After the latest Alershian attack knocked out most of the planet’s communications network, it took almost three weeks for Lieutenant Williams to learn his brother was dead.

The lean figure of Major Sophia Villafana appeared from behind a towering blackish-red fern that was the color of drying blood. Despite her bulky white environmental suit, the biologist practically skipped a beat  as she moved from one plant to another taking samples.

Tom Morestead stared through the plexiglass observation window and looked for it. It was out there amid the trees. For the last 20 years of his life on Mars, Tom had tended to those pines. That was a long time to spend with them. Long enough to learn when something was off.