Star Queen

After a six-hour search for the damned downed aerial mapping probe, Gunnar's legs begged for a stretch. He tapped the brakes meters away from the shade of Olympus Mons. The wind-blown dunes, studded with boulders and rippled by crescent-shaped ridges, stretched to the horizon, reminding Gunnar of his home village of Kirkjubæjarklaustur.

The Sun painted smoky streaks on the pale pink canvas of the sky, fading to blue at the edges. The wind whipped tiny dust devils around his feet. Something sparkled among the dull pebbles. He crouched as gracefully as the body-hugging space suit would allow and whistled in surprise.

In the last rays of the Martian sunset, a droplet-shaped crystal burst into a rainbow of colors. Set into a filigree of gray metal with a clasp, it was clear and surprisingly heavy for its size.

An earring? Goosebumps ran down Gunnar's back as he trudged to the rover. Inside, he dropped the object into a sample bag and thrust it into his pocket.

The rest of his way to the habitat he kept thinking about Kai. The best astrogeologist of Earth and the only female member of the first Human Expedition to Mars sported a short haircut. Gunnar couldn't recall her ever wearing earrings.

* * *

Inside his habitat unit, Gunnar gently pulled the object out of the bag. The fluorescent light dulled its iridescence, but now it felt warm to the touch.

Could it be of extraterrestrial origin? A wave of heat washed over him.

Of course. I found it on Mars, not on the bathroom floor of the Drunk Rabbit Irish Pub in Reykjavik. If it is, this is the most precious artifact found by any expedition in history. Gunnar's breath caught in his throat.

I'll be... He bit his lower lip.

But if some civilization had once visited Mars, something was bound to remain. The landing site, the remnants of a habitat, something... Where was it? Rocking back and forth in his chair while rolling the warm object in his fingers, Gunnar pondered its origin. And possible owner. He thought of her as his stjörnudrottninga, a star queen.

Here's a wrinkle—if she wore a spacesuit with a helmet, she couldn't have lost her earring, could she? So what does this mean? She didn't need a spacesuit! The Martian atmosphere suited her by being similar to her home planet. Why not? Isn't the landscape here similar to my home? She's from a planet with a similar atmosphere and I'm from a planet with a similar landscape. We do have something in common... He smiled, drifting into sleep.

* * *

Gunnar kept thinking of his star queen the next day.

... her silver, jasmine-scented hair with strands of purple is tangled by the icy Martian wind. A dainty palm shields her almond-shaped sapphire eyes from the blowing sand. She wears a dress—no, a jumpsuit—of pink, silk-like fabric and a jewel—no, a communication device—in the form of a dragon coiled on her chest—

"Yo, Gunny! 'ake up, you dunkadoo, ah'm ta'kin' to you." Educated at Princeton University and Colorado School of Mines—in addition to the doctorate from the Sorbonne—Kai wielded a rich vocabulary, but glottalized half the consonants and nasalized most vowels. "Been lookin' all ove' de lab and de hab, an' 'ere you are."

"What? Oh, yes, here I am. Hi, Kai." Deep in thought and in the middle of his second MarsTini, Gunnar hadn't seen Kai enter the almost empty mess hall.

"Daydreamin' 'gain, you pale gray bushtit? Hey, look at you, you look tired. Wha' did you do last night?" She batted her eyelashes. "Nah, don' tell. Don' wana know." Kai winked, her nose crinkling as if from a foul smell. She didn't pull up a chair, just kept standing and looking down at him.

Gunnar craned his head. From that angle he couldn't see the bottom of her ear.

"Oh, listen," said Kai as if remembering something. "Los' my earrin'. If you find it, don' be a vug and le'me know, 'kay? It's a—"

"You what?! Did you ever wear—"

"Yo, gosh! Calm down, you monkeybrain. It's not like ah'm askin' you to drop everythin', an' go find my earrin'. 'm just sayin' if you see it... Gosh! An' no, Ah didn' wear it. Don' even 'ave my ears pierced. Can' you see, bumboy?" She bent down and turned her head. "Som'one special 'as given 'em to me and Ah carried 'em with me fo luck. An'way, if you see..."

Kai's voice drifted away as Gunnar tossed back a gulp of his MarsTini. He put the glass down and sighed. Then laced his fingers on the table in front of him and dropped his chin to his chest.

Damn! He always knew it. Somewhere deep inside, he always knew that damn earring had to belong to Kai. Who else could it belong to? But no. He had to fantasize. To imagine. Imagine all the people... He made things up and then made himself believe in them. Not because he wanted to be famous, but because he didn't want to be lonely. He needed his star queen.

Gunnar pulled the last olive off the bamboo skewer. Initially meaty, the buttery texture turned mushy before he could swallow; the briny umami taste turned bitter. Just like his find. He reached into his pocket and fished for the damn earring.

"Yo, 'ere, you twatwaffle." Kai took a crumpled napkin out of her pocket, unfolded it, and shoved a slightly tarnished silver stud with a tiny, pink gemstone at the end right in Gunnar's face. "So you know it 'en you see it."

The object in his pocket was warm, almost hot to the touch. And pulsed with energy. "Sure thing, Kai, I'll keep an eye out for it," he muttered with a widening grin. "I will!"