“Any second now, Figaro. Any second.”

Alix rested her head against the tree trunk, eyes trained on the steel trap on the forest floor. A breeze blew through, sending a shiver through the blood-red leaves of the canopy. The forests of this planet were all like this, all choked up with twisted trees and shades of red, from the scraggy grass to the snaking vines that climbed to the treetops, to the flowers that bloomed between them. Everywhere you looked you saw endless miles of crimson below a gold-tinted sky. Even after months on Deimos X, it all still stood out like a siren to Alix. The meanings that Earth had engrained in her continued to ring in the back of Alix’s head every time she left the research station to do fieldwork in the surrounding forest. Danger, danger, get away.

Figaro scurried up from a branch to her shoulder. The little bot’s spider-like limbs tickled even through her jumpsuit. His was a simple design. Eight limbs, a smooth oval body, and a pair of extendable lenses for eyes. Figaro was just small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, and his silver exterior stood out like a beacon against the black fabric of her suit.

“Would you care to know how much time has passed since the last time you said it would be ‘any second now’?” Figaro asked, his tinny voice crackling.

“Nope.”

“Two hundred minutes. Two hundred minutes of sitting in this tree.”

“Oh, my apologies, did you have somewhere else to be?”

“Anywhere but here.”

Alix flicked Figaro lightly, nearly knocking him off her shoulder. “You saw the memo, same as me. The suits are offering a thousand credit bonus for a live Aexon. Unless you’ve got that much to pony up, you can shut your trap.”

“The only trap that needs shutting is down there.” Figaro batted at her cheek. “Are you sure you set the bait correctly?”

“Yes! Lord almighty, Figaro, I’m not a simpleton.” Alix turned her gaze back to the forest floor with a scowl. The nerve of that robot. She didn’t get assigned to Deimos X’s first research station on dumb luck. After the station’s founding, Asteria Inc. sought only the best scientists and explorers to come to study the newly discovered planet. Then, when the best refused their offer, they sought out the second-best. And then the third. And the fourth.

Fast-forward a year and here was Alix, squatting in the trees of Kabir’s Crimson Forest, waiting for a six-legged alien rodent to wander into her trap.

“Maybe we should have tried the Samuels Scarlet Wood,” suggested Figaro.

“There was a huge warren sighted near here, according to the memo,” Alix countered. She brushed her fingers across the length of her utility belt, checking that she hadn’t forgotten to strap in any of the tools of her trade. Raygun, tranq pistol, energy bar, a flask of water, a flask of a lil’ something else, smart tablet. Everything was where it should be.

Alix took a nice swig of the lil’ something else, then slipped the flask back onto her belt.

“I don’t get it. At least a few should have passed by to forage by now,” she said.

“Maybe they’re avoiding us on purpose, then.” Figaro dropped his voice to a dramatic whisper. “Maybe they know it’s a trap.”

“Has the sun fried your circuits? They’re rats. With a couple of extra eyes, limbs, and tails, sure, but rats all the same. They don’t know anything besides ‘food’, ‘fuck’, and ‘sleep’.”

“Oh, so you perfectly understand the inner psychological workings of this alien species?”

“Yep, sure do.” Alix put a hand on her chest and grinned. “I’m not Earth’s greatest exobiologist for nothing.”

“You’re not Earth’s greatest exobiologist at all.”

“Fine then, I’m not Deimos X’s greatest exobiologist for nothing.”

“I’d still call that a reach.”

“I am an exobiologist, is the point,” Alix snapped, flicking Figaro again. “I know how to extrapolate information about a species based on observation. I’ve seen so much hidden cam footage of these things scurrying around the forest floor that I dream in squeaks now, and I’m telling you, they exhibit the same sorts of anatomical and behavioral adaptations as any other rodent-type animals. Like those tiny, kangaroo-type mammals we studied on Erato IV, remember? This ain’t my first rodeo, Figaro. I know what I’m talking about.”

