"Basel gave a small nod of his head that was hard for Eliana to decipher. "Commander, is the immediate emergency over?"Eliana paused to consider. "Yes..., I think we're safe for the moment. We have a triple hull of di-burnium alloy between us and the creature, and the observation dome is almost as tough. I'm hoping all the technology is on our side of the battle. Basel, we have so much to consider!" I agree! Eli, can we talk?"Five minutes later, down in their living quarters... "You're not sure. Without realizing Marie was right behind us, I asked Tim how old he thought everyone was.Marie interrupted, “To make it easier for you, I am 22, Anthony is 33, George is 45, and Mr. Rodriguez is 53.”“Thank you, Marie. Marie, the last time we were at the estate we didn’t see any of you.”“No, Mr. Rodriguez keeps his party activity and guests separated from the normal life at the estate. But from what I understand George got lucky that night.”The memory of my ‘thanking’ the chef for the wonderful. Or, I could seize the moment of New Years Eve. A new year; a new life. The good girl I had forced myself to be all those years suddenly seemed like an empty shell. A mask that I had worn to be the girl I thought Ryan had wanted. But as it turned out, it obviously wasn’t what he really wanted. And if I was honest with myself, it wasn’t the real me, either. Feeling emboldened by my thoughts, the buzz of dirty martinis, and the premise of a new year, I smiled back at him and cocked my head to one. I watched her check me over, critically, for signs of diseases.Only when heading into her room, did she realize I had no dry clothes and said, “Uh. Doesn’t this suck? It completely slipped my mind that all your clothes are wet and dirty. It isn’t like I have anything that will fit you.”“It seems that one thing about being the boss is that the staff has a lot of nosey people working here,” I said with a laugh. “I’m sure they are tracking me on the security cameras. Someone took my wet clothes,.