by Merry Farmer
“I’m scared about going back over there.”
Her vulnerability sent prickles of protectiveness through him.
“Why be scared?” His response was light-years gentler than his previous tone. “It’s your old home.”
She shook her head, hugging herself. “I didn’t like it there.”
Danny shifted to face her more fully. “I thought you loved it. You’re always going on about how much better Kinn’s camp is.”
She sent him a guilty, sidelong look. “The cabins and stuff were better at first, but then we got all of that on our side. It’s still fun to rub it in when people like Beth are being bitchy.”
He had to bite back the temptation to laugh. Beth was a bitch sometimes. “So why didn’t you like it?”
“Because they’re all military over there.” She straightened and looked directly at him. “The people in our camp are scientists and leadership types. We’re all about trying things out and finding new things and better ways to do stuff. I like that. But over in Kinn’s place it’s all about following rules and orders, doing things just one way, Kinn’s way. And everyone is always angry about it.”
“Angry?” Curiosity gripped him. He leaned forward. “Go on.”
Heather shifted to sit facing him, enthusiasm lighting her eyes. “All those military guys are used to following orders from a superior officer. I don’t get it, but that’s what they are trained to do, brainwashed, even.”
“That’s a bit strong,” he said, surprised to be defending soldiers. “Training and discipline enable soldiers to carry out complicated missions.”
“Yeah, I know, but the point is, not everyone liked the kinds of orders Kinn would give. He’d get shit done, sure, but shit like building things, hunting for food. A lot of guys wanted to do other stuff, like explore, but Kinn said no, said they had to listen to him because he was the officer in charge. Only, you and I know that’s not true.”
Another swirl of embarrassment worked its way from Danny’s gut to his skin, only this one was for the incident on the Argo that was good as ancient history now.
“Half the time a bunch of us were convinced that Kinn didn’t even know what he was doing. He took a long time to make decisions and he would yell at anyone who tried to speed him up. Whatever it was, I didn’t like living with all that ‘Do what I say, soldier’ and Kinn’s way or no way. It used to drive him crazy when I would ‘wander off’ as he would call it. I wasn’t wandering off, I was learning the lay of the land. But I did it my way, not by sweeping through sectors of whatever grid Kinn made up. I found stuff they missed too.”
“Like what?” Danny’s pulse rose.
“Like flowers and stuff,” she answered, blushing and looking down. “Pretty ones. And these really cute but big kittens. They were so cute, Danny! And they liked me. They let me pet them and they licked my face and everything.”
Big kittens. The kind that grew into giant cats, like the one Grace had tamed, Scruffy. “Grace had a cat,” he said aloud. “She seemed to think we could train them to be guard cats.”
“We totally could!” Before she could get carried away, Heather shook her head and waved her hand to brush the thought away. “Anyhow, the thing is, Kinn put himself in charge over there, but not everyone was happy about it. And he never knew what to do about me. That’s why he got rid of me by giving me to you guys.”
“Makes sense.” Danny nodded, rubbing the stubble on his chin. A lot of things made sense. Why Kinn kept crossing over the river to ask Grace questions about problems he had governing his people, for example. It was possible that seeking her advice wasn’t only a ploy to lure her into his bed.
He let the thought go. Even if it was true, it was useless speculation now. Kinn had Grace. He’d won.
“I don’t want to stay over there,” Heather continued. Her worry was back. “Kinn isn’t going to let Grace go, but I don’t want to go live with them again.”
She met his eyes with a blend of determination and worry that reminded him so much of Grace it pierced his heart.
“Why would you think you’d have to stay over there?”
Heather shrugged. “People always want to put me someplace, make me stay there and do things their way. He might do that again.”
He smiled and laid a hand on the side of Heather’s face. “I’ll make sure you get home safe and sound.”
