The next morning, Maja woke up much later than she usually did, but she didn't care. She didn't have any obligations for the day, so she was free to do what she wanted. Sitting up in bed and stretching, she grabbed her phone, seeing a few texts from Alex and Britt, and one from Henry.

M: What's up Henry?

H: Hey! Check your email, I sent you some details for the Star Reader.

Doing what he said, Maja opened her email, and sure enough, she saw an attachment in the email he sent.

M: Sweet! What's the progress?

H: I need to finalize some of the coding and import coordinate files, but it should be done soon! Btw, how'd the interview go?

She forgot to tell him, damn it.

M: Well, it's not good news, unfortunately.

H: What? Don't tell me you didn't get the offer.

M: I did…

H: ?

M: I said no.

Then his contact popped up as he called her. With a sigh, she accepted.

"What do you mean you said no?!" Groaning, Maja explained the situation, excluding the ocean encounter afterward. Henry was dumbfounded by her decision.

"Maja, I thought you were stoked about the opportunity!"

"I was! I just-…" she sighed again in frustration, unable to word her thoughts properly, "I don't know Henry, something didn't feel…right." There was a pause as Henry seemingly processed her news, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I needed some time to myself and to think about it."

"Are you doing alright, though?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. I came home for the weekend."

"Oh, okay. Are you just gonna stay home for the time being? Or do you wanna go get coffee?"

"I don't know yet. Let me wake up first and I'll let you know."

"Alright, talk to you later then, byeeeeee!"

"Byeee!" The call ended, and Maja rolled out of bed. She would take a closer look at the Star Reader plans he sent while she had her coffee. It was a graduation project the two had started working on a while back. Henry majored in electrical engineering and coding but had an interest in Astronomy, which was how he and Maja met. As the two got to know each other, Maja told him about a dream project of hers.

A device that could not just read the stars, but could show the user what the sky looked like thousands of years into the past and the future based on the user's location anywhere in the world; it could also read constellations and name specific stars and planets based on a database of cultures.

The idea came from Maja's fascination with the importance of astronomy in ancient cultures, and she had inspired Henry because of it. He admired her passion and wanted to help bring her vision to life. Putting his connections at the university to good use, he'd been working hard on the device, which the two dubbed the Star Reader.

Maja and Henry didn't end up going out for coffee that day, instead, they decided Sunday would be better for both of them. Each bringing their laptops and notebooks, they sat down at a table at a local cafe and got to work, with Henry bringing out the Star Reader for Maja to look at.

Its design resembled that of an oversized calculator, with a number keypad on one side, and on the bottom was a modified keyboard Henry had assembled himself. The screen was 10 inches across and 6 inches tall, and activated by two taps to the screen. The device was half an inch thick, allowing easy transport, and it required three batteries.

"I'm impressed! It looks great so far!" Maja complimented with a grin as she messed around with the screen.

"Thanks! It's pretty intuitive so far, its loading times only take a couple of seconds and the scanning accuracy is pretty good. It still needs some work when loading maps from more distant locations."

"That makes sense."

Henry bought the two coffee and pastries and they worked in silence for a few minutes, tuning out the soft atmosphere around them. Maja put on her headphones and responded to some texts on her laptop, quickly sending one to Britt.

M: Hey, how're you doing?

B: I'm fine, I've got this splitting headache since hearing the voice and it will not shut up.

M: 😬 oofie, I'm sorry. You got enough meds tho?

B: Yeah, I'll be fine. Btw, apologies ahead of time, my powers are going a bit haywire and the house is gonna be cold.

M: You sure you're okay?

B: I promise. How're you doing, though?

M: I'm better. I'm out with Henry atm working on our project. It's helped to clear my head. Oh, did you see the Aurora last night? They were gorgeous.

B: I did! I could hear them singing.

M: Really? I couldn't hear anything.

B: It's hard to explain.

M: Don't they sound like static or smth? I've seen videos of people recording audio of them.

B: Hmm… no, I wouldn't say they sound like static, more like… actual singing. Remember when I mentioned the Kulning the other night?

M: Yeah, why? It's like a Swedish thing, right?

B: Yes, and no. Look it up. But what I heard last night sounds like that.

M: Have they ever heard like that to you before?

B: No, they haven't.

Maja followed Britt's recommendation and was surprised to learn that the Kulning wasn't just Swedish. The vocals were eerily beautiful to listen to, but Maja couldn't help but feel sympathetic to Britt having to hear that. For her sake, Maja wanted to help figure out what was making Britt's powers act like this. She was always calm, cool, and collected, and had mastered control over emotion-driven abilities, so Maja quickly understood that whatever was going on was an external influence.

In falling down the rabbit hole of Kulning videos, Maja received the alert tone from her email and went to open it, and was surprised to see an unfamiliar email in her inbox.

The contact belonged to someone named Kalani Fa'alupega, and she had reached out to Maja with what appeared to be… a job offer…?

She lived on Motunui, an independent island nation in the South Pacific, not far from American Samoa and Tonga. She explained in her message that she had come across Maja's profile and resume online, searching for an expert astronomer to lend aid and insight for a project to build an observatory on Motunui, with cultural impact.

"Henry?"

"Hm?"

"Uh, you should take a look at this," Maja said, sage green eyes wide in disbelief. She turned her laptop to face him so he could read the email himself.

"Huh," came his response once he finished reading it.

"Huh? That's it?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"I mean, do you think it's legit?"

"Looks like it to me, it's very specific. Maybe look them up?" With a click of her tongue, Maja agreed, typing Kalani's name into Google, and she appeared in the results. She was described as the assistant director of the Motunui Cultural Center in the capital city; Maja typed the name of the cultural center as well and found the job listing on the website. They were in fact, looking to hire an astronomer to help lead a project to build an observatory for educational purposes.

After doing a bit more research, Maja decided to email Kalani back wanting to inquire further and get to know her better professionally.

Kalani's response came about an hour later, evidently excited that Maja had reached out. She expressed gratitude for the quick response. She mentioned an 11-hour time difference between Oslo and Motunui, so it being about 11:30 am meant that it was about 10:30 pm in Motunui, so Kalani would likely be going to bed soon.

Kalani explained she was organizing a team of professionals to help put this project into motion, and mentioned that most of the professionals were of Pacific Islander background, so native Motunuians, three Samoans, one from Aotearoa, otherwise known globally as New Zealand, and two from Hawai'i.

Maja was the only Norwegian that Kalani was hiring. And Maja was understandably perplexed yet equally honored. But she had to ask:

Why her?