Now Arriving on on the Moon.

A Shunk Rouses me from my beauty sleep, my head is splitting a little. I feel the vibrations of people around me moving, it's a little claustrophobic knowing all the bodies are here together, in a tin can, floating in space, heading to the fucking moon.

The people around me flop out like sardines, I wait a little bit, thinking in this small space, her beautiful face fresh in my mind, but marred by the empty look in her eyes. I wish I could see all the life she brought, maybe I hate myself too much to deserve it.

Noone has asked anything about her, the person who probably should have come with me? But she was just another civilian ticket, same as mine, the people who don't really matter in the end. I'm sure I'll get thrown wherever hands are needed in the end.

There stops being movement around me and a gentle knock comes on my glass door. The cute attendant is standing out there with her pretty smile, I smile back with tears still in my eyes, the hatch opens. "It's time for food if you want to eat?"

I nod and she extends her hand, I gratefully take it and get pulled out of the sleeping chamber. I float out and notice her other hand has her leveraged against the bar, she's floating… we're in fucking space. I zone out for a second trying to process that, fucking space. Of all places Emily Smith the bartender is in fucking space, floating. I didnt even think of this when everything was happening, fuck gravity!

She is so happy to see the look on my face, everyone must have had the same dumbfounded look when they left the pods. "Welcome to space~ it's been 12 hours since we left so I'm sure you're hungry, we will be putting on the artificial gravity in 5 minutes so you get a few to adjust before we can start serving meals! Oh and I'm Anna, call me Ann, lots to do so we can chat later" And she's off, I was going to introduce myself but she already knew who I was, she had seen my 'file' or at least from what I already had to tell her about myself.

I float my way past a few of the people and quickly find myself a double seat. Lots of people are eating alone, with music in their ears, on laptops, or at least trying to. I wonder how harsh the gravity will hit, before buckling myself in, not wanting to become a statistic of injury or get asked to be featured in a 'why we ask you to strap in' safety video.

Besides, strapping was my forte, not that my hands didn't do a good enough job 99% of the time. My thoughts are distracted by a guy strapping themselves in next to me.

"Hi, I'm Kev!" A short twinky looking Malaysian male has their hand out to me, a smirk on their face. I'm shocked at the balls on this guy, not that I'm an introvert, well not exactly. "Oh come on, I'm not going to bite! Besides you're not my type, unless you're in drag, but honey you're gorgeous it's no surprise that you've already got Anna chasing your tail!"

Ahhh lgbt comradery, a very valid reason to say hi, "Hey Kev I'm Emily, civilian ticket?" they wink at me.

"You learn fast, Miss Emily, I have a technical ticket. My sister and I are both scientists, although she's assigned to reactor's and I'm in the wonderful field of 'make sure people don't die'. Curing things or making sure people can live longer lives, primarily those in the upper class of course" They pause and think for a second and lower their voice "The important thing is, that we are below those with the gold tickets, so we all have to stick together, to make sure we aren't fucked when shit hits the fan" They lean back in the chair, as I'm about to respond the artificial gravity spins to life and the ship shutters for a second before regaining whatever post-gravity clarity it needed.

"As long as I can do my job and I don't get fucked around, I'm happy to make friends wherever I can, although as a bartender everyone that sits at my bar is a friend and a confidant" I pull out the meal menu and start thinking about what I should eat, got to have the most amazing sounding things before it runs out.

"Mnnn a bartender huh?... Someone that's easily able to get information out of people sounds like an interesting job" They mutter to themselves, what good is getting information to me.

…

An hour later my pot pie is comfortably settled in my belly and I start looking through the pictures on my phone, avoiding the ones of her. Going through my life, the ones with my Ex I quickly delete, the rest I marvel at, a life barely lived. Times at the bar, the interesting people there that I'd met, interesting times over at the gay club next door, another twink that I will miss more for their spirit than anything.

