October 28, 2361 AIA

P67

“All right, I didn’t figure this would be a part of it.” Sipos let out a fast ahh noise before hissing through his teeth.

The robot pushed a cotton ball onto his arm where it had pulled the needle.

“I’m sorry,” Jane said. “I know. He’s not very good. I miss Lynx.”

“Who?”

The doctor shook her head. “Never mind. Wait here for a minute. Once you’re clear, you’re welcome to come back.”

Before she could get away, he called out, “Is this the blood scan that’s up on your site? How to find a human-xeno?”

“Yes.”

Sipos pulled his sleeve back down. “Cautious…aren’t you?” He’d been trying to talk to Jane, but she’d already gone back into her lab. His question petered out when he noticed her absence.

“Yes, we are.”

The man glaring at him was Joseph Tate. When Jane had introduced them, Tate had only nodded. When he spoke, his voice had been abrupt.

Sipos stood up. His easy saunter was arrested when Tate spoke again.

“Right there, please.”

It sounded like an order. Sipos raised an eyebrow.

“You aren’t cleared yet,” Tate said.

“Has anyone ever failed the test?”

“Not yet.”

“What would you do if someone did.”

Tate’s only answer was to continue glaring.

Moric gazed around the room with a bored air, trying to gauge what the real security measures might be. He couldn’t see anything obvious, and he doubted that Jane would know how to hide a weapon or a field generator.

“So, you’re Jane’s assistant?” Sipos said.

“Dr. Jane. Yes.”

Moric flashed a smile. “She told me to call her Jane.”

“That’s fine, Dr. Sipos.”

“Yes, it’s probably because we’re both doctors. I take it that you’re just an assistant?” Once the numerous implications of the question had time to register, he added, “You don’t have a degree in biology?”

Tate tilted his head. “No, Doctor. I’m just an assistant.”

“Oh. I don’t know why she’d hire you then. You should feel honored.”

Their staring contest was interrupted when the robot stepped up to Tate’s side. “No pattern found,” it announced.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Good,” Tate said. “If you’ll follow me this way, Dr. Sipos. I’ll show you back to the lab.”

Jane glanced up from the paperwork she’d been flipping through as they entered the room. “Not a xeno?”

Tate answered before Sipos could respond. “I’m afraid not, Doctor.”

“Ah, well. Maybe someday.” She stood up from her stool, walked over to the wall, and grabbed a lab coat. When she was done putting it on over her clothes, she grabbed a pair of gloves, passed a set to Sipos, then passed another set to Tate.

As Jane talked Sipos through the most vital points of lab safety where xenos were concerned, Tate dragged himself back to his routine. The work seemed unusually tedious that morning.

No, he realized, that’s not it.

The reason he was reluctant to do his work was because he didn’t like Moric Sipos. Tate would have preferred to stand over him and continue glaring.

When Joseph had come in that morning, groaning his greeting over the rim of his coffee cup, Jane had warned—told him that Moric Sipos would be coming over later.

All his grogginess had vanished in an instant.

Tate put his mug aside. “A Supremacy biologist?”

“Yes.”

“From the military?”

“He used to work for the military.”

“Are you sure he’s not out to get you?”

Dr. Jane eyed Tate for a few seconds. “Okay, wow. Good thing one of us remembered to take our anti-psychotic medicine this morning.” She rolled her eyes. “Are you getting paranoid or something, Joseph?”

Tate scoffed as though he’d never heard anything so ridiculous. “Sorry, Dr. Jane. This is exciting for you, I know.”

The moment Jane left to feed Cuss, Joseph lunged to the nearest computer to look up the man in question. He didn’t have the programs he needed to do a full search, but the little he’d found tallied with what Dr. Jane had told him. Which was…suspicious.

As Tate wiped his search, he reflected on whether or not he was becoming paranoid. He couldn’t decide. But he did decide he needed to give the man a chance.

Then Tate had met him.

Sipos had been perfectly charming and polite to Jane, but when he’d looked at Tate, something about his expression raised every last hackle Joseph possessed.

Having Dr. Sipos in the lab didn’t ease Tate’s wariness, but Joseph hoped he’d feel less bristly as time passed. After all, Sipos seemed generally harmless. He looked over the parts of the lab he was allowed to access, then lost himself in perusing Dr. Jane’s handwritten journals.

Jane was busy reviewing the results of their last experiment. After Tate finished taking care of the animals and making a few observation notes, he joined her. Work went on as normal, and Tate tried to relax, but every now and then, Sipos would rise from his chair and stand next to Jane, waiting to ask a question. Every time he did, he managed to ignore Joseph’s existence. It must have taken considerable effort since they were less than four feet apart.

It’s like I’m an insect.

Then Tate thought better of it. An insect would’ve received infinitely more attention if it was found in the lab.

When Jane was at a point where she could take a break, she’d look up and answer Dr. Sipos’s question. Tate watched them interacting and tried to gauge her opinion of the man. It was obvious something about her behavior was off, but Joseph couldn’t tell if it was because Sipos made her uncomfortable or (god forbid) she was attracted to him.

Dr. Sipos was once again haunting her elbow when Jane pulled back from her microscope and hissed a string of profanity. She didn’t seem to notice Sipos was there.

“I need some more contrast on this slide,” she murmured. Her eyes were still on her work. “Joseph, could you please—” With a glance, Jane realized that her normally attentive assistant hadn’t heard her. “Tate!”

Startled, Tate jerked his eyes away from Sipos. “Yes, Doctor?”

“Could you please get—” She stopped when she felt a light touch on her arm.

Moric Sipos held out a small jar of stain and a new coverslip.

“Uh…yes,” Jane said. “Thank you, Doctor.”

“I noticed them a while ago,” Sipos said. As she took the supplies from him, he added, “It helps to know your way around a lab.”

Jane smiled and offered him a brief nod.

For the first time since he entered the room, Sipos looked at Joseph. He smirked. Dr. Jane was too busy pulling apart the old slide to notice.

When Joseph didn’t react, Moric put a hand to his chest and said, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t intruding on your turf, was I?”

“Joseph,” Jane mumbled.

“Not at all, Dr. Sipos.” Tate picked up the syringe reserved for the crystal violet stain. When he held it out, Jane took it without looking up.

“Well, at least you know where everything is,” Sipos said.

Joseph’s brief smile straightened his lips for less than a second. He wasn’t going to let this man get to him. He didn’t know much about biology, and he certainly didn’t have a Ph.D., but he was smart enough to recognize a pissing contest.