Supernova (19 page)

The new
vaccinations would be helpful should she ever find herself the subject of a
mediscan reading. They could make her original immunizations less visible,
although he had no idea how Dr. Ashford could disguise her healed ribs and missing
appendix. But he wasn’t the one with the medical training.

“Vaccinations
are a lot less uncomfortable than when you were a kid,” he said.

She
tapped a datatab. “I’ve been reading about them. No more syringes. Mostly
transdermal delivery now.”

At the mention
of syringes, Rian felt a faint shudder course through him. She noticed it and
shook her head. He glanced at the clock. “I have to get back to the bridge,” he
said reluctantly.

“No time
for a coffee?”

“I just
wanted to see you,” he replied honestly.

“How did
you know where to find me?” He gestured to the comm badge clipped to her
collar. “Oh, right.”

Rian got
up from his seat, and she raised her hand to her temple in a mock salute, a
knowing grin across her face. “See you soon, Captain.”

* * *

Mora and
Lily were quickly becoming each other’s confidantes. It was nice to have a
female ally on a patrol ship whose crew was largely male, and she wasn’t much older
than Lily, having celebrated her thirtieth birthday a few weeks before they
met. She had also started off her Fleet career in the pharmacy after finishing
what she described as a useless degree in obscure planetary cultures. She had a
broken engagement behind her as well. They had a lot in common.

Mora was
administering her vaccinations today. She showed Lily the transdermal sprays,
slim tubes that reminded her of her old asthma inhaler, and how the doses were
calibrated according to genetic information supplied on the mediscan. “If you’re
in a hospital, you’ll be doing this,” she said. “Mixing meds is beneath us
nurses.” She grinned, showing off a perfect white smile. Lily knew it probably
put countless patients at ease, especially male ones.

“What
are you doing, exactly?”

Mora
tried to simplify her explanation, but Lily got lost in the terminology. She
caught familiar terms like “body mass” and “estrogen,” and nodded.

“Don’t
worry,” Mora assured her. “That shows up later on in your coursework. All you
have to do is follow the mediscan’s readouts.” She held up the first spray and
glanced back and forth between it and the mediscan. “Are you almost caught up
with
Lightning’s Luck
?”

“I
watched two episodes last night when I finished studying for my exam. The ship
was stuck in a wormhole and Captain Trid was trapped in engineering with the doors
sealed.”

“Oh,
good. You’re almost through with the first series, then. Captain Trid’s hot,
isn’t he?”

Lily
recalled the blond, muscled captain with telekinetic powers that always failed
him at the worst times. “Yeah.”

“I
wouldn’t object to a posting on that ship.” She held the spray against Lily’s
upper arm and depressed its plunger. Lily felt a tiny whoosh of air and her
skin cooled as the med solution spread. “Although Captain Marska isn’t hard to
look at either, even if does act like he has a rod up his ass.”

Lily
stiffened slightly. A rush of something harsh hit her senses, and it had
nothing to do with the immune system booster she had just received. It
was...jealousy?

Mora
caught it. Mirth danced in her eyes. “Not my type, though,” she said smoothly. “He’s
way too serious. I like men who don’t always play by the rules.” She tossed the
spray into a bin designated Med-Waste. She was watching Lily to gauge her
reaction.

She let
out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Mora prepped another transdermal
spray for the second part of her vaccination. Without looking up, Mora said, “He’s
yours, though.”

What the
hell. Lily trusted Mora. “He’s not mine,” she said carefully, but added, “He’s
smart and thoughtful.”

Mora was
ready with the new spray. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but I think
we’re becoming friends, and there’s something you need to know. Two things,
actually.” She positioned the spray in the crook of her left arm, over her
pulse point. “First, this one’s hot.” She activated it and Lily squealed in
surprise. It felt like she had held her arm over the steam issuing from a
teakettle. “Sorry.” Mora had a sheepish look on her face as she dropped the
spray in the waste receptacle. “And second,” she continued, “I know how to keep
a secret, which is good because I’m a nurse and incurably nosy.” Her expression
grew serious. “What is going on with Captain Marska?”

“Have
you been talking to Taz?”

“Occasionally,
but everyone talks to Taz. Medical professionals are bound to a confidentiality
agreement. I also saw you two at a restaurant on Rubidge. So, tell.”

“Rian
and I are friends,” Lily replied simply.

“
Rian
?”
The look on her face was priceless.

“I swear
to all the gods everyone here believes in,” Lily began, but she was laughing. “Okay,
I’m telling you this as your patient. I want it to turn into something more. I’m
hoping
it’ll turn out to be something more.” She caught Mora’s bemused
expression. “Please don’t tell me there’s no chance things could work out. I
really like him.”

Mora was
poking around a cabinet. “Good. He needs to get laid.”

“Mora!”

“I’m
saying that as a medical professional. Everyone needs to.” Her expression
darkened for a moment. “Especially me.”

“Am I
bound to the same confidentiality clause as you?”

“No, but
we’re friends, and discretion is implied.” She removed more small vials and
tubes from the cabinet and read the labels, frowning at them.

“Anyway,
it’s not like that,” Lily told her. “We really don’t have much choice but to
take it slowly.”

“You
know we’re stuck in deep space, right? No one can work every hour of the day
and night. Well, except the captain. I guess you have your work cut out for you
after all.” She turned back to the cabinet and rummaged through it again. “Damn
it, I try to keep this organized.” To Lily, she said, “Now, I’m giving you the
VDI. It’s mandatory if you want to work anywhere controlled by Fleet, and most
of the Commons planets require it, too. Aha!” She removed a pair of tiny
packets and a laser scalpel. “It keeps your bits from turning green and falling
off if you pick up the wrong one-night stand.” Lily giggled at her explanation.
“Thanks to dumb soldiers who can’t tell the difference between their rifles and
guns, we all have to have these.” She held up a small, flat box studded with
tiny holes. “This will administer a local anaesthetic. I’m going to insert the
implant under the skin on the back of your hip, and you won’t feel a thing. Lay
on your side, please.”

