Amused briefly by her decision to milk the federation government for all the money she could squeeze out of them, her spirits were lifted. Soon, however, the strange atmosphere returned. Had the ship always been so quiet? The only sound in her room at the moment was the sound of her own breathing.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of times before she had sat in the same spot on her bed while her ship carried her through space to her next mission. Rarely did the lack of sound concern her.

Samantha reached over and clasped her ponytail after a while. She pulled on it a little then drew in a deep breath. Slowly, she released it in a way that caused her lips to flap for a moment.

"Boop. Boop," she said in a quirky monotone. Once nothing happened for a time, she made another random noise then looked around the room.

What was the problem? Normally she would be on to some mission related preparatory work or perhaps she would take a nap. Instead, she was done with her preparations and she was no tired in the slightest.

"This blows!" she groaned loudly. "What's the deal?"

Once her sanctuary from a cold unforgiving galaxy, her little crab-like ship was now a prison that held one short-term inmate.

She sighed languidly, not unlike a movie heroine, then grumbled lightly to herself. Samantha was loathe to admit the truth, but she knew what the problem had been all along. "Bored...."

A steady stream of grumbles permeated the air for a moment then she rose to her feet. "Screw it..."

Samantha left her little room then headed over to her medical bay. She rifled through her stock of medication then grabbed a hypospray filled with medical nanobots designed to induce sleep. A peculiar little medical aid, the little robots inside the hypospray would link with the ship before they activated. Should a warning signal be issued they would stimulate an adrenal reaction in order to quickly awaken her.

She pressed the spray nozzle to her upper arm then activated it. A series of microscopic needles puncture her skin and the nanobots entered her body with a slight hiss. Roughly half a minute later, the nanobots had linked with the ship. On a nearby medical bay monitor she selected the effects that she wanted to have occur, such as sleep and an emergency wake up call.

There was one other option that she rarely used, as she enjoyed the sweet bliss of oblivion. The nanobots wanted to know if she would like to have a dream during her stasis period.

Her finger hovered neared the 'no' option for a moment then she shrugged and pressed 'yes' instead. A new query appeared. "What manner of dream do I want?"

"Something pleasant?" she asked the monitor in a curious tone.

"The options are not determined in that manner. Please choose the level at which logical improbabilities will be included in the dream state, and the cohesion level of the dream from a numerical value which ranges from one to ten," said the monitor.

"Ah. I see," she replied. Samantha considered the situation for a moment then shrugged. Incredibly bored for the first time in quite a while, she could use a little logical improbability in her dream life. "Give me level ten for both."

"Understood. At level ten, additional information will be provided not found directly in your memories," said the monitor. "These additions will come from local brain wave scans, genetic memories acquired on board this ship, and stock footage."

"Yes. Fine," she said. Samantha finished her preparations then went to check the systems at her command console. Everything was fine, and her ship was moving along at proper speed.

Back in her room she removed her clothing then stretched out on her bed. It was time. "Begin stasis protocol."

A few seconds later her body began to grow heavy. The nanobots were hard at work. She would sleep until six hours prior to her arrival at the Alvaris-Hector VI. At some point between now and then, she would have a little nonsensical dream adventure. Perhaps that would keep her idle mind busy, and away from thoughts of a certain group of people.

Samantha closed her eyes and soon lost all conscious sense of awareness. As one did when they slept, she eventually lost her comprehension of self entirely.

A loud cry echoed through the air, and she hurled herself upwards into a sitting position. Chest heaving from her sudden exertion, it took her a moment to recognize her surroundings. Like many high school girls her age, her room was filled to the brim with random girl-oriented memorabilia. There was a poster on the wall of the five total stud muffins who comprised the male pop group, 'Boy Band.' Several stuffed animals sat in the window sill nearby, and a cheerful pop song played on her radio.

She listened for a moment as her secret boyfriend, so secret that even he did not know about it, sang his heart out for her. A goofy expression crossed her face and she began to dance lightly in her bed

"Samantha, you have got to stop doing this!" came a prissy voice from nearby.

She rolled her eyes then responded with a tired sigh, though she continued to wiggle in place like she was dancing. "Whatevs, Kitty. It's not like I'm even late, right?"

"School starts at eighty thirty! That's only two hours from now!" exclaimed Kitty. The little fluffy cat pounced forward into Samantha's field of vision. Her orange fur stood on end briefly then she huffed in an indignant manner.

"You woke me up two hours before school?" whined Samaned indignantly. "That's two more hours I could have been dreaming about dating Boy Band!"

"Oh? Which one?" asked Kitty. Her tail curled upwards into a question mark.

"Yes," agreed Samantha lightly.

