by Enid Titan
It might be honest work in their world, but most of us would rather die. We’d rather risk our lives on pirate ships to feed our families than lock our children and possibly our grandchildren into those contracts. Connie was born a contract kid. Garth removed her chip himself many years ago. They’ve known each other longer than any of us have. She has a bloody gash behind her neck.
I removed my chip on my own. And my siblings’ chips. But I was never a laborer. What happened to us was much worse. I assign shifts, crew quarters, including night watch and then meet with Garth in his quarters.
He’s puffing on a heady herb in his pipe, rubbing his protruding gold tusk like it hurts once I enter.
“Gavriel,” he grunts.
“Captain. I’ve completed crew assignments.”
“Good. Give it here.”
I slide the assignment pad over. He scans it.
“Yes. Yes.”
“I... wasn’t sure whether I ought to assign the new girl to engineering or if her skills would be better served with Licker in the kitchens.”
“Hm.”
“What do you really know about her, Garth?”
I use his name instead of calling him Captain, she he knows I’m serious.
“I know she needs us. And she can help us. She’s the one who stole the map.”
“A thief?”
“More than that. Keep Kazim away from her. I don’t need her ending up like the rest of the girls he has his claws in.”
“Aye.”
I smirk. Keeping Kazim away from a woman is like keeping a fish away from water. Impossible, unless you plan on killing the fish.
Chapter 3
Launch The Ship
I know she’s in engineering with Connie, but I don’t know if that’s why I end up there. I’m strolling through crew quarters, making sure the Junior crew members are all satisfied with their assignments. Every once in a while a put a telepath with the wrong species and all hell breaks loose. Garth doesn’t like telepaths, so it’s rare we ever have one on the ship.
They have their uses, but I don’t like them much either. The new girl holds a blue wire while Connie swears under her breath and solders exposed titanium together.
“Mother fucking fuck shit bitch tit fucker cunt cock sucker slut shit...”
Connie has a mouth on her, but she only swears when she thinks she’s alone. I clear my throat. Connie’s cheeks turn red and Jaen smirks. She might not have said a word, but at least I know she had a sense of humor.
“What do you want, Gav?”
“I wanted to make sure everything’s running smoothly.”
“I haven’t seen you in engineering since Helios.”
“Are you certain, Connie?”
“What do you want?” She snaps.
“All this time tinkering in the engine room has utterly stripped you of your manners.”
Jaen catches my eye and I wink. Her cinnamon-colored cheeks turn mulberry and she looks away. Damn.
“Take the girl off my back,” Connie snaps, “She’s been a help, but Garth knows I work better alone. Send her to run battle drills. She doesn’t look like she can hold a blaster.”
“Come, Jaen.”
Jaen follows obediently. As she gets close to me, I feel her hand slip into my pocket. I whip around and grab her. She gasps. I squeeze her wrist.
“What are you doing, you little devil?”
She unfurls her fists. I smirk.
“You stole this from Connie, didn’t you?”
She nods. I laugh.
“We’ll get along fine.”
I take the hunk of metal she’s stolen and rub my fingers over it. I think I’ll keep it. Perhaps sticky fingered Jaen’s actions will teach good old Connie a lesson.
Now that we’re alone and she’s quiet, I can’t help but feel nervous. I don’t know what to say to her.
“Have you ever met an Odilian before?”
She shakes her head, gulping nervously as she stares more openly at my horns. I grin.
“Few people have.”
I don’t know why I’m smiling. I feel stupid and return my face to its comfortable scowl.
“I haven’t seen many humans,” I continue, “You’re... dwarfish.”
She rolls her eyes. We’re finally at the kitchens. Licker stirs a giant pot of soup and sings over it.
“Licker. I brought you extra help.”
“Too many cooks spoil the broth,” Licker snaps.
“She’s new.”
“Don’t care.”
“She’s quiet.”
Licker raises an eyebrow.
“I’ll take it.”
I coax Jaen into the room. I want to push her in, but I’m scared of what will happen if I put my hands on her again. I still can’t stop thinking about grabbing her hand. And how slowly her fingers unfurled around what she nicked from Connie. And how bruised her palms were.
I leave her with Licker and return to my quarters. We have one more hour until we launch the saucer. Kazim sits in bed, naked, when I enter. He’s unperturbed by nudity. It’s normal in the desert, he claims. I think he has a bizarre enjoyment of displaying his private parts to unsuspecting people myself included. I’m used to him by now.
“I’m in love,” he croaks.
“In love? Who is the poor devil?”
“Jaen...” he gasps, his eyes fluttering shut like he’s dreaming of her.
My cheeks grow hot and I have the unrelenting urge to plunge my blade into his bare chest. Jaen? He’s barely said two words to her. I would think by now Kazim knows the difference between his insatiable lust and true love.
“Jaen?” I repeat, not wanting it to be true, not wanting him to have cause to pursue her and sink his teeth into her. She’s new. And Garth warned me to keep him away from her. For good reason. Kazim’s idea of love is a quick trajectory towards mutually assured destruction.
