Chapter 1

I wondered for a bit before settling on a rock over looking a massive pit we'd been digging in three months before. Just another abandoned theory that had turned into a fruitless waste of resources.

"Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if this did all go up in smoke" I'd muttered idly to myself while kicking at the grey soil beneath my feet.

"Well then we'd be out of a job" A voice came from behind the rock he was sitting on.

"Jane? How long have you been watching me?"

Jane had begun scrambling up the rock the moment she'd finished her sentence. Further proving my point about the impracticality of these suits, too bulky far too bulky for a mission that required an awful lot of unexpected activity. When she'd finally managed to haul herself over she paused before speaking to catch her breath.

"Couple of seconds, Why you up to something?" Jane had inquired

"No nothing, just wondering around...What is it you wanted anyway?"

Jane reached into her suits right trousers pocket and pulled out a small glowing cylinder.

"I checked the board on the way out, you've only got two minutes of air left as usual I bet, i suppose you never bothered to check how much you had left before you strutted on out here" She held her hand out to me. "Just thought you might need it, dont worry ill leave you to get up to your mischief"

As soon as the canister left her fingers she twirled around and skipped off, probably to run some tests on some kind of chemicals. Id stared after her for a while, she'd always been like that, as far back as I could remember, a girl of few words always running off to do something or other. Never really staying in one place as if the very idea of a lack of movement would destroy her.

A flashing light in the corner of my visor alerted me to my fast deplelating air supply. Holding my breath I interchanged the expired canister with the fresh one without a second thought. We'd been drilled so hard to react to that light that these things were mere impulses now. I inhaled deeply. "Nothing better than the first fresh puffs of a canister sweet like the taste of Crustor honey's"