It was beyond lonely, floating through space without anyone to talk to. Every day was filled with silence, surrounded by darkness with just the glistening of stars to peer at through the windows. Oh, how I missed the sight of Earth, with all its different lands and the shimmering blue of the oceans. How I missed the sight of the glistening towers of the cities and the vast forests that had taken over the rest of the land, once people had figured out how to clean the world up. Ahh, how I almost desperately at times missed home.

Sure, I might have signed up for the job since I needed the money to supply my little pet projects, but it was nothing like they had talked about during the meetings or even within the hundreds of pages of material they had given me to read through before I was allowed to board the ship. They had promised frequent calls and messages from friends and family members, as well as work-related messages.

In what world was getting a message once a month, usually to confirm the latest shipment of supplies, considered 'frequent'? And don't even get me started on the total lack of calls! Even if my family didn't want to talk to me, considering me the black sheep of the family tree, I had been so sure that at least one of my friends would be willing to call. I had even made sure the calls to me would not cost them anything before signing on that final page, so it wasn't like they couldn't afford them.

So why? Why had nobody called me during the many months I had been floating out here? I was so lonely that I had even begun talking to the plants that I cared for, the miniature orange tree my favorite out of the gardens the ship held inside part of the massive domed room that made up the central unit of the ship.

Of course, that didn't mean I didn't hold some level of affection for the other small fruit trees, herbs, flowers, and various vegetables that grew within the gardens. They just didn't have that same citrusy smell that always seemed to make each day a little better. A tiny bit more easy to handle until the day I could finally head home again.

I was pulled out of my moping by the sound of something scraping against the ship's hull, almost jumping to my feet as I hoped whatever piece of space junk it was hadn't damaged the exterior. The mess from the last meteor had already used up a fair amount of supplies to repair and I didn't want to have to scrap something just to have the parts I would likely end up needing.

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"What the heck?" I breathed out, staring at what was in front of me as I stood on the outside of the ship, having suited up to go examine the damage the computer had listed after a systems check.

I felt my shoulders sag as I looked at the chunk of meteor embedded in the side of my ship, already able to anticipate the time it would take to fix the damage, not to mention I would have to scrap one of my pet projects based on the parts I would likely need if that panel was the one I thought it was.

Darn it! And I had been so close to making an automatic watering system for the garden, too. Something that would allow me to stop having to listen to that stupid reminder I'd set in the beginning so I wouldn't forget to do it. It's not my fault I'm lousy at remembering stuff like that. I'd just rather spend my time listening to music or writing or sleeping or tinkering with a new project. Pretty much anything that was more exciting or enjoyable than holding a watering can over a patch of dirt.

Sighing heavily, I turned around and made my way back inside, making a mental list of all the tools I would need to bring back outside with me. I wonder if I could just scrap the comm unit instead since nobody seemed interested in talking to me anyhow...

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"Oh, not again! Not now!" I screamed in frustration as I felt the ship tremor, the alarm going off as the hull was breached this time around.

I could only run to grab a suit and hope the computer was able to seal the area before the damage spread any further. Crashing against random walls in my hurry to get where I was going, I let out a litany of curses, glad my parents weren't there to hear me right then.

How many more rocks were going to crash into the ship this month? It hadn't even been two weeks since the last meteor hit that stupid panel, damaging the Gylshift system. If I lost that, I'd never be able to finish this job, forget about getting back home again!

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"What in the blazes is this thing?" I nearly screamed in shock as I stared at the vaguely human-shaped rock that had become caught on one of the solar arrays.

Luckily, it hadn't damaged the thing, having expended most of its force in the initial crash against the side of the ship, but that did nothing to explain how something like that got here. I mean, if I went by looks then it had to have been created by humans at some point, but what was it supposed to be? And how did it get here, floating around this far across the galaxy, where only those abandoned by humanity like myself ever ventured?

I could only shake my head as I hooked myself to the ship's hull and jetted over to remove the strange looking statue-thing. Maybe I could bring it back with me when my tour was over and sell it for enough Bits to live off of for a few years. After all, there was always some idiot out there willing to shell out lots of money for old and unusual things, and this thing just happened to be both.

I would have to be a fool not to take advantage of such a thing practically falling into my lap. And despite the current circumstances of my life, I wasn't a complete idiot.

