The whole ship was shaking and rattering, which finally woke her up again. She must had fallen asleep in her seat a few hours ago. The first thing she noticed through the cockpit window was the breathtaking scenery. From all the systems she had visited this day, Hamburg definitely had to be her favorite one, particularly because of the nice brown tones that the nebulae in the background had. She had never seen space from this perspective, and it was an unbelievable experience for her. The perfect experience for a birthday, that is.
The person who was setting next to her in the pilot’s seat looked over at her. He had a good looking full beard and was quite muscular – but above all, he was sweating a lot, and a stench was noticeable in the whole ship. “Good to see you’re awake”, he said. “You’ve been sleeping for a while now.”
Still being very tired, she answered back with a simple “mmh”. Yawning she ran her fingers through her long, blonde hair. It was already deep in the night – noticeable through the low traffic on the lanes.
“Lesson five, Ellie: Pilot’s never – ever – fall asleep while in duty. In space, sleep means death”, the man told her with a harsh voice, staring straight through the window. He didn’t seem very awake aswell, but he looked like at least trying to stay concentrated.
“Dad! It’s 3am! You can’t expect me to be wide awake. Also – you know I don’t like that name.”
Her real name was Elena. Elena Voigt, to be precise. And she really, really hated her nickname – “Ellie”. All of her friends at school used to call her that way, and her parents too, which was often annoying for her, especially now that she was tired and therefor pretty stressed out.
“Don’t get fresh with me, darling”, her father Michael said. “I’ve got to concentrate”. The reason he wasn’t too pleased either was the fact that her daughter was on board, watching him doing work. In his opinion, space wasn’t anything for young people, especially not for teenage girls like Elena. He had seen so many dangers out there, from pirates to … well, very weird stuff. And now his own child was exposed to all of it - an idea he was absolutely disliking.
But what could he even do about it? Today was her 14th birthday after all, and she had now already begged for several years to come with her father for a flight. He didn’t have a choice at the end. Even his wife Karla asked him why he had been so strict about not taking Elena with him. I’m sure there won’t be any trouble, Michael. Everything will go fine, he remembered her saying. God, if she just knew what he went through in the past, she would know why he was so scared of the idea.
“Dad, what you’re so angry?”, Elena asked, even though she believed to know the answer.
Her father looked at her, puzzled. “Wh-what? Angry? Me? No, I’m not. It’s just – I am tired. I really need some rest.”
“And when will we be home again, dad?”, she asked further, secretly smiling as she knew she was annoying him a lot.
“Maybe half an hour”, he replied. “Alright, Ellie, we’re entering the trade lane to New Berlin Jumpgate”
“Mh, okay”, Elena said, grabbing a school book from the desk next to her. “THE INFLUENCE OF THE 80-YEARS-WAR ON RHEINLAND POLITICS”. It was one of the rare books they read at school that actually interested her in some way, simply the fact it was partly about the Rheinland Military made her giggle in pure joy. In fact, it was her secret dream to become an officer of the Military one day. All the boys at school were talking about how they would become great leaders, and if the boys could do it, Elena was sure she could do so aswell.
She had already soaked her in the lecture, when suddenly a loud, unnerving noise appeared. Elena startled and dropped the book, while nearly having a heart attack. Michael was caught off guard, aswell, as he had fallen asleep for a few moments. Now, both of them were broad awake again.
Confused, Michael starred at the consoles, not knowing what was going on. “What the hell is---“, he talked to himself, when he abruptly stopped as he found a single signature on his radar. It was quite small in size – probably a fighter -, and was located very near to the trade lane – too near for his comfort.
“Dad, what’s happening?”, Elena asked very anxiously.
“I’d be lying if I said everything’s fine. Stay cool, I got this”, he replied when the trade lane collapsed – you could hear the cargo in the back banging against the hull. Rushed, Michael gave some into the console, some that Elena didn’t understand a bit about. She just hoped that her father really “got this”, whatever it was. Reflexively, she curled up into a ball on her seat.
From the cockpit, both got visual contact of the vessel. It was indeed a fighter, an Eagle to be exact, and it was coming close very fast. The one thing Elena noticed first were the exceptionally fat guns mounted on the wings, scowling her straight into the eyes - another reason for her not to look up again.
Her father quickly glanced at her. “Whatever you do now, please don’t panic!”
A short “BEEP” signalized that somebody asked to join the ComChannel. Suddenly, Elena could hear the voice of the stranger, frightening her for a short moment. The man who was driving the Eagle didn’t have the most pleasant voice, pretty much the opposite, it was a dark, rough one. But above else, he had a very heavy German accent.
