Page 25 of Across The Stars
She shook her head, taking a long, deep breath as she straightened herself off the desk.
“You’ll always have a harder head than anyone I know,” she sighed. “I would never force you into anything. You’ve given enough. But if you really want to work until your sleep rotation starts, I’ve sent you some additional files to look over.”
“For what?”
She shrugged. “Just some things I think you could benefit from.”
Before explaining anything else, Akasa drifted out of the round chamber, letting the doors slide closed behind her. I hesitated for a moment, feeling the fatigue of a long work cycle pulling at my eyes. Walking to the screens again, I swiped them awake and sifted through my received data to find a Nexus file. Curious, I extended its contents across the three screens and looked over some security system files from the mayor, communication recordings to the council, and a few personnel files for people acting as liaisons while the valerians were grounded to prepare for the next trade meeting. There were a few security operatives, a pilot or two, and one profile link that didn’t fit. Someone named Innifer Harmon. The picture certainly left much to be desired. It wasn’t an official record, but a public profile managed by the individual. Humans were fond of such things. Their noses constantly had to be in each other’s social business.
I found myself staring at a motion-blurred photo of a female from an upward angle that seemed to squish all of her facial features together in an unflattering, poorly lit portrait. Were it not for the blue hair, I would not have matched the profile picture to the woman I’d bumped into on the docks of theNexus. Realizing Akasa knew who the woman was before she questioned me about the surge, I rolled my eyes and considered tossing the whole profile into the trash.
Leaning forward on my fists, I stared over the top of the screens toward the door in thought. The moment that female came to my mind, I felt my skin heat. I didn’t like it. It was distracting and pointless, but my body was determined to bring it to my attention. My paetel started to flutter at the mere thought of the human, pumping me full of urges that made my whole body shiver with awareness. I looked back at the strange portrait and let one finger hover over her official file for a moment before swiping it open.
The profile wasn’t very big. She was a new recruit and I didn’t expect there to be much information on her. I read over what I could, fighting my curiosity the whole time.
Innifer Harmon
Height: 5’6”
Weight: 140 lbs.
Blood Type: A -
Aside from basics, there was nothing revealing about the human in her uploads. I stared at the horrible photo for a while, tensing my jaw, when I saw a little loading icon flash on the image. The link was live and I suspected the profile was being edited. I straightened, crossing my arms over my chest to observe.
The upward photo went dark and in its place was a well-lit, straight-on self portrait of the woman I saw on the docks. Her vibrant, blue hair was pushed over one shoulder and her head was at a slight tilt. Her eyes were soft, if not a bit heavy with fatigue, and her lips were subtly crooked with the beginnings of a smile. Behind her was the black expanse dotted with stars. She’d taken the photo in a way that made her look as if she was floating in space.
I stared at the image, my hearts drumming noticeably faster when her features loaded fully before me. I took a deep breath, part of me wondering what she felt like. What she sounded like. Then I snapped back to reality where I was a valerian with many jobs to do and no time to figure out what had really happened between us. Blinking, I swiped the profile away.
But unfortunately, that didn’t erase her photo from my mind.
12: Innifer
It took a while, but I finally figured out my Buddy’s camera settings. I snapped at least a dozen photos before I found one acceptable and of course it was the one in front of the walls on the viewing platform. I uploaded it to my profile and decided it was enough for one day. No one would look at my profile anyways and I wasn’t very enthusiastic about public pages. Even on Earth, I never had any for longer than a year. They were too much stress.
Sam and I agreed to make the viewing deck our meeting place and we found each other there every night after work hours for the next week. Every day was the same. I worked in the warehouse, ate in the mess hall, stared into the black from whatever window I could find on my treks back and forth tomy regular destinations, and ended my nights sifting through information and data from any public files available on my Buddy.
Come week two, I started missing meeting days with Sam and was getting engrossed in my studies. I wanted to know more about the work the Nexus was doing and visited public forums as often as I could to stay up to date, but that meant my social life was lacking, as usual. I talked to Quinn and Omar on a regular basis but hadn’t really gotten to know anyone else. Even Locket had disappeared into the maze that was the Nexus.
Sitting over a plate of half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I was surfing information on the exoplanets that Nexus researchers had sent rovers and drones to. I tried to absorb some of the physics behind FTL drives and felt like a potato trying to comprehend it all. It just made me dread a promotion even more. The truth would come out eventually and I wasn’t sure what would happen after that. But until I was exposed, I wanted to learn.
Looking up at Quinn, I started to wonder if I could start getting some private lessons from the prospective Nexus pilot, but that would entail telling her why I needed to learn in the first place. Same went for Omar. Both were great people, but I had no idea how loyal they were to their employers.
“What’s on your mind?” Omar said, nudging me with his elbow.
“Just tired,” I said.
“Bullshit,” Quinn said. “Warehouse work getting to you? Lemme guess. You’re meant for the stars?” she said, exaggerating the words in a dreamy tone.
“I mean, the stars would be nice,” I grinned.
Just then, there was a *ding* on my Buddy. It took me a second to realize everyone got a message at the same time. Weall opened them to seeAll warehouse recruits report to your station leader immediately.
I looked up at Omar, brows furrowed with confusion. The two of us stood to head to the warehouse when Penny marched into the mess hall, all business and no games. We stood attentively, waiting for her to make some kind of announcement.
“Recruits,” she said, her eyes passing over the crowd. Everyone went silent and I could feel that the room was a little on edge. “I need six volunteers for an off-Nexus cargo exchange mission with the valerians. The team that was supposed to help with this came down with a cold that we don’t want spreading here in space with our workload, so they’ve been quarantined. So? Step up.”
I looked around the room and saw a lot of hesitant faces. But I was excited. I felt a little weird being excited seeing as everyone else seemed like they wanted to sit back down. It had been a long and busy week, but this was a chance to do something new. I bit my lip and stepped forward, raising my hand.
