Nerds Are From Mars (2 page)

Bottom line, human beings needed an alternative planet in case Earth was compromised or invaded. Mars was the obvious choice, and Fagan Harcourt had a viable colonization plan and the money to back up his theories. Some sizable technical issues remained, and those would be solved by Nolan and his team within the next ten years, if not sooner. Nolan was betting his scientific reputation on that.

The prospect of colonizing outer space captured his imagination as it always had and temporarily muted the jangling mental noise created by Darcie Ingram’s presence. By the time he’d finished his presentation and started answering questions, he’d reclaimed his moxie. He was Dr. Nolan Bradbury, Mars pioneer.

Then Darcie asked a question, and his house of cards tumbled down. He had to ask her to repeat it, because the sound of her musical voice had short-circuited every brain cell he possessed.

She smiled and graciously repeated her question. “Will you be going to Mars, as well, Dr. Bradbury?”

“Yes.” His voice sounded rusty and he cleared his throat. Still, he absolutely
loved
that she’d called him
Dr. Bradbury
. “I can’t imagine not going. But I have a strong sense of self-preservation, so when that rocket launches with the first pioneers, you can bet I’ll make sure the mission will succeed.”

“That sounds very exciting.” Darcie beamed at him.

He had trouble interpreting that because she’d never beamed at him. Any smile he’d noticed back in high school had definitely been meant for someone else. Maybe she’d changed.

She hadn’t changed much on the outside, though. Although she had to be around thirty-two, just like him, she didn’t look it. People told him he didn’t look thirty-two, either, but that wasn’t much of a compliment for a guy. A guy wanted to look mature and sexy, not young and virginal.

He wasn’t virginal, thank God. He’d had some excellent sexual experiences, thank you very much. He’d been told that he was pretty good at sex, probably because of his ability to focus.

Another hand went up, this time from someone in a Chewbacca costume. “Will you need specialized physical training to be a colonist on Mars?”

“Probably some. But Fagan Harcourt wants to reduce the physical stress of space travel and colonizing efforts so anyone interested won’t have to be a trained astronaut. If you want to live on Mars, though, it wouldn’t hurt to be in shape.”

“Guess I’ll wait another eight or nine years before buying a gym membership.” Chewbacca laughed. “Don’t want to peak too soon.”

“I wouldn’t wait that long,” Nolan said. “We plan to launch a rocket the minute we’re ready, and that could be a lot sooner than ten years.”

A tall, gray-haired woman stuck her hand in the air. “Because you’re trying to beat Thaddeus Sterling to the punch?”

Nolan hesitated. The rivalry between the two billionaires was well known, especially among space geeks. Hell, that dumb note might have been from somebody on Sterling’s team who had the mentality of a frat boy, although why they’d send it was a mystery. Judging from the reports coming out of Sterling’s lab, they were closer to a launch date than Harcourt. Harcourt wasn’t happy about that, either.

As a scientist, Nolan preferred cooperation to competition and wished Harcourt and Sterling would ditch the rivalry and work together. Sterling’s team leader, Aaron Blackstone, had graduated from Stanford a year ahead of Nolan. They’d met at several conferences and respected each other’s work, so a joint effort was infinitely doable.

Blackstone was registered for this conference, in fact, but Nolan hadn’t run into him yet. He looked forward to seeing the guy and would have loved to join forces in the quest to colonize Mars. But that wasn’t the way either Sterling or Fagan Harcourt rolled, and Fagan was Nolan’s boss.

Even if his scientific spirit rebelled at the idea, he had to pretend he enjoyed this race. “Let’s just say that Fagan Harcourt doesn’t like to finish second.”

More questions followed, although Darcie didn’t ask any of them. She didn’t leave, though, and Nolan felt her gaze pinned on him through the entire Q and A. Consequently he stumbled on a couple of easy answers.

After the moderator closed the session and the room began to empty, Nolan disconnected his laptop and packed it into a slim carrying case.

Bill Jensen walked up to the podium. “Well done, fearless leader.”

“I was a little slow answering some of the questions.” Nolan stepped down off the platform. He was determined not to glance over toward the spot where Darcie had been sitting.

