They worked side by side at the counter. Rasker measured with precision that even Holly was impressed by, leveling the cup with the back of a knife.
Holly watched and learned. She followed his instructions on how to grind the sweetener tablets to a powder and measure out the proper amount, then she held it up for his approval.
“Perfect.” He nodded. “Now the leavening agent and a dash of salt.”
She added them to the bowl, winging it with the “dash” of salt, while he poured a combination of protein powder and thickening syrup into a separate container.
“You’re a natural,” Holly observed. “Would you like a job?”
He chuckled as he added more wet ingredients, whisking them together with a fork. “Cooking relaxes me. When I am home, I spend hours in the kitchen. It’s the only time my mind goes quiet.”
“I understand that.” Holly thought of her engineering work. Complex problems could absorb her completely, silencing everything else. “Not the cooking part, but for me, it’s my plants. I like figuring out their ideal conditions. Soil. Watering. Light. I even learned how to propagate some of them.”
“Plants, huh?” He poured the wet ingredients into the dry, and carefully folded them together. “Plenty of plants here are not growing under ideal conditions.”
“Yes, and they’ll all die if your client buys the station.” She didn’t mean to throw cold water on what had been a nice conversation. “But we’re not talking about that.”
Rasker’s eyes clouded. He looked away, but had no sharp comeback this time. “Would you like to add the blueberries?”
“Sure.”
He handed her the bowl of blueberries. “Fold these in. Don’t stir. Stop when they’re just coated.”
The blueberries disappeared into the batter, leaving a few swirls of purple. Holly looked at the result with satisfaction. It looked better this time.
“Tell me about Nakri.” She spooned batter into a fresh muffin tin, hoping he’d let the tone shift back to softer topics. “I’ve never been to a water world.”
“It’s beautiful.” Rasker’s voice softened. “Ninety percent of the surface is ocean. The cities float on platforms or nestle into the continental shelves. Everything is blue and green and silver. The light filters through the water and makes everything shimmer.”
“Do you swim?”
“When I’m there, every day.” He leaned against the counter, watching her fill the cups. “But I’m not there much anymore. Work keeps me in climate-controlled offices and temperature-regulated ships. Many of them have swimming pools, but the water isn’t right.”
“What’s special about Nakri water?”
“Well, you first must understand that Nakri’s oceans are, and always have been, full of predators.” He flashed a quick smile. It made him look very much like one of the predators he was describing. “But there are pockets with very high mineral content that my people adapted to live in, but other species could not. It kept us safe from larger species. The water has a density and a warmth that you don’t find anywhere else.Swimming in it feels like…” His expression turned wistful as he trailed off. “I really can’t describe it, but it’s wonderful.”
Holly paused, remembering her tour with Alyce and what she had read in the files Mr. Binn had given her about the water system.
“There are rock caverns under this outpost,” she said slowly. “Underground. My great-grandfather had intended to use them to hold the station’s water source. He had a ship tow a large ice asteroid from the gas planet’s ring down here. He had it broken up and deposited in the caverns to melt. It was an enormous undertaking.”
Rasker’s brows rose. “I didn’t know that.”
“It was destined to fail, though.” Holly set down the spoon as the last cup in the tin was filled. “The water was pure, but the minerals in the rock leached into the water and made it undrinkable. Not suitable for the plants, either.”
“What did he do?”
“He had to install tanks instead. But all that original water is still down there in the caverns.” She let out a chuckle. “I think Oliver must have been someone who always saw the bright side of things. Even though that mistake must have cost him dearly, he had the caverns illuminated and allowed residents access to swim down there.”
Rasker stared at her. “You’re serious.”
“Completely. I read about it in the material the lawyer gave me and Alyce showed me on my tour.” Holly slid the muffin tin into the oven, adjusting the temperature according to the recipe on Rasker’s d-pad. “I’m planning to go down there in the coming days. You’re welcome to come along, if you want. Take a swim in the mineral water caverns.”
Something flickered in his eyes. Surprise, maybe. Or longing.
“I might take you up on that,” he said quietly.
They fell into a comfortable, low-stakes conversation, comparing Earth’s and Nakri’s oceans, as the muffins baked. The lounge filled with a warm, sweet smell and zero smoke. Still, Holly watched the oven, checking the timer every few minutes.
