Just two days later I stood in line to get on the rocket. Me, Chris, and Sabrina had three seats in a row, but we had strict instructions to not speak of the purpose of our journey in public. This secrecy made me uneasy, clearly WHO feared the worst. Still, I was wondering if someone else was pulling the strings, it was unlike WHO to work in clandestinity. Then again, how would I know?

The journey was uneventful. Sabrina read a book and Chris slept most of the way. I tried to do the same but struggled. I had never been comfortable with space travel; it was cramped, and the weightlessness made my stomach turn. When we arrived on Epsilon 2 a few hours later I felt queasy, and my head hurt. Chris had informed us that transport from the terminal had been arranged, and as we walked towards the exit with our bags we were met by a woman in a neat, black suit with her hair up in a tidy ponytail. She had a nametag on her chest with the WHO logo on it, it read “Dr. Harper”.

“Good afternoon, Chris” she said and smiled at Christ who smiled back. They seemed to be familiar with each other.  “It’s been some time. This must be Sabrina and Sam, pleasure to meet you both. I’m Hannah, I’ve been assigned to accompany you.”

“Assigned by whom?” Chris said teasingly with a wry smile.

“I may have pulled some strings.” She said as a faint blush appeared on her cheeks. Familiar indeed, I thought to myself. “Come with me, I’ll show you to where you will be staying.” She continued and gestured towards the exit. We walked outside and entered a black vehicle. Hannah drove and Chris sat down in the front seat next to her, I picked up from their conversation that they had studied together at university as they were reminiscing about old teachers and students. Me and Sabrina sat next to each other in the back.

It had been some time since I last left Earth, and I had never been beyond Mars before. Epsilon 2 was an asteroid with mining settlements turned tourist destinations once the resourced had run dry, leaving an expansive cave network within the body of the asteroid.

Our first stop was the lab where we would be working and, as it turned out, living. The living quarters were simple but quite cozy. We were all assigned a room in a corridor, each consisting of a small hallway where one could hang one’s clothes, a bathroom to the left, and following the hallway was a small room with a bed and desk. It reminded me fondly of my dorms back in university. At the end of the hallway was a kitchen and some tables.

I wished to stay and rest after the trip, my head was still hurting, but Hannah insisted on urgency and led us back to the vehicle. We were to travel to the cave immediately, she said, and as we drove there the previously lighthearted atmosphere was changed to a sense of seriousness. As we left the protective dome of the settlement where we had landed, the vehicle was tightly sealed and pressurized.

As we approached the cave location after a half hour ride, we entered another atmospheric dome. Sarah parked the vehicle next to the old living quarters of the miners which had long since been converted into a café and gift shop where you could buy holographic 3D maps of the cave complex and minerals from the asteroid. Now it was empty.

We walked towards the cave. Two men stood there waiting, one wearing civilian clothing and the other covered from head to toe in a yellow hazmat suit, though he had yet to put his mask on. As we approached the man in civilian clothing approached us.

“Greetings, I hope your journey has been pleasant enough. I’m Dr. James and my colleague here is Dr. Heard.” He said and gestured towards the man in the protective gear. “You’re going to have to put on the necessary PPEs as I’m sure you understand. Once you’re ready, Dr. Heard will show you the location. We will leave the extraction of necessary samples to you.”

Without further ado, we started preparing ourselves. The suits were simple plastic overalls with a hood which we tightened securely around our faces. We were instructed to wear two sets of gloves, and we tightened the cuffs with tape. Finally, we all put on gas masks, and we were ready. The suit amplified the sound of my own breathing, and I could feel my pulse against the tightened mask which worsened my headache. All we could see of each other was our eyes. With Dr. Heard at the front we walked into the cave.

“These suits are not pressurized.” Sabrina noted.

“We have no reason to believe that there which would require that.” Dr. Heard answered. “There are however reports of strange symptoms in the people who first discovered it, I don’t know the details, but I’m told that they are doing better.”

He led us onto an elevator which took us down to the main caves. When we stepped out, I stopped for a moment in awe. The cave was immense, one could hardly see the roof, and lights had been strategically placed to amplify this effect and to highlight certain formations along the walls. We walked along a lit path for a few minutes before Dr. Heard stepped of the path to our right and towards a small opening in a wall which had crumbled recently. He stopped, turned around and spoke to us.

 “This is it. In there is a small cave formation, and you’ll notice that there is a growth on the walls and floor which we believe is of organic origin. I will wait here while you gather your samples.”

We hesitated for a moment and shared glances. Chris nodded decisively and stepped inside. Sabrina went after, and I last. The moment I stepped inside it was as if the entire atmosphere changed. Where I had previously felt tense and on edge, I now felt calm, at ease, and strangely… aroused? I glanced at Sabrina, and her eyes seemed puzzled. I wondered if she felt it too. To add to this, I realized that my headache was now gone.

The room was small. We could all fit but had to watch our step to not walk into each other. There was a light placed by one of the walls, and the walls and floor was sticky with a slimy black substance which reflected the lights and made the cave look damp. Chris was kneeling and looking at a small collection of slime. He gently poked at it with a plastic tip.

“This looks like a biofilm; I’ve never seen such a thing on an asteroid before.” He started collecting some into tubes which he sealed and put into plastic bags. I followed his lead and did the same.

“Sabrina, are you okay?” Chris said after he had collected his samples. I looked over and saw his cause of concern. Sabrina’s face was red and her forehead damp with sweat, but she didn’t look uncomfortable. Quite the opposite.”

“I... I’m fine.” She panted. “It’s just warm in here with this suit on.”

“I suppose so.” Chris said but he didn’t sound completely convinced. “Alright, I have what I need, let’s get going.”

“You go ahead, I’ll collect one more sample. It’ll just be a minute.” I spoke. Chris nodded, and he and Sabrina stepped outside. Like Sabrina, I had also begun to sweat, and my arousal had grown. I looked over to a dark patch on one of the walls and walked over to it. Something about it was alluring. As I looked closely at it, I saw movement, it almost looked like tiny tendrils of some kind. I reached for it with a plastic tip to collect it, and as I touched it a bubble which hadn’t previously seen burst. The moment it burst, an intense feeling flared up inside me, a level of arousal I had only felt a few times before, and I immediately became hard. I collected the sample and put it in a tube which I labelled with a red marker. I then collected myself and walked out of the cave to meet the others.