Saga Turning Back--An Outbound Flight vignette, response to Idrelle_miocovani challenge

"We're mostly looking for families."

The young woman's hands were pressed to her thighs to keep them from trembling, but her lip was quivering slightly instead. She bit it briefly to stop that impulse as well, then returned her hazel gaze to the recruiter.

"That's awfully discriminatory of you," she accused flatly.

"Not if you consider that we will be heading into a territory that is completely unfamiliar to us," he countered. "The transition will be difficult enough surrounded by the people that we love and we are...reticent to chance that sort of trauma for an isolated person."

She nodded curtly. "They told me you would say that."

The recruiter reached over to pat her hand in what he probably thought was a kind gesture, but she yanked it away.

"Whoever 'they' are, they know what they're talking about," he consoled. "There will be other expeditionary forces..."

"My daughter will be accompanying me," she interrupted. "Is that family enough for you?"

He hesitated, withdrawing his hand, then nodded cautiously. "It certainly improves the situation. She will have others her age to help her in the transition. You did not say that your husband and child would be accompanying you. How old is she?"

She didn't respond, per se, only looked pointedly downward at the slight bulge of her abdomen, barely visible beneath the loose green tunic she wore.

"Oh," the recruiter said, rather taken aback. "We leave in two months. When will she be arriving?"

"Two months after that," she surmised, "give or take a week."

"And the father..."

He broke off at the look of obvious distress, but did not press further. For that, she was able to avoid hating him. She had no desire to explain why there was a child, but no one that deserved the title of father. She didn't want to explain that creating the life that she carried had hardly involved 'making love' or any sort of proper emotion.

"Does he know?"

"I don't even know who he was," she responded, forcing her voice to remain steady and instead finding that she produced a monotone. "It was a random attack as I returned home from work at the medcenter. He probably doesn't even care to know what I looked like."

The man nodded. "But you will have your daughter," he reminded. "She will be the one good thing to come out of this."

"That's where I was hoping you'd help me," she persisted. "A new life for my new family is exactly what is needed."

The man looked at her for a long moment and she stared back, challenging him to pity her or commiserate or anything else that might be appreciated, but completely ineffectual. Instead, he nodded and passed over a datapad.

"If we can start with your name," he began, "we can have this processed in short order."

 

Very intriguing...you certainly have my attention.

I'll be looking forward to more.

 

Lovely, Ish!

I feel sorry for your OC... like Leona said, considering what happens to Outbound Flight.

Will there be more?

 

I actually hadn't thought of doing more, since this was one of the vignette challenges. I'll let you know after I've thought it through. I'm glad you liked it. And yes, considering what happens to Outbound Flight, everyone should feel sorry for them.

Yeah, sometimes that sort of new life just does not work... Thanks for the review.

Dang, now I'm getting a guilt trip from myself to write more!

 

Nice viggie, Ish. Felt sorry for the young lady. Although did we get a name for her? I don't think so... *checks* No. Nice touch, there.

 

::feel really dumb and looks around while pointing at her blonde hair::
What happens to Outbound flight?

 

Outbound Flight is the original project before the Clone Wars to find life outside the Galaxy--kinda a GFFA SETI. It was destroyed by Thrawn.

Yeah, she's meant to be anonymous. Thanks.