The cold and black night sky was like a blanket over my head as I walked down the alleyway with my new found friend. She was cool and calm. Alert at every waking moment. Her eyes scanning our immediate surroundings, I was amazed to see her ears perk up as my foot hit a half frozen puddle of rain.

Keeping close to her I watched around me. Everything was silent. My usually alleyway was a mile behind me, and so was my health. I was cold, hungry, tired, dirty and uncertain. Flex of blue stars shone against the sky, as I cast my attention momentarily to the buildings above. As I exhaled my breath seemed to freeze before my eyes.

We headed up to this brick wall. At first I was puzzled, but then I noticed she had pulled a laser light out of her pocket. It looked like one of those old retro ball point pens. Pushing a small button she ran the red laser light around the circumference of the wall. Her hand was steady and deliberate. I watched with amazement was the bricks faded and a plain hallway was bared to our view.

This was something new to me. Look, I come from a life on Ships and space ports, what is a kid like me gonna know about urban life? I didn't move until I felt her tug on my coat's sleeve. My hood slipped off suddenly. "Keep that hood up." She hissed. Alright so another thing I know nothing about is that on Pluto ll women with dark hair are rare, especially younger ones. I was clueless why anyone would care. Okay, where I come from have hair this dark is normal.

I'm facing the fact that I may not ever learn the ropes on this planet. You've have to promise to help me out. I guess I can count on Raven for that, but it helps to have more then one person to confide in. Her apartment is nice. Furniture looks rather expensive, home technology looks pretty up to date. Things are comfortable here for me. Do you think we could get used to this?

I don't think I should. Raven says I can stay here as long as I want, on the condition that I clean up after myself, and I stay out of her bedroom on Friday nights. Why? I can only begin to guess, and right now I'm not sure if I even want too. Great, now I'm blushing.

Alright I'll pull my mind outta the gutter in a minute. It's just that Raven has so many cool people around her, especially the guys. When I asked her about them she just shook her head and told me to not feed the wild animals. For some reason she said that I would make a nice meal for all of them. I have yet to even allow myself to venture what the hell she means by that.

Raven herself seems to be cool. Better then my cousin. She was just too much. There were guys in and out of her bedroom every night. Thank god I had the bed room at the other end of her apartment. But even then that didn't seem to help matters. I could still hear almost everything. Many a night I snored amongst the lint under my pillow from having it clamped around my head to try and drown out my cousin's exploits.

My eyes are growing heavy, and sleep calls. Good night.

Dear Diary,

02-14

What a day! I went to work with Raven. There were computer monitors every where, and hardware I would kill to get my hands on. Turns out I'm working there as a wire welder. I'm the smallest and can fit under the system compartments.

But do you wanna know the best part I met some one today, a guy named Deo McGraw. He seems to be the leader of everyone I've met so far. He showed me around what he calls "the establishment." It was so strange, when I saw him my stomach muscles clenched, and did a flip or something. I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means.

"The establishment." As Deo called it was impressive. There were tons of computers, like I said before. These computers had fields in them, what looked like electronic forms, just waiting to be filled out. Others had pictures of people. I'm guessing who are clients of his. Then there were switch boards, and stuff like that. He showed me the tools I would be using and where I would use them. I couldn't help but notice the man's expensive cologne, or how the lights glinted off his gelled jet black hair.

The weather was stormy as usual, and he offered to give me a ride home. But I declined and then he insisted. So I took it. He had one of those hover Hummers that my old guy pals used to literally drool over. He asked me about a lot of things. Then if I had a boyfriend. Which was funny because I couldn't help but feel like he cared about the answer.

Then the funniest thing happened.

"Jack get some sleep. You've been up almost all night." Riddick said, his body filling the door way. "Just three more pages I swear." She said without looking up. She heard him growl slightly, "You said that an hour ago, you just came back from the hospital, got to sleep NOW!" Reluctantly she marked her place and set the book down.

"Good girl. G' night kid." He said with a tired flatness to his voice. With a slight yawn Jack met his eyes. "Night Riddick." With that he was gone, once again she picked up the smooth leather covered volume. It was small, with scratches, and faded white pages. It was about six inches tall, and about half the thickness. The edge of the page's were lined with gold, making it look elegant.

So, this is Minx's diary. Jack mused. One of them anyway. She reminded herself with a slight pout. She'd been bugging Minx to tell her about her past for a few hours now. But Minx wouldn't tell. So after a moment she came in with a small novel like looking book. She handed it to her, saying only one thing, "Happy now?" and then she left.

Jack was so confused. What did she mean? But she immediately knew when she read the first to words Dear Diary. Her eyes almost fell out of her head, and she couldn't help but feel like she wanted to devour ever ounce of information. This was like the scoop of a lifetime.

She was half way through it, and it was a damn good read. It made her head spin, and her heart fly. No wonder why Minx understood her so well. She had gone through it. Only she was on her own even before Jack was in diapers.

She wrote about her life on the ships that her father had served on and sometimes even stood as captain to. About her days in the engine rooms, learning about the mechanics of a ship. Then the one that took the prize was when she wrote about her first kiss at the age of ten.

She had been on the Pegasus 502 and her father's right hand man had a twelve year old son, he was the only other kid on board, so they spent loads of time together. Jack remembered the passage perfectly, for she read it four million times:

Six months later I found myself on the platform of a new ship. Where Ingamar and I would part company. He was going back to Military school on a planet called New Washington. Training to be a marine. I was going to Mardid, which was in a totally different star pattern. So, I would never see him again. He was a fun guy.

Like one time he was mad at the navigator, John Arebuckle for calling him a sissy, so he filled a nylon fuel gasket full of water like a water balloon, and put it on his chair right before John sat down. Naturally afterward good ol' John had to go back to his cabin and get a new pair of pants.

Standing there on that platform I knew I was going to miss him. He had become my first real friend. I said goodbye to him, and before I knew it he kissed me. But then ran away. I never saw him again

That was when she was reminiscing about the good points in her childhood. Jack thought it was interesting to read this and know it was all true. Slowly she drifted off to sleep thinking about her own childhood memories.