I sit on my bunk and sigh. “You make a good point. I should at least try. It’s been a hard day. Night. Whatever. A hard day’s night.” I lie back in the bunk and pull the blanket over me. “That sentence make no sense.” “It’s an Earth saying. From a song.” I close my eyes and mumble. “…and I’ve been working like a dog…”

I wave my arms in the air too. “Maybe we won’t die here after all! I need to do an EVA to get beetles. I’ll be right back.” I hop off the bunk and head to the ladder. “No!” Rocky says. He skitters over to the partition and taps the divider. “You sleep. Human no function well after no sleep. EVA dangerous. Sleep first. EVA next.” I roll my eyes.

“And, um, well, I’m a teacher. I should teach. We need to raise a strong, solid generation of survivors. Right now we’re soft. You, me, the whole Western world. We’re the result of growing up in unprecedented comfort and stability. It’s the kids of today that’ll have to make the world of tomorrow work. And they’re going to inherit a mess. I can

That’s when I saw the fourth Astrophage. Just…minding its own business. A fourth cell. It was right in the same general cluster as the first three, on the filters. “Holy…” I’d been staring at these guys for a week. There’s no way I would have missed one. There could only be one explanation: One of the Astrophage divided. I’d accidentally made the

“Ryland Grace?” said a woman’s voice. I looked up with a start. I hadn’t heard her come in.

“You ship has more science than my ship. Better science. I bring my things into you ship. Release tunnel. You make you ship spin for science. You and me science how to kill Astrophage together. Save Earth. Save Erid. This is good plan, question?”

I’m Caucasian, I’m male, and I speak English. Let’s play the odds. “J–John?”

Sometimes, the stuff we all hate ends up being the only way to do things.

giddy.