“Already on it. We’re going to send two vehicles. I want you and everything you can take out of Ling’s lab onboard.”
“What about Ling?”
“Yes, if you can manage.”
“I’d rather not leave him up here.”
“Let us know if you need anything else,” says Laney.
“Will do.”
I close the connection and just fold my head in my hands — no easy feat in zero-gravity. This has been one hell of a day.
On the bright side I look more bruised than swollen and my joints don’t hurt nearly as much. I might even be able to walk around the hotel without looking like an invalid.
But first…
I walk down the hallway to Samantha’s room using the railing as support every few yards. I’ve been trying to find the right words and just can’t quite figure out how to apologize after accusing someone of treason and attempted murder.
I decide to just let it flow and knock on her door. There’s the sound of shuffling feet on the other side. I give her a minute to get composed before I knock again, using the time to regain as much of my composure as I can.
The door slides open and she stands there staring at me. I can see where she tried to do a quick fix on her mascara to take care of the tears. Her face isn’t nearly as red as when I watched her on the monitor.
“I just came to say…”
She moves faster than I react. I flinch, thinking I’m being attacked, but then her arms wrap around me and she kisses me on the lips.
I don’t not return the kiss, but I don’t exactly giver her a passionate embrace.
She pulls back then takes me by the hand and leads me into her room. I’m still too weak and confused to resist.
After she shuts the door she points to her bed. “Lay down.”
“I’m not sure…”
“This isn’t about your dick. You owe me.”
I sit down on the mattress. There’s barely room for one person, let alone two.
“Samantha, I don’t think…”
She puts a hand over my mouth. “Shut up and just lay down.”
I comply, afraid of what would happen if I refuse.
Samantha crawls onto the bed and spoons with me. “Just keep your mouth shut and hold me.”
I wrap my arms around her and spoon with her. It’s not an unpleasant experience, despite all the pain my body still feels.
As she holds my arms tightly and rubs her cheek on my hand I understand finally that this is about the pain she’s experienced.
There were no words for me to express how sorry I felt — only action. Not sexual release but providing basic primate comfort.
For the first time I realize how lonely this woman must feel. Driven by her talents to the top of her field, yet always afraid something is missing.
Even though she was only under confinement for a few hours, that must have been hell as she realized that all the people closest to her now thought her an enemy.
I know what it’s like to have the world against you. It’s the loneliest thing in the world.
I run my fingers through her hair. She reaches up and places her soft hand over mine then clasps it tightly to her chest.
We just lay there.
At some point I fall asleep.
When I wake up there’s the sound of the micro-shower in the corner. I can see the silhouette of her body through the frosted plastic curtain.
My shoes and jacket are laying on the desk across from me. My gun and holster are sitting on top of them.
The water shuts off and is followed by the sound of the dryer that blows the water off your body like a car wash. Finally she emerges with a towel draped around her body.
I’d be lying if it didn’t stir something in me. I also know that the only appropriate thing for me to do is to look on admiringly.
She gives me a small smile. “Don’t worry. Your virtue is safe. I know you’re saving yourself for someone else. Although…” She provocatively readjusts the towel, “…it would just be physical.”
“Yeah, well I just get attached too easily.”
“I doubt that. Now unless you’re going to take action, face the other way.”
I turn to the wall so she can get dressed.
“When are you heading back?” she asks.
“Tomorrow.”
“I’ll have all my stuff packed and ready by then.”
“You’re coming down with me?”
“The only way I’m going back down is with you.”
“Understood.”
I give her a long lingering hug before leaving. She’s a thousand times better than when I first saw her.
The girl is made of something else. All it took was a hour of spooning and a hot shower.
As I walk back down the corridor I check my gun before sliding it back into the holster.
I think I understand her. But I’ve been wrong before.
Sixty-One
Re-entry
“You ready for you return trip — now that your, um research is finished?” asks Tamara as I enter the command module.
I give her a weak smile. She’s still a little bitter that I didn’t to tell her at the onset what my mission was really about. But I’m sure she’ll get over it.
“I finished loading the interior,” I explain.
I’d placed Ling’s hard-drives and files into the ship as well as his body. As a precaution, I also took the backups of Attwell’s and Cara’s files as well, making a copy of the entire encrypted disk for DARPA to sort through.
Attwell wasn’t too pleased when he saw Tamara and me in his lab making the duplicate, but the email order from his superiors seemed to satisfy him. The loss of Ling and the circumstances seemed to have hit him really hard.
I don’t know if they’ll be able to get any actual communications from Ling if his files are too heavily encrypted. However, the master DARPA log can show time stamps and has a record of IP addresses the DARPA lab transmitter was in contact with. That might not be much, but it can sometimes make a difference.
Tamara straps herself into a workstation in front of a large curved monitor and taps away at a keyboard. The screen fills with an external view of the spacecraft and the cargo airlock below.
The long robot manipulator arm unfolds as the outer door to the airlock slides open, revealing the remainder of the cargo to be carried down.
Colored rectangles form around the crates as the computer identifies the cargo. Another screen shows a floor plan of the trunk and the intended stowage placement.
Tamara presses a button and the arm proceeds to grasp the first box. She floats back and watches the operation.
“That’s it?” I ask.
“What? You think I control the arm to do the loading? What do you think this is, 1985? I’m here to make sure the robot doesn’t screw up. Technically, I can do this from my bunk.”
I watch as the last of the containers I inspected is loaded into the trunk section and the ship’s hatch firmly secured.
“Anything else?” asks Tamara.
“Yeah, can you do a sweep of the exterior of the ship with your robot arm camera?”
“Paranoid about any surprises left by Ling?”
“I prefer to call it cautious.”
She uses the arm to do a slow inspection of the heat shield and the inside of the thruster ducts on the sides of the craft.
Despite her impatience with me, she understands the importance of this and does a thorough job, even using thermal sensors to look for anything out of the ordinary.
“Satisfied?”
“Yes. Thank you. Sorry I couldn’t be up here under different circumstances.”
“Well, I guess it was a good thing after all. You’re not as big of an asshole as I thought you would be.”
“Thanks.”
“Come here,” she embraces me in a hug. “Don’t forget who stole your space cherry.”