The Blithering

Within the walls of the holoroom Bakree sat, the walls everchanging to forests and waterfalls. The woman adjusted a small remote and the walls of black glass began to shake and change to the image of a large brown dusty gas planet. The silence was entrancing. She sighed with breath but no voice. She was pale, lean and had blood red dyed hair to her shoulders, sporting basic grey clothes for sleeping.

The complex was vast, several levels and many halls and corridors. There were toilets, a large kitchen, a medical bay, a few bunked sleeping quarters and many other rooms for whatever was needed. Large storage hangers were on the middle level. Large doors led out to the rocky moon world outside. On the first level too a small door and airlock from an observatory room let outside, the main entrance. The base was rustic, old and rickety but sturdy. Only a small portion appeared on the surface of the moon. On level or so, a few rooms. Large radars and antennas rested on top of the main protruding hub. A small crew of seventeen took turns with day and night shifts, all knew each other well, use to each persons company, even when things got a little tense. It was a mining outpost, drilling and scanning for minerals, every crewmember was either a labourer, a scientist, engineer, bureaucrat or security and one was a doctor.

DAY ONE

In the kitchen the day crew prepared breakfast. A clock set the time as 5 in the morning, earth time. Drigs cooked on the stove, eggs and bacon from plastic packages. He was a tall built man with faded box like haircut, something alike a soldier would have, and wearing a blue work uniform, pants and a button up shirt with long sleeves. His cloths were worn as most of theirs were, blue being the colour for labourers and engineers. Music played from a CD player on the bench, some old rock band from the 2000s.

'Why do you keep that old thing? It's gonna break someday' Lenny remarked, sitting at the table patiently.

'It has before, and when it does, I'll fix it again. Now stop complaining like a bitch and listen to some good music for once' both men had a grin, old friends and jokers they were, both men bared Australian accents. On the stove too was pasta boiling and oats in the many microwaves. The toaster popped and Mayer fetched the hot loafs.

'Passed down from son to son Lenny, never should forget where were come from. Besides it plays better quality, at least to me' Mayer remarked, he was old, but not that old, grey hair but still a lot of strength in his body. He'd worked a lifetime to be where he was, up the ranks of labours to sit in a chair and boss others around as he comedically would put it. Yet he enjoyed his work thoroughly, his uniform was red and he sported his favourite black jacket and his silver and gold watch.

In the med bay the walls were lined with metal tables, tools, gadgets and equipment, all for medical reasons. A bed was in one corner and another in the opposite. Simon, the residential doctor, an older fellow dressed in white with a grey beard and bald head, was taking blood from another man. The man sitting on the bed was Bigs, a large and muscly man, tanned in skin and dark in hair, his persona was calm and collected. He didn't flinch at all and nodded to the doctor once he was done drawing blood.

'Thanks doc, didn't hurt as much as last time' Bigs spoke with a smooth south African accent.

'I made sure it didn't' the older man said.

On the other bed Bakree sat, waiting for her turn. Simon put the vile and needle on a metal try, adding the vile to a line of others and stickering a name label on it.

'37 aren't you?' he asked Bigs.

'God damn right. Gonna have a beard like you soon doc' Bigs said with a chuckle.

The large man got up with a stumble and walked to the door, much to the docs irritation.

'Big's please take it easy, rest for a bit, we don't want you to faint again.'