Lily
obediently lay back on the exam table and slid down the waistband of her pants
a few inches. “Hey!” said Mora, admiring the tattoo that graced her hipbone. It
was three inches wide, a design of green leaves and vines, with delicate pink
and blue flowers throughout. “I like that.”

“I
rebelled during university. My father didn’t care.”

Mora
placed the locan just over her hipbone, numbing the skin. Lily deliberately
kept her eyes on the exam room’s closed door. True to the nurse’s word, she
didn’t feel anything. “It’s pretty,” Mora said of the tattoo. “A lot nicer than
the ones you can get here. The colors are brighter.”

“Let me
guess—lasers? We use needles where I come from.”

“I’d do
that if I could get a locan first,” Mora said. “That tattoo is worth it. Do you
want the contraceptive implant?” She raised her eyebrows in mock-suggestion.

Lily had
already read about the common implants and medications in her text and had been
amazed at the contraceptive and VD implants, both so much better than what she
was used to. They beat condoms for sure. If this was to be her new home... She
nodded.

Mora
prepped another locan and tiny implant and painlessly inserted it under the
skin in her right shoulder. “It has to be changed every four years,” she
cautioned. “It’ll show up on medscans, and a doctor or nurse can tell you when
it’s time.” She picked up her mediscan and flicked it on, hovering it over the
length of her body. “Everything looks good,” she reported, tapping at the
screen. “In a regular check-up, no one will be able to pick up your old
vaccines unless they were looking for them. Your appendix and broken ribs are
still showing up, but if you find yourself under the care of a doctor who isn’t
Fleet, just tell them you grew up in the Outer Fringes. Their medicine is
pretty primitive compared to what we have in the Commons.” She turned off the
mediscan. “All set. The new series of
Lightning’s Luck
is only a month
away. Are you sure you’ll be able to get through the next two series by then?”

“Definitely.”

“And
think about what I said.” She winked.

“I am
already.”

Mora
offered her a saucy wink as a goodbye, and Lily smiled.

Chapter 11

Lily bit
her lip as she surveyed the mess of clothes blanketing her bed. There wasn’t
much to choose from. She had played it safe in the shops on Rubidge Station,
selecting clothes that were the most familiar to her and could blend in
anywhere. Half a dozen pairs of unadorned black pants, simple shirts in plain
colors, and a few sweaters did not make for an exciting wardrobe. She missed
her worn-in jeans and T-shirts from home.

There
was
that black dress Mora had picked out for her, hanging out of an open dresser
drawer. Lily had discovered by accident that none of her clothes wrinkled, and
had tried to guess what the fabric was before giving up. She had scrunched up a
few blouses and stepped on them, left her pants twisted up on the bathroom
floor, and hadn’t seen as much as a crease. So there was another unexpected
perk to living in the future. Her blue linen dress was still crumpled in a ball
in the corner of the room; she’d get around to cleaning and pressing it another
time, although God knew where she could wear it. Wearing it here would be like
wearing overalls to a corporate board meeting. Everyone would know she didn’t
belong.

She
picked up the black dress and held it up, critically eyeing herself in the
mirror bolted to the bedroom wall. There was no question that it fit better
than anything she had owned, but it wasn’t something she could wear around the
ship. She didn’t even own a bra that would work with such a dress. It was held
up with a profusion of thin straps and was cut low in the back. It had taken
her almost ten minutes just to try it on and figure out where everything was
supposed to go. She sighed and tossed it back in the open drawer.

She
fiddled with her hair, making a note to find out where to get it cut as she
scrubbed her bangs out of her eyes. She had been planning on getting a haircut
in the next day or two when she was still on Earth, and had spent some time on
her computer at Lazarus Cryonics looking for a decent stylist in her area. If
she could find a pair of scissors on the
Defiant
, she would just trim
her bangs herself.

Lily
touched up her makeup a little—850 years ahead of her time, and at least she
could still get mascara in a tube—and again surveyed herself in the mirror.
Aside from the weird seals on her shirt and pants in lieu of buttons and
zippers, she looked the same as always.

She
couldn’t believe how irritated she was at her wardrobe. It should be the least
of her concerns after waking up in a spaceship’s cargo hold centuries out of
her own time, only to find herself a top-secret military project and forced
into going back to school, to boot. If anything, the exam she had written that
afternoon should be on the forefront of her mind, and it wasn’t. Even though
she had scored 91% on an exam whose subject matter was dry as chalk, and she
hadn’t earned an A-plus in anything since her first year of university. The
Napoleonic Wars, she recalled wryly. Her knowledge of that era was even less
relevant now than it was at home.

Lily had
never been very fussy about her appearance; as she had told Rian back on
Rubidge Station, she had grown up in the dirt. She put effort into looking
presentable, but she hadn’t gone through a phase where she had to look like a
model leaving the house. She had never dressed to attract male attention
specifically, so why was she sighing over a bunch of clothes now? She was
especially aggravated with herself because the one man she wanted to notice her
already did, and he never seemed to care what she was wearing. All of this
worry was for nothing. Still, it would be nice if she could look special for
once.

She knew
Rian would be off-duty this evening; he had told her during an afternoon coffee
break. Lily had asked if she could see the bridge. She wanted to know if it
looked like the ones on TV, and then she had to explain again what TV and
Star
Trek
were. It turned out that that the modern equivalent involved 3D and
holograms in the middle of a living room floor. There were 3D movies, too, but
Rian said he preferred the old-fashioned ones on a screen. It was reassuring to
know that not everything had changed.