The good wife

The Darksiders never had a particularly strict set of rules when it comes to marriage and inheritance. Primogeniture was abandoned after just a few generations, when incompetence and nepotism brought the colony to the brink of extinction - the old ways were a luxury this small colony, settled on a barren and hostile world, just couldn't afford. A new set of ground rules was made. Every child had to undergo strict training and education, after which they would be directed to his or hers ideal profession regardless of their personal wishes.
The best and the brightest joined the engineers and astronomers. Those with a keen mind but no aptitude for natural sciences were sent to the Abby. and the rest were distributed across the cities as bureaucrats, mechanics, farmers and craftsmen. There is only a few students in the history of the colony that managed to trick the system. Their reasons are certainly private and not a part of any history book. One of such people was Pon Osni's wife, Melba.
Melba was a plain woman, always looking half worried, half uninterested. Her appearance was so mundane that most of the time people wouldn't even notice her presence. History books don't mention Melba except as a wife of a great man, but those who studied Pon Osni's life and work state that she was an obvious influence, usually finding support in the unofficial contemporary documents and testimonials of Pon's friends.
Although she lived on Karai with her husband, she never visited the Abby or the observatory. She never accompanied her husband to the official events or Skygazer summits. Pon used to say, half-jokingly: "Melba prefers plants to people. They talk less." It was true. Melba spend most of her days in terraforming laboratories and hydroponics centers. She would speak to farmers and farm mechanics, discussing problems and possible improvements of the systems. She was by no means a leader, but common people loved her dearly and respected her work. Pon's friends say that she was the main reason the people supported the Great Crossing expedition, even after the reactor failure disaster.
After Pon's death, Melba became even more invisible. She burred herself in her work and even moved from Karai to Zelak, the city with a botanical institute. However, many historians consider her the founder of an underground organization that was very active at the time. Pon Osni's death was a huge scandal. Some blamed the government of the Brightsiders, some pointed their fingers towards religious fanatics of the Bright side, and some swore left and right that the Union of engineers was behind it all. 
Just six months after Pon's death, the long halted deep soil mining project was suddenly revived and preparations started soon thereafter. The strange part is that it was actually proposed by the Head of engineers, the same ones who sabotaged and undermined the project for more than fifty years. What preceded this sudden urge for collaboration is a series of naturally caused deaths of the most corrupt engineers. These vacancies were quickly filled by young, illustrious minds coming straight from the Zelakian University.