Military life offered more opportunity for advancement as well as a guaranteed job once a person left the service if they left in good standing. Serving in the military also opened up the only avenue to political advancement, which was why a good number of people chose it.
“Academy buddies.” Suz sighed.
“What do you mean academy buddies?” Robert turned and took her hand.
“I had a few friends from academy, too. I understand how easy it is to believe that they’re your friends and wouldn’t do anything bad. About a year ago, I learned one of my old academy buddies was at the heart of a theft ring.” Suz bit her lip. “I’m not saying that your friend did anything bad, but I simply can’t understand why he’d do it if he trained as a candidate, knew about what we were doing and the protocols for the mission.”
“You’re not alone there,” David said. Robert’s friend might be completely mean spirited or perhaps he had some other goal. David believed the latter was more likely. From what little Robert had told him, the man hadn’t been a complete bastard in their academy days.
“Maybe he meant to keep an old friend informed of the possibility of someone playing the system.” Robert exhaled heavily.
David didn’t think that even Robert believed that. “He had to realize the trouble it could cause. For you, as well as himself. Every communication is recorded. The only way to send anything to us is through specific booster satellites positioned part of the way along our route.”
“In the candidacy training, they were very specific. Anyone that interferes with one of the relationships, at least, the people on the planet, will face consequences.” Suz nodded.
She looked up warily at Robert. Her teeth worried her lower lip as her arms crossed over her chest. She didn’t say anything more, probably because she feared the remark would start another argument between them. David had wondered the same thing.
“I don’t know why he did it, but it did cause trouble.” Robert shook his head slowly. His arm slipped around her shoulders.
“Are you sure he was a candidate? Suz is right. If he sat through the orientation, he’d know that nothing would change, regardless of what he discovered. If he really thought she did something to influence the choice of partners, you aren’t the person he should have contacted.” David eased closer to Suz and resisted the urge to tug one of her legs across his lap.
He wouldn’t stop with that simple move. Before he knew it, his hand would slide between those long legs and he’d give in to the urge to discover what she wore under her the shorts. Once he did that, he knew he’d have her clothes off in no time and give in to the urge to sink his cock into her pussy only moments after that.
“I didn’t see him in any of my orientation classes and believed what he told me in the message.” Robert shrugged, but a blush heated his cheeks. “I didn’t think he had any reason to lie.”
Orientation would be the only place Robert would run into his buddy. After that, the candidates moved into separate groups for specific duties. Training began for the candidates specializations, focusing on the colony and ship skills most suited for each person. During the latter part of the training, the crew and colonists were chosen. They’d been psychologically matched with people to complement their personalities and maximize available skills.
“We can find out.” Suz glanced toward the ceiling. “All we have to do is ask them.”
David’s eyes widened as he realized she was right. They didn’t have many records pertaining to the selection process and the training, but for some reason the records of the candidates, all of them, had been uploaded to the ships computers.
“How? We’ve passed the last relay satellite and the chance of still being in range of it is small.” Robert asked. “Even if Earth base gets our message, we probably wouldn’t get their reply.”
“We don’t need it. She remembered that I told her about all of the extra records I discovered when I misspelled a crewman’s name. I was searching for record of an injury. The candidates’ records are here. They can be accessed through medical.” David stood up and walked to the center of the room. He had to move. “What’s his name?”
“Jerrod Stevens.” Robert frowned.
“Did you get that? Look up that name in the medical records.” David’s voice rose as he stared up at the ceiling. Unnecessary he knew, but it was almost automatic.
“We heard you. We’re accessing the records, and it’s running them. So far, partial matches only.” The male voice came from the speakers in the room.
David strolled back to the bed. “It might take a little time. There were a lot of names and Stevens is a common name.”
“Well, come back over here. Since we’re waiting we can’t do anything interesting, but we can continue talking.” Suz patted the bed beside her.
David definitely wished he could take things beyond “interesting” and didn’t know how long he could resist the urge. Naked, sweaty and screaming with pleasure came closer to the descriptors of what he wanted to do with her. Although he had doubts about his control, he didn’t stay away from her. He’d take any chance he could to be close to her.
He climbed back onto the bed and settled in beside her. His cock hardened and his hands itched to touch her. A grimace twisted his lips. He’d been right. Getting near her only made the hunger to strip those clothes away even worse.
“Are you doing all right?” David brushed the hair away from her cheek. This couldn’t be easy for her. She’d been so calm even though there were indications that Robert’s friend had intentions other than merely informing him of possible corruption.
“I’m doing all right, but my mind’s racing. I’m trying not to let panic lead to wild conclusions until we know if he was a candidate or not.” She exhaled slowly and leaned close to him.
“Your mind isn’t the only one working through some scary possibilities. Hopefully, he was an angry, rejected candidate who intended to cause trouble for the only person he knew on the ship because he didn’t get picked.” David put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed.
