Head In The Stars

That night, Millie must have spent at least two hours trying to explain to scientifically inept me something about space and travel and space travel and I honestly don't know what else.

In the end, I'd had to reiterate to her that while I spend all day with technical, scientific machines and instruments, I am no scientist.

After escaping more astronomical lectures, I finally got Millie to pipe down and fall asleep on the fold out bed that's kept at the station for 'just in case'. I slept in my sleeping bag that I brought up from my van.

"I don't get why you're hiding that you're living in a van," said Millie the next morning down in the parking lot. "I think it's cool. I'd rather sleep in a van."

I pulled out the drawer where I kept my longer outerwear and rummaged through it.

"Trust me," I said, grabbing a handful of clothes and pulling them out. "Sleeping in the station's a lot comfier than sleeping in here."

Millie pouted.

"But it's not as cool."

I couldn't help smiling at that. She thought much the same as I had done when I'd first got the van. Back then, I hadn't known I could build a platform at the back for a proper bed so I'd just used a sleeping bag and turned and wriggled all night. Still, it was very cool.

"Think this will fit you?" I asked, holding up a pullover with a hood. It was all white with a blue square at the front.

"I'm not cold," said Millie but she took the jacket to measure against herself. It should fit.

"You'll get cold eventually. It's always a few degrees colder up here on the mountain."

She nodded and put it on. The sleeves completely covered her hands, and the hem came down to her knees.

I hid a chuckle and pulled up the foam mattress concealing the fridge in the back of the van. It was about eight in the morning, and I knew the little gremlin was already hungry again.

"Have a look in there and see if there's anything you want for breakfast," I said, stepping back.

Millie's eyes went wide, and she climbed up on top of the mattress to peer in the fridge. She thrust her hands inside like a true explorer.

As she flipped through the various breads I had stuffed in there, I slunk around the other side of the van and got out my phone.

There was one bar of signal. Better than nothing.

I quickly tapped out a quick message to Aron along the lines of 'Kid's turned up at the station again. Send help.' then sent it off.

I waited a moment to see if it would actually send then went back round the van when I saw it had.

Millie looked at me and grinned. There was a sealed package with a pineapple bun in her claws. Turned out we had similar tastes.

I told her to grab another two packs before we head up together to the station and I'm thinking about how to juggle babysitting and weeding when Kai appears. Or rather, he was standing by the door, waiting, and me and Millie appeared.

"Morning!" I said. Not sure why I sounded so chipper.

"Morning…" replied Kai, his eyes falling on Millie.

"Good morning," Millie said very politely.

"Why are you here?" Kai asked Millie.

"To plan my daring escape," Millie instantly replied.

Kai looked to me. "Why is she here?"

I shrugged in response. "Who knows," I said as I opened the front doors to the station. "Have you had breakfast?"

"Yes…"

"I'll make you a coffee then."

--

The aroma of coffee filled the kitchen as I cut the pineapple buns into small, bite sized pieces and put them into two bowls. I don't normally do this, but I figured, if Millie was going to be eating them, I'd rather have less to clean up.

"Lachlan."

Kai leaned against the kitchen door. His voice was quiet to avoid raising Millie's suspicions, I guessed.

"She turned up last night out of nowhere," I explained without him having to ask. The coffee machine finished whistling so I took it off the stove. "I've contacted Aron already, so…" I felt I'd be stepping out of bounds to say this, but I couldn't think of what else to say, "Try to play along? Please?"

Kai seemed troubled by this, though whether it was because I was going beyond my due or whether he just didn't want to deal with a small child, I couldn't be sure.

Finally, he nodded. "Alright." Then he left.

I found myself sighing as I finished putting together the rest of the breakfast combo and brought it out to the office.

The three of us sat around the dining table and I thought, if this was going to go on much longer, I'd have to take a look in the storage shed again to see if there were any other tables. While small in stature, Millie found a way to take up infinitely more space when stationed at a table, making Kai and I shrink into our respective corners.

I finished a mouthful of sweet pineapple bun and took a sip of coffee.

"Actually, have you two properly met?" I asked, nodding at my two table mates.

Kai didn't have a chance to say a word before Millie chimed up.

"I know him," Millie said, taking a swig of her own drink. It was a mug of heated milk. "He's that other weird guy here."

I glanced at Kai. He nodded.

"Correct," he said.

Millie wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "You're honest. I like that," she announced.

She held out a little hand and Kai shook it.

"Millie," she said.

"Kai," he said.

Well then.

"I'm an alien," Millie continued.

I quickly covered my mouth to not cough everywhere.

"I see," replied Kai. I looked at him carefully. He looked… oddly collected in the face of such a bold claim.

I finished coughing then prodded Millie. "Hey, how come you're just telling him that? Where are all the questions about kidnapping and organ harvesting?"

"I'm sorry, what?" asked Kai.

