Heather noticed how Loka kept moving in front of her, keeping her shielded in case of an attack. From what she wasn’t certain. More demented bots? Other aliens? Maybe her own clumsy feet?  She moved back alongside him and nudged him with her elbow.

“I like to see where I’m going.”

Loka looked down at her, his brows raised. “I will inform you if an attack is imminent.”

“Which is great. But if I see it, it gives me a better head start when I turn and run.” She was only half-joking. Despite feeling reassured by Loka’s belief they could fix whatever the problem was with the station, she had a bad feeling in her gut, and it was rarely wrong.

Loka slowed. His chin raised, and his eyes narrowed.

“What’s wrong?”

“More bots.” He caught her arm and tugged her toward another corridor. “This way. My lab is at the end of this corridor. We can hide out there.”

Heather glanced over her shoulder. She saw no sign of bots but knew Loka’s hearing was better than hers. Picars had angled Spock-like ears, giving them access to a wider range of pitch.

Loka slid an access card over the door scanner, ushered her into a dark room, and locked the door behind them. “We will be safe in here. I had increased security added to the door, so my experiments would not be tampered with.”

“I don’t suppose the comm system works in here?” Heather held her hands out in the gloom. She bashed a stool with her knee and bit down on a curse word before it came out.

“Careful. Some of my life’s work is sealed in these containers.”

“I didn’t deliberately bang my knee on the chair.” She rubbed her bruised knee. “I’m looking for the wall with the comm screen.”

“To your left.” Loka’s hands settled on her shoulders, and he twisted her around.

“Thanks.” She’d been heading in the wrong direction, disorientated by the darkness.

“The screen appears dead.”

“No harm in checking.” Heather pressed the screen with her fingers several times. It remained blank. “What next?”

“We wait.”

“We need to get to engineering.”

Loka appeared not to have heard her. He stood in front of a glass chiller cabinet, his hands behind his back as he studied the contents.

“Is something wrong?”

“If the power supply remains off for too long, my samples will be corrupted. I will have to begin my experimentations again.”

“Hopefully, it’ll be back online soon enough. Are the samples important?” She moved slowly until she stood next to Loka.

“My mother is in here.”

Heather opened her mouth. Did he just say mother? She peered into the cabinet, expecting to see a mummified corpse or a head resting on the shelf. Instead, there were rows of neatly labeled jars and glass vials.

“Is she small?”

Loka grunted. “In here.” He opened the door and tapped a claw on a large black glass jar.

Heather let out a relieved sigh. “Her ashes?”

“Why would her ashes be in here?”

“Because you had her cremated when she died?”

“We don’t do that. I retained her DNA. We do it with our ancestors. We store their DNA with the ambition of returning them to a new body one day.”

“Right! I read about that in Science Weekly. You’ve not managed a successful transplant yet?”

“Not yet. I work on it in my spare time.” His claw ran down the length of the glass door. “I miss her.”

Heather wasn’t certain how she felt about this. It was fine to miss someone you loved, but to try to stuff them into another body and expect everything to be just the same was too Tales of the Unexpected for her liking.

“Hi, Mrs. Loka.” She waved at the jar.

Loka moved away. “If she gets too warm, she corrupts, and I lose her samples. I do not have any more.”

“We need to keep her cold then. Even more reason to head to engineering when it’s safe to do so.”

“I have other samples in there, as well. I have been working on them for months. I had hoped Hoan would be here, making sure they were unaffected.” Loka looked around the room as if expecting to see Hoan hiding under a table.

“Is Hoan working on the same mapping project as you?”

“He is. This is our project. We designed it together.”

“He must be as smart as you.”

Heather saw Loka slide her a glance. “Almost.”

She grinned to herself. Her alien had a sense of humor. “If the samples go bad, you can always start again.”

Loka tsked under his breath. “It is not that simple. And I only have one mother. I only have that sample with me.”

“Then explain it to me. We can’t go back into the corridors until the bots have moved on. We’ve got time.”

His shoulders rose an inch. “We have been commissioned to create a complete map of your galaxy.”

Heather nodded. “To help us understand our galaxy and the universe beyond.”

He glanced at her. “Correct.”

“It will mean we can go beyond our limited vision.” Heather quoted from the promotional materials she’d read. “It will help us understand what’s really out there. It will mean we discover new things and evolve new ways of thinking.”

Loka’s mouth opened and snapped shut. “Correct. Again. From your home planet, when you gaze into the stars, most individuals have no idea of the power they are witnessing. Those flickers and sparkles are, in fact, raging, unstable stars. Humans live near incredible vacuums of space. It is something you cannot comprehend.”

