The Tracker's Dilemma: (A Mandrake Company Science Fiction Romance) by Ruby Lionsdrake Read Free Book Online Page B

her head.
    “I’m sorry,” Tick said quietly. He hadn’t meant to dig up painful memories for her.
    “I barely remember my parents now. I was eight at the time, and they were often away on humanitarian missions like that when I was younger. I have vague memories of going on a couple of trips with them, though it’s rather understandable that they didn’t take us on this one.” Her eyes had lost focus, and she seemed to be looking through the holo scans and to the wall, or perhaps to nothing at all, except her memories of the past. “The last thing my mom said to me was to take care of my little sister.” Her mouth twisted. “I tried, but Hailey became her own person and wasn’t interested in my care—or my advice.”
    “Is what happened to your parents why you became a scientist?” Maybe Tick should have left instead of prying more into her past, but he found himself curious to know more about Lauren, a person who was an enigma to many on the ship, someone who rarely came out of her lab or opened up to anyone, at least not to any of the mercenaries.
    “Yes. I wanted to help people. I thought I’d be a doctor at first, but you can only help one person at a time that way. I wanted to improve the lives of many and to increase the understanding of the microbes of this system. Fifteen hundred years after the colony ships first came, much of the native bacteria are still a mystery to us.”
    “They’re a mystery to me, that’s for sure.”
    “I also wanted to do my research from the safety of a lab, not out in the field where you get exposed to everything from mutant bacteria to horrible animals that want to eat you.” She shuddered.
    “I’d be more alarmed by the mutant bacteria than the animals.”
    “There are a million ways to die, some of them at the hands of something huge with teeth and fangs, and some of them invisible to all but the strongest of microscopes.”
    “You’re an optimistic scientist, aren’t you?”
    “Just realistic.” Lauren snorted softly, then pointed at the clock. “I need to go.” She closed her tablet, the display flashing out.
    “I do too.”
    “You were requested at the meeting?”
    “Required, is more the term.” Tick nodded toward the door. Maybe they could walk up together.
    “Interesting. You haven’t mentioned your new intuitions to my sister, have you?”
    Intuitions. Tick wasn’t sure that was the right word. Oddnesses seemed to fit best. “No, I think I got invited because I’m the ship’s tracker.”
    “Huh, if that means she intends to track down Grenavinians, then unwilling might have been precisely the correct word.” Lauren scowled and headed for the door. “I knew nothing good would come from Hailey’s arrival.”
    Not knowing what to say to that, Tick followed after her.

Chapter 4
    Hailey was already in the conference room, pacing near the porthole as the captain’s crew members trickled in. Mandrake stood with Ankari to one side. So far, only one person sat at the large wooden slab table that took up much of the room. When Lauren walked in with Tick— Heath —following behind her, she chose to join Ankari rather than communicating with her sister. She was more convinced than ever that Hailey had something dubious—if not duplicitous—planned, and she wanted nothing to do with it.
    “...intolerable,” Mandrake was saying as Lauren walked up.
    Her first thought was that the comment had something to do with her sister, but then Ankari said, “It’s not that noticeable.”
    “It’s very noticeable. My entire ship smells like chocolate chip cookies. Every day.”
    Ah, yes. Lauren had occasionally noticed the scent of baked goods since the new cook had been brought on board. As far as she’d heard, the mercenaries did not mind, much preferring home-cooked meals to prepackaged ration bars.
    Ankari grinned and inhaled deeply. “It smells wonderful. If you’re bothered, then it can only be because your Grenavinian senses are overly