Page 29 of Enthraller

Wren tilted her head. “SF teams business. What are you doing up here?”

“SF teams?” The woman swung her legs off the couch and stood. She pulled a comm from her pocket and tapped it. “There’s a strange woman on the station. Says she’s Wren someone or other.”

Cool eyes watched her, and Wren watched her right back, slightly taken aback at the hostility.

Whatever she was told, the woman’s face flushed, and her eyes narrowed even further. “So I was just left in the dark, is that it?”

The answer was obviously not to her liking, because she shut the comms off, and put it back in her pocket with a vicious movement.

“Apparently you’re expected.”

“I don’t think it’s possible to get a lock on the docking station unless you’ve been given the codes,” Wren said helpfully.

The woman’s lips thinned and her cheeks flushed, then she walked away, stalking out of the room.

Well.

Wren could feel her nanos go into a higher level of alert. “Not-so-friendly was more right than I knew,” she murmured.

She walked over to a notice board next to the kitchen and saw that a person named Banks was down for making dinner for the maintenance crew, and that someone called Ludlow was down for the five academics.

Looked like they were on their own when it came to meals.

She accessed the inventory, saw that aside from special items one of the academics had brought up with them for theirown use, the stores were open to everyone, and she set about perusing what was available.

She was just putting a cake in the oven when a man came in, stumbled to a stop at the sight of her, and then squared his shoulders slightly as he approached.

“Hello, I’m the head of station maintenance, Terry Banks.” He gave the Aponi greeting, and Wren gave a cool nod from the other side of the kitchen counter.

“Hello.”

“Ah,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “Were you the one who met up with Trish earlier?”

“If Trish is a medium height woman with dark hair and a charming personality, I think so.”

Banks winced. “Sorry we weren’t there to welcome you when you arrived. It was a last minute communication that you were coming, and I honestly forgot about it after I sent through the sleeping quarter arrangements. I’ve been trying to upgrade the minor space debris detectors for the last three days, and I’m not making a lot of headway.”

Wren felt at a loss as to a response. “I’m sorry to hear it,” was what she managed to come up with.

“Was Trish . . .?” He glanced at the door as if expecting Trish to appear, and lowered his voice. “Rude?”

“She was,” Wren confirmed. She walked over to the jah machine and programmed some in. At least this kitchen was well equipped and well stocked.

“Hello, hello, who’s this then?” A man appeared in the door, and Wren thought Banks relaxed slightly when it wasn’t Trish. She obviously loomed large in his mind. “I’m Dr. Jens Ludlow of the Demeter Higher Learning Institute.” He extended his hands in greeting, and Wren gave a smile and a nod in exchange.

“I’m Wren, with Demeter Special Forces.” Captain Hyt had confirmed she was now on the team, and on the clock, as faras he was concerned. It had eased something in her when he’d given her a final contract to approve and she had received all the necessary access to the Demeter systems that she needed to do her job.

“Special Forces? As a soldier?” Ludlow asked.

“An artifact consultant.” They had decided to tell the truth as much as possible. Ed was walking the line with the scanner. She was an artifact consultant. They’d leave it to the occupants of the station to draw their own conclusions. And if they got it in their head they were looking for a smuggled artifact or something of that nature, so much the better.

“When did you get here? We usually have a welcome committee.”

“Just a couple of hours ago. I must admit we were slightly surprised when there was no one to meet us.”

Banks blew out another breath. “That’s my fault, Jens. I was too caught up in my work, and I forgot to mention we had an SF team coming up.”

“A team? How many of you?” Ludlow asked. She wondered if she was imagining the nerves she thought she could hear in his voice.

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