Free Resist the Red Battlenaut by Robert T. Jeschonek Page B

too!"
    "None expected, sir." Scott clenched his jaws and kept up eye contact with Azimuth. He might have to take the Chief Engineer's plang, but he didn't have to bow his head like a whipped dog when he did.
    "What a woman, that granny of yours," said Azimuth. "A real hellcat in the sack."
    Everyone howled with laughter except Scott, who was inwardly seething. Azimuth had just crossed the line.
    "I'll be sure to tell her you said that , too," snapped Scott, though he knew it was the absolute worst thing he could have said.
    "Ha! I knew it!" Azimuth pulled a screwdriver from his belt and chucked it down. It bounced once and hit Scott in the knee. "You're a rat ! You're gonna report us to Grandma Hellcat every chance you get!"
    Scott glared at him. "No, sir! As a Marine, I am required to observe the chain of command at all times." He paused, took a breath, then let it out slowly. "I'm here to do my duty and follow orders, plain and simple."
    "Is that so?" Azimuth stroked his chin and widened his eyes in a fiendish expression. "Then I have an order for you, Corporal. Get your ass in the primary grid chamber and polish the contacts on the negative mass manipulators."
    Scott was stunned. "While we're in flight?" Had he heard correctly?
    "Are you making me repeat my order?" bellowed Azimuth.
    "But it's suicide ," said Scott. "The energy flow will fry me as soon as I walk in the room."
    Azimuth pulled a hammer from his belt and cracked the railing with it. "So you're refusing to obey my orders?"
    "Did you mean you want me to polish the manipulator contacts in the secondary grid chamber, perhaps?" said Scott.
    "Enough!" Azimuth banged the hammer three more times, then shook it at Scott. "Report to Dr. Beauchamp for an immediate psych evaluation."
    Scott started to say something, then caught himself. At least a psych eval would get him away from Azimuth for a while. "Sir, yes sir." With that, he spun on his heel and marched off past the leering, chortling engineering crew.
    On his way out, he heard Azimuth's hammer clatter to the floor behind him, hopping across the hard metal deck plates.
    "Get the flux out of here, you insubordinate piece of oosh!" shouted Azimuth. "Don't come back until you've got your jar-head head on straight!"
    Scott just kept walking. As the door slid open before him, he heard the crew jeering and more objects hitting the floor, but he didn't look back.
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    *****
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    Dr. Monique Beauchamp pursed her lips and nodded when Scott described what had happened in Engineering. "I see." She sat in a high-backed black leather swivel chair in her office, making notes on a tablet computer in her lap. "Chief Engineer Azimuth told you to kill yourself, and you did not comply."
    "Correct." Scott sat across from her on a metal folding chair, feeling nervous--partly because he was worried about the outcome of the psych eval and partly because Dr. Beauchamp was so attractive.
    Her face was long, with high cheekbones and aquiline features. Soft black hair flowed down over her shoulders, gleaming in the muted light of the office. Even the loose-fitting Diamondback uniform she wore couldn't hide the voluptuous curves of her body.
    What kept Scott on edge the most, though, was the sensuous vibe that she gave off. When she looked his way, her gaze lingered on him, her deep brown eyes half-lidded behind stylish holographic lenswear. Her movements were languorous, graceful and catlike, even simple ones like crossing her legs or tapping the screen of her tablet. And her voice was throaty, with a light French accent.
    Though she'd been on the shuttle with him the day before, this was the first they'd been alone together in such close proximity...the first he'd gotten the full effect of her charms. It was making it damn hard for him to concentrate, to say the least.
    "So." Beauchamp tossed her head from side to side, shifting her hair back from her face. "You've followed orders in the past that could have led to your death, have you