by Enid Titan
“Don’t go alone.”
“I’ll bring Kazim.”
Jaen nods.
“Go. I can handle myself.”
“I’ll come back here before nightfall.”
A funny look crosses her face but she agrees, which is the best I can hope for considering it’s Jaen and the last time I got too close, she stabbed me in the gut. She’s threatened to kill me more times than I can count, but each time she threatens me, I only want her more. I want to be close to her.
I leave her on the ground and report to Garth.
“How is she?”
He knows I’ve been with her.
“She’s fine. She saw someone acting suspiciously. I’ll get Kazim.”
Garth nods but before I leave, he pulls me back.
“Connie’s report doesn’t put us in a good situation. We’ll need all hands on deck around the clock to get the ship back up. Get a duty roster written up tonight and send a team to search for something we can eat here besides rations.”
“We have plenty of crewmen from hunter tribes.”
“Get it done. I’ll talk to Jaen again and look after her.”
“Aye, Captain.”
I assemble a team, assign Jisoo as the leader and send them off. For a human, Jisoo’s deadly. I assign a preliminary engineering team to Connie and send them off. Normally, engine operations are a one woman show. Sometimes Connie requires an extra pair of hands, but now she’ll need all the help she can get for the repairs. We might even need to excavate to dislodge the buried segment of the saucer.
Garth’s right to worry. After sending Connie’s team back along the path, I return to our encampment, shaping up beneath a clearing of trees. Nova and Kazim bicker loudly over the tent arrangements as crewmen awkwardly stand around gawking, unsure of weather to listen to Nova or Kazim. I clear my throat and they stop.
“Can you two stop bickering like an old married couple?”
“Married?!” Nova shrills, “Like I’d ever marry a human who sticks his dick into everything that walks.”
“Nova,” Kazim pleads, “not in front of the crew.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Kazim thinks it’s reasonable to assign four to a tent. It’s unnecessary. We can get along fine with 2 or 3 to a tent. There’s no reason for us to smash together like a can of mealworms.”
“Nova’s right. Two to a tent.”
“Or three,” Kazim answers slyly, winking at me, “I might have a woman to bed for the night.”
“If I have to hear you rutting like a mammoth in the middle of the night, I’ll scare her off myself.”
Kazim elbows Nova in the side.
“What do you say, Nova? Is it finally my turn with you?”
“Over my dead body, Kazim!” she yells, but her wings change color. When will the two of them figure it out and jump each other’s bones?
“Kazim? Can we talk?” I interrupt the new argument erupting between them.
“Girl trouble again?”
“No.”
I pull Kazim aside.
“Jaen saw Horus skulking around the engine room before the crash. We need to question him.”
“Aye, quartermaster. Let’s march forward and question the 7 foot tall Arietan, accusing him of sabotage and pretending he doesn’t have fangs that could strip the meat from our bones…”
“Don’t be a coward, Kazim. We’re asking questions. That’s all.”
“Aye. You’re asking questions. I’m following orders.”
Chapter 20
Questioning The Suspect
“Sit on the stump, Horus.”
Kazim’s apparently going to go the tough guy route. We fold our arms as Horus obediently sits on the stump, a few hundred yards off from our encampment.
“Is there a problem?”
“Yes,” Kazim answers.
“No,” I counter, “Not a problem. We have additional questions.”
“If thissss is because I didn’t have cannons aligned, I hardly had a minute before we went hurtling towardssssss this planet.”
“This isn’t about the cannons. Someone on the ship witnessed you acting highly suspiciously.”
For someone who frittered around conducting this interrogation, Kazim doesn’t appear to have a problem questioning Horus directly.
“I resent the implication.”
“Oh? So at no time in the past 24 hours you acted suspiciously?”
“It would help if I knew who accused me of what you ssssay.”
His tail flicks back and forth nervously over the stump. Kazim and I exchange glances. Kazim nods. He’ll take this one too.
“Why would we turn over our source to you? So you could eat them with these monstrous Arietan fangs or worse?”
“I did not take you for a bigot, Kazim.”
“I’m no bigot. But let’s speak frankly, Horus. Arietans… well… you can digest people.”
“Kazim! You know what… never mind. I’ll handle this.”
Horus gratefully turns his attention toward me.
“Jaen saw you skulking outside the engine room.”
His eyes are black and empty, but a puff of smoke erupts from Horus’s nostrils as he stammers.
“Cat got your tongue?”
“No! No cats… It’s… This is a matter of utmost embarrassment.”
“So you were skulking about? Ha!” Kazim exclaims, like he was the one who made the discovery and not I.
“I was not skulking. And I apologize if I offended Crewman Nabokov. Please… extend my sincerest apologies for what she witnessed and if she deemed the behavior suspicious, then that is my fault and I ought to present myself to her and make amends.”
Kazim leans over and whispers to me, “Am I the only one completely fucking confused?”
“No,” I whisper back, “I don’t have a bloody clue what he’s talking about.”
Kazim clears his throat.
“Before you make amends, you’d better tell us what she stumbled upon.”
