《The Sun Never Sets on Volta》


 Prologue

    Griffin marched down the corridor, his skirt billowing around his legs. He walked with a sense of superiority, holding his chin high with his hands laced behind his back. Looped around his wrist was a small carrier for his personal AI. A small earbud sat in his left ear to allow him to communicate with his AI and others.


    A call came through his personal AI. ¡°Call from Audrey Ness, communication officer on Volta Moon Base.¡± A smooth electronic voice said into Griffin¡¯s ear.


    ¡°Manaid, answer,¡± Griffin commanded. ¡°What do you want, Audrey?¡±


    ¡°Good morning, Commander Sanderson. How are you today?¡±


    Griffin gave an exasperated sigh. ¡°Please skip the pleasantries. I am a busy man.¡± Griffin passed by one of the Pyramid pilots. The pilot saluted him; Griffin gave him a look but nothing else.


    ¡°Of course, sir. We just got a new information package from the Volta Science Base. It has some interesting information-¡±


    ¡°Why are you telling me this? Just send the package through to the Anapeza fleet. Must I do everything for you?¡± Griffin said his voice was getting more and more angry. When he entered the control room, a few people looked around for the loud, angry talking, but when they realised it was Griffin, they looked away quickly. Griffin loved the fear he imposed on others; it fed his overlarge ego.


    Audrey replied calmly, ¡°It is just that the information contained in the package regards new discoveries on Volts that we don¡¯t want the Ishan Empire getting their hands on.¡±


    Griffin stopped walking abruptly. ¡°Then encrypt the information package and send it! What is the likelihood that the Ishan empire is even slightly concerned about Volta? It is a frozen planet so far away from everything that even our own fleets aren¡¯t concerned about it. This whole expedition is just a waste of money! Nothing on that frozen hell is going to solve any of our problems.¡± More people in the control room began to listen in on Griffin¡¯s conversation even if they refused to look at him.


    ¡°But sir, they have found- ¡°


    ¡°I don¡¯t care what they have fucking found on that frozen wasteland! Just get send the message and be done with it. I don¡¯t have time for this nonsense,¡± Griffin shouted at Audrey. His swearing drew a few eyes, but only from the higher-ranking officers.


    Griffin disconnected the call before Audrey could say anything else. ¡°Incompetent bitch,¡± Griffin scoffed to himself before storming from the control room.


    Across the base, in the communication room, Audrey was muttering the same thing. Even though she knew it wasn¡¯t the right thing, she encrypted the message and sent it to the Anapeza fleet. She had been given a direct order; she wasn¡¯t in the mood to lose her job.


    Still, the information package nagged at her all day, something about the situation felt wrong.


    ¡°Why couldn¡¯t Sanderson just listen to me?¡± Audrey said to herself as she showered that night. ¡°He really is an incompetent dick. So high and mighty. If anything happens, it¡¯s on him.¡±


    * * *


    Griffin was woken by a strident siren. It rang through the base, waking all the inhabitants. Griffin hurriedly put in his earpiece and mounted his AI on his wrist. ¡°Manaid, call Richard Forelock.¡±


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    Richard answered the call immediately. ¡°It¡¯s a proximity warning,¡± Richard said before Griffin could even pose the question. ¡°Something is coming at us fast with an excessive number of weapons.¡±


    Griffin hurried from his room. ¡°Shit!¡± he yelled before hanging up. ¡°Manaid, call Magnus Gaman.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir?¡± Magnus answered.


    Griffin hurried into the control room. ¡°Launch the pyramids. Ishan fighters are coming straight. I want you ready to meet them before they get in firing range.¡±


    Griffin hung up on Magnus, then sat down in front of his display. It flared to life as he connected his personal AI. A hologram of the base appeared before him. On one of the screens, it showed the reading that had set the alarm going.


    The radar had picked up 70 Ishan fighter ships heading towards the moon base. The readout informed Griffin that they had five minutes before the Ishan ships were in firing range.


    The hologram of the base showed twenty-four pyramid fighter ships being launched from hanger two. The base had only been supplied with eight cubic groups. That was only forty-eight pyramid fighter ships the base had to work with. That wasn¡¯t even enough to make one Rubik formation.


    Griffin called Magnus again. ¡°Launch all the pyramids. We don¡¯t have time to be messing around with backups.¡±


    ¡°If I could, I would, sir, but we only have twelve trained pyramid pilots on base. They are all already manning two ships, four would be absurd,¡± Magnus stated.


    ¡°Can they do three?¡± Griffin asked in a panic. He was running out of time and ideas. They only had two minutes before the Ishan fighters reached them.


    Magnus took a second to think. ¡°It would be too risky to give my fighters three ships to worry about. Two is already pushing it. Three would be reckless. Don¡¯t you think you should be evacuating the base? The ships still have some time to get out. I don¡¯t think this battle will end well. We¡¯re horribly outnumbered.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me how to do my job. Just do what you can with the pyramids. I¡¯ll see what I can do from base.¡± Griffin ended the call just to start another. ¡°Manaid, call Officer Manix.¡±


    ¡°The laser guns are preparing. They need another minute to boot up.¡± Manix said automatically, correctly assuming what Griffin was going to ask.


    ¡°Shit! We don¡¯t have that kind of time.¡± He watched as the clock ticked down to thirty seconds.


    Why do they make weapons have a boot-up time? Griffin thought to himself.


    ¡°I¡¯m doing the best I can, sir.¡± Manix replied in a panic.


    ¡°Yes fine. Just start firing as soon as possible.¡± Griffin hung up and looked down at the hologram.


    The pyramid fighter ships had made an arrow formation and were heading to meet the Ishan fighters. He put his head in his hands. Griffin knew nothing they did would prevent the inevitable. He didn¡¯t know what to do, he rarely didn¡¯t know what to do.


    He finally decided. He made a call. ¡°Audrey, send an information package on what''s happening. The fleet needs to know. Also tell the science base something. Not much they can do if the Ishan decides to attack, but still, send something.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir.¡± Audrey hung up.


    Griffin watched in despair as seven, twelve, fifteen of their pyramids were shot down, going red on his hologram. Seven more pyramids were launched immediately, only for ten more to be shot down. The pyramid fighters weren¡¯t going to last long. They were hopelessly outnumbered.


    The laser gun lasted about two minutes. It managed to shoot down ten Ishan fighters before being shot. Griffin began to bite his nails, a nervous habit he hadn¡¯t done in years.


    Griffin finally came to the realisation that not launching the Koi passenger ships had been a mistake. The Ishan would shoot down anything that tried to leave. ¡°Fuck,¡± Griffin said to himself. ¡°Manaid, call Officer Pully.¡±


    When Pully answered the call, Griffin said, ¡°Get the Koi¡¯s ready to launch.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir. They will be ready in two minutes.¡±


    Griffin ended the call, and over the bases PA system he commanded, ¡°Everyone get to hanger three. Koi passenger ships will be departing in two minutes.¡±


    Even though the whole base was evacuating, Griffin stayed seated. Two minutes later, two Koi ships launched. Both were shot down only seconds after they left the base. Every ship that launched didn¡¯t survive more than a minute.


    Griffin just sat and watched the massacre from the control room. He was one of the only people left alive on the moon base. Every pyramid fighter ship had been shot down, and not a single Koi passenger ship had survived.


    Even though nearly everyone on the Volta Moon Base had been killed, the Ishan still sent one last ship to finish them off. It was a massive combat ship with more weapons than the whole Volta Moon Base.


    It shot one nuclear bomb.


    One bomb.


    One explosion.


    And Volta Moon Base was no more.

 Chapter 1 - Lark

    ¡°Two twos.¡± Iris said as she placed two of the snow survival themed cards onto the growing pile in the centre of the circular table in the recreation room.


    ¡°One three.¡± Newt muttered as he rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. Newt looked at his cards so long before speaking; he could have been reading the information printed on the face of the card. Lark was unconvinced anyone had ever read any of the information on the cards. There was so much information, and most of it could be found online with a simple question posed to an AI.


    Phoenix looked down at his hand, squinting his eyes. ¡°Bull shit!¡± he shouted overdramatically, pointing an accusing finger at Newt.


    Newt picked up the stack of cards in the centre of the table with an embarrassed look. He tried to fan his cards, but there were too many for him to hold. Many of the cards fell to the floor. His face flushed red as he scrambled to pick up the fallen cards.


    Lark laughed as they helped to pick up some of Newt''s fallen cards. ¡°You are such a bad liar, Newt. Have you even won this game?¡±


    ¡°Be nice to little Newt, he can¡¯t help if he¡¯s shit at this game. Also, four jacks.¡± Penny said in a playful tone. Lark noticed that Penny put down five cards instead of four, but they loved that lie enough not to say anything. Lark used it all the time to get rid of cards.


    ¡°You can¡¯t call Newt little, he¡¯s fourteen years older than you. You can call him an annoying shit, a motherfucker, a dick, but not little. One queen.¡± Alex contributed. Lark noticed that he looked out the window fleetingly, a sure sign he was lying. Lark also knew that Newt had all four queens, so would let him have the honour of calling Alex out.


