That’s it, I finally told someone other than the close friends I’d made during the war… I looked at Luna to gauge her reaction, but her face stayed motionless for quite a while.

“Luna?” I asked, slightly concerned about her lack of reaction. “I hope that didn’t shock you too much.”

Her eyes finally moved again, and she turned to face me. “If I might ask something… why are you looking to find love in space?” There was a bit of a tremble in her voice.

“Well…” I started. “You know about all the cover-ups back on Earth. All the secrecy that was forced upon me after the war… Somehow, in my mind, it’s just easier to find love elsewhere than to dance around that shit show…” Luna didn’t say anything, so I just continued. “And I know it might sound weird, but my gut feeling just tells me that there is someone out there for me… it’s hard to explain…”

“Hmmm.” Luna started to stare at the ceiling.

“I hope I didn’t freak you out too much… But I just wanted to tell you… I got the feeling I could trust you with this.”

“It’s okay.” Luna said, her voice sounded very devoid of emotions. “I think I understand.” She then looked back at me. “And the Gunnery Sergeant and the Doctor know too?”

I nodded. “They do. I told them back on earth, I was still in hospital at the time. Gunny laughed his ass off when he processed what I’d told him, and Eva… well… she was pretty concerned, thinking the explosion had fucked with my brain a little too much.”

“And what happened then?”

“Not that long after that, I caught wind of this mission and asked the government to assign me to it. My field record gave them very little reason to decline. And then I got Gunny and the Doctor on board too.”

“I see…”

“But yeah, now you know my deepest, darkest secret.” I smiled. I was happy she’d taken this so well.

“You are not the only one with secrets, Commander…” When she said that, her eyes grew wide, accompanied by a blush. She quickly turned away from me and hid under her blankets.

“That… sounds like a naughty secret.” I chuckled, but Luna stayed quiet and didn’t peek out from under her blankets anymore.

I got the message. “Right, let's sleep a bit. It’s already way too late anyway. Good night, Luna.” I rolled myself back onto my back.

“Goo-goodnight.” She replied a couple of seconds later.

I’d woken up five minutes before my alarm clock started ringing. I always hated when that happened. Couldn’t I just have slept five minutes longer?

I sighed and pushed the button to mute the alarm. Even though I definitely had reservations about getting up, I’d slept surprisingly well. Not having nightmares was a big plus.

“Luna, did you hear the alarm?”

“I was already awake.”

I looked down from my bed and saw that she was staring at the ceiling. When she saw me peeking, she blushed and hid most of her head underneath her blanket again.

“Okay, I’ll get ready first.” I hopped out of bed and took a quick shower and put my uniform on after that. When I got out of the bathroom, Luna didn’t waste any time going past me and getting ready herself. So within half an hour of getting up, the both of us were ready for duty.

We picked up a bit of fruit for breakfast at the cafeteria and headed for the bridge when Ellie started talking to us. “Commander, XO, your presence has been requested in the bio-lab. Scientist Grayson has finished studying the three alien lifeforms who were found on Felix Invenire.”

“Oh, thanks, tell them we are on route.”

“Will do, Commander.” Ellie went quiet after that.

“Are we not going to the bridge first?”

“No, it’s fine, if Ellie asked us personally, then the crew already knows.”

“But… shouldn’t one of us go there anyway?”

“Ellie said that both of us were requested, though. Are you not comfortable going to the bio-lab? I thought the bug didn’t really bother you much?”

“It doesn’t… but…” She sighed.

“If you really don’t want to, I can order you to go to the bridge. They aren’t going to be miffed about that.”

“No, it’s fine.” She shook her head. “It’s just me being weird…”

“Hmmm. Well, if you start feeling off, just elbow me in the side and I’ll give you the order.” I smiled as we took the elevator down to science labs.

“Welcome Commander to our little abode.” Grayson said, pushing up his glasses like he was some kind of anime protagonist.

“I have been here before, Grayson…” I shook my head in disappointment.

“Right… But your XO hasn’t!” He raised his finger matter-of-factly. Luna took a sidestep so she was mostly behind me.

“Let’s just get to the point, shall we?”

