Vera's Day In Space : Part 2 :Friends (Marta & Gallanol Ch. 2)

CHAPTER THREE: VERA’S DAY IN SPACE
Part 2 : Friends
Some people preferred to meet together in the various common rooms for their breakfast, where they could unwind in each other’s company before the onset of work. Vera usually felt groggy first thing in the morning, and particularly so this morning. Besides, she had no particular close friends. She could not understand why some people preferred to waste their time away in silly conversation. What was there to learn from one’s own classmates? One learned from one’s teachers. Perhaps that was why she had so valued Diocletian’s company. She wanted to learn from him. Those classmates who idled away their study time just failed their grades. If they persisted in their attitudes they achieved nothing, forever consigned to the most menial and repetitive tasks.
It was not that Vera did not value friendship. She had friends, some very good course mates had been her friends over the last few years. Martella, Paula and Morag had all been close to her, probably because they all thought the same way and applied themselves.
Martella had left the MIOST programme two years before, and just before exams too, because she had not taken the proper precautions in an affair she had with a male student. She had become pregnant and decided to marry the man. Vera had counselled her at the time, setting out the options in a logical manner: ‘You could have an abortion and wait for a child when you have passed the next grade. That way you will easily be able to step back into the programme when you have had the child.’ Vera had thought that option the most sensible, given that Martella felt very attached to her boyfriend and was serious about wanting to marry him. Vera had no male admirers, and would have been glad of the chance to marry someone she liked so she did not seek to dissuade her friend from the course of marriage. There were some prizes in life which were worth paying a price for. Marriage was one of them, children were another. Martella had considered the option of the abortion; it was a common and popular course of action. App Maneddonists like Vera’s mother disapproved but it was a well-accepted option for most people. Martella however had decided that she wanted marriage and motherhood all at once. Vera had been disappointed in her and said so. She had accused Martella of taking the easy option of motherhood to get out of exams, in an irresponsible abdication of her future. Martella had wept, sensitive to criticism, and admitted that Vera was near to the truth. Martella’s husband to be had been her first love at the age of twenty-eight. It had opened up a new range of possibilities to a woman who had not known any alternatives to her chosen career path. Given the excuse to opt out of her studies she then chose the easier course. ‘Of course when I have had the baby I will return to MIOST as soon as possible,’ she had pledged. Vera suspected it was a hollow pledge. She had not seen or heard of Martella returning to the programme. There was still time for her to do so even if she had not done so yet. MIOST was such a large organisation that she could not know more than a small proportion of the people who worked for it. Martella had written once, via vidnet, maybe twice, after she had had the baby, but Vera had been too busy to return a letter. There would have been no chance to meet anyway. Vera partly wished they could meet again, that Martella would rejoin the programme with her, but her friend had already missed two grades. She would never catch up now. Part of Vera still despised Martella for giving up. Another part was jealous of her for finding a lover and a way out.
Paula was still on the programme. Vera had to accept that Paula was better than she would ever be. Paula was brilliant at her studies, a marvellous mind with a very balanced personality. She had been advanced into the fast track of promotion some years before, and had thus lost contact, except for a letter which Paula sent to her each year on her birthday. Vera had responded with a short letter each time, but again their paths would be unlikely to cross. If they ever did it would be with Paula as a Chief Station Engineer or something awe-inspiring. Paula had a way of leading through the power of her expertise and of her command being accepted without causing resentment or jealousy.
Vera had at least always felt superior to Paula in the sense of her looks. Paula was a very plain Martan girl, whereas Martella was an attractive blond woman, doubtless because of some Norenician or Lernian ancestry. Vera had always felt herself to be quite attractive. It was for this reason that she had hoped that Diocletian might have some feelings for her.