“What’d you do to land work detail?” He crossed his arms as he gave me another stare.

“None of your business,” I said because it was exactly that. I didn’t want word getting around about how I punched the son of SpaceTech’s CEO, especially when I didn’t know what the base was going to be like.

Matthew’s fingers moved quickly through the air in a series of gestures before he focused on me again. “I don’t have much women’s gear on hand. I’ll give you what I have and the smallest size of everything else.”

That didn’t sound promising. “What is he talking about? No women’s gear?”

“When I was here last, I was busy with the training, but I didn’t see many women,” Ahiga said. “That still the case?”

Matthew waved his hand back and forth. “Eh. It’s still mostly men here. We have a couple females on detail in the kitchens. One woman medic. A couple here and there throughout the base.” He swiped his finger through the air. “You’ve been slated to the red zone. I need to grab you a suit, too, but I don’t keep those in here. I’ll get it to Tyler before morning. He’s the guy you’re going to be working with.”

“Okay.” I assumed I wasn’t going to need it before then anyway. I was doing much better, but I still wasn’t up to my normal strength. I needed that twenty-four hours before I started working.

The bot stopped collecting stuff from the cubbies.

“This is it.”

Matthew patted the mound of navy material the bot had collected—one pair of pants, two shorts, one shirt, three tanks, three socks, a pair of flimsy running shoes, one bra, a few pairs of underwear, and one bag labeled toiletries. A duffle sat next to it. I moved before Matthew could. I didn’t want him touching my underwear. The way he was looking at me—assessing my every move—made me uncomfortable enough as it was.

I shoved everything in and pulled the drawstring, ready to get gone as soon as I could.

“One last thing. Wrist unit. This one’s totally archaic, but it comes loaded with info on the base, unstable areas to avoid, your work schedule, and you might get updates from your supervisor. If I had a spare contact lens, I’d give it to you, but I don’t. This’ll have to do.” He said it like it was a challenge.

If he thought I was going to argue with him, he was wrong. “I’m sure it’s fine.”