Escape of the Glitter Princess

by Chad V. Holtkamp

  Jock sighed deeply and was happy for the simple explanation. He was still processing everything with the princess and wasn’t ready to be attracted to anyone new. But the physical feeling wasn’t bad.

  “So you had some issues with the snakes and frogs, huh?” she asked.

  “Yeah, not all of them made it one piece,” Jock replied. “We apologize for that. It was sort of a rough trip.”

  “That’s okay,” she said, peering into the bag. “The Doc was going to do some reanimation experiments down the line, so this will give him a good excuse to speed up that timeline.”

  Dom and Desire looked at each other and then back at Lydia. “Reanimation?”

  “Yeah, these are special snakes and frogs and he’s trying to figure a means for life after death.”

  “That sounds kinda creepy,” Dom said. “So maybe we’ll just leave you to that.” Dom nodded to Jock and started heading back toward the ship.

  “Let me help you get these up on the shuttle,” Jock said, offering to be a gentleman. “C’mon, Dom, it’ll only take a second.”

  Dom wanted to get as far away from those snakes and frogs and the creepy scientist guy as fast as possible. He and Jock squatted down to lift with their knees and set the crate on the shuttle.

  “Oh, we’ll need you to sign this form for delivery,” Jock said. He pulled a bill of lading out of his hip pocket. “Just sign here,” he said. Lydia scribbled her signature and handed the sheet back to him. Jock hand a copy of it back to her.

  They shook hands again, and the same shock happened. “Oops, guess it sticks around for a bit. Can I get you all some coffee for the trip back?”

  Dom was getting antsy and had already sweated through his fight suit in the moist afternoon air. Heaving the crate off the cart didn’t help much, and he wiped his brow.

  “Thanks, but we have to be going,” Jock said. “We appreciate the hospitality.”

  “Understand, have a safe flight,” Lydia said. “The doc thanks you!” She turned and tossed the clipboard onto the far seat and climbed into the driver’s seat. She waved as she pulled away.

  Jock watched as the shuttle rounded the corner out of sight.

  “OK, Jock,” Dom said. “Stop staring at the weird science lady and let’s get going.”

  Jock paused to look around at all the trees. The sun was getting low on the horizon, and the buzz of weird creatures was all around. And he was sweating.

  “JAXXY, start the engines and set the coordinates for home. Call up Commander Weisman and let him know the package was delivered safely.”

  Dom wanted nothing more than to cool off, dry off, and get something ice cold to drink. He headed for the salon as Jock got them airborne again. He grabbed a couple bottles of water and headed to the cockpit. Jock was checking coordinates and marveled out how empty space was all the way out here

  “Must be all the electric eels,” Dom joked. “Who wants to live with a bunch of creepy eels and frogs and snakes, oh my.”

  Jock rolled his eyes. He never ceased to be amazed at Dom’s pathetic attempts at humor. “Well, I hope we’ll be out of the dog house when we get back,” said Jock. “I’m guessing our time as freighter cargo pilots might be at an end.”

  “We can only hope,” said Desire.

  They sat in silence as Jock maneuvered through the atmosphere, stopping and pausing for one last look at the lush vegetation below.

  “I’ve never felt any kind of shock like that before,” Jock said. “That was pretty weird.”

  “Yeah, she wouldn’t be good around any kind of electronics,” Dom said. “She’d fry them out in an instant.”

  Dom flipped through the comm chip but wasn’t able to find anything he hadn’t read. He put it down and watched the stars pass by as he cooled off. The sweat from his flight suit was drying, but he could smell the stink of his body underneath.

  “I need to take a shower before I make myself puke again,” Dom said. “We just got the stench of the last mission out of the ship, and I don’t want to add to it.”

  For a brief second, Desire thought about joining him. But that moment faded quickly. She grabbed his comm chip and started flipping through it, not really reading, more just passing the time.

  She moved into the nav chair and stared out the window. The passing sky grew darker as they made their way out of the atmosphere and into outer space beyond. Soon they’d make the warp jump home and get back to the usual routine on the space station.

