Dysentopia

Chapter Two

Chapter Two: A man named Krešo

"Honey, stay here..." A familiar voice, I could almost see my mothers face as her hand drifts off the top of my head, the smell of scorching metal invading my nostrils, my tiny legs attempting to follow behind her. A sudden and deafening sound pierced my eardrums, preceded by the violent shaking of the floor beneath and the sudden swarm of survivors who came rushing in. Fueled by fear and confusion, the heard pushed me back into the bridge that connected the central hub to colony nine. I tried to push on ahead, passing by under the dozens of legs ahead of me, repeatedly stopped by the violent tremble of the ground, which would periodically send the crowd into a fit of frenzied cries and screams.

A security officer among the crowd had been attempting to keep the panic down when I stepped on his shoe. Catching sight of me, my bruises and the tears forming in my eyes, he picked me up and began to rush me ahead of the crowd, leading me further down the bridge into colony nine. "Mom!" From over the guard's shoulder I catch a final glimpse behind before the hub doors closed, the gray metal doors outlined in red as the emergency lights flared on and off, my world on fire.

Another deafening sound and I dart up, awake and drained in cold sweat, another nightmare. I try hard to remember her face, grasping for a snapshot of her smile before it fades out, but only the sound of her voice remained.

I breathe in deeply, allowing my pounding heart to relax, while my mind focuses on the room around me. It takes me a while to readjust to my surroundings, my breaths slowing just as a tiny flash of light appears in my peripheral vision. I glimpse to my left, the glass card on the counter next to the bed flashing the usual two quick pulses of light, informing me of received messages. Rubbing my face with an open palm, I let out a long sigh and prop myself up against the headboard. Reaching for the card, I flick past its surface and arrive at a notification, my eyebrows narrowing slightly as I read on.

"Class M1, all available miners to nearest pick up zone..." A few unimportant details littered the rest of the screen as I push myself off towards the floor and head to the closet. "M1, asteroid of a high mineral density" I thought, understanding the urgent nature of the message, however the usual morning vigor had been drained by the very same words.

Mining on an annual holiday, M1 or not, it doesn't make the news any easier to swallow. I dress myself as quickly as I can, layers of gray and white, before sitting down on my bed to work on my boots. A sharp pain catches me off guard, causing me to rub my right knee and cringe as I slowly lift it up. I reach for my helmet and move out to the living room, the lights turning off behind me. I decide to skip breakfast as I make my way out the door, I could probably make it up with a hardy lunch.

Among the last to be strapped onto the mining transport, I look off towards the rather flat sided asteroid caught by the colony's gravity array. We usually don't get that kind of even footed terrain to work on, something to look forward to. The OK from one of the shift coordinators that had strapped us in allowed for the pilots to start up the engines of the re-purposed Geoskip, one of the small ships that would usually be sent to study particular asteroids, not really suited for heavy lifting and not too powerful either. Supposed we lucked out in the end though, Colony Nine was after a geologic centered colony, mostly run by scientists and engineers, good as any for mining work.

The minutes before takeoff always made me feel nauseous, the back of my mind contemplating the unlikely event of a takeoff malfunction or of our tether lines snapping while we worked. No second thoughts though, the transports engines were already fired up and raising itself vertically off of its four drill like supports, heading straight out of our oxygen field towards the domino spotted rock above.

The hours went by and work went as usual, the transport had burrowed its supports into the pitch black asteroid, followed by us miners who were tethered to the ship while we picked our supplies and went to perform our tasks.