When Luna finally started snuggling with me after finishing her meal, my eyes dropped closed pretty fast. The exhaustion of the day had taken its toll. And by the pressure on my good arm, Luna didn’t really move around anymore either. That same pressure was still there when I woke up eight hours later, although I didn’t feel completely rested yet, getting up and getting some morning coffee would probably help.

That was easier said than done, however, since I had a certain girlfriend still sleeping on my arm and I didn’t necessarily want to wake her up.

I tried to slowly slide my arm from underneath her, but I immediately stopped when she suddenly made a groaning noise. “Hmmmm… blurshwhorp…” Luna then proceeded to roll off my arm and started cuddling the sharky plush that was laying right next to her.

I had to try very very hard not to snort at the weird noise my girlfriend had just made, but luckily I found the inner strength to do so.

“Worpmorp…”

-Although she was also trying really really hard for me to fail.-

Once I was free from my precarious cuddly situation, I made my way to the counter and started making myself a good cup of coffee. I liked the kinds of coffee with just a bit of chocolate added to them so they took the edge off just a smidge.

With my hot beverage in my hand, I leaned back against the counter and looked upon my sleeping girlfriend with a smile. It cleared my mind of the ‘morning fog’, what took its place however was just some ‘morning gay’. Because what my mind started to drift to were images of the two of us back on Earth, how I could see her sleep like this from my home back on the South Pole. How we could go on trips to the tropics, see the islands in the Sea of Japan. So many things hopped and skipped through my mind. But at least these were not the dark thoughts that I used to have.

“Hmmm… Lauren?” I shook myself back into reality. Luna was wiping the proverbial sand out of her eyes as she looked at me in a semi-dazed state.

“Hey, don’t get up for me. You can sleep for quite a bit longer.” Of course, Luna didn’t heed my reply at all, as she lazily put Sharky aside and sat up straight on the bed.

“Could you make one of those for me too?”

“Sure.” I smiled and got to work, making an even weaker version of the coffee I was drinking. Didn’t want her to bounce around the cabin for the entire morning, after all. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah…” Luna replied. “I think I was dreaming.”

“About Worpmorps and Blurshwhorps?”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean.” I could hear Luna walk up behind me. She hugged me from the back and tucked her face in my neck.

I chuckled. “You were talking in your sleep a bit earlier.”

“Really? I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.”

“How can you know for sure when you are asleep?”

Luna pouted. “Good point.”

I chuckled again. “You are too cute.”

“Shush.” She buried her face in my back. Probably pretty flustered.

“Haha.” I finished the weakened brew and held it to the side. “Here’s your coffee.”

“Thanks.” She stopped hugging me and took the coffee out of my hand and slowly brought it closer to her body.

“I’ll go and take my pills now.” I gave her a wink. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back.”

The blush on her face didn’t fade yet as she rolled her eyes with a smile. “I know.”

-A couple of days later.-

Our exhaustion had dropped down quite a bit since then, probably thanks to that overly cute morning ritual that we’d managed to build in. During these last few days, we’d brought Yuki up to speed with what Ellie had found down on the planet below that made her desperately want to go into update mode. As I’d promised to do so when we arrived back in the hangar that day. Yuki was quite intrigued with how much Ellie had ‘evolved’ and had decided to ask Ellie if she could use her newfound surplus for some help in the hangar bay as well.

At the same time, after she’d developed our ‘vaccine’, Eva had started to help Luna with figuring out her black box. Now that we knew that Ellie knew about Luna too, having her help as well was quite the boon. Although it proved that the little black box in Luna’s possession was at the moment a bit of a conundrum for our AI as it was for us.

“It’s really frustrating that I can’t seem to figure this thing out.” Eva stared at the black box we’d put on the table for some closer examination.

“I am of the same opinion, Doctor.” Ellie replied. “Even with the knowledge and processing power received from my update, this thing seems to keep eluding me.”

“Do you think that maybe the precursor race deliberately built in a safeguard against that? So that not one data transfer could unravel all their secrets?” Eva proposed.

“Assuming that the black box is derived from precursor technology.” Luna added. It was clear she still didn't completely want to believe that her entire people were being lied to by the upper echelon of her society. And I really can’t blame her for that to be honest.

“Yes, assuming that, of course.” Eva nodded.

“It’s a possibility. It would explain my lack of computing power in that area of expertise.”

“If only it was a star map, right?” I commented while sitting on one of the other tables. In all fairness, I didn’t really know what I was doing here, as I didn’t really have any interesting insights to offer. Apart from the fact that this was information I probably should be aware of as it concerned, 1. my girlfriend and 2. a pan galactic mystery which could quite possibly upset the balance of power in areas that we weren’t even aware of. I knew of at least one space empire that wants our guts for reasons, and that’s already one more than I’m comfortable with.

“If only it was indeed, Commander.” Ellie replied.

The three incredibly smart sciencey people in this room continued their back and forth for a couple of minutes before Ellie suddenly changed tones.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I have a message for the Commander and the XO.”

“Go ahead, Ellie.”

“We have received a reply from the Admiralty, your presence is being requested in the comms room.”

“Okay.” I had expected a reply to come a bit sooner than this, as we’d sent a message of the disease aboard our ship, together with the abandonment of part of the crew almost immediately after things went down. Especially since we’d been closing the distance to Earth by that much. At the moment we were only a week away from our home. I jumped off the table and put my beret back on top of my head. “Are you coming with me, Luna?”

“I am.” Luna smiled at Eva and give her a quick wave as she joined me.

“See you later.” Eva waved goodbye as well. “Hopefully it’s not too bad of a reply.”

“We’ll have to wait and see.” I saluted back and then left the room.

“Are you concerned?” Luna asked as we walked down the hallways.

I took a deep breath. “Well… I guess it could be positive that it took them this long to reply. It means they probably debated the matter a lot instead of making a rash decision.”

“But it could still be bad?”

“I’m not excluding that possibility.”

Luna didn’t say anything else until we arrived at the comms room. A couple of other officers had joined us there as well.

“Should I play the message, Commander?”

“Go ahead, Ellie.”

The room darkened as the message opened up in front of us. “Commander and crew of the UFS Roald Amundsen, we have received your report about the unfortunate outbreak aboard your ship.” The Fleet Admiral sounded very stern as he spoke. “The decision of dropping off the sick on the planet you have discovered has been thoroughly and widely debated during the board meetings. As we have not reached a solid conclusion, we would like to caution you that when you arrive back in the solar system, your ship will be escorted to space station X-12 by a squadron of destroyers, where you shall moor your ship. After which you will be taken into temporary custody by space station security forces who will then transfer you back to the planet surface while we will run through the events with your on-board computer assistant. You will be released once we have sufficient proof that no falsehoods have been committed. As your Commander is of reputable nature, however, we are convinced that this will just be a matter of swift bureaucracy. Although it has to be repeated, deviating from these set guidelines might be considered as an act of treason against the United Federation.” The Fleet Admiral paused for a second. “I hope to see you all home safe and sound. Fleet Admiral Hanssen signing off.”

After the message was over, the lights in the room started to shine more brightly once more. All the officers were looking at me.

I straightened my back. “You heard the Fleet Admiral, we have nothing to fear as long as we follow procedure.” What had been said during the message was one of the possible outcomes we’d predicted. However, the tone of the Fleet Admiral was stern, it did give me plenty of confidence we were going to get through this fine.

-I do just really hope that Ellie will do her part. But I have the feeling she won’t betray us, especially not after the fleet Admiral called her our assistant… We’ll probably hear her ranting about that for a while.-