Dremiks (20 page)

He watched her go. Behind his glacial blue eyes, his thoughts screamed. What was O’Connell doing with Ryan? More importantly, what was Ryan doing
to
O’Connell and why? He reminded himself that Marissa was a vituperative bitch. Whatever O’Connell was doing with the Vice Chancellor of the colony, it most likely was mundane and not worthy of comment or passing thought.

Still….

***

Cassie Ruger knew that normal human existence required regular physical activity and space travel even more so. She knew that, and still resented every minute she spent on the treadmill or participating in the women’s aerobics classes. She liked to imagine a war between competing factions of her psyche. One faction, “Lazy”, constantly promised rewards of five more minutes under the warm quilts of her bed or the time to finish just one more chapter of a new book. “Lazy” fought many losing battles against her arch-enemy “Reason”. “Reason” cheated, relying on years of medical training and an ingrained sense of duty.

“Reason” had barely survived the latest internal battle. All Cassie wanted to do was sleep. Instead, she stretched to touch her toes and thanked whatever benevolent universal force was in charge today. The aerobics program was mercifully short and, even more mercifully, over. She grabbed her towel and slung a loose wrap-around shawl over her leotard. A hot shower called to her. She was preoccupied with getting back to her quarters as quickly as possible; she did not notice Lieutenant Price until he stepped into her path. She bounced off his chest and huffed her displeasure.

“How can I help you today, Lieutenant?”

Price’s hands lingered a second too long on the doctor’s forearms. He saw the involuntary shudder she tried to hide. He was far more successful at suppressing his own feral grin. The little doctor was too easy to intimidate.

“I need to re-schedule my physical.”

Cassie sighed. She briefly wished she possessed O’Connell’s ability to set this annoying man in his place. Or, better yet, the captain’s cool and condescending glances. Sadly, all she had at her disposal was the authority of her position as ship’s doctor. “You just had a physical, Lieutenant. I don’t recall anything requiring a retest.”

Tony’s perfect white teeth flashed as he smiled down at her. “Well, of course, everything appeared satisfactory to you. A military doctor, though, would understand that my physical reflects on my reviews. A pilot can be nothing less than perfect. I really must beg you to repeat my muscle mass and reflex action exams.”

“If it means you’ll let me go take a shower, I’ll be happy to indulge your need for perfection.” She couldn’t resist a snort when the lieutenant stepped fluidly to the side, one hand over his heart and a look of surprised contrition on his face.

“My sincere apologies, Doctor. I had no idea I was keeping you from your routine.”

She walked away thinking that Maggie was right; Price was an obnoxious ass. During her conversation with him, the sweat from her workout had dried on Cassie’s skin. She felt cold, sticky, and irritated. She began to understand why Maggie preferred solitary forms of exercise—and scheduled her runs for midnight. Price could hardly way-lay her at
that
obscene hour.

Maggie turned her head when she heard the hatch open behind her. She finished zipping her pressurized flight suit as Cassie bolted the door.

“Morning.”

The doctor stuffed her dirty towel in the laundry hamper, then started to methodically strip. O’Connell, for once, respected her need to avoid conversation. The pilot said nothing at all until the moment she was stepping out of the doorway.

“Hey, if you want it, there’s my extra five minutes of hot water on the shower controls.”

Cassie turned to give her roommate a weak smile, but the other women had already slipped away. The doctor whispered a soft, “Thanks, Mags.”

***

“You checked the locator logs for every crew member?”

Maggie’s emotions were still too raw and her control too fragile to be verbally fencing with the captain. She barely restrained the urge to roll her eyes. It was still early in the day; her eyes still hurt from crying all night and the memory of her conversation with the other Hill brother was too fresh.

“And all those of the colonists and civilian staff, sir.”

He was impressed by her dedication, but something was bothering her. She was too tense, snapping too much, and her face looked… bruised, somehow. Especially, he thought with growing concern, around her eyes. What in the hell had his idiot brother done? He needed her focused, not ready to go supernova at the slightest provocation.

