“—we’ve been together ever since. He doesn’t understand modern Mars, doesn’t know anything about humans or the colony, but he’s learning so fast, Cass, and he’s protective and gentle and?—”
“You slept with him.”
Her mouth snapped shut.
Cass stared at her. “You slept with an alien.”
“That’s… an oversimplification.”
“Is it? Did you or did you not have sexual relations with a non-human entity?”
“I—” She buried her face in her hands. “Yes. Okay? Yes. Multiple times.”
“Multiple times?”
“Can we please focus on the larger implications here?”
Cass grabbed the whiskey bottle and poured herself another drink. “Alina, you just told me you discovered evidence of ancient intelligent life on Mars and then slept with it. I think I’m entitled to a moment of processing.”
“He’s not an it. He’s… he’s a person. A thinking, feeling person who happens to have scales.” She stopped, realizing she was only making things worse. “Cass, please. I need help. If anyone finds out about him?—”
“They’ll dissect him in a lab somewhere. I know.” Cass took a long drink, her expression troubled. “God, Alina. This is… this is huge. This is ‘rewrite all of human history’ huge.”
“I know.”
“GenCon would kill to get their hands on something like this. Literally kill.”
“I know.”
Cass was quiet for a moment, her mind visibly working through the implications. Then she looked up, and her face softened.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Okay. First things first—we need to figure out how to keep this secret. That means coming up with a cover story for your disappearance, something boring enough that no one asks follow-up questions.”
“I was thinking ‘sheltered in a cave, survived on emergency rations.’”
“Good start, but it needs details. What cave? What coordinates? What did you observe while you were there?”
“I can fabricate some readings. Make it look like a boring geological formation, nothing worth investigating.”
“Smart.” Cass nodded approvingly. “What about the original signal? The one that sent you out there in the first place?”
“I can claim it was a sensor malfunction. The storm interference could have caused all kinds of false readings. I’ve also encrypted all of the original files. Only you and I have access to them.”
“Also good.” Cass tapped her fingers against her glass. “But there’s still the problem of Martin.”
She grimaced. “I was hoping we could avoid that particular problem.”
“Not likely. I haven’t been back that long but I’ve already heard that he’s been prowling around like a man possessed ever since you disappeared. Demanding search parties, making accusations, and generally being an insufferable ass.” Cass’s expression darkened. “He’s also been very interested in what data you were analyzing before you left.”
Of course he is.Martin had always been jealous of her work, always convinced that she was hiding something brilliant from him. The irony that he was actually right for once would have been amusing if it weren’t so terrifying.
“I’ll handle Martin,” she said with more confidence than she felt. “He doesn’t have any real authority here. As long as I keep my story straight?—”
“There’s something else you should know.” Cass’s voice had gone serious in a way that made Alina’s stomach clench. “Something else happened during the storm.”
“What kind of something?”
“Zach—Z-542—was with me at the station and…” Cass’s cheeks flushed.
