Remembrance ***Available on Amazon***

{1} Breaking the Rules - PREVIEW

{1} Breaking the Rules

She swiped her brow wishing for a cool breeze, just one, or a late summer shower. Anything to cool the heat beating down on her from above. Sweat trickled down her back as she straightened, rolling her neck back and forth. Around her people worked, laughed, ran, and played. Where had the year flown, she thought? This time one year ago, she'd stepped foot on the planet for the first time. And the work hadn't stopped. She thought life aboard Deliverance was stifling, but in Nova-Zera there was a never-ending list of chores, work, and internships.

Life here was different. Hard. New. But oh, so worth it. At this moment, though, she needed a break. She'd promised her mom she'd volunteer a few times on the new construction for the inhabitants of the Endeavor. Skirting the new row of homes, she jogged along, dodged kids running down the dirt path, turning the corner up to the home she shared with her mom.

The small square house looked much like each one on the row. Each one in the settlement if you got technical about it, but despite the similarities of the metal and wood structure, it was home. Hopping onto the porch with a skip in her step that hadn't been there moments before, she reached for the door.

"Gwelle Airda! Aren't you supposed to be volunteering today?" Her hand shook half extended towards the door as she skidded to a halt. Long, dark hair swirled around her at the sudden stop in motion. How did she always seem to find out? It was so frustrating, Gwelle thought.

"Mom." The word stuttered out as she turned to face the diminutive woman. While her mom was a good three inches shorter than her own average height, she was a force to be reckoned with. Especially when she was upset.

"Gwelle, you promised. The settlers from the Endeavor need homes as soon as possible. And I'm working around the clock on their health screenings so we can bring those poor people down here as fast as possible."

"I know, Mom. They've had it so much worse on the journey than we did," she repeated the words she'd heard whispered in every conversation since the Endeavor entered orbit a few weeks before. As second of ten ships which left Earth over ninety years before, everyone was excited to meet the newcomers. Originally, each ship was to create their own settlement spread out over their new home world, Varax, but something had gone terribly wrong onboard the newly arrived ship. Less than two hundred people survived unlike the thousand-plus aboard the Deliverance when it had arrived.

She watched her mom's face soften. It wasn't an expression she saw often, at least not with as busy as they'd all been since starting the colony. Her mother reached up cupping her cheek much like she did as a child when she'd been scared.

"It's been hard for us too. I know that. And I hate that you couldn't enjoy your youth more."

"I don't mind, Mom. Really," Gwelle interrupted. She hated when her mother was right but hated even more when she made her mom feel guilty. The copper skinned woman standing in front of her had faced tragedy and kept on going, fighting, raising a daughter single-handedly. And that all was while working as ship medic and eventually rising to head doctor. She stared back into brown eyes much too much like her own for comfort before blinking, looking away.

"Take the afternoon off. You worked all week at your internship. It's not fair to spend your day off working too. Go find your friends."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." Gwelle grinned as she turned to find Lark and Knox but swiveled at the last moment, placing a kiss on her mom's cheek. Nia Airda may be a firm mom, headstrong doctor, but she was also a teen once. Sometimes, she even proved she still remembered how it felt, Gwelle thought with a chuckle bubbling up inside her as she headed off to find her friends.