Future, Broken by Jacey Holbrand & Elizabeth Monvey

Author:Jacey Holbrand & Elizabeth Monvey [Holbrand, Jacey & Monvey, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781773399980
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Nate sat on a flimsy metal cot and a thin, plywood feeling mattress, staring at a rust-colored wall. The “studio apartment” was nothing more than a small cave. One of many hollowed out in a mountain beside Dome City. He remembered reading somewhere this was the housing for those who’d won the lottery. One ten-by-fifteen square foot spot with a kitchenette, cot, and table with a couple of chairs. Next to the cooking area was the tiniest bathroom he’d ever seen. A toilet in a tiled space with shower fixtures above it. He gathered he’d have to shave and brush his teeth at the kitchen sink. A short rack on the wall near the washroom contained some clothes.

How could a family survive in this tiny space? I barely fit in here.

Did I make the right decision during the stopover on the Moon?

Part of him wanted to morph into a monster and lay waste to the few items in his new home. The other half of him wanted to turn into a two-year-old, throw himself to the floor in an epic temper tantrum, and wail at the injustice of the whole system.

At missing the broken piece of his soul—Ranger.

Three months. He couldn’t believe it. Ninety miserable days since he’d last seen his husband. Most of it was spent in space-sleep because it helped the crew regulate the care of passengers between the Moon and Mars, but still. Ranger’s absence made him feel as if he’d been shorn in two with a corroded, serrated blade and then stitched back together with barbed wire. He longed for Ranger’s touch, his earthy scent from the special soaps he used, his laugh, and even his gruffness after a long day of work.

Topping it all off, the issues with his stomach had returned with a vengeance, and he’d gained weight. He wasn’t sure if it was due to stress, going back on a processed, synthetic food diet while in space travel, or what he’d gone through at the study, but most days he wasn’t feeling one hundred percent.

An alien’s battling its way through my intestines trying to burst out.

Damn nanotech.

In about forty-eight hours, he was slated to start his new job—teaching in Dome City. Something he’d imagined doing for ages. Except between missing Ranger, being in a foreign location, and feeling sick, he couldn’t gather one bit of excitement for fulfilling his lifelong dream of being an educator on the red planet.

Not that it was him teaching. No. He’d taken on someone else’s identity. The glamor cube even had him looking like the guy.

Nate sighed. Nothing had gone the way he’d believed it would.

The flight class hadn’t been anything like Nate had thought it’d be. For years, he’d fantasized he’d be put through the paces of real astronauts—survival training, aircraft weightless training, or in lieu of going in an airplane, suiting up and doing some neutral buoyancy tank training in a pool. He would have even been happy if they’d been able to sit in a simulator to experience events such as the launch, ascent, orbit, approach, and landing.

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