Page 48 of See the Stars

Astronomy taught us our insignificance in Nature.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

‘ W hat’s he doing here?’ Berti frowned at Boxley. The professor saw them and smiled, walking over with confident strides.

‘Alice!’ he said. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here. And look, you brought your little friend. What a long journey for you all.’

‘Why are you here?’ asked Alice. But she knew. She knew with a terrible sinking feeling exactly what he was doing.

‘You know me,’ said Boxley, with a glance at the dean, who was chatting to Callum, just out of earshot. ‘Selfless in the name of science.’

‘So you haven’t stolen our comet?’ asked Berti.

‘The comet wasn’t yours to steal,’ said Boxley. ‘And a comet is nothing to me.’

‘Then why did you fly all the way here to find it?’ asked Alice.

‘I’ve done some of the world’s most important pioneering work into Gliese 581,’ said Boxley, ignoring her question.

‘Fifteen years ago,’ said Alice. ‘And it’s been mostly discredited.’

‘Where’s your research, Miss Thorington?

’ asked Boxley, any attempt at politeness evaporating at her words.

‘Oh, wait. I did see an analyst’s report you’d authored on the relationship between yield curve and inflation.

Fascinating. Not “change our understanding of the universe” fascinating, but fascinating nonetheless. ’

‘Alice’s grandfather found that comet,’ said Berti. ‘It’s hers.’

‘That’s not how it works,’ said Boxley. ‘I’ve seen it, had it verified and reported it to the Astronomical Association.

It’s not groundbreaking science, but the comet will, I’m pleased to say, carry my name for eternity.

’ He started to walk past them, a smug smile spreading across his face.

‘That was certainly worth the departmental funding to fly to Hawaii.’

Suddenly he was sprawled on the floor.

‘Oops,’ said Matt innocently. ‘Looks like you might have tripped over my stick.’ He grinned, and spun the stick around like a baton. ‘Do you need any help getting up?’

‘Are you OK, Professor Boxley?’ enquired Callum, though there was a slight smile on his face.

‘You’ll regret this,’ said Boxley, getting up awkwardly.

‘What are you going to do?’ piped up Berti, clearly enjoying the moment. ‘You can’t plagiarise a trip.’

Boxley began limping towards Alice, his mouth open as if he had more to say. ‘Get out of our way,’ said Alice, brushing past him on her way to the observatory. ‘We’re going to look at our comet.’

‘That was quite a fall,’ said Callum. ‘And I’ve never seen someone who deserved it more.’

‘Easily done,’ said Matt. ‘I’m always falling over it myself.’

‘I’ve never seen you fall over that stick, Uncle Matt,’ said Berti.

‘How do you focus this thing?’ asked Alice, already at the telescope.

‘Here,’ said Callum. ‘It’s computer-operated.’

‘You are super cool,’ said Berti to Matt.

‘He is,’ agreed Alice. ‘But right here, right now, we have other things to worry about.’ She looked up for a moment. ‘I want to see this comet.’

‘Boxley has already reported it,’ said Callum. ‘You’re too late.’ He paused. ‘I wish I’d tripped him.’

‘Me too,’ said Alice. ‘But we’ve come halfway around the world, chasing a comet that my grandfather tracked for decades. I’m not going to miss my chance to see it for myself.’

‘Me neither,’ said Berti. ‘And if Boxley comes back, I’ll—’

‘He’s not coming back,’ said Alice. ‘This is our time.’

Callum checked the telescope settings. ‘I think you’ve got it,’ he told Alice. ‘Try now.’ He stepped back, gesturing for Berti to join him to allow her space.

Alice took a deep breath. Then she put her eye to the telescope.

And looked.

The comet

There it was. A bright pinprick of light between two stars, a gentle haze in its wake, swirling behind it like the tail of a cat. Even with one of the world’s most powerful telescopes, it was small, seemingly insignificant. But to Alice, it meant everything.

A ball of ice and dust, on a constant journey, pulled by the gravity of Jupiter and the sun in an elliptical orbit that saw it travel further than she could even dream of.

It had appeared, albeit briefly, every nine years in the patch of sky her grandfather had chosen to monitor. Only he had seen it. Until now.

She felt her problems fade away at the majesty of what was in front of her. She felt small, insignificant, but part of something greater. Life didn’t always go to plan. Meteors hit. Stars died. Planets were spun from their original orbits. People died. But the universe continued.

Nothing was ever gone. Cells rearranged. Matter transformed. People who had died were still there, the atoms that made them reassigned but their essence indelibly in the memories of those who had loved them, their cells in the earth. In the rocks. Part of the universe. For ever.

