Sex or Suffer [Dark Colony 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (2 page)

Damon grinned, but didn’t disagree. “Calm down, Dr. Penny. Your harsh opinion of the male species is very narrow-minded. Maybe you haven’t been with the right man yet.” He took a half step closer. “I could change your mind.”

Penelope didn’t voice the words, “I seriously doubt it,” out loud, but she wanted to.

Ignoring his smug, inappropriate attitude and his close proximity, she murmured, “Well, if you’re right, the Parsec Colony must have at least a few doses in stock to protect any afflicted men. I’m going to speak to Dr. Ledreder first thing tomorrow morning to determine if there is any grant money available to research this travesty further. Perhaps given time and some resources we could develop and produce our own cure here on Bravura. That’s my goal.”

Lifting his hands into the air as if he had a direct line of communications to the heavens above, Damon sighed deeply and added, “There isn’t any money for the SOS virus, Dr. Penny. It’s an ancient virus that nobody cares about. Don’t waste your time and effort on only one remaining unimportant victim.”

Penelope tightened her hands into fists and silently counted to ten to temper her anger. Assaulting Damon wouldn’t do any good.

Dr. Ledreder had pulled her off of her regular duties to see to this case. She wasn’t about to throw in the towel on day two. “That’s just it, Damon, what if it happens to more people? No one has discovered how these two women got infected in the first place. Therefore, anyone could breeze in here suffering at any time.”

“Dr. Lead-ass set us up in this lab to hide away an insignificant problem from the general public. He won’t authorize a single credit unless it becomes a planet-wide epidemic or someone important is stricken. And it won’t. According to the tests we did yesterday when the two women first got here, once the patient is exposed and catches it, she isn’t contagious. The only way to get this strain of virus is direct contact by airborne means or skin contact with the liquid virus from the initial source. The original virus was stored in small encapsulated ampoules. But there aren’t any left.”

Penelope hated when Damon used unflattering nicknames for their superiors and peers. She wondered briefly what he called her behind her back. “Someone has this virus. And that ‘someone’ gave it to poor Alice and the other victim, Cora.”

“No one will admit to having this shit. No one even knows if there is any virus ampoule containers left anywhere and they wouldn’t admit it if they did. Didn’t you say this disease was eradicated over three hundred years ago? An old ampoule of virus from forever ago was probably discovered by accident. End of story.”

“That doesn’t mean we should ignore it. We should work on finding a new cure.”

“I think you’re wasting your time, Dr. Penny. Alice is the only remaining known case and one case isn’t enough to warrant further new study. Besides there’s already old data to analyze.”

“Yes. The old data is limited. Except for some initial trials by the barbarians who created the virus, there are no other records of the disease. Hardly a plethora of information.”

“It’s enough for a single case.” Damon huffed. “No one’s even seen one of these virus ampoules for a couple centuries. Given that it’s supposed to be colorless, odorless and lasts less than ten minutes in open air before disintegrating and becoming inert, means waiting for an epidemic is a lost cause. I don’t know why Dr. Lead-ass put us in charge of this stupid case in the first place.”

“He didn’t put ‘us’ in charge. He put ‘me’ in charge.” Penelope also hated that Dr. Ledreder put Damon on this case with her. “And regardless of the circumstances of the virus, Alice is not a lost cause. We need to do something for her.”

“Don’t squander the last dose on her, Penny. You aren’t even sure if she’s past the incubation period and if she is, you will have wasted it.”

“Do not call me Penny. My name is Dr. Penelope Drake, in case you’ve forgotten. You may call me Dr. Drake. Dr. Ledreder put me in charge of this case with you as my assistant. As the senior medical researcher, I’ll do whatever I think is best for my patient regardless of your piggish thoughts on the matter.”

“Fine, Dr. Penelope, but if they ask me where the last dose of cure is, I’m telling the truth.”

“Do whatever you have to, Damon. You always do.”

