Fear Infinity

13:10 UTC, the Alessandra

When he finally met her, Jeric was not disappointed. The transport was making the dive toward Jupiter for its slingshot on to Pluto, and the ruddy giant was expanding every minute in his view out the window. At the time, it looked about the size of a watermelon held at arm’s length. The relentless acceleration had stopped for the moment while the ship borrowed some of the gas planet’s inertia. That meant he got to float around for a few hours in low gravity. Jeric found her tethered next to one of the bay windows in the lounge area, sipping what appeared to be a screwdriver from its soft plastic wrapping.

She was a woman most men had to prepare something intelligent to say before approaching. She was tall, but not too tall; thin, but curvy in the right places. And if she happened to stare directly at him before he was ready, her perfect features and penetrating eyes could turn Jeric to jelly before he had a chance to be suave and debonair. That could ruin a guy’s day.

"May I share your view?" Jeric was trying to project his engaging side; a rich voice and inviting brown eyes. Earthy.

Anna looked up. "Don't you want to hear it first?"

She was a stunning woman; her slate-blue eyes had a core of yellow around the pupil, and they seemed to shimmer slightly above the oval plane of her face. Her dark eyebrows were sculpted brush strokes and gave away her mood: apparently good. The left one was raised inquisitively. Thick, short chestnut hair fell loosely around her ears and neck. Her vitality hid several years from her face.

Jeric grinned. "I'd be delighted, but I was referring to Jupiter."

"Ah, be my guest. This is beautiful."

Jeric watched her turn toward the window. "It certainly is." She gave him an innocent quick smile. He couldn't be sure if she had caught the compliment or was simply sharing the thrill of Jovian space. Probably the latter, he thought conservatively, although her eyes had welcomed him.

Jeric was especially well-versed in body language; one could gather many clues during interactions with people. This had been one of his research topics during his early post-doctoral years--the neural basis of interactive social cues. Sometimes he felt lecherous using this knowledge on a romantic interest, but he saw opportunity in her eyes--dilated pupils and greater than one second of eye contact--which he had not observed while passing her row that first travel day. Context was so important.

The passengers wore flightsuits of various colors with lots of pockets and Velcro straps for securing oneself against the walls and chairs during delta gravity. Like Jeric, Anna had chosen a rust color, and had turned her collar up. The idea of a female stallion came into his mind. He tried to imagine her specialty, and decided she was probably an Ark candidate coming for training, like himself. Among the other passengers, he had been told fourteen of them were stellar astronauts. Jeric found her irresistable. Smart, too, judging by her first quip. He decided not to let her meditate.

"Have you ever seen 2001: A Space Odyssey?"

"Of course."

"Looks like we're a little late, huh?"