Captain Archer barked orders as his subordinates in quick succession. Then sat back in the command room to watch and wait.

  It seemed his initial move was too late, and that blasted martian and geologist had already long flown the room before they had arrived. But what the hell were they supposed to do once the pair had left the planet?

  They had planned on taking Elizabeth Kane hostage and just waiting for her pet to come back. This portion of their almost parasitic relationship was well documented. Though with them both in space, a darker solution presented itself.

  And in hopes of salvaging the mess, he submitted what was obviously the best solution to the person who would like it least.

  He mentally patted himself on the back and mourned the loss of his rum as he sipped from the first vintage of Mars.

  He hated vodka.

  …

  Beth had listened to the threats and pleas through the comms before she shut them down. If they kept going in a forward direction, no one would be able to catch them unless they were going faster. But she had never exited the odd gravity well that Mars had produced. And doing so now felt like doing a backflip on a tightrope with no safety net. Great if she landed it, and very dead if she didn’t.

  Her personal Calamity sat curled in her lap.

  The steady beep of machinery lit the cabin in a soft, blinking white, red, and green.

  It wasn’t a large ship. Just the cockpit, and a room that held the emergency shower, toilet, on one side, and a delightful amount of scientific carrying equipment on the other. The back hatch was a small room for moonwalk gear and had an airlock.

  Beth just gripped the joystick and flew into the great big nothingness.

  She could die out here. In this rockless void.

  A small meteorite pinged on her shield.

  Well, mostly without rocks.

  But no soil would embrace her body, and no chance of permineralization. It would be the worst kind of death out here.

  All alone.

  Her mouth formed a grim line.

  No more alone than she had been anywhere else.

  Except for Cal.

  But they weren’t together by choice. More by accident than anything. A Pair forced together again and again. Though it did bring up the question of what would happen to her little dragon when she died.

  : Why does no one like me?:

  Beth paused her moping to give a rote answer. “No, they don’t. I like you.”

  It curled tighter in her lap. : You have to like me. We’re paired:

  The statement mirrored her own thoughts. It brought up a long forgotten memory of her and mother having a similar conversation when she was young. Friends had been hard to understand, and being different was the mark of an outcast.

  Beth thought back to her own childhood for wisdom to share with her little friend.

  How had she solved the problem then?

  Beth found that she had stopped trying to make friends and shunned them first. Surprisingly, this tactic had failed on Mark. Was it because she had known him before giving up? They had continued a tentative friendship all through middle school, and he had even asked her out when they were older.

  Where would her life be now if she hadn’t broken things up?

  Could they have been married now?

  Not that they have allowed people to be married on Mars yet. didn't have the infrastructure for children.

  Her hand clenched the bent copper wire ring on her necklace, and thumbed the opalized ammonite on it.

  It had been a gift.

  Just like the ammonite Valentine's cards she had given out the year she stopped trying.

  A gift of enjoyment.

  “That's it!”

  Cal fell off at the sudden noise. : What's it?”

  She turned to the little creature with a smile. “A gift! You have only stolen from other people, and they are afraid of what you might do. So, we need to gift them something.”

  : sure… But what's to stop them from taking the gift and then killing us after?”

  “Ah.” Beth stared straight ahead. “Good point. We shall have to use a carrot and stick method, then. But first, can you jump to Saturn with a jar?”

  …

  “WHAT the HELL were you thinking? Four billion fecking dollars on a supposed threat that stole one library book worth twenty dollars? Just because you’re the Secretary of Defence, doesn’t mean you can just destroy my stuff.”

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  The Secretary of Homeland Security jumped in. “Well, I agree with the SecDef. A few billion is a drop in the bucket when compared to potential life lost.”

  “Willing to burn billions to kill the only Martian? What's next, find the fountain of youth and nuke it?”

  Captain John Archer listened in on this meeting as a relevant consultant. His face was soberly concerned, yet inside, he was admiring a job well done.

  Then a secondary comm appeared on his screen.

  Since he had ordered all communications to be rerouted to his second, this one had to be important. He discreetly flipped it on and saw the face of his recent escapee.

  …

  Beth took a steadying breath and focused on the crowd of secretaries, security personnel, and scientists. “These are our conditions. We go back to living how we were peacefully, and we give you as much nitrogen as you need to terraform Mars.” She held up a giant tube of gas that Cal had harvested from Saturn to prove her point.

  “And if we do not?”

  “Then the bomb I have helped Cal rig up will go off. Each has a month long timer, but Cal will remove them before they explode and find a new spot for the next. These are your bombs, so that you can confirm the yield.”

  One of the secretaries pulled out a tablet and tapped through it before giving the rest a grim nod.

  Beth continued. “We want to live a normal life, unbothered. Cal has consented to continue examinations, but wants to get paid for them. I’ve given him a stern talking to about the stealing, and we agree that if he had some money, it would become a non issue.”

