Spy Game
by Melanie Brown
Copyright  © 2021 Melanie Brown

Captain Wainright wasn't suspicious enough about answering a distress call.

 

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There was a blindingly bright light and what felt like a million pin pricks along with a wave of nausea. God I hate being reconstituted. Everybody hates being reconstituted. The dehydration system, commonly referred to as a “sander” because you’re reduced to a few pounds of silica gel and water, is a great resource saver for deep space operations. Years could go by between getting sanded and reconstituted, but you experience both events as almost simultaneous.

It’s hard to believe the war with the CoDom Empire was still going on even after ten years. It’s mostly been border skirmishes, but in the last few years, the CoDom Empire has taken to raiding frontier worlds claimed by the Alliance and taking them. Intelligence has confirmed their fleet is increasing.

I stood in the sanding chamber for a few moments to get over the nausea. I rubbed my eyes before opening them. The last thing I remember before being sanded was being forced into the sanding chamber at gun point by a large man in an Alliance marine uniform and a young girl. I had picked them up after answering a priority distress signal from a supposedly disabled commercial transport. Which should have made me suspicious as my vessel was stationed well outside any commercial lanes.

“Please exit the chamber, miss,” said a gruff male voice. It wasn’t the same voice as the man who had forced me into the sander. And why did he say ‘miss’?

I opened my eyes to see three Alliance marines, weapons ready, standing in the cramped command deck of my vessel the Svirepyy. A tech was standing behind them. What the hell? As I started to reach for the button to open the sander’s door, long strands of light brown hair fell across my eyes. What the hell? I looked down saw naked breasts. What the hell??

Two of the marines snapped their weapons up to aim as the third one said, “Step out of the chamber, miss. Slowly.”

How the hell am I female? And what’s with these marines? I’m in the great big middle of interstellar nowhere, monitoring the movement of the CoDom fleet a little beyond the edges of the frontier.

As the door slid open, I said, “I’m coming out. As you can see, I’m not armed. What are you doing on my ship?”

All three marines grinned and the one who had spoken to me chuckled. “Your ship, miss? Who are you and why are you on an Alliance vessel?”

The two marines holding weapons on me were staring intently at me. Specifically my tits. I started to feel extremely uncomfortable. The speaker noticed and said, “Stop staring at the girl. She’s what? Fifteen or sixteen? Even if she’s a hostile actor, she still deserves respect.”

Noticing his rank, I said, “Sergeant, I can’t explain why I appear to be a girl. I am Capt. Wainright of the Alliance Deep Space Force. I’m the commander of this vessel.”

The sergeant laughed. “Sorry, miss. I mean no disrespect, but you are hardly a captain in the ADSF. We’re not going to solve this here. Please come with us to security.”

“Security? What vessel are you attached to?” I asked. The last time I looked, my ship and I were in a remote area of deep space and no other vessel anywhere near us.

“This vessel is docked with the Neustrashimyy. Now climb up the ladder, miss. Don’t make us use force. Oh, and the rest of our security team is waiting top-side, so don’t get any funny ideas.”

The sergeant then spoke into a communicator. “We’re coming up. Please have a blanket to cover the girl. We don’t need to be giving the men a peep show.”

As I reached the top of the ladder, two men reached down and pulled me out of the hatch. One handed me a blanket which I gratefully took and wrapped around myself. I blinked in the bright light and looked around. My ship wasn’t merely docked. It was inside the hold of a much larger vessel. There appeared to be a work crew that had been doing maintenance work on my ship. They were all just standing around at the moment.

One of the marines held the blanket as another pulled my arms behind my back and I felt handcuffs roughly placed on my wrists. I’m a naked girl on an Alliance naval vessel. What did they expect me to do? The blanket was draped over my shoulders.

The sergeant turned to one of the work crew and said, “You may resume you duties. Sweep the ship for explosives and wipe the computer. She was the only profile still in the system.”

“Aye, sergeant,” said the workman. “I’m really surprised this bucket even made it back to Alliance space.”

I frowned and said, “Don’t call the Svirepyy a bucket!”

The three marines escorting me all laughed.

*          *          *

I was allowed to put on a gray jumpsuit in a small room under the watchful eyes of two very stern looking female marines armed with high energy pulse rifles guaranteed to fry your insides in less than a second. They focused on my tits as well but other than telling me to put my hands behind my back so they could re-cuff me, not a word was spoken. And they could have just scanned me, but they chose to do a gruff, manual cavity search of both my ass and vagina. I can’t believe I just said ‘my vagina’.

