Dremiks (22 page)

Swede’s discomfort with the open criticism of the captain showed on his handsome blonde features. “We cannot all be eagles reborn as humans, ma’am.”

“At ease, Lieutenant. I meant no disrespect. It’s no insult to say the captain isn’t an instinctual pilot.” O’Connell tugged her pants leg into place as she stood. “So it’s working?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good deal.” The commander turned to the doctor. “And now you had best stop stalling and go see what the captain wants.”

Cassie flushed. “I wasn’t stalling! Really! I genuinely wanted to see what you were doing!”

Both officers considered her with looks of baffled disbelief. Realizing they wouldn’t believe her, no matter how long she protested, the doctor gave up and went to find the captain.

Dark green eyes shifted to pin the engineering officer in place. “Eagles reborn as humans?”

Swede was immune to her attempts at intimidation via eye-play. “A brief foray into verbal artistry, ma’am. Won’t happen again.”

Maggie watched him walk off. He sounded serious, but there had been a glint in his eyes and a quirk to his mouth.

First the captain trying to be witty and now Swede waxes poetic. Have to remember to check the oxygen mix in the male officers’ quarters. And where the hell does Hill get off mocking me?

***

The object of the commander’s ire settled back into his chair and sipped his coffee. The doctor poured herself a cup, liberally dosed it with milk and sugar, and tried to look at ease while she chose a chair at the mess table. She silently thanked the fates that she’d found the captain in the mess and not back in his office. He was marginally less intimidating when not surrounded by the trappings of his post.

“How is your department, Doctor?”

“Running smoothly, thank you, Captain. I suspect I know what you wish to discuss. I just don’t understand why you think I’ll be any help in handling this situation.”

Her statement took the captain by surprise. He did not detect any false modesty; the doctor truly didn’t understand that she was a touchstone among the women on the
Hudson
. Her oblivious comment reassured him. “The fact that you don’t realize what an effect your opinion has on the other ladies aboard speaks volumes as to
why
your opinion matters. We cannot have every woman on the ship deciding that Marissa’s pregnancy means that the rules regarding pregnancies have been laid aside. They have to understand your horror and concern over this situation. How we, and that includes the rest of the officers, react will mean as much as what we say. It might mean more, actually.”

“I’m afraid I still don’t understand.”

The captain leaned forward slightly, but kept his hands wrapped around his coffee mug. Hill knew he intimidated the doctor, despite trying very hard not to do so. “Instead of being your reticent, and entirely professional, self when discussing this matter with women who come into your office, please try to convey the same dismay you showed when you first told me.”

Cassie shook her head vehemently. “I cannot discuss Marissa’s condition with other people—”

He cut her off with a gesture. “I wouldn’t ask you to. Speak in generalities about how worried you are for the development of a fetus, the health risks to Marissa, things along that line.”

She sipped her coffee and considered the captain’s suggestion. He wasn’t asking her to lie, or betray confidential information. In essence, his suggestion was to simply be herself and tell the truth. “Wouldn’t Maggie, er, Commander O’Connell, be a better person to spread the news of our official displeasure?”

Captain Hill actually chuckled, an action which made his eyes twinkle. He looked almost friendly when he laughed. “O’Connell acting the concerned confidant? Who would believe that? No, the commander will better serve the mission by being herself—by being caustically outraged at the breach in protocol.
That
everyone will readily believe.”

The doctor smiled at the truth in his words. “I have checked to make sure that all crew members are up-to-date on their contraceptive measures. Hopefully no one else will think to falsify their medical implant data chips.”

He shook his head ruefully. “I’m afraid that tinkering with implants is one of the first things ISA employees learn. Admittedly, few go to the lengths that Marissa did, but you’ll be hard pressed to find an individual who hasn’t learned to turn his, or her, locator off, or hide the evidence of too much alcohol consumption.”

Nose wrinkled in a pert expression of outrage, the doctor exclaimed: “Well
medical
personnel never learn to do such things! What is the point of the health monitoring system if the information can be falsified?” Considering that they were discussing blatant rule breaking, Cassie found the captain’s nonchalant shrug to be flabbergasting. “Are you saying none of my data is valid?”

