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Dallin nodded slowly. His gaze caught hers and it held.

Sloane lost the power to speak. There was something about this alien that infuriated and excited her. He was intense, brilliant, and handsome, but out of her reach. Maybe that was what she found so appealing about him. She wanted someone she couldn’t have.

Sloane cleared her throat and tore her gaze from Dallin. “I’ll get to work on the tests.”

Neither of them spoke as they continued to study slides and record the results.

Sloane’s parents were scientists, and she’d been raised surrounded by fun experiments which fueled her love of chemistry. One of her favorite birthday gifts had been a microscope. She’d spent five years at university studying diseases of the blood, so testing the health of the crew was a walk in the park for her.

She checked through the first three samples, then checked them again. They all had higher than expected white blood cell counts. Sloane wasn’t alarmed. The work the crew did was high-stress, which could account for those results.

Her tablet pinged with an incoming message, which she swiped open. Her eyebrows shot up. It was from Cameron Delaney, an old boyfriend. It was the third time this week he’d contacted her.

She looked over at Dallin, feeling a trickle of guilt that she was talking to her old flame. Although technically, he’d reached out to her. And even though she didn’t want to be, Sloane was single.

Their relationship had never gotten serious, and they’d dated for a few months, but nothing ever came of it. Then she got her posting to the Apocalypse, and there’d been no point in keeping a relationship going with a guy on Earth.

Sloane opened the message.

Hey, beautiful. Good news. I got a posting to Grundig to work on the new terraforming project. I’m a spaceman! We should meet up. I miss you.

She smiled, but nothing stirred inside her. Sloane wasn’t excited about seeing Cameron again. He was fun and handsome, but she’d never considered him a long-term prospect.

Sloane had always felt like she’d been looking for something more. She hadn’t been certain what that was until she’d met Dallin. Then it clicked into place as soon as they started working together.

Dallin was different to the other guys she’d been interested in. He really knew how to listen, and didn’t mind when she talked about her passions, or told him all the things she’d seen when stargazing. She’d never met a guy who was genuinely interested in what she had to say. They were always focused on her Barbie-like assets and how quickly they could get her naked.

Dallin even asked more questions, or filled in gaps in her knowledge. Not in an alien-splaning kind of way, but in a helpful way. And Sloane loved it when Dallin let her in on some of the fascinating elements of space.

She’d always loved to learn and had never met a guy who could keep up with her thirst for knowledge. Until Dallin stepped into her life with his quiet intensity, brooding looks, and deep thoughts. But he wasn’t perfect. He could be gruff and abrupt when someone slowed him down or interrupted his work, but he was always kind to her in a quiet way.

Every morning when she arrived in the lab, her favorite mug of chai tea would be waiting for her, alongside the dark chocolate cocoa energy balls she loved so much.

Dallin never expected anything in return, he just did those small things that had her heart getting all bent out of shape.

He was exactly what she wanted, but he didn’t want her. At least, not in the way she pined for him like a lovesick teenager.

Dallin lifted his head, his expression stern. “Come look at this.”

She walked over to his microscope and peered through it. “What am I looking for?”

“Just tell me what you see.”

Sloane smiled as she inspected the sample. Dallin was always doing that. He encouraged her to learn and stretch herself. People so easily overlooked her, or dismissed her because of her appearance, but there was a fast brain hidden under her silky curls.

From the first time they’d worked together, he had always asked her opinion and got her to check his data. And although he often gave her the boring tasks in the lab, she knew it was because they weren’t dangerous, and kept her out of trouble.

She adjusted the microscope a fraction, so the slide was in perfect focus. “The blood samples I checked also show these inflammation markers.”

“You’ve had the same results?”

“Yep. I’ve only studied three samples, but the white blood cell count is higher than expected. It’s nothing dramatic. If we weren’t looking for something, I’d think the test subjects simply had a low-level of stress or diet related inflammation going on. Whose blood test is this?”

“That’s Hunter’s sample,” Dallin said. “I ran two human samples, then cross-referenced with an Apexian sample. It’s no wonder he’s having trouble getting out of bed. He must be feeling lousy with a cell count like that.”

“The poor guy,” Sloane said. “What’s causing it?”

“I have a hunch. I’m running a sample of his blood through the toxicology analyzer.”

“What are you looking for?” She looked up and her eyes widened at the low level of panic in Dallin’s gaze. “What? What is it?”

“Give me a minute. I don’t want to jump to conclusions with no evidence to back me up. I’m really hoping I’m wrong about this.”

Sloane tapped her fingers on the top of the workbench, her heart beating too fast. Dallin never exaggerated about anything. If he was worried, she should be petrified.

The toxicology analyzer beeped to signal it was done.

Dallin removed the sample, brought it to the microscope and slid the result into place. “Take a look.”

Sloane’s breath caught as she studied the slide. “That’s the Siblet poison marker. Is that in Hunter’s bloodstream?”

Dallin nodded. “And it wasn’t there when he returned from his mission with Cleo from Rowick.”

“He got poisoned on the Apocalypse?”

“I don’t know. We have to find out how it got in his system, and how many more of the crew are showing the same markers.”

Sloane looked at the samples, fear crawling up her spine in an unwelcome icy spasm. “And we need to hurry.”