Information: Dark Matter Volume 1

Chapter 12

Version of 2023 August 11

It had been a long day of mostly fruitless work; an agonized quest to figure out the search algorithms that would get her to her goal. How do you track down inaccurately labeled artifacts of unknown number or location which were only in private hands? It was a difficult task and she'd been stretching her brain to the limit. She needed more base information if she was going to have a hope of a clear hit, or set of hits, for her search. That meant going back to the previous search and reviewing everything, so that's what she had been doing. It had not made her happy. And she had not found anything that would serve as a definitive marker.

Instead, she could see how she had relied on inference and a belief that Colin was telling the truth to construct her previous report. The fact that the Vatican had had a number of the things at one point wasn't turning out to be helpful. There was no complete listing of Vatican artifacts, and even if there was, she had no idea how these would be identified, if they were even still there.

By the end of the day she was searching references to illegal art acquisitions. She didn't have much hope for this line of inquiry. However, when you don't know what you are looking for, look anywhere.

But now she had put that aside for her second task, one self appointed. This was her goal of exposing Colin to the wonders of Vancouver. This wasn't her town, but she had come to love it anyway.

Today they were out at a top West Coast fusion restaurant. After dinner she planned a walk along the seawall. This guy was going to experience the best Vancouver had to offer. For now, they were merely enjoying another incredible meal. Over dinner they'd been talking about the search and progress, but now, after dessert, she had another conversation in mind. "So tell me, is there someone personal in your life? A girlfriend? Or an anybody?"

Colin looked surprised, even a little upset.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just don't really think about it."

"That's weird."

"No. I'm busy. I don't really have time."

"You're in your thirties, Earth years, right? No time for relationships? How does that work?" Though, she knew exactly how it worked. Twenty-seven and no time, and she wasn't even spending half her time locked inside of a spaceship. Some things were more important. Though she couldn't figure out what might be so important in his life.

"Thirty-five. And we use Earth years for our age. It's the galactic standard. Except for some of the weird places."

"So was there anybody? Back when you had time?"

He snorted. "Like there was time. But there was one girl. Jasmine. I was finishing up my Masters. But it didn't last."

"Oh, tell me." She leaned forward and smiled as winningly as she knew how, which meant it was a forced look. "Come on, I'm sure it's a good story."

He looked at her and then she watched his gaze go internal and reflective. "It's not much. We met in a little pub off campus. I was there with some of the other Commerce graduate students blowing off some steam. She'd had a little too much to drink. She stumbled into me, poured her drink on me, and that's how we got introduced. She was another student. We started dating. The next term we decided to save rent by living together. I really liked her. It was great. The problem was Mom and Grand-dad."

"But you weren't on the home planet, I thought."

"No, I wasn't. But I took her home to visit. I needed to get back. I tried to go home at least once a year or so. It's not like it was difficult. Grand-dad's ships were by every few months. I just needed to have a rough sense of the schedule, then book some time off studies. Everything lined up just as I was finishing my thesis, so we went off together."