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 Nova jerked up, banging her head on the low ceiling. That stupid dream is going to keep me up all night. She thought angrily. It was the one where Paris was abducted by the strange little fur balls. It used to be funny. Now it was just annoying.

“Hey, pretty lady. Time to get up.”

Nova turned to see Paris smiling through the window next to her bed. She folded her arms and scowled at him.

“What do you want?”

“I was just coming to tell you that I’ve successfully mutated some of the seeds.”

“I’ll be right out.”

Nova flung the covers off and shot across the room grabbing her notebook. This is great! Now we actually have a chance of surviving in this forsaken…There was a cough behind her. Nova turned to see Paris still at her window. She leaned up from her desk, her jaw tightening.

“What?”

“I was just wondering…” he paused, his mouth widening into a grin. “do you always wear such striking colors?”

“Get away from me, you pervert!”

“Hey, I’m an innocent victim here. You’re the one who said okay-”

Nova slammed the window in his face, jerking the blind down. Of all the sick perverted things- one day I’m just going to-

“Calm down, Nova. You know he didn’t mean it.”

“Shut up, Abital. I know what I’m talking about.”

Nova ignored the stretching woman, jerking on her jumpsuit. Abital was boarding with her simply because she was the only other female in the group. Not that sharing a room makes that big of a difference. She seems all too eager to fulfill her role here. Nova thought savagely, storming out the door.

Abital, to put it simply, was supposed to help populate the planet. The team would have insisted that Nova do the same, except she had told them she was infertile. To the extent of her knowledge, she figured she wasn’t. All her relatives had a large healthy family, except her parents. They lived in the city, and as they told her when she was younger, it simply was not economic to have more than three children. Nova felt a pang of guilt. The team always believes me. That always puzzled her, and made her feel terrible for taking advantage of them.

Nova pushed her thoughts away, trying to focus on the task at hand. Getting worked up would solve nothing. She trusted the team, the team trusted her. If Abital died, tough nails. I’m not like her.

“So, what have we got here?”

Nova plopped her notebook on the table, peering at the few sprouts in the greenhouse. A few of them had blossomed during the week. Looks like my supplement actually worked this time.“I’ve been testing them in different soils and various types of sand. They seem to do best in this.”

Nova looked at the small cup Paris held out to her. The first impression she got was blue sugar. She took it, holding it to the light.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know. I found it lying on the ground about a mile from here.”

Nova was dubious about this strange new crystal like substance, but didn’t doubt Paris. She knew when he was serious, and when he just wanted to mess with her. Paris snapped his fingers. Here comes the lightning. Nova thought with a sigh.

“There was something else I wanted to show you.”

He grabbed a telescope from the desk and walked out of the greenhouse, pulling Nova with him. She winced in the light. The day was as terribly hot as ever. The only clouds they had encountered came from the east, and they were wispy little things that provided neither shade or rain. Nova was growing to hate them.

“There, see it? Something on the horizon.”

Nova took the proffered telescope, and aimed where his finger pointed. Oh, that. She handed the spyglass back to him, nodding.

“Yeah, I saw that earlier this week. Do you think we should investigate?”

Nova knew better than to take command. Unfortunately her group was very chauvinistic like that.

“I think we should.”

“Did you tell Horsa?”

“No. I was going to talk to him tonight.”

“How about now?”

What a dork. Always waiting ‘till last minute. Nova shook her head, jotting their findings in her notebook. The prospect of leaving her mundane job to investigate the strange sparkle on the horizon was more than a welcome change. Maybe we’ll find something useful.