Ch#2— The Key

A voiced echoed through space, calling her name. She once again looked around for the source but was pulled abruptly from her recurring dream by her mother's voice and heavy knocking on her door.

"Andromeda Juliet Hawkins, I swear to all that is holy, if you are not on time to school I will make you start sleeping out in that shed." Her mother's voice said through her door.

Julie sat up and cracked her eyes open, looking towards the door before answering, "Ya mom, I am awake. I am getting ready right now." The young girl ignored her mother's continued chastisement about waking up on time as she roughly brushed out her hair and pulled on her usual tomboyish clothes. It was the final day of school and although sleep still seemed like the better alternative she couldn't be late today.

She walked out of her room and looked down at her watch, grabbing her book bag along the way. 0745.

"Shit."

"What did I just hear you say Julie?" Her mother said from down hallway.

"That— er…Leaving for school now, bye mom!" She said in response before quickly sliding down the banister of the stairs so that she wouldn't hear her mother's response. After sliding down to the ground floor, Julie bolted through the kitchen and then out the back door and into the shed to grab her solar surfer.

School started at 0800 and she couldn't make it in time if she had to walk all the way there. She knew it was against the school rules to fly in but if she was quick about it and landed nearby they wouldn't be able to figure out who it was before she stashed her board behind the gym. The young aviator stepped on her board with a smile and watched as the new sail she had just bought absorbed the solar rays and pulsed with energy— charging the engine.

She had gotten about 6,000 credits from Matty for the loot she had pulled from the Mayor's safe and although he still owed her another 1,500 it was more than enough to get a new solar sail that she had been wanting, along with a few tattoos that were currently hidden by her clothes. At the moment she had four total around her body. One on her right shoulder blade of an artsy, a colorful sparrow in flight. Another on her left side that was a depiction of the ancient Sagan pulsar map that she had learned about in History class that had helped connect humanity to the rest of the universe centuries before. A small diagram of the chemical compound of Epinephrine on the inside of her left bicep was a tribute to her addiction to adrenaline enduring activities. And finally a small illustration of a sailboat on a colorful background with water and birds and a rainbow of colors on her hip.

She had gotten the last 3 over the course of the last week with the last one being finished late last night. The skin still hurt quite a bit and nagged at her underneath her clothes but, she ignored the discomfort when she took off on her solar surfer and turned towards the school. Keeping her flight path low to the ground and going through a canyon that would loop around behind the school grounds.

With three minutes until the bell would sound, she landed behind the gymnasium and stashed her board out of sight where no one would find it. Julie, along with a few other students scrambled through the hallways and into their assigned classrooms for the final exam. When she finally landed in her seat she heard the starting bell ring and let out a tremendous sigh of relief, making her fellow classmates snicker quietly around her.

"Made it by the skin of your teeth Miss Hawkins." Said the stuffy history teacher with a balding head as he put down a test on her desk and the standardized answer sheet. He walked to the front of the classroom and spoke to the class.

"Now that you are all here the test will begin. You have 3 hours to complete the exam, after which you will be released for lunch and come back to receive your final grades. If I catch you cheating you will be given a 0% and kicked out of the class. No talking. Keep your eyes on your own paper and make sure the annotate your answers onto your answer sheet."

He then started the timer and used the electronic screen mounted on the wall in front of the classroom to display it for every student to easily see. He turned back to the class. "You may begin. Good Luck."

—

Just under 2 hours later Julie was one of the first students to emerge from the school building into the warm sunlight with a bounce in her step; the test had been relatively easy for her, being that it was mostly math and science based. She hadn't done as well on the English and literature portions of the test but it wouldn't be catastrophic because they were only put on a minimal amount of the test.

Much to ire of many of her teachers her grades were relatively good and she knew she would pass and graduate without much of an effort. Her instructors were consistently bewildered at her, due to the fact that she consistently slept in class and often missed class entirely to go fly or do something more interesting. Julie knew she could probably be their favorite and top scoring student if she really tried, but school— especially lately— just felt so…pointless. So she let the straight laced and uptight girl, Samantha West, who had finished around the same time as her to become the administration's pride and joy. Polite, well-behaved, poised, beautiful, and of course— rich. She was from one of the most influential families on the planet that happened to own a majority of the land on this planet and most of the other planets in the system.

She groaned internally when she saw the very same starchy and straight-laced girl walking over towards her with her chestnut brown hair tied back in a neat bun and an annoyed look on her face. The young delinquent looked around for an escape but found none close enough to subtly avoid contact with the girl. However, when she spoke she said something Julie didn't expect.

"You waited for me to finish first before you turned your test in, didn't you?" Samantha stated more than asked.

Julie's eyes darted away from the other girl's steady green eyes. "I don't know what you are talking about; I just guessed most of the answers and turned it in so I could get out of here and have a long lunch before the graduation thing."

"Don't give me that Juliet. I saw you doing it and working out the problems but when you finished, you waited for me to finish and turn it in before you did." The straight-laced girl was absolutely sure of herself and wasn't going to budge until Julie gave her something. "I want to know why; I have seen some of your tests when we get them handed back in class before you can hide the score. You are smart but you act like an idiot."

Julie felt her gut churn; she didn't know anyone had really been paying attention to stuff like this. "Look I don't know what you think you saw, but I am hungry so I am going to get lunch from the shops downtown."