I was escorted to a large empty, featureless room with a single chair, bolted to the floor in the middle of the room. One wall was decorated with a large window of one-way glass. I was forced down on the chair and then securely chained to the floor, so tightly it was impossible for me to stand.

I just sat there and stared at the glass. I wondered how many crack security personnel were seated in front of the other side of the glass making notes about me. But more than likely, the only person there was probably some poor corporal assigned to watch me while he ate his cheeseburger for lunch.

The reflection of me in the glass was of the girl that had been on the “disabled” commercial ship with the guy dressed as an Alliance marine. How in hell did I become her?

I sat there for a long time in silence. I knew they were just trying to intimidate me and scare me by the long silent wait. I had played this game before from the other side of the glass. I just shrugged and took a nap.

I was shocked back to being awake by a loud air horn. Speakers mounted inside the walls and ceiling so you couldn’t focus on the location boomed a voice that said, “State your name.”

I narrowed my eyes at the window and said, “Captain James Wainright Alliance Deep Space Force JXY164590. Currently in command of the deep space probe Svirepyy.“ I guessed I probably wasn’t actually still in command of Svirepyy since it’s in dry dock, aside from me being chained to the floor.

The voice boomed, “Again. State your name.”

I scowled at the window. “I did! Ask me a thousand times and I’ll give you the same answer.”

Switching gears, the voice asked, “Why were you on that vessel?”

Frowning, I answered, “I was assigned to it.”

Sounding irritated, the voice asked, “Why were you in the dehydration system?”

I laughed. This guy was a paper pusher. Nobody in the Deep Space Force calls a sander that. Angrily I shouted, “Did any of you fuckers bother to check the ship’s logs?”

The voice calmly said, “Are you suggesting you don’t remember discharging a weapon into the control console so it would trigger a disabled vessel alert?”

Surprised, I said, “I didn’t do that. The last thing I remember was being forced into the sander at gun point by a man I didn’t know and this teen girl. I picked them up from a disabled commercial vessel.”

Still calm, the voice said, “The problem with your story is that there is no commercial traffic in the region the probe ship was in. Is that why you destroyed the ship’s computer so your story couldn’t be verified? Look, girl. Let’s cut the nonsense. We traced your DNA to being in Alliance space. What is your name and what is your mission? Are you working for the CoDom Empire?”

I paused for a few moments. Trying to penetrate the darkness behind the glass, I said, “I have a better idea. I’ve told you all I know. If I’m not Captain Wainright, then where is he?”

The voice said, “That’s classified and not relevant. Again, what is your name?”

Surprised, I said, “Not relevant? Wainright has been captain of the Svirepyy for the past ten subjective years while on deep space operations. How did I get in the sander? Have you asked the captain that?”

There was an extended pause. Finally the voice announced, “No further questions at this time.”

A door opened and four marines entered. I was unchained from the floor and then escorted out of the large room. I was taken to a smaller cell. At least they removed the hand cuffs.

*          *          *

I was brought to a smaller room with a table and several chairs on one side and a single chair on the other. I was handcuffed again and chained to the chair. Two marines stood guard at the only entrance. Even if I was a CoDom spy, what did they expect me to do? For what seemed around fifteen minutes, me and the two guards were the room’s only occupants.

Finally, there was a buzzer and the door opened and three officers enter the room and sat down across from me. All of them had removed their rank. I tugged on my chain. “Excuse me for not standing.” None of them said a word or even looked at me. One of them set a notebook computer on the table and turned it on.

The officer with the computer looked up at me. “For the record, please state your name.”

I sighed in frustration. “For the billionth time, I’m Captain James Wainright of the Alliance Deep Space Force. Anything else?”

The officer then asked, “Did you have a favorite toy as a child?”

Wow. I hadn’t thought of that in over a decade. It was one of the security questions I was asked when given my commission. Embarrassed, I said, “It was ah…a little stuffed bear.”

Stone-faced, the officer asked, “And what was the name of this bear?”

I smiled at the long ago memory of that little bear. “Rusty. His name was Rusty.” I wondered whatever happened to Rusty?

The three officers whispered to each other and I couldn’t hear what they said. There was a lot of nodding.

The officer looked up and said, “One final question.” He paused a moment, then continued, “What was the color of this bear?”

