough, as soon as the pack crossed the threshold the screen flashed before displaying ENS. SERAPH WAVERLY.

“Huh, neat,” the taller girl said and I jumped slightly, not expecting the interjection or the somewhat odd accent that came with it. “Wha’dya think it’s registering?” she asked.

“Oh… um, I think something must be lined in the backpack, probably just a simple RF Chip in the sewn-in name tag, since most of the stuff inside these packs are things we packed ourselves,” I replied.

“That’s pretty cool,” she replied, “I’m guessing your R&D Specialized? That’s Engineering right?”

I nodded, “That obvious huh?”

“The engineers that were at my ground school were always doing weird tests like that, it was actually rather odd how often stuff just got thrown about in those advanced classes. I just took the mandatory ship maintenance classes, could never really get into it, y’know? Or… well I guess you wouldn’t, eh?” she said before holding a hand toward me, “I’m Victoria Plum from Sydney, but just Vicky or Plum is fine,” she added with a toothy grin.

“Seraph Waverly from Madison, if my door didn’t give it away,” I replied before blurting out rapidly, “But I really only go by Sera.”

“Nah I think Spacefly fits yah better,” Reagan said as she stepped back out of her room, “Everyone’s gotta have a nickname, right?” She smiled widely, a set of bright pearly white teeth flashing in the artificial light, “I’m Ty and I won’t have yah calling me anything else, leave that last name shit to the Commanders because if we’re supposed to be family then we gotta treat each other like family,” she said and something reminiscent of an American South drawl peppered her voice with each passing word.

“Ugggggh,” I groaned. “Can we at least not settle on calling me Spacefly? I’m still kicking myself as it is for opening my stupid mouth!” I cried out.

“It was bound to happen to one of us though,” Plum said, “Grounds, it woulda been me had you not gotten there first, I’ve never even heard Spacefly used before, it wasn’t one they tossed around at my school at least.”

“I bet the Commander just made it up,” Ty said and the sound of suction drew our attention over to her room. We all peered inward, seeing a closet door at the back of the small room open to reveal a handful of black uniforms with silver inlaid trim.

Ty bounded over, pulling a sleek coat off one of the hangers before running her thumb over a name tag sewn just above the breast pocket.

“Grounds… somehow they even delivered our uniforms to the right room?” Plum said in awe before looking over to the third room. Another suction sound from my room revealed my own closet opening with identical uniforms inside. Without another word Plum hustled over to her door and stepped through to allow it to register.

We didn’t need to discuss what we were all doing, the clothes we had traveled up here in were hardly meant for long term use and we were all more than eager to finally don the Star Launch uniform. This had been my own dream since I was a child, to travel up to the stars and beyond. There were very few obstacles to overcome on Earth, and the one that we had to overcome, the ever growing population, wasn’t one we could solve on the ground.

If humanity was going to keep growing, keep expanding, we needed to explore. We needed to find a new planet to settle.

Star Launch was a joint venture between every country on the planet, because countries had ceased to be a thing nearly two hundred years prior. Somehow, in the span of a hundred years, humanity had managed to do the one thing that had seemed impossible. It had united.

I wasn’t one to study history though, it didn’t help me now that we were headed for the stars, so I couldn’t say for sure what had finally done it, all I did know was that because of that joint venture, because of spending the last twelve years of my life laser focused on learning, planning, and preparing for this dream, I was at Star Launch Academy.

I could feel the tears that wanted to escape my eyes whenever I got too happy, and I didn’t stop the few that wanted to drop. As far as I was concerned, seeing that uniform with Ensign Waverly sewn into it made every last decision I had made worth it.

“Hurry up Spacefly, I think I hear the boys making noise down in the common area and it’s time we get to work on the Commanders tasks!” Ty yelled through my door before the sound of receding steps reached my ears.

I let out an exasperated sigh, still hoping I wouldn’t get stuck with that damn nickname before I grabbed my uniform. No sense delaying it any longer, I was ready to look good.