“I’m not the only person, though. He knows Leon Drake. He’s on one of the other rotations, working as an engineer.” Robert frowned.
“You did know that Leon and his partners got out of seclusion not too long ago?” David had seen the notes on the required after seclusion checkup when he’d gone over the medical log on their last rotation.
He saw Robert’s face pale as blood drained from it. David felt a little nauseous himself. Although they hadn’t talked to Leon, or even the crew looking at the information yet, they couldn’t ignore the coincidence. Two people who knew Jerrod suddenly developed troubles with their marriage partners. David didn’t believe the problems were chance, because what that man had sent to Robert had been guaranteed to incite a reaction. Considering Jerrod knew Robert, he probably knew Robert’s hot issues.
“No, I didn’t know.” Robert sighed and shook his head.
“Sir, we’ve checked the records and there’s not a Jerrod Stevens in the list of candidates.” The voice rushed through the explanation as if he expected a reaction.
Robert checked that they had spelled it correctly. They had. David glanced at Robert to check his reaction to the news. Robert stared straight forward for a long moment, before he glanced up at the ceiling.
“Check my messages and those of Leon Drake. Now that I know Jerrod wasn’t a candidate, that message is more than suspicious.” Robert’s voice cut through the silence, each word sharp and hard.
“You think he might be one of the One Planet crazies? You said he served and went through the academy.” Suz turned to look at Robert.
David had begun to think that Jerrod might be involved in something such as that, or maybe the man allowed anger and bitterness to lead him to stupidity. David hoped for the latter, because the One Planet faction had almost destroyed the colony ship before it was completely built.
Those actions had intensified an already meticulous and rig
orous selection process. The government hoped to keep those people from getting on the ship and doing something to delay or completely destroy the mission.
The One Planet believers took an extreme view of the One belief that was held by the vast majority of the population. Most people believed the One was the unknown power that began everything from universe expansion to the eventual formation of life. The actions and power of the One stopped there for almost everyone.
The One Planet people took it a few steps beyond that. They believed the One designed life on Earth and the creatures on it, as well as taking an active hand in human’s lives. The most fanatical of them were convinced that their One intended humans to remain on the planet. That leaving was somehow defying the One’s will.
“It’s a possibility that we need to rule out now. Having them scan the letter is one step. The internal messaging processes would have done it, but the techs have more sensitive programs.” Robert squared his shoulders.
“We’ll do that, sir. It will take a little while for all of the scans to complete. Why don’t you three try to rest or talk through some more of the problem,” the male voice suggested.
Nervous energy burned through David and he knew he definitely couldn’t sleep until they had some answers. David didn’t think they’d be able to talk about anything different either. At least, not anything of consequence. Now, that the possibility had been raised, his mind had locked on it. He didn’t think Robert or Susanne would be any different.
In the end, they all took turns pacing the length of the room. All in all, the exercise only built more frustration, because the small room allowed only a few paces in either direction. They couldn’t burn off the tension. Well, they could, but they’d cut themselves off from the information they wanted.
“Fuck!” Robert stopped and rubbed a hand over the top of his short, black hair.
“Robert, we don’t know anything yet.” Susanne rose from the bed and walked over to Robert. She stepped in front of him and put her hands on his chest. “I can see you think you’re to blame for everything.”
“If I hadn’t been so ready to believe that someone like you would cheat and lie, I wouldn’t have reacted so intensely to his message.” Robert took her hands.
David walked over to join them as they stood near the table. He’d wondered why Robert had taken the man at his word as well as why Robert had been so angry about it. At the time, that wasn’t the most important question, but since it came up now, he intended to learn the reasons.
“Why don’t we sit down and we can talk about this while we wait?” David gestured to the table. “I’ll get us all a drink. It’ll have to be water, because they haven’t sent down anything stronger for us.”
Suz drew Robert over to the table and sat down. He took the seat next to her without breaking contact between them. Judging by his reaction now, Robert must have had to fight hard to stay away from her on their last rotation. David smiled as he carried the three glasses of water to the table. If it had only been him, Robert probably would have continued pacing, but throw in Suz and he sat easily.
David put a glass of water in front of each of them before he took his seat. He sat and watched as Robert curled his fingers around the glass and took a drink. He didn’t know if Robert was trying to delay talking or simply wanted to take a drink to get the formality out of the way. As the highest ranking member of their group, it was his right to take the first bite or drink, although David figured they would put aside the formality at some point, at least in private.
“What made it so easy to believe his message?” Susanne squeezed Robert’s hands. “Was it because we hadn’t started sharing our lives with each other?”
David really didn’t think it was that simple. This probably went deeper than that.
“No, it’s nothing about our relationship.” Robert sighed and took a deep breath. “There were a couple incidents in my past. Now, that I think about it, Jerrod knew about one of them.”
David frowned. He reached over and put his hand on Robert’s arm. “Incidents?”
