“Mum!!” Charlie’s dream, or rather nightmare, of that fateful day ended the same way it did every time, sat bolt upright in bed with her mother’s name on her lips. Charlie sighed as she slumped back in her bed, her heart pounding and her body dripping with sweat. That was the last day she had seen her mother, the day her life changed forever. She peeled back the sweaty bed covers and went to the bathroom. Jumping in the sonic shower she washed the dream off her and put on her cleanly pressed uniform. It was her first shift in her new position and so far the day had not started well. She took a deep breath and fixed her hair before grabbing her morning cup of Darjeeling. She checked the time, but it was still a bit early to call her sister. Since that day she had grown so much closer to Mimi, and this was the first time they’d been so far apart from each other. Mimi had decided to become an engineer like their father and was just finishing her final year at the academy but after seeing the devastation and hurt that day, Charlie had vowed to help save people and had gone into medicine.

After the attack on Ajilan Prime, Charlie and Mimi had moved back to Earth to live with their Aunt Sara. She was a wonderful woman and they had some amazing times with her but Charlie always saw that spark of loss when she looked at them. Sara had been very close to her sister Elena, and Charlie always saw that sadness of grief in Sara’s eyes. Their father Adam had been gravely injured defending the colony and it was several months before he had learnt of the fate of his late wife and of their children and it destroyed him. He became a shell of the man he had been and shortly after was admitted to a psychiatric facility where he had remained since. Charlie & Mimi still went to see on a regular basis but there was so little left of the man they remember, each visit got a bit more difficult. The last time Charlie had seem him had been to tell him she had graduated from the academy as a doctor but how much of it he took in she couldn’t be sure. She still held out hope that one day they would have the kind of relationship they used to but with each visit that seemed to slip further away.

Having freshened up and grabbed a bite to eat, Charlie took a deep breath as she stepped out of her quarters and headed towards sickbay for her first shift.

• Ensign Charlie Bailey