    Penny looked at Alex as she looped her arm around Newt''s neck, almost in a chokehold. ¡°Don¡¯t listen, little Newt. He¡¯s just a hater.¡±


    Newt ducked out from under Penny¡¯s arm and said to Alex and Penny, ¡°I¡¯m the most senior scientist here. I¡¯ve been on more missions than you and Alex combined. I can fend for myself. Also, bullshit Alex. I have all four queens.¡±


    Alex picked up the deck with a murderous look at Newt. ¡°My apologies, Dr. Pollock. Would you like me to clean your shoes with my spit as an apology since you are so senior?¡± Alex teased Newt.


    Lark cut in before things could get out of hand. ¡°Just play the game and stop making fun of Newt, even if he deserves it. Three sixes.¡± Lark really put down two sixes and one five, but no one called them on it. Lark knew no one would. One six was with Newt, and the other was with Penny.


    With as much sarcasm as Newt could manage, he said, ¡°Thanks, Lark.¡± Newt picked up his hand again. He attempted to organise his cards, but they kept falling. Alex, Phoenix, and Penny laughed. Iris looked at Newt with a small amount of pity. She was the second most senior scientist on the base, so she felt some sympathy towards Newt. She also wasn¡¯t great at cards.


    This was normal for games ¡®night¡¯, - there was no night on Volta since it was a tidally locked planet; the scientist on Volta ran on the twenty-five days of Kunyumba, the capital planet of the Nyenyezi empire ¨C Newt was a terrible liar, so would always lose, and everyone (except Iris) would take the micky out of him. Lark was concerningly good at lying and often won, they had spent years learning how to keep track of where cards went. It was Alex¡¯s life goal to beat Lark one day. Lark was dead set on never letting that happen.


    The personal AI carrier on Larks figure buzzed. Lark checked the time, then set their three cards down on the table. ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a minute. I just need to do the daily report to the moon base.¡±


    Lark began to walk out of the recreation room. Without even looking back, they said, "Alex, don¡¯t even think about looking at my cards. Penny, I give you full permission to slap him if he tries.¡±


    ¡°Yes captain.¡± Penny replied with a laugh and salute. She then slapped Alex across the face.


    Alex clutched his cheek. ¡°Hey! What was that for? I haven¡¯t even touched their cards.¡±


    ¡°You were thinking about it.¡± Penny laughed.


    Lark left the recreation room and walked down the short, brightly lit corridor to the control room. Lark sat down in front of their display, connecting Callaid, their personal AI. ¡°Callaid, connect to Volta Moon base direct audio communication.¡±


    ¡°Unable to fulfil request.¡± Lark¡¯s personal AI said in a cool toneless voice.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Connection to Volta moon base disconnected or unavailable.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean, Callaid?¡± Lark''s voice took on a more panicked tone.


    ¡°Something has happened to the Volta moon base communication system, leading to the inability to communicate with them in any way.¡±


    ¡°Do you know what happened?¡±


    ¡°No information is available to me, but there is one unread text file from the Volta moon base. Would you like to read it?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    A file appeared on the screen. It read:


    12<sup>th</sup> September 2314, 18:33 (Volta Science Base time)


    From: Message from Audrey Ness, Communication Officer on Volta Moon Base


    To: Lark Evans, Commander of the Volta Science Expedition.


    We have been attacked by an Ishan fleet. I believe they intercepted the last information package that was sent by you. At the time of sending, it is not looking good for us. If you get no more transmissions from Volta moon base, send a message through the Mawu communication mariner to the Anapeza fleet. We are hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Best of luck, Commander Evans.


    ¡°Fuck! Callaid, have there been any more transmissions from the Moon Base?¡± Lark yelled.


    Callaid replied calmly. ¡°No other information has been sent from the moon base.¡±


    ¡°Is there any indication of what happened?¡±


    ¡°The spectrometer is picking up an unusual amount of gamma rays, which suggest the use of nuclear weaponry. This assumption is also backed up by the information in the message from Audrey Ness: Ishan fleets often use nuclear power.¡±


    Not only had they lost contact with the moon base, the moon base was also their connection to the Anapeza fleet.


    Lark ran back into the recreation room. The volta crew looked at them in surprise. Lark wasn¡¯t one to get panicked easily. ¡°Something has happened to the Moon base. They were attacked by an Ishan fleet. I think they were nuked!¡± Lark cried to the assembled crew. Their panic was mirrored by the crew.


    Phoenix stood up sudenly, letting his chair clatter to the floor. ¡°What the fuck!¡±


    ¡°Phoenix, Iris. Try to see if you can see what happened to the moon. The moon should be visible at this time. I¡¯m going to try to get through to the Anapeza fleet through Mawu communication Mariner.¡± Lark commanded.


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    ¡°Is there anything you want us to do, commander?¡± Newt asked.


    Lark began to leave the recreation room. ¡°Figure out what communication options we have. I want to know how screwed we are.¡±


    Lark hurried back to the control room, glancing out every window they passed to see if the moon was visible.


    When they got back to the control room, they reconnected Callaid to the display by placing their personal AI carrier on the scanner. ¡°Callaid create a communication route to Mawu communication Mariner.¡±


    ¡°Connecting¡­ connected.¡± Larks AI replied.


    A reading from Mawu communication Mariner came up on Lark¡¯s screen. It was old, clunky technology, designed for text-only long-range communication. The Mawu communication Mariner was practically a floating lump of metal in space that could convey messages. A central lump of metal that could convey messages to lots of places in the Nyenyezi empire, but still just a lump of metal drifting in space. Lark was pretty sure it was technology from the twenty second century.


    A question appeared on Lark''s screen. Mawu communication Mariner was asking for the access password. Lark quickly typed it in quickly. The sequence of numbers and letters had been drilled Lark during training. A new question replaced the last one.


    Where should this communication link be connected?


    Lark typed in, Amayi ship of the Anapeza fleet.


    Connecting¡­


    Connected.


    The Mawu communication Mariner took five minutes to connect to the Amayi ship direct text communication system.


    Please enter a message (maximum 200 characters)


    Lark wrote:


    This is Commander Evans from Volta Science Base. We have lost contact with Volta Moon Base. I believe they were hit by a nuke from an Ishan fleet. I await instructions and information.


    Sending¡­


    Sent.


    Time delay meant Lark had to wait for minutes to receive a reply. They spent most of the time waiting, rereading the message from Audrey Ness, and looking out the window. On the tenth reread of the last message from the moon base, Lark gave up and began to stare out the window to see if they could see the moon from this angle. They couldn¡¯t


    After twenty minutes, a reply appeared on Lark¡¯s screen.


    We are aware of the Volta Moon Base situation. The Anapeza fleet is on its way to take care of the Ishan fleet. We will reach you in about 222 days. Continue scientific experiments as normal.


    Lark reread the message three times, sure they had misread it. Continue as normal. How were they meant to continue as normal when the moon base had been shot down and they were stuck on a frozen wasteland with limited supplies until the Anapeza fleet reached them? Lark thought to themself.


    Lark put their head in their hands and began to laugh at the pure obscenity of the situation they had found themselves in. It was either Lark laughed or cried. This was all so much to take in for them. Lark had been on three other exoplanet science expeditions; none had ever gone as wrong as this one. Mostly the moon stayed in contact with them.


    Shaking their head, Lark began to start planning the bases next moves. The Anapeza fleet wasn¡¯t going to be able to help them, they would have to help themselves. Lark started by creating a countdown clock for two hundred and twenty-two days. Next, Lark sent a diplomatic reply to the Anapeza fleet.


    We will await your arrival and will continue our scientific schedule as usual. I will send you information on our supplies soon.


    Once the message was sent, Lark began to leave the control room to talk to their crew. Lark didn¡¯t disconnect their personal AI and gave it one command before leaving, ¡°Run a full diagnostic on the food supply we have on base and tell me how long everything will last. Figure out if we can make it last until the Anapeza fleet gets here.¡±


    ¡°Running full diagnostic on bases food supply now,¡± Callaid replied.


    Lark rushed into the recreation room. All six members of the crew were now assembled. ¡°Phoenix, Iris, what did you see?¡± Lark asked as they fiddled with the hem of their white shirt.


    ¡°A lot of destruction. Think you were right, it was hit by a nuke,¡± Phoenix said.


    Lark cursed silently. "Newt, did you guys find any alternative communication options?¡±


    Newt looked hesitantly at Alex and Penny before speaking. ¡°Our only option is the Mawu communication Mariner. All the backup satellites have been taken out, and obviously the moon base is out of the question. That nuke would have whipped out everything on it.¡±


    ¡°Did you get through to the Anapeza fleet?¡± Iris asked.


    ¡°Yes. We have a way to reach the Anapeza fleet, but they won¡¯t be able to get to us for about seven months.¡± Lark slumped down into a seat as they said it.


