It was a new day for Steve. The day of his fresh start!

Today would be what set the tone for the rest of his life!

Optimism is the new order of today, time to wake up!

Steve rolled from his side onto his back and--

That doesn’t feel right!

Oh god, my body is in revolt!

He hadn’t felt this way in a… couple of weeks at most. But still! He’d only had a couple of cups! How strong is that Kivi stuff? What the hell is Nuori’s liver made of? How is she still functioning?

Steve lay there, unmoving for a time. Heavily dehydrated, as he had drunk no water before bed, and horribly grogged up, but alive. Somewhat. But he’d dealt before so he could deal again. He could wake up and face the day. It’d be just like going to work after a bit too ambitious of a night out.

Steve worked up the courage to open his eyes and--

Close them again.

It was a new day for him, he had reached the promised tomorrow.

Steve went back to sleep starting the rest of his life in an all too familiar way.

--------

When Steve woke up for the second time and it was a much less contentious proposition.

He still felt terrible mind you, but all things are relative! The battering ram now only gently smacked the gates, the pressure had eased. He felt alright. Kinda.

But Kinda alright was alright enough! Sometimes you needed to get to work!

Also while still being extremely tired, his mouth was distractingly dry and he had an urgent need to go to the bathroom.

The necessity of alleviating these aggravations was the final straw in making him arise from slumber.

But as Steve slowly got out of bed he noticed something new, a cup of water had been placed on the floor next to bed!

That was quite nice of Nuori getting her pet robot to bring me some water!

That brightened his mood considerably, and with his hydration issues now somewhat solved Steve stumbled over to his only other piece of furniture.

A toilet which had been set up in a similar way to the resource cylinders. After relieving himself somewhat self concounciously (His brain knew no one would come in but it did feel too open to go to the bathroom) Steve felt much less ready to face the day.

He was comfortable, tired, and his motivations to come awake were now fulfilled. A bit more sleep couldn’t hurt. Right?

Steve went back to bed.

------

Alright! He could do this! Third time's most definitely the charm!

Time for Steve to wake up and face the day! Filled with fresh optimism! Resolve! Work ethic!

Steve slowly rose from the bed, and hated his life.

Ugh, mornings are awful, I need to outlaw them somehow.

Steve got dressed in the standard bunnyhug and sweater combo. He’d seen others wearing different clothes but he was stuck with this, apparently. No one gave him anything different at least. He didn’t mind though, it was really comfy.

He looked down the hall that led to the main room, and reluctantly started to move his feet.

Sadly, at some point he actually had to start the day.

As Steve neared the main room he heard voices talking, he turned the corner and Nuori was speaking to… no one. The room was empty besides her. She gave him a wave with her arm that wasn’t completely destroyed.

“Hey kid.” She seemed to be in better spirits, and not even mildly drunk. That was certainly an anomaly.

“You seem to be in a good mood.” Steve said cautiously. “Any reason for the change?”

“I got a talking to.” She smiled a tiny bit. “According to sources I trust, I have been overly paranoid and extremely depressing recently.” She fiddled with the wheelchair turning it to face him and grabbed a cup off the counter using her ‘good’ arm. “Drink this, it’ll pick you up some.”

Steve looked at the steaming dark liquid skeptically. “What is this?” It smelled good, it was possibly similar to coffee which he loved, but after the unexpected strength of the Kivi he was a bit more leery of mysterious liquids handed to him.

“Chemical remedy and mental stimulant. It will help get the brain juices flowing for our work today.” She raised her own cup from the counter and took a sip. “Also helps with the mood.” She leaned back with a contented sigh.

“Is it… like the Kivi?” Steve questioned, hesitant to take a drink. “That was a little strong for me.”

Nuori’s smile slipped. “Yeah… that was a bit unexpected. It’s mild compared to that, I forgot your body isn’t accustomed to beverages like these.” Well that’s just plain wrong, no need to disabuse her of the notion though. “Do you remember much of what happened?”

“No? I just went to bed, right?”

Oh god, if I have to deal with drunk Steve’s problems again I will be pissed.

“Yep, that’s what happened!” Nuori hurriedly said, her tone doing nothing to alay Steve’s fears. “Spark got you sorted out.”

Right ‘Spark’ her robot ‘kid’, Steve was certain Spark didn’t like him overly much but that was fine, he cared about the opinions of people not household appliances.

He’d better not say that to Nuori though, Spark was her ‘child’. Weird, but not much different then crazy cat girls from back home. This was a tiny bit worse in his opinion though, it was literally programmed to be like it is.

How can you love something that was made? Preordained to be the way it is? How does it even work? Can it even truly have personality?

No. It was impossible in Steve’s opinion.