“Typical human hubris,” Figaro scoffed. “Always so sure you’re right. I’ve never seen this sort of shameless arrogance in a robot.”

Alix raised an eyebrow. “I have.”

Alix glanced back down at the forest floor. Still nothing. Maybe she wasn’t camouflaged well enough. She’d hoped her black jumpsuit and hair would blend well with the tree trunk and branches, but perhaps some red streaks across her face to mimic leaves would have given her the extra edge needed. She doubted the Aexons could notice her up here, but if other wildlife were avoiding the area as a result of her presence, that might tip the little bastards off.

“Why are you so desperate for extra credits anyhow?” asked Figaro. “The station covers most material needs.”

“Yeah, but luxuries come outta my pocket. Luxuries like one of those fancy wristwatches the interstellar traders breezed in with yesterday. If I want to buy one for Lyle, I need to do it before the trader ship moves on to the next system.”

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“Lyle?” Figaro’s voice rose an octave. “Lyle Rathan? Are you serious? We’re camped out in this stupid tree waiting around for a rat, just so you can buy some ticking hunk of metal for him of all people?”

“You’re a ticking hunk of metal,” Alix shot back. “And he’s not ‘of all people’, he’s my true love, I’ll have you know.”

“Either my memory card’s on the fritz or you’re delusional. Is this not the same Lyle that stood you up just last week?” Figaro asked with a derisive snort. He idly swiped a leg at a passing insect. “Shoo, bitch.”

Alix caught it between her fingers and squished it. “He had a very good excuse for that, if you must know. He told me his friend’s cat died and he had to go be moral support.”

“You and I both know cats aren’t even allowed on the station,” Figaro said. “Or the planet.”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Our ‘on-and-off’ relationship status is getting switched to permanently ‘on’. Once I’ve got that watch for him, I’ll have his attention once and for all.”

“Because trying to buy a man’s love never goes wrong.”

“I’m glad you understand,” Alix said blithely. Judgy little bot. Lyle wasn’t the sole reason for her interest in catching a live Aexon, anyhow. The main reason, granted, but not the sole one. She wanted information that one simply couldn’t glean from the dead subjects they had refrigerated back at the station. Her entry for the creatures in the Compendium was rather sparse for her liking, a mere handful of sentences.

The Compendium was her personal record of every strange new organism she encountered in her work on planets like Deimos X, beyond the boundaries of civilization. It was meant to be her career-making book, and it wouldn’t exactly fly off the shelves if it was full of boring entries. With any luck, a live Aexon might yield some interesting new details.

Alix gestured toward a cluster of fern-like planets. “Make yourself useful and zoom in on that patch over there. You see anything?”

Two proboscis-like eyes shot out from Figaro’s body, their lenses flashing red before retreating into his metallic thorax. “Whole lotta nothin’. Also, you’re certain that Lyle’s your one true love now? As I recall, mere months ago Mason Arlway—”

“Excuse you?”

“Pardon, I meant He Who We Henceforth Shall Not Dignify With A Name, was your supposed ‘true love’.” Figaro twirled his front limbs dramatically.

“And he was. Right up until he robbed me and ran off to Mars with half my stuff.” Alix shrugged. “But this time, it’s different. I’ve got a good feeling about Lyle.”

“If you say so, Boss.” Figaro scurried across Alix’s back to her other shoulder. His eyes shot out and scanned another patch of foliage. “Nothing hiding there, either. If we’re stuck up here, why don’t we play I Spy? I spy with my superior cybernetic eyes, something red.”

“It’s a leaf.”

“Yes . . . but which leaf?”

Alix bolted upright as her eyes caught a flash of movement below. “Did you see that over there?”

“No.”

“Were you looking?”

“No.”

“Goddammit. Quick, go squeeze through the cage bars and flail around in there. Maybe they’ll be more attracted to live prey,” said Alix. She moved to grab Figaro and fling him down, but he stabbed at her fingers, assaulting them with a barrage of needle-like pinpricks until she moved her hand away.

