One jump later and we were only a few hours away from the moon. Vega said that we couldn't jump directly over Earth because that would be how you got yourself and whoever you ran into killed. I sat on a couch in the observation deck and watched the Moon as we flew by it. Only a few hours from Earth at this speed and it is amazing. Back in the 21st century, I never thought much about space. I mean outside of movies, I never had a reason to care about it. Thought about making a movie about a serial killer in space, but beyond that did anyone actually care?

God…Even experiencing so much after being awake for only a few days, I would give it all up to have Dad and Beck back. We were just starting to talk! It wasn't fair! I sniffled as I felt my eyes water and a couple tears slowly dropped down my cheek. A small cough came from behind me and I hurriedly wiped by eyes and face. Andre came around gave a small wave.

"Do you uh, want me to leave?" He asked softly.

"I don't care."

He took that as an okay to sit down next to me. We sat in slightly awkward silence for a minute as he tried to decide on what to say. I wasn't going to help him.

He started and stopped a few times before I snapped at him to spit out whatever was bothering him.

"I'm trying to say something that'll cheer ya up but can't think of anything. I mean you're five hundred years old, on a space ship and everything else."

I rolled my eyes and didn't say anything. "And since I can't say anything to help you find that golden happy line, I think I'll just play some music. Music helps everyone right?"

Before I could say anything, he reached behind the couch that we were sitting on and pulled out a beautiful acoustic guitar and I was impressed. "Is that real?" I asked. Andre gave this big smile and nodded. "Yup. Don't know how my Grandma got it, but she gave it to for Christmas years ago. I'm better with the piano, but we only have a digital one and I am waiting for Cat to get around to fix that."

Andre began to play and whatever you can say about the guy, he knows how to make the guitar sing. I actually want to hear him play the piano because if he's better on that, just…wow. Slow, soothing notes filled the observation deck. I couldn't believe that it was actually making me feel better. I listened and watched as we slowly flew towards the moon. After some time, Andre stopped playing.

"How was that?" He asked, a big grin on his face.

"It wasn't terrible." I answered. Andre laughed loudly. "I'll take it!"

We talked music and started to compose a couple songs and before I knew it, I had completely forgotten about being sad. I wasn't going to admit it, but I was really glad that Andre came up here to cheer me up. The fact that he did it without pissing me off is an awesome bonus. We sat together as we flew past the Moon. I looked through the windows and I could swear that I saw ships moving in all directions. Some time passed as we sat and stared out the window as Andre occasionally plucked at the guitar. "Coming up on Earth, everyone to their positions!" Andre took off to the bridge and I went to check on the cargo and then ran to the bridge and strapped myself into one of the chairs. I spun myself forward and watched as we entered the atmosphere. Flames flowed over the nose of the ship as we started to shake.

"Cat?" Vega called out.

"Golden Squares!" Cat answered

"That means we're good" Vega said, glancing back at me. The ship rattled, and I looked at her. This is good? What does bad mean, we explode and all die?

Fuck. Why did I think that?

Eventually the shaking stopped, and we broke through the clouds and oh my god. Hong Kong was a massive city, and right on top of it was another city! Even taller sky scrapers and the platform it was on stretched out to almost completely cover the city underneath it.

Andre whistled. "Hong Kong. One of the biggest dual-cities."

"Dual-Cities?" I asked.

"A lot of cities in the twenty-second century became so crowded that they tried to expand, but they didn't have any where to go so they just built cities on top of the ones already there." Andre explained. How many people were on this planet that building a city on top of another one was needed? Vega banked the ship as we flew towards the city and fell in line with other ships as we entered the lower city. I stared up as the upper city came closer and closer and then completely blocked the sun. We moved from one flying lane into another before rising and moving towards a building with a giant holographic red star on the front of it.

"Our drop off point. The Tonkin-Hainan Industries." Vega said as she flew us onto the landing pad near the middle of the tower. I didn't bother to watch the landing, getting up and going to the cargo bay. Once there I checked it over and made sure that nothing broke during reentry. So far everything was fine. Reminded me of that one show that my dad loved. Something about smugglers and one guy complaining about how things never go smooth. Really hoping that we have better luck than those guys. The gentle hum of the engines died down as the ship settle onto the landing pad.

Smooth. Things will go smoothly.

I gave a small exhale and waited as the ramp was lowered. A man in a company uniform and a blue light on the back of his right walked up the ramp to me. He handed me a data pad thing and I signed it. Guess even in the future people still need shit signed and what not. After I handed the pad back to the guy, some others walked up the ramp and began picking up the crates. Guess they make them strong in the future?