“Greetings, Freighter pilot. Would you be so kind to shut down your engines for a few moments?”, the person said. He didn’t seem to be that kind of nice person, so Elena was relieved when her father obeyed him and turned down the power.
“Identify yourself, pilot”, Michael said via the ComChannel. “I won’t do anything without knowing who I’m speaking with.”
It took a few seconds before the Eagle pilot replied hissing: “My name doesn’t matter, only zzat I would love to tear your little ship apart if you didn’t do what I’m telling you”
Elena starred at her father, with thousands of questions running through her mind. Who was that guy? What did he want? And most importantly: Would she die today? He took another quick look at her, whispering: “After that, I’ll really have to have a word with your mother”
Then he turned to the Eagle pilot again, very bugged: “Well, then. What do you want me to do? Drop my cargo or what?”
“Nah, cargo’s not interesting me”, the pirate replied. “Give me five million credits and I’ll leave you alone. Promise!”
Seconds passed, with Michael thinking about the offer and wondering what for God’s sake he should do now, before he decided to shut off the microphone. He turned to Elena, who was still sitting in her seat like a ball, looking afraid at her father. “Just that you know: I hope this is going well, but I can’t promise you that”. He didn’t expect an answer, so he immediately switched the mic on again.
“Look, man. I spent all of my money on this cargo. And, seriously, you should rather believe me.”
The other man seemed to become much angrier, now that Michael had declined his offer. “What?! You bloody liar! Prepare to be ripped apart, you coward!”
Elena just couldn’t stand still anymore. All of a sudden, all of her fears were bursting out of her: “What? Dad, do something, this guy wants to kill us!” She simply didn’t want to die right now, at the sweet age of 14. That really wasn’t the way she had planned her life to be like.
Michael buried his face in his hands. At this point, his nerves were completely fazzled. He don’t necessarily wanted the pirate to know his child was on board. “Haven’t I told you to stay quiet?”, he asked her relatively calm. The same moment he said it
The voice of the pirate was hearable again, this time quite amused. “Oh, your daughter? What a lovely coincidence zzat is! Well, it seems I gotta kill you bozz, zzen.” He then began to burst out laughing like a madman. Everybody indeed knew that Unioners generally loved to blow things up.
Suddenly, the radar reported something again. Amazed, Michael took a look at the consoles, then he slumped down on his seat. His face contained a weird mixture of concern and relief. Unlike Elena, who had gone completely wild – finally panicking around even though she shouldn’t – and now looked unrelated into the eyes of her father.
“How can you be so calm?! This guy’s going to kill us! Do something!”, she shouted in anger.
“Darling, just prey. Prey that it’s going to be alright”, he replied.
“What?! Preying won’t help us a bit, dad!”
Without a warning, another person joined the ComChannel, another one with a horrible German accent. But this time, Michael was more than happy to hear that kind of English. The man’s voice sounded very commanding as he started speaking.
“Pirate vessel, zzis is patrol Iota One of Battleship Westfalen. Power down weapons and engines or be destroyed”, the officer explained. Doubtingly, Elena looked out of the cockpit again and saw three ships surrounding the Eagle from all possible sides. The Military!, she thought. Oh my gosh, it’s the goddamn Rheinland Military! To get a better view on the ships, she ran up to the front window, watching them with her eyes wide open. There she stood, mesmerized.
“Screw yourself, officer. That’s none of your business”, the pirate responded. “We Unioners will never surrender to zze Rheinland Military.”
“Well, zzen”, the squadron leader went on. “Iota Two and Three, open fire!”
Elena was completely under a spell while the three Rheinland ships began firing on that poor pirate. It only took several seconds – as the Unioner was unable to dodge the energy shots – and his Eagle was blown up into tiny little pieces. The scenery that greeted her was astonishing, and for a few seconds the explosion looked like a small star.
The Military officer gave Michael and her a shout over the ComChannel: “Seien Sie gegrüßt, freighter! Thanks for the message you sent us. You’re now free to continue your journey.”
Michael quickly grabbed the microphone. “Dank Ihnen for showing up, officer! Waidmannsheil!”
The three Rheinland vessels, which headed back to the Westfalen, soon vanished into the background of stars and nebulae again. In the meantime, Elena was still motionlessly looking out into space, baffled about all the things that just happened. Her father slapped her on the shoulder, trying to laugh – as he was still very grumpy inside. “Well, that was thrilling, wasn’t it?”, he told her, but Elena wasn’t even reacting. After an awkward pause, he went on. “Darling, is everything OK with you?”