“Thanks, Danny.” She surged to her knees and leaned in to throw her arms around him. The gesture caught him completely off-guard. He stiffened in her embrace. It was as foreign as the world around him. He drew in a breath and was about to hug her in return when she let him go and sat.
“So do you have any bullets for that gun?” she asked, shining with mischief.
Too clever for her own good.
He kept his lips pressed shut in a wry grin and focused on stoking the fire. “Eat your breakfast.”
Stacey and Jonah woke up not long after, as Heather was yapping on about all of the places she’d explored on the other side of the river, caves, meadows, side streams. They ate and gathered their things without lingering. There was no point in socializing when they had a mission. Within half an hour, they were trekking across the expanse of white and the wintery forest between Kutrosky’s old camp and the river. The air was still heavy and droplets of melt rained from the trees, making their parkas damp and heavy.
The fallen tree that served as a bridge across the river was all but buried in snow. Danny crouched behind a stand of bushes, studying it and the river as they rested in camouflaged positions. The tracks leading away from Kutrosky’s camp brought them to the bridge, but whoever had come over to investigate the smoke had walked across the frozen river. Their path was clear.
A groove in the snow stretched across the iced-over river beside the tree. New powder had blown over it to an extent, but it was distinct. As if it had been deliberately maintained as a crossing for a while, but not recently. There was no sign of anyone on the other side of the river, none of the armed guards Danny had expected to find. Cold, bare trees were the only sentinels, retreating back in straight gray-brown ranks into the misty winter darkness.
Stacey inched forward, hunched over his shoulder. “I don’t see anyone, Boss. Looks like they’re hibernating for the winter.”
He narrowed his eyes, not trusting her observation or his. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
He inched back and turned to face the others. Stacey huddled against his side, for warmth as much as anything else. Jonah and Heather crouched together one tree away. His hands and feet were beginning to get stiff with cold again after the relative comfort of Kutrosky’s shelter.
“Once we get across the river, stay low and move as quickly as you can. Heather knows the way to the camp so she’ll walk up front with me. Keep quiet and keep your eyes open. We’re just neighbors checking up on each other.”
“I don’t think they’re going to buy that,” Stacey muttered.
“Whether they do or not, it’s the most harmless excuse we’ve got,” he replied, tightening the straps on his snowshoes.
“Let’s do this,” Heather said, breaking away from Jonah and scrambling up to Danny.
He pointed at her. “No funny business,” he spoke so only she could hear him as they ventured out of their cover and crept toward the river.
“Who do you think you are, my dad?” she shoved past him and shuffled down the riverbank to the snowy path.
“God forbid,” Danny muttered after her, trying not to smile.
He hadn’t thought an escort to the governor’s office was necessary. He hadn’t exactly been an escape risk. The moment he’d been caught, he had known there was nothing he could to do but face whatever consequences his actions had prompted.
“In here.” The guard stepped in front of him, keying in the code to unlock the governor’s remote suite on the seldom-visited first floor of the executive sector. The door slid open with a mild hum. “Governor King will be with you shortly.”
Danny nodded, expression grim, and stepped into the office. The door hissed shut behind him, isolating him from the guard on the other side. He was well and truly alone. Carrie couldn’t help him out of this one. Neither could Grace, for all the influence she had since Kutrosky’s hearing.
He walked to the center of the room, sliding his hands in his pockets to calm his anxious energy, and looked around. The suite was luxurious, isolated, and pointless in the face of everything The Terra Project stood for, from the artwork on the walls to the display of real books on a long thin table against one wall.
He strolled to the table of books. They were all leather-bound and pristine, never opened. A History of Space Travel, Roots of Political Struggle, Wilderness Survival Guide. The last one made him laugh. Who the hell needed a wilderness survival guide in deep space?
A faint mewling came from the suite’s inner office. Danny’s lips twitched in a half grin. He knew the sounds, if only from distant memory and dreams of Grace. They weren’t the sort of sounds one would expect to hear while awaiting dire punishment. The moaning was interrupted by a groan of “Oh, yes!”
