The Weak Link

Posted on Tue Nov 29th, 2016 @ 12:28am by Alika Mahone

Mission: Mission 2 - Contagion
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 05 - 1600 Hrs
503 words - 1 OF Standard Post Measure

There was a saving grace in around-the-clock at the helm; focus. Even with a corrective auto-pilot that she could have programmed at any point, the young pilot persevered where others did not. She had a lot to prove. If anyone in her family discovered she had died only a few days out from the dock, it would be a disgrace to everything she stood for. With the achievements of her brothers overhead, she had a lot to prove.

'I don't have time to deal with your petty games, Alika.'

Focus was the only thing that distracted her from the taunting in her ears, that of her elder brother. She had seen glimpses of him most of the day. It began at the mess, during one of the few breaks she had allowed for herself for resupply and re-hydration. Lounging in one of the comfier chairs, feet kicked up on the table sat the golden-haired Luka, waiting for her to notice him. Then the hisses and jeering began. He spoke of failure, of childishness, and of every insecurity she kept hidden from everyone.

That was the hint she was experiencing something that should not have been. Never would she have divulged to Luka that she had an insecurity or a reason behind her behaviors. Nor would he have spoke out of pure distaste for her existence. He lacked the capability to be so hurtful.

Halluci-Luka's scathing remarks continued as she kept at the helm, up to the current point. Lazing in a similar manner that she decided to take, he sat next to her, at the conn, as he munched on his apple. She found an irony in his choice of fruit.

'I bet you're CO's looking for a way to get rid of you. You're too young to have responsibility.'

"He's the Captain, not the 'CO,'" she spat argumentatively, "And he wouldn't do that."

'Oh right. He just named you... what was it, his First? Sounds like you're well on your way to conformity and responsibility to me, which we both know you can't handle.'

Alika's hands curled into fists, and she could feel her attempts to remain calm hiding under a layer of rage, one that she had not felt since she set foot on the Mary Rose. Hallucination or not, Luka always knew how to get just far enough under her skin to matter. "Shut. Up."

'And let you fly? You can just turn it on autopilot and leave it be. That's what you'd do anyway, right?'

She turned to the hallucinatory image of her brother, readying a witty retort through her haze of cold and muck. As she did, the door to the Bridge slid open, revealing the aforementioned Captain. Alika closed her mouth tight, returning to the work ahead of her.

This argument would just have to wait for another time.

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Alika Mahone
Second Officer
SS Mary Rose

Luka Mahone
Hallucination
Alika's Brain