“It is a most shameful matter!”
“Tell us, or we’ll have no choice to present our findings to Garth and have you tried as a saboteur.”
“Walking the plank isn’t so pleasant in space,” I add.
This interrogation is going better than I could have hoped.
“I am no saboteur! I am no traitor! And excuse me if I wish to have some matters kept personal. I will speak to Jaen.”
“You will speak to us,” I reply, “Or just me. Frankly, I don’t give a damn if you tell Kazim and it’s probably best not to.”
“You must not tell Garth.”
“I can’t promise that.”
Kazim’s already staring off into the distance at a buxom blue-skinned crewman in the distance, shedding her top so Xanth can look at the cut on her arm. I elbow him. Hard.
“Tell us,” Kazim says, “And hurry… because there is the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen in the distance and I must make her acquaintance.”
“This is the greatest embarrassment in my life. Promise you won’t tell Garth.”
“Fine,” I relent, with no actual intention of keeping my word unless it suits me, “I won’t tell Garth.”
“Flatulence.”
Kazim snorts. I elbow him. Hard. The last thing we need is Horus accusing us of mocking him.
“Could you please… elaborate?”
I bite down on my lower lip hard because Kazim’s barely contained laughs are contagious. Horus is too embarrassed to even notice.
“I emitted a cloud of flatulence when Jaen walked by. The smell of Arietan flatulence is extreme… it is a matter of great shame to… to… fart… in front of someone else.”
“Really?” I ask. My lip’s bleeding. I don’t want to howl in laughter but damn it, to sit here and listen to this horned and fanged beast speak with utmost shame about flatulence is nearly impossible to do without howling in laughter.
“I… I suppose her human nostrils may not
be sensitive enough to smell it but that did not stop my shame. I should have never… I didn’t expect her to come into the hall. I thought I had privacy. I shouldn’t have done such a thing in front of her.”
“So let me get this straight. You farted and didn’t want Jaen to smell it. But why were you outside the engine room?”
“Weapons. Loading cannons. You can check with Connie. I told her about the incident because she understands my people’s culture. With the crash, I hoped Jaen might forget the incident.”
“I see. We shall check with Connie.”
Kazim lost it. He laughed a loud belly laugh that reverberated through the forest. He doubled over, howling as tears streamed down his face. Horus stomped his feet and clenched his fists.
“Silence, Kazim! Is my humiliation not enough for you!”
“Pull yourself together, Kazim,” I hiss.
At least with Kazim howling like an intoxicated hyena, the smile tugging at the corners of my mouth doesn’t seem so bad.
“I suppose we’ve solved the mystery. Do not address this with Jaen. I’m certain she’s forgotten all about this.”
“Thank you,” Horus growls before storming off.
“Kazim! Get off the ground, you idiot!”
Kazim laughs and laughs as tears stream down his face.
Chapter 21
All Thorns
We gather around separate campfires for supper. Jaen sits with other crewmen, but as I approach, they scatter and leave room on the log next to Jaen. I sit there and she bends her head.
“What do you want?”
“How do you feel? I hope my patchwork didn’t leave you injured.”
“I’m fine.”
“Jaen… I looked into Horus. Thanks for the tip, but it was nothing.”
“Okay.”
“Am I that loathsome to talk to?”
“No.”
“When I saw you lying there with that beam on you, I didn’t think I could save you at first. I thought you were dead.”
“I’m not.”
“Jaen… please. Talk to me.”
She sets down her finished bowl.
“If you want to talk to me, let’s go for a walk. I don’t want anyone else on the crew getting the wrong idea.”
This is the first time she’s agreed to any of my suggestions without a fight.
“We can’t go into the clearing without weapons.”
“I always have a weapon.”
My stomach throbs where she stabbed me before. Muscle memory for the feisty little creature’s actions. We peel away from the crew.
“I didn’t assign you to night watch tonight,” I say once we travel down the path, the only one we’re allowed on, the one that leads to the crash site.
“Thanks.”
“I’ll be up tonight.”
“You didn’t ask me to go on a walk with you to discuss shifts.”
“I didn’t.”
“Gavriel,” she says, stopping and tugging on my sleeve. Hearing her say my name stops my breath. I want her so badly. I face her and she gazes up at me. She’s so short in comparison that I have to crane my neck to see her forehead and her puffy hair.
“What is it, Jaen? More tugging on my heartstrings? Wrapping me around your finger?”
“Stop it,” she whispers, “I’m trying to tell you something.”
Kazim’s words crash against the back of my mind. Jaen has a crush on you. Maybe he was right. Even now, I doubt it. She raises her gaze to mine and says, “I’m super blind without my glasses.”
I swallow. She doesn’t have a crush. She needs me for something.
“… I wish I could see your face,” she continues.
“Oh? For what reason do you need to see my face?”
“You make this so difficult.”
“Me? And make what difficult?”
“Damn it, Gavriel. I don’t hate you, okay? I know… I’ve been harsh. But… I appreciate you looking out for me. I wasn’t always like this. I didn’t always push people away.”
