mouth, and it was hard not to feel resentment toward those who were selected, especially during the last year when Earth decided to do a rapid recruitment as the colony ship drew closer to its destination.
In truth, no one wanted to be non-gratas. To be non-gratas meant a life where one was confined in a housing unit in an allotted area and put to work as a common laborer, or involuntarily entered into a planetwide raffle. The Exploratory Systems Lottery made up the bulk of the investigative teams dumped on new worlds to create colonies. Born non-gratas, she was used to miserable, cramped living conditions, and the constant threat of the lottery removing her from all that she knew. But the cold of space took it to an entirely new level of misery in the lower levels of the ship.
Charlie slapped her arms, trying to work warmth into them as she followed the crowd into the assembly square. A few large lights were set up, brightly illuminating the area, which was unusual for the lower levels. She squinted against the glow as she watched their sector head stand on the podium and face the gathered crowd.
“Wonder what bullshit he’s going to be spewing this time,” Doug muttered at her side as he took a long sip of the tar-like coffee provided to their level. She knew from experience that it tasted like old socks, but no one complained because it was one of the few things that actually warmed anyone up.
Charlie pressed her lips together, trying not to smile. “Shut up. Someone’s going to report you if you keep that up.”
Doug snorted and took another sip. “What are they going to do? Throw me in the coldest, darkest hole they have—oh wait, too late,” he spoke into his cup.
At her other side, Ben and Jace scowled at the podium.
“Do we have any idea what the hell is going on?” Jace snapped.
“Nope,” Charlie breathed into her TRS again. “Hope it’s worth all of us standing out here freezing our asses off.”
The shared cabins didn’t have a lot of heat, but the small heating units in each one could ward off the chill if the occupants huddled close enough. She never imagined that anything would ever make her inclined to get that close to another person she wasn’t romantically or sexually involved with, but Darvel Exploratory proved her wrong.
And since the company didn’t believe in segregating men and women, cabin assignments were random, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. It was how she ended up with a mountain of a man as her roommate with nothing more than a stern warning to behave themselves. Charlie knew that in many cabins sexual relationships developed among the occupants, but she wasn’t one of them. Doug was too much of a big brother to her.
Not that sexual intimacy had been anywhere near her mind when they met. Charlie smiled at the memory. Doug had been half-hidden in the shadows on his bunk like a gargoyle, his pale, weather-roughened face set in grim lines. In the dim light of the space heater, she could make out his craggy features and the tangle of red hair that fell nearly to his shoulders. Not the most welcoming or comforting face, especially not with the hostility radiating from him as he sat, his massive frame nearly bent in half on his bunk.
He hadn’t wanted anything to do with her, and that had suited her just fine. Wary of the large brute and his surly attitude, she had been determined to stay as far away from him as possible. Only the horrible cold of the lower level eventually convinced her to squeeze in beside him next to the heater. He had grunted, but said little else to her.
Somehow in those first few weeks, he begrudgingly took her under his wing and protected her. He kept her safe, and that wasn’t something she could ever repay. Her good fortune only increased when Jace and Ben, determined to stick with them despite Doug’s best attempts to chase them off, adopted them. Far from Earth, the four of them became a sort of family over the three years they had been on the exploratory colony ship headed for the government classified planet.
Three miserable fucking years.
During that time, they looked out for each other, and for good reason. It wasn’t only the most cutthroat residents on their level they had to watch out for, but the officers from the upper decks who enjoyed coming