“I still don’t see why we’re using a human for this.”

Engine-Fixer’s tail twitched in disdain; she really wasn’t sure New-Assistant-Systems-Fixer was working out. It wasn’t that she was bad at understanding systems. She was quite competent. It was just that she was a bit provincial. A crewmate has to be able to adapt to new creatures, new cultures, new ways. It was not always easy – Engine-Fixer herself still struggled with the way Titan-crewmates, Ler-crewmates, and Dunnermac-crewmates used permanent, fixed designations, but she understood that this was their way, and they probably viewed the People’s system of designations equally confusing. Neither was better or worse, though, they were simply different.

“Human-Female-of-the-Gyfjon is quite skilled at this work,” Engine-Fixer said. “And she can do it without forcing us to open up this bulkhead. You will support her in her job while I go to check readings.”

“But ma’am….”

“Crewmate Engine-Fixer, how’s our progress?” a measured voice said from behind Junior Crewmate Aesorocn. The young engineer snapped to attention, and turned to face the ship’s executive officer.

“Human-Female-of-the-Gyfjon is in place. I have asked New-Assistant-Systems-Fixer to assist her, but she has questions.”

Hote Aesorocn swallowed, and said, “Commander, it’s just…I mean, why are we using an animal to do this job? This isn’t easy, you know.”

Lemm Tam looked down on the young Junior Crewmate, Third Class and shook her head slightly. “Ms. Aesorocn, have you earned the Star of the Great Ocean?”

“Ma’am?”

“The Star of the Great Ocean. The highest award the Dunnermac High Council gives out. Have you earned it?”

“Uh…no, ma’am,” Hote said, confused.

“Have you offered up your life to save a crewmate, and in so doing helped to save tens of thousands of Dunnermac roe, and ultimately, fifteen hundred Dunnermac?”

“Not…no, ma’am, I haven’t. But….”

“Have you saved my life, Ms. Aesorocn?”

“Um…obviously not, ma’am, I just….”

“Corporal Ibanez has done all three of those. It seems to me that right now, she’s a more valuable member of this crew than you are, Ms. Aesorocn. Moreover, it occurs to me that Crewmate Engine-Fixer is your department head, and if she says your job is to support a rock, you support that rock to the best of your ability, do I make myself clear, Ms. Aesorocn?”

“….”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that.”

“Aye…aye, Commander.”

“Good. Believe me, Ms. Aesorocn, you are not the first person to question Corporal Ibanez’s skill. Understand that she has earned my trust, the trust of Captain Bass, and the trust of this crew, and should the day come when the law allows her to be commissioned, every member of the senior staff will support it.”

Aesorocn shook her head. “I just…a human? I never…I thought they were just pets.”

“Most people do,” Lemm said, with a sigh. “I used to as well.”

“Ibanez to Engine-Fixer, I’m done.”

Engine-Fixer’s tail twitched. “Human-Female-of-the-Gyfjon? We had not begun.”

“Got tired of waiting, and it was obvious that the problem was a fried transformer. I’ve bypassed it, you’ll need to fabricate a replacement long-term, but this should keep the aux environmental controls online at least until we get back to Titan Station.”

Engine-Fixer checked her data, and swished her tail feverishly; had she been a Titan, she would have been laughing so hard she’d be crying. “Excellent job, Human-Female-of-the-Gyfjon. I wonder sometimes if you will have my job someday.”

“No way, Avartle-Friend! Ship wouldn’t be the same without you. Got about twenty minutes of clean-up here, then you can seal it up.”

“Very good. New-Assistant-Systems-Fixer will be monitoring things until you are finished.”

“Right, Crewmate, uh… Aesorocn, right? Haven’t had a chance,” Izzy said, grunting with the exertion. They hadn’t designed these systems with human repair techs in mind, but it was nothing a little elbow grease couldn’t handle. “Good to meet you. Izzy Ibanez.”

“Uh…it’s good to meet you…Corporal Ibanez,” the young officer said, looking at the same readout that Engine-Fixer was. Gorram, that would have taken a good fifty hours to get done, forty of it just to open up the wall and close it again. The human had done it in two. “I feel weird saying this…but I think I have a lot to learn from you.”

“Whole crew does, kid,” Izzy said with a grin. “Get in line.”

