Sapphtember Prompts are Here!
"This is typical, but still unfortunate."
Endarys-10's first mate, Anja, curled am arm around her wife as she examined the mental health evaluation that the stray had handed in.
"Typical? Is this what the Aquiles Republic thinks is acceptable? Is that why it's typical?" Her wife, Glow, the station's head medical officer and a colony child born under the banner of Loician Cooperative, tapped two of her mechanical fingers on the papers she insisted on having, teeth grinding as she read more and more of the packet.
Anja heard 'the tone' and tried to soothe the shouting she knew would come on for the sake of her wife's blood pressure. Glow tried to pull from her grip and Anja held her fast, pushing her face against the nape of the woman's neck, "Do you want me to let go?"
A non-commital sound from the front, but hands covered her arm, so Anja tucked the smaller woman against her softer frame.
"You're right. It's evil. It's unacceptable. But, does that help this child? Either of them?" Anja spoke so that her lips brushed softly over her wife's neck and uplink scars, meant to focus Glow on her.
Another noncommittal grunt, but this one sounded less angry, more resigned. After a moment Glow hissed out, "I'm the doctor. Aren't I supposed to be more logical about this? I haven't even met her and I'm-"
Anja could hear the unshed tears in her wife's voice and she whispered gently, trying to ease the pain she knew would come, "You're a good person Glow. You know why this hits so close to home. The reason doesn't have to be logical. That's what I'm here for."
"I need you to explain the logic. So I can hate it, but understand."
Anja didn't want to do that, it made her worry that her wife would hate her later, for the way it rolled out so clearly before her. But she couldn't deny Glow and had never been able to, "Go ahead min kjære."
"They never gave her a name."
"Naming a scalpel would make it hard to throw it away when it no longer was of use."
The silence stretched long after that and Anja felt her anxiety rise with each beat until-
"What will become of her here?"
That- Anja didn't know that. Endarys-10, er, Persephone, seemed unduly interested in the Pilot. The first mate thought that the station would be more interested in an emerging intelligence like it's own, but she recalled a video she had watched as the station downloaded into a Bonded Machine for the first time since she had come to work for it.
Persephone was strange in normal circumstances, this whole thing was on a different level.
"I don't know, but I don't think the station has any ill will. Plus, we're here."
Glow nodded and shuffled the pages, reading again over the Pilot's results, still angry, but more at ease, "We are here. Thank you."