Typical Day
Skylar "Sky" Gazer doesn't party (a.k.a. look at stars) all night and sleep all day. But she doesn't have a typical nine-to-five schedule, either. She likes a little variation in her weekly schedule and that's what astronomy is all about. Today, Sky wakes up at around 7:30AM and tries to rouse the rest of her family. As they reluctantly stumble down the stairs, she makes everyone a three-vegetable omelette (it's brain food; very important) and downs a cup of coffee.
After she finally helps getting everyone else ready for school and work, she is able to enjoy an empty house where she can finally get cracking on her project proposal for some research she is working on for the university.
This proposal is extremely important...and top secret. Sky believes that she has, in fact, been contacted by the first known form of extraterrestrial intelligent life. This isn't like the last time when she thought she discovered aliens because her son, Tommy, was instant messaging her for the first time. No, this is different. She has been noticing some strange motions in nearby planets and this was only days after a black hole appeared just outside the galaxy.
She needs funding from the school so she can analyze radio waves, see if the aliens are trying to contact her, and try to communicate back. She already has a team of scientists that she teaches with at Old Faithful University who are on board with the alien research project. Now she just needs the cash. She has to be sly...the government keeps alien activity under wraps. And if they know it's aliens she is after, they will shut her down. She'll never get funding again.
After three hours of painstakingly writing and editing a project proposal, it's still not quite right. She already has to present a pretty strong scientific case to begin with and she's afraid she may have to do a little more observing of the celestial patterns tonight if she wants to have this proposal done on time. It's 1:30PM now and she walks to the kitchen to stress eat. She sees how late it is.
"Heaven's to Betsy, class is in thirty minutes!" she exclaims to no one in particular.
Rushing off to her Subaru, she starts the car and heads to campus. Good thing she made a lesson plan and Powerpoint last night or she would really have to improvise the lecture today.
"Hello, class," Sky pants as she enters the room, already five minutes late. "Sorry for the delay...today we are going to talk about black holes...if I can set up this Powerpoint equipment right...."
As Sky struggles with the computer, a nervous, but curious student raises a feeble hand and says, "A-a-are we going to-uh-to-uh discuss...the black hole...you found?"
"Yeah!" A more boisterous sophomore yells, "The one right outside the Milky Way!"
There is a murmur in which Sky can hear the words "aliens," "government operatives," and "intelligent life" and she panics. Abandoning the power point, she knows she only has one choice.
"Class is cancelled," Sky says calmly. "Have a nice day and don't forget the midterm next week. I will hold office hours tomorrow."
She leaves the lecture hall before any of the students and runs to her research partner, Professor S.P. Ace Cadet.
"Ace," she yells, storming into his office. "We need to get the proposal out tonight. The word is out about what we've found. The sooner we can make a conclusion about this, the sooner we can discuss this openly with the public. I can't have my 18-year-old students getting wrapped up in this alien-business."
"I know," Ace agrees, "we will finish it tonight. Until then, we have to keep them off our trail. You know what the government would do to those kids if they heard them talking about...you know...Project X."
"I will give them some assignments that will keep them so busy they'll forget all about...eh-hem...Project X. But tonight, we need to finish this. Meet me in the observatory at sundown?"
"Sure thing, Sky. Bring twizzlers."
"I always, do, Ace. I always do."
Sky feels a little calmer after talking to Professor S. P. Ace Cadet, but she wants to be prepared tonight. They've been sloppy. She goes down to the research lab and reviews their notes. She spends a couple hours reading, highlighting, and Internet researching before the sun goes down. As she heads out to the observatory, she calls her husband.
"I'm not going to be home for dinner tonight, babe. Duty calls." She hangs up and smirks to herself, looking up at the sun (but not directly at it to protect her eyes) that is slowly descending into the campus horizon. "It's going to be a long night."