Catching Stardust

by Heather Thurmeier

  “Hello,” the voice said again more forcefully this time.

  “Hey, Asher. How’s it going?”

  “It would be better if my annoying little brother hadn’t called and woken me up.”

  “I did it,” Zander said triumphantly, ignoring the sound of his bother yawning. “I really think I did it this time.”

  “Did what?”

  “Found something that’s never been found before.”

  Asher groaned into the phone. “Not again, Zander. It’s too late to deal with your shit tonight.”

  “I mean it. Just hear me out.” His words spilled out faster than usual, matching his excitement. “Tonight in the park I noticed something unusual during the Stargazers Club.”

  “What? You finally looked around and realized you were spending yet another night with a bunch of kids instead of with some foxy chick in a warm bed somewhere?”

  Zander had plenty of dates with women and spending one night a week with the kids in the Stargazers Club wasn’t a big deal. “I’m serious. Tonight a star went missing. It should have been there, but it wasn’t and I can’t find information on my usual websites about anything strange happening tonight. I think it’s an unexplainable phenomenon. Which means, I have to figure out a way to explain it because we can’t just have stars go missing for no reason, now can we?”

  There was silence on the line while Zander caught his breath. His mind flashed like a strobe light with possible scenarios, none of which he could back up with actual evidence. Yet.

  “Do you hear yourself right now?” His brother’s voice sounded weary.

  “Yes, of course I do. Now if you’d hear me out, you’ll understand.”

  “No. Don’t tell me anything else about it. I can’t listen to you go off on another wild goose chase for no good reason. Enough already.”

  “You don’t get it. Just go look out your damn window and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

  Asher sighed. “I love you little bro, but you can’t do this to us again. Last time you went off half-cocked over some big discovery, it almost cost us our family name, your career…everything. You can’t risk it all again. You can’t. Arius Industries can’t handle another blow to our credibility either. The last time almost put us off the radar completely. If we’re going to stay afloat in astronautics development we can’t have any more bad press about the name behind the brand.”

  It was true. The last time Zander had gotten excited about a new discovery, he’d been sure it was groundbreaking. He’d put everything on the line, and for what? To be made a complete and utter fool of when his “discovery” turned out to be little more than an overdramatic misreading of data.

  And it had almost cost the Arius’ everything. People didn’t want to buy new technology from an astronautics corporation whose founding members couldn’t even read their own data correctly. And now that the world was starting to embrace the idea of personal space travel in the not-so-distant future, their consumer technologies line was going to skyrocket. But only if they could keep their credibility in check as one of the top companies in the field. If people couldn’t trust their brand, they’d be out of business.

  “You’re right,” Zander conceded. “I can’t risk us losing everything because of something that’s probably nothing.”

  “So you’re dropping it?”

  Zander’s mind fogged over as fatigue set in. “Yep. I’m done for the night. And I’ll throw out my non-research in the morning.”

  “Glad to hear it. You’ll be happy you did once our new line of personal space travel products kicks off in the next five to ten years. And then you’ll really get the recognition you wanted. It’s coming. You just need to be patient.”

  Zander clicked his cell phone off. He could barely rouse enough energy to collect his papers from the roof and cover the telescope before dragging himself back downstairs to his bedroom.

  Tomorrow he really would throw everything away so he couldn’t be tempted by it. And surely tomorrow night the star would be back, right where it belonged.

  Chapter Three

  “Say what now?” Maia mumbled. Something was very wrong with this picture. In all her eternity, she couldn’t remember hearing about a single incident of the communication system going down.

  Ever. In. Eternity.

  That kind of thing didn’t happen with their communications system. It was fail-proof. She’d never heard of Tele-technicians before either. Did that job even exist? Their communications moved through sound and light waves, not fiber optics or whatever primitive telecommunications Earth used.

  Something suspicious was going on, she was sure of it. If one of the seven sisters couldn’t get through to Pleiades, it was for a reason. And it had nothing to do with the operator or a “problem” on the line. No, she was blocked from calling home on purpose, but why? Why would someone want her stranded on Earth without at least a way to let her family know she was okay?

  Something was very wrong with this situation.

  She needed to clear her mind so she could focus her thoughts enough to deal with Zeus and figure out a way to make him answer for his actions. She might even call up her father and give him a piece of her mind too. After all, Atlas was probably as much to blame for her being here as Zeus was. Atlas may not have physically sent her here, but she would wager all the stardust in her bank account that it was his orders Zeus followed when he sent her here.

  Why couldn’t Atlas accept she was strong enough to deal with Orion? Frustration at her father, at Zeus, at Orion—damn it to Hades, all of the men in her life could go suck it. Not one of them respected her enough to stop meddling in her life.

  When she got back to Pleiades, she would wring their necks.

  Maia flopped backward onto the bed, conceding defeat, at least for the moment. What she needed right now was a hot bath to help clear her mind and ease her annoyance.

  She twisted the dials on the faucet and hot water poured out, filling the tub, steam fogging the small bathroom. She stripped off her grass-stained dress and dipped a toe into the bath water.

