“There are ways to tell,” he said, drawing their attention. “Major Ontarii began acting strangely, and Kat and I picked up on it. He started doing things he wouldn’t do, like ignoring protocol and brutalizing his prisoner.” He didn’t need to indicate his injuries for them to know he was referring to himself.
“So if Captain Brooklyn comes back and punches me in the face, you’ll know she’s a shapeshifter.”
He’d intended his words to be a joke to lighten the mood. No one laughed.
“We just have to be extra vigilant,” he finished lamely.
“What about you?” Tan asked. “How do we know you’re human and not a Hareema plant, put in here to get us to lower our guard and reveal something.”
Jeffrey was surprised at the sharpness of her tone. She wasn’t kidding. “Well, I can assure you I’m the same smart ass I ever was.”
“Prove it,” Chao said, moving to stand next to Tan.
Jeffrey wracked his brain, trying to come up with something to convince them before the tide of sentiment turned against him completely.
“Hareema can take on human form, but they don’t have our memories. Which means a Hareema wouldn’t know that Chao, you like chocolate chips on your dehydrated pancakes. And it wouldn’t know that you, Dr. Tan, are a secret fan of a certain cartoon mouse.”
Tan had the decency to blush, but Chao was unwilling to let the thread of doubt go. “If the Hareema agent was on our ship for any stretch of time, it could have found those things out easily.”
Jeffrey sighed. “Okay, Chao, I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice.”
The small woman braced herself, as if Jeffrey was going to launch himself at her physically. Instead, he continued to speak in a serious voice.
“Three missions ago, when we were parked off the rings of Saturn taking samples of ring dust for that scientist at Yale, you and I were stuck on off-ship duty together, gathering dust. Remember?”
Chao nodded, but her eyes remained distrustful.
Jeffrey continued. “You’ve always hated being on ‘spacesuit patrol,’ as you call it, because you’re terrified of becoming untethered or of your suit depressurizing. We had just collected the last of our samples when you felt something hit your suit.”
Chao’s eyes widened. “Yeah.”
“You swore it had caused a microfracture and started to panic, eating up your oxygen in heavy breathing. The depletion of your oxygen at a more rapid rate than normal reinforced the idea that you’d sprung a leak, remember?”
“Okay, Cheerful, I believe you. You can stop now.” A blush was stealing its way onto Chao’s face.
“Oh no,” Tan said. “The story’s just getting interesting.”
“Chao knew she was going to die, even as I told her that we’d be back on the ship before her suit could depressurize. She made me promise that when she was gone, I would tell Mike that she’d always had a thing for him, and that she regretted never making her move.”
“Shut up, Cheerful, before I punch you harder than that Hareema did!”
Tan doubled over laughing. “Oh man, Iknewyou liked Mike.”
“I don’t think you ladies need to worry about me being a Hareema plant,” Jeffrey finished, a shit-eating grin spreading across his face.
“No, but you need to worry about where I’m going to plant my fist!” Chao said, shaking her balled-up hand in his face. “You promised never to tell anyone!”
“You made me!” he replied with a laugh.
“You better call that medic back,” Chao growled. “I’m gonna add to your array of bruises.”
Tan stopped laughing long enough to give Jeffrey a serious glance. “I think you’ll be giving him all new bruises, Chao. His old ones have already healed.”
Jeffrey touched his face. It should have been swollen beyond recognition. Instead, everything felt normal.
The lieutenant let out a loud guffaw. It felt good to laugh, now that his body no longer ached. The laughter helped banish the pall that had hung over the cell.
Tan put an arm around Chao, shaking her out of her funk until she was able to smile about the situation. “I think Mike’s cute. Big deal. At least I don’t wear mouse ears in my bunk.”
Tan chuckled, then gave Jeffrey a wink. “Count on Lieutenant Cheerful to perk things up around here.”
“Just doing my job,” he replied, keeping up the pretense at merriment. Inside, his thoughts were less pleasant.
What’s going to happen when we get to Zanthar, he wondered. Would they be released, or would the Zantharians insist on keeping them prisoner?
That question wasn’t the only one that kept his nerves on edge. What about the lovely Kat’Chinna? Would he be allowed to see her again?
Even more than that, would he be allowed to taste her once more? She’d shocked him after he’d felt her climax on his lips, pushing him away faster than light speed. Why had she turned cold again, just when they were getting close? What had he done to drive her away?
Jeffrey hoped he would have a chance to learn the answer to that question. For now, he sat in his cell and waited, memories of their time together replaying over and over as the hours ticked past.
