Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4)

by Scott Rhine

  He shook his head to clear it. “Everything is going like clockwork. The doc ordered me to take fifteen.”

  She hadn’t had sex in a year, and her body was reminding her that his break would be just enough time for her to enjoy a nice, light snack. If she liked the sample, she could follow up off duty, when everyone else was stuck in decontamination. “Then by all means, follow the doctor’s orders and grab a seat,” she said in her best Mae West.

  Sweating, Park sat and covered his face with his hands.

  She plunked down on the table and palmed the bugs without him noticing. He was still inhaling her smell and swallowing hard. “L-Lou was trying to explain something, and he said I should ask you about it.”

  “Anything to help a planner,” she purred.

  “He said you could tell me about b-birthday sex.”

  She chuckled wickedly and shook her finger. “That man has a set of fake IDs so he can claim a birthday every week. Personally, I think Christmas sex is better.”

  “Nadia is an atheist and refuses to celebrate.”

  “Oh, trust me, if the sex is good enough, you believe in God.” She tucked the evidence into her pants pocket while he was distracted. Then she made a slow show of wiggling into them using only one hand to tug alternately on each side. It was a reverse striptease with all the same moves.

  His mouth was wide open, but he was still resisting the lure. Time for the direct approach. She asked, “Could you be a doll and do me?” Nodding at her snap, she said, “It’s hard to fasten without two hands.”

  Hands trembling, he pulled the sides together and squeezed. Holding his hands in place, she whispered, “I know what you want.”

  He froze, staring at her navel.

  She set the hook. “I overheard Lou’s bragging. You’re curious about ‘the Salmon Ladder on the Raging River.’”

  Park nodded.

  “It’s actually a series of moves. The salmon becomes pink and swollen with jump after jump. The river pushes him back down, but he rises again. The cycle continues until all thought has been driven out of his mind except the overpowering need to spawn.” Yuki arched over him, his lips a centimeter from her skin. She could command him to do just about anything right now, and he would. Picturing how rugged he had looked after rescuing Mercy and following his morning shirtless workouts, she knew exactly what she wanted him to do.

  Of course, the doctor would hear the moans. Everybody listening to the comm would know what was happening. Zeiss and Sojiro would be disappointed in her. She could just hear him saying Dress for the job you want. Carnies had a saying when they wanted to feel better about fleecing some townie: You can’t cheat an honest man. In this case, she shouldn’t.

  Trembling with desire of her own, she set the fish free. “I’ll explain the steps to Nadia when she gets back,” Yuki said, walking briskly back to her station.

  With some satisfaction, she heard the agonized whimper Woo Jin Park made when she was gone.

  ****

  Yuki felt the apprentice pilot’s eyes sneaking glimpses of her through both shifts, but he stayed professional. Everything went remarkably well with the chemical extraction. A spray of dust blew toward the lens at one point, but through the various helmet cameras and Ascension’s security cameras, they saw the dust sparkle against some invisible field. Everyone on the mission buzzed about the phenomenon on the conference-room channel.

  “I watched something over the lens repel the little stuff, which explains why the shuttle isn’t peppered with fine holes,” Lou noted. “There may be a minimum mass and speed combination to gain admittance.”

  Risa replied, “What’s more interesting is that whenever the membrane is sealed, the bay projects a star field from the proper angle. The camouflage is interactive with the viewer.”

  “Heisenberg feedback,” Zeiss explained. “The cloak knows when it is being observed. We had people studying the lens for years. Only the Probability Mechanics talent in Brunei was able to make headway on the problem. It’s in the double-naught files. He was able to make fiber-optic panels up to a meter across fade into the background.”

  Herk grunted. “I heard something about that. The cloak wasn’t big enough for a tank and too heavy for a drone. Any sudden movement or change in lighting blew the illusion. The UN scrapped the whole project.”

  “Could still have limited applications,” Risa decided.

