Make You See Stars Read Online Free PDF Page A

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