The girl continued to follow her into town and ended up sitting across from her at a table just outside a deli where Julie had purchased a sandwich. "Didn't know I invited you to have lunch with me…" Julie mumbled under her breath before she bit into her sandwich.

"You haven't answered my question yet." She said firmly, opening her own neatly packed lunch.

Julie gave a defeated sigh before responding. "Alright, fine. You got me; I finished and waited for you to finish so that I wouldn't draw attention. Happy?"

"Why though? why are you pretending to not be as smart as you really are and only give a half-assed effort in school? Don't you want to go to college?"

Julie looked back down at her sandwich to avoid the girls honest and intent gaze. "Some people can't afford college, dumbass."

Samantha hesitated before responding a little bit softer. "Oh…well, that still isn't a reason to act like an idiot when you are clearly smart. Maybe you could go to the naval academy or something—that's where me and my brother are going next year, you never really know until you apply for programs like that; it is a free tuition but, you have to serve in the Navy for a few years afterwards. I mean I only decided a earlier this year but, it's better than being stuck here, right?"

'So she is the one who got it…' Julie thought to herself.

The young girl silently ate her sandwich as she let the slight sting of the words sink into her mind. "It's not like I haven't tried to do stuff like that but," She stood up from the table and gather her trash. "People like me don't get chances like that."

She turned and walked away from the table, tossing her trash into a nearby bin before ducking into an alleyway. A girl like Samantha could never understand; she had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, with parents that were insanely wealthy people that she was pretty sure had some some connection to royalty that she had only ever heard rumors of. To put it simply, they could buy whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. She had a family that cared about her and understood her.

Julie had been born poor, with a father who didn't even bother to look back when he walked out on her and her mom. Julie had once thought she might have a chance to prove her worth when she found out about the naval academy a year ago. The process required a recommendation from a local representative or public official but, when she had gone to town hall to ask about how to get one she had been laughed out of the building. Even if her grades were good, even if she tried to be on her best behavior, she was still only seen as a poor girl from the dirty side of town. There was only two recommendation per class that was permitted to be given per graduating class by the mayor— one male and one female. The recommendation had been reserved for her before she had even decided to go.

She lit up a cigarette from the nearly empty pack she had swiped earlier in the week when she heard footsteps coming up the ally behind her, undoubtedly the straight laced girl once again. Julie turned and spoke before the other girl could start.

"I answered your question; just leave me alone."

Sam looked at her for a moment trying to formulate the right thing to say. "You are wrong Juliet, you are smart and yo—"

"Shut the fuck up!" She yelled, throwing her cigarette onto the ground between them.

Julie had heard enough from the stupid prissy, rich girl. Bitter anger at Sam, at this stupid planet, at that fat pompous mayor, and at her fucking useless— piece of shit dad burned fervently in her chest.

"You don't know anything about me, you just see some lost puppy that got kicked one too many times. You don't really give a shit about me, you just feel bad when you look down from your high fucking horse. Stop preaching your useless bullshit; you are wasting my time. I don't want your pity and I never will, so please do me a solid and FuckOff!"

The straight-laced, teacher's pet, looked more than a little aghast at the slew of curse words that were thrown at her so aggressively. Julie just turned and disappeared down the ally while the other girl was stuck in place— too shocked to follow. Once she was out of sight she climbed up the wall of a building and pulled herself onto the roof; then laid down flat on her back and watched the puffy white clouds float by lazily, to calm herself down.

She knew she shouldn't have yelled at the girl; she was just trying to help and possibly be friendly for whatever reason. But Julie didn't want to be reminded she wasn't good enough; that the straight laced goody-two-shoes girl would get to live out a dream that had been cruelly denied to her. That Samantha had everything Julie wished for but couldn't have.

So the young delinquent cleared her head of useless thoughts of the future and focused on the puffy white clouds that sailed through the sky above her, while she smoked and waited for the final test to be graded. Soon she wouldn't have to go back to the stupid school that wouldn't give her the shot at the future she had hoped for.

—

As the rest of the time for the test passed all of the other students gradually trickled out of the building after finishing their exams and finally the time came— after the teachers had run the testing score card through the grading machine and tallied up the final points— to reconvene. Once the class was settled back into their seats the teacher didn't waste anytime in handing out the final grades to those that had passed and sent them off to get sized for their graduation gowns for the official ceremony that would be tomorrow afternoon.

All she had to do was get the stupid roll of paper saying she graduated and then she would finally be free of this place.

—

The next day came and the students were in their gowns and the ceremony was boring and basically just the principle reading off a list of names. However when Juliet Hawkins was called no one came up on stage.

The students looked around as if they would find her sleeping in a chair among them but, she wasn't anywhere to be found. Her mother sat in the crowd silently praying that her daughter wasn't so stupid that she would miss her own graduation. After calling her name again and no one coming forward the principle spoke again.

"Miss Hawkins, you can't graduate without this diploma." He said, raising the roll of paper in the air above his head and looked through the crowd of students for her as if to bait her onto stage by shaking the paper above his head for her to see. Then he heard a faint noise over the murmuring of the crowd.

