by Enid Titan
“Plenty bad can happen in fifteen minutes.”
“Will you be there?”
She nods.
“Can I kiss you?”
She nods.
And I grab her face and kiss her. I can hear Licker’s footsteps, but I don’t want to let go of her so soon. I push my tongue into her mouth and split my tongue in two as she kisses back. I don’t want to wait for the night shift, but I have to. I pull away before Licker can see us and I disappear for the rest of my duty shift, thinking about Jaen for every moment.
I leave for my supply closet hideout right before night shift. I only pass junior crewmen who are too wise or too ignorant to question the ship’s Quartermaster. I shut the metal door and wait. I can hear muffled voices from sickbay, but even Odilian hearing can’t penetrate the ship’s metallic walls. I lean against the wall and wait. I hear footsteps approaching after an hour, soft, human footsteps. I open the closet door a crack and there she is — Jaen Nabokov — looking softer and prettier than she did after a grueling kitchen shift.
She slips into the closet and we’re in the dark together.
“Did you dress up for him,” I murmur, taking one of her perfect curls onto my index finger and swirling it around, “Is that why you look… ravishing?”
“No,” she whispers, “I didn’t dress up for Garth. I dressed up… for you.”
“I see. Well, my apologies for not returning the favor.”
“You don’t have to dress up,” she responds, “You look and smell amazing.”
“So. Fifteen minutes in a supply closet. What should we do?”
“I have some ideas…”
Jaen leans forward, her palms pressing against my chest. My stiffness rises to attention and I meet her hips. I run my hands over her lower back and cheekily move them over her bum. She gasps and presses her body against mine as I fondle her plump ass. A low growl unintentionally shakes my throat. I’ve tried to hide my savagery from her, but now that we’ve kissed and come close to the edge, I’m nearly ready to release my full Odilian side. The side I’ve hidden from every alien I’ve encountered.
She kisses my lips as the growl continues.
“What’s that sound?” She whispers gently.
“I want you,” I whisper, “I can’t stop it.”
“I want you too. But can our first time really happen in fifteen minutes in this supply closet?”
“I don’t know,” I murmur, “I always planned on having you for an entire night in my bed.”
My tongue touches her neck, and she moans as our bodies press desperately together.
“I don’t care,” She whispers, “I want you now, Gavriel. Please… I can’t wait any longer.”
And then we both hear it — a blaster firing once. And then twice more. We pull away from each other and press our backs against opposite ends of the supply closet.
“Did you hear that?” Jaen gasps.
If she heard it, I did too.
“That sound came from sick bay.”
We both say his name at once, “Xanth.”
Chapter 54
Xanth’s Secret
Poke comes into sickbay as Jaen and I lift Xanth onto one bed. We didn’t make it in time. Whoever shot Xanth must have teleported. Or they vanished. But he’s dead. No one could survive a blast like that from close range. Jaen’s crying as we lift him onto the bed, silent sobs, but sobs all the same. She may not have loved the man, but they had a friendship at least.
Poke comes into the room armed with Horus and Nova.
“Before I ask what you two were doing here,” she snaps, “tell me everything you saw.”
We tell her everything. Jaen turns red as I mention the supply closet. Considering our situation, I don’t see the sense in lying to Poke. She’s cross with us, but it’s not intolerable.
“You’re sure he’s dead?” Nova asks softly.
I nod. Poke goes over to the hospital bed. Garth’s still in a coma, unharmed.
“Who would come in here and kill Xanth without touching Garth?” Horus wheezes.
“We had a meeting tomorrow. He wanted to discuss something strange he witnessed, but he had work to do with Garth.”
“You thought it could wait until tomorrow?”
“It’s Xanth. He made urgent pleas about which pretty girls he wanted working in here. I figured if it was truly important, he wouldn’t want to wait.”
“Cover him,” Nova asked Jaen, “Poor Xanth.”
“Yes. Poor Xanth. We’ll have a proper funeral for him. But unfortunately, the lot of us can’t sit around crying. We still have nearly three weeks left in this journey before we turn around and go to the drop off planet and it’ll get harder before it gets easier. We need a doctor.”
“Gavriel, who else has medical training?” Nova asks.
“Jaen worked closely with Xanth, but there are a few others.”
“Jaen can take the first shift. Do you know how to check his vitals?”
Jaen nods at Poke. I think she’s a little scared of Annabel, and I can’t blame her. Annabel has that overtly intimidating air that Garth could never manage, making her a fearsome Captain now that she’s in the chair.
“Jaen will split the shifts with someone else,” Poke announces, “We can’t keep this a secret for long. Maybe someone else saw something. Interview everyone on duty on these two decks. I’m choosing to trust you, Gavriel, but it’s hard for me not to notice that you always seem to be at the scene of the crime.”
“Annabel, I assure you that if I planned on killing Xanth, I would have done it when he started sniffing around Jaen.”
“That isn’t a great defense, but I doubt you would have reported this death to me if you wanted to remain anonymous.”
“We’ll have the funeral soon. 0900 tomorrow. Got it?”
“Aye.”
