“Not yet, sir.”
“In several calendars of securing this site, I’ve never had anything close to a security breach occur here. So tell me, Lieutenant Commander, why do you suppose such alarming and mysterious happenings occurred only on your watch?”
Dek countered his glare with one of absolute conviction. “Maybe because it was my watch, sir.”
8
Dekessa walked onto the balcony of her beachfront villa to watch the sun rise over the ocean. A salty breeze billowed the silk skirt of her ankle-length sundress and plucked at strands of her pale hair, now free of the clips and bands that normally bound them.
The seaside town of Sarcassius still lay dozing in the morning light, lazing like a sleepy feline. The mental image made her think of her companion still curled up in her crate beside the bed. Since she hadn’t had the chance to release Sno from detention back at Site D, someone had to look after his partner until Tapp made a decision about freeing him. Cassie had made it clear to all concerned that that person would be Dek.
So here they were on a mandatory four-day leave.
The commander had referred to her forced vacation as a reward for excellent service. She’d had the sense not to laugh in his face. This was no reward. And she didn’t think he considered her actions in any way excellent service. She’d been banished here while a full investigation of the incident in Lower Cave was carried out.
Without her presence, her oversight, or her input.
Dek could read the writing on the wall. Commander Tapp would oversee the evidence collection, and instinct told her the evidence he was after wouldn’t be the sort to support her statement or exonerate her.
The incident had provided her commander with the perfect opportunity to finally send her packing. Probably time to get her resume in order. If she could even find employment once they’d discredited her and deemed her performance unfitting for command.
Meanwhile, she’d been cut off from all updates on the state of the galaxy after the fall of the Purmian government. And the eventual fate of Site D.
Some vacation.
Back in her room, Cassie chirped and squeaked in agitation as if adding a few choice words about their mutual banishment.
Dekessa raised her face to the low sun. One of the three LaGuardian moons hung above the horizon like a silent observer. Kattus. The largest of the planet’s three sisters.
“Any sage words of advice?” Dek whispered to the light yellow orb.
“Never accept the hand you’re dealt.”
Dek spun to face the man who’d materialized on her second-floor veranda, instinctively reaching for the stunpulse she no longer carried.
“Easy,” Sno said, raising his hands, open-palmed. “I’m not the enemy.”
Dek gaped at him. “What…are you…”
“Doing here?”
She straightened, squaring her shoulders. “Yes.”
Cassie’s excited chatter drifted out through the open door to her villa, and Sno angled his chin toward the noise, a stream of greetings and happy thoughts. “Looking for my partner,” he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. Then added in a quiet addendum, “And you.”
Though he’d expected to find a staid lieutenant commander and not so much a vision in a sleek sundress, her bronze face bathed in the generous light of the morning sun.
“How did you—”
“Get out of detention?”
“Right. Let’s start there.” She folded her arms.
“Quiet, Cassie,” Sno said then nodded to the door after his partner went silent. “Maybe we should take this inside. There’s a lot we need to talk about, and this should be a private discussion.”
She quirked an imperious eyebrow. “First you need to answer my questions. What are you doing here? And how did you get out of detention?”
He drew himself up. Of course she wasn’t going to accept his sudden appearance here without a pretty solid explanation. “Commander Tapp released me.”
“On what grounds?”
“He knows why I’m here.”
She went ramrod straight. “That sounds a bit dubious.”
“I’m sure it does.” He glanced toward a family passing by on their way to the beach then met her eyes. “If you want to hear the details, we need to secure this exchange.”
She went still and looked him straight in the eye then pulled in a deep breath. “I get the feeling this is about me. And my status.”
“Only partly.”
“Partly?” She narrowed her eyes. “This I’ve got to hear.”
She turned and strode for the door, her sandals clip-clopping on the veranda tile.
Sno followed her inside.
He concealed his surprise that the door led into a bedroom, the down covers of the large bed pushed down from the plump white pillows scattered on rumpled sheets. His imagination summoned a vision of her sleeping there, her body caressed by the soft night breezes rolling off the sea.
Gigadam. His fingers twitched involuntarily at his sides.
Dek had crouched beside Cassie’s crate to slide the latch free. His four-legged partner came bounding out and half-scampered, half-leapt to her favorite spot on Sno’s right shoulder.
“Hello, Cass,” he murmured, turning his face into her thick fur. “It’s good to see you, too.” She started again with her chitter-chatter, her messages coming jumbled and disjointed, until he finally shushed her, turning his attention to Dek.
“She missed you a lot,” Dek said quietly and with a slight quaver to her voice. Coming from the matter-of-fact lieutenant commander, that was unexpected. And at some deep level, unsettling. Especially looking as she did now. Out of uniform. Wrapped in silk pastels. With a generous display of bronze skin and tumbled, white-gold tresses.
“I really missed her, too,” Sno finally managed, stroking Cassie’s head and rubbing her ears. Maybe it wasn’t only Cassie’s absence he’d been feeling. But those sentiments were better off unacknowledged and unexplored. His gaze cut back to Dek. “We should get started. I need to report back by dusk.”
“Why is that?”
“They don’t know I’m gone.”
Dek’s vibrant green eyes went stormy gray. “You left without the commander’s knowledge?”
“Yes.”
“How the Hades were you able to leave the site?”
Sno shrugged. “How about if we continue this over some kinna?”
Dek stared him down for a moment. “Come to the kitchen,” she said, and swept out of the bedroom with purpose in her stride.
He followed her out the door and down a sweeping marble staircase to a small, elegantly tiled kitchen. “You like your kinna black, yes?”
“Right.”
She gestured to a small table with two chairs. He got settled while she went to the brewer and pulled a pair of ceramic mugs from the rack. Every move she made was as fluid and efficient as ever, but light years more feminine in that attire and this setting.
She was, at present, an absolute distraction.
He coughed, mentally refocusing on the points he needed to cover. The questions he needed to be ready to field.
Cassie was jabbering again. Mentally, at least. Something about Dek’s nest and soft pillows and pretty dress. Okay, he really didn’t need her chatter and cheeky suggestions cluttering up his orderly thought process.