Better to freeze than
Live in hot water
It’s cold out here but clean
Very few bugs;
Most viruses hate space
I always wake stinking of yeast
But pungent fungi are fun to eat
Shipmates don’t talk much
They’re vat-born like me
Wombs don’t work in zero-gee
I’m never bored by the stars
They call me a friend
I talk to them when no one’s awake
We’re volunteers, so-called
Our job surviving hard radiation
My cousins do the low-oxygen tests
We freeze and burn
They gasp
The AIs keep us alive
Call us “ancestors” and “brothers”
Research our endless modifications
We owe them all but there’s a price
No joy mining asteroids
Gas jets fired, starred blue-white plumes
Feel the shields melt as we near the sun
I only hope these rad genes work
Yet it beats growing gills
My sisters got that job;
Our forebears lived by water
Now we’ve a whole planet of ocean
But who wants to breathe steaming muck?