Girl on the Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

themselves the creators. The person who had passed the file along believed it to be of utmost importance. Gale had to play James Bond to receive the thing and then get it to Peo, he said. That accounted for his ruffled appearance in the v-mail.
    Peo and Conn had no idea what could be so important. They couldn’t even be sure what the animation represented. The large, center sphere could be the sun, the smaller could be the Earth, and the smallest the moon, but that wasn’t necessarily so. The “moon” was near to the right color, but wasn’t blotched with maria and pocked with craters. And wouldn’t the Earth be represented in blue and green and brown and white, and as the third planet from the sun in order to show context? Also, the planet in the animation had a perfectly round orbit, not the oblong orbit of the Earth.
    Cheap software? Was the simplicity a lack of sophistication? Conn didn’t think so. She believed the simplicity was intentional, because there were no indicia of any popular software, no telltale watermarks or design quirks. This was either in-house tech or one of the more expensive design suites.
    “Or some college kid using mom or dad’s software. No offense to you as a college kid,” Peo said.
    The women puzzled over it, but didn’t yet share Gale Jennings’s opinion of how important it was. That would change.

# # #
    For Valentine’s Day—or rather, the Friday the 13th before—Grant had a dozen roses delivered to Conn during each of her classes. Peo’s office smelled great that afternoon. Conn gave the third dozen to Susan, the MMAE department admin. Conn forced a smile and a polite laugh when Susan pointed out how romantic Grant’s gesture had been.
    “We talked about dinner at Phil Stefani’s,” Conn reminded Grant later. She’d made Valentine’s Day reservations at the upscale steakhouse weeks before. “We talked about that being what we got each other for Valentine’s Day.”
    “I know, you’re right,” Grant said.
    “So you decided to get me roses, why? To embarrass me?”
    “No, Conn, of course I didn’t mean to—”
    “I didn’t get you anything.”
    “I don’t want anything,” Grant said, a little defensively.
    “I didn’t want anything either, Grant!” Conn was conscious of her raised voice, but didn’t lower it. “But I got to sit still and smile my way through that...display of yours. People made fun of me.”
    “They’re jealous.”
    “No, they were amused. That’s generally why people laugh.”
    Grant was starting to realize he wasn’t taking this seriously enough. Conn had learned to spot the exact moment. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t think. Of course that was embarrassing. The last thing I wanted to do was give you a rotten day.”
    Dinner at Phil Stefani’s was delicious. The table talk was a little tense.

# # #
    Conn was nagged by the feeling that the meaning behind the animation was just beyond her reach. She just didn’t have the context necessary to decipher it. The Monday after she first saw it, Gale Jennings got back in touch, this time arranging to talk to Peo live over her Wawigdin account. Conn was allowed to be present, off-screen and quiet, for the call. Gale wondered if Peo had been able to make heads or tails of the animation.
    “We think it’s the sun, moon, and Earth, obviously,” Peo said. “We think it was produced with very good software. That’s about it.”
    “Who’s ‘we’?” Gale asked.
    “My assistant Conn and me. I respect that you went to a great deal of trouble to ensure only I saw it, but I wanted her take on it. She’s under an NDA.”
    “No, no problem! I know you say she’s awfully bright, so good idea.”
    Conn, off-screen, felt herself turn red. Peo motioned her toward the screen. She could participate now.
    Gale went on, “I’ve learned the US and Indian governments have this, too. Both are keeping it as close to the vest as China. Nobody seems to know what it represents.” That was