    ¡°Seven months!¡± Penny cried. ¡°We were resupplied over three months ago; one supply is only meant to last six months. Will our supplies last that long?¡±


    Lark their head in their hands. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m getting my AI to run a diagnostic on that now. We¡¯ll know soon how fucked we are.¡±


    ¡°So even if the Ishan fleet decides not to nuke us as well, there is still a chance we die of starvation?¡± Phoenix asked, sounding pissed.


    Lark looked at the crew, their face darkening. ¡°Yes. We are going to have to figure out how to make our food last until the Anapeza fleet arrives. I¡¯ll wait to see what my AI says is plausible, all I know is we will be rationing.¡±


    Alex looked most shocked at that news. ¡°No! I love my food!¡±


    ¡°Stop being a dumbass, Alex,¡± Iris said as she hit Alex on the back of the head.


    Lark got it together and stood up. ¡°I¡¯m going to see if Callaid has finished the diagnostic.¡±


    Lark left the recreation room. When they were out of sight of the crew, Lark leant against the wall and let silent tears fall. Lark had known a lot of people on the moonbase; the whole crew had. Lark now had to figure out how to survive this situation. They were stuck on a tiny exoplanet sitting just on the edge of the habitable zone for m-dwarfs, so the temperature rarely got above negative ten degrees Celsius.


    Even though Lark just wanted to cry then go to sleep, there was work to do. Six people were under Lark''s control, and if they broke down now, the whole crew would struggle. Lark let themselves have a few more seconds to let out all the pent-up emotions before whipping away the tears and pushing off the wall. Lark walked back into the bright control room and sat down in the black swivel chair.


    ¡°Is the diagnostic complete, Callaid?¡±


    ¡°It is complete. Would you like it to be shown on your screen?¡±


    Lark rubbed their eyes, ¡°Yes.¡±


    The diagnostic appeared on Lark''s screen. It read:


    Breakfast meal packs: 548


    Lunch meal packs: 541


    Dinner meal packs: 540


    With three meals per day per person (3,000 calories) food will last three months.


    With two meals per day per person (2,000 calories) food will last three months and sixteen days.


    With one meal per day per person (1,000 calories) food will last nine months, but malnutrition will occur in three months.


    (All calculated with emergency food supply.)


    Lark finished reading with a groan. They truly were fucked.


    ¡°Callaid, how long would our food last if we ate 1,200 a day?" That was the minimum number of calories a person could eat while still being able to function.


    Callaid replied almost immediately. ¡°The food would last you six months and twenty days.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯ll work. The last ten days we can eat the emergency food supply. It will suck, but it will work.¡± Lark said to themself.


    Lark pulled up the Mawu communication Mariner interface and typed a message to the Anapeza fleet.


    We have just enough food to last us until your ETA, but it includes only eating half the calories we should. Is there anyway you can get a supply ship to us sooner?


    Once the message was sent, Lark left the control room and went to break the news to their crew. Alex was not going to be happy about the rationing.


    Lark sat down at the recreation room¡¯s round table. Iris had her head in her hands, her brown hair falling in curtains around her face. Penny had her arm around Iris in a comforting gesture. Penny tapped her fingers on the table in an impatient gesture. Phoenix was absent mindedly fiddling with his safety pin necklace. Newt had two fingers resting on his neck; when Lark had asked why he did that, he said it clamed him to feel his own pulse under his fingers. It reminded him that he was alive and could survive whatever was happening. Alex had made fun of him for sounding cheesy, but Lark understood where he was coming from. Being to hear or feel a heartbeat had a certain calming quality to it.


    Alex was trying to make a card tower with the abandoned cards. Alex looked unconcerned by the whole situation, but Lark knew better. His leg was jiggling up and down, and his eyes kept darting around the room. He was just as stressed as the rest of them.


    Lark picked at their nails. ¡°We have enough food to last us until the Anapeza fleet arrives.¡±


    Penny perked up. ¡°That¡¯s great. I didn¡¯t know they sent us that much food in each resupply.¡±


    Iris looked down at their hands. ¡°They don¡¯t. We are going to have to cut what we normally eat in half to make it last.¡±


    Alex looked horrified at the news. ¡°Half! That¡¯s only about one thousand five hundred calories. I can survive off that.¡±


    Lark flinched at Alex¡¯s outburst. They wouldn¡¯t normally react in that way, but today had been very stressful for Lark. They felt on the cusp of a panic attack. ¡°I know it sucks. But it¡¯s our only option. I will be cutting down on the amount of field work we do so we burn fewer calories, but that¡¯s the best we can do.¡±


    ¡°Is there anything we can grow to make more food?¡± Newt asked.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t give us any fresh ingredients, and the PH of the soil is way too high to be able to grow anything we eat anyway." Lark said.


    ¡°We could see if there are any plants that are edible to people here on Volta. That was going to be one of our experiments later in the expedition, so we have all the supplies to test.¡± Phoenix said. He was the botanist for the mission and had been looking forward to finding edible plants on Volta since the start of the mission.


    That gave Lark some amount of hope. Volta was a heavily forested planet despite the cold climate. If they could find edible plants here, it would save them a lot of hungry days. ¡°I nearly forgot about that. We¡¯ll get started on that soon, but for now we will still eat half rations just in case.¡±

 Chapter 2 - Phoenix

    The Volta planeside science expedition was Phoenix¡¯s first exoplanet experience, and it had turned out like this. He had elected to go to Volta because of its huge potential for edible plant life. All through his life he had wanted to explore exoplanets to find one that could grow plants edible for humans without intervention. Out of the list of expeditions he could have gone on, this was the most promising. Volta had an earthlike atmosphere, similar soil makes up, and was densely forested with plants that had resemblance to earth planets, except for the purple leaves.


    The rovers that had been sent down to Volta had found microorganisms, which was a promising sign of more advanced animal life. This planet was destined to be a treasure trove for a botanist, like Phoenix, but now he was cursing himself for choosing this mission. He could have just gone to one of the planets being terraformed, but no, he had to choose this stupid planet. He was way too young to die of starvation or by being blown up by an Ishan fleet.


    Now all Phoenix could hope for was that he could help save all their asses with his mad botany skills. Phoenix was also the specialist in space travel and communication for the base, so he was hoping to help in those areas as well. He had spent a year as a pyramid fighter pilot for his home planet, Tsitsi. He had loved controlling the pyramids; it was a bit like playing a video game, but his passion had always been in botany on exoplanets, and now look where that had gotten him.


    Lark praising his idea about pushing up the edible plant life experiment felt amazing, but it only muted the voices that were getting louder in his head for a few seconds. He wished they would just shut up. The cacophony of voices telling him everything he had done wrong in his entire life was giving him a headache.


    Phoenix absentmindedly grabbed the dagger earing that hung from his right ear. The only reason Phoenix wore jewellery was to fiddle with. He liked jewellery that was pretty and meant something, but it was really there to stop him from picking at his skin.


    ¡°You should all go get some rest. We¡¯ll start to work on surviving tomorrow.,¡± Lark said to the assembled scientists.


    There were some murmured good nights and sleep wells from the crew as they left the recreation room.


    Phoenix got up and began to make his way to the door, but Lark put a hand on his shoulder. Phoenix turned around to look at Lark.


    Lark looked at him in an almost parental way. ¡°Make sure to sleep. Take some sleeping pills, I want you in working order tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Will do, I¡¯ll take some later.¡± Phoenix turned to leave again.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Phoenix. Everything will be okay. I¡¯ll make sure of it.¡± Lark gave Phoenix one of their scanning stares. ¡°If you ever need to get anything out, come talk to me. My door is always open.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Thanks.¡± Phoenix then left the recreation room and headed down the corridor to his bedroom.


    Phoenix was always amazed at how well Lark could read people. No matter how hard he tried to hide his emotions, Lark could tell what he was feeling. Sometimes Phoenix was convinced they could mindread. Phoenix wished he was as good at reading people as Lark, he spent so much of school stumbling over social situations trying to figure out the right thing to say. Lark seemed to be able to pull the correct phrase or gesture out of thin air.


    Phoenix¡¯s room was small. The walls had poster after poster from his favourite video game, Command the Galaxy. It was a game where you were given a fleet of ships, and you had to command them to victory. A victory would often win you another solar system that could be mined to help expand your empire. Phoenix loved the game because not only was the play amazing, but the story around the battels was also deep and philosophical. It asked questions about what defines evil, how bad is subjective, and the morals of killing.


    Phoenix loved that he had been able to decorate his rooms. The Volta expedition was supposed to last two years, so they had been kind enough to allow them to make a home out of the base.


    Phoenix started to get ready for bed. First, he took off the ring and earpiece that connected to his AI, Ellaid. He had named his AI when he was twenty-five and had regrated it ever since. It was named after his high school girlfriend, Ella. He broke up with Ella soon after he turned twenty-six after a three-year relationship. Phoenix knew he could get it changed, but he had gotten used to the name, five years of using a name and it sticks. Also, the paperwork to change your personal AI¡¯s name was so painful, Phoenix swore they made it as difficult as possible on purpose to turn people off from changing their AI¡¯s name. It took about three months just to get the paperwork approved and another two months to have it actually changed.


