Starship: Rogue

Chapter Seventeen

"We are not calling it that," Carter and Stark yelled as Rowan snapped, "Gerrit, we talked about this!"

Gerrit muttered darkly. "Fine, whatever. New stun-guns! That good enough for you, boss lady?" He crossed his arms, pouting like a two-year-old. "I mean, seriously. The bitch has no imagination!"

"I heard that," Rowan scolded.

Stark raised both hands and said placatingly, "Children, children! Behave in front of our guests, or I'll be putting all of you on surveillance duty for the foreseeable future."

There was a series of groans, and Rowan and Levi exchanged an uncomfortable look. No one wanted to be assigned to surveillance. It was the worst–or best, depending on how you looked at it–punishment Stark could have come up with. "Nice one," she told him. "You learned that devious streak from me, didn't you."

"Of course," Stark said, deadpan. "You are the queen bitch, aren't you?"

Rowan grinned. "Why, thank you!" In her mind, that was as big a compliment as she could get, in her line of work.

Levi stepped up between her and Stark. "The prisoner? Has he arrived yet?" he asked in a low voice.

Stark glanced at the others, then murmured. "Not yet. I need you two to pop ahead and clear up anything sensitive we don't want our guests to see."

Rowan and Levi exchanged a glance. "On it," Rowan said. Levi moved on ahead, but Rowan hung back. "My place," she told Stark. "I'll make dinner. We really need to talk."

Stark nodded. "Will do," he said. "Once your done with Vail, physio in the Hub gym, not the academy." He turned back to the others and Rowan strode off. "Carter, Hisashi, don't you have classes to get to? Everyone else, tour time!"

Rowan broke into a trot, catching up to Levi. They moved at a clipping pace through the halls, dodging people, then broke into a run as they neared the lab, conference room and gym assigned to their two squads while in residence at the Hub.

"I've got the lab!" Rowan called. "The gym's fine; just sanitise the conference room. Go!"

The lab was divided into two sections, one for Fox and one for Ocelot, and Fox's was more organized chaos, compared to Ocelot's compulsive tidiness. Indigo's work, there, and Gerrit was the slob. Papers were scattered everywhere, and Rowan groaned. That lot would be a pain to get out of the way.

Inside, she scooped up armloads of things and shoved them into locked drawers and cabinets, praying she wouldn't break anything. But the lab was her domain more than Levi's, and she knew which projects were sensitive and which weren't. She shoved all of Hisashi's, Carter's, Indigo's and Gerrit's crap into their desk drawers. Her own desk was sterile, as were those belonging to people who hadn't been working here recently.

Just as she shoved the last of Gerrit's papers and shit into his desk drawers, she heard footsteps and voices coming down the hall, and she sprinted into the conference room. Levi had to be done; he just had to be.

He was. He was setting out a pitcher of water and a stack of glasses in the center of the table. Rowan skidded to a halt, her knee throbbing faintly, just as Stark led the cadets in. When he saw them, Stark said, "Rowan, Levi, don't the two of you have some work to do?"

Rowan and Levi exchanged a glance, and Stark handed them a file labeled Prisoner Transfer. They exchanged a grin, and Levi said, "We're on it. We'll see you later."

When he and Rowan were safely outside, he asked, "Pancakes?"

Rowan nodded enthusiastically. "Hell, yeah!" She took her pins out of her bun and let her braid fall over her shoulder. "I'm starving," she added unnecessarily, just as her stomach gave a massive grumble.