Sarsha was in the cargo bay; it was packed full of odds and ends. The crew held on to everything. Most of the dangerous stuff was locked away in the starboard hold.

  The ship had burned away a lot of its heat shield yesterday when Annalynn plunged them into the atmosphere. She knew they had backup heat tiles somewhere in this mess.

  Zev and Roger were going to clean this mess up. They insisted on holding on to everything. The least they could do was label things!

  Her comm pinged. Someone had just accessed her medical logs. That didn’t make sense. Annalynn was sleeping, and there was no one else left on the ship—except Mosley. Leaving the cargo hold, she quickly made her way to sickbay.

  She burst through the sickbay door before it fully opened. The lights in sickbay were low. Mosley was standing next to her console; the screen was black. Mosley spun around, her hair flying around her head. “Oh, you startled me,” she said, holding a hand to her chest.

  “May I help you?” Sarsha asked, slipping into professional mode. She stepped over to her station.

  “I was hoping to get something for a headache, but you weren’t here,” Mosley said softly, her eyes locked on Sarsha’s.

  Sarsha picked up a nerve scanner and ran it over Mosley. The red light traced around her head. The scanner reported overactive nerves, common with a headache.

  “Do you have any known allergies?” The question slipped out before Sarsha could stop herself.

  “No, at least I don’t think so,” Mosley responded, her voice still soft. She held her hands at her side, twisting slightly. Breaking eye contact, she looked at the floor.

  “Here, I have something for you,” Sarsha said, turning to the cupboards behind her. She unlocked them with her fingerprint and pulled out some pills. “Take these with some water. Let me know if they don’t help in twenty minutes.”

  Mosley reached out a hand to take the pills. Her hand had the slightest tremor; Sarsha almost didn’t catch it. Sarsha turned her hand over to drop the pills into Mosley’s outstretched hand. When she did that, she accidentally bumped her hand on Mosley’s.

  “My apologies,” Sarsha said as she withdrew her hand. Mosley didn’t say anything—just closed her hand and walked out of sickbay.

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  Checking the door, Sarsha went over to her bio-scanner. Carefully she scraped her hand where she had bumped Mosley. After a moment, she slid an exam dish under the sensor.

  “I thought you were supposed to get a patient’s consent before running tests,” Annalynn said from behind Sarsha.

  Sarsha jumped at her captain’s voice. Keeping her hands on the bio-scanner, she turned her head. Annalynn was sitting up in her bed, the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, hiding her hair.

  “If I were concerned with her reporting me to the ethics board, yes.” Sarsha turned back to the scanner. She heard shifting behind her; then Annalynn was standing next to her.

  Annalynn kept the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, hanging open in front, revealing her tank top and shorts. She worked out a lot and was proud of her body. The only reason she would keep the blanket was to hide her hair.

  Sarsha knew the captain well enough to know what she was doing. With her hair hidden, she could more easily mess with Sarsha. Annalynn wouldn’t have to lock it to a color to keep her emotions hidden.

  “What are you looking for?” Annalynn asked. Her tone was flat, and with her hair hidden Sarsha had a hard time reading her.

  “Did you see what she was doing?” Sarsha asked, ignoring the captain’s question. She spared a glance at the blanket. It was just hanging on Annalynn’s shoulders.

  “No, I didn’t wake up until after she touched your computer,” Annalynn said. “Come to think of it, she was awfully quiet.”

  “There is something that doesn’t add up with her.”

  “This again? Look, she’s scared and out of her depth.” Annalynn’s voice was sharp. She brought her hands in front of her and leaned on the counter.

  With her hands out of the way, Sarsha snatched the blanket. Annalynn’s hair was bright pink.

  “Doctor,” Annalynn said in fake horror, “if you want to see me with less clothing, all you have to do is ask.”

  Sarsha didn’t say anything; she just glared at her. Annalynn had a perfect poker face—it was her hair that gave her away.

  “Your thingy is done,” Annalynn said, pointing at the bio-scanner. Sarsha hated it when she said things like that.

  Sarsha started to review the data; it wasn’t much she didn’t already know. She would have to rerun the test. Too much of her own skin cells contaminated the sample.

  “You should still be resting. Why don’t you go take a nap on the bridge?” Sarsha said, her tone serious.

  “My chair is comfy. I might just do that. Do I have time to get dressed?” her hair turned black.

  “It’s important that you are comfortable when sleeping, but I do think the bridge is the best place for you,” Sarsha said, her tone even and professional.

  Annalynn didn’t say anything else as she left sickbay. Sarsha doubted she would stop by her quarters to get clothes. She had tried to be circumspect. She hoped they had been vague enough.

  She busied herself with preparing a new sample, this time removing as much of her own skin cells as she could. When that was done, Sarsha locked the door to sickbay and reran the test.

  It only took a few minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. The bio-scanner was finally done, and she tore into the results.

  Her worst fears realized, she pulled off the internal sensors. They were operating on low power, like everything else. They should still be enough.

  “Captain,” she called on the comm, “what did Roger say about the others in his squad?”