Experiment (Hybrid Book 2) (14 page)

As he hadn’t noticed her yet, she crept up behind him, stopping a foot away from his back. Carefully restraining herself, she softly called his name, but the noise he was making drowned it out perfectly. Propriety complete, a slightly evil grin twitched her lips as she waited till he was bringing down the instrument he was using to punish the defective unit, before delivering a brisk clip to the back of his head and simultaneously roaring ‘CONNOR’ into his left ear.

Chesara thought he swore in a very satisfying way as the hammer made contact with his thumb, and he twisted around. She thought she saw an expression of joy on his face for a brief second before it morphed to annoyance. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I heard your urgent summons, so I ran right over,” she answered with buckets of sarcasm. “Or maybe I was mistaken, and that melodious noise is the mating call of the lesser rusted replicator, and you are merely conducting some much needed research.”

For the proper effect she really should have maintained the sickly sweet tone she started with, but by the time she got to ‘research,’ they were both wincing at the unpleasant screech she was making.

Connor flinched visibly at her tone, and as she rubbed absently at her right shoulder, he adopted the ‘placate the deranged person,’ smile she knew so well. She noted a healing scar on his forehead and wondered where and when he’d gotten that, she hadn’t noticed it last night.

“There’s no need to lose your temper Kittycat, I know you need your beauty sleep, but I assumed you’d have the sound dampening field activated around your quarters, or I would have been quiet as a mouse.”

She saw his lips twitch as he made the ‘beauty sleep’ crack. She added it to his many offences as she drew herself up to her full height of five feet, seven inches and looked down her nose at him.

“I did have it activated. You, as usual just failed to remember my sensitive hearing. And I can’t leave a klutz like you for a moment without you getting in trouble, you truly shouldn’t be allowed out on your own you know.”

She grabbed for his injured digit then placed a finger over the scar, and healed both quickly; she didn’t even have to close her eyes to concentrate.

Turning her back on him, she attempted to sweep majestically back across the carpet to her quarters. However, dressed in a very short dressing gown and wild ‘morning’ hair, it was a difficult task. She added “arrange for a masseuse to sort out my neck,” imperiously before stepping back into her quarters.

She headed for the shower trying to improve her temper. As she shed the dressing gown and stepped into the shower she resolved to be nicer to Connor later to make up for it, he actually wasn’t horrid to live with and he was the only person she trusted.

C
onnor returned to his own room and tapped the communication implant behind his left ear. It only took a moment for him to connect to his superior. Keeping everyone on side while he planned their escape was the current name of the game. Once he had Chesara safe, and he had no idea how he was going to do that, he’d do the equally impossible thing and find Tenset. Frankly, it was more likely that they’d bump into a ship full of Dakarans in the next ten minutes.

“Operative Sigma 43 reporting. The memory wipe successful. She is healing again, without any anxiety. Only side effect noted is negligible irritability. Her shoulder wound is still causing a little stiffness, but she does not suspect at this stage.”

The reply from his supervisor, ‘Operative Theta 16’ seemed as sharp as ever.

“Operative Sigma 43, report acknowledged. You are reminded of the tenuous nature of your current status. Unlike your charge, you are easily replaced. We have several trained operatives ready to rendezvous with you whenever I say the word.

“Inform Captain Crowther that you and your charge have been reassigned and that you will require a shuttle to transfer you to your next transport. Give her no more information. The co-ordinates of the scout ship Aries will be supplied to the shuttle after you have left the Apollo. The scout ship will take you and your charge to your next assignment.

“While you are in transit, you will minimize the hybrid’s interaction with other personnel. After discussion with the rest of the scientific team, it has been decided that in the future, her interaction with others will be kept to a minimum. We cannot risk another catatonic episode.

“You will familiarize your charge with the culture of your destination, the Atros system. Your new permanent transport will meet you there in three weeks. Do you understand your orders?”

“Yes ma’am.”