We go our separate ways. Horus and Nova remain behind to prepare Xanth’s body. Jaen stays behind to work the rest of the night shift. I meet with Annabel to discuss our plans for the funeral and the days ahead.
“I don’t know if we can make it without a doctor, Poke.”
“I don’t know if we can either. But we don’t have a choice. I received word from an informant on Haig’s ship that they recently kidnapped a female doctor.”
A female doctor on Haig’s ship would be a sex slave like every other female. But we could buy her freedom from Connie’s brother and have her come work for us — and for pay.
“Since when do you have informants on Haig’s ship?”
“Since forever. Garth refused to let me use them, but… Garth doesn’t call the shots anymore.”
Poke’s always been cold, so it’s hard to tell if what she’s just said is suspicious or just her typical bluntness.
“Do you think whoever killed Xanth wanted to go after Garth?”
Poke shakes her head.
“See if Xanth left any personal logs. It’s not the pirate's way to leave detailed accounts of our journeys where anyone could find, but he might have kept some for medical purposes.”
“Even the medical logs may reveal something interesting.”
“Aye. And Gavriel? Be careful with Jaen.”
“You don’t trust her?”
“I want to trust her. She seems sweet enough. But out here, it’s hard to trust sweet. And she wasn’t here when most of this stuff happened. But… that’s not entirely what I mean.”
“What do you mean?”
“The supply closet.”
“Oh.”
“We’re all hormonal on here, but we’ve been on missions together. We’ve had heart to hearts and I know you’re… romantic.”
She says the word romantic like it’s swearing.
“I’m no more romantic than you.”
Poke slams her fist on the desk that used to be Garth’s.
“Romantic?!” She hisses, “Let’s get one thing straight, Gavriel. I have needs. Womanly, sexual needs and a voracious appetite that only a strong, enormous
alien male can fulfill. I am not romantic. You… you’re soft. Like Kazim.”
I could have gone without hearing about Poke’s “womanly, sexual needs” but here I am. Hearing about them. Soft like Kazim? What does that mean?
“Kazim?”
“Typical! That’s what you take away from all this? I tried it with Kazim. He’ll sleep with anyone, but he won’t sleep with me because I’m Nova’s good friend. See what I mean? Sentimental. Like you. And Jaen might seem all innocent, but I look in her eyes and I see someone damaged. She could break you in two, Gavriel.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
“Don’t get all petulant. Just be careful with her.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Poke lets her guard down for a moment.
“It’s strange to hear you call me Captain.”
“We’ll get Moray awake. Xanth was working on it, I’ll set Jaen on the task.”
“See to it.”
At 0900 hours, we have a funeral. Everyone attends. Licker sobs. Nova says a few words and Poke tries to rally the crew together, but morale hasn’t been lower. I can’t pick out Jaen in the crowd. She’s either still working sick bay looking after Garth, or she’s in the crowd somewhere, mourning alone. After the funeral, Poke pulls me aside.
“I received an anonymous report on my desk. I stopped by the Captain’s conference room before the funeral and there was this slip of paper with Connie’s name on it. I don’t recognize the handwriting and someone with high clearance got the doors open without leaving a sensor trace.”
“Do you think that’s who’s behind all this then? Connie?”
Round and round we go, suspicious of everyone, yet no closer to answers. I loathe it.
Chapter 55
Connie Suspects
“He mentioned before that he suspected Connie,” Jaen tells us when we meet her in sick bay. Garth’s blood pressure is finally stable, and there’s a chance we can wake him up before we get to the planet. I think Poke needs relief from duty. She barely sleeps, and her temper’s even more unstable.
“Why didn’t you think to tell us this before, you idiot?” she snaps.
“Annabel…” I caution her, but she doesn’t notice.
“I didn’t think it was important. Look, Xanth wanted to impress me. He wanted me to see him as this dazzling doctor who could solve everything. But Connie doesn’t like her brothers. I don’t think she’d want Saroyan to attack the ship. She cares about this ship. She wouldn’t sabotage it.”
Poke half-listens to Jaen’s pleas about Connie’s innocence.
“You worked with her, human. Did you notice anything? This time try not to be an idiot and withhold anything?”
I decline to warn Annabel again. I don’t want my head to be next.
“No. Connie’s always focused on her work.”
“I’ll question her,” I offer, “Without torture.”
Annabel scoffs, “Torture her if you have to. I want answers. Tomorrow evening, 1800 hours, I want a report to the senior staff.”
I know what it’s like sitting in the brig and held there with no reason. Connie sits whistling to herself. I don’t recognize the song.
“Gavriel. Have you come to torture me?”
She asks with a disinterested voice, like she’s asking if I’ve brought her a cup of tea. Connie doesn’t scare easily, smart if you’re a pirate. I sit on the floor outside the forcefield. I have to remove my weapon from my holster to sit properly, but I have no interest in using this weapon to threaten Connie.
“Who reported you?”
“Did you know who reported you? The cock sucking shit sniffing mother fucking fuck head thinks they can get rid of me but they can’t.”
“If you don’t know who reported you, how do you know they’re a… what you just said.”
“Because. I figured it out. I tried to tell Annabel, but you know how she gets when she’s angry.”
