(GQ #13) Adventures in Spacepunk

1. Blank Canvas

Too soon did Mia step back into the airlock of her house. She spent her time waiting for oxygen to fill the narrow hallway bracing herself for the fires she'd have to put out once she entered—maybe literal if luck hated her enough. Tension took her by the shoulders, the first familiar presence to welcome her home. The butterflies in her stomach were new, but expected.

For the first time ever, she had a guest.

"We venture into uncharted territory!" Roxie's voice chirped over her helmet speakers.

"It's just my house."

"But I haven't been here, so it's uncharted to me." Her head swiveled around as if something worth looking at hid in the barren chamber. "Come to think of it, I don't know anyone else who lives outside of the dome. This might as well be a new discovery."

Her excitement got a smile out of Mia, but before she had time to worry about that, artificial gravity pulled her down and a green light came on.

"I wouldn't take off my helmet just yet." warned Mia. "There's something I need to check first."

Flicking the combination to the lock box, she tugged her house key from the opening and unlocked it before letting the attached cable yank it back into the box, relocking it.

"How convenient~" Roxie marveled. "You never have to worry about losing your keys."

"Yeah, it's really handy." Mia opened the door to find the spacesuit rack empty. "Oh. No one's here." The surprise hit her like a gift on Christmas morning. "It should be safe to take off our helmets."

Roxie's helmet came off to reveal light purple curls instead of her usual red dye job. She put it in her shopping bag. "Would it not have been safe if people were here?"

"Uh, there's been cases of someone mixing chemicals together." Mia held the door open for her.

"Wow, that's concerning! Hoh?" Roxie's pointer finger flew toward the shelf by the doorway. She leaned forward to inspect it more closely. "Triplets?? You never told me you had triplets!"

"I didn't have them." Although Mia might as well have raised them. "But yes, three of my brothers are triplets."

"And there's a babier one!" Roxie cooed. "You have a whole army of little brothers! I wish I had an army of little brothers."

Mia peeled her spacesuit off from her IF dress uniform underneath. "Feel free to borrow mine."

"Borrow? Now there's an idea. My dear Wattson, you're a genius! I shall craft my own sibling army, and soon, I'll share in your power as an eldest sister. No one will stop me."

"Good luck." She hung up her spacesuit on the rack, noticing that Roxie made no move to take hers off yet. "You can hang your suit here, if you want."

Roxie bent toward the shelf, staring at it with an intensity Mia had only seen when she tried to prevent her from suffocating.

"Um, are you looking for something?"

She cocked her head to the side. "Where are your pictures?"

"There's some around, but I'm not sure if–"

"Aha! There!" Roxie pointed to a picture frame far in the back.

Mia picked it up, and sure enough, it framed a family photo from when she was no older than five. Her mother smiled serenely, palming Mia's face into the side of her triple pregnant stomach. She winced just as she did in the picture upon remembering the sensation of her brothers kicking her. A sticker tastefully covered the face of the man who placed his hands on both of their shoulders. Mia still spotted the furious marker scribblings underneath.