Sweet Venom Arc 03 Ch. 09

Suddenly, a sly smile crept over his face as the pain in his arm faded.

That's filthy. I love it.

*

A few floors above, Evangeline stood in her own office, drumming her fingers against her breast pocket as she closely examined the lab-coat hanging in the middle of the room.

Strung up by energy tethers, she slowly circled around it, taking in the details; brown chocolate stains on the sleeves and front, some light wear around the collar, and some pen marks on the inside of the pockets.

Did she really spill hot chocolate on every damn lab-coat?

The dragoness sighed in frustration, returning to her seat after a couple more rounds of the coat. Her fingers danced above her keyboard, but didn't press a single key.

Her tongue pushed against the back of her teeth. Her eyes squinted at the screen.

It was supposed to be a simple, easy report. A tragic accident, but just that, nothing more.

And yet...

Tsk. I simply wouldn't allow it to happen like that. As if such an egregious breach of common sense and security would happen on my station.

She deleted her current entry and started afresh.

"Dearest colleagues, I am deeply saddened to report that we have lost a valued member of our team today. We - ugh!"

Evangeline shook her head, glaring at the screen.

An accident. A damned accident. On my station! I'll never live this down, the other board members will remind me of this for years, they'll think I'm as graceless as the damned Yuskol! Ugh, I'll come back to it, I need something cold and creamy.

After just a couple of button presses, a drone was dispatched to her office. It came buzzing in through the door, carrying a selection of cakes and desserts on a silver platter.

"Leave the tray, please. I'll need all the sugar I can get to finish this."

The drone beeped in response and carefully lowered the tray onto her desk, before nimbly flying back out the way it came.

If I get this wrong... Jace will tear it to pieces. He'll have that damned rhargnorn back here too, scraping his awful tail on my floors... UGH! SCYLER!

Her long, slender claws squidged deep into a fresh cream cake.

I'll just have to suck it up. An accident happened on my station. It happens. It was the girl's own fault anyway, clumsy little thing.

She hummed quietly as the sweet cream hit her tongue, a nice contrast to the bitterness that has been swilling around her brain for the last few days.

I wonder how she's doing?

She pressed on her communicator in between mouthfuls of soft cake.

E-16. The response was instant.

"Ma'am! How can we help?" A XITD scientist asked promptly.

"How's our newest subject holding up?"

A muffled, angry voice echoed in the background.

"She's pretty feisty. Are you sure we shouldn't dispose of her?"

"Absolutely not."

"If you insi- HOLY SHIT SHE'S BREAKING OUT!"

There was a shuddering crunch, and the sharp tearing of fabric sounded across the line. She could hear shouting, and several stumbling feet before a new voice yelled out through her speakers.

"IS THAT EVANGELINE?! I'M GONNA WATCH YOUR BRAIN MELT INTO GOO YOU FUCKIN' ASSHOLE, YOU'RE GONNA BE MY SLAVE! YOU AREN'T IMMUNE! YOU'RE MINE! YOU HEAR ME, EVANGELINE?! I'LL HAVE YOU BENT OVER YOUR FUCKIN' DESK, SCREAMING MY NAME BEFORE I BREAK YOU! YOU - MMGHMM-MHMM!" The feminine voice was suddenly muffled again, as several loud clacks rang out.

"Sorry about that, ma'am. We're still figuring out the right way to keep her down. The subject has extremely elevated adrenaline levels, all the time."

As Evangeline continued to converse with her team, the muffled kicking and screaming rang through the call, with little pause for thought.

"I can imagine. I very much doubt she's happy to be there. Still, let's continue our investigation. Has the czarite done much since her little incident?"

"Nothing, ma'am. E-15 reports she's been quiet since we ramped up our pre-mortem research."

"Mhm. How interesting."

Suddenly, the comms line fell quiet. Although it had only been muffled, the sudden absence of the scuffle in the background made Evangeline's office feel rather empty.

"Finally, a moment of peace. What's she doing?" Evangeline asked as she gazed out the window, considering a walk down to the lab.

"Ma'am... Erm..." The scientist sounded uncomfortable.

"Don't tease me like that. Tell me. I want to know." She grinned eagerly.

"She's, uh... stopped. She's gone completely blank, ma'am. She's just staring at us."

"Blank? Is that unusual?"

"She's spent the last three days snarling, threatening us, and trying to break free, but now she's just looking around the room. Her eyes are darting all over the place, though I'd describe her expression as... vacant, ma'am."

"She hasn't had a seizure, has she? Or popped a blood vessel or something?"

"Vitals are strong. We have got some unusual brain wave activity, but to be frank we're not sure what we're looking at, or what we should be looking for. It doesn't look like anything is medically wrong with her though." The scientist's voice trembled a little as he spoke. "Eek, she's looking at me now. It's a bit unnerving, if I'm honest, ma'am."

Suddenly, a new call came through on Evangeline's communication line.

"The security team? Hold on, I need to take this."

She switched the channels and accepted the new call.

"Ma'am, we have a situation." The guard spoke sternly.

"Go on."

"We have an approaching ship, at high speed, heading directly towards us - showing DA serials."

"Oh shit." Evangeline frowned. "Is it the damned RMD?! Theo can't be back already, can he?!"

"It is Royal Military Division, ma'am -"

She interrupted him with a growl from her throat, bolting upright from her seat.

"This WON'T do! Not one bit! Get ready to eject the E-labs!"

"Ma'am! That isn't it! You need to see this."

A holoscreen popped in front of her, and a serial code flashed into view.

She paused and stared at the code intently, blinking twice. She went to speak, but couldn't form much more than a low croak. She tilted her head slightly and read it several more times, mouthing the characters in silence.

"That... that is an RMD ship serial code. But... That was... That was the ship destroyed on Barru X!"

"Your orders, ma'am?"

Evangeline felt a pit open in her stomach as she turned to look out of her window, out into the void of space.

It shouldn't have been possible - the station's environmental conditioning was fully operational - but she could swear that the room was getting warmer...