“Good. Now since you believe this is so easily solved, letme know what your plan is.” Poppy highly doubted that he was able to figure outa solution when both she and the guys had been unable to do so. Their newtimeline only added to the problem.
“First, we have many cloning centers. I would suggest westart turning those into housing for warriors who have been granted brides.Since the cloning has not been satisfactory for a few cycles, the centersshould only contain machines that would need to be moved out. The same goes fora few training centers. We recently had some young warriors cycle out to beassigned to posts. Those buildings will be vacant as well.”
Seeing the surprise on her face that he did indeed have aplan, he continued with a smile. “By my calculation we should have fifteen totwenty buildings available for us to transform into housing as soon as we haveCouncil approval.”
“Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants, I have something I doubt you’vethought of yet.” At his look, she continued, “What about baby-proofing theship? I’m assuming you’ll be on Squadron One quite a bit and would want us withyou… How are you going to solve that one?”
“You are correct. That is something I never thought of.”Wheaton tapped his fingers to his chin, unable to immediately handle thatquestion. “I admit that the housing on Phaeton Major would not be ideal for theCouncil since we do have to travel quite a bit. And I do want you with me whileI am traveling for my duties.”
Wheaton smiled when he saw the glee on her face at havingstumped him. Laughing at her little victory dance, he swung her up into hisarms, hugging her hard before setting her back down on her feet.
“You got me, little flower. I will think more on a solutiontoday while in the Council meetings and let you know what I can come up with.Now give me my last morning kiss before I have to leave you.”
Leaning forward to steal some kisses, Poppy pulled backbefore it got too hot and heavy. “Let me know if you can do lunch,” shewhispered against his chest, taking the cuddle time to breathe in his scentbefore she would be deprived of it for the rest of the day.
“Of course. I should know what the Council schedule iswithin the hour.” Walking to the door, Wheaton gave her one last hot smilebefore he left.
Poppy was bored out of her mind for the rest of the morningwhile waiting for Behyr. She had tried to call Pixie a few times to video chatbut the interference was wicked. It seemed the farther they moved away fromEarth, the more static was a problem. During the initial Hannah situation,Poppy had emailed Pixie a few times back and forth. Her sister had beensufficiently pissed-off on her behalf and had threatened to “hijack a ship andwhip some alien ass”.
After Poppy explained everything that had happened, Pixiehad calmed down but was still holding Wheaton responsible for hurting her babysister. She demonstrated her anger at Wheaton by thumping her fist into herpalm a few times and reminding Poppy of what had happened in high school. As ifshe would ever forget that memory-worthy tidbit. According to Pixie, she was“about to kick ass and take names” at work but hadn’t said anything moreregarding what was happening. Instead she had said that it was too much toemail and she would rather explain things face-to-face.
Annoyed by having to sit and twiddle her thumbs, Poppyrealized that the whole “escort” thing was actually starting to grate on hernerves as well. Before she had been familiar with the ship, being shown around hadmade sense. Now she felt like a little kid constantly waiting for someone tocome and fetch her from one place to another. Deciding she would talk toWheaton later that day at lunch about her need for a chaperone, she made amental note not to forget to show him her cheat sheet. That should placate himif he brought up the issue of her getting lost. She was sure there were thingsthe warriors needed to do other than walk her around all day anyway.
The tone at the door indicated that her “babysitter” hadarrived and Poppy took a second to stick her tongue out at the closed door. Itwasn’t fair to kill the messenger so Poppy pasted a smile on her face forwhoever the lucky guy was today. Opening the door, she greeted Behyr, whoappeared to be a little ruffled.
“Hey, Behyr, how’s it hanging?”
Behyr took a moment to inspect the doorway above him,searching for something hanging down.
“What?” he asked.
Confusion was evident on his handsome face and as he glancedaround, she saw a noticeable hickey on his neck.
“Wowza.” Not realizing she’d said it out loud, Poppy jumpedwhen he repeated her exclamation, his tone one of bewilderment, and sherealized her attention had been focused solely on his neck.
Trying to drag her gaze away, she smiled wickedly as Behyrtugged the neck of his shirt up.
“Oh nothing,” she continued, in response to his puzzledlook. Gathering her items busied her hands for a moment. “Nothing at all.”Biting her lip to contain her laughter, she slipped on her shoes and studiedhim closely. The poor guy seemed so out of sorts compared to his normalput-together manner that she wondered what exactly had happened last night withHannah. Unsure if she should ask him how things had gone, she followed himsilently to the med center.
As they approached the med center door, she paused. “Behyr,how was your second dinner last night?”
Behyr stopped so quickly he almost tripped over his ownfeet. As he turned toward her, he had a slight blush on his cheeks. Sensingthat she was enjoying his discomfort, he smiled down at Poppy.
“You liked that, didn’t you?” hesaid. Laughing at her expression of innocence, he shook his finger at her. “Donot act like you did not enjoy catching me off guard. Wheaton must havementioned that I took Hannah for a late meal last night, did
