SOLARIS DAWN

THRAINN

Sweat poured out of every orifice that Thrainn had on his face and the constant drip soaked his clothes completely with salt to create a disgusting musk that few in Solaris could withstand. His suit, a thick, multilayered assemblage of nanomachines, recycled his air constantly but failed to purge it of the horrible stench.

Thrainn raised his tree-trunk-sized arms overhead while holding his Merciformer, a multi-tool complete with an extendable handle, a transforming nanomachine head, and the ability to amplify its gravitational pull to increase its weight on the fly. With a thought, the pickaxe head of his Merciformer began to bear down on Thrainn as he increased its gravity by five, ten, twentyfold, and then brought its tip straight down into a boulder. The monumental stone fractured and split, nearly perfectly, in half.

Thrainn turned to see his eldest brother, Vidar, who wore a similar suit to his own. He, too, held a Merciformer and was smashing apart his own pieces of rock several feet away. Then Thrainn turned his attention upwards.

Through the protective lining that covered the visor of his suit he could see Sol's impressive light. Its massive size eclipsed nearly everything else in the sky as it beat down on Mercury's impressive magnetic field with constant radiation.

After a few more swings of his Merciformer a familiar voice sounded over his suit's intercom. "Thrainn, it is almost break time, come back to the buggy when you're ready." His brother Edvin called. Thrainn imagined the pickaxe head of his Merciformer retracting back into its casing and when he opened his eyes it had done as he told it. He strapped the small handle into his belt and began to work his way towards the buggy.

As he pulled away he could see the huge walls of Mozart Crater extending far up into the sky or, rather, towards the surface. Since the colony's founding its workers had excavated and sorted through thousands of tons of precious minerals that were integral for space travel. Thrainn approached two figures who stood next to the buggy, his older twin brothers Edvin and Olaf, alongside Vidar.

"Thrainn, how many tons of stone have you collected so far?" Olaf asked. The pair were not quarry miners like he and Vidar were. Instead, Olaf was the official records keeper, while Edvin was emergency support and buggy operator.

"Just two so far, nowhere near as good as during the dark cycle." Thrainn replied. His twin brothers laughed in the same way at his response.

"Just two? Please, don't be too harsh on yourself, two is more than enough!" Olaf called as he hopped into the passenger seat. Thrainn and Vidar took their places with their backs to the main cab of the buggy as Edvin kicked the engine on. The hovercraft pulled away from the surface easily and then the four brothers began to glide away from the lowest area of the quarry and back up the winding ramps toward the surface.

"The more we collect, the more coin we get back every month, and we need the money more than ever," Thrainn responded, a sternness overcoming his voice.

"Brother, please, two is plenty for half a day. There is more work to be done, so for now, just rest." Vidar stated. He put his gloved hand onto his youngest brother's knee, doing his best to be reassuring, though he was not naturally comforting. Thrainn sighed deeply.

How could the rest of his family be so complacent when so much was on the line? It had been weeks since their father had fallen ill with an unknown disease yet the rest of his children kept their pleasant demeanors. For Thrainn, the idea of his father in pain ate away at him, and the only solution was to bring in more tons of stone to pay for better medical treatment. This was his duty.

The four brothers disembarked from the buggy after they finally reached the colossal doors of their home. The metal entryway arched high above them and was embedded into the natural wall of the Crater where they lived. When necessary, the full doors could open, allowing huge ships to pull in or out as goods were traded between colonies. For now, though, a set of smaller doors built into the larger ones were all that were necessary for entry.