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her a tight squeeze once again. Their faces met and she kissed him. He kissed her back. Deeply and passionately. It was their kiss goodbye, Rain knew. The kiss of death. Yet never had anything tasted sweeter, nor had she experienced any moment in her life that felt more real and alive.
    “I love you, Calvin Cross,” she said, once their lips had pulled apart.
    “Have a good life, Rain,” said Calvin. “Should the worst happen, and I don’t make it back…promise me that you’ll live every moment to the fullest. No matter what happens.”
    “I promise,” she said. Then she kissed him again. As they kissed, she deftly and stealthily removed the hypodermic needle from her right pocket with one hand, used her thumb to prep the plunger, then she reached around him, still kissing him passionately, and, once she’d found the correct spot on the back of his neck, she struck him with the needle, and pressed firmly on the plunger until the needle’s contents were fully delivered.
    Calvin wiggled at first, surprised by the prick of the needle, but Rain held his head steady with her left hand, keeping it trapped close to hers. Once it was done, she kissed him a final time, and then pulled away.
    “What in God’s name…?” Calvin said, sounding confused. He tried to say more, as he looked at her with eyes that seemed in a stupor, but his words became quickly incoherent and his eyelids too heavy.
    “I love you, Calvin. Have a good life,” Rain said; she caught him as he began to collapse and she laid him gently onto the deck.
    Once Calvin was completely passed out from the fast-acting general anesthetic, she administered a slow-acting counter drug—just in case—and then began to strip him of his climate suit. Having fully removed it, she put the pieces of the suit on herself—it was a big, awkward fit, but it sufficed—and, just before she put the helmet over her own head and sealed it, she bent down on one knee, kissed Calvin’s unconscious lips one final time, and whispered “Goodbye, sweet Calvin. I hope you will forgive me for this, one day. Long from now. When you have children, and a family, and everything else in life that you deserve.”
    With that, she sealed the helmet, stood upright, and opened the hatch. She took one last glance behind her as she passed through, relishing the sight of the Nighthawk ’s innards, and her sweet, beautiful Calvin—sleeping peacefully—and then she closed the hatch and descended the ladder into the pod.
    “It’s about time you got here, Calvin,” said Rafael, as Rain reached the bottom of the ladder. The moment her feet touched the deck of the pod, Rafael sealed the pod’s upper hatch and began to disconnect the tiny vessel from the Nighthawk .
    “Actually, it’s not Calvin,” said Rain. “It’s me.”
    “Rain?” Rafael sounded perplexed.
    “At the last minute, I was able to convince Calvin that he is still needed on the Nighthawk and, since I’m already terminally ill, and since my staff can handle my medical duties as well as I can, I was the logical choice for this mission.”
    Rafael nodded, seeming to accept this.
    “Well, know this,” he said. “I consider what you are doing to be both noble and honorable. You really are a great example to the rest of us.”
    “Thank you,” said Rain. She strapped in and Rafael did the same. She then sat in silence, watching the stars out the window, as Rafael piloted the pod, saying little else. The descent wasn’t long and, after only a few seconds, the grey planet came into view out of the side window. She looked at it, thinking it had a kind of beauty to it, albeit a harsh sort of beauty. And she supposed it was as good a place to die as any. Life is about the choices we make while we’re alive , she reminded herself. Not about where we are when we pass on to the next thing. Whatever that is.
    “We’ll be at the LZ in just a few seconds,” said Rafael. “Assuming the control tower is where Rez’nac