"Omg is that Jamie!?" I had stopped on a picture of me and my friend hugging in the bar at the end of one of my shifts. I look up at them in shock, the fucking lgbt community I swear, goddamn stereotypes!

"Yeah, way to be a stereotype Kev. I've known them for a few years, I work in the bar next door."

"Shit small world Emily, at this point we are practically family! You know… from what my sister's told me civilians take a bit to get their rooms set up, everyone from technical has already been assigned quarters for them specifically, but Civilian's have to wait in a group quarters until given their own rooms or bunk rooms depending, as well as waiting for your work assignments."

They pull out their phone and show me a picture of a girl with a small mousey face and button nose, "Your sister I'm presuming? She's veerryyy adorable, like someone you would want to protect"

"My sister Eve, smartest person I know, never was able to get out of her shell, too smart for those around her, most people don't like that, especially kids. She's got a big room and I'm sure she would loovvee to bunk with you, in fact I'd call you her type…" he grins mischievously, oh I know what he's up to, damn.

"Are you setting me up with your sister?! Haha what a caring brother you are, are you sure your sister is at least gay? Or interested in having a roommate for a while?"

"Oh she might be smart but her search history is blatantly… women oriented, nothing screams lesbian like 'can girls kiss other girls?' then 'how can girls make love?' which moved onto 'yuri manga with bondage'."

Moving into a room with a cute innocent girl, exactly what I need right now… nothing better to take my mind off everything floating in my fucked skull than to appreciate a beautiful woman.

"Alright I'm up for it, give me her details, let's hope she's as welcoming as you are" They grin and nod happily, I hope I'm not going to surprise the poor thing too much, mice tend to have heart problems.

…

4 days later we can finally see the moon. The base is covering a large part of it, on the part of it that rotates so that it gets into the sun instead of being on the poles. We will get about 13 days of sunlight and then 13 days of darkness. We were descending during the night period. It was… beautiful, stunning, like diamonds of different colors against a spotty void, the lights of the 'city of gods' shone against the darkness of the moon. I didn't get to see earth while we were leaving, but I could see my new home.

We were asked to strap in for the final boarding and get our gear packed, the artificial gravity kicks in once we were all settled. Kev looks excited like a teenager, he has talked my ear off the last 4 days, but I've enjoyed the companionship. At times I've enjoyed being alone with Anna, a good distraction but no privacy to enjoy ourselves, nothing to get rid of the itch.

"Make sure to go see my sister, I'll send her a message to let her know you're on your way, it's like an hour trip to the science division through all the sections but you can follow the lines on the floor to get there or look it up on a terminal!".

The ship quivers as all the parts connect to the docking station, the door shudders open, once it's connected the ship powers down, no longer having to bear its weights. I guess the entire station uses its own artificial gravity. Leaving it has a different feel, the pressure maybe? Or the smell? It's more chemically treated air I suppose, I know that the first thing that was added to this place were the forests. Deep underground forests that supplied the base with its first air. Imagining gardeners being one of the more important jobs on the base is quite funny, but I guess it's less expensive than producing it artificially, the chemical taste must be because of treatments.

Anna briefly tells me that she will find me when I start up at the bar. She's shown a little bit of jealousy knowing I'll get to sleep in a nice room with a cute girl. I'm sure she could find her own if she tried hard enough.

After the guards check out all our details and go through our bags, calmly discovering my trove of toys I decided to bring with me, showing to the world just how much I enjoy pleasuring women and myself. Anna leans over looking at my bags, "Damn I could have used a few of those on the trip! Shame." I smile and wink, letting her know she will get her turn.

Waving goodbye to the few people I knew, Kev and I started heading down to the science division, they seemed to be sectioned according to their jobs. Kev towards the medical sector and Eve deeper into the bowels of the science division, out to an area which has transports over to the nuclear power stations on the north axis of the moon.

I trudge off on my hour-long journey, at least it's not raining…