Overhead, the security drone screeched,"Code 37-B: Seditionary Assembly Detected," its metallic claws darting toward Hrafn just as the dining facility shuddered violently.
Kaida’s tray soared through the air, splattering green protein cubes across the walls in jagged streaks. Somewhere in the chaos, Arin’s nervous laughter broke into something that bordered on a scream."Guess they really want that ten percent!"
The dining hall dissolved into chaos. A burly Varagni miner from Shaft 9, his gray fur peppered with lunar ash, lunged at the hovering security drone with an improvised weapon—a hunk of loose pipe. Hrafn’s mother moved like a comet, dragging Arin through the confusion of flung trays and sparking machinery.
Kaida shoved Hrafn toward the corridor leading to their hab pod."Hab pod’s three sectors east!" she shouted, her fur dusted with orange residue from a protein brick explosion. A maintenance bot burst overhead in a rain of shattered polymer, and Kaida ducked low.
They crawled through a service vent still warm from the day’s solar exposure, the narrow space mixing acrid smoke with dust that burned at Hrafn’s nostrils. Somewhere behind them, over the cacophony of clanging trays and shouted obscenities, a deep voice rose above the fray.
"For Kian’s ghost!" the cry rang out, thick with a Scottish brogue, each syllable cutting through the chaos like a rallying battle cry. The voice carried the deep timbre of a seasoned Thyrran, ringing across the dining hall like an old cavalry charge.
The absurdity of the accent momentarily broke through Hrafn’s panic, painting the scene in his mind as something out of a poorly-scripted bar brawl. He half-expected the next sound to be a shattering bottle—but instead came the wet crunch of metal colliding with flesh, followed by a feral roar from several pissed-off burly miners.
Kaida hissed, snapping him back to reality as the vent beneath them shuddered."Move, Hrafn!" she barked, her green eyes flashing in the dim light.
The airlock to the family’s hab pod hissed shut behind them, sealing out the chaos but trapping the metallic tang of blood and burnt circuits in the recycled air.
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Hrafn’s mother pressed her forehead against the pitted viewport, her breath fogging the glass where Gamma 4’s jagged horizon bit into the stars. Beside her, Kaida stood rigid, brushing crumbs of smashed protein cubes from her thick Varagni coat, the orange residue stubbornly clinging to the coarse strands of her hair—an unwelcome reminder of the riot in the dining hall.
Arin was slumped against the wall, his golden tail shifting sluggishly against the floor, more an exhausted twitch than a deliberate flick, as he muttered,"They’ll dock our pay for this."
Kaida didn’t flinch at his words, her eyes instead locked on the emergency channel flickering across her slate. The screen spat corporate jingles between distress calls, and her claws tapped against its edges in an erratic rhythm.
Their mother turned, the tendons in her neck standing taut as suspension cables."Look at me," she commanded.
Hrafn met her gaze, the same hard, weathered hue as the drill bits she wielded, but now swimming with an emotion that made his chest feel tight beneath his fur."What you’re considering..." Her voice frayed at the edges, a live wire sparking against his resolve."They don’t take volunteers. They take bodies."
Kaida’s fingers brushed instinctively over the scar at the base of her neck, a pale line marring her dark fur—a reminder of a childhood accident with a malfunctioning ore processor. Arin’s laughter came out strangled, his tone unusually hollow."Bodies get us out of debt faster than—"
The hab pod lights flickered suddenly, plunging the room into darkness. For a moment, the only sound was the faint wheeze of the oxygen recycler, followed by the muffled wail of alarms outside the pod.
In the dim light of the emergency indicator, Hrafn felt his mother’s hand grip his chin with trembling precision."Your father," she whispered, her words meant only for the space between them, "still wakes screaming from the memory of when your uncle came back in a casket."
The lights surged back, their harsh glare revealing the wet trails cutting through the lunar dust on her cheeks.
Outside, the station’s alarms wailed through the vacuum, a soundless dirge for Kian’s ghost.
Hrafn swallowed hard, his voice cracking as he spoke."I’ve made up my mind, Mom. I’m going to do this. I’ll work hard, I’ll make you proud, and I’ll buy out our debt once and for all."
His mother stared at him for a long moment, her steel-gray gaze searching his face. Then, with a breath that shuddered through her entire frame, she pulled him close, burying his face into her chest. Her calloused fingers, tipped with dulled claws from years of labor, gently stroked his hair, the motion trembling slightly.
"My little boy," she said, her voice breaking as she began to cry, "I’m already proud of you, my little Hrafn."