  She peeked into Jock’s mind for a minute but then popped back out. He’d had a rough few days, and she’d let him sort things out in peace. She’d admire the silence of the passing space and stars outside the ship, not a care in her world for the first time since Akumal.

  She slowly drifted into a micronap, dreaming she was once again home, seeing her father, envisioning her mother long ago, feeling the love from her parents as she dozed off to sleep.

  Jock put his hand on her knee, gently shaking her awake. She looked uncomfortable with her head at an awkward angle.

  “Why don’t you head back to your cabin and get some real sleep?” he said. “It’ll be several hours before we’re back home so someone might as well get some rest.”

  She slipped out of the seat and headed to her cabin. She heard Dom’s shower turn off, but he didn’t come out of his quarters. She guessed he just going to go to sleep, too.

  All alone in the cockpit, with only JAXX to keep him company, Jock thought long and hard about the past few days. He hated to let the princess go, but there wasn’t much he could do. He’d never forget her, but it was time for letting go and moving on. He’d figure out the rest of his life tomorrow, but for now, he’d sit back in his seat and watch the stars go by in silence.

  But, right before he completely zoned out, another strange thought filled his head.

  “What happened to the Adjuster?”

  Epilogue

  Adjuster Peitz had never been more humiliated. Having gone from being a top investigator to this was more than he could bear. In all the commotion of the raid on Veibos, he ran out of the tent doing anything he could to escape the stampede of creatures and venomous snakes and frogs. The only problem was that he had caught the three eyes of a female Chaugnaut on his way out. The Chaugnauts were huge beings from the outer reaches of the Boru system that resembled a hippopotamus from Earth, only they were bipedal with purplish blue scaly skin and a huge bulbous belly.

  Adjuster Peitz could tell it was female from the enormous swollen teats on her overstuffed belly. Not wanting to leave the auction empty-handed, she had grabbed him by the tails of his white lab coat and scooped him up like a Yorkshire terrier. To his horror, she ran like hell with him to her ship, threw him into the cargo hold and took off.

  Not unlike other Chaugnauts, this one was one kinky mother. For days now, she’d been carrying him further and further into the underground caves where she lived. All along the way, Agent Peitz had been cradled in her hippo arms and forced to suckle her enormous teats. And he didn’t even get any milk. The one time he stopped to come up for air, she made him do something far worse.

  The Aliens monitoring the Veibos situation had considered sending a team to help. But they weren’t particularly fond of their Chaugnaut children as they felt them unrefined. And besides, Adjuster Peitz had not only failed to retrieve their Receiver, but also hadn’t extracted payment from Agent Dom Wagner when he had him in sight. The Aliens communicated telepathically with each other and decided that they’d consider the Peitz - Chaugnaut coupling an entertaining new experiment.

  Adjuster Peitz screamed, “No!” as they finally reached her cozy lair deep within her home planet, where a second female Chaugnaut joined the party.

  Want a sample of Book 3…?

  Read on for the first chapter of

  ATTACK OF THE MUTANT MINERS

  Sneak Peek - Attack of the Mutant Miners

  Mission 3 of the SPOOK & GOON Space Adventures Series

  CHAPTER 1

>   Polarus

  Jock grabbed a towel on his way into the ship. The sweltering heat of the island planet was enough to melt his face off. He dripped sweat and didn’t want to ruin the new leather seats of the TX with all the perspiration soaking through his clothes. He tossed one to Dom and Desire, too, sure that they were in the same boat. Surprisingly, Desire looked calm, cool, and collected.

  “How is it you’re not sweating from that heat?” Jock asked as he wiped himself down.

  “It’s one of the benefits of not being Human,” Desire said. “My body does a better job of regulating heat. I can withstand much more than you, so I guess I’m just lucky.”

  They stepped into the cockpit, ready to get off the planet and on their way back home. They’d only meant to be going on a quick trip to Polarus and back. With the extra detour with the Princess and the slave traders and then back and forth to Aesneia, they couldn’t wait to get home.

