Twenty-Six

Good news from Earth! Breathe Easy’s communication finally came in – delayed, I think, by our position around Jupiter at the time – and they received our first shipment of water, which they say filters very well and is higher quality than the organic-tainted stuff on Earth. They are sorry about our discord and will send more colonists to us immediately, in a large ship with far more supplies than we asked for. In the meantime, they had already sent another supply ship our way with medical supplies, from pain killers to bandages to vaccines, and they are also sending more printer material so we can focus on making filters. The air stings metallic on my palate when I breathe, so Breathe Easy’s beneficence makes my heart spring with excitement.

I helped Yuda clear out one of the major air vents a few days ago, and it looks like part of the reason for the metallic smell is dying algae, leaking out into the vent and corroding the entire tube. We cleaned up the spot as best we could, and that seems to have reduced the odor for now. The dying algae had fermented in their bag until built-up gases burst a hole, and the acidic organic material spread over a 2-foot span. We budded some algae off another colony in a different vent and moved them into the dead colony’s space. All the other algal colonies seem to be doing fine, but we’ll have to monitor that tube for further corrosion. If the metallic smell doesn’t go away, we may have to shut it down until we can get enough printer material to cover it over. That means shutting off parts of the colony, too, so less air will be needed to fill the colony.

I piloted our latest supply ship in and had another raging migraine, but the exhaustion afterwards was less intense. I dislike being incapacitated for an entire day, but this time we have pain killers, and I think Ghadir slipped a large dose into my soup before I slept for 12 hours straight. I do feel better, though.

I hear the older octopuses play less with the barrels now, and simply move them up near the melted surface for extraction. They are stealing lots of our shellfish, though. Vivien thinks that is because the fish schools we attempted to set up are too able to hide from them on the other side of the moon. Europa is not a large place, exactly – it is just a bit smaller than Earth’s moon – but octopuses do not normally migrate, while fish schools swim everywhere. The octopuses are more likely to stick close to “home,” Rabbah, while the fish may have disappeared forever. We have more eggs, so we’ll try creating some schools again, but Vivien is skeptical.

Ghadir is having a tough time preserving food. She tried to begin a salt-based fermentation process with some of our new, tiny tomatoes, but the batch spoiled almost immediately. She also tried to dry some of the kelp, hanging it for days in the common room until that whole quadrant of the ship smelled like fish – which I admit was a welcome relief from the metallic sting at times. She says that, because we’re surrounded by cold water, it’s like nothing can dry – our air is already saturated with moisture, so it cannot hold any more water particles. So we won’t be able to preserve anything through drying, ever. Unless, I suppose, we end up with such a large station that it takes up the entirely of Europa, and then we might have winds blowing through the human-made facilities. But for now, we have so little space that the moisture from outside, along with the moisture from our breath, hovers in the air.

I wonder if it will be corrosive, like the acidic dead algae. We might consider re-lining the old sections of the station with carbon fiber sheets, so the metal isn’t so exposed.

The Ikin – the three of them, now that we know Samira isn’t one – with Durada’s help have been hard at work in the garden, planting the few new seeds. We have some sprouts already, which indicates good things about the soil they created. Vivien and Natsuki have begun training with the new baby octopuses, and they say it is going well. I dropped by only to name them, at Vivien’s request – this group is more orange than the previous one, with two dull orange ones that I’ve named Olga and Oliver. Oliver has a gray-tinged underside, while Olga’s is bright white. I’ve named an almost deep golden one Othniel, and finally, we have a rusty deep orange one named Ophria.

I have stayed away from most interactions with the women, working off their schedules unless requested, and eating strips of chewy kelp and clams, along with the once-dreaded nutritional loaf, by myself. Tensions between pro- and anti-Breathe Easy groups are at their highest, and everyone is trying to get me to communicate their story on their behalf. Fortunately, a significant group of us are neutral – Durada, Ihsan, Ghadir, and myself. I think Haven has stopped speaking with anyone at Breathe Easy because she wants me to do all the talking for her. Natsuki works more closely with Durada and me, but I have seen her stop and listen as Samira holds court in the echoing passages, Zariah and Chloe and Yuda all attentive adoring eyes and smile-creased mouths.

I admit that I haven’t communicated anything to them unless it is a note about our supplies or mining operations.

Oh, I received a message from Breathe Easy with the list of new colonists headed our way. It looks like we have entirely men, which made me blush when I explained it to the other women. Neither Ihsan nor Durada looked excited about the influx of men, but Budur and, oddly, Yuda looked excited that we had specifically male humans arriving in the next few weeks. Everyone else was neutral about it. I am not sure what I think. I was excited for this new life when I left Earth, but at this point, I don’t know how I feel about the implication that we should populate Rabbah with a new generation. We are survivng, but nothing is stable enough yet to house another 12 people safely, let alone dependents.

I am not criticizing Breathe Easy, and I am sure the men will be able to fend for themselves as much as necessary. I am merely concerned about the short-term strain on our resources, combined with the existing stress on Rabbah already.

Here are the men joining us. I was only sent their names and castes, so I do not know what skills they have to contribute, but I’m sure they, like us, were chosen for a good reason.

Kailash – Senfte
Rusul – Senfte
Yvain – Bakalov
Suharto – Bakalov
Payam – Bakalov
Vahan – Bakalov
Bulus – Ikin
Cyril – Ikin
Dagon – Ikin
Abbas – Ikin
Guo – Araboa
Fletcher – Araboa

There are no Gadhavi, which makes me a little nervous. This means I am intended, as is Chloe, to pair up with someone of a lower caste. I admit, I felt insulted at first, but, well, I’m not Gadhavi anymore. I’m Rabban, of Rabbah. And these men will be, too.

It will be interesting to get to know them. They arrive in two weeks.