STF

Side Sim: Tossing It Around

Posted March 7, 2021, 3:17 p.m. by Ensign Matthew Riley (Science Officer) (Nathan Miller)

Another shift has ended, billions of light years from home. Riley leaned against the wall in the corridor outside astrometrics lab 1, eyes closed, breathing, until he heard footsteps coming. He straightened, tugged on his uniform top and began walking down the hallway.

He entered the turbo lift and stared at the wall long after the doors had closed, long enough the computer promoted him “Please state your destination.”

“Oh,” he muttered, then paused. “Recreation hall,” he ordered, and the lift shot off to its destination.

The squash court was empty, as he’d hoped, a ball and two racquets laying near the doorway. He lifted the ball, bouncing it against the floor as he walked up the court, before throwing it at the wall, catching it as it came back, and repeating.

Being an only child, Matthew had spent many a summer evening bouncing balls off the side of the house and fielding them himself, often for long periods of time. It helped him to clear his head. Today, he tried not to think of his family, an unfathomable distance away. He tried not to think of the fact he had few friends who would mourn him.

He failed on all counts, but he kept trying.

Bounce. Catch.
Bounce. Catch.
Bounce. Catch.

He finally cleared his mind, focusing on the sounds. He varied the pattern, throwing at the ground, where it would bounce up, off the wall, and arc back to him.

Bounce. Bounce. Catch.
Bounce. Bounce. Catch.

Breathe, Matthew, he thought.

Bounce. Bounce. Catch.

He hoped they’d bounce back from this, and that someone would be there to catch them.

  • Ensign Riley

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