“We’ve all been through hell if we ended up pirates.”
“You say that, but I don’t know if it’s true.”
“They conscripted my entire planet. There are a handful of free Odilians in the universe right now. Twenty billion people sold into slavery on confederate ships. My parents are… they killed my parents and half my siblings.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Jaen…” I touch her cheek, “You don’t have to worry about being too damaged for me to handle. I only… I want you to trust me. I want to know you. Is that so wrong?”
She swallows and presses her hands against my chest.
“I wish I could trust you. Or feel anything about anyone at all. But I… I don’t know if I’ll ever trust a living person again.”
“Will you at least allow me to kiss you again?”
She bites her lower lip and then she nods. At least I think she nods. I kiss her and she allows it. The kiss takes over us. I push her up against a tree and she rakes her fingers through my hair, untying the knot that keeps it off my shoulders. Her hands run over my horns. When I pull away from her, she whispers, “I’ve always liked men with horns…”
I regret my next words as soon as I say them.
“Garth doesn’t have horns.”
“Please… don’t bring up my ex right now.”
I kiss her again and bury my nose in her wild, curly hair as her hands press against my chest and I press her body against a tree. I run my hands through her hair and we kiss a few more times before she pulls away and sighs.
“Gavriel,” she whispers, “I shouldn’t kiss you. I shouldn’t make you think I’m…”
“Talk to me, Jaen.”
“I can’t do relationships. We might not even make it out of here alive.”
“That’s right.”
“What happens after this?”
“This is my last mission. I go to my home planet after.”
“I don’t have a home planet.”
“Humans come from earth.”
“I know that,” she says, her snippy tone returning, “But I’ve never been to Earth. I was born in space. And now… I don’t have a home. Even with my earnings, it’ll only be enough for me to get passage on another ship. I can’t ask Garth to look after me twice not without…”
“Not without what?”
“Not without giving him something in exchange.”
My tongue lolls heavily in my mouth. There’s only one thing women in the under cities give to men for favors.
“Don’t,” I command, although I have no right to command her body. She owes me nothing and I don’t own her.
I soften my aggressive demand, “Come with me, instead.”
“Where?”
I want to say, “to hell and back,” which is where we’re going already but I don’t get the words out before the night watch shines their light on the forest path and Jaen ducks away from me, scurrying back to camp in the other direction. She’ll never let me get close. I know people like her. People like me. We’ve gone through too much to let anyone else in. We’re all thorns, no roses.
Chapter 22
Cave Creature
“Horus, you lead some crewmen Northwest, Poke, you stay with Connie and a crew to work on the ship. We’ll need every hand we can spare repairing the hull. Xanth, you can take a team of three to continue treating the injured. We need everyone up and running by the time we get this ship off the ground again. The remaining senior crew will split into teams. Jaen, you’re with my team. Gavriel, you take Nova and Kazim to the caves in the Southwest.”
“Aye, Captain. What are we looking for?”
“With sensors down, we need to check for signs of life. Shelter. We don’t know what conditions we may meet down here while we repair the ship. It’s entirely possible that the atmospheric storms that pulled us in might impact the surface.”
We have our marching orders and as the sun blazes down on the planet, I’m
grateful my task involves exploring caves. Odilians don’t endure heat well. Nova’s in bliss. Her dark skin glistens in the sunshine and her wings refract light beams everywhere as they flutter on her back. The only downside to my mission is getting stuck with Kazim and Nova when they’re in a middle of another one of their fights.
“If you two could fly, we could get to the caves faster.”
“What weapons do you have for us, Nova?” I ask, stopping Kazim from saying something that will surely be somewhere between crass and insensitive.
“Blasters. Hunting knives. Nothing new. Horus has to work on expanding the weapon array. We lost power cells in the crash.”
“We also lost the most beautiful female I’ve slept with this entire journey.”
Nova glares at him.
“Gavriel? If I kill him in the caves, will you tattle?”
Kazim shrugs.
“What’s the big deal? I have sex. You should try it sometime, Nova. It would loosen you up a bit.”
“I have plenty of sex, thank you very much!” Nova snaps.
“With who!?” Kazim and I ask together. Nova’s wings buzz furiously.
“I hate both of you. A lot.”
“You love me, right? Reserve your hate for dearest Gavriel… the horned virgin of an icy planet…”
“I am not a virgin.”
“You could have fooled me.”
“Nova, perhaps killing him isn’t such a bad idea…”
We bicker and banter until we get to the outskirts of the cave. Nova stares into the black entrance.
“What exactly does Garth expect us to accomplish here?”
“Do you smell that?” Kazim murmurs, sniffing the air dramatically.
Nova doesn’t. But I do.
“It smells like sulfur.”
“There may be some sulfuric alloy we can use here for power cells,” Kazim suggests.
“Great. We only need to walk headfirst into a dark cave with head lamps and tiny weapons. What if something lives in there?”
Kazim laughs.
“Nova, you are ridiculous. Here, I’ll check… HELLLOOOOO!”
Kazim calls into the cave and his voice echoes back to us.
