Degrees of Wrong (13 page)

Idiot, you don’t have time for admiration—or formalities.
“I need you to promote me. Immediately,” I blurted, glancing behind me for pursuers.

He looked up, startled, but recovered with a smile. “Ah, Dr. Morgan. Just the person I wanted to see.” He glanced at the device again, and the baffled expression returned. “It says here you’ve placed an order for fifteen pounds of chocolate. Must be some sort of typo.” He tore his gaze from the screen. I could tell my demand just registered. “I’m sorry? What did you just say?”

“I said I need you to promote me. Right now. I’ve done something bad. Very bad.” I tried to keep my voice calm, shoving hands in pockets to stop them from shaking. I could’ve prepared a better opening argument, even with the brief time I had in the elevator.

Nonetheless, he seemed to consider my request. After a long, nerve-fringing moment, he said, “You can see where I might find your reasoning a bit flawed.”

“If you care at all if I live to see tomorrow, you’ll sign off on it right now. Anyway, it shouldn’t be too difficult, since I’m a doctor. Aren’t all doctors supposed to be officers?” I asked in a pitch bordering on delirium.

He ran a hand through his black hair in obvious exasperation. “What exactly did you do?” He narrowed his eyes, finally interpreting the seriousness of the matter.

“I…can…explain,” I breathed between constrictions.
Get it together.
Someone would give chase, any minute, any second, and I stood here murdering my chances at a fair hearing.

He placed the device on his desk, motioned me to come to him. I almost barreled into him.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” He grabbed my shoulders as if to steady me, but he shook me instead. The exasperation turned to concern as he appraised every inch of me, looking for an injury. Clutching my chin, he lifted my face to his, his eyes arresting mine. “For God’s sake, what happened? Are you hurt?”

I opened my mouth to answer but couldn’t form the words. And then it was too late.

“Captain Marek, permission to speak freely, sir,” a feminine voice said from behind us.

The captain released me instantly, and I whirled around. Lt. Sheldon, in all her beauty, saluted in the doorway. She glared at me with unrestrained threat, and I knew she knew.

“Actually, Lt. Sheldon, I was in the middle of a private meeting with Morgan. Can this wait?” He had regained his professional tone.

She winced at the small rejection but squared her shoulders and glided across the room to us. “No, sir, it cannot. I’ve come to arrest Cadet Morgan,” she informed us both.

“What?” I gasped, as he said, “I’m sorry?” I couldn’t think of a single instance where I’d heard of someone being arrested while already in captivity.

“Permission to speak freely, sir,” she requested again.

He looked from her to me and back to her. I saw this out of the corner of my peripheral—I couldn’t pry my scrutiny from her stunning face. A bloody nose would mar it nicely, which was what she’d get if she laid a hand on me.
Calm down.

“Permission granted.” He scowled. “Why do you want to arrest Morgan?”

She wouldn’t look at me. “Insubordination, sir. When Lt. Horan tried to restrain her, she assaulted him.”

“That’s a lie,” I spat, enraged.

She turned on me then, and I began to consider her pressure points. It would be my pleasure to strike the one on the temporal, I decided.

“How dare you speak to me. I haven’t addressed you directly. You will respect your superiors,” she said with authority.

My fists balled—I wasn’t quite sure what they planned to do next.

“Please control yourself, Morgan.” Captain Marek glanced with meaning at my hands.

I straightened my fingers, held them open so they didn’t touch each other, hoping to prevent the conspiracy of their balling together again.

“How did she assault him?” I was grateful for Captain Marek’s judicial tone—for now, at least.

“She apparently used some sort of tactical maneuver to render him unconscious. We can’t wake him up.” The pretty lieutenant stood rigid with animosity.

“Permission to speak freely as well, sir,” I requested through gritted teeth. I also resolved to work on my temper. Later.

“Of course.” He raised a brow at my tone. “You’re entitled to defend yourself.”

“Which is what I did when Lt. Horan attacked
me
. I’m afraid Lt. Sheldon is relying on secondhand information, as she wasn’t there herself.”

“Is this true, Sheldon?” he asked, playing diplomat.

“Yes, sir,” she conceded. “But my source is reliable.”

“The only other people in the room were cadets, Lt. Sheldon, which means your source is a cadet. Therefore, it’s one cadet’s word against another, which brings us to an impasse, without other corroborating witnesses. Is that correct, Captain?” I said.

That any of those nitwits had the imagination—or the gall—to tell such a convoluted story irritated me. I determined to ferret out her source. My gut told me to start with a redheaded snippet.

Lt. Sheldon opened her mouth but clamped it shut again. I almost giggled at the registration of confusion on her lovely face—almost.

“Actually, that isn’t correct,” Captain Marek said, surprising us both. I was sure I’d read that in one of the volumes the admiral lent me. Anger swayed a bit toward apprehension again. “You see, Lt. Sheldon, I’m afraid there’s been a misunderstanding as to Morgan’s rank. She was mistakenly processed as a cadet, but as she’s a medical doctor, she should’ve been processed as a lieutenant. She’s been very patient with us while we worked to resolve the issue, but just this afternoon I received her recommendations as an officer. That’s why I called her to my office. So, as Lt. Horan is her equal in rank, I don’t see any need to arrest her at all. Unless you have something else to charge her with?”

If Lt. Sheldon was speechless before, she graduated to permanent mute now. My own jaw ached with the angle at which it hung open—his deception was flawless. He said it as if commenting on the size of the ship or its capacity for passengers.

To her credit, Lt. Sheldon recovered first. “She did attack an officer, sir.” The shock of being at odds with the captain shone clear on her face.

