"Goodnight, Jack," Sam said, kissing him one last time before she went into her house. She'd invite him in, if they both didn't have to be at work the next day. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"'Night, Sam," he said, finally letting go of her hand. She closed the door, watching him walk to his truck. She sighed, thinking how lucky she was to finally be able to express her feelings about him, without worrying about work or whether he would reciprocate them.
Finally, after leaning against the door for several minutes, she picked herself up and went to get changed to something more comfortable. She decided to take a bath, too, because who knew how long they'd be on that planet? She spent half an hour in the tub, just enjoying the time by herself. She only got out when the water started to get cold, and changed into her pajamas. She wandered into the kitchen to find herself a snack. She made some popcorn while she turned on her computer, checking the time as she did so. It was 8:30 – she'd have to get up at five. She grabbed her popcorn, sat down in front of her computer, and checked her emails. She had 25, but that wasn't out of the ordinary – a lot of people had her email. Most of them, however, were from Daniel. That stupid picture again. Actually, she wouldn't tell anyone this, but she'd liked the picture so much that she'd printed off a copy and framed it. She'd put it on her bedside table – no one knew except for Jack.
She sighed, and deleted all the ones from Daniel. She started to read a funny message Janet had sent her, when she remembered the Sirens. She decided that, even though Daniel didn't think they were any threat, a little background check wouldn't hurt. She searched for Greek mythology – Sirens on the net, and sat back with her popcorn to read up on them. Apparently, they had been the playmates of some goddess named Persephone, and because they hadn't done anything when she was taken by the god of the underworld, Persephone's mother, Demeter, turned them into half birds, half women. They ended up on rock island, singing to sailors as they went by, tempting them to their deaths. Only twice in the history of Greek mythology had anyone got past them alive, once by the sailors covering their ears with beeswax, and the other time by having some guy play music that was better than the Sirens. Hmm. She didn't know about Daniel, but some of this could be useful. She stored this information in her mind, just in case.
Schrodinger came over and butted his head against her leg, reminding her that it was dinnertime. "Yes, Shrodinger, I'm coming. I think I've learned all I can for the time being, anyways. She shut her computer off to feed her cat. She listened to her cat purr as he mowed down his supper, while she finished the last of her popcorn and thought about the Sirens. The Greeks certainly had some interesting myths. Still, if it wasn't a myth, there might be more danger to this mission than the crystal walls and caverns of this planet let on.