So Steve had lied. This was a lot worse than crazy cat ladies, cats could have character, each of them unique in their own way.

This? This was adopting the toaster into the family.

Was Nuori’s love of this toaster boy a deal breaker for him though?

Not really, Steve still found her really attractive. Alcoholism notwithstanding she seemed like a decent person. Hell, the alcoholism was a point in her favour! It meant she’d be more likely to overlook his flaws! Maybe the ‘Spark’ problem would be an issue in a long term relationship but he had to get to that point first.

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Either way, these were all problems for the future, probably the far future. She had only just started voluntarily talking with him! Talk first, figure things out later.

Where’d the conversation leave off...?

Ah, Spark.

“Where is Spark by the way?” Steve reluncticly asked.

Nuori stared at one of the stools next to the counter.”He’s definitely not in this room, listening to everything we say, he’s out doing other stuff. Robot stuff… probably.” She rolled her eyes, still looking pointedly at the stool Spark usually sits in.

Well that’s a relief, it must have annoyed her somehow and gotten kicked out for a time. Steve didn’t mind the machine, in fact it was an amazing piece of engineering. He just didn’t like the constant reminder that Nuori was a bit of a loon.

Steve took a sip of his drink and…

Damn! That’s good!

The drink had an instant effect on his mood, giving him the courage to ask the important questions. “Are you going to actually teach me things about the Empire I’m supposed to rule today?” He eyed Nuori.

“Not exactly.” She wiggled her good hand. “I don’t think I can teach you the way I would normally, I mean. I’m going to lay down the ground rules and you’ll have to figure out the rest.”

“Ground rules?”

“Yep, if I’m going to help you, I need to be smart about it. I’ll only answer questions that have one answer. Nothing that is open to interpretation!” Nuori replied cheerfully, pouring herself another cup of the warm liquid.

Steve didn’t get ‘why’ she needed to teach him like this, but he’d accept any form of help he could get.

“So if I asked you ‘what do you think I should ask?’ would I get a response?” Steve queried

“Nope!” She immediately responded.

“Technically there’s only one answer though. You should definitely know your own opinion” Steve brought out his inner pedantic student.

“Maybe I’m just incredibly indecisive!” Steve raised his brows and Nuori conceded her true reasons. “I don’t want to risk giving you an answer…” Her face lost her cheer for a moment, her eyes gazed off into the distance. As quickly as it went the cheer came back and Nuori plastered a smile on her face again.

“Safety first! It’s a good motto to have.” She winked at Steve. “Ask away.” She motioned for him to start.

“Umm… alright.” This is what he wanted, Steve only had one problem.

What could he ask? He had wanted to learn about the Empire but he had no idea where to start. Where could you start? From the little pieces he had seen, he understood the Empire was ‘different’. But how different was different?

He had no frame of reference. So what could he do?

Start simple and see where it leads.

Steve asked a tried and true question, one that had lasted through the ages.

“Hi, I’m Steve.” He waved at Nuori. “What’s your name?”

Nuori laughed at that, it was certainly a safe question for her. “Nuori. Pleased to meet you.”

“Now what does your name mean Nuori?”

“It means ‘young’ in finnish, a language from old Earth.”

“Why Finnish? Any reason in particular?” Steve queried.

She grinned at that. “Why yes, it just so happens to be a tradition. The name of the ‘Empire’ is in Finnish, after that it became a recurring trend.”

This could actually be useful.

“Is there a reason Finnish was chosen? I mean, is it the language yours is based on or…?”

That seemed to be enough for Nuori. “Our language is an amalgamation of many Earth languages, similar to how your English is made up of several layers of invaders each adding their own words. No, the use of Finnish, was sadly enough, a pun.” She raised her brows indicating for Steve to ask the next question.

He got the game. “What was the pun?”

“It came from a speech” Nuori straightened her back and then looked at Steve, he nodded and she began orating.

“Many of us had a dream, a dream of a united people, humanity ascendent. Oh, but how we fought amongst ourselves! Squabled over our rocks. Why, we asked? Was this our fate? Ever to be engaged in a pursuit of self destruction? We, people of learning, with that question on our lips, ran from the madness. Searched for greater things! Achievement through science, ever dreaming of the day humanity might put aside petty wars and come together!”

“Months ago that call came! Humanity had come under threat! The unification had begun! For once in our history all great minds of mankind were coming together, we had to face this great new threat!” Nuori’s voice began to shake with anger. She could act! “And yet… Where are we? The call to arms came, and did we answer? Did we come to aid our brethren among the stars? No. We squabbled amongst ourselves, so similar to the conflicts we once fled. And it was you, you despicable cowards, who won. Your path we follow, your cowardice we are consigned to.”