Heather shrugged. “Some of us can.”

Loka arched a brow. “How fast does your planet go around the sun?”

“It’s about seventy thousand miles per hour.”

“You know that?”

“I live in space. I need to know that sort of thing.”

“You and approximately one percent of the population of Earth know that. Since your kind were discovered, and you’ve taken your first steps into space, your ability to learn about the vastness of the star systems must increase.”

“People are trying. It’s a whole new world.” She laughed. “Literally. We really thought we were all alone. Humans figured they were the best and brightest out there.” Her gaze went to Loka’s horns. “Boy, were we dumb.”

“Which is another problem, your superiority complex when you have no right to one.”

“We’re superior?” Heather’s fingers flexed. She’d never felt superior to anybody. She usually felt the opposite and had perfected the art of merging with the shadows, unless she was with people she liked and trusted. There weren’t a ton of those on Prodigy.

“Yes. And your galaxy, the Milky Way, so far, has been impossible to define within normal parameters. For example, there are more than one hundred billion stars. Do you know how far away they are from you? Or the size difference between planets? Not all planets are round. Even your Earth isn’t round.”

Heather resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I know that. It’s an oval shape.”

Loka ran a hand down one horn. “Then you are unusual.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Heather muttered. “I like to consider myself unique.”

“That is a good word. My work will help you revolutionize your understanding of what has been over and around you all this time. This will be your first opportunity to see everything, to understand why it’s there and how to relate to it. It will make you consider yourself in the appropriate evolutionary stage of development.”

Okay, Loka was smart, but it was sliding quickly into patronizing. “By showing us how big the universe is, you’re going to make humans feel appropriately small?”

“Yes. Well, not small. It’s important you understand your place.” Loka shot her a worried look.

“I get it. We’re primitive. We don’t even have space travel. Well, we have the kind of spaceship that is a one-time deal. You buy a ticket, knowing you don’t get home. The one I came on to Prodigy exploded on the way back.” Heather scuffed her foot on the floor. “Everyone inside was killed.”

“That’s a perfect example. You have yet to perfect space travel. You do not understand your place in the universe.”

“You’re here to educate humans on the origin and evolution of our galaxy? Help us figure out the hard stuff?”

“That’s right.” Loka failed to hear her sarcasm. “Every star you see has a trace of its origins. What I’m mapping with Hoan will ensure you can look back into your past, not just a few thousand years, but billions of years. You might even see the birth of your very own galaxy.”

Despite him sounding like a pompous know-it-all, that did sound sort of neat. “I wouldn’t mind seeing that.”

“We will share our knowledge of solar systems beyond yours, as well. And there are thousands of exploding stars and don’t forget the supernovas. We will chart those.”

“Do you look at brown dwarves?” Loka might be a smart ass, but his conversation was fascinating. Heather had always been into science geeks, especially the space science geeks. There was something about their passion that tweaked her own.

“You study brown dwarves?”

“Not really. But they fascinate me. Why do some planets work, and others don’t? What went down on these brown dwarves that meant they never came to life?”

Loka’s smile was genuine. “I should have you on my team. You know a lot about our studies.”

Heather waved a hand in the air. “I’m not clever enough for that. I’m just a primitive human, remember?”

“You could do some basic analysis. It would be hard to get that wrong.”

Heather gritted her teeth. “Really, this isn’t for me.”

Loka’s eyes sparkled with undiluted joy. “Have you heard of your Earth scientist, Einstein?”

Heather pressed her lips together. She’d had a picture of him on her bedroom wall when growing up. “Crazy-eyed guy with super cool fluffy hair?”

“He had an interesting theory about general relativity. Most of it was incorrect, but he had the basics right-”

Heather placed a finger against Loka’s lips. She needed to stop him talking before he went into smug, know-it-all alien scientist mode again. “Another time. Why don’t we see if those bots have gone?”

“Yes. Of course.” Loka followed her to the door. “There’s also Einstein’s prediction of ripples in the space time continuum. That might be of interest to you.”

It was. Heather didn’t want to discuss it with someone who considered her too primitive to understand the concepts. She’d study it on her own time, without being judged.

She pressed her ear against the door and pulled back. “I hear scuttling noises. Alien bot scuttling noises.”

“We’ll wait a few more moments. They will move on soon.”

Heather returned to the workbench in the center of the room. She eased herself onto the stool and studied the label on the petri dishes in front of her. She lifted one, fascinated by the word stenciled on it.

