Duty, Honour, Love
Chapter 22

Several of the crew walked in laughing and joking along with their guards. The laughter faded into silence on seeing Jane. A couple of crew even snapped a salute. Jane returned the salute to those that had and scowled at those that hadn’t.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Taking a break ma’am,” they said with a glance to their guards. “The Confeds said it would be ok?”

Jane gave a sigh and shook her head. “Carry on.”

They sat at another table and continued their conversation with the Confeds as if they had been friends for years. Jane wished she could be that relaxed but her past had prevented her from doing so. She sat back half-listening to their words and sipping her coffee. Suddenly one of the crew said something that made her sit up.

She fixed the crew with her glare. “What was that you said about a sea monster?”

“That’s right,” someone said. “The Confeds mentioned it something big in the water off the beach.”

“What something?” Jane snapped at them.

“Perhaps it was a joke?” someone suggested.

“More fool you,” Jane muttered under her breath her mind on the journey to the beach their guards had been relaxed until the reached the entrance to the beach. “How big are these jokers saying it is?”

“Big enough to eat people?” the same crewman suggested with a shrug and turned to the others whispering lowly.

Jane ignored the rest of their conversation her mind working furiously. It explained the lack of guards and the only tracks were the one they had made. She didn’t like the implications.

The crewman that had spoken glanced to the others and spoke up. “According to the Confeds this happened a few years ago after a big winter storm turned the waters dark. Then a couple went missing it wasn’t until there was a party on the beach that they discovered to truth.”

“It can come out of the water?” Daisy asked sounding scared.

Jane snorted. “Don’t give Daisy nightmares with your wild stories!” She glared at the crew. “Ok that’s enough!”

Daisy shivered. “You think that they are lying about that?”

“Of course they are. What better way to keep us off balance than to scare us.” Jane said to Daisy to reassure her. She turned her attention to the crew fixing them with her best glare. “And you don’t frighten younger members of the crew with your stories are we clear?”

“Yes ma’am,” the crew responded.

“Get back to work the sooner we get our supplies loaded the sooner we can go back to camp.”

“Aye ma’am!” The crew saluted and left.

Jane finished the rest of her coffee regretting that it was the last of it. “Come along Daisy,” she said to keep up appearances. In truth she was worried about what the crew had said. When you thought about it, it seemed logical. “We need to get the loading finished.”

“Yes ma’am.” Daisy sounded reluctant to leave the comparative safety of the mess hall.

“Come on Daisy the sooner we get it done the sooner we can go home.” Jane regretted saying that last bit prison wasn’t a home not by any stretch of the imagination.

~~~~

Two hours later the last of the supplies from the ship had been loaded. Jane stood back and breathed a sigh of relief. She felt at the end of her endurance they all did. With one last look around she headed back to the ship no one stopped her. Once inside she headed to her quarters to pick up her bag. When she got there it had gone and her locker was empty. Jane stood there for several minutes unsure with all that had gone on that she had not picked it up earlier and had just forgotten that she had. Climbing out of the ship she saw Dareia waiting by one of the ATV’s. The woman had been actively avoiding her since the incident in her quarters. She saw her say something to Daisy as she climbed aboard. One of the crew shouted to Dareia it was the vilest comment anyone could have uttered. Jane was hard pressed to pick out the culprit. If she had putting him and it was a him on report was the lightest of punishments she could use. Just thinking of the words made her blood run cold. Yet any woman would have reacted to the words. The fact that Dareia hadn’t either meant she hadn’t heard then or she hadn’t understood what was said.

“Who ever said that is on report!” Jane yelled at the male crewmembers. Beyond that Jane began to wonder. Multiple thoughts ran through her mind. She speculated that Dareia should have reacted to that if she knew how to speak USE. Jane glared at the crew her mind in a whirl. “They may be the enemy but you have no right to say that am I clear!” she snarled. She shouldn’t have defended Dareia in that way but the damn woman was confusing her. With that in mind she climbed into the ATV furthest from the one Dareia was in.

The drive back to the Festival Hall was uneventful. By the time they reached the hall Jane had an answer and had come to the bleak conclusion that she was dealing with a telepath. There could be no other explanation, yet she had her doubts the truth was too awful to contemplate. Just thinking that she might be dealing with a telepath made her feel cold inside. Dareia if she was a telepath would know her secret there was no way she could hide it. Then she considered that Dareia might not and that she was just being paranoid. The only way she could get an answer was to test her theory. It would mean asking Mark he was a ‘Borderlander’ the name most gave those who lived on the borders of the Empire. He would know about telepaths. Her decision firm in her mind she directed the crew to off loading the ATVs.

Standing well away from Jane, Dareia watched the human supervise the unloading of the ATVs. The state of the Terran ship was an eye opener. It constantly surprised her how tenacious these humans were carrying on where everyone else would have given up. She amended the thought the only others with that sort of determination were the Valkyrie and theirs was just stubbornness. She turned her attention to the dataslices in her pocket more than enough to satisfy Karasena and Com Ops. The cuts to the hull of the ship were precise as if cut by a laser. None of the races she knew of used that technology. It was known of but it had it drawbacks. Dareia considered what information she should give Karasena. There was so much data that it would take a while for them to shift through it.

Jane was glad the Dareia was ignoring her and yet it felt odd not having her close. Her bag was in one of the ATV’s.

“I did put in on board?” she said relieved but it was short lived.

“Oh I meant to say,” Jaye said. “The T’Arni lieutenant handed it to me.”

Jane froze her blood running cold she was scared but there was nothing incriminating in her bag. Hastily she checked the contents. Allie’s bear was there along with the clothes from her locker although they were dirty they had been folded and placed with care into the bag. Hurriedly she closed the bag and rushed inside her cheeks ablaze. A stranger sat with Allie she rose on seeing Jane. She wore her sandy-brown tied back showing slight points to her ears.

“Lieutenant Walberg,” the woman said formally extending her hand to Jane. “I’m Laura Rollins. I see you have Allie’s teddy.”

Reluctantly she handed it over to Laura who gave it to Allie.

Allie’s relieved smile almost broke her heart. “What are you doing here?” she snapped at Laura.

“I have your captain’s permission. Allie will come with me and once she is safe and settled the two of us will have a talk.”

Jane flushed guiltily.

“I’ll even schedule in a few sessions if you are willing?”

“No!”

Laura nodded thoughtfully. “OK if you need to talk.” She left it open.

Jane worry was for Allie who was there to look after her if she wasn’t there. “If I talk to someone it won’t be you!”

“Don’t leave it too long things like that can fester.”

“Good bye!” Jane made it a clear she could that this woman Laura was not welcome.

As she left with Allie Jane wondered if she was a telepath. With that in mind she walked over to Mark if anyone would know it would be him. There was much for her to do before she closed her eyes for the night.