Melancholy Melody

Posted on Mon Aug 4th, 2025 @ 4:51pm by Lieutenant Jennifer Matthews

Mission: Royal Mail
Location: Mess Hall
538 words - 1.1 OF Standard Post Measure

A soft, sweet melody caressed the atmosphere in the Mess Hall as Jenni gently moved the bow back and forth across the strings of the violin. Her slender hand tenderly pulled and pushed the bow's heel, brushing the hair against the strings. Though she was not playing any piece in particular, Jennifer Matthews often found juxtaposing various melodies to be soothing, especially during periods of stress.

What wasn't there to be stressed about at the moment? The Atlantis was far from home with no way to return, but at least today everyone was clean. For the last three days, the showers in the crew quarters were out due to an issue with waste extraction. Water consumption throughout the ship had to be limited to toilet use only until the issues surrounding congestion could be dealt with. The crew of the Atlantis celebrated in one of the many ways they knew how - convening in the mess hall over vittles and drinks.

It was impossible to not overhear conversations, even as Jenni focused on her instrument. The table beside her sported three occupants. The first, a young Irish ensign with red uniform piping, shared stories of his conquests from Dublin, encounters with the fairer sex that were clearly embellished, but everyone accepted as fact as a bare courtesy.

The second, a Finnish woman, a petty officer clearly five years older than the ensign, chuckled as she reviewed recent scans of the Atlantis' surroundings. While she clearly did not enjoy the Irishman's stories, the Mess Hall had no other open tables, so she had little choice to be suffer through them while she worked.

And then there was the Londoner, a boldly rash armory officer who had transferred to the ship at the same time Jenni had last year. His rank was equal with Jenni's, and woefully so. In every way, he tried to impress Jenni for the first few months before finally figuring out that she was not interested with anything that wasn't mechanical. Jenni's view, after all, was that who wouldn't want to devote their time to a warp core so far away from home. Even now, he occasionally shot her a glance as he traded bar-hopping stories with the Irish ensign.

All of the talk of home prompted Jenni to reflect as her bow ran across tensioned string. As a low tone emerged, she saw herself bouncing across the lunar surface. Even though it had been more than a decade, she'd always seen herself as a child of the moon. She and her friends would constantly wander outside the colony, exploring the slate landscape in the comfort of their EVA suits. There was always something about the reduced gravity and the smiles of friends around her that drove her to new experiences on new worlds, even though every experience of hers so far failed to compare to the beauty of her childhood.

So, as her colleagues and fellow shipmates traded memories of home, her own melody clashed against them as she yearned to relive a moment from childhood. Jenni continued to occupy that fourth chair, back turned against her colleagues, and commanded the bow to continue the song as she faced the beautiful unknown outside the viewport.