Cyborg Claude
Episode 13
In the previous episode, Claude and Min come to the acceptance of their decision, but decide to sleep on how to proceed with the agency impacts it will cause. Hawkins knows they are far closer than he expected and he’s not happy about it.
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Salindra stepped onto the bridge, still dressed in the outfit she bought, minus the head and face veils. She gave Hawkins a sly smile when he gawked at her.
She could not sleep with her mind running nonstop in its attempt to work things out. What had Claude planned for the night? Where did he go? No one she had asked knew where he was and Stefen flat out stated he could not tell her.
On the other hand, why did she find an interest in a guy she did not know? She had just spent one of the best evenings ever with a guy, which led to a good time together without expectations. He had a lot of things in common with her, and she liked his witty charm when he got comfortable. There was something about Stefen that appealed to her. She smirked as she thought of the old cliché of not judging a book by its cover. He looked like a nerdy doctor, but roleplayed well to help them get away from the goeks. She knew more about Stefen in a couple of hours than she knew of Claude after three months, including all the times she could have just asked while on the spaceliner.
“I see you found time to go shopping while on furlough.” Hawkins smiled at her, but even if he appeared to tease her his demeanor showed a worry, no make that anger, about something. “You look lovely in it.”
She smiled, knowing that he meant it truthfully, though what had him upset? “Actually, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing to get away from some goeks that followed us here.” She looked around the bridge, finding them pretty industrious looking for four o’clock in the morning. Deserka’s space station appeared to be on a time a couple hours earlier than the yacht’s.
“I think I found it, sir.” The information officer spun around in his chair to face Hawkins.
“Shoot, you beat me to it.” The communications officer grinned and gave the other a friendly punch in the arm.
“That’s why this is my job.” He laughed and then turned serious to give his report. “The only ship they could have come in on was Anglodonian. The Anglodonians stopped at the spaceliner for several hours and then hopped here through hyperspace. They were here only two hours, allowing passengers an hour to check out the station if they liked. The ship left about the same time the agent tried to get on board for a party.”
He paused with a glance over his shoulder at the screen. “I had no issues getting permission from this station’s security group in accessing files to determine where they have been and gone. They made a couple of circuits of the station without going into any shops and went to the Spaceliner Association desk about thirty minutes after talking to our guard outside. They have not booked a ride on the liner even if it will get them back to Goeken in a week’s time. I’m waiting for Jack,” he pointed at the communications officer, “to tell me if he has seen any signals going to Goeken from the spaceliner.”
“Well, done.” Hawkins turned his gaze on Jack. “So what signals have been sent through space this shift?”
“Nothing to Goeken, though I’ve been recording a signal going to Telna. It is very short, encrypted, and happens multiple times. I’m sure they are trying to make it hard to trace it and not give away that they are here. They should know that hiding who they are is far too late now. I’m still trying to decipher the messages, since it does not fall into any of their usual encryption formats. I’ve started a comparison to old and antiquated methods to see how that results. Most everything else is space to ground communications and that is slow at this hour. We are about two hours ahead of their time, sir.”
That confirmed she had the timing correct. After four years on Goeken, she wondered if her body would return to any normal clockwork. She had spent a lot of time deep in derelict buildings, with days of not seeing the outside. If Stefen was correct, she wouldn’t be doing that again. With her cover blown, she definitely couldn’t return to Goeken.
“See if you can get that signal deciphered. Make sure we know when they move again. That spaceliner will not stay in port for long.”
“Per the logs, sir, it is staying for another twelve hours.” The information officer waited through a moment of silence before turning back to his station to continue working.
Hawkins remained quiet and massaged his right hand.
Salindra took in the exchange, working to digest it all. She did not let herself think on it directly, but something about the encryption had her sorting through information from her days on Goeken. She pushed it to the side to let it work itself out without direct thinking. If she focused on it too hard, it would flee to some deeper recess of her brain. She walked over to stand close to Hawkins.
“Something is bothering you,” she whispered.
Hawkins nodded. His gaze remained on the viewscreen, which showed space and part of the moon.
“I can’t sleep and I know I should.” She took in the whiteness of the moon with wonder considering Deserka Prime had a sun that looked a deep yellow-orange from the planet’s surface.
“Sounds like something is bothering you as well.” Now he looked at her.
“Ever feel like you don’t know what to think? Things went from simple to overly complicated fast.” She could not help but think he had something to tell her as she stated this. “I wonder too much about one and the other is charming and has things in common.”
“The other?” Hawkins’ brow quirked, and then he frowned. “You definitely spent too much time out in the field alone.”
She sighed, suddenly wishing she had just gone to bed. “True, but I did what had to be done.”
He rubbed his chin and she could picture him counting to ten before answering. “Honestly, I would go with the charming and things in common.”
“You don’t even know who it is.”
“Yes, I do. Remember, I keep my eye on you more than you like.” Now he smirked, though the crease between his eyes proved anger boiled close to the surface. “There is more than meets the eye.”
