Hoping the lack of activity was a good sign, he hurried back to the lab complex. The familiar sterile corridors felt different somehow—colder and emptier, and when he arrived at the lab Cass shared with Alina, it was empty. Neither woman was present and his heart skipped a beat. Was she having second thoughts already?
But then Roland scamped out from beneath a workbench, chirping urgently. The little armadillo circled his feet before heading towards Cass’s workstation.
“Where is she, Roland?”
The cybernetic creature led him to a display screen where a note was pulled up:
Cass—
Had an unexpected breakthrough with those samples from the western quadrant. Gone to check personally. Back before dark. Data on server under “Project Bloom.” Don’t tell Reece.
—A
Beneath the note was a diagram of molecular structures that meant nothing to him. He was frowning at it when the door opened and Cass hurried in, her face pale.
“Alina’s gone!” she said frantically. “I just checked her room and she’s not there. She never goes into the field alone. Never.”
“It’s not dark yet,” he said soothingly, but she shook her head.
“You don’t understand. That note is dated the same day I left—the day the storm began. She signed out a single-person rover only a few hours after I left.”
Fuck.That meant the other scientist had been missing for at least five days. His heart sank, but he kept his face calm as he started a search of the station’s files.
“What are you looking for?”
“A map. There must be some way to pinpoint her location.”
“I’m pretty sure I know where the samples came from. There’s a mining claim on the edge of the quadrant and they provide us with samples each time they dig deeper.” Her face went even paler. “A mining claim. You don’t think she ran into another one of those creatures, do you?”
“It’s highly unlikely,” he said with a confidence he didn’t entirely feel. “It’s more likely she took refuge with the owner of the claim. Is the molecular structure on the screen the same as what we found?”
“No.” Some of the color returned to her face as she shook her head. “It’s a different structure entirely, but equally impossible for Mars. I don’t understand what’s happening, but we have to go after her.”
“Of course. We’ll take the rover.” He reached for her hand, squeezing it gently. “We’ll find her.”
She gave a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Let me gather some additional equipment. Five minutes.”
As she moved around the lab, he studied the map coordinates of the western quadrant. Other than a few isolated mining claims, the area was largely unexplored—rough terrain with deep canyons and unstable ground. Not a place anyone should venture alone.
“Ready,” she announced, slinging a pack over her shoulder before Roland climbed up her arm to his customary perch.
Before he could join her, the door slid open and Alina rushed in, her cheeks flushed with color and her eyes bright with excitement.
“Cass! I’m so sorry I was gone so long. I hope you weren’t too worried. I have so much to tell you—” The rush of words died as she noticed him. “Oh! Z-542. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Alina!” Cass rushed forward, relief and frustration warring in her voice. “Where have you been? We were about to come looking for you!”
“It’s… complicated.”
An almost feverish energy radiated from the other scientist as she took the sample case she was carrying to her workstation. Excitement? Fear? He couldn’t be sure.
“I know I was an idiot,” Alina said as she unloaded the sample case. “After warning you about going out with a storm coming, I did exactly the same thing—and without a cyborg ranger at my side.”
Alina was clearly trying to lighten the mood, but Cass wasn’t so easily deterred.
“But why?” she asked. “You never go into the field alone. What was so important, and where have you been all this time?”
“Did you look at the diagram I left? That’s an organic structure. Do you realize what that means?”
