CHAPTER ONE:
"And if you turn your attention here, you'll see the rough orbit of Alpha-Centauri as it orbits not only its star, but also the supermassive black hole in our solar system." The crowd murmured: some inspired, some slightly bored by the speaker- a tall, dark-haired man in his twenties. "That's all the time we have left I'm afraid. If you come back tomorrow, we can take a closer look at these exoplanets, and any potential life on them. Any questions?"
A little girl raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"Life on other planets.. Like Aliens?"
"Yes, Like Aliens." Xeno smiled, he loved it when people asked questions though, this time, all he could think about was the coffee machine in his office. It was one of those mornings where he found it hard to resist its siren's call. "Any other questions? No? Thank you all for your time." His office was situated just under Mars in the scale model of the solar system in the planetarium- large coloured celestial bodies which he often critiqued for being inaccurate- and passed the plaque of the head of the Astronomy Department. "One day." He told himself.
Xeno looked over the top of his desk as he walked in. Messy, though it was, he found a kind of quiet organisation in the neat piles of museum paperwork that littered the fringes of his table- much like the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in the solar system. The contents of his desk seemed to orbit his desktop computer, the background of which was some pictureof him at the university graduation party from a few years prior. He took a moment to look at himself in the photo. His hair was messy, and longer than the short style it was in now; he was dressed up in a dark crimson suit. It was a rarity to see him at such events now, and he only dressed up somewhat presentable when he had some kind of work event. Speaking of, wasn't the quarterly museum party coming up?
His gaze drifted to the photo of him and his family that had long since been turned to lay on its face. Xeno couldn't bring himself to put it upright again. He briefly glanced outside, waiting for the crowds to disperse. Talking to them while presenting was fine, but a conversation outside of that didn't pique his interest.
After everyone had left the planetarium, he set out to find Dr. Aruda. Despite her status as a senior member of the Astronomy department, She'd probably be in her office in the botany part of the museum, given that there weren't enough offices in the astronomy wing. When asked, she'd said that she "didn't mind moving".
He walked past the displays in the hallway leading away from the planetarium- some were professional, others were there as a result of competitions they had sent out to schools. It was a strange juxtaposition to see advanced astrophysics calculations next to planets made of ping-pong balls, complete with googly- eyes. Xeno secretly thought that some of the crafts from schools threw off the esteemed atmosphere of the department, but the head of Astronomy, Dr. Carmazan, was adamant that they stay- and she wasn't a woman whom you wanted to disagree with.
The botany department was next to the astronomy department, and the two shared a common room, where most of the staff were when they weren't giving speeches or conducting research. Aruda's office was just on the right.
Xeno knocked on the door, before coming in at her command.
Dr. Aruda was a small woman, no more than five feet in stature. Despite this, she was fiercely intimidating. She had short black hair that was slightly greying at the roots, tied into a clean bun at the back of her head, and was wearing a green dress with little flowers stitched onto the hem. Despite her fifty-something years of age, she had hardly any wrinkles. Though she was many years Xeno's senior, when he had first joined the museum, she had taken him under her wing and shown him the rules.
It was mostly her that informed him of museum goings on, like how What's-his-name and Who's-she-again from Biology had split up, and then got back together, and then split up again. Despite her very formal, put together exterior, she had a penchant for workplace gossip unlike anyone Xeno had ever seen.
She was the main person who informed him of the deep hatred between the Astronomy and Palaeontology departments. Something to do with a prank war a few years ago? He had assumed she was biased against them because, apparently, one of the pranks had been blamed on her when it had first started, and she had almost gotten sacked by Ms. Pepper.
Dr. Aruda hadn't told him this herself, however, he'd had to find it out from other people. She got cagey whenever her prior involvement was brought up. Still, when Ms. Pepper realised she wasn't the culprit, she got a ten percent raise at the end of the quarter. Not a bad trade off, Xeno thought.
"Hello, Xeno." She said, oddly stoic. "What brings you into my office?"
"Can't I just come in and talk to you?" he challenged.
"By all means." She replied. To the average person, it would have seemed that she was being cold towards him, but Xeno knew that this was just how she talked to people- friend or foe.
"Well.." Xeno was struggling to think of a conversational topic. "You know when you got your PhD?"
"Yes?"
"Did you have to change that on your birth certificate? Like, your name, I mean?"
"No, I don't think I did. I hardly think I was born a doctor." She chuckled, already warming up to Xeno's presence in her office.
This kind of easy friendship is what made Xeno's early days at the museum bearable, when he'd just graduated Uni and was still figuring out how life at the museum worked.
Xeno looked over at Dr. Aruda. She had sat down and was continuing her work on her computer. He looked around her office. Compared to his messy, disorganised office, hers was neat as a pin; there was a single, half-full coffee cup on her desk whose only neighbour was her archaic computer, which Xeno was certain was older than he was.
"You didn't come in here just to ask me that, did you?"
"Nope, but I was curious." Xeno said, grinning. "I've got ages until my next tour, so I thought I'd stop by here."
She rolled her eyes, smiling. "Have you thought about what you're going to wear for this year's Museum party?"
Every year, after work, everyone from each of the museum's eight departments would come together for a party in the main hall of the museum. It was unbelievably boring, in Xeno'sopinion, but it was part of a unique workplace culture at the museum that everyone had begrudgingly accepted.
"I was going to wear my red suit. You know, my-"
