The Outback Stars

CHAPTER


TWENTY-NINE





T

he first rad tech who saw Jodenny yelped in alarm. “Jesus! What the hell—”



“I’m Lieutenant Scott,” she said. “This is Sergeant Myell. We were trapped and left to die here by Commander Osherman, Lieutenant Quenger, and Chief Chiba. Notify Security and the officer of the day. The source of the radiation leak is some opened crates on level thirty-eight. And there’s a dead body up in the observation module.” Jodenny powered past the techs with Myell in tow. “We’ll be in the ac-cess ring.”



Gravity pulled her to her knees the minute she tried to step past the hatch. Myell wasn’t much stronger but they managed to sit upright and started stripping off their helmets and EV suits. They slumped to the deck when they were done.



“You would think they’d put sofas out here.” Myell rubbed the sides of his head with both fists. His hair stuck up in spikes, and he smelled as rank as she did.



“How do you feel?” she asked him.



“Happy to be alive. You?”



“Happy,” she agreed.



They were alone, the rad techs still in the tower, no one else yet ar-rived. The loss of heat from the suit made Jodenny cold all over. Myell must have been cold too, but instead of looking for a blanket he leaned in close. His eyes were dark and wide.



“Kay,” he said.



She would have replied but his mouth was on hers now in a clumsy, fumbling kiss, and though his lips were cold they were also soft, and faintly salty, and for about ten blessed seconds she forgot about everything. So many weeks of waiting. So much longing, pent-up, on both their parts. She hadn’t known how hungry she’d been for him. Myell was a strong kisser, not shy at all, but when she tried to pull him down to the deck he groaned and broke away.




“Not in public,” he said.



“I’ll resign,” she said.



“No.” Myell brushed her hair back from her face and let his hand fall away as two medics from Emergency Services appeared. Within moments the medics were scanning them for radiation exposure.



“Christ,” one said, which didn’t sound encouraging at all.



“We’ve got to get you both to Decon, Lieutenant,” the other medic said.



Jodenny replied, “Not until the OOD shows up. You could go, Sergeant.”



“No thanks, Lieutenant. I’ll wait with you.”



The Officer of the Day was Lieutenant Hasonovic from Drive. By the time he arrived, Jodenny and Myell were sitting on the medical litters with thermal blankets around their shoulders. Myell’s face had started to turn red and Jodenny felt so tired she could barely stay awake, but they’d both taken their first doses of radvax.



“Record my statement on your gib.” Jodenny waited for Hasonovic to turn it on. “Sergeant Myell and I were inspecting the DCS when we were assaulted by Commander Osherman, Lieutenant Quenger, and Sergeant Chiba. We discovered the corpse of Commander Matsuda in the observation module and with no other way of establishing a link to the Aral Sea, triggered a radiation leak to alert the bridge of our presence.”



Jodenny paused. “Anything else, Sergeant?”



Myell blinked owlishly. “That sounds like everything.”



“Okay. End of statement.” Jodenny turned to the ES techs. “We’re ready to go.”



“Wait!” Hasonovic followed them down the passage. “Did you say corpse?”



The nearest decontamination station was at the civilian hospital in T11. Jodenny lost track of Myell there, although she was sure he wasn’t far. A female nurse with blunt black hair helped her shower and dress in Sick Berth pajamas. A second dose of radvax followed, and then she was put to bed in a small room. The doctor who came to talk to her was a tall, gangly woman with a wide face.



“I’m Dr. Genslar, and you’re extraordinarily lucky.” She ran a fast-tissue repairer over Jodenny’s cheek, which was covered with a large bruise from hitting the deck when she was mazered. “Without those radvaxes, you’d be vomiting up your intestines right about now.”



“That’s nice.” Jodenny closed her eyes. “How’s Sergeant Myell?”



“He’ll live a fine, productive life.” Dr. Genslar studied her gib. “You’ve got visitors out there, but I told them to come back in about eight hours.”



Jodenny closed her eyes. “Make it ten.”



Sometime later a nurse woke her up for a third dose of radvax. Still half asleep, Jodenny inspected the pillow to see if any of her hair had fallen out. She probed her teeth with her tongue. None seemed loose. Maybe it was too soon, or maybe it wouldn’t happen at all. She went back to sleep and dreamed of floating in the darkness, listening to Myell over the comm as he said he was opening up more smartcrates. When she woke the next time, voices were arguing nearby.



“How long is she going to be out?” Al-Banna asked.



Dr. Genslar answered, “As long as it takes, Commander. Those two took in mighty high doses. Any further exposure and those radvaxes wouldn’t have done shit.”



The voices retreated.



Although sleep was still an inviting option, Jodenny forced herself to focus on the medical equipment around her. She disengaged the dermal packs delivering saline to her body. The head was a few invit-ing feet away, and she considered it a good sign when the room stayed steady while she used it. The deck was cold beneath her feet, but she found a robe hanging in the closet and wrapped it over her pajamas before going in search of Myell.



A few meters past her room there was a nurse’s station. The nurse on duty had her back to Jodenny as she answered a ping. Jodenny shuffled to the next room, which was empty, and to the one after that, in which Myell lay sleeping. She touched his face, kissed him to make sure he was still breathing, and returned to her own bed in hopes of catching a few more hours of rest.



The next time she woke, she had a headache but was definitely in the mood for breakfast. Dr. Genslar came before the food did and asked,

“Ready to return to full duty?”



“Not really.”



“Good. You’re not Superwoman. You’re going to be dragging your feet for the next few days.”



