<div style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 15px"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#bfbfbf"><i>“We are the music-makers,</i><br/>
<i>And we are the dreamers of dreams,</i><br/>
<i>Wandering by lone sea-breakers,</i><br/>
<i>And sitting by desolate streams.</i><br/>
<i>World-losers and world-forsakers,</i><br/>
<i>Upon whom the pale moon gleams;</i><br/>
<i>Yet we are the movers and shakers,</i><br/>
<i>Of the world forever, it seems.”</i></span></span><br/>
<i><span style="font-size: 15px"><br/>
-Arthur O'Shaughnessy</span><br/>
</i>​</div>Kaz could feel the vibration of the engines when he placed his palm against the bulkhead. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, absorbing the sensation as if the Pioneer itself were speaking to him. As he exhaled, he slowly opened his eyes and focused his vision on the hallway before him, in particular, the people populating the hall. It had been quite some time since his last visit to the colony ship, though he had not forgotten how to get from one place to another. He had wandered the corridors when they were busy and when they were barren, at prime times and off times.<br/><br/>His last trip had not been a pleasant one, and that memory was the most often called up when his mind wandered back to the lumbering civilian ship. The tremor he felt inside the structure and the heat of the flames were locked in his memory vividly; he could still feel them. Kaz remembered the wail of the alarms and the lament of those caught in the blast.<br/><br/>Shaking his head a few times, Kaz straightened out and started toward the central plaza, trying his best to banish the tormenting and nightmarish recollections from the forefront of his mind. The scars of that event, though all but erased from the Pioneer's hull, were still very clear in his mind, and in the minds of others. There they would remain, forever reminding each of them of the perils of space travel.<br/><br/>"Who let you back on this old heap," some called from behind him. Kaz did not need to turn around to know who was speaking, so he stopped in his tracks and waited.<br/><br/>"Were you actually waiting for me to arrive, or is it just a coincidence that we're walking in the same direction at the same time in the same hallway?" Kaz's reply was sarcastic, though anyone that did not know him well enough might have thought he was serious.<br/><br/>The young woman in her late teens suddenly embraced him. The fairness of her skin, though pale like snow, was warm against his skin. Leaning back slightly, Kaz smiled fondly. "Hello Cara. It's good to see you again."<br/><br/>"Hey Kaz. I missed you! You don't write much anymore. Mom and dad would be ashamed." Cara Markin, Kaz's sister and only remaining family member, released his body but hooked one arm around his, letting him escort her through the relatively quiet hallway. She didn't have a job to get to, as she wasn't quite finished with school just yet. "It's okay though. I know you've been really busy on the.... uhm... shit which ship again?"<br/><br/>"The Omen, Cara," Kaz said through a chuckle. In his opinion it wasn't difficult to remember, but when one spends every day there, it's hard to forget."<br/><br/>"Right right. That's what I was going to say. Anyway, tell me what's up? How long are you going to be here?"