She looked at the comet again, feeling closer to those she’d lost. She’d made mistakes. So had others. But really, in the grand scheme of things, they were all insignificant. She felt so small, but that was OK.

She stepped back, then turned to Berti. ‘I’ve seen it,’ she said. ‘And it’s beautiful.’ She smiled. ‘Now it’s your turn.’

‘That was spectacular,’ said Matt. The three of them were on the beach at the hotel the next day, sitting on a bench swing and gazing out to sea, drinking fresh fruit juice from hollowed-out pineapples.

‘I hate that it will be named after Boxley,’ said Berti.

‘What’s in a name?’ said Alice philosophically, though of course it bothered her too. ‘We know that my grandfather found it first. I wish I’d told him to report it. I thought he’d be laughed at. Not that that matters.’

‘You can’t go back,’ said Matt. ‘You need to move forward.’

Alice looked at him, sitting on the swing, his bare feet gently brushing the sand. He looked so much more relaxed. Happy, even. Perhaps he was ready to move forward, finally. The thought filled her with pleasure. He deserved it.

Perhaps she did too.

‘But it’s not fair,’ said Berti.

‘Plenty of things in life aren’t fair,’ said Matt. ‘But you have to move on.’

‘Well I won’t,’ said Berti. ‘I refuse.’

‘Bad things happen,’ said Alice, her eyes on the horizon, where the blue of the sea met the blue of the sky. ‘Life isn’t all sunshine, much as I wish it could be.’ She looked at a solitary cloud, drifting over the ocean. ‘But I suppose if the sun was always out, we’d never see the stars.’

They sat in silence for a moment, until Berti made a gargling noise with his straw. He got to his feet. ‘What is it?’ said Alice. ‘Do you want to go for a swim?’

‘No,’ he replied. ‘I think I’ve remembered something.’

‘What?’ asked Alice.

‘It’s a note,’ said Berti. ‘An addendum in the logbook.’ He paused a moment. ‘I’ve got a picture of most of the pages on my phone. Let me just go check.’

‘Go check what?’ asked Alice.

‘Wait and see,’ said Berti. ‘Wait and see.’

‘Fancy seeing you here,’ said Alice, walking up to Boxley in the Institute for Astronomy at Manoa. He was sitting in front of a screen, pressing refresh. ‘I hope you’ve recovered from your fall?’

‘Your friend is lucky I’m not pressing charges,’ said Boxley. ‘That was assault.’

‘You tripped on his stick,’ said Alice. ‘It’s hardly the crime of the century.’

A few colleagues looked up. Boxley changed the subject.

‘I’m just on the Astronomical Association site,’ he said.

‘The new comet will be announced here any moment now. I’m rather looking forward to seeing my name appear.

There’ll be a party later, you know. In my honour.

’ He looked at her. ‘I’m going to wear a lei,’ he added.

‘A flower garland will look rather fetching on the press release, and the image is bound to be picked up by the media back home too.’

‘Press refresh again,’ said Alice, glancing at her watch.

Boxley did so. She leaned over his shoulder. There it was, in black and white.

‘P/Thorington!’ exclaimed Boxley, reading the name out loud. People started to gather around his screen, drawn by the commotion.

‘Yes,’ said Alice. She smiled.’The P is for for Periodic,’ she told him, although of course he knew that already.

‘There’s been a mistake! I saw it before you. I reported it.’ He looked at the academics around him, appealing for help. They stared back at him blankly.

‘You may have seen it before I did,’ said Alice. ‘But that Thorington isn’t me.’

‘What? Who the hell is it?’

She paused a moment, enjoying her words. ‘It’s my grandfather.’

Boxley glared at her. ‘You’re deranged,’ he said. ‘He’s dead.’

‘We beat you by a mere thirty-six years,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘Turns out he had reported it. In 1989, the year I was born. That was the second time he’d seen it, although he didn’t know that at the time.

Berti found a note of it. He’d included all the necessary information, of course.

He even reported it a second time, for luck, in 1998.

Problem was, weather conditions meant it was never verified.

’ She smiled. ‘Until you so kindly submitted your report. As you’ll well know, a periodic comet is named for the person who saw it on the earliest of its appearances.

Any subsequent sightings are of no importance, except for verification purposes, of course. ’

‘But—’

‘Maybe I’ll see you at the party later,’ said Alice.

There had been a time when she’d respected Boxley; his work had been seminal.

But that was years ago. Now he was a sad little man flying halfway around the world to steal a comet from a dead postman.

For a moment she felt sorry for him, then she remembered his hand creeping up her thigh when he thought he had something over her.

She smiled again, allowing herself to enjoy this victory.

‘I’m afraid, Professor Boxley, that you’ve had a wasted trip,’ she said. ‘Good luck submitting your expenses.’