After four months on Adrasteia, xenobiologist Kira Navárez, working for the Lapsang Trading Corporation, is preparing for colonists to arrive on the Earth-sized moon circling the gas giant Zeus. She's feeling a bit disconsolate; she and the team working on Adra have become like a family. And, having realized she needs family and companionship in her life, she's going to miss them. Especially Alan.
Although they've declared themselves a couple and applied for assignment to the same missions, there's no guarantee the Corporation will honor the request. And, Kira wonders, how is she supposed to have a romantic life when she's somewhere that Alan is not? Although she's always dreamed of exploring new worlds, she's even willing to change jobs, just to stay with Alan. But can she ask him to do the same?
During the obligatory farewell party signifying the end of their mission, Alan surprises Kira with Midnight Constellations, her favorite flowers. He asks her to marry him and suggests they apply for berths as colonists, guaranteeing them a life together. And Kira realizes she's ready for this change, this settling down in one place, having a family, helping to build a new colony.
The day after Kira's fairy-tale proposal, Mendoza, the expedition's boss, sends Kira out for a last-minute check of some drone-discovered organic material along the coastline. It tests as something they'd already found and classified, no surprise, Kira thinks, but the regulations had required it to be checked out.
Intrigued by an unusual formation, Kira does a bit of exploring and encounters a mystery. Suddenly, the ledge on which she stands gives way, tumbling her into a dusty, circular cave. No, not a cave, she soon realizes . . . a room.
Aliens? Intelligent aliens? Perhaps the discovery of a lifetime.
And then the dust begins to move . . . .
Will Kira free herself from the dust or is something sinister about to happen? And what of her hopes and dreams with Alan? What does the future hold for Kira?
Although they've declared themselves a couple and applied for assignment to the same missions, there's no guarantee the Corporation will honor the request. And, Kira wonders, how is she supposed to have a romantic life when she's somewhere that Alan is not? Although she's always dreamed of exploring new worlds, she's even willing to change jobs, just to stay with Alan. But can she ask him to do the same?
During the obligatory farewell party signifying the end of their mission, Alan surprises Kira with Midnight Constellations, her favorite flowers. He asks her to marry him and suggests they apply for berths as colonists, guaranteeing them a life together. And Kira realizes she's ready for this change, this settling down in one place, having a family, helping to build a new colony.
The day after Kira's fairy-tale proposal, Mendoza, the expedition's boss, sends Kira out for a last-minute check of some drone-discovered organic material along the coastline. It tests as something they'd already found and classified, no surprise, Kira thinks, but the regulations had required it to be checked out.
Intrigued by an unusual formation, Kira does a bit of exploring and encounters a mystery. Suddenly, the ledge on which she stands gives way, tumbling her into a dusty, circular cave. No, not a cave, she soon realizes . . . a room.
Aliens? Intelligent aliens? Perhaps the discovery of a lifetime.
And then the dust begins to move . . . .
Will Kira free herself from the dust or is something sinister about to happen? And what of her hopes and dreams with Alan? What does the future hold for Kira?