  “The Sultan sold the tech to China a while back,” Yuki related. In the new spirit of total disclosure with the team, she shared all the intelligence data she had. “The Chinese have a prototype they call dust armor that blends in with sand. Mori looked into it. Each suit would cost twenty-eight million Euros and weigh more than the person inside it. Instead of getting sucked into an arms race, Mori built a fifty-Euro detector for the effect. I have one in my wristwatch. Mori warned me because several scientists from the canceled project now work at the Chinese moon base.”

  After a shocked pause, Zeiss said, “Yuki, we need to have a talk when I get back.”

  “You really were a spy?” Park asked, covering his microphone to let her know it was a personal query. His voice a trifle strained, he took a small squirt from his tea bulb.

  “Yes,” she admitted, “but I stopped working for Mori the moment Mercy saved my life—I’ve lost count how many times now. By the way, I never thanked you properly for getting her to the stasis chamber in time.” She put a heavy dose of bedroom eyes into the look of appreciation she gave him.

  Open-mouthed, Park accidently squeezed the tea bulb at the wrong angle and liquid danced in the air of the command room. He dashed to the break room to get a towel.

  She chuckled. Geeks were so easy.

  ****

  The only significant radio chatter during the main mission was Nadia complaining about the heat in the cockpit. Evidently, the COIL heat sinks were overloaded from repeated use. The whole command crew was drenched with sweat. Though the Zeisses were able to seal their suits and perform their duties, Nadia needed the fine control afforded her by bare hands and a face pressed close to the targeting screen.

  “Your eyesight needs adjusting,” Red noted. “Didn’t you have Lasik?”

  “She’s getting to be that age where the eyes change, and she needs bifocals,” Lou teased over the radio.

  Nadia replied with a heavy accent, “You are getting to age where you need rectal exam every year. I am told the doctor uses whole fist and a tube of Vaseline. Bend over and cough. Tensing up only makes it hurt more.”

  “That shit’s not funny,” Lou muttered.

  “Keep the channel clear,” Zeiss admonished.

  The return voyage was exciting for about three minutes. Red rotated the shuttle very slowly for positioning, but her off-center landing made Lou grumble. Once out of Ascension, Zeiss discovered a few centimeters of build-up under one of the skis that they had to blast with the COIL, lest the landing gear be damaged. Herk put several cubic meters of pure water in luggage claim, and they began loading the decontamination pods.

  With everyone safely in pods on their way home, Yuki went to bed—alone. She was awakened by shrieking in the showers. It sounded like someone had been caught in the gears of a machine. She ran out in her J-wear to see if she could help. She anchored herself with the strap she always slept with in case they had to change directions in an emergency.

  Looking down into the tube surrounded by shower pods where the decontaminees emerged, she saw a nearly naked Nadia. Her tangled hair was dripping gobbets of antibacterial gel, including her unshaved armpits and legs. Even less attractive was the sight of her beating on Park’s hunched-over form, yelling vile curses in Russian. Yuki only understood the word for the devil. Zeiss and Herk hadn’t cycled through yet, but Risa struggled to pull the raging woman away from the cringing Korean, who refused to raise a hand against a woman. Eventually, the doctor helped separate the grappling couple. Then Nadia stood at a distance and continued to heap insults on Park.

  When Park gla
nced up and saw Yuki standing on the rim above the fray, he couldn’t look away. Nadia followed his gaze. She shouted, “Whore, this is your fault!” The Russian woman grabbed an IV pole and launched herself upward.

  “Oh shit,” Yuki blurted as she jumped toward the main door. She tapped the gold rectangle of the airlock door three times and made it onto the patio an instant before her crazed pursuer. Nadia fell to the tiles in the sudden presence of gravity.

  With no time to ride the slow elevator down, Yuki did the only thing she could. Ripping off the handful of sticky straps by the door, she climbed on top of the pergola like a monkey.

  With no straps of her own, Nadia couldn’t follow easily. Red-faced, she demanded, “Come down here and fight me like man.”

  “Nothing happened,” Yuki swore, dodging a jab from the metal pole. Using the sticky strap around her wrist, she inched further up the dome of the saucer. Then she applied loops of the Velcro-like substance to her feet and knees.

