Page 3 of Alien Engineer's Mate

"You need to eat too, Mom,” Leo said gently as she sat down.

"I'm not very hungry," she replied, her stomach mercifully quiet this time. The door opened again before he could question her further.

Kyle burst in first, his school bag bouncing against his back, with his sister Grace following close behind.

"Mom! We learned about colony history today!" Kyle's voice echoed off the orange plasti-walls. "Miss Barrett told us about the landing ships!"

“That’s nice… Eat up while it's hot," she told the younger children, ladling out their portions. Kyle dug in immediately, but Grace picked at hers, pushing the misshapen vegetables around her bowl. The girl's dark eyes, so like her father's, kept darting to the window where the orange dust swirled against the poly-sheeting.

"We had another respirator drill today," Kyle announced between spoonfuls. "Miss Barrett made us practice really fast this time."

Eira's hand tightened on her spoon. The third one this week. She kept her voice steady. "Did Miss Barrett say why?"

"She said it's just practice." Kyle shrugged. "But I heard Tommy's dad saying all the filters are breaking down."

Her spoon paused halfway to her mouth. Like everything else in the worker sections, the school’s environmental scrubbers were failing. She looked up at their pod’s aging air vents. They barely coped with the four of them at times, and that was before…

Shit. She glanced at the clock. It was almost time for Kyle's evening treatment. The medical equipment waited in the boys' bedroom, its warning light blinking steadily.

Colony Director Richardson's face appeared on the tablet screen, his weekly message beginning automatically. "Fellow citizens," his rich voice filled their small space, "I'm pleased to report another quarter of unprecedented prosperity?—"

She jabbed the mute button with more force than necessary. Richardson's perfect teeth and clean-pressed collar told her everything she needed to know about whose prosperity he meant. Twenty thousand credits. She sat silently as she ate, only half-listening to Kyle tell Leo all about his day. All she could think about was the mining fine… it would eat up any chance they had of affording larger quarters with better air filtration.

Grace finished first, carrying her bowl to the sink without being asked. Kyle followed, chattering about his history lesson while Leo helped him wash the dishes. Suddenly, the hot water cut out mid-wash.

“Oh shit… Not again," Leo muttered, shaking water from his hands.

"Just give it a minute," she said, frowning as Leo shook his head, his hand still under the water.

“Dammit,” she hissed, grabbing their pod tablet to check their family account. Her heart sank. Environmental costs had increased again. Between that and the mining fine... she closed the screen before the numbers could blur together.

In the corner of their living room, Grace had settled with her schoolwork, making herself as small as possible in the limited space.

"What's wrong?" Leo asked, looking up from the dishes.

"Nothing," she lied smoothly. "Just problems with the heating pipes, according to Mrs. Reeves.”

She grabbed her respirator from its hook by the door, the orange plastic dulled by years of use. Her hands shook as she clipped it on, needing to escape their cramped space before her children saw her break down.

"Just getting some air," she said, forcing a smile. "Won't be long. Can you start Kyle on his treatment?”

Leo nodded, offering a small smile. “Of course, Mom.”

“Thank you.”

She slipped through the door, heading along the gantry at the side of the pod section to the rooftop access ladder. It creaked under her weight as she climbed and stepped onto the roof, careful where she walked so as not to disturb the occupants of the pods below.

Sitting down, her back against one of the ventilation shafts, she wrapped her arms around her knees. Rows of identical pods stretched out before her, leading to the hostile landscape beyond. The landing shuttles gleamed in the distance, their lights steady and bright while the worker sections flickered in the growing dark.

Twenty thousand credits. The number haunted her, adding to the weight of Kyle's medication costs, the increasedenvironmental fees, the constant struggle to keep food on their table. She wiped her eyes with trembling fingers. Her children needed her to be strong, but tonight… it was difficult.

The caustic air burned even through her respirator's filters. They were dodgy, off-market reconditioned ones she’d swapped for a favor a few weeks ago. She knew the test mark was fake, but it didn’t matter as long as they had it. With that, she could work.

Sighing, she leaned her head back. In the distance, the refinery towers belched orange smoke into the tainted sky. Another shift would be starting soon, more workers filing in to replace those that left in an endless cycle.

When she climbed back down to their pod an hour later, Grace was already in bed, curled around her stuffed animals. Leo had gotten Kyle started on his breathing treatment, the medical equipment humming steadily in their shared bedroom. The sound mixed with the rattling vents, a chorus of machinery keeping them alive on this hostile world.

"Everything okay?" Leo asked quietly as she passed him in the hallway. The dust from his shift had settled into the creases around his eyes, aging him beyond his years. It would take a shower to wash it off, but without hot water, she didn’t blame him for avoiding it.

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