by Enid Titan
She slaps me across the face. I deserve it. But her slap took me by surprise and I bit my cheek. Blood gushes into my mouth as I grab my face.
“Call me a whore again and I’ll gut you.”
“Ouch…”
“I never slept with Kazim and I never would. And you’re a fool for getting jealous. There’s no such thing as love on pirate ships.”
“Who said anything about love?”
It’s her turn to sneer.
“So you really are just like other men. All you care about is conquest.”
“Jaen…”
“Will you hold me back again?” She snarls.
“No.”
“Good.”
“But you can’t leave.”
“Why not?”
“I need your help.”
“Why?”
“People on this ship suspect you of sabotage.”
“People? All people or just you?”
I lie, “Not me. Others. I want to offer you protection, Jaen. You need it. Garth might not always be there.”
“Garth has never protected me,” she snaps, “And don’t you imply that what he’s doing is protection.”
“I…”
“What do you want? Out with it?”
“Become my spy. Report to no one else. Not even Garth. I want to know what’s happening on this ship.”
“Are you the saboteur?” she asks.
“Why would you ask such a thing?”
“A test.”
She smirks, but my heart doesn’t stop racing.
“Agree to it.”
“Fine. I will spy for you. No one notices me here, anyway.”
Jaen has a false impression of how easily she goes unnoticed. Everyone’s curious about her, especially the senior staff. Especially Kazim. Xanth. Garth. Is there a damned male on this ship who isn’t in love with Jaen Nabokov? She’d probably spit roast us all together if she knew. But she must know. She’s too beautiful to be ignorant of that beauty.
I return to my quarters after forging our agreement. Kazim’s in bed alone for once, and he swings his legs over the mattress.
“Gav. I’ve been waiting for you ages. Where were you?”
“Continuing my investigation.”
“Oh?” Kazim flashes a wary, nervous smile, “Find anything?”
“No. Why are you smiling like that?”
“Because… I have to tell you something. But you won’t like it.”
“Spit it out.”
I’m in a foul mood. Jaen might have agreed to help me, but I want more than her help. I want… more.
“Jaen isn’t your saboteur. I know half the damn ship thinks she is but… she has a secret. A huge secret.”
“What could that possibly be and how did you find out?”
Kazim shrugs.
“You may have noticed I have a way with women.”
“You have your way with women.”
“Usually,” Kazim continues, “But not Jaen. Because, Gavriel, her heart belongs to another.”
Chapter 17
Should We Attack?
“Jaen has a crush on you.”
“She doesn’t. And we’re too old for crushes.”
Kazim snickers.
“You act like you’re such an old bastard. I’m four years older than you. Lighten up.”
“I don’t need to lighten up.”
“You do. Jaen likes you. Trust me. I’m 100% sure it’s the only reason she won’t allow me to expose her to the wonder of having sex with me.”
“Maybe she doesn’t like how arrogant you are,” I grumble.
Kazim shakes his head.
“Nope. That’s not it.”
“Jaen wants nothing to do with anyone on this ship.”
“Gavriel. My friend. You may understand many things but you don’t understand women. Trust me. She wants you.”
“I’m going to bed.”
Kazim shrugs.
“Suit yourself. There’s a Devoran girl on deck three who can do mind tricks that would… well… that’s between me and her.”
“Good night.”
“Jaen. Make love to her. Take action!”
“Good night!”
Connie has the ship in working order in another three days. Now we can pick up speed, we’re getting into dangerous territory. We aren’t the only pirates in space. Mostly, we try to stay out of each other’s way, but we’re not above fighting and looting each other for resources. Garth had treaties with most of the crews we might encounter in this sector of space. Confederates avoided us as much as we avoided them. Our ships were often evenly matched and our crews had seen real hell — more hell than most of their conscripts would in their entire careers.
“The problem’s fixed then?”
“Gavriel. I’ll write a report when I get around to it. I have bigger problems than reports like watching my back 24/7 to make sure someone doesn’t come into the engine room and set the fucking place on fire.”
“Relax, Connie. I’ll let Garth know you’re overwhelmed. I can assign Jisoo to work a shift with you.”
“Humph!”
“What’s wrong with Jisoo?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
“Connie…”
“I asked her on a date during our last voyage. She said no.”
“What is it with everyone on this ship and their obsession with sex?”
“I didn’t say anything about sex.”
“Um… neither did I,” I stumble over my words awkwardly. Damn. Connie smirks.
“Are you dating someone?”
“No. I’ll assign Jisoo here. You need to get over it.”
“I’d like to keep an eye on Nabokov.”
“She’s working with Xanth. He won’t let her out of his sight.”
“Good.”
I work the same shift with Garth now. Jaen made night shift more pleasant and I’m better off having her out of my mind. We won’t see each other if I keep myself on the early morning shift instead. Garth messages my intercom.
“Gavriel, we need you here. There’s a confederate gamma-class ship coming out of the Hertz Nebula, 2 million kilometers out.”
“I’m on my way.”
“God fucking damn it,” Connie mutters, “Can we spend three minutes on this ship without diving into trouble?”
