Ascension

Six

Kahlee couldn't sleep. She told herself it was partly because she preferred her own bed, and partly because Jiro was snoring loudly in her ear. She didn't bother to wake him, though — she was used to it. Their lovemaking usually ended this way, despite the fact that he was almost two decades her junior. He always started strong, full of passion and fire, but he didn't know how to pace himself.

'You'll learn eventually,' she whispered, patting him lightly on his bare thigh. 'And all your future girlfriends will thank me for it.'

Moving quietly so as not to wake him, she rolled out from under the covers and stood, naked, by the side of the bed. Now that they weren't generating body heat, the air in the room felt cool enough to make her shiver.

She began to hunt around for her clothes, no easy task. In his exuberance, Jiro tended to toss each piece haphazardly about the room as he undressed her. She located her shirt and pulled it over her head, then heard Jiro mumble something. Glancing over, she realized he was still asleep, his words nothing but unintelligible dream-talk. Kahlee stared at him for a long, lingering moment — he looked so young when he was curled up in his bed, and she felt a momentary twinge of guilt and embarrassment.

There was nothing illegal about what they were doing; they were both of age, and even though she was technically his boss, there was nothing in either of their employment contracts specifically forbidding their relationship. It was, as Jiro liked to say, an ethically gray area.

Kahlee sometimes got the impression that Jiro was only using her to advance his career, though there was a chance this was her own guilty conscience trying to suck all the fun out of the relationship. If he actually did believe sleeping with the boss would somehow help him, he was sadly mistaken. If anything, she tended to be harder on Jiro than the other researchers. But he was good at his job; the staff respected him, and the students all liked him. That was one of the things that had attracted her in the first place.

That plus his fine ass, she thought with a wicked grin.

She'd had other sexual partners over the years, of course — probably more than her fair share, to be honest. But like Jiro they were all just flings. Not that she'd ever been looking for anything serious. While she was in the military the Alliance had always come first, and once she became a civilian she'd focused on building her career rather than a long-term relationship.

Fortunately, there was still plenty of time. Thanks to medical advances over the last century, women no longer had to start their families before forty. If she really wanted to, she could wait another twenty years and still give birth to a perfectly healthy child.

Kahlee still wasn't sure what she wanted, though. It wasn't that she didn't like kids; the opportunity to work closely with biotic children was one of the reasons she'd accepted the position with the Ascension Project. She just couldn't see herself settling into a life of domestic bliss.

Get over yourself, she thought, and find your damn clothes.

She pushed the thoughts away. Spotting her pants dangling over the back of a chair, she pulled them on. She was still looking for a missing sock when Jiro woke with a sputtering yawn.

'You're leaving?' he asked, still groggy.

'Just back to my own room. I can't sleep here with you snoring like a sick hippo.'

He smiled and sat up, propping his pillow behind him and leaning back against the headboard.

'You sure this doesn't have anything to do with Grayson's visit?'

She didn't bother to deny it, instead saying nothing as she continued to look for her missing sock. Finding her prize, she sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled it on. Jiro watched her silently, patiently waiting for her to speak.

'I'm more worried about Gillian,' she finally confessed. 'Nothing we do seems to help her. Maybe the program isn't right for her.'

'Whoa, just a minute!' Jiro exclaimed, suddenly very awake. He crawled across the mattress quickly and put a hand on her shoulder. 'Gillian's got more biotic potential than. . well, than anybody! The Ascension Project was meant for someone like her.'

'But she's not just a biotic,' Kahlee objected, voicing the arguments that had been running through her mind. 'She's a girl with a serious mental condition.'

'You're not thinking of asking the board to expel her, are you?' he asked, looking horrified.

She turned and scowled at him. 'That's a decision her father needs to make.'

'So you're going to talk to Grayson about it?' Much of the anxiety had left his voice.

'I'll let him know what his options are. Gillian might be better off if she wasn't trying to develop her biotic abilities at the Academy. He could get her a private tutor; someone trained to deal with her condition. Lord knows he can afford it.'

'What if he doesn't want to pull her out of the program?'

'Then I'll have to start wondering if he really has his daughter's best interests at heart.' She regretted the words as soon as she said them.

'Now you're starting to sound like Hendel,' he chastised her.

The remark stung more than it should have; Nick's comparison of her and the security chief yesterday was still fresh in her mind.

'Sorry,' she apologized. 'I'm just tired. I can't keep coming here night after night.' Trying to make light of it, she added, 'When you get to be my age, you need your sleep.'

'You're kidding, right?' he asked, incredulous. 'I hardly ever get to see you. You're always working. . or spending time with Hendel.'

'He likes to keep tabs on the students,' she explained. Especially Gillian.

'I'm starting to think you two are more than just friends,' Jiro said darkly.

Kahlee actually laughed out loud. She saw Jiro stiffen, and he turned away from her.

'I'm sorry,' she said, wrapping a comforting arm around his shoulder. 'I didn't mean to laugh. But trust me, I'm not Hendel's type. You might be, though.'

For a second he seemed puzzle, a look of confusion on his boyish face. 'Ohhh,' he said a moment later, grasping what she meant.

The phone in the bedroom beeped before either of them could say anything else. Jiro looked at the ID on the display, and his eyes went wide.

'It'sHendel!'

'So?' Kahlee said with a shrug. 'Answer it.'

He reached over and hit the button for the speaker phone.

'Hendel?'

'Grayson's shuttle just pinged us,' the voice on the other end of the line snarled. 'He'll be here in an hour.

'Figures the son-of-a-bitch would be running on his own clock,' Hendel added.

Kahlee rolled her eyes. It was common for people visiting a planet or space station to schedule their visits so they would arrive at a convenient hour by the local time. But Grayson traveled a lot for his job, and constantly adjusting to different time zones could take its toll on a person. Gillian's father wasn't the only parent to show up in the middle of the night; he was just the only one Hendel complained about.

'Uh, yeah, okay,' Jiro answered. 'I'll get ready.'

'I tried Kahlee's room, but she wasn't there,' Hen-del added. 'I assume she's with you.'

Jiro turned to her with a shrug and a look that seemed to say, What should I tell him?

'I'm here,' she answered after a long, awkward silence. 'I'll come down with Jiro to the landing bay to meet him.'

'Meet you both there in forty-five minutes.' The phone call ended with a click.

'How did he know about us?' Kahlee wondered out loud. She didn't think anyone knew; she and Jiro had always been discreet.