Mother...

Posted on 07 Jan 2022 @ 3:17pm by

363 words; about a 2 minute read

"Personal log..."

"Mid day, working on the bridge for my shift while we're in orbit of the planet," Nicci said.

"Mom sent a letter again, asking if I like Mark, the kid down the street from us. She was ecstatic when I came home from the Orions, and began fixing me up every chance she got. She wants grandkids, and she knows I can give her lots of grandkids."

"Just because I've got the parts doesn't mean I want to have kids now," Nicci sighed into the recording. "They will look like I look now, and God help my daughters if they look like me. They'll be fending guys off with a stick. That's the thoroughness of the Orions for you."

"Just because I have two X chromosomes, Mom seems determined to get me married off while I'm off on the ship, with some boy from home," Nicci said with an eye roll. "If they knew everything I went through, maybe they'd think twice about someone with so much baggage in her past. But a lot of the boys I knew growing up would look at a girl with G's like me and look past a lot of sins."

"There's an admiral in the fleet that demanded I get a reduction as a condition of re-entering the fleet," she said. "Saying I looked ridiculous and was an embarrassment to the fleet. I replied I didn't want to have my body altered again after going through everything I did, and the admiralty at the time supported me."

"Being a woman's tough enough, but dealing with someone in the higher-ups who's got it out for me doesn't help matters," Nicci said with another sigh. "Maybe I should take mother up on her offer. Go back home, give birth to a few kids, make a guy proud that his sons and daughters look like his beautiful wife. But I'd miss the ship, the challenge, the adventure. Just because I'm a woman with a generous bust doesn't mean I can't be a damn good engineer. On Earth, what would I do? Go back to farming? Is that a good use of my talents?"

"I'll decide someday soon."

 

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