:wake up:

  Elizabeth grunted noncommittally.

  :WAKE UP:

  Beth shot up in bed with a gasp and found a hefty weight on her stomach.

  She immediately tried to shove the lizard off, but had no success until it jumped off in a feline manner.

  :tsk, so much for being grateful:

  She knew very well that there was no one in the room except her. “You thrice damned disaster.”

  The lizard cocked its head. :Hmph. I have been studying your species, and thing I deserve a blessing, not the opposite:

  Beth licked her lips nervously. “What are you?”

  There was a brief pause before it responded. :I don’t entirely know. I didn’t come preloaded with the knowledge of my race, obviously. You may refer to me as a dragon, however. A very fascinating creature from Earth that I wish to see:

  She blinked sardonically. “I’m going back to sleep.”

  No one could learn of this lunacy.

  They would lock her up and send her back to Earth to live in a padded cell for the rest of her life, with an overgrown lizard that haunted the building.

  She had kept secrets before. She could surely do it again.

  …

  Several days later, Mark was back for his daily poking and prodding. Just as promised, he had started to act just like before. When they had been strangers. But it was different now. She knew. And watching him whistle a tune under his breath as he flipped on the various monitors felt… oddly hollow.

  He turned a lopsided smile on the lizard. “Time for your daily measurement, my dear,” but this time, it refused to let him close.

  Mark turned bewildered, “Is it just me, or has it been getting increasingly hostile?”

  She glared at it, “Probably, though I don’t know why.”

  :Oh, please. It is humiliating:

  Beth rolled her eyes. “Mark, if you’ll leave the room, I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Sure,” He left hesitantly and closed the door behind him.

  She turned back to the thing. “Humiliating? Do you know how many times you’ve tripped me? You’ve even made me a temporary invalid. The least you could do is stand still.”

  :Dragons are dignified creatures. And this is an indignity:

  “Let me remind you that I had to be poked and prodded because you ripped my calf to pieces!”

  :It was necessary. An instinct I couldn’t control: It affected a sulking attitude and twitched the tip of its tail:

  “Uh huh. Now stay still.”

  :Fineee.”

  Beth glared at it once more for good measure, then commed for Mark to return.

  He walked in hesitantly, then rushed in to look at one of the machines that had started to beep while he had been gone.

  Beth craned her neck, “What is it?”

  “The theta waves are off the charts! The physicist and environmentalist have been debating about possible reasons why a biological form could affect the surrounding environment so greatly, and part of my job has been to implement some tests to test their hypothesis. But this… And it’s not just it. Your theta waves have also increased…” he turned to face her abruptly, “Do you feel different mentally? Any change at all?”

  She flushed. “No.”

  A different monitor started to beep.

  They both glanced at her heart monitor that had suddenly spiked.

  Mark lowered his voice, “Was that a lie?”

  The monitor spiked again.

  “No?”

  Darn it. Turns out she never had to outright lie when keeping a secret. And he could tell.

  His voice grew excited again. “What is it? Are you thinking faster? Can you do calculations quickly? Can you control the temperature of the room? Telepathy? Some other extra sensory perception?”

  Beht closed her eyes. “Second to last one. But only with the abomination on my bed.”

  It seemed to huff mentally at her, but said nothing.

  Wonder filled the astrobiologist’s voice. “Telepathic communication. I fear I am in the wrong field to properly appreciate this discovery.”

  Beth shrugged uncomfortably. “I think you overappreciate it.”

  “Nonsense. Can I speak to it?”

  Beth assented. But when he failed to make any headway, they settled on Beth interpreting for them.

  Mark proceeded in grilling the creature vicariously.

  “Can you communicate with anyone? Or just Beth?”

  :Just Beth:

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Then, how can you communicate with her?”

  :We linked through the egg, and then in blood:

  “Do you know what Mars used to look like?”

  :No, idiot, I was born yesterday:

  “You mean twenty days ago?”

  :Yes. Yesterday:

  “Interesting. Were you the cause of the planet heating up so fast?”

  :Once again, I was literally born yesterday and can’t know or be held accountable for what I did while inside the egg:

  “Ok... Are you the only one left in your species?”

  :I’m the only dragon I know:

  “Dragon? Like the mythical beast?:

  It purred, :yess. I have found kinship with them and have named myself one:

  “Well, I’m not a macrobiologist, nor a mythologist, but I believe that you cannot be considered a dragon. At best, you would be a drake.”

  It hissed,:I am no musician. I meant what I said and will take no less:

  “I would consider you a dinosaur.”

  :oh?:

  “For you are a terrible lizard.”

  It whipped its tail in dissatisfaction.

  On and on it went. Mark made many notes and lamented the creature’s inability to respond to him.

  Beth shrugged. “I would give it to you if I could. But for now, I’m done.”

  …

  Commander John Archer squinted in well concealed displeasure at his governmental nanny. For all intents and purposes, they held the same rank. His was military, hers civilian. But she had a direct line to the person who controlled his pay. And they both knew that fact very well.

  It was for this reason that they met seldom and did so uncomfortably.

  “Governor Minerva, you rarely drop in unannounced.”

  She tucked a nonexistent stray blond hair behind her ear. “And for good reason. This is urgent, and will not take long. Why have you been hiding information on the Maritian?”

