Make You See Stars (3 page)

3.

“
This is awesome,” Tori
exclaimed as she looked around the giant laboratory within the
Astrobiology Department. “I’ve never seen this much equipment in
one room.”

Mr. LaFleur gave her a sunny
smile. “I’m happy you like it,” he said. “We’re very pleased to
have you on our team. Your grades are impressive. North Mars Uni
must have been sad to see you leave.”

Tori shrugged. “Well, I’m
still enrolled. I just don’t want to go to regular classes anymore.
It’s much more fun to learn on the job.”

“
Will Tori be joining the
mission in two days, Mr
. LaFleur?” Anna asked the Head of
Astrobiology.

“
Definitely,”
Mr
. LaFleur
confirmed. “We’re going to fly down to Enceladus and take samples
from the water under the south polar region. Right at the spot
where the water is venting in huge plumes of vapor. We’re hoping to
bring back some bacteria.”

This was one of the reasons
Tori had been so eager to take up an internship at Desida Two: the
scientists had discovered
primitive alien life forms on several moons
orbiting Saturn. It wasn’t as sensational and exciting as the probe
launch that the media were hyping, hoping for first contact of some
kind, but at least this was real. The presence of bacteria meant
the moons could sustain life.

“
Thanks for letting me
come
along,
Sir,” Tori said with a smile.

As they left the Astrobiology
Lab, Shirley turned to face her two friends. “Shall we go and grab
dinner at
The Spark
tonight? I’d love to watch the probe’s launch, but I don’t
think we should go to the Wide Eye. That’s where everyone will
be.”

The ‘Wide Eye’ was the nickname
for the gigantic viewing window on the Boulevard looking out in
space. Sometimes it was facing Saturn, but tonight, the station
would be rotated so the crowd could watch the probe being gobbled
up by the wormhole.

“
Good idea,” Anna nodded. “We
wouldn’t want to distract those reporters, now would we?” She
playfully poked
her friend in the side.

“
Nope. We wouldn’t,”
Tori agreed. “Let’s
drop by my quarters so I can get some Marks to pay for food and
drinks. I promised you the next round is on me.”

The three girls
went down to Deck
Eleven, then took a shortcut to get to
The Spark
, thus avoiding the multitude of
people already gathered on Saturn Boulevard to watch the spectacle.
Tori snuck a peek at the stage being erected next to the fountain –
maintenance guys were setting up a podium and a microphone for
Commander Kelso. Tori’s friends had told her the station commander
hadn’t been too happy about all the media brouhaha, but since he
couldn’t beat them, it looked like he’d decided to join them and
give a speech to all the journalists and scientists attending the
event.

“
You want to sit here
for dinner?”
Shirley pointed at the couch they’d sat on before. “We can use the
coffee table for our plates. Maybe we can even play some cards. I
think I saw some decks lying around behind the bar. I’m on bar duty
here every Friday night, you know.”

“
You are?” Tori asked. “I
didn’t know you had ambitions to become a bartender.”

Shirley smiled. “A couple of
months ago,
The Spark
nearly closed for business. It’s not the most popular
hangout on DSD 2, so the owner asked for volunteers to help him out
and cut costs. And since I love this place, I volunteered. Jack is
very happy with my help.”

“
Anything for Jack,” Anna
warbled, innocently fluttering her eyelashes.

“
Shut up.” Shirley turned
red.

Tori chuckled. “What’s his
last name? Daniels?”

She ducked when Shirley tried
to hit her. At that moment, a
friendly-looking guy with black hair in a ponytail
walked up to them with a notepad. “Are you ordering food?” he
wanted to know. “Or will you just be getting drinks?”

“
We’d love some food,
Jack,” Anna replied, winking at Tori. “Can you bring us the large
mushroom pizza to share?”

“
Ah, so
that’s
Jack,” Tori teased Shirley once he was out
of earshot. “Not bad, girl.”

After a quick dinner, Anna
walked over to the
balcony railing to check what was happening down on the
Boulevard. “The probe show hasn’t started yet,” she called over her
shoulder. “Shall we play a game of blackjack?”

As Tori shuffled the
cards
Jack
had brought to the table, she sensed someone was watching her. When
she looked up, she spotted Alen sitting at the same table as he had
been before, having drinks with two other guys who looked Slavic.
His blue eyes were locked on her, and there was no point quickly
looking away this time – he’d clearly seen her look. She shot him a
crabby glare and looked away anyway, continuing to shuffle the
cards for their game.

“
Red Alert,” Anna hissed.
“Croatian spy at three o’clock.”

“
Yeah, yeah, I know,” Tori
mumbled. “Is he still looking?”

“
You could say that. I’m
surprised your clothes aren’t spontaneously taking
themselves
off.”

That did it. Tori jerked her
head back up and stared straight into Alen’s eyes. She kept her
gaze fixed on him, expecting him to feel embarrassed and look away.
His eyes – his beautiful, blue eyes – stared back at her
unabashedly, though, slowly narrowing when a lazy smile tugged at
his lips. Damn, this didn’t go
at all
the way she’d anticipated. He wasn’t
backing down.

She
looked away and stared at her hands
in confusion, putting the cards back on the table before telling
Anna: “I’m going to get us beers, okay? Will you deal?”

Without waiting for an answer,
she got up and made her way to the counter. By now,
The Spark
was swarming with
people wanting to get a few drinks before the space show was
starting.

Tori got in line on the right,
patiently waiting for her drinks when she suddenly became aware of
someone queuing up behind her, standing a bit too close. The man
put his hands on the edge of the bar on either side of her,
effectively fencing her in.

