Rations.

You pull the boxes out of the microwave. Microwave technology is insane these days, turning a dehydrated ration into a delicious looking carbonara.

You’ve never eaten something so fast. You and Everleigh sit in silence at the table, scarfing down your food. It must have been… years since you ate? You had to do a 3 day water fast before cryo-sleep, and you woke up probably 12 hours ago.

You’re exhausted. And so is your sister. She looks at you after finishing her plate.

“You want first shower? You look a lot dirtier than me.”

You realize you’ve been filthy this entire time, in your brand new, spotless apartment. You run up the stairs to the loft, and the bathroom is halfway up. It’s a small apartment, but having everything combined into one living space makes it feel roomy. You rip off your transit suit, it’s basically rags at this point, and step into the shower. The water is immediately warm, and the steam of the shower helps you scrub several hours of jungle hiking’s filth off your body. When you exit the shower, you notice a clean towel is hanging from a dispenser in the wall, you take it and begin drying yourself off.

You look at yourself in the mirror. You’ve got a bit of a beard coming in, surprised that it grew a tiny bit during cryosleep. Your hair isn’t very long, but it sticks up just a little, giving you a rugged look. Your eyes are a bright emerald, shining in the mirror’s illuminators. You look across your body, checking to see if you got injured anywhere. Thanks to the Medkit from your sister, your blistered feet are your worst injury. Your ears have been ringing since you woke up, making you wonder if your damaged your ear drums when your cabin depressurized.

You wrap the towel around your waist, and step out of the bathroom. You peek downstairs, and your sister is still waiting at the table, she seems afraid to get anything else dirty.

“Hey, Leigh. I’m done.” You say, leaning down the stairs.

She jumps up, and hurried up to the bathroom, giving you a nervous smile as she scoots past you into the bathroom.

“Hey, Aphrodite?” You ask, wondering if she’s listening.

You see her face pop up on a nearby holo-lamp.

“Hey, Scott!” She says, seemingly excited to finally have company.

“How about some music?” You ask, seeking some comfort from home.

“Playing Frank Sinatra: Fly Me To The Moon, cabin audio.” She says, and with a wink, she disappears.

Odd, she seems to have a lot of personality for an AI. You figure having an interesting assistant will make life here a little less lonely.

You make your way up to the top of the curved, slatted stairs. At the top, is a small loft, with a low ceiling, and the whole platform is a bed. A huge bed, already set up with sheets on the bottom, and tons of pillows and blankets strewn all over.

Aphrodite pops up on a small holo-projector built into the railing.

“Hope you don’t mind, these apartments come with preset decor, and I picked the “cozy” preset.

You look at her and smile. “Lots of pillows and blankets? I feel a little too comfortable to be on the pioneering end of human expansion.” You joke with the AI.

She laughs. A cute little giggle. “Well, get some rest. We’ll talk tomorrow about what we can do with this outpost.” With a warm smile, she fades away, waving her hand, she dims the lights and quiets the music on her way out.

You lay down in the bed. It’s very nice. The whole thing is made of the latest in memory foam technology. Laying between a few pillows and blankets, you close your eyes and revel in the comfort after a hard day.

You see a light on the ceiling, and notice that Everleigh opened the bathroom door. She walks up the stairs, wrapped in her own fresh towel.

“Woah, this place is super chill.” She says, marveling at the incredible vibe of the apartment, lit by very dim campfire-colored lights.

You remember you’re only in a towel too, and sit up. Looking behind Everleigh, you see some closet doors.

“Hey Leigh, think there’s clothes in there?” You ask, she turns to look.

“Ooh, his and hers closet!” She jokes with you, and opens the door on the left. She steps inside, and you just hear her gasp. You stand up, and walk into the closet behind her.

Inside, there’s a wall of shoes, all the same size. Along the right side, there are thousands of garments, from dresses, to pajamas, to underwear of all varieties. Along the back wall is a wall of coats and hats. Everything in here is for women, and it all looks the same size.

Everleigh walks up and takes a dress from a rack, and checks the tag.

Her eyes go wide. “This is Louis Vuitton!” She looks at you. “Do you know how hard designer brands are to get anymore?” She looks back at the tag. “And it’s in my size?” She seems surprised. You figure this was another design choice made by your new AI companion. You step back out of the closet, and open the door of the one on the right.

Inside is more of the same, but it’s all sized to fit an 8 foot 3 man. You marvel at the amount of shoes, usually, size 23s are custom made, but these are all some of the designer brands, same as Everleigh’s closet. You put the Yeezy shoes back down, and settle on a simple black set of pajamas. There’s a logo down the side, you don’t really bother to read it.

Walking out of the closet, you can see Everleigh went for a “New Jacksonville University” hoodie, and you can’t tell what else, because the hoodie goes down to her mid-thigh.

She’s standing there, looking at the bed with a look on her face.

“Hey sis, ready for bed?” You ask, making sure she’s okay.

She looks up at you, and says. “Yeah! I’m not sure why there’s only one bed, but I don’t really think I want to be alone right now anyways.” She looks back down towards the bed.

“Well, good thing you aren’t.” You walk up behind her and give her a hug. “You and me, we’re gonna do what we can for this mission. Maybe someone else is out there outside of our scanner range.” She looks up at you over her shoulder.

She smiles, and leans her head against your chest.

“You’ve always been my best friend, Scotty. We’ll make it through this.” She lets go, and playfully belly flops onto the bed, settling between a pile of pillows. You collapse next to her, just close enough to touch hands if you reached out. She locks eyes with you. Her eyes sparkle like sapphires against the darkness of the bedroom. She smiles one more time, says “Good night.” and rolls over.

The lights fade automatically. Through the glass ceiling above you, you get a beautiful view of the planet’s rings, dozens of moons, and a beautiful galaxy above. This planet has 0 light pollution, and you can see stars all across the sky.

“This place is beautiful.” You say, very silently. Everleigh doesn’t move, and you assume she’s already asleep. You roll over to your right, and close your eyes.