In a flash, she turned around with sparkling eyes and looked deep into her father’s eyes. She cracked a smile, pretty much looking like a maniac now. “Aren’t these guys ultracool, dad?”
“Yes, Ellie”, he said in reply. “Of course, they have to be.”
“I swear to you, dad, whatever it costs, one day I will be flying together with these men!”, she said, with the same kind of authority the officer had.
As always, dinner was nauseous. Only by the looks, Elena had to concentrate not to vomit. Her father Michael really wasn’t a talented cook, but … at least he tried his best, you could say. After all, he was the one who had to produce a meal these days – since Elena had never been interested in cooking, while her brother Georg was even less. Many other girls in her school were quite good at it, often bringing cakes or yummy stuff with them, but Elena never really wanted to try it out – it just seemed to be such a “girly” activity. And that’s really what she wanted to be the least – being an average girl.
If you thought about, she didn’t have many friends either. Most girls she knew just talked about stuff like makeup, parties and boys. All things she wasn’t interested in – except boys, of course. But even in this topic, she really didn’t show much effort. Half of the guys she knew were pretty … jerky, which probably is normal for teenage boys. The other half were kind of creepy creatures, unwashed and very nerdy. Though, if she thought about it, she’d have to admit she was a nerd, as well. Probably, most of the people at school thought of her as a creepy girl, too: Quite a shy person who doesn’t have many friends and – oh my gosh, how awful! – haven’t had a boyfriend yet! Gasp! With nearly 18!
Not that nobody was interested in her – in fact, she had a number of secret admirers -, but this interest simply wasn’t mutual in any case.
The mood at the dinner table was very silent to say the least, somehow very depressive. All three of them just stared down at their meal, saying nothing. The reason was the one chair at the table which was empty. Elena’s mother had always used to sit there, laughing and making jokes. Unfortunately, those times were no more. She had died in a very tragic accident a few weeks ago, and still none of the three had been able to get over it yet – her presence was heavily missed. It had been one of the few moments when she and her brother actually got along with each other, her having a long cry on his shoulder. Their father didn’t start cry – he was a very tough one -, though he began to be extremely silent over the weeks, saying nearly nothing. Elena didn’t know if he was on the brink of becoming depressed, but she wasn’t sure what she should do to cheer him up again. Especially since they weren’t so close to each other than they had been a few years earlier.
Although the silence lasted for a long time till dinner was finished, Michael then suddenly tried to break the spell, sounding very tired: “So, Elena. I don’t have any present yet. Please, just make a wish”. The whole tragedy was even more sad as Elena was about to turn eighteen in a week. Something she had actually been looking forward to for a long time, but her thrill of anticipation had completely vanished. The dilemma was: She knew what she wished for. Her father knew what she wished for – even though he wished not to know it. And still, he didn’t want to grant her that wish.
Elena, who questioningly looked at her father with a raised eyebrow, replied: “You know what I want, dad. You just don’t want to get it.”
Georg, who had looked at the table paralyzed, now cringed and threw his hands up. He was tired of the daily debates about this bloody topic. One time, it had to end, he thought. “Oh god, please not! Not that shit again!” But both Elena and Michael completely ignored him, as they were directly heading into a row again.
Her father’s expression became much more stressed out and angrier. He already began to clinch his fist. “We’ve talked about it long enough, Elena---“
“That’s exactly what I was about to say!”, Georg interposed jokingly.
“Do me a favor, Georg, and shut up”, Michael said in a rough tone.
Elena’s brother, who already anticipated the way this conversation would be going to end , stood up in anger. “Fine. I’ll go upstairs then. Have fun talking about your nonsense blah blah!”
In the meantime, Elena had stood up as well, also in anger. She simply couldn’t understand him. All the years, she thought her father wasn’t such a cowardly parody of a man, but his whole behavior lately told her something completely different.
“Just … tell me one thing”, she began, gesturing with her arms. “How can you be so cowardly, so … ignorant – not letting me do this? You know I’ve been looking forward to this for years!”
Michael rose his eyebrow and even began to laugh. It wasn’t a happy laugh though, rather a very skeptical one. “Looking forward? … To what? Getting slaughtered out there? Getting blown up by the Libertonians? That’s really what you want?”