* * *

Two Imperial days later, Izzy stood on a table in the briefing room. “Thank you for coming, Corporal Ibanez,” Lemm said, settling into the briefing room chair. “You too, Ms. Gwenn.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Izzy said. “What’s the occasion?”

“We’re coming up on system AEΠ229Ψ7X. It’s about 31 light years from Earth. It has one planet with a very interesting moon. It has what appears to be a breathable atmosphere,” Dayun Pir said. “We need to do a survey, but quite frankly….”

“We’re too damn big,” Captain Bass chuckled. “What we’ve seen suggests animal life on a scale much closer to Earth than Archavia. If we go tromping around the countryside, we’ll miss something important, and destroy something even more important.”

Izzy’s eyes widened, just a bit. “Are you…are you asking me to…you want me to take the scouting mission?”

“Not if you don’t want to,” Lauryna said.

“Are you crazy?” Izzy shouted. “Of course I want to! What do you need me to do? Take soil samples? Put down beacons?”

“Yes and yes, and a number of other things,” Lemm said. “Crewmate Pir will be giving you direction as to what he wants surveilled. And Dr. Geen will give you an inoculation, a standard immunological booster.”

Izzy looked at the minipad, and grinned. It didn’t look like much – a strip of green and brown bordered by two huge ice caps – but she’d be the first person to set foot on it. She’d even beat the Titans.

She took a deep breath. This wasn’t just about that, of course. She looked up at the captain.

“Thank you, sir,” she said.

“Thank yourself. You’ve earned this, corporal. Ms. Gwenn, Crewmate Pir, I want you to begin preparations for landing. Probably best to do that in the labs.”

“We have Science Lab Alpha open. Ms. Gwen, Cpl. Ibanez, would you come with me?”

“Of course, sir,” Lauryna said, bursting with pride. She offered Izzy her hand as she had a million times before, and felt the same slight flutter she’d felt every single time.

128 hours later, Izzy was walking through a forest.

It was spectacular. She was armed and secured, wearing a rebreather until they had better data on the atmosphere and fauna, but in many ways, the planet reminded her of the Upper Peninsula in October. Save for the suns hanging in the sky, of course.

“If I get a vote, we’re calling this moon Tatooine,” she said.

“Not sure you do, Iz,” Lauryna said from the shuttle which held its position a few kilounits above her. “And what’s Tatooine?”

“Planet in a movie back home. Orbits two suns. Hey, we’ve got some kind of mammal here!”

Izzy knelt down, and used her imaging device to record the small, furry creature that was skittering away from her. “I know how you feel,” Izzy said. “You get that clearly?”

“Yes, nicely done,” Dayun Pir said, looking over the thermal data. “It is indeed mammalic; primitive, but definitely an endotherm.”

“Looks like some fur on the ground here,” Izzy said, picking it up and placing it into a secure baggie. “A few small insects…well, not exactly…they’ve got…ten legs, it looks like. But they sure look a lot like ants.”

“Ants?” Pir asked.

“Um…very small insect by your lights, live in a colony. On Earth we call them a superorganism. Kinda like really stupid Insectoids.”

“Aha. That’s a very common theme for convergent evolution to end up with. If you can put one in stasis….”

“Already on it,” Izzy said, opening a stasis container and gathering a few. She pressed the button, and shuddered. From what Alex had told her, that’s how he’d entered Titan Station. She could hardly imagine anything worse. Fortunately, the arthropods she’d gathered were too dumb to know better.

Izzy kept at her work, imaging and collecting biological samples as she went. After a couple hours, she finally heard the news she’d been waiting for.

“All right, genetic information we’ve gleaned suggests you should be safe if you want to take off the rebreather. Nothing particularly dangerous here.”

Izzy grinned, and pulled the mask away from her face, and breathed in deeply. The twin suns were high in the sky, casting slightly different shadows on the ground. It smelled like a forest; the air hung with a spruce-like smell. Animals weren’t plentiful, but they existed – hanging on as best they could in a world that was mostly ice. She wondered idly if some day, a million years from now, these creatures’ descendants would head off into the stars, and if they’d find Titans there – or humans.

She fixed her third beacon, and rechecked her sample pack. “Should I head up over that ridge?”

“Negative, Corporal,” Pir said. “We’ve got a good start. Better than good – what you’ve grabbed should keep us busy for quite some time. Start heading back to the rendezvous point.”