Tori gulped down the lump in
her throat when she looked up to meet his gaze in the mirror
covering the entire wall behind the bar.
Sure enough, it was Alen.

“
What do you want?” she snapped
at his reflection.

Her breath hitched
when Alen leaned
into her, his mouth stopping inches away from her ear. His warm
body was so close that her mirror image blushed pink.

“
You were looking at me so
intensely just now, Tori.” He knew her name? How did he know her
name? Had he asked around for it?

“
So?” she tried to snarl, but it
sounded more like a yelp.

“
So, I thought that maybe you
wanted to talk to me,” he continued in a smooth voice.

Great God. There was
so much
sexual tension
between them that she could feel her knees turning to jelly. It
wasn’t fair. Why did this incredibly gorgeous man have to show up
in her life and then be a disrespectful jerk to her?

“
I have nothing to say to
you,” she replied sharply. “I just noticed you keep staring at me,
so I figured you’d stop if I confronted you and stared
back.”

He gave her a probing look
in the mirror. “Ah. So you want me to stay away?”

If she was completely honest
with herself
, she actually didn’t. “Yes,” she mumbled
regardlessly.

His eyes hardened – with anger
or frustration, she couldn’t really tell. “What did your friends
tell you about me, huh? He’s a jailbird? You’d better avoid him?
He’s dangerous?” He spoke the last few words so softly that they
were barely audible.

She blinked her eyes in
surprise. “No! That’s not what … look, I generally don’t care that
much about what other people think I should do,” she replied
truthfully.

“
You don’t?” he
asked.

“
No, I don’t.”

He moved
even closer, putting a hand on
her shoulder. “You’re scared,” he established when he felt her
tremble.

Tori closed her eyes. Yes,
she
was
scared, but it wasn’t because of him personally. Alen and
his prison past had nothing to do with the fact that she clammed up
with nerves whenever she felt like this – whenever people were
getting too close, too physically intimate. “And so
what
if I am?” she
bristled, sudden tears pooling in her eyes. “Just leave me the fuck
alone.”

She
hastily picked up the tray of beers
that Jack put down for her and pushed herself past Alen and the
rest of the people in line without looking back. Shit. Shit,
shit,
shit
. She’d shown him her vulnerable side, lashing out at him
like that and then running off with her tail between her
legs.

Feeling completely
flustered,
Tori put the drinks on the table and flopped back down on
the couch next to her friends.

“
What the hell was he
doing?” Anna asked wide-eyed, taking in Tori’s troubled
face.

“
Oh, I don’t know. Trying to
intimidate me or something.” She tried to sound indifferent, when
she was anything but.

They played a few rounds
of blackjack, but Tori couldn’t concentrate. She was acutely aware
of Alen being only a few tables away, still keeping an eye on her.
What was he thinking?

When she closed her eyes,
she
could
still feel his proximity. How nervous he had made her feel by
standing that close, sending a thrill through her that was only
part terror. It reminded her of a different situation – an
encounter turning out the wrong way. He should have stopped.
She
should have stopped
him, but she hadn’t.

“
Weiss Woman?” Anna interrupted
her thoughts, using the nickname she’d always used when they were
still living on Mars.
“What are you thinking of? You seem light years
away.”

Tori shook her head. “It’s
nothing,” she deflected. “Come on, let’s pack up. I want to see
the
launch
from the balcony.”

As they left the bar and went
to stand at the railing to listen to Commander Kelso’s speech, she
looked back one more time, but Alen had turned a
way from her. Apparently, she’d
managed to scare him off, and somehow, it left her feeling
dejected.

4.

The next morning, Tori got up
early to attend the very first official thing she’d be doing in her
capacity of Assistant Astrobiologist – a staff meeting.
Anna would be
attending as well, being an official representative for the
Cartography department. This would also be the first time she’d
meet Commander Kelso in person. Last night, she’d heard him speak
at the occasion of the space probe launch, and he’d struck her as a
friendly and jovial man. He was a South Carolinian in his fifties,
his brown hair graying at the temples and his beard neatly trimmed.
His laid-back manner had reminded her of her uncle in Great
Germany. Uncle Gustav, her dad’s brother, who had never felt the
urge to ‘be someone’, as her dad called it. He had settled in the
former region of Hungary to help the local farmers by teaching them
how to till the soil most effectively after bombs had ruined most
of the landscape.

Commander Kelso was
l
ike her
uncle: very easy-going, but with an inherent authority that no-one
in his right mind would question. Anna had told Tori that staff
meetings were conducted in an informal setting; people weren’t
supposed to show up in official uniforms. They could wear anything
they usually wore to work.

Still, Tori had a hard time
picking out clothes. Dressing up
properly for meetings with important
people had been drilled into her so much that she felt like a
criminal when she finally decided on brown corduroy pants and a
David Bowie shirt.

“
Good morning,”
Mr
. LaFleur
greeted her when she entered the meeting room next to the
Observatory. “Grab some coffee and have a seat.”

Tori walked over to the
refreshment table to get a drink and cast a quick look around the
room. There was a big, oval table in the middle with ten seats
around it.
Standing at the head of the table was Commander Kelso in
casual clothes – black jeans and a blue sweater. He spotted her and
started toward her.

“
Miss Weiss,” he said,
extending his hand. “A pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard great
things about you from my friends at North Mars Uni.”

Tori gave him a shy smile back.
“Thanks, Sir. I’ve heard great things about this station, too.” She
liked this guy straight away – he emphasized her scholarly
accomplishments, not the fact that she was from the wealthiest
Elite family on Mars. “Looking forward to working here.”