Elsie sat down and crossed her legs, the thinking pose taking a full body appeal, she looked moments away from a perfume commercial quality photo. Hell, Kate would buy it. It came so natural to her.
"Yeah, well that was… another life." Not necessarily a good one."
"You still look pretty tough though."
"I can't say the same for you." Elsie murmured.
Kate's heart sunk at that.
"You guys have that in common too. You're both brutal."
"I see."
"The difference being I nearly beat the shit out of her for it."
"And the results from that speak for themselves."
Kate glared. Elsie threw her hands up.
"I am sorry, believe it or not I am not here to make enemies."
"You're here to make sure, you talk me out of it?"
"Talk you out of what? Nearly dying? You spoke to Gen about me. Did she show you the hole in her ass?"
"Kinky."
She didn't say a word, simply staring at Kate, just blinking.
"Yes." Kate sighed, giving up, "she showed it to me."
"What did she say about it?"
"Not much."
"Rusted metal, took a chunk of her, she is still regrafting it, but she was there. Because she feels she has to. No one's making her… What?" Elsie asked after seeing her face change.
"I dunno I just expected more." Elsie's brow rose, Kate carried on. "Pretty girl like you, don't really understand all this worry really. Apparently you were even better than she was."
"And just like her I still nearly died." Elsie said.
"So? The world is full of people, the solar system is stuffed, the rim crammed, the next system, the space in between. What's the point otherwise?"
Kate laid out the challenge and Elsie just stared at her, unblinking before she sighed.
"I'll put that on your headstone right? What's the point otherwise, actually no, we'll put your little flag on that ship. Eric was here so I know you saw the ship."
Kate smiled and shut her eyes from the burning emotion that threatened to bring back more tears.
"I'm okay with dying, you know." Kate said unable to hold it back as it choked her up. "It just has to…"
"Mean something?" Elsie asked.
"I dunno, yeah right?" Kate said.
"No, I live because I don't want to die."
"That so?" Kate asked, tilting to make sure she didn't blind herself with her own misery. "You on a field med program?"
"Military? No. I don't need to be to survive thanks. On a private med program."
"R & D?"
"Yeah."
"And if your sister's wound started acting up, you'd let her bleed out in front of you? You'd charge and consultation fee?"
"One doesn't explain the other." Elsie snapped, some of the French that had not been there slithered through.
"You know what happens when Medic gets hurt in a battlefield. The rules suddenly become the suggestions of war. It goes from what you can do as a soldier to what lawyers can prove."
"I still don't get it." Elsie said with her arms crossed.
"Gen fought with all her might to make sure I didn't go that day. You're fighting too. Your sister doesn't think it a game. She knows it's bad but she also knows there are people who need her and people who'll be inspired by her and what she does means something. And I-" Kate choked up, her only functional hand opening as if to reach out for a little blonde head that wasn't there, her knuckles cracked with the strain. "I am you. I think I fought to be you, and your current you is still useful. You might create a cure or a fast treatment that might save more lives than any of us will ever touch. I don't want to be you."
=================================================================
✨ Stand with me — follow and share as Zenith dives deeper into fracture and revelation. ✨
Words turned to screams, screams to silence.
Elsie left, and Kate was abandoned to the echo of her own breaking.
Then came the voice inside:
Systems error. Repair ordered.
Her body was failing, her mind unraveling—
and the nightmare was no longer just in her head.
Next time on Zenith:
What happens when the system meant to save her declares her already lost?