“Yes, sir,” Izzy said. She supposed she hadn’t covered much territory, but she felt good about what she’d managed.

* * *

“Iz, you’re gonna end up on more remote missions if you do that well every time.”

“Eh, you’re just buttering me up,” Izzy said. “I’m too tired to do much tonight.” She was achy; it had been a long time since she’d been in One G, and she felt like she’d run a marathon. But aside from a slight headache, she felt elated; Pir and the Captain had been effusive in their praise. Bass had gone so far to remark that he might have Izzy train some of the lower-level crewmates on exploration.

In some ways, she’d succeeded because it was novel. Too many new cadets saw each world as just another world. Grasses were grasses, arthropods were arthropods. It took a while for them to re-learn Izzy’s sense of wonder, of detail. To grab a leaf because it was there, to document the four different hive-insect species because they were slightly different.

As it was, while the samples were necessarily small, Izzy had brought back more varied data and samples than three scouts would be expected to grab. Most of the folks on the ship had started to see her as more than a pet, but this – this would certainly help convince the doubters.

Lauryna brushed Izzy’s forehead with a kiss. “Much as I’d love you to look over my territory,” she said, “I think you’ve earned a good rest.”

Lauryna gently carried Izzy over to the bed, and set her on the bed at the side of the pillow. “I love you, Izzy,” she said, as Izzy yawned and grabbed the tiny pillow and blanket that lay there for her.

“I love you too, Red,” Izzy said, and but a few moments later, she was asleep.

* * *

Izzy forced herself up.

Something was wrong.

Something was definitely wrong.

“Red,” she tried to say, and didn’t quite.

Something was wrong.

She wasn’t fully aware of rising, wasn’t fully aware of traversing the arm of her slumbering love, or pulling herself through the red vines of her hair. She didn’t sense the chills that wracked her body, or the tremor in her left arm.

All she knew was that something was wrong, and Lauryna would help her. Lauryna would always help her.

She pulled herself up to Lauryna’s ear, and called to her as loudly as she could.

“Red…please…wrong…..”

Lauryna barely heard Izzy’s voice, but she woke at once; she had gotten used to freezing in place, and she felt Izzy on her cheek. She was murmuring something incoherent – probably sleepwalking. But she felt cold. Very cold.

Lauryna chuckled. “Izzy, I think you’re dreaming.”

“Re…bad….I….”

Lauryna reached up and plucked her friend and lover from her cheek, and brought her down to look at her. She was planning on waking her up by licking her, or maybe tickling her. That would serve her right. She’d just….

The thought didn’t complete itself. “Great Emperor, no,” she whispered as she looked down at Izzy, who was trembling, white as a sheet, eyes wide in terror.

Lauryna didn’t hesitate. “Sickbay One, medical emergency.”

“What is your emergency?” Dr. Kretus said.

“Corporal Ibanez is very sick,” Lauryna said. “I think….”

Kretus grumbled. “Well, she’s a human, I don’t know if that qualifies. If you want to bring her by in the morning….”

“She went on an away mission for us yesterday. She’s crew. And if you don’t recognize that, I’ll be happy to contact Captain Bass to verify that.”

“If Captain Bass tells me to send a med team, I will.”

Ten minutes later, a med team was on hand, along with a groggy Aertimus Bass, a focused Geoff Geen, and a chastened Choni Kretus.

“Give me two cubic miliunits of dirafem, and prepare a hyperoxygenated chamber,” Geen said, staring down at the now unconscious human.

“Aye sir…sir, asystole!”

“Two cubic mils of epinephrine, now!” Geen shouted. That caused Lauryna to wince – Geoff Geen did not shout.

The Dunnermac carefully pressed on Izzy’s chest, hoping against hope that he was getting the pressure right.

A long two minutes passed before a blip was heard, followed by another, and then a steady series. “Normal sinus rhythm,” Kretus said, taking a deep breath. “Gorram.”

“We need to get her to sickbay,” Geen said. “Immediately.”

Lauryna simply stared, numb. This couldn’t be happening. It was every nightmare she’d ever had, only worse.

She checked the chronometer. “Sir,” she said to Aerty, “I….”

“You’re relieved until further notice, Ms. Gwenn,” Aerty said gently. “She needs you. The ship will make it until she doesn’t.”

