It was hard to believe any place in the universe could be worse. As he emerged from the floater, Farhad looked out across as bleak a landscape as he could imagine. The plain stretched for kilometers in every direction, covered in fine snow. It blew and drifted in the fierce wind, as craggy mountains loomed in the distance, like shadows in the squall. Through the haze, he could barely make out beacons flashing in the distance, indicating active mining operations. Above, the sky was a murky gray, Fomalhaut’s diffuse glow barely visible through the blizzard. Now and then, floaters like his emerged from the snow, drifting silently through the air, buoyed by massive tanks of hydrogen that hung beneath their mammoth frames. From the ground, they appeared as though airborne whales, swimming slowly through the tenuous atmosphere.

The first thing he noticed was the intense cold: it stung his face and exposed neck. He quickly pulled his scarf up, zipping his parka as far as he could. A moment later, he realized the stinging air was thin. He felt dizzy after only a few minutes, and swiftly pulled his rebreather mask over his face. The seal was painfully cold on his cheeks, but he tightened it as much as he could. After a few deep, slow breaths, he looked up again across the wastes. He was to spend two years on this planet. If this was what he had to look forward to, it would feel like an eternity.

He raised his hood, and lowered protective goggles over his eyes. A moment later, a man approached him. His hood was down, face exposed though he wore goggles. He looked grizzled and worn, as though living in such a harsh place had drained the very life out of him. As he got closer, he extended his hand, raising his voice over the wind.

“Doctor Tehrani!” he shouted.

Farhad took his hand in a firm shake. “That’s me.”

The man nodded. “Diego Valenzuela,” he offered. Having exchanged pleasantries, they dropped their hands, and Diego placed his on his hips, looking around. “Welcome to the spot where hell froze over,” he said, flatly.

“Glad to be here,” Farhad rasped, grimacing under his mask.

“Well, we should get you squared away, huh?” Diego went on. “This way,” he said, motioning to a nearby rover. The two made their way through the drifting snow to a large vehicle, thick treads replacing the customary wheels. The cab was fully enclosed, to Farhad’s relief. They clambered in, and as Diego secured the hatch, Farhad noticed a faint hiss. He wasted no time in unfastening his mask, taking a deep breath of pleasantly warm air as the rover trundled off into the gale.

As the rover buckled, rolling across rough terrain beneath the snow, Farhad looked up to see Diego grinning. “Couldn’t wait to get that mask off, huh?”

Farhad nodded grimly. “I wasn’t expecting the air to be so thin.”

Diego nodded. “It’s like that. Kinda like being in Denver, right?”

Farhad nodded, though he’d never been to Denver. He’d never even seen snow before in his life.

“You from Earth?” Diego asked.

Farhad shook his head. “Parvati.”

Diego mouthed a silent ah. “So you’re a local guy,” Diego observed.

Farhad nodded. Rama was the fifth planet of the Fomalhaut system. Parvati was the third, and the two worlds couldn’t have been more different. Farhad had lived his entire life beneath blue skies and great, fluffy clouds. As a child, he’d played on the sun-bathed shores of his homeworld’s vast oceans, breathed air that was thick and humid. Rama had no oceans. What little surface moisture it had was confined to brackish lakes, heavy in alkali salts. The air was thin, dry, and bitter cold. And while Parvati’s great seas boasted a rich marine ecosystem, Rama was virtually lifeless.

“Rama’s a different kind of place,” Diego offered.

Farhad couldn’t suppress a chuckle. “It’s…an adjustment,” he managed.

Diego nodded. “Well, believe it or not, you’ll get used to it,” he replied. “Everybody does.”

“Where are you from?” Farhad asked.

“Cartagena,” Diego replied. “Been here for almost eight years.” He paused, looking up at Farhad. “And I got used to it. You will too.”

“Honestly, I’d prefer not to,” Farhad replied.

“I get that,” Diego replied. “But trust me, you will.”

The rover ground slowly to a halt, and after Farhad replaced his mask and raised his hood, Diego unsealed the hatch. It blew open immediately, its hinges groaning as a gust of wind blew snow into the cabin.

Diego looked at him, motioning toward the hatch. “Out ya go, doc,” he said, raising his voice over the wind. “Home sweet home.”

Farhad hopped down from the rover, his boots kicking up plumes of snow in Rama’s weak gravity. They’d arrived at the work site he’d seen from the landing pad; the beacons he’d made out through the snow now flashed all around them. Directly ahead, a series of quonset huts squatted in the shadows of massive drilling rigs, towering over them like gritty skyscrapers. From their heavy pillars, they used plasma to bore deep into Rama’s crust. Though its surface was desolate, the planet boasted vast surpluses of valuable ores. Nickel, molybdenum, and notable amounts of platinum and iridium sat far beneath the surface, ripe for the taking. It was the only good reason humans had to live on such a barren world.

“This way,” Diego said, tapping Farhad’s shoulder and pointing to the nearest hut.

Farhad turned to him, confused. “Those are the living quarters?”

Diego nodded grimly. “There’s a settlement, oh, about fifty km’s from here. But this is an active drilling site. Everything’s gotta be able to be picked up and run out the door in a hurry.”

Farhad sighed. The wind picked up, and he raised his scarf over his breathing mask, panting. Alarmed, he turned to Diego.

“Is it always this cold?” he asked, hopefully.

Diego shook his head, seemingly oblivious to the freezing air. “Nah, this is a pretty warm day around here.” He paused for a moment, then turned to Farhad. “You’ll-”

“I’ll get used to it,” Farhad finished for him. The worst part of it was, he realized he probably would.

END