Curiosity got the best of him. It wasn’t as if he could get into any more of a tight spot than he was already in. He ambled into the inner office, hands still in his pocket, wry grin twisting his mouth. The governor’s desk faced the open door, a huge photograph of a sun rising over Terra behind it. Against the left-hand wall was a long leather sofa with a very young, mostly naked woman with her legs wrapped around the waist of a man with his pants below his knees. Danny’s eyebrows flew up and he stood still, watching the two of them rocking the sofa like a train wreck.
The girl noticed him over her partner’s shoulder as he drilled her. Her eyes popped wide and her pleasured pant turned into a scream. She beat on the man’s shoulders, pushing him away.
It took the man a few more seconds to catch on. When he did, he jolted back and twisted to face Danny with a breathless, “Jesus!”
“I’ve been called worse.” Danny turned his head to the side. There was only so much he needed to see of one of Grace’s team members and the governor’s daughter.
He crossed his arms as the young couple scrambled to find their clothes. When they were mostly decent, he fixed the man with a stare that could have pinned a lab specimen.
“Hello, Jonah,” he grinned, eyebrow arched. “Lovely afternoon, isn’t it?”
“Dr. Thorne,” Jonah sputtered. “I…I can explain.”
“I’m sure you can.”
“He’s my boyfriend,” the girl shouted, full of fire and indignation.
Danny blinked at her. Jonah could end up in prison for having a girlfriend like that at his age. “Does Grace know about this?” he asked.
Jonah didn’t get a chance to answer. The door to the hall in the other room slid open. The guard standing watch in the hall said, “Good afternoon, sir.”
Danny sent a pointed look to Jonah and the girl, then turned on his heel and marched straight out into the entry room. Governor King stormed away from the door, a uniformed soldier following him. The soldier was tall and muscular, with a square jaw and short haircut, but his stooped posture and anxious expression negated any appearance of power.
“Good afternoon, sir.” Danny smiled at King, as mild as a lamb, and approached him at the far end of the room. The lovebirds had better move quickly. “I’ve been waiting for you.” He sized the soldier up with one glance, aware that the man was assessing him as well, then ignored him.
The governor blew out an exasperated breath and crossed his arms. “Did somebody designate this Piss Off The Governor Day? Because between you and Corporal McKinnon, I’m about ready to shit on a handheld.” He shook his head and tried to march past Danny to the inner office.
“I was under the impression this would be a private meeting.” Danny blocked the governor’s path with a sideways step, nodding to the soldier in an attempt to buy Jonah and the girl some time. “Why is he here?”
“Because he is an incompetent little fuck who couldn’t find his ass with both hands and a mirror, and he’s going to be your new best friend.” The governor narrowed his eyes at the soldier, then continued on to the office. “You two, get your sorry asses in here.”
Danny and Corporal McKinnon traded wary looks. The last thing Danny wanted was to be burned for his sins in front of a witness or to watch someone else be taken down. He moved on, shoulders tense, jaw clenched.
The office was empty when they stepped through the doorway. Even Danny barely noticed the flicker of movement at the far end of the room as a closet door clicked shut.
The governor turned to face the two men, scowling and grim.
“Corporal McKinnon, I don’t know where the hell you get off petitioning High Command for a leadership position,” King laid into the soldier first. “You failed your skills assessment exam three times. How you even got on board the ship with that kind of record is beyond me.”
McKinnon darted a sideways glance to Danny before saying, “Sir, my performance record is good.”
“You will speak when I give you leave to speak, soldier,” the governor snapped.
He strode to stand toe-to-toe with McKinnon. Only then did McKinnon rise to full attention, a scarlet flush spreading on his face and neck. Danny held himself back from shaking his head as McKinnon exuded enough resentment to border on insubordination.
