"No, it's not good. Again," Ana muttered to herself.

She could freely shout out loud because there was no one around, but that wouldn't help her, either. She put down the palette and stared at the sea in front of her.

Why didn't she just admit the obvious fact? She would never become a "real" painter, one with an arts degree. She just wasn't talented enough. No one was impressed by her sunset landscape painting at the entrance exam for the Paris Academy of Fine Arts.

"Technically it's not bad, but something is missing. It seems like you were painting with feelings separated from the painting. You can't feel the soul. Yes, that's right. There is no soul," a member of the examination committee had said.

That comment hurt her, because she was painting that setting sun with all her soul.

For Ana, going to the Paris Academy would be the first step to professional painting and an independent life in a new city, separated from her mother. Finally, no one would bother her for spending too much time on painting. She would no longer have to explain herself to anyone. She could live her life and be completely free!

That's why she threw herself into creating a new painting when the Paris Academy of Fine Arts announced that the winner of the September competition in landscape painting would be admitted to the Academy.

If she could win, all her dreams would come true. And she would win, she was sure, only if she managed to paint the right color of the sea.

She sighed loudly.

Ana decided to paint the place that meant the most to her in the world: the Bay of Waves. It was the name of a very small bay, hidden by rocks and tall pine trees. It was the perfect place to sunbathe and the perfect place to swim.

She was completely enchanted by the color of the sea. It was not bright blue like the sea in the Maldives, or green like the sea in the Mediterranean. This was a special mix of those two colors.

She assumed that the color was because of the bottom of the sea, which was a mixture of pebbles and flat rocks. When it was sunny and clear, the sunlight reflected off of the bottom of the sea and made a unique shade of blue-green. She mixed paints of every blue and green shade that could be found on her planet and never once came close to matching the sea of ​​the Bay of Waves.

Like everyone who painted, Ana knew the place where pigments in every possible color could be bought. From what she saw in the store's catalog, they weren't too expensive, either. The problem was that the place was on the distant planet of Ketan.

The teleporter took about fifteen minutes to get from Earth to Ketan. The price of that trip was too expensive for her. Her budget covered only the cost of a round-trip ticket for the cheapest kind of transport: the rocket.

She put her things in her backpack and returned home. Fortunately, her mom hadn't returned yet, so she checked the balance of her bank account in peace.

She had installed her own account on the home robot without her mom's knowledge, with her own password. That turned out to be useful. Mom didn't see the warning Ana had received from the city for throwing paper in the street.

She had to enroll into the Academy. And she had to do everything to make it work.

Ana stood in line and patiently waited for her turn to board the rocket. Ten more people to go.

It was warm and all the passengers were dressed in light summer clothes. Everyone had a monitor under the skin of their wrist. All they had to do was hold their wrists up to the ticket reader, but for some reason the reader was slow.

Maybe all of this was ordinary for those who traveled by rocket? This was Ana's first interplanetary trip and she had no experience. Would the reader load her ticket? What if it broke down just as it was her turn? What if she couldn't travel because of that? What if...?

She shook her head. She had to push those thoughts out of her mind. She should concentrate on something positive. Relaxing.

She looked at the gray building next to her airstrip. A teleporter. No people could be seen at the entrance. Everything seemed quiet and efficient.

Black limousines would silently glide to the entrance and lower to the ground. Then the rear door would open and a person, sometimes more than one, would get out of the vehicle and walk into the building. The limousines would float away after that and everything was calm again.

Two more people to go. Ana carefully watched what they were doing. When it was her turn, she did exactly the same. After a few seconds, the text appeared on the reader:

Ana Marija Sassi Rizich

Planet Earth, Europe, 18 years old

Seat: 32 A RIGHT

Destination: Koo' choorb, planet Ketan

She had panicked for no reason. It was kid stuff. You put your monitor on the reader and waited for your name and seat number to appear on the reader. The reader was simply slow. It probably had an outdated software version and had a hard time reading wrist monitors.