The dark world littered with dots of white; Empty space and stars, so vast it was inconceivable to how far it stretched. There was a word for this. Terrifying. Kazia could do nothing save for staring at it past the light gleam of the window. Her hand reached up to touch it, finger tips brushing along the cold surface, reminding her of how unsettlingly familiar it all felt. The sensory programmed into her remembered it. A small frown tugged on her lips, marring the placid expression she attempted to hold. One couldn’t turn off memories. In her mind there remained a nagging feeling; whatever happened, she had to be content. Yet a bitterness would creep up on her thoughts every time she caught even a sparing glance to the barren space outside. Terrible, it is all terrible.
She flinched as a light in the corner of her right eye started to blink. There was a hesitation. Her hand still placed firmly on the window, the other wrapped lazily around her middle. Kazia shook her head, trying to move her attention away, her light purple hair flailing more than it should with the lack of gravity in the room. A small push was all it took to drift away from the window, and the tug of the thin cord connected to her kept her from floating too far. Her hand glided along the cable and snaked under the back of her shirt, to pull it out with one swift twitch.
“Hn.” A smart jolt of pain shot up her spine, and the crackling electricity briefly took to nipping at her skin. Kazia dropped the cord, or at least let go of it for it only stayed afloat beside her. She massaged where it plugged in, or rather stuck to her. There was no ‘plug’ in the general sense of the word, only a mark that looked obscenely like one some people had from birth. She dabbed a hand at her wet eyes. The blinking had dissipated.
Pulling herself down by grasping at nearby furniture latched to the floor, the android maneuvered towards a sleek white table positioned against the opposite wall. Her feet could scarcely touch the ground beneath her without jarring her body higher into the air again from force of stepping. The couch was definitely her friend, she mused as her hand gripped on the material.
A green screen phased into view, hovering over the table top in a nearly see-through state. In a corner of the screen a window was open to the latest public news released on the space station. With a graze of her finger, Kazia closed it, and with another ‘blip’ coming from the computer she turned on the feature that allowed gravity in the room. Her knees nearly buckled under. Weightlessness, then to having it feel like the whole world was pushing her down. She heard the cord fall with a thud.
She struggled to keep her eyes away from the large window that took up nearly half of one of the walls. It was a morbid fascination, wasn’t it? That pit of dark, only lighted by sparks too far away to reach; the epitome of hopelessness. Kazia smoothed out her hair, no matter how pointless it was to try, it would always bounce back into the same unkempt condition. She would need to get drapes for that window.
For now however, all she could hope to do was to get out of her small residency on Space Station Libra. Brooding was not a particular quality that seemed admirable. She did not want that. With a quick grab and a pull, she dressed herself in a sweater vest and pressed down the wrinkles with a critical eye. Really now. Clothes were bothersome. Kazia glanced at the clock ticking away the seconds on the green screen, squinting her eyes at it from behind the round glasses on her nose. Late. Maybe a little too late to go wandering. But, it was only for a short while, right? She needed to clear her mind.
With that as the final decision she stepped out, quietly closing and making sure the door was locked behind her. She pressed her back against the door momentarily, peering about as if she was doing something suspicions and shouldn’t be caught. Or rather, didn’t want to be caught. It was all paranoia, she told herself. Nothing would happen. She was safe here. Safe.
Like she had thought, the halls of the block were quiet save for every now and then someone would cough in the distance or people’s voices could be heard behind doors. Talking and whatever else people did. Society wasn’t something she was entirely used to. Each and every day she would learn something new. Like how to side step away from a lurching drunkard. She eyed them with disdain, obviously something was mentally wrong with them. And they smelt.
It was lonely. For a moment she halted her steps to clean off her glasses upon her shirt. There was really nothing she could do about it.
“Hmm didn’t anyone teach you not to roam around alone at night, babe?”
There was the sound of Kazia’s glasses dropping from her hand and skitter across the floor. The voice sent shivers up her spine. She didn’t know that voice, but what bothered her more was the fact that she did not hear them approach her. She did not turn around to look at them, but proceeded to bend down and retrieve her glasses from the floor. Her face growing flush from embarrassment of being startled.
“No, they didn’t.” She said flatly, in a voice that was nearly as androgynous as her appearance. What she spoke was the truth, no one did teach her. She wrinkled her nose at the word ‘babe’, she was not an infant. Turning around the face them, or what was the girl that the high pitch voice belonged to, she did nothing but stare coldly back. It was too dark to make out their features, and unfortunately for her, she was not built with night-vision. Damn.
“No one taught you either.” She placed her glasses back onto her nose, and attempted to push past the stranger. There was a feeling at the pit of her stomach that told her she wouldn’t like them. And it wasn’t just because of the irritating voice.
“Or are you lost and in need of some help?”
However, her attempts to ditch the girl were proving to be not as successful as she would have hoped. Now they took to walking beside her, continuingly prodding with questions. Kazia gritted her teeth, her brow furrowing. And if it were not the facial expression that showed she was not amused with being followed or even approached in such a manner than it certainly would be her words.
“No. I am not lost, nor do I need help.” Abruptly, she stopped walking and pointed down the hallway of the block. “I suggest that you go before you are in need of help.” Perhaps threatening wasn’t such a good thing. Even if a kitten fluffed out its fur to look tough, it was still a kitten, and more than likely, it just made people laugh. Kazia was not aware of this.