  A knock sounded at the door. Room service.

  Reluctantly, she stepped back out of the tub. Maia slipped into the fluffy white robe that hung on the back of the bathroom door and let the room service person into her room. Her stomach growled hungrily. The scent of freshly grilled beef filled the air.

  Lifting the dome of the silver platter, her mouth watered at the delectable sight. A mountain of shoestring French fries sat beside a burger that had to be an inch thick. She quickly glanced back and forth between the whirlpool tub still filling with steaming water and the luscious burger waiting to be eaten.

  Bath? Burger?

  Being upset and frustrated, the best way to calm herself and focus on what needed to be done was to submerse her body in the water. As a water nymph, there was nothing more soothing to her than water. At least for Maia it was water. Most of her sisters didn’t agree.

  Her six sisters were particularly in tune with and soothed by different things—Electra had a special connection with the woods and would often spend hours lounging in one of her many homemade tree hammocks. She was quite literally a tree-hugger. Merope was a land nymph so she loved nothing better than digging holes and planting something, anything really, and making it flourish. But for Maia, nothing was more connected to her spirit than water.

  However, it wasn’t every day she got to enjoy a good old greasy burger and at times food could be just as comforting as the water. That settled it.

  Both.

  Grabbing her tray full of food, she walked to the bathroom and set the platter down on the tiled shelf surrounding the tub. It wasn’t fine dining to most people, but it was gourmet food to her. And she planned to enjoy every last bite of it. She let the water fill until it was only a couple of inches from the top, then slipped out of her robe and into the tub.

  The hot water flowed over her body instantly calming and soothing her. She slid her foot up the si
de of the tub, next to the faucet and pushed the button to turn on the underwater jets with her big toe. Instantly, water shot out of the jets, hitting the spot on her lower back that had been annoying her since waking up on the hard ground in Central Park. Zeus apparently needed a lesson in gentle teleportation if he planned to zap people around the universe without them knowing.

  Maia relaxed her head back against the tub for a few minutes before the scent of the burger drifted through the steam, beckoning her. Giving in, she dried her hands on a towel and reached for the burger, holding it above the water as she took a bite and chewed.

  “Sweet heavenly Gaia, thank you for cows.”

  After she devoured half of her burger, she set the rest aside and focused instead on washing off the smell of the car exhaust still clinging to her—a smell she never seemed to get used to. She scrubbed the dirt, grass and twigs from her hair she’d managed to acquire from her time spent on the ground, and finally felt clean.

  And ready to take on whatever it was she needed to do to get herself home.

  The bath water and her burger grew cold, so she forced herself out of the tub and into the dry, soft terry cloth robe again. Maia put her platter of leftover food onto the dresser and took a few more bites as she eyed the silly pink, zebra-striped bag sitting beside her.

  After she’d had her fill of food, she grabbed the bag and upended it, dumping the contents onto the floor. Spreading everything out so she could see it, she checked every pocket and crevasse to see if there was any kind of note or information she could use to help her figure this out. But she came up empty handed. How could Zeus do this to her without so much as including a note about why or for how long?

  Her stomach was full after eating the entire burger when her system wasn’t used to eating anything other than fruits, vegetables and grains. She could already feel the tiredness from the day and the food coma setting in. She needed to sleep and recharge so she could be clear-headed tomorrow.

  Climbing into the soft bed, still wrapped in her robe, she shut off the light and pulled the covers over her head, wishing she had the pair of earplugs she always traveled with to block out the noise of the city filtering through her shut windows. She yawned and tried to force her problems out of her head so she could fall asleep and get the rest she desperately needed to figure this all out.

  If her father and Zeus weren’t going to help her get home, she had to find a way to help herself. The question was, how?

  ***

  Zander wandered into the staff break room of Arius Industry. He filled a paper cup with hot coffee, poured in a generous amount of creamer and spooned in some sugar as the conversation in the room caught his attention.

  “I was up all night,” Jude Mallroy said, clearly irritated as he shuffled papers around one of the break room tables. “I haven’t been able to find any relevant data about last night’s incident yet.”

  Zander took a seat at the table, across from his friend and colleague. “You saw it too?” he asked, excitement rising in his throat despite efforts to keep it in check.

  Jude laughed. “You know I did. I spotted it when I did my routine check before going to bed. Of course I didn’t sleep a wink after that.”

  Zander rubbed his tired eyes. “One of the kids from Stargazers found it, if you can believe that. It was all I could do not to leave the club and head home immediately.”

  “You should have. Those kids are a waste of you time. You’re a glorified babysitter.”

  Zander clenched his jaw. He hated when Jude ridiculed him for being a part of the kids’ Stargazers Club. Jude had never once even tried to understand that as an astronomer and space engineer, it was also good to nurture the interest of the stars and science in the minds of the next generation. Jude was too good to waste his time with that—too important, too eager to find the next big discovery about space and the universe.