I can’t help but grin. Connie would never talk to Garth the way she talks to me but I like it. She reminds me of my older sister. The dead one. When I talk to Connie, I miss her. But it’s the good kind of missing her, where you realize how important that person was to you and that even if you don’t have them, you’ll have that heart-skipping feeling each time you think about them.
“What’s the plan?” I ask Garth as I enter.
“Nova? Weapons analysis?”
“We can outgun them but it’ll be a tough fight given the recent damage we’ve sustained.”
“What do you think, Jisoo?”
“Attack.”
“They’re getting closer. Kazim, take us into the nebula. Nova, run a sensor scramble.”
“Aye.”
We swerve the saucer into the nebula and Nova furiously scrambles sensors.
“Captain, with all due respect, perhaps we ought to wait until they pass.”
“They’ve stopped,” Kazim says, “They’re casting a sensor net over the area. We’re tucked away for now but we’d have an advantage if we attacked.”
Garth strokes his exposed tusk.
“I don’t want to put this ship in more danger than necessary. Can we travel through the nebula.”
“We’ll lose navigation if we do. I can do it manually but it will slow us down.”
“Captain, we’ve avoided detection,” Nova says, “We don’t need to attack.”
Jisoo rises and puts a hand on Garth’s shoulder.
“Captain. We can’t hide here forever and we can’t rely on Kazim to navigate for the next few days. Even he sleeps. We can take them.”
“With
all due respect, I disagree,” I urge.
Jisoo sneers at me.
“Gavriel, you’ve never been a risk taker.”
“For good reason,” I answer through gritted teeth.
Kazim chimes in, “I’m with Gav on this one.”
I flash him a grateful look. Garth considers for a moment.
“Nova, get Horus to arm the cannons. Prepare a crew to salvage what we can. Get an aim on their shields. We’ll punch a hole through and disable them. If the opportunity presents itself, we’ll run salvage. Otherwise, we’ll disable them and get away.”
“We can easily run salvage. They’re gamma-class. Sure, they can fight but they’re also stinking rich. We can increase our earnings on this mission by 10-15%!”
“I disagree,” I yell.
Garth hushes us.
“I’m the captain. I decide. Kazim, take us out of the nebula, round the planet.”
“The planet has turbulent atmospheric storms. We’ll have to keep a high altitude.”
“Aye, Kazim. Do it.”
I think it’s a mistake. But I follow Garth’s decision and I trust him with my life. He wouldn’t put us in danger unnecessarily. But the risk feels too bold. Kazim’s a good pilot. He could take us through a treacherous nebula unscathd. Kazim might be a thorn in my side, but he’s damned good at helm.
Kazim guides us out of the nebula. Connie calls in on intercom.
“Am I correct in assuming we’re heading to attack a confederate ship?”
“Aye, Connie. Stand bye and get ready to fix any problems.”
“You don’t understand, Garth. The planet has disturbing energy readings. I wouldn’t attack a ship anywhere near it. The gases might—
Garth cuts her off.
“Damn it, you all have your orders! Kazim head up the port. Nova, we need cannons.”
“Aye, Captain. Horus is ready.”
“Any word from the dome?”
“I’ll head down there,” Jisoo says, hurrying off to the dome. I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. We shoot the confederate ship.
“We’ve pierced the shields.”
“Kazim take us as close to the atmosphere as you can get.”
“Aye, Captain.”
He swerves. And then alarms blare.
“Captain! We have a problem!” Kazim yells, “Huge problem! We’re leaking fuel. We can’t accelerate.”
Connie’s voice comes in on the intercom.
“Fucking hell, Garth! We’re losing altitude. We’re going to crash! I can’t fix things down —
Communication falls.
“Kazim! Steady this ship going down!”
“Aye, Moray! I’ll do what I can but we’re going to crash.”
Garth yells, “Brace for impact!”
Chapter 18
Brace For Impact
Brace for impact. The last three words you want to hear on a pirate vessel. But after nearly shitting ourselves in terror, Kazim has set us down and he’s laughing and cheering at his flight prowess while the reality of our crash landing settles on us.
“Yes, Kazim. You’ve landed. Now considering half our crew may be dead, do you mind shutting up?” Garth grumbles.
“Aye. Yes, Captain.”
“I need casualty reports. Damage reports.”
“Sir, we’ve buried 15% of starboard in the planet’s crust.”
“The planet supports humanoids,” Kazim says, “We need to get out of the ship to repair it. We’ve damaged sensors and life support. We need to evacuate.”
“We can’t even communicate with the engine room. Connie knows what to do. You’re right. Jisoo, evacuate the port decks. Gavriel, take the lower decks. Kazim, prepare emergency kits with Poke. She shouldn’t be far. I doubt she slept through the crash.”
Garth continues his orders, “Nova, get Horus together and get us weapons. We may think we’re alone on this planet, but we can’t be sure. There’s a reason there aren’t any colonies here.”
“If we had a report from the dome we could pull up any relevant information that might have been on the first confederate ship,” Kazim points out.
“Aye. Nova, download the information from the dome on the portables. Meet me on the surface.”
