Chapter 17
Seventeen
Rasker looked relieved. “I see three primary causes for…this.” He nodded to the muffin disaster and placed the cookbook on the counter, far from any ingredients.
“First, you cannot make any of the recipes in this book. They use Earth ingredients, and we are not on Earth. Substitutions just won’t work.
For example, there are no eggs here…” He looked confused as he tapped the device on his temple.
The mini screen disappeared and he plucked the device off his skin and secured it back on his wrist. “It doesn’t even specify what kind of eggs you’re supposed to use.
Bird? Fish? Reptile? Surely there’s more than one egg-laying species on Earth. ”
Holly’s lips twitched. “There are thousands, but chickens produced the eggs typically used in cooking. You can still buy them, but most people use synthesized ones.”
“Okay.” He shook his head, as if baffled by the human system. “You also had technique issues. Overmixing makes muffins tough and dense.”
“I see.” She cocked her head. “I thought smooth was better.”
“Not with muffins. You want the batter a little lumpy,” he explained. “Third, I’m guessing the measurements are off. Unless you were able to convert these old units to the current standard.”
“I didn’t.” Holly felt foolish. “I thought they’d be close enough.”
He paused and tapped his chin. “What number are we on?”
“Four,” she replied dryly. “In my list of mistakes.”
“Ah, yes. Fourth is temperature.” He examined the oven controls. “The recipe uses the old Celsius system. The oven uses the Galvan system. If you set it to the temperature in the recipe, it was actually way too hot.”
“So everything was wrong,” Holly said flatly.
“Everything was a learning opportunity. Hold on—I’ll be right back.
” He jogged out of the lounge, but returned moments later holding a d-pad.
He set it up on the counter and opened it to a new recipe for muffins.
Rasker straightened and looked at her with something that might have been amusement, or might have been warmth.
“This is a muffin recipe that uses ingredients you do have. Would you like to try again?”
Holly blinked. “You want to help me make muffins?”
“I enjoy cooking.” He shrugged, a surprisingly casual gesture from someone usually so polished. “I have a nice kitchen setup at my home on Nakri. I don’t get to use it very often, though.”
“Why not?”
“Work.” The word came out flat. “I travel constantly. Negotiations, acquisitions, consultations. I’m rarely home for more than a few days at a time.”
Holly understood that better than she wanted to admit. “It’s the same at Sol-Arc Industries. Twelve years and I never took a real vacation. There was always another project, another client, another deadline.”
“But did the work make you happy?”
She considered the question. “I thought it did. But looking back, I’m not sure. Maybe I was mistaking happiness for…something else.” She dusted some powder from her sleeve. “What about you?”
Rasker was quiet for a moment. “I’m very good at my job,” he said finally. “That has to count for something.”
It wasn’t an answer. Holly noticed that, but she didn’t push.
“All right,” she said instead. “Teach me how to make muffins that don’t look like they survived a plasma fire.”
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Let’s get fresh ingredients. We’re starting over using what we do have.”
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.
“Do not open that oven,” he said when her hand had moved toward the handle. “You’ll let heat out and mess them up.”
“But—”
“They’ll be fine,” Rasker assured her. “Trust the process.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one who cremated the last batch.”
He laughed, and Holly decided she liked the sound of it. It was different from his too-smooth consultant voice, warmer and more real.
The timer chimed. Holly put on some oven mitts, held her breath, and opened the oven door.
The muffins were golden. Perfectly golden, with domed tops and visible blueberries peeking through the surface.
“Oh,” Holly breathed. “They could have come from a NuProd.”
Rasker grunted. “They’ll taste better than anything from a NuProd. You’ll see.”
She pulled out the tin and set it on the counter, yanked off the mitts, and immediately reached for a muffin.
“Wait.” Rasker caught her wrist. “They need to rest.”
“But…hmm.” Her wrist tingled where he held it in a loose grip. “Why?”
He released her and stepped away, as if her skin was what had just come from the oven. “They just do. Look at the recipe.”
She did, and it did say to wait, but she did so with impatience. The smell was incredible. Buttery vanilla and warm fruit. Her mouth watered.
“Now?” she asked after what felt like an eternity but was probably two minutes.
Rasker rolled his eyes. “Oh, just go for it.”
Holly popped one from the tin, admired it for a moment, then bit into it.
Flavor exploded across her tongue. The muffin was tender and light, nothing like the dense, charred lumps from before, and nothing like the offerings of a NuProd.
The blueberries burst with sweetness, their juice mingling with the buttery crumb.
It was simple and perfect and exactly what a muffin should be.
“Oh, my stars,” she said, rolling her eyes. “This is delicious. Can you send me this recipe?”
“Sure.”
“And why are you just standing there?” She held a hand over her mouth as she spoke around a mouthful. “Eat one.”
He selected one for himself and took a bite. “Mmm. They turned out perfect.”
“They did.” She took another bite, then another, barely pausing to chew. “Oh, stars. I didn’t realize how hungry I was for something that wasn’t porridge.”
When she looked up, Rasker was watching her.
His expression was strange. Soft in a way she hadn’t seen before. His winter-sky eyes had thawed to a warm gray. A small smile played at the corners of his mouth.
“What?” Holly asked, suddenly self-conscious.
“Nothing.” He shook his head slightly. “You have sweetener powder on your nose.”
She wiped at it with the back of her hand. “Better?”
“Not really. Here.” He reached up and ran a finger over the side of her nose, into the indent beside her nostril. And paused before letting his hand fall away. “Sorry. You eat with such joy. It’s beautiful to watch.”
They were standing close. She wasn’t sure when that had happened. Or when the kitchen had shrunk to the size of a broom closet. Breathing normally was a problem, all of a sudden.
Her wrist communicator buzzed.
The sound cut through the moment. Holly stepped back, startled, and looked at the display.
Mr. Binn.
The spell was broken. She turned away to take the call, pressing the earpiece into place.
When she looked back, Rasker was gone. The lounge door swung gently on its hinges. The space where he had stood was empty. Only the scent of baked muffins and the ghost of his presence remained.
Holly sighed and answered the call.
“Thank you for calling me back, Mr. Binn.”