"Painting the Roses Red"

[Col. C.E. Harper 0]

"Painting the Roses Red"

by Odile Condacin and Col. Harper

 

"Colonel Medusa," a drawling voice announced gravely, "in the cargo bay, with the pod."

 

"I didn't know you took an interest in obscure 20th-century games, Sin," Harper replied without turning.

 

"Not particularly, but then again, those kinds of little bits of information come in handy on occasion. For instance; now. And besides, don't you have hobbies outside of jarheadly death and mayhem? Maybe you should look into taking an interest in something like," the Xenexian fairly sniffed, mimicking the colonel's tone, "obscure 20th-century games."

 

"The trouble with your hypothesis, Mrs. Peacock, is that no one here has died." She turned around to face the smirking Xenexian, hands on hips. "In fact, we appear to have precisely the opposite problem - a living individual where by all rights we should have a dead body."

 

"That can be fixed."

 

"Sin, even I'm not going to let you kill someone."

 

Odile leaned back against the nearest bulkhead, continuing to wear the smirk. "It was Odile in the cargobay with the jellyfish venom."

 

"In that scenario, you're far more likely to be the victim." Harper's gaze drifted back to the now-empty pod, considering it as though her glare could make it surrender its secrets. She almost forgot that Condacin was still standing there watching.

 

"Science hasn't been able to trace down anything that you don't already know, Harper. And I'm sorry for that." Condacin sighed, moving a few steps nearer the pod, wearily. "I think Jamie's running some analysis or the like. But I'll be damned if the whole mess makes any sense."

 

"It's like something out of a storybook," Harper mused absently. "As if we weren't already down the rabbit hole ourselves, now we have time-travelling women in stasis."

 

She nodded. "At least we haven't a mad queen who likes to sentence people to beheadings. Though, out here... you never know what space sickness can do." The scientist eyed Harper warily.

 

A smile bordering on 'smirk' played about the colonel's lips. "Worried about your neck, O'd'yl?"

 

"Should I be?"

 

"Always." The smile took on a predatory edge, then dropped away. "But you haven't annoyed me -- more than usual -- lately."

 

The minion of the evil Marine queen of hearts pretended to relax. "Ahh, very good. So perhaps I would be a playing card. What would I be? A diamond?"

 

"I think a club, blunt as you are."

 

"Well if we're talking 'blunt', then you'd clearly be more suited to the Queen of Spades. You're a sharp little warlike hellion when you want to be, which clearly is practically always." She smiled sweetly, reviewing where the exits were as she leaned against the alien's pod.

 

Harper shook her head. "Now, 'hellion' I'll cop to, but I haven't been called 'little' in years."

 

"Nobody uses terms of endearment on you? I'm sorry."

 

The colonel sighed, turning away from the pod again. "Look around you, Sin. We're surrounded by babies."

 

"Rueful, Colonel?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Though, you're not even wrong, at that. The privileges that go along with Fleet

experience." She snorted.

 

"Not rueful, precisely." She chuckled. "Just not much opportunity for terms of endearment since we dropped through the latest incarnation of the Delta Triangle."

 

"We poor officers of the new Bonaventure. Unlucky in navigation, unlucky in luck, and unlucky in love."

 

Somewhat grimly, Harper replied, "As long as our luck in battle starts turning, I think I can live with those three."

 

"We're still flying," Odile commented.

 

"Thanks to the market."

 

"You made a good call with it."

 

"Thank the cat," Harper said, waving off the compliment.

 

"Well, I would, but she's been a little bit on the... harried side? Is that the term I'm looking for? Bottle-brush tails I tend to avoid."

 

An actual, honest laugh greeted that. "When did you grow sense?"

 

"When I heard the rumors that the cat was pouncing around and had her claws out?"

 

"Definitely we thank the cat."

 

Odile waved it off. "I'll mention it if we're stuck together."