“As we head towards the feared star, my thoughts are consumed. Consumed by the knowledge of my inadequacies, consumed by the knowledge that this may have been our last chance to be a part of something greater. We were so close, so very close to completing what was once our dream. But that dream is done, all we have now? The imagining of what could have been. The haunting word. Almost. Almost an Empire of humanity. Almost united. The dream was within our grasp and all we can do now is whisper at night, almost.”

“That dream is finished, and so am I.”

Steve was silent for a moment, that was a lot to take in.

Nuori smiled sadly. “Those were the last words of Admiral Lyversi, a staunch supporter of coming to the defense of humanity. He slit his own throat after the speech.”

Steve’s eyes widened. “Fucking hell…”

She nodded. “And they made a pun of it… Melkein, it means ‘almost’ in Finnish.” She snorted. “Fun right? A man kills himself and people poke fun at his last words.”

Steve could agree but… “Didn’t you say you wanted to stop a war from happening?”

Nuori hesitated. “I did… I still do… But Lyversi, from what I’ve researched? He seemed like a noble person, felt like humanity was capable of so much more. He didn’t deserve for his last words to be a joke. No one does.”

“He was wrong though. The rest of humanity died.” Steve pointed out unhelpfully.

“Was he?” Nuori shook her head, bothered by something. “Maybe our small station would have pushed them over the edge, maybe we were the missing piece.” Her eyes hardened. “Maybe winning didn’t matter. We should have been there. We should have fought.”

She cleared up for a second and took a sip of her drink.”I don’t know. I just… they didn’t know it was a lost cause then. They made a choice to run when we could have helped. Everyone dies eventually.” She shook her head. “Most now? They die like him.

“Like who?”

“Lyversi.”

“They slit their own…”

“No of course not.” Nouri disagreed.

Good! That’d be a disturbing tradition!

“They find other ways to kill themselves.” Nuori corrected.

And there goes my moment of optimism

“Why?” I mean Steve had his own thoughts on the matter in the past but an entire culture built around the idea? That was insane.

“They lose hope. Or purpose.” Nuori stared at the wall, remembering. “Or they think dying is their purpose… they get old. So old I don’t know how they keep going.” She chuckled ruefully at that. “Sorry, that's actually a lie. I know how. They find themselves a purpose, or they don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Keep going.”

Ah.

“But...” Steve started, still a bit confused. “Sure eighty or so years is a long time but--” He couldn’t continue as Nuori had started laughing.

“Seriously Steve? I don’t think you’re stupid, so don’t act so fucking stupid. You need to observe.”

“That’s a little harsh, and rude.” Steve defended himself.

“Have you seen a single person who looked old since you got here?” She raised his brows at him questioningly.

Steve made a sound of realization. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” She stated emphatically. “Humanity figured out genetic alteration of that kind before we even left Earth. We don’t age, not if we don’t want to.”

“So…?”

“When I say we get old. We get old. And the station?” She looked around the room. “The station never changes, year after year comes and goes and things stay the same. The same leaders, many of the same faces. It gets hard. So we find a passion. A task to dedicate ourselves to, something we love.”

Her voice was passionate, intense. “The problem is, no one cares. I develop our understanding of late earth history but who gives a damn about that knowledge? It grates on you, after a time.” She looked down, for a second Nuori looked tired and worn. The young looking woman. She seemed ancient.

Steve had to ask “How…? How old are you?”

“Only two hundred and four years old, one of the younger folks on the station.”

The shoe dropped and Steve only had one thought.

Fucking hell, I hope she’d be up for dating someone younger.

“Earth years.” She continued, unaware of the important quandaries within Steve’s head. “We still use those, somewhat of a tradition as well, I suppose.”

Steve tried to think of something to say. “Umm… cool, really cool. You’re uh.. Pretty old, huh. How do you keep going?”

“Before I had Spark? Spite.” She simply stated, remembering.

Nice Steve nice.

But what could he have asked? What help could he give a tired old lady? Steve thought for a moment, and for once he had an answer. A good one.

“Would you like to tell me about Lyversi? He sounded like an interesting character.” Nuori looked up sharply, focused and free of her memories.

“I wouldn’t do it justice… it’s not my field of study and he deserves better than a cursory glance. But...” She trailed off as she realized she had been giving lots of opinions, about to suggest something even. All unprompted.

Steve grinned, he knew what to say. “But what?” Steve powered through Nuori’s doubt. “It’s my Imperial prerogative that you finish your sentence!”

She returned the grin. “I could show you an example of what type of projects I work on, just the latest one,of course.”

“What type of project?”

“It’s just a story about a person. Nothing important at all honestly.”