Sex or Suffer [Dark Colony 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (16 page)

“What if…” scenarios rifled her mind with each breath, making her work more and more difficult. What if the filter ran out before she noticed? What if she got so wrapped up in her science experiments, she forgot to change the filters at all? What if the mask stopped working for some reason? What if Gray couldn’t make it to her and she burned to death from inside out, writhing in agonized pain?

What if space pirates with laser bombs attacked?

Get a grip. The memory of the pain from her disease was as fresh and raw as if she’d just experienced it. Like having a blowtorch inserted in her body, but if she spent her precious time dwelling on it, she’d never get anything done. This unexpected time in the
Dalton’s
medical lab was a boon and definitely a treasure to keep her from a slide into insanity over this virus running rampant through her body.

“Dr. Drake?” asked a metallic voice from the doorway, making her heart skip a beat.

“What?”

Hooking her foot into the chair legs, she swiveled around on the provided stool. Penelope grabbed the mask as she twirled to face the robot attendant. She’d probably just used up the last fifty percent of her oxygen in utter surprise from being interrupted. Get a grip. At an even six feet tall, the robot towered over her seated position on the stool.

The humanoid face staring pleasantly at her responded, “The captain is on duty on the command deck. He wanted me to let you know he would be there for the next six hours.” The robot’s lean hydraulic frame was partially shielded by light blue plates forming arms and legs. The med lab robot’s soft soothing voice was as aesthetically pleasing as his shape.

Penelope hadn’t ever worked with such a sophisticated robot before. The
Dalton’s
med lab robot was one of the more advanced models she’d ever seen. On Bravura she’d inherited Damon when she needed help. He was not in any way pleasing, just a perverted prick.

Sensing no aggression from the robot, Penelope exhaled and tried to calm down. “Thank you.” Her response earned her a nod.

“There are several routine appointments scheduled for the crew over the next three hours. Is there anything you require from me before the end of that time frame?”

“No. Just seal the door to this room when you leave.”

“Of course. Good luck with your queries and experimentation. If you need analytical assistance later on, I would be happy to help you.”

Almost like a real human, Penelope thought. Certainly a refreshing change from dodging Damon’s thinly veiled attempts to get her into bed at every second of the time she spent in his company.

In fact, the
Dalton’s
med lab Artificially Intelligent robot was advanced beyond any she’d ever seen let alone worked with. When Gray and brought her down here to work, she’d initially worried that the robot would discover her vile secrets.

There was a prejudice from many in the medical community regarding the use of robots for human care. Penelope wasn’t prejudiced, but she knew the sentient beings tended toward literal translations and didn’t want the machine to rat her out regarding her virus to anyone besides she or the Captain.

Gray assured her that the med lab robot, while quite competent and possessing advanced human traits in its program core, was also not a busybody. Her secret would be safe in this room.

The door to her room slid shut as the med robot went about its duties in the
Dalton’s
medical facility. Penelope turned back to her experiment, relishing the opportunity to get back into a lab environment once again.

The mask with the temporary filters she wore had exactly one hour of air available for each filter. She had two additional filters to replace the one in the mask. The communication device on the table had an alarm feature which she set for two minutes less than the single hour to give herself plenty of time to change it out. The mask used cylindrical filter which once removed, allowed enough residual air in the mask for several breaths of clean air while the new filter was snapped in place.

The extensive precautions out of the way, Penelope was finally able to concentrate on the query computer before her. She enabled the voice program so she could speak instead of type.

“Show the human female olfactory process on screen.”

A picture instantly appeared with a layering feature so that she could look at individual components.

“Show detail of the olfactory process where scent registers for social and mating functions in the central nervous system.”

Again a more detailed picture was revealed.

“Query: What components of the process stop scent processes to the brain function?”

“Answer: Three parts will need to be stifled to reflect a complete cessation of scent to the processing plant of the brain. Olfactory bulb, receptor cells and the amygdale.”

“List best possible scenario to disable scent temporarily, but with sterile environment as baseline for allowable plus or minus deviation.”

“External filter required for sterile environment deviation.”

“Question: List scenario to disable scent internally and temporarily to the level of sterile environment.”

“Answer: None. Scent may be permanently disabled by removal of amygdale, olfactory bulb receptor cells and olfactory bulb. However, components are irreplaceable. Extensive tissue damage will result in any of three components being breached or removed.”

As she suspected, Penelope was screwed in the possibility of a temporary fix. Even if she caught a common cold, the swelling of the olfactory process and lowered scent capacity wouldn’t be one hundred percent.

The only one hundred percent cure was what she was already doing unless she went with the permanent damage option. And that was unacceptable for now, although for patients facing a life with the disease never being able to smell again might be a viable option. If she weren’t on the run from Bravura and anyone trying to stop her, she’d send the information on so Alice could be given the choice.

Penelope worked through another filter, replacing the first when it got close. The room seal allowed her to simply let the one filter run out and then pulling out and replacing it with the second she’d brought. After she put in the third, she’d need to make haste to her room.

Gray wouldn’t be back in his room for several hours and they hadn’t made a date for any future intimacies. It was sort of difficult to plan a nice polite date when a fuck fest had to take place before any meaningful conversation ensued. At least it was hard for her. The captain didn’t seem to be as bothered by her symptoms as much as she was embarrassed by them. Either way she couldn’t help it or control the infrequent blackouts aboard the ship. Her only other option was to stay in the filter mask all the time, but an inventory aboard ship showed limited supplies. Besides, she didn’t want to wear a mask all the time.