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Another day down, several months left to go, and still barely a message ever sent to me from headquarters. I had almost contemplated sending word of the strange statue I had found but had changed my mind after I had realized if they knew, they might make me jettison the thing back into space. After all, in their minds, it might very well be considered dead weight.

Walking into the otherwise empty room, having calibrated one of the smaller rooms to maintain the same level of cold that was outside the ship since I didn't want to chance damaging the stone with sudden temperature changes, I raised the thermostat another degree. I figured if I raised the heat just a little bit each day, then it was less likely to cause any cracking to appear. At least, that was my hope.

"Just what were they thinking when they chiseled you into shape?" I spoke softly as I ran my gloved finger gently over the stone wings that seemed to wrap so protectively over the things back. "Well, I have to say, at least they weren't boring."

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I must be completely losing it. It was bad enough I talked to the plants, at least people said talking to plants helped them grow, but talking to a statue? I might as well be talking to the walls, which I had yet to do, thankfully.

It started out with simple things, like comments on how bored I was or how annoying it was to have to wait for the automated supply runs headquarters sent every month before I could work on my project again. I even began mentioning what a pain it was to have to water the plants every day when I had been so close to being freed from that obligation without dooming myself to starvation.

After a few days, I began commenting on other things, talking about things I had never told others for one reason or another. I mentioned various things from my childhood, like how much I hated watching friends move away every so often, how I'd slowly become more invested in machines over real people because machines wouldn't leave you behind. Everything slowly started coming out, a little more each day I came in to turn the heat up one more degree.

It was almost above freezing in the room now, although I had temporarily stopped the increase a couple weeks ago when I noticed a few hairline cracks starting to form on the surface, a scattering of dust having appeared under the wings one morning. I began worrying that even the slow increase in temperature was too much for the rock that had floated out in the deep freeze of space for who knows how long. I would have dropped the temperature back down, but I was concerned that would end up doing more harm than good.

This would be the first day I would raise the temperature since then, although I had been coming in each day to check for any new changes in the statue. Other than a small amount of dust once in a while, I had yet to see anything concerning again. The cracks did not grow, nothing broke off, and the dust was most likely just what had not already fallen to the ground after the first incident.

Today, I planned on gently cleaning the stone to remove any leftover dust, as well as any other residue on the statue. Bringing out the softest brush I could find from my tool kits, I began carefully sweeping it along the surface of the stone, gently brushing away the dust that still sat on its surface.

At first, it didn't seem to make much difference, but after a while, I began to notice something odd. There seemed to be something almost hidden under the stone, one of the hairline cracks in the wings showing a faint shimmer within the tiny fracture. Almost like the shimmer my mother's opal earrings held.

My breath caught as I began to wonder if maybe the grey stone of the surface hid something far more valuable underneath than I had realized was possible. Could the stone simply be a buildup of space dust, having covered and hardened upon the surface of something else? This statue might be worth a bigger fortune than I had ever imagined!

I might end up living like Royalty! Aw, man! My friends are gonna wish they had actually called me after I get back with this sucker!

Excitedly, I ran out and started grabbing other tools, firmer brushes as well as a bucket of water and some old rags. Sloshing the water around as I hurried back, I barely managed not to slip on the puddles I was creating in the hallway, but I was far too eager to think about the danger of being out here alone if I fell and injured myself.

Hurrying back into the room, I sat everything down near the statue and froze in place for a moment before staring at the thermostat. I would definitely need to turn the heat up again on a regular basis. Especially if this cleanup didn't do the job. After all, I could only do so much, since I still didn't want to chance damaging whatever was underneath the rocky surface.

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I'd spent hours slowly trying to brush, wash, and carefully scrape away at the stone, telling the unusual statue how amazing it must look underneath all the space dust it had collected. I talked about how great it would be to have the freedom to finally create whatever I wanted without having to worry about costs or someone with more power than me telling me to give up my foolish dreams. As if someone who barely knows me has the right to tell me to stop dreaming, to stop creating, to stop being me!

Ahh, but no matter how much I tried to clean off the hardened dust, all that happened was I made a huge mess of the room and nearly broke one of the feathers off. I'd quickly stopped everything I was doing at that point and decided that nothing but patience was going to work. I would just have to keep slowly increasing the heat and hope that it continued creating those small cracks until it was enough to really see what was underneath it all.