She’d probably left, but if she hadn’t, he didn’t want her to think he was fixated on her anymore. Apparently in high school he’d telegraphed his obsession by wearing a sad puppy expression most of his senior year. One of his buddies had helpfully mentioned that kids had started impersonating that look to amuse the rest of the class. Yeah, high school had been hell.

Bill chuckled. “I noticed that you weren’t as sharp as usual. Saw you in the bar last night with Harcourt. He kept you up late, didn’t he?”

“He did.”

“Next time just tell him you need your beauty sleep. He’s never understood the requirements of mere mortals like us.”

“Yeah, I know, but he wanted to give me a pep talk about beating Sterling’s team.”

Bill rolled his eyes.

“I know, but besides that highly competitive streak, the guy is fascinating. Did you know he’s headed to Brazil after the banquet Saturday night?”

“I heard something about that. Rainforest recovery effort, right?”

“Yep. He has all kinds of ideas about how to save the rainforest. Some of them might even work.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it. I think Fagan can do almost anything he sets his mind to, including beat Sterling to Mars.” Bill looked over Nolan’s shoulder. “Hey, I’ll shove off and let you talk to the rest of your fans. See you at lunch?”

“You bet. Thanks for being here.” Nolan shook Bill’s hand before turning to greet whoever else had come up after the lecture. Three people had – the tall gray-haired lady, Chewbacca, and Darcie. Her name tag said she was still Darcie Ingram, so either she didn’t have a husband or she’d kept her maiden name when she got married. Lots of women did that these days.

She hung back behind the other two, as if wanting to be the last to speak with him, so he couldn’t see whether she wore a ring. His heart pounded with the same teenaged frenzy it had fourteen years ago. Vaguely he realized the gray-haired woman was speaking to him, though, and he was ignoring her. Forcing his attention away from Darcie, he tried to catch the gist of what the lady had just said.

“So I think Fagan Harcourt will win.” She smiled at Nolan. “Don’t you?”

“Probably.” Nolan focused on the woman as best he could. “But if anyone succeeds in colonizing Mars, we’ll all win. Establishing a community of human beings on another planet would provide all kinds of benefits and scientific breakthroughs.”

“Is Fagan going up in that rocket?” The woman’s dark eyes sparkled with eagerness.

“I’ll bet he will,” Nolan said. “That’s his style.”

“Oh, yeah, he will.” Chewbacca nodded. “That dude’s intrepid. I love that.”

“Me, too.” The gray-haired woman’s expression grew dreamy.

Nolan realized she was a Fagan Harcourt groupie. At fifty-eight, Harcourt had women of every age fawning over him, and not just because he was wealthy. His silver-haired good looks didn’t hurt, plus he obviously had brains, but the main draw was his show-stopping charisma. He could walk into a room and immediately gain everyone’s attention. Now that he’d split with his fourth wife, the lineup for a replacement was forming quickly.

“How soon will you be selling tickets for the first trip?” Chewbacca asked. “I have some money socked away, but I doubt it’s enough.”

“It’ll be pricey.” Nolan adjusted the shoulder strap of his laptop case. “But Harcourt doesn’t believe in only letting rich people have this kind of opportunity. I’ll ask him if he’ll address the cost question at the banquet Saturday night. I doubt he’ll give an on-sale date for tickets, though. All I can tell you is that you can’t buy one now.”

“I would if I could,” the gray-haired woman said. “I’d sell my house and both cars if I had to.”

And that, Nolan thought, was the kind of excitement and loyalty Fagan Harcourt inspired in people. They’d follow him anywhere. If he ever went into politics, he’d win in a landslide, but he had no interest in government and had never announced his party affiliation. He might not have one.

The room began to fill with people again, which meant the break between sessions was nearly over. Nolan glanced at the three people standing in front of him. “We probably need to take our discussion out in the hall to make way for the next speaker.”

“That’s okay. I have another lecture to attend.” Chewbacca stuck out one hairy paw. “Thanks for your time, Dr. Bradbury.”

“Yes, thank you.” The gray-haired lady also shook hands with him. “It was an informative session.” She walked out behind Chewbacca.

That left Nolan standing face-to-face with Darcie.

Her smile was tentative. “Hi, Nolan.”

