Alien Survivor: Stranded on Galatea

After the broadcast, Danovan and I broke into a run toward our rover, thinking that the entire compound would be on our heels. But by the time we reached the vehicle, we noticed that everyone nearby was standing, watching us, with their weapons pointed toward the ground. No one made a move to detain us, no one threatened us, no one even spoke to us as we put the rover and gear, circled it around, and headed back in the direction from which we'd come. But as we drove, I turned around in my seat and looked out the back window, only to see all of them grouped together and following us just long enough to watch us disappear over the horizon. We drove and drove, searching for Mason and Cleoh in the vast and empty terrain we'd left them in. We spent days on our own, until we found them, settled at the base of a small mountain, making a home of a cave and their tents and rugs and pillows and blankets.

Shae was bubbling happily in Cleoh's arms when we approached, and Mason had a small tablet tucked in the crook of his elbow. He showed us our broadcast and the subsequent coverage on the NewsFeed, and we were pleased to see people beginning to rise up against The Cleansing, and against Lucille Ward's machinations.

"They'll want a leader," Mason said, angling his eyes at me.

"I'm sure they will," came my tepid reply.

"And one might say," he continued, shutting off his tablet, "that the people responsible for disseminating all this information might have a certain responsibility to the uprising."

I glanced at Danovan, whose mouth was a terse line. "I...I wouldn't know what to do. I mean,

would you?"

Danovan shook his head. "For most of my career, I've been following orders, not making them." "It's something to think about," Mason pressed, propping his hands up on his hips. "You started this thing; you might want to see it through."

"Well, but what about you?" I countered. "You feel the same way we do about the Cleansing, and everything that Lucille Ward has wrought."

"We have Shae to consider," Mason said, somewhat abashed, "otherwise, I'd be there. Right on the front lines."

"Well, we have...er, that is..." I pressed my hand to my belly, finding it difficult to think of myself as an expectant mother when none of the telltale signs of pregnancy had started to root in me. But I had seen it with my own eyes, in a glistening holographic suspended in the air above me, like a message from the heavens.

"No," Mason said, breaking into a grin. "Well, that's wonderful." He came forward and pressed a kiss to my cheek before shaking Danovan's hand and wandering out of the tent to tell Cleoh the

news.

"But maybe he's right," I said quietly to Danovan after Mason had gone. "Maybe we do have a responsibility."

"Right now, I'm concerned with helping you through the gestation and birth of our child. After he's arrived healthy and happy, then we can consider our other obligations."

"He?" I asked, smiling.

"I just have a feeling." "Mmhm."

"Besides, you'll be the first human mother of a Galatean hybrid. You're something to protect." He was right-we had seen Galatean mothers of hybrids, but never a human. The only one we'd heard about had died, along with her offspring, in childbirth. I was suddenly grateful for Cleoh's presence: her expertise as a healer and as a mother herself would, no doubt, come in quite handy in the months to come.

"But we just...revealed these huge secrets and left them for someone else to deal with," I continued. It just wasn't sitting right with me. Danovan moved toward the center of the tent and sat down on one of Cleoh's plush velveteen pillows. He held his hand out to me, and I took it, moving to sit beside him. He gathered me close to him, and his beautiful brushed nickel skin smelled of sunlight and fresh cut grass.

"You're not wrong," he said, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. "We do have responsibilities. But right now, we're just prioritizing. We'll keep abreast of the situation as it unfolds, as best we can, and do what we can to be of assistance. But your health and wellbeing are my top priority— and it should be yours as well."

I nodded my head, and just settled in beside him, letting him hold me. And I wondered vaguely if this would forever be the push and pull of my life: wanting to nurture my body, my baby, my relationship with my partner, and needing to work, either in my field or against those that would subdue me.

I lifted my head and looked up at Danovan, who smiled at me, this strange, beautiful creature who had become my home. And I knew that, so long as he was by my side, I wouldn't always have to choose: I could be both the lover and the scientist, the mother and the revolutionary. I took his hand and pressed it to my tummy and thought about the beautiful new world our baby could represent, and I knew that I would fight to make sure that world was safe.