Penelope snagged the final dosage out of the climate controlled cabinet and silently dared Damon to stop her. He would learn the hard way she was not a frail little flower when it came to a fistfight. She knew a few moves to take his ass down if he tried to put a single inappropriate finger on her person.

Growing up on the outskirts of the Bravura Colony’s golden city, Spectra, with its high walled perimeter taught her how to win a fight or how to damage the opponent and make him wish he hadn’t started one. She didn’t, however, have the nerve to challenge the only son of Bravura’s most decorated hero.

Penelope exited observation and headed for the quarantine room. Alice was still curled in a ball on the bed.

“Leave me alone, Dr. Drake,” she called without looking up.

“How did you know it was me?”

Alice twisted her head to stare. “I recognized the scent of your soap. Apparently, this cursed disease heightens my sense of smell for everyone, not just the men I need to fuck.”

“It’s understandable. The virus has an impact on olfactory processes as it relates to attraction of the opposite sex.”

“Don’t remind me.” Alice sat up clutching her wrinkled, red robe to her breasts. “What do you want now? More blood? Permission to run another sexual experiment? Because the answer is no. I’m finished with tests.”

“No. I’m here for another reason.” Penelope kept her back to the window in case anyone might catch her and stop what she was about to do. She also angled a shoulder so the camera couldn’t see her actions or that she had the cure. Approaching the bed, Penelope whispered, “I’d like to administer the available cure.”

Alice squinted. “I thought the only cure you had couldn’t be given unless I’d had the disease for less than three weeks. That’s what Dr. Ledreder told me when I first arrived here yesterday.”

“Nothing is absolute. I’m trying to formulate my own hypothesis, but I need for you to tell me everything you know. Everything you remember.”

“Like what?”

Penelope pulled the only chair in the room closer to Alice’s bed. She pocketed the cure momentarily and pulled out her digital note pad. “Have your symptoms changed since the initial encounter?”

“Yes. They’ve gotten worse over time. The pain comes faster now. It always came faster for me than for Cora.”

Penelope read a few notes from Alice’s admittance form. “You’re from the Cordryte Mining Colony, correct?”

Alice nodded and crossed her arms.

“You and Cora lived close to each other in the outlands away from the city?”

Alice nodded again. “I could see her place from my front porch, but it was a ten minute walk to get over there.”

Penelope made some notes with her stylus on the back-lit flat panel of her digital pad. “Did you experience the same symptoms and pain as Cora?”

“Not exactly.”

“Explain. Exactly.”

Alice pushed out a long sigh and pulled her robe over her thin shoulders covering herself before she answered. “Cora’s symptoms were milder at first and got worse later on. She acted different and more forward with men, but I just thought she was lonely.”

“What symptoms were milder?”

“Cora was a flirt. Everyone knew it. Unlike me, she was very animated when in the presence of men. She was comfortable touching men casually on the arm or the back to get attention or to make a point as she talked, but once she contracted the virus, it was like she ramped up her efforts.”

“Were there lots of men living near by?”

“No. All the men lived in the small town. But we always went in to town every week to get supplies. We went together for company and also for protection. Two heads are better than one, you know.”

Penelope smiled and Alice continued. “Cora always flirted, but she rarely dated or chased after men.”

“When did you notice a change?”

“Thinking back, I guess I noticed she was slightly different after Collier visited. But I didn’t say anything. I wrote it off as her being upset.”

“Collier?”

She nodded. “Ross Collier. He was her ex-boyfriend. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but he showed up one day out of the blue and wanted to start up again. He was bad news and Cora didn’t want to get back together. They had a knock down drag out fight including lots of broken glass shattering against walls loud enough for me to hear from my porch. I went over to help her as she threw him out.”

Penelope made a note to contact Ross Collier. His name sounded familiar.

“Later that afternoon we drove my vehicle into town for supplies as usual. We were supposed to meet before dusk, but Cora sent one of the saloon girls to tell me she was staying overnight with a man. She’d never abandoned me before.