I walked over to the intercom and spoke into it "Signed the thing. Blue-light hands are unloading the cargo."

"Blue-light han-oh you mean the andriods!" Vega said. "Great. Keep an eye on them and make sure that they don't break anything."

Right. Make sure the guys lifting the heavy boxes like they're styrofoam don't break anything. Maybe I could hurt their feelings. Except they're andriods, so who knows if they have any feelings that I can hurt? Or since people are shitholes to begin with, nothing they haven't heard already. I stood off in the corner, watching them. Maybe it's because they're machines but they were freakishly efficient. It took about twenty minutes, but the entire bay was emptied. By then Vega had appeared and chatted with one of the andriods. The android handed Vega a small bag of money and walked off. Vega practically skipped over to me.

"We have money!" She sang.

"For the next five minutes." I sang back.

Vega frowned and stuck her tongue out at me. "Great comeback" I said.

"Oh, shut up you grouchy pants person!" I laughed at her and for a fleeting second thought that her pouting face was cute. Where the hell did that thought come from?

I shook my head and focused on Vega's babbling. We went to the galley and there Vega started dividing up the money. "Tell Andre to move Nostromo to a port. We won't be leaving Hong Kong for a few days." When I didn't move fast enough, Vega shot me a look and I got up and hit the intercom to tell Andre what Vega wanted him to do. Before I could sit back down, Vega told me to go to the bridge and start getting some flying lessons. I huffed at being ordered around but I did as I was told.

I got up to the bridge just as Andre had started warming up the engines. I sat down and Andre told me what was what. It was interesting. I wouldn't say that it was incredibly complicated, but it was definitely something that you don't sit down and just do. Anteiku class ships were famous for being really simple if boring ships. The controls and were easy, but Andre rightfully didn't let me try and fly in the middle of a city. He promised that I would get some practice once we were in deep space and there for unlikely to hit someone.

"You know, back in the twenty-first century, a lot of shows about the future had the cities loaded with massive adds and things like that. I thought it was dumb." I said as we flew by a giant hologram of a half-naked Asian woman.

Andre laughed. "And now?" he asked.

"Now I think they might have been on to something."

Andre laughed again and then directed me to get a landing zone for us. We landed and had just shut off the engines when Vega's voice came through the intercom.

"Andre, take Jade and find us a new job. Riley said Tonkin-Hainan Industries might have more local jobs, so we won't have to go far. Cat, with me. I want every part that we need to fix Nostromo for deep-space runs."

"You heard the boss-lady. Let's go!" We grabbed a couple jackets along with a pair masks that covered our mouths. "That bad here? Thought LA would be worse and I didn't use one then." I said as I fitted it around my neck and let it hang.

"That was dumb and there hasn't been a pollution cloud in a long time, but I guess I'm just paranoid." Andre said cheerfully as he grabbed a pistol and holstered it inside of his jacket. He buttoned up and led the way to the airlock. We walked down a smaller ramp and I followed Andre as he made a beeline for the jobs board thing and started looking at it.

"Vega normally that bossy?" I asked while looking at the board.

Andre shook his head. "Normally we're all chilled as Pluto. But sometimes she'll put her foot down and tell us what to do. Don't need to worry about her being a tyrant or anything."

"Sounds good to me. See anything good?"

Andre hummed a song as his eyes danced over the board. I looked at one and then pointed at one. "From the same company. Looks like they want to drop off stuff in Miami. Paying at thirty-five crowns. Is that a lot?"

Andre blanched. "Yea that's a lot of money. Especially for a job that stays on this planet." He paused. "Miami's on this planet, right?"

I looked at him. "Yea. It's in America. On the east coast at the tip of Florida. How do you now know that?" I asked, my normal flaying wit failing me for once.

Andre shrugged. "Probably because a good chunk of the east coast is under water. Why would we learn about a city that's gone?" I had to admit that he had a point. "Think it's dangerous?"

Andre sighed. "Most likely. City ruins probably have a bunch of scavengers living in them. Attacking anyone that comes in."

"It's the best paying job on the board." I pointed out.

Andre grinned, and it was infectious enough that I couldn't help grinning back. "Here for the fun time not a long time, right?"

I laughed. We took the job.

Hope you all enjoyed. Hoping to get more writings out for other stories, especially the Alphas one. That has been on hiatus long enough. Unfortunately, I have a two-week work week coming right up with no access to my laptop and or internet. I'll have it all out before the year is out, this I promise.

-C.H.