I laughed, thinking it was a silly question to be asked by these three grim men. I was again embarrassed to answer. I hadn’t thought of that little bear in years and now in my mind’s eye I could see it clearly. The three men stared intently at me waiting for my answer. “Pink.”

The three officers looked back and forth at each other. One of the officers stood up and looked at me. In a serious tone he said, “We have a problem.”

Another of the officers who hadn’t addressed me yet pointed at the two marines. “Remove the girl’s restraints.” One of the guards unchained me and removed the handcuffs. I rubbed my wrists.

The officer who stood shook his head and uttered, “Shit.”

Looking nervously at the three officers, I asked, “What’s going on?”

The officer using the notebook computer studied me for a moment. He turned to the officer who was standing. “Assessment, Admiral?”

The admiral frowned and lowered a handheld device he had been looking at. He said, “As crazy as it sounds, there is a ninety-seven percent chance this girl is actually Captain Wainright and a ninety-eight percent chance our other Captain is a plant.”

I grinned and said, “I agree. But how did you arrive at that conclusion? I’ve been trying to tell you this all along.”

The admiral shrugged. “Yesterday we asked Captain Wainright the same questions as part of a security review. Up until the last question, no hesitation. It was like he was prepared and not having to draw from deep memory. Even you had to pause to remember. But the final question he got wrong. His pause was longer and the experts decided he had guessed. Your answer was authoritative.”

I sat up straighter. “Now that we have established my identity, what’s the next move?”

The guy at the computer said, “We need to identify who you… the girl… is. The girl’s DNA is definitely Alliance. We don’t have records on all Alliance civilians. Any idea how you became her?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea. The last thing I remember was being forced into the sander and then being reconstituted at gunpoint as this girl.”

The admiral frowned, still leaning against the wall. “This doesn’t make sense. The security protocols should prevent your profile from being exchanged with another. Using something like the Lola Protocol is different as it just overlays a real person. The techs verified that you were an actual profile, not a protocol. We need to involve a few sander experts.”

The officer at the computer said, “How is the girl even here? The ship’s console and the sander memory was destroyed. That’s what triggered the disabled vessel alert. Captain Wainright’s profile was, conveniently, the only intact memory in the system.”

There was a long pause from the three officers. The third one who had rarely spoken so far suddenly looked thoughtful. “That’s not completely true.” He shuffled through some notes in front of him. “The console was destroyed sometime after Captain Wainright was sanded. The system didn’t have a chance to later perform maintenance on itself. That and one other area of memory was untouched. The techs discovered an active profile in the sander’s buffer memory. This is normally cleared after the sander is cycled.”

The admiral stepped forward from the wall. “So the girl isn’t supposed to be here. Under normal operation, that buffer memory would have been cleared. Whoever did this, made a mistake in disabling the computer before it could reset the sander.”

The officer at the computer said, “That still doesn’t really explain her.” He pointed at me. “How could she have Captain Wainright’s mental image?” A sander stored an imprint of your mental status and your physical makeup holographically as a profile in the computer’s memory while it stores your mass as silica gel and water. The system is designed to prevent more than one active profile per person. It makes a quick, sub-ether check with the computers at Alliance Headquarters. This leaves an audit trail.

The quiet officer said, “It should be possible to track. The Alliance datacenter does show the sander on the Svirepyy was used.” He studied the papers in front of him. “And there’s an anomaly. What appears to be a phantom, unverified profile. Whoever did this was trying to cover his tracks. We only found evidence of this phantom profile after a lot of digging into the sander’s metadata after the girl asked how she got into the sander in the first place.”

Annoyed, I said, “I’m sitting right here. You don’t have to refer to me as ‘the girl’.”

The admiral looked down at me. “Little girl, please don’t interrupt.” He then turned to address the other two officers. “I believe we have moved beyond the scope of this interview. We need to schedule a hearing with our heads of security. I believe we have a serious breach. One we could not have foreseen.”

The quiet officer pointed at me. “And the girl?”

The admiral nodded. “We’ll need her. She’s our key witness.”

Scowling I growled, “Can you please stop addressing me as ‘the girl’ and address me properly as Captain Wainright?”

The admiral shook his head. “No. We already have one Captain Wainright, who at the moment is suspected as being a CoDom spy. And you’re not an Alliance commissioned officer. You’re far too young to be in the Alliance and definitely too young to be a commissioned officer.”

I stood up and almost shouted, “How can you say that? Just a few minutes ago you verified I was the actual Captain Wainright! I demand my rank be restored!”

