“Roses?” The white flowers were just beginning to unfurl, several on the stem. The petals were soft as she touched them. “We had some flowers, but nothing beautiful like this.”
Atlas pulled one off. “Roses once grew everywhere on Earth. Well, all of this did.” He held the rose out to her. “The flower part is bigger here, and the vines are as well. But the smell is the same. It’s lovely. One of my favorites. Here, smell.”
Anna did as told, putting her nose in. The rush of a clean, floral scent made her inhale deeper. She grinned up at Atlas. “I can see why! Why didn’t you have any of these on the ship?”
There was a focusing look in his eyes, and he took a second to respond. “They don’t do well in pots, or I would have.”
“Nory!” She waved the rose in Nora’s direction. “Come smell this.”
But Nora was too far ahead with Tilly to hear. Across from the roses was a meadow. Tilly ran ahead, her limbs flailing as she jumped. And then Nora ran after her, with Simon laughing behind them.
“Your hair is tangled.” Atlas’s fingers moved a strand of her hair behind her ear.
The touch made her jolt. Her cheeks reddened. “Thanks.”
Then she looked closer.Atlas.He appeared different in the light of the Martian sun. Outside and away from the fluorescent lighting of the med room, his hair had a copper tinge to it, and his eyes appeared warmer than before, now in the sunlight. Her cheeks heated.He’s handsome.Damn, he’s really handsome.Anna looked away.He’s an android. Not human.
The difference startled her. Maybe it was him touching her hair. Or that he still held on to her arm. But he was near herand making her stomach do all sorts of flips, and making her heartbeat race, which he could probably hear. Right. She needed to get control of herself.
She forced herself to focus on the scenery. Her heart could pound enough just from that. This was how Earth used to look,before the war that destroyed the planet’s atmosphere.
She hugged her stomach as her baby kicked inside. “It’s beautiful, baby girl.”
The rose was pushed back at her nose. Each one smelled a little different. Anna absorbed everything. The sun on her skin, the fresh smell in the air. Atlas steady at her side as Tilly danced circles around Simon and Nora. Perfect. The air was clean. No dust storms like on Earth. No decay. No Paul.
“It really is a paradise,”she whispered. For a moment, her thoughts stopped spinning. For a moment, she just existed.
Anna breathed deep, turning her face upward to the sun. She stretched her arms out, reaching toward the sky like the flowers surrounding her.
Alive. For the first time in a long, long time, she felt truly alive.
Chapter ten
Atlas
Atlas touched the plants, assessing their health and moisture content like he did for his personal ones on the ship. Home. He spun a rose in his fingers. Technically, they had plans to go directly to the compound facility after landing, but none of the androids stopped the humans from exploring.
Why would they? After all, drones were already circling overhead keeping tabs. The buzz from the drone was almost louder than the bees that circled the roses in force. His hand clenched on the white rose.More data for their files on what Anna and the others do with freedom.
But he could forget that for a moment. Forget what he had discovered a few nights ago.
Right ahead was a sight that needed all of his focus, for both medical and personal reasons. A sight that defied any sort of logic.
Anna lumbered through the forest with none of the grace and precision humans could be known for. She waddled andshuffled, flat-footed, as if she was drunk, like the joke she’d made earlier. All of this while touching everything with fingers that tried to be delicate even as her body was not.
An ache not related to mechanics swam in his gut as he stood within arm’s reach of Anna. His hand reached out, involuntarily, only grasping at air. “Carefully. The lower gravity.”
“No need to worry. I think I got it now.” She tossed back. She walked ahead, touching everything almost compulsively, and tripping into a tree trunk a second later.
She didn’t have it.
He pinched his chin, following her.She’s so clumsy.A part of him knew that observation was not fair. That belly of hers did make her awkward. But he also was aware that the drone above was observing her as she made a spectacle of herself. She didn’t seem to care that the entirety of the android colony from the drones above were watching.
Her palm, almost fully healed, was unwrapped. The stitches were almost dissolved even, the healing cleanser he applied having accelerated the process. And she didn’t seem to show any hesitation with using it. Unfortunately.
Atlas winced every time she grabbed at the soil or the trees and dirt coated the partially healed wound with no regard for medical hygiene. He couldn’t focus anywhere except on her frenzied exploration. He tracked all the minute movements of her eyes lighting up and how she bounced from flower to flower. It was only a few minutes in that he realized he was also recording the scene.
He turned off the recording.She’s wild.A smile crossed his face, followed by an immediate frown.This shouldn’t be that interesting.But her joy. There was nothing measured or contained about it.
