Prologue

Anastasia took in the grey building before her.  In this bright, dusty desert landscape it stood dark and brooding.  Ominous.  Suddenly Anastasia felt a long way from home.
Home.  Funny thought that.  This cheerless box in front of her was to be her home.  For an indefinite period spanning years of training.
Well let's get on with it; Anastasia thought to herself.  Dreading what she would find inside Anastasia fumbled in the jacket for her new key, turned it in the lock and opened the door.

The inside lived up to her non-expectations.  Grey like the outside, almost colourless.  There was a poky little kitchen with an old stovetop and cheap fridge.  Budget table and chairs.  There was a kitset desk where a bulky desktop computer sat.  The accompanying chair looked uncomfortable.

Anastasia sat on the black couch and stared at a TV that had to be at least a decade old, though it was not turned on.  There was a small, wall mounted bookcase with some equally out-of-date novels and a few training manuals.  Shifting uncomfortably, Anastasia got back up and went to check the rest of the house.
The bathroom was small, the sink chipped and the plumbing creaked when she tried the faucet.  The tiny shower box looked like it was going to be a nightmare.

Anastasia sat on the bed, her new bed, and fought the urge to cry.  She felt alone and a bit like the house -empty.

Then her natural good humour and the tendency to rise to any challenge reasserted themselves.  Hadn't her father, her hero father (rest his soul), once survived boot camp?  Wasn't Jonah, her twin, living with four other med students and beginning his internship in the new year?
And her, Anastasia, hadn't she been accepted into the space programme?  Wasn't that why she was here? 
Picking herself up mentally and physically, Anastasia decided that the moving truck with her boxes was due at any time.  No way would those men see her red-eyed and weepy.  Besides, who ever heard of being sad when your dreams where coming true?  She missed Jonah.  Though they had been apart for over a year.  She supposed it was often that way with twins.  It was especially hard right now, when she was tired from travelling.  She was hundreds of miles from Jonah and her mother.  In a strange house that felt dull and lifeless.  Stopping that train of thought, Anastasia thought instead to the days ahead.  She was beginning her astronaut training.  Something she had strived towards since she was a little girl.  She was here in Oasis Springs, near the heart of the best space programme on the planet.  One day if she worked hard, and a Rogers always did, she would be up in space blazing a trail for others to follow. 
These daydreams were interrupted by the loud hiss of heavy brakes from outside.