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He grabbed her face in both hands and pulled her into his mouth, proving to her that she wasn’t asleep. No kiss tasted this real in a dream. Alina dug her throbbing fingers into the earth, clutching at dirt for further proof as she reached for him.
Mine.
And she wasn’t sure which of them thought it, and it didn’t matter.
EPILOGUE
THREXIN
The sky on Kannth was not like that of Old Earth, at least judging by the footage he’d seen.
It was blue, but a sort of muted greenish-blue. Closer in color to some of the vast bodies of water he’d seen in Alina’s footage. Sometimes it was as though he could jump up and swim through it.
The air was hot and humid. A syrupy mixture that permeated with a fresh tang. He wondered if that was what Old Earth smelled like. According to the geologists examining the planet and contrasting with records, both human and uhyre, some parts and seasons of Old Earth came close, but there were other substances in the air here that Old Earth had not possessed.
Threxin leaned against the railing of the science lab building they’d constructed ten clicks from the crash site. They had to stay close to maintain access to resources, yet far enough to ensure the volatile ruins ofColossalcould be quarantined. He brought the roll of hak to his lips and sucked, closing his eyes to the familiar itch.
Well, almost familiar. The mineral they’d found on Kannth was not Apthian hak, not really, but it was close enough to surprise and to satisfy.
Threxin had a few ticks left before he was due in the lab. He flicked a six-legged crawling thing off the thigh of his thick canvas pants.
Animals. They hadn’t found anything edible or farmable yet in the wildlife, but they found lots of crustaceans and insects. They’d been experimenting with turning them into foodstuffs.
Most importantly they found water. Not drinkable on its own, but they’d fashioned solar-powered evaporative purifiers from the breakdown of the ship. The crash had deprived them of much of the equipment hisColossalwas designed to provide, but luckily parts of it were salvageable.
The idea, of course, had been to haveColossalremain in orbit as both a resource and a sentinel while they shuttled to and from the planet for supplies and research. Clearly that was no longer an option.
“You are here.” Tetha dipped his head from the lab. “Come.”
Threxin sniffed and took one last drag of not-hak, snuffing it out against the metal railing before rewrapping the roll and stuffing it in his pocket.
“What is it?” Threxin sat on the high stool near the long steel table that ran the length of the room.
Tetha braced both hands on the table and closed his eyes for a tick. A projection beamed to the steel surface from overhead.
Most uhyre had gotten their Neurosyncs by now. The results were… varied.
Threxin scanned the figures being projected. “Vaccination? We’re due to start full population administration next week.”
“Were. Were due to start it. Not anymore.”
“Explain.”
“The first test subjects. From the brig.”
Everyone in the brig had died, save for the fortunatevaccination subjects, who had been locked away in a smaller isolated space up on the command deck.
“What about them?”
“Their immune systems continued to overcompensate after that blip we saw before the jump. It seemed to settle, then spike again. Each spike escalated.”
“Spikes simply indicate an even stronger response than necessary, no? Are you suggesting a cytokine storm?” Threxin frowned. Humans were prone to those, especially early in life. It could be deadly. He thought of Alina.
“Nothing like that. They’re fine, only their systems have worn themselves out. Burnt through their own ability to defend themselves against exorin. Haywire.”
“What does that mean?” Threxin was growing frustrated with the way Tetha hid behind his technical speech to avoid delivering the data bluntly.
“It means they were immune and now they’re not anymore.”