It had always been her dream to become an officer of the Rheinland Military one day, ever since she had encountered its pilots four years ago on her father’s freighter. Since then, she had been totally obsessed with the Military and its fighters. It weren’t boys that she was interested in, but rather this. She had spent hundreds of hours reading about the history of Rheinland, and she even had collected a number of fighter models in her room – with a largescale model of an old Valkyrie as her absolute showpiece. Every time they talked about their future careers at school, Elena’s answer was always the same, even though she often got laughed at for it, especially by the boys: “I’m going to be a Rheinland Military officer!”
“Short answer: Yes. That’s really what I want”, she replied while crossing her arms. At this moment, she was grimly determined not to go away simply. She had argued with him multiple times in the last weeks, and every argument had ended with her leaving the room. Today, this wouldn’t be the case. Today she would only go away when she got his permission to get enroll.
Deeply sighing, Michael took a few seconds to breathe slowly. His pulse had already doubled in the last minutes. After that, he went on again, though more or less talking to himself. “So that’s how I reared you… God, what a shame. I’m a horrible father ---“
Elena interrupted him: “Why? What’s wrong with me being a - proud citizen of Rheinland? Shouldn’t that be the aim of our education?”
As reaction, her father gave a very loud moan and buried his face in his hands. Silently, he whispered: “I don’t care about any education. You’re my child, Elena. And I don’t want you to … well, I guess die”
“That’s absurd!”, she went on talking. “Don’t you see my home country needs me? Especially now, during these bad times? You’ve seen it on TV! We are at war! Millions of people are out there who need our – who need my assistance! I just cannot sit here and do nothing … while others are flying out to safe all our skins! And they really need help – they’re decimated day by day. Those Libertonians are a danger to the survival of all of us, you have to see it! They need to be stopped! Even if I have to pay the price, I will be ready to – for saving our nation.
You told me you’ve fought in wars before, dad. So I can’t believe you don’t understand my reasoning. Whatever war it was, you must have had the same thoughts back then like I have now!”
Michael now stood directly in front of her. “Elena … my dear daughter …”, he said in a calm voice, before suddenly exploding. “You are wrong about every single bit! Every! Single! Bit! You don’t have any idea how war is like. It’s not like in these damn books. It’s cold, it’s bloody, it’s unforgiving. You are nothing more than a simple number, added and one day subtracted again! You won’t make any difference at all! ---”
“But…”, Elena tried to interrupt him – already quite insecurely - , but her father simply went on without even noticing.
“But? But! Listen, lady. You don’t have any clue what I went through! How many friends I’ve lost, both during and after the war! It were dozens! They all fought for a greater cause, you know. Like you think you want to fight for a greater cause. But they are all vanished today. Nobody remembers them, nobody cares a single bit what they accomplished. Even though they saved all our – and I mean all our! – skins, not just Rheinlanders! Nowadays, nobody knows about them like they never played a role! Or does the name Ozu ring any bell?”
“No…”, Elena said, although Michael didn’t even expect an answer.
“And now, even your dear mother has slipped away from me! I have suffered more than enough pain in my life. It’s enough! You and your brother, you are the only ones I still have. I won’t let you die out there, for no good cause at all. Over my dead body! Have you now got it, finally? I won’t allow it!”
Elena tried to come into the conversation again. “You say many men died for a greater cause, mh? What’s so different now?”
Her father stared with wide eyes at her, perplexed: “Different? Hell, let me tell you one thing: You could be so happy about your current life. You’re good at school, you’re clever and you aren’t ugly! Please, just make something out of your life, you’ve got all the options! It’s best for you to simply stay here on Stuttgart.
Space – it’s … not the way you think it is. And, believe me, you don’t want to know how it really is. You only know the civilized house space, Elena. But there’s more, so much more. There are things out there you should never – ever – see. Dangerous things. Things that prove to be a great threat to many of us, you understand? The wars I fought weren’t about house conflicts, Elena. They were about survival. That’s the difference. “
For quite a while, nobody dared to say anything. The silence contained a weird mixture of awe and desperation. And that’s how they stood there, deeply looking into each other’s eye. Elena wasn’t quite sure what she could see in her father’s eyes. Maybe it was concern, maybe it was the try to act commanding on her. Whatever it was, she couldn’t stand it. But he had made her quite thoughtful. What if he was right about it? Maybe it’s really just a dumb obsession of mine… but I’ve never seen him so angry before. I can feel he’s keeping something from me. Whatever it is. But what the hell was he talking about the dangers of space? What … things??