Loka plucked it from her fingers. “Do not touch that.”

“I wasn’t going to open it. I’m not a complete idiot.”

Loka carefully placed the petri dish back down. “I didn’t say you were. These experiments are sensitive to contamination. I do not want to have to restart a whole set of tests because you have smeared your fingers on them.”

“I know how to handle a petri dish.”

“Do you have much call for them in your matchmaking work?”

Heather glowered at him. “Actually, we do. Ever heard of HLA molecules?”

Loka scratched a horn. “I have not.”

She stifled her smugness. “It’s a particular part of human DNA that codes for human leukocyte antigen molecules. The more disparity between the molecules, the greater the chance the woman will find you appealing.”

Loka tilted his head. “How does it work?”

“It’s all to do with the immune response. If you have a greater variety in your HLA genes, it offers a better possible immune response. It means you produce healthier offspring, and they have better protection from a greater set of illnesses.”

“That makes perfect sense.”

“Not only that, but we measure levels of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. These are markers of how well individuals deal with stress. If you both have similar results, it suggests you’re more genetically compatible. It enhances the chance of a long-term partnership.”

“You conduct these tests on everyone going through your matchmaking service?”

“It’s important the alien and human are as compatible as possible when it comes to genetics,” Heather said. “Sure, we’re primitive, but our genetics are widely compatible with most aliens. We’ve only had a handful of pregnancies that have had problems, and that was because of an alien virus we did not know about.”

Heather stiffened as Loka’s gaze ran over her. It was like he was examining her for defects or deficiencies.

“That is good to know.”

“Are you thinking of finding yourself a mate?” Her voice shot up an octave.

“Perhaps. Although not right away.” Loka tapped a finger on top of a petri dish. “My work keeps me busy.”

Heather turned away, feeling a sense of relief that he didn’t have anyone special in his life. “Me too. All work and no play.”

Loka was quiet for such a long time that she turned back and looked at him.

“You will not mate?”

“No. I cannot be distracted by partners and children.”

“You do not want that?”

Wow. His questions were getting personal. “One day. I expect you have some gorgeous Picar waiting for you back home?”

“Our own females are in high demand. They enjoy the company of those in positions of authority. They rarely spare a glance at the scientists.”

“They should. Scientists are hot.” Heather winced. She was saying all the right things to make her sound like a lonely, desperate nerd. She should just take off her clothes, lay down on the floor, and declare she wanted him.

“I’m glad you think so.” Loka’s tone was amused. “But please, no more touching of the experiments. I can see you have an amateurish interest in this, but it is not—”

“Amateurish!”

“Yes. I’m assuming you do not have an advanced qualification in spatial anomalies. It is not appropriate for you to deal with such sensitive experiments.”

“You’re right. I do have advanced techniques in how to spot uptight idiots, who think they’re better than everyone else, though.” Heather turned her back on Loka.

“I imagine that is useful in your line of work.”

If that was him making another joke, she wasn’t laughing. Heather heard the sound of equipment being moved around. “We need to focus on what’s going on in the station.”

“I did not mean to offend you.” His voice was soft and quiet. “My work is important to me.”

Heather waved a hand in the air. “You didn’t. Besides, we’re not here to work together on your tests.” She didn’t know why she’d thought they were compatible. Maybe she’d been flattered that someone as hot as Loka would be interested in her. It wasn’t meant to be. She had her own ambitions, the same as he did. The two did not make a good match.

Loka looked at the petri dishes. “I was simply concerned about contamination.”

“I get it. You don’t want me messing up your tests.” He couldn’t have made it any clearer.

Heather turned as she felt Loka’s hand on her shoulder. The touch was tentative. “I know you would not have done it out of malice.”

“You never know. I might have been able to help.” Heather shrugged his hand off her shoulder. “Let’s focus on the problems here.”

“You’re right. I am sorry if I offended you.”

Heather turned and walked toward the door. “First things first, we need to make sure there are no malfunctioning bots running around.” She pressed her ear to the door.

“Do you hear them?”

“I think it’s clear.”

“Then we need to get the lights back on and full power restored, which means a visit to engineering.”

“Agreed.” Heather ignored her confusing feelings about Loka. She needed to keep them fixed at the bottom of her to-do list. She should scrub them off completely.

Loka was too good for her and too caught up in his own work. A human with a liking for 80’s TV re-runs and too much cookie dough would not appeal to someone as incredible as he was.

Even though he came with an unhealthy side order of uptight when it came to his petri dishes, Heather knew she would have a tough time not dwelling on what might have been.