Life and Love on Centauri Station

Professor Kaleo Hale didn’t come to Alpha Centauri searching for love. He came here to help the ADN research teams develop more advanced methods for locating Beariliumite deposits on the planets of Proxima. Or on any planets. In any system. It didn’t matter to him. All that mattered was that the human race needed more if they were to continue their interstellar exploration. Professor Hale was proud to dedicate his life to such a task.

But the work was slow. And often frustrating. Yet the need was urgent. Which was why, when Professor Hale was not testing out the application of long-range resonance on Beariliumite ore, he was getting drunk on Centauri Station. Not every weekend, but most of them. Nice to get off-world for a night. He needed the escape.

And that was where he met Bulan.

Kaleo was out with the ADN engineering team from his research facility, so when Bulan first met him, she thought he was an engineer. And he went along with it. Because why not have some fun? Bulan herself was out with a squad of FSR rangers, so Kaleo assumed she was a soldier. She had the physique for it. But either way, he didn’t ask.

There were no faction politics allowed on Centauri Station. Anyone reported for anything more than gentle taunting, and they got black-carded, banned from the station for one full rotation. But Kaleo didn’t care that Bulan was FSR. All he cared about was that she was funny, and interesting, and interested in spending time with him. No faction chat, no work talk. The weekends were purely for drinking. Well, not just for drinking. They both had cabins booked so they could stay off-world for the weekends. It wasn’t long before only one cabin was needed.

And that was that. All week long, Professor Hale threw himself into his research and experiments, into making this long-range detection system work. He didn’t contact Bulan, because they both agreed that it was easier to keep things separate. During the week, they might be rival factions, doing whatever it was they did – they didn’t ask – but at the weekends, they were Kaleo and Bulan, infamous in every bar and hotel on Centauri Station for their wild nights, loud loving, and hard drinking.

And it worked.

There were some nights, obviously, when Professor Hale came home from another failed simulation, and wanted nothing more than to see Bulan’s face. And there were mornings, when he was less excited by the work ahead of him, and more focused on the approaching weekend. But he was making progress with his work, and he expected to see results soon, just not fast enough for the Alliance of Democratic Nations. Because apparently the Federated Sovereign Republics were getting close to a breakthrough in Beariliumite dilution theory. So the pressure was growing. The weekdays became longer. The weekends further away. His focus was shifting. The vital research Kaleo was doing for humanity was no longer the most important thing in his life…

Then the SGA called that meeting. With the representatives of every faction authorized to attend the Stellar Gate Administration’s newest Jump Ship, the Maya, which had just arrived in the system. Brought in especially to intimidate and impress. Kaleo was both. How could he not be? The Maya was the pinnacle of advanced technological innovation, and if allowed, he would have happily spent his life wandering that vessel, marvelling at every machine. But, of course, this was the SGA, so no one was left unsupervised. Stars forbid that the human race share their scientific secrets with each other and advance their civilisation. Although, quite ironically, this was the exact reason the SGA had brought the Alpha Centauri factions together.

The Beariliumite shortage was reaching critical levels, and if new sources could not be detected soon by the ADN, or if new methods of extending their current supply was not achieved by the FSR, then the expansion of interstellar colonization would be at a halt.

To the SGA, this was unacceptable.

So, they called in Professor Kaleo Hale from the ADN to explain his hypothesis on long-range Beariliumite detection to every other scientist summoned there, in the hopes that their collective minds would concoct a solution, and they called in Professor Bulan Murib of the FSR, to explain her theories on Beariliumite dilution. Professor Hale knew the names of every scientist in that room, including Professor Murib – she was his heated rival from the FSR, after all, the very reason he was under so much stress – but it was the first time he had ever met any of them, or even seen their face. He could have easily looked up the public profiles of each at any time to see who they were, but why would he? He knew their names, he knew their work, what else did he need to know?

And so, when Kaleo looked at Bulan, and Bulan looked at Kaleo, to see that each was the hated professor of their rivals who caused such trouble in their professional lives, it was a surprise, certainly. Yet, when Kaleo gave his presentation, the scoffs and scorn from Professor Bulan Murib were not so surprisingly. Her views on the unlikelihood of detecting Beariliumite from long-range resonance were well known. And similarly, when she gave her analysis on how their existing supply could be “thinned out” and “watered down,” no one in the room was surprised by Professor Kaleo Hale’s outburst that such a desecration would rob the precious mineral of any power and all use.

The meeting went about as well as everyone expected, with little-to-nothing accomplished, but the SGA insisted that it was the first of many. And they would continue until a solution was reached.

The week which followed that first meeting went much faster than all the others. Time did not stretch for Kaleo, as it normally did, and before he was ready, it was already the weekend. He was to meet with Bulan as he always did. And he had no idea how to feel. Should he still go? Would she show up? What would they say? Did he want to see her anymore, now knowing who she was?

But he did want to see her. And she wanted to see him. Because there were no factions up on Centauri Station, and both Kaleo and Bulan had agreed long ago that they would never discuss their work. So on they went, Professor Hale of the ADN, and Professor Murib of the FSR, hating each other fiercely every week, while Kaleo and Bulan loved each other even more each weekend.