Two hours had passed since I’d keeled over, and since the original plan was to wait for Fern in the observation lounge, I thought it'd be a good idea to warn her about the sitch.

I tapped Fern's code into my wrist comm. "Hey Fern, how's progress on your end?"

Garo and I were in the Concordia main lift, a 10-meter wide bullet-shaped chamber that ran the entire klick from bottom to top of the station's central cylinder.

The tinny voice came through. "J―Dr. Almendra, hello. I have managed to load Dr. Angstrom's data from three different Priaspora sources into the Naked Singularity Chamber and have started the simulation process to reconstruct the gravity waves that pinged our detectors. I just have to wait for the NSC particle collectors to transmit the resultant vibrations back to the processor core. Tythe's people have not arrived yet."

"So, uh, Fern, there's been a slight change of plans."

"What? Change of plans?"

Garo hovered too close to me, right above my shoulder tat. I elbowed him away. "Uh, I ran into some trouble, but also found a―" I tried not to gag on the word, "―a friend."

He glowed at that. Ew.

Fern's voice lowered and got tight. "A friend? I need to finish up here, hopefully before they arrive, so can you just tell me what you need?"

"We're stopping by the Rel Lab," I said. "Should be there in a few minutes."

The comm was silent.

Finally: "Ok, if you must." She paused again. "When you arrive, I will link a data pad to the Quasicore Flux Processing Unit, and have you review the incoming results while I finish checking for gravity wave perturbations."

I had no clue what that meant, but as long as it kept Garo thinking I was really working as her colleague, awesome.

I told her that was fine and clicked off.

"Your colleague is Dr. Fern―Angstrom? I've worked with Dr. Angstrom before, you know," Garo said. "The elder Dr. Angstrom," he corrected quickly. "Her work was quite solid years ago, but in the last decade, she's been chasing down crazy theories that have lost her some respect."

I nodded. "So I've heard." I was relieved that he wasn't asking me about the gangs anymore.

He lowered his voice and spoke rapidly. "So, how did you end up working with her daughter? Because you're not really a scientist, are you? Do you have a bike? Do you participate in rumbles? How many gang fights have you been in?"

So much for that. For frig's sake.

I growled at Garo. I wondered how hard it would be to KO him with a sucker punch. And wondered where I could hide his unconscious body.

"Garo!" I hissed. "I told you, once we're somewhere...else, I can tell you more. Not. Now."

He made apologetic noises. The lift slowed and the doors slid open. We were in a ring-shaped corridor. We walked through it until we saw the sign that said, "Relativity Lab."

I slapped the control pad on the wall, and the Rel Lab's wide double doors opened noiselessly. The scent of ozone swam up my nostrils faster than my skin could crawl from whatever high-powered gadgets they were running here. Fortunately, the dizzying heights made me forget all that: The lab doors had let us onto a narrow catwalk, which ran the perimeter of the lab, skirting giant tanks jutting up through the center, with a tangle of cables and pipes connecting them to each other. Between the tanks, the drop looked to be over 100 meters to the bottom.

The tanks each had a band of bright aqua lights flashing and sputtering in dizzying patterns. I turned from them and focused on the catwalk. Back at our cabin console on Hibiscus Nine, Fern had pointed out where in the lab she would be―taking the catwalk to the right would get me to her station. I tried not to look down as I walked slowly around the perimeter of the massive lab.

"I thought you'd never been here before. I'm really curious how you came to work with one of us—nerds,” Garo said, snickering.

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I shot him a nasty look.

Holding tightly to the railing, I ambled down the catwalk casually. It led to a steel grating platform bolted to the wall opposite from the lab entrance. It had desks with workstations; I spotted Fern at one, completely engulfed in a bright, glowing console, typing frantically. Garo remained close on my heels.

"Is Dr. Angstrom also a―" Garo lowered his voice to a hiss. "―A connoisseur of hipster culture? Is that why she's harboring you?"

He still had that sickening grin on his face. My glare made him shrug apologetically and keep quiet for a few seconds.

"Good morning, doctor," I said, as we stepped onto the platform. My footsteps caused a dull metallic echo as we walked toward Fern's workstation.

Fern started and glanced around. No other scientists were stationed on this platform; there was another platform about 5 meters below this one, accessible by a metal staircase. That one had a couple of researchers very focused on their workstations.

