Don came to with less than an hour to spare before his first shift. He was in total darkness until he began straightening out his stiff limbs. The pressure sensors in his recliner activated his POD light-strips on a low red setting.

He pressed his face into his palms trying to rub away the grogginess. When that didn’t work he laid back and activated the cleaning cycle.

His recliner slid into the compartment in the wall where Don usually slept. One auto wash cycle later, the crust from the night before was cleaned from his face and his uniform was smooth and fresh.

Back in the main section of the POD, Don reached out and unhooked the feeding tube from its mount. One practiced twist secured it to the valve jutting from his abdomen. He flipped the safety cover and squeezed the stubby needle underneath.

A chime let him know enough blood had been taken for a nutritional analysis and he flipped the needle covering shut. Don absently sucked his index finger until blood stopped welling out of it.

It didn’t take long before the feeding tube started vibrating as his breakfast was dumped directly into his stomach. The uncomfortable bloating sensation lasted longer than usual as he was pumped full of water to bring him back to optimal hydration levels.

Don didn’t wait for the nutrient paste injection to finish before preparing for his shift. He thumbed a rocker switch on the back of his headrest bringing his wall to life. It displayed the city logo for a moment before switching over to Don’s presets.

Don scanned the system overview making sure everything was still up to specs. RAM-10 was a little behind schedule but everything else was ticking along smoothly. He spent a few seconds watching the wayward mover’s trajectory update. Sam was taking to her first shift well.

The stimulants in his breakfast mix started taking effect and Don’s fingers started picking up speed as he typed in commands on the consoles which swung into reach.

A minute later, a second chime let him know the feeding was complete. As if the shaking and gurgling tube attached to his gut wasn’t enough of a signal. With a bit more difficulty now that he was full, Don replaced the tube onto its mount.

Don laid back in his recliner and checked his chronometer. Just over ten minutes remained until the shift change. He closed his eyes enjoying the feeling of his body coming back to full wakefulness. The image of his mothers scowling face flashed across his closed lids and he snapped his eyes open while jolting upright.

Don began cycling through the status reports again but this time he was haunted by the previous day’s conversation. “The core doesn’t care what you don’t want or don’t like” drifted through his head and he flipped on a motivational beat. The loudest one he had.

It only laid down a baseline for “be quiet child” and “I deserve this”. He knew it was pointless but Don typed in the command to open a chat window with his mother. His screen only returned the error message “You do not have clearance to communicate with Eternals”.

Don felt an uncomfortable tightness creep back into his chest. Without waiting for his consoles to retract, he pulled himself out of his recliner by the rungs along the ceiling of the POD. The hatch irised open at his approach and Don clambered out of it.

The ladder was still outside his door. It was rare to use the access shaft at all so this wasn’t a surprise but Don was glad he didn’t have to wait before starting the short ascent to Sam’s POD.

Unlocking the left handle and sliding it up before locking it in place and repeating the process with the right handle let him climb through the access shaft at a decent clip. Donovan quickly made it to his sister’s POD. Her entry hatch was locked and would remain that way until her shift ended.

“Rust it!” Don cursed under his breath. He should have remembered this most basic operating procedure. What was wrong with him today?

“Hysterical child” floated through his head.

Don gritted his teeth and depressed the com switch next to the hatch.

“Samantha? This is Don. Can I come in?”

That was stupid, why did he do that? He was going to get in trouble just for making that request. He was about to release the locks on the ladder to descend back to his POD when the hatch in front of him irised open.

“What are you doing here Donovan?” Samantha asked from her recliner.

Her fingers were flying across her console at a speed that made them blur as she made more course corrections to RAM-10.

Don ignored the question as he clambered into her POD. “Are you doing okay?” he asked instead.

“Yeah, I’m doing alright. Drive 14 is a little sticky. It’s probably a mechanical failure.”

Don leaned forward to get a better look at her screen. A field of stars slid by as the roving camera maneuvered around the RAM inspecting one of the massive drive couplings.

The trajectory map superimposed over the corner of the image showed the Rapid Asteroid Mover was repeatedly drifting off of the pre-programmed flight path.

“Hmm” Don rubbed his chin. “It looks like we might have to take it into luna station on manual for repairs”

“Yeah” Sam griped “I’ve got the farmers on my ass waiting for these incoming shipments. They’re not going to like this delay.”

“Well, they’re going to like the delay more than a crater. Is there anything else going on?”

“Nope. Everything else is green”

“Okay. I’ll focus on getting this sheep into drydocks so we can get its hoof patched up pronto”

Sam cast a raised eyebrow over her shoulder and Don grinned back at her. Sam was kind of weird. Not many people decided to keep any hair but she insisted that eyebrows were essential.

Don had to admit, they made it more fun to tease expressions out of her. It had prompted him to come up with a slang only shared by the two of them. Well, Don was the only one who used it but he hated the stuffy acronyms.

“I thought you would drop that habit after” Sam stopped short, catching herself.

An uncomfortable pause stretched between the two of them.

Don coughed. “I should get back. Gotta get ready for the shift change.”

“Right” Sam agreed in a subdued voice.

“Good flying Citizen Donovan” she called with a half-hearted smile.

“See you on the screen” Don called as he retreated back out of the hatch.

He stood on the ladder for a few beats after the hatch closed up again. While he hung there he heard a muffled sniffle come from inside the POD. He quickly cranked the ladder handles and slipped into free fall.