“People don’t like to be watched every second of their lives, doctor. Even crammed together like sardines in an outer-space can, we strive for a modicum of privacy. Are you seriously telling me that you believe every signal you get from every person’s chip? You’ve never once seen a discrepancy?”

Her wrinkled nose, this time, indicated that she was reluctantly conceding his point. “Well, not everyone takes measures to falsify their data. I certainly never see any
discrepancies
from you or Maggie.”

“O’Connell and I have accustomed ourselves to living in the public eye, even when we are technically behind closed doors. We don’t need to interfere with our medical information or our locators because we don’t break the rules. We cannot afford to.”

“Neither of you commits an indiscretion, even when off-duty?” Her eyes twinkled. Her merriment quickly vanished as the captain’s features turned stony.

“Not on this ship. We cannot afford it, and we are,
always
, on duty.” He abruptly stood. He knew that his sudden change in mood and precipitous ending of the meeting would ruin the last few minutes of rapport, but the idea of how very public his life, and O’Connell’s, was had, unexpectedly, touched a nerve. “Please excuse me, Doctor, I have other meetings today.” He left Dr. Ruger sitting in her seat chewing her lip and wondering what it was that was troubling the captain.

Fortunas found her still chewing her lip ten minutes after the captain departed. He made his distinctive “hrmph” noise as he walked past her chair and tapped the bottom of her chin with his index finger. “Stop that.”

She twitched away from him, irritated more that her reverie had been interrupted than by his touch. “Ask you something?”

Helping himself to the last cup of coffee, and preparing to brew more, Fortunas replied, “You just did.” His back to her, she didn’t see the smirk he adopted in response to her sigh.

“Have you ever changed the signal from your implant chip?”

She was, blessedly, too distracted with her thoughts to see him freeze in place. He had to take a precious minute to assure himself that her question was hypothetical and probably in relation to some crew indiscretion. With a deep breath he turned around and resumed his typical jovial expression. “What brings this on?” He held up the hand that wasn’t holding his coffee mug. “Never mind. Marissa Hill, I presume?”

“Yes.” Her eyes snapped into focus. “Wait, how do you know?”

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “I’m not oblivious?” Sprawling in a chair across the table from her, he finally answered her initial question. “No, I do not bother hiding my location, or medical status, from the clerks and computers who record such things. I’m much too old to worry with such trivialities. Although, should I be inclined to conduct a lurid affair, I might turn off my locator to protect the lady’s honor.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“Ha! There wouldn’t be much honor left at that point!” She giggled anyway and shook a slim finger at him. “You’re trying to distract me from worrying.”

Adopting a sage look he nodded. “Succeeding at it, in fact. Should you ever decide to commit an… indiscretion… you can rely on me to help you cover up the lurid evidence.”

That comment sent her into gales of laughter. Fortunas sat back to enjoy her laughter—and relax in the knowledge that she suspected nothing.

Chapter 13

Price wondered how it was he found himself staring at O’Connell’s sweaty back for the second time in eight days. He was trying to avoid her, trying
very
hard, in fact. Yet, here he was, standing on the opposite side of the gym watching her practice aikido with Guttmann.

“You may be tempted to nibble, Lieutenant, but I would recommend against that temptation.”

Ryan Hill’s voice in his ear was more than a bit disconcerting. Firstly, he hadn’t been tempted to nibble—the shudder that image induced could not be contained—
at all
. Secondly, the younger Hill brother fell very neatly into Tony’s category of “useless twits with more political connections than brains.” He needed advice from the twerp like he needed to pick a fight with O’Connell.

“Something I can help you with, Vice Chancellor?” Price used his snobbiest, upper crust British elocution. He found it the most effective way of putting another man in his place.

“Her father would frown upon anything untoward happening to our dearest Commander. I’m merely looking out for her welfare. We’re quite close, the Admiral and I.”

“Jolly for you.”
Go away
—
you irk me.

Hill’s tone and stance shifted. “Just watching, then? Perhaps the Admiral has asked you to keep an eye on her?”