“You were given one task on this ship and one task only, soldier,” King continued his dressing down. “You were charged with apprehending the criminals who have been hacking our computer systems. You failed at that. I had to find out about Brian Kutrosky from Sean Murphy, an arrogant ex-military lawyer who couldn’t even defend his position against some red-head in a dress. Grace Hargrove has more leadership capability in her pretty little tits than you will ever have, do you hear me?”
Danny swallowed and stared straight ahead. Defending Grace in his current situation would only dig his grave deeper.
“Yes, sir,” McKinnon growled.
“Kutrosky was bad enough, but you can’t even guard storerooms without supplies going missing all over this goddamn ship. Tools and seeds and shit vanishing, all under your nose.”
Danny fought the flush of heat that threatened to give him away. No wonder it had been so easy for him to steal supplies for the last few months.
“Are you that stupid, soldier?” the governor went on. He pushed up into McKinnon’s face.
“No, sir.”
“Bullshit. I think you are. I am busting you down to private.”
“You can’t do that,” McKinnon barked. His hands balled into fists.
Governor King’s eyes flared wide. “Oh I can’t, can’t I?”
“My commanding officer—”
“Reports to me,” the governor finished for him. “Not only am I busting you to private, I’m giving you a new assignment. This one.” He jabbed a thumb toward Danny.
Danny’s skin prickled with dread.
McKinnon hesitated, jaw quivering with confusion, before growling, “Yes, sir.”
“Kiss your leadership ambitions goodbye, soldier,” the governor finished up his rampage. “Once you finish the job I give you, I am recommending that you be shipped back to Earth and assigned to peacekeeping forces in Africa. The only thing you’ll ever be in charge of is playtime at the waterhole.”
Danny’s pulse shot up at the harsh punishment. It didn’t bode well for him.
“Yes, sir,” McKinnon rumbled, radiating resentment.
The governor turned and paced away. He rubbed a hand over his face, chest expanding as he took a breath. When he circled back to Danny, he was only a fraction calmer.
“And you. A scientist in the very core of the Project,” he started in on Danny. “Computer hacking is a serious enough crime on its own. I know you’re aware that you’ve been under suspicion of tampering for months. What surprises me is that you were foolish enough to get caught, especially after that whole Brian Kutrosky ordeal.”
/> It was Danny’s turn to peek at the fuming soldier beside him before saying, “I didn’t think I would get caught.”
King hissed. “So you’re going to get smart with me too? Well allow me to wipe that smirk off your four-eyed, smartass face. Deleting computer models and altering key information in personnel files goes far beyond simple tampering. It’s one step away from sabotage.”
He crossed his arms and stared bullets at Danny.
“What the hell do you have against Grace Hargrove that you would delete entire genetic strains from her profile? She may be an idealist, but she’s the most effective damn manager we’ve got.” He turned to Kinn. “You could learn a lot from her, Private.” He shifted back to Danny. “She could have been removed from the Leadership Team and reassigned as inadequate if your illicit activity hadn’t been caught.”
Danny met and held the man’s eyes but hesitated to answer. Nothing he said would matter. He would still be punished and Grace would still be folded into the system.
“I have no explanation for my actions, sir.”
“You’d damn well better have an explanation, Daniel. You’ve already been fired.”
The bottom dropped out of his stomach. His eyes went wide behind his glasses. He was acutely aware of McKinnon shifting beside him. “I’ve been what?”
The governor stopped his bluster, a note of hesitation entering his expression. “Weren’t you told?”
“No, sir, I was not.” Numb tingling spread from his toes and fingers to the rest of his body. His job was his life, everything he’d trained for since childhood. His job was the only means he had to protect Grace from everything he’d gotten involved in.
“Well, you have been fired,” King went on. “You are no longer a part of The Terra Project. The decision was made last night. After that bleeding-heart display Miss Hargrove made over Kutrosky at the sentencing, the governing council has decided that no more sedition will be tolerated. Hacking and manipulation of the Project’s data is unacceptable.”