After the Andromeda personnel had left for the evening, Jane hunted down the little redheaded demon who had set her up with this assignment. She found Cassie in her office.
"There you are. Were you a party to this little bait-and-switch?" Jane demanded with mostly feigned irritation.
"Hm? Oh, hi Jane. How'd the dinner meeting go?" Cassie smiled, the very picture of innocence.
Innocence, my eye, thought Jane. "The meeting went just fine. Evidently the Andromeda's engineer is some kind of computer genius, and he's volunteered to go out to the air processing facility and take a look at the problem. And guess who got drafted to lead him out there? Go on, guess." She fixed the redhead with a piercing look.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Jane! And on your day off, too." Cassie's voice was sympathetic, but there was mischief in her eyes. "Now, let's get to the important part. What were the guys like? Any potential?"
Jane sat down on the edge of her friend's desk. "I swear, Cass," she growled, "if this is another one of your attempts to play matchmaker..."
Cassie shot her a look of wounded innocence. "Jane, how could I possibly be doing that? I don't even know what the boys looked like." Then she grinned and sat forward, leaning her elbows on the desk. "So you'll have to tell me."
Jane chuckled, surrendering to the gossip session that this visit was inevitably going to become. "Okay, okay. I guess their captain was all right, if you go for the knight-in-shining-armor type; which, by the way, I don't. Same deal with the Nietzschean; he wasn't bad looking or anything, just too..." she gestured with one hand, as if trying to bring the right word to the surface of her mind.
"Perfect?" Cassie supplied. "I know what you mean. If you've seen one Nietzschean guy naked, you've seen 'em all."
Jane arched a skeptical eyebrow at her friend. "Oh, and I suppose you've seen one?"
"Well that's neither here nor there. So, what about the other guy, this computer genius of theirs?" Cassie segued deftly.
"His name's Harper. He's..." Jane started to smile, then caught herself and glared at the redhead. "Dammit, Cassie, I have to work with this guy. I cannot afford to be having thoughts like that."
The other woman grinned. "He's cute, isn't he?"
Jane gave a defeated sigh. "Yes, he's cute, okay? Are you happy?"
"Thrilled beyond recognition," Cassie replied wryly. "But you're not going to do anything about it, are you?"
"Cass, I have a job to do. This is the military, not a dating service. I can't just run off with the guy I'm supposed to be protecting, and..." Jane stopped herself before she let her imagination finish the sentence for her. "I have a job to do," she repeated.
"I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't do your job, girl. But you have been using that as an excuse not to have a social life lately. Come on, it was far too easy for me to convince you to come in on your day off this afternoon. And do I even need to remind you how long it's been since the last time you got laid?"
"Please don't," Jane deadpanned.
"So, you see my point. Listen, all I'm saying is, you're going to be out there in the middle of nowhere with this guy, alone, for over a week---"
"Probably not alone, actually," she corrected. "General Kellan told their captain they could assign additional security personnel from their crew to this mission, and from the story I heard tonight, I'd be worried if these guys weren't a little bit paranoid. I'll probably get saddled with their weapons officer. So even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to get very romantic with Harper, not with a big Nietzschean chaperone tagging along for the ride."
"'Even if' you wanted to?" Cassie teased.
"Don't start with me," Jane warned, pointing a mock-threatening finger at her friend. She stood up. "Anyway, I should be heading home. I've got an early day tomorrow; I'm supposed to meet the Andromeda team at oh-eight-hundred." She enunciated every syllable of the time pointedly, implying that she blamed Cassie for every minute of missed sleep.
The redhead only grinned impishly. "Goodnight, then. Call me when you get back. Have fun!"
Fun. Jane briefly considered throttling her best friend, but decided that murder would take too long, and she did have an early day tomorrow. She rolled her eyes at Cassie, then waved and walked out of the room.