“Yeah, two of them involving people with relatives in power. One of which Jerrod knew about.” Robert’s lips tightened into a fierce scowl. “I wish I knew what he wanted to accomplish.”
“We’ll see if we can figure that out after we discover if he sent a message to Leon too.” Suz patted his hand. “Do you mind talking to me about the incidents, or at least one of them? We don’t have to get into what you think I did, but I would like to know what made your reaction so powerful.”
“No, I think you have a right to know since I’ve been taking it out on you.” Robert closed his eyes briefly. “The first one is a little embarrassing now that I look back at it. If it was only that, I don’t think I’d have reacted even half as strongly.”
“If you want an embarrassing story about me to make you feel better, there are any number of them I can tell you.” David grinned. He didn’t mind making Robert more comfortable telling his story if it was needed. “There was the hazing incident in academy that had me running almost naked across the square just before dawn, hoping no one saw me and I could get into my dorm without getting caught.”
Suz’s head lowered. He heard a light, choked laugh, but she managed to keep herself under control. Robert’s lips twitched. He nodded to David.
“The first is relatively simple. I was dating a girl while I was in academy. I thought it was pretty intense, but I didn’t realize that she was using me to get back at her wealthy father who was very antimilitary. When that didn’t work, she dropped me. She had no problem telling me exactly why either.” Robert rubbed his hand over his jaw.
“That would dent anyone’s ego.” Suz lifted her head. She smiled at Robert.
“It definitely did that, but later that same year something left even more of an impression.” Robert straightened in his chair and took a deep breath.
David waited as Robert paused. As much as he wanted to prod Robert into telling them more, he knew Robert needed to tell this in his own time. These last pieces of information were the ones behind the anger. Suz simply sat quietly and waited.
“I almost got thrown out of the academy,” Robert said.
David blinked. He’d never expected that. “What happened?”
“Another cadet cheated. When he was caught, he said I was also in on it. I don’t know why.” Robert’s mouth firmed and his arms tensed.
“What happened?” David asked. He said no more, because he didn’t think Robert was looking for commiseration.
“You know the testing rooms and even the class rooms have surveillance. They checked. Found I’d never even talked to the young man. We were in different dorms and that was the only class we shared. I was cleared after a while.” Robert shrugged.
“What happened with the cadet who cheated?” Suz’s voice cut through the silence which had fallen between them.
“He was put out of the academy, but his father was powerful and managed to make it as if he’d never been through academy at all. He can’t be in the military, but he lives a normal life without the taint of being drummed out.” Robert’s voice tightened.
Well, that explained his reaction when he thought Suz had manipulated the selection in some way. David could understand his anger about being manipulated and someone getting away with it.
“Robert, we’ll get through our problems. We’ll see if we can discover why that man did what he did, but we look to our future. Our future is building the colony.” Suz stared at Robert and her eyes were intense as if she was trying to will him to believe her.
Robert said nothing, merely sat there staring at her. He squeezed her hands, but David could see him pulling back a little.
“We’ve analyzed the two message files as you ordered. The news isn’t good, sir.” The voice cut in as Robert rose, gently freeing his hands from Suz’s hold.
David glanced up at the ceiling and wished he could see the screens and the information they’d found. His stomach ch
urned at the words. He didn’t demand an elaboration. It wasn’t necessary. Something had been within those messages, but they had to discover what it was and what it did.
“What did you find in them? How bad is it?” Robert straightened.
“Each message had part of a program on it. These two parts wouldn’t do anything by themselves. Even together, there’s something missing. We’ve checked the system. Something is running there. So, either someone else received a message with the coding in it or it was already on the system,” the voice reported.
“Find out what the program is doing and report back to us. Find a way to remove it if you can.” David knew that the order should have come from Robert, but Robert stared at the wall. His fists bunched and he looked as if he planned to hit something. “Give us some privacy. It’s going to be necessary soon.”
“Will do.” The voice cut off.
Chapter Five
David got to his feet and started toward Robert. Movement from the other side of the table drew his attention and he realized Suz had also moved toward Robert. They’d have to get him to cooperate. David could tell Robert was blaming himself. He needed to burn away some of that anger so that he could think and make informed decisions for the rest of the crew.
“Come on, Robert. Come back to the bed and we can sit.” David put a hand on his shoulder.
Robert jerked away from him. “I don’t want to fucking sit, David. There’s something in the damn system because of a message I read.”
Suz shook her head and moved around in front of Robert. Her hands landed on her hips and she stared at him. “How persistent are those One World jerks?”
Robert remained silent.
“Very persistent,” David answered.
That one question was very leading. He knew where she was going with this, and he approved. They’d lived through the tension of wondering what the One Planet fanatics would do next. He’d had a few doubts that there would even be a colony formed off world. At one point, he was almost certain the mission would be scrubbed.
Sabotaged Desires Page 4