“She’s beautiful. And human... do you know how rare it is to find a true human in this sector? She isn’t pale but... she’s still... a rare jewel.”
“We need you focused at helm once we launch, not dreaming of some mute human girl.”
He sits up, smiling. We’re opposites like that. Kazim can’t wipe a smile off his face, even in the most inappropriate situations. I want to remind him that moments ago he courted three-breasted females on the surface.
“I love her, Gavriel. I know you don’t understand emotions but some of us experience love... true love.”
“Your cock experiences more true love than a four-hundred-year-old Devoran,” I grumble.
“She’s exquisite. And I’ll have her in my bed. I promise you.”
“Garth will castrate you himself.”
“Let him try. I’d die for her. Oh, Jaen... she’s so beautiful... so perfect...”
“Shut the fuck up, Kazim.”
“Aye. I’d better head to helm. I don’t need Poke putting us through another one of her rough launches.”
I grimace. Poke nearly killed us on the last mission. Kazim’s a nuisance, but I concede he’s the better pilot. As he heads to helm, I glance over at his bunk. He’s drawn a picture of Jaen that enrages me. He has no right to her. He has no right to subject her to his lusty plots. Isn’t enough for Kazim to have Nova fawning over him? She’s loved him for five years and follows him everywhere. Yet he never sleeps with her. He sleeps with everyone who walks, but never Nova, the one person on this bloody ship who wants him.
Garth sends a message to my panel. It’s time. I meet him in the saucer’s dome. Kazim sits at the helm, smiling seriously, a feat that he somehow accomplishes. Poke sits to his right, I sit to his left. Jisoo mans the security system, in direct communication with Connie in engineering.
“We’re ready,” Garth says, “Launch the ship.”
Chapter 4
The New Girl Has Suitors
Launch is less painful with Kazim at helm. Garth grips the armrests of his chair on the way up. I live for launch. The smell of burni
ng as we hurtle through the atmosphere. There’s always the fear that launch will fail. If it did, we’d incinerate into a billion pieces and fall from the sky in Helios in a cloud of ashen rain. It’s almost romantic.
When I told Nova, she pointed out that I have a fucked up idea of romance. She’s probably right. A ripple of relief rolls through the ship as we burst into deep space. Connie’s got us through the sensor net and we’re free. Poke takes over helm from Kazim. My work in the dome finished for now. I take my leave of Garth. It’s my job to make sure everything around the ship runs smoothly, to supervise the various jobs of the nearly eighty crew members on our vessel.
I start with the cleaners. Humans are normally best suited to cleaning. They’re frail, sensitive to heat, and few of them this far from their home planet have the requisite skills to do better jobs. The two young males sanitize the floors by hand. We’re only a pirate vessel, so we rely on grunt work to keep the space muck off the decks.
“You missed a spot.”
Jisoo and Horus run battle drills on the first deck. Jisoo’s smaller than Horus by orders of magnitude, but the battle crew is more scared of her than the hulking Arietan barking orders at her side while his tail whips back and forth with unwieldy vigor. Horus programs the weapons and outfits the crew. Some greener members hesitate to shoot their targets. Jisoo screams at a young Denebolan who misses the target.
“SHOOT! When the Confederates stand before you ready to lop your dick off, you’ll want to aim for his bloody heart.”
Even Horus looks frightened. The kid’s probably never fired a gun before. Jisoo scowls at me as I observe their training. She sends the crew members off on their first break and barks at me, “What do you want, Odilian? We’re running drills.”
“This is my job.”
Jisoo hates me. She hates everyone. Whatever happened to her to make her end up here must have been horrible. No humans in this part of the galaxy have had normal lives. Like Jaen. Jaen... She must still be working with Licker.
Unfortunately, I have more rounds to make before I make an excuse to ogle the new girl.
Nova’s working on weaponry with Connie since we got the ship through launch. They’re working on a new weapon that can work through stone. We’ll need it to get to the wreck once we arrive at the asteroid.
“Can I try it out?”
My hand rests on a two-foot long blaster. Nova’s wings flutter with excitement.
“Oh, this one is good, Gav.”
“Yeah?”
I lift it and look through the view-screen.
“Careful. Don’t blow our heads off,” Connie mumbles.
“I won’t...”
“It’s not loaded. It’s blank. You’ll feel the kickback, but you won’t blow a hole through the ship.”
I shoot.
“Fuck. This is smooth.”
“Thanks.”
Nova beams.
“Outstanding work. When can you manufacture the new weapons?”
“We have the parts. We need a crew of ten.”
“I’ll assign them for the next two shifts.”
“Run along,” Connie says bluntly, “Xanth needs you.”
I scowl.
“Why?”
“You haven’t given blood samples yet and we’ve already launched.”
“I hate having my blood drawn.”
“So? We all must do it.”
“Can’t he use an old sample.”
Connie looks at me like I’m stupid. Considering her engineering knowledge, compared to her, I probably am stupid.
