Who: Marti Lee What: Intro/settling in When: Wednesday Where: Andrews Air Force Base-Unaccompanied Housing Warnings: mentions of racism, homophobia and misogyny?
Marti unlocked the door to her assigned room in the unaccompanied housing dorm and dropped her bag at the foot of the bed, her uniform bag was hung in the closet before she flopped onto the small, hard bed and starred at the ceiling. Like it or not, the promotion had been approved, there was a slot open and she either took it or retired. Either way, she was done flying military combat missions and she'd be forced to retire in no more than five more years, probably three when she hit her thirty five years of service mark.
There were plus sides, she was about to become the highest ranked openly gay military commander in the country. "So, there's that," she murmured aloud, still lost in thought. Her phone buzzed and Marti picked it up and looked, she had forty seven email messages. "Fuck," she sighed, "Bet half of those are fucking death threats. Gotta love our post racism, post feminist, post homophobic society."
"You don't know that for sure," Carol chimed in as Marti rolled off the bed and looked in the mirror. Despite the number of years she'd shared a mind with Carol there were still times when it was a bit of a shock to look in the mirror and see a dark haired Asian woman rather than the blond mohawk.
"No," Marti agreed, "It could be three quarters."
Carol laughed softly, "You know, if we retire we could have the mohawk back?"
Marti contemplated that for a moment, "Suppose we could. Wouldn't have to worry about fitting feminine appearance regs. Might be a good change."
"We could talk to Camelot," Carol added, "I mean, at least we'd be flying. And we could come out of the closet."
Marti smiled, "That's the best positive of retiring. I've spent enough time in closets."