"That sounds like an engi—AAH!" His words turned into a yell of surprise as a young girl that was flying inverted on a solar surfer flew right over his head and plucked the diploma out of his hand before he could pull it down. He looked up in surprise to see the student he had been calling for smiling back at him, hanging from the solar surfer in her graduation gown with her regular clothes underneath.

The students and soon the rest of the crowd laughed and cheered as she circled a few times before pulling off her gown and hat, dropping them as she flew by the stage. Once she had done that she turned the nose of the craft straight up and smashed down on the throttle, causing her to shoot up into the air and into the handful of low hanging clouds— lazily drifting through the sky.

The principle shook his head with a laugh and said into the microphone, "Well that was the most unique graduation walk I have ever seen."

Causing the crowd to laugh and eventually focus back on the ceremony, all except for one woman who was pitching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.

"That girl is gonna be the death of me." She said quietly to herself.

—

It didn't take much time for Julie to figure out that she would get a lecture from her mom as soon as she got home so she decided to stay out and have fun. Conveniently enough, there happened to be a graduation party happening that night at the Drifters' gang hangout/clubhouse that had been newly renovated with the money from the score.

Honestly it was only as matter of time before the place got discovered and raided by the police, but for now a lot of the newly graduated students had flooded the shabby two story structure and were partying like their was no tomorrow. Julie could easily figure out that this party was a play to recruit more members to the gang, but she decided that getting drunk, gambling, racing, and/or getting in a fight or two would be a fun way to end her time in high school.

Later that day, while the sun was sinking towards the horizon, Julie found herself doing exactly as planned when she put some drunk asshole on his ass after he tried to argue when she smoked him in a solar surfer race. It was easy to see that she had won but this guy wouldn't let up and she was tired of his bitching so she hit him with a right cross which knocked him off his feet.

She was strong but she was still small, so he was more pissed than anything and started to get back up before she connected her boot to his face and knocked him out cold. Matty came up beside her and raised her hand in the air, proclaiming she was the victor of both the race and the fight. There was a crowd of former high school students that were cheering and in various states of inebriation that had spilled from the clubhouse to watch the race.

Even though the gang was stupid and so was Ed, Julie had to admit the clubhouse they had put together was pretty fun for parties. At least half of the graduating class was here, which equated to about 200+ people. It was easily the biggest party she had been to and it had been killer thus far, and only seemed to get better as she drank more. Didn't get many of these in a relatively small town on a dustball mining planet.

She was talking with a group that was standing outside, smoking and drinking from a large container of alcohol when she noticed a familiar figure with a small group coming through the canyon that lead to town. She groaned internally when the nervous looking rich girl spotted her and started moving towards her.

Julie handed the alcohol to Matty, who was standing next to her, and broke away from the group after saying she would be right back. She sauntered her way out until she and the girl were standing in front of each other. Samantha wasn't alone however; behind her was a group of kids that looked like they all very much didn't belong at a party like this. Up-town types. It wasn't like the party wasn't an open invitation to everyone but, the rich kids in the town usually just didn't associate with the poor ones.

"What are you doin' here Samantha?" Julie said, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets while she puffed on the cigarette hanging from her mouth. "This doesn't really seem like your scene."

Samantha let out a laugh at her words, despite looking like a small animal during hunting season. "It definitely is not…I actually came to find you."

Julie eyed the group behind the straight laced girl that looked about as edge as she did but, they were mostly guys looking more primed for a fight than anything else. "You need 10 people just to find lil' ol' me?" Julie said.

"No, my brother was against me coming here by myself so he and a few friends came along…"

"Well, thats probably for the best since you don't really blend in here. You might have gotten mugged because you look like you have money. So why did you need to find me?" Julie said, wanting to end the conversation as soon as possible and get back to drinking and doing stupid shit.

Sam looked around and noticed the eyes of more than a few people on her and her group. "Is there a more quiet place we could talk or something?" she asked a bit nervously.

"Sam, it doesn't get any less crazy inside so speak now or get out of here." Julie stated, a little more bluntly than she meant to— prompting a tall brown haired boy behind her to step closer to the two.

"Hey, bitch, Samantha took the time and energy to come out here just to fin—" He started angrily before Sam interrupted him.

"Peter, stop it!" She said, uncharacteristically loud which clearly threw the boy off a bit. "Just let us talk and we can leave."

"Alright, alright. Sorry." He said, holding up his hands and giving them space again.

She let out a tired sigh and turned back to Julie. "I wanted to say that I am sorry. I didn't mean to come off as pompous or entitled; I wasn't looking down on you or anything like that. You just seem like a nice and genuine person— which seemed to have become exceedingly rare— so I thought I would make that clear and apologize. You know, mend bridges instead of burning them."

The delinquent's eyebrows shot up in surprise at the sincerity of the girl she barely knew. "I, uh…well thanks for that I guess; and um…no hard feelings. I'm sorry I blew up on you and everything, you didn't deserve that." Julie said, rubbing the back of her neck and looking down at the dirt feeling a little guilty.

"No hard feelings." Samantha responded with a small smile. The smile faded when Julie heard footsteps behind her and saw the group that had accompanied Sam move forward as well and start to spread out like they were getting ready for something.

Julie looked over her shoulder and saw Matty with a ragtag group of guys that numbered about 15, Matty kept his eyes on the group opposite when he spoke to Julie.

