Page 6 of Alien on the Moon

“What could be causing this?” he said rhetorically, running a hand over his bald head. His hand snagged on his oxygen mask. If the increase in oxygen levels continued, they soon wouldn’t need them anymore.

Rylan tossed and turned in his bed. The oxygen levels in the air—usually too high in carbon dioxide to breathe—worried him. It should be a milestone. It should be an achievement.

“It’s useless if we don’t know why. We can’t replicate it,” he muttered, his voice thick with exhaustion. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a good night’s sleep.

As always when he couldn’t sleep, he dressed and returned to the lab. The automatic lights flicked on, illuminating the long room as he walked to his desk. The lab ran the entire length of the compound with interconnecting chambers for the different departments.

His desk was right at the end. He usually savored walking through the collection of machines and cooling rooms, the racks boasting plants they were trying to grow outside. Tonight, it added to his frustration.

Stopping at one of the incubation chambers, he stared at the neat rows of bral sprouts. The info panel lit up.

“Atmosphere matches Kheros. Soil matches Kheros. Temperature and humidity controlled. It just doesn’t make sense…”

He reached his desk and dropped down on the chair, turning to the window to peer at the night sky. If he squinted, he could almost make himself believe he was back on Thryal, in his old lab, where the whole of his home planet wasn’t relying on him to make this work.

Still homesick, he pulled up some pictures of the Pnitaan Forest, near where he grew up. The vibrant colors soothed him. A picture of a pnittee popped up, and he huffed a laugh.

The tiny animals were adorable. Rodent-like with long fur and big eyes, they were some of the fiercest predators in the forest. Being bit by one was signing a death warrant. They were also incredibly strategic, their brains taking up half the size of their cute but deadly bodies.

Another picture popped up, depicting an impossibly tall tree. Rylan zoomed in, finding a baby breu clinging to its father. They were incredible, their bodies covered in sleek fur with tufts ofvibrant feathers springing from their foreheads. On the other end of the scale from the pnittees, these mammals were so dense and slow that conservationists had to work full time to keep them alive.

“This is what I’m working to save,” he said softly. “Murderous little critters and majestic tree dwellers.”

He sighed, closing the tab and sitting in the darkness. He’d been at the Kheros compound for almost two years. In the beginning, every day was exciting. His small team had lived in a makeshift homestead while they built the compound that he was now in. Camaraderie was high, and the progress they made every day was tangible.

Back then, anything seemed possible. They’d successfully recreated Kheros’s atmosphere in their labs on Thryal, and the plants were thriving. Of course, they’d expected setbacks, but the level of failure that now stared him in the face was stifling.

His train of thought led him to the “precious cargo” that Stiya was bringing back. His excitement for fresh produce and new seedlings had faded to the dread of welcoming Prince Arccoo’s sister-in-law.

Curious, he pulled up the news articles that had circulated when Prince Arccoo married his human bride. The picture was grainy, but he could make out Princess Carmen’s sisters. Was it the tall one with the crazy look in her eyes?

No. He smiled to himself. The graininess of the picture couldn’t hide the inquisitive blue-eyed stare of Carmen’s youngest sister. Elena, the article said.

What would she be like, he wondered? He studied her. Petite, posture slightly hunched as if she hated the attention. Her hair fell in waves over her shoulders. Rylan stared at the color, so unlike any he’d seen before. The reddish-brown hue was imbued with lighter strands that reflected the tiny globe lights of the palace ballroom.

Rylan scrolled through the rest of the wedding photos, trying to find the elusive Elena in the background of each. In one, she was standing in the corner of the ballroom looking uncomfortable. In another, he recognized the lead royal engineer. The man looked practically exasperated, a few shots showing what looked like Elena asking a million questions.

The lights in the lab flicked off when the sensors had not detected movement in several minutes, and Rylan jumped. He guiltily closed the tab he’d been looking at.

“It’s just recon,” he assured himself. “Always good to know what to expect.”

His voice echoed in the empty lab, and he laughed at himself.What a loon.

Later, back in his room, he finally fell into a fitful sleep. When he woke, he would adamantly deny that his dreams were consumed by curious blue eyes and waves of chestnut hair.

Chapter 3

Elena

“How have you addressed the temperature differential?” Elena asked, the open page on her tablet already stuffed with notes.

Stiya’s effort to hold back a groan was almost tangible.

“There isn’t a massive difference compared to some of the more remote areas of Thryal, so we’ve classed that as negligible.”

Elena could hear her patience was growing thin.

She had peppered Stiya with endless questions during the transport to Kheros between cramming in as much knowledge about terraforming and the Kheros project as her brain could possibly take.

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