Habitats (an Ell Donsaii story #7) (28 page)

Jordan looked up from where he’d been talking to Lane, “You ladies ready to go on down this next section?”

Then they heard Shan’s voice from upslope, “Hey, wait up!”

Looking up they saw Shan bombing down the run above them, skiing beautifully like Shan always did. He blasted out on to the little flat area where they’d stopped, slamming to a skater’s stop that threw snow onto Raquel and Morgan. He gave them a big grin. “What’s this? I leave you guys alone for a couple of runs and you’ve already picked up some strange men?”

Raquel grinned at him, “Heck yeah, if I’m not gettin’ the attention I need from my current man, there’s no harm in finding another, is there?”

Shan lowered an eyebrow, “Oh, I’ll give you some attention all right. con the”

Lane quickly introduced Shan to the guys as her brother.

Jordan said, “Let’s do this thang!” and dropped over the edge onto the double black. Lane edged over behind him. The other two guys did too.

Shan looked after her, “Well,
that
was unsociable of my little sister.” He turned to Morgan, “I can run on down the easy trail with Raquel if you want to take that double black with Lane and your new boyfriends?”

Morgan laughed, “Your girlfriend’s been holding out on you. She’ll be able to go down t
his double black. She’s a good skier. Show her the way and she’ll follow you down. I’ll bring up the rear.”

Shan’s eyes widened. Then he sighed, Morgan would have sworn, in frustration. He pushed over the edge and blasted down the double black, pushing
really hard as if trying to prove something. Too hard evidently, because he wiped out spectacularly, flailing around, losing both skis and skidding down the mountain in a cloud of snow. Chuckling Morgan turned to Raquel, “Men!”

B
ut Raquel was gone.

In fact
, she saw Raquel rocketing down the mountain in Shan’s wake, going faster than Morgan had ever seen anyone shoot such a steep, bumpy slope. Not on tall soft springs this time, more like short hard springs. Much of the time the girl caught air from one mogul to the next.

Morgan braced herself for Raquel to start flailing down the mountain end over end
behind Shan. The girl shot past the still skidding Shan and vanished in a huge cloud of snow just like Morgan had feared. However, when the cloud cleared, Raquel was below Shan, having caught him in her arms and brought him to a stop. Morgan realized that cloud of snow wasn’t from another spectacular crash, but had been blown up by a phenomenal, crashing skater’s stop on the steep side of the mountain.  Morgan gaped after them a moment, then started picking her own way down the mountain, stopping to pick up Shan’s skis on the way. When she arrived she heard Raquel sniff and say, “Well of course I thought you were hurt! It looked like a couple of your
limbs
flew off back there!”

Morgan’s eyes widened as she saw tears drying on Raquel’s cheeks.
Sure, that was a spectacular wipeout, but why would an incredible skier like Raquel assume he’d been hurt?

Shan
reached out to wipe off the tear and said tenderly, “Hey Raq’, you do much more skiing, you’re going to see worse wipe outs than that. Really. I’m fine.”

Much more skiing?!
Morgan snorted to herself,
Shan still has no idea! She must have been skiing since childhood! Wait ‘til he’s actually watched her ski, he’ll be sooo embarrassed!

They made a few more runs, Lane pushing herself hard to keep up with Jordan. Axel tried to pair up with Morgan but she found herself much more attracted to the less racy AJ. Morgan caught Shan staring at Raquel while she ski cwhian. ed. Morgan had to admit watching the girl ski was really something to remember. No matter the difficulty of the slope, Raquel descended it gracefully and with elegance. The fact that her ski tights looked great on those stunning legs didn’t hurt either.

Shan’s gaze sometimes looked admiring, at other times he followe
d her with a hunger in his eyes. But Morgan saw amused aggravation in his contemplation as well. “Hey Brudder, what’s that look?” she asked him, “Your girl’s an amazing skier, why’s that leave you looking all frustrated?”

Shan snorted, “I could tell you,” he turned and gave her his best ominous look, then finished in a low raspy tone, “but then I’d have to kill you.” He pushed off down the next double black, forestalling more questions. Morgan shook her head. Shan seemed to be pushing really hard, as if he had something to prove.
She hoped he didn’t blow out a knee.

At the Kinrais family dinner that night Lane bubbled over with enthusiasm for Jordan and the other two guys they’d met. She had agreed to meet them that night at a local dance club and wanted Morgan to go along. “Shan, you and Raquel should come too. It’ll be a great time!”

Shan hesitated, then said, “I’m up for going out dancing with my girl if she’s not too tired?” He
waggled his eyebrows at Raquel.

Raquel shrugged, “Sure.” She raised her own eyebrows. “Do they know how to clog here in Colorado?”

“Hey! I
can
do other dances you know.” Shan turned to Lane and got a serious look on his face, “Hey Sis, it’s not my place to interfere, but I have a bad feeling about that guy. I think you’re just a conquest to him.”

“Jordan? You’ve got to be kidding!” Lane’s face got red. “
You never like
any
of the guys I date, that’s a given. But, I’ll have you know Jordan’s some kind of genius. He’s graduating at the top of his class in aerospace engineering and already has a job at D5R designing their new space habitat. He’s
going
to be working with that Ell Donsaii you admire so much! In fact, he’s already given her advice about a better orbit for the habitat.” She snorted, “You know, he’s actually
just
the kind of guy you’re always trying to set me up with, though not so nerdy.” She raised an eyebrow, “He’s
fun
, unlike your dweeb friends you’ve had call me.”