The admiral looked sternly at me. “Not another word about this, little girl. Even if we could, we couldn’t make you a captain of anything. We have to make sure nothing alerts Captain Wainright that he might be compromised. Which is exactly what making a fifteen year old girl a captain would do.”

The admiral looked around the room at the other two officers and the marines. “This interview is now concluded. Marines, please take our young guest to the secure VIP room and make sure she stays there until further notice.”

One of the marines stepped forward. “Aye, sir.” He touched my arm. “Let’s go miss.”

I just sat there with my arms folded, scowling at the admiral.

The marine casually said, “Miss, you can either walk or I can stun you and carry you.”

The admiral smiled slightly. I sighed and stood up. “Let’s go, marine.”

The other marine approached me with handcuffs. The admiral waved his hand and said, “Restraints won’t be necessary. Our guest will be the perfect little lady and not cause trouble, will she?”

I frowned at the admiral. “I will not cause any trouble, sir.” I had no desire to being restrained. No point in running away. I had nowhere to go. At least I was going to a VIP room. While not exactly a hotel suite, it’s a definite improvement over a holding cell.

Walking a few corridors and a short elevator ride brought us to the secure room. One of the marines unlocked the door and opened it. He directed I step inside.

I stepped into the doorway and turned to address the marine. “How do I order room service?”

The marine just looked at me. “Something will be sent up from the offices’ mess shortly.” He closed the door.

*          *          *

After a knock, the door to my quarters opened to admit a female officer of the Alliance Space Defense Force. She looked to be in her late thirties, quite attractive and gave off the distinct attitude she doesn’t take shit from anyone. From her insignia I saw she was a lieutenant. I stood up when she entered.

She allowed herself to smile as she said, “As you were, ensign.”

I thought this game the Alliance navy was playing was stupid, but I had no say. I wasn’t a commissioned officer any longer in the ASDF. But I had been placed in the Junior Cadet forces which what middle school students join if they want to a faster route to officer training school upon graduation without having to go through college like regular officer candidates. I was given what I assumed was a random name of Dora Walters and was given the lowest rank of ensign.

I frowned. “May I ask for the reason for the lieutenant’s visit?”

I could tell she resented this duty assignment. She said, “I am Lieutenant Barnes. I’ve been assigned as your counsel. I’m to get you presentable for a hearing in two hours.” She looked me up and down. “You did receive a dress uniform, did you not?”

I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” I was currently dressed in a light gray t-shirt and dark blue dungarees that a teen girl would wear.

She studied my face a moment. “Were you not also supplied with make-up?”

I nodded again. “I did. I just left it in the box.”

She frowned at me. “Get the uniform and unpack the make-up. You’re going to need it. While you’re doing that, I need to make some notes.”

I asked, “What is the hearing about, lieutenant?”

Looking annoyed that I asked a question instead of instantly obeying her, she answered, “The subject is classified at the moment. You should feel privileged, ensign. Only those with the highest security clearances are attending.”

I was pissed at the thought that she was going to make me to wear the dress uniform, which consists of a light blue blouse, a dark blue ribbon in place of a tie, and a dark blue skirt along with black, patent leather shoes with a one inch heel as well as make-up. By the Alliance’s own rules, I’m not an officer nor a member of the ASDF.

Just what could the hearing be about? From their psych evals, they’re pretty sure that mentally, I’m who I say I am. I’ve been the victim… er subject of endless physical exams. While they can’t absolutely prove I’m who I say I am, they can’t prove I’m not.

Lt. Barnes entered my bed room and saw the clothes that I had laid out. She said, “Don’t forget your bra and panties. Now go take a shower.”

I pulled a towel from the cabinet. “Lieutenant, why bother with a bra and especially the make-up? Seems kind of pointless.”

The Lt frowned at me. “Anyone under my command will present a professional appearance at any official review. You claim you’re an officer in the ASDF. So look like one.”

“I didn’t have to wear a bra and make-up then,” I protested.

She folded her arms and glared at me. I sighed. “I’ll just take a quick shower.”

At first I felt embarrassed at being naked in front of the lieutenant, but as we’re all just girls here, I quickly got over it. She helped me with the bra and proper way to wear the uniform. I sighed at my ensign insignia and the lack of any service ribbons. She also did my nails using the nail color allowed to ASDF female officers and brushed my hair out. Since my girl’s body had pierced ears, she also allowed me to wear stud earrings made into the ASDF logo.

