exercise in. She could remember seeing the little ball with the creature inside rolling around the halls. At the time she had wondered why he would bother to have something so useless that took care and feeding. Now she knew. The animal had been something he could lavish affection on that the Reliance hadn't picked for him. Something that it couldn't control. For him, watching the antics of the hamster had been watching something that was free, even if it was living in a cage.
She wondered how stupid she must look rolling down the hall in her ball, "getting her exercise." She smiled. Maybe some greater being somewhere was enjoying watching her now as she had secretly enjoyed watching the hamster in the ball. She had twice ordered the young officer to put his pet away when she had been caught looking, because she felt silly. Now she wished she had taken the time to tell him how much she had enjoyed watching the creature's antics.
Simple things, simple kindnesses, made the difference between being on the outside and being on the inside. When you were nice to people, they were nice to you, not because they had to be but because they wanted to be.
She supposed it would have absolutely killed their father to teach all of his children this simple lesson.
Jessica hadn't had much practice being nice.
She was reminded of that when they were all told that they could take off the bubble in the quarantine room, and the nurse glared at her. No doubt because Jessica had caused her this ultimate humiliation for a healthcare worker.
She'd like to be able to tell her that she'd make it up to her later, but why add insult to injury by lying? So Jessica just looked at the woman and shrugged helplessly.
The real problem was her newfound rule, not to kill people unless they deserved it or were better off dead. She could have just taken the ship at any time in flight, but to do that she would have had to kill most everyone on board. Her newly acquired conscience told her that would be wrong.
Besides, killing an entire ship full of Argys wouldn't have helped her get where she ultimately wanted to go.
So she waited till her two prisoners were sound asleep and then she very carefully dismantled the alarm on the door. She wasn't too worried about other detecting devices in the station since she wasn't actually contaminated, but the alarm on the door was geared to go off as soon as the airlock was broken. Once she had successfully disconnected the alarm she opened the door, closed it behind her, and took off at a brisk pace down the hall.
By the time the doctor and nurse woke up and had time to tell their story, she'd be long gone.
If everything went as planned.
She easily found a computer that was only too happy to give her the station layout. Her first stop was the laundry, where they carefully sterilized every item of clothing that came to the station. She grabbed a general's uniform and traded out.
In this uniform, she could go damn near anywhere without being questioned. Not that at this hour of the night there were many people around to question her. She went down to the dock and right into the computer room. The two techs there stood up.
"At ease," she said. They gave her a funny look, so she guessed she'd used the wrong Argy words, but they sat down anyway without any suspicion.
She accessed the computer and found what she needed. A ship that had already been decontaminated, that was currently empty awaiting its quarantined crew. It was a smaller ship, and one that she should be able to pilot on her own. It also probably wouldn't be missed for awhile, since its captain and crew were scheduled to be in quarantine for the next three weeks.
"I'll be taking the Yaberly out. I've been released from quarantine and my admiral has just ordered me back to base."
"What of a crew?" one of the techs asked curiously.
Jessica didn't miss a beat, just laughed.
She wondered how stupid she must look rolling down the hall in her ball, "getting her exercise." She smiled. Maybe some greater being somewhere was enjoying watching her now as she had secretly enjoyed watching the hamster in the ball. She had twice ordered the young officer to put his pet away when she had been caught looking, because she felt silly. Now she wished she had taken the time to tell him how much she had enjoyed watching the creature's antics.
Simple things, simple kindnesses, made the difference between being on the outside and being on the inside. When you were nice to people, they were nice to you, not because they had to be but because they wanted to be.
She supposed it would have absolutely killed their father to teach all of his children this simple lesson.
Jessica hadn't had much practice being nice.
She was reminded of that when they were all told that they could take off the bubble in the quarantine room, and the nurse glared at her. No doubt because Jessica had caused her this ultimate humiliation for a healthcare worker.
She'd like to be able to tell her that she'd make it up to her later, but why add insult to injury by lying? So Jessica just looked at the woman and shrugged helplessly.
The real problem was her newfound rule, not to kill people unless they deserved it or were better off dead. She could have just taken the ship at any time in flight, but to do that she would have had to kill most everyone on board. Her newly acquired conscience told her that would be wrong.
Besides, killing an entire ship full of Argys wouldn't have helped her get where she ultimately wanted to go.
So she waited till her two prisoners were sound asleep and then she very carefully dismantled the alarm on the door. She wasn't too worried about other detecting devices in the station since she wasn't actually contaminated, but the alarm on the door was geared to go off as soon as the airlock was broken. Once she had successfully disconnected the alarm she opened the door, closed it behind her, and took off at a brisk pace down the hall.
By the time the doctor and nurse woke up and had time to tell their story, she'd be long gone.
If everything went as planned.
She easily found a computer that was only too happy to give her the station layout. Her first stop was the laundry, where they carefully sterilized every item of clothing that came to the station. She grabbed a general's uniform and traded out.
In this uniform, she could go damn near anywhere without being questioned. Not that at this hour of the night there were many people around to question her. She went down to the dock and right into the computer room. The two techs there stood up.
"At ease," she said. They gave her a funny look, so she guessed she'd used the wrong Argy words, but they sat down anyway without any suspicion.
She accessed the computer and found what she needed. A ship that had already been decontaminated, that was currently empty awaiting its quarantined crew. It was a smaller ship, and one that she should be able to pilot on her own. It also probably wouldn't be missed for awhile, since its captain and crew were scheduled to be in quarantine for the next three weeks.
"I'll be taking the Yaberly out. I've been released from quarantine and my admiral has just ordered me back to base."
"What of a crew?" one of the techs asked curiously.
Jessica didn't miss a beat, just laughed.
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