before she humiliated herself even more. The fact that he knew how she felt only made it worse.
No, drugs wouldn’t suffice. The only way was to remove herself from his presence. And this was dangerous. By resigning her commission she was admitting to her third failure as a soldier. It would put her under the three strikes law and leave her vulnerable to Reboot. In fact, it was quite likely that Tri-Fleet HQ would send a team to arrest her and bring her back for a formal hearing. After which... She didn’t dare think about afterward. There were rumors that one victim of Reboot had been kept in a lab for almost four decades, taken apart cell by cell for experimentation.
She ignored the possibility. Where she was going, they’d have a job trying to find her. She had a former colleague on Benaski Port who was the center of illegal activity there. She flashed him on scramble and asked permission to work in the Underway, as the underbelly of Benaski was known, as a medic. Permission was given at once, with an amused smile and a welcome. She had been kind to him at medical school, as many others had not, when he left because of his refusal to produce clones for medical experimentation. That practice had been ended by a Tri-Galaxy Council investigation. So now, the live human specimens collected legally under the guise of Reboot were even more precious.
She ran down the corridor, into the airlock and onward to the skimmer she’d reserved, pleading a medical emergency on the passenger ship.
The tech, a Cehn-Tahr with a kind face, smiled at her. “You will return shortly?”
“Of course,” she lied, smiling back as she entered the skimmer. “But I’m sending the skimmer right back, temporarily. Don’t know how long this may take, and the patient is a high-ranking Jebob diplomat.”
“Very well, Doctor. Have a safe trip.”
“Thanks.”
She closed the skimmer, punched the ignition switch and hovered through the first lock to the second. It opened. She flew out into open space, toward a bright dot that was moving on her astrogation screen.
She’d thrown away her career, left her few friends, made a refugee of herself, all because her commanding officer found her very presence distasteful. It was shocking that she hadn’t realized, until he spoke to her, how involved with him she truly was. Their arguments and disagreements had been only a symptom of her growing feelings for him, which she could not contain or remove. And he was bonded. He had had a child... The grief and shame she felt overwhelmed her. Her only option was to leave.
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