Hysterian’s room’s open.She turned back to the Cyborg’s quarters.
Stepping to the threshold, she peered in, shaking with fear, but unable to let this opportunity go to waste.
Cabinets and drawers remained opened, but from where she stood, she couldn’t get a good look into any of them. And entering the room, with Daniels at her back, wasn’t something she was keen to do anyway.
He’ll know. Hysterian will know if I invade his space.
She wasn’t dumb. She was willing to take risks, but she wasn’t an idiot.
Though her coworker was. Daniels spelled his doom right before her eyes.
Our doom.If she didn’t play it safe.
Her fingers twitched with curiosity. There was a big, unused bed off to the left up the short steps in the back of the room. Up those same steps, in the second half of the room, was Hysterian’s personal lavatory on the right, same with a glass desk devoid of knickknacks, and a metal dresser with drawers attached to the wall.
In the front of the room was a seating area with a glass, oval table positioned before it, and a wall of shelves, also empty.
Nothing.Nothing was incriminating. At least nothing out in the open.
Alexa took a step back and jumped when two cleaning bots moved past her and into Hysterian’s room. One went straight for Hysterian’s drawers and closed them. She didn’t know why but she was relieved when the bots began cleaning the space.
It was time to leave.
She opted to skip the bridge. Every second she meandered was more of a risk than the last. Heart thundering, she darted past Daniels’s door, and once she made it to the lounge, she was breathing easier, wondering if the ship had cameras.
She wondered if Hysterian already knew everything. He could… There was no limit to what Cyborgs could do.
She also feared not knowing what Daniels was up to and if she needed to watch her back.
When she returned to the menagerie, the ship’s hatch opened, and the blast of pressurized air filled the room. Her pulse ratcheted up, and she wrenched her eyes closed to calm down.
They’d come back much sooner than she expected.
Calm escaped her. Booted feet drew closer. And she knew by the way one of them walked that it was Hysterian and Horace returning, not Pigeon and Raul.
“Thank you for your help, Horace,” Hysterian said.
Horace grunted. “Just doing my job.”
“Are you going to join the others at the bar?”
“And spend money on drinks I could just make for free here? Fuck that.”
Alexa scurried to her desk and sat down just as Horace and Hysterian appeared. His eyes went straight to her, and she looked away, down at the briefcase in his hand. Palms slick with sweat, she twisted her hands in her lap.
“Understandable,” Hysterian murmured. “I’ll see you at the start of the next shift. Get some rest.”
“Have a good evening, Captain,” Horace said. He continued down the hall, leaving her and Hysterian alone.
Her face heating, Alexa wished she hadn’t taken so long upstairs. Still feeling the need to run, she thanked whatever god or devil ruled the spiritual plane that she had turned back when she did.
Hysterian made his way toward her, and she scrambled to her feet and hated that her computer screen was blank behind her, obviously unused.He knows. He has to know.
I didn’t do anything wrong.
If he doesn’t know now, he’s going to know soon that someone was in his room.
He saw me outside it.
