Terra-3

                Cara hesitated before the door, biting her bottom lip and tapping her foot on the ground. Her reports weren’t good, not good at all. There was so much potential here, and yet it all fell to pieces every single time. The boss wouldn’t like these reports, not at all. After all, Ms. Freidman had been working on the project since the beginning, when she was just a young astrophysicist. How was Cara supposed to go in and tell her idol that the rovers had failed again?

                Before she could lose her nerve, she rapped on the door a few times. Ms. Freidman had to find out eventually, and it would be best if she found out sooner rather than never. When the call came for her to enter, Cara strode in with her head held high, but her eyes downward. Despite being one of the few people who reported directly to Ms. Freidman, it still made her heart race to talk to her boss. She had first seen Ms. Freidman years ago on the telly as she gave one of her annual public reports on the development of the latest space program. Cara had somehow found it while flipping through the channels and was immediately enamored. Space, she discovered, was beautiful. Stars and nebulas haunted her dreams for weeks after that, and it was then that she had decided on her career path. Ms. Freidman, the woman who had inspired her love of the cosmos, was now the same woman she would have to disappoint.

                It didn’t help that when she looked up, Ms. Freidman had that hungry look on her face that Cara understood all too well. It was the same look she herself had carried before studying the data. “Cara. Those are the reports, are they not?” Cara simply nodded as she placed the folders neatly on the desk, wincing as Ms. Freidman’s smile stretched across her face. “And?”

                Cara shook her head and averted her eyes again. “It’s a bust. The rover got the exact same shots as it did last time. There’s nothing new, not even a glint of bioluminescence in any of the shots. We have nothing.”

                A silence fell over the two as Cara tried to hold in her tears. They had all worked so hard on this project for so long—Ms. Freidman more so than anyone else. If it was difficult for Cara, she couldn’t imagine how hard it would be for Ms. Freidman. Perhaps that was the reason why Cara didn’t even flinch when Ms. Freidman suddenly swore and slapped her desk.

                “Nothing?” she yelled. “How does this keep happening? We’ve been sending probes down there for over fifty cycles and all they ever record is this tall, ugly vegetation! Is it so much to ask to get one shot of the bioluminescent vegetation?” Her head dropped into her hands and Cara felt her heart drop with it.

“This planet had such promise!” Ms. Freidman lamented, her head still downward. “It’s a prime candidate for alien life. And those forests of bioluminescent plants… We can’t even get one shot! Is it something we’ve done? Our rovers sweep in such wide circles; we shouldn’t be missing anything. There should be no room for error, but we are always three steps behind where we should be. All we have are these boring, knobby plants!”

                Ms. Freidman, in fit most unlike herself, then swept her hands across the folders, littering the rover’s pictures across the floor of the office. Cara simply stood there and watched as her mentor attempted to calm herself. It was more painful to see Ms. Freidman like this than it was to see the reports. “I’m so sorry, Ms. Freidman,” Cara whispered. “I’ll go analyze the second reports from the Maza Probe. It may have taken a better picture of that blue liquid that covers most of the surface of the planet.”

                Ms. Freidman nodded wearily. “Thank you, Cara,” she said as she straightened the stray folders on her desk, ignoring the scattered documents. “Please continue to keep me updated on all the reports from the Terra-3 project. You really are invaluable not just to this project, but to me as well.” Cara nodded, grateful that Ms. Freidman held no resentment to her for being the bearer of bad news. This project was difficult, but each setback only made Cara more determined to unravel the secrets of Terra-3. One day, the planet would reveal its secrets to her even if she had to work until all four of her arms fell off.