Less than an hour later, it wasn’t the sun that woke her up. Stacia’s implants set off alarms in her brain as she sensed something touching her. She grabbed the sonic blade she’d been sleeping with and immediately put it the neck of the intruder, only to find that the intruder was Skin herself. The woman had huddled up close to Stacia, but that wasn’t what had set off Stacia’s warnings. Instead, the woman had her lips just centimeters away from Stacia’s, and her hand was at Stacia’s legs, working the hatch the covered her crotch. Both of them froze, Stacia fighting her every instinct to slice the throat of someone who’d come after her in her sleep, and Skin trembling slightly, her lip quivering.
“Please do it quickly,” Skin said.
“I won’t hurt you if you tell me what the hell you’re doing.”
“I… I thought… maybe you wanted me to do this. You claimed me as yours by taking me. I figured this was why.” Her hand tried to work its way into the opening below in Stacia’s armor. Stacia jerked her hips away and pressed the knife tighter to Skins throat. All she needed to do was operate the sonic function, and the knife would practically push itself through the woman’s jugular.
“I did not give you permission,” Stacia said.
Skin closed her eyes. A single tear ran down her cheek. Clearly, she expected to die any moment now.
Stacia pulled the blade away and stabbed it into the dirt nearby, close enough that she could still grab it if she needed but far enough away her message would be clear. Skin paused for a second before backing away.
“I’m not one hundred percent sure why I took you with me,” Stacia said. “I think I felt sorry for you, although I don’t know I’ll be able to give you anything better than what you had. I thought I made it clear in that bedroom, though, that I have no interest in using you for sex. Even if you didn’t feel obligated. Because you’re not obligated to do anything anymore, not as long as the two of us are watching out for each other.”
“So… I don’t have to have sex with you? At all.”
“No.”
“Is there something wrong with me?”
“No, absolutely not.”
Skin nodded in understanding. “It’s because I’m a woman. You’re one of those people that’s only attracted to men.”
“No, I’m not attracted to men either.”
“But I’m confused. Who or what are you attracted to, then?”
“Nobody. Not in that way. I have no interest in sleeping with anyone for any reason other than safety and warmth in numbers.”
“Did something happen to you? Is it because of watching your father die? Did that break something inside you?”
“There’s nothing wrong with me. The fact that I have no interest in sex does not make me broken, any more than you wanting it would make you broken. Neither of us is broken. We are whole in and of ourselves.”
“So, you really don’t want me to do anything to you?”
“No.”
“Even if I wanted to?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Huh.” Skin lay back down and stared up at the starry sky. “That’s so strange. Is that the way things are on other planets?”
“Most of them.”
“You have a choice. And I have a choice.” She was silent for several seconds before saying “huh,” again, and turning over to go back to sleep. Stacia watched her drift off to sleep, then moved close enough again for Skin to share her warmth before falling asleep herself.
This time, Stacia was uninterrupted until morning.
Chapter 9
Wet Lisa
Stacia was awake before Skin, which gave her some time by herself to examine the piece of leather Lexton had given her in greater detail. Stacia supposed it could be fake, if Lexton had planned in advance to double cross her. However, she wasn’t sure what Lexton thought she could gain by that. She wanted Stanton eliminated, as long as it couldn’t be directly tied to Lexton herself, so it would actually be to Lexton’s advantage if Stacia continued on her mission. The rough map on the leather, though, gave directions to some place called Roo-Soh, and it was clear that Lexton was familiar with it. So Lexton knew exactly where Stacia was going. No wonder they hadn’t been followed in the night. Lexton would probably go directly to Roo-Soh and set a trap for Stacia, not to be sprung until after Stacia had completed her objective.
Stacia thought about this and tried to come up with a plan as the sun rose over the edge of the horizon. Skin yawned and smacked her lips.
“I don’t suppose we know how we’re going to eat?” Skin asked.
Stacia absently reached into her pack and pulled out some of the rations she had arrived with. There weren’t enough for one person to eat for more than five days, but Stacia could force herself to go without eating for a while if she had to. Skin wouldn’t have the same training and enhancements. Besides, the young woman looked like she desperately needed some meat on her bones.
Skin immediately shoved the food in her mouth, thought for a second, and then spoke around a mouth full of crumbs. “Thunk yuh.”
Stacia nodded, trying not to let Skin see her smile.
“Roo-Soh isn’t actually that far away,” Stacia said as she put the leather back in her pack. “We should be able to make it by this time tomorrow, I think.”
“And then you kill this Stanton person?” Skin asked quietly. Stacia only nodded.
“What then?” Skin asked.
“We’ll come to that when we get there,” Stacia said. “We don’t want to count our chickens before they’re hatched.”
“What’s a chicken?”
“Something that gets hatched.”
“Oh. Uh, okay.”
Stacia stood up and made sure she had everything she needed packed. “Let’s get going.”
“Do you need me to carry one of those? They look heavy,” Skin said, pointing at Stacia’s two 808s.
“They are, but not too heavy for me.”
“Can I carry one anyway?”
Stacia smiled. “I suppose. Just don’t shoot me by accident.”
“Uh, I’ll try not to. If I do, please don’t kill me.”
“For the last time, Skin, I’m not going to…” Stacia trailed off as she looked around at the matted-down grass that had been their camp. “Uh, Skin?”
“What?”
“Did you move the body of that Elite that we brought with us?”
“No. Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know. But it’s gone.”
Stacia stared at the spot where she was sure she had dumped the body. She hadn’t wanted it stinking up their camp, so she had given it some distance, but not so much distance that she would have lost its location in the tall grass. There was something different, though, about the spot where Stacia had placed it. There was a path, leading both to and away from the spot, where the grass was completely gone. All that was left there was the bare dirt.
“Skin, don’t move,” Stacia said. “I don’t think we’re alone.”
“Is it a Wet Lisa?” Skin asked. Stacia could only shrug. She still didn’t have the slightest clue what that meant. Given the size of the planet’s fauna that she had met so far, though, she was surprised that, whatever had taken the body, it hadn’t tripped all her mental alarms already. There shouldn’t have been anything that could get this close without her noticing.