Blair decided to spend the rest of the afternoon planning. At first, she tried to pull up the base’s plans in her room, but as her hunger got worse, she found it harder to breathe inside. Instead, she brought her tablet outside and sat behind the barracks. No one ever had any reason to go behind it, and according to the plans, there was a blind spot in the security system there. The security system was mainly focused on watching the surroundings for potentially hostile wildlife, and so less focus was placed on watching the crew themselves.

Blair plopped down with her tablet in her hands. The O2 pack on her back scraped against the wall, but what little damage it did didn’t matter to her. By then, it felt like her stomach was tying itself in knots, and all she could think about was finding a way to get food. She couldn’t afford to be seen sneaking off base, because if she really needed something from the wild it was expected that she would ask Van Wall for help instead of going out herself. If someone saw her even once, the crew might get suspicious.

She combed the map of the base, looking for routes that would avoid human contact and the security cameras. The cameras’ view of the inside of the base was sparse, so avoiding the cameras wouldn’t be hard until she left the base itself. Inside the fence, there were many blind spots, but outside the fence, the cameras covered almost every angle she could leave from. The only spot she could think of was the mountain near the geothermal generator.

The mountain was actually a dormant volcano that was still very rich in heat reserves. With a small chance of eruption and a lot of heat, it was the perfect place to build a stable long-term power source for the base. The volcano was also very fertile ground, with a lot of nutrients in the soil at the base. While the plant life had to be cleared out around the base to build everything, the geothermal plant was large enough that the back end of it was still shrouded in yellowish-brown plants. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but it would be able to cover her exit well.

It was a long walk, but at this point, Blair would do just about anything to eat. Coppershells weren’t the only creature on Kypros, they were just one of the more interesting ones. There were many strange animals, many of which could almost be compared to mammals back on Earth. Blair’s mouth started to water as she remembered the variety of life on the planet. She shook her head hard and went back to planning.

Looking at a chart of when everyone tended to be active, she realized that she couldn’t count on the crew not being out and about at any time. She was a creature of habit and tended to leave her work around the same time every day with a few exceptions. Mainly, she would stay extremely late on nights where she felt she wasn’t doing enough for the team. McReady, Dutton, and Barclay were similarly predictable, although Barclay probably left early so he could work as little as he could. Most of the crew, however, tended to leave their work at varying times every day, and often someone would wander around at odd times. Clark and Benning, the resident lovebirds, would often take walks together whenever they could spare the time. The only good news was that the generator itself was only checked on a couple times a day.

Blair sighed and turned off her tablet. She would have to wait until nighttime. This did not bode well for her. She was already so hungry, and she would have to wait at least 5 hours to be able to sneak out. She set her tablet aside and curled up where she sat.

“Dammit. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to just move on with my life.” The pain was starting to spread, and she could feel it in every part of her body. Blair would be really curious about why her body consumed so much energy, but all she could think about was all of her senses that seemed to be on high alert. Her heartbeat was pounding in her head and her body felt heavy. She took deep breaths and tried to pull herself together. She needed to fix this as soon as possible.

Suddenly, a loud ring assaulted her ears and she had to stop herself from destroying her tablet. Her hand was inches from the screen, and she saw that at the ends of her fingers were a set of sharp black claws that glinted in the light. She swallowed and tried to calm down again. She felt so exposed, and she nearly flew off the handle because of a text message. She took more deep breaths and shivered as the claws melted back into her fingers. Shakily, she opened the messaging app that the crew used.

[Kaitlyn McReady: How are you doing?]

Blair nearly cried. She nearly forgot she still had someone to rely on. At this point, Blair was convinced that the lieutenant was an angel with how fortunate the timing was. With trembling fingers, she tapped out her response.

[Aliyah Blair: i need your help]

[Kaitlyn McReady: Where are you?]

Blair told McReady to bring one of her specimens behind the barracks. She told her the access code to the animal pen and told her to try not to be seen. A minute later, McReady sent her another message saying she was on her way.

Five minutes passed before Blair heard the sound of crunching snow and two sets of heartbeats. One was small and fast and the other was slower and stronger. Blair’s mouth started to water again, and it terrified her to think that one of those heartbeats was her friend’s. She hugged her knees as tight as she could and she felt a sharp pain in her arms. She paid no mind to the drops of blood falling to the ground as she tried to focus on the cuts her claws left instead of the gnawing hunger.

Blair heard a gasp from her left. McReady came around the corner with a large adult coppershell tucked under her arm. She rushed over to Blair, and Blair started frantically backing up. A low rumbling started in her chest, and she realized she was growling. McReady stopped dead, concern evident in her body language even with her helmet on.

The gaping maw started to open in Blair’s abdomen again and she did everything she could to stop it. Blair’s claws skittered harmlessly against her teeth and ended up digging into her hip. Finally understanding what was going on, McReady slowly placed the rolled-up coppershell on the ground and took a few steps back. Blair was on it in seconds, piercing its shell with a snake-like tongue and swallowing it whole.