  After that, there was much arguing, bargaining, and intense conversations. But in the end, her ploy worked. And life went back to normal.

  Except that the rest of the people in the hab avoided her like the plague.

  Evidently, people didn’t like knowing that you were willing to blow things up in order to get your way. The only people who hadn’t changed were the Captain and Mark. Unfortunately, their duties had increased as Cal supplied the final key to terraforming Mars.

  So Beth went back to work.

  She tabbed through photos of rocks to identify them.

  She grabbed more geologic samples from the increasingly soft loam.

  She sorted and stacked and saw that her cabinet was full. Soon, she would need to get rid of some of these rocks in order to fit more in.

  In between her rockhounding, Cal came back from Earth and talked about his adventures.

  :Have you been to Paris? The rats are particularly tasty:

  Beth took the Land Rover to a new site, hands clenched on the wheel.

  : The sand on Earth tastes weird. Not like proper Mars sand. Though the black stuff in Hawaii is quite tasty:

  She ate alone at the caf, even though every other table was almost full.

  : Someone tried to steal me today at the store with a trap this time, but I was able to escape:

  “This time?!”

  : Don’t worry about it. I can teleport through anything and don’t need to breathe. Actually, I’ve been meaning to explore the ocean because of that:

  She bid Mark goodbye after another brief encounter in the halls.

  : The Meriana Trench was amazing!:

  Beth took a pickaxe and slung it over her shoulder. Today, she would attack a steep canyon that had some meteorites she could pound on.

  With the terraforming on its way, and Mark now too busy to indulge in dragon study, he also had less time to spend with her.

  Which was fine.

  They were both professionals, and she had never needed someone to talk to. And now she had a dragon to talk to.

  Who had recently been walking the length of the Grand Canyon.

  She gripped her pick and walked on.

  …

  Beth was staring listlessly at the ceiling when Mark came in unexpectedly. She sat up immediately. “Oh, hi Mark! Come to visit Cal? He’s gone for a moment, but should be back soon.”

  The dragon had gone to Komodo Island mere minutes ago to see the last living dragons (besides him) in person. The trip would not be brief.

  He shook his head. “No, I just had a message from Captain Archer, along with a warning to get your comms fixed.”

  Beth slouched in her seat. “Oh. What’s he want?”

  “You. To come to his office, that is.”

  “That's all?”

  He nodded and smiled, “That's all. Good thing too, because I have a team meeting in five minutes. See you around!”

  She grimaced at his retreating back. “See you.”

  …

  Elizabeth schlepped to the captain's office and leaned on the wall outside when told to wait.

  She was tired of… everything.

  Sleep would fix her problem. Just a little more sleep.

  It was better than being awake.

  Better than… leaving Cal alone to whatever fate would happen if she left.

  “Enter.”

  Beth sighed and tipped herself forward off the wall and slunk in.

  …

  Captain Archer had several psychologists on staff to deal with the various mental ailments common to long term deployment. Depression, cabin fever, homesickness, and various other things that could mentally handicap someone. None of them wanted to deal with the seemingly split personality Elizabeth Kane, whose first half seemed suicidally depressed if the sudden love of steep cliffs and no safety gear was any indication, and the second half was a potentially murderous one. And he couldn’t force them to meet with someone they were afraid of. He could force them to come up with a solution.

  “Commander, if we were on Earth, there would be other treatments we could pursue. But in these… Unique circumstances, needs must. First, she has no friends except Markus. Give them more time to spend together or with other people. In addition to that, we can prescribe some medications to help as well.”

  And he would implement both suggestions.

  “Enter”

  The woman who slipped in was a far cry from her confident display before the presidential cabinet half a year ago. It was as if she had shrunk in on herself. Small. Defeated.

  She crossed her arms. “What?”

  He cleared his throat and placed a blister pack of daily vitamins and drugs on the table. “Take this once a day with your breakfast. It will make you feel better.”

  Beth swiped it off the table. “That all?”

  John sighed. “No. I know you haven’t been hanging out with people, but please use your free time to make the attempt. I forbid you from working during that time. This is an order.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Anything else?”

  “Yes,” he answered calmly. “Due to the abundance of new buildings and crops, we have decided to relax some rules and move on to the next phase of the Mars colony.”

  “Which is?”

  “Children. The next shipment will have a midwife, children's doctor, and other childcare specialists. All non-combatants are allowed to fraternize with one another.”

  She stuttered, “What about combatants?”

  “Normal military rules, you know. It’s not wise to become involved with squadmates or superior officers.”

  Beth grinned slightly, “I’m sure Minirva will be happy that you can now be together in public.”

  He shuddered only in half jest. “God forfend.” then took out a sheaf of papers, “Dismissed.”