Read Over the Moon (Star-Crossed Book 1) for Free Online

answer to that question. And Carmen wasn’t stupid enough to lie about it.
    “Of course not. But this is an emergency, right? And you’d be following regs.” She inhaled and crossed her fingers for luck, then rushed on. “Not like we’d be out there long anyway, right? Simple job, out and back quick?”
    “Yeah, we could get it done fast. OK,” Jacob said. “Follow me.”
    He took her to out of the main room, off to the far side of the center dome. There was an airlock here. Probably to help with maintenance on the other domes. An easy way to get outside and get things done. Jacob popped a suit locker on the wall next to the airlock, and started pulling out chunks of spacesuit. Businesslike, he slipped the bulky elements of the suit over the ship-suit she still wore from the trip up here. His hand slipped getting the top over her chest and brushed her breast, causing him to blush furiously. She hid a smile at his reaction.
    Poor guy. She wondered how often he got friend-zoned. Probably way too often, and she could already tell this time wasn’t going to be any different, even if he couldn’t. He was nice, and she liked him. But there wasn’t any spark.
    Finally he had her all suited up and ran system checks on her suit. Then he started getting himself ready as well. She watched him click the pieces of suit together, hoping this job didn’t take too long. They’d already burned so much time. Carmen wondered how long her father’s samples had before the battery power ran out.
    “OK, check my suit. Make sure the locking points are all good,” Jacob said over his suit radio. She gave each one a tug, but as near as she could tell he had done a good job.
    “Looks good,” she said. “Where’d you learn to do this, anyway?”
    “Back on Earth. In a swimming pool,” he admitted.
    Carmen sucked her lower lip. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that! She recalled that this was his first time in space, too. Both of them would be taking their first walk outside here.
    “You good?” he asked. Something of her fear must have shown in her face. She looked up at him, forced a grin, and gave him a thumbs-up sign.
    “Then let’s do this.” He stepped into the airlock.
    She followed. This one wasn’t like the big cargo airlock on the spaceship. It was more like the passenger one – about wide enough for two people to stand side by side, if they were not in suits. It was really only big enough for two suited people standing one in front of the other. The space felt a little claustrophobic, a feeling only augmented by being locked into a close fitting and bulky space-suit.
    Jacob pressed the touch screen panel beside the outer door, and the door behind Carmen snapped shut. Suddenly the feeling of being trapped in a tight space became incredibly intense. Sweat broke out on her brow. She was breathing faster, and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. This was a terrible idea. She was going out into one of the most hostile environments imaginable for the first time, with someone else who’d never been out there before. They were both going to get killed. She was about to open her mouth to tell Jacob to stop – they’d find another way to secure the samples. But he’d already cycled the air out of the lock. The light above the outer door turned green, and it opened. Jacob stepped outside, and Carmen found herself following him if for no other reason than to escape the metal coffin of the airlock.
    It was daylight outside. The sun beat down on them, and her visor quickly dimmed to protect her eyes from the bright light. Looking around, all she could see was white. The domes were white, a fine coat of dust covering them to make them blend in with the ground. She took a few gentle steps, each footfall stirring up more dust. Many people had walked out here before – she could see their footprints scattered all over the area, hundreds of boot prints all overlapping one another.
    That made her feel a bit better.