“You crash landed our last ship. What do you think happened to the samples?”
“I’ll be going.”
“Do that. We don’t need unnecessary interruptions.”
“I’ll be sure to put that in my report to Garth.”
“And tell Garth I don’t need him to send a boy like you to check on me every five minutes.”
Nova giggles and punches Connie gently in the arm.
“Connie... Gavriel isn’t so bad. He’s only doing his job.”
“Hmph.”
I wink at Nova and leave them alone. For someone whose job is causing as much damage as possible, Nova has one of the brightest personalities. I can’t figure out why Kazim won’t touch her, considering she loves him and he loves... well, he loves women.
I originally planned on seeing Licker first. And Jaen. But if Xanth needs me, it’s urgent. And I don’t think he only needs me for blood. The new saucer’s sick bay lacks resources from the first one. My crash landing didn’t do the old sick bay any good. Xanth sits hunched over a medical pad, taking notes on the crew.
Piracy is big business, so yes, we have doctors and engineers. Surviving the Confederacy requires a flourishing black market. It’s the only way most of us can survive. Xanth trained on a distant planet’s medical school. He was one of the first in the Confederate resistance, and he has all the scars to show it — and not only physical ones.
I clear my throat in the entryway.
“Gavriel. Here to give blood?”
“Yes. But I suspect you want to see me about something else.”
Xanth taps his fingers on the desk. Five times. He always taps his fingers five times. Five is his number, and it’s best to never point out the control the number has over him.
“Stick out your arm.”
I roll up the sleeves of my linen shirt and Xanth approaches.
“What happened here?”
He touches a dark purple bruise on my arm, and I wince.
“Fight.”
“Hm.”
He draws my blood. It doesn’t hurt, but I don’t like the sight of it leaving me. Blood. You get used to dealing with it out here, but I’d rather spill someone else’s blood than spill my own.
“You’re right. I have an ulterior motive. I need your help with the new girl.”
Fuck’s sake. Not him too? It’s bad enough chasing Kazim off her, but Xanth? He’s old enough to be the girl’s grandfather. I respond with a smirk.
“What do you want from me, Xanth?”
“I need to get the new girl working in here. I need a medical assistant and I won’t have Jisoo again.”
He taps my vial of blood five times against the desk before storing it in the refrigeration system.
“What’s wrong with Jisoo?”
“She has the worst bedside manner of any human I’ve ever met. Her eyes are cold. And she scares the crew. Not to mention she causes half the injuries that get people sent here.”
“Jisoo likes medical training.”
A lie. And an ineffective one. Xanth touches the scar on his cheek.
“Do this for me, Gavriel. And I’ll make it worth your while.”
“How?”
“5%. I’ll give 5% of my share to have the girl in my sick bay.”
“Are you that lonely, Xanth?”
His eyes are glassy and hollow. I can’t tell if he’s listening to me.
“Yes,” he murmurs, “And I need a woman close.”
“Garth instructed us not to touch the new girl.”
“Oh, I won’t touch her. But you’re right. I’m lonely. And she’d brighten things up in here, don’t you think?”
“You could fling this sick bay into a fireplace and it wouldn’t stay bright.”
“5%, Gavriel. I know you. You need that 5%.”
The worst part about that is he’s right.
Chapter 5
Night Shift With Nabokov
I never make it to Licker and Jaen. No matter. In rearranging shifts, I assign her to night watch with me. If Garth wants me to keep an eye on her, the easiest way to do it will be placing Jaen under my thumb.
Night is when Kazim’s most active. He’ll probably have a junior crew member rutting beneath him for most of the night. I’ll leave him to his wiles. I prefer darkness to light and intriguing human girls to over eager recruits looking to expand their winnings by jumping into bed with senior crew.
Jaen rushes through the automatic doors. She doesn’t speak at all. She only stares around the room blankly as if she doesn’t know what to do next.
“Next time, don’t be late. Take your position, crewman.”
My ears warm as she takes her position next to me. She barely comes up to my chest, the little thing. And she’s red-faced from running through the ship.
“I’ve assigned you a shift in sick bay with the doctor.”
She nods. Why doesn’t the girl speak? Perhaps she’s afraid of us. She’s green, that’s true, but even the green girls eventually warm up. This is a ship full of criminals and deviants. Jaen hardly looks the part. But with her sticky fingers, perhaps it is an act.
She’ll warm to me soon. My body already warms to her. I clear my throat and ask, “Do you know what to do here?”
Jaen nods, a cloud of her black hair billowing behind her. I lean over her shoulder and watch her screen. There’s nothing difficult about night watch. It’s always boring until it isn’t, then we’re fighting for our lives or catapulting to our deaths. We manage a way out of scrapes.
“You’ve worked on a pirate ship before?”
She shakes her head.
“Hm. I have to wonder where a little thing like you learned about space exploration.”
She purses her lips.
“Is there a reason you don’t talk to any of us? Is it because you’re scared?”
Her brows pinch together.
“Perhaps Jaen Nabokov, you think yourself better than us.”