  Jock draped the towel over his seat and motioned for Dom and Desire to do the same. Technically, it wasn’t his ship, though, in his mind, it was. And they were going to keep it in nice shape.

  “JAXXY, send a message to Commander Weisman that we’re back on schedule and on our way home,” Jock said.

  “I’ve tried sending the Commander several messages,” JAXX replied, “but with all the solar activity lately, the messages currently aren’t going through.”

  “We just talked to him 30 minutes ago,” Jock said, puzzled. “Well, keep trying and set it on auto-send mode,” Jock said. “Just let me know when it goes through and he replies. While we’re out this far, I want to make sure he doesn’t have any other errands for us to do. I’d hate to get most of the way home and then have to turn around to pick up some sushi or something he can only get on the outer planets.”

  Dom chuckled at that last bit, though he was honestly thinking the same thing. All he wanted was to get back to Turks and Caicos, get in the calm water, and float away all the stress of the last few weeks. He enjoyed space but needed the connection with Earth and the water to recharge and rejuvenate. Plus, there were some stunning women on the last trip, though they’d probably be gone by now. “Oh, well,” he thought. “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

  Desire shook her head, trying to be discreet about reading Dom’s thoughts, but she gave herself away with a chuckle of her own.

  “What’s so funny?” Dom asked, embarrassed that she caught his last thought.

  “Nothing, just boys will be boys,” she said. She couldn’t blame him. She had a great time on her trip to Akumal and understood the attraction he had for the tropics, the current island planet notwithstanding. A thought of going on a trip with Dom raced through her mind, which she quickly squashed. She sat back in her seat and closed her eyes preparing for takeoff.

  Jock eased up on the stick, and the TX lifted off, pulling up above the tree line. He took a quick glance down as the lab facility came into view. He saw a man, who he assumed was the scientist, racing around the area like a crazy person.

  Lydia was tending to the crate in the back of her shuttle. But she quickly ran over to the man, waving and pointing frantically. Jock didn’t like the look of what was going on, but there was no way he was getting suckered into saving another damsel in distress, no matter how electric she was.

  The ship pulled away through the atmosphere and soon they were in the deep black of space. Jock set the boosters on high, trying to gain some time on the way back.

  Dom settled in with his comm reader and found where he’d left off earlier with the latest Hollywood gossip. One of the lead actresses of the new Venusian film, “Angels Spurned” was looking at property on Turks and Caicos. “Hmmm…he thought, wouldn’t that be a nice coincidence.”

  “God, I wish I would have taken a shower before lift-off,” Jock said and shuffled in his flight suit. “Man, that planet was hot.”

  “We should have taken a dip when we had the chance,” Dom said.

  “Agent Wagner, I don’t have a bathing suit with me,” Desire teased.

  “That’s ok,” Dom replied. “We’re all adults here.”

  “You kidding?” Jock said. “Probably filled with electric eels. Speaking of eels, I’ve never felt any kind of shock like that before. That was pretty weird.”

  “What’s a science hottie like that doing living with a bunch of creepy eels and frogs and snakes anyway?” Dom asked.

  Jock rolled his eyes. “Maybe she digs the work they’re doing.”

  “Maybe she has a thing for the scientist,” Dom said, trying to get a rise out of Jock.

  Jock rolled his eyes again. “I doubt it. She didn’t seem like the type to mix work and play.”

  “Well, well, well,” Dom said. “Someone has a little crush after all. That was fast.”

  Desire giggled. She liked the thought of Jock getting a second chance after the princess thing.

  “I didn’t say that,” Jock said, trying to change the subject. “Oh, and by the way, Dom, I forgot to mention an Adjuster showed up on Veibos looking for you.”

  “What! When? How!” Dom said, starting to sweat again. “Did you blast him?”

  “No, that's the funny part,” Jock said. “He showed up right before we let the snakes and frogs loose and then I never saw him again.”

