The docking bay was crowded, packed from wall to wall with humans, cargo, and more than a few aliens. Jane had never seen an alien before, not in real life, and she was fascinated. Her parents were quickly getting frustrated with dragging her along, but she didn't care – this was all so new and exciting and made her wonder how she had ever wanted to stay on Earth.

A new alien caught her eye, something huge and gray and vaguely gorilla-shaped, and she regarded it curiously until it intoned, "Offended. What are you staring at, tiny human?"

Jane squeaked in surprise and ran to cling to her mother's arm.

The crowd thinned as the Shepards exited the shuttle bay, colonists dispersing to find their new homes. This colony was brand new, and although the city center was hardly more than temporary buildings and a dirt road, it was buzzing with activity as workers tried to get everything up and running.

"Mom, what was that thing?" Jane asked, once she was sure they were out of earshot of the huge alien she'd offended.

"I didn't see it. What did it look like?" Jane's mother Hannah asked, preoccupied with trying to find something on her datapad.

"It said it was offended, but it didn't sound like it," Jane replied. "It looked like it would be fun to arm wrestle!"

"That was an elcor, Janie. Be careful around them, okay? They're very strong, and I don't want you to get hurt," Hannah replied, pulling Jane into a one armed hug. "No arm wrestling for you. I think an elcor would squish you."

"I can take it!" Jane insisted, prompting her parents to laugh.

"Well, looks like we won't have to worry about her being scared of aliens after all," Jane's father Joseph chuckled to his wife.

"They're cool!" Jane butted in excitedly. "Will I get to see more?"

"I'm sure you will, sweetie," Hannah nodded. "There are all kinds of aliens."

"Where's the address, Han?" Joseph asked, shushing Jane before she could say anything else about aliens.

"Looks like it's off this road," Hannah replied, squinting at her datapad. "These maps are so hard to read…"

Jane quickly tuned out their dull adult conversation, much too busy trying to take everything in. To her left, a man was having an argument with…a giant jellyfish? Jane figured it had to be some kind of alien, but her parents were too busy for her to ask them. She would just have to draw it for them later. And over on her right was a group of giggling women who would've looked human, except for their blue skin and tentacle-y hair.

This was a good start – she'd already seen three alien species since she'd been on this planet, and she was hardly even looking. The details were a little fuzzy, but Jane was pretty sure she'd remember them well enough to draw them. All of her art from home seemed so mundane now that she'd already seen more on this planet than she dreamed possible. It would be a nice contrast, Jane admitted to herself, having drawings of her friends on Earth next to drawings of all the exciting new sights.

She couldn't help but ask herself again how she had ever wanted to stay back on Earth.

"Reports indicate that the Turian Hierarchy has offered an unconditional surrender to the Alliance Navy. The surrender was accepted by Admiral Jon Grissom, Commander of the Alliance forces, and Lieutenant Commander David Anderson, whose actions in the final battle of the war led to complete Alliance victory…"

Jane had no idea what the report meant, or why her parents looked so deep in thought – she just wanted them to put her favorite show back on. When they looked like they were going to continue watching the news for hours, she finally gave up and went to go draw in her room.

It was almost dinnertime when Hannah came into Jane's room, sitting on the floor beside her. She commented, "I like your drawing, sweetie."

"Thanks, Mom," Jane replied, carefully writing 'by Jane Shepard, Age 7' in the corner of the paper.

"I have something I wanted to talk to you about, Janie," Hannah said. Her voice sounded a little strange; when Jane looked up, she noticed her mother was biting at her fingernails.

"Is everything okay?" Jane asked, stomach twisting.

"Everything's fine," Hannah promised. "Your dad and I were just talking."

Jane waited for her to get to the point. "Well, honey, now that the war is over, they're going to be looking for people to start new colonies, since space is safer now. And your dad and I have decided that we're going to move to one of them."

"Move…where?" Jane asked, trying to wrap her mind around the idea. "Like California, like Sarah?"

"No, sweetie. To another planet. It's called Elysium – doesn't that sound like a pretty place?" Hannah replied.

"What?" Jane demanded, pushing her mother's comforting hug away. "No! I like New York! I don't want to move to another stupid planet!"

"I know. But Elysium is a new start for us. We'll have a nice big house where you can play outside. It'll be so much better for you than our little apartment now. This is a big chance, and I really think it'll be a good change for us," Hannah assured her.

"I want to stay here," Jane persisted petulantly.

"I'm sorry, Janie. But we're moving next month. I'm sure if you give it a chance, you'll end up liking Elysium. Maybe even as much as Earth," Hannah replied.

Jane ignored her, returning to her coloring in angry silence. Hannah pressed a kiss to her hair and left Jane alone to handle the news in the ways she thought best.

She would never admit it, but Jane had cried for hours. Hardly anything, not even breaking her wrist, could make her cry, but that single bit of news had cracked her tough exterior. Jane had everything she wanted on Earth – friends, family, places to explore, a teacher she liked – and all of that was getting taken away.

It had been a week before Jane would speak to her parents again, but despite her pride, she knew when she had lost. She began packing up her things, vowing that someday she'd come back to Earth, one way or another.

She still wanted to visit Earth again; that much hadn't changed. But Jane knew now how silly she'd been fighting against moving. Elysium was amazing, and there was something magical about space and stars and all the aliens she was seeing.

By the time Jane had come out of her thoughts, she was standing with her parents outside a very small house. It looked permanent enough, but it was certainly nothing special or even particularly homey.

"Whose house is that?" Jane asked.

"…Ours, apparently," Joseph grumbled.

"I thought it was supposed to be big!" Jane protested.

"So did we, but this is the address we got," Hannah replied, checking the house number against her datapad one more time. "It's okay. Once we start making some money, we can expand it."

"Can we go in?" Jane asked. If she was going to be living there, she wanted to explore and find every nook and cranny and hiding space.

"Our things won't be here for a little while longer, but if you want to look around, you can," Joseph nodded, tousling her hair. "Don't break anything."

Jane trotted inside. The house looked bigger inside than out, with a living room, a kitchen, and even two bedrooms. Jane couldn't help but sigh in relief that she'd still have a room to herself.

She poked around the kitchen and living room for a while, disappointed to find that there was hardly anywhere to hide. The bigger bedroom was off-limits, she knew – her parents had the big room back on Earth and she wasn't allowed inside unless she asked. Somehow, she figured that hadn't changed with the move.

That left the smaller bedroom to look around. It was still larger than Jane's room back home, more than enough room for her and all her toys and drawings. She peered into the bathroom, decided there wouldn't be any secret hiding spaces in there, and returned to her room.

Her room. She liked that.

She pulled her drawing pad out of her backpack, along with a red marker – her favorite color. Jane quickly, but meticulously, wrote out 'JANES ROOM,' fished a roll of tape out of her backpack, and taped it to the door.

Now it really was her room. There was lots of work to do, lots of drawings to be done to hang up on the wall. But that was okay – she could tell she would have a lot of adventures worth drawing here on Elysium.

Maybe starting all over could be a good thing, after all.