"Everything alright over here?" He said before letting a taunting smirk pull across his face as he directed his next words to the up-town group. "Never thought I would see you rich-bitches out here, you come for the graduation party or something?"

The guy that Julie now knew as Peter stepped forward and spoke before either girl could try and defuse the situation. "We are just here to make sure my sister didn't get mugged by this chick, or any of you dirtbags, when she went to talk to her."

Anger flared in Julie's chest but it was Matty that responded first taking a threatening step towards the other guy. "Sounds more to me you came out here with a death wish, judging by the way you're talking about me and my friends." Julie felt a sinking feeling in her gut; 'death wish?' She thought. Matty wasn't one to make empty threats but, death seemed a little harsh— sounded more like Ed than anything else.

Julie turned to Samantha and said in a low voice, "You guys better get out of here, these guys have a lot more backup in the clubhouse and not all of them are the most stable characters."

Sam nodded, "Ya that sounds like it could get pretty bad."

Both girls then stepped between the two guys at the heads of their groups and began to talk them down and push them back so that they wouldn't be within easy punching distance. Once Julie had finally convinced Matty and the rest to head back to the party and Samantha had scolded her brother enough to get him to start moving their group back towards town they turned back towards each other.

"Catastrophe avoided." Julie said with an exaggerated sigh of relief, wiping the imaginary sweat off her brow. Samantha laughed and agreed.

"Listen Juliet, I'm gonna be around town occasionally for the next year because My brother and I will be doing a prep course before leaving for the academy and…" She looked down at her feet, looking a bit unsure of how to phrase her next words. "…I was wondering if you would want to get together and hang out or something…"

"You trying to fuck me or be my friend?" Julie said with amusement in her voice. Samantha's eyes widened comically and her face flushed and stuttered out a response.

"No! I didn't mean— I just meant as friends!" She said, making Julie throw her head back in laughter.

"Good, I don't really swing that way but I would have been flattered." She said with a smile. "But seriously that does sound fun, come by the Benbow Inn if you want to find me when you are in town. If I'm not their then you can leave a message for me with my mom who runs the place. Also you can just call me Julie."

Sam smiled brightly, and nodded her head. "Alright Julie, I definitely will! and you can call me Sam."

Peter called out to her and waved, to her to tell her to hurry up before they left her behind. Sam stepped closer and whispered one last thing to Julie and handed her a small piece of paper.

"If you ever need me or need to contact me here is my address." She said before looking over at the ongoing party and adding, "And be careful around this place, Julie. I know I might not know the people here as well as you but I have heard some pretty scary stuff from girls that have hung out here before…rumors have been going around that their leader drugged and raped a girl who came here not too long ago."

Julie felt a a churning feeling in her gut at the second-hand account of the gang leader. 'Ed may be a douche but he wouldn't go that far…right?' She thought weakly.

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the heads-up though, Sam." She said, followed by a reassuring smile that felt a little bit forced. Sam hesitated a second before the voice of her brother calling out to her again made her quickly say goodbye and move to follow her brother and group back towards town.

Julie stood there watching until she lost sight of them around a corner. Sam's words bounced around her head as she turned back towards the party. She kept telling herself that Matty would never let something like that happen; at the very least he would have her back. But, she still felt a nagging doubt in the back of her mind so she set off to find Matty to inquire specifically about the rumors.

—

On the way to find him she got caught up talking and drinking and having fun, but at the back of her head Sam's words kept echoing and making her feel the need to find Matty. He was one of the only people at this party she really trusted to have her back no matter what. She was standing in a circle of people, talking about the finer points of solar surfers when she finally caught sight of him heading upstairs.

She called out to him but he didn't hear her over the noise level in the room so she followed him up the stairs and looked around trying to find him. Julie was almost getting lost just walking around the second floor due to the fact it had been built by fucking high school kids who were definitely not the best at home design. She was just thankful the structure hadn't fallen apart yet.

The young delinquent turned down a hallway with a few doors to small rooms along it's length— only one of which had a closed door; when she passed by it she faintly heard Matty's voice and stopped. She was about to knock when she heard Ed's voice speaking in a low volume, obviously talking about something he didn't want anyone else to hear.

"Do you want to be my number 2 or not, Matty?" The older man said, "We just got a ton of guys to sign on with us and if you aren't willing to do this then I might just decide to give them a shot."

"I do, Ed. I really do but…this just feels weird." She heard her friend respond. "Why can't you just talk to her about it straight up?"

"She would never even let me come close, she's got her guard up against anything I do before I even do it. I just gotta…help her relax." The last part of Ed's words made her skin crawl. She decided to listen closely for who he was targeting so that she could give them a heads up.

"But do you really have to use a drug to do that? She is gonna be closer to unconscious than anything else, plus she is useful— she defiantly proved she is a better infiltrator than any of us at the Mayor's place." Julie's mouth went dry when it became obvious who they were targeting.

"And then what did she tell you after?" Ed responded before answering his own question. "She said she was done with this kind of stuff. We can't trust her or rely on her anymore. She isn't part of the gang and she never will be; she is cutting ties with us. This is the last time I am gonna ask Matty, are you gonna do this for me or not?"

