As he sat on the small observation deck of the Amber, a bottom-of-the-line civilian transport ship, and watched the stars pass by outside of the warp channel (surprisingly, this ship could reach warp 5), Jimmy Kirk, genius and fuck-up extraordinaire, was perfectly content. That is, if he ignored the way his cracked ribs ached with every breath he took. At least his eye wasn't swollen shut anymore and after a week the headache had faded as well. Maybe he'd even had a concussion this time.

Had his mother bothered to come home before sending him away with less than a week's notice, she might have taken him to a doctor. Or not, considering how furious she had been over him causing Frank trouble. Even thinking the name caused an unpleasant feeling to run up and down his spine. Jimmy resolved not to think of him again, it wouldn't do for that arsehole to ruin his good mood while being light years away.

However his life on Tarsus might turn out, at least the planet didn't have Frank on it. So it could only get better from here on, right? He pointedly ignored the voice in the back of his head that whispered he shouldn't expect anything good because since when do good things happen to you? and decided that some optimism wouldn't kill him. Probably.

It didn't mean that he'd let his guard down, he wasn't that stupid. Jimmy had met his uncle only once and he didn't remember much of it, but surely if he kept his head down and stayed out of trouble he'd be left alone. Well, there was no point in worrying about this now.

He turned his attention back to the window. In the distance he could see Tarsus' blue sun grow slowly bigger as they came closer to the end of the five week journey. The colony on the fourth planet of the Tarsus system, a class M with few native life forms, had been established in 2221 and by now counted 12000 colonists. The main field of work there consisted of agriculture and related scientific research, that was all he'd been able to find out. There weren't many passengers on the Amber and neither they nor the personnel were particularly keen on talking to a 13 year old.

Since he didn't have access to the board computer and he hadn't been able to find his PADD (he suspected Frank had at one point run out of money for his booze) he'd spent his first two weeks on the ship in chronic boredom until he'd managed to talk the chief engineer into letting him help out with small problems, which had not only helped to keep his boredom at bay but also earned him a few credits. Jimmy smiled at that thought, proud of his accomplishment. Those last three weeks of space travel might just have been the best of his life!

A click and some static noise alerted him to the fact that the ship-wide comms had just been swiched on.

"Our ETA is in 120 minutes, all passengers please return to your cabins to collect your baggage. Be at the shuttle and ready for takeoff at 1300 hours. All personnel prepare the cargo in bay one and two for transport. And for fuck's sake, someone fix the damn comm unit at cargo transporter 3 ! Captain out."

-/\-

Despite his reluctance to leave the ship he could feel some excitement as soon at the planet came in view beneath the shuttle. Its atmosphere glowed electric blue in its blue sun's cold light. He could see that most of the planet's surface was covered in water and though the ocean was too salty to support eukaryotic life, it didn't diminish its beauty. Tarsus IV didn't have a moon and very low air pollution rates, so he'd be able to see lots of stars at night.

After assisting with the repairs of the comm unit, for which he'd been given 50 credits, more than he'd ever had at the same time, and a warm goodbye from the taciturn chief engineer, he'd thrown his few possessions into his duffle bag and had still been early enough to snatch a seat with an excellent view through the side windows and, if he stretched a bit, even the ones in the cockpit.

Now, as they were slowly descending, more and more details of the planet came into view, soon he could see the outline of Tarsus IV's sole continent, cloud patterns and hints of major geological structures. The view was obstructed by the flames outside the deflectors as the shuttle entered the atmosphere, a breath-taking dance of light, created by the blazing heat of the entry and the green glow of the field flaring up to protect them from burning up in the air before the blue scenery, a small battle of colours, lasting only a few minutes, then the white of the clouds was rushing towards them, swallowing the shuttle whole to spit it out, revealing the gleaming silver of the capital city framed by golden crop fields and lush, green forests with a glittering lake further north.

He understood what drew his mother out into the black, had always felt the lure of space as long as he could remember himself, but finally having experienced it himself, the passing of stars beyond the warp channel, those myriads of lights, possibilities, and now the descend onto a new world, he truly understood what made countless men and women do anything in their power to get out there.

For a moment, Jimmy forgot about his concerns regarding his new family, his new life and the memories of his old one, entirely captured by the sight. Laugher of delight forced itself out of him and he didn't feel his ribs hurt at it, nothing bad could happen in such a beautiful place.

The moment had long passed when the shuttle finally reached the space port and underneath his indifferent veneer Jimmy was a nervous wreck. What if his aunt and uncle didn't pick him up? He didn't know their address or even their comm number. What if he made a mistake and they punished him? What if they were like Frank? He shook his head at himself. No one deserved to be compared to Frank when he hadn't even met them yet.

A sign lit up on his seat, signalling that the shuttle was safely docked and he could disembark. Letting out a shaky sigh and angrily clenching his hands when he noticed them shaking slightly, he grabbed his duffel bag and stepped out into the space port.

Thanks for reading, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! I'll do my best to update weekly, but well, no promises. Please review, I'd be really grateful for any feedback! Please?

The latest version of this story can be found on AO3, same title and username.