Wanting Forever

Part 5

In an attempt to cover her elevated heart rate, Effone brought a hand up to her neck to cover the pulse point at the base of her throat. Tall, blue-eyed, and educated had been a weakness of hers for a long time. One of the reasons her dating history was so sparsely populated was that she hadn't met someone matching all of those criteria.

Until just now.

What hideous timing.

"Good morning, everyone." Admiral Kaine stood with SCION Admiral Fosk at the head of the table.

For the first time she was glad for the start of something that had great potential to be as boring as watching the Chronocon's helium containment tanks being refilled.

"I'd like to welcome and invite you to look across the table at the person seated directly opposite. Using a very rigorous selection process that involved me, SCION Fleet Admiral Fosk, a flask of bourbon, and a hat, we've paired each of you with a partner for the remainder of the session. Your partner is the person sitting across the table."

Effone carefully counted the people on either side. She was third from the end. Tall, blue-eyed, and educated was also third from the end. She knew his name from reading his nameplate: Captain Trace Fortis of the SCION carrier ship Alexandria. But somehow tall, blue-eyed, and educated came to mind more quickly.

"This training is about streamlining our co-op assignment process. We're going to have a lot of exercises in the simulator." The admiral rubbed his hands together with a little too much glee for Effone's taste. The man loved his toys. "There will be problem-solving exercises that'll measure your flexibility and responses. Mostly, we need these ops to run more smoothly than they have in the past. SCION Admiral Fosk and I can't spend all our time unruffling your feathers."

Effone held in her snort of disgust. She was a professional, and was sure she'd be able to resolve whatever might happen without having to bring Admiral Kaine into it.

She glanced across the table at tall, blue-eyed, and educated to see him watching the admirals with rapt attention, except...his eyes had glazed over. She knew the look. He was exhausted, much like her, and for just a moment the image of herself sleeping—in a bed—with him—flashed in her mind. She jumped so badly she knocked her neighbor's cup of water off the table.

"Captain? Everything all right?" Admiral Kaine asked from the front of the room.

"Yes, sir. Fine, sir," she called with her head still under the table. She fished the cup up from the floor, placed it firmly on the table with a look of apology, and then firmly reminded herself where she was. She made a point of not looking at the man seated across from her lest she dump her orange juice all over everything else.

The admirals spent the better part of the morning talking about the necessity of co-operative assignments, showing graphs and charts that demonstrated the savings in costs and personnel. It was true: to get away from overcrowding in the cities, settlements were moving farther away from established areas and more inland. The people moving out were taking real risks and moving far from services, but it was a choice the government couldn't deny needed to be made.

As for companies like ASPECT and SCION, the inclination to spread out was great for business. Materials could be brought to the coastlines by sea, but moving inland was the specialty of the airship. ASPECT didn't only move materials, but also performed land surveys, reporting back on the fitness of areas for habitation. Survey operations were always performed under great secrecy, as there were groups that protested what they called "the repeated human diaspora." In their minds, the human race had destroyed the earth before, and would do it again and again until humans finally ripped the planet apart.

Whether Effone agreed with them or not, she had a job to perform, and the possibility of protests and sabotage meant she always had to travel armed. All ASPECT employees working on a loaded ship were armed at all times except when docked in the maintenance yard or, as in this case, while in a training session.

By lunchtime Effone had taken more notes than she'd ever look at. She'd also managed to get several looks of surprised appraisal as she participated in the sometimes-heated political and technical discussion. She couldn't decide whether she was annoyed by the response, or pleased. One would have thought that with all of the contributions women had made to the recovery effort after the war, they would have started to get some modicum of respect. Apparently not. She settled on mild annoyance and didn't let it ruin her day.

"Settle down, everyone." Admiral Kaine was still standing after having quieted the most recent disagreement. "I know we're all passionate about this sort of thing, which is why ASPECT and SCION offer our services to settlements." He rubbed his hands together, gazing up one side of the table and down the other. "Since we are aware that most of you were due for vacation, we're going to give you all the rest of the day off to get some time away from work. Tomorrow morning we'll get into the meat of everything."

At the announcement, Effone gave a sigh of relief. For the first time in months, she'd felt rested in the morning. With such luxurious hotel bedding, who wouldn't? Still, she knew there was also a virtual stack of crew evaluations to complete, crew evaluations she'd wrestled from Anda before seeing her off. Until she finished those reports, they would be her only entertainment.