The last uncomplicatedly happy day of Ami Glass's life was Saturday, Sept 19th, 2398. She was 12 years old, at the time.

It was Matty's birthday - her oldest brother, 18, a senior at the Galaxy Garrison, and the pride of the family.

They'd managed to get him to fly home for the weekend, and spent the time together with family and friends. Matty spent hours telling them stories about his adventures at the Garrison, favorite professors and classes, the classmates he hoped he'd get to work with, and the latest and greatest in human space technology.  Ami was hanging on every word. She was so proud of him!! He'd be the BEST ASTRONAUT EVER, she told him several times that visit. She was sure of it! 

One of those times was after she ran into his room while he was on a call with one of his friends from school! Ami had been SO EMBARRASSED, but Matty and his friend had both laughed, and not at all unkindly. "You hear that, Shiro?", he'd said. "You better watch out!" Shiro had smiled so kindly at her that she had rallied, giggling as she ran back out to the common area.

After the big party (A trip to the Stellarium! Pizza! Cake! Word games in the car!), they went stargazing that night, just the 5 of them. Ami had snuggled up next to Matty on their big blanket and fallen asleep looking at the Milky Way. She didn't remember being carried back to the car or into her bed, so she knew it was Matty who did it - Mom and Dad would have woken her up instead.

The next day, she overslept and missed saying goodbye to Matty before his flight back to the Garrison. She got into a big fight with Keskel about it (they should have woken her up!) and cried for an hour before grumpily doing the homework she'd been putting off.

She just wanted to say goodbye before he left! Was that too much to ask?