Escape Velocity

Chapter Twelve

I was in the middle of an email to Gramp about the nanobes and thinking about how brave his mother had been when Ben pulled a chair up to my table in the Drake Library. He smiled as he reached over and closed my laptop.

The hairs on my arms tingled, whether from the invasion of my space or in reaction to his smile, it was impossible to tell. I shifted in my chair, uncomfortable with him sitting across from me at the delicate desk. I didn't know what he wanted from me or, for that matter, what I wanted from him. Whatever it was, an imbalance existed. He had all the control. Never a place I'd choose to be. Giving up power felt unnatural.

I rambled on about the nanobes and the library being named for the guy who came up with an equation that calculated the possible number of extraterrestrial civilizations that could send detectable radio signals. His eyes glazed over.

His expression showed interest when I described the images we had seen in the Nano Lab. I said, "It looked like, I don't know, like amoebas. Or microscopic mold. Gray shapes that could be almost anything. They haven't told us much."

"Well, the story's all over the internet. You should post a comment on KangaWho." He tapped his phone and asked, "What's your profile name? We should follow each other."

Ugh. My account name. I'd picked it out a few years ago. Now it sounded childish. I hated feeling young around him, especially when I'd seen older girls—other hotel guests—flirting with him. They were all more sophisticated than me, their hair casually styled, and makeup perfectly applied, their outfits from fashion magazines.

Ben looked up from his phone.

Another moment passed while I debated whether I could dodge the question. If I waited long enough, the nausea bubbling in my stomach might eventually take care of the problem.

"Your KangaWho name. What is it?" he repeated.

"Huh? Oh, right." I had to suck it up. "It's asterisk, stargirl, asterisk. Stargirl is one word."

"Wait, say that again. It's not autofilling."

I put out my hand. "Here, let me do it." I entered *stargirl* on his phone and tapped on the hopping kangaroo under my avatar of Saturn. Then a joey poked its head out of the pouch of the now-stationary kangaroo. "Done. Now I'll follow you back."

His profile name was Falcon. Very superhero-ish. As opposed to mine, which had a celebrity wanna-be feel instead of the adventurous space traveler I'd intended. And I doubted he'd even know the book that inspired the name.

"So, do you have an image you can post?" Ben asked, offering no observations on my profile name.

"No, we couldn't take our phones in the lab. Plus, they asked us not to post any comments for a few days. Not ruining my chances with NASA."

Ben shook his head. "Are you allowed to have any fun? All those rules would drive me crazy."

"Seriously? What about the uniform they make you wear? That jacket would make me nuts. And the hat, no comment."

Out of nowhere, I plucked at the brass braiding on his short-sleeved jacket. My fingers lingered a moment before I realized what I was doing and pulled away.

Ben tilted his head as he squinted at me, perhaps startled by my boldness. I certainly was. I tried to hide my shock behind a defensive laugh. This was uncharted territory, but I sort of enjoyed it. It had never occurred to me that flirting was a way to have control.

Was this how Kate felt all the time? *Mind blown*

Ben dropped his chin in exaggerated embarrassment. "I know, I know. I'm Captain Cheap-Ass Cruiselines."