    Phoenix changed into the baggy shirt and the loose shorts he slept in. Looking in the mirror that hung on the wall next to his desk, he took off his dagger earring and small emerald stud, then put in his sleepers. He ran his fingers through his short blue hair. The moment Phoenix had turned twenty-five, he got his hair permanently changed to blue. It was the first thing he had purchased with his own grown-up money.


    Finally, Phoenix went to the bases shared bathroom to finish getting ready for bed. Phoenix gazed at the Volta landscape from the small bathroom window as he brushed his teeth. It was covered in purple-leafed trees and snow, the sun was as high in the sky as ever.


    The plants on Volta had a very similar make-up to plants on earth, but the soil was deficient in most things that make leaves green on earth. Volta plants had minimal amounts of chlorophyll in the plants chloroplasts. Volta soil had limited amounts of potassium and phosphorus but elevated amounts of anthocyanin. Phoenix was still amazed that plant life was even able to grow in such harsh conditions and with such a dim sun.


    Volta was three times the size of earth, but half of it was uninhabitable for humans. The dark side of volts had rarely gotten above negative fifty degrees Celsius. The temperature on Volta along the equator only got above negative ten degrees when its orbit brought it closest to 58-Normania, the M-Dwarf at the centre of the Normania solar system.


    Phoenix finished brushing his teeth just as Penny came in.


    ¡°Oh, sorry, Phoenix. I¡¯ll come back in a minute.¡± Penny began to leave the bathroom.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Penny. I just finished.¡±


    Penny walked back into the bathroom, and Phoenix began to leave. ¡°Wait, Phoenix. Are you all good? You seemed really on edge before.¡±


    With a forced smile, Phoenix said, ¡°I¡¯m okay. Just a lot to take in, you know, the moon base.¡± He gestured upwards with a fake laugh.


    Penny nodded. Phoenix then left Penny to her ¡®night¡¯ routine. He was a bit surprised that she had noticed he was stressing out. Phoenix had always thought he was good at hiding his emotions, but Lark and Penny had read him like an open book. He supposed that they had known each other for some time and they knew his history, but still, he would have to work on hiding his emotions.


    When Phoenix got back to his room, he fell onto the bed with a long sigh. He culched his head, waiting for the voices to stop. He was ready to get some sleep.


    He grabbed the small container of sleeping pills from his bedside table. He took two with a sip of water. ¡°Now I just have to wait for them to kick in,¡± Phoenix muttered to himself.


    Phoenix lay back on the pillows and picked up his small display screen. He pulled up the book he was reading. It was a high fantasy gay romance. It was one of his guilty pleasures but was a great escapism book.


    The sleeping pills finally hit after half an hour. Phoenix put his display down and pulled the blankets over himself. He got to sleep quickly for the first time in weeks. Modern medicine was a magical thing. He didn¡¯t even have a single nightmare.


    ***


    When Phoenix woke up, he felt well rested. He checked the time; the clock on his bedside table read, five thirty-one am. That was two hours later than he usually slept.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Even so, the rest of the base wouldn¡¯t wake for another half an hour. Phoenix stretched before getting out of bed. He put on the carrier for his AI and slipped on both his earpieces. ¡°Ellaid, play my morning after I had a really good sleep playlist.¡±


    The upbeat music began to play, washing away the cobwebs from his mind. Phoenix danced as he pulled on his clothes. He loose princess-sleeved white shirt and flowy black pants held up with a heat regulation belt. The bases temperature was well regulated, but Phoenix¡¯s body was not. He would often have hot or cold flushes, so he just used the belt to minimise them.


    Once he finished getting dressed, he moved to the small desk in the corner of the room. With a scan of his ring, he connected his AI to the display system. He booted up Command the Galaxy. A small hologram of his empire emerged from his holographic device. With spoken and gestural commands, he managed to conquer two more solar systems by the time his ¡®time to get your ass to work¡¯ alarm went off.


    He disconnected Ellaid from his personal display after making sure the auto save was really working. He wasn¡¯t going to lose his progress again. Giving himself a quick once-over in the mirror, Phoenix left his room to face the consequences of no longer having a moon base.


    When Phoenix left his safe haven, the reality of the world came crashing down on him. He was now stuck on a frozen wasteland for seven months. The original mission was meant to last for another year, but at least then they had had a way off Volta. Now if anything went wrong, there was nothing Phoenix or any of the other scientists could do but hope for the best.


    When Phoenix entered the recreation room, some of the others were already eating. The voices in his head had started again.


    ¡°Half rations! Half. I¡¯ll be nothing but a stick by the time the fleet gets here.¡± Alex was complaining loudly to Iris.


    Iris slapped Alex across the face. ¡°Stop being dumb. None of us are happy about the rations, but it¡¯s the only way to make the food last, so suck it up.¡±


    ¡°Morning Phoenix, there¡¯s some tea for you on the bench.¡± Newt said, sipping at his own overlarge mug of tea.


    Phoenix grabbed his tea and sat down next to Penny. ¡°Thanks Newt. Sleep well, Penny?¡±


    ¡°No. The fucking moon was blown up, and of course I didn¡¯t sleep well. I couldn¡¯t shake the very odd feeling that we may be blown up as well. I have no idea where those thoughts came from,¡± Penny said sarcastically.


    ¡°Those thoughts really are a mystery,¡± Phoenix replied with a laugh.


    Lark sat down next to Phoenix. ¡°Phoenix, did you get any sleep?¡±


    ¡°Yep. Those sleeping pills work wonders. Somehow, I had the best sleep in a few days despite the recent events.¡± Phoenix knew he could take the sleeping pills more often, but he hated the thought of becoming dependent on them.


    ¡°About the events yesterday. I¡¯m pushing up your experiments on edible plants. I really hope you find some because I cannot take much more of Alex¡¯s complaining and it¡¯s only been one morning. I want you to start planning and experimenting as soon as possible.¡± Lark took a bite of their breakfast. ¡°Have you eaten yet, Phoenix, Penny?¡±


    Penny got up. ¡°Was just about to get some food. Are we thinking full meal at breakfast, half at dinner?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I think that will be the best way to do it,¡± Lark replied.


    Penny nodded, then went to get food. ¡°Can you make me breakfast?" Phoenix called after Penny fluttering his eyelashes.


    ¡°Fine, but only because I¡¯m a nice person,¡± Penny said, not bothering to look back at Phoenix.


    ¡°Very kind, Penny. Truly the kindest.¡± Phoenix took a sip of his tea. ¡°Newt! Make the tea stronger next time. This practically water with some milk.¡± Phoenix exclaimed.


    ¡°Tea is water with milk.¡± Newt called back.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s flavoured water with milk. This tea is missing the flavour.¡±


    Lark put a hand on Phoenix¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Stop shouting. It¡¯s too early in the morning for that.¡±


    ¡°Sorry Lark.¡± Phoenix said as he hung his head in sarcastic gesture of shame.


    Penny came back with both their breakfasts. "Thanks, Penny, you¡¯re a real one,¡± Phoenix said as he took the plate from Penny.


    Phoenix stood up, his plate and mug in hand. ¡°I may run away now. I want to start planning the experiments.¡±


    ¡°Stay for another few minutes. I want to talk to all of you.¡± Lark said, resting a hand on Phoenix¡¯s arm.


    Phoenix sat back down and started eating his breakfast.


    Lark stood up and took a spot that overlooked all the Volta scientists. Everyone went silent to listen to them.


    ¡°So, we don¡¯t have a moon base. We have enough materials to last us till the Anapeza fleet arrives. The water reclaimer, solar panels, wind farm, and basic communication are all working smoothly. I¡¯m cutting down and prioritising certain science experiments. We can¡¯t do a lot of the experiments anyway, without the moon base. The first experiment I want to get started on is the edible plant life one. Phoenix, a lot of this one is your speciality, but I want Newt to help you. Penny, I want you running frequent checks on all the bases hardware and software. We want to catch everything early. Me and Iris are going to start testing the purity of the snow and groundwater. I don¡¯t expect our water reclaimer to fail, but I want a backup for everything. Alex, I want you to check the weather for as far into the future as possible. I want to know what to expect. Any questions?¡± Lark finished.


    Everyone shook their heads.


    Lark clapped. ¡°Good. Get to work when you¡¯re ready. If you do have any questions at any point, ask.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll finish eating then we can get started,¡± Iris said to Lark.


    Phoenix walked over to Newt, his breakfast and mug in hand. ¡°I¡¯ll meet you in the lab.¡± Phoenix gave Newt a two-figure salute before heading for the door.


    ¡°Don¡¯t eat in the lab, Phoenix!¡± Newt yelled after Phoenix.


    ¡°Too late,¡± Phoenix called back, flipping Newt off.