The connection broke and Connor wondered about all the new cloak and dagger measures. In a way he understood the minimise contact measure, but being kept even more cooped up than she was already would send Chesara loopy. However, their destination was certainly an improvement on Kalzir in terms of the possibility of escape.

Atros was his home system, if you could call the place where the freighter he’d grown up on had been registered as ‘home’. He knew it better than most places. It had a significant amount of interstellar traffic passing through, and not all of it was entirely legal. Most things could be had on Atros if you knew where to ask the right questions.

His plan to betray the Federation no longer bothered him in the least. He’d had a lot of time to think over the last few weeks while Chesara had been ill and he’d been in the brig.

Apart from Tenset and perhaps Dagus, he felt remarkably little kinship with the rest of humanity anymore. He didn’t want to associate with people that didn’t even twitch at the idea of using and abusing a sentient compassionate wonderful person like Chesara.

He checked the time and realized he was meant to be in yet another ‘counselling’ session with Dr Henderson. Technically speaking, as he’d now been reassigned he was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Apollo. Nevertheless, while he was still on board, he decided keeping a low profile would be best.

A quick check on the ‘occupied’ light above Chesara’s door confirmed he didn’t have an excuse to stay and he left the VIP area. He informed Captain Crowther of their reassignment as he walked, and kept an eye out for Dagus.

The man usually found a reason, usually linked to an attractive female crewmember of the crew or a gambling debt, to be in Connor’s vicinity at least once a day so he could pass on any information from Tenset. Plus he owed the man an apology for his rude behaviour last night when he’d been released from the brig.

What worried Connor more that Dagus’ hurt feelings, was that news had been almost non-existent for the past few days. He was starting to feel that Dagus’ faith in Tenset’s ability to get Chesara and himself away from the Federation was clearly misplaced. There was no way he could pass up this opportunity while they waited on Tenset. He’d think about getting the three of them back together when he’d gotten Chesara safely away, but she was his priority, not either of the Kalzirians.

As he walked, Connor checked the paired implant, and found her hormone levels were rising. Tapping his com, he asked security where she was and whether she was alone. As the bored officer’s voice confirmed that she was alone in her quarters, he felt relieved. He didn’t want to be dealing with the nymphomaniac she’d been on Kalzir, well actually he did and he grinned to himself, but on board the Apollo it’d be quite ‘tricky’ to control.

He saw Dagus walking towards him with a couple of crewmen, and smiled a greeting.

“Go on without me guys, I’ll be down to do the checks in a bit,” Dagus said to his colleagues.

“What’s up buddy boy?” Dagus greeted him with a grin. “You up for a re-match yet? I’m sure you must have some credits left somewhere.”

Connor leaned in a little closer and lowered his voice. “The Federation are sending a scout ship to transport us to Atros; we’re to rendezvous with it via an Apollo shuttle. All I know is that it’s ‘soon’.”

“Look a little lighter, buddy boy; we’re having a ‘matey’ chat in a corridor not conspiring against the Federation.” He laughed, clapping Connor on the back for the benefit of the female officer walking past. Connor grinned in return, hoping to convince her they were sharing a joke.

“Do they know about this yet?” asked Dagus still grinning.

“Crowther knows we are being reassigned, that’s it. I only got the message from my boss a few minutes ago.”

“Give me about an hour, then meet me in the shuttle bay, I’m due to fly down to pick up the First Officer from the negotiations on Kalzir. I’ll see what ‘himself’ has got to say about this. Do you know the name of the scout ship?”

“Aries, but it’s classified, not even Crowther is meant to know.” Raising his voice a little, he announced to the world in general, “If you don’t give me an opportunity to win my money back later Lieutenant, you and me will have some issues.”

“Yes sir!” Dagus snapped a salute and carried on down the corridor, leaving Connor to continue to his counselling session.

––––––––

W
hen she got out of the shower, she felt restless, and the quarters, luxurious as they were, seemed far more claustrophobic than normal. Glancing at the notes on her desk, she didn’t feel like studying either, there was always some new innovation she had to keep up with. Besides, it was her day off, and she deserved a little ‘me’ time.