“Am I released?”



Dr. Genslar consulted her gib. “If you can eat and keep it down, I’ll consider it. Do you have your story straight?”



“Which story?”



“The story about how you and that handsome sergeant wound up in the tower together. I’ve heard a few theories already, none of them flattering.”



Jodenny’s cheeks heated up. “I told the OOD what happened.”



“And you’ve got burns on your skin that look like mazer marks,” Dr. Genslar said agreeably. “Doesn’t stop people from gossiping any-way. So who do you want to talk to first? The list keeps growing. Commander Larrean, Commander Al-Banna, Commander Picariello, Lieutenant Commander Vu, Chaplain Mow, Dr. Ng—”



“Sergeant Myell.”



Myell shuffled in while she was eating breakfast, and from the slightly wary look on his face she guessed Genslar had mentioned the gossip to him, too. Or perhaps in the unforgiving hospital light he saw the obstacles in front of them more clearly. Maybe the ordeal in the tower had driven him to a place he hadn’t intended to go, and here was where he corrected his path.



“Hi,” she said, her throat dry.



“Hi.” He came closer to the bed but didn’t reach for her hand. “You look better.”



Jodenny studied his eyes. “So do you.”



“You look—” Myell glanced around. “Gorgeous in those pajamas.”



Jodenny couldn’t help but smile. Myell pushed aside her breakfast tray and kissed her. She felt the tiny shock again, the thrill of the for-bidden mixed with his solid, undeniable presence. His hair was scruffy between her fingers, his hands firm on her shoulders.



When they broke apart, Myell sat on the edge of Jodenny’s bed and said, “Dr. Genslar says people are talking about our romantic tryst gone wrong.”



“People are idiots.”



“I think we should deny everything.”



“Me, too.” Jodenny squeezed his hand. “But whatever you hear, whatever the next few days bring, remember that we have a date. Minutiae.”



“Cairo Delight,” he said. “What about your career?”



She didn’t have an answer for that. It seemed foolish to risk every-thing she had and everything she’d worked for just for the sake of ro-mance. Yet for the first time in her career she understood why people did, in fact, break the rules that kept them apart.



“One day at a time,” she said. “Can you forward the data you recorded on your server to Security so they’ll have the proof that Chiba and Quenger attacked us?”



“I already did.”



He leaned forward for another kiss but a nurse appeared at the door and said, “Lieutenant Commander Vu’s here to see you, Lieu-tenant. You ready for visitors?”



Myell mouthed, “No.”



Jodenny squeezed his hand again. “Yes. Send her in.”




“I’ll be back in my cold, lonely bed,” Myell said, and rose.



“Wait.” Jodenny kissed him before he left. She intended to use that kiss—and the one before, and their first one on the deck of the access ring—to fortify herself for the trials to come. In fact, she intended to store up a warehouse full of those kisses for future emergencies.



Vu came in, her face a tight mask of worry. She wrapped Jodenny in a hug and said, “You scared everyone half to death! Are you all right? You didn’t show up for quarters, and neither did Myell. You didn’t answer your pings… people were speculating. The message boards are going wild.”



“I bet. What are the rumors now?”



“You two somehow got trapped in T18 and discovered Matsuda’s body. Jesus, to think of him there all this time—I mean, I didn’t like him so much, but still. What happened?”



Jodenny repeated what she’d told the duty officer. Vu didn’t look convinced.



“And so you were down there, the two of you together, nothing else going on, and someone attacked you?”



“I saw them. Osherman, Quenger, and Chiba.” And the minute she got her hands on Osherman, she was going to strip the skin from his body with a rusty knife. Then she’d really hurt him.



“Jesus,” Vu said.



Jodenny’s next visitor was Picariello. He did not hug her. He pinned her with his blue-and-brown gaze and said, “This is a mess.”



She had combed her hair and moved to a chair. Dr. Genslar had been right—fatigue drained her energy all the way to her bones. “Did you get the data Sergeant Myell sent?”



“We got it,” Picariello said. “Voices of the men who attacked you and maybe killed Commander Matsuda, though that’s a big question mark. Data analysis should confirm their identities. What happened after you were attacked?”



“First tell me where Osherman, Ishikawa, Quenger, and Chiba are.”



Picariello grimaced. “Ishikawa’s onboard, according to Core, but no one’s been able to physically locate her. The others left the ship on the first shuttle yesterday morning.”



“They escaped? No one stopped them?”



“Stopped them for what? When you and Myell missed morning quarters your ensign notified us, but no one suspected foul play”



Jodenny wanted to hit him. “How can you say that? You know Chiba’s animosity toward Myell. The minute we disappeared, you should have been questioning him.”



“Don’t presume to tell me my job, Lieutenant,” he warned.



That official tone was back, the one she so despised. She needed time to think. “I don’t feel so good—” she said, and staggered from the chair into the head. With the door half closed she stuck her finger down her throat. Breakfast blueberries stained the toilet bowl.



“Do you need help?” Picariello asked from outside the door.



“I think—”Jodenny interrupted the words to retch again. “Maybe.”



Picariello left. When the nurse came to check on her Jodenny al-lowed herself to be put back to bed and asked for all her visitors to be turned away. When she was alone, she pinged Myell and updated him. She asked, “Did you happen to record the night when Osher-man and Ishikawa told us they worked for the IG?”



“You bet.”



“Good. I’m going to get a lawyer down here to help us. Now might be a strategic time to throw up, faint, do something dramatic. Delay until we can figure out how to proceed.”



“No problem at all,” he said.



* * * *