Outpost Alexa, Apollonia found, was not the best place for privacy.

Word that she had gone on a date with Alisher seemed to spread like wildfire, to the point where Zey confronted her about it the very next morning.

"Did you really?" the woman asked, slapping both hands on the desk and leaning over it towards her.

Apollonia recoiled. "Did I . . . what?"

"Go to dinner with Lt. Rasulov!"

"Yeah," she admitted.

Zey raised her hands. "Well. Well, well, well. Guess it's none of my business but ohmygod, I can't believe you!"

"Why?" Apollonia asked, feeling a sense of hopelessness and fear overwhelming her. "Was that wrong?"

"Wrong?" Zey asked. "No. It's just really good gossip! Like, way better than I could have hoped for."

Apollonia felt her negative emotions deflate, to be replaced with just a sense of disappointment. "You had me going there."

Zey grinned. "What you do in your own time is your private affair! I'm just going to talk about it to everyone, that's all."

Apple rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks. Just don't tell people we're engaged."

"Did you have fun?" Zey asked.

"Yeah," Apollonia said.

Zey was already sending a message. "She had fun!" she said out loud.

"Dark! Who are you telling?"

"Ann," Zey said.

"You know Ann?"

"Yeah, I go to Watchito's! You know she's gossip central, right? And I know she's already your friend, so I thought she'd want to know."

Apollonia took a deep, defeated breath. "Let's just get on with my training, okay?"

"Through there," Zey said. "I'll be along to slap some stickers on you in a moment."

"Better not be telling Ann I was up to anything . . . I don't know, dirty."

Walking into the other room, she peered back out. "Or if it is, it better be awesome, not like . . . sick."

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Zey did not respond, and Apollonia went in to get prepared.

She found herself waiting, her annoyance growing.

"Zey forgot me," she said out loud.

Hearing voices in the other room, she opened the door a crack to peer out.

Zey was talking to Rasulov.

Neither of them noticed her, and she ducked back, closing the door.

They couldn't be talking about her, could they? She opened the door again, just a tiny bit.

". . . be fine after a course of treatment, it's only a superficial laceration and he didn't lose too much blood . . ."

Oh. It was actual medical stuff.

She waited, feeling bad for eavesdropping. There was an important privacy concern that her training had talked about, hippo or something, and she wondered if she was violating it by listening in.

Finally, though, she heard the unmistakable sound of a goodbye.

A moment later, she peered out.

"Sorry for the wait," Zey said. "Just had to sort out-"

"Was that Alisher?" Apollonia asked, pretending she had not been listening in.

"Yeah, he was-"

"Was he hurt?"

"Him? No, one of the others on his crew got hurt on the mainland," Zey told her.

"Was it from a dinosaur attack?" Apollonia asked, her eyes going wide.

Zey gave her a funny look. "No, he just fell and got cut on a rock on the mainland."

"Oh."

"Not that exciting in real life, the drones keep the big lizards-"

"Dinosaurs."

"Technically they're not dinosaurs. Or lizards, I guess. But whatever they are, the drones keep them away when people go on shore."

Apollonia shifted back and forth for a moment.

"I'll be right back, Zey," she finally said.

The woman arched an eyebrow. "You're fine, Apple."

She darted out the door.

The heat and wind hit her like a wall when she went out, causing her to actually flinch. But she pressed on, following Alisher.

"Hey!" she called in a lull in the wind.

Alisher somehow heard her, glancing back and stopping as he spied her.

"Apple," he said. "Good morning."

"Are you, uh, doing all right?" she asked, suddenly unsure of why she had actually come out here.

"I am," he said. "If you heard some of that, it was someone else. They're fine, too, though."

"Oh, well . . . I'm glad."

He was watching her with what she thought to be expectation, but said nothing.

"I'm training up, you know. Do you think next time I could go on shore with you?" she blurted out.

Oh, great timing, she thought. Right after one of his crew got hurt.

"It's not up to me, but if it was, I would say of course," he replied. "But if you ask Commander Cenz, perhaps some time he'll give you permission. We go out every other day."

She almost said that she barely knew anything, but that seemed a bad idea at the moment.

Instead, Apollonia just watched him quietly, trying to think of something to say.

The wind blew her hair into her face, and she reached up, pushing it out of the way, laughing a little. She realized that she was twirling some of it around her finger.

Dark, she was acting like a schoolgirl with a crush!

"I'll, uh, talk to you later," she said, turning and hurrying away.

"Bye!" she barely heard.

She stopped after a moment, glancing back. Alisher was already heading away.

She followed him again, staying far back enough that she didn't think he'd notice her.

He went through a door. That one led to a hall, she knew, and she gave him a few moments before peeking in. He was going through another door down the hall, and she went down, putting her ear to it.

What was she expecting to hear? She had no idea.

Through the door, she overheard talking.

Something, something about the injured tech . . . but then one spoke, more loudly.

"Were you talking to Specialist Nor out there?" a man asked.

"Yeah," she heard Alisher say.

"Did you really go out with her the other night?" another asked.

"I did," Alisher said. "We had dinner."

"Wow," she heard the first voice say.

Frozen spikes seemed to thrust into her gut. No one could believe that he'd go out with her, could they?

But even worse, what would Alisher say to that? Would he laugh with his friends and agree that she was awful, that it was all just a joke?

"She's always kept to herself," the first voice said. "I'm surprised she agreed."

"Yeah, but I'm kind of great," Alisher said, then laughed. "She had a nice smile, and later I asked her. I actually thought she was going to turn me down from how she looked, but then she said yes."

"How'd it go?" the first speaker said.

"I'm not going to go into that," Alisher replied. "But I enjoyed talking to her."

"Aren't you nervous, though? I mean, she's close friends with Dr. Y and Commander Yaepanaya."

"And don't forget the Captain," the third voice added.

"She was talking to Dr. Y on the drop-in," Alisher said. "I guess I didn't think much of it."

Not quite true, Apollonia recalled, thinking how shocked he'd been about how she'd spoken of Jaya.

"I don't think I could forget," the first man said. "One wrong move and you might get reprocessor duty."

"Yeah, well, you have your eyes on a captaincy," Alisher replied with a laugh. "I'm going just one step at a time."

Apollonia pulled her ear away. She'd heard more than enough.

Too much, really. Because now she felt guilt seize her heart that she had doubted this man.

It wasn't some grand declaration of love, though, was it? He just had spoken about her like she was a normal girl . . . woman.

She crept back down the hall, heading back towards the medical bay, back into the crazed winds.

But it wasn't the wind that made her feel light on her feet.