  “He tells me about the time he saw you perform in circus, how he has pined after you ever since.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I checked his computer history last week. He watched that video of you giving tour of ship fifty times,” Nadia complained, dropping her articles in her anger. Yuki felt flattered and a little unbalanced by such a devoted secret admirer. “After three years, he breaks it off with me because his pennies are almost gone and you carry dollar bills in your belt—whatever that means.”

  Against her will, the sex analogy made Yuki laugh.

  Nadia interpreted this as mockery. “He says one afternoon with you has ruined him for other women. I will ruin somebody, all right.” Nadia jumped up to seize the slats over her head.

  Risa had been hovering in the doorway, monitoring the situation from a safe distance. “You don’t have a safety strap,” she yelled, grabbing at Nadia’s ankles. The berserk woman kneed her in the eye socket, knocking Herk’s wife backward across the tiles.

  Since Nadia specialized in fencing, she could be lethal with that metal rod. Yuki had no choice but to kick the woman in the jaw, sending her to the ground. Undeterred, the angry Russian stormed back into the saucer. From her perch, Yuki could hear fabric ripping. There went her clothes. Thank God I didn’t have my partial arm up here. My arm!

  Risa was groaning on the ground, rubbing the purple-blotched side of her face.

  There was a lull while the rampage moved to Park’s bedroom. Then, they could hear paper tearing. “Risa, call Sojiro and get him to hide my arm . . . and the rest of Park’s belongings.”

  “My badge is in luggage claim, in the storage room. I’m not going in there with that whack job running around.”

  “If I climb down, she’s going to kill me.”

  “Should have thought of that before you screwed her boyfriend.”

  “I didn’t touch him. We just talked for five minutes in the cafeteria.”

  “Park talked?”

  If she weren’t sitting on the roof in her underwear, Yuki would have laughed. “Where’s Auckland?”

  “He’s in the showers trying to hurry Red through the process.”

  “What about Park? Maybe he could talk—” Yuki was interrupted by a loud crunch and clatter.

  Risa risked a peek. “She just knocked him into the dining hall. Ouch. He closed the door on her. Smart man. Hide the knives and plates.”

  Yuki asked, “Do you want me to give you a hand up here?”

  “And be tarred with the same brush?”

  “Then take the elevator down so she can’t. There’s no telling what she could wreck in the Hollow.”

  “You want her to finish the whole control saucer first?” Risa asked, dripping sarcasm. Pounding on the dining room door punctuated her comment.

  “I gave you my best years,” Nadia bellowed.

  Scampering down the side of the saucer like a spider, Yuki crouched behind the Panamanian woman and whispered a plan. When Risa gave her idea a thumbs-up, Yuki strapped a spare domino to her back. If she fell off the edge, it could suspend her in midair. The board would also make a handy shield. She ran to the far side of the ship and scuttled under the boardwalk, hanging upside down by her kneepads and sticky-wrapped palm. Sweat weakened the hand grip, forcing her to activate the antigravity domino in her belt. The chime seemed so loud the Russian was bound to hear. Yuki held her breath to compensate.

  Risa shouted, “You can stop now. She’s on her way to the Hollow.” When Nadia calmed slightly and asked a muffled question, Herk’s wife answered, “She twisted her ankle jumping down. She won’t be bothering you for a while.”

  Nadia thundered over the deck to reach the elevator. “That means I can catch the bitch and teach her a lesson.”

  Halfway down the slow elevator ride, after the woman passed out of view, Yuki crawled back into the command center. Climbing under the control hood, she ordered, “Snowflake, stop the elevator.” It gleeped a warning, forcing her to tap the ‘I’m sure’ button.

  “Now she can cool her heels for a while,” Risa said, helping Yuki out of the control couch.

  The Japanese technician took a few moments to locate her headset in the aftermath and warn Sojiro to hide the breakables.

  Sojiro responded, “Park is my sparring partner. I’ll let him know he can stay in the spare bunk in my place until things are worked out.”

  “That’s my bed,” Yuki objected.