"It's not my fault you're a suspicious looking sort," replied Millie, ignoring Kai. "Anyway, I came to this place to send a message to my people so that they know where I am."

There was a pause.

"...That seems logical," Kai said, finally breaking the silence. "Have you sent the message?"

"No…" replied Millie. She looked genuinely heartbroken as she did.

"Why is that?" asked Kai.

"I don't know how to work the machines," she explained. I thought back to the night prior. Had she tried using the machines then? I didn't recall seeing her do so. Or had she already tried last night before I ran into her on the steps outside?

"Our antenna here isn't normally used to send messages," said Kai. "Since it's for weather analysis, it works more like echolocation than radio, but if you know what you want to do, I can show you how they work after breakfast."

Millie immediately brightened up. I was stunned.

"Really?" she asked.

Kai nodded. "I have other work to do, but I can spare some time."

Millie beamed and turned to me. "You make some high quality friends!" she announced. Then she began shoving her breakfast down her gullet as fast as she could. In no time at all, she was up and about and poking around the data servers.

I rose, planning on retrieving her, but Kai shook his head.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," he said, completely serious. He got up and leaned toward me a little. "Play along," he said quietly, then went to follow in Millie's trail of destruction.

A little overwhelmed, I sat back in my chair. I really did have high quality friends, I thought to myself.

I felt a soft vibration from my pocket, and I pulled out my phone to find that it was a message from Aron with a planned ETA.

I breathed a sigh of relief. If I was quick about my maintenance to-do list, then I'd be able to take over babysitting from Kai, maybe all before Aron got here.

I shoved the rest of my breakfast into my mouth, washed it down with the rest of my coffee, then go to work.

--

"Good morning!"

I straightened from my weeding and turned to find Aron and another officer coming up the concrete steps. I was doing my best to clear away the offending grasses around the steps, but I'd underestimated their perniciousness and underestimated my time.

I dropped my shears onto the bag of cuttings and pulled off my gloves. My hands were sweaty, so I gave them a quick rub on my shirt. I must have looked a wreck.

"Morning," I said as Aron came up level to where I was. He looked with interest at my bag and tools and I felt a pang of embarrassment. Perhaps I should have just called the general police line instead…

I looked away and finally noticed that the female officer behind Aron was not the same as the one who had come yesterday.

The woman yesterday had been young, probably around the same age as Aron or a little older, but this woman in front of me looked and felt far more mature. Had she not been in uniform, I would have assumed she was a seasoned business woman, perhaps a former athletics star who had started her own athletics equipment brand.

The woman smiled and extended a hand.

"Morning, you must be Lachlan. I'm Chan Ming Yat Fa, or you can just call me Claire," she said.

I shook her hand. That was a Japanese sounding given name. Was she mixed, or did she have an otaku for a parent? "Nice to meet you."

"Melanie was assigned somewhere else," said Aron. "She was the one who came yesterday."

"Ah." Honestly, I hadn't remembered her name or even if I'd even learned it, but I nodded anyway. "I'll show you both up to the station. Paili Kai's with Millie right now."

I reached down and twisted together the neck of my sack, ready to pick it up.

"I'll get that," said Aron and, without giving me a chance to protest, he grabbed the bag and slung it over his shoulder. He did it all with a real ease.

"...Thanks."

"Millie…?" This question was from Claire.

"The little girl," I explained as the three of us started up the stairs.

"Is that her name?" asked Aron over his shoulder.

"Yes. She didn't tell you yesterday?"

Aron shook his head. "She didn't say a word," he said.

"I heard," began Claire from behind me, "that she most expertly evaded both you and Melanie yesterday."

Aron laughed. He was like a young sun in many ways.

"Yeah," said Aron, "things aren't looking good for my application to the crime squad, are they?"

Was this Claire from the crime squad? What was she doing here then?

"How did Millie look when she appeared last night, Lachlan?" asked Claire.

"She seemed fine," I replied truthfully. Well, apart from the hair, but I had a feeling it was probably always like that.

I thought a moment.

"She's pretty talkative now too," I decided to add.

"And what time was this?"

I gave Aron and Claire the details of the night before. When we reached the top of the steps, I took the sack from Aron and set it aside before letting them both into the building.

Before I'd gone to do the weeding, Kai had started explaining how the low-noise amplifier up in the radome worked so I gestured for the others to follow me up the stairs to the roof.

But as I started up, the hatch on the ceiling opened and Kai came through it. "Ah." He slid the door shut and decended the rest of the way.

"Hey," I said.

Kai took in Aron and Claire.

"This is Aron," I said to him. "I think you may have met yesterday. And this is-"

"Chan Ming Yat Fa, Claire," Claire said, offering a hand.

Kai nodded at her but didn't take her hand.

"Is Millie around?" I asked him.

Kai looked blankly at me. "Isn't she with you?"

"Huh?"

"She said she was going to go find you."

Oh.

Oh dear.