2080
The corridor was cool, a welcome respite from the scorching heat outside. Helen dangled her legs from the chair Gina had sat her in, and sipped her "fizzy water," as she called it, while Gina went back to the vending machine to get something to drink for herself. Her steps echoed from the bare walls; this part of the building seemed abandoned, and she had checked the door number twice, just to be sure that it was really the lab where Chris got his tutoring lessons from the mysterious professor Hasslein.
She returned to Helen with some tea-and-fruit mix - Green Tea and Cherry - and sat down beside her with a little sigh. The cool air and the silence made her aware how hot and tired she felt. It had been a long way from the Virdons' home to the ANSA facilities, even though they had taken the bus to get out of the city. Then they had almost been turned away at the gates, until Gina had mentioned Chris, and Helen had started to cry - the security man probably thought they were both still too young to steal any secrets.
It had seemed like a no-brainer when she had first thought of it - show Helen the site where all those ships she was drawing were launched, surprise Chris, and sneak a look at the man he worshipped like a god. In the two years since she had confronted him on the street, Chris had adamantly refused to take her to the institute, or to show her what he was working on. He argued that physics didn't interest her, and that the kind of physics he and the professor were working on was way over her head anyway.
Gina had to admit that Chris was right on both counts, although the way he had made his point still made her furious. She really didn't understand that temporal mechanics stuff, and she didn't care enough to really dig in and try to wrap her mind around it. She was more interested in biology - virology, microbiology, biochemistry...
Well. So they both had their specialties. They'd be one of those scientist couples with scarily intelligent children...
Like Helen. She was only five, but she could already read and write, and lately, they had started with adding and subtracting numbers, using jelly beans, and Helen was already figuring out multiplication. She'd probably become another physics ace. Gina didn't know how she'd feel about being outsmarted in physics by an eight-year-old, or ten-year-old girl, but by that time, she'd be a biology student herself, if all went according to plan, and could always claim that she just didn't have the time to study phyics on top of everything else.
"Can we go to Chris now?" Helen asked, and Gina's ears, trained by years of babysitting her, picked up on the whining undertone in her voice. She had to be tired, and hungry, and the reward that Gina had promised her - her big brother, a god among men - hadn't shown up yet. It wouldn't take long until tears would roll down her chubby little face.
No, it had been a stupid idea. They should go home; maybe they sold crayons at the souvenir shop in the main building, or coloring books with planets and spaceships-
The door opened, and Chris and an older man were standing so suddenly in the corridor that Gina flinched, and Helen hiccuped.
For a moment, they stared at each other, everyone too stunned to react.
The older man recovered first. He was tall and slim, with short-cropped silver hair and cool gray eyes that glittered with sardonic amusement. "Why, Mr. Virdon - isn't it a bit early to start a family?"
Gina felt heat creep up into her face, and saw the same heat coloring Chris' cheeks. "That's my sister," he said gruffly, "and her babysitter. What are you doing here?"
The heat intensified, reaching up to her scalp; Gina didn't know what stung more - Chris' question, or the fact that he had introduced her as Helen's babysitter, and not as his girlfriend.
"We made a surprise!" Helen crowed, beaming at her brother.
"Well, you certainly succeeded," the older man - Hasslein - commented dryly. "I must have a word with security..."
"We just wanted to meet Chris," Gina said defensively. "We didn't mean to steal anything."
"Oh, I doubt you'd be able to steal anything from here, girl," Hasslein said cooly. "But this is a restricted area, where only authorized personnel is allowed. And you, I'm afraid, aren't authorized to be here, even if you're the babysitter of Chris' little sister." His gaze rested on Helen for a moment, who held up a crumpled piece of paper to show Chris her latest rendition of the Daedalus, and Gina froze at the expression in those cool eyes.
Hasslein crouched in front of her. "That is an excellent representation of our ship," he said, and Helen hugged her drawing to her chest. "What's your name?"
Helen looked to her brother for guidance, clearly intimidated by the strange man.
"Her name's Helen," Chris muttered, seemingly embarrassed by the fact that Hasslein now knew another member of his family. Gina felt bad all of a sudden - as if she had exposed a part of his life to his mentor that Chris had wanted to protect.
"Helen," Hasslein repeated. "That's a nice name. Reminds me of someone I once knew. And how old is she?"
"Five." Chris glared at Gina, and she dropped her gaze to the warming tea in her hand. This had been a horrible idea.
"Do you want to see the machine that makes sparks, Helen?" Hasslein had returned his attention to Helen, who was squirming in her seat; but at the mention of sparks, she perked up.
"I wanna see the sparkles!"
"Another time," Chris cut in. "Mom will get mad if we're late."
Hasslein rose. "Ah, yes. We don't want to rouse Mrs. Virdon's attention."He smiled, and Gina realized that Hasslein knew that Chris was coming for his lessons without his mother's knowledge or permission. "I'll see you tomorrow, then - without your entourage."
Chris didn't move even after Hasslein had left; he stared down at Gina, fists clenched at his side, until she wished he'd succumb to the rage she could see in his eyes, get it over with.
"I'm sorry," she finally said. "I didn't mean to embarrass you. We thought it'd be a nice surprise."
"Don't come here again," was all he said, before he turned and stomped down the corridor.
Helen hopped off her seat and ran after him. "Chris, wait! I made a pictsure for you! Look! Chris, look!"
