The nudge of cold metal woke Avra, an electronic beep sounding in her ear.

Sleepily, the girl cracked open her eyes and sat up, only to be knocked over again by the impact of the softball-sized holopet.

“Relax, Sona! Lemme beee!” the girl grumbled, rolling over and shoving away the spherical ball of metal.

The ball of metal chirped at her and settled on her chest, vibrating. The girl blinked open heterochromic eyes, then sat upright again as she realized that the sun was out.

“Sorry, Sona. I’m not used to the shorter days… on the Utopia it was twenty-eight hours per day. Not twenty-four.” The girl stretched, pushing her black hair behind her ears. She’d fallen asleep on a park bench in the university common area. Which is where she’d been trying (and mostly succeeding) at blending in. Granted, professors were starting to question why she was there when none of the rosters ever had her name; other students found her implants to be either edgy-looking tattoos or repulsive ones. At least they never questioned that they were tattoos, not actual bits of circuitry.

“Yo, tattoo girl!” Someone called. Sona went limp, falling onto Avra’s lap; she let out a muffled ooph as the fairly heavy ball of metal and circuitry landed on her legs.

Avra rose to her feet, looking behind her. A kid sped by on a skateboard; with a flip of the board and a twist he dismounted and grabbed it neatly, turning to face her as he did so. She internally sighed. Jack. A boy who’d obviously been flirting with her since she’d appeared on campus.

“There’s some kind of concert tonight. Some “multi-talented musician” or something.” He said. “You wanna go? Just as friends, like.” He winked, though she knew that look from the boys aboard the Utopia. Bored teenagers in space had found ways to amuse themselves. Just as friends, sure, and she would bet all of her (now-useless) eCash that he’d have his hand down her pants before they even got there.

Her wrist was cold. She glanced at it, at the shimmery tattoo ink that spelled out the name Titus. The kid’s tattoo, visible on his forearm, had a blue, struck-through name, “Anna” on it.
With a sigh, for she hated going out with people who weren’t the ones on her wrist, she forced a polite smile. “Sorry, Jack, but I’ve got to go talk to the Classics professor to see if I can transfer into one of his classes…”

His face fell, and Anna quickly excused herself and bustled to the Classics wing of the Literature building. The janitors were just locking up.
“Looking for Mr. Smith?”
“Yes sir.” She spoke slightly breathlessly, having speed-walked over here. Not running, certainly. She certainly wasn’t scared of Jack.
“Well, he left already. Going to a concert or something.” The janitor jerked his thumb. “Maybe if you hurry you can catch him.”
She nodded. “Oh, alright. Thank you, sir!” it never hurt to not be respectful to her elders. On the Utopia rank was determined mostly by age. So, for example, Artimi had, at least when both girls were unspecialized, always been one rank above Avra, having been born a month before.

She hurried off through the dusky evening, running. She tripped slightly over her own shoes and cursed. Even the artificial gravity, though it was pretty similar to Earth’s, was not exactly the same; she could not get used to running on an Earth where the ground seemed to be level, not sloping upwards.

Nonetheless, Avra made good time as she was running. But she was still too late to catch Mr. Smith on campus; he’d probably already arrived at the concert.

So she decided that she might as well attend it.

She snuck into the back of the concert venue, craning her head to see over the tall people in front of her. Compared to the others on the Utopia, she’d been practically a midget (as even the short ones were 5 foot 6); apparently, she was short by Earth standards.

In the crowded hall, she could barely hear the music, because she was so far away. She couldn’t see the stage, not as short as she was. So really, coming here had been a waste—

And then she felt a warm, tingling sensation spread up her arm. She blushed, since she knew what it meant. She’d finally been stuck in this time for long enough that she’d find her soulmate. And he was here.