looked over at her to find that she’d drifted off to sleep. With some effort, he wrenched himself to his feet, and carried her gingerly to his bed. A moment or two of poking around closets produced a clean pillow and blanket. These he carefully arranged under and around her, until he was satisfied with his efforts.
Somehow after that, he convinced himself that it would be alright if he slept on his bed as well. He simply pulled his own pillow to the foot, and rolled up in his sheets. From this vantage point, he tried to watch her for a while. A quick glance at the clock reminded him that he needed to be on duty in only a few hours. He allowed his eyes to close, while strange new dreams pushed old tattered ones aside.
۞
Tark had just walked in when the call came in from Dmitry, warning of his impending tardiness. It was zero eight exactly. There was a strange buzz on the bridge. This hazy excitement he was inclined to attribute to the return of a large number of personnel, but for the reaction of the corporal who gave him Dmitry’s message. She’d blushed to her roots, and run off before she could be detained for questioning.
The odd behaviors only increased when Dmitry finally entered and fairly sprinted into his own office. All eyes cast intermittent glances in that direction, until Tark finally could stand it no longer, and went into his own office. After a few more minutes of fidgeting, he went through to the door that connected the two rooms.
It opened, revealing Dmitry sitting with his legs cast across his desk. Music played loudly. Tark made a twisting gesture with his thumb and forefinger, indicating his desire for a reduction in volume, to his friend. Dmitry complied, remaining in his position, waiting for what was surely to come.
“What the hell is going on this morning? I come in, you’re late, and just when I think I know why everybody is all energized, in you come and prove me wrong.” Dmitry stared at a monitor display of current Earth news. He didn’t seem to react in the slightest, giving the impression that he was ignoring Tark.
Luckily, his friend knew better. “Did you do something last night that I should know about?” More silence. “How about something you want to share with me as your goddamn best friend.” At that, Dmitry jumped out of his seat and came eye to eye with Tark.
“Look, if I think you should there’s anything you should know, you’ll hear it from me first. But there’s nothing except rumor flying around out there.” Not quite all true.
“What would have prompted this bout of gossip, then?”
“I don’t know. Somebody might have seen me kiss Maeve last night.” Tark’s eyes narrowed.
“Might have?” Tark narrowed his eyes. “How’s that?”
“Because I did, man. So what? I took her dancing, and that was just a logical ending to the night.”
“Dancing? Is this going to turn into another one of your infamous tales of the many women of Dem?” Tark spoke perhaps a little too harshly, and he knew he was pushing his friend in a direction that was not entirely wise. He had the welfare of Maeve Howard in mind, and that outweighed diplomacy.
“Hey, screw you. I’ll be honest with her.” He turned the other way, standing in a tense pose that Tark recognized all too well. “You don’t need to protect her. And you sure as hell don’t need to be in my face, all but pulling rank on me.” Tark blinked. He hadn’t expected such defensiveness. Usually Dmitry had more than his share of a sense of humor about his philandering, but it was gone today. Perhaps there really was more to Maeve than he knew. She’d somehow cast a charm over Dmitry’s sensibilities, one that might lead him almost anywhere.
۞
Maeve made it back to her rooms without running across anyone who might recognize her, showering and dressing in record time before she heard pounding on her door. She went and opened it as a round object sailed past her. It was an orange blur, that crashed into the opposite wall.
“Oops!!! Sorry, didn’t mean for that to happen.” Josh and Leif fought to get through the entryway after what proved to be a ball. It seemed they’d started their one on one a little prematurely. Grace sauntered in after them, carrying a tall covered mug, which she was smelling with a look of complete contentment.
“Cappuccino. Feels like an eternity. Chow hall coffee can’t begin to compare.” She settled into Maeve’s couch with a sigh. A battle still raged behind her, as possession was warred over. Finally, with a cry of “HA!!!”, Josh stood, the victor, with the basketball tucked under his arm. At least, Maeve thought it was a basketball, the only indication as to its possible use being the familiar orange hue. Josh saw her looking at it.
“Cool, huh? Supposedly it’s ‘indestructible’. I figure we’ll give it the mother of all tests by the time we’re done.” Maeve nodded.
“I don’t doubt it, from what I’ve seen already.” Leif was standing again, red-faced, and scowling. He didn’t like being bested. In spite of the fact that Josh was a head shorter than he was, they were pretty equally matched otherwise. It rankled. In this respect, Josh was fully aware. He had a long-standing tradition of messing with Leif’s head, as if they were playing a life-sized chess match. One move up. He withdrew and sat next to Grace. Maeve watched all of them, wondering suddenly why it was they were all avoiding looking at her. Suspicion prickled in the back of her mind.
“I’m going to take a guess and say that you came here with a purpose in mind.” Leif interjected before anyone else could in response to Maeve’s question.
“Well, yeah. We thought that it would be good to go and PT, and while we’re at it, we can tell each other all about our evenings.” Maeve’s eyes narrowed as Leif avoided her gaze, all innocence, while he guzzled a bottle of water to avoid further conversation.