“Right…” Grayson looked a bit dejected and walked over to one of the tables. The first table had the bug we found on the planet on it. All of them were covered by a thick glass cupola to contain any possible biological contamination. “So, we have already determined that the teeth of these spacebugs, new name is pending, can cut through steel quite easily. On top of that, their exoskeleton appears to be incredibly tough to penetrate with our conventional weaponry.”

“And did we learn anything new?”

“Patience, Commander, I was still doing my shtick.”

“Do your shtick faster then.” Sometimes I could not stand Grayson, but the man was a genius and incredibly competent as a scientist. I would not mind him never coming to the officer lounge though…

“Anyway. We found out that parts of the exoskeleton are a lot less developed than other parts.” He took a laser pointer from the small table next to him and started shining a light at the head region of the spacebug, new name pending. “This is what we have started to call the face shield. It’s mostly impervious to firearms, but this one spot…” He pointed to the top right of the bugs ‘face’. “Is somehow only a quarter as thick as the rest of the shield.”

“That’s weird.” Luna commented.

“Indeed it is.” Grayson agreed. “We are not 100% sure why this spot is thinner than the rest. Daniels came up with the theory that behind that spot is where the bug’s hearing organ was, but since the inside had completely decomposed, we can not confirm that.”

“Ah, so the theory is that the part of the armor is thinner because it makes it so sound waves are able to penetrate somewhat better at the thin spot.” Luna commented.

“Yes, that’s pretty much what Daniels said.” Grayson nodded at Luna.

“Okay, that’s some pretty useful information. Will our weapons be able to go through it?”

“We’ve run simulations and unless you are at the limit of your range or using a weak sidearm it should be possible. For sidearms, you might want to opt for the more powerful ones aboard this ship.”

“Space magnums it is.” I nodded. It was definitely good to know that, if we encountered these creatures, and they were in fact hostile, we could do something about them.

“And how do they procreate?” Luna asked.

“We believe they fertilize and lay eggs. However, the lack of any evidence of such could mean we are wrong on that front.”

Grayson then moved on to the next two tables, where the remains of the two explorers were housed. I could tell by Luna’s body language that she was a lot less enthusiastic to see these two. Probably because they were more humanoid, so it did hit closer to home.

“What have you learned about them?” I asked.

“Let me tell you, Commander.” He took his laser pointer out again. “These creatures are very similar to us humans in a lot of ways. Apart from the clear differences, there are the horns that sprout from their skulls and the tails that stretch out from their spinal cord.” Grayson then pointed to the armours that were set up in a different container. “We have also managed to find a bit of DNA during our research of their body armor and that’s where the really interesting part comes in.”

“Oh?” I tilted my head. “If you say it’s interesting, then it’s probably something big.”

Grayson smiled and gave me a smug nod. “Indeed, Commander.” He signalled us to come closer to one of the holo screens in the lab and pulled up a string of DNA. “While we can’t really reconstruct what they looked like or how their internal organs worked, a part of this DNA immediately pulled my attention.”

“Is this real?” Luna asked out of the blue.

“What do you mean?” Grayson asked.

“Part of that DNA string is clearly altered.”

Grayson’s face revealed his surprise. “Yes, it is in fact gene-tailored. I’m surprised you know that, Lieutenant-Commander.”

I looked over to Luna and saw that all the colour had pulled from her face. “Are you okay?”

“I-I need to go for a moment.” Luna turned around and quickly walked out of the lab.

“Is something wrong with her?” Grayson asked.

“I’m not sure. I’ll catch up with her in a minute. But what does that mean? The gene-tailoring?”

“Well… the only thing we can really tell with this is that it has been modified. What exactly it does or who has done it isn’t clear.”

“And this is the same for both bodies?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm… well… thank you for the info, it was very… enriching.”

“No problem, Commander.”

I turned around to go and look for Luna when Grayson halted me again.

“Commander, I’ve heard rumors of a party? I guess I, as the leader of the science team, am also considered an officer?”

I internally sighed. “Yes, Grayson, you are, you are technically a Lieutenant…”

“Great.” I didn’t turn around to look at his, quite probably smirking, face and just walked out.

-How the hell did he hear that already, we just discussed it yesterday…-