Make You See Stars (4 page)

“
Your first mission will be
tomorrow,” Commander Kelso said. “We’re going to discuss the how,
where and when in this meeting. If you have any questions by the
time we’re done, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Anything you want to know about
the station, don’t hesitate to come to me at a later
time.”

More people trickled into the
room. Anna joined her at the coffee counter when Commander Kelso
walked back to his seat. “Hey there,” she said.
“
Cool
shirt!”

Tori chuckled. “I feel like I’m
doing something wrong, showing up for a work meeting like this,”
she complained.
“But it seems you were right – even the commander is
dressed like he’s going for a walk in the woods.”

At that moment, the doors
swished open and Alen Novak stepped into the meeting room. The
bottom dropped out of Tori’s stomach. She hadn’t expected him here
– which was stupid, actually, given the fact he was a senior
officer and the Head of Security.
In all probability, she was going to see a
lot more of him during work.

He was wearing a tight, black
T-shirt that fit snugly around his athletic upper body, showing off
his lightly tanned, strong arms. His pants were also black. Not a
very casual dresser, then. He still looked rather
official.

When he came up to
the coffee counter,
she grabbed Anna’s arm and tried to scuttle away, but Alen had
already locked eyes with her. Tori swallowed and decided to stay
put – she didn’t want to flee the scene again after last night’s
awkward exchange. If anything, she wouldn’t let him ‘win’ a second
time.

“
Good morning,” he said
pleasantly.
God
,
his voice was sexy. It sounded like he’d just gotten out of bed
after a rough night – it was low, gravelly and at the same time,
somehow smooth like honey.

“
Hi,” she mumbled
back.

“
Nice shirt,” he commented,
pointing at her clothes.

“
Thanks. Liking this better than
m
y
fancy-shmancy business outfit?” she couldn’t help
sniding.

Alen
was silent for a moment, then raised
an eyebrow. “Right. It’s cute that you’re trying to give off this
I-don’t-want-to-be-rich vibe, really.”

Tori took a deep breath. “I’m
not trying to do anything. Except
demonstrating my taste in
music.”

“
Oh, come on,” he scoffed, the
same condescending tone he’d used before creeping into his voice.
“Do you even know who the guy is?”

“
Why wouldn’t
I?”

“
Because I can’t imagine
Ambassador Weiss supporting that kind of rebellious,
gender-bending
music being played in his Martian mansion,” Alen threw
back.

So
he knew who she was. Maybe he’d
already known when she met him in the cargo hold yesterday. Did
this guy have some bone to pick with her father? Was that why he
seemed to be on her case all the time?

“
Well, that’s why they invented
headphones,” Tori
shrugged. “I know we’re supposed to play the Ziggy Stardust
album at maximum volume, as per the instructions on the back of the
record sleeve, but hey, you gotta make do with what you
have.”

Alen blinked. For just a split
second, sh
e
seemed to have surprised him. “You do know his music,” he
conceded.

“
Yeah, I do. Want me to
come
over to
your place and sing you a few Bowie songs to prove it?”

Slowly, h
e cracked the same lazy,
lopsided smile that had made her realize how sexy he was yesterday.
“You want to sing for me? Well, I don’t know what my wife would
think of that.”

She froze. He was
married
?

Alen’s blue eyes turned
darker
as he
carefully observed her reaction. “You’re disappointed,” he said
calmly.

“
I’m
not
,” she replied as contemptuous as she
could.

He smiled down at her. “Talk to
you later, Tori,” he said before strolling off to the
table.

Utterly confused, she stared at
his broad shoulders, taking in his easy demeanor as he sat down
next to Commander Kelso. What was
wrong
with this guy?

“
Hey!” Anna shook her out of her
stupor. “What
was
that? Why were you flirting with him?!”

Tori turned around to face her
friend, her mouth agape. “
Me
? I wasn’t flirting with him.”

“
Yeah, you so were. And he
was doing it back. You like him?”

“
I
don’t
.” Tori sighed. “I mean, I kind of do – I
think he’s hot. And intense. But he’s also an arrogant asshole, and
he hates me.”

Anna shook her
head
. “No,
he doesn’t. I guess he just hates the Elite. He’s from a very poor
part of Great Germany. He knows you’re cream of the crop, but it’s
not keeping him away. You’ve made him curious.”

“
Yeah, right. I don’t
care.”

“
Well, he’s
not
married, FYI,” Anna continued. “He
was just bullshitting you. Not that you
care
, but I wanted to let you know
anyway.”

Tori rolled her eyes.
“Shut up, you nasty Floridian.”

They picked seats on the far
end of the table, next to Mr
. LaFleur and Mr. Yoruka, Anna’s boss.

“
I would like to start this
meeting by welcoming two new members on the moon-mapping team,”
Commander Kelso’s booming voice announced. “
There’s Tim Hasselt, our new IT
man in Cartography,” he gestured at a skinny guy with black hair
and brown eyes, “and there’s Victoria Weiss from the German part of
Mars, who’s going to be an intern in Astrobiology during the
remainder of her studies.”

Everyone around the table
applauded.
Tori smiled coyly, looking around the circle of
faces.

“
To my right is my Chief of
Security, Alen Novak,” Commander Kelso continued, his gaze landing
on Tori once more. “You
r team will be working with him whenever there’s a
mission to one of the moons bringing back samples to the
station.”

Oh, joy. Tori cringed a
little as she tried to smile at Alen for Commander Kelso’s
sake.

Alen shot a smile back. “Yeah,
we’ve met,” he mumbled to Kelso
, his wavy, blond hair partly obscuring
the look in his blue eyes.

