MOIRA

Moira leaned back in her chair and coiled her gray hair around her finger. A pack of Aranea played on the lawn before her, their tentacles smacking and twisting together as they fought over a bright red ball. Oh, how she’d miss them and the other rescues at the Sanctuary, but it was time for her to head home.

She opened a dish on the fold-out table beside her, drew out a cookie, and offered one to her assistant Shay. She accepted with a smile and cracked the buttery treat between her front teeth.

“How many years has it been, Dr. Bell?” Shay asked.

Moira laughed a bit and chased her cookie with a sip of coffee. “Almost fifty. Doesn’t feel that long though.” The transport that would take her back to Earth left in under an hour, but she didn’t feel in a hurry. If she missed it, she’d catch the next one. It’d be just the excuse she needed to relax another minute, watching the boys rough-house.

“Wow, I hope I’m not here in fifty years,” Shay said. Coughing up a bit of cookie, she backtracked. “Well, that is, I mean, I hope we’ve put a stop to the Collectors by then.”

“Me too,” Moira patted Shay’s arm, “but even if we don’t, at least our rescues will be in good hands.”

An Aranean bit the back of another’s neck. It squealed and bit back.

“Hey!” Moira snapped. “You play nice down there!”

They lowered their heads and backed off until a third pelted them with the ball and resumed the game.

The years Moira spent rehabilitating Velvet and Four-fingers had taught her a thing or two about the value of group therapy. The residents of the Bell Recovery Ward may never return to their home planets, but they found meaning and comfort in the company of those who shared their pain. They flourished on a level those who came before never did, many forging lifelong friendships, some finding love, all finding the support they needed to face their own existence day after day. She could feel proud of what she’d accomplished.

She only wished she could have shared it with the bonded pair who started it all. After her failed rescue attempt all those years ago, she thought of them almost every day. She’d never heard from either of them after their disappearance from the Tree-Dweller planet, but, she hoped, wherever they were, they were happy.