Page 38 of Alien on the Moon

Maybe it would be better if she and Rylan had some time apart to think and plan. He had been a distraction in the past few weeks. She didn’t want to admit it, but it was true.

Her mind would frequently drift from whatever experiment she was running to the sensation of his skin against hers and how he would touch her like she was something precious and perfect. She would fantasize about moving back to Thryal with him and working together on the cutting edge of scientific breakthroughs.

Sometimes, when she was feeling particularly lovesick, she would daydream about the kids they would have and what she would name them.

Clearly, though, he didn’t feel the same way. Rylan was eager to wash his hands of this moon, this project, and of her.

Fine.

But she wasn’t going to give up so easily. Not on him and not on Kheros.

She grabbed an oxygen mask and made her way back to the lab. The odor of the dead squig had driven most of her coworkers away, but she returned to her desk, took a sample of the slime, and began to examine it under a high-powered microscope.

Strange shapes squirmed in the membranous goo, but she couldn’t yet identify them. At first, she thought this might be some kind of larvae, but they didn’t look like any of the larvae she’d read about. Could it have been a parasite? Somethingalready living in the soil that was affecting them? However, the preliminary soil tests showed that the ground was practically lifeless.

She spent the next several hours banging her head against the wall, both figuratively and, once or twice, literally. What was she missing? Why were the squigs dying off?

Her comms beeped and a message flashed on the screen.Remember Eureka.

It was from Rylan, of course, and though she could tell it was intended to be a peace offering, it did nothing but gall her further. He wanted her to leave the lab and abandon her work.

Between the two of them, someone had to keep at it, and from the looks of it, he had already given up. She had to pick up the slack.

But the part of her that still ran on logic rather than frustration pointed out that she hadn’t eaten in hours and did need to sleep eventually. She would be no help if she ran herself to the ground.

“Fuck you, Rylan,” she said without any heat as she got to her feet. After grabbing a quick bite from the cafeteria’s food synthesizers, she showered and went to bed.

And then she lay there staring up at the ceiling. Though she was tired, she couldn’t seem to fall asleep. Her mind raced from frustration to frustration—Rylan, the squigs, the depleting soil, Rylan, the fact that she still had the smell of the goo in her noseeven after showering, Rylan, the fact that she was never going to be taken seriously as a scientist, and once again, Rylan.

With a groan, she checked the time on her comms. It had been about two hours with no sign of the sandman. She tossed and turned for another hour after that before giving up. Sleep would not come to her that night.

So, instead, she went to the cafeteria, grabbed a bottle of Jolt, and headed back to the lab. If her sisters were there, they would carry her bodily—kicking and screaming—back to her bedroom and lock her in there until she finally fell asleep.

Rylan would have an easier time coaxing her out. All he’d have to do was invite her into his bed, and she would happily join him. She always seemed to sleep better in his arms, and—

Nope! She wasn’t going to think about it. He’d been too much of a distraction to her already. She needed to focus. What was wrong with the squigs?

By this point, she’d read everything she could find on their physiology and environment as well as contacting several expert entomologists, but none had responded to her queries just yet.

Were there any parallels to Earth animals? She had been thinking of them as being akin to earthworms, but maybe she needed to expand her scope of study. Thryal creatures and Earth creatures both evolved in similar ways, but that didn’t mean they were the same.

She knew she was grasping at straws, but it was better than giving up. Stifling a yawn, she got back to work.

Chapter 14

Rylan

Rylan sighed, rubbing at the headache blooming behind his eyes. He understood why Elena was so upset. Of course, he did. The failure of this project was as frustrating as it was humiliating.

When she came in with bright eyes and unusual ideas, he began to hope that maybe they had a chance at saving the project andcountless people from hunger. And for a while, it looked like it was going to work.

It made the defeat all the more bitter. But Elena was right that they still had time to—what was that Earth saying she was fond of?Throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.Despite what he said, he wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

“Stiya, can you get me the new soil readings?” he asked as he passed her in the hall. He considered going back to the lab, but Elena was probably there, and he wanted to keep his distance until things cooled down a bit between them.

She sighed and sent him the latest test results. “Maybe you can make sense of what’s going on.”

He returned to his office with the files and read through them. None of it made sense. Why were the squigs dying? Though the previous test made it appear that the soil was depleted, it now seemed richer than ever. Why, then, did the plants grow in yellow-green rather than their normal rich, dark green?

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