    Newt stood up and shouted, ¡°Fuck you.¡±


    ¡°Please do,¡± Phoenix laughed as he retreated further down the corridor.


    ¡°You are insufferable!¡± Newt said as he sat back down.


    Phoenix and Newt were pretty good friends. They just liked to joke around with each other. Newt found Phoenix funny, and Phoenix respected Newt as a scientist. Newt had many awards for his discoveries on exoplanets about how planets recovered after mass extinctions. That was why he had come to Volta.


    Volta had been through a mass extinction after the atmosphere got thin, allowing the temperature to go so low on Volta that parts of the atmosphere began to freeze, and the ultraviolet rays began to break up the water into hydrogen and oxygen. The only living species to survive were microorganisms living deep enough in the planet''s crust that the temperature was survivable.


    But Newt was most intrigued by Volta because, since it was a frozen planet, there was a chance that the whipped-out species had been preserved in ice. He was going to be pissed if he couldn¡¯t conduct his expeditions to try to find persevered species from before the mass extinction.


    When Phoenix got to the lab, he sat down at his workbench. Phoenix connected his personal AI to the lab network and booted up his display.


    Phoenix put in his second earpiece. ¡°Eallaid, play my chill lab work playlist.¡±


    He opened the AI system he had designed as a university project. It took the data from surveillance drones about soil make-up and plant species distribution to make guesses about where edible plant life was most likely to grow. Phoenix had a hypothesis that a lot of plants on Volta would be toxic to humans due to the elevated amounts of selenium in the soil that was a source of nutrients for a lot of the plants on Volta. With the amount Phoenix had found in one of the large leaves of the most common tree on Volta, a person would be lucky to escape without organ failure if they ate most plants on Volta.


    Phoenix started by putting all the data he had collected from the general surveillance drone into his AI system. It would take a minute or two for it to come back with answers because of the sheer amount of data it had to process.


    Phoenix had been so excited when the mission organisers had said they wanted to use his AI program. Phoenix had only been able to use it on small sample areas during university from public databases, so to be able to use it on a whole planet was a dream come true.


    The surveillance drone technology hadn¡¯t been new when he had trained the AI model, but no one had used the technology to analyse the likelihood for edible plants.


    Phoenix was lost in his work and music, so when a hand appeared on his shoulder, it made his fight or flight instincts kick in. Phoenix leapt from his chair and slapped the thing that had scared him.


    It was Newt.


    ¡°Shit! Sorry Newt! You scared me.¡± Phoenix stumbled over his words, his heart still beating at an unhealthy rate.


    ¡°Yeah, I noticed,¡± Newt said, rubbing his cheek where he had been hit. ¡°How¡¯s the analysis going?¡±


    Phoenix sat back down, pausing his music and taking out one of his earbuds. ¡°I¡¯m just running the surveillance drone data we took a few days ago through the AI. It should have the results soon.¡±


    Newt pulled a seat up next to Phoenix. ¡°Do you need me to do another sweep of an area with the surveillance drone?¡±


    ¡°No, not yet anyway. I¡¯ll wait for the data, then we¡¯ll do a thorough evaluation of the areas the AI says are most likely for edible plant life. Once we get that data, we¡¯ll collect samples and run some tests on them in the lab.¡±


    Newt nodded, scooting his chair closer as the AI¡¯s analysis began to come through. ¡°That sounds reasonable.¡±


    A map of Volta appeared on Phoenix¡¯s screen. The map was marked with a mixture of greens, yellows, oranges and reds. Most of the map was either red or orange, but small pockets were marked with green and yellow.


    Newt lent closer to the screen. ¡°I¡¯m guessing the green areas are most likely to have what we¡¯re looking for?¡±


    If they hadn¡¯t been working, Phoenix would have made a sarcastic comment, but he did have some amount of professionalism. ¡°Yep. Those are the areas we want to look into most, but I think we should probably look into the yellow and light orange areas as well, just to be safe.¡± Phoenix used a pen to point at the areas they would start their search.


    ¡°What is the AI basing its assumptions on?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s mostly going off the soil composition and the makeup of the leaves and seeds. It uses some atmospheric data as well. Mostly for Volta, it doesn¡¯t need to investigate atmosphere. It¡¯s nearly identical to earth. We should look into the areas it¡¯s marked green a bit more. Could you please investigate these areas?" Phoenix pointed out three of the six fully green areas. ¡°I want to know what the landscapes are like. I¡¯ll do the other three. We can start with that, then move onto the yellow and orange areas.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll get started on that.¡± Newt stood up and sat down at his own workbench, powering up his display. ¡°Could you send me the map?¡±


    Phoenix nodded. ¡°Eallaid, send the surveillance map to Newt.¡±


    Both men began work on examining the landscapes marked green. Compiling all the information into one shared spreadsheet.

 Chapter 3 - Alex

    Alex knew they were all forgetting something, but he couldn¡¯t figure out what it was. He continued to eat his breakfast as he racked his brain. It was important. He knew that. If it was so important, why couldn¡¯t he remember what it was? His brain worked in magical and mystical ways that not even he could understand.


    Then it came to him. His discovery yesterday.


    Lark was starting to leave the recreation room. ¡°Lark! Wait,¡± Alex said, leaping to his feet.


    ¡°Is everything okay, Alex?¡± Lark turned around with a look of concern someone normally gets when their friend leaps to their feet and yells at you.


    ¡°No. Well yes, but no. It¡¯s about the discovery of Kuyenda on Volta.¡±


    Lark¡¯s eyes widened. It had clearly slipped their mind as well. ¡°Shit. I forgot about that. I got so caught up on survival.¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s the reason the Ishan Empire got interested in Volta so suddenly.¡± Alex ran his finger through his short, curly brown hair.


    ¡°That would make sense. We know that the Ishan¡¯s also use Kuyenda in ships. Oh? I don¡¯t know what to do.¡± That was unusual. Alex wasn¡¯t sure he could name the last time Lark had been unsure. They always seemed to know what to do; that was why Lark made such a great commander.


    ¡°Do you think it¡¯s still worthwhile to look into its distribution and depth?¡±


    Lark came back to themselves with all the answers again. ¡°Yes, but not right now. For now, I want you to investigate weather. Once we¡¯re more comfortable in this situation, you can start looking into Kuyenda on Volta.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Lark. I¡¯ll get the report on weather by the end of the day.¡± Alex sat back down to finish his breakfast as though nothing had happened. He was pissed about half rations, but there wasn¡¯t much he could do. He could just let the others starve, but he wasn¡¯t that much of an ass.


    Iris scooted the chair closer to Alex and, in the branch of Nyenyez from Zachitika, said, ¡°how are you holding up Alex?¡±


    Iris was Alex¡¯s closest friend on the Volta Science Base. Alex and Iris lived on the same planet, Zachitika, and had been on one other mission together. They had both worked on a mining planet for two years and had become very close in that time. They would often speak in the Zachitika branch of Nyenyez when they were alone together. Out of respect for the others, they only spoke universal Nyenyez so everyone could understand without the use of their personal AI¡¯s translation feature.


    It was common knowledge that anyone can understand any language with the help of their AI, but it was polite, if possible, to speak in a language both parties could understand without need for translation.


    Universal Nyenyez was the language that could be spoken anywhere, and someone would understand you. Many branches of Nyenyez had been created in the hundred and fifty years of Nyenyez being spoken due to the communication delay between planets. Universal Nyenyez was a language that was forced not to evolve, so no matter how much time passed, it would be the same.


    ¡°Fine. This is just all a lot to take in.¡±


    Iris put an arm around Alex¡¯s shoulders. The arm was necessary, Alex felt comforted just listening to someone speak his mother tongue. ¡°I get it, but we¡¯ll get through this.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just most annoyed that I can¡¯t contact my husband. He gets so pissed if I don¡¯t message him for one day. What is he going to say when I miss seven months¡¯ worth of messages?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure he knows what¡¯s going on. I can¡¯t imagine he¡¯ll get mad at you.¡±


    Alex sighed. ¡°Joke Iris. It was a joke. I know he won¡¯t be mad at me. It¡¯s out of my control.¡±


    ¡°Sorry,¡± Iris said defensively. ¡°Your sense of humour is kinda screwed.¡±


    Alex took the last bit of his breakfast. ¡°Your right. I¡¯ll just go to the shop and buy a new one. Need anything while I¡¯m there?¡±


    Alex got up, picking up his breakfast plate.


    Iris laughed. ¡°You are so strange, Alex. No matter how long I¡¯ve known you, you never seem to get less strange.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re pretty strange yourself.¡±


    ¡°I think we¡¯re all pretty strange on this base. We all willingly decided to go on an exoplanet science mission. That¡¯s pretty strange.¡±


    Alex laughed. ¡°I guess you¡¯re right. I¡¯m going to get to work. I have a lot of weather to predict.¡±


    ¡°See you, Alex. I¡¯ll probably see you in the lab.¡±


    Alex nodded before going to put his plate away. He went into the small kitchen area and placed his plate on the pile of dirty plates that would be auto-cleaned later.


