‘Maslow Meets the Mayfly Moon’ by Janet Smith

Eril’s canvas dominated the tiny living quarters. Not with its size, but in its vibrant contrast to the black surrounding it. The apartment walls, the ceiling, and the floor, along with every piece of furniture, had been 3D printed using the ebony sand of Stygia. As far as Sena Brevity was concerned, this perfect construction material made for a rather depressing decorative choice. She stepped toward the painting and peered at the kaleidoscope of colours in front of her. The brush strokes were short and precise. Beautiful. She stepped back, and the collage morphed into the face of a wistful woman. Brilliant.

Sena sighed at the talent on display, wistful herself as she measured her artistic shortfalls against her pride in this student’s skill.

“I’m out of paint.” 

Sena spun around to find a dejected young man slumped on the couch behind her. 

Eril held out a rolled-up tube of red pigment, not looking at her as pulled his legs toward his chest and dropped his head into his knees. “Word got out.”

She knew what that meant. The Marshall Council had categorized him as idle — a status unacceptable in a colony less than sixty orbits old. Every sector within the city still juggled a crushing workload. 

“Where?” was all she needed to say.

“Road crew. An eight-cycle stint starts tomorrow.” The boy looked at her for the first time since entering his residence. His pallid face broke her heart. 

She put her hands behind her back so he couldn’t see her clenched fists. She knew who was responsible. “I’ll fix this,” she said as blood pounded in her ears. “The supply ship is coming. It’ll be okay.” 

She made Eril a grilled cheese sandwich and left.

Stygia was a Cinderella moon in orbit around KOI-571.05, an exoplanet tracking a red dwarf sun through the Andromeda galaxy. In 2308, Sena, a naive art graduate, had joined the crew of a supply ship. She’d expected to find an established colony and citizens eager for culture, not an environment whose only colour came from the firm ebony sand that covered everything in every direction.

Statton Colony was nowhere to be seen from their landing site. The captain could only surmise it was a navigation failure. Rather than risk a search crew, he announced their supplies would be used to form a new Stygian colony named after his father, and the Marshall Colony became Sena’s home.
 
The air was sweet, the water clean, and atop the few stone outcroppings, the crew discovered wild goat-like creatures they could domesticate for dairy and meat. This moon was a perfect fit for human settlement. Using its ever-present sand as raw material for their 3D printers, a city was erected, every aspect as black as space.