Fixation
By Zuzu Petal
Also known as Eleanor on Tumblr
It never rained in Vulcan, but the day Michael Burnham decided to leave for the institute known as Discovery it rained a record breaking twelve inches. Traffic was slow, not a soul in the sleepy town knew what to do. Roads were closed, detours erected. The drought that had seemed to cling to the town had been lifted but residents saw it as a curse. Michael saw it as fortuitous.
Michael had only left her hometown a handful of times in her life. A family vacation here, a school field trip there, a college tour in the bustling city of Betazed. But she had never left alone.
To say she was nervous would have been an understatement. You see, Michael Burnham, our heroin of this story, was in search of something. She was seeking out a former colleague of her guidance counselor from high school, Philippa Georgiou. The woman had been killed in a car accident almost two years prior and in more ways than one it had shaken Michael to her very core.
Michael had completed her second year of college, studying anthropology with a minor in psychology. It had been Philippa's suggestion she look into the psyche of others since she seemed to have such an observant mind. Michael was not entirely well versed in communicating with others, in fact it was her ability to be too empathetic that lead her down the path in trying to understand why humans did what they did and it was also what made her a social outcast.
As much of an influence as Philippa had been in Michael's life and education, it had come at a price the summer before her senior year of high school. An incident so shocking and world ending to Michael she never spoke of it. She simply hid it away under the bed, behind the locked doors of her mind, keeping it with her. Until it culminated in a terrible argument which lead to a woman's death.
The driver honked his horn at a car in front of him, flipping the other drivers off and speeding haphazardly down the road. Michael gripped the armrest on the side of the door.
She looked down at the address to the institute, the name of the director... Doctor Gabriel Lorca.
Looking out the window, she watched the town she had known all her life disappear in a rainy fog that seemed to swallow everything around it. The residents would figure out a way to survive the floods, Michael would not be home to help.