Union that had sandy beaches and little umbrella drinks that also needed governing.
"It's fine," she called back to Pelar. "Just don't let this happen again. I don't want to lose my toes. I'm very fond of them, you know."
She could hear soft, nervous chuckling answer her. A moment after, Pelar left to prepare their meals while Audrey walked to the cupboard to pick her outfit for the day.
The sunlight imitation was still shining in through the fake window on the wall of her room, but in truth about twenty feet of steel and heating layers separated her from the planet's surface. When Verien was being particularly moody, Audrey often compared it to bitching, but it was her bitch and she'd be damned if anyone said a bad word about it.
The mirror in her closet looked ready to crack from the cold and Audrey stared at it suspiciously for a second. The surface seemed to shiver as much as her, but they were both fine as far as she could tell. The room was wired to set off an alarm if the temperature dropped to life-threatening levels and that included any objects that might harm her when breaking.
After a long moment of daring the mirror to explode, Audrey started dressing. She shook her limbs, looking at her reflection dancing in it like she there were ants crawling all over her.
The suit she slept in made her look like a polar bear on two legs, in her opinion. Amusing, but necessary. She was short for an arctic predator – but average for a human – and considerably less furry. Audrey's naturally green eyes were made lighter by the lens that shielded her eyes from the intense glow of the endless snow fields.
She was nowhere near the bulk she would have needed to actually pass for a bear, but she had curves and some meat on her bones. Even that was a plus on the planet. Skinny girls suffered the most with temperatures like that.
Long, silver-blonde hair made her look like some sort of an ice queen, but she planned to cut it off soon. There was no practical reason to keep it as such, although Audrey loved the look of her hair, even if the memory of Ulor still haunted her.
She tried to be firm. Everything on Verien went by practicality, including her hairdo, if need be.
In the end, she chose one of her regular light blue suits with matching pants and a sweater that was warmer than it looked. On any world with a Palian presence, most of the things were not what they appeared to be. The kind, nurturing, hardworking species had an answer for every problem.
Very soon, they'd promised her, even the dreadful cold would be “fixed”. Audrey could hardly wait.
On top of all the bulky clothes she was already wearing, she threw a long coat lined with the fur of a white animal. Audrey could only guess which.
Definitely not a polar bear. They would have been prey on Verien.
* * *
" G ood morning , Governor," Pelar greeted her when Audrey walked out of her room, falling easily into step by her side.
Audrey liked the young Palian girl. She was honest and dutiful like all of her kind and the morning's carelessness was completely unlike her. Audrey supposed they all had much on their minds those days. The excavations in the deep mines were nearing their breaking point. They'd either find something to make the planet worthy of being inhabited or they'd leave.
It was as simple as that. The Galactic Union had no need and no trained personnel to spare on a planet that gave nothing back but bills, and the icy temperature was heaping them up like nothing else.
They made for an interesting pair, Audrey and Pelar.
Pelar was pale, shorter than her and thin to the point of absurdity, but Palians weren't built like Terrans were. They didn't need the lenses, even with their large lidless eyes leaving them unguarded against the searing light outside. Her head was shaven, but despite it she still managed to look feminine and sweet.
Personally Audrey thought beauty was completely wasted on Verien, at least while it was in its initial stage of