"So you're telling me, that your request was denied almost immediately and then your Link stopped working correctly so you weren't able to contact anyone but Micah?" Astrid sits on one side of the couch, me on the other, just like when we would talk to each other back home. Only this time, there isn't a holographic glare over her.

            I tilt my head to the side and raise my brows. "Yeah, pretty much."

            "That's so weird! My messages to you were doing the same thing, where they would disappear. I thought for sure that the GTA was playing with me." This sparks an idea.

            "You might not be so far off." I tell her about my conversation with Shawn and her jaw drops.

            "Talk about a conspiracy."

            "No joke." I go to pull my feet under myself, but Astrid stands up suddenly. "What?"

            "We need to explore the cabin, see our rooms!"

            She sprints to the back of the room and down a hall. My God, she was a lot easier to handle when there was the span of space between us. Before I follow her, I scan the area I'm in.

            Once you walk through the door, you're standing in the den. To the right is a hearth for the winter, or what this planet has for a cold season, and a television set above it. To the left is a connected kitchen with an island separating it from the den.

            My feet carry me around the room as I find new things to inspect. I reach out to touch the stone of the hearth, but a small knock at the door halts my hand. Slightly confused, I retrieve my hand and walk to the door.

            "Serina, perfect!" Maggie's smiling face greets me when the door opens and I tilt my head to the side.

            "Maggie, what are you doing here?"

            "Right! Colonel Bartlett and the Majors asked us escorts to inform you that the planned meeting for tomorrow, has been moved up to today. In half an hour, actually." She smiles and my mouth drops.

            "You can't be serious."

            "Oh, I'm very serious. I'm also supposed to tell you that you both need to wear your occupational color. I'll be back with Lieutenant Rosewood in about twenty-five minutes to escort you and Ms. Jakeman to the main hall." Maggie salutes then bounds down the stairs. She's gone before I can even process what she meant.

            "Wait, Maggie!" I call out to her, but she's too far gone to hear me.

            I drop my head back and groan. This is great, though at least I'm already in my color. I shut the door and return to looking over the cabin. "Astrid, we have a meeting in thirty. We have to wear our occupational color."

            "Okay, but hey, Rina!" Astrid calls from a room in the back of the cabin and my eyes continue to scan the area.

            "What?"

            "Come check this out!" I frown, what could be so important that she needs me right at this very moment?

            "Coming," I follow in the direction that her voice came from and find her standing in a large room, most likely her bedroom. "I'm here now, what is it I need to check out?"

            "Watch this," She taps a button on the screen set in the wall that she stands next to and a slight hum of a motor kicks on. Shortly after the noise began, a door opens and out comes a rack of clothing. I watch as she fumbles through a few options and notice that the majority of the clothes there, are varying shades of purple and other colors to complement them.

            "This is what you wanted me to see?"

            "This is amazing! You should go check out yours!" She bounces on the balls of her feet and I shake my head.

            Rolling my eyes, I move out of her room and down a hall to another large room and I can only assume is my bedroom.

            There's a large queen-sized bed centered on the far wall, white comforter with a dark blue stripe somewhere around twelve centimeters from the edge. Next to the bed is a white nightstand with a silver stemmed lamp and a pair of dark blue sunglasses. "No..."

            I bound over to the wall with the screen and rectangular cut-out for a door. Pressing the button to open the door, a rack of blue extends from the wall. I drop my head and put my hands on my face. "You've got to be kidding me."

            Not only does the color blue indicate that I'm a health professional, apparently because I'm the rep, everything I wear has to be blue. Fantastic.

            "Don't I look great?" I look over my shoulder and Astrid stands just inside the doorway, striking poses with very characteristic faces. She stands in a knee-length lilac dress. The dress has a jewel neckline, short sleeves, and a pleated skirt. Paired with the dress is a pair of black suede platform heels.

            "Of course you do, A." She walks in the room farther and I note the confidence she has while walking in the shoes that have to have heels that are at least ten centimeters tall. She must be very familiar with heels.

            "Let me pick something out for you!" Astrid hurries her pace, the rich white carpet silencing her steps.

            "I don't know, A. I'm already wearing blue, so why change?"

            "Come on, S! This could be fun!" She pushes me to the side and I sigh, knowing that when she gets an idea in her head, there's no stopping her.

            Rather than arguing, I move to look around what is now my room. The walls are bare and could use some personalization. There's a white bookshelf on the same wall as the door, just begging to be filled. There's a body mirror situated next to the extended closet. Then there's the nightstand that draws my attention.

