Mikel had went to his room and as he removed the new Lt. Cmd pips he rolled them in his fingers while looking down at them. He reluctantly moved over to his view screen in the room and pinned them back on.

“Computer link to Earth. Preset call 001.” He ordered.

The computer said nothing as he had programmed it to silent for some functions. The screen displayed outbound call in progress and then on the screen appeared his mother. She looked beautiful as always but much older.

“Hello mother.” He said as a smile came to his face. His mother was his brick wall against his father and he always felt safe with her and talking to her. As if all his old failures never existed or if they did then they were actually successes that only she and he could understand.

Petrov CE