The first message arrived 127 years after my brother disappeared. They said he drowned in the mine on JX40 and he was supposedly cremated immediately, but I always had my suspicions. Why would a supervisor drown? His crew had been dispersed to other sectors, put under secure communication status, and I had never been able to contact any of them.

That was the message: a photo of the mine Gyzor had been assigned with one of the JX-15 moons semi-submerged in it. The colors were incredible due to the levels of radioactivity. The next morning I asked my commander for a transfer to the JX sector on the next assignment round and the request was denied in an hour without explanation.

I tried to put it out of my mind. We were busy after all–everyone was putting in overtime now because of the beryllium deficit. But then I received another…