"Dr.―Almendra", she began, composing herself. "Thank you for being so punctual. I hope you're feeling better. I'm still validating perturbations, but here is a data pad for you to review the results. And you are―?" she said casting a doubtful glance at Garo.

"Oh, Dr. Angstrom, it's a pleasure to meet you," he said stretching his hand out to her. "I'm Dr. Garo Palendize. I've worked with your mother before."

He shot her a grin, looking way too pleased with himself.

Fern gave him a tight smile. "Lots of people have worked with my mother," she said, her lip curling on the last word.

He chuckled, his gaze flicking briefly toward me. "You were just a child, not even through your first year of the Academy at the time."

Fern nodded brusquely. "Very good. And what brings you here, accompanying my colleague?”

Garo narrowed his eyes and gave her what I expect he thought was a knowing look. "Oh, ah, we met in the med center. I was also receiving treatment there. As we got to know one another, I realized that Dr. Almendra's background was one that I have a personal fascination and interest in. I was guessing you share that interest?"

And he winked at Fern. Ugh.

Fern's left eyebrow shot up like a gang signal flare. After a moment, she dropped into a bland stare. "I―see. I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Dr. Palendize. In any case, my work here is urgent and I must focus on it."

She grabbed a data pad from her desk and handed it to me. "Dr. Almendra, please feel free to take a seat on the sofa while you review the data."

Before she could turn away from us, Garo shot her a sheepish smile, even though she was clearly trying not to look at him. He was making me wanna barf again. "Well, ah, I'm waiting on my colleagues to send me some files―I work in the Rad Lab next door―and Dr. Almendra offered to―to discuss some shared interests for a bit―some stories from her, ah, past."

I shook my head. This nutball frado. "I thought you worked in the Q Lab," I mumbled to him.

Fern scowled. “Dr. Palendize," she huffed, pointing at the sofa again. "If you must, please go sit and don't disturb me any further. There are some data pads with the latest journals over there which you are welcome to read while Dr. Almendra finishes her review. We're on a tight schedule."

I felt my face get hot. I really wanted to try to explain the sitch to Fern, but how could I? Not with Garo here. Obvy she'd heard of these perverts―the nerds were as grossed out by them as we were. It was clear from the look on her face. I bet scientists found them even more disgusting than we did. Garo followed me to the sofa, ignoring Fern's ire and proceeded to harass me―thankfully in a low voice―with more questions about gang life, while I pretended to review meaningless streams of nerd jargon on the data pad.

It was only minutes later that the catwalk clanged dully with footsteps.

"Dr. Angstrom, I am Dr. Tygwan, and this is Dr. Seychelles. we're here on behalf of Dr. Tythe. You may have heard, he's asked us to observe your work. He's quite interested in helping you to verify your mother's theory."

I cringed at that. I didn't know much about Academy customs, but the drama vids made a big deal out of what a lack of respect it was to refer to scientists as anything other than "Doctor." And "Your mother" was for shiz out of the question. Hell, “your moms” was rude even among the cycler gangs.

Fern shook with what I assumed was rage, but she did a deck job of making it barely noticeable as she turned to greet the observers. The three of them had data pads under their arms.

One of them glanced over at me and Garo on the sofa. "What are your roles on this project?" he sneered, tilting his head at us.

I stood up. "I'm reviewing the results of Dr. Angstrom's work," I said.

"And I―" Garo began, glancing anxiously at me, "―I'm waiting to use the, ah, workstation that Dr. Angstrom is at. My colleagues in the Rad Lab require use of the Alcubierre Sim Tank to run tests on ―on a new class of radiation recently discovered that's generated from starship drives."

The three Tythe Observers glanced down at the cascade of other workstation platforms below ours. Luckily for Garo, every workstation was occupied.

He added quickly. "Dr. Angstrom said she was almost done, and so I'm here, waiting."

They lost interest in us and turned back toward Fern.

Fern breathed a sigh of relief; I guess our improv was helping. "Dr. Almendra, if you want to go finish your review of the data in the cafe while I provide an overview of our work to these gentlemen, you can just send it to me when you're done."

Garo grimaced. He clearly didn't like the idea of letting me get away that easily. "I―I'll join you for a coffee while you finish up," he said to me, loudly enough for Tythe's people to hear.

Oh well.

We were up and walking briskly along the catwalk, back to the giant double doors. It occurred to me if the observers were here, so were Betts' goons, since they'd come on the same ship. Frig. How long would it be til they found me?