Back to that book cover cliché, in a way. She could not help but chuckle. “There is still something about the other and I don’t know what it is. Maybe it is just him never saying a word to me until we were at the safe house.” She paused. “I honestly don’t have a clue, though I know from being on my own for so long, I’m probably all scrambled up.”
Her eyes dropped to the floor, finding she craved to feel Claude next to her, but she craved to spend a lot more time with Stefen. She didn’t know either of them well. Claude attracted her physically, plus some of his mannerisms helped. He was like a magnet she could not resist. Then along came Stefen with his brusque nature that hid the wit and charm contained within. At first glance, his looks did not appeal to her, though the way he relaxed around her while exploring the station made that unimportant. Time to hit her head on the wall a few times.
“I can’t tell you which one to choose, though I think the dark one is definitely dark.”
That proved he was not telling her everything. She looked up at him and found him clenching his jaw. Something had him angry to where it might find his fist hitting it if it could.
“Remember, I understand you better than a lot of people.” She crossed her arms. “There is something about this you are not telling me.”
He sighed heavily and glanced around the room. He leaned to whisper in her ear. “I’m going to be blunt whether or not you like it. In the process of trying to find out why Min did not answer her com at all or answer her door, I overrode security and went in. Claude was there with her. He’s been with her since she called him into her office after jumping to hyperspace to get away from the GSA disguised as pirates. I don’t know him, but they ping work ideas off each other like it is old hat no matter where they are.”
Salindra shifted. Min and Claude? Who was Claude? She hated not having all the information. “So the two know each other well, then?”
“Inside and out.” Hawkins shifted away from her.
Then why had he seemed as flustered as she at the dinner? Why did he give her the ‘look’ or even avoid looking at her at other times? What was it with men, anyway? She drummed her fingers against her arm while she pondered this. No, she definitely had a few screws loose. Now what? And did Hawkins really mean inside and out physically, as well?
She shook her head and wanted to tear her hair out in frustration. Thankfully, she kept her arms crossed and only glared at the image of the moon. Most moons were the images used in romance stories. Lovely. She really had fallen the wrong way for a guy she did not know with an awesome body and one seriously seductive voice. Where did she go from here? She had to sedate her curiosity about the guy, and maybe she should get to know Stefen better after all.
“I seriously hate not having all the information.”
“Welcome to the real world.” Hawkins relaxed some and smiled at her. “I still can’t tell you the right way to go, but what I told you is so you would have more information than before. Now go get some sleep so you might have your brain ready for work. I am staying through this shift, but will probably be up around lunch time.”
A welcome change of topic made her leap at it. “You still don’t sleep much, do you?”
“Yeah, it bites getting old and sore.” A genuine grin spread across his lips.
“Oh, you’ll survive for a long time because you are too ornery to give up easily.” She punched him in the arm and laughed when he mocked as if it hurt.
He laughed, making everything seem better for now. At least they could make each other laugh, no matter what troubled them.
“As ordered, I will try to get some sleep, but my biological clock is a mess.”
“Another thing from being in the field too long. You will have the time to adjust back to what people consider normal.” He smiled. “I bet we have a meeting tomorrow about many things. We have regrouped and really need to delve into the next phase of our mission. Problem is, I have no idea what that is. We have hit a milestone in this endeavor in acquiring all the information we needed, or most of it. I guess it depends on what we find or don’t find when sorting out the recent acquisitions.”
“So we might be docked here for a bit, seeing that it is safe enough and we can figure out what the two goeks are doing?”
“That is my feeling, but who knows?”
“Well, I’ll force myself to believe that tomorrow will be another day perfect for figuring out the puzzles.” She smiled at him. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
Salindra headed back to her room, still troubled, but knowing things could fall into place if she did not dwell on it. Half way there, her brain spewed out what had been buried in it about the encryption. She hurried the rest of the way and grabbed her scrivpad to check her idea. The pattern could fit an ancient language, not encryption. So much for getting to sleep right away as she happily dove into searching for the language that matched the coded signals to Telna.
I’ll figure you out, and then we can send you packing back to Goeken.
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Update:
Most of my comments have come via replies to the email to subscribers for this story. It drops in their boxes around the time this goes live here. I have one that reads via a link when it drops on my socials, who has DMd me some awesome feedback. The following are things I have learned:
I still need to work on having more action around longer dialogue that helps move the story and keeps readers knowing who is talking. I have some spots like this in my three novels that were missed in all the editing. This serial fiction is not having eyes on it like those, but all this feedback is helping.
People are enjoying the story though I have one who is not into the romance side. However, they are engaged enough to keep on going. He’ll be happy to know this is the last episode for a bit that gets deeper into that side of the story. It will be more about the affects of the acquired information, the conflict of universal powers, and how Claude’s integration into his true position affects things. A lot of that needs some heavy rewriting and the timing is working well around a fun coauthoring short story assignment I received last week.
Share your thoughts about the episode in the comments. Thank you for reading.