Today is the day that begins the rest of my life. At the age of seventeen, I, Sirius Juinez, was recruited as a member of the ship Mother, the largest space station in the Milky Way. Only the best are chosen, and even though most of my skills come from helping my father repair cars, I'm apparently one of them. I lived with my parents and siblings in an old house in Arizona. The town was small and not much of a tourist trap, so when I wasn't "enjoying" the dusty desert atmosphere with the only other kid my age, I was helping my dad with the store. He's a mechanic in the town's only auto repair shop, which he inherited from his father – poor grandfather died a few years ago of heat stroke. He was a slightly eccentric old man and thought it would be cool to run to the next town without water on one of the hottest days of the year. Luckily, Dad is more sane than Grandpa and limits his exercise to the occasional big car repair job. Mom was quite a busy woman, usually pushing me to babysit my four younger siblings. She had a few part-time jobs to fill in the gaps in the auto business, which meant for us kids we'd have more pizza and fewer ham sandwiches. Despite all her work, Mom managed to raise all five of us quite well. She even named all five of us - Mom really didn't want us to be named after car parts and had to ask the nurse to collect Dad's birth certificate every time she had to visit at the hospital. Ain, Castor, Sirius, Geidi, and Sarin, all after the stars. Mom had really high hopes when she named us, and I guess she was right. Castor and our sisters are still too young to have accomplished much, but they already appear to be quite intelligent. There is... middle of paper... its walls were covered with a large mirror - I could guess that there was probably someone like the Prime Minister behind it, looking at me. The other wall had a large round hole, which looked more than menacing due to the poor lighting. Slowly, a light that looked like a large green eye appeared in the hole, and the person I thought was behind the glass spoke through it. “Sirius Juinez, right?” I nod at the static voice. "Okay, you're right on time. Turn toward the green light, smile, then take a quick turn. I feel a little stupid, but I give the big green eye a smile and turn around on the spot. “Now say your name nice and loud and you're good to go, darling.” I pause and clear my throat, before reciting my name as confidently as possible. The big green eye disappears almost immediately. and the light goes out again, the door to the interior of the ship opens dramatically..