The Ninth: Invasion (29 page)

“Don’t worry about me . . . just fine.  Tyra?” Brent asked, panting.

“Yes?”

“Would you head to the recreation room with me.”

“Why, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing wrong; just testing a theory.”

Cassandra and Tyra exchanged glances.  The squad leader shrugged and followed Brent.  Ronald was sitting at the bar waiting when they reached the room.

“Ronald, Tyra, would you two mind getting ready for a 3P?  I just want to run it by Cassandra, and we’ll join you.”

Ronald shot a curious glance at Brent, but Tyra pulled him away from the bar.

“What’s this all about?” Cassandra whispered to him.

“Just following in Marie and Penny’s footsteps.  Although, I’m stealing a play out of Cain’s playbook.”

“Cain? What’s he got to do with anything?”

Brent discretely handed his pad to the bartender.  The bartender quickly read over the pad.  His right eyebrow instantly shot up.  Brent nodded toward Tyra and Ronald.  The bartender shrugged and bent over to retrieve the 3P.  He noticed the bartender pulled the 3P out of a bin that had been well hidden out of sight.  As Brent checked the 3P, he leaned over to Cassandra as if showing it to her.

“What exactly do you have there?” she asked.

“Just pretend to join them in the 3P.  Trust me,” he whispered to her, keeping the 3P out of her sight.

Cassandra took the proper position while Brent set up the 3P.  As the 3P started working, he watched Ronald and Tyra.  Both of them seemed to fall asleep.  As soon as Cassandra was certain they were experiencing the 3P, she turned to face him.

“What was that all about?” she asked.

“Take a look at this.  It’ll answer your questions.”

Brent handed his pad over to her.  As she read through it, her face started to redden.

“But . . . this is . . .” Cassandra tripped over her words.

“A
romance
3P.  Or at least that’s what Cain calls them.”

“Of all the dirty tricks.  How could you do this to them?”  Her face was getting redder.

“Calm down.  Ronald approached me in the corridor.  He’s a total mess.”

“And
this
is supposed to help him?”

“Actually, yes.  This should help him sort out his feelings.”

“His feelings?  Angela said he was devoted to Tyra, not in love with her.”

“True, but did you know for the last five years he didn’t really realize Tyra was a girl.”

“
What
?” Cassandra shouted.

“I know.  I nearly bust a gut laughing.  The reason Angela didn’t think he had any romantic feelings toward Tyra was because
he
didn’t even know he had any.”

“And this is supposed to help?”

“That’s my aim.  If everything goes well, they should both realize exactly what they think about one another, maybe even let a few of those repressed feelings out.”

“And if it doesn’t go well?”

“Worst case, they spend a few hours in a romantic setting and are embarrassed beyond words.”

“It’s your neck . . .”

Cassandra’s face was incredibly red as she handed back his pad.  She rubbed her hands together nervously.

“Something wrong?” Brent asked.

“You haven’t done one of these . . .
romance
3Ps . . . have you?”  Cassandra looked like she was about to explode.

Glancing at his pad, Brent found the list Cain had sold him staring back at him.  Cassandra had pulled up the long list of
romance
3Ps Cain had assembled.

“Why?  Do you want to run through one with me?” he asked, getting ready to run.

“That’s not what I meant!”  As she shouted, her face doubled in redness.

“That wasn’t a no,” he said, standing.

Cassandra was about to shout at him when she noticed the bartender and several patrons were all staring at her.  Hiding her face behind him, she pushed him out into the hallway.  She kept pushing him down the corridor until she felt she was safe from eavesdropping.  As she checked the corridor for crewmembers, Brent noticed she had calmed down a bit, and her face wasn’t red anymore.

“Pervert,” she said, pouting a bit.

“You don’t really think . . .”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“You are getting worked up over nothing.  The two of us in the marsh was the closest I’ve even come to a romance 3P.”

“You’re not lying, are you?  That was a pretty elaborate list.”

“I’ll pass along that compliment to Cain.”

“Cain? What’s he got to do with anything?”

“He’s the one who sold me that list.”

“I should have known.”  Cassandra ground her fist into her palm.

Brent put his arms around her and leaned close to her ear.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered, “you’ll be there when I go through my first romance 3P.”

She instantly froze.

“Don’t try to sweet talk your way out of this one,” she nearly shouted as her face flashed red.

“I wasn’t sweet talking, I was making a promise,” he said with a wink.

She turned a deep red.  Brent waited as she collected her thoughts.

“I’ll let you off the hook,
this time
,” she said, trying to sound firm.  “But . . .”

“But?”

“. . . I get to pick the 3P.”

She immediately turned her back on him.  With a smile he wrapped his arms around her and kissed the nape of her neck.  She let out a giggle at the unexpected sensation.  Without warning, she forcefully grabbed his hand and started pulling him down the corridor.  Out of the corner of his eye, he spied the reason; a pair of crewmembers had rounded a corner and were approaching.  Brent followed silently until she led him to an isolated spot.  He recognized it as the same place he had found them earlier.

“So what were you two talking about?” Brent asked, taking a seat on an old looking chair.

“Who?”

“Tyra and you.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Just curious.  The two of you seemed to be having a good time.”

Cassandra looked at him nervously.  When he raised an eyebrow, she averted her eyes.

“Don’t tell me.  You were talking about . . . me?”