In a long suffering manner, Kitty sighed and shook her little feline head. "Samantha, whatever will we do with you?"

"Buy me chocolate, I hope?" asked Samantha cutely. Before Kitty could respond with a sarcastic remark, the blond teen yawned delicately into her fist then stretched her arms wide.

"You know you shouldn't eat chocolate. It's poison!" exclaimed Kitty.

"Well, I'm not the one foolish enough to have been born a cat. Am I?" asked Samantha with a smug little smile.

"Well, I never!" exclaimed Kitty in a huff.

"Probably never will with that attitude," countered Samantha.

The little cat leveled a properly scandalized look toward her youthful charge, but Samantha was unconcerned. She had won the pre-breakfast war of words. "Whelp. Time to get ready for my day."

"Finally, you begin to take your duties serious—" began Kitty only for her words to die in her throat when Samantha flopped backwards onto her bed and promptly began to snore.

"Rrowl! Oh, my queen... What a task set before me... Your daughter simply does not understand her role!" groused the cat.

Quite some time passed before Samantha rose from her bed, still filled with protests due to the early nature of her wake-up call. "Samantha!" called a voice from outside of her room. "You'll be late for school!"

Like a bolt of lightning she was out her door then down the stares, Kitty trailing behind her. She snatched up a piece of buttered toast on the way and called out to her unseen mother, who had gone into the next room. "Thanks mom!"

"Eat your breakfast before you go!" called her mother.

"No time!" cried Samantha. She shoved the piece of bread into her mouth then took off at full speed. If she didn't hurry, she would be late. The teacher would point at laugh at her again. So humiliating!

She turned down the street and ran as fast as her legs could take her. The little sailor skirt on her uniform, far too short for propriety's sake, fluttered in the breeze.

Thankfully, her school was not far from her house. She arrived before the first bell, but to her surprise there was some sort of commotion going on at the school gates. Spotting her best friend, and partner in crime, Samantha rushed over to find out what was going on.

"Hi! Hiyee!" called out her best friend, Vita. A foreign exchange student, she had oddly shaped ears and far too much enthusiasm for it to be so early in the morning. "Samantha! OMG! You will not guess what just happened!"

"No way!" exclaimed Samantha, her eyes going wide. "What's going on?"

Vita crept forward then spoke in a low whisper. "We totes just got a new exchange student..."

"No way!" exclaimed Samantha in surprise. Her wide eyes suddenly narrowed slightly. "Wait. Why is that a big deal?"

"It's a guy," said Vita. She stressed the final word spoken by practically singing it then placed one hand to her lips and tittered moronically. "Someone you know."

"What's so funny...?" asked Samantha in a suspicious tone.

One of her other friends, Vita's long-suffering brother Chaine, answered like a surly teenage boy forced to hang out with his sister and her braindead friend. "Because it's your secret boyfriend."

Vita rounded on him then slapped him on the arm. "Chaine! Don't spoil this for me!"

Samantha blinked owlishly. This was certainly a surprising development. She was not even aware of the fact that she had a boyfriend. Her eyes wide, she spoke in a sage tone of voice. "Wow. Learn something new every day."

For a moment she stood there marveling at the fact that her secret boyfriend truly must be a secret. She certainly knew nothing about him until now!

"I wonder how we met?" she asked curiously.

"Girl, what do you keep in that meatball you call a brain? It's Scott Davidson," said Vita with a sly grin.

"Scott Davidson?" asked Samantha curiously. She tilted her head to the left, and then back to the right. Her pony-tailed swayed lightly in time with her movements for emphasis. "Not sure... I mean. The only Scott Davidson I know about is—"

"Money! I'm your biggest fan!" cried one of the girls ahead of them in the crowd.

A pleasant masculine voice from further inside the school grounds called back playfully, "Why wouldn't you be?"

The girl squealed happily and her nearby friends began to fan her face to cool her down. They admonished her to calm down before she had heatstroke.

"M-money?" asked Samantha. She quickly spun towards Vita once more. "No way... You don't mean?"

Chaine rolled his eyes and shook his head. Vita merely giggled once more.

"Tell me, girl!" cried Samantha pathetically. She took her friend by the shoulders and shook her like a red-headed step children. "Tell me-eee!"

"Alright! Alright!" cried Vita as she continued to be shaken. "Yeah, it's him!"

"No way!" cried Samantha. The irises of her eyes suddenly morphed into hearts and she unleashed an ear-splittingly loud high-pitched squee of excitement. She looked toward the crowd while hoping to catch a glimpse of him. To think, Scott 'Money' Davidson, lead singer of 'Boy Band,' was going to her school.

"I so must be dreaming!" she squealed happily. It seemed like a day where anything could like, totally, happen!