Purity Read online

  He looked at K again, trying to concentrate on something else—anything other than his worry. In repose her delicate features looked relaxed and at peace, unlike the stern expression she always seemed to wear while she was awake. She was quite tall for a little, though her height seemed strange considering her underdeveloped body. “Like a little girl who somehow grew to massive proportions”, Loki had said and Boone tended to agree although not with the massive part. Despite her lean adult-sized frame without an ounce of fat on it, K looked like she had never even gone through puberty. Her chest was completely flat and her hips were narrow and boyish.

  Boone was actually glad for his prisoner’s asexual appearance. If she hadn’t looked like a little girl he might have embarrassed himself last night when he held her close. But everything about her seemed to scream, Don’t touch. It made it much easier to be lying next to a naked woman, especially considering it had been eighteen solar months since his last relationship.

  K stirred against him, making a soft, kittenish sound in her sleep. Her skin was pale, contrasting vividly with her hair which was long and black and braided into a thick cable at the back of her head. Wisps of it were escaping to frame her face and neck with tiny, delicate curls. Boone resisted the sudden urge to stroke them away from her cheek, knowing his touch wasn’t wanted. Besides, this girl was the enemy—a trained killer, not a tame kitten, no matter how harmless and peaceful she looked while she was asleep. You’d do best to remember that, he told himself firmly. She wants you dead, as dead as Krill and Chall.

  The memory of the two dead crewmembers, both of whom had flown with himself and Loki before on different research missions, was sobering. Boone still felt guilty for asking them to help but he’d had no other choice. The government of Colossus had a strict no-contact policy with the Purists. Even during the Pan Wars they had refused to get involved, a grave mistake in Boone’s opinion.

  Now that Pan was subjugated, the Purists seemed to be turning their attention toward Eros. Who was to say that Colossus wouldn’t be next? There was no reasoning with insanity, no arguing with fanaticism. But his home world continued blithely on, trusting in their superior physical size and strength to keep them safe. Though as Loki often pointed out, “Nobody can see how big your dick is from the outside of your spaceship so you better fly right.” Whatever that meant.

  Enough interstellar politics. Time for breakfast. And since it was his turn to cook, he’d better get going. Gently, Boone dislodged the sleeping girl from his arm and sat up. K sighed and snuggled into the warm spot he’d left in the covers, looking even more innocent and harmless.

  He wanted a quick shower but he hesitated to leave her. Suppose she was faking? She was a soldier, shouldn’t she be instantly alert to any change in her environment? Then again, maybe she was getting the first good night’s sleep she’d had since she put on that damn suit. Her body probably needed the rest after the constant barrage of drugs, hormones, and emotion-dampers it had been pumping into her continuously for years.

  Boone remembered the neat rows of white needle tracks that ran up the inside of both her forearms. He’d seen them when he’d first cut the black webbing off her and hadn’t understood their origin until he’d almost stabbed himself with one of the suit’s hollow spikes. The thing had dripped its witch’s brew of chemicals like venom, obviously still trying to inject even when its victim was gone.

  A shiver of disgust went over him as he pictured the thick whitish droplets oozing from the pitch black mesh. K seemed to think she had a symbiotic relationship with the suit she craved so badly but to Boone the damn thing was nothing but a parasite.

  He looked down at K again, her face smooth and peaceful in sleep. She’d put the suit on when she was nine cycles old and though it was difficult to place her age, Boone put her somewhere in her mid twenties now. How had she lived so long in that thing? It was amazing she wasn’t in severe withdrawal right now. The very fact that she wasn’t worried him. Made him wonder if a bad reaction was coming somewhere down the line. He had a feeling that it was going to take quite awhile for all the meds to be flushed out of her system and that K would be dealing the side effects of her forced addiction for some time to come.

  Deciding to let her sleep, Boone headed toward the small fresher at the far end of his quarters. Even if she woke up before he was done there wasn’t much K could do. The door was voice-locked to him and he’d been careful about removing anything that could be used as a weapon. The suit was hidden in a stasis tube at the far end of the ship where she would never find it. He would get her up when he was done and let her take a quick rinse herself. In the meantime, he had to hurry before the rest of the crew got up and started bitching about breakfast being late.

  * * * * *

  “Rise and shine, darlin’. It’s our turn for kitchen duty and we’ve got a hungry crew to feed.”

  The strange words held no meaning for her but they penetrated K’s consciousness anyway. Where am I? She opened one eye groggily, peering at the unfamiliar surroundings. Why hadn’t her skinsuit woken her? Usually the sharp pain of needles digging into her arms was her wake-up call, followed by an instant jolt of adrenaline. It was strange to be awake and yet not feel instantly alert, to be caught in the foggy half-dream state she found herself in.

  “K? You up?” That voice again…Boone!

  Everything came back in a rush. K sat bolt upright, immediately on the defensive but he was just standing there, towering over her in that annoying way of his. Why does he have to be so tall? she thought, scrambling to her feet. Back home on Athena she was one of the tallest people she knew and her height gave her a distinct advantage, especially when it came to commanding troops. But she got no advantage with Boone—the top of her head barely came up to the giant’s shoulder, making her feel short for the first time in her life.

  “What do you want?” she demanded, putting her hands on her hips and wishing for the hundredth time that she had her suit. Boone was dressed in the same tight black flight pants she’d seen him in earlier and a dark blue shirt with short sleeves that clung to the flat planes of his chest and left his impressive arms bare. Not that K noticed things like that.

  “For you to get up. Do you want a shower? You have time for a quick one if you hurry.”

  “A shower?” K had a sudden memory of her childhood—the time she mostly thought of as before-the-suit. The shower room…the sound of frightened crying echoing off the metal walls… cold and wet and scary… “No,” she said looking up at Boone. “I do not want a shower. Absolutely not.”

  He looked a little startled at her vehement refusal but then just shrugged. “All right then, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. But we do have to get you some clothes. We can’t have you, uh, running around like that.” He cleared his throat. “So here.”

  K took the garment he handed her which was white with thin gray stripes running down it. “What’s this?”

  “It’s one of my dress shirts. Mom is the only other female on board and there’s no way you’ll fit into her clothes—you’re too tall. You and Loki are about the same size but he’s not going to be giving you anything but hard looks for the foreseeable future. So this is it.” He nodded at the garment. “I thought you might be able to wear it as kind of a dress.”

  “A dress?” So many words in his vocabulary seemed to have no meaning for her. Life on Colossus must be very different from what she was used to on Athena.

  “Yeah, uh…how do I explain this? Oh, hell. Just put it on and I’ll show you.”

  K struggled with the unfamiliar fabric which hung limply from her hands and bunched awkwardly when she tried to pull it over her head, unlike her suit which had flowed as smoothly as water to cover her of its own volition.

  “Here, wait.” Boone stopped her. “It’ll be easier if you unbutton it first.” Then, obviously seeing the confused look on K’s face he took the shirt back from her. “I guess you don’t have any buttons on your suit, do you? And since that’