“A little,” she sounded defensive.

“What did Tyra want to know?”

Cassandra looked down at the floor, clearly not wanting to answer.

“Nothing bad, I hope,” Brent said.  “She didn’t tell you to keep away from me or something, did she?”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“Then what
was
it like?”

“She was just interested.”

“Interested in what?”

“You’re not going to give up, are you?” she asked with a sigh.

“Nope,” he said with a grin.

“If you
must
know, she wanted to know how things were going.  She’d always eavesdropped when Marie and Penny did the questioning in the past.”

“And they haven’t been able to interrogate you since they set up that room for us in the cargo bay . . .”

“She just wanted to know some of the details.”  Cassandra chuckled to herself.

“What’s so funny?”

“The way she talked about you.  She thought
you
were the one putting the moves on
me
.  When I told her about the other morning, she nearly died laughing.”

She started laughing.  It was funny in retrospect, not so much at the time.  Their laughter was interrupted by the P.A.

“Attention all hands.  This is the captain speaking.  We are about to jump into the nebula.  Please remain calm.”

Doctor Benedict’s head was killing her.  As she moved to rub her temples shooting pain filled her side.  A gentle hand rested on hers.

“Careful doctor,” Nathan said gently.  “You’re still recovering.”

“Recovering from what?”

“You took some shrapnel in the mess hall.  Don’t you remember?”

“My head is killing me.  Who treated . . .”

She froze as she opened her eyes.  She had assumed Administer Bloom was the one holding her hand.  To her surprise it was the Master Weaver who was sitting at her side.  She steadied her nerves and held still.

“You aren’t forcing calm into me,” she said slowly.

“Jack would never do that,” Nathan said indignantly.  “It wouldn’t be fair after all.”

Both of them stared at him in confusion.

“He’s never once calmed me down despite all the headaches he’s put me through.  Wouldn’t be fair if he helped
you
relax.”

Jack laughed as Nathan pretended to be offended.

“You two are insane,” she said weakly.  “Which idiot treated me?”

“Some short fellow with long hair,” Nathan said as he tried to recall the man’s name.

“
Him
?” she muttered.  “It would have been better to let it sit until I regained consciousness.  No wonder my head is throbbing.  He’s got the delicacy of a sledge hammer.”

Jack put a firm hand on her shoulder when she tried to roll over.  He wouldn’t let her move, but he wasn’t being rough about it.

“Your side hasn’t mended,” he said in his rough voice.  “There isn’t anyone to treat you here, so you are going to stay still.”

“Are you giving me orders in my own department?” she asked angrily.  “Wait, what do you mean there isn’t anyone here?”

Administer Bloom let out a long sigh.

“We’ve relocated the academy’s population to the world below.”

“Why would you do something like that?” she asked, giving up on getting more comfortable.

“We managed to round up the troopers and Weavers from the showdown in the mess hall.  But we’ve yet to find their ringleaders.”

“So?” she asked.

“It’s impossible to know what else they have done besides get word of the civil war onto the academy,” Jack said bluntly.  “For all we know they might have given us away and there is a strike team headed toward us as we speak.”

“And hiding on the world below is going to be better?”

“There are several hidden bunkers on the world below,” Jack said.  “They are specially designed to hide our presence from orbital scans.  We are already working on evacuating Deriso.  If the ITU shows up, it will appear as if we fled the system.”

“You might have found your match Administer Bloom,” she said as she relaxed her eyes.

“How so Doctor Benedict?”

“He’s an even bigger worrywart than you are.”

Nathan laughed heartily as Jack shifted uncomfortably.

“I’m going to check on the preparations for the next set of drop ships,” Nathan said, still grinning.  “Don’t let the stubborn doctor get up, Jack.”

“I’m not stubborn,” she called after him as he left the room.

Jack shot her a smile.

“I’m not,” she pouted.

“Yes you are,” he said as he leaned back in his chair.

“You know, when you promised me a date, I didn’t expect it to be in a bunker, hiding from the ITU.”

“It wasn’t my first choice,” he said irritably.

“Let me guess, you wanted to charge off blindly and take the fight to the ITU?”

He shifted uncomfortably.

“And you call me stubborn,” she said with a small laugh.  “You know you’d just get yourself killed out here.”

“Doubting my abilities?”

“No, doubting your ability to walk away from a fight.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“You remind me a lot of my son.  He’s a protector type too.  Took on a lot of fights he knew he couldn’t win.  He’s always fighting the good fight, regardless what it costs him personally.”

“Sounds like a good kid,” Jack said with a grin.

“He is, but I’ll never see grandchildren this way.”

“Oh?”

“He’ll never settle down.  Even if he found the perfect woman, he’d focus on keeping her safe instead of making her happy.”

“I once heard someone say that never is an absolute and nothing in this life is absolute.”

“We’ll see,” she said thoughtfully.  “For all I know he’s already dead out there.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Jack said with a confident nod.

“How can you be sure?”

“You said he’s a protector type – like me, right?”

“That’s what worries me.”

“Everything is all set, Jack,” Nathan called into the room.  “We’re ready for the fair doctor when you are ready.”

She put her hand on his.

“Don’t worry Doctor Benedict,” Jack said as he stood.  “I might not be able to protect the Commonwealth, but I’ll do my best to protect you.  Until your son gets back to take over.”