Some of the Travels of Sophie

Closing Time

Oof, I was right about not writing in this thing for a while. I was deleting all of the accumulated clutter on here when I found the last entry. Things have really changed...

Six years ago, I was a helpless child with nowhere else to turn to besides waiting for my dad to return. Then, they developed the teleport watch and sent me and Aldred after the lost expedition. Looking back, can't say I was necessarily emotionally stable or at all experienced enough to be a good choice for something like that. But I'm pretty sure if anyone went back and told 13 year old me that, she wouldn't have listened and would have done anything she could to prove you wrong. So I guess things would have pretty much gone the same. Oh well.

Oh, tiny Sophie, you can't even imagine the things you are going to see. I have been to so many planets and moons and asteroids and space stations, seen nebulae and stars and so many different alien species and cultures. I've learnt how to fix machines and do all sorts of things I always wanted to. On a quaint little planet called Flauraan, I met a girl who would quickly become my best friend. Abigail. My whole life I've been good at talking to people, but not at getting close to them. And then out of nowhere I run (literally) into this awesome, super smart alien girl who is so good and fun to be with and who actually likes me! Even now, I can't believe that I have a friend, and one as great as her! So that is definitely something for young Sophie to look forward to. And of course, in the end, I did find the expedition. I thought for so long that it was hopeless, and the mystery was going to hang over me for the rest of my life.

My dad is dead though. Funny how those words elicit no emotion from me anymore. I'd anticipated it for years, and since finding the ruins of the spaceship he was on and piles of stinking dead bodies, I have had to inform so many people. It's not pleasant but if my travels have taught me anything, it's that death is a part of life, and all you can do is keep going. I've never dealt with death any other way really. And I'm fine (?). Eh, we'll see.

Since then, life has been very different. I used to travel constantly, looking for the lost ship and doing some scientific research, but now I've been on Earth for months, without a purpose almost, besides following up loose ends. It's been nice, sort of. Just hanging out with Rachel and Kris, now my only remaining family, and catching up on things – six years apart really means you miss things. Haha, my siblings don't have any lasting trauma from their abandonment and time in foster care. Of course not...

Once the relief response by the Alliance was underway, to go get the expedition survivors, I went and visited Abigail, and stayed with her for a few weeks. It was so nice to be there without my quest hanging over me. We talked about everything and anything, she showed me stuff from her studies and her stargazing, we went on some adventures, it was cool! And we discussed the question that everyone has been asking me since everything happened. What am I gonna do next!

It was actually quite annoying, being asked so often, but I guess it is actually important. The future is a weird thing to think about. For Abigail it's even weirder, because the whole Weraynian situation is becoming more tense there. She's worried that they will break out of the force field soon and then the whole Staarus System will be plunged into war. And, being Abigail, she's going to want to be involved, at least as a healer. If that happens, I feel like I'd feel compelled to come back and help, not that I know what I'd be doing. So keeping in mind that there is every possibility that I could be fighting in a war in a few years' time, I made the sort of decision that I will stay at the Science Institution if they have any jobs for me. Failing that, I'm sure there's spaceports I can work at.

In the end, it turned out that my monumental decision on the whole thing was meaningless, because when I got back to my old room and job on Earth, there was a message from the Alliance waiting for me.

The Alliance, by the way, is an outer space aid organization, that acts as a go between with the many planets and systems in the galaxy. It's attached to most of the government services; they run crisis relief work, peacekeeping at interplanetary events and provide medical personnel to the hospital space stations. And said organisation was offering me a job as a field agent in one of their space bases. This involves mainly the relief and investigation roles, but also since I have some tech skills, I get to do some maintenance and work on some of their tech-based projects as well. It's in space! So of course I said yes.

A few weeks after my contract was agreed upon and signed I packed up my things and an Alliance ship picked me up, and it is from that very ship that I write this entry.

First, a short trip through space to the planet Neon and then I will begin months of training, before becoming an Alliance agent! I know it will be awesome and I just can't wait to get started.

Oh, apparently I didn't keep track of time and we're going to be landing in like half a minute. So I guess this journal entry's over. There probably won't be another. It's time to put everything that's happened behind me and prepare for the future.

So yeah, I have to go now. Entry over.

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