“Sure. We can go and work out. What did you have in mind, more full-contact sports?” Maeve saw Jemi, who, having just walked in the door, raised her hand as though she were in a classroom.
“Pardon me for saying this, but if you all are beating each other to hell, I’m going back to bed.” She wasn’t going to escape that easily though. The others grabbed her and hauled her out into the hallway. They went and found Antonio after that. Actually, they invaded his room, seized him and dragged him out, kicking and cursing.
They made their way through the station’s underbelly, all the way to the athletics complex. It was quite amazing. It had a full track, not 200 or 160 meters, but the entire 400. There were a few hard chargers out already jogging around it. Josh found a layout map, and waved them over. Two swimming pools, tennis, climbing walls, sparring rooms, heavy bag rooms, basketball; the list went on and on . The complex spanned all four levels of the station, and promised at all times something to occupy anyone who wanted a bit of exercise.
“Oh, they don’t have a curling area? That’s it, I’m filing a complaint.”
“Grace, only you could come up with an arcane and useless sport like that. I think my grandmother mentioned it once, as something that everyone used to do, right between pillaging the countryside and getting cross-eyed on mead.”
“What can I say, my giant friend, I’m an old soul.”
“Dipstick is more like it.” He tousled her hair. Grace made a motion with her hand, like a bird’s beak snapping.
“Blah, blah, blah. Flattery will get you nowhere, honeychild.”
“How’s about we figure out what we’re going to do?” Maeve still had her eyes on the map, wishing that she felt better than three hours’ worth of sleep. They all voted and passed a resolution to seek and destroy the basketball courts. That was fine. As the rules were laid, it became evident that the only rule was that rules sucked.
“The first person who cops an attitude...dies.” Jemi looked pointedly at Antonio, who seemed a lot less sullen than he had the night before. He made a face.
“How are you going to enforce that, may I ask?”
“I am the enforcer! Hulk smash puny humans!” Leif lunged for the lanky Antonio, who assumed a pretty decent imitation of terror. Antonio dodged, and broke into a run, loping up a flight of stairs, loudly declar
ing his assumption of an imminent demise.
There was no more to be heard. The last four of them clambered up the same stairway. They encountered an unamused woman and her four children, all of whom looked dangerously close to tears. Leif was plastered to a wall, one entire shade of russet. Antonio was nowhere to be seen. Maeve took the initiative to try and placate the shaken mother.
“I’m really sorry. You know how they get when you don’t take them out and walk them every day. I’m thinking leashes might be a great investment.”
۞
Tark was looking over his morning mail, still feeling the heat from his encounter with Dmitry. There was a visual reply to his quietly submitted report on what had been found, the container, and its occupants. He’d sent it on a secure line to someone he trusted in command back on Earth. He looked at what there was. A guideline mostly, for future proceedings, and a few other names that the colonel could look up if he needed more help.
The most important part was confirmation that this situation, such as it was, should remain a quiet one. Only essential personnel were to be included. As far as anyone else was concerned, the newcomers were just personnel on temporary duty posting. Tark had essentially given this guidance already. Now he had official word on it. Now all he had was Dmitry for a problem.
There was a rap at his door; he hit the switch next to his hand, and the cloudy white of the door snapped into transparency. He looked up. It was Sa’andy. She’d understand, he knew she would. Standing back up, he rapped the pad that opened the hatch. He took her hand, and led the way out of his office, off the bridge, toward his new favorite place.
“Do you want to let me in on where we’re going?” She was cheerful, but aware that there was something bothering him.
“Breakfast.”
“Is there a problem?”
“I’ll tell you about it in a minute. By the way, you get to order. I’d like something from your homeworld, I think. I’d order for myself, I just can’t pronounce any of it.” She laughed, watching his expressions ripple as swiftly as the waters of a rain-swollen fjord. This would be an interesting morning, most certainly.
۞
Maria Hawke was in the midst of her own correspondence; currently paused was message from Earth. It was audio only, to ensure secrecy, but the aftermath left by it was just as powerful as any image could have been.
There was no reason for such a reaction, she found herself thinking frantically. They’d secured her position here for a reason, so that she could provide this very sort of information for them. And now, they had all but given her notice. Reduction in numbers. A formal reprimand, and the likelihood of being transferred someplace where she would be watched more closely. No place in a command billet. Her lifelines were being cut. Raising unnecessary alarms. All she’d asked for was a little recognition for living out in this wasteland.
She thought about sending a reply, a plea, or a request for mast. She was worthy, she had to be, otherwise, what did she add up to? At any rate, she knew what was bound to happen next. She’d seen it happen once before, to another colleague who’d been under suspicion for espionage.
He was dead, purportedly a suicide, and officially a traitor to the cause. She’d be damned if she simply sat back and waited for their measure of punishment. She knew what was coming, who was coming. It wouldn’t be as quiet as all that. That left only one option, really. Her office suddenly seemed foreign, and unwelcoming. It smelt of betrayal, and she could no longer abide it.
Amazed eyes watched as the doctor flew by them, out of the clinic, toward her quarters. They were clueless, but not ignorant. Something was