They reached the guardhouse and Peters put on his Colonel persona. His shoulders straightened, his movements became brisk and his face suddenly looked mature and serious. He went straight inside. “I’m Colonel Peters, Acting Officer in Charge while Colonel Young is absent. Who’s in charge here?”

King looked at him in amazement, was this the same man he had just been talking to about his sex life? He realised why Peters had been such a successful undercover agent, he could change characters instantly with no need of make up or costumes.

The guard who had arrested Ferris came forward. “I am, sir, Officer Randall. I’m sorry to get you out here, but I have a prisoner with no ID who claims you can vouch for him.” He gestured to the other man who had accompanied King and Peters, to bring out the prisoner.

Colonel Peters smiled politely, “What’s the charge, Officer?”

“Er... assault and attempted robbery, sir,” answered the unfortunate guard, already suspecting Ferris was going to prove to be who he had claimed. Otherwise, why would the Colonel have come in person?

Ferris was brought out then, a little dishevelled from the fight earlier but otherwise unharmed. He smiled in relief when he saw King but then his face went blank when he saw Peters.

Peters kept his own face coolly official. “Yes, that’s Lieutenant Ferris,” he stated. “Currently serving on the Jerez.” He looked at Randall in polite disbelief, “This is the man you say attacked another, in the street?”

“Yes, sir. Mr Wiatt here, well he was here, says that he was attacked by this man and two others. He should be back in a minute, he’s just popped into the men’s room.”

“Lieutenant, is any of that true?” Peters turned toward Ferris.

“No, sir. I was walking along, just getting some air when three men attacked me. I was defending myself when the man called Wiatt pulled out a stunner and shot me, they must have stolen my ID and wristcom when I was unconscious.”

“Where is this man, Wiatt?” Peters asked. “It appears it’s simply a matter of his word against the Lieutenant’s.”

“I’ll just go and check sir,” replied Randall, uneasily. He came back alone. By this time, no-one was surprised to discover that Wiatt had taken the opportunity to disappear.

“I think you have your answer, Officer,” said Peters, with a wry smile.

A few minutes later Ferris was free, walking back to his hotel between Peters and King. “Thank you, both of you, I really appreciate it! I hope I didn’t ruin your evening,” he apologised to King.

“No problem, you’d do the same for me.” King could almost feel the strain in the air between the other two men. He turned to Ferris—might as well take the comet by the tail.

“Matthew, I really think you should talk to Daniel. I know it’s none of my business but the tension between you two is off the charts. Go somewhere neutral if you don’t feel comfortable in each other’s quarters. Now I’m going to the Stars on the off chance my date for tonight has gone back there. Goodnight to both of you!” He clapped them both on the shoulder and strode off.

After a moment’s bemused silence, Ferris turned hesitantly toward the other man. “If you still want to talk to me, I promise I’ll listen this time.”

“Yes. I would like to talk to you, I mean. We could go somewhere and have a drink, the Red Panda isn’t too far away and it has small booths for privacy. Would that be okay with you?”

“Fine.”

They walked in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Then Peters spoke in a rush as if he couldn’t wait any longer.

“It wasn’t all lies, you know. It’s true that I set you up to make that pass at me, but I was confident you would back off when I asked you to. I was pretty certain you weren’t part of the exploitation, but I had to make sure.” He grimaced, “I was supposed to do the same thing with Sanchez but I only needed a short time with him to realise I would be a fool to risk it. I suspected he was one of the perpetrators and I wasn’t positive I could get away from him in a stealth pod.” He shuddered involuntarily. “And I’d already received solid information about Hendricks, so I didn’t need to check on him personally.”

Ferris spoke softly, his head lowered, focussing on his feet. “To be honest, you weren’t the only one I was upset with. When I found out you were a Major, my first thought was that I never would have made a pass at you if I’d known! And then I had to think, if that was true, then I shouldn’t have made a pass at all. I mean, what did that say about me? Maybe I wasn’t so far removed from Hendriks and Sanchez as I thought.”

“You’re nothing like them!” said Peters adamantly, wishing Matthew would look at him.

They walked in silence a little longer before Peters worked up the courage to continue, “About me being an om. For most of my life I really thought I was straight, and I worked hard at it, with my looks you can imagine it was a constant battle. I was actually married to a lovely woman for a couple of years.”

Ferris looked at him in astonishment.

“But it didn’t work, of course. She told me she thought I was an om but I wouldn’t listen, I told her she was just being bitchy.” He smiled wryly, “Surprisingly enough, we’re reasonably good friends now.”

“So what did it take to make you realise you were an om?” Ferris asked.

“Well, I was starting to have my suspicions of course, but what really woke me up and brought it home to me was the first time I ever got totally turned on by another man. I’d never felt that aroused in my life, it completely terrified me.”

“I can imagine,” Ferris said with unwilling sympathy. He didn’t want to empathise with Peters, he was the one who had led him on and betrayed his trust.

Peters made an odd sound. “Yes, well. You should. You were there.”

“I was... ?.” For a second Ferris didn’t understand, then he stopped dead in his tracks, completely stunned.

He tried to clear his throat. “Er, uh, you mean... when I... oh my god!”

Peters had stopped too and was just standing there watching him. Maybe now Matthew would grab him and push him up against the wall and kiss him senseless... or maybe he would just stand there, looking shaken to the core. As long as he didn’t start apologising.

He should have known better, Matthew being Matthew, was already rerunning what had happened in his head, feeling guilty again. “I’m so sorry, Daniel, I didn’t realise. I just thought you were acting, that it was all part of the trap. I should have listened to you back then, when you wanted to explain. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want your damned apology!” Peters felt so frustrated he could scream.

Ferris looked taken aback, “I’m sorry,” he repeated, stiffly. For a moment there he’d thought Daniel had been going to kiss him, what an idiot. “I’d better go back to the Blue Nova, I think.”

“All right,” agreed Peters with feigned indifference. “I’ll say goodnight, then.” He turned and strode off in a different direction. He couldn’t manage any small talk.