There was a speck on the ceiling. Hard to see at first, but it was there. It had always been there. For an eternity it had been there. At first you would think the smooth industrial gleaming white ceiling was crisp and clean. But then, you'd see the speck. The speck marred the illusion of pristine perfection. The speck at first was an annoyance, something the eye went to time and time again. Something you couldn't look away from. Now it was an old friend, a reminder that nothing was perfect and nothing would change.

Mu sat up and stretched. The lights turning on to display the speck indicated another day was beginning, but time itself ceased to be a reality. There was only the light, the dark, the speck, and Mu. She use to dream of escape, of throwing a guard to the ground, grabbing his weapon and escaping the city. Stealing a ship to head into the black of space to hunt down the one who sold her out.

Now she just stood up, yawned, shuffled to the wall and waited. The platform that was her bed slid into the wall. A memory flashed of her first morning in the cell still half asleep, the platform pulling out from under her and dropping her on the floor. The guards would be along shortly for the morning check, then the line up to the cafeteria, then a days worth of work or activities to keep the inmates from killing each other. Herded like cattle from one space to another. The crushing monotony succeeded in killing her spirit.

She looked up at her friend the speck. Did she ever fly in the deep black of space? Or was that a dream of another? Her hands ached for the feel of leather gloves wrapped around the flight controls of a ship. She closed her eyes, rested her head against the wall and let the dream continue. A blaster strapped to her thigh, winds of a far off planet pushing strands of hair across her face, the smells and heat of a musty wreck, the glint of a blue sun setting, a deal that would go wrong.

She opened her eyes. A different time, a different life, a dream she pushed away again. Reality was the barren prison cell before her. It was real, it was here, it was now. "I have to stay in the real world." she mumbled to herself and stared at the floor.