Chapter 3
Jim wished the trouble with the crops were as easy to diagnose as Rob and Maerlis. The xeno-biologist was as friendly and outgoing as Rob, but the two of them acted positively standoffish once Jim arrived. They were a perfectly matched set as far as he could tell.
Both strong and healthy, around the same age. Maerlis was as small and compact as Rob was tall and lanky, with waves of gleaming black hair falling loose past her shoulders. Both loved the odd combination of planetary isolation and intense socialization of repeated swarms of new cadets and departing graduates.
And each almost embarrassingly smitten with the other.
Rob’s gaze followed Maerlis as she gathered equipment and supplies from around her compact lab, all gleaming plas-steel and flawlessly clean glass. The or
