Apollonia stepped out of the room into the night air.

The winds were high, as normal, but she'd tied her hair back into a ponytail hours ago - it was the only way to keep it out of her face when she was busy working.

Maybe I should just cut it off, she thought. Some kind of short tomboyish 'do would look okay on her. But it might also draw attention to the bags under her eyes.

Her shins ached, and she got out a pain relief pack, squeezing the gel drop into her mouth.

It worked fast, and the headache that had nagged her for the last few hours began to dissipate as the painkiller was absorbed in her mouth.

She'd been on her feet eleven hours now. There were just days left until the deadline, and things were going to shit already.

They had six people in the infirmary from different groups. Apparently a few people had gotten a bit too heated in trying to convince the !Xomyi to leave and had gotten hurt. Or at least that was what she had gathered.

She had been surprised, but it sort of made sense. Telling people that they were doomed unless they came with you tended to raise the heart rate.

Hopefully Brooks was all right.

There were a handful of people down the walkway about twenty feet, and she glanced down at them. They had the black stripes of Engineering, and as she watched, one headed down the path in her direction.

She turned, looking back out at the water. The roll of the waves was hypnotic, but the lighting was such that it was hard to see anything in the water; just a black rolling blanket with white fuzz that grew and disappeared on it.

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Kinda like mold, she thought.

Someone stepped up next to her. She was startled, but realized it was one of the gaggle of Engineers. She had thought the man was just going to head around her, not stop to talk.

"I wanted to say thanks," the man said.

Her tiredness caused the simple words to make no sense. She had no idea who this was, or why they would be thanking her.

"I'm, ah, Zef," he said. "Zef Skuqi."

Apollonia continued to stare for a few moments, knowing it was rude, but her mind was refusing to function. Then, at once, she remembered.

"Oh, the guy who breathed in the mushrooms!" she said, snapping her finger.

"Hah, yeah," the man said, grinning self-consciously.

She remembered then that he had come up to thank her. "Oh, uh . . . you're welcome. I mean, I just did the job. You needed help, so I did it."

"It was a lot of help," he admitted.

"You were always so calm," she noted. "I was just glad I didn't make you nervous. I mean, I was kinda new at it . . . I just did my best."

"I could tell," Zef said. "That you did your best, I mean."

She paused. "You never even looked worried. I feel like I would have been freaking out if I had been as helpless as . . ." She trailed off, regretting her wording.

The man did not seem bothered, though. "Well, I knew I was going to be okay. I didn't like being helpless, but I didn't have anything else to worry about."

Apollonia tried to dissect that for a few moments. It was . . . an odd statement, really, one that she could not unpack right now.

Her mischievous self surged up. "Okay, the most important question," she said, conspiratorially.

Zef leaned in closer, his confusion clear.

"Did the mushroom really make a big fart noise when you fell on it?"

The man burst out laughing.