The door shut behind her, but Callie didn’t move further into the room. Elena had the smallest cabin, and it was mostly bed, apart from a small built-in desk that folded into the wall, and a matching chair that folded into the floor. Otherwise it was just hidden drawers and nooks in the smooth white walls. The chair was put away, so there was nowhere to sit but the bed, and Callie wasn’t about to do that. Easy enough just to stand there with her boots locked to the floor anyway. “You don’t have to call me captain.” I like hearing my name in your mouth, she didn’t say. “It’s not like you’re in my chain of command.”

Elena got out of bed. She wore a thin gray tank top and matching underwear: what she’d had on underneath her wetsuit in the cryochamber, probably. Callie felt a sudden hot surge of lust, and she knew she was staring, but she couldn’t stop.

Elena didn’t cover herself or look uncomfortable at the scrutiny, though. She just drifted toward Callie, her hair floating around her head, and hovered before her, right up in Callie’s personal space. Elena was small enough that Callie could have picked her up even if they were under thrust gravity. “Do you wish I was in your chain of command?” Elena said. “Is there anything you’d like to command me to do?”

Callie blinked. “I, ah…”

“Or should I take liberties?” Elena took Callie’s hand, lifted it to her face, and slipped the tip of Callie’s index finger into her mouth. She sucked on the fingertip, looking directly into Callie’s eyes. She pulled it out slowly and said, “Is this all right, captain?”

“It’s a start,” Callie said. “I didn’t think… I mean, after everything you’ve gone through, I thought the last thing on your mind would be–”

“We both made bad assumptions. Things are going to be very difficult soon. Maybe impossibly difficult. I’d be happier facing all the troubles ahead if I had some good memories to take with me.”

Callie sighed. “So if Ashok or Stephen had walked through that door, would you have floated toward them so seductively? It’s OK, I just want to know–”

“No, Callie.” She gave the captain a disconcertingly direct stare, like she was looking past all Callie’s carefully constructed layers of defenses. “It’s you. I’ve liked you from the moment I met you.”

“I liked you, too.”

“Show me. Show me how you’d like me now.”

Callie wrapped her arms around Elena and pushed her toward the bed. “It’s tricky without gravity,” Callie said. “Do you mind if we use straps?”

“Mrngh,” Elena said, or something like it, and trembled, and kissed Callie hard, which the captain correctly interpreted as enthusiastic assent.

Chapter Nineteen