AN: Finally after weeks of debating, I decided what to do with this. Since it's a more serious in tone than the others, I wasn't sure if I should post it. But it dovetails nicely with the sequel which will be coming. Hopefully, it will be soon, since I finally made progress on the Gravity Boots chapter. Enjoy.
Vladie finally found Jupiter on the roof, sitting next to her telescope.
"Nice to see you using that. You wanted it really badly, but you've hardly been up here since we gave it to you."
"I've been busy," Jupiter replied defensively. "We added a couple of new houses in the past month or two."
"And you have a 'boyfriend' now." Vladie made air quotes around "boyfriend" to show that he didn't really believe said boyfriend actually existed, a topic he brought up at least three times a week.
"Look, Vladie, did you come out here for a reason? Because if you're going to be snarky, you can leave the way you came."
"We're starting the next season of Star Trek Deep Space 9. Come on!"
He stood, expecting her to follow. But she didn't move.
"Jupiter, you coming or what?"
"No, I don't think I am," she replied slowly.
"What is with you lately, Jupe?"
"TV shows are nice and all, but what if space, the 'final frontier,' isn't like it's portrayed on TV? What if it's worse? I mean, maybe there's nothing like the federation, and we're just all fighting out there like we do on earth."
Vladie started at her in shock. "Where's this coming from?"
"I was looking at Jupiter… and wondering. Maybe space is just a bigger place for us to argue and fight in, a place where the rich continue to take advantage of the poor and the ignorant. Maybe people invent things that are worse than slavery."
"I don't what's going on Jupiter, but something is really screwing with your head. Come down and watch with us. It'll distract you from your morbid thoughts."
"No thanks. I think I'll look at the stars some more."
As he exited, she put her eye back to the eyepiece and wondered how it was that Jupiter still looked exactly the same. Somehow what she experienced there, the destruction of the refinery should have changed it, the way it had changed her. She shied away from the heavy weight of the memories, avoiding the vice grip they exerted on her emotions.
If she didn't do something, in a few years, she'd be facing the awful choice of regenerating to save her planet or dying and the possibility of the earth being harvested. Who would it go to anyway? She needed a will or something.