"Fine, I'll do it." Matty's voice said with a resigned sigh that Julie could hear through the door. She quietly stood up, having heard all she need to, and walked quickly down the hall and down the stairs— ignoring the offers of drinks and cigarettes and another race. When she finally exited the building she violently emptied the contents of her stomach onto the ground, leaning with one hand on the wall for support.

A few nearby people laughed, figuring it was another person who drank too much. After she had nothing left to vomit Julie shuffled towards where her solar surfer was leaned against the outer wall of the clubhouse; before she heard someone yell out at the top of their lungs— "COPS!"

She whipped her head around to see the flashing lights coming through the canyon and darted to her board as all the kids started to scramble like rats. They ran in all different directions, the cops just grabbed those they could reach and cuffed them before moving on towards the clubhouse.

There was a large group of police officers that had come to roll the party; mostly human but some of assorted races and more than a few of their robot cops that were generally for flying violation enforcement. Julie had had run-ins with them the most, by far. But right now they were preoccupied with the former students on the ground so they could only watch as she cut on her engine and took off down another canyon that would take her away from town— towards the quarry.

She felt her chest tighten and the nauseousness threaten to overwhelm her again but she just pressed down not he throttle harder and kept accelerating to even more dangerous speeds. Ignoring the sign she broke through, indicating the restricted area of the ore processing section of the quarry. She dipped up and down, left and right, barely avoiding serious injury while holding down the throttle.

Julie didn't want to think about anything right now, so she held the speed as high as she could and flew like she had a death wish. Desperately trying to get the wind and recklessness of her flight to drive her best friend's betrayal out of her head; to stop herself from thinking that she deserved it in some way. She felt like if she stopped she would fall apart so she kept it up; teasing closer and closer to the edge of her abilities. Obstacles coming within inches of colliding with her body and craft.

Then she saw it— the small window of opportunity— opening, then closing a few seconds later. It was probably the most stupid and dangerous thing she could think of and it seemed perfect. So, with that thought in mind, she lined up the nose of her board with an opening near the top of the giant rotating wheel mechanism that hung between two large structures— serving some function she couldn't care less about.

Her adrenaline picked up and she punched the throttle with a wild grin on her face. Everything began to fade into the background as she got closer and focused on her timing. She had to have this just right of she knew she probably wouldn't live to know that she hadn't timed it correctly. That was just the reality of the situation.

This was a life and death situation that would hinge of her gut feel for the correct timing. She felt a more rational part of her brain telling her to stop or pull up and just go above the structure but she pressed on and lowered her body as much as she could so that she could fit through the small opening.

She soon passed the point of no return and her adrenaline surged causing her world to shrink to just her and the objective. Everything slowed down when se saw the small rectangular opening slide clear to admit her; she held her breath as she felt the edges of the inside of the opening barely a hairbreadth away from her body. The inside of the space was a longer distance to travel than she had initially thought and before she was all the way out she saw the edge to her side, moving closer and her window of escape slowly closing.

Julie was sure for a moment that she wouldn't make it, but she could do nothing but hold down the throttle and hope she made it out. She lowered her body even more as the nose of her board exited the back side of the hole and soon the rest of her followed close behind barely slipping through the closing mechanism— unscathed— into to open air.

The young adrenaline junky stood to her full height on her board and slowed to a cruising speed above the quarry. Her body shook like a leaf in a thunder storm as she let out a maniacal laugh and felt the adrenaline slowly subside and the glowing golden streaks of her hair slowly dimmed.

'That had to be the craziest thing I have ever done; kinda sucks that I don't have a witness here since no one will believe me when I say I did it.' She thought to herself.

Just as she had finished thinking that, she heard a police siren whoop directly behind her, making her yelp in surprise quickly turned her head around to see two familiar robot flying enforcement officers within 50 meters and closing. She knew she didn't even have a chance to get away and just let out a heavy sigh.

"Great…" She said weakly to herself. "Well at least I got someone to confirm I did it, I guess."

—

Sarah was nearing the end of the dinner rush. She was frazzled beyond belief; running on empty having not been able to take a break through the entire thing. She barely had the time to close her eyes and wonder where exactly her daughter went when she stayed out this late.

'Hopefully she will be home soon;' She thought to herself. 'and hopefully she is safe, and not getting into trouble.'

She slid her fingers around the locket around her neck, thinking about what John's reaction would have been if he had been at that graduation ceremony. She let out a small laugh, because she knew he would probably be cheering her on the whole time.

'At least she hasn't had any issues with the police.' Sarah thought, before hearing a customer call out her name.

"Oh Miss Hawkins!" The older female cyclops said, pointing to her empty cup.

"I know, refill on the purp juice, coming right up Mrs. Dunnwiddie." The hostess said before taking a tray of food and handing it out to a table with a small amphibian family seated around it.

"There we go. That's four powdered spheroids...two lunar eclipses, and it's a big bowl of Zorellian jelly worms— for the big boy!" Sarah said, warmly watching the young boy's happy reaction to his food. "Enjoy."

She picked up another tray from the kitchen and moved over to the table with her old friend sitting, reading a book about astronomy.

"Sorry, Delbert, it's been a madhouse here all morning." She said, before the canine held up his hands as if to say the apology wasn't necessary and responded; "No problem at all, Sarah."

