Tasha decided to allow Albert and Tadisha to continue to travel with us, in the interest of not creating concern or damaging the confidence of her staff or investors, so long as Albert could maintain some semblance of professionalism.

Additionally, if, or when, we found the pods, it would be better to have more vehicles to transport them. Their presence set me on edge, but I accepted the logic of Tasha’s reasoning and I surely did not want to put her hydro-harvesting project in jeopardy.

Albert seemed to have become more subdued and withdrawn around the group, especially as my brothers made efforts, sometimes more obvious than not, to separate him from Tasha.

He was exactly the sort of bully who had no qualms about mistreating women or those he felt were inferior to him, but when faced with someone he perceived in some way as superior, he was spineless and cowardly.

I kept a wary eye on him and his assistant, the mysterious Tadisha. Tasha and she had bonded over Albert’s petulance, and she had seemed to be making an effort to distract Albert’s attention, as well. All of this should have engendered far more confidence and trust than it did.

Something about her just troubled me, and despite my endeavors to identify it, I just couldn’t. She was small in stature—certainly she was not a physical threat—but something about her expressions, her movements, the way she avoided contact with anyone but Tasha, it all just coagulated into a feeling that bothered me.

My concern was only compounded when, to my displeasure, Tasha thought it would be better if we didn’t share a tent. She didn’t want to give the appearance of lacking objectivity, and I knew she was right, to some extent. I knew I couldn’t be subtle when it came to my desire, and in the tight quarters of a camp, that might become awkward. As a keenly private person, I understood.

One benefit was that maintaining some physical distance through separate quarters had quelled, if only slightly, the suggestive ribbing from my brothers.

It was driving me somewhat mad, but while I yearned to hold her, to caress her, to submerge myself in her, the emotional connection that had slammed into existence startled me. Abstaining from further intimacy, though torturous, did give me the opportunity to explore these developing feelings.

Even without the sexual aspect of our interactions, there was a burning intensity to how we related to one another. Tasha had a brilliant, compelling mind. Working together, exchanging our ideas, and learning from one another’s expertise brought a kind of satisfaction I had never known.

It was late on the third evening of our trip, we were nearing the halfway point, and Tasha had been asking to hear my methods for calculating the location of the ship’s wreckage.

We sat by the thermogenerator in the middle of our camp, late into the night, pouring over the information, though I omitted that the data was from firsthand knowledge rather than satellite tracking.

She was incredibly cute when her face was set in serious concentration, tendrils of her dark hair falling loose around her cheeks.

I showed her the program I had created, and as she read through the code, I had the distinct urge to pull her into my lap.

She looked impressed. “How much time did it take you to write this?”

“I spent about two weeks creating the program and a few days testing it and tweaking it for heisenbugs.”

“That’s fast for something this complex,” she said, sparing me a look of respect. Her nose crinkled then, as she continued reading through the strings of code.

“The algorithm you’ve based this on feels… off, somehow.”

“How so?” I said dubiously.

She didn’t answer for a while, absorbed in the code. I waited, studying the bluish tint of her hair in the glow of the holo-panel we were working on.

“Aha! You’ve made a convergence error here, in your mathematical model,” she exclaimed happily.

“I don’t think so…” I began.

“No, look here, your iterative method is incomplete,” she stated proudly. “It’s a simple fix. The iterative process terminated prior to approximating the limit, so we adjust here…” She worked for a few minutes and triumphantly straightened.

“There!” She beamed at me as I examined her work.

She was right, and I acknowledged her with admiration. “Not many people would have caught that.”

“Well, like I said, I believe in questioning assumptions, not just taking things at face value.” Her voice quieted as she spoke.

We were sitting close together and I had leaned over her to proof her adjustment. When I straightened, our faces were inches apart. The dragon in me wanted to lay claim, to be done with this coy dance of pretending we weren’t starving for one another.

She licked her lips and I was nearly lost, when a look of concern flashed across her face.

“Oh no!” She turned back to the program, rebooting it with the corrected code.

Lust had taken hold of me and took a moment to shake, but her panic finally clicked. If there had been an error in the mathematical model for the algorithm I created to determine the wreckage locations, then we could be heading toward nothing.

She bit her lip and I raked my hand through my hair while we waited for the revised model.

“It was a minor error. Maybe it won’t change too much,” she muttered.

Finally, the model finished recalibrating and sprang to life. We watched as the debris pinged on the map, bracing ourselves.

Tasha let out of rush of breath first. “Oh, thank god!”

“The ship is farther into the swamp, but it looks like the pods are even closer to us than we thought before,” I said.

She laughed. “This is amazing! There should be hardly any deterioration to the pods.”

