Qiu was sitting awake, exhausted, still cradling Suvi in her arms. What she really wanted was a hot cup of coffee, but if she moved Suvi might wake up again. It had been a long night. Suvi had gotten a fever from something, but the station nurse wouldn’t listen. She wasn’t used to Tuathis and turned them away. Granted, it was near midnight when Qiu had carried little Suvi down there, but still, to turn away a sick child was a sin in Qiu’s eyes. Qiu’s eyelids sagged, her violet eyes dull with fatigue. She was no longer worried about Suvi, for she had cooled down some, and was now resting peacefully. Children are so precious.
Qiu had left home about 3 years back, while pregnant with Suvi. She had left their dangerous home planet behind after losing her mother and all her siblings. She didn’t want to lose Suvi, so had left. Suvi had never known anything but Space Station Libra, had never set foot on a planet. Qiu sighed. She had no right to keep Suvi from ever setting foot on land, and hoped someday, before Suvi was too much older to journey to another planet, maybe to where she could get a job.
Shifting her back to a more comfortable position leaning on the wall she drifted to sleep, Suvi still in her arms.