  “Wow, so our slimy buddies took him out?” Dom asked.

  “No, he wasn’t in the pile of dead things when we cleaned up,” Jock said. “Maybe he’s following us.”

  Now Dom was really sweating. “So what happened to him?”

  “Honestly, I have no idea,” Jock said. “But he said you owe him 50 million Earth dollars. Guess you lucked out. That could have been worse than getting stuck with your little flippery wart friend.”

  Dom was seriously uncomfortable. “Next time I get kidnapped, I’ll bring my checkbook, I guess.”

  Desire giggled. “It’s a Gwart.”

  “Wart, Gwart, potato, potatoe,” Jock said. Anyway, I hope our time as cargo pilots is at an end. Maybe after this last drop, we’ll be out of the doghouse and never have to think about that again.”

  “We can only hope,” Desire said.

  Dom was trying to cool down but to no avail. He flipped through the comm chip but wasn’t able to find anything he hadn’t read. He put it down and vegged out while he tried to cool off. The sweat from his flight suit wasn’t drying, and he could smell the stink of his body underneath.

  “I need to take a shower before I make myself puke again,” Dom said. “We just got the stench of the last mission out of the ship, and I don’t want to add to it.”

  For a brief second, Desire thought about joining him. But that moment faded quickly. Dom tossed her his comm chip, unbuckled himself and walked to his quarters for a long, hot shower.

  Desire started flipping through it, not really reading, more just passing the time. She slowly drifted into a micronap, dreaming she was once again home, seeing her father, envisioning her mother long ago, feeling the love from her parents as she dozed off to sleep.

  Jock put his hand on her knee, gently shaking her awake. She looked uncomfortable with her head at an awkward angle.

  “Why don’t you head back to your cabin and get some real sleep?” he said. “It’ll be several hours before we’re back home so someone might as well get some rest.”

  She slipped out of the seat and headed to her cabin. She heard Dom’s shower turn off, but he didn’t come out of his quarters. She guessed he was going to sleep, too.

  All alone in the cockpit, with only JAXX to keep him company, Jock enjoyed the silence of space, craving a night of sleep in his own bed.

  The passing sky grew darker and the stars streaked by as they made their way into outer space and beyond. Soon Jock would make the warp jump home and get back to his usual routine on the space station.

  JAXX sounded a siren across the ship to wake the crew. After the warp jump, Jock had put the TX on autopilot and fell asleep at the wheel.

  Dom sat st
raight up in his bed, cursing. Desire was already awake after several micronaps and thought it was peculiar. Jock immediately went on alert.

  Dom and Desire both raced to the cockpit to see what the commotion was about.

  JAXX chirped up with a message from Commander Weisman. The connection was terrible due to the solar activity, but they could read the tension in his voice.

  “Where are you, Major?” Weisman asked.

  Jock rubbed his eyes and pulled up the coordinates. “Just on the other side of the Equus system,” Jock said. “We should be to the Constellation later tonight.”

  “What happened to the scientist?” Weisman asked.

  “What do you mean? We dropped off the creepy cargo to his assistant and went on our merry way,” Jock said. “We never actually met him. I may have seen him when we were taking off, but I’m not sure.”

  “Well, something happened then,” Weisman said. “We haven’t been able to reach him since you left.”

  “Maybe it’s just the solar activity?” Desire said. “Our connection with you is breaking up. Maybe that’s why you haven’t been able to contact him.”

  “No, I’m afraid not,” Weisman said. “Are you sure everything was okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re all hunky dory up here,” Dom said. He looked over at Jock and shrugged, then turned to Desire. But then his eyes widened as he looked past her into the passageway to the back of the ship.

  “Except for the giant frogman playing hopscotch in the cargo bay on his way toward the cockpit,” Dom said, leaping to his feet.

  Desire screamed!

  Dom wasn’t being brave, but his instincts told him to get up and run toward the giant frogman. It was more of a reflex action than any sort of plan. He had no idea what he was going to do once he got to the creature.