Spirit Walk_ Old Wounds (Book 1) - Christie Golden [35]
“Lieutenant!” Kaz heard a note of pleading in his own voice. She stopped at the door, but didn’t turn around. Her body language screamed her conflict.
“Listen,” Kaz continued, more softly. “The captain, Astall, and I are the only ones who know about your abduction. And only Astall and I were alerted to a possible sexual assault.”
She turned her head and looked over her shoulder at him, carefully controlled anger on her beautiful face.
“Let’s keep it that way,” she said, and left.
It had been a lousy shift in engineering. Chittenden had encountered cold stares and icy voices the entire time. One expected that from Vorik, but not from fellow humans. He wondered if his argument with Campbell was now public knowledge. He hadn’t meant to sound off like that—certainly not to a higher-ranking officer like Campbell—but it had hurt to be reminded of his friends who’d died defending the quadrant.
So when his shift ended, he hurried out of engineering and headed for the turbolift with more haste than was perhaps advisable. He could almost feel Vorik’s eyes boring into him as he strode briskly for the door. Let him stare, David thought. He couldn’t wait to get to his quarters and kick back with a good book, his favorite pastime.
The turbolift doors hissed open and he found himself staring into a pair of gorgeous blue eyes.
He couldn’t speak.
“Are you getting on or not?” said Lyssa Campbell.
He wasn’t sure. Which would be worse, riding with her or pretending he hadn’t meant to get on the turbolift? The former would be uncomfortable, but the latter would be just stupid. Looking down at the floor, Chittenden shuffled into the turbolift and gave it the floor he wanted.
The silence was agony. David racked his brain for something to say. He came up with exactly nothing. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Campbell looking at him from time to time. She looked as though, she, too, wanted to say something.
Finally, David took a deep breath. “Lieutenant Campbell, I wanted—”
“Ensign Chittenden, the other day—”
They looked at one another and laughed a little.
“You first,” Chittenden said.
“No, you.”
“You outrank me,” he pointed out pleasantly.
She grinned. She was absolutely stunning when she grinned; David had thought the phrase about someone’s face “lighting up” was a cliché, but in Campbell’s case it was true.
“You got me there. Ensign, I wanted—”
The turbolift came to a halt and the doors opened. The cute red-haired woman and the rangy fellow David remembered seeing in the mess hall during his moment of shame entered. Campbell eyed them and fell silent. They stepped between Chittenden and Campbell, and in a moment, the turbolift reached Campbell’s floor. She left without a word. David watched her go. He thought about following her, but both the doors and the window of opportunity had closed.
“A lot of us liked what you said in the mess hall the other day,” the fellow said. He stuck out his hand and Chittenden shook it. “Name’s Rafe Sanderson.”
“I’m Janine McKay,” the girl said, also extending her hand. She held David’s a bit longer than was necessary. “Some of us are tired of the way the former crew of this ship seem to think they’re better than us.”
“I don’t think they think that,” David said. “They just…have a different perspective. Besides, they’re our crewmates now.”
“Yes,” Rafe said, “and I’m happy to obey their orders and work with them. But that doesn’t mean I have to like them.”
“Our shifts are over. We’re heading to the holodeck and then the mess hall for dinner,” Janine said. “Would you like to join us?”
David thought about Lyssa Campbell, about the book that was waiting for him in his quarters, and decided to hell with both of them. This was a new phase of his life. He was going to do some new things.
“Sure,” he said. “I heard there was a program that was really popular on Voyager. We should check it out.”
They arrived at the holodeck. David figured out which program he wanted, and the doors slid open to reveal a darkened French bistro. A lovely young woman was performing