Page 44 of Alien on the Moon

“Hmm, go out and wade in rotting food, or stay in here and do paperwork?” Jaku tapped his chin in exaggerated thoughtfulness. “You two lovebirds go have fun.”

Elena, now extremely mindful of the potential for skin cancer, donned her envirosuit and walked with Rylan to the compost pile. The odor of the squig slime combined with rotting foodmade her want to gag even with the oxygen regulator. She had no idea how Rylan was able to stand it out there the night before.

Digging through it was much worse, kicking up the smell whenever she moved dirt or a rotten scrap of food. She saw no sign of the young squigs.

Were they still too small to see without a microscope? Or was she wrong, and this was a disease rather than a reproductive cycle?

“Found one!” Rylan said, showing her his hand palm up. The squig was no longer than her pinkie nail, but it was there, and it was proof that the population was going to survive.

“Eureka!” Laughing, she threw her arms around him, knocking him over with her tackle. He fell into the rotting compost, and she landed on top, practically straddling him. For a moment, she had the urge to kiss him…and potentially do something more than kissing.

But then she remembered where they were. And she was not going to explain an infectionlike thatto any doctors. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, getting off him and helping him to his feet.

She laughed, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment. “I guess I just got overexcited.”

Smirking, he shook his head. “Elena, you can tackle me like that any time.” Then he smelled himself and crinkled his nose in disgust. “But I would appreciate it if you did it somewhere other than a compost pile.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Again.” She took his hand and began to lead him back to base. “We have to tell the others, though. The project is a success. We did it!”

She glanced at his back, still covered in dirt and things she didn’t want to think about. “Erm, after you shower, of course.”

Suddenly, she remembered that she hadn’t showered yet, either. Her hair was probably greasy, and though not as bad as him, she also wasn’t fresh as a daisy.

“Make that two showers,” she said and then saw the look on his face. She knew what he was about to say. “Separate showers. We’ll have time for that later, but first, we need to tell Arccoo and the researchers what we’ve figured out.”

They reached the base doors and helped each other remove their envirosuits. They tossed them in the pile to be cleaned.

Before they parted ways, Rylan caught her by the arm and pulled her in for one last kiss. “First, we make the announcement. Then, we celebrate.” He winked. “Both with the crew and privately later.”

“God, I missed you,” she said, kissing him one last time before heading back to her room. She felt lighter than she had in weeks, like gravity had turned off in her heart and it was bouncing in the air and back to Rylan.

Chapter 16

Rylan

The next day, they ordered a few broods of squigs to be introduced over time and began the construction of a tinted glass shield over the bral and vreben while the team focused on strengthening the atmosphere. That way, the light feeding the plants would not be as strong as it was. It was a temporary solution, but it seemed to be working.

Within a couple of days, the plants were turning green again and were growing faster than ever with the nutrients from the first generation of squigs. Bral grew to be about six feet tall, with everything from the stems to the flowers edible.

Still, the plants hadn’t flowered yet despite being mature enough to do so. This unsettled Rylan, and he searched for what they could still be missing.

“I think we just have to be patient,” Elena said one day as they took soil readings from the field. “These plants have been through a lot. Speaking from experience, that tends to make you something of a late bloomer.” She punctuated that pun with a wink.

He threw his head back with an exaggerated groan, both at the bad pun and because they’d had this conversation before. “I know. But with how precarious the project is, I don’t want to take any chances.”

She gave his arm a squeeze. “I get it. I’m nervous, too. But I also think things are going to work out. We’re closer than we’ve ever been, and I’ve been thinking about ways we can boost the atmosphere. I think we need to increase the water vapor, which can be done by…”

He watched her as she theorized, and he wondered, not for the first time, how he could be so lucky that the universe brought them together against literally impossible odds.

“And then we can… What?” Her blue eyes sparkled. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Because I love you,” he replied without hesitation.

She seemed to melt a bit at that but covered it with an affectionate roll of her eyes. “I love you, too. But come on. These plants won’t grow themselves.”

A week later, her prediction about the plants flowering came true. “Rylan, come here,” Elena said, excitedly waving him over from where he was doing his soil readings.

Curious as to what had her bouncing up and down with joy, he jogged up. “What is it?”

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