    Before heading to the lab, Alex went to his room to put on his AI carrier. It was one of the things that other people found odd about him, but he refused to eat with his AI on. Something about it felt wrong to him. He liked to have moments of disconnect from AI. He was pretty sure that was something he had inherited from his husband, Levi.


    Alex¡¯s room had a whole section of the small amount of wall space dedicated to shifting image displays of Levi. A string of small fairy lights hung above his bed, they added warmth to the room Alex liked. Alex¡¯s desk had very few things on it besides his personal display and his art supplies. He had only brought a sketch pad and some pencils. That was another odd thing about Alex¡ªhis love for traditional art. Most artists had moved to digital art two hundred years ago, but Alex found drawing physically relaxing.


    Once he had slipped on the ring AI carrier and put in his earbuds, Alex headed to the lab to begin work.


    In the lab, there was the unspoken rule: you are never to interrupt someone while they¡¯re working unless the building was burning down. For this reason, Alex completely ignored Newt, Phoenix, and Penny when he entered the lab. Alex just sat down in front of his display and connected his AI.


    Even though the AI system could do most of the weather predictions on a more established planet, there was still too little data on Volta, meaning Alex had to do a lot more work to get accurate weather predictions. A lot more dull work that would make him want to rip his hair out.


    He booted up the weather-predicting AI and set it working on the data that was being collected by the base¡¯s plethora of sensors. It would be able to go about fourteen days forward. Any more than that would be full guess work instead of partial guesswork.


    This kind of work was boring, monotonous, and long for Alex. It included very little real thinking on his part, just fact-checking the AI. He much preferred weather work where he was analysing the effects of major weather events on the Volta atmosphere and vegetation. He had spent many days working with Phoenix, analysing the way Volta plants reacted to drops and rises in temperature. It was much more interesting than the work he was doing now and, in his opinion, more productive.


    While weather predictions were easy, it was time-consuming. The AI would take two minutes for one day, and Alex, being human, would take ten minutes checking it. The most annoying part for Alex was that nine times out of ten the AI was correct, but regulations stated that he had to be there to check it. There had been enough disasters around relying fully on AI that they were pretty strict on regulations. It pissed Alex off.


    By twelve, Alex had managed to get twelve days of forecasts. He could have done this significantly faster if Volta had had more data. He had been working for two hours and needed a break.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Since there was no lunch to be had, Alex got himself some coffee. Alex had no idea how much coffee they had on the base, but he needed coffee. He wouldn¡¯t start drinking the leaf water Phoenix and Newt favoured until Volta¡¯s snow melted.


    Just as Alex finished getting his coffee, Penny entered the kitchen.


    ¡°We had the same idea,¡± Penny said as she went to the drink dispenser and filled her cup with coffee.


    ¡°I need something to consume instead of lunch. What can I say? I¡¯m a Chachikulu.¡± A Chachikulu was an alien species that eats so much in very short periods of time that it had become a way to describe someone who liked to eat a lot.


    ¡°How¡¯s the work going?¡± Penny asked, leaning against the wall.


    Alex sighed overdramatically. ¡°So dull. I hate doing daily weather predictions.¡±


    ¡°How can you hate doing weather predictions? You¡¯re a fucking meteorologist!¡± Penny exclaimed as she looked at Alex in mock shock.


    ¡°I like analysing the effects of weather on environments, I like predicting major weather events, I like analysing a year of weather data, but I do not like being a weatherman. The AI does all the work for me I just have to go through the tedious task of fact-checking it.¡±


    ¡°You are such a nerd, Alex. You enjoy taking a year of data and analysing it?¡±


    Alex looked Penny with a smirk. ¡°You physically cannot call me a nerd. We are all nerds here. We¡¯re on an exoplanet science mission. Why would you be here if you¡¯re not a nerd?¡±


    Penny stood up straight, holding her coffee in both hands. ¡°Fair enough, but I think you¡¯re more of a nerd than me.¡±


    Penny began to leave the kitchen. Alex called after her, ¡°says the engineer.¡±


    ¡°You cannot say a word about engineers. We are nerds, yes, but you are a meteorologist and geologist. You are probably the biggest nerd on the base.¡±


    Penny left before Alex could defend himself further. Shortly after Penny left, Alex headed back to the lab to finish the weather predictions.


    ¡°Fuck weather predictions,¡± he muttered to himself as he entered the lab.


    ***


    Alex finally finished the weather predictions at one thirty. He had practically died of boredom in that time.


    Alex got up from his seat, stretched, and then walked over to where Iris and Lark were sitting. ¡°So sorry to interrupt you, Lark, but I just finished the weather predictions, and I was wondering if you wanted me to go over them with you?¡±


    ¡°Thanks Alex. Just give me a few minutes. I just have to finish something.¡± Lark didn¡¯t even look up as they spoke.


    Alex wasn¡¯t hurt by Lark not looking at him as they spoke. He understood that when you were in the thick of work, you did not want to be distracted.


    Alex sat back down at his workstation. He had taken some soil samples a couple of days ago and was yet to put them into the system. Alex pulled gloves over his hands. He grabbed the first Ziplock bag of soil from his draw labelled, sample from Zabwino Flats. Next, Alex spread a scoop of the soil onto a slide. Alex slipped the slide under the microscope.


    ¡°Millaid, photograph the sample.¡± Alex commanded his personal AI.


    The photograph appeared on Alex¡¯s screen a second later. He took a few more photos of the first sample of soil, then moved onto the next bag. When he finished with a bag, he carefully sealed it and placed it back in his sample draw.


    It took Alex about half an hour to document all the samples, even so, Lark had not even looked up from their work. Alex recognised he was going to be waiting for some time, so he began to look through the images the AI had flagged as containing microorganisms.


    The first image that Alex looked at had a microorganism that had already been discovered, but the next had one that wasn¡¯t recognised by the AI. He would have to show these to Penny later. Alex had seen a lot of alien life in his time, but it never ceased to amaze him. The way that they looked so similar and yet so different from earth life.


    The fact that earth was a metric for life in Alex¡¯s mind had always confused him. Like most people, he had never even seen the planet, yet he still viewed it as the ideal place for life. Alex had been born and raised on Zachitika. It was one of the Nyenyezi planets that was not counted as a naturally habitable planet. It had been terraformed about a hundred and fifty years ago. His grandparents had been among the first people to live on Zachitika once the terraforming was complete.


    Alex believed that the idea for a habitable planet should be based on Kunyumba. It was a perfect planet for humans. No terraforming had been necessary on the discovery of Kunyumba. Volta was similar in that way. Planets that required no terraforming to support human life were valuable but not too rare. Humans had discovered pretty quickly that, in reality, earth was not actually that unusual. A planet falling in the habitable zone of a star was more likely than was ever predicted. Most planets needed small amounts of work to make the atmosphere breathable or more protective from the sun.


    Volta had piqued interest because it had a naturally occurring, breathable atmosphere. It was interesting to have a planet around an M-type Main-Sequence star with water. A lot of planets around M-Dwarfs had the water boiled out of them during formation. Volta being on the barest edge of the habitable zone for an M-dwarf was a blessing in disguise. It had formed just far enough from the sun that it had not had all the water turned to steam.


    It had always amazed Alex at how much luck was involved in the formation of habitable planets. If Volta had formed with the perfect atmosphere to block out the bulk of the ultraviolet rays, which could have broken up the water molecules, allowing for the hydrogen to escape the atmosphere, leaving too much oxygen to support life. Truly amazing the luck it took to create a habitable planet.


    Alex stopped marvelling at the Volta¡¯s microorganisms when Lark tapped on his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m ready to go over the weather with you.¡± Lark said, pulling a chair next to Alex.


    ¡°Do you know how dumb that sounds? You make it sound like I¡¯m just going to pull up a weather app and we¡¯ll gawk at it together.¡± Alex said pulling up the spreadsheet of the weather for the next fourteen days.


    ¡°Shut up and tell me what to expect.¡± Lark said with a playful slap on Alex¡¯s arm.


    Alex saluted. ¡°Yes commander.¡±


    Lark sighed overdramatically.


    Alex ignored them and stared to tell Lark what to expect. ¡°We will be having very similar weather we are having today with averages of about negative fifteen to twenty for the next week except on Tuesday when the temperature will reach a low of negative thirty degrees and wind speeds will get up to forty kilometres per hour. The only concerning weather event I found in the next fortnight was a storm on Monday next week. It will come with heavy snow and temperatures as low as negative forty degrees.¡±


    ¡°Do you know what wind speeds will look like?¡±


    ¡°About fifty kilometres per hour.¡± Alex said, pointing to the column of the spreadsheet where it showed the predicted wind speeds for each day.


    Lark stood up and said, ¡°thank you, Alex. Could you send me that spreadsheet and tell me if anything updates?¡±


    ¡°Will do commander.¡± Alex said as he turned back to his display.