"Ah! My Alponian chowder with the extra solara seed." Delbert said delightedly. "Mmm! Yum!"

Sarah smiled and moved away to clear off a table of a family that had just left. She stacked the last of the dirty dishes into the dirty dish tray when she looked over and saw Delbert talking with a small amphibian girl from the family sitting nearby.

"What brings you here, curious little one?" He asked, only to be met with a silent stare as he held the spoonful of his first bite in front of his mouth.

"Well…um, go away." He said, making a shooing motion with his hands; stopping the spoon again before it entered his mouth when the girl didn't budge. He leaned down to her a little.

"Are your parents around?" He said only to be met again with silence. "What's the matter? Cat got your—aah!" Yelping in surprise when in the middle of his sentence a long tongue shot out of her mouth and swiped the first bite of his chowder. He looked at the little girl, feeling a little shaken as she swallowed the bite and skipped away happily.

Sarah walked back over, holding the tray of dirty dishes. "Oh, they're so adorable at that age." She said warmly— thinking back to when Julie was that age.

"Oh, yes…deplorable—er, adorable. Yes." He said, thanking whatever god's that be, that he didn't have children. "Speaking of which, how's Julie doing? She graduated today, if I'm not mistaken."

"Yes she did, everything went…smoothly, I suppose. She got her diploma and has been doing much better recently. I know she had some rough spots earlier this year— every since that thing with the academy didn't work out, but I really think that she is starting to turn a corner…" She let her words trail off when she heard the door open abruptly to admit two robot-officers that were escorting her daughter into the room.

"Mrs. Hawkins?" Asked one of them when they spotted her.

"Julie!" She said looking at her child, not realizing when the dish tray slipped out of her hands and hit the floor, probably shattering more than a few of them.

"Ooh…wrong turn." Delbert said behind her when he spotted Julie.

The young delinquent started a feeble attempt to play it off as she slipped from the officer's grasp and started to walk away casually. "Ok. Thanks for the lift, guys."

"Not so fast." The officer said, firmly grasping her shoulder again and keeping her from getting away, then turning back to her mother. "We apprehended your daughter operating a solar aircraft in a restricted area, inside of the quarry."

That other officer picked up seamlessly where the other officer stopped talking; "Moving violation— section fifteen, paragraph, um…"

"Six." Julie said quietly.

"Thank you." The officer said back to her.

"No problem."

"Julie!" Sarah exclaimed, again before the officer continued.

"As you are aware ma'am this constitutes a violation of her probation." He said firmly, making Sarah's heart sink at the thought of Julie getting charged with a crime and possibly facing the consequences.

"Yes. No, I understand, but…could we just—" Her plea was interrupted by Delbert's voice behind her.

"Um. ahem. pardon me officers, if I might interject here." He said, standing beside Sarah, pulling himself to his full height and puffing out his chest trying to look as important as possible. "I am the noted astrophysicist, Dr. Delbert Doppler. Perhaps you have heard of me." Waiting a few seconds, hoping they would somehow know him.

"No? Well, um, I have a news clipping right here." He said, as he begun digging in his pocket for the newspaper article that had mentioned him that he had excitedly cut out this morning.

"Are you the girl's father?" The officer asked bluntly.

"Oh, good heavens, no!" He stuttered out, followed by Sarah adding on with a laugh, "No, no, no— eww— He's just an old friend of the family."

Delbert felt more than a little hurt but, his attention was redirected when the officers leaned down towards him and said in unison; "Back off, sir!"

He involuntarily took a step back, before Sarah gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Thank you, Delbert. I think I can handle it from here."

He straightened his jacket. "Well, Sarah, if you insist." Then in lower whisper to his friend, "Don't ever let me do that again." Before walking back to his table and the now cold meal; where he could give silent support, at a safe distance. The officer started to speak once again the Sarah.

"Due to repeated violations of Statute C— we have impounded the vehicle. Anymore violations will result in a one-way ticket to Juvenile Hall." The officer finished before his partner added on, "Kiddie hoosegow."

"The slammo." He said once again with finality while he slightly pushed the girl towards her mother.

"Thank you, officers; it won't happen again." She said, pulling her daughter towards her.

"We see her type all the time, ma'am." Said one officer, once again the other officer chimed in; "Wrong choices."

"Dead-enders."

"Losers." The other officer finished, as they turned and left; shutting the door behind them. The room remained deathly quiet before everyone resumed their conversations and eating, trying— and failing— to avoid letting the hostess know they had all be watching the scene unfold.

Sarah look down at her daughter, who avoided eye contact. "Julie, I have had it with this behavior. Do you want to go to Juvenile Hall? you are almost 18, what if they tried you as an adult and sent you to jail? is that what you want to happen?"

Julie just moved away from her and picked up the tray that Sarah had dropped— it had luckily not let any pieces of the broken dishes inside to scatter across the floor because of the high edges on the dirty dish tray.

"Julie?" Her mother said, following a few paces behind her, trying to get her attention. "Andromeda Juliet Hawkins, look at me." She whisper-yelled in a low voice so the entire room didn't hear. "It's been hard enough trying to keep this place afloat by myself, without you going off and—"

"Mom, it's no big deal." Julie said, turning back to her mother while holding the tray. "There was nobody around; those cops just won't get off my—" She stopped her sentence when she saw her mother put her hands on her hips and give her a look that told her whatever excuse she gave wasn't going to get her out of the situation.

