Read Online Close Encounter by Deanna Lee - Free Book Online

to come back. The best we’d be able to do is send back data—to let the people we left behind know if we located a habitable planet. I’d been working toward the mission for five years—I tailored myself in every way I could to get the attention of command. I wanted on that ship. I sacrificed for it, bled for it, and I felt like I deserved it. When I made the first cut, I threw myself into training like I was possessed. Looking back on it, I was just really desperate to make a difference.”
    “Why the desperation?”
    “My mother killed herself,” Eliza said abruptly. “It was reported as an accident, but she killed herself, and my father grieved himself to death.” She rubbed her face with a shaking hand. “I was both devastated and relieved by his death. He’d been miserable for ten years.”
    “And having living family on Earth was hurting your chances of being chosen for the mission,” Sean said quietly.
    “That sounds really horrible put that way,” Eliza admitted. “His death almost got me thrown out of the program completely. I took it hard mostly because I was relieved he was finally at rest, and I felt like the most horrible person to ever live for that. He hated life, barely tolerated me, and his only reason for living was my mother. When she killed herself, life itself became a cruel torture for him.”
    “You obviously stayed in the program.”
    “I was quite plain,” Eliza said. “Did you know that? I don’t imagine there are many undoctored pictures of me before the mission.” Her laugh, hollow and sad, filled her ears, and she cringed at the sound. “I overheard two of the people on the mission committee comment on it. One told the other that he wished I was more attractive—that it would be great PR for the mission to have a beautiful woman in charge of it.”
    “Your cosmetic enhancements failed after you came out of cryo-sleep,” Sean said pointedly. “It didn’t detract from you at all. I only reinstalled them because I figured you’d want me to. We can disable them if you want.”
    “Oh, Sean,” she began with a genuine smile. “This isn’t the face I was born with. When my father died, he left me a substantial amount of money in insurance. I used it to…get some sculpting done. I didn’t do anything drastic. Just changed the shape of my nose, sharpened my jaw line, and…” She sucked on her bottom lip. “I always wanted full lips like my mother. I’ve never been a particularly vain woman, but I did regret that I didn’t get her lips, so I got those done as well. I skipped the cosmetic enhancements altogether. Then I volunteered for sterilization. After I was chosen for the mission, the committee hired a PR consultant who insisted on the enhancements because I couldn’t be bothered to put on make-up half the time and never did it to suit her.”
    “It’s unfortunate that you felt you had to do that to get the mission you deserved,” Sean finally said. “I can’t say the results aren’t stunning, but honestly, I don’t see how you could’ve been unattractive before the surgery.”
    “Just plain,” Eliza said. “Ordinary.”
    “There is nothing ordinary about you—not even your old nose,” Sean said with a laugh and left the bay window. He pulled his shirt over his head and headed toward the bathroom. “I have about forty-five minutes before my next hibernation cycle.”
    “Right.” Eliza nodded and stared at him as he rummaged through a clothes storage bin. He dropped his shirt into a slot in the wall and pulled out a pair of fitted boxers and socks. “I’ll just go find something to entertain me then.”
    “Or you could sleep,” Sean said dryly. “Even if you don’t want to do a hibernation cycle, you could lay down and try to rest. You’re obviously exhausted.”
    “I could try,” she allowed.
    He went back to the storage bin and pulled out a T-shirt, which he tossed in her direction. She caught it easily. “Can I have a pair of shorts