January Twenty-Fourth, After Colony One-Nine-Oh:

"There is a break in security!" an officer yelled. "Someone has gotten in!"

Silver eyes flashed with worry for a second, but the girl kept her place at the station she was assigned to. The pure white hair fell past her shoulder and came close to brushing the floor, but didn't quite make it. The girl shift uneasily in the Oz uniform, but stayed calm.

The cold muzzle of a gun was pressed to the side of her head. "Lieutenant Esan. Stand and put your hands behind your head."

The girl stood slowly, then suddenly went into action, the gun flying out of the guy's hands. She spun around and kicked one soldier in the stomach, breaking another's nose with a fist. A gun was pressed to her forehead and a gun fire rang out across the room.

The girl fell to the floor, blood soaking the white hair and dark uniform. The room shimmered for a moment and disappeared to leave a spotless white room, the girl lying on the floor, her white hair spread around her head like a halo, contrasting her dark, oriental skin, dark blue sleeveless turtle-neck, and black jeans.

A young man walked in, his long brown hair tied back into a small ponytail. "You're dead Krista."

"How many times have I told you to call me Kris," the girl muttered, eyes closed and still motionless. "Besides, we've done that simulation at least twenty times already today. I've aced the others. I can get into any army faculty without being detected." She sighed and opened her silver eyes and looked up at the pair of brown eyes. "The problem is that my hair is too unusual. And there's no way in hell that I'm going to get it cut or dyed permanently."

The man helped the girl stand and she pushed her hair behind her shoulders. "How long have you known me Dr Nathan?"

"Since I found you in the L2 colony cluster back in AC One-Eight-Three."

"And how long have I worked in this fleet?"

"Every since then."

"Then why can't people treat me as part of the crew and not a baby?"

Nathan walked behind Kris as she went down the long corridors to her own large room on Silver Night, the flagship of the Silver Strikers Space Fleet. The door slid open and the silver girl walked into her room, glancing at her work table, her computer desk, then another small room that held her clothes. She sighed as she walked into the other room.

Nathan glanced at the computer and knew what was bothering Kris. Another email, rejecting her plans for five new space ships, each named Silver Flight, Silver Dragon, Silver Millennium, Silver Odyssey, and Silver Eternity. Each was equip to be better, faster, and stronger, but the Silver Strikers Council had rejected it once again.

"It's not only because I'm a girl," Kris sneered when she first was rejected. "It's also because I'm only eight years old. The council can't handle someone younger being smarter than them. The damn bastards..."

Nathan quickly grabbed the disk that held the plans to the new ships and left the room before Kris came out again.

Kris gazed up at the ceiling in her room where hundreds of glow in the dark stars shined. She sighed. "Open starboard bow view screen."

A screen lit up, filled with hundreds of bright stars and the Earth. Kris sighed in disgust. "Close view screen." She sat up in her bed, twisting a strand of loose hair between her fingers. She finally got angry with it and began to weave her hair together into a large braid. She tied it off with a black band and pushed it over her shoulder. The weight of the braid between her shoulder blades was actually comfortable and feels like it belonged there to begin with.

Kris stood, smoothing out her long night gown. She walked gracefully to her work desk and picked up a small clear deive, placing it in her ear. The device amplified the sounds around her, but she felt it go deeper into her mind, connecting mentally.

She somehow made it to the simulation room and she sighed. "Mental Communication Device activate. Open project one-eight-three-dash-one-one- four."

The simulation room went black suddenly, covered with stars, and then the cockpit of a mobile suit came to life around her, but nothing like anyone knew of. It was a new model she designed, after hacking into the computers of a large family estate and finding a different type. She designed one type and got it simulation ready, all of the specs drawn out.

"Create new battle data." Mobile suits begin to appear, then disappear. Kris frowned. "Computer, create new battle data."

Finally, the mobile suit she was in finally disappeared, leaving her in a large field with on small tree near a pond. Two figures stood beside it. A woman with long white and brown hair and green eyes, and a man with shorter brown hair and dark blue eyes.

"We missed you Krista."

Kris took a step toward them. "My. . . my name is Kris. I do not go by Krista. Who are you?"

"We're your mother and father," the woman replied. "We lost you seven years ago. We don't want to loose you again. Please come with us."

Kris took another step forward when something grabbed her wrist. She spun and looked into the bright, aqua-marine eyes of a fifteen year old boy, his blonde hair falling in front of his face slightly. "Don't leave with them," he said in a soft voice. "Stay with me. I'll protect you."

Kris didn't know what to do. This is only a simulation, she thought. But why does it feel like my life depends on it?

"Come here child!" the woman growled.

Kris blinked and took a step back, placing a hand to the two rings on a gold chain around her neck, identical to the rings the man and woman wore. "You're not my parents. . . My parents died when I was young. . ."

"Come here now, you disobedient child!" The two form melted together, forming something so hideous that Kris's mind couldn't understand. Darkness surrounded her body and she begin to cry.

Suddenly, warmth filled her, arms surrounding her. Her cries became softer and soon stopped, She looked up to see her savior, the boy with the aqua- marine eyes. Gold and silver angel-wing feathers surrounded them and Kris was sure that they belonged to the boy, that they were his angel wings. She felt herself become older, her hair now floor length, her bangs falling in front of her eyes.

Slowly her eyes closed and she fell into the warmth around her. She suddenly opened her eyes, gasping for air. Her hair fell around her in tangles, spread out across her bed. Kris stood up, her heart pounding in her chest. "Shit. . . What in hell was that?"

Shaking her head, she pulled out a bag and put a few articles of clothing in it. She managed to braid her hair and push it over her shoulder, feeling the same comfortable weight. Kris reached for the small comm-dee at her work desk, but stopped suddenly when she saw it gone. She reached up and touched her right ear, and gasped. The comm-dee was already there.

Kris stepped out of her room and made her way down the hallway, her feet barely making a sound.

A soft beeping sound brought Nathan out of his thoughts. He checked the clock on his computer, shortly after midnight, standard time. Nathan opened the communication line. "Nathan here."

"Admiral Night, there is an unauthorized ship in the space around Silver Night. What shall we do?"

"I'll be on the bridge in a moment." Nathan placed his computer on stand by, and walked to the bridge quickly. When he got there it showed the ship on the large screen. "Admiral Night to unauthorized ship. Please identify yourself." The comm channel opened and he gasped. "This is Kris Esan on the ship Wing. I'm leaving for a short while."

"Krista! Get back here!"

Rage filled the silver eyes. "I am not Krista! Krista is dead with her parents. Do not call me by that name!" The image disappeared and the ship sped away.

"Shall we pursue?" one worker asked.

Nathan sighed and shook his head. "No. This ship is too slow, too big. Let her go." He slumped in his chair at his station. "Kris can take care of herself. I just that she will come back."