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He closed the door behind him and locked it securely. Thieves were common in this portion of the station, but they rarely did more than check for unlocked doors. He hoped that they wouldn’t steal from the dropbox if other packages arrived before his return.

Miklin didn’t have a hope, however, for his job hunt today. His notion of continuing his prowl of the station today was more to serve as a mobile dropbox for any birthday packages that might be sent. A check of the ship status board on the docks dashed any hopes of work. The only ship in dock didn’t need any more dockhands at the moment and no other ship was in system aside from the one which had left the station last week. That one was outbound for the next system over and wouldn’t return for another few months. He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets.

He had considered asking the trading ships as to whether they would hire him, but then he would have to leave Natalie behind and she needed someone to take care of her. He doubted that a typical crew salary would be able to cover that, even on a rundown station like this one. Going planetside was also out as they had no money to afford tickets down to the surface and the cost of living would be much higher.

Miklin wandered aimlessly through the crowds for the entire first shift, asking here and there if someone needed a laborer for the day. He lucked out at an eatery which had just received a large delivery of food from the planet and needed help transferring and unloading the stock. The pay wasn’t great, but it was something.

Later on, his nose led him to a large spill of sticky melted ice cream a few rings over and he spent the last few hours of first shift helping to clean it up. At the end, the manager handed over his money with a wrinkled nose for the smell on his clothes.

Miklin headed home, obviously shunned by those around him, but he appreciated the bubble of space it created around him. One more package waited in the dropbox when he arrived at home. He set it on the table without opening it.

“Nat, I’m home. But I stink so I’m going to clean up and change clothes.”

“Welcome back.” She held her nose. “You do stink. Just what did you do today?”

“Helped unload food, but the stinky job was cleaning up spilled ice cream.”

“Two jobs today? That’s great!” She smiled. “Go clean up before I lose my love of ice cream, though.”

He laughed and did as he was told. The worst smell had been when he’d worked in the maintenance department for two days cleaning the garbage containers. That smell hadn’t come out of his clothes for weeks.

Cooking dinner filled the apartment with delicious smells for the first time in a month. Miklin cooked and chopped while Natalie chatted and peeled the vegetables. She laid out the strips of peel to dry on a sheet for snacking on later. No scrap of food was wasted by either sibling and by the end they had enough food for several meals. Miklin cringed at the thought of how much extra their electricity bill would be from keeping the food refrigerated, but fresh food was much healthier for them both and Natalie needed the nutrients.

They ate small portions of the food so the food would last longer. Miklin was full for the first time in weeks. At the end of the meal, Miklin brought out the cookies and sang happy birthday completely off pitch.

However, Natalie smiled through the whole song and kissed him on the cheek as thanks. She even shared the cookies with him.

After cleaning up, Miklin was about to move her to the living space, when she asked, “What’s in that package?”

“You don’t want to know. It’s from him. Like usual.”

“Oh.” The happiness from dinner faded. “Take me to my armchair, Mik. I want to look at my rose.”

“As you wish.”

The pair ignored the package for the rest of the evening and played simple games for fun. When Miklin put Natalie to bed, she fell asleep instantly, exhausted from the extra activity that day.

Only then did Miklin open the package on the table. It contained a piece of plaspaper and a credit chip. The letter was signed, but he could tell that it wasn’t done by hand. The paper informed him that the credit chip contained the monthly compensation credit. Miklin crushed the plaspaper in his hand and had to fight his impulse to crush the credit chip as well. This was the money that Natalie deserved, he told himself, so he couldn’t throw it away even though the pitiful amount it contained was just as much of an insult as the impersonal letter which accompanied it. For the thousandth time, he resolved to finally find a job to end their misery.

Natalie’s birthday appeared to have used up all of his luck, however, and three days passed without him earning anything. They finished the last of the fresh food and turned the unit back off to save money, but the bill still hurt when it arrived. The money on the credit chip vanished to pay the bills as well as most of Miklin’s remaining money.

On the fourth day after her birthday, the trading ship undocked and began its slow journey out of the system. Life on the station slowed back down to the normal sluggish pace and jobs became even harder to find.

Two days later, he finally landed a small job replacing someone on the dock who called out sick. He helped unload a shipment from planetside and tried not to drool at the delicacies carefully wrapped in the webbing. These would be eaten by the rich and powerful who controlled the station, not by anyone of his level. He restrained the temptation to pry and find out which shipment was going to the home of that bastard in order to add something extra. He didn’t need the trouble that would bring down on his head.

The next day, a new inbound ship appeared on the boards. Oddly enough, it wasn’t a trading ship at all. Instead it bore the name CMC Eidolon. The name rang a faint bell and Miklin finally connected it to a mercenary company. He didn’t know much about mercs, other than them being soldiers for hire, and he wondered why one of their ships would be visiting here.