by ML Guida
Ivona was tall and muscular like the other women on the ship, but she didn’t look at her with hostility and her smile brightened up the lab.
“This is Greum.” He was younger than Marc and didn’t look at her as if he wanted to squash her under his heel. He looked more like a beach bum with his sandy brown hair and tanned skin than a ship’s doctor.
“Sandra.” He widened his arms. “Welcome to the science lab. I’m looking forward to working with you. I’m especially curious to see how you developed Cronor when we haven’t been able to duplicate this in our lab no matter how much we tried.”
He had an easy grin and Sandra liked his carefree manner.
“It was purely accidental I assure you. I was trying to create a synthetic insulin that didn’t have side effects.” Tears built up behind her eyes. “My Grandpappy is succumbing to the side effects.” A tear slid down her cheek. “Sorry. He’s real important to me.”
“I’m sorry.” Ivona gave her a quick hug.
“Thank you.” Sandra gave her a brave smile.
“Sandra thinks we should test all the women for the possible disease.”
Ivona frowned. “Why? None of the women are sick.”
“That you know of.” Sandra corrected her. “I like to eliminate the tiniest detail to make sure I haven’t missed anything.”
“I think this will be a complete waste of time,” Marc grumbled.
Vaughn narrowed his eyes. “Sandra is the one who discovered a way to make Cronor with what you considered to be crude facilities.” He took a step closer. “I suggest you do what she says.”
Sandra didn’t know if she imagined it or not, but Vaughn seemed to grow in stature while Marc shrank. Fear flashed in Marc’s eyes.
“We will begin testing at once.” Marc hurried out of the room like a beaten bear.
Warmth flushed through Sandra. She stared at Vaughn in awe. No one had ever stood up for her like this, especially in a professional setting.
He glanced at her then edged closer to her as if protecting her from the other two bears.
Greum looked over his shoulder. “I guess I’d better help Marc prepare for testing.” He left quietly.
Sandra forced herself to get back to being a scientist, but it was the last thing her heart wanted to do. “Ivona, do you have slides of the infected women on Aria?”
“Of course. Follow me.” Ivona led Vaughn and Sandra to a science table with microscopes, Petri dishes, labeled slides, a computer, and vials filled with liquids. “Marc and Greum were looking at a sample of the Czarina’s blood. None of the treatments they have tried have had any effect on the specimen.”
“Do you have a sample of healthy female Arian blood? And an infected one. I need to know the difference.”
Ivona nodded. “Yes. I’ll return in a moment.”
Vaughn slid his hand down Sandra’s arm, making her break out in a bundle of pins and needles nerves. She still couldn’t tell whether it was from terror or desire. Oscar sure as hell messed her up.
She edged away from him, her insides quivering, and pretended to look at the lab equipment. One machine had all sorts of dials and strange markings that she’d never seen before. Another that was sleek and slim with no dials. What did they all do?
She turned around and ran into a brick wall. Her heart beat faster than a jack-hammer. She jumped backward, smacking her back onto the counter.
“Oh, my. You…you…scared me.”
Vaughn cocked his eyebrow. “You seem nervous. Do I make you nervous? Or do all men make you nervous?”
“No.” She straightened her shirt and crept around him like a mouse, never taking her eyes off him.
“I won’t bite.” He saluted her. “I promise.” His easy voice almost put her at ease.
Almost.
After all, he had kidnapped her. She was a prisoner.
Not like she’d been with Skye’s sadistic stalker.
But then again, she hadn’t defied him…yet.
She shook her head to keep from thinking of those cold gray eyes. Goosebumps broke out all over. She rubbed her trembling arms.
“Are you cold?”
“A little,” she lied.
“Wait here a minute.”
“Okay.”
Vaughn hurried over to the wall. “Closet open.” Once again, the walls obeyed, revealing lab-coats all hanging neatly in a row. He grabbed one and then gently placed it around her shoulders. “It’s too big for you, but it will keep the chill off.” His gentle voice warmed her heart.
