Make You See Stars Read Online Free PDF Page B

suppose.”
    Anna giggled. “No, he’s joining
to keep an eye on you ,
darling. I bet he’s hoping for more flirtatious bickering en route
to that frozen moon.”
    Shirley looked from Anna
to Tori. “Wait, what? You flirted with him? Why would you do
that?”
    “ Because she thinks he’s
sizzling hot,” Anna said in a husky voice, waggling her
eyebrows.
    “ No,” Shirley exclaimed. “No,
no, no ,
girlfriend! Bad idea! He’s an ex-con. You can do better than
that.”
    Strangely enough, Shirley’s remark
was rubbing Tori the wrong way. She couldn’t deny Alen was kind of
a jerk, despite his genuine attempt at helping her after the
meeting, but she didn’t look down on him. If anything, he struck
her as very intelligent and honest – nothing to be ashamed
of.
    “ Look, he doesn’t like me,” she
said in a cranky voice. “Just forget about it, okay?”
    She stuffed the last bit of
cream cheese bagel in her mouth and got up to go back to
Astrobiology. LaFleur had asked her to work on a shipment of Earth
bacteria samples with Jari, the other intern who would be part of the
expedition to Enceladus. The samples would be inside the second
probe that was to be launched through the wormhole one week from
now. A kind of: ‘We’re from Earth, and these are our most famous
diseases’ greeting card.
    “ Hey there,” she greeted
Jari, whom she’d briefly met before heading out for lunch. “Ready
to slave away?”
    Jari shot her a
mischievous grin. “Always. Let’s show LaFleur what we’re capable
of.”
    Tori took care not to let out
an irritated
sigh. In the all but two minutes she’d talked to the Finnish intern
before lunch, he had done nothing but ramble on about resume
building and impressing his superiors. Jari was her parents’ wet
dream.
    LaFleur walked past their lab
table every now and then, but he didn’t hover. She couldn’t figure
out if Alen was right about the man being solely focused on
attaining fame and glory – he seemed interested enough in them personally,
taking them each aside for a quick chat about their college grades
and work experience by the end of the day.
    “ I hope I didn’t give you
the wrong impression about the mission,” LaFleur said after they’d
chatted about life at Uni for a few minutes. “It’s really a
low-risk expedition. Novak was just blowing the whole thing out of
proportion.”
    Tori bit her lip. “Well,
he seemed to know what he was talking about,” she half-heartedly
objected.
    “ Sure, there are some risks.”
Her boss beamed at her. “But that’s always the case at the
forefront of scientific research. I guess Novak’s got a sort of
fight-or-flight mentality, being an ex-prisoner and all. You did
know that, right?”
    Yes, she did – it seemed as if
people were making sure she wouldn’t forget. That had to be hard
for Alen.
Even higher-ups were gossiping behind his back. Commander Kelso
didn’t seem to have a problem with him, though. Maybe Kelso had
been among the ‘people who knew people’ who got Alen this
job.
    “ Well, that’ ll be all,” LaFleur said,
getting up from his chair. “I will see you at Airlock Seven
tomorrow at oh-nine hundred hours sharp. Bring a lunchbox.” He
winked at her.
    Tori couldn’t help but laugh.
The guy was funny, she had to give him that.
    “ The Chief of Security said
he wants to talk to us,” Jari said as she left LaFleur’s office,
beckoning her over to their research station.
    “ He does?” Tori frowned. Both
she and Jari would be on board the spacecraft going to Enceladus
tomorrow – could it be Alen had to discuss safety protocol with
them beforehand? “What about?”
    Jari shrugged. “No idea.
He was just here and he asked us to wait.”
    While they were waiting for
Alen to show up, Tori took out her pad and typed out some messages
to her
friends back on Mars, sending them pictures of what the station
looked like. One of her friends was going to do an internship at
Desida One soon, which