25

ORIENS-LACUNOSUM MOLECULARE INTERNEURONS: COURAGE

“NOT TO BE whiny,” I tell the nurse with a desperate-yetgrateful-yet-really-desperate smile.

“I

appreciate everything you’re doing, but NIH

has notoriously crappy health insurance, and if I told you what a recent Ph.D. makes a year, you’d discharge me immediately.” And give me ten bucks for the cab home.

“NASA will cover this,” Kaylee says. She’s on the bed next to me, leaning against my pillow as she shows me the wonders of TikTok. I’m clearly going to have to download this time-sinking black hole of an app.

“Or you’ll sue them,” Rocío adds from the guest chair. She’s sprawled comfortably, a GRE prep manual on her lap and her booted feet on top of the covers. The things I let her do, just because she is, as Kaylee would put it, “my fave.”

“I’m not going to sue NASA.”

“What if they decide to call their next Mars rover The Marie Curie but they end up misspelling it The Mariah

Carey?”

I mull it over. “I might sue in that case.”

Rocío gives me a pleased I know you smile. My phone buzzes.

REIKE: OMG you’re on the NEWS

REIKE: HERE IN NORWAY IN THIS PUB I’M AT

REIKE: Is this what stardom feels like?

I close my eyes, which proves to be a mistake. The image of Reike climbing over the counter of a Bergen dive bar and pointing at the TV is disturbingly vivid.

BEE: You don’t even speak Norwegian.

REIKE: No, but the news lady said NASA and Houston, and they put the mugshot of the Guy guy on the screen

REIKE: lol the Guy guy I’m hilarious BEE:

Are you drunk?

REIKE: LISTEN MY FAVORITE SISTER ALMOST GOT KILLED LAST

NIGHT I’M ALLOWED TO DROWN MY TRAUMA IN SOME

NORWEGIAN LIQUOR THAT I CANNOT PRONOUNCE

BEE: I’m your only sister.

REIKE:

I lock my phone and slide it under the pillow. I don’t even know why I’m in a hospital. The doctors said that me passing out was concerning, and I almost laughed in their faces. I just want to go home. Stare out of the window. Think wistfully about the ephemeral nature of human existence.

Watch cat videos.

“Here it says that ‘abreast’ means ‘up to date’ and has nothing whatsoever to do with boobs.” Rocío stares at the vocab section of her manual. “Sounds fake.” Kaylee and I exchange a worried look.

“And ‘bombastic’ is a real word? This can’t be right.”

“Babe, I’ll start tutoring you again as soon as NASA’s not being sabotaged anymore.”

I give Kaylee a grateful smile. She and Rocío were in the hospital room this morning when I woke up, and they’ve stuck around since then like the amazing human beings they are. I now know more about body decomposition and makeup palettes than I thought I ever would, but I regret nothing. This is almost nice.

Then Boris enters the room with a bleak expression. Closely followed by Levi.

My heart flutters. When I asked about him this morning, the girls told me he was with law enforcement in the Discovery Building. He meets my eyes, gives me a small smile, and sets a bag and a box of my favorite brand of vegan brownies on my bedside table.

Boris stands beside the bed, rubbing his forehead, looking tired, aggravated, at the end of his rope. I wonder if he slept at all. Poor man.

“I’m at an impasse, Bee.” He sighs. “NASA firmly instructed me not to apologize to you because it would be admissible evidence if you decided to sue, but . . .” He shrugs. “I am sorry, and—”

“Don’t.” I smile. “Don’t piss off your lawyers over this. I was right there with you, thinking that it was my error. I didn’t know Guy was batshit crazy, and I worked with him every day—how could you?”

“Guy will . . . He is fired, of course. And there will be legal repercussions.

We’ll resume BLINK the second the Discovery Building is not caked in yellow tape, with another demonstration. I explained everything to NIH and my superiors, and of course I am begging you on my knees to return—”

“You’re standing,” Rocío points out, unimpressed. Levi looks away, biting back a smile.

“Rocío,” I scold her gently.

“What? Make him grovel harder.”

I give her a fond look. “None of this was his fault. Plus, think how good your Ph.D. applications will look when they come with a recommendation letter from the Director of Research at the Johnson Space Center.” I hold Boris’s gaze. After a moment he nods, defeated. He needs a nap. Or nine coffees.

“I’d be happy to, Ms. Cortoreal. You deserve it.”

“Will you mention that I had sex at work with the most beautiful woman in the world?” She glances at Kaylee, who blushes prettily.

“I—” He rubs his temple. “I actually forgot about that.”

“Is that a firm no? Because it’s one of my proudest accomplishments.”

Boris leaves a few minutes later. Levi pulls up a chair and sits next to me to catch us up. “I’m not sure what the charges are, but Guy was so high up, had access to so much information, we’ll have to double-check every single chunk of code we ever wrote, every piece of hardware. It’s a setback—a big one. But BLINK will be fine, ultimately.” He doesn’t seem too concerned.