  John blinked in surprise. “The easy answer is that I have not. How is it that you came to such a conclusion?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Yet it has been almost half a year, and little to no change has been reported. And the possibility of a rogue agent with the ability to bypass all security is a threat that the Secretary of Defense is leery of.”

  “I understand his concerns, for my base is in the imminently affected range. But he is far on Earth. The jump range cannot extend the near one-hundred million miles that span the distance between here and there. It’s purposterous!”

  Silently, she pulled out a small screen and showed him a video of a large black lizard, hunkered down in some library while the patrons screamed and ran away. Animal control showed up soon after, but their darts did not penetrate. It did cause the beast to disappear from the table along with the book.

  All of the possibilities ran through his mind in an instant.

  If it could jump that far, and with an item that big, nowhere was safe. And the most devastating of weapons came in the smallest packages.

  Minerva leaned forward slightly, constricted by her grey dress suit. “The secretary wants it killed as soon as possible. It has lied for who knows how long of its abilities, and cannot be trusted.”

  John sighed heavily and stood.

  He would need a heavy drink after this.

  As if thought had brought forth deed, his precious hard won rum started to leak from its cabinet with a clatter. John ripped it open and swore. His unopened bottle was half gone. Literally. As if someone had just eaten half the glass.

  Minerva stepped aside with eyebrows raised as he left in a hurry, already opening comms to his second in command and several squad leaders in the vicinity of the lab.

  He feared the mission was a dead on arrival, and feared the blowback. Both from the government and the Martian.

  …

  Beth looked through a microscope at the geological sample taken from some dirt in the west, searching for potential biosignatures. There were some promising structures here and there, which she snapped pictures of. After all of this time, Beth had gathered quite a catalogue of pictures which the bio department on Earth was able to sort into files, then comb through. All she had to do was find and document them.

  Then a second presence appeared in the room.

  She turned and smiled at her erstwhile harbinger of calamity. Though Beth still called the creature Cal because of its taste for trouble.

  “Cal, did you find me a new sample? I’ve finished the one you brought me yesterday.”

  : No. We have to go:

  Beth looked at her watch. “It's not quite dinner yet. We’ll have to wait-”

  :No. We need to leave the planet. They want me dead:

  She frowned.

  They hadn’t wanted Cal dead when he had eaten half of the first crop of potatoes grown successfully outdoors, nor when it had slept on some delicate wiring and caused half of the power to go down.

  “What did you do?”

  Its glittery blue tail whipped back and forth. : Nothing. I only went to a book place to read like everyone else:

  “Books? But there aren’t any…” Books were too costly to ship when a digital version would do. The only ones on Mars came with the personal load allotment. Beth glanced at Cal in sharp realization. “Earth? You were on Earth?”

  It crouched pitifully. : Yes. Please, we must go. You know the strange bond we have. If I flee while you remain, I will end up coming back to you before long. It gets painful to be apart:

  Four months ago, she would have been glad to get rid of this odd dependant, but in the intervening time, she had grown fond of it. At least, fond enough to not want it murdered.

  “Fine. Let me pack and ill-”

  : No time. I can bring you things later:

  Beth glared down at Cal. “I thought you could only carry very small items. Is this another skill you’ve been hiding?”

  It snorted. “Yessss, now leave please:

  Beth shook herself and left the room with half a plan in mind.

  She could pilot one of the interplanetary science shuttles and land it on Phobos or Deimos. It would at least work asa an excuse since she was due for another sample collection from the moons of Mars.

  With a panicky hitch in her swift walk, she ran into the one person she couldn’t just brush off.

  “Hi Mark! I’m on my way to Phobos. Need anything?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  They both chuckled at his wordplay, but Beth had already started to scoot in the direction of the shuttle.

  He paused, "Although nitrogen would be a blessing. We need an eyewatering amount before we can hit the next threshold. Not that you could get it on one of Mar's moons, or else we wouldn't be having this issue now."

  “Yes. Terribly sad. But I really must go if I want to make it back at a reasonable hour.”

  He glanced at his watch. “I would give up on that. Even if you left now, you would be back long after dinner is finished. I was just heading there now in fact.”

  The implicit invitation hung in the air between them.

  Delicate.

  Ephemeral.

  Beth pursed her lips regretfully. Mark had been drafted to help set up the most recent push in terraforming Mars and had set aside the daily visits to Cal in order to help monitor the plants and animals.

  Especially since the data had flatlined.

  Now they saw each other most in situations like this. Utter coincidental run ins in the hallway.

  A surly voice hissed in her mind :Beth:

  She sighed, “Sorry. I’ve been putting this off enough as it is. It has to be done now.”

  Mark gave a complex expression that conveyed the soft acceptance of one not surprised. “Of course. I’m sure we shall talk again when your pursuits pause long enough.”

  Beth smiled hollowly, “Of course.”

  And ran away at a fast walk.

  The guard at the shuttle bay waved her through easily, used to her wild rock hunting excursions.

  Once she was safely aboard, Beth ran through the safety check as fast as possible. The suiting up took a little longer as Mars had gained enough of an atmosphere to be out in with only an oxygen mask.

  But by the time a frantic comm came through the speaker, Beth was already off planet and flying towards the stars.