When he smiled at her, Jeska felt a shock of her own: she still cared for him.
Why can’t you play nice, Jeska? she thought. Tell him the truth.
Then she saw the pile of coasters behind him, the ones with the words “Containment Facility One Staff" printed on them, and her irritation fought back the conscience that’d been growing inside her.
NO! You are leaving! And that … is … FINAL!
She sent out a quick l-mail, signaling for the next part of the plan to begin
She gave Daniel her brightest smile, which, knowing what she was about to do to him, hurt more than bleeding out.
For Daniel, the smile seemed to resurrect his heart.
Everything’s finally ok, Daniel thought. Now we just have to find Trak and Rachel and …
Then the creature, which was supposed to be dead, let out another shriek.
Daniel and Jeska started running. They didn’t even look back.
She ran for a short while, but when Daniel saw that she winced every time her wounded leg hit the ground, he scooped her up in his arms – despite her protests – and carried her toward the back of his ship.
He was scared, but he also knew how heroic he must look to Jeska. Looking heroic is important to human males.
“I thought you said it was dead!” he said, as he ran between the t-shirts piles.
“I thought it was dead!” she said, still in the cradle of his arms. “I don’t know anything about its biology. That green ooze must have been a decoy.”
Daniel would have been upset under normal circumstances, but as he felt her against his chest and smelled the perfume her skin was bioengineered to emit, he simply laughed.
