"Come on, sis," Hannah said as Amanda dragged her from the palace. "You must have seen the way he looked at you."

"He didn't look at me," Amanda insisted, blushing and shaking her head. "You imagined it, Hannah. You always were wanting to set me up with someone, but this is going a bit far."

Hannah laughed, pulling free of Amanda's grip and crossing her arms. The guards at the palace gate watched them with evident amusement, but if Hannah cared she didn't show it.

"You're terrible at lying, sis, even to yourself," she said. "You must have seen it, he couldn't keep his eyes off you. And you saw him, right? I mean, wow."

Amanda's blush deepened. "Don't be ridiculous. And anyway, what does it matter if he's attractive? That's not all I look for in a man, and nor should you."

Hannah's grin looked like it could swallow worlds. "Yeah, sure... but he's not just attractive, he's gorgeous. What's the harm in getting to know him a bit better?"

The harm is, I might like him, Amanda wanted to say, but she wasn't about to admit that to her sister. Hannah was insufferable already, give her that ammunition and who knew what would happen? Besides, Amanda was planning on leaving Mars as soon as she could. Getting involved with an alien would only make that harder, even if she was interested.

Which she was not.

Definitely not.

"He's one of the aliens who wanted to burn Earth to the ground a few months ago," she said finally. "I'm not going to be interested. And we're not going to have that conversation in public, okay? Let's get back to the clinic."

What she wanted to do was get back home and get a drink, but it was far too early in the day to shut up shop. Just because she was having a bad morning was no reason to let others suffer while they waited for her.

We really, really need more doctors out here, she thought, distracting herself momentarily with that. She wasn't the only doctor in the clinic, of course, but there weren't enough to cover everything as it was. Every time she took a day off she felt guilty for the people who didn't get the medical attention they needed — and half the time she'd get called back anyway to an emergency that couldn't wait until morning.

Hannah followed along quietly enough until they made it back to the clinic, and for a wonder, there wasn't a queue waiting. Thanking God for the slow morning, Amanda said hi to the receptionist on the way into her office. Pouring two cups of coffee, Amanda turned to hand one to her sister and saw that the grin hadn't faded. If anything, it had grown.

Fine. I guess the conversation isn't over. "What's so damned funny?"

"The way you were looking at him," Hannah said, throwing herself down into a chair and blowing on the coffee. Amanda sighed and leaned against the wall, shaking her head.

"Okay, I'll admit he's nice to look at," Amanda said. That was too much of an understatement even for her, so she coughed and added. "More than nice. But I'm not going to get myself stuck on Mars just because I saw a man who..."

She trailed off, swallowing her words. There was something more to this Markath, she could tell that. Looking at him had drawn something out of her, and even thinking about him was enough to make her feel weak at the knees. Taking a big sip of her coffee, she winced at the heat and tried to use it to distract her from the thoughts that rose unbidden in her mind.

Thoughts of the alien towering over her, his gorgeous body close enough to touch, his strong hands reaching out for her... god dammit, brain. Will you stop that?

Whatever had possessed her wouldn't back off, though. Her hand trembled as she put down her coffee cup and she could feel her cheeks heating. Hannah watched her with amused affection, and for once held her tongue.

"Look, my love life isn't any of your concern," Amanda said. As if I had one for anyone to be concerned with, she added silently. "And you're only here for a few days at most. So let's forget about the alien and talk about something else while we've got the chance?"

"Like what?"

"You, maybe?" Amanda forced a grin. "How are things in your life, huh? Any men I should be worried about?"

Hannah's grin quirked and she shook her head. "If I had anyone in my life, I wouldn't be pestering you like this," she admitted. "Hell, I probably wouldn't be here if I had anyone on Earth."

"What about, what's his name, Matthew?" Amanda asked, finding herself on slightly more stable ground now that she'd turned the conversation onto her sister. Hannah laughed and gulped down another sip of coffee.

"Ancient history," she said. "He ditched me more than a year ago, and good riddance. He ran off with some corporate exec. Guess I wasn't upwardly mobile enough for him."

Despite her flippant tone, Amanda could see the pain Hannah was hiding and she pursed her lips, trying to keep her own anger in control. She'd always felt protective of her little sister, and hearing that someone had hurt Hannah made her want to lash out. Lucky for Matthew that he's a hundred million miles away on Earth.

"Men," she said with sympathy, stepping around her desk to give Hannah a hug. "Tell you what, tonight we'll hang out, get drunk, and talk about anything other than guys, okay? I want to hear about Earth, you want to hear about Mars, we can trade stories and I'll show you the booze I've invented."

"Still making moonshine, sis?" Hannah perked up at that with a laugh. "Gotten any better at it?"

"Hey, look, alcohol wasn't allowed on the ship when I came here," Amanda said with a grin of her own. "It was a damned good thing I was there to help."

"Mm," Hannah raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure that the rest of the crew appreciated the headaches your stuff gave them. Smooth as ever."