She glanced up at him and smiled. “Thank you.”
Once again, Vaughn had tended to her needs. No one else had ever shown so much concern, not even her own mother.
The coat swallowed her up and she could use it as a blanket, but she didn’t complain. Having someone care about whether she was cold or warm was a pleasant surprise––one she wouldn’t forget.
Marc came back into the room and frowned. “Why are you wearing a lab-coat?”
“Because she was cold.” Vaughn’s hard voice stopped Marc in his tracks.
“He was just asking, Vaughn.” She put her hand on his bicep that would make Mr. Universe green with envy.
“I have the slides that you wanted of a healthy Arian woman.”
“Where’s Ivona?”
He put the slid underneath a microscope’s lens. “Didn’t she tell you? She wasn’t feeling well.”
“That’s odd.” Vaughn looked at Sandra. “She didn’t mention she was feeling ill to either of us.”
Sandra kept her face stoic, but disappointment coated her throat like bitter cough medicine. She thought Ivona might have been ally. Obviously, she was wrong.
Marc gestured toward the microscope. “Would you like to look at the slides? As per Vaughn’s request, the female crew members will be coming in to be tested for Bregalite.”
She ignored his tone that hinted this was a total waste time, but he was wrong. She adjusted the microscope and the lens. The blood was thicker than a human’s and had blue sparkles. “Are the sparkles normal?”
“Yes, that’s Bregalite,” Vaughn said.
Sandra lifted her head. “Can I have a notebook and something to write with?”
“Of course.” Vaughn retrieved a notebook and a glowing purple pen from a desk. “Here.”
“Thank you.” She clicked on the pen and it worked just like one from Earth. Rather than white paper, it was green.
She returned to the slide and quickly sketched what she saw. Drawing always helped her to mesmorize details.
She removed the normal slide and replaced it with the infected slide. The blue sparkles were absent––instead sleek black lines sprouted through the cell like spider plant stems. Not good. The black spiderettes were drying out the blood almost as if they were vampires sucking up the liquid.
“How long does it take the patients to die of hydration?”
“Unfortunately, the young and the old have succumbed in less than a month. The strong like our Czarina have fought to hang on.” The lines on Marc’s face were drawn and his eyes glistened. “But its painful. Very painful.” He blinked, chasing away the emotion, but he couldn’t hide the sorrow in his gloomy voice.
“I’m sorry.”
He nodded, but didn’t answer.
Greum walked into the lab, pushing a cart with syringes and rows of test-tubes. “The crew women are coming in batches of four for us to draw their blood. They’re outside. Are you ready to get started?”
Sandra nodded. “Yes. How many women are there?” She put on her mother’s scientist face as if she were overconfident, but her insides were a gigantic, smashed blob of nerves. Taking blood from humans was one thing, but bears?
“Two hundred-forty-two.” Greum walked over to the entrance. “Since there are four of us, we’ll do four at a time.”
Marc handed each of them a syringe. The needle was thicker than normally used for a human. Of course, the needle would be thicker. They were bears.
They each had their own station with test tubes, needles, microscopes, and slides. Sandra sat taller in her chair, her head up high, as if it were every day that she was completely comfortable drawing blood from an alien.
Not.
It would be a long night.
Luckily, Vaughn was close to her. He winked and flashed her a smile that thawed her chilling blood. “The gray bottle is like your rubbing alcohol and the brasci is similar to your cotton balls. Pop the test tube into the syringe. After you draw blood, the syringe automatically unlocks for you to retrieve the test tube. The needle melts and disappears. You’ll do fine. I’m right here if you need anything.”
She put on what looked like rubber gloves, but felt like nylons. “I’m not nervous.”
He raised his eyebrow.
Heat blazed down her lying throat. She lowered her gaze and pretended to be looking at her instruments.
