“I can’t leave the bridge unattended much longer.” Dommik wanted to stay with her but needed to get away. “We’re headed into Trentian territory. Things will be difficult from here on out.”
Her face fell and she moved around him to climb up into her bunk, a flash of thigh had his fingers reaching out and caressing it as she settled in. She shivered.
“I don’t know much about the aliens.”She masks her disappointment well.
“Research them tomorrow.” He took a step back. “And know, you’re safe with me.”
“I always knew I was safe with you.”
Dommik nodded and turned toward the door, it opened up and he stepped out. He left a lot unsaid between them, a lot of questions to be asked and answered but all of it would have to wait for another time. “Goodnight, Kat.”
The door zipped closed behind him and he heard her faint response through the metal.
“Goodnight, Dommik.”
Chapter Twelve:
---
Things went back to normal after they left Ghost City.
Kat woke up the next morning sore, bruised, but well-rested with a head full of dreams. At least she thought it was a dream when Bin-Three knocked on her panel with a gift of real food. Her stomach growled for the cooked eggs and fresh fruit before she could even take the tray.
“Good morning, Katalina Jones.”
“Call me Kat,” she said for the hundredth time. “Morning, Bin-Three. Thank you for the food.” She sunk her teeth into a slice of apple. The food was gone before she could truly appreciate it. But the fresh, sweet aftertaste remained with her. Bin-Three stayed within her doorway and watched. Kat handed the tray back to the android. “Where’s Dommik?” she asked, quickly getting dressed and following it out the door.
She combed out her hair with her fingers, finding it still damp from the night before. Kat took stock of her body as she walked. It felt well used, her calfs and thighs ached, even parts of her skin were raw to the touch and it all brought images of the Cyborg dominating her, touching her as if he was holding back a piece of himself. The image expanded in her mind until all she could focus on was the dark pitch of his eyes shadowed by the dim lights of the ship, twinkled with the reflection of the glass.
He called me a fairy?She paused.
“He’s in the gym, should I relay a message for you?”
Kat glanced away from her body and up at the android. She had hoped he would be in the facility waiting for her. She understood those unspoken agreements about sex.
Never get attached. Never assume. Never read into it more than what was there. And most of all, don’t fall in love. Love only lasts onto death and death always seemed one step behind her.
“No, thank you.”
The android left her at her pseudo-office and she took her seat without looking at the empty enclosure from the night before and instead logged into the EPED server.
The afterglow of great sex and fantasy were forgotten when her belly cramped, curled up, and punched her in the gut. Kat gasped and tried to massage it away but the ache only grew until she lifted her shirt to check her skin.
No blisters. No blemishes. What the?
She looked outside her small room, finding it empty but for one robot on the other side, cleaning the Wameck’s habitat. Knowing it was cleared, she peeled off her clothes and thoroughly checked her body, the cramps grew with her paranoia. Her muscles tensed as she twisted to look at her back, running her hands over her buttocks, slipping off her shoes to look at the soles of her feet. She then rechecked every area, grimacing from the pain.
A chat opened up on her screen with Mia’s name tagged at the top. It brought her out of her mania just long enough to redress and convince herself she was just getting her monthly. That she was giving into paranoia.
“Don’t go looking for things that aren’t there Katalina. Leave it alone and let it rest. You’re driving me crazy with how you’re acting, girl.”
Kat took a deep breath and dove into her work.
‘Where's your reports from yesterday?’
‘I’m working on them now. We had–’ Kat stopped typing, wondering if Ghost wasn’t known by her employers. ‘–stopped at a port.’ She opened her backlog from the day before, finding several other messages she received. All from Mia Stavke and all in states of annoyance to demanding to down-right mean. Communication with Earth or any of the bases in their solar system took time to deliver. It was like dealing with a digital pond of molasses that each missive had to swim through.
Kat pulled the data from the current creatures on board, and ran it through the division’s software. Everything the androids monitored, including food intake, emotional state, chemical levels, and growth, amongst a dozen other stats were always logged in. All she had to do was read it, note any shifts or changes, put in any reasonswhythe changes may be occurring and then write a visible report.