    He commanded his personal AI to send the spreadsheet to Lark. When that was done, he stretched before standing up. He needed a break.


    The Volta science base was small, with only twelve rooms. It was the smallest of the five exoplanet science missions Alex had been on. Even though it was the smallest base, it was by far his favourite base he had lived on. It had a lot of windows that let the constant Volta daylight stream into the base. It made it feel much more open than any of the other bases Alex had lived on.


    The constant daylight had taken some time for Alex to get used to, but it was still less jarring than the daylight cycle on Wamisala. Wamisala had eight-hour days. It had also been an uncomfortably hot planet. It had a breathable atmosphere but a scary high UV index.


    Alex walked through the corridor of the base and entered his room. He grabbed his towel, toiletries, and a change of clothes, then went to the bathroom for a shower.


    Once he had washed the work off himself, he felt significantly better. Alex sat down at his desk and opened his sketchbook to a fresh page. Putting in both earbuds Alex played his chill playlist and started sketching. Drawing was his way of relaxing. The world melted away when he drew. It was relaxing and comforting.


    Someone pulled him from the world he was sketching out by knocking on his door. He got up and opened it to find Iris.


    ¡°Hey Iris!¡± Alex said with a wave.


    ¡°We¡¯re all having dinner if you want to come.¡±


    Alex took off his AI carrier and earbuds. ¡°I¡¯m coming.¡±


    While they tried to have meals together, it often didn¡¯t work out like that. Since they were all adults, they were allowed to choose when to eat. If they didn¡¯t want to eat when the others were eating, that was fine. No one was going to drag you kicking and screaming to the recreation room. Mostly people eat later because they''re working anyway, and no one on the base would ever have the audacity to pull someone away from their work.


    When Alex entered the recreation room with Iris, Everyone else was there except for Lark. That made sense to Alex, they had been pretty caught up in their work today and probably didn¡¯t want to stop.


    ¡°We are sharing meal rations. You can choose between soup or nachos.¡± Newt said between bites of nachos.


    Alex shuddered at the thought of nachos. He had had bad experiences with them in the past. ¡°I¡¯ll take the soup.¡± Alex spat out hurriedly.


    ¡°God, what do you have trauma with nachos?¡± Phoenix looked at Alex confused as he asked it.


    Alex got his paltry ration of soup from the kitchen. ¡°I don¡¯t want to talk about it, Phoenix.¡±


    ¡°What the fuck did the nachos do to you?" Phoenix laughed.


    ¡°Nachos killed my grandma, okay.¡± Alex said jokingly. Phoenix and Newt laughed.


    Alex sat down between Penny and Iris. ¡°How was the rest of your weather predicting?¡± Penny asked.


    ¡°I nearly died of boredom. We all know the AI is practically always correct, so why do I have to sit there and fact-check it? It¡¯s better at predicting the weather than me!¡± Alex finished by throwing his arms up.


    ¡°Rough. I nearly died of boredom doing diagnostics. I really wanted to look at the microorganisms in those soil samples you collected.¡± Penny sighed.


    ¡°Oh yeah! I documented the samples today, and I¡¯m pretty sure there were some new species in them. We¡¯ll have to have a look at them together tomorrow.¡±


    Penny smiled widely. ¡°That¡¯s amazing! Thanks for documenting them.¡±


    Alex waved a hand at Penny. ¡°It was nothing. I love looking at alien species. They never cease to amaze me.¡±


    Penny nodded. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to look through them with you.¡±

 Chapter 4 - Iris

    Iris didn¡¯t like mealtimes. She had never liked them. Not once in her life had she enjoyed sitting in a room with a bunch of people chewing, often much louder than was necessary. Iris would sit and try not to say too much. If she began to speak, she would probably start yelling at someone for eating. It wasn¡¯t the best look. If it wasn¡¯t impolite, she would have eaten every meal in the safety of her room with both earbuds blasting her music and continuing her work.


    Iris tried her hardest to just listen to Alex and Penny¡¯s trivial conversation. It was some stupid thing about an artist they both liked. Penny enjoyed Alex¡¯s company, but he was also an idiot. A lovable idiot, but still an idiot.


    Since they lived on the same planet, they would often see each other outside of missions. Iris was always careful to avoid dinner invitations. Alex¡¯s husband, Levi, chewed like an animal. It made Iris want to rip his tongue out and tape his lips together, but that would be seen as rude for some mysterious reason.


    Instead of dinner, she would go over for coffee or drinks. They would often go to their favourite bar just down the street from Iris¡¯s house. It was where all the hottest women went, and Alex and Levi liked it because it had pretty good drink prices and all the people there were generally nice, except that one time someone, who was clearly drunk, pointed a loaded chida at Levi. Iris was never fully sure why that had happened, but it was funny looking back on it.


    Iris finished eating her nachos. They had been mediocre at best. The food that was on this mission had been a significant decrease from other missions. That was probably due to its smaller crew and more remote location.


    Iris stood up from the table and took her plate into the kitchen. Newt was in there having a silent battle to get the jar of tea open. It was a sorry sight.


    Iris put her plate down, then asked, ¡°would you like some help with that?¡±


    Newt sighed and passed the jar to Iris. ¡°That would be great. Thanks, Iris.¡±


    Iris opened the jar with ease. She put her muscles down to the primal medical training she had had to do before going on every mission. The justification was always something about what if you lose power or the AI goes down. Iris was pretty sure she would never have to use chest compressions, but it was part of the required training before each exoplanet mission. All the scientists on missions were trained in both modern medical procedures and primal ones, as well as a plethora of other things that would probably be useless. She didn¡¯t understand why anyone else on the base had to be trained on how to use the medical equipment. The only reason they would ever have to know how to use it was if both Newt and Iris managed to die or get injured at the same time. But Iris didn¡¯t make the rules; she just followed them, so now she knew how to do chest compressions as well as a lot of snow survival skills. Maybe she could understand why she would need to know those things as the base doctor, but the other scientists? No, she saw no need for them to know these things. They were scientists, not doctors.


    Once Iris finished opening the not very difficult to open jar. She said good night to Newt and headed to her room.


    Iris¡¯s room was bare except for a wall hanging above her bed that allowed her to feel like she was sleeping in a cave. It was the only thing she had in her room at home, so it was the only thing she would have in her room and an exoplanet millions of kilometres away.


    Iris¡¯s room was always perfectly organised. It was easy for her to keep it organised because there was nothing to mess it up with, unlike Phoenix. He had too much stuff for his own good.


    Iris had a quick shower then changed into her comfortable clothes. While she had told the others she was going to bed, in reality her social time was just up. Now it was time for Iris to be alone and do the things she enjoys, like reading.


    Iris would read about a book a week, sometimes two if they were good. She loved to be able to escape into a different world for a while. Watch someone else¡¯s suffering instead of having to face her own.


    Iris sat down at her desk and pulled up the book she was reading. It was a dystopian novel about if people stopped respecting the rules around personal AI¡¯s. It was an interesting read but not Iris¡¯s favourite. It was too philosophical for her taste, Iris liked literal things. She was a scientist after all.


    Once the clock hit one am, Iris decided to go to sleep. Iris counted herself lucky she didn¡¯t need much sleep to function because she couldn¡¯t find a way to put down a good book.


    ***


    Iris was not a morning person, but her course of work forced her to get up early. When Iris forced herself out of the comfort of bed, she then immediately had to move to decision-making.


    Iris hated choosing what to wear, so mostly she would just wear the same thing each day, just in different colours. It greatly simplified the getting-ready process. Today, Iris chose a white shirt and blue pants combination. It was a loose-fitting shirt with a vest that covered the top half of her torso. The pants were flowy and loose.


    With a hairpin, Iris twisted her hair back into a bun. It was the most practical hairstyle she could do that didn¡¯t leave her feeling as though all her hair was being ripped out.


    Iris sat quietly through breakfast. Newt¡¯s excessively loud chewing drove her insane, but out of politeness, she didn¡¯t rip his tongue out.


    The moment Iris finished eating, she escaped from the sound of chewing and headed to the lab. Iris and Lark had planned some tests to run on ground water, sea water, and melted snow. The sea water was going to be the hardest to get to because covering the sea was a kilometre of ice they were going to have to dig through.


    They were planning on getting snow samples that morning, then getting Newt and Penny to help them collect the seawater and groundwater samples. For the snow samples, they could just get the drones to get them, but Lark decided that they wanted to have a look outside with their own eyes.


    Iris didn¡¯t mind the fact that Lark had decided to go outside to get the samples. She was ready to get some fresh air for a while. Iris liked the smell of Volta air. It had a slight tangy smell that came from the high acidity of the soil and water.


    Iris sat down at her workbench in the lab, booting up her display. She looked over the places they were planning to take samples from. It should only take them about half an hour to get all the snow samples. The groundwater and seawater samples would take much longer even with the help of Newt and Penny.