Gina hurried after both of them, and overtook Chris, forcing him to stop. "Jesus, don't run like that! Helen can't keep up with you!"
"She shouldn't even be here!" He brushed past her, with long strides that even Gina had difficulty to match. She grabbed his arm.
She realized it had been a mistake when he tore away and pushed her, the heel of his hand against her breastbone, making her stumble back a step or two. "Get out of my way!"
"Don't be such an asshole!" She pointed down the corridor, where Helen was still trying to catch up to them, stumbling on her short legs. "This wasn't her idea, so don't take your anger out on her!"
"No, that was your ass-brained idea! What do you want here?" Chris' face was still red, but it wasn't embarrassment, Gina suddenly realized; it was anger. He hadn't been mortified that Hasslein met his family, he'd been livid that Gina had broken into his sanctuary.
The corridor seemed to morph around her, as she suddenly understood that this was his home. Not his room under the roof, stuffed with physics books and model ships; not the back porch where they had been drinking lemonade and made plans for the future.
Not with his mom, or Helen.
Or her.
"You're right," she said shakily. "It was a stupid idea, and I'm sorry. I won't come here again."
"Oh, forget it!" Chris pointed at Helen, who had finally caught up to them and was now looking from one to the other, her face already red with the crying bout that would break loose any moment now. Helen hated it when they were fighting; it was as if her world broke down then.
"She's been here now, she's seen... everything, she's gonna tell Mom!" Chris was shouting now, and Gina saw the first tears roll down Helen's cheeks.
"She hasn't seen anything," Gina said helplessly.
"She saw him!" Chris roared. He ignored Helen, who was tugging at his shirt now, hiccuping with sobs. "She's five! How do you think this'll turn out?"
"She's not going to tell anything!" Gina crouched down before Helen and wiped the tears from her face. "Hey, Lennie," she cooed. "Don't cry, everything's fine. Chris is just... he's just..." Being an assole again. "... Chris wants to make a surprise for your mommy, you know? Like we made a surprise for him?"
Helen sniffled and breathed heavily, but the mention of a surprise had calmed her down enough to listen to Gina. Above them, Chris snorted and folded his arms. Gina ignored him.
"Whatsa-prize?" Helen snuffled, and Gina wished for a hanky.
"He wants to find your daddy," she said. Above her, Chris groaned.
Helen's eyes went huge. "My daddy?"
Gina nodded. "But it's a big surprise for mommy, you know? So we mustn't spoil it. We must not tell mommy. Or it won't be a surprise anymore. Do you understand?"
Helen nodded eagerly. Chris snorted again. "She'll forget it after five minutes. I'm so screwed. Thanks a lot, Gina."
Gina chewed on her lip. Helen was little; she'd probably really forget it, and blurt it out to Mrs. Virdon.
"That man you saw with Chris," she said, following a sudden intuition. "Do you know who that was?"
Helen shook her head.
"That was the wizard," Gina said, remembering the fear in Helen's eyes when Hasslein had scrutinized her. "The wizard can help Chris to find your daddy, but if he sees that you tell anyone, he won't help Chris anymore." She leaned towards Helen. "And he can always see and hear what you do and say. Because he's a wizard. He can do magic. He has this computer, and there he can see you, on the screen."
Helen gaped at her. "Even when I'm on the loo?"
Gina hesitated. But she had no idea if Mrs. Virdon wouldn't be in the bathroom when Helen had to use the potty. Better not to take any risks. "Even then. But he won't look," she added hastily. "He only listens if you tell the secret to anyone."
That didn't reassure Helen, though. With the relentless logic of a five-year-old, she honed in on the next complication. "But what if I have to toot?"
Chris snickered. "Then he won't have to smell the stink, at least. Yeah," he patted Helen's head, "you just have to toot silently, Len."
He turned and walked towards the exit, but slowly this time. His relaxed shoulders told Gina that her solution had worked, at least for now; or maybe it had been poor Lennie's distress over the bathroom problem that had cheered him up.
She took Helen's hand and joined him. "So, what have you been up to this time, in there?"
"Just testing some new calculations," Chris said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Professor Hasslein says we're almost good to go. It's just the damn bureaucracy that's holding us up." He pensively stared ahead. "I dunno if I should be angry at ANSA for delaying the mission, or happy that they'll wait until I'm of age... Professor Hasslein says I'll be on the ship no matter what, if I'm over eighteen."
Gina fervently hoped the bureaucrats at ANSA would get their asses in gear before Chris turned eighteen. Maybe she was just superstitious, but she didn't have a good feeling when she imagined him on the bridge of the Daedalus.
But of course the professor would feed that hope of Chris. Every other sentence nowadays started with "Professor Hasslein says..." It was nauseating.
"No matter if you're on the ship or not, you'll have made an important contribution with your work in there," she said. "And I'm sure your dad will just be glad to be home, even if you don't personally haul him up from whatever planet he was stranded on."
"Yeah," Chris said slowly.
"I wonder where they'll find your dad," Gina mused. "Do you think they'll bring back samples of alien plants and animals? Or would they be afraid of contaminating our ecosphere?"
Their conversation veered into the intricacies of alien ecosystems, and neither of them paid attention to Helen anymore, who silently toddled between them, a frown creasing her brow, silently mouthing the thoughts that were haunting her now.
"The wizard can find Daddy..."