  Hell, it wasn’t like Zander wasn’t interested in finding the biggest cosmic discovery of the decade, finding some kind of new information the would allow travel to places beyond their current reach, but he also knew he couldn’t let it consume his entire life. Again. He’d already gone down that road once with Jude and it had been all consuming. After talking to Asher last night, he couldn’t let the same thing happen again. Not when his family’s business teetered in the balance.

  “I wasn’t babysitting.” Zander tried to force the tension out of his jaw—impossible when dealing with Jude’s ignorance. “I was teaching.”

  “Sure you were.” Jude waved him off and went back into his conversation. “I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly happened last night, but I can’t seem to get all the different pieces of data to line up in any way that makes sense.”

  “Neither could I. I don’t understand how a star goes missing all of a sudden. And there was no sudden increase in cosmic gasses or dust to hide it either.”

  Jude smiled, his eyes picking up that familiar twinkle of mischief. “You did investigate last night. I knew you couldn’t resist. Let’s compare our notes and see what we come up with.”

  Zander leaned away and took a sip of his coffee, the hot, caffeinated liquid helping to solidify the decision he’d made after talking to his brother. “Just an unusual anomaly we haven’t noticed before. I’m sure the star will be back tonight.”

  “It wasn’t an anomaly. Here, look at the data.” Jude handed him crumpled papers.

  Zander scanned the pages one at a time. Numbers that should have all been the same from multiple sources turned out to be different. It was damn near impossible for that to happen. But it had happened. End of story.

  “I see what you’re saying and it’s the same thing I found, but I’m not sure what to make of all of it.” Zander handed the mess of papers back to Jude.

  “Me neither. That’s why I was up all night studying this stuff. Don’t you realize this could be a huge discovery? This could really be something I’ve waited my whole life to find and now here it is in my hand and I’m not smart enough to know what to do with it. But together I know we can figure this out.”

  Zander gripped his coffee tighter, forcing himself to focus on the warmth of the cup and ignore the lure of Jude’s offer. “I can’t.”

  Jude slumped down in his chair like the wind had been knocked out of him. He held his head in his hands, sighing deeply. “But I need your help.”

  He cringed inside. It was awful to want something so bad and not be able to get it. Zander was familiar with the feeling as well. But he couldn’t fall into this same trap again.

  Although, if he simply helped Jude and not actually investigated for himself…

  Excitement bubbled to life inside him. He wanted to dive in and help Jude study the data and figure it all out, but sadly it wasn’t the first time they’d had made a huge “discovery” together. The bags under Jude’s eyes, the wrinkled shirt, the cranky, short-tempered attitude, were all evidence he was letting the idea of a discovery get the better of him. Jude had never been good at maintaining both a normal life and a scientific life too.

  Did Zander want to get sucked back into that? Give up eating and sleeping and hygiene all in the name of science.

  Yes, he did.

  But he couldn’t. That was the difference this time. This time he knew he couldn’t get sucked into the vortex or else he’d be putting everything else they’d been working for at Arius Industries on the line. He couldn’t do that to the company, to his family, or himself.

  “Dude, you can’t keep doing this,” he started quietly. He didn’t want to come off as uncaring, but his friend also couldn’t go on living this way. There was a line between living for a dream and actually living. “You have to remember why you got into this line of work to begin with. It wasn’t because the answers come easily.”

  “I’m not in the mood for one of your lectures today, Zander. Save it for the museum.”

  “No, you’re not in the mood for a normal discussion because you’ve run yourself into the ground. The
universe is a huge place full of all kinds of shit we haven’t figured out yet. But you can’t go looking for it every second of every day. That kind of discovery hits you one day when you least expect it. So relax. Actually let yourself sleep at night instead of trying to find something—anything—every single night where there isn’t anything to be found.”

  Jude’s face turned a deep shade of scarlet as his anger and tiredness finally bubbled to the surface. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I do know. And…” Zander paused. What to do? Could he really control himself and not get carried away? If Jude agreed to his terms, he could. “And I’m willing to work with you, but I have a couple of conditions.”

  “Like what?”

  He did want to make a big life-changing discovery, but he wasn’t willing to sacrifice his current life to go on a never-ending search for something he may not find. And he couldn’t sit around and watch his friend make the same mistake again either. “This time we don’t get carried away with it or let the research we do ruin every other aspect of our lives. This time we don’t let it consume us. And this time, if the data doesn’t coming together quickly, we agree now to walk away. I can’t afford to make the same mistake. None of us can, not with Arius Industries new product line gaining momentum.

  “No bringing pages of mysterious data to work. If we do this, it’s on the down low. If my father or brother catch wind of this, it won’t matter that my name is on the side of the building. They’ll kick us both out. Is it a deal?”

  “Deal.” Jude smiled, suddenly looking both relieved and excited.

  “One more thing. We sleep. Every night. We can’t come in here looking like we’ve been pulling all-nighters.”

  “Done.” Jude collected his papers, stacking them into a neat pile then tucking them into a file folder. “Tonight we’ll check it out after work.”

  “Sounds good.” Zander grabbed his coffee and downed the last of it before throwing the paper cup into the trash. “I’ve got a few things around here to take care of before I’m off to the museum for my guest lecture. I’ll see you around.”