Page 50 of Journey to the Forbidden Zone

“Analysis complete,” Zed announced. “Atmospheric composition confirms elevated levels of multiple complex volatile organic compounds matching UPA Class-4 bio-contaminant designation, ‘XenX Emotive Effectors – Primary Cluster’. Concentration levels are consistent with prolonged, close-proximity exposure to a XenX source individual. Standard shipboard environmental filtration systems are incapable of neutralizing or significantly reducing these compounds. Due to the recirculated nature of starship atmosphere, contamination is pervasive throughout all habitable sections of the Antilles.”

Pervasive throughout.

The words landed like hammer blows. It wasn’t just her. It wasn’t just this bay. The air they all breathed, recycled over and over, was saturated with it. A drug. Circulating through the vents, into their lungs, into their bloodstreams. AffectingSark’s nervous chatter, Norvik’s cold calculations, Letitia’s fierce protectiveness, and her own disastrous lapse of control.

“All of us?” Carmen heard herself ask, her voice strangely detached. “The entire crew?”

“Affirmative,” Zed confirmed. “All organic crew members aboard the Antilles are subject to exposure and the documented physiological and psychological effects. Probability of significant cognitive and behavioral influence approaches 98.7% for prolonged exposure scenarios such as this.”

Zed’s precision was a knife twist. It wasn’t just influence. Her decisions, her fierce defense of Mila, her refusal to sell her, her determination to take her home. Had any of it been hers? Or just the chemicals whispering in her blood, overriding logic, duty, self-preservation?

And holy shit, she’d let a XenX female onto a ship with two lesbians and two straight men.Everyonewas naturally attracted to her. Her ignorance, her negligence had compromised the whole crew!

She’d failed. Again. Just like with Corso. Underestimated the threat. Let something slip past her defenses. Only this time, the enemy wasn’t a mutinous bastard; it was an invisible cloud, a sweet-smelling poison, and the woman standing before her, looking at her with those impossible green eyes.

“You see?” Letitia’s voice was raw. “It’s everywhere. She’s compromised us all. She knew! She had to know what she was doing!”

Mila took a step back, her fur bristling slightly along her spine.

“I did not!” The calm was gone, replaced by a defensive sharpness. “I told you: it is biology! Like your own scent! Did you declare your intent every time you entered a room smelling of soap or perfume? No! You assumed others understoodthe nature of human olfactory signals! I made the same assumption!”

Her gaze locked onto Carmen, desperate now.

“Captain, believe me. I sought only to assist. To be useful. I would never deliberately manipulate you or your crew. My Harimi training forbids such deception. Service is offered freely, not coerced!”

“Useful?” Letitia scoffed, stepping closer, putting herself almost between Carmen and Mila. “Is that what you call it? Making the captain stare at you like a starving woman? Making her throw away our only chance to survive because you smell like some kind of … of space aphrodisiac?”

“Enough!” Carmen’s shout cut through the rising argument, sharp and final. The force of it surprised even her.

Both women flinched, falling silent. The cold fury inside her had crystallized into something hard, brittle, and utterly focused. She couldn’t afford rage right now. She couldn’t afford disgust. She needed control, damage control.

She finally looked directly at Mila. Really looked – the elegant lines of her face, the intelligence in her eyes, the warmth of her fur that had felt so alluring. Now, it all seemed like a carefully crafted lure. A trap.

The respect she’d felt for the engineer curdled into bitter suspicion.

“You will remain here in Engineering,” Carmen said, her voice flat. “Confined to this bay and the adjacent maintenance crawlspaces Zed uses. You will not leave without my explicit, direct order. You will not interact with any organic crewmember unless absolutely necessary for ship operations, and only under Zed’s direct supervision.”

She turned her icy gaze to the Mechan.

“Zed. You are responsible for enforcing this restriction. Log all interactions. Monitor her constantly.”

“Acknowledged, Captain,” Zed responded instantly. “Restriction protocols enacted. Continuous monitoring initiated.”

Mila stared at her, her green eyes wide with shock, then dawning hurt.

“Captain, you are confining me? Like a criminal?” Her voice was barely a whisper. “After I repaired your thrusters? After I offered only help?”

The wounded confusion in her tone scraped against Carmen’s raw nerves. It sounded so genuine. Was it? Or was it just another expertly deployed weapon, honed by her Harimi training? The doubt was poison. She couldn’t trust her own perceptions. Not anymore. The violation was absolute.

“What I feel,” Carmen said, forcing the words out past the tightness in her throat, “what any of us feel around you, is not real. It’s chemistry. Poison in the air.”

She met Mila’s gaze, letting the cold fury show.

“Your ‘help’ comes at a price none of us agreed to pay. Consider this quarantine. For your protection as much as ours.”

Mila’s shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly. The sight sent an unwanted pang through Carmen’s chest that she viciously quashed.

Not real,she reminded herself.Not real.