Like every major space station Bastoro Nat was outfitted with day light devices, so inhabitants of the hub wouldn’t have to sit in the darkness of space day in and day out.

When the first day came to an end the group met back up to grab some dinner. They asked an information bot for directions to the best restaurant in the area and made their way to the Gallo Nero, an earth based food chain, recently gaining renown throughout the federation. Although some, like Michelle, wanted to try a foreign cuisine most of the group decided against, thinking any space station dinner wouldn’t be able to represent the true taste of alien food.

The restaurant had a luxurious Italian flair to it, lush, green ivy was covering the facade of the hard wood building. In front of the main entrance rows of neatly arranged clothed tables stood, where various sorts of strange looking aliens could be found enjoying their drinks and food, while being able to gaze at the star filled night sky, projected onto the metal ceiling.

Inside a rustic atmosphere was presented to Alex and his friends, letting them wonder if they somehow came back to earth. The walls of the establishment were covered in pictures of earth’s most famous landmarks, historical people and newsletter articles from different ages. The whole room was drowning in a symphony of laughter and conversations.

As soon as a waiter noticed them he ran over and greeted them enthusiastically in perfect Primodean, “Hello and welcome to our humble, little dinner! It’s nice to see some fellow humans here. Are you tourists or new residents to Nat? Anyways, where do you want to sit?”

“We are just tourists passing by, and we would like a table on the outside please.” answered Alex.

“Sure, just follow me. Where are you planning to go, if I may ask?”

“All sorts of galaxies but first we will visit the Paketan territory. Bastoro Nat is the quickest route there.” replied Michelle excitingly.

“I see. Well, good luck on your journey. Here are your menus I will be back later to get your orders.” said the middle aged man, while activating the inbuilt holo-projector on the group’s table, before excusing himself, hurrying back to his post.

They had some hearty dinner and stayed for some more drinks, talking and joking for a few hours.

As the time went by a human man, with light brown hair and a charismatic look, around the same age as them walked to their table asking if he could join.

“Hey, my name is Ivan, can I intrude a bit? I saw you sitting here and thought we could hang as I don’t have much to do at the moment.”

“Sure you can, the more the merrier right?” laughed Alex.

None of the others had anything against it and they welcomed the new guest at their table. They hit it off right away and began talking and introducing themselves.

As it turned out Ivan was the son of Gallo Nero’s owner, Antonio Stock. He visited different hubs regularly to check on their chains restaurants, inspecting if everything was running in order. He just came back from the inner Triangulum galaxy, the territory of the Vallod’ok, and was on the way to earth, for some vacation.

The group told him in turn about their plans to visit all kinds of worlds starting with Mrs. Natpiea’s home world, an imperative stop for Michelle and Alex. Although their former teacher distanced herself from them due to their downwards spiral they still held her in high regard, for all that she had done for the young couple when they were kids.

After spending three more hours drinking and laughing Ivan offered that the bill would be on the house and the group left for their rented apartments, not before exchanging contact information with the generous heir though. As Alex, Michelle and their friends would spent a few days on Bastoro Nat they made plans to meet back up tomorrow to explore the different entertainment districts together.

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They visited futuristic arcades, an amusement park and many more tourist attractions. Their highlight being a roller coaster ride through open space, where you were equipped only with a space suit, strapped into a wagon going at neck breaking speeds around the space station.

While having fun time often seemed to vanish more rapidly, the same way it was happening now and before any of the young adults knew, it was time to leave Bastoro Nat behind. Not quite content with having spent only so little time with his new found companions, Ivan decided that he would travel alongside them, extending his own vacation as long as needed to complete the whole trip. With his position as future heir to a multi billion credit food chain he rarely had time to make friends or relax, so grabbing this opportunity was of utmost importance to him.

Naturally none of the original members of the cohort had anything against the idea, as they too enjoyed the company of the young Stock.

Having found a new companion their further travels could continue with full swing, especially since Ivan had his own ship with professional bodyguards. The vessel looked like a smaller, faster version of the Whistling Blade with it’s shoe form but had more defense systems instead of weapons. On the ship’s frame the name Troiani was written, apparently the name of one of Ivan’s ancestors. The onboard crew was also much smaller, with only defense personnel manned, otherwise the whole ship was run by AI.

Having nothing to do or look at for the most part of their journey, the group spent the majority of their time, before reaching their next wormhole, playing or exploring in Virtual Reality. The Paketans’ main territory was situated in the Circinus galaxy’s Sporandy solar system. Sporandy was at least three more weeks and four wormhole jumps away, leaving the passengers of the Troiani bored after the first week on the vessel.

Alex and Michelle tried to motivate their travel buddies to train a bit as Mrs. Natpiea always told them that her home planet, Parapal, was dangerous to explore outside the city walls. Ferocious beasts and savage Paketa lived in the wilderness of the world, often mauling unsuspecting travelers, who were overestimating themselves by wandering deep into jungles or caves.

The young couple could certainly make up for wasted time with their talent but unfortunately the rest weren’t child prodigies with endless potential. Alas, not one of their friends heeded their advise as they thought themselves invincible with their meager Force power, remembering how easy it was to survive on earth.

Having no luck with their suggestions they could only let them be and focused on improving themselves. Ivan and his bodyguards were of a different mindset though and accompanied both Alex and Michelle in their endeavor to prepare for a sudden emergency, sparring and advising among each other.

Days became weeks and soon a month passed after the cohort left earth, marking the arrival of the young group of friends in the Sporandy solar system, where Kathia Natpiea originated from. As the solar system was rather compact their journey to Parapal only took two short days, in which the Troiani passed by several cold, rocky dwarf planets, where natural resources where being mined per demand. The view such an operation on this astronomical scale provided was one of a kind and the young adults were mesmerized by the mining robots coming and going, from the small rock floating in space, like clockwork.

Alex and the rest asked Ivan to take their time so they could gaze upon those scenes, never before witnessed by any of the earthlings leaving their home world for the first time. Especially since this was what everyone of them wanted. To broaden their horizons and experience the universe first hand.

Nothing could have prepared them for the sight Parapal gave them though.