suppose?”
He chuckled. “Learning different species’ pressure points is par for the course when you are a peacekeeper.”
She rolled her neck and turned her head into the pressure. “Well, thank you. It is helping tremendously.”
She twisted her lips and stifled a moan as the tendrils moved to her shoulders.
The strange feeling of being touched without contact was pushed aside when the pressure massage was giving her relief she hadn’t had in years.
She slowly slumped in her chair as her body surrendered to the lack of tension.
When she was boneless, he queued up the display in front of her and showed her the next mission. She had to work with animals once again and freeze a herd of wild creatures while they were inoculated.
She chuckled. “So, you will be wielding the needles?”
Korlin sighed. “Fifty at a time. The inoculations are necessary.”
“Yeah, I can see that. One introduced species has endangered everything.”
A bird had been the contaminating feature. One pet, one escaped animal had brought an infection that spread rapidly through the beasts of Krilatico.
The beasts that she was going to freeze were the lynch pin of the ecosystem. If they could gain a resistance to the infection, they might just survive.
Zez chuckled. “I never thought of myself as a vet, but this is beginning to look like a trend.”
Korlin smiled. “I am a little relieved at the options. There are situations out there that you don’t need to face. At least not yet.”
She made a face and nodded. Right, she was a murderer in his eyes. “Right. Excuse me. I am going to grab that nap after all.”
She headed to her quarters and flopped down on the bunk. For a moment, she had forgotten what she was in his eyes. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. The emotional crash was too painful.
* * * *
Korlin checked the ship’s sensors, and he found Zez in her bed, tense with a chaotic brainwave pattern. Something had upset her.
He thought back to the moment when she had shut down and replayed what he had said.
He had mentioned keeping her from the more dangerous situations and avoiding them.
“Damn it.” Given his earlier comments on her homicides, she must think he didn’t trust her.
He didn’t know what he was supposed to think with her murderous background, but everything she said matched the reports. She wasn’t trying to remove her culpability in the deaths, but she didn’t regret them.
As a peacekeeper, he abhorred senseless killings, but those killings weren’t unmotivated. She had reason to do what she did, and if she hadn’t, her sister might not have had the time to survive.
The survival of the innocent was what he should have focused on during their discussions.
The light touch that he had been able to engage in had proved that her body was compatible, but he had just trashed the best chance to see if Commander’s instincts were still good. He had been offered a partner by the best matchmaker in the Sector Guard, and he had told her she was a cold-blooded murderer. His skills with solids had not evolved as far as he had hoped.
* * * *
She watched the herd thunder toward her, and she walked to stand squarely in front of them.
The beasts were ten feet tall at the shoulder and each of their six legs ended in a powerful hoof. The three eyes across their foreheads gave them a full range of view and helped them with the local predators.
“Zez! Freeze them.”
She didn’t look at Immune; she focused on the beasts, and the moment they were only metres from her, she locked them in time. Under their hooves, the grass froze in the act of being crushed, and she stood with her hands folded in front of her.
“You can begin inoculations now.”
Fifty injectors lifted in his tendrils, and he began the process of trying to undo what one careless hand had done.
The idea of infecting the herd with a similar strain of the disease was interesting. If successful, it would let the herd
Tracie Peterson, Judith Pella