Posted May 10, 2021, 11:54 p.m. by Cadet David Schultz (Scientist) (Andrew Matz)
David stood outside the CSO’s office and tugged on his uniform tunic, trying to straighten it. Deep down he knew that his appearance was probably the last thing he should be focusing on, but it was somehow all he could think about. “Relax,” he thought to himself. “If you go in there all nervous and awkward, you’re guaranteed to make an idiot of yourself.” But how could he not be nervous? He was about to meet his department head and not only had he not declared a major yet, he was questioning every day whether or not Science was even the department he belonged in. It was the area he had gotten the highest scores on in his entrance exam, but that was probably because it was the area he had been most nervous about and had studied the most. This feeling of aimlessness had fallen over him as soon as he had stepped aboard the Challenger and was not showing any signs of going away. David stared at the floor of the corridor, his brow furrowed and his mind racing a mile a minute. But then, the doors to the Chief Science Officer’s office slid apart and Lieutenant Alison Barr stepped out to greet him. Suddenly, all the anxiety and uncertainty that had been swarming in his head disappeared and there was the only the here and now. He felt a smile spread automatically across his face and his body stiffened to attention, just the way he had practiced a thousand times in the mirror. “Cadet David Schultz reporting for duty, ma’am.”
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