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He huffed out a breath, but the tension inside him eased. Good. He could focus on the mission, and not how the smell of Sloane’s perfume made him want to hold her against him and never let go. “We’ll check the routes, and figure out where the crew went.”

“And search in all of those locations?” She tapped a finger against her chin. “At some point, every crew member must have come into contact with the Siblet poison. If we find the spot where they all met, the problem is solved.”

“Not quite, but it’ll bring us a step closer.”

“It’s a good start. I’ll grab us some food, and we can get to work.”

They’d been studying the routes ELVIS had marked out for over two hours, when Dallin noticed Sloane yawning.

“Eat this.” He passed her a chocolate protein bar.

“Not hungry.”

“You need more energy. Or do you need to go to bed?”

“Will you join me?”

He pretended not to hear her, although his cock instantly hardened at the thought of Sloane in bed with him.

She wrinkled her nose when he didn’t respond and then chewed on the bar.

Dallin sipped a cup of camomile tea. It wasn’t a rough, tough kind of drink, but this strange little Earth herb was amazing at keeping him calm.

“I can’t see anywhere where the crew were all together,” Sloane said. “Most of them were in this restaurant.” She tapped the plan, “but four crew were missing.”

“That would be a useful place to start,” Dallin said. “It could be the hotspot. And if this poison was let off in areas with high numbers of visitors, others would have become sick, not just the ship’s crew.”

“So we ask at the restaurant if they’ve had complaints about people getting sick after visiting?”

“That’s the plan.” He rolled his shoulders. “We should run through the equipment. I only brought one scanner, but you’ll need one, too.”

“We could stick together and share a scanner.”

Dallin shook his head. “It’ll be quicker if we split up. We can cover more ground.”

“And you won’t need to stay on the waystation for so long.” She nodded. “I get it. Fine. We work alone.”

“I’ll find something you can use.” Dallin left Sloane to study the plans and strode into the equipment store. He’d tried being angry that she’d snuck onto the ship, but he was grateful for her company.

More than grateful. Dallin was always amazed she stuck around. He had no clue why she wanted to waste her time on him. Sloane could have any alien she wanted, but for some reason, she had her focus on him.

Dallin searched through the equipment stored in the lockers and discovered a drained scanner. He jammed it in a battery pack and left it to charge, then checked through all the equipment and made up a pack for Sloane. Water, pain relief if the poison troubled her, some of those chocolate protein bars she loved so much, and a backup comm link in case the one she had died.

“Hey! What’s keeping you?” Sloane appeared in the doorway.

“I was just getting this pack ready. You’ll need it.” He handed her the backpack.

She looked inside. “Six protein bars! Are you suggesting I need feeding up?”

“No, but they’re your favorite. We could be on the waystation for a while.”

She grinned at him. “Thanks. Is there anything I can help with?”

“No, you need to get some rest before we get to the waystation.”

“You should rest too.” Her tongue poked out from between her teeth for a second. “We could rest together.”

“No. I have work to do.”