I ought to think about what happens next. How the hell this happened. Why we’re here on the planet and how in heaven’s name we’ll get the systems rigged to leave. But I can only think of one person. Jaen. I command crewmen on the lower decks to evacuate, sorting them into pods. We have enough injuries to keep Xanth busy for the next week. Six dead on the lower decks from the crash. Twelve seriously injured. There must be similar casualties all over the ship.
She’s here. She’s trapped. I race over to her.
“Jaen!”
She’s trapped beneath a fallen beam.
“Jaen!”
I kneel next to her. She’s coughing as exhaust spills around her. Even if I can move the beam, Jaen can’t walk alone.
“Hold on. I’ll get you out of here.”
She doesn’t say anything and her spectacles are broken. Who wears spectacles anymore? The little fool nearly got herself killed and without those infernal things, she’ll probably be blind and useless.
“You can’t lift it,” she chokes out, “Leave me behind. It must weigh around 300 lbs.”
She mustn’t know much about Odilians. I grab one end of the beam and lift. It’s not so bad. She exhales and coughs more furiously once I’ve lifted the beam and tossed it aside. I kneel next to her again and examine her injuries with a field med kit.
“Three broken ribs. Possibly head injury and a twisted ankle. Why weren’t you in your quarters?”
She coughs again. She’s in no position to answer me. Damn. I need to get her out of here. I lift Jaen as she cries out in pain. It hurts to move her ribs. Human bodies are so fragile. I remember getting into a mountain climbing accident with Kazim — he took weeks to recover even with Xanth’s best treatment.
“Don’t worry Jaen. I’ll get you out of here.”
She’s unconscious and even if she were, she’d probably want to slap me for suggesting that she need my protection. I get the rest of the crew from the lower decks and we evacuate. I carry her to the meeting point with Garth — a few hundred yards off from the ship. From the outside, the damage looks so much worse than it felt when we crashed. I suppose I ought to thank Nova’s clever work with the shields for keeping most of us in tact. Garth surveys the damage with a grim expression on his face.
“We’re stuck here. This will take over a week to fix and we might have lost our chance at the salvage.”
None of us point out that Garth’s decision to attack might have gotten us here.
“I don’t understand,” Kazim says, breaking the uncomfortable silence building amongst the senior crew, “I navigated that planet’s atmosphere perfectly.”
Connie emerges from the cloud of dust around the ship, limping.
“It wasn’t you,” she says, “there was a technical error at the last second. It’s my job to keep you in the air but it didn’t work.”
Garth and I exchange glances. We both suspect the same thing. Our saboteur struck again and this time, they struck gold. I’m still holding Jaen. She’s fragile and small against my chest. The thought crosses my mind that she might not survive her injuries. I can’t allow myself to contemplate that much horror.
She has to make it. She has to survive. And we have to find a way off this planet.
Chapter 19
Something Suspicious
We take as many of the injured as we can 5 kilometers away from the ship for safety. I carry Jaen the entire way but she needs treatment. Soon. Xanth takes more severe cases and I kneel beside Jaen with a field medical kit. I can repair her ribs and the ankle, but I don’t think we can do anything about her head injury without equipment on the ship.
After I’ve fixed her broken ribs and set the ankle, which will still hurt for a day or two. Jaen opens her eyes and
groans.
“Where am I?”
“You nearly got yourself killed.”
I don’t have a right to be angry with her. But damn it… what was she doing so far out of her quarters while the ship hurtled toward the planet’s surface.
“It hurts,” she groans.
“We crash landed on a planet. I’ve healed your broken ribs and repaired your ankle, but you can expect the ankle to be sore for a couple days.”
Jaen’s leans on her elbows.
“We crashed?”
“Yes. Don’t move. I need to care for other patients, see if I can help them.”
Jaen grabs onto my sleeve, and her large brown eyes capture mine in their gaze.
“You saved me.”
“Yes.”
“How the hell did you lift that beam? It must have been over 300 lbs.”
“Odilians are strong. And I hope for your sake humans are too.”
She winces as she struggles to sit up again.
“I’m strong enough,” she utters through gritted teeth.
My white hair brushes my shoulders as I watch her. I need to move on and make myself useful, but I can’t tear myself away from her.
“Before you go,” she whispers, “I need to tell you what I saw. Why I was out of my room.”
“What did you see then?”
“I’d just come back from the engine room and Horus paced around outside. When he saw me he had this odd, guilty look on his face. I don’t know if it’s something but… I wanted to tell you since I work for you.”
“You work for me?” I answer with a sly smirk.
“Yes. You contracted me as a spy because deep down, you don’t trust me.”
What reason has Jaen given me to trust her? I nearly ask her, but then the corners of her mouth tease into a smile. She’s playing games with me.
“Jaen… Jaen, Jaen, Jaen… I don’t think you were the saboteur.”
“But,” she interjects before I can say anything else, “The saboteur caused this. You and I both know that no atmospheric distortions could bring down a pirate ship.”
“I don’t know what you know about pirate ships.”
“But I’m right.”
“Yes. You’re right. I’ll question Horus.”