1 Chapter 1

The moons cast an eerie glow on the white terrain, and Nessa pressed her face against the windowpane. She looked at her wrist implant. Only 17:00, but the white season made it dark earlier. Her wrist implant blinked with an alert. Transmission incoming, it read.

A hologram of her mother appeared.

"Nessa, I forgot while we were at home. Would you check the unit to make sure we have enough nourishment packets? There is enough for us, I know, but Trista and her family are coming for the end of the seven-orbit work cycle."

The transmission ended, and Nessa held the implant near her chin.

"On my way."

She approached the teleport chamber and stopped long enough to enter a code on her implant: Nessa's Domicile, lower level, nourishment station.

Then she stepped in and waited. The next instant, she was in a tile floored, metal walled room. There were tubes descending from the ceiling. At the bottom of each were canisters. Most were empty for now, except one still contained a small plastic pouch. The plastic hadn't shrunk, so it was still safe to eat. Nessa dumped it out and navigated around the tubes and canister stations until she came to the storage container. She threw the doors open. Plastic pouches crowded the shelves—two, three, sometimes four high. Sometimes there was no space between shelves. Nessa opened the drawers. Those were crammed too.

She activated her implant.

"Transmission to Mother and Father," she said. "We should be good. There's no more room in the unit. I'll go tomorrow."