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Way too many bad things were becoming a habit lately.
"You could just give us the numbers," I said. "We can find it ourselves."
"Captain's orders. She doesn't want to risk you getting lost."
"This ship isn't big enough to get lost," E'rel said. Clearly he was as tired of their bullshit as I was.
The security officer shrugged. "I'm just following orders. I'm sure you understand."
"We do," Brinley said, her tone nicer than I could have managed. "Lead on, please." She sounded like she was asking to be taken to a nice tea room, one that served scones with whipped cream.
Great, now I was hungry.
The Agusian gestured for us to follow him. A Dendran officer fell in behind us.
"I'm having a flashback to Calig," I remarked."Only these guys don't have bows and arrows."
"And they're not going to kill us, or infest us with nanobots," Brinley said firmly.
"I hope not," I replied. I eyed the Agusian. He didn't seem offended by this line of conversation.
Personally, I would be annoyed if someone compared me to people the nanobots reduced to little more than mindless, murder puppets.
"You're perfectly safe on board Gamma," the Dendran assured us.
"Until someone fires on us all," I said.
She hesitated. "Until then, yes. Gamma is more than equipped to take care of herself, as you no doubt saw."
I nodded. "I saw." That gave me some comfort. She'd stood up to Infinity better than we would have on our own. "They are freeing all those on Infinity from the nanobots, aren't they?" I asked.
"I don't have any information on that," she said.
She reminded me of the automated voice I had on an old so-called smart watch. Good for setting timers and doing maths my lazy ass didn't want to bother with, but more often than not, it had no useful answers.
"Right. Well, when you know, can you let us know, please?" I couldn't rule out the possibility the guys were on that ship. I would have liked to board Infinity to check, but it was unlikely I'd be allowed to. If I was, I probably wouldn't be allowed back on Gamma.
All I could do was hope that if they were on there, they would contact me the first chance they got.
"If I can, I will," she said.
I guessed that was about the best I would get.
The officers led us to the back of the ship and waved toward a set of doors.
"You'll have to share. Gamma isn't equipped for guests," the Agusian said.
The doors slid apart without a sound.
J'avet stood with his back to us, looking out to space. He didn't turn until the doors closed behind us and we started to place our bags on the narrow bunks.
"Can you believe this?" I asked.
He grunted.
"Yeah, I agree," I said, as though I understood grunt-ese. "It's a total pain in the ass."
He regarded me through narrowed eyes. "You really never shut up, do you?"