LaFleur, h
er new boss, got up to stand
next to the screen on one side of the room, fumbling with a remote
control to switch on a presentation he’d apparently prepared.
“Enceladus,” he intoned, when a crisp-clear image of the moon
popped up on-screen. “This is the first time we’ll attempt to land
there with a team. The previous three assignments were done by
robots.” He showed them some graphs and details about surface
temperature, atmospheric conditions and rotation period.

Alen raised his hand. “I have
strong objections against taking more than two people to the
surface on this mission,” he said. “Why not carry out the
assignment with two
senior officers instead of an entire team of
interns?”

LaFleur
frowned
, his
black eyebrows knitting together. “Conditions on Enceladus are
low-risk, according to our previous studies.”

“
Yes, but conditions can change,
plus they’re unpredictable on a geol
ogically-active celestial
body.”

“
Well, if we took that kind
of stance, nothing new would ever be discovered,” LaFleur replied
sourly. “What do you suggest we do, send in another million robot
explorers?”

Alen gave Tori’s boss a dark
look. “I suggest you don’t take first-timers to the south polar
region and expose them to possibly lethal vapor plumes caused by
tidal heating of the moon’s interior. That subsurface liquid water
isn’t going anywhere, you know.”

“
Gentlemen,” Kelso interrupted
the heated discussion. “Let’s play nice, shall we? I agree with
Mr
. LaFleur
when he says that sending in more robots isn’t going to advance our
cause, but Mr. Novak is right about the team we’re assigning to do
the job. Let’s stick with Mr. LaFleur himself and two assistants
for the time being.”

“
No mapping crew?”
Mr. Yoruka
interjected, a look of disappointment crossing his face.

“
Not this time around,”
Commander Kelso decided. “You can ask your colleagues to take
pictures so you have some points of reference later when you do fly
out there.”

LaFleur turned to Tori.
“Can I count on your presence?” he said with a bright
smile.

“
Uhm…” Tori blinked at him
nervously. “I’d love to go, but…”

“
Don’t worry,” he cut her
off. “I won’t ask you to do anything dangerous, of course. It’s
perfectly safe.”

Not according to Alen, but she
didn’t want to object. He and Mr
. LaFleur didn’t strike her as best buds,
and she’d hate to ruffle her boss’s feathers on the very first day
on the job. Her gaze swerved to Alen, whose mouth formed a grim
line.

“
I’ll be coming along as
well,” he said. “Just to make sure you follow
procedure.”

“
What’s that supposed to
mean?” LaFleur exploded.

Alen stared at him with
narrowed eyes. “I know you’re dying to get those water samples on
board the station, but there
are a few quarantine measures we’re going to
discuss between the two of us. Unless you think it’s a good idea to
let unknown exo-bacteria roam free on Desida Two.”

“
Well, I want to start
examining the samples as soon as I can.”

“
By ignoring the week-long
quarantine regulations.”

“
We have a lab,” LaFleur
grumbled.

“
Wow, an air-tight lab? With a
direct link to the spacecraft’s docking point?”

“
Gentlemen,” Commander Kelso
rumbled again. “A bit more reason and a bit less testosterone
wouldn’t hurt
.”

Tori’s gaze was volleying
between Kelso, Alen, LaFleur and Anna, shooting the last one a
what-the-fuck look.
Anna shrugged, mouthing ‘we’ll talk later’ at
her.

LaFleur finished the rest of
his presentation without interruptions. After that,
Mr
. Yoruka
showed them some maps that the flyby satellites had compiled during
earlier assignments. It would help them when they picked a spot to
land.

Tori’s head hurt by the time
the meeting was over. It was cluttered with details, names,
procedures, not to mention smarting from all the arguments between
LaFleur and Alen.
She got up to get another cup of coffee and a cookie from
the refreshment table when Alen marched up to her and pulled her
aside.

“
You’re going on this
mission?” he asked.

“
Yeah, I guess
so.”

He stared at her, the hard
lines around his mouth softening. “Just keep in mind that LaFleur
craves attention. He’d rather skip a few protocols and get famous
sooner. It’s no coincidence he only takes on rich interns of
outstanding academic aptitude. He wants to shine – at any
cost.”

Tori nodded. “Thanks for
telling me,” she said softly.
“I’ll be careful.”

He stalked off without
looking back at her or LaFleur, but she could sense he wasn’t angry
with her. In fact, his warning had been rather kind.

5.

Tori had a one-hour lunch
break after the meeting, which she spent with Anna and
Shirley.

“
It’s a shame we won’t be
going on our first mission together,” Shirley moped when Anna told
her Cartography was banned from tagging along to Enceladus. She put
her hand on Tori’s arm. “But at least you’ll get to go and tell us
all about it.”

“
Yeah, thanks to my boss, I
will.” Tori turned to Anna. “Are you gonna tell me what that was
all about? That cockfight between LaFleur and Novak?”

“
They’ve been like that around
each other ever since we turned up here,” Anna explained. “Novak
has worked his way to the top by excelling in just about every
subject they value in his job, and he feels LaFleur has bought
h
is way to
the top because he’s Elite and he doesn’t need to work to get what
he wants.”

“
I can see why that makes it
difficult for them to be friends,” Tori
mused. “Anyway, Alen will be joining
the mission to keep an eye on his adversary, I suppose.”

Anna giggled. “No, he’s joining
to keep an eye on
you
,
darling. I bet he’s hoping for more flirtatious bickering en route
to that frozen moon.”

Shirley looked from Anna
to Tori. “Wait, what? You flirted with him? Why would you do
that?”