Epilogue

I didn’t notice that our relationship had any significant impact on the rest of the crew, and our life on the station stayed more or less the same as before. Nhi gave me some advice, but considering how subjective they were and her low success rate with all her previous relationships, I decided it would be better not to act on it and instead try to figure it out by myself. Considering the fact that Eva and I were so different, I was proud of my 81% success rate and my contingency plans, which pretty well managed those 19% of cases when I was wrong.

We began setting up a permanent station on the lake, and the project kept everyone busy for months. Tanvi and Abedi helped us with it in the beginning before our supply ship took them back to Mars. Somehow, Sven managed to secure us some funds to expand it, so we expected a small Thorium reactor to be sent with the next supply ship.

I noticed changes in Eva’s behaviour, but since I had a clear explanation for them, those anomalies did not bother me. One of the biggest shifts was her starting to do origami and agreeing to donate some of it to one of Raul’s charity events.

My emotions were still a mystery to me, but even though writing poetry helped me get some glimpses into them, it was not the most effective way. I was happy when Eva suggested that I could switch off my cognitive functions and act on what I felt when we were alone, promising to communicate with me as clearly as possible in exchange. This agreement was successful in 93% of the cases and made us both very happy. It gave us a chance to understand our differences and discover the small things we had in common.

At one point, Amin mentioned that he had the authority to marry us if we wanted to, but neither of us was sure if that was something we wanted. Both of us discarded the idea of doing it for Nhi’s sake, as she got really excited about the possibility. We were happy as it was, taking our time to learn more about each other as we went through the days doing our work. In the nights we shared a bed, and I really liked coming online with Eva’s body pressed against mine, knowing that she liked it too, as she had initiated this change in the first place.

I couldn't predict what would happen in the future, but I was certain that whatever it was, Eva would be by my side.