    A had appeared on Iris shoulder, making her jump. ¡°Sorry!¡± Lark cried. ¡°I was just going to ask you if you were ready to get ready to go outside to get the samples.¡±


    Iris took a few deep breaths to slow her heart rate before replying. ¡°I¡¯m ready. Should we go get geared up?¡±


    Lark nodded. ¡°Could you get the gear from the lab, and I¡¯ll get our packs and skis ready?¡±


    ¡°On it.¡± Iris stood and gave Lark a nod.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Thanks. See you in a minute.¡±


    Iris went to the large cabinet in the corner of the lab and got out the bag labelled: Water sample kit. It was a small waterproof bag with all the supplies necessary to take most types of water samples.


    Once the kit was clutched safely in Iris¡¯s arms, she headed to meet Lark in the room with all the outdoor gear they mostly called the prep room.


    Lark was pushing all the snow survival gear into the small packs. Iris hated having to carry all the snow survival gear. It was a lot of weight, and she couldn¡¯t imagine a time they would ever need any of it. Despite Iris¡¯s personal opinions, regulation instructed them to take all the gear no matter how close or short the expedition was. Iris supposed they didn¡¯t want anyone dying. It wouldn¡¯t have looked good on the exoplanet reports the government did each month.


    Iris wondered what they had written about their situation. Iris wondered how they were going to write their neglect of a while planet off as an accident. She was sure they would find a way. They always did. The government had some very good writers and half-truth tellers.


    Iris held up the water sample kit. ¡°Who¡¯s getting stuck with this?¡±


    Lark grabbed the bag from Iris. ¡°I¡¯ll take it. I have less of the other gear. You should get dressed into your outdoor gear.¡±


    Iris nodded, then grabbed her snowsuit from its hook. The snow suits were thin, well-insulated, and heat-regulated full-body suits. Iris¡¯s was dark blue. Her ski boots were flexible around the toe with some motion in the ankle.


    Lark had finished packing both their bags, so Iris shouldered hers. Next, Iris collected her skis from the rack. They had on ombre from purple to blue with a galaxy pattern.


    The crew of the Volta Science Expedition had had to spend a good chunk of their training to telemark ski. It had been easy for Iris to pick up, as she had done a lot of downhill skiing. She had found out she quite enjoyed telemark turns. The lung position was fast but with a good amount of control.


    Lark grabbed their skis from the rack as well after shouldering their pack.


    ¡°You ready to go?¡± Lark asked Iris.


    ¡°Locked and loaded.¡± Iris replied.


    ¡°Well then, let¡¯s do it.¡±


    Lark pushed the button to open the door. Lark and Iris stepped out into the Volta landscape. The purple trees surrounded the base. Their large leaves create large shadows across the snow. The sky of Volta was also more purple than other planets, just due to the way the atmosphere scattered the light waves.


    Iris liked all the purple on Volta. Purple was one of her favourite colours.


    Iris and Lark secured their feet into the skis. He skis were so light weight it felt almost as though Iris wasn¡¯t wearing anything extra.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go to first sight.¡± Lark said as they began to move off.


    Iris followed behind Lark. Iris pushed off from the snow using the grips on the underside of her skis, then glided on the other ski. It was a fluid and easy motion for Iris, unlike Phoenix, who never quite got the hang of skiing no matter how much practice he had.


    It took them ten minutes to get to the first sample spot. It was in an open area. The snow was pristinely white. Lark and Iris took off their skis and got out the sample supplies.


    With a small spoon, Lark scooped snow into an airtight container. Once the container lid was one and secure, Lark placed the sample back into the bag and slung their pack back onto their back. Iris took a photo of the area and marked it on a map.


    Lark and Iris continued to the next sample spot, about five minutes away from the first. Iris collected the sample and then took the photos of the area. This sample area was densely forested, with very little sunlight reaching them. The snow was only slightly less thick than the areas around it. The temperature in Volta rarely got high enough to even start melting the snow.


    The third sample area was on the other side of the base, nearer the ocean. Oceans were difficult to discern on Volta due to them all being frozen with layers of snow on top. It is mostly safe to walk over the ice, but there are patches that are thinner due to small volcanoes heating up the water, so can break, plunging you into freezing waters.


    To keep the scientists on Volta from walking onto the oceans by accident, they had a small tracker in their outdoor suits that would cause a vibration if they got too close to the ice-covered ocean.


    Lark and Iris arrived at the third sample sight. It had a few short plants but few large trees. The snow was thick and densely packed. The sun was shining directly onto it but not providing enough heat to begin to melt it.


    Lark collected the sample, and Iris took the photos of the area.


    Lark put their pack back on, then turned to Iris. ¡°Could you call Newt and Penny to see if they are ready to do the ocean water sample?¡±


    ¡°On it,¡± Iris replied. Iris clicked a button on her earpiece, turning on the microphone. ¡°Tataid, open a line to Newt and Penny.¡±


    ¡°Open a line? Why don¡¯t you say call?¡± Lark asked as Iris waited for Newt and Penny to accept the call.


    ¡°It¡¯s what we say at the hospital. During my residency, I was told off for saying call. I¡¯m not entirely sure why we do it like that, but we do.¡±


    Lark nodded. The next second, Newt and Penny accepted the call. ¡°Hey Iris. You ready for me?¡±


    ¡°Yes. We are at 0.2233¡ã S, 78.5141¡ã W.¡± Iris read from the map shown on her arm display.


    ¡°Iris, we¡¯ll be there in about fifteen minutes. Could you two start to set up the sample area?¡± Penny said.


    ¡°On it. See you in a bit.¡± Iris ended the call.


    Lark turned to Iris. ¡°We should prep the area for the equipment.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll mark the area. You get the shovels.¡±


    Looking down at her map, Iris found the exact spot they were taking the sample from. She carefully traced a circle around the area they would cut the ice. They had checked before that it was a safe place to stand and place the equipment, but also not where the ice was a kilometre thick. The ice in the area they had chosen was about ten meters thick.


    Once the circle was marked out, Lark passed Iris a shovel, and they began to clear the area of snow. The ice was incredibly clear on Volta. This was due to high amounts of volcanic activity that boiled parts of the ocean before it got incredibly cold again, forming almost completely clear ice. This part of the ocean was shallow enough that Iris could see the seabed. It was a rocky floor with very few water plant species. They were yet to find any animals in the ocean, but due to the thick ice and deep oceans, that was expected. It would take special trips with specific equipment to even have a chance of spotting any life in the ocean, if it even exists.


    Lark and Iris finished clearing the area of snow. They only had to wait five minutes for Newt and Penny to arrive.


    Penny and Newt took off their skis. Penny swung the bag from her back and began to pull out the pieces of the ice cutting machine. She handed the stand pieces to Newt. He assembled it quickly, setting on the area of ice to be cut.


    Penny assembled the drill part. With Newt''s help, she put it on the pyramid-shaped stand. It always amazed Iris that such a powerful and deep-cutting machine could be carried just in two bags.


    ¡°Everyone step at least five meters from the cutter.¡± Penny commanded as she walked away from the fully assembled machine.


    Penny pressed a small button on her arm display, and the dill began to spin. The drill was humming slightly, then began to vibrate as it made contact with the ice. Small pieces of ice flew in all directions as the drill went deeper and deeper.


    It took ten minutes for the drill to cut through all the ice. When it finished, Iris noticed that a small red light danced on Penny''s display. Penny pressed another button, and the drill spun in the opposite direction, freeing it from the ice.


    When the drill was back in its resting position, Penny and Newt took it apart in just a few minutes. Finally, Lark and Iris approached the hole. Iris peered down the deep hole. She could only see blackness. They would have to get some lights and sensors down there to see anything, but they had only prepared for water sampling, so it would have to be a project for another day.


    Lark opened her bag and produced the sampling device. It was a small vacuum with a long tube attached to it on a coil. It was nothing special, but it worked.


    Lark handed the vacuum to Iris. ¡°You set up the correct measurements, then we¡¯ll get the sample, and then head back to the base. I think we should do the groundwater sampling another day or see if we can do it remotely.¡±


    Iris nodded then began to set up the correct measurements on the vacuum. It was a simple task of just imputing the liquid being collected and how much was needed. The vacuum would measure it out perfectly, saving them sometime later.


    Iris gave Lark the thumbs up, and then, together, they fed the tube down the hole. When the tube was sitting in the water, Lark gave Iris the thumbs up. Iris powered up the vacuum and watched as the water came through the clear tube and into the collection container.


    The vacuum automatically stopped when there was exactly one litre of sea water sitting in the collection container.


    Iris unscrewed the collection container from the vacuum and placed it with the other samples after clearly labelling it with where the water came from. Iris closed her bag, then slung it onto her shoulders. Finally, she marked the spot where they had drilled the hole on her map. They would use this same hole for other experiments, such as the sea life experiments Penny was planning on conducting.


    Once all four of the scientists had packed up their things, they put their skis on and headed back to the base. It had been a successful mission for Lark and Iris. Now they would just have to test the water. It was going to be a fun afternoon.