Feeling cooped up, bored, and a little twitchy she decided that as this was a ‘rest day’, she’d do a little socializing. This was a big ship, and the personnel changed quite frequently, so there might be a new source of colourful language wandering about that she hadn’t come across yet.

Dutifully, she decided to begin her explorations via the med unit to see if they needed her help with anything. Grabbing a towel, she dried herself quickly and went looking in the closet for something more interesting than a federation uniform to wear.

Unfortunately, that was rather a tall order she decided as she looked through her closet. She had two types of clothing, boringly practical plain shirts, and trousers for use on board, and uniforms for assignments. The other sort was in her ‘costume’ section. Most of them had been given to her for formal receptions on various worlds. They ranged from garments that covered every inch of her body apart from her eyes, to some downright weird or obscene garments.

She picked one that she’d previously categorized as borderline obscene, although today, it didn’t look too bad.  The all-in-one black garment had been provided for an assignment on Belak Four. It was figure hugging with various cut outs on the arms and legs, and a chunky black zipper all down the front. “This’ll give those poor crewmen something to think about, rather than duty rotas,” she murmured to herself.

Pinning her long dark hair back to expose her neck markings, she lowered the zipper to a dangerously low level that showed off her rounded breasts without them falling into full view.

She grinned at her reflection on the mirror, ‘go get em girl’ and opened the door. Swiftly checking that Connor wasn’t in the social area, as he’d never approve of her going out in public like this, she sneaked quietly across the room and palmed the panel that gave her access to the rest of the ship.

She headed to the medical bay located two decks down. It was such a familiar route that she was able to concentrate on the other people using the long corridors. Most were hurrying on various duty tasks, and all were dressed, male and female, in the standard federation white shirts and deep red trousers pants, with their rank insignia proudly displayed on chests.

The way many of them, especially the men, slowed or even stopped to watch her pass didn’t irritate her today. She found herself returning the smiles of the men and glaring back at the frosty stares of the women.

As the transport tube she needed to go down the couple of decks to the med bay opened, she felt a slight tingle in her belly as it contained three male officers.

“Hello boys,” she announced with a slight smile as she stepped in.

A chorus of “Good morning Madam Envoy,” almost made her chuckle. Making these big tough men distinctly uncomfortable was just the sort of entertainment she’d been after. Two of them were trying to look anywhere in the very small space apart from at her, but the third one wasn’t afraid of meeting her eyes. He was somewhat familiar, and she certainly didn’t mind returning his appraisal.

“I know you don’t I?” she asked. She was sure she’d seen him around, usually in the company of one or more women; she wouldn’t forget a man as attractive as this in a hurry.

“Well I’m not sure you’ll recognise my face, but you sure saw a lot of me a few weeks ago.” She frowned as she searched her memory. One of the other men shot his a glare, but the handsome man put out his hand.

“Let me re-introduce myself, First lieutenant Dagus, you healed me after I got some pretty interesting plasma burns.”

Puzzled that she didn’t remember the incident, she did what most medical professionals did and pretended to remember. Just because an injury was routine to a medic, it didn’t mean it felt like that to the victim. He’d probably had a slight burn on an arm or something.

“Oh right, Dagus, I remember now. How are you doing?”

“Much better, thank you. Your abilities are quite extraordinary, but I’d like to thank you a little more personally if you don’t object,” he smiled.

The other officers gave him a sharp look. “Dagus...”

“Do you have a problem with me talking to the Envoy, Garroway?” The atmosphere became tense, and she heaved a sigh of relief when the transport tube beeped to announce it’d reached its destination.

She took Dagus’ arm and led him out of the tube before the situation could degenerate. For once, someone who wasn’t Connor, was treating her as an actual person, instead of a name or position. He deserved a little attention in return.

“Well, before you thank me, maybe I should check out how your wound is doing, it’ll only take a moment and we’re nearly at medical.” As she spoke, she ran a finger down his very well defined bicep.

“Lead on, you can check me out any time you like Chesara.” He gave her a wink, enforcing the innuendo.