Another Life (Oc x reader)

Chapter 23 - Fresh Air

(S1:E5)
You land on the moon and walk out with the others.

Jason inhales deeply and smiles in satisfactory. "Breathe that in."

"I have been all over Earth, and I've never smelled anything so pure." Ethan says, then turns to you. "Let's start by pumping as much of that water as we can inside the shuttle."

You nod affirmatively and follow Zayn to help out.

Ethan looks at Sasha who's just standing there. "Sasha, go help."

"Oh, no, I'm here for the Artefact."

"Yeah, and we'll get there, but right now you have two free hands, so go help."

"Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

Sasha sighs and walk to go help. Ethan turns to Jason who holds up his tablet with the map.

"This is the closest we could get to the Artefact?

"From what I could chart out, yeah." Jason tells him.

"Alright."

Bernie walk out of the shuttle in a red hazmat suit. "Yep. Rocking the full-body condom. Keeping myself alien-virus-free."

"Hey buddy." Jason puts a hand on his shoulder and looks at his suit. "Now, you do know that if there are aliens on this moon, you have a giant red target all over your.. everything?"

"Man, no aliens. There might be some little creepy, microscopic monster so.."

"William did an exhaustive scan of this moon." You try to reassure him.

"Two words for you.. boron-based lifeform."

"That's three words." You tell him.

"Hey, guys, we got three hours until sunset." Ethan says looking at the tablet, then turn to them. "Jason, I need your help. You guys finish with that water."

Jason walk closer to Ethan and look at the tablet with him again. You continue working on the water with Sasha. Zayn walk up to Bernie.

"You know, if the rest of us die.. you'll be down here alone.. forever." He tells him.

"Hm." Bernie then takes off his helmet. He inhales the smell. "Oh, that does smell good."

"Yeah." Zayn smiles.

"Artefact should be one kilometer northeast of here, so 20 minutes on foot?" Jason tells Ethan.

"William?"

"Yeah. Just a little over a kilometer."

Jason sighs. "So, now you don't trust my navigation?"

"I'm not second guessing you. Kilometer's close. I don't see the Artefact or its lights. Do you?" Ethan then says.

Everyone gathers around them since you're done with the water. Ethan turns to the group.

"This artefact's signal is far weaker than the one on Earth. It could be old, damaged or just playing possum. We don't know. So stay close, stay alert."

...

"The Artefact should be straight up ahead, 200 meters." Jason informs.

"You know, when I'm tough on you, it's not personal." Ethan tells him.

"You don't have to explain yourself."

"After what happened with Yerxa-"

"I promise not to stick you in soma and try to take over the ship, okay?"

"You know that's not what I meant. Alright? You're nothing like him."

He rolls his eyes. "Yeah, because who'd wanna be like him?"

"Geez, Jason. I mean, Ian may have been an ass, but at least he wasn't afraid to say what was on his mind."

Jason stops walking. "Fine. Ethan, you wanna know what's going on with me?"

Ethan turns to him.

"He was my brother.. okay? I grew up with him, he saved my life when we were kids. He inspired me to go into this line of work. Without him I wouldn't be here. And now he's dead.. and you killed him." He then just walks past Ethan.

...

You walk up to the artefact with the others. It looks old with branches and vines grown around and over it.

"How long has it been here?" Sasha asks.

"Dawn of time, it looks like."

"No wonder the signals so weak."

"Just looking at her makes my stomach hurt. I was in Cambodia. There were these temples, vines all over them, but my stomach that day? Uh. Had too much durian in one sitting." Bernie says.

"How many of these things do you think are out there?" You ask them.

"Um.. why is there no animal life?" Bernie asks. "It's just plants."

"Natural selection?" Zayn suggests. "Something else?"

You jump slightly in surprise when patriotic music starts blaring behind you. Turning around you see Sasha.

"That just got weird." You mumble.

"Uh, Sasha?"

Sasha just starts reading a speech from his tablet. "As mandated by the Office of Interplanetary Affairs, it is my privilege to enact our First Contact Protocol."

Ethan sighs and turns to Bernie and Zayn. "Meet back here in two and a half hours. Go find us some food. Take Yn."

He then walks up to you, putting a hand on your arm.

"Is that okay? If not you can come with me. I'm just thinking I should have talk with-"

"I'll be okay." You smile and squeeze his hand in reassurance before walking over to Bernie and Zayn, then going with them to find food.

"Well, all I'm seeing is rabbit food." Bernie says.

"I would kill for a Greek salad."

"Mm. With tomatoes and feta?" You say.

"Ah, feta." Zayn sighs.

Sasha is doing the speech over again in another language. Ethan walk up to Jason. "Let's talk in private." He says and moves, but he doesn't follow. "Jason."

"I'm gonna see if Sasha needs some help."

Ethan frowns at him as he watches him walks away.

...

On Earth, Harper meets with Singh and Erik. They're discussing a solution to the Artifact proposed by a 17 year old boy. The kid is proposing that the lights on the artefact is the language and believes that they need to hit the Artifact with specific wavelengths at specific locations.

Walking into a room, they find Dubois waiting for them. She knows Erik leaked the classified information to Harper. Harper interrupts, saying that she won't reveal her sources. Dubious asks if she understands that this is a national security breach. And asks if she knows what the Russians, United Korea and Russia are doing with her publicity stunt, and tells her that she could have her deported. Harper tells her that even if she wasn't born here, she is an American citizen.

Dubois turns to Erik. She tells him that if some kid can figure out what he has not been able to, he might be able to keep his job. But if nothing comes of it, he will spend 50 years in federal prison.

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