We Leapt Into the Sky

Chapter 9

It was evening. The last hints of pink and orange were gone from the horizon, and innumerable stars dotted the sky. Kendra sat near Antony on the roof of the research station.

The rumbling and shaking in the caves had continued as they rode away from the cliffs. They had seen no damage in the main cavern, but even now, the wind carried strange sounds back to the research station.

Antony rested his head on his hands. The wind tousled his hair. He ran his fingers through it, smoothing it up off his forehead.

"I've been thinking it wasn't a good idea to go on another expedition so soon," he said. "Think I've been in denial about how hard my last expedition hit me. I'm not sure I know how to be around people."

Kendra put her hand on his shoulder. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're here. And hey, you and Seph were on a roll today."

Antony smiled, laughing quietly. "Yeah, he gets really excited. It's nice."

"But seriously, Antony. I'm glad to be working with you on this expedition. And it feels like we've found something important here. Something meaningful."

"Yeah, I hear you. Nothing worse than going somewhere amazing and being stuck in a room picking through sensor data," Antony said, a bitter expression on his face.

Kendra let out a sound of disgust. "I know. That's what my previous expedition was. Picking through other people's data. No real exploration, no discovery. I don't have time for that."

"I get it," Antony said. "At least there are always more expeditions. You can switch gears. Heck, you could go for tenure. I know you'd be great at leading a lab, if you wanted that."

Kendra took a long sip from her mug. "Part of me wants that. But there's so much in academia besides the research itself, and I don't have the time."

Antony frowned, his brows furrowing. "What do you mean? Like, you can't tolerate doing something you don't like?"

"It's—well, it's me. I don't have many good years left for expeditions," she said.

"Wait, why not?"

Kendra sighed, swirling her drink. "I have a genetic resistance to lifespan extension. It's bad luck. I don't have the right alleles for the treatments to work."

His eyes widened. "Really? I had no idea. They're always finding new gene targets, though. Maybe something will come out."

"I know. I check them occasionally. But I can't just sit around hoping something will work out," Kendra said.

Antony let out a puff of breath. "Yeah, that's a quick way to drive yourself up the wall. Sorry, that wasn't helpful."

"It's alright. You aren't wrong, but whenever I look into that research, I feel like I'm in limbo," she said. "I get stuck searching for anything that might help. Heck, I've even considered joining a lab that studies lifespan extension. But I can't deal with being stuck in one place."

She crossed her arms tightly. "In theory, I should have a few good decades left. But you know how the treatments work—they start to stick somewhere in your thirties or forties, and add another hundred, hundred and fifty years from there. Sooner or later, my age will show. People will look at me, look at my career and do the math. And they'll find reasons I'm not the best candidate for an expedition anymore."

"God, Kendra, I'm sorry," he said.

"I want to keep doing this," she said, gesturing around her. "Seeing places, discovering new things. I'd do this for years, and then maybe, maybe, I would start a lab. If only I had enough time to do it."