The Stars Look Very Different Today

"Put my ring on, jackass."

Taylor did. The small sapphire on it glinted in the light of the moon.

Karlie worried the ring, turning it over and over as Harry took over. "Ground control to Taylor Swift," he said. "This is your commander speaking."

"She's okay," Karlie told him.

"I believe you," he said.

As the hours wore on, Karlie was having trouble believing herself. Taylor was the smartest person she knew, and she'd seen the woman get herself out of some ridiculous scrapes. But she also wasn't the type to leave them hanging. If she could talk to them, she would've.

"When are we calling it?" her voice was soft, low enough that only Harry could hear.

"Not until we know," he replied, every bit as quiet. "Not until we're certain."

Karlie stared at the monitor, at the blankness where Taylor should be. Her back ached from the time she'd spent hunched over her keyboard, desperately trying every way she could think of to get back in contact with Taylor and her tiny, ridiculous ship. Minerva was meant for one, always had been. NASA had wanted to send more, but the funding wasn't there. When Taylor died-if, she corrected herself firmly, if Taylor died-she would be all alone.

The idea came to her in thinking of Taylor being alone.

The call lagged so much that Karlie felt she and Taylor were practically having different conversations, but it was worth it, worth anything just to be able to hear her voice. "Happy birthday, Tay," she said.

"You gonna sing to me?" In the recording, Taylor's voice was pitched lower, but it had all of her familiar intonations.

"Want me to?"

"Always. I already sang to myself, though. Figured if it was good enough for Curiosity, it was good enough for me."

"I'm sorry I can't be there with you. 30. It's a big one."

Taylor's laugh came through the speakers loud and clear. "Karlie Kloss, as much as I love you, I am grateful you aren't with me. I wouldn't be able to get through a day without worrying about every hair on your head."

"I can take care of myself."

"But why bother, when I'm here to do it for you?"

"Get the Curiosity team in here, stat," Karlie snapped.

Harry raised an eyebrow in her direction. "You looking to change fields, Kloss?"

She turned to look him dead in the eyes, something she hadn't done since they'd lost touch with Taylor ten hours before and this whole fiasco had started. "What's the only other thing NASA has contact with on Mars?"

His sharp intake of breath told her she was onto something. "We can send it to her last known position."

"All we can do is hope it was nearby."

"It is." That came from Jourdan, who was surrounded by three different computers and about ten people. "It's twenty minutes away, maybe, and they're sending it there now. It'll take half an hour to an hour and if she's not there I don't know what we'll do, but it's a start."

Karlie closed her eyes. Right now, Taylor was like Schrodinger's cat. She was both alive and dead until Karlie opened this box, the one that would tell her whether she was about to be a widow before she even entered her third decade of life.

That hour was the longest of Karlie's life.