I stepped back from the broken, battered body of the person who had irritated me so long and sighed. I kicked the body to make sure it had stopped living. "Are you finally dead, you bastard?" The fork which had been rammed straight through his forehead certainly answered my question, but it felt good to ask it aloud anyway. "Maybe that WAS overkill." I laughed and stepped back to admire the scene fully. It had all started as a simple verbal argument. It was his own fault for bothering me during dessert. "Never come between me and pudding," I told the corpse "it'll be your undoing!" I laughed a little more then thought about how I had waited for this moment the first time. For the last word. For a little peace. I left the body where it had fallen and walked back to the shuttle.

The suns were reflected in the smooth metal hull and I breathed in the fresh air. It was starting to smell like Earth here, since the government had brought in all those plants for the large continent in the north. What was its name again? Oh, I could never remember the names anymore. There were just too many planets to choose from, and strange names with foreign and alien meanings. Well, maybe just alien meanings, I suppose 'foreign' lost its impact with the first new species we met. The old conflicts I remembered from school and the papers on Earth seemed so petty now, dealing with my own species was the least of my problems, and the simplest.

There would be hell to pay when all the scientists found out I had done in another nasty reminder of my century on Earth. Those bastards in the Revolution knew just whose DNA to clone, and just where to find me. I should have the doctor scan me for implants again, just to be sure. The originals were still out there, I was sure of it. But as they had been before the cryogenics time capsules project, they were now...always on the other team. Fighting me in anyway they could. They might have even been leading the Revolution for all I knew.

I sighed again and breathed in deep, enjoying the Earth aroma. I could linger here for days, but the repairs were almost done on my ship and I should oversee the final steps. If I had known the future would be so much like everyone watching Sci-Fi expected, I would have just kept watching Sci-Fi and never been a part of the time capsule. But who could know? It was still hard to grasp that I had been born almost four-hundred years earlier. Only five years unfrozen and they expected me to lead this crew who looked at me like I was a museum artifact. I suppose I was, but most of these people never knew the past I had come from. They had read it all and probably thought I was some horny disease-riden hatemonger. Some of them had never seen the Earth before. They were true human aliens, born on distant worlds that supported alien life as well as our own. Forget about Mexicans in California, there was no more Mexico, and very little California. It was all just Earth.

I entered the shuttle and the woman who piloted me down here turned to look at me. She still looked a little off guard at my 'still a 90's kind of girl' look and a pure human too! How odd! I had gotten used to her appearance quickly. Some odd mix of human and something else. Her skin had a bluish tinge which made me think she was suffocating, and her hair was a very natural, very not human lavender. It was her eyes that creeped me out when I first met her...bright orange in that blue face. The feelers behind her ears were odd too, but they didn't stand out quite as much. I guess I did stand out a bit, what with pierced ears and my own human colored hair. Blue hair was 'in' again. I wasn't surprised I wasn't fashionable.

"Ready to go back, Cap'n?" she asked me. Captain. Jeeze, all I had ever expected to do was get married, have kids, and write video games..and that was aiming high! What WOULD my mother have thought? I often wondered how I should act as a captain. I had so many influences, none of non-fiction! I guess I was trying for the Janeway attitude. Womanly, proud, and a little violent when the situation demanded it.
"Cap'n?" The pilot broke my thoughts and I smiled.
"Sure thing. Back to the grind, eh?" She blinked at me a few times and I laughed a little. "Sorry, Mari, that means yes, let's get back to work. I'll have to learn the latest slang, or you have to read some 20th century Earth briefings!"
Mari smiled. "Sure thing, Cap'n." And the shuttle lifted off the planet that had brought me back to my own century, if only for a moment.