Shan turned to look questioningly at Raquel. She looked into his eyes and shook her head, then turned to Lane. “Hey,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to ruin our friendship, and
, obviously I don’t know everything that happens at D5R.” She shrugged, “But I can tell you with absolute certainty that D5R doesn’t have any recruiters out looking for talent and isn’t hiring anyone for a habitat design team. Jordan’s been lying to you about that… so maybe he’s lying about some other things too?”

White faced and pinched, Lane said, “But you just said you didn’t know everythi cknongs tong that’s going on at D5R.”

Quietly, Raquel said, “But I
would
know that.”

Lane stared at her a few moments, then shook her head
sharply, “I
trust
Jordan.
I
think this is just one of the things you
don’t
know.”

Raquel shrugged, then smiled brightly. “OK, but in case you
do want to check him out, my AI’s just sent you a link where you could read up on the D5R habitat. A few questions should help you figure out whether he really knows enough about its orbit to give Donsaii advice, huh?”

Lane stared at Raquel hard and Morgan thought for a moment that Lane might explode and say something they’d all regret. Then she said, “OK, I’ll look at your website and ask him some questions… But you’ll see,” she said forcefully, “he’s
really brilliant.” She got up and stalked to her room.

They went out pretty late because Lane “didn’t want to get there before Jordan.” Nonetheless, when they got there, Jordan was nowhere to be seen. Obviously disappointed, Lane pulled Morgan out on the dance floor with her while Shan and Raquel went to buy drinks.

Morgan felt like Lane’s flamboyant dancing looked a little bit desperate
, but it felt nice to be out with her sister, moving to the beat and having a good time. When she saw Shan and Raquel near the floor with the drinks, she shouted to be heard over the heavy beat, “Let’s get a drink,” she inclined her head at her brother and his girlfriend. When the song finished, they headed over. Lane slugged back her drink and grabbed Raquel’s wrist, dragging her out to the floor for more dancing.

Watching them Morgan tilted her head curiously. Raquel didn’t perform any special moves. In fact
, it looked like she was imitating Lane’s moves for the most part, just… more gracefully. Something about her moves… so perfectly on the beat… so coordinated, seemed to show the potential to do… more… Despite the fact that many dancers were performing more exotic moves, Morgan realized that a lot of the others were watching Raquel too. Morgan thought Raquel danced somewhat like Ell Donsaii did when Donsaii danced to slow music. Not doing Donsaii amazing physical feats obviously, but the sinuous, agile, flowing steps and turns had a lot in common. Morgan wondered if Raquel consciously tried to imitate her boss’s style. She pictured her dancing at home in front of a mirror while videos of Donsaii played on a large screen nearby.
Maybe I should practice that way?

Suddenly
Jordan was dancing next to Lane out on the floor. He looked wild and clumsy in comparison to Raquel. After a moment Morgan recognized that he was drunk. She had the feeling that, sober, he’d still look clumsy on the dance floor. But he had enthusiasm. Lane brightened at his appearance and began dancing with him. After a moment Raquel left the floor and rejoined Morgan and Shan. Belatedly, Morgan realized that AJ stood next to her, watching the floor. She punched him playfully on the shoulder and he turned to her with a shy grin cth t h, “Didn’t think you’d ever notice me. Wanna dance?”

AJ danced well and enthusiastically, so Morgan had a great time. Shan and Raquel danced a couple of times, but vanished after a bit, apparently tired of the singles scene. Jordan started trying to get Lane to go someplace “quieter.” Acquiescing, she asked Morgan and AJ to go with them. Thus, Morgan found herself with her sister and the two guys at a midnight deli, picking out snacks and laughing. Lane and Jordan were both pretty drunk and Morgan felt a little unsteady herself. As they sat down, Jordan said, “Heeyy, you ladies should come check out our place. Bottom of the run, big hot tub.” He waggled his eyebrows and took a big bite of his sandwich.

Lane glanced at Morgan, then turned to Jordan, “Hey, you know, that bitchy girlfriend of my brother’s doesn’t believe you
have
a job at D5R
or
helped with the orbit for their habitat.”

He snorted, “Glad they went home then, I hate putting people in their places.”

Lane leaned drunkenly away from him, shoulder up against the table and body turned toward him. She sent an admiring smile back his way. “And the type of orbit the habitat’s in now, what kind is that?”

He glanced up to the left, “Uh… geosynchronous, why?”

Lane held her left hand up between them, palm towards herself. “Because,” she reached up with her right hand and pulled down her little finger, “You’re,” she tucked in the thumb, “an,” she pulled down her ring finger, “ass,” she pulled down her index, “hole.” Her hand remained with just the middle finger still extended. Lane straightened in her seat, suddenly looking much more sober, “Morgan, let’s go home,” she picked up her sandwich and stood.

Morgan got up and picked up her own sandwich.

Jordan spluttered, “You’re leaving because of, what, an orbit?!”

“I’m leaving,” Lane smiled, “because you don’t know
anything
about the habitat’s orbit, you lying, bragging sack of shit.” She snorted and muttered disbelievingly, “Geosynchronous habitat!”

Morgan wanted to applaud her little sister as they walked out.

They walked along, eating their sandwiches and not saying anything. Finally Lane said, “I guess, I owe Raquel an apology.”