The door slid open and four crew women walked inside. A blond woman sat at Sandra’s station.
Sandra held out her hand. “I’m Sandra.”
“Contrella.” She shook her hand with a strong grip. “You’re the reason why we’re doing the testing?”
“Yes, I am. Could you roll up your sleeve?”
“Sure.” Contrella revealed a strong, muscular arm.
“You have nice veins.”
“Thank you…I guess. Um…you don’t think I have this disease, do you?” Fear flared in her green eyes and rolled off her voice.
“This is just a precaution.”
“Marc and the other medical staff think the Kamtrinians only planted the poison on Aria.” She glanced over at Marc as if hoping he’d confirm.
“I just want to be sure.” Sandra smiled brightly. “Don’t you?” She opened the gray bottle and gasped. Gasoline. She wrinkled her nose and coughed.
Vaughn laughed. “I know it smells nasty but it’s effective.”
She blinked her eyes and dabbed Contrella’s arm with the soaked-gasoline brasci that looked like a cotton ball but was brown, not white.
Contrella watched her every move, and Sandra thought she was holding her breath.
She slowly injected the needle, then withdrew. Contrella didn’t even flinch. Blood filled the tube, and just like Vaughn said, the syringe opened and she easily removed the tube. The needle turned red-hot then disappeared. “So, weird,” she mumbled. She pressed the brasci on the wound. “All done.”
“Okay. When will you know the results?”
“Hopefully in a day or so. This is just precautionary.”
Contrella gave her a crumbling smile.
After hours of nonstop working, Sandra’s vision grew blurry. Her eyelids kept closing, and her fingers ached from drawing blood. She was tired of smiling and doling out reassurance that she didn’t feel. A twinge in the back of her neck told her something was seriously wrong like the first time she met Oscar. So far, the twinge had never been wrong.
Greum leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. He yawned. “That was the last of them.”
Marc rubbed his eyes. “Drawing blood was the easy part.” He lowered his arms. “The Admiral will want results soon.”
All of them looked like contestants for the Walking Dead. “We can’t afford mistakes,” Sandra said. “Tired eyes make mistakes.”
Marc frowned. “But the Admiral––”
“Can wait. We can’t afford mistakes.” Sandra yawned. “We’ll take a break. Even if we just get a few hours of sleep, we’ll be refreshed.”
“She’s right.” Vaughn once again came to her rescue. “We’ll meet back her in three hours.”
Oscar’s face flashed in Sandra’s mind. She looked at Marc and Greum. What if one of them was a thief or worse a saboteur? “I think we need to secure the specimens.”
“Why?” Greum stretched his arms.
She met each one of their faces that ranged from disbelief to irritation to weariness––her gut clunked to her feet––but she held her head up high as if she ruled the laboratory. “I want to make sure they’re safe.”
Marc raised his eyebrow. “From who?”
“Someone poisoned the water on your planet. Are you absolutely so sure they’re not on board the Intrepid?”
The three men glanced at each other uneasily.
Vaughn answered. “No, we’re not. I’ll take the test-tubes to my quarters. Only the four of us will know where they are.”
Sandra frowned. “But how are you going to get them there? Crewmen would see us moving them.”
He laughed. “Ye of little faith. Isn’t that a famous saying on your planet?”
“Yes…” She drew it out the word. “But I still don’t understand how you’re going to hide the specimens.”
He pulled what looked like a cell phone out of his belt. “With this.”
“Which is?”
He smiled as if he had the answer to the million-dollar question. “The Flux Rearranger. It’s our newest invention.”
Greum gestured with his hand. “You mean it’s your newest invention.”
Vaughn flashed him a hard look.
“And?”
His face lit up as he aimed it at the test-tubes tray at his station. “Watch.”
A purple ray flashed out of the rearranger, and the tray shrank to an inch tall.
Curiosity, shock, and awe buzzed through her all at once. Her eyes grew and her jaw fell open wide enough to catch bumble-bees.