            I sit on the edge of the bed and inspect the nightstand and its items, listening to Astrid as she fawns over my clothes. The lamp's base is sensitive to touch, ranging in three forms of brightness before turning off completely. The sunglasses are a rich royal blue with a moderate tint, most likely for when I've adjusted to the planet's sun exposure. I open the top drawer which is about half the size as the bottom one and there's an internal rack with nine other pairs of sunglasses. From what I can see, there are two sunglasses for each of the five tints ranging in the normal, moderate tint to the severe tint that the glasses I have now use. With each tint level, there's one pair of blue glasses and one pair of white glasses, probably dependent on what outfit I'm wearing.

            "This is it." I shut the drawer and look up at Astrid. She holds the clothes out to me and I shake my head.

            "Okay, give me a minute." I take the clothes from her and she hurries out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

            I lay out what she gave me on the bed and grin. Quickly changing into what she picked out, I move to stand in front of the mirror. "Astrid, you can come back in." I yell to her and inspect myself.

            She picked out a dress with butterfly sleeves, the shoulders cut out and stops about mid-thigh. The overall shape is very flattering and light. Then there's the color. It's as if the dress was marbled with ivory and a baby blue. The dress is amazing. And thank God, she didn't give me heels. Instead, my feet sit comfortably in all white canvas shoes.

            I look back at Astrid. "I actually kind of like it."

            "Well, duh. Who picked it out?" She grins and proceeds to wipe imaginary dirt off her shoulder.

            "Oh my God, get over yourself." We share a laugh and I push her in the direction of her room. "Now, let's find some suitable shoes for you."

            "What do you mean? These are wonderful. I love them already." Her voice is dreamy, and she stumbles when she tries to admire them.

            "Yes, but we'll be walking on gravel to the main hall and I'm assuming this is a meeting with the other elders. No need to break an ankle."

            "Serina!" She whines, but I simply sit her on her bed and look through her shoes.

            It doesn't take long to realize, that whoever stocked our closets, knew that Astrid likes to seem taller than she actually is. I rifle through every pair and settle to let her choose from two options. Turning back to her, I hold out a pair of canvas shoes that match my own, and a pair of white ballerina flats.

            "You're kidding! Why can't I wear something with a little height?"

            "Astrid, you're acting like a child. Just choose." I hold them out farther and she purses her lips. The canvas shoes are ripped out of my hand and she starts trading the heels out for them. "Thank you."

            I put the flats and heels back on the rack underneath the rest of her clothes then press the button to put it all back into the wall. "Better?"

            I look at her dress paired with the shoes and nod. "Much."

            A knock at the front of the house catches our attention. Has it seriously been twenty-five minutes? "Go answer that, I'll be right there, I just have to grab my glasses."

            She nods and heads to the front of the house while I rush to my room. When I enter, I realize that I had left my rack open and I groan. "Really?"

            My feet take me to the wall, and I tap the button to close the rack before moving to the nightstand. Opening the top drawer, I grab the white pair of sunglasses with the darkest tint.

            "Serina, hurry up!"

            "Shut up, Astrid!"

            When I join the girls in the den, Maggie and Rosewood stand with their hands behind their backs, talking quietly with Astrid. They each turn when they hear me come in and Astrid opens her mouth to comment.

            "Ah! I don't want to hear it. Just be glad that you don't need to mess with these things." I shake the glasses at her and Maggie chuckles under her breath.

            I'm so distracted by chiding Astrid that I nearly miss Rosewood elbowing Maggie, nearly. Maggie cringes and her mouth moves in what looks like an apology. Astrid says something to me, but I don't hear what it was.

            "Hey, Rosewood, what was that for?" I walk to Astrid's side and cross my arms.

            Rosewood makes eye contact with me with a somewhat surprised look on her face. "I beg your pardon?"

            "You better. I asked you what you hit Maggie for."

            "Serina—" Maggie pulls her shoulders back and starts to speak.

            "No, let her speak."

            "I don't see what's wrong, Ms. Barringer. I simply reminded the Lieutenant of her place."

            I narrow my eyes at her. "I don't know what place you think that is, but Maggie has done nothing wrong. If she hasn't done anything wrong, why 'remind her of her place'? I don't see a reason to."

            "You misunderstand, Ms. Barringer. She laughed at you and Ms. Jakeman."

            I glance at Astrid to see if she can believe this, but she avoids my gaze. "Okay, first, don't call me that. My name is Serina and that is what you will call me. Second, laughing is normal for normal people. It may not be normal for seemingly emotionless people, such as yourself."

            I uncross my arms to motion to the single silver bar on both of their arms. "From what I can see, you are the same rank as Maggie, are you not?"

            "Well, yes, but—"

            "Ah! But, nothing. You are the same rank, so what makes it okay for you 'remind her of her place'? The way I see it, until you outrank her, you leave her alone."

            I pause and stare Rosewood down, waiting for her to respond. I wait a few moments and when she still doesn't say anything, I open my mouth again. "Understood?"

            "I—yes, understood."