Lt. Barnes nodded and smiled at me when she had finished getting me ready. “Very nice, ensign. Now let’s go. We don’t have much time.”

I looked into the mirror and was surprised that I was actually quite pretty. I hadn’t spent much time looking at my new self. I avoided playing with myself. I was confident that after all is said and done, I’ll step out of the sander before long as my old self.

As instructed, I picked up the black leather purse and hung the strap over my shoulder. The hat that I probably won’t have the opportunity to wear since it’s not allowed indoors, I kept in the purse. When I asked about it, I was surprised that the stuff a female was required to wear was created by an all female commission on uniforms.

When we entered the conference room, I was almost blinded by all the brass on display. The next lowest rank below admiral in the room was Lt. Barnes. I felt really small being a lowly ensign in the Jr. Cadets.

After the formalities of getting the meeting started, the fleet admiral pointed to an officer on the front row. “Admiral Connor, please report.”

As he stood, I recognized him as the asshole…I mean officer who interviewed me. He straightened the jacket of his uniform and cleared his throat. “Thank you Admiral. I’ll get quickly get to the point. After interviewing the girl, my staff and I came to the preliminary conclusion that we have a CoDom spy masquerading as Captain Wainright. It was inconclusive as it was based solely on interview questions.

“Initial testing of the girl’s blood and tissue samples showed that she was not of CoDom origin. Of course, she could still be a CoDom agent. Further deep scans and tests revealed a surprising and deeply disturbing discovery. The girl is of Alliance origin with a margin of error too small to be statistically relevant. However, a further, deeper scan found something extrodinary.”

Admiral Connor walked over to stand next to me. “We weren’t sure if the search would bear fruit, but we found out who this girl was. She is Dora Watson. She was taken from her family’s farm on NIKO-4 during a CoDom raid when she was twelve. And here is the surprise.”

He turned from me and continued, “We’ve all heard rumors of a CoDom medical discovery and have actually encountered a few times.” He pointed to me again and said, “The girl is one hundred percent Alliance DNA. However, her brain is CoDom DNA and is the brain of a male. We’re not sure how the transfer was made from the girl to Captain Wainright using a sander, but we’re confident Captain Wainright is a CoDom spy!”

The room erupted in everyone talking at once. The fleet admiral pounded his gavel several times before order was restored. He said to Connor, “Are you suggesting that the CoDom Empire put the brain of one of their people into the head of that girl and then used that… that monster to spring a trap on Captain Wainright?”

I wasn’t sure how to take it that I had a male brain inside my head. I mean, I’ve always had a male brain inside my head, but it was with a male body. Now that I have a female body, I suddenly felt itchy inside my head knowing the brain wasn’t part of me. Thinking of it made my head hurt.

Connor said, “That is correct, admiral. We haven’t figured out how it was done, but a CoDom spy is now masquerading as Captain Wainright.”

The fleet admiral leaned over across the table where the other high ranking admirals we seated. “Does anyone know the current whereabouts of Captain Wainright?”

I started to raise my hand, but Lt. Barnes nudged me and hissed, “Put that hand down, ensign!”

I put my hand down and just looked sheepish.

Connor said, “Aye, sir. He is currently here on the home world getting data center training.”

The fleet admiral grimaced. “Well, that’s certainly a bad idea! Order the immediate arrest of Captain Wainright! Deadly force authorized.”

I jumped up and shouted, “Don’t kill him!”

Lt. Barnes tugged on my arm. “Stand down, ensign!”

Eyes flashing, I turned to the lieutenant and shouted, “He must not die! Do you not understand? Once the system is notified someone has died, and since he’s on homeworld, that will be instantly, the profile is deleted for security purposes. If he dies, I get deleted!”

The fleet admiral pounded his gavel. “Order! Order!” He pointed his gavel towards me. “I’m sorry, but we cannot put the Alliance at risk over a profile.” He thought I couldn’t hear me as he turned to the person to one side of him. “I knew it was a bad idea to bring that child to this meeting.”

“I’m not a child!” I yelled.

Lt. Barnes grabbed my hand. “Come, ensign. We need to go.”

I started to cry. “They need to take him alive!”

Lt. Barnes angrily pulled me from the room and we walked quickly down the hall to my VIP room.

When she shut the door, Lt. Barnes shouted, “What are you thinking? You embarrassed the hell out of me!”

