Interlude: Asukari
The oldest of 8, he called her his "right hand." Whenever he needed anything done that he may have been too busy to work on, he would just give her a small hand gesture, a grunt or a look and she would know instinctively what was needed. A man of few words, she knew he appreciated their connection, the ease of it, their bond grew stronger with each passing day. In the morning, he would knock on the wall between the kitchen and her room which she shared with three of her other sisters. Three knocks would mean all of them were summoned, one knock meant the girls. Two, the boys.
Her father was a big man with broad shoulders and a barrel chest with two-course bricks for hands. His knock would vibrate through the frame of the house. The message was instantly sent to the other bedrooms, that it was time to go help daddy work. As the kids scurried out in response to their father's audible morse code, their mother had a basket full of warm freshly baked biscuits that awaited them on their way out the door. the warmth of the triplet stars that started their daily journey peaked over the horizon. A medium-sized blue star that was followed by a large yellow and a small orange star, along with the several day moons filled the sky of her homeworld. Their village was the carcass of a mothership that left ancient earth thousands of years ago when mankind made its first tentative baby steps into the stars using engines, that would be considered barely a child's toy now. Their mother taught them their history, which was rich in bold exploration the discovery of their new homeworld, and the bitter taste of abandonment.
Cragua K8Z also known as CK8Z was the 8th world from the triple suns in their solar system, each system habitual zone varies from system to system her mother taught them. A harsh world of extremes comprised of 30% swamp, 10% of frigid poles where the temperature can reach as low as -250. The other 60% is water. Because of the planet's extremes, the oceans produce massive storms that have been known to last years at a time. CK8Z is a class 8 terrestrial planet almost the size of the red-eyed cyclops gas giant from the star system of their origin.
The ancient data logs stated that the planet was targeted because of its possible abundant sources of fuels that were thought to lay deep in the bubbling marshes. The trip from Earth would take five years for the young explorers to arrive, in a hope to establish a source of unlimited fuel for an earth that natural resources were dwindling at an alarming rate. It was said the earth would only have 200 years before its lifeblood was drained by her own selfish children.
"Asukari, you with me hon?" her father's deep low voice broke her thoughts.
"Yes PAPA," she said and quickly repeated his marching orders for the day, she didn't have any problem hearing what her was around and stayed deep in her thoughts even going back to go over events from another date, still be present in the here and now. Her ability to retain and process multiple streams of data seemed to impress everyone, especially her father who tried to trip her up at times by giving more complicated tasks as she got older. Like now he tried to throw some galactic physics to make it interesting. If he got her once, he would never get her that same way again. Today was not going to be one of those days she vowed as she continued to rattle off the tasks for each child who was broken up into three different groups with other children from the same pod. Sixty-four children were going out to farm the humidity heavy fields. Tending to the animals, drilling for the vital gases that were vital for the colony energy requirements, and hopefully finding a rare crystal or two which she loved to collect. His bearded face beamed with pride as he drove the hover rover towards the work site as he listened to her.
"Annnnddd?" he said looking down at her with an arched eyebrow, hoping he may have tripped her up with the physic problem he thought she didn't catch amid all the other information he had given to her.
"Oh," she said, eyes grew big and both hands shot to her mouth in mock surprise. "You mean the best time to use the ion fusion repeater drill per the ambient temperature so we can make the best time to the gases before they are unstable?" she heard him groan in surrender, he knew he had lost, she already knew the answer and would now make him work for the answer. Rolling his eyes, he replied, "Yes, what would be the idea time and temperature and rate to run the drill?" he asked.
"Hmm…" she said bringing her little finger to her beautifully sculpted right cheekbones tapping with her deep brown eyes looking towards the sky pulling her lips in keeping the theatrics going. "Given the time of year and the rate of the blue sunrise and how its radiation is needed to agitate the molecules of the Vulcan gas." She paused beaming at her father now and didn't have the heart to tease him any longer. "We have to get the drill going within the next thirty mins, and we have a safe window of an hour and a half to get what we need and seal the vault up before the gas becomes unstable with the radiation from the orange star."
Her legs were not yet long enough to reach the floor of the rover from her jump seat that was located beside her father kicking in excitement like small pistons. The rover's onboard computer did the calculations and came up with the same answer. Stroking his beard for a moment, he reached inside his lunch pail and sighed again, deeper than the last. He gave her two of his three biscuits.
"We may need to find another way of getting paid. At this rate, I'm going to starve," he grumbled. She was already breaking the still-warm bread in half watching the steam erupt from the middle. He knew she was already chasing other thoughts, even though she had most definitely heard him.