Grabbing a towel, she flung it around herself, snatched up fresh clothing, and stalked back to the showers. Jared and Kane had disappeared. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or angrier that they’d balked her of a target for her rage. She’d calmed down by the time she’d finished bathing and dressed, her thoughts shifting to her mission. She was still pissed off enough with both of them to glare back at them when she reached the bridge and discovered they were in just as foul a mood as they’d been in before.
She plunked her hands on her hips. “Why didn’t you wake me up when we reached Thagorous?”
“You did not say to awaken you,” Jared responded tightly.
She narrowed her eyes at him and then looked at Kane.
“As he said,” he growled.
“Well, I don’t know what’s gotten the two of you in such a pissy mood, but you knew damned well what was going on so don’t give me that bullshit about not knowing I’d want to be awakened! The ship’s main computer has to be told every damned thing! You two don’t! You could’ve figured it out!”
Jared stared at her angrily for several moments. “Ideducedthat you were behaving irrationally about a piece of hardware and that it would put you at unnecessary risk to try to extract it!” he growled.
“He isnotjust a damned piece of hardware!” Chloe snapped. “If I didn’t think he was worth the effort or I thought the risk was more than he was worth, I wouldn’t have decided to do this to start with!” She took a calming breath. “Look, I know you two don’t really understand because you … well, you just don’t have the capability of feeling things like we do—like I do. I’m attached to him, ok? I know that doesn’t seem rational to you, but people get attached to inanimate objects … sometimes really attached. It’s kind of like the way Pops felt about this old ship, you know?Hedidn’t think that was crazy.”
“There was a reason to be attached to the ship,” Kane said pointedly. “He relied upon it for survival. It was his livelihood as well as his home. The ship is useful. It transports. This cyborg is of no use beyond pleasure andwecould supply that, so he is not necessary at all!”
“Is that what’s bugging you two? You think that I won’t think you’re useful anymore? Well, it’s just ridiculous! You are very useful. I don’t know how I would get along without you! I rely on your company even more than I do the skills you have or the work you do around here—at least as much! I’m attached to both of you, too. The thing is this is different, ok? I can’t explain it, but it is.
“Now, I don’t want you two worrying about it anymore. I’m just going to go down and see if I can get him without getting into any kind of trouble—honest to god! If I see that’s just not possible, I’ll give up and come back. OK?”
She couldn’t help but think they didn’t look convinced, which annoyed her. It wasn’t as if she was in the habit of getting in trouble! So, they had dragged her out of that one bar! How was she supposed to have guessed that it was a damned hangout for fucking pirates?
Ok, well, there was that one other time …. But honest to god! Twice in one fucking year and they acted like she was a magnet for trouble! Well, six months, she mentally corrected, and it was true that itwasthe only times they’d actually made port since they’d been with her, but still ….. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, for god’s sake!
Shaking her head at them, she moved to the control console and checked the status. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that they’d completed the repairs, but it also sent up flags when they’d told her before that it could take days. She decided to let that slide. She didn’t want to get into another argument with them. “Our cover story is that we needed a few supplies and decided to stop since we were in the vicinity.”
“They will no doubt know that you folded to get here,” Jared pointed out.
“General area,” Chloe said with determined patience. “I’ll tell them the crew forgot to lay in feminine products at the last stop and I got my period!”
Jared and Kane exchanged a strange look.
“See! You did forget! It isn’t like they’re going to examine me to see if I’m on my period! It’ll work. Anyway, I’m going to dock at the space station and take the shuttle down. If they decide to board and look around, you two make yourselves scarce. Don’t try to brazen it out. You can’t act worth a fuck! They’ll figure out that you’re cyborgs inside of five seconds. Trust me on that! Just get the game board out and pretend you’re so engrossed in the game that you hardly know they’re there.”
They looked indignant. “We can interact ….”
“No, you can’t!” Chloe said firmly. “You talk like cyborgs. You always use correct grammar and big words and stuff like that and real people don’t. And you’re always surprised when real people act illogical and you just have to point it out! You act like cyborgs … or at least soldiers, all military, straight-as-a-board, perfect posture, and stiff. I mean, you never relax! And you hardly ever have any kind of expression on your face besides hard as nails—unless its hard as nails ‘I’ll rip your heart out and shit down your neck’.Noexpression would be better than always looking like you want to tear somebody’s head off—especially when you two look like you could!”
They scowled at her.
“I rest my case!” Swiveling her seat around, she focused on monitoring the ship’s docking procedure and ordered the computer to prep the main shuttle. “Game board!” she reminded them when she didn’t hear any movement behind her.
She saw they’d gotten the game board out and were setting up the pieces when she finally got up to leave. They still looked insulted and unhappy. She gave each of them a friendly punch on the shoulder as she strode past them. “Lighten up, guys! I’ll be back before you know it!”
Jared and Kane exchanged a speaking glance when the door of the bridge closed behind her. Jared got up and moved to the control console, flicking on the monitor in the docking bay and watching until Chloe appeared. She strode directly to the arms locker and took out a belt, two pistols, and a rifle, carrying them with her as she headed to the shuttle the computer had prepped for her.
His gut clenched. “That does not look to me as if she expects no trouble,” he muttered to Kane, whom he discovered had come to stand behind him.
“It also does not look like the sort of preparations one would make if they planned only to sneak away and not get involved in a confrontation.”
They turned and stared at one another for several moments. “She is planning to break into the prison if he has been taken,” Jared said.
Kane spoke directly to the onboard computer. “Prep the secondary lander.”
“Captain Chloe did not leave orders to have the secondary lander prepped.”
Kane narrowed his eyes at the monitor.