“Hey, Darcie.” A trickle of sweat ran down his spine. “It’s good to see you.”

“Same here. It’s been awhile.”

“Yeah, sure has.” His chest hurt from not breathing. “Listen, we should probably –”

“Do you have time for coffee?”

He gulped. “Uh, sure! Sure, I do.”

“There’s a Starbucks in the hotel.”

“I know. I was just . . . I was just thinking about getting some coffee.” Thank God he’d caught himself before admitting he’d been down at Starbucks right before the session had started. And because of that, he had to pee, but he’d worry about that after they’d made the trek to the coffee shop and solidified the coffee date.

Coffee date
? Was he really about to have a coffee date with Darcie Ingram? Amazingly, it seemed that he was. “Let’s head on down there,” he said with as much savoir faire as he could muster when he was nervous as hell and had to pee.

“Sounds good.”

It sounded more than good to him. It sounded like a goddamn miracle.

Chapter Two

Darcie thought Nolan seemed on edge, but then, so was she. Back in high school they hadn’t been close, so he might logically wonder why she’d shown up fourteen years later to attend his lecture. The short answer was curiosity, but the long answer was far more complicated. Depending on how this coffee date worked out, she might or might not offer him the longer explanation.

He took big strides, and she had to extend hers to keep up. But she was tall and could manage. In school they’d been about the same height – five-eight.

She was still five-eight, but he’d grown at least another six or seven inches and must have put on another forty pounds or so. Most of it was muscle judging from the way he filled out the shoulders of his sport coat. After all, he planned to go to Mars and he’d advised keeping in shape for the rigors of the trip.

As if he’d realized that he was making her work to keep up, he slowed the pace. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to turn this into a literal coffee run.” He cleared his throat. “Is this your first Space Expo?”

“It is.”

“What do you think so far?”

“I’ve only heard your lecture, but I thought it was wonderful. I can see why you’re one of their headliners.”

“Thank you. The rest of the speakers are excellent. You should really go hear –”

“I mostly came to see you.”

He stopped dead in the middle of the hallway. “Me?”

His sudden halt came as a surprise. She had to spin around and walk back to where he stood. “I saw a flyer for the event and your name and picture were on it. I decided to satisfy my curiosity.”

“Why on earth would you be curious about me?”

She looked into gray eyes framed in black-rimmed glasses that were far trendier than what he’d worn in high school. But the intelligence in those eyes hadn’t changed. He had great eyes, in fact, with nice long lashes.

She’d noticed that once in their sophomore biology class when he’d taken off his glasses to look into a microscope. He probably hadn’t known she was watching or he would have blushed. He’d had a gigantic crush on her all through high school, but it had become way worse their senior year.

Guilt over her response to his adulation was another reason for being here, but she wasn’t prepared to say that yet. “You were the smartest guy in our graduating class. I knew you’d end up doing something great with your life, but you never came to any of the reunions.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t see the point.”

“The point would have been to show off that you’re a big-deal astronomer who’s heading to Mars, but I see what you mean. You’ve never been about showing off.”

“Not really.”

“Anyway, since this conference was within driving distance, I decided to see for myself what you were into these days.” She hadn’t exactly answered his question, and she wondered if he’d call her on it.

Sure enough, he did. “I still don’t understand. You could have Googled me and found out everything you wanted to know.”

“Google only goes so far. I wanted to see you in person because . . . well, mostly to talk about what we’re both doing all these years later.”

Interest sparked in those gray eyes. “And what are you doing?”

“Let’s talk over coffee, okay?”

“Okay.” He fell into step beside her. “You said you’re within driving distance. Where is that?”

“I’m in Ojai.”

“Pretty place.”

“I like it. How about you? The flyer didn’t mention where you live. I know you’re working for Fagan Harcourt, but that doesn’t mean anything in the age of telecommuting.”

“No, but I don’t live all that far from his Mars Research Center. I bought a little place up in the hills outside L.A.”

“Nice. Wife and kids?”

“Nope.” He hesitated for a beat. “You?”

“Nope.” She’d told herself from the moment she’d dreamed up this scheme that it didn’t matter whether he was attached or single. She was here to connect with him and perhaps redeem herself for being a jerk in high school. Hitting on him hadn’t been part of her plan.