Part 20 (1/2)

She closed her eyes and felt only the tiredness, which faded, gradually, into nothing.

III.

INGENIOUS TALENTS.

SIXTEEN.

”Wake up,” Jackie Garvey said. She herself had dozed, and now it was past midnight. She put her hand on his shoulder and shook him. ”Hey, sleeping beauty, wake up.”

He sat up suddenly, the thin blanket falling away from his muscular chest. ”d.a.m.n,” he said. ”What time is it?”

”I'm not sure,” she said. ”Sorry. I fell asleep.” He had leaned out of bed to pick up his tunic and was looking at his b.u.t.ton-watch with a frown.

”Jesus,” he said, jumping out of bed to start throwing on his clothing, ”you should have stayed awake.”

Jackie sighed. That was exactly the comment she had expected him to make. It takes a long time to get to know some people, regardless of the degree of intimacy. With others, like Rocky Miller, you get to know them maybe a little too quickly.

”You'd better take a shower,” she said.

”It's too late, d.a.m.n it,” he snapped.

She smiled with her lips. ”I thought you said you didn't care if she did find out.”

He looked at her angrily. ”This just isn't the right time.” He paused before opening the door, turned, and winked at her. ”I don't know about tomorrow night.”

”I don't either,” she said.

”What do you mean?”

”I think it's time we put the brakes on,” Jackie said.

He grinned. She'd said that before. ”We'll talk about it.” He went out and closed the door behind him.

In fact, she'd said after the first time that that was it, and then it had taken him only a few minutes with her to make her change her mind. Well, he knew what he was doing when it came to women.

Jackie, however, had no idea what she was doing. It had seemed harmless enough at first. And, to be fair, she felt she had some justification. She couldn't believe that Duncan was having an affair with Mandy Miller, not at first, but even if Rocky was a little boy in a lot of ways, he didn't seem to be a liar. And he had cried a little that first night when he told her about seeing with his own eyes Duncan and Mandy in a deep embrace. His tears had been quite manly, squeezing out of his eyes and sliding down to be swiped away quickly with the back of his hand, but his voice had thickened, and she had known exactly how he felt, even if she wasn't married to Duncan.

Jackie Garvey would never have characterized herself as being a vengeful person, yet she went into Rocky's arms with just a bit of vengeance in her heart, even though logic told her that she was hurting no one but herself. Then it had happened so quickly that there had never been a time when she could have stopped it. The guy was slick; in a contest, he could, she felt sure, be the champion woman-undresser of all time. Not that she'd resisted... she was definitely not promiscuous, but shewas a healthy, normal young woman.

”Well, listen, Rock,” she'd said, after they had made love, ”I don't think you'd believe me if I said I didn't enjoy it.”

He had laughed.

”But never again. It's a trip with a one-way ticket, and I am not going along for the ride.”

But she was so d.a.m.ned lonely.

”Rocky, this has gone far enough, ” she'd said, after the second night in her quarters.

So, here we are, she thought, a few weeks later, and the lady has just had her bones pounced again, to her rather audible and obvious pleasure, and once again she'd said, ”I think it's time we put the brakes on.”

The difference was that this time she meant it.

Didn't she?

The door would be locked. The lady would not be in. It was over. Finished. And her body, remembering, regretted that decision. She groaned. ”Well, Garvey,” she said aloud, ”you've had s.e.x with the number-one and number-two officers. You can start on the juniors now.” She got out of bed and showered. Funny, she'd never felt the need to do that with Duncan. She'd wanted only to lie at his side, to feel the warmth of him, to let sleep come in a gentle kiss, and she had eagerly awaited the day when she would awaken and he'd still be beside her.

Whoever the h.e.l.l said stolen fruit is the sweetest was a psycho.

Ah, Dunc, it would have been so good, the two of us together. Who could make a better service wife than a servicewoman? Who would make a better wife than a woman who thought that he, Duncan Rodrick, could be used as the perfect model in case the Maker wanted to recall the entire race for defects and start over?

And it made her angry to know that she'd given up without a fight. He'd simply pulled away, gone off somewhere by himself-or with Mandy Miller, as the case might be-and she, the dutiful lieutenant Jackie Yes-sir! No-sir! Garvey, had wilted away and pined. Too late now. But, d.a.m.n it, why did she feel she'd been unfaithful tohim ? Stupid.

”You have only Rocky's word for it that there's something going on between him and Mandy, ” a part of her said. ”Mandy is a decent person. She wouldn't play such games.”

”h.e.l.l, Mandy is awoman . We're all constructed with the same built-in weakness.”

”So, if you are going to feel like that, why don't you get into the compet.i.tion with Sage Bryson for the admiral?”

Oh, h.e.l.l, she thought, disgusted, she'd come a long way down to even be thinking such gossip as that.

But women were funny creatures, weren't they?

She fluffed her pillow and tried to go to sleep, but her mind was in a rebellious mood. It gave her an image of Rocky going home with the scent of her all over his body. Perfume and woman essence.

Women were very sensitive to smells, and because there were only four varieties of perfume in Hamilton, there were three out of four chances that Mandy wouldn't use the same one she'd selected. Had she deliberately let Rocky go without showering? Was there something deep in her subconscious that wanted the whole situation to blow sky-high so she'd be rid of him? But that said that she was too spineless to tell him, and mean it, that it was over.

She knew that she was a capable officer, an adult. She had always been near the top in any compet.i.tive effort. When theSpirit went back to Earth with a load of Omega goodies, she'd probably be promoted at least two grades in rank. She could see it now: Captain Jacqueline Garvey, commanding the good stars.h.i.+p...Unrequited Love . But she didn't really want to be captain of a s.h.i.+p. She wanted to be the second mate-he'd been married once before-of Duncan Rodrick.

And if Mandy smelled strange perfume and the musky essence of woman on Rocky, the dumb b.a.s.t.a.r.d had it coming.

As it happened, Mandy did. As it also happened, it wasn't the first time. She didn't know who the woman was, and she didn't really want to know, but she knew her husband well and had sensed the change in him weeks ago. The lingering fragrance-not hers-on his s.h.i.+rts when she opened the hamper.

A reluctance to meet her eyes. And above all, a new belligerence. She had not and would not confront him, nor would she match his belligerence.

When he came into the house, she was already in bed. She'd had to have Doc, the medical robot,prescribe reading gla.s.ses in the last month, and she'd chosen a pair with simple black frames.

”You're home,” she said when he came into the bedroom, pulling off his s.h.i.+rt.

”Your thrill for the day,” he answered, moving on through into the bathroom.

She went back to her reading. The scientific teams were gathering so much information about the new planet that it was a night-and-day job just to keep up. She was going over the lab report on vegetables that had been fertilized with the waste of the miners. She had made a note that the colonists could cut their daily food supplements to one-third of the standard amount, for Amando's vegetables were, if not rich, at least almost adequate in vitamins and trace elements.

Rocky crawled into bed, said, ”Good night,” and turned his back to her.