The door opened with a quiet hiss, and a hand gripped Hyuna's forearm. "What are you and that damn Manoban plotting?" Hyun-suk snapped.
Hyuna drew herself to her full height of six feet, six inches and stared down at him.
Hyun-suk flinched. Hyuna towered over his own six-foot height.
"Take your hand from my arm. I won't answer any of your questions if you can't behave in a civilized manner."
Gnashing his teeth, he snatched his hand away.
Hyuna waited, hoping Hyun-suk would do something stupid.
Any kind of physical attack on her, and he would lose support in the Academy.
Muscles tensed, Hyun-suk clenched and unclenched his fists.
After a deep breath, he said, "Forgive me, but as First President of the Academy, it's unlawful to deny me access to a new specimen. This is an opportunity to study a new lifeform. Surely you can understand my excitement?"
Hyuna returned to her instrument panel and sat down, her back to Hyun-suk. "Captain Manoban is vehement in her belief that she be treated with all the respect due an honored guest for saving members of her crew."
"Then she should be housed in guest quarters rather than in the private quarters of the captain," he answered levelly. "Isn't that the usual procedure on an interplanetary ship?"
Swiveling her seat, she faced Hyun-suk. "I'm neither an expert on interplanetary travel nor the customs aboard such ships. You'll have to ask the captain for her reasons."
His fists remained clenched. His tail jerked. "But you, my dear Dr. Kim, are a close friend of the family. Surely the captain's confided in you."
Hyuna shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't help you. I may be an old friend of the family, but Captain Manoban is a grown woman who makes her own decisions and keeps her own council."
Hyun-suk stared at her for a moment, face white, lips pinched together. When he finally spoke, his voice shook. "You will rue the day you allied yourself with the Manoban clan against me, Dr. Kim dem al' Hyuna." Without another word, he spun about and stomped out of Medical.
Hyuna watched the door close. Turning her seat back to her panel, she flipped a switch and said, "Did you hear everything, Lisa?"
"Everything's been recorded. Oh, and Irene's succeeded in her attempt to break the code to Hyun-suk's personal computer via his connection to the ship's mainframe. All his medical records have been downloaded to your private files."
"I'll start checking them immediately. By the way," she continued, "Roseanne's relaxing in your bathtub as we speak, if you'd like to continue your explanation as to why marrying you would be of great benefit."
Only silence answered her chuckling.
Lisa sat in her chair, elbows propped on the armrests, her fingers steepled beneath her chin. Set on its predetermined course and with its autopilot activated, the ship could navigate itself with only one person to monitor the computer's activities, so she'd dismissed the rest of her crew with orders to report back in three hours. Then she'd be free the rest of the night.
Hyuna's parting comment teased her senses. Closing her eyes, she drew a picture first of Roseanne's defiant nakedness, then her passionate responses to her lovemaking. She groaned at her body's instant reaction. Today had been an accident.
She'd been vulnerable because of the dream. When Hyuna had entered the room, Roseanne's shock at her own actions had been easy to read. Her planet was undoubtedly less sexually permissive. Women there probably didn't fall right into sexual liaisons with someone they just met. She might even be uninitiated.
