Day One
The day went as I had expected it to be: dismal. Colonies on tropical paradises would just be too easy, wouldn’t it? Let us set up a colony on a humid dump, where there are insects and feral beasts galore, because we’re Starfleet and we don’t like to do things simply, we like to do things the hard way. Oh and send two officers to do the job of some enlisted crew, because there’s a magic pot of officers that can be replaced if two are killed doing menial degrading labour. If it wasn’t for the ban on synth research, they could have been doing this, and god forbid we have a moral quandary of a synthetically created lifeform from doing these tasks when we can just force organic lifeforms to do it instead!
Now, I have to try to lift perimeter poles manually, ripping nails off and pulling a back muscle whilst doing it. Why don’t you do it, Mister More Robot than Man? Want to watch me suffer? And then you have the gall to suggest that I turn on the perimeter fence. Are you stupid? Why would I find any joy in doing more work than I have to do, especially something as menial as pushing a button? Just do the thing so we can go home.
This was just the morning. The rest of the day was even worse. I had to walk miles. To collect air. This is a punishment. This is what you get misbehaving crew to do. Not medical doctors. I got stuck in mud, twice. Twice. And that is not all. There was no repellant in the entire galaxy that could not ward those damn insects away. I had to put my hood up and mask on to cover my face so I didn’t get bitten. In a humid environment. I lost two kilograms just through sweating alone. Two kilograms of sweat. Fasting doesn’t even take that much weight off. Two. Kilo. Grams.
It did not get better. Because why wouldn’t you have rocks that you can see if they are wet and slippery or not? No, that would make life so much easier for people. Instead, you can find out when you fall down a waterfall and break your leg. Such a foolproof design. Thank you God, for creating a planet so deceptive and challenging.
And my raktajino at the end of the day was warm. Not hot. Warm.
We still have four more days of this hell.
يا رب ارحم