"…Forget it." She said quietly to herself before turning back to clear off another table.

"Miss Hawkins! my juice!" The old cyclops woman cooed from across the room, holding up her empty glass once again.

"Yes, sorry. I will get you a refill in a second." Sarah said, before turning back towards her child.

"Julie, I just don't want to see you throw away you entire future." After saying that she turned and went to go see to the customers again, leaving Julie to gather up the last of the dishes and pushed through the kitchen door.

"what future?" She said quietly to herself.

—

Julie sat on the roof, above the now nearly empty dinning room, not long after the the dinner rush had ended. She looked up at the gathering clouds that would probably start to let out rain and lightning soon enough.

"Today fucking sucked." Julie said, tossing a pebble and listening to it clack down the metal roof as she thought about how it had been going so well before everything went to shit. She had always been sort of a loner so finding out her best friend and almost only real friend was willing to betray her made her feel sick again. But, worst of all— it made her feel alone again.

Matty had been the only person she could really let her guard down around; there was still Sam but, that was too new to know if it would really last. They both knew next to nothing about each other and their respective hobbies, so they might end up just not being compatible. And of course her mother's perpetual disappointment in her made her feel like a piece of shit; though admittedly she might have done a lot to deserve that.

She knew she couldn't explain the reason she had gone into the quarry because then her mother would want to know more about her connections to the gang and then she would want to get the police involved and blah blah blah. So Julie had no room to maneuver on that situation and would just have to endure it and try to keep her nose clean from now on.

Julie heard the faint sound of her Delbert's voice coming through the a skylight window on the roof nearby, that had been left open. She scooted closer to hear better and peek inside when she heard her Mother's voice as well.

"I really don't know how you manage it, Sarah. Trying to run a business while raise a young woman like Julie." Delbert said, sitting across from Sarah.

"Managing it?" She said, sounding exasperated. "I'm at the end of my rope. Ever since John left…well of course the Inn is hard to manage but, Julie just never recovered. You know how smart she is; She built her first solar surfer when she was eight! I am at least thankful she graduated but she is still constantly getting in trouble and she is going to be an adult soon and she could land herself in serious trouble!"

Sarah put her head in her hands and let out a defeated sigh. "When I try and talk to her…I don't know, it's like I'm talking to a stranger. I just can't get through to her. I don't know what to do Delbert; I have tried everything I just…I don't know what to do." She finished in a voice thick with the emotion that was boiling over.

Julie moved away from the window, back to her previous spot, trying to ignore that knot that had formed in her throat and the tears that stung the corners of her eyes. She pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in the cloth of her pants, trying not to let the brimming tears spill over.

"Dammit." She hoarsely whispered to herself.

After her dad had left she had cried for days before finally deciding it was time to grow up; that there was no more room for weakness in her heart. She had been having a rather rough time today trying to keep the promise she made to herself not to cry; she didn't want to feel weak and vulnerable anymore. She breathed slowly to calm herself and let the tears recede and resolutely kept the promise to herself.

As she thought about what to do next, she heard a high pitched whining sound coming from somewhere on the other side of the Inn. She turned her head towards the noise when she realized it was getting louder and was soon met with the sight of a ship with the engine spewing smoke and flames. It closed the distance with the ground much too rapidly to be a controlled landing.

Julie stood and quickly slid down the roof as she saw ship finally smack into the ground with a loud crash that sounded like thunder. She ran towards the downed craft and circled it looking for any signs of life from the passengers. This thing looked more like a lifeboat that came from a much bigger ship than something that was meant for long distance space travel.

She spotted a window that would be able to give her access to the main cabin so she ran up to it and pounded her fist on it yelling if there was anyone in there that could hear her. Suddenly, a clawed hand slammed against the glass from the inside; surprising her so bad she nearly fell back on her ass.

The hand pushed the window off and an old torinian man in a large overcoat and a tricorn hat stumbled out coughing so hard he fell to the ground. While the clawed hand had scared her at first, she had seen other torinians before so she knew she didn't have to be afraid of the tortoise-like man.

Stepping towards him she started to ask if he was ok when he reached up and grabbed her by the front of her jacket and started babbling out something she didn't understand.

"He's a comin'! Can yeh er' 'im?" He said looking very much out of his mind. "Those gears and gyros; Clankin' and clackin' like the Devil 'imself."

"You must have hit your head pretty hard there mister." Julie said, half amused and half worried.

The man turned back towards his grounded spacecraft and dug something out before turning back towards Julie. "He's after me chest! That fiendish cyborg and his band of cutthroats, but he'll 'ave to pry it from Billy Bones' cold dead fingers 'afore I— Ack!" The man said before collapsing onto the ground in a fit of coughing and pain ridden groans.

"Shit!"Julie said, rushing to his side and putting his arm over her shoulder. "Let me help you get to the Inn. Then we can see about getting you checked out by a doctor." Julie felt large rain drops start to hit her face as she slowly helped the man towards the front door.

"Mom's gonna love this."

—

The man was much bigger and heavier than her but she managed to get him to the Inn without collapsing. She was tired, wet, and shaking from having the man's weight over her shoulders. They burst through the door and collapsed onto the floor in a heap before Julie pulled herself from under his weight.