  “You should have thought of that before you stole someone’s man,” Risa mumbled. “In space, you have to be able to trust the other guy to cover your ass. You can go back to your room in the single women’s dorm.”

  Red chose that moment to rise, dripping from the showers. She took one look at the trashed bedrooms and the flotsam floating in the main chamber and asked, “What the hell is going on? Yuki, what have you done to my ship?”

  Risa answered, “There’s been a messy breakup. Things are sorted out without anyone getting hurt.”

  “Yeah? Who hit you?” asked Red.

  “Nadia,” Risa said, “just after she resigned from the planner committee.”

  “What did you do?” Red demanded of Yuki.

  “She’s been talking to Park, quite a lot, from what I hear,” Risa gossiped.

  Yuki raised her hands. “No sex.”

  “Wait, Park talked?” Red asked in mock shock.

  The man in question walked into the room with an ice pack on the back of his neck. Without a word, he handed Risa a second ice pack for her face.

  “Thanks,” said Risa.

  Park glanced at Yuki and mumbled, “Sorry. I had to confess to Nadia I had feelings for you.” He returned his eyes to the floor and resumed his quest to pick up the broken pieces.

  Red growled. “Couldn’t you have kept it a secret like a normal guy? At least till after my mission?”

  “It was the right thing to do,” he muttered.

  “You just finished building a house, complete with the damn chicken coop,” Red said.

  “She can have it,” Park offered.

  Yuki searched for her pants because the lack automatically painted her in the role of a home-wrecking hussy. Brushing aside tufts of stabbed pillow, she found her clothes in shreds, strewn around the room. She discovered the contents of the pocket two heartbeats before Risa reached the same spot. It could have gone either way for several moments. Unbidden, tears rose to her face. Excusing herself, Yuki said, “I need some air.”

  On the way out, Park caught her eye. His expression was love-sick and apologetic, worse than shouting and accusation. Yuki climbed back out onto the roof and refused to talk to anyone but Zeiss.

  When the commander arrived, in uniform, she said, “We need to talk.”

  Blinking, Zeiss said, “Not dressed like that, we’re not. Put some clothes on and meet me in the dining room.”

  “I don’t have any,” Yuki whined.

  From the door, Red bellowed, “Take Nadia’s uniform. You’ve taken everything else from her.”

&
nbsp; Zeiss held up his hand. “Nadia will be paying restitution for everything she’s damaged. The jury is still out on you.” He wandered inside to wait.

  “Her man and her place among the planners—you were the alternate,” Red accused. “You’ve now wormed your way in with every planner except me—just like a Mori.”

  When the gravity technician didn’t move, an impatient Red returned with a folded jumpsuit and tossed it at her. With a sigh, Yuki crawled down from the pergola and wiggled into clothes several sizes too big for her. Eyes down, she shuffled into the dining room. Both Zeisses sat inside, brooding.

  Once she shut the door, Yuki asked, “Has using the pod helped your symptoms, teacher?”

  “For now. It also improved Toby’s bone density and erased his R-shaped scar. We still can’t trust him completely, but right now, he’s more popular than you are,” the commander replied. “Give me one reason I should keep you as a student.”

  Bowing, Yuki pulled out the stack of listening devices and laid them on the table in front of Zeiss. “I am ill-suited for doing right. It seems that every time I try, things break. I want you to listen to everything I have to say before you judge me. Then I will take any punishment you see fit.” For the first time, she told him all of it: her orders from the CEO of Mori Electronics, her manipulations, and her seduction of several men. Finally, she described how trying to spare Park doomed him. Red’s displeasure manifested in the smell of burning ozone in the room. Yuki decided that the source was empathic when the smoke alarm didn’t go off. The intensity actually caused her to cough several times, but she didn’t falter. “Yet I sacrificed all my goals so we could perform surveillance on the aborigines and to be a part of the team. What you’re trying to do is too important. These listening devices can transmit seventy meters to a relay with perfect clarity, twice that with minimal distortion. You can choose to listen live or send a compressed burst once a day. They also come equipped with keyword triggers and send a signal when compromised.”

  Red’s question was the most painful. “What did you listen to?”