It’s a stereotype that red aliens are hotheads, and it isn’t true with most. With Annabel, however, the stereotype holds true. She finds herself easily unhinged.
“What did you figure out?”
“It’s a shapeshifter.”
I stifle a snort. This is what Connie wants Annabel to take seriously? Shapeshifters don’t exist in this part of space. Everyone knows the confederacy wiped out shapeshifters years ago, long before the oldest of us were even born.
“Connie…”
“The confederacy purged information about shapeshifters from science manuals, computer systems, and logs. They’re considered dangerous the way they consider telepaths dangerous. What if not all of them died? What if there’s a shapeshifter on this ship?”
“This isn’t likely, Connie. A holographic person is more likely than a shapeshifter.”
“They don’t have to take a form,” Connie whispers, “It’s in the children’s stories. They move in clouds of smoke.”
“Those are children’s stories. They aren’t real. Just stories parents tell to scare their kids off becoming space pirates. Living ghosts, haunting ships and changing their shape… it’s unlikely a creature would make it onto this ship. There are hundreds if not thousands of conditions that would force a shapeshifter into their natural form.”
“Not if they were half.”
“What?”
“Kazim’s half-human. He appears human except… well… you know. He talks about the alien part of him all the time.”
We exchange a grim nod, reminiscing over the thousands of times we’ve both heard Kazim bragging about his genitals in inappropriate contexts.
“Do you think it’s a human, then?” I murmur.
Maybe we aren’t wrong to suspect Jaen. She’s human. She came here under mysterious circumstances. Maybe this is her secret. Why she didn’t speak.
“I never said that you fuck nugget,” Connie grumbles.
I’m too intimidated to ask her what the hell a fuck nugget is.
“Fine. If there were a shapeshifter on this ship, which I don’t believe, how could we find out who they were?”
“I found traces of a chemical compound in the hall outside sick bay. Trace amounts of dioxin. Horrible for most of us to breathe in so it gets filtered out by the ship’s systems quickly.”
“How long could we go without filtering the ship’s systems? Maybe if the chemical built up, we could use that as a trace.”
“You could also do something much easier.”
“What might that be?”
“Set a trap.”
Chapter 56
Shapeshifters
I promise Connie I’ll take my concerns straight to Annabel, but I can’t do that for obvious reasons. I’ll need more evidence of a shapeshifter before I bring this to Connie, and I have one more person to question. Whenever she works the night shift, I’ve assigned myself to guard with Horus or Nova. Nova hates guarding sickbay because I’m convinced she still sees Kazim in secret. He’s always had that addictive effect on women. Nova isn’t immune, even if she pretends to be.
This shift, I’m on with Horus who isn’t the whistle while you work shift partner.
“I’m heading in there,” I tell him.
He grunts instead of providing a definitive answer. Typical Horus. Jaen flinches as the sick bay doors slide open.
“What are you doing here?”
It’s been three days since the supply closet. Three days since she told me what she wants from me. I hope Nabokov appreciates how damned difficult it’s been to keep myself away from her.
“I’m here to see you.”
“Are you allowed?”
“I guard this door every minute you’re in here. It’s only reasonable I check if you’re alive. How is the Captain?”
“Careful, Gav. Annabel’s our Captain now.”
“Aye. How is the man?”
“He’s stable. We may get him out of the coma soon. I’m not a doctor. I can’t have Garth’s life in my hands like this.”
I think to myse
lf that he had her life in his hands. And he let her down. I wet my lips and move closer to Jaen. She steps back. Does she really expect me to keep things professional with her after three days? One look at her human face and I want her.
“Right. I ought to try not kissing you on the job.”
“It’s not that,” she whispers, “It’s coma patients. They can hear you.”
“Are you worried Garth will hear us kiss? I don’t think he’d mind. I reckon it’s the most entertainment he’s had in days.”
“That’s not funny, Gavriel.”
“Sorry.”
“Are you in here for a reason?” Jaen mutters.
“Yes. We need to meet up again. Tonight.”
“Because last time was such a success?”
“This time not in a supply closet. I want you in my quarters.”
“Gavriel…”
“Listen, I’ll assign you janitorial duties if I have to. But I want you there.”
“If getting me to your quarters was as easy as assignment me janitorial duty, why didn’t you do it before?”
“I didn’t want to rouse suspicions. Since everyone on this ship is running at half capacity, I doubt Poke will still scrutinize me.”
“Fine. I’ll come after my shift. But get out of here before Horus gets suspicious. I don’t want him running to the Captain and having her chew me out again.”
“You got chewed out by Poke?”
“She hates me. I don’t even know why, but she does. She trusts you after everything, but not me.”
“I’ll talk to her.”
“No! Jeez, Gavriel. You’ll only make it worse. Do nothing. I’ll come see you. Okay.”
“Do you want to come see me?”
“Yes. I’ve missed you. And that isn’t easy for me to say.”
“I get it. We’ll sort this out. And once we do, we’ll see each other and we’ll lie on a bed of confederacy treasures and make love.”
“That doesn’t sound comfortable,” Jaen mutters.
“It’s the thought that counts.”
