Finding Destiny

Chapter 1 - Meeting Destiny

Pain, my first memories are nothing but pain. At the time I had no clue who my parent was, nor did I know how I ended up as a slave for that prostitution ring. I still remember the day when I was five years old, and the police on my planet broke up the ring and freed me. Compared to everything else that happened to me, that day was a joy though at the time I was just in fear of the next perversion that would happen to me. When I was asked my name I could only tell them that I had been called Dre, the court systems assigned me the name Andre Smith and set about reintegrating me with society. Yes, I get it. You probably had the preconceived notion that I am a female, but unfortunately for me and others like me, some people just like children no matter the sex. Humans may have left Earth behind, but they kept all the insanity and perversity that plagued that world with them.

They placed me in a hospital for a few weeks, I tried to escape once, and they handcuffed me to the bed, which freaked me out so much that I then tried to kill myself before the next bad thing happened. They then placed me in a padded room where they got me from malnourished to merely underfed which took about a month. After that, they moved me to a mental health and rehabilitation center where they started to try to get me back to being a normal child. It took about a year before they decided that I was no longer a hazard to myself, even though I still could not stand to be alone in a room with an adult male. The government then decided to place me in an orphanage in the city of Rupool.

I started attending school publicly then though before that time they had started to educate me in the rehab center. Honestly, I did not have much patience for it, but I did ok in my classes. That changed though when I turned 14, I still remember a lawyer showing up at the orphanage. He said his name was Jon Martinson and that he was appointed by the state as my lawyer. He explained to me that my father had been found. He had been found face down in an alley and when they ran his DNA mine came up as a match. Since I was the only known next of kin they decided that his belonging then became my belonging to be held till my majority by the state. The lawyer then gave me a choice. You see, my father owned his own spaceship. Currently, it was parked at one of the docks in the capital city of Qouis, and he also had some credit chips stored on the ship. My choices were simple. I could either direct the lawyer to sell the ship and keep the proceeds in trust until I was adult and able to use them, or they could use the credit chips to place the ship in storage until I was an adult, then I could either sell it or obtain the required training to operate it. Until this moment I was resigned to being stuck in this world. Now I was being given a choice, a choice to go where I want and be beholden to no one. I did not know my father, and now I never would. At that moment I felt grateful to him though for offering me a chance at freedom. I told the lawyer that I would do whatever was necessary to keep the ship and operate it myself.

Fast forward seven years to the present. I am about to graduate from college at noon which is three hours away. Did you know that if you got really good grades in high school that as an orphan you could go to college for free? They even paid for a room I share with some other guys taking college, not that it matters. I still had to have a job since I turned 18 as the credits my dad had only paid for storage up until then. I had to take a job to pay for storage, or they would sell my ship. I still have not even laid eyes on it since it's over a ten-hour flight away from me but soon I will. I will graduate in a few hours then I will board my flight to Qouis where I will finally take possession of my ship. I have to do this as tomorrow I will no longer be in college so I will have to pay for both the storage of the ship and a place to live. I have talked to the storage company, and due to my circumstances after speaking to my court-appointed lawyer, they have agreed to give me a break and allow me to live on my ship while it's still in storage as I get it back ready to make it spaceworthy. Mr. Livingston, the owner, even offered me a job there where I would get a discount on the storage fees, and provide power to the ship for me to be able live in it while I work there. In some ways, I am pissed at Mr. Martinson as I am pretty sure he told Mr. Livingston about my past to get him to cut me a break, but at this point, I can't be too mad to take advantage. Otherwise, I would never get the ship off the ground again.