“Idiot,” Jade muttered to herself. She was in the middle of doing an audit of the life support functions when she realized she’d miscalculated.
Time was something of an illusion in space. Each planet had its own timekeeping system, usually based on solar cycles and planetary rotations, but in outer space, such measurements were conflicting. To ensure control over their subordinate planets, the Novador Federation claimed space time as theirs and implemented the central planet’s calendar as standard, which meant one day was half as long as a Malimor day. Her time with Mason was suddenly considerably less.
She should be joyous, but she wasn’t, not when she thought about the impending trial and probable imprisonment. She decided it was best to make the most of her stay with Mason, even if it was an illusion of freedom, rather like time itself.
He’d laid out more of his ‘rules’ over breakfast.
“You’ll show me respect and address me as sir,” he’d begun.
Jade had dropped her spoon. Hungrier than she’d imagined, she’d been shoveling some kind of dried cereal into her mouth. It looked like shredded bark and lacked flavor.
“You’re kidding,” she’d exclaimed.
“No.” He glared in her direction with opaque irises and lowered eyebrows. The allure of his mannerisms impacted her immediately, hitting her with a spike of adrenaline and she suppressed a childish giggle.
He brandished his fork. “Don’t you address your father as sir?” he asked.
Even more ridiculous. “No, I call him Pops.”
“Pops?” Mason had appeared aghast, his eyes widening into dark dishes.
“Sure. What do you address your mother as?” she asked.
“Mother,” he said succinctly.
“Formality a big thing on Ixzar?”
“Respect is.” On that point, he’d finished his drink and the conversation.
Now, perched on a stool in the engineering bay, free to work on her own, she ran through his infernal expectations: daily reports on progress, no slouching off without permission, no endangering herself during a mission, no arriving late for duties or refusing to go to bed on time. That last one had infuriated her, but she’d kept quiet. Nobody told her when to go to bed.
She stifled a yawn. It felt like days since she’d had a decent night’s sleep. She would decide when to wake up. If she needed a pee break, it was her right to add in a little respite to the duration. It wasn’t as if she was getting paid for working for him and although there was plenty to do, none of the key systems were in danger of crashing.
Picking up her tools, she left the bay. She had to locate the stasis chamber.
The room was filled with eight upright tombs, seven of them open and empty; the last was filled with cryogenic ice and the faint outline of a man. She approached cautiously, as if he might leap out at her. The lights on the panel flickered—the beat of his heart slowed to almost nothing, his brain activity minimal. He seemed to be fast asleep and in a dreamless state. That could be me, or somebody else. The idea made her both nauseous and sad. She blocked out the horrible memory and reached out to touch the control console.
“What are you doing?” Mason’s voice boomed from the other side of the room.
Jade jumped back, gathering her wits. “I’m checking life support systems, including the stasis—”
“You shouldn’t be in here.” He moved toward her; his large frame was nimble when it came to speed. “This room is out of bounds to you.”
“Then how am I to carry out your instruction to audit systems if I can’t physically check them?” She scowled and jabbed her finger at the sleeping Callo. “He’s not going to hurt me.”
“This is a restricted area. Only I can enter it, understood?”
She inhaled deeply, fighting hard with a retort. “Then, sir, it goes without saying that if there is a problem with the stasis system and it goes wrong, don’t blame me.” She detoured around him, heading toward the door.
Mason grabbed her trailing arm. “You do it with me present and following a request.”
She rolled her eyes
upward. “That wasn’t part of the rules you gave me this morning over breakfast.”
The pinch of his grip remained and he eased her back, forcing her to face him. “Did I not state you cannot leave your post or deviate from one location without permission? I left you in the engineering bay. Next time, you use the intercom to ask permission to leave.”
“I thought you meant I shouldn’t wander around Titan for my own personal entertainment.” Okay, that was how she interpreted his instructions, but it was rapidly dawning on her that Mason’s view of protocols was rigid and uncompromising. “I didn’t mean to break a rule, if that’s what you think I’m doing,” she added meekly.