“Nothing’s changed. The only difference is its smaller. Small enough to fit in the palm of a hand.”
She rushed over to the table and examined the tray. “That’s amazing. Are you sure nothing’s changed?”
“Positive.” He quickly reduced all of the trays to miniatures. “We’ll take them to my quarters while we rest.”
She stilled, and a tremor whisked through her. Oops, she hadn’t thought of where she would sleep.
He quickly put them carefully in a silver box that all fit in his palm. “Are you ready?”
She glanced nervously around the room and realized that Greum and Marc had disappeared. She wished Ivona was here and she could ask to bunk with her, but there was no one.
“Yes.” She put her hand on his massive chest. “But we’re not mating. We’re sleeping, understand?”
“I get it.” He couldn’t hide the disappointment in his voice nor the hurt in his eyes, but she didn’t care. She was done with men taking advantage of her.
Vaughn had only kidnapped her for the formula, and falling into his arms was totally out of the question.
No matter how handsome or how smart or how much she’d dreamed about him kissing her.
Chapter 5
Vaughn led Sandra out of the science lab. He thought Sandra would fall asleep on her feet any minute. Her eyes were bloodshot and she fought desperately to keep her eyelids open, but she was definitely losing the fight. Her glasses kept sliding down her perk nose and she had to push them back up. Even tired, she was beautiful.
He held the specimens carefully in his hand while putting his other hand on her lower back to maneuver her out of the lab. He felt her stiffen.
He pretended not to notice, but each time she recoiled, a hollow pit grew in his heart. Whoever heard of mate flinching at the touch of her chosen one?
“You worked really hard. I was impressed.”
“That’s my job,” she mumbled. “I’m a scientist.”
The crew had gone into the night shift mode and hardly anyone was in the corridors. The doors to his quarters slid open and her face paled.
He frowned. “Are you okay?”
She rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m just really tired.”
He put the specimens in a locked drawer on his desk.
“Do you think a drawer is safe enough?”
Her dubious voice made the hair on the back of his neck stiffen. Did the woman trust anyone?
“It’s voice activated. Only I can open it.”
She sighed. “Of course. Why
didn’t I think of that?” She looked around his room. “Can I have a pillow and a blanket so I can sleep on the floor?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I told you we were sleeping. Nothing else.” She wrapped her arms around her so tightly he thought he’d have to use a crowbar to pry her arms apart.
“Sandra, I would never let you sleep on the floor.”
Her eyes were wide and she was gasping for breath. She took a step backward and glanced over her shoulder as if she were going to make a break for the door.
He held up his hand.
She flinched and ran to the door, her palms moving all over it.
“Nor would I ever hurt you…Please stay.”
Her back was stiff. She dropped her arms to her side and her hung her head. “You’re not going to let me out.” Her soft voice was so tiny, but it cut through him like a razor.
“Sandra, I know we’re both tired, but we need to talk. You’re a scientist. Surely, you see the logic in this?”
He held his breath, waiting for her answer.
She slowly turned around. Her eyes glistened with fear. He forced himself not to run over and comfort her.
“I’ll sit at my desk.” He hurried over to his chair. “You can stay there or sit on the bed.”
She hesitated, but slowly made her way to the bed, watching him as if he were a Gog ready to eat her.
She sat on the corner of his bed that was closest to the door. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I’d like to know why you’re so afraid of me.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? You kidnapped me. I’m your prisoner.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re my mate. There’s a difference. If you were a prisoner, you’d be locked in the brig.”
She rolled his eyes and clamped her jaw tight.
“Okay, that didn’t go over well. You’re right. I did. And I’m sorry. But based on yours and Agent Malloy’s statements in your university lab and some of your comments here on the ship, I suspect something else has happened to you. Will you please tell me? I’d really like to know. Maybe I could help you.”
She bit her lip and sighed heavily. She turned her gaze. “What did Agent Malloy tell you?”