With a quiet apology to the statue for not being able to free it from its shell yet, I turned the light off and left again after turning the temperature up another degree, giving a sigh as I went to tend to the garden for a time. Maybe there would be enough for a decent salad to go with the ration meal I was having for dinner, something more than just lettuce and a couple small tomatoes. I was getting desperate to taste something else, even the stuff I usually avoided.

I was too busy grumbling to hear the sound of tiny bits of stone hitting the ground before the door slid shut.

--------

For 3 days, I went in every day and carefully brushed off any dust that collected on the surface of the statue, growing more and more excited as more of the soft shimmer from the wings began peeking through each new crack.

What confused me was the lack of shimmer anywhere else the light hit the statue, but I figured it might simply be a different material being hidden under the rest. Perhaps it was some other kind of stone or maybe tarnished metal. Oh, what if it was silver or gold underneath? Even though the value wasn't what it used to be, there were still collectors out there willing to shell out plenty of Bits for some of the old pieces like this one might be!

Just thinking about how many Bits a chunk of semi-precious metal this size was worth had be almost drooling in anticipation of all the parts I could afford to buy, the places I could go, and the people I could finally afford to mentor under! Maybe even Yamagata would be willing to take me under his wing, even if just for a few weeks! It would be worth every Bit to learn from the man who created the first Gylshift system, even if I wasn't too keen on being one of the ones testing it this far out into space.

Just thinking about it all had be chattering away excitedly about all the things I could learn from him, gently brushing a bit of dust from the face of the statue as I smiled happily. For the first time since I had left Earth, I was starting to actually feel happy I had taken this job.

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I sank to my knees as I looked at the pile of space dust covering the floor of the otherwise empty room. Trailing my fingers through the course grains of rock, watching them move like sand under my touch, I could only feel my heart sink. It was gone, all of it was gone and there was not one trace of the brilliant gems that I had thought lay underneath that grey surface. Not even one tiny opal could be found as I sifted through the mess on the floor, tears starting to well up in my eyes.

"Its all gone," I choked out, my hands falling to my sides in despair as I thought of all the plans I had made for when I got back, each one now out of my reach forever.

No huge house where I could build everything I ever wanted to, no traveling to see the things other countries had built, no mentoring under other people. No mentoring under Tamagata and learning how he created something as brilliant as the Gylshift system.

No more hopes of being the one to create the next amazing space system that would finally bring other galaxies within our reach.

