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“That’s only part of it. Look harder. The handle is the tail. Two more lines stretching down from the edge of the cup. You also have three more stars that come out to form a point from the cup. Do you see them?”
“I…yes, I think so.”
“That’s the constellation Ursa Major,” he said with a hint of excitement in his voice, already warming up to his topic. “It’s like you said, everyone knows the Big Dipper. It’s so bright and visible all year round. In a nice dark sky, you can also see Ursa Major all year. It’s one of the many constellations described by Ptolemy, and it’s been mentioned in the Bible as well as in the works of Homer. In Greek legend, the constellation represents Callisto. She was a nymph who caught Zeus’s eye and was turned into a bear by his jealous wife. Hindu legend says these stars represent the Seven Sages.”
His hand tightened on Harrison’s shoulder and his other hand widened to encompass the entire constellation. “But these are more than just dots of light or stars in the sky. This alignment represents entire galaxies. There are four spiral galaxies in Ursa Major along with an irregular galaxy and a double star, but to us on this spinning blue marble, they are just pinpricks of light. The human mind can’t begin to fathom the distance that light has traveled to reach us. It left its source thousands of years ago, long before the first Weaver was even born, and that light will continue to stretch here long after we’re gone. Time means something completely different to the cosmos.”
“That’s…humbling.”
Hale lowered his eyes to Harrison’s face to find the man watching him rather than the stars. “It is, but also exhilarating. Just think that all of this complex vastness was created and works together in a beautiful dance that somehow remains balanced. And in all of that, whether by divine hand or chance, we were created as well to take part in that dance.”
“I’ve never thought about that.” Harrison turned his gaze back toward the night sky. “My focus has always been on the duty in front of me, where my destiny was ultimately leading. I never thought about my place in the grander scheme of things, that I fit in as part of that,” he finished with a wave of his hand toward the stars.
“Most people don’t. They look up at the sky and see bits of light, forgetting that these are the same stars our ancestors have stared at, that have guided them through life. We get caught up in the day-to-day hustle and forget that so much of what we worry about is gone in the blink of an eye in comparison to the life span of a star.”
“Is this why you became an astrophysicist?”
Hale suddenly released Harrison and shrugged, feeling a bit self-conscious. He tended to get carried away when he talked about stars, planets, and galaxies. His family claimed he lost all contact with the here and now, forgetting that his time was fleeting and that there might not be a tomorrow just because a star had millions of tomorrows.
“I feel like we can learn so much about the nature of existence by spending some time understanding the heavens. I want to know the why of everything. I want to know how we fit into all of this.” He paused and narrowed his eyes on Harrison, fully expecting to see an expression of derision or at least hear the hint of a snicker. “You’re not laughing.”
“Why would I be laughing? I thought you were being serious.”
“I am, but this is the part where most people roll their eyes or laugh. They like to ask how this is going to make me a living or what the point of answering those questions is.” He leaned close so that their noses almost touched. “At the very least, you should be yawning. My brothers say talking to me is a surefire way to fall asleep.”
The smirk he’d been waiting for finally appeared, but he’d not been expecting the words. “I’m not sleepy.”
He wanted to kiss that smirk. Everything within him demanded that he just lean in those last few inches and take that perfect mouth in another kiss, but he hesitated. Was that really the best thing right now when they were supposed to be focused on saving the world?
Harrison took a step backward, his smirk falling away into something like a crooked smile. “Um…any more constellations out tonight?”
That he could handle with ease. Hale’s heart gave a funny skip as he stepped close to Harrison again. With an arm around his shoulder, he turned him toward the broad swath of night sky, his eyes already skimming for his next story while he simply enjoyed the warmth of the man beside him. Yes, the kiss was hot and he wanted a hell of a lot more, but maybe they’d only ever be friends. But it was nice to have a friend to talk to about the things that mattered most to him.
