Short Stories
6
BREATHING SPACE
By Tim Cadman
Norfolk, England
Neenah Racz was – as usual – working at the table in the food preparation area of her and her husband’s small habitation module, when the communicator pinged to inform her that she had a message from Grand Central Headquarters. She carefully laid aside the pieces from the food-processing unit she had been working on for the past two hours and went to the wall console located in the living area. The screen contained a brief message to the effect that her husband Ogdan had been called to undertake his annual service with GC’s Special Projects Unit. The message concluded that he would be replaced by an Extension Services Officer from GCHQ who would provide the household and the other surrounding modules with any duties required while Colonist Racz was undertaking work necessary to the long-term viability of Colony 37J.
Neenah sighed and went back to the entrails of the FPU, which were spread out across the table. As she painstakingly replaced all the components in their proper order, she returned to the same spiral of thoughts that had been twisting round and round in her head with an ever-increasing torque since Ogdan had left for the algae farm that morning: how she was going to raise enough money to get back to Earth before she went insane. She tried to convince herself that she loved Ogdan, but their life together – and life on this lump of rock, period – had become unbearable. She had “met” Ogdan on a virtual date, and like many girls desperate to get off Earth and meet anyone with prospects and money, she had persuaded herself that this thin and gangly man with big ears and freckles had to be better than what Earth had to offer. She had applied for an exit visa, and having already trained and worked in an electronics factory for seven years, was deemed to have sufficient skills credit to leave for the corporate colony where forty-three year-old Ogdan was based.
At first she was relatively happy, but after nearly two years the novelty had worn off. Their living quarters were not much bigger than her single room apartment back home