Satine Shepard was walking through the small serene town of Yves on the planet Mindoir. She often did so in the twilight hours of the day before returning home to her husband. She rubbed the slight baby bump protruding from her stomach and smiled as she soaked in the crisp, cool air.
"Another perfect day" she happily said to herself.
Mindoir was a stunning and beautiful planet almost entirely covered in flowing steppes, rolling plains, and fertile virgin soils. At the elevation where Yves sat, Satine could see for kilometers. She was happy that her and her husband, Jean, had made the decision to leave Earth and start life anew. Mindoir was the perfect place for budding families like the Shepards. Yves was different from many colony towns. Instead of being built in the standard, ubiquitous style of a metal and stone fusion, the architects responsible for Yves adopted an 18th century French colonial look; a definite form over function approach. Mindoir was one of the European Union's first colonies, more specifically France's first; the prime factor in the nostalgic look. Its appearance alone was even apart of the recruiting drive back on Earth, "Bringing the Past to the Present" was a popular slogan seen on Mindoir advertisements. The architecture was strong enough to withstand anything but gale force winds and an all out attack, both of which were non-existent on the planet. It was a small farming colony never meant to be anything larger than it was. In fact, Mindoir was such a fruitful planet that the crops grown by its small number of farmers were equivalent to that of a colony ten times its size. Mindoir was consistently breaking yield records as each season passed. Satine looked into the clouds, admiring their pink and purple hues when she spotted a transport freighter nearing the town's docking bays.
"Must be this month's eezo shipment" she nonchalantly thought to herself as she continued to admire the view. The colony of Mindoir exported an exorbitant amount of crops while importing very little. However; eezo is necessary no matter where one lives.
Very little time passed before her eyes fixed on the freighter once more, noticing that it had not slowed down its approach vector. Before she had any time to wonder why, a burst of flames erupted from the starboard engine followed by an egregious explosion that shook the peaceful town. The freighter careened out of control and slammed nose first into the empty streets below. Its magnesium plates stripped off as the freighter skidded and slid across the pavement. The loose metal ignited as it contacted the engine fire creating a searing white flame bright enough to temporarily blind a person. Satine dove for cover protecting her head and, instinctively, her stomach. She felt something cool encase her body, like a mist of some sort, but she dared not move, much less open an eye. Crippled with fear, Satine remained motionless until she heard other colonists racing to the crash site. She stood up unsure if she was even still alive, but when she looked up at the ensuing carnage she was shocked at what she saw. Yves was covered in powdered eezo.
Chaos erupted in the small town. Chunks of pavement had been thrown through windows, shattered glass riddled the streets, several lamp poles had been taken down crushing the weak wooden roofs on which they fell, and bits of the freighter had punched holes through the nostalgic buildings, injuring their inhabitants. Satine rushed to the freighter, her first thought went to helping any survivors, but she was stopped in her tracks both by the blinding flame and the wheezing, crippling cough that now plagued her. Satine stood there, hands on her knees, coughing and spatting out element zero. The taste was foul and acidic; she didn't know what Pyjack poison tasted like, but she equated it to that. It felt as if her mouth was burning from the inside out, adding to the panic. The coughing and heaving alone exhausted her to the point of collapse. She watched, through hazy eyes, as the colony's small volunteer fire department tackled the magnesium fire that had now enveloped the rest of the freighter. It would be a long drawn out fight. Soon after, she lost consciousness.
Satine had been lucky to survive. Aside from severe element zero inhalation she only suffered minor cuts from glass shards. In her time at the hospital the doctor had checked on her child, or children as she soon came to find out. She was carrying twins. The doctor discovered a strange anomaly in the fetuses, but all their vital signs checked out so he dismissed it to machine error. The effects of element zero exposure on children in utero were largely unknown in the year 2153. Satine spent three days in the hospital, two to vacuum out the remaining eezo in her lungs and one to check on the children. Jean had been by her side the second she was admitted. He was working their small farm when the freighter had crashed, but he saw the the whole thing happen. He had taken off into an uninterrupted sprint until he reached the town, only to find out that Satine had been admitted to the hospital. He hadn't moved from her bedside. Almost everyone in Yves was affected in some way by the crash. Everyone had inhaled the eezo, that was unavoidable, though Satine certainly had the worst of it from what the hospital staff could see. Miraculously; the only deaths were that of the pilot and a few members of the freighter crew, though dozens had been hurt by flying debris; however half of the town had suffered immense damage. Satine and Jean had almost lost dear friends and even Satine herself, but despite the tragic accident the young couple had never been happier. Not only would they be parents, but they were going to be parents to twins. Tears of joy streamed down their faces as they made their way back home. Despite all the damage done to the streets and the remnants of the aesthetically unappealing eezo caked onto buildings; the couple looked out past Yves to the fantastic scenery before them. Nothing had changed beyond their little town.
"Another perfect day" they both said in unison.