Disclaimer: Starship & all related characters are property of Starkid productions. Any original characters mentioned however are mine.

Author's note: In every chapter the final glimpse is set after the events of Starship.

Five Years Old...

"Samantha; bedtime."
Samantha looked up at her father and pouted. Dr. Albain crossed his arms and looked at her over the top of his glasses.
"No Samantha, it's time to put your toys away and get ready for bed."
"But Father, I've only a few more changes to make before my model of a Starship is complete." The Dr. Smiled at his daughters advanced grasp of language but still had to shake his head.
"I know dear, but it will still be there in the morning. You can finish it after breakfast." Samantha sighed, but put aside her toys and moved off to get ready for bed. Her father was a strong believer in independence, due to this she could perform her entire bedtime ritual without assistance. From applying toothpaste to zipping up her footie pyjamas, she could do it all. She crawled into bed, pulled up the covers and yawned. She took of her glasses and rubbed her eyes.
"Tired Hummingbird?" Dr Albain was standing in her doorway, a thick volume in his hand. Samantha nodded and moved over so her father could sit down next to her. She snuggled in close to her father.
"Now, where did we get up to last night?"
"Book three, Chapter four. Treebeard had just given Merry and Pippin to Quickbeam."

Thirteen Years Old...

"You fucking camping bitch!"
Digitally she slunk back into the shadows, physically she adjusted her headset.
"You should not have been trying to sneak around the back, dick sniffer." Samantha smirked as the opposing team member raged obscenities at her.
"Nice work Neuromancer. Keep round the back there and stop any more of these cock suckers trying that."
"You've got it chief." She saluted the view screen and settled back into the pillows. Right now the other students, including her roommate, would be scrambling to finish their assignments before the due date. She had handed in her assignments in weeks ago, allowing her to spend these few weeks they had without class sitting in her room playing with her on-line friends. Well, to be honest, her only friends. Off-line you had to maintain relationships, spend hours with each other each day and then continue to do so as often as possible. On-line she could spend hours with someone, not play with them again for a month and they'd understand completely. It was all the interaction she needed. She smiled as she shot another opposing player in the throat. Life was good.

Nineteen Years Old...

"Get the lead out Four-eyes, we're dying over here."
Samantha legged it as fast as she could, dodging Zapper fire and grenades, to the disabled tank. Panting she managed to swing open the back panel. She plugged in the Hack-back X20 and scanned the frequencies. She found the Robot's channel and produced feedback to fry the consol. She adjusted her helmet mike.
"All clear number sixty-eight, you should have control."
"About time." The Tanks drove off without a thank you, just as another call came in from across the canyon.
"Hey Four-eyes, what the fuck are you doing? Sitting on your ass? Our automatic's jammed, come and do your job freak." Samantha sighed as she pulled out her radio signal tracer and headed off in the direction of the call. Field-repairs was a thankless job.

Back on the space station she locked herself away from the rest of her squad. With no wireless signal from Earth this far out she'd returned to Engineering to occupy herself during what little down time she had. Her desk was covered in small parts, wires, half completed gadgets and sketches. She sat down and picked up what may have been a Hack-back X17.2 in a previous life, but now had so many additions and alterations it would take a trained eye to tell the base product. A few months into basic training she had grown weary of the many devices needed to perform her job. Since then she had been working on a new device that would incorporate every function needed. An Engineer's Swiss Army Knife if you would. She still needed to refine the design and she had thought of more functions that could be applied. It still needed a name however. Samantha almost shocked herself when a loud thump of some-one kicking her door distracted her.
"Hey Four-eyes, quit messing around with your useless toys. The transmission's shot on one of the Warthogs and the boss says you need to fix it. She sighed as she wiped her glasses on her shirt. Her nameless device would have to wait.

Twenty-five Years Old...

"SPECS! "
Samantha put down her pencil and pushed off from her desk, letting the chair carry her over to the intercom.
"Yes Lieutenant?" Taz's voice crackled back.
"When jou have a second could jou come up to de On-Duty room? Krayonder and his buddies were messing around up dere and de've somehow managed to screw up the coffee machine. Somet'ing about double coffee?" Samantha rubbed her eyes.
"I told him there was no such thing. Wikipedia is not a reliable source."
"Well whatever. I tried de repairmen but dey don' know what to do, as usual. Could jou take a look?"
Samantha gave a sigh. "Sure Lieutenant. I'll have a look at it later today."
"Gracias." The intercom switched off and Samantha wheeled back over to her desk and picked up the Spectrometer. Specs. She had been called a lot of names in her life, some of them still stuck, but none of them had really suited her. Until now. Her door slid open and she looked over her shoulder to see Krayonder and Tootsie slamming it shut again. Krayonder had his back pressed against it and Tootsie was smiling bashfully at her. Krayonder smiled nervously at her.
"Hey Dudette. Mind if we hide out here for a bit? Taz's on the war path again." She smirked at him.
"I told you there was no such thing a double coffee."
"Shut Up man."