Recon Marines III: The Marine's Doctor (10 page)

She laughed. “No, I guess it doesn’t.”
She tapped a small screen set into the wall beside the table. A
list of meal options filled the screen.

Mak leaned in to look at it at the
same time as she did so they bumped heads. Heat rose from his chest
and climbed his neck. Molly patted his hand as if comforting a
child. Mak had seen mothers treat their young the same way. Yet it
still eased his embarrassment.

The foods had complicated names and
the short descriptions left much to mystery. Molly pointed at one.
“The Venus sampler sounds delicious.”

Mak relaxed. He would say whatever she
did. He could eat almost anything. The order taker returned and set
a fancy stemmed glass in front of Molly and a tall,
moisture-dripping mug in front of Mak. Molly told the girl what she
wanted, describing the dishes she wanted to accompany the main
food. When the girl turned to Mak, he simply said he wanted the
same.

Molly laughed quietly as the girl took
her leave. “Do you have any idea what you just ordered?”

“
It seems more like asking
than ordering.” Mak noticed Corporal Box staring at him with
narrowed eyes. Now why?

“
Well, I guess it’s
something in between.” Molly laughed again, the last rays of the
sun making her hazel eyes appear lighter than usual. On the ship
she always fixed her hair in a fat knot on top of her head but
tonight it hung around her shoulders like it had the first day that
he’d seen her. Waves, none of them quite curls, made it look even
thicker than he suspected it was. Light shimmered through it when
she looked over her shoulder at someone entering the café. She
wasn’t an exceptionally thin woman, but the line of her neck and
the delicate tilt of her chin gave her a fragile appearance. She
looked at home here in the frilly restaurant even though she wore
the same military-style shirt and pants as she did in the
field.

“
Why do you go out in the
field?” With the general’s influence, she could probably do
anything she wanted. Mak’s time on Giroux had educated him on
politics and the way a name could open jobs for people. He’d gone
on a few exploration trips with Acacia before she’d decided she
wanted to teach at a university. Fieldwork was dirty, dangerous,
difficult and often fruitless.

“
Why do you want to know
everything there is to know?” Molly leaned across the table as if
she needed to see deeper into his eyes.

“
Shouldn’t you answer my
question first?”

“
Are you lecturing me on
manners, Mak?” She smiled when she said it. “I love the field,
making new discoveries and seeing new planets. Hector and I have
two fungi and three herbal extracts being tested in the best
medical labs already.”

“
Why take on this
mission?”

“
My father asked me to
lead the investigation. He said I could keep anything I learned
about immunity from whatever we found. Hector and I are screening
all the blood samples we’ve collected so far. We’ll look for
antibodies, natural and added.” She learned even closer. “We know
that the Recon Marines have the best immune system among the
population. Have you ever been sick?”

Mak hadn’t expected such a personal
question but he saw no reason to not answer. “No, I
haven’t.”

“
It might have been in
these preliminary experiments where that immunity was perfected. I
hope we find their notes or records or anything that may lead us to
the treatment of many devastating diseases.”

“
This trip has already
proven dangerous. It could get more so.”

“
I know. My father trusts
me to keep the army’s secrets, but he also knew how important this
research could be to modern medicine. He trusts me to only use the
information that deals with my field of study and destroy anything
that might lead to more unethical experiments being inspired by
what we find.”

The order taker brought their food, a
large plate of steaming meat with a scoop of green vegetables for
each of them. She set a platter of bread and cups of broth in the
middle of table. The scents filled the space between
them.

Molly grinned at him and then dug into
her meal. They didn’t talk for long minutes while they enjoyed the
savory feast. Mak had learned to love food on Giroux where he’d
also discovered that whom one shared the meal with improved the
experience.

“
Mak,” Molly said after
folding her napkin beside her plate. “I understand your need to
learn, but I can’t understand why you agreed to reactivate your
officer’s commission.” She reached across the table and put her
hand on top of his. “Seeing those horrible labs affected you, maybe
more than any of us. Why put yourself through this?”

“
Your father asked me
to.”

“
You could have said
no.”

Mak stood up. “I need to check on
Pender. Thank you for sharing dinner with me.” He didn’t give her a
chance to reply. He paused at a counter near the door and entered
his credit ID to pay for their food. Thanks to the discovery of
crystallized iron that he and the other Recon Marines had made, he
had no shortage of funds.

He walked around the town, the streets
mostly empty as the sky turned to purple. Thanks to two bright
moons, New Venus never experienced a truly dark time. The gloomy
light matched Mak’s mood. He’d thought he’d hidden the emotional
blow the labs had dealt him, but Molly had noticed. The back of his
hand remembered the feel of her touch. Even with Acacia, Mak didn’t
think he’d ever felt a touch filled with such compassion. Molly had
understood at least part of what he’d felt. He wanted her to
understand it all.

****

Molly took a long hot bath, something
unavailable on the science vessel. Then she wrapped herself in the
thick robe the luxurious inn provided. She used her AI device to
pull up a news feed and snuggled into a corner of the sofa. But her
thoughts turned back to Mak and his reaction to her questions. She
shouldn’t have pushed him. He wasn’t anything like she expected a
Recon Marine to be.

During her years traveling around to
different military posts with her father, she’d met lots of career
soldiers. Many of them maintained a more stoic demeanor than Mak.
When she’d first met him, she’d found him standoffish as many
officers were, but if not for his uncanny physical perfection, he
seemed as any other soldier. A very intelligent, efficient,
multi-talented soldier. It wasn’t easy for a military man to
impress her. Or to arouse sympathy in her. She wondered if Mak even
knew why seeing the labs bothered him. What kind of psychological
issues burdened a Recon Marine? Endless.

