Leaning against the desk, I replied, “I’m surprised you agreed to this and that you’re open to another.”
“Who said I was?”
“Your enthusiasm.” I pushed off the desk to catch him by the hem of his pants. He didn’t pull away when I kissed him. A hand fell in my hair, drawing me away so he could mark my neck. I liked having his marks on me, knowing he definitely couldn’t ignore them or the memories that came with them.
Still, I teased, “Keep that up, and my team will have questions. I can’t promise I won’t share all the juicy details.”
“Do so, and this will never happen again.”
“You think you’re good enough to stop me from yapping?”
“I think you like playing around.” He released me to meet my attention. Though he was a tad shorter, I always felt small in his presence. “And you’d rather continue this game than end it.”
“You really are paying extra special attention to me to have all that figured out, huh, sweetheart? Same time and place tomorrow?”
“Sure.” He shoved me away and grabbed his shirt. “You head out first. I’ll wait.”
“Sweet enough to rot my teeth,” I teased on the way to the door where I stopped and looked back, feeling a question climb my throat.
Roys stood there, arms crossed, his gaze practically burning through the floor. It’d burn through me if I dared to ask what Earth’s like. While it was tempting, I was actually tired and I might get a good night’s sleep, so I left.
I was wrong.
015
Shelaidthere.Crying.Screaming. Hand outstretched. They were closing in. Closer. Closer. Too many blasters. Too many of them.
There had to be a way out. An escape. I looked and looked. Walls of metal. Rust. Blood. Her blood, pooling around her leg. Skin ruptured. She couldn’t run. We couldn’t run.
“What are you doing…” Her eyes, wide, terrified, crying. She reached for me. “Ethin!”
Don’t say that name. Don’t say that fucking name.
“Ethin!”
“Don’t!” I flew out of bed, hit my head on the top bunk, and plummeted. “Fuck off!”
There I lay, a hand on my throbbing head, trying to breathe. I scratched over the heart racing too loud. My skin cracked and bled under my furious nails while her voice wouldn’t stop. Never actually stopped.
I rolled out of bed, blood dripping from the wounds. Using the tissues from the desk, I wiped the mess away and opened the commlink’s self-facing camera. The bastard left far too many marks. I had to throw on the turtleneck option for our uniforms.
My chest burned from the cuts, so I went to the med bay. Tareik, the senior medical officer, was in there, as gelatinous as ever. Flureds, theywere called, though most of us called them squishies because they were just that. A moving and talking, without a mouth, waist-high blob of gelatin that couldn’t be shot, cut, burned, or crushed. And they were entirely peaceful, practically incapable of violence. I wouldn’t be surprised if they blew up for saying a bad word.
“Ah, Private Katlan, are you in need of healing?” Tareik slithered past the cradle, a slightly bent capsule not so dissimilar from the droid’s charging stations.
The cradle connected to the floor at the back of the room. The interior dipped low enough for a body to be laid in there and for the regenerative liquid to drape over the user. They would lie for minutes or hours, depending on the severity, and be pieced back together. I had been in one a few times, and the experience was always less than ideal. Felt claustrophobic and, if you were conscious, incredibly invasive.
“A quick spray for this should do.” I held up my shirt.
Tareik went for a canister on the shelf. Afterward, I returned to the communal area where Arana sat with Lilea and Iylene. Zavir and Ryker were nowhere to be found. I messaged them. Both were patrolling the energy shield. As expected, we weren’t entirely off duty.
“Lucky!” Arana gestured for me to join them.
Lilea looked over her shoulder. Their eyes weren’t similar in the slightest, but I sawHer.
“I’m heading out.” I gave a half-hearted wave and left the habitat.
I wasn’t the only one outside. Roys gave us permission not to wear our exoskins within the energy shield, although he recommended we keep them near. Soldiers created games and sat around in the open field. Others took to the training yard that the droids had set up. When folks got too hot, they went inside for a rest. I didn’t join any of them.
