Songs: Eagles - One Of These Nights; Queen - Seven Seas of Rhye

Vavozh had to be the biggest city I had ever seen in my entire life. When we were on the train, Anouk had told us we were getting into Vavozh and then - 2 hours later - we still hadn't completely arrived. It felt like there were a million stations within the city. On the outside, there were mostly small houses and cabins, sometimes bigger houses that seemed to have several apartments inside.

The closer we got to the center of the city the taller the buildings became. Most of them looked like they were newly built. They seemed quite functional. Not necessarily beautiful, but utilizing the space effectively. There were a few buildings that looked older and had more decorations, especially right as we got into the city center. We were getting out at the Central Station - right in the heart of the city.

As we were approaching the station, Anouk was pointing out several buildings to Tina who was completely fascinated by what she saw. To be honest, the place looked great. It almost reminded me a little of some of the cities on Aquator that were just far enough from the resorts to not be problematic, but close enough to provide holiday-makers with all the joys of the urban nightlife.

"That building over there is the Art Gallery and right next to it is the Museum of Cosmonautics. Parliament is coming up on the other side of the river just now, if you can see it from here. Up ahead is the station and you can see the roof of the History Museum just behind it." Anouk explained.

"Sounds like we're almost there." I commented. Anouk nodded.

"Yeah, just another 2 or 3 minutes." she replied.

"And where do we go then?" I wanted to know.

"I was thinking it would probably be best to get your things over to my apartment, especially Talon. I don't think people would be as chill seeing her flying around in the city as they would be out in the wilderness." Anouk said. I nodded. That was a good point. I was surprised we had gotten this far with her in tow.

"Good point. And once we've settled in?" I asked. Anouk shrugged.

"I guess we can go out, explore the nightlife. I think Tina would like to see some of the museums, they're usually open late, so most people get a chance to see them at some point." she explained.

"Really? That's pretty cool. I don't think Tina's ever seen a museum. Like, neither from the outside nor the inside. When is that party thing happening?" I wanted to know. Anouk grinned.

"Tomorrow." she replied.

"Ah, so we're just gonna wing it?"

"We were gonna wing it all along. I was going to suggest having you and Mordecai head in there ahead of me. I'll be coming in later. It's important people don't know we know each other. They'll get suspicious otherwise." Anouk explained. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You think that's a good idea?"

"Well, we can stay connected over an earpiece. I'll be listening in to what you're saying and if you're ever stuck I can tell you what to say. Don't worry about it. I've got this all planned out in my head."

"I don't distrust your ability to plan ahead, I distrust our ability to follow an established plan..." I mumbled.

"You've been following plans perfectly fine so far. Unless something goes wrong. And that's where you guys are much better adapted to just spontaneously finding a good way out. You're good at winging it."

"Man, that almost sounded like a compliment." I replied. Honestly, being good at winging it wasn't much of a compliment to me. It just felt like we were unorganized and good at excessive violence if things didn't go according to plan. Which really wasn't that great, all things considered.

"It was a compliment. Not everyone can stay calm and make up a plan B on the spot and then execute it well. It's a good talent to have. Obviously not for every life situation, but for this one? Definitely." Anouk said.

"Hey, I'm your mother. I should be giving you that talk." I mumbled.

"Well, you're more of a friend at this stage than my mum. No offense, but I'd still call my adoptive mother my mum. She's been in my life this whole time, you know? I mean, I understand what happened and all, and I think it was all for the better this way." Anouk said, looking at me as if she was afraid I'd get angry at her. Why the hell would I get angry at her? She was completely right. When I gave her up for adoption I felt guilty as hell, but realistically I was in no position to be raising a child. She was much better off this way. And I was glad I got to meet her as a grown woman.

"Don't be silly. I get it. And I think you've done really well for yourself. I doubt you would've done this well if I had raised you. I guess I still feel bad about it after all those years, but... I mean... I'm really proud of you, Anouk. I'm already glad you consider me a friend." I told her with a smile.