Captain Marek shrugged. “That remains to be seen. You didn’t witness the act, and the only officer who did is unconscious, at present. We’ll wait for Lt. Horan’s written statement before we proceed. I can only hope that statement will include an apology. We’ve tested Dr. Morgan’s patience long enough.”

“Yes, sir.” Her shoulders rounded in defeat.

“Will that be all?” he asked. Again, she winced.

“Yes, sir,” we replied in unison.

“Dismissed,” he said.

We headed for the door. For her safety, I resolved to wait for the second elevator. I’d never spoken to this woman before today, so her insistence on throwing me in a locked cell left me a bit aggravated with her.

“Not you, Dr. Morgan,” he called after us. “We have a few more things to discuss.”

Lt. Sheldon huffed before exiting the room alone. I’d made an enemy out of her today. I tried to care. It didn’t work.

I turned back to the captain. “Yes?”

“What happened?” He grinned. It took a moment to compose a rational thought.

“Uh… May I sit down, please?”

“Of course.” He motioned to one of the huge chairs. He sat on his desk, crossed his muscled arms.

“Lt. Horan sent for me while I was at lunch. He concocted some story about my volunteering to be his assistant in the hand-to-hand combat class.”

“His guinea pig.” He smirked. “I thought you’d been excused from that class.”

“I was. I am. He was upset about this morning, when I smiled at him. He’s
such
a poor sport,” I grumbled. “Anyway, I went to the training room to resolve the issue, but he wouldn’t let me leave. And then he started to come after me.”

“Come after you?”

“Yes, Captain. He tried to grab me, lunge at me, what have you. I had to defend myself.”

“You’ve had tactical training? I wouldn’t think that’d be on the course itinerary for an aspiring doctor at The University,” he mused, enjoying himself.

“No, I cannot fight, if that’s what you’re asking.” Exhaustion set in, and true to my prediction, my head throbbed. I yawned wide.

“Better get on with the story before you succumb and I have to carry you to your quarters.” He laughed.

The thought of him carrying me anywhere set something to flight in my stomach, but butterflies were too delicate a culprit to describe it. And now I had to talk again.

“Yes, well, like I said, I can’t fight. So I decided to go for his brachial plexus.”

“His pressure point.”

“Yes. Are you familiar with pressure points? I forgot you’re a genius of some sort.” I’d been prepared to explain that one.

He shrugged. “Enough to know that a small amount of pressure wouldn’t render him unconscious.” He raised a brow.

I made a face. “I panicked. I accidentally punched him.”

“You
punched
his pressure point?”

“Oops?”

“Are you sure he’s okay?”

“I checked his vitals myself. Maybe he’s in a coma.”
One could only hope.

Captain Marek laughed again.

“It’s really not that funny. He could’ve hurt me. He had his hands around my neck already.” My substantial yawn negated the seriousness of the situation. My limbs felt heavy, my body too comfortable in this chair. The high from my adrenaline struck gravity. I had little time left before I wouldn’t be leaving of my own accord.

He grinned. “I suppose you’d like to go to your quarters and get some rest.”

I stood when he did, nodding eagerly. I turned to leave but stopped myself. Something had been left unsaid, and it needed to be addressed now.

“Captain Marek, I—wanted to thank you for what you did today. That could have gone much worse without your intervention.”

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t have let her arrest you. I couldn’t explain to
my
superiors…” he smiled with the reminder, “…why I allowed their precious cargo to be in that situation in the first place. You actually gave me the way out.”

“Why couldn’t I have been an officer the whole time? You knew I was a doctor the first day I boarded.” I tried to keep resentment out of my tone.

“You had already boarded as a cadet, and I was under the impression you were here for witness protection, as you may recall. And then you…complicated…things by confronting Frank. It was out of my hands at that point. I still had a ship to run, and that would have been an upset.” He frowned. I decided to take it as an apology. I
had
put him in a difficult position. In retrospect, his reasoning made sense.

“I see. Well, thank you, just the same. Have a good day, Captain.” I turned to leave.

He stopped me. “Actually, Dr. Morgan, you can call me Nicoli when we’re alone. As you so generously pointed out this morning, I’m not
your
captain.”

This time I caught my jaw before it flopped open. He was offering me an olive branch. I didn’t know what a friendship with him would entail, but I couldn’t consider him my enemy any longer. Besides, I was already in danger of genuinely liking this man.

“Okay, thank you. And I suppose, when we’re alone, you may call me Dr. Morgan. Will that be all?” I mimicked the way he usually said this, only smiling.

He laughed. “In fact, no.” He retrieved the small device he’d been holding before. He glanced down at it and back at me. “It says here that you’ve ordered fifteen pounds of chocolate.”

“Actually, that
is
a typo.” I tried not to blush. “It should be twenty pounds.”

I could still hear his laughter resounding down the hall as the doors to the elevator shut behind me.

Still, I hoped he’d order the twenty pounds.

I stopped by the lab to check in with Dr. Folsom before heading to my quarters. The long line of patients had dissipated from the hall, the lab just as empty.

She accosted me with a dirty look. “Lt. Horan was just here.”

I bit my bottom lip, tried to appear remorseful. “Is he okay?”

“Do you care?”

“Sort of.” At least, I didn’t want him dead.

“Whatever happened to ‘do no harm’?” She folded her arms across her chest.

“It was self-defense.”

“He wasn’t going to hurt you.” I thought she might start tapping her foot like my mother.

“He had his hands around my neck. I didn’t know his intentions.”

When she huffed, I knew we were coming to a close. “Well, he
is
okay. You just rendered him unconscious.”

“I did check his vitals before I left, if that makes you feel better.”

She raised a surprised brow. “It does. Where did you go?”

“To speak with Captain Marek about the situation.”
Like a grownup
, I wanted to add.

“And?” Again, I was surprised she hadn’t initiated the foot tapping.