“So?”
“So I am a ranking officer of the Authority.”
“So we’re not going to do it again?” At this point, she wasn’t asking for a commitment. That would be literally crazy. Men didn’t commit, especially not Authority men. They got sex where they could and to hell with everyone else.
“I…” He breathed in and shook his head.
“Don’t worry,” she laughed. “I’m not going to get all weird and clingy. What we did was hot. Nothing more.”
“Well,” he said, appearing to fight himself for words.
There was another bing bong, a sign that somebody else was wanting to enter. Jerri let out a giggle, quickly silenced by Atlas with the flat of his palm applied firmly to her mouth. He dragged her back against his body and pressed the intercom button.
“I’m off duty,” he said.
“Sure, and Janus wants to see you regardless,” a voice on the other side said. “Want me to tell her you’re not coming?”
Atlas cursed under his breath. “I will be there very shortly.”
“I’m going to leave you here,” he murmured down into her captive ear. “When it’s quiet, you can leave and get back to your quarters. I assume you’re practiced at avoiding surveillance.”
“Damn straight,” Jerri smirked when he let her speak.
“Good.” He released her with a last swat to her bottom. “I will speak with you soon.”
He changed his uniform and left, giving Jerri free rein over his quarters. She was cool though, she didn’t snoop even though the temptation was incredible. She was curious as hell, but she was also not an asshole. Not that kind of asshole anyway. She waited ten minutes and slipped out of his quarters, pulling the hem of his shirt down around her thighs to maintain some kind of modesty in case she was caught.
Chapter Three
The following day, Atlas was reminded of just how closely the Authority watched all its members. He had been concerned that there could be something in the way of consequences for mating with Tessil if anybody were to discover the truth, but Tessil seemed to be able to keep her mouth shut and she also seemed to have made it back to her quarters unobserved.
“Commander Atlas.”
Atlas turned his head to the ship’s counselor, a Goshian named Commander Esense. Atlas tried to hide his native discomfort with the entity. Goshians were sometimes referred to as the angels to the Kitari devils. They were on the opposite ends of almost every spectrum one might care to name.
“Yes, Commander Esense.”
He was glowing with the joy of creation distilled into a single entity. It was very irritating.
“Sorry,” Esense said, dimming himself slightly. “I forget that we come across to your kind like a flickering fluorescent light. I was hoping to speak with you on a matter I believe you could assist me with.”
“What matter?”
“If we could adjourn to my office, it would be more prudent to speak there. This is a matter of some sensitivity.”
Matters of sensitivity were not Atlas’s forte. He felt an immediate pang of pure dread at the prospect of having to talk about one. He nevertheless followed Esense to his office. It was a place designed to be soothing to humans. The walls were green and the seating was overly soft. When he sat down on a couch he found himself sinking into it in a very disturbing fashion.
“Is there a leak in this room?”
“That’s the sound of flowing water. People are soothed by rivers and rain, so I keep the auditory reminder of it constantly playing as a means to calm them when they come here.”
“Turning it off would soothe me,” Atlas said.
The music, such as it was, stopped.
“What am I here for? I hope it’s not for anything so ridiculous as counseling. The Kitari are allergic.”
“We are not here to talk about you, though your tendency to reflexively lie about your capacity for guided introspection could perhaps become useful at some point.”
“Who are we here to talk about?”
“Ensign Jerri Tessil.”
Atlas kept his features composed, knowing the Goshian would be able to detect any flickers in his energy. They were sentient lie detectors, and he had much to hide.
“I have not received any indication she’s gotten into trouble.”
Esense smiled in a way that might have seemed peaceful to most, but came across to Atlas as unbearably smug.
“She’s not in trouble. As you are no doubt aware, I perform scans of the entire crew on a tri-daily basis. I measure their activity levels, associations, various other parameters.”
Atlas waited with limited patience, which was becoming even more limited by the moment. Esense could probably have quantified it and measured it as it dwindled. It would no doubt fascinate him.
“Tessil’s daily activity has dropped by over sixty percent.”
“She’s been banned from all recreational activities, so that makes sense.”
“Any drop over forty percent is considered extreme. Seventy percent is extremely extreme. Unless someone is confined to the brig, or is very ill, this is considered abnormal. I’m concerned Ensign Tessil is suffering from post-punishment depression.”