"Why are we always having these deep conversations when we're literally in the middle of doing something?" Anouk wondered and laughed a little.

"I dunno. I'm just glad we have them at all. But yeah, maybe it's time to gather up everyone and get ready to go." I answered.

"I'll go and do it, you have a look at the city. Like, the city centre is one of my favourite places in the universe, because... well, I spent a lot of my time around here, I live here, but it's just really nice. It has a special kind of atmosphere." Anouk said and went to get the rest of the team together.

I looked out of the window and saw the central station approaching. It looked massive. There had to be trains coming in from all parts of the planet with how big this train station was. It almost looked like the main spaceport on Aquator. And there were A LOT of spaceships landing on Aquator.

The building itself seemed to be one of the older structures. It was richly decorated with some overhead sculptures and flowers hewn into the stone. It looked like some sort of sandstone that was used, but judging from how bright and clean it looked it had probably been restored a few times already.

There was a large steel beam construction holding the entire building together. In the very middle of it there was a big clock showing the local time. It was 3 in the afternoon, which was pretty early considering the day on Aeres had 28 hours. It had been a bit of a challenge to get used to that, especially when we all had just gotten used to Pandora's weird night and day cycles again.

When I first got to Pandora it was really difficult to adjust to that. It was probably a pain for anyone who was travelling a lot or hopping from planet to planet to adjust to the local cycles of day and night. It was just so different on any given planet that it only really made sense to trust your body - sleep when you're tired and get up whenever your body decides to wake you up.

There were so many people walking around the train tracks when the train rolled into the station. It was really busy. From what I heard Vavozh was a city with a few million inhabitants and a lot of them used the train to get around the city. Trains and communal shuttles were the main mode of transportation. Even in-between cities most people were using the train to get around.

It was pretty fascinating, really. Back on Aquator most of the infrastructure consisted of cars and private taxis. There were communal shuttles, but they weren't nearly as common as they were here. Probably because most people could simply afford a fancy car or paying for a taxi all the time. People who couldn't afford it usually just walked wherever they needed to go.

Pandora didn't even really have an infrastructure to speak of. There was the Fast Travel Network, and that was the main mode of transportation. Sure, there were cars and all, but they weren't really that useful for long distances. We barely even had streets on Pandora. The only ones that existed had been built by Atlas or Hyperion and were slowly falling into disrepair.

I was surprised that Aeres didn't have an extensive fast travel network. Anouk had said there was one, but people had gotten so used to using the train that they just preferred it. Apparently it also took the pressure out of having to be at places as soon as possible. I did enjoy travelling on the train. It was different. You didn't have to be alert and on the move all the time, it was like there was a bit of extra time where you could just sit back and relax for a while.

"Girl, is you ready to dive into the nightlife?" I heard Tina say next to me. I looked down at her. She seemed really excited to see the city and everything in it. Her excitement was contagious.

"Yeah, I'm ready. What do you wanna see first?" I wanted to know.

"There's apparently one massive Vladof museum, I really wanna go there and see all the guns they have! And then maybe the Cosmonautics place. And Anouk said she can show me around her workplace one day! It all sounds so exciting!" Tina exclaimed, dancing around me.

"I hope we'll have enough time to see all of that. It would be really cool, wouldn't it?" I said and smiled at her. I was glad that she seemed excited for all this. There was a time when I was a little worried about what kind of effect all this travelling and Vault Hunting would have on Tina. Not even to mention all the violence. But she seemed to be handling most of it alright.

"Hell yeah, it would! And we'll be doing some cool secret plot to get another Vault Key piece and then we'll kill some people and... UGH IT WILL BE SO MUCH FUN!" she shouted. I sighed.

"Hey, Tina, maybe it's not a great idea to announce it so loudly that... you know... we'll be killing people." I told her quietly, hoping she wouldn't make a big deal out of it. She nodded quickly.

"Oh yeah, right... AS IF I CARE!"