Page 4 of Gravel and Grit

She felt a flutter of excitement in her stomach, reigniting the sense of wonder she’d all but lost after working day in and day out for two damn years with no progress.

When she’d been approached to come work at Area 51 right out of college, she was over the moon. Mira had been obsessed with all things alien for as long as she could remember, and she’d worked hard to obtain the necessary doctorates, specifically so she had the skills and knowledge needed

to land a job like this. Of course, back then she had dreams of working on big, life-changing projects. The reality was quite a bit different.

After passing extensive background checks, being subjected to an appallingly invasive series of medical examinations, and signing too many documents to count that basically said she’d bedisappearedif she ever said anything about what she saw down here, she was put to work.

Mira was so nervous that first day she almost got sick during the terrifyingly long elevator ride down to the lab. Visions of spaceships, laser guns, and teleportation devices danced through her mind, making her giddy with excitement.

When she was introduced to Calvin, leader of Team 12, to which she’d been assigned, she’d expected the derision in his eyes but didn’t let that dim her anticipation. Mira was used to being underestimated. She knew she was considered cute, with blue eyes, pale skin, and long, curly hair just this side of black. It didn’t help that she was short, at five foot two. But, worst of all, she was female. Never mind that she had a near-genius IQ and was coming up on her thirty-third birthday, she looked young and dainty and, therefore, had to be unqualified to work with thebig boys. Calvin immediately put her to work on what they’d informally dubbed P.U.S.S—Pretty Useless Space Shit.

Despite the name and the unsurprising immaturity of the men that worked there, she was ecstatic to get started. The fact that two other teams worked on it before her, and Calvin blatantly telling her it was a dead-end project that would never go anywhere, she set to work with relish. Mira was determined to succeed where everyone else failed.

That excitement lasted for about six months, but eventually, the unsubtle jeers and snickers started to get to her.

They weren’t supposed to share project details with members of other teams, but the men down there gossiped more than high school girls. She knew what everyone else was working on, partially because they talked about theirgroundbreakingprojects a little louder when she was around. Bill, the puffed-up jackass from Team 3, and his constant gloating about the spaceship his team was assigned to, was the worst. She knew they did it to rub it in that she’d been assigned to the project none of them were able to crack. Part of it was them being assholes, but she knew the other part was worry that she’d yield results where they couldn’t.

It was that insight that drove her to work harder, to use their thinly-veiled

mocking to fuel her determination, even after her excitement diminished.

Now, all her hard work had paid off. It was finally active.

Mira’s first instinct was to run to her boss and tell him of her breakthrough, but good sense quickly followed on the heels of that urge, keeping her seated. If she took this to Calvin, he’d more than likely take her off the project and claim the breakthrough for himself.

She wasn’t naive enough to think he’d give her credit. If she were a better person she wouldn’t care, she’d just be happy about the success, but she wasn’t. She wanted the acknowledgement. Not because she craved the praise and attention, but because there was a good chance it would get her higher clearance and possibly even transferred to a team that worked on the high profile assignments. A team not headed by Calvin, the misogynist with wandering eyes.

She hated the underhanded way things worked, and it had taken a while to really accept the fact that everyone was out for themselves, but she’d learned to be a realist. She knew exactly what would happen if she told anyone.

If she could keep the device’s sudden activity to herself, just until the department meeting next week, she could present her findings directly to General Harrison and prevent any chance of being edged out.

That meant she’d have to hide her excitement and act as if nothing had changed. While she wasn’t overly confident in her subterfuge skills, she thought she could manage it for a week or so.

She’d need to work late to compile as much data as possible before the meeting, but it wasn’t like she had any reason to hurry home in the evenings.

Not when home was a sparse room in the residential area of the underground base when she was on duty, or a mostly empty apartment in Las Vegas when she was off duty on the weekends. She didn’t have a husband or boyfriend, no children or pets. Hell, there wasn’t so much as a plant that needed to be watered in either location.

Confident in her plan, Mira got to work, staying subdued during the day while everyone was there, then working late into the night, gleaning as much information as possible as to the purpose of the device.

3

ZAEK

Zaek worked tirelessly for days on end after Roc left, locked in his workroom in the basement of his secluded mountain cabin. He felt alive for the first time in centuries.

He’d been on this planet for nearly one thousand Earth years and thought he’d become somewhat accustomed to the slow progression of time, but now that rescue was imminent, he realized how close he’d been to losing hope.

Excitement was like fire in his veins. He would finally see the beautiful, pale purple skies of home. He would soar in the neverending winds above the mountainous desert, without needing to hide himself for fear of being spotted by some stray Earthian or setting off a radar sensor. He could return to his duties as a general in the military instead of languishing in the maddening inactivity imposed upon him on this damned planet.

His parents passed away years before he’d left on the mission, and he didn’t have anykher—blood siblings—or family waiting for him back home, but that didn’t diminish his longing to return. Despite worries about his unsuitability and private concerns that his mating gland was defective, Zaek still hoped he might finally find hisHondassa, the one he was meant for and who was meant for him, so he could start a family and no longer face the centuries alone.

As he worked, he planned, shaking his tail and timing his thoughts to the beat of the music coming from the headphones covering his pointed ears.

Finish the tracker, find the beacon, input the proper code to discover the

retrieval time and location. Make sure it sends out a ping to the sigils of myremaining brethren, so they know where to go. Ensure it has adequate powerin case the sigils do not so the short range teleportation function works, thenget myself and the beacon there.

“Easy enough, if thisMacero-cursed tracker would just fucking work,” he finished out loud when the song ended.

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