“And?”

“And nothing, sir. Nothing that is in any way comment worthy. There are locators that are turned off, untraceable, for stretches of times, but all of those are easily explained.”

He’d expected as much. He knew the other officers had a card game going, which they studiously hid from him and O’Connell. She would, though, know the times and location of the game because she wasn’t
that
oblivious. She would likewise have figured out why certain locators were turned off at the exact same times between unmarried members of the civilian and military crew. He wondered how many affairs she’d discovered while searching for their saboteur. That thought made him wonder if perhaps the traitor was hiding his movements under the guise of a romantic liaison. He asked her if she’d thought of that.

She actually rolled her eyes. His temper flared.

“I’m sorry, Commander, is this exercise
boring
you? Are you sorry dear old dad isn’t here to take care of it for you so you can go back to having fun?”

Fun…the only thing her father had ever done for her was rob her of fun, love, joy, peace. Natalie had given her those things, but the Admiral had worked so very hard to take them right back. She glared at a spot on the wall above the captain’s left shoulder. She wanted to shout. No, she thought, if she was honest, she just wanted to be alone, alone with her thoughts, alone to cry. How very funny was that? She was truly alone in the universe, all but orphaned, without a friend to cry with and she wanted to somehow be
more
alone?

Whatever she was thinking about, the captain realized, it wasn’t pleasant. She was painfully rigid in her posture, with tense features. He thought, just for a moment, that she might even cry.

“What did Ryan do?” He asked the question without thinking, his concern softening his normally crisp tone.

She blinked, confused. Hadn’t he been taunting her about her father? What the hell was he asking about Ryan for?

Was that why Ryan passed on the Admiral’s threat? So that I would work harder at finding whoever destroyed the engine? Did you have Ryan handle it so you could appear above such machinations? Worried Ryan phrased the threat a little too strongly, are you? Well next time do your dirty work yourself.

“He responded to all questions with perfectly reasonable explanations, and I find no evidence of dissemination on his part regarding his motives or locations, sir.” She knew that wasn’t what he meant by his question. He wanted to know how Ryan had upset her, not where Ryan had been during the sabotage. Well, he could chew nails for all she cared.

Something had changed, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Frustrated, he dismissed the commander, then sat staring at the empty space in his ready-room. He shouldn’t have goaded her about her father, but why had his question about Ryan made her so angry? She’d been all but twitching at the end.

“Damn it, Ryan!” He slammed his hand, palm down, on his desk. His brother was becoming even more of a nuisance.

***

The conversation had to be held in secret, far from prying ears or recording devices.

“You went against orders. That contingency was intended for later, to keep them at Dremiks.”

“I had to make a command decision. I was given operational discretion. We were moving too fast.”

“And now you’re nearly a
month
ahead of schedule. I fail to see how your idiotic actions helped the situation. You nearly killed everyone on board.”

“O’Connell exaggerated the danger to the ship. It wasn’t all that serious. She just likes to make herself sound like an exceptional pilot. As for the schedule, it’s not my fault that a jump node was so close to our location. I expected the delay to last six weeks or more. That node wasn’t on any of my charts.”

“Our allies expect us to reach the planet and mine that lorga. We get their weapons technology in exchange for the lorga and compatible DNA. None of that happens if the
Hudson
never reaches Dremiks. Do not stray from your mission parameters again, understood?”

“I’m not the one who’s gone off the reservation. Maybe the Admiral should take this up with his daughter.”

“Leave controlling O’Connell to her father. Are your orders understood?”

“For now.”

Chapter 12

Lieutenant Price watched the commander give a particularly vicious kick to the hanging bag. Just a month before, he would have seriously considered strolling over and taunting her into a sparring match. He could, at least, be reasonably certain of a victory in
that
arena. But not today—the commander had been a savage ball of nerves for several weeks. Whatever was troubling her, he wanted nothing to do with it. He didn’t need to come to blows with the senior pilot. While he would certainly survive the initial contact, his career would be finished.

