New Captain Blues (Defintive Edition/Personally Canon)
22 Jan 2023Stella Melville
Stella leaned on a railing, staring deep into the void of space, eyes floating along between stars, with her mind wandering just as much. The void of space was held still around her, save for the faint solar winds that could reach the fleet carrier. The light of LHS 2412 A still washed over the vessel, offering some much needed illumination from the Red Dwarf dominating the system. The woman's eyes rested on the star for a few seconds, a polarizing filter on her helmet helping keep the intense, unfettered energy of the star from damaging her eyes, or bleaching her slight-auburn hair. Her Artemis suit had all sorts of small modifications, personal touches that the woman has added over the years of her education and career.A short, hardly a few second, tune played over the suit's speakers, detecting movement from behind the lone stargazer, which she turned to face after a few more moments of contemplating the black.
"What's got you out here?" Lotus asked, joining the red-head already out on the maintenance walk, arms coming to rest on the same railing as her.
Stella chuckled into her communicator, the question seeming to prompt a slight smile from her, "Just sitting with my thoughts... enjoying the view." With a short wave of her hand towards the void of space, she turned back to face it, smile falling from her features.
"Figured you'd be." Lotus dragged out a sigh almost immediately after. "You should be inside, Stella, with the rest of the crew."
All this earned from Stella was a light shake of the head, closing her eyes for a few brief moments, "You know I'm not one for such, ah, ostentatious events."
Lotus rolled her eyes as she punched Stella lightly, still prompting a brief and quiet curse from Stella, even with her restraint. All she could do was awkwardly laugh and pat Stella on the back.
"Sorry! Sorry! The armory has me putting on a lot more muscle than before- Oh! You have to come and stop in sometimes!" Lotus wrapped an arm around Stella's own, gently pulling her back towards the airlock she initially entered from.
With a slight shake to her hand, barely even visible, Stella grabbed Lotus's own hand and sighed, gently removing the woman from her arm. "As much as I would love to see your work, I have much more..." Stella stopped, dragging an uncertain 'ahhh' out before simply beginning to speak again, "The carrier's kept me busy with paperwork and trying to... scrape together enough credits to afford fuel is..." Stella's voice trailed off, breaking into a self-defeating mumble, trying to explain the logistics of Tritium deliveries, Jump Safety Procedures, and all sorts of other hidden mechanisms behind even just a single short ranged jump, before Lotus simply grabbed Stella by the shoulder and gently squeezed. Stella stopped in her tracks as she half-mumbled out an apology.
"Stella-" Lotus's voice trailed off, not closing the communicator's line as she thought. A small, exasperated sigh slipped into her feed, "-you're overworking yourself again... please-" Lotus's head turned back to the airlock, hand still on Stella's shoulder, "-take some time off." With her last comment, the much bulkier woman returned to the airlock; removing her hand before disappearing back into the twisting maze of the fleet carrier's interior.
Stella was left to stand on the walkway, head hanging slightly down as thoughts swirled in her head, eyes falling roughly where Jackson's Lighthouse should be and lingering for what felt like minutes to her, though she knew it was only a few seconds at best. The star was in no way visible from this far out, but knowing that it was there, the closest neutron star to inhabited space, brought some memories back to her.
However unwilling she was to consider them.
She aggressively shook her head, muttering out a select few swears before dragging in a deep breath, She held it for as long as she could manage, letting a stillness fall over her body... before slowly dragging out her exhale, letting the stillness settle as she did.
"Look at me now..."