The stars shone brightly; each a jewel on a black cloth, scattered randomly across the void of space. Different colors of red, blue, yellow and white twinkled in the eyes of a lone observer. A white yoshi named Azara stared into the mystifying Milky Way band that stretched across as far as the large windows would let her see. One star caught her attention in the midst of the others.

“Sol…how I wish to return to you…” she said to herself, “I may have never been with you, but I will soon enough…” Then she felt something behind her. She turned her head and an adolescent yoshi was running away from her. She growled in her throat; she hated it when others pulled on her wings. Being part dragon yoshi, she had that trait; but then again, so did many others from gene splicing. She thought it was disgusting, having your genes altered just for a looks was something that she hated with a passion. Her gaze returned to space, where her parent planet, Procyon II, was entering her field of vision. She loved looking at it; the huge sphere of lava that orbited Procyon always inspired her. But being in a bio-dome in orbit of Procyon II, she could only watch as it slowly migrated across the observation area. Then a blinding light pierced the glass. The parent stars, Procyon and Procyon B, were entering her field of vision. She decided that it was time to go back home. She got up and left the observation area, taking a last look back at the two stars and Procyon II before the blast doors opened automatically at her presence, closing after she left.

She traversed through the large city of huge, rounded spires that made up the skyscrapers and apartments of the bio-dome. She despised the huge towers; it was like they mocked her poverty. She growled at the skyline as she headed to a rather abandoned looking building. It was a small, concrete building; not a lot of those existed anymore now that the Yoshian Empire created new building codes and tore down the old buildings. She opened the doors to the apartment complex-sized building and headed up the stairs. A door with the numbers 538 engraved in it was opened; she was back home. She looked at her abandoned house, just a small mattress, a tiny metal cabinet with a radio on it, and a tiny makeshift kitchen beckoned her to return. She sighed and closed the door as she entered.

“I hope my ancestors are proud…” thought out loud, “First Kaishi and Taeshi live in royalty, and now seven hundred twenty six years later, their only descendant lives in poverty.” She lay down on the mattress and turned on the radio. “I might as well try to enjoy it; I can’t say that I actually will…” Suddenly a newscast caught her attention.

“Tomorrow’s a big day for the Procyon II bio-dome! Would you care to explain, Alcor?”

“Will do, Mintaka. The S.S. Vega will be arriving at Procyon II at docking bay seven tomorrow, with Emperor Varuna making a visit to our bio-dome! As you know, the S.S. Vega is the emperor’s flagship, employed in 704 AAW as just a simple cruiser. Now it has been reconstructed and refurbished for the emperor himself!”

“That’s right, Alcor! He will be scheduled to arrive at about 10:00 AM tomorrow. In other news, the Kuiper Pirates have struck again with…”

Azara ignored the rest of the news and thought about the Vega making a stop at Procyon II. She was speechless; she would never expect the emperor of the Yoshian Empire stopping at a backwater place like this. She took a breath, and then her stomach growled. She opened the cabinet and a look of dismay swept her face; it was empty, save for an already opened and empty can of peach slices. She moaned softly and closed the door, returning to lounge on the mattress again.

“Looks like I’ll have to try tomorrow…again…” she said to herself. She closed her eyes to sleep, hoping that she would have some luck tomorrow.