Page 36 of Into Orbit
The clinic door slid open. ‘All done,’ Willow called from inside. ‘Come in.’
I went in alone; Ashton used the time I was with Willow to report to the Captain, then go back to Elswyth. I knew he was telling the Captain every tiny detail he could about me, but I didn’t really mind; when you were an open book, you had no secrets to protect.
It occurred to me that what I was doing was possibly traitorous – treasonous, even – but I didn’t know what options I had. I could lie or obscure the information, I supposed, but given that Elswyth had been able to access the internet before I’d even come on board, it was all information that the Tirians would have found eventually anyway.
I was just happy I’d been able to email my mum, though she hadn’t even noticed I’d gone. She spent her return email complaining at length about her university accommodation and the onboarding process – she wasn’t great with administrative IT – and I answered with a medium level of sympathy and an off-the-cuff comment that I’d taken a spur-of-the-moment trip north and might not answer emails straight away.
I’d also contacted Advena’s owner, Jessa, and told her I was taking some time off. She was yet to email me back, but given she’d been pressing me to take leave since Tessa’s disappearance, I assumed she wouldn’t be too pissed about it.
I’d emailed Anna, too, but received no response. I let her know that I was safe, and asked her to do the same, but with every day that passed with nothing back from her I was getting more and more worried. Anna didn’t exactly have the best home life, and I knew all too well that she didn’t have many people looking out for her. I’d gathered from the lack of media when I searched online for my name – and the lack of panic from my mum – that Anna hadn’t called the police; I supposed it was probably better in the long run, but if she didn’t get back to me soon, I considered trying to contact them myself.
‘You look pensive,’ Willow said softly.
I lifted myself up onto his bench. ‘I left home for one friend, but now I’m wondering if I’ve abandoned another.’
He glanced across at me, his fingers stilling on his screen. ‘Are they in danger?’
I bit my lip. ‘I don’t know. That’s the problem.’
Willow nodded. ‘How can I help?’
Tirians didn’t go in for meaningless platitudes, nor emotional displays. I liked that about them. Instead of sayingI’m sure she’s fineorit’s natural to worry, Willow asked a practical, useful question. Hewouldhelp, too, if he could; it wasn’t an empty offer.
‘I’m not sure you can,’ I said. ‘But thank you anyway.’
He gave me a tight smile. ‘Let me know if you figure it out.’ He held up some tiny jars. ‘Are you comfortable with me taking some more samples today?’
I decided that I was, then proceeded to hold my breath as Willow took a tiny scrape of skin and a few errant hairs. Where Ashton smelled like freshly-baked cookies and Elswyth like an edible bouquet, Willow was something spicier, like raisin toast – which meant that I wanted to slather him in butter and gorge myself, metaphorically speaking. His closeness did delicious things to my body; my nipples strained against my top – I’d thrown my bra down the first available garbage shoot and was yet to regret it – and I squeezed my thighs together to ease the ache growing between them.
Keep it together, McCarthy, I told myself.
After the hair and skin, he took some blood; it wasn’t anything like having a blood test. Instead of a needle, Willow had a tiny stamp. It snuck under my skin so swiftly I barely felt the pinch, drawing the tiny amount of fluid he needed for the sophisticated Tirian systems, which could run multiple tests on just one drop. He took some swabs from my cheeks and tongue and ran a scanner over my face to build a digital image of my bone structure. All the while, he spoke, easily and softly, telling me what he was doing and why.
‘There’s something else the Captain has requested, but you can refuse,’ he said, flushing slightly, his cheeks green.
‘Mmm?’
‘A scan.’
‘You’ve already scanned me. My respiratory system, my skeleton, my digestive tract, my eyes, my heart. What else is left?’
‘Your reproductive system,’ he said, pretending to type on his screen.
I knew his real typing by now, and I knew that hepretendedto type when he was trying to stay professional. ‘Does that mean you’ll probe me?’ I teased.
‘No!’ he protested. I’d made him read a few short sci-fi stories about probing and he hadn’t been into them at all.She didn’t consent!he’d growled during one of them, outraged.
Turns out, my aliens were pretty feminist. I was here for it.
‘The scan is entirely external,’ he went on. ‘But … I will need to be close.’
I shivered. ‘How close?’
‘It’s like one of your pregnancy ultrasounds. The scanner needs to touch your skin.’
I was momentarily glad it wasn’t an internal scan, because if he gave me one of those, Willow would immediately realise how much I didn’t care about him touching my skin.
‘Fine,’ I said brusquely. ‘What do I need to do?’
