The Rinjin are laying low today.

That doesn’t help ease my nerves. If anything, it only makes me more nervous! It’s the enemy you can’t see that I fear the most. What are they planning?!

I clutch a rock the entire day, ready to fling it at them, but they don’t show. Instead, I fill the Luba’s feeding-baskets without incident.

The Luba are large, wide-eyed herbivores, who have just absolutely stolen my heart. They are a little cautious at first, but I have won the trust of the entire herd. While they can be fierce if you hurt their young, they prefer grazing and cooing. My mom says they remind her of oversized Earth cows with the enthusiasm of Earth dogs, but I wouldn’t know — I’ve lived on Garna my entire life.

My morning duties complete, I head over to one of the GAC pods for lunch, where I run into Larry. He’s a kindhearted man, if a little scatterbrained at times.

“Morning, Leah,” he says. “How are the Luba today?”

“Lovely, as always. How are the Delmek?”

“Sluggish and unmotivated, as always,” he chuckles. He’s cutting some Arlar roots, a high-protein, beefy root thats become our main source of food here on Garna. We don’t hunt the animals because, well, we are here to rescue them, not eat them!

I go ahead and grab some Dorna leaves from the cooler and wash them, and together we prepare a mighty fine lunch, if I do say so myself.

“You heard about the meeting tonight?” Larry asks as he takes a bite.

“No,” I say, my ears perking up. “What meeting?”

I know that I’m a hard worker and that I haven’t made a mistake in years (not since my first week actually working for the GAC when I forgot to lock the door of the storage Silo behind me and the Anshi ate a months worth of rations, oops), but whenever I hear the words meeting I instantly think the entire Galactic Aid Corps has gathered to talk about how much they’re disappointed in me.

I know that it makes no sense.

They are galactic. It says so right there in the name. I’m just Leah Booker. A young girl in charge of a herd of Luba on the backwater planet Garna.

Not someone worthy of attention.

And yet, I strive to be perfect. I strive to be the very best I can be. I think it’s because of my heritage — my father is Zoran, and even though he’s shown me nothing but love, I feel like I have to prove myself to him. That I have to prove I’m not a… mistake.

And that is why my heart is racing and my palms feel sweaty when I ask Larry about this ominous meeting.

“Apparently, they’re looking for a manager. Someone to oversee Garna.”

“Oh,” I say. At first my heart rate drops, before it’s jacked up again a second later. He’s talking about a job opening!

“What about Overseer Klun?”

“I think he’s quitting,” Larry answers with a mouthful. “He’s retiring to Corlis.”

“Corlis? Corlis Station?” I ask, eyebrows raised.

“The very same.”

“Can he afford that with a GAC salary?”

Larry shrugs, brushing his long hair out of his face. “Apparently. You coming to the meeting?”

My eyes flutter down to my plate. Could I really be overseer? Do I have what it takes? Could I shoulder all that responsibility?

“Maybe.”

“You should come,” Larry says confidently. “You’d make an excellent overseer.”

“Do you really think so?”

Larry throws his head back and laughs warmly. “You are the most hard-working, kind-hearted person on the entire planet, Leah,” he says. “You’ve helped cover up my fuck-ups more times than I can count.”

“That’s not true.”

“We both know it is,” Larry says. “Don’t deny it. You check the electric fences every night, don’t you?”

“Well—”

“Even though that’s my job. And you clean the communal kitchens every week, even when it’s not your name on the roster, right?”

“I can’t say—”

“I bet you even don’t use all of your daily water rations, just so there’s more for the rest.”

I sigh. “Guilty as charged,” I concede.

“You’d be the perfect overseer,” Larry says. “And if they don’t see that? Well, then they’ve got Rinjin dung in their eyes!”

Larry’s gotten me to chortle, and for a moment I’ve forgotten about my worries. Maybe this is the universe giving me a sign.

Perhaps I am right where I’m meant to be.

I rummage through my drawers, desperately looking for something to wear that makes me look managerial.

I took a nap when I came home, and suddenly half a day has passed. Stupid! I used to be so punctual, but since the Rift, even my own internal clock is out of sorts.

A white tunic will have to do. All my other clothes are stained with grass. Or is that what the GAC brass will want to see? That I’m a hard worker who is not afraid of getting their hands dirty? Ah, decisions!

There’s no time left to decide. I slip on the tunic and head out the door, while my head is swimming with thoughts. Am I doing the right thing? Should I stay with the GAC, or should I go out and explore the galaxy?

I’m so lost in thought I forget to take my trusty rock with me.

And then they appear.

The Rinjin.

They peek their little heads out over the tall grass, stopping me dead in my tracks in the middle of an open field. I had forgotten all about the crafty buggers, and I can see from the devious glint in their eyes that they are going to make me pay for that. Dearly.

“Buzz off,” I say. “I’m running late as it is!”

Wrong answer.

They have mud balls clutched in their tiny little paws, and my heart jumps.

“What are you… oh no, no you don’t!”

Too late.

The furry creatures pelt me with mud. Their leader, the biggest and meanest Rinjin I’ve ever seen, hits me square in the face with a clump of dirt. Seconds later, my white tunic is hit by a dozen other sloppy glops of mud.

I do the only sensible thing.

I reach down, grabbing big clumps of mud straight out of the ground and fling them right back at the monkeys.

“Take that!” I scream. “And that! And that! And this!”

I’m not match for them, as they are a dozen strong, and I only have two hands. I am forced to concede, roaring with laughter despite my anger, as I run back to my pod. My tunic is ruined and my hair is filled with thick clumps of mud. And I don’t have enough water rations left for the day to wash it all out.

You have won this battle, little monkeys, but you will not win this war!