“Embarrassed? Embarrassed?” I shouted. “Don’t you get it? If they kill him, I can’t go back to being Captain Wainright! My profile will be deleted!” I started crying hysterically.

Lt. Barnes slapped me with an open palm across my face. “You stupid little girl! We were going to tell you privately after Wainright was exposed. For security purposes, Wainright must die. We couldn’t restore you to Wainright’s profile. We don’t know how they swapped you in the first place.”

I collapsed to the floor. “You can’t kill him! You can’t! I can’t stay a girl! What’s going to happen to me? If you kill him, then the CoDom Empire will just come after me!”

Lt. Barnes sat down hard in one of the chairs. She looked away from me. “You don’t exist. As far as the CoDom Empire knows, the girl’s profile was destroyed with the ship’s computer. You’ll be relocated to one of the inner worlds.”

I opened my mouth to say something. She held up her hand with a wry smile. “And spare me any complaining about being stuck as a female.” She chuckled. “Welcome to the club.”

*          *          *

I stood in line to board a transport vessel destined to one of the inner worlds. I was with a man and a woman in their early forties. They also had an eighteen year old son who kept leering at me. They had agreed to adopt me in exchange of the government looking the other way at some petty malfeasance like smuggling essential oils to frontier worlds. So we were all being relocated. They seemed otherwise okay. At least they didn’t go around blowing up planets for a hobby.

The woman – I’ll call her Mom – held my hand and looked over at me. “Are you excited, Kathy?” Yes, I had gotten another name change. I couldn’t use a name already known to the CoDom Empire.

I nodded. I wasn’t excited, but I didn’t want to let her know. I looked pretty much like any other teen girl waiting for the transport. My hair was green with white stripes, blue lipstick, orange nails and dressed in a metallic micro-mini dress and high heel sandals.

Some movement caught my eye and I turned to see Lt. Barnes walking past one of the barriers. She walked up to Mom and said, “Mrs. Faulkenberg, I need to talk to your daughter a moment. In private.”

Looking worried, Mom asked, “Did she do something wrong? Those earrings aren’t stolen, are they?”

Lt. Barnes smiled at Mom. “I have no idea. I just need to visit with your daughter for a minute.”

Mom looked over at me. “Okay. Just don’t keep her too long. We have a transport to catch.”

The lieutenant smiled again. “That won’t be a problem.” She looked at me and said, “Follow me for a minute.”

As we stepped away, I asked, “Am I in trouble?”

Lt. Barnes laughed. “No, of course not.” She grinned at me. “Nice hair.”

When we had stepped far enough away from anyone, Lt. Barnes said, “We have some information we thought you might want.”

Looking hopeful, I asked, “You found a way to restore me as my old self?”

Lt. Barnes sighed. “No. That’s not going to happen, girl. Just deal with it. No. What I wanted to tell you is that we finally found that private transport that was used to hijack your deep space probe. The sole occupant was who we believe was the one that figured out how to swap two profiles.”

“Did you ask him how he did it? Can I be put back into someone else?” I asked earnestly.

Lt. Barnes shook her head. “He had a hole in his head from a microwave pistol. It was his own, but we suspect CoDom forces did the deed. This closes the open end on your story. The man was an Alliance tech officer who turned traitor to the CoDom Empire. Just thought you’d want to know before you go off on your teen girl journey.” She laughed as she reached over and fluffed up my hair.

I frowned. “I really don’t like dressing like this, but you guys told me I should try to fit in. So here I am.”

Lt. Barnes grinned. “Don’t worry. You’ll grow out of it. By the way, did you steal those earrings?”

I gave her a wry grin. “No. I used the ASDF credit card you gave me for emergencies.”

Lt. Barnes frowned at me. “Since when are earrings an emergency?”

My eyes widened as I said sincerely, “They were about to go off the sale price!”

Lt. Barnes shook her head. “Don’t abuse that card, girl, or we’ll have to take it away from you.”

I grinned. “I’ll be good.”

Smiling, Lt. Barnes ruffled my hair again. “Take care of yourself, girl. You need to get back to your parents.”

I gave her a salute. “Aye, lieutenant.” I turned and ran to my new parents. I turned and looked behind me, but Lt. Barnes was gone. I sighed and stepped next to Mom.

Mom looked at me with a grin. A voice over the comm. system announced boarding for our vessel was beginning. “Well, Kathy. Are you ready for a new adventure?”

I took a deep breath. “As ready as I’ll ever be!”

*          *          *

The End