The seal breach issue wasn’t something that could ever be planned on and while the captain had asked Angelica to work on it, she was also busy on this trip, a trip Penelope had engineered to suit her needs. The circular thinking got her nowhere.

Planning to check for messages from her brother once she returned to her room, Penelope wondered if Philip would be surprised by her request for money. It was followed quickly by the reality of her situation.

Guilt assailed her over the fact that she had no money to return to Bravura after purchasing the cure she needed. If her brother couldn’t help her financially, she didn’t want to have to face Gray with the news that she’d lied about the meeting he expected to have with the trade governor.

Penelope had not one clue what would suffice as reimbursement instead of what she’d promised. Acid roiled in her stomach at the idea of Gray finding out about her deception before she could figure something out to appease him. The alarm to replace her third and final mask filter sounded, breaking her from her dismal lie-ridden reverie.

Twisting on her stool to reach the air filter, Penelope noticed one of the med robot’s appointments was seated on the central medical table being examined. Shirt off, she also couldn’t help notice that he was a fine specimen of a man. With the body of a military man and the permanent markings to boot, she suspected he’d been a long member of the regiment before coming here to work.

Penelope reached for the filter without looking and missed it. She abandoned her appreciative gaze for the military man, turned to grab the now rolling replacement filter, missing it rolling off the counter just as the lights went out.

Pitch blackness consumed her. The alarm stopped with the power outage, and the replacement filter slipped away from the barest tips of her fingers and crashed to the floor. Disoriented in the inky darkness closing in on her, Penelope fell forward off of her stool and felt the wayward filter crush beneath the toe of her shoe.

The lights blinked back on as if trying to decide whether to return full strength or not. Once the steady illumination stopped flickering, a triad of truths became patently obvious. In decreasing order of importance, the third thing Penelope noticed was that the door to her room enclosure was opening wide. The second thing, directly on the heels of the open door, was the startled well built man leaping off of the table next to the robot with a look that said he was concerned for her well-being and the motion of his body was headed in her “no longer sealed” direction.

The first, and most disquieting, was the sound of her mask running out of filtered air and shutting off as the broken replacement filter rolled out from under her shoe in five separate pieces.

The hunky former military crewmember, now three long strides from the doorway to her violated sanctuary, was about to get a big surprise.

Penelope took the final breath of filtered air and removed the mask from her face. Afraid to take her next breath of contaminated air, she closed her eyes and waited for the nasty initial punch of lust to take over.

Gray cursed a vivid blue tinged storm of obscenities when the telltale grinding noise echoing distantly from the engines immediately preceded the lights snapping off on the command deck for the third time in as many days. His vocabulary became incredibly colorful when he realized that Penelope wasn’t safe in her room, but instead she worked in the med lab.

Exposed and vulnerable.

“Computer, report!” he shouted into the obsidian air. “What the hell just happened?”

“Power failure and recovery. Scanning hull for breaches.” A humming noise began indicating the on-board computer checked for catastrophic breaches to the hull or other life threatening problems across the ship. Even with no power on the ship, the computer still operated on a self-contained power supply separate from the craft’s control.

“Determine origin and cause of continuing power outages aboard the ship.”

“Cause unknown. Origin unknown. Complete diagnostic required for further data.”

“Like I have that kind of fucking time,” Gray muttered to himself and released a long sigh. A complete diagnostic was minimum three days at a regulation docking bay and not going to happen on this trip.

Unable to see a damned thing two inches in front of his face, he didn’t want to lurch through the decks without at least a portable light, which he didn’t have anywhere close. The nearest one was out the door near the entrance to the command deck. He stood from his chair in the tar splashed blackness of the room trying get a meager sense of direction.

“Hull secure. No breaches in primary living quarters or areas where catastrophic loss of life will result. ”

Ten seconds later when the lights flickered back, Gray checked the flight navigation and automatic pilot to ensure it reengaged and resumed the set course to Parsec Colony. He hated to leave the command deck unmanned, but his concern for Penelope over rode it. He headed for the medical lab where he’d left her working. He didn’t know what her status was and hoped enough time remained in her replacement filters to get her back to her room unscathed.

Gray stalked into the medical lab and turned towards the enclosed conference room. The clear conference room wall showed Penelope, her filter mask already off of her face, take a deep breath and start screaming at a shirtless Cahill who stood sealed inside the small room with her.

Damn it
.

Penelope shook her head and backed away from an obviously confused Cahill. He tried to comfort her and moved forward for every step she took to get away from him. Fingers pressed over her nose and mouth, Penelope pulled them away from her face as if she’d been holding her breath. She took a deep lungful of air and backed into the far wall.

Hands up in the air waving to get her attention, Gray strode over to the door to enter, but the seal wouldn’t disengage. Penelope shifted her gaze and looked at him for the first time. A worse expression filled her eyes.

All of a sudden she stopped screaming and turned to Cahill with a shocked expression. Gray wanted to close his eyes and not witness her turn into a sex crazed predator about to violate his third in command.

Cahill remained motionless probably wondering what in the hell was going on. He was about to get a big surprise. Gray didn’t want to watch the Ensign have sex with her. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure Cahill would do it. Not even if she begged, but either way, Cahill was about to discover Penelope’s big secret.