I spent the rest of my day off teaching. At dinner, people looked at me differently. Some with respect. Some with fear. A few with disgust. But I didn’t care what anyone thought of me. Not anymore. Teaching again felt right. So I was going with that. And if Ahiga ever wanted to spar again, I was more than ready. It’d been fun to see how far I could push myself before my Aunare side kicked in.

That night I woke up three times with nightmares. The first nightmare was bad enough that I’d rushed to the bathroom, puking up what little food I’d eaten at dinner. The scent of sulfur in my dreams had been so real, so strong…

I felt sorry for waking up my bunkmates, but after my second nightmare, Audrey pushed the bunk next to mine close enough so that she could wake me without getting out of her bed.

I woke up in a cold sweat just before the start of my shift, dreading putting on the suit. I threw up again before breakfast. And again after breakfast. But I showed up at Cargo Bay One on time for my shift.

I was a shaking mess as I pulled the damned replacement suit on and stepped out into the elevator. Tyler almost had to come push me out onto the surface, but I managed to save myself that embarrassment, even if it took all my willpower to do it.

The start of my shift was fine. I sprayed the stupid surface. I wasn’t going to let SpaceTech know how much this job was already wearing on me, but then the cooling unit in my suit broke.

I was close to the bay elevator, so no harm was done. Barely more than a sunburn. But my second shift scared me. It meant that this wasn’t a fluke. It meant that if I’d been farther away…

The nightmares after that were worse.

I wasn’t sleeping and keeping food down was next to impossible. I was surviving on a diet of crumbly bread and electrolyte packets.

The day after that, my suit held up, but I didn’t. Audrey said the lack of food was a problem, but all the throwing up was worse. An extreme case of dehydration had me spending the night in the med unit getting fluids.

I didn’t earn a sick day for that one, but by the next morning, I felt physically okay. Audrey had given me some meds for sleep through the IV. They gave me a wicked headache, but I didn’t have any nightmares. Ahiga was on edge, threatening to send word to my father if one more thing went wrong.

By my third day, I knew I had to be prepared for anything. I loaded up on as much disgusting food as I could swallow and drank more water than I thought possible before checking my suit and heading out.