Space is Big

Part 4: Discovery

They were ecstatic about the discovery and urged the two to hurry back so they could study the footage. As soon as they returned to the camp, they plugged the camera into the TV and rewatched the footage of the lizard. Ashley and Aiden looked amazed at the video and requested to watch it about three times before Ashley took out her tablet and began to sketch the lizard.
"Do you think his eye makes it easier to see his surroundings? How good of peripheral vision does he have? This is incredible! I never thought that we would actually find significant fauna here! We will finish setting up the rest of the sensors tomorrow and we will record any fauna that we find, understand?" They all agreed and then we split for dinner. Alexus and I made some food and went to the game room to eat.
"Okay, let's make some theories." Alexus said from her spot on the floor, "What kind of creatures do you think we'll find here?"
"If we don't find a giant squirrel with bird wings, I'll consider this mission failed."
"Oh, that's a good one. I want to see dinosaurs, or dinosaur-like creatures. If there are creatures like the Asteroid Crawler, then who knows what else is out there?" Heron shuddered at the mention of the corpse floating in the space above them. He wondered if they could see it in the sky when it got dark. He decided that he just wouldn't look up.
"Yeah, but to expand on that, what if there are others like that thing out there. I mean, you saw the scars on it, it's only natural to conclude that those Crawlers had some sort of predators. I don't want to be around here when we find the predator."
"And where will you be?" Alexus quipped. "Under your bed? The blankets won't save us if this theoretical predator attacks us. You'd want to die with your head in the sand?"
"Yeah, actually. I'd rather my theoretical last moments be somewhere I feel safe than staring our theoretical predator down like some sort of pants-wetting moron who wants to play hero." Heron chuckled and finished his dinner. "What would you do?" Lexi sighed and looked down at her plate,
"If I wasn't home, I'd call my wife and tell her I love her no matter what happens. If I was home, I'd hug her and tell her that we'd be okay, even though I would know that we wouldn't be okay."
"That's really sweet in a kind of morbid way. Okay, back to the earlier discussion, what else do you want to see?"
"Topography. I want to see the different land masses and I want to know how this weather works. It's always cloudy and there's lightning, but from what I can tell, it doesn't actually rain all that often. I wonder if there was some meteorological event that triggered this insane weather. Maybe it was whatever happened to that Crawler."
"Oh, geez, let's not talk about that thing. I don't like thinking about it. I don't like the idea of there being bigger fish than us out there. Makes me feel small and I don't like it."
"I understand that. I'm more on the curious side, but I get the idea of being scared of stuff like that. I won't bring it up too much."
"It's fine. I just get nervous, I suppose. It's not like I'm going to start panicking every time someone brings up the Crawlers." Heron slapped his knees and stood up with his plate in hand. "Alrighty then. I'm going to take a shower and go to bed. Let's talk more tomorrow, 'kay?"
"Good grief, are you southern?"
"Does Kentucky count?"
"Yes it absolutely does count. You sound so southern when you get tired! I love that! You're a country boy!" Heron threw a pillow at Lexi who dodged it and cackled at him,
"Don't call me that! I've been trying to ditch the accent for years but it still creeps up on me when I'm tired."
"Awww, I like the accent. It makes your voice deeper. You'll get a lot of girls if you just embrace the accent."
Heron laughed,
"I only prefer girls when I'm drunk. I like guys better when I'm sober."
"Okay, so which sexuality is that? Liquor Bisexual? I'm gonna change your contact name to that by the way."
"Do it. No balls."
"God, I wish. Pay for it."
"I'm broke, pay for it yourself."
"I'm broke too, why do you think I'm working here?"
By the end of their exchange, Heron and Lexi were poking each other's shoulders with grins on their faces and friendly fire in their eyes. They walked back to their rooms together before wishing each other goodnight and Heron stripped to get into the shower.
He stopped to look at himself in the mirror as the shower heated up. His hair was getting longer, but he didn't feel like cutting it. His eyes traced old scars that he thought would have faded by that point and ran a finger over the deepest ones. He lost himself in thought for a moment until a shiver ran down his spine, making him shudder. The mirror had fogged up a bit so he stepped into the shower and let the hot water run down his front. He was a little more tired than he thought he would be, but at least he was close to being ready to go to bed. He almost fell asleep in the shower once or twice so by the time he was drying himself off, he could barely keep his eyes open. He didn't bother putting on any clothes and just fell into bed, hitting the light switch on his way down. The bed was pretty comfortable and Heron immediately pulled the covers up to his chin before finally drifting off to sleep.