Thirty minutes, and a few wrong turns later, we find ourselves at the Corporal’s temporary office. Touching the panel to the right of the door, a small pinging noise precedes the sound of his voice. “Hello?”

“Corporal Gavin, it’s Captain Henley. I have First Officer Tenlow here with me. You told us to come to you to get the ship’s next task.” Unsure of where to look: I settle my eyes at the top of the door. Perhaps there’s a camera there or something. When I finish speaking, he lets out an ‘ah’ of remembrance and the door slides open.

The room is a simple office, nothing to write home about. A leather chair rests behind a wooden desk. A glass monitor sits to one side of the desk while an empty file holder sits on the other. The walls hold generic, vague paintings that wouldn’t offend anyone for the short amount of time they’d be using the room. A window on the back wall is currently looking on to Pluto. I know you’re not a planet, Pluto, but that’s okay. You’re trying your hardest.

“Good afternoon, Captain Henley and First Officer Tenlow. I assume the Captain got you acquainted with the ship, First Officer.” He looks to my Kaeleen compatriot with a look I read as skeptical that I’d done my job. Luckily for me, she responded with a pure smile and ‘yes sir’ to put his mind at ease. Seemingly content with her answer, he lets out a deep breath as he sits up. He puts on a pair of reading glasses and looks to the monitor to his right. Studying it for a few brief seconds, he looks back to us and finally begins to speak again. “Alrighty then, it seems you all have a… Hopefully easy first mission. One of our terraforming projects has just finished up on Verreth and it’s finally ready to begin colonization efforts. We’d like the Watanabe to take the families and supplies for the first wave to Verreth. We’re looking for them to board tomorrow and take up the civilian quarters on board. The logistics have all been handled already and the crew of Port Lang will handle getting them and their supplies on board.” With that, he removes his glasses and looks at us with a weary and slightly annoyed gaze, “All you have to do is get them there safe and sound, get them down on the planet, and help them with the preliminary set up.”

Oh shit, families… That means kids. I’m terrified of kids. “Y-yes, Sir. Sounds good. I assume that means we’ll depart day after tomorrow?” He simply nods. “Alright, thank you, Sir. If that’s all, we should go prepare the ship for the civilians.” I’m doing my best to hide my discomfort at the assignment. I doubt it’s working.

He dismisses us and I walk with Selai back towards the ship. She’s really excited about the whole situation. “I can’t believe it! My first official mission as a Corps officer!” She looks to me, eyes glowing even brighter than before, but her smile somehow outshines them. I look to her and try and give her my best reassuring smirk. She’s a good kid. I don’t want to crush her dreams. Oh, too late… “You don’t look excited, Capta-... Clark. Is something wrong?” Her eyes dim and her smile fades.

Damn, I feel bad now. I was really hoping it wouldn’t come to this but I guess if I can trust anyone with this, it’d be my First Officer. She is my Number One after all. “Well… To tell you the truth, I have trouble around kids.” I rub my neck and give a look of embarrassment and shame. I’ve laid myself bare and I have nothing to do but wait for her response.

To my surprise she gives a little half smile and looks up to me cheerfully. “Oh! That’s all? Haha, I thought you didn’t want me as your First Officer or something. Lots of people have trouble with kids! Do you just have trouble taking care of them or is it just you think they’re annoying?” Oh no. I was right. She didn’t get it. Please don’t make me say it out loud, Selai.

“Th-that’s not exactly the problem…” Her smile disappears once again but this time her lips purse in confusion. “You see… Man this is really embarrassing. Kids kinda, well, they scare me a little bit. They give me the heebie jeebies.” Now there’s a whole array of emotions all fighting for control over her face. Confusion, shock, amusement, loss, and sincerity all wrapped up in a bow of ‘desperately trying not to crack up.’

“You, heh, you’re scared of kids? Hehe!” Her question is broken by poorly held giggles. “W-why?! They’re just kids. Hahaha!” She’s full on laughing now. This is what I was afraid of. My face feels like it’s on fire. I probably look like a tomato. I hate everything.

“I don’t like them! Their bodies weird me out! Their proportions are all weird. I don’t like their weird tiny limbs or giant eyes!” I become desperate in my attempts to justify myself. I flail wildly and my face becomes more animated than it’s been in a long time. My efforts are all for not, however, as she only laughs harder as we move along.

When we finally reach the ship, her laughter finally dies off. As she wipes the tears from her eyes, she lets out a small moan before regaining her composure on two levels. “I-hah-I’m sorry. That’s just really funny! You’re scared of kids! Oh my Trull, that’s hilarious.” My face radiates defeat. “OK, I’m sorry. Hoo. Well, I’ll take care of the civilians then. You may need to give a short speech to them tomorrow, but if they have any issues, tell them to come to me.” Her smile pulls at the corner of my lips forcing my dejected look into one of appreciation.

“Thank you, Selai. You’re already making this job a lot less stressful. Even if you did just spend about twenty minutes laughing at me for something I confided in you for!” That last part was supposed to be a joke but I think it ended up sounding a bit too real. It seems it’s all fine though as she’s laughing again as her eyes flicker in amusement. “Alright, I’m gonna go back to my room and send a message to the crew about what our task. If you wanna catch up later, feel free to call me, in like an hour, through RIN and we can go grab dinner or some drinks. Don’t worry, I’m buying.” I give a smirk, thinking I’m so clever.

“Uh, Clark? We don’t have to pay for any food or drinks, though…” Oh. She didn’t- well, this is awkward.

“That was, um, that was the joke, Selai…” My smirk is dashed almost as fast as it appeared.

“Oh! Oh! Haha, wow I’m dumb! OK, yeah sure. I’ll be sure to call you later.” She smiles and does a little salute and turns to walk into the ship… I then follow her. I debate whether or not to say anything as I can see her cheeks blushing yellow since she clearly just remembered we have to go the same direction.

“Welp… This is awkward.” I finally let out.

“Yep.” She replies.

We walk the rest of the way in silence.