I smiled at her effusive relief, humbled by and overwhelmingly grateful for the genius woman before me. When she smiled back at me, her joy so pure, our eyes met and I felt a strange, unfamiliar tightening in my chest.

Before I could give thought to the sensation gripping me, Tadisha appeared from behind us.

“Excuse me, Ms. Lord-Case, I heard you shout,” she said, eyeing me briefly. “Is everything okay?”

Tasha said, “Yes! Better than okay. Ragal and I corrected an error.”

“Don’t give me credit for your brilliance,” I murmured, causing her to blush.

“Very well, I found an error in the mathematical model and it turns out the iteration limit… well, the point is that it’s just a really excellent circumstance. We’re closer than we thought,” she said, trying to abbreviate the situation for Tadisha, not entirely a layperson, but not interested in the intricacies of mathematical computation.

Being a technologically and mathematically inclined person, it was often a challenge to convey your work to others who weren’t familiar or interested in such pursuits. It was one of the reasons for this incredible connection between the two of us.

“Wonderful!” she exclaimed, then wrapped her arms around herself, shivering slightly. “Ms. Lord-Case, it is freezing out here. If you’ve finished your work, I must insist you get warm in your tent.”

It wasn’t that cold, but I murmured low, just for Tasha’s ears, “Yes, we should really warm you up. I’d be happy to help with that.”

Tasha shot me a look of hot promise, but, unfortunately, Tadisha’s shivering was getting obvious and Tasha sighed. “You’re probably right. It is late and you do look cold. I’ll head back with you,” she said, getting up. “Ragal, goodnight…” Her voice was forlorn, or maybe I just wanted it to be.

“Goodnight,” I murmured, watching her walk away and feeling suddenly, oddly, empty.

As they disappeared behind Jennifer and Zaruv’s tent, Tadisha looked back at me, and I saw her eyes flash with something fierce, angry, and disturbing.

I sat contemplating the odd suspicion she kindled in me. Ultimately, I needed to talk to my brothers about it and I resigned myself to discussing it with them in the morning.

I woke Zaruv and Karun as the suns rose and we convened in the tent I shared with Pavar. I started, first, by explaining what Tasha had discovered in my calculations.

“This is excellent news, batr.” Karun yawned.

“Yes, it is, but it also raises the urgency of a concern I have,” I said, telling them what had happened with Tadisha and the strange, feral look she had given me.

Zaruv replied, “She has been helpful, I’ll admit, with moderating Mr. Archer’s behavior. If we are to be stuck with him, she is useful.”

Pavar observed, “She’s also not terrible to look at…”

I shot him a dark look of warning and he rolled his eyes.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I’m not an idiot. She may be attractive, but I have also observed her odd behavior. She hates Albert, and that might seem logical, but her behavior with him is far more manipulative. When she believes she is not being watched, I have seen her look at him with an expression of festering wrath.” He shuddered for emphasis. “I don’t think she is entirely what she seems,” he finished, looking serious, and we all nodded in silent agreement.

I spoke first. “So, we agree, she is not to be trusted?”

Zaruv said, “Surely we should take note of her and not let Mr. Archer absorb all our attention.”

With that, we dispersed and began preparations for the coming day’s journey. After everyone had risen and the camp was nearly taken down, I caught Tasha alone.

Every time we were alone, I had to fight the urge to touch her, to kiss her. I knew my desire was blatant in my eyes and expression, but it couldn’t be helped.

“Ragal, someone might see us,” she said, sounding not entirely opposed.

I did my best to rein in this primal need. “I know. That’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh,” she said, looking a little disappointed.

“I just… I’m wondering how well you know Tadisha.”

“Well, before this little jaunt, we didn’t interact all that much. She started as my father’s assistant, actually, but when he fell ill, she was transferred to Albert, as I was adamant about having Li as my assistant. We had worked together on a project and I appreciated his work ethic and knew he had been overlooked for advancement many times before. Wait, why are you asking me about all this?” She looked puzzled.

“It’s probably nothing, I just… I get a strange feeling from her and I wanted to talk to you about it. Didn’t you think it was odd that she tried to separate us last night?”

“A strange feeling? Well, I know she works for Albert and the fact that she can tolerate him is certainly an oddity, but she is a good person. If she was trying to separate us, it’s probably because we aren’t entirely good at hiding… this.” She gestured between us. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Albert has enlisted her in his attempts to win my favor.”

She looked around and quickly kissed me, preventing my retort. “You shouldn’t worry about her, honestly. Since I’ve come to spend more time with her, I’ve found that I misjudged her, too. She’s really a nice person.”

I wanted to argue, but Karun called out to everyone to signal our departure, so I held back, an uncomfortable knot forming in my stomach.