All my dreams had come crashing down around me, all for the lack of one piece of space rock.

~~~~~~~~

He'd been drifting for so long, alone and forgotten, buried so deep into his mind that at first he hadn't heard the softly whispered words from the world outside. Ever so very slowly, they started leaking into his thoughts, intruding on his solitude. And although it was almost painful at first to be pulled from the numbness he had endured for centuries, he began to feel something other than despair for the first time since  he was thrown into space.

He felt excitement.

________

It took a while before he could understand anything of what was being said, the language being spoken unfamiliar to him and his mind still sluggishly slow in processing the new sounds. After so many cycles of loneliness, he was willing to just listen to the sounds as they slowly became words as the days passed, and from there the words became phrases.

With each new word learned, his mind grew faster to process the next, his ears eager to hear the voice again each day. He was slowly becoming addicted to the sound of the now familiar voice as the weeks passed by, almost missing the slow increase in tempurature around him until he felt the built up minerals shift, tiny cracks forming as dust slowly drifted to the floor beneath him.

With that small almost insigificant change, he began to feel a new form of anticipation. The idea of finally being once more free to move filled his mind, shoving aside all other thoughts until he heard the familiar sound of a voice nearby. Their voice, filled with sudden worry as they began almost frantically inspecting his prison, their fingers brushing against the cracks as a part of him almost screamed for him to feast.

It was the cracking of their voice as they worried he would break apart and leave them alone that had him pause, his mind as frozen as his body had been all this time as their words echoed in his mind. They would be lonely without him.

They... needed him?

--------

He'd spent the next several days contemplating the idea of someone needing him for companionship, rather than being seen as simply someone to follow, united by strength and desire for power. The thought was alien to him, but with each day of hearing their worried voice, he began to find the idea becoming less repulsive to him.

He'd spent hundreds of years floating in space, cold and alone as he began wishing for an end to it all. And here he had been giving a chance, one that he could have go many ways. He could feed upon this human and taking their knowledge for his own and once again attempt to take Earth for himself once more, turning the humans into little more than slaves, beasts to be fed upon whenever he desired.

Or he could spend some of his time learning from them the way humans learn, until he understood how the world worked in this day and age, perhaps seducing them into following him willingly with the promise of riches that so many humans seemed to desire. It wouldn't be a bad thing to have companionship until he could find out if they were worth keeping or in need of replacing.

And if they turned out to be like that man had, he would just have to kill them and take their knowledge before they could try to turn against him.

Besides, it wasn't like he couldn't stand the sound of their voice, almost whispering sweetly into his ear about their strange Gylshift system they seemed to both moan about in frustration and speek excitedly about in the next breath, and the Bits that seemed to have replaced the money he'd seen humans using before.

He had no clue what a Bit looked like, but he was sure he could get his hands on plenty of them if it would keep them beside him, talking about anything and everything they wanted. After all, it wasn't every day he found someone that he felt he could listen to forever and not grow bored or annoyed by their chatter.

Their voice was insanely alluring, even if he barely managed to admit it to himself at times.

--------

If he could, he would have moaned at the feel of warmth as they crushed their hands against the stone covering him as they checked for new cracks. The temperature in the room had increased enough that he was nearly freed, doing what he could to help the cracks grow, especially after it had become apparent that they wanted him free, even if it was not for the same reason he wished to be free.

He didn't care that they seemed to think there were precious stones under the covering of rock. If it was riches like gems that they desired, he would be happy to get plenty for them if only to hear their voice speaking as enchantingly to him as they were right now, speaking about all the things they wished to do in their life.

Fancy meals? He would find them the best chefs to prepare their food each day if only to listen to them talk about what they did and did not like each meal. Traveling the world? I would lay it at their feet just to be able to hear the happiness in their voice as they spoke of what they saw. Things to build with? He would give them anything and everything they asked for just so he could hear them explain what they were creating, even if he didn't care about the creation itself.

But this Yamagata they spoke of, that was something he didn't care to hear about. He didn't care who the man was, he did not like the idea of them idolizing anyone other than Kars himself. He should be the only being that they spoke of with such longing in their voice.

He wondered for a moment if they would look as appealing to his eyes as their voice was to his ears.

--------

Listening to them begin to cry as their fingers trailed through the piles of rock dust, he silently took a step closer, his hand reaching out slowly until he finally touched them at last. It was almost a shock of pleasure to be able to feel the warmth of their skin against his own instead of through that cold layer of stone he had shed from himself after far too long. It was an even greater pleasure to hear them gasp in surprise before turning to look up at him, losing their balance and falling to the floor with their hands splayed behind them and their head tilted back.

The greatest pleasure of all, though, was finding that they were just as attractive to him as their voice had been, bewitching his eyes just as their voice bewitched his ears. Now he just had to convince them that they wanted to stay beside him for the rest of forever.

"How would you like to have everything you desire handed to you without you having you lift so much as a finger?" He smiled as he spoke, seeing the glimmer of interest even as they tried to scoot away from him in fear.

As much as he liked seeing humans cower in fear, the sight of them doing so left a bitter taste in his mouth. No, their place was not at his feet like this.

"Stand up. You have nothing to fear from me, little one," he reached his hand out to them, waiting patiently until they placed their hand in his.

With an arrogant smile, he pulled them up and wrapped an arm around their waist, holding them close. Tilting his head down, he placed his lips next to their ear, his smile turning wicked as they shivered in his arms from the feel of his lips brushing against their skin with each word he spoke.

"As long as you are beside me, I will place the world at your feet. Everything I have, everything I am, is yours from now on, whether or not you desire it. Just as everything you are is mine, so long as I desire you." With those words, he sealed their fate, for better or worse.

Pulling back, he smiled once more down at them before allowing them to pull away, listening as they tried to deny what he said. Let them try, it would make it all the more gratifying when they came to realize how futile their resistance was before they finally submitted to him.

With a pat on their head, he turned to look around him once more, taking in the strange room he had awoken within.

"Now come, show me where we are and tell me about everything that has passed since I was forced away from the Earth."