Before she could respond to that, there was a knock on the door and the receptionist opened it without waiting. Behind him stood two men carrying an unconscious third, and Amanda sighed and put down her cup. Shooting her sister a look that promised the conversation wasn't over, she waved the men through to the back and grabbed her kit.

"Come back here this evening, and I'll show you how I've gotten on," she said to Hannah as her sister grabbed her duffel and headed for the door. "Until then, I've got to work."

* * *

The end of the day came quickly; after the slow morning, Amanda's time had filled with a litany of injuries and illnesses. None of them turned out to be too dangerous, thankfully, but they'd all needed her full attention. It wasn't a nice thought, but part of her appreciated being too busy to think about the morning's events. Every time she paused for breath her thoughts turned to Markath, though, and she found herself dreading having more time to think.

At least there hadn't been any more calls from the palace. That had to mean that Verikan was recovering perfectly well without her personal attention. Good. I don't want to go back up there and risk bumping into Markath.

Of course, part of her wanted more than that, and she found herself blushing at the thought as she locked up the clinic and left. She half expected him to be waiting outside, and when instead she saw Hannah there she wasn't sure if her sigh was one of relief or disappointment.

"Come on, let's get something to eat," Amanda said, distracting herself with thoughts of food. That was easy after the busy day she'd had — she was famished.

"Did you forget to eat lunch again? Hannah asked with a grin, and Amanda punched her in the arm. Her sister ducked back, laughing, and for a moment it was as though they were back home on Earth. When she'd been studying she'd forgotten to eat most days unless someone had reminded her. Hannah had been good at doing that, if obnoxious about it.

The evening was dark and the streets busy as Amanda led Hannah through the tight confines of the port. Now that she had someone to guide she realized for the first time how natural it felt. Hannah practically bounced in Mars's low gravity, and more than once found herself bumping into someone when she couldn't slow down fast enough. Amanda had long since adjusted her movement to the local gravity, and by the time they'd reached her favorite noodle bar Amanda was feeling more than a little smug about that skill.

"I'm going to be covered in bruises if this keeps up," Hannah complained, rubbing her elbow from her latest collision with a wall. A glance at the menu distracted her from her pain and Amanda saw her eyes light up with interest.

"Okay, what the hell is this stuff?"

Amanda laughed. "Oh, we don't really know what a lot of it is. Martian food is weird — the alien foodmakers can turn out all kinds of meat and vegetables, but hardly anything we know from Earth."

Hannah's eyes widened. "You mean that's all alien food?"

"Sort of. Nanotech manufactured stuff that the aliens provide, but it's just made out of—"

"I don't care what it's made from," Hannah broke in. "It's alien food! I want to try everything."

Amanda laughed, shaking her head, and started ordering. In the face of Hannah's enthusiasm, it was hard to stop, and by the time they left they were laden down with food. Fortunately, it was only a short walk to Amanda's apartment.

"I can't wait to try this," Hannah said as she arranged the cartons on the untidy kitchen table. Amanda looked at the food and sighed. Well, I guess the leftovers will feed me for a few days, she thought. There wasn't a hope in hell that they'd finish it all tonight.

But the glint in Hannah's eyes told her that her sister was going to give it a damned good try. Amanda fetched cutlery and a jug of her latest drinkable booze. She'd ruined a foodmaker convincing it to make something that was almost like wine if you squinted at the taste and weren't too picky. It was far from perfect, but it was drinkable, and Hannah didn't seem to mind the hint of alien flavors. Eating in silence, both sisters found that they were too hungry to talk until they'd eaten. Eventually, Hannah sat back and grinned.

"Okay, that stuff is weird," she said, pointing at the carton she'd been eating from with her fork. "What is it? I can't even tell if it's meat or vegetable."

Amanda shrugged, looking at the name of the dish scrawled on the side of the carton. "It's called herok, but beyond that I've got no idea. Sorry, it's all just stuff that comes out of a foodmaker — you'd have to ask one of the aliens what it's supposed to be."

"You could ask Markath for me," Hannah said with a mischievous look. Amanda glowered.

"Leave it alone, will you? I'm not going to talk to him again if I can help it." She'd almost managed to forget about Markath and the way he'd made her feel. The mention of his name brought it all crashing back into her consciousness and she had to take a deep breath. Let's talk about anything else, she thought, blushing. I can't think straight when he's on my mind.

The grin spreading across her sister's face made it clear that Hannah could see what she was thinking, and that was another reason to change the subject.

"What exactly are you going to be doing out here?" Amanda asked, stabbing her fork into a slice of unidentified meat with more force than was strictly necessary.

"Ah, well, the guys I'm going to be working with think they know where to find some ruins," Hannah said. "So we're heading out to look for them once the team's all here. See if we can dig up something worth selling, that sort of thing. I've got experience digging valuable tech out of wrecks back on Earth, so I'm there to help the salvaging. Seems like there's good money to be made, trading that stuff back to the aliens."