Finally, she had gathered enough courage to speak again. “Dad?”, she asked carefully.
“Yes, Ellie?”, Michael replied. He seemed to be a lot calmer now, and he even used her – still stupid – nickname again.
She went on. “What are you hiding from me? What’s in space that I’m not allowed to know?”
Slowly, he moved towards her again, until he stood directly in front of her, looking down to her. “Whatever it might be what I’m hiding, Elena, you will never get told from me. It’s for your best. Everything I do is for your best.”
She clenched her fists in anger. “I’ve got a right to know it! I---“
“And that’s where you’re wrong”, Michael calmly explained to her. “You don’t have the right.”
Furiously, she shouted at him. “Maybe, it’s just because you don’t want to talk about it hm? Because you don’t have the balls to tell me about your past!”
His face began to tighten again. “Don’t get that fresh with me, darling. I knew what I was doing back then, and I still know what I’m doing today”
“Fine then”, Elena said, turning her back on him. “I know what I’m doing, as well. And if I don’t have the right to know anything about you, I think it should be vice versa.”
With stamping feet, she went upstairs, not deigning to look at her father again. She had enough of this pathetic clown. If he had a chip on his shoulder because of his past, then fine. It wasn’t her problem after all.
Well, interesting, Elena thought. I’m allowed to know barely anything about him – cool. Then, he shall not know anything about me either. I will be going to Military Academy, I swear, but hey – he doesn’t have to know anything about it. I’m turning eighteen in a week after all. Then, he’s not my problem anymore. Then, nothing and nobody will be a problem for me.
Playing around with her fingers nervously, Elena sat down on the chair in front of her. Her body was shaking all over the place, and as the summer sun had shone through the window for the whole day, heating it up, she sweated like a pig under her clothes. It wasn’t unusual that summers on Stuttgart could become fairly hot, but today, the heat was almost unbearable. The scent of the perfume she had put on was already long vanished. She probably stunk a lot by now, but at least, the other man who was in the room didn’t smell different in any way.
On the one hand, Elena was extremely excited, but on the other hand, she felt her need for a nap. The last couple of hours had been very exhausting for her, as she had to do multiple fitness and precisions tests, something she wasn’t used to at all. In fact, her stamina has never been the best, as she had to struggle with asthma from time to time, and over the last weeks, it had become worse again. As she already felt how her trachea narrowed because of the excitement, she quickly grabbed the spray out of her handbag and took a long, deep breath.
The room itself was furnished very sparely, there was only one wooden desk in the middle, with various papers that had been messily stacked. Whosever office it was, he had to be quite an impatient and disorganized person. And somebody who didn’t have any taste in interior decoration at all, obviously, since the walls were for the most part completely bare. The only exception were two flags hanging right and left to her, showing the Cross of Rheinland.
The other person who was in the room, a man in his mid-40s, closed the door and walked to the other side of the desk. Falling down on his chair, he grabbed a towel that lied on the floor to dry his front. Sweat beads were running down his forehead, and he had a pretty huge beer belly – probably from too much Rheinbier – and generally speaking, he was a man of sturdy build.
After he toweled himself down, the man took a piece of paper from one of the stacks lying on his desk and perused it for a while, while looking more and more surprised. Doubtfully, he put it down again and faced Elena, narrowing his eyes to small slits. With a raised eyebrow, she looked at him, wondering what the hell he was staring at her that way. At the same time, she recognized a small sign pinned onto his uniform that said: “August von Grobenhofen, Kommandant der Rekrutierung”
After a few nastily silent seconds, the man began to talk, still staring at her like she was an alien. “So, um… let’s start simple. You must be Elena Voigt. Is that correct?”
“Correct”, she replied, trying to imitate the classically imperious language of Military Officers. She was still gasping a bit, as she had not have much time to relax after her last test had been finished.
Scratching his head as he recognized her heavy breath, the man went on: “Since you’re already in my office, I suppose you want to join the Rheinland Military, correct?”
“Correct”, Elena repeated, this time with a proud voice. Saying this, she instantly had to think about the row she and her father had about this topic some weeks ago. Only when she thought about him, she felt her anger about the whole dilemma coming up again. If he had been around here at the moment, he would have probably gone violent by now, at least that was what she guessed. Especially since she had decided to dye her hair blue, like in an act of rebellion, as it was just the color her father hated the most.