Lauryna nodded. “Thank you, captain.”

“Lauryna, it’s all I can do not to go with. Keep us apprised.”

“Aye, sir,” she said, and tightening her robe, she stumbled off after Geen and Kretus.

* * *

“It’s a novel pathogen. Essentially a virus.” Geoff said wearily. “The good news is that it won’t jump to the crew. It doesn’t affect Titan mitochondroids. But it does affect Earth-based mitochondria,” Dr. Geen said.

“So how do you get rid of it?”

“I don’t know,” Geen said quietly. “I wish I did, Lauryna. It is novel, like I said. It will take time.”

“Ready, doctor,” Kretus said, standing by Izzy.

“Go ahead,” Geen said. Kretus injected her with a mixture of norepinephrine and glucose.

“I am hoping this will at least rouse her, so we can discuss this with her. There are some options…but none I want to undertake without her consent.”

“Such as?” Lauryna asked.

“Well, we could put her into cryosleep. That would allow me to work on a cure.”

“Not going into cryosleep,” Izzy said, quietly.

“Izzy?” Lauryna said, walking over to her, and rubbing a finger through her hair.

“I don’t want to be frozen, Lauryna. Please,” Izzy said.

“Do you know where you are, Corporal?” Geen said, standing up by her, checking her vitals.

Izzy looked around – it was hard. Confusing. She’d been with Lauryna. Something was wrong.

“Sickbay?” she guessed, mostly due to Dr. Geen’s presence.

“Good. You are in sickbay,” Geoff said, quietly. “Do you remember what you did yesterday?”

“’Splored a planet.”

“Correct. Very good. You have picked up a pathogen from that planet, Corporal.”

“Crew – crew in danger?”

Lauryna smiled. “No, Iz, it only affects humans.”

“My luck.”

“Putting you in cryosleep would allow us to work on a cure. This is novel, but not completely so. I am concerned, Izzy, that we will run out of time to treat you if we let the disease progress.”

Izzy shook her head. “Don’t wanna…don’t wanna be sitting on a shelf…waiting….”

“Izzy, I’d be with you,” Lauryna said. “It would just be like sleeping.”

Izzy shook her head firmly.

“All right,” Lauryna said.

“’M sleepy.”

“You probably will be. The pathogen attacks your mitochondria. It lowers your energy level. If you need to rest, you may.”

Izzy looked up at Lauryna. “You should get some rest too, Red. You look like hell.”

Lauryna blinked back tears. “I won’t leave you, Iz. Not ever.”

Izzy took a shuddering breath. “’Sokay, Red. For you to sleep.”

The human drifted off, and Geen looked up at Lauryna.

“I will not lie,” he said. “I do not know if I can cure this before it runs its course.”

“Regs won’t let you put her into cryosleep,” Lauryna said. “Not if she objects.”

“Correct. Crewmates have the right to refuse cryosleep as a medical treatment. But if you can convince her…it would be helpful.”

Lauryna nodded mutely.

“She is right,” Geoff said. “You should rest.”

“I can’t. Can’t leave her.”

“There’s a bed over there, bay two. The closest one to her. I promise you, I will wake you should she stir.”

Lauryna nodded, and walked over to the bed, and cried herself to sleep.

* * *

“Sir,” Choni Kretus said, 96 hours later, “I know Dunnermacs can go without sleep for a long period of time, but you need to get into water at some point.”

“I am quite aware of my species’ physical limitations, Dr. Kretus. Thank you for reminding me,” Geoff Geen said; he wondered if the translator picked up the rasp in his throat.

“Sir, after 100 hours….”

“…Dunnermac begin hallucinating. I am aware of my species’ limitations!” Geen said sharply.

Kretus shook his head. “It doesn’t do her any good to kill yourself in search of a cure.”

“There isn’t a cure. Not that I can find,” Geen said. “Twelve, thirteen hours – I’ll be hallucinating. Izzy will be dead.”

Geen looked over at the human, and then looked to the bed nearest her, where Crewmate Gwenn was fitfully sleeping. He stood up, and weakly walked to it, shaking Lauryna awake.

“You find a cure?” Lauryna said, reflexively, but she knew the second she saw the doctor that he had not.

“Lauryna…she has maybe ten or eleven hours, even sedated. It will take me weeks to synthesize a cure. Perhaps a month or two. If we don’t put her into stasis…she will die.”