            I nod and look between Astrid and Maggie. "Good. I think Astrid and I will be just fine with Maggie escorting us. You're free to do, well, anything else." I shoot her a smile then grab Astrid and Maggie's arms, pulling them to the door with me.

            Once outside, I drop their arms and we walk comfortably, or Astrid and I do. Maggie walks a step behind us, struggling to come up with what to say. "Don't you think those shoes are much better for walking out here?"

            Speaking seems to shake Maggie out of her stupor. "Serina!" She hisses at me and Astrid and I halt, turning to face her.

            "Yes?" I adjust the way the glasses sit on my face.

            "I can't believe you did that!"

            I frown and give her a curious look. "What do you mean? She was in the wrong, I was simply correcting her mistake."

            "But—I—you..."

            "But nothing, look," I prop my glasses on top of my head and shield my eyes so I can look her in the eye. I'm forced to squint at the blinding brightness, but I keep looking her dead in the eye. "You are a nice person, you deserve to be treated as such, end of story." Her mouth drops, almost like she's never been treated with respect. Slowly, the corners of her lips turn up and her bright green eyes shine.

            "Thank you."

            I uncover my eyes and put my glasses back on, blinking a few times to adjust to the darker shade of everything. "No problem, now why don't you help Astrid and I get to the main hall? We'll undoubtedly get lost if you don't."

            Maggie nods and we're back on our way.

            When we get to the main hall, Maggie holds the door open for us then salutes and heads off on her own. Astrid and I walk in and with a quick flip of the glasses so they sit on my head, I can see everyone waiting for us, some more patiently than others.

            Each of the GTA officials stand stoically, seemingly unfazed by our tardiness. Just to their left, Playboy and Door-Holder talk amongst themselves. They wear similar outfits, a short sleeve polo shirt with faded blue jeans. The only difference in their outfits would be the colors of shirt, Playboy in black, Door-Holder in pine green.

            Next to them, stand Blonde-Beauty and Heartthrob. Blonde-Beauty is in a loose marigold orange tank with a V-neck, tucked into a black pencil shirt, she even has black flats with a strap that wraps around the ankle to tie it all together. Heartthrob makes no effort to hide how much he appreciates her outfit. His eyes openly trace her curves while he talks. His hands move a lot while he talks also, which draws my eye to his long sleeve grey shirt. He's got the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His shirt is tucked into, again, blue jeans.

            Lastly, Scowler and Blue-Eyes share a conversation just to the right of the officials. Scowler, I have to say, looks badass. She's wearing a scarlet red wrap-over shirt tucked black leather pants with a pair of kickass black combat boots. Like damn. I'm almost surprised that sweet looking Blue-Eyes is talking to her. Blue-Eyes is clad in a baby yellow button-up, notably not tucked into his blue jeans.

            What's with all the guys wearing blue jeans? Do they not have anything nicer? Or did they all just feel like going casual?

            "Great, now that everyone is here, let's get started." Colonel Bartlett claps his hands together and gestures to Scowler. "Why don't we start with each of you stating your name, former planet, and the occupation you represent. Ms. Tuck, will you start?"

            Scowler shrugs and faces the rest of us. "Lorna Tuck, Straxutis I7-D20, surveillance."

            Blue-Eyes shuffles on his feet but straightens his back and holds a steady voice. "Leon Williams, Catov C8-B2, computer engineering."

            I look at Astrid and she smiles wide. "Astrid Jakeman, Reonerth B4-D2, academia."

            I briefly meet the eyes of everyone around me. "Serina Barringer, Aoria B4-D19, health." Someone snorts to my right and I look over to see Playboy with a fist held to his mouth. I shoot a glare his way then look to Heartthrob who's next to go.

            "Jaxon Dieger, Prime 4, the guard." Prime 4, was the first human-colonized planet in the expansion lead by the GTA two millennia ago.

            Blonde-Beauty stands straight with one leg extended to her side. "Elena Light, Dounov F3-B4, human resources." This would explain her tanned skin. Dounov's two suns are known for giving very long daylight hours and very rarely provides night. Our planets couldn't be more opposite in that respect.

            Playboy's turn arrives and some unknown force drives him to meet my eyes when he speaks. "Raiden Jackson, Prime 3, engineering." Prime 3? It was rumored that most of its inhabitants left it for somewhere else when it was left a husk of what once was. Prime 3 was run to the bone, having been used for every last resource it had until it was left broken and dead.

            "William Parker, Koywei H8-F7, botany." When Door-Holder speaks, I force myself to look away from Playboy, or Raiden. Though, botany does seem like an appropriate job for him considering Koywei is known for being one of the most vegetated planets in the galaxy. I'm sure that there isn't much he wouldn't know about plants.

            "Fantastic," Colonel Bartlett takes the room again and steps forward. "Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let's talk about what you're all here about. The Celxians."