In fact, her father didn’t even know that she was at the local Recruitment Office at the moment, as she had told him she would go shopping in the mall with some friends. Even though he might had already seen it coming. Her plan was to get the piece of paper that would bring her into the Military Academy and only then tell her father about it. However from the facial expressions of the Military Officer, she became a bit uncertain whether she would even be able to show the paper to her father at all. Herr von Grobenhofen was definitely surprised by her, but the question was: Positively or negatively.
After skimming the piece of paper another time for a few moments, Herr von Grobenhofen began to speak again. By now, Elena didn’t have a good feeling about this anymore. After all, the man didn’t sound convinced at all, quite the contrary, she could definitely hear the skepticism in his voice. Nervously, she wriggled about on her chair, afraid of what he would might say.
“Now, I’ve got to hand that one to you. I wouldn’t have expected … someone like you to apply to the Military, Miss Voigt”, the Officer said, obviously not without some scorn and derision, as he began to smile dismissively. “So, I’m wondering – why do you want to join us? You – eh – don’t have the looks of a soldier.”
Elena raised her eyebrow. “With all due respect, Kommandant. I don’t understand what you mean. I’m here because I want to serve my fatherland as much as I can. Shouldn’t that be pretty obvious?”
Herr von Grobenhofen scratched his head again with one hand, while beginning to gesture with the other. “Nothing. I mean, I don’t see people like you very often in this office.” He looked at the paper, going through it with his finger. “Also, your grades at school are pretty impressive, to be honest. I guess you could even go to University with those…”
“Please, Kommandant, just come to the point”, Elena interrupted him. “Just either say yes or no.”
The Officer looked at her, rather flabbergasted. “Well, it’s not that easy. At least you already seem to have the direct way of a Military Officer. That’s good”. For a short moment, something like a grin appeared on his face, but it quickly vanished again. “It’s a different story with the tests, though.”
Mentally, Elena sighed. She had known that would have to come at one point, though. As much as she had tried to succeed in the multiple tests she had had to do, in the end she knew for herself that she had failed pretty hard at them. But frankly, until now she had thought – or hoped – that it wouldn’t be such big of a deal in the end.
“So, let’s get to it in detail”, the Officer went on. “The precision test … well … let’s say it was a pretty big disappointment. And I think you know that as much as I do.” He bent over the desk and whispered, while gnashing his teeth. “Fifteen percent isn’t good. And god, the target was huge actually.”
She gulped, and she suddenly felt beads of sweat running down from her armpits, as her stress level rose again. Fifteen percent - she didn't expect to have sucked so badly. And the officer was right, the targets she had to shoot weren't the smallest ones she had ever seen. It had probably been due to the fact she had trembled quite a lot while doing the precision test.
Herr von Grobenhofen went on again, ignoring the fact Elena didn't really look good anymore, as she slowly got teary-eyed. "And the stamina test, hm, Miss Voigt, may it be true you got some problems regarding that? Becuase - yeah, well - the perfomance you showed us today was, friendly expressed, one of the worst I've ever seen in my career as Rekrutierungskommandant."
Already with a more fragile voice, she answered, having difficulty to not begin whining right away. "Yes, I ... occasionally got some problems with asthma, Sir. But I don't think that would compromise me in any ---", as the officer interrupted her.
"It would indeed compromise you, Miss Voigt", he said. "A pilot needs to be in a good shape to perform to his or her best potential. And not performing to one's best potential means instant death in space. Which is something we don't need." Herr von Grobenhofen already stood up from his chair, like as he thought the talk had been finished with these words. But these weren't Elena's attentions, even though somewhere deep in her brain she knew protest wouldn't be of any use. She stood up as well, moving between him and the door.
"Now, what does this mean?", she asked, as she felt a first tear running down her cheek. "You want to disregard the courage and the love for my country I have, just because I am not hundred percent fit?"
The officer grabbed the piece of paper which was Elena's outcome sheet and went to the dustbin, balling the paper up and throwing it into the can. "Miss, I'm doing this because I do kinda like you. You can do much better than this I believe, and your life isn't worth being thrown away in space. Think about it."
He took his towel, went past Elena and opened the door. "Good Luck", were the last words he said, before leaving the room and impulsively slamming the door behind him. What he left behind was a stunned woman, one that couldn't think straight anymore. Elena didn't know how long she was actually just standing there, but it felt like ages - without having a clue how to go on. This dream she has had for several years - it got completely smashed in just a few minutes. Finally, she gave in to her sadness, letting all the tears she had to shed run over her face. What a failure this whole story had been...
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