With a resigned sigh, Price shook his head. The other man was obviously oblivious to the lieutenant’s displeasure. “I have not had the pleasure of making the Admiral’s acquaintance. Besides, which, the commander doesn’t need a keeper.
We
need protection from
her
.”

Price’s comment, tinged as it was with bitterness, relaxed Ryan’s guard. He smirked. “Her little tiff with my brother
has
been entertaining. They are so easily played, and so delightfully oblivious, those two.” He continued chatting, failing to notice the way Price stilled, or the speculative glance the lieutenant threw his way.

He knows what has her riled up… he may very well be the cause. He sure as hell isn’t working to dispel her anger, or explain things to the captain.

Price pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

The great damn idiot has no idea what this constant tension is doing to the rest of us. We cannot even
eat
in peace. I really ought to cut his knackers off and serve them up in the mess.

Across the room, Guttmann cut O’Connell’s feet out from under her while twisting her arm at an awkward angle. She grunted, frustration clear on her features. Ryan Hill chuckled appreciatively.

“I do sometimes wonder what is going on between those two.”

Tony nodded curtly at the Vice Chancellor. “I make it a habit not to speculate on the actions or motives of senior officers. Good day, sir.” He was across the room and out the door before Ryan could respond. Price walked quickly, focused on his destination, but also sorting through what he had just learned. It would be a few more hours before Swede returned to their shared quarters. Before that happened, Tony needed to determine exactly what Ryan Hill had been trying to tell him. He nodded absently to Dr. Ruger as she passed him. Fortunas, strolling along beside her, gave him a concerned glance.

***

Ensign Chi leaned against a bulkhead beside a neatly stamped sign identifying the nearby area as the “Food Storage and Preparation Area. Authorized Personnel Only”. He stifled a yawn and rubbed the top of his head. The crew cut that he’d foolishly agreed to the previous week itched.

A nutritionist’s assistant came out of the bay and stopped short when she saw him. He jerked upright from his slouching pose. He was an officer, after all, and supposed to set an example. Although, he thought, he didn’t cut a very fine figure of command with his guilty expression and loitering manner. In the time it took that thought to run through his head, Specialist Khameni came to attention before him.

“Can I be of assistance, sir?”

Chi tried to regain a smidge of dignity. “No, thank you, Specialist. You may carry on.”

She hesitated, which was the ensign’s undoing.

“I’m waiting on Doctors Ruger and Fortunas. I’m sure they’ll be here soon. Civilians, always running late, you know.”

The expression on the young woman’s face seemed to indicate that she knew nothing of the sort. “As you say, sir.” She walked off, but not without glancing back at the ensign loitering in the passageway.

As she turned the corner, the specialist saw Ruger and Fortunas walking toward her. The older man towered above the coffee-skinned woman beside him. They appeared to be having a heated discussion. Khameni blinked, then flushed, when Fortunas raked his eyes over her and winked. She walked past, toward the vacuum lift, a noticeable spring in her step.

Cassie Ruger rolled her eyes. “You are an animal in heat. I must remember to check your hormone levels.”

Ben wagged his eyebrows in what he liked to call his “Mark Twain maneuver”. He lowered his head, and his voice, to say, “Enforced celibacy does lead to a surfeit of adrenal emissions. Anytime you’d care to help with that, please let me know.” His chuckle was throaty as he watched Cassie’s pupils dilate and her skin darken. Before she could gather her wits and utter one of her typically repressive rejoinders, he lifted his head. In a loud voice, Fortunas remarked, “Ah, here is Ensign Chi. Do forgive our tardiness, dear boy. It was an enforced absence.”

He lisped enough on the last word to make Cassie flush and cough in embarrassment. Ben responded by thumping her, rather forcefully, between her shoulder blades. “Forgive the lady, she’s over-wrought.”

Chi took in this by-play with great bemusement. He wasn’t entirely sure the joke, and there surely was a joke, wasn’t at his expense. He tugged his uniform sleeves and tried to mimic the captain’s business-like tone. “I’m sure a technician from your departments could handle these tasks, if your attention is needed elsewhere.”