They’d been working so well together.
She hoped she hadn’t ruined the growing ease between them. A firm
knock on her door interrupted her thoughts. She nearly groaned as
she stood. She’d hoped Helen and Hector wouldn’t bother her with
work for this one night. They had long days on the ship to their
next destination according to Mak when they could discuss and
speculate on their findings. But when she opened her door Mak stood
there.

His dark gaze swept over her and he
took a step back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were already
abed.”

“
I’m not.” Molly stepped
back from the door and waved him in. The room shrank when he
stepped across the threshold. “I was catching up on some
news.”

She led him over to the sofa. He
waited until she sat down before sitting on the other end as far
from her as he could be. Though he sat very still she sensed the
tension in him. “Is something wrong, Mak? Is Pender all
right?”

His eyebrow went up. “Pender is
resting in a room down the hall.”

“
Good.”

“
I didn’t want to answer
your questions earlier. That’s why I left our dinner so
abruptly.”

“
Really.” Molly bit her
lip to hold back her smile.

“
I will answer it for you,
Dr. Molly Drant. I accepted this mission for a few reasons. The
Recon Marines owe your father. Though he doesn’t speak loudly in
our defense, he has worked faithfully in the legal tangles of
military justice to make sure we remain free men. I was the best
situated to go.”

“
Situated?” Molly scooted
closer to him on the sofa. Drawn to the open vulnerability on his
face as much as the strength in his deep voice.

“
My brothers are all
involved…all newly married. I’m alone.”

He probably had no idea how those
words sounded to Molly. She was close enough now to take his hand.
His long strong fingers were callused against her own
work-roughened hand. “That isn’t the only reason you came
along.”

Mak looked at their hands, his fingers
tightening on hers. “I guess I had to know where we came from. The
Recon Marines figured out we were considered expendable long before
we chose to disobey unlawful orders. Human life is precious to most
people. But the people who created us wanted a living, thinking
weapon. Our lives were not to be mourned as those of a human
soldier.”

“
Only a few people thought
that way.”

“
Only a few people knew of
our existence and nearly all of them thought that way.” Mak lifted
his gaze to hers. The artificial light didn’t bring out the blue in
his eyes as much as sunlight did, only offering hints of color in
the dark intense depths. “We weren’t human in their eyes just like
those creatures we saw on Julian. We were considered as disposable
but more useful. The experiments preceding ours were thrown away
like broken instruments.”

“
Mak, anyone who meets you
knows that you are human.” Molly couldn’t imagine the emotional
pain the Recon Marines could never entirely escape.

“
I am a motherless,
fatherless, lab-born being.” Mak looked down at their hands again,
hiding whatever was in his eyes. “I have to know what my creators
were thinking as they conducted their cruel experiments. Were we
the epitome of their work? Were Nemon and his ilk the ultimate
weapon?”

“
My father believes those
that created Nemon were a rogue branch of the military science
division that diverged from those who worked on the Recon Marine
program years before you were born.”

“
And these rogues are the
people we’re following?”

“
Yes. We believe
so.”

“
And I shall find my
answers.”

“
Mak, I don’t think these
awful, unethical people were like your creators.”

“
I think they were exactly
like them. Filled with arrogance as they manipulated the natural
order.”

Molly didn’t think Mak would find the
answers he wanted. And if he found them, they likely wouldn’t give
him the closure or comfort he sought. She put her hand on his cheek
and turned his gaze back to hers. “I think all people seek to find
their place in the universe, their fated path.”

His eyebrow rose. “You believe in
fate? I wouldn’t expect someone raised at General Drant’s side to
have such fanciful notions.”

“
I do believe there is a
higher purpose directing our lives, guiding the choices we
make.”

“
Even after what we saw on
Julian? Do you believe the fate of those men was determined at
their birth? To be turned into nearly mindless creatures and to
suffer endlessly until death catches up with them?”

“
Some choice they made led
them there. Perhaps they volunteered, greedy to experience superior
abilities. Or they might have been condemned men who lost their
personal rights and liberties because of their evil
acts.”

“
I can’t agree with your
logic, doctor, though I also don’t know how to counter your
arguments.” His eyebrow was up again, making him more
handsome.

“
Thank you for telling me
this, Mak.” Molly ran her hand down his cheek and then around the
back of his neck. She tugged his head toward her, smiling as his
eyes widened.

He dropped his gaze to her lips and
then she didn’t have to pull on him anymore. He leaned in, touching
his lips to hers, light and hesitant. She stretched to meet him,
pressing her lips into his. It had been a while since she’d kissed
anyone, and she didn’t remember it being so…nice. Her father’s
position or her intellect fended off most men. Perhaps a fearless
marine was what she needed.

He ran his hand through her hair and
rested it behind her head. His lips moved on hers as he held her in
place. Then he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. “I
shouldn’t have done that.”

“
You shouldn’t have?”
Molly pulled back so he had to let go of her. “I believe we did
that. You weren’t alone in that kiss.”

He blinked a few times. “Of course I
wasn’t alone.”

“
You don’t have to worry
about my father.”

“
Why would I worry about
your father?”

“
Because you kissed me. I
won’t let him cause trouble for you.”

“
Trouble for me?” Mak
touched his fingers to his lips. “I thought it was a good kiss,
didn’t you?”

“
I enjoyed it quite a
bit.”

“
How is the kiss related
to trouble with your father?”