“How dare you! I’m the peak of human technology, not bait!” Figaro squealed. He jabbed half of his limbs westward. “Look, there’s a survey team conducting research not one mile from here, perhaps they can provide assistance. I can ping them.”

“What, and then we split the credits ten ways? Forget it! I don’t need any goddamn assistance, I need one of these rats—”

As if the forest had heard her prayers, Alix’s words were cut short by a metallic screech as the trap’s door slammed shut below. Alix looked down to see an Aexon squealing and running in circles, its tail caught in the door. It was black-furred, beady-eyed, and long enough to be eye-level with her knee if it stood on its hind legs.

“Aw, Hell, how’d it even manage that?” Alix scrambled down from the tree. Figaro hopped off her shoulder onto the grass below, tucking his legs in to roll beside her. The Aexon shot off ahead as soon as Alix’s boots hit the ground, forcing her to dart after it, guided by the sound of the trap thunking against exposed roots. The creature was shockingly fast, always keeping just a little too far ahead of Alix for her to grab. Tree branches reached out toward her like claws, snagging on her suit and scratching her face through her pursuit.

A myriad of winged reptiles shot out from the trees in alarmed flight as Alix thundered through the forest. She could hear their chorus of clicks as they took to the sky, as well as the nearby rustling and snarling of God-knew-what from the ferns, but she allowed none of this to distract her from her quarry.

It only dimly occurred to her that she must have run out of station-mapped territory at some point. The hunt had led Alix and Figaro into a completely unknown region of the forest, currently untouched by survey and research teams. It could very well be that Alix was the first human to ever set foot on that soil. The thought only made her run faster, that much more determined.

“Wait just a second!” Figaro called out after a while of chasing, struggling to keep up. “Should we keep following this thing? We haven’t got the area ahead mapped! It could be dangerous!”

Alix kept chasing, undeterred. Dangerous? Please. She’d studied for six years to handle environments like this, she wasn’t afraid of a little unmapped alien terrain. As for the Aexon itself, well, the simple-minded little thing was probably just running to its warren, its primitive instincts driving it back into the ground’s snug embrace. She just needed to corner it and then grab the trap.

The Aexon led Alix into the dark mouth of a cavern. Alix paused only a moment before ducking into the abyss. She was immediately hit with a damp, musky odor. Alix’s every step and breath echoed off the walls, as did the frantic scuttling of the Aexon. The ceiling high above was host to a thick carpet of foliage, full of twisted branches, vines, and black lichen suffocating the stalactites. The ground and walls were so slick that Alix slipped several times, but it wasn’t long before she tracked the Aexon to a dead end. In the dim light from the cave mouth behind, Alix could just barely see its furry chest heaving.

“Got ya now,” she muttered, preparing to lunge for it. A sharp cracking sounded from all around her. In the second it took Alix to look down, sturdy vines were already lassoed around her ankles. In the next second, she felt herself being yanked upside down, then hanging in midair.

Torchlight flickered to life along the cavern walls. Alix blinked against the sudden brightness.

Hundreds of Aexons clung to the walls, marble eyes focused on Alix, their black fur braided with gems and beads. They watched her with what seemed to be a cold, detached curiosity. Their needle-sharp claws glinted in the torchlight. They had none of the twitchy, frenetic energy that Alix had come to expect from rodent-type animals, and their unwavering calm in the face of what they should have recognized as a predator sent chills through Alix’s very core.

The one that Alix had cornered turned to its tail and serenely undid the latches of the steel trap, effortlessly freeing itself. It turned its gaze to Alix and tilted its head. It proceeded to let out a series of squeaks that echoed throughout the cavern. Another Aexon stepped forward, and from its grass-woven harness withdrew a tiny, crystalline dagger.

“You know what, Figaro?” Alix called out, hoping that Figaro had followed her in. “Perhaps I do need some goddamn assistance.”