The thing about her was her inaccessibility. She had traveled the entire universe and I don't think there were more than five people still living who could say they had seen her true self. She was many different people, sometimes all at once. It was extremely confusing and being around her was like ingesting ten cups of coffee in less than ten minutes, invigorating, intense, making you hyper-aware and incredibly motivated to do nothing in particular, and then letting you crash. Because there's always a crash, you always come down after a high, and she would never stick around to sustain you as much as you wanted.

The first time I saw her was at a loading station. I wasn't much back then, arguably I'm not much now either, and I was working as a docker. It was my job to park, assess and clean or fix any transports that came in. It wasn't the most entertaining job, way out in deep space nothing too interesting came in. Until she did.

The ship was not entirely unusual, which at the time was not surprising, I wasn't expecting anything unusual. It looked like a standard XF003. Not an ancient model, in fact a little newer than we were used to at the station, but certainly outdated in most modern circles. At least back then. Transports come and go so fast anymore, it's hard to keep up with the latest technology. Honestly it's better just to find a model you like and update it yourself. Which, as I got a closer look, seemed to be what had been done to this particular transport. Certainly the thrusters were new, newer and unlike anything I had yet seen. I didn't know it, but I was on the verge of seeing so much so soon. Just then, though, it was something as simple as unusual thrusters that took my entire interest. They were built for speed, I could tell just by the design. I have always had knack for things like that, mechanics and computers. I don't mean to brag, it's just my particular skill set. I am certainly lacking in many other areas, particularly things that don't interest me as much. Ships and transports always have, so I excelled at learning them and could tell that this transport could go faster than probably any other XF003.

"Boarding. XF003#70077. Calling."

The computer's voice played through my helmet's speakers. The dock's system was automatically pulling the transport into my section where I awaited it, somewhat eagerly, I admit. It eased in slowly, much too slowly for my tastes. Computers are always doing things slowly, as if we had all the time in the world like they do, as if they were afraid to take risks or just speed things up out of sheer boredom. It's one thing that has always bugged me about computers. Finally, with a hiss, the transport came to a stop and the light beside it turned green. I pushed my self forward, landing next to the light and waiting beside the transport's door for the connector to extend. It was part of my job to make sure that the connector to the station was secured properly to the transport's door, allowing any and all passengers to move safely into the station without having to pass through the cold of space or to deal with levity. I stood for a moment, waiting. And then another moment. Still the connecting door did not come. Finally, the computer spoke again into my ears, "XF003#70077 has forgone connecting door. Ensure safe arrival, Worker 1823." That was me, back then. Worker 1823. Not much, I know. It's hard to explain, and it's a hard feeling to get back now, but I was proud of my job back then. I enjoyed what I did, and even though I knew it wasn't important, to me it felt important. I was glad to be Worker 1823.

I had been at that job for three years, five if you count my apprenticeship, and this was only the ninth time anyone had ever forgone the connecting door. No one liked space, no one liked the cold, no one like the feeling of being weightless, drifting around without control. It just wasn't done. You always accepted the connecting door. Stations without the doors were forgone themselves, back then you could only find them in the deepest of space, and nowadays I'm not sure you could find them at all.

I could feel my heart beating in my spacesuit, anticipation filling my body. Who was this? Who had been navigating the transport parked before me? I had no guesses as to which form would emerge, it could have been anything, from anywhere in the grand universe. Perhaps even a species I had never seen before, only read about, or heard of in stories. After what seemed an eternity, the door to the XF003 began to open. It opened upward slowly, taking its time and building my suspense. Finally, to my surprise, it revealed the mysterious traveler who was the object of my intrigue: a humanoid. She stood with back straight and shoulders back, fearless. Her expression was bemused, waiting, but patient, as if she could wait a thousand years. And, as I later discovered, she could. Her hands rested lightly on her hips and light blue eyes pierced my soul, even through both of our helmets. I could feel my own bland, brown eyes grow wide at what they seemed to reveal about me, an inconsequential dock worker.

She just stood there, as if understanding my need to take her in, my need to try and categorize her, an impossible task. Her space suit was tight to her form, which was thin, but as I looked closer, rather short. The suit was an unusual mauve color, no doubt both fashionable and practical at once. It had a stripe of a slightly darker shade running down the side. Her helmet was light, small and round, a plain gray color. It appeared to be the most practical and high-tech thing she was wearing, especially taking into account the cape that billowed down behind her. The cape was odd to begin with. No one wore capes, probably not since a brief period about two hundred years ago, a time when they had enjoyed a short-lived popularity. More odd than that, I couldn't pin down its color. At times it seemed to match her suit, others it seemed a dark black. A spot behind my eyes began to hurt from focusing on it just as she shifted slightly in her position. It was the lightest of movement, and then she was drifting towards me. She held her stance as she came towards me, her eyes still watching mine.

I was aware of her as soon as she was beside me and I'm sure I would have been even if my eyes had been closed.

"Worker 1823 ensure passenger's safe arrival." The computer, unconscious of the things that go on between people and in our heads, interrupted my contemplation off this new creature. She stood next to me, still waiting. She was always waiting.

"This way, ma'am," I said, pressing the button on my wrist-link to transmit my voice into her helmet, if she was tuned into the dock's station. A smile spread slowly across her face, all light pink lips and pointy teeth. "Which way, to the only door in sight save the one I just came through?" her voice came directly into my ears. I blinked, my brain tripping over her words. Sarcasm. The first words she ever uttered to me were sarcastic, and that is her, completely in definition. I found myself smiling then. "No," I replied, "I was thinking we'd float around and go in through a window." An absurd notion, because everyone knows station windows don't open. I saw surprise flick across her face, something rare from her although I didn't know it yet, and heard her laughter cackle through my speakers, running through my head. Then her feet pushed again and she drifted towards the door. It opened without me keying in the sequence and she disappeared through it. I was left, stunned, and wondering more things than I usually wondered in an entire day. How had the door opened? Did she think I was funny, really? Where was she from? Where was she going? How long would she stay? Why was she here, of all places? Who was she? And most importantly, would I see her again? I would be wondering those last two for a very, very long time.