Amanda nodded. Back on Earth, Hannah had always been one for exploring abandoned places and had made her living selling what she'd found there. That gave her a set of skills that would be valuable on Mars where a good salvage haul could make a small fortune, or even a large one. It still worried her, though. Even on Earth, that was a dangerous way to earn a living; here on Mars the risks were much higher.

"Where are you going to be?"

"I don't know, exactly," Hannah shrugged and grinned. "I guess either they're not sure, or they don't want me to know too much before we head out. If it is a big strike, we don't want some other salvage team getting to it first. All I know is it's out on the Hellas Planitia somewhere."

That didn't narrow it down much. Hellas Planitia was a huge area, and remote — Amanda hadn't heard of any settlements, human or alien, being established anywhere near it. She frowned, worried.

"That's a long way out, sis. What happens if something goes wrong?"

"We'll have emergency comms, the sponsor's got a ship in orbit to relay any calls," Hannah said with a shrug. "Look, it's not like I was any safer going into the ruins on Earth. Back there we were on our own. Here, at least it's an organized expedition. There'll be twenty of us and we'll have a base camp, support in orbit, all that good stuff."

"Just promise me you'll be careful, okay, Hannah?" Amanda said dubiously. She knew her sister wasn't one to duck a risk if it looked exciting, but at least so far, she'd come through everything she'd done okay.

That had only made Hannah cockier though.

"Promise," she said, crossing her heart with a solemn look on her face. "Now, what else have you got to drink? I'm curious about what you've been brewing up here, this wine is weird."

The rest of the evening was lost to Amanda showing off the booze she'd convinced the foodmaker to create. The drinks the aliens made for themselves were far too strong for humans, she'd quickly found. Adjusting the recipes was one of the many skills that the aliens had lost in their disaster, and Amanda had to figure it out for herself. It made for a fun hobby even if most of the results were undrinkable.

Hannah's looks of disgust at every new drink were at least partly teasing, she was sure. At least, her sister kept coming back for more samples and soon they'd put aside their other worries in a pleasant haze of booze.

* * *

Usually when Amanda dreamed of flying, it was a nightmare. The red rocks hurtling up at her, a spaceship coming apart around her, an alien trying to tear his way into the cockpit to kill her. It was one of the dreams she dreaded most.

This time was different, though. This time she wasn't flying in a ship, she was flying in Markath's arms. And instead of a heart-pounding plummet towards the Martian rocks, they soared in the light of the distant Sun.

His presence filled her mind, and she felt herself aching for him. He didn't seem to need a suit despite the thin air of Mars, and while her breathing echoed in her ears as it always did when she wore a spacesuit, Markath was gloriously naked.

Looking Amanda in the eye, he reached out for the helmet of her suit, and with dream logic she knew that she didn't need it. Not while he was there to protect her from the thin atmosphere — Amanda knew, deep down, that Markath would keep her safe.

The helmet dropped away to the rocks below, and his hands moved down, peeling the suit from her body without any difficulty. Amanda felt a bone-deep ache of need for him grow as each part of her suit came away in his hands. Slowly, deliberately, Markath stripped her naked, letting the spacesuit fall.

Now she was flying too, unsupported by him as his hands brushed her bare skin. Markath flew above her, wings spread wide, and she could look at him properly. He was gorgeous. Impossibly hot, ridiculously sexy, deep red skin over hard powerful muscles that made her body cry out for his touch. Amanda's pulse raced and she knew that she needed him more than anything else in the world.

Reaching out for him, she felt the burning heat of his body. Her fingers ran over his muscles, and he drew her closer with a strength she couldn't have resisted if she'd wanted to. Lifting her, he pulled her into a kiss, and as he did so she felt the firm, hard shape of his cock pressing against her.

Amanda gasped at the sensation of it, feeling an answering emptiness inside her. In the dream, she knew what she needed and didn't argue. Letting him position her over his iron hard cock, Amanda looked Markath in the eyes and nodded. And his thrust filled her, making her cry out and arch—

—and wake up.

Goddammit.

Grabbing a pillow, she threw it across the room in frustration. Awake, her body ached unsatisfied. And she knew that there was only one cure for the emptiness inside her.

I could go to the palace. Find him. It would be easy. Part of her wanted that more than anything else.

But no way in hell was she going to give in to that call. She could tough it out, she knew she could. She had to be able to — if she went to him once, she knew that she'd be lost.

Getting up, she stomped into the bathroom and into the shower. The pounding impact of hot water helped her get herself under control, and by the time she made her way back out to the kitchen, Amanda felt almost human.

Where's Hannah gotten to? Some human contact would be good, even her sister's company. But Hannah was nowhere to be found. On the kitchen table, Amanda found a note.

Hey sis,

Thanks for hosting me, and sorry I didn't stay to say goodbye! Got a message early this morning and figured you needed the sleep — I'll be back soon enough, with a hold full of alien treasure. We're setting out for Hellas Planitia at 0700, come see us off if you're up by then.

If not, see you in a couple of weeks!

Hannah.

PS: go see Markath. You know you want to. ;)

Amanda looked at the clock and swore. If she ran she might just be in time to see her sister leave.