Kanushin (Starweaver's Tapestry #1)

Chapter 1: Chrysalis

Nira Whanesley took a slow, deep breath as she rotated awkwardly and stared out at the star-filled sea around her. The clink of her cable tapped lightly around her suit's harness, a reminder of the thin line between life and death that she walked everyday. One stray chunk of debris or a failed maintenance check was easily the difference between returning back to Ivoli Station or fading off into the infinite black of the universe.

Despite this, Nira had no fear for the greater unknown. She found it fascinating. As she became lost in thoughts of worlds unknown and hidden species, a harsh voice crackled into her ear.

"You keep this up and you're going to fry, little lady."

Nira blinked rapidly and regained her focus. She turned slightly to the right and saw a hedge of orange growing rapidly around the horizon. Her metallic suit shot out a hiss of air as a box popped up on her visor:

"Solar rise: 8 minutes."

Ivoli Station sat in the fissures of a small asteroid that orbited the Pocanian sun and served the explicit purpose of mining energy from the star. Life was built entirely around the trade: maintaining the solar shields, learning how to differentiate the various uses of solar energy and cycling shipments to the UIFH. Nira's family had been solar miners for decades, but she always let her focus shift to stars that wouldn't burn her alive.

She shuddered at the thought. Nira would rather be left to float in isolation than feel the horrible sear of a solar burn. She rubbed her left arm instinctively. Once was enough.

"Kid, you're in your thoughts again," the voice warned. "Get back to the station. Now."

"I'm coming, Zhan," Nira replied with a twinge of annoyance. "You know I don't like being out here to begin with."

Zhan laughed heartily on the other end of the comm. "You say that Nira but I know you like stargazing. Either way, I need you to lock in so I can reel you back"

Nira acknowledged and tapped her wrist pad to produce a holographic menu. She scrolled through her options before enabling the lock for her cable. Another hiss erupted from her suit, followed by a loud beep as the limp cable tightened into a dense line. A small tug gently pulled Nira backwards as she gazed at the expanding orange horizon.

"Hey Zhan, you think you can make this thing go any faster?" Nira asked. A warning box popped back up on her screen:

"Solar rise: 6 minutes. Station shields activating."

She took another deep breath, feeling the oxygen balloon into her chest. The line pulled a little faster.

"Nira, I got this thing going as fast as I can. You're still good, though. I got the time to station as two minutes and the solar rise at five," Zhan said in his best attempt to calm her.

Her eyes closed, Nira felt the heat around her quickly increase. She began to berate herself for getting lost in her thoughts again. Solar miners only had a four-hour window to run their maintenance checks and switch out the energy units on the panels that collected it all.

After that, the asteroid would rotate Ivoli into the sun's direction and shields had to stay up for another two hours. While it was enough to protect the dense materials of the station, the sheer amount of light and heat produced by the sun would destroy anyone unfortunate to get caught outside.

"One minute to the station," Zhan's voice echoed in her ear.

Nira put all her thoughts to the day that she would finally be far away from a blazing sun and sitting on the tropical beaches of a planet like Vensha. The nagging thoughts in the back of her mind told her that it wouldn't be anytime soon, though. She was neck-deep in an incredibly valuable research project and wouldn't get any semblance of a vacation until it was done. Still, the thoughts of crashing waves kept her at ease.