<em><strong>Location: Central Hub</strong></em><br/><br/>Aki sat on a bench in the central hub, watching the vines allowed to grow wild inside.  The artificial breeze wafting through was from the large fans circulating the fresh air through the central hub and down to the processing centers down below.  People were moving about heading for either one of the shops forming a ring around the hub, or one of the various arms of the station.  On her chest was an ID badge showing her picture, her rank in terms of color, and what areas she had access to.  She had to wear it at all times, and could actually be arrested for not wearing it.<br/><br/>It was quiet, mostly since it was the middle of third shift.  Time on the station was measured according to shifts, which lasted 8 hours.  The station kept normal Earth time, due to being locked in geosynch orbit.  Earth was far, far away, no bigger than the moon would've seemed from Earth itself.  When it was visible, the dirty green ball looked nothing like the blue marble it was once described as.  For Aki, it was just a planet, one that had once been called home.  It held nothing special for her.<br/><br/>She could only shake her head at the wasted resources being used to try and rehabilitate the planet.  They'd be better off trying to keep the station up and running, and perhaps feeding the numerous people currently crammed together.  But that was neither here nor there.  She was only a low level research assistant, and had to answer to anyone with a higher rank.  These decisions were handled by people much higher up the chain of command.<br/><br/>A chime rang out, and most of the people began clearing out, heading back for their respective jobs.  Aki was allowed to stay out, because she worked in the AI labs.  Even with advanced computers, it took time to compile programs when the computers were clogged with requests from the other departments.  So she had another hour or so before it would be finished.  She had her wrist comm set to call her when it was finished.