Ford laughed. “That was pretty quick thinking, sugar. Inventive.” Caph agreed. “The dry dock will be talking about this for years.” She shuddered, her breath coming in hitching gasps. “But what’s Aaron going to do? He’s really pissed. He wouldn’t talk to me all the way back, then he went downstairs.” She closed her eyes. “I wish I hadn’t done it. Now he’ll get rid of me.”
“No!” they echoed, hugging her.
“He won’t do that!” Ford insisted.
Caph tried to reassure her. “Honey, what you did is nothing compared to some of the shit we’ve pulled over the years. If he hasn’t gotten rid of us, trust me, he won’t get rid of you. He just needs to cool off, that’s all.”
She shook her head, tears falling. “I’m almost sure he will. You didn’t feel how pissed he was.” She pushed up out of their laps and headed to their cabin. They started to follow. She shook her head, unable to face them. “No, please. I need to be alone for a little bit.” Ford caught her hand, waiting until she looked at him. With his thumb he gently brushed her tears away. “Hey,” he said. “Someone told me they’d take care of me after we got done with our little impromptu performance.” He said it gently, teasingly, trying to break her funk.
She let him pull her in for a hug. “I’m sorry, Ford. I will. Just not right now.” The men let her leave.
She curled up on their bed. Aaron had been so…angry. That’s the only way she could describe how tense, nearly vibrating he’d been.
She would have to confront him sooner or later about it, get it over with. Maybe he’d let her spend one more night on the ship with the twins before she had to leave.
Emi waited until she felt Caph and Ford return to the bridge. Then she sought out Aaron in the engine room. He sat, cross-legged, his back to her, on the floor by an access panel. After consulting the hand-held console on the floor next to him, he reached in and did something.
From the change in the set of his shoulders and the feel of his energy, she knew he sensed her presence.
Once he finished his task he sat back. She spoke. “I’m sorry, Aaron.”
He flinched. He didn’t turn, and somehow, that made it worse.
After another moment of silence, she spoke again, almost desperate. “Please, let me stay one more night, at least.”
“What?”
He turned. While angry, he was also confused. “What are you talking about?”
She looked at the floor, unable to take the weight of his gaze. “Let me have one more night so I can say good-bye to the twins. Please.”
“You’re leaving?”
She blinked, not anticipating his shocked and questioning tone of voice. “What?”
He closed his eyes and took a deep, steadying breath before looking at her again. “All right, Em,” he said in a calm voice that didn’t match the energy flowing from him. “What are you talking about? Let’s start over.”
“You’re not kicking me off?”
His energy shifted again. While still angry, now he was…amused?
He leaned back against the wall. “Why would I do that?”
“After what I did.”
He studied her, throwing his head back and closing his eyes. “I’m not getting rid of you. Not over this. Pissed? Yes. I’m very pissed. But I’m not getting rid of you.”
“You’re not?” He wasn’t just yanking her chain, was he?
After a few long minutes, he met her gaze. “I’m not getting rid of you. I am pissed because I expect more from you than I do from the twins. The twins could walk alone into an empty room and manage to earn demerits for something. They attract trouble like the moon pulls the tide. You’re responsible. Besides needing a med officer and the fact that your personality fits with ours, I hoped having you with us would help me keep them out of trouble, a second set of eyes on them giving me more time for my duties. I never in my life imagined you’d be the instigator!” His voice climbed in volume and strength toward the end of his monologue.
“Em, you’re responsible. You’re an Alpha-ranked healer, for chrissake. They don’t just hand those out in fortune cookies. I expect the twins to get into trouble because they’re the twins. I expected you to keep them out of trouble, not lead them into it. Am I pissed? Yes. I don’t need you fighting our reputation battles for us. We’ve dealt with shit worse than that for years. There probably isn’t a single fucking slur we haven’t had hurled at our faces or invoked behind our backs, but our record speaks for itself. And that’s why the DSMC gave us the Tamora Bight, and Elloy and his grunts are stuck in a mid-heavy.”
“You’re mad because I got back at them?”
“I’m mad because now the dry dock is going to be talking about it for years. Em, while I appreciate your heart being in the right place, you don’t have to fight our battles for us. We’re happy with our arrangement, it works for us, and we don’t feel a need to justify it to anyone else. We never have.” He sighed. “You’re not off the ship. If I didn’t bounce the twins for putting a truck in the middle of the cafeteria, I’m not bouncing you for this.”
“But you’re mad at me.”
“Yeah. I’m mad. And I’m disappointed.” That was worse. She’d rather he just be mad. She didn’t want to disappoint him. She didn’t speak, didn’t know what to say.
“Talk to the twins. They understand. They’ll probably be better at explaining it to you. I’m the captain. I’m always the captain, I have to be—it’s my job. Until the day we’re no longer on a vessel and we’re all civvies, I’m captain first. I can’t have crew running around doing shit like that. That isn’t the twins getting into a bar fight or something.
Yes, your heart was in the right place, absolutely. But don’t do anything like that again.”
She nodded.
He tipped his head to the doorway. “I’ll be up in a few hours. I want to go through these schematics for a while longer. Give me more time to calm down.”
Relieved, she returned to the crew area. He’s not getting rid of me.
That set off another round of tears.
Before the twins could see her mental state she made her way down to the hydro lab. She’d found a good combination of nutrients that slightly accelerated plant growth, and she’d experimented with which plants thrived under the grow lights.
She currently had several tanks of tomatoes, several kinds of greens and lettuce, squash, carrots, bell peppers, beans, a variety of herbs, and two types of melons. Because of the controlled environment, seasons were irrelevant. She used seed stock that would keep well, and the men had been very pleased with her efforts. She also had test flats of other vegetables started, trying to find as many varieties as she could so she could alternate them during the trip. And she grew several small fruit trees in individual tanks¯papayas, bananas, two types of oranges, grapefruit, and lemons. It wasn’t possible to enhance their growing season as much as it was with the smaller plants, but it would be welcomed supplements to their mostly pre-packaged diet once in space.
Working in the hydro lab had become her favorite way to relax, even though it was technically work. Sometimes she could think of her parents without wanting to cry, her childhood in Montana, the house in Bozeman before her parents took the job requiring them to spend over half their year on the moon at the research facility.
Caph whistled as he walked in. “Hey, they’re looking great!”
“Yeah, just keep Ford away from them.” He grinned. “You ain’t kidding.” He pulled her to him. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m not booted.”
“I knew you wouldn’t be. We tried to tell you that.” He rubbed her back. “I think you could behead the K-2 crew and as long as you weren’t in jail, Aaron would keep you on board. You’re good for us.” Emi couldn’t hold the bitter comment back. “Yeah, the crew slut.” His reaction startled her. He grabbed her shoulders and held her so he could look into her eyes, his face severe. “No,” he said, sharply.