Spectator

Chapter Thirty-four: Then

So much for her assignment being dangerous; so far it had just been boring. Petra and Claude had been focused over cleaning up their sample—well, one was focused, and the other was mostly staring at her and smiling—while Kali stood in the corner with a silent Photo.

"I saw you with Ainsley at the dance," Kali said, even though it was none of her business. "For some reason, I think she likes you, so make sure you don't do anything stupid."

Photo raised an eyebrow at her, and was silent so long she thought he would simply ignore her. Finally, his shoulders lowered and he relented. "I'm not going to talk about Ainsley. I like her. It'd be nice if she was here."

"Seconded," Kali agreed. Jae was fine as a leader, but Ainsley's compassion and level head did plenty in keeping Kali calm. It would have been nice to tell her about Harriet, but Kali supposed she would have that honour when Ainsley returned.

"If you want to get some rest," Photo said, scratching at his neck. "I can hold it down here."

Kali's suspicions immediately flared. The offer could be genuine, but it would also be leaving three suspects together, which Photo knew. "I'm fine. I just got off a sleep shift before we came for you."

Photo frowned, but he nodded without argument. If he was waiting for Kali to make the same offer, she wouldn't. They were running down to their last hours, and while Photo ostensibly walked to the bunks to take a nap, he could be going anywhere else.

"I think it's pretty full in there anyway," Kali said.

"Beds are a luxury," Photo said and Kali remembered where he was from. The dredges of Earth's slums were not kind. "A corner will do."

"What was your goal, exactly?" Kali asked, curious. "Did it mention retrieving and refining the data, or was that a group mission?"

Photo glanced at her. He was suspicious, if he hadn't been already but Kali didn't retract the question. She wanted to know what he'd say. She kept her eyes on Petra and Claude, but it was just lines of data, set out on a dome table. It wasn't so advanced to have the interactive, floating interface, so it was just a bunch of screens. It didn't look nefarious, but Kali wasn't going to the idiot who didn't pay attention.

Maybe she also just didn't want to let Jae down, either. His kiss in the closet was shockingly lucid, and she wished she didn't crave more, but the desire was there, insatiable. Jae didn't mean anything by it. He flirted with almost everyone, and probably had kissed at least half the students. For all she knew, he was making his moves on Seren right now. She pushed it all from her head.

"My orders were to keep as many people alive as I could. And to fulfil our mission objective. Survive until Evac, and secure the data." It sounded plausible. Kali wondered if they'd all been given an example of what good orders looked like.

"What about Laura?" Kali asked. "You surrendered her pretty easily."

"It was that or risk our remaining people and last rover too early in the game. It was a decision I had to make."

She couldn't blame him, really. Not after she'd been the one to lose Harriet. Jae was a risk taker, but Photo was methodical.

And perfectly capable of sabotage if he wanted to be.

"Attention, you lucky inhabitants of the Comm station. Some new. Some old. This is your reminder that there are only four hours left before this simulation—I mean, help comes to rescue us from this ice rock. Sit tight, don't die, and try not to wreck anything." It was a comfort to hear Jae's playful voice. She was a little jealous of Archie getting to do his watch with him while she was stuck with three people who trusted her as much as she trusted them.