He wouldn't be given the option to head back to earth until six months later. Then he would sit in front of a panel and they would discuss whether Pete would stay for another 2 years or go back down. Pete thought he knew his decision already, but then why was he thinking about what he would say during the panel?

He kind of just really wanted to be back down on earth, but he wasn't sure that he had decided yet to go back down at that panel. The money up here was good. Everything else was pretty meh. Nothing was bad though at least. Well the only bad thing was the loneliness. Pete was surrounded by so many people, but he felt like he wasn't attached to anything. No community. It was cold up here figuratively and literally. Keith was someone he could relate to. Pete hoped Keith wouldn't be heading to earth too soon.

Keith talked about how back on earth he had been a dog walker. It had been a gig he had done between being a researcher at a university and coming up here to 

Spacecity

. He didn't really do it for the money and had just done it because he wanted to try something that felt completely different than being in a lab. He liked it a lot he said. Took a sip of the decaf coffee. Pete wondered then why Keith had left the dog walking gig and ended up here in Spacecity. Pete felt like this place kind of did resemble a university lab... especially those without windows.