“I had to go back home alone. The next day Cora came back and told me she felt funny. She’d spent the night with a stranger after blatantly seducing him, but the virus didn’t become painful for her right away. She told me she’d been ‘compelled’ to have sex with that man. That was the word she used. She didn’t worry much afterward. She seemed to blow it off so I did too.”

Penelope flipped back and read a few notes from Cora’s admittance form but didn’t find anything relevant.

“So it was how long before you two went back to town again?”

“It was more than two weeks.”

“Could you have contracted the disease at the same time as Cora?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know when I contracted it.”

“Did you see any men in town the day Cora stayed over night?”

Alice thought for a moment. “I only saw one or maybe two, but maybe I wasn’t attracted to them.”

A tear slipped over her lower eyelid and she sniffed. “What if I did get it at the same time as her? The cure won’t work on me either. I was alone for a month before I came into contact with the first man I jumped into bed with. What if it’s been too long? Not knowing is better. If you give me the cure and it doesn’t work…I don’t want to continue.”

Penelope bowed her head and caught Alice’s eye. “Don’t talk like that. Please let me try it. Your symptoms were different than Cora’s. What if the cure works for you?”

“What if it doesn’t?” Another fat tear slid down her cheek. Alice pushed it from her face with the heel of one hand. “And most of all, I hate fucking crying at the drop of a hat. I never used to cry until I got this intolerable disease. Cora had the right idea. I don’t want to live like this.”

Penelope stood. “Don’t say that, Alice. Even if this cure doesn’t work I plan to develop a new one. A better one. I can have you put in isolation away from any and all men. You’ll be safe from the virus being triggered and I vow to you that I won’t sleep until I find a cure for you.”

Alice stared at her for so long, Penelope got a little uncomfortable. All of a sudden, she slid to the edge of the bed, her breasts sagged against her body beneath the robe. She lowered her legs until her feet touched the floor and leaned forward. “Fine. You can try your cure.” Alice pierced her with a heated stare. “But if it doesn’t work,” her lips trembled, “I want you to bring poison next time you walk through the door.”

“I can’t do it, Alice. I won’t. I’ll simply put you in quarantine.”

“I can’t live like this any longer, Dr. Drake.” Her tired eyes leaked water in a steady stream down her hollowed cheeks. “I don’t want to live the rest of my life tucked away in a small room boxed in. It’s like living in a fucking coffin. I hate being indoors as it is all the time. It’s torture for me. I miss the sun on my face and working in my garden. I didn’t have much on that desolate planet, but I liked my life.”

Penelope, hands in her jacket pocket as she fingered the vial of cure, squatted down next to the bed. “I won’t rest until I find a cure, Alice. I promise. I’ll only leave you tucked away in quarantine temporarily so no man will trigger your pain.”

“I know you mean well, Dr. Drake, but this virus is worse than anything you can imagine. I ended up having sex with ten different men just to get transportation to this facility. Today’s little experimental fuck party was more painful than any I’ve gone through since this started. Promise me you’ll help me die, if your cure doesn’t work.”

While Penelope understood her desire to end her life, she wouldn’t help her do it. “I’ll think about it.”

“No. Either promise or I won’t let you test me.”

Penelope had no intention of killing her, but she leaned forward and stared in her eyes. “I promise I won’t let you suffer if my cure doesn’t work.”

“Swear it.”

Penelope pulled her hand from her pocked and lifted it as if in solemn reverence. With a silent promise to induce a temporary coma if the cure didn’t work, Penelope crossed her fingers behind her back and placed her other hand across her heart. “I swear it.”

Alice’s entire body slumped on the bed. “Okay.”

“I’ll give you the cure. It’s supposed to work in less than an hour. However, we’ll wait for four hours to make sure it’s taken effect and then I’ll bring back Karl to test you. Will that be okay?”