"Andromeda Juliet Hawkins! What in the world—" Her mother started to say before she interrupted her.

"Mom, he's hurt! We have to call a doctor or ambulance or something!" Julie said desperately.

She felt the Bones tug on her arm weakly. When she turned around she saw he was point to the small chest he had dragged along from his ship and was trying to get her to bring it towards him. Julie obliged him and pushed the chest over to him.

He punched in a code and cracked it open while whispering about how someone would be coming soon. "Can't let them find this." He said as he pulled out a small cloth wrapped object.

"Who's coming?" Julie asked intently. Bones grabbed her by the front of her shirt and pulled her close to him, pushing the cloth wrapped object into her hands and whispered into her ear; "The Cyborg! Beware…the cyborg…" His words slowly became more hoarse and quiet until he finally fell back to the floor with a limp thud. Bones was dead. She felt the life leave his body with her own hands as he took his last shuttering breath.

For the first time Julie looked down and saw the blood that had been seeping out of a large wound in his side that had soaked part of her clothes and now the floor around the deceased man.

"Oh my God…" She heard her mother say, standing nearby. Before anyone could say anything else the noise of a ship engine came to all of their ears. They looked at each other and Julie moved over to the window and peeked out. Lighting struck nearby and illuminated a group of armed men jumping down from a small ship and beginning to move towards the Inn.

"We have to go, Now!" Julie said, quickly grabbing her mother's hand and running up the stairs, followed closely by Dr. Doppler. Behind them they heard the sound of laser fire ripping through the front of the dining room windows and the front door. They continued up the stairs until they got to a window at the end of the upstairs hallway— right outside the doorway to Julie's room.

Delbert pushed open the window and looked down to see his personal carriage right where he had parked it, on the side of the building.

"You guys figure out a way to get down there; I have to grab something from my room." Julie said before darting into her room and digging out the harness with the sword and pistol still holstered in it. If they had to fight their way out, antique weapons wouldn't be ideal but they were better than nothing. She pull out the sword and touched the blade to see if it was even sharp and quickly withdrew her hand when it cut her finger immediately. The blade was in perfect condition and razor sharp.

"Aren't antiques supposed to be like, old and rusty or something?" She said, looking down at the sword. "If this is in perfect condition then what about the gun?"

She sheathed the sword and pulled out the laser pistol. Just like the sword it looked in perfect condition; she had never fired a laser weapon before so she had little to no idea of how to shoot— except to point at something and pull the trigger. She heard a loud crash downstairs and realized she didn't have time to figure out how to test if it worked or not, so she slid the pistol back into the holster carefully.

She quickly pulled on the belt/harness and fastened it in place under her jacket before grabbing the stack of papers she had taken from the Mayor's safe, as well as a small sack of left over credits she had gotten from her cut of the profits. She shoved them in her pocket along with the cloth covered object that Bones had given to her and darted back out to see Delbert and her mother standing in the open window.

Julie smelled smoke coming from downstairs and looked back to see light from an open flame casting shadows up the stairs of the armed figures moving up to their floor. She ran towards the window with Delbert and his mother counting down from 3 before they were going to make the jump.

"Ready?" Delbert said, followed by a nod from Sarah. "One…tw—"

"Three!" Julie yelled as she ran and jumped, tackling them out of the window and down towards the carriage. They landed in a heap in the seat but soon enough Delbert took hold of the reins and urged forward, the animal that was responsible for pulling the carriage.

"Go Nahla, Go!" Delbert said urgently.

Once they made it to the main road Julie and Sarah looked back to see flames spouting from the doors and windows of the Inn, Julie felt her heart sink when she saw the look of devastation on her mother's face. They both slipped back into the carriage seats quietly, Sarah leaned forward and put her face in her hands and cried.

Julie wasn't sure what she could do to comfort her mother. She had put everything she had into that Inn; she had grown up their and had taken over when her father had died in a mining accident and her mother fell ill, passing away not long after. Now all of those memories were in ashes and all of the tears, sweat and blood that had gone into keeping that place afloat were meaningless.

—

A few hours later Julie and her mother sat by the fireplace in Delbert's study in the large mansion that he lived in by himself. Julie put a blanket around her mother's shoulders when Delbert finally came back after going to talk with the police. He looked rather downtrodden so the news must have been bad.

"I'm sorry Sarah." He said, putting a hand on Sarah's shoulder. "It's gone…the Benbow Inn is burnt to the ground. There is no sign of the group that did this."

Sarah, didn't respond and just continued to star quietly at the floor. She had seen the flames from the road, so she had been somewhat expecting this. She had cried the whole ride to Delbert's so at the moment she was too exhausted for anymore tears.

"At least we didn't have any guests staying at the Inn." She said, trying to look on the optimistic side. "And we all made it out, without any injuries."

Sarah looked over to her daughter and saw the blood soaked into the clothes and panicked for a second before remembering that it was from the old man that Julie had brought in.

Julie pulled a the small cloth wrapped ball out of he jacket pocket and started to unravel it.

"For them to have caused all this trouble over this thing, it must be important…" She said, stiffening when she let the final covering all away from the metallic, shining surface. Julie felt her body shudder when she realized what she was holding.

"The Key."

.