Tony grabbed his towel and left the gym. The chief’s coffee beckoned, but he needed a shower first. The rest of his day was a marathon of duty rotations and simulator work with the civilian pilots. The civilians needed to be able to navigate between the surface of Dremiks and the Dremikian space station. When the
Hudson
departed for home, the colonists would be on their own until the
Magellan
arrived four months later. There were several well-qualified pilots in the colonial group. Tony did not anticipate them having any difficulty.

All I have to do is survive this tour and I can have my pick of any duty assignment anywhere in the universe. I can marry Holly and not worry about Admiral O’Connell or his witchy daughter again. My own ship someday
—
something small and maneuverable
—
without all the baggage…

Those happy thoughts buoyed his spirit. His mind was occupied with fleshing out the fantasy right up until he arrived for his first bridge-watch of the day. O’Connell was already there and looked less than pleased. Price checked his chronometer, wondering if he was, somehow, late. He wasn’t. He snuck a quick glance at Ensign Chi, but the man seemed to be trying to melt into the bulkheads.

“Price!” She barked his name as if he was daydreaming, instead of standing before her alert and at attention.

“Good morning, ma’am. Did I miss a change in the duty roster?” He was just a few inches taller than the commander. Not for the first time he wondered if it was easier to deal with O’Connell while towering above her. Hill and Guttmann certainly never had to deal with her bitchy, green-eyed, glare.

“You did not. You will, however, be missing your training rotations this afternoon. The simulator has malfunctioned, again. I’ll be spending some time with it this morning, but if I fail to fix the problem before this afternoon, I want
you
to rip out the AI guidance and go through it line by line. It will be your ass the captain chews if that thing isn’t working right by 1800 tomorrow.”

1800 the following day was, if Price recalled correctly, the time the captain had scheduled for his personal review of crew and civilian progress on landing simulations. He instantly understood O’Connell’s urgency, and he just as quickly rankled at her tone. Their one simulator and its proper functioning were her responsibility, not his. He took a deep breath, intensely aware that the other occupants of the bridge were listening to every word.

“As you say, ma’am. I’ll just notify the civilians that their training has been postponed and spend those hours making sure everything is working properly.” He could tell by the look on her face that O’Connell was searching for some reason to reprimand him. He worked hard to keep his features neutral.

You aren’t going to provoke a confrontation, not today, Commander. Not here. Damn, I really need to have Swede corner her and fix whatever is pissing her off.

“Right, carry on Lieutenant.” She marched off the bridge without another word. He went through the ritual of relieving Chi of his watch and then flopped into the co-pilot’s seat. His fingers jabbed the keys a little harder than necessary while entering data into the log. Tony really,
really,
needed to get through this mission so he could get as far away as possible from the irascible O’Connell.

***

Four hours later, the simulator still not working correctly, and her back aching nearly as much as her head, O’Connell stalked into the officers’ mess. The captain and Swede were chatting over the remains of their lunch. The lieutenant stood as she entered, but she waved her hand at him as she walked past. She poured herself some coffee. Then she realized that both men were silent and staring at her.

“What?” Her voice was rough.

The captain’s damned eyebrow made a meteoric rise. He looked, pointedly, at the engineer before standing. “I’ll expect that report this evening, Lieutenant.” He glanced back at the commander. She stared stonily back. With a curt nod, the captain left the room.

Behind him, Swede, who had risen when the captain had, turned to glare at Maggie. She tried to glare back, but quickly looked away. He dropped his chin to his chest and sighed. A few long strides brought him to the door mechanism where he punched in a code, locking the room from the inside. When he turned to face her once more, she was watching him with a cornered, harried, expression.

Long experience being Maggie O’Connell’s friend had taught Swede how to read her moods. Granted, he couldn’t always predict the outcome of her more petulant or angry phases, but he definitely knew what
not
to do when she needed comfort. Hands jammed in his uniform slacks, the lieutenant leaned on the counter beside her.