“I’ve tried, she just…she refuses. And it’s her decision.”

Geen looked at Lauryna for a hard moment, a moment that said everything.

“No,” Lauryna said, tears running down her face. “No. I’m not gonna do that to her.”

“It’s the only way,” Geoff said.

Lauryna looked down at Izzy, who was sleeping in the hyperbaric chamber. Her beautiful love. If she said the word, right now, Izzy wouldn’t know. Geoff could freeze her without waking her. Oh, she’d be mad when she woke up, but she wouldn’t have to know exactly how Lauryna had betrayed her. She would just wake up at some point, and that would be that.

Lauryna ran a finger over the chamber.

“Can you wake her?”

“It will be worse for both of you,” Geen said.

“I know it will,” Lauryna said. “But I can’t…she needs to know.”

Geen nodded. “Dr. Kretus…norepinephrine and glucose.”

Izzy’s eyes fluttered open. “Hey, Red,” she said. “You don’t look happy. Guessing I’m gonna die.”

Lauryna looked at Izzy carefully. She loved her. She loved her so much. And Izzy loved her.

“Iz…you have to go into stasis. It’s the only way.”

“Red…I’m not gonna be just an object sitting on the shelf.”

“Of course you won’t,” Lauryna said. “You’ll be you. Just sleeping, waiting for the cure.”

“No,” Izzy said. “I won’t do it, and you can’t make me.”

Lauryna looked at Izzy. She knew Izzy loved her, fully and completely. And she knew that this moment might be the last moment that was true.

“Yes, I can,” Lauryna said.

Izzy’s eyes snapped open, at least as much as they could. “What?”

“I am….”

Lauryna swallowed, hard. Her voice box rebelled against the very words. But she had to say them. She had no choice. She could say them, or let Izzy die.

“I am your owner,” Lauryna choked out, “and as your owner, I am directing that you be placed in stasis.”

Izzy’s eyes went wide, and with everything she had, she screamed, “FUCK YOU, LAURYNA GWENN! YOU WOULDN’T FUCKING DARE!”

“I can’t let you die, Izzy. It’s…I don’t…I have to,” Lauryna said, as Izzy continued to shout at her in a fluent mix of Archavian and English profanity.

“You say you love me! You say you respect me!” Izzy said, too weak to fight the hands of Geoff Geen that were already gently lifting her to the cryopod. “You say you see me as a person? You don’t! You’re like the rest of them, damn you!”

Laryna blinked back her tears. “Maybe I am,” she said, in a hoarse whisper. “Maybe I am. But I can’t let you die. You can hate me…but I can’t let you die.”

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you do it, Red! If you do this….”

But Lauryna didn’t hear the rest of that sentence, because as Izzy shouted it, the stasis field kicked in; she appeared to rapidly fall asleep, eyes closing, head slumped, as the cryomatrix solidified around her.

“Stasis complete,” Geen said, wearily. “She is in a perfect hibernation.”

Lauryna slid down to the floor, and wept. It was some time before she realized that she was being hugged by a Dunnermac, who held her tight.

“You did the right thing, Lauryna,” Geoff said.

“No, I didn’t,” Lauryna sobbed. “I’m just like the rest of them.”

“No,” Geoff said. “Other Titans would have done this so they could possess their human. But you…you did this knowing that when I cure her, she may wish to leave you, yes?”

Lauryna nodded. “If she wants to leave me…but she’s alive….”

Geoff smiled tightly. “You did this not so you could possess her. You did this because it was the only way to let her be safe. Lauryna, you are not like the worst of the Titans. Now, I must get into water, but I will not stop working on a cure, not until I find one. You have my word,” the Doctor said.

“I know,” Lauryna said. She walked over to the cryopod, and kissed it gently. “I’m so sorry, Izzy,” Lauryna said. “But I promise…you’ll never be an object.”

She sighed, and rubbed her hands over her eyes. “What is the time?”

“22:44,” Kretus said.

“I’m due on at 24:00,” Lauryna said. “I’d better get a shower in.” And though part of her would rather have jumped out an airlock, Lauryna instead shuffled disconsolately toward her quarters – hers and Izzy’s. Until the day Izzy woke up, and then….

Lauryna blinked back tears, and kept on walking.