“I’ll be right over here,” he said, moving to stand by the empty closet. “Go ahead, doc.”
Melly was thorough but declared Tamsyn was free of any possible infection site. “Mike and I are going to grab rations for dinner from the APC’s cargo compartment,” she said. “So you’ll have privacy for that shower. We’ll be back in about fifteen minutes.” She went out the door and closed it behind her.
“I wish it was a private bathroom of our own,” Cody said, wrapping Tamsyn up in the blanket and helping her out of the room to the bathroom in question. It was rustic and small, with no refresher cabinet but an old-fashioned tub and shower. “Will you be okay if I stand guard outside the door? None of our guys would intrude on your privacy but if I post up here will that make you feel more secure?”
“I’d appreciate that,” she said, turning on the water and testing the hotness with her hand. “Could you bring me fresh clothes? My jeans and a tee shirt will be fine. Oh and a pair of underpants.”
“On it. Let me see what I can do about bringing you the sexiest pair of panties you own.” He kissed her quickly and left her alone in the room.
Tamsyn looked at herself in the mirror and shuddered. She kept seeing the awful face of the infected rising out of the lake water and guessed it would be a long time before she got over this incident. No more swimming for me. The hot water was restorative and she washed her hair as well. Cody had been and gone, dropping off her clothes as requested and she got dressed as fast as she could. He’d brought her a lacy thong and she smiled as she slid the scrap of fabric and lace on. Maybe later we can have alone time. She rubbed her arms and gave a big shiver. There was nothing she wanted more than to be skin to skin with Cody, wrapped in his warmth, his cock working her inner core right now but it wasn’t going to happen until later, if at all.
Cody regarded her with open appreciation and gave her a hug when she emerged from the bathroom to find him waiting, along with Melly and her brother. Buddy gave a small woof and came to sniff her, tail wagging. He licked her fingers and bounded back to Mike.
“Guess I got his seal of approval too,” she said as she joined the small group at the table. “Wow, this dinner looks…as unappetizing as heck.”
“Yeah, survival rations aren’t exactly haute cuisine,” Cody joked. “But we don’t have the chance to cook tonight. I’m technically on duty so I’ll eat later. Call me if you need me.” He left the cabin to take up his station outside.
Jeff came in later, while the trio were sitting beside the fireplace, playing a desultory card game. Tamsyn didn’t want to be alone and she guessed Melly could tell, so the doctor had kindly challenged her and Mike to this game.
The captain divested himself of his tactical vest, his pulse rifle and a few other accouterments and sat at the table, reaching for one of the unopened survival rations. Melly apologized to her fellow card players and went to join him. “I’ve never seen you so tired,” she said, massaging his shoulders. “And your muscles are in knots.”
“This rest stop sure hasn’t been restful,” he replied with a weary grin. “Ryan’s got the truck running like new and I assigned Cody to do his cyborg magic on the most reliable looking groundcar, see if he can meld with the AI and do an upgrade.”
“Any decision yet from the Chalmers party?” Tamsyn asked.
He shook his head. “Not yet. They’re deep in conversation. I think your discovery in the hot springs may have changed a few minds about staying here. There was also a request for the holo of the swarm on its way here to be shown so I had Cody do that.”
“What if they don’t want to leave when we do?” Mike asked, petting Buddy’s head.
“Then I’ve done the best I can for them, kid. At least there are now three working vehicles and maybe a few of them could get away.” He rolled his head and pulled Melly out from behind him to stand between his legs. “Feels much better, thanks, doc.”
“Healing hands,” she said with a laugh, wiggling her fingers playfully. She kissed the top of his head. “We all know even if you ordered us to stay here till the swarm hit, even if we had the megablasters locked and loaded, we wouldn’t be able to deter the swarm and we couldn’t save these people.”
“Yeah, we’ve been there and done that, in terms of trying to fight a serious swarm.” He chewed a bite of the mystery meat in the survival ration pack and swallowed, immediately chasing it with a few gulps of nutrition drink. “I did not sufficiently appreciate the meals you and Cody and Tamsyn cooked for us. At least not until I was reminded how unappetizing these things are.” He dropped his fork and picked up the rest of the meat in two fingers. “Buddy!”
The dog bounded over to him and caught the hunk of meat as Jeff tossed it, making the offering disappear in one bite. Licking his chops he waited to see if Jeff was going to offer anything else and then padded to sit by Mike.
“We fed him earlier,” Melly said reproachfully. “He’s such a beggar already, don’t encourage him.”
Making a face, at her, Jeff picked up the hard bread which had been included in the ration pack and tore off a corner. “What you said about us staying was true. Not only that, if I did issue such a foolish order, I’d be trying to solve one micro problem on this damn planet and not making any progress toward a bigger solution. I can’t allow myself and the team to be pulled so far off task.”
“Captain, I get confused every time you talk about your mission,” Tamsyn said, moving away from the fire to sit at the table with him.
“How so?”
“What can you and the guys do, good as you are, to resolve a planetwide infestation of infected? No offense.”
“None taken.” He glanced at Melly. “I guess we never did explain completely to you, did we? Melly’s been in on it since our early days here so I forget you’re not up to speed. My team and I were sent here as undercover agents, to see if we could penetrate any organizations on Randal Four which might be plotting either rebellion or even worse, to align with the enemies of the Sectors and open the planet to a Mawreg client race. Obviously the plan’s all blown to hell now but my strong suspicion is this virus was no natural mutation. I believe it was engineered and this planet, being so remote, was the testing ground. I have to find answers before whoever is running the experiment decides it’s been a success and expands to another world, maybe even in the Inner Sectors.”
Tamsyn was silent, trying to absorb the idea.
“I also hope if we can find the perpetrators of this apocalypse, we might find if not a cure, a solution. Because if the Mawreg or one of their client races is behind this, they won’t want a planet crawling with predatory infected either. So they must have a plan to clean it all up at some point and claim the wide-open world. And the Sectors wouldn’t have a clue for too long because by now this planet has no doubt been quarantined and declared off limits. Written off.”
What he was telling her was grim and Tamsyn felt nauseous. “What if there isn’t anyone behind this? What if it actually is a natural occurrence?”
“I’ll have to be convinced of that one,” Jeff said.
There was a knock at the door and the captain went to answer it, hand hovering near his blaster.
