Chapter 11
Ender eyed Saffire Starlight, the Head Engineer on the ship.
With deep-brown skin, light-brown eyes, and pointed ears with a horde of piercings on them, the Unicorn’s natural pastel rainbow hair was pulled up into two balls on the top of her head.
She was wearing a black tank top, cargo pants, and platform boots.
And the damn chains on her pants were annoying him, as they made noises every time she fucking moved, which she did a lot, as sitting or even standing still was not her thing.
As irritating as the chains were, the real bur in his ass at the moment was the not so wanted confirmation she was giving him.
Though he had pretty much already worked out what the solar flare had fucked up the moment it had happened, he couldn’t really say he’d wanted the ultimate confirmation that it had in fact knocked their interstellar communication system out as it rocked their fucking ship.
Saffire smirked. “I can see, based on the pleased expression plastered on your face, that you are unbelievably happy to hear me do my job of informing you of this important yet not so great news.”
“You are such a snide, one-horned crazy bitch, you know that, Saffire?”
She barked out in laughter. “And don’t you forget it, you snake-eyed bastard, because I will stab your ass the minute you do.”
It was a threat she could at the very least attempt to carry out, if not succeed at. At almost six feet tall, the Unicorn was both curvy yet muscular, her build a bit thicker than a runner.
Despite the threat, Ender chuckled at her audacity. She was young, bold, and a pain in the rear, and he loved her for it, for sure. But he’d have so shot her at least once before today if her ability to fix seemingly anything wasn’t so unmatchable.
“Stabbing is it now? Didn’t you explode my favorite scooter the last time I happened to forget that fact?”
Saffire giggled. “No fun in being repetitive, sir.”
Ender wrinkled his nose. “Don’t start that sir shit with me. You know damn well that my gay ass ain’t into any of what you are packin’, girl.”
She winked. “I can wear a strap for you, boss. Just tell me the time and day, and what size.”
There were snorts and coughs all around as the bunch of assholes at the rounded table struggled to cover up their laughter. He glared at Soren when the Harpy just outright laughed.
“Put a plug in it, Toddles!” he snapped, before hissing at the Unicorn, “Saffire, you will find your ass made of stone and sat in a corner like a damn toddler for days the next time you say shit like that to me. Do I make myself clear?”
She pouted. “Aww, you really are getting old, Ender. You used to flirt back.”
“Like hell I did! Now, spit the rest out. What else?!”
The woman sighed. “Fine, fine, old man. So not only did it knock them out, but it pretty much fried the system. It may take a few weeks at least to fix it.”
He rubbed his eyes and groaned in pain. “You have to be shittin’ me.”
“Nope!” Saffire chimed sweetly. “It’s fucked!”
Meaning, if something went wrong three days from now, it would be weeks before they’d ever be able to call out for help.
“Great! FUCKING GREAT! Keep going without me, this old man is taking a damn nap,” he hissed as he surged from his seat and left the table, uncaring if they had more to tell him or not.
Ender ignored Soren when the bastard started to follow behind him silently—the creeper.
His brother stopped his silent and awkward act when they reached the door of Ender’s private quarters. The Harpy annoyingly demanded, “Tell me already.”
Stepping through the doorway, he spun and mocked, “Go away already!”, before manually slamming the door down in the fucker’s face.
Taking a shaky breath, Ender eyed his quarters for a moment.
It was the second largest room on the ship, the largest being the captain’s quarters, which was where Kore stayed.
Like most of the damn ship, there was a lot of chrome, but at least this room had some rugs.
Well, it had two—one underneath the furniture in the small living room, and one under the bed.
To be honest, customizing rooms in an already built ship was an expensive pain in the ass, and they’d bought it second-hand.
Like most larger rooms on generic ass spaceships this size, it was an open-plan concept, with a bedroom, kitchenette, and living room.
The only other door in the room led to a bathroom.
Most of the furniture was black or silver.
The room was seriously lacking in personal touches.
But then, he rarely stepped on board the damn ship, let alone stayed there.
At one point it had been personalized, but after a few hundred years, the things he’d brought on board had been cleared out.
So decoration-wise, aside from the bolted down storage trunks in the bedroom, and the large digital calendar on the right wall of the entryway, there were just some black geometric lines to break up the chrome of the walls.
Moving to the digital calendar, he counted the days.
“This is fine… Six days back puts us arriving on August 28th. Or possibly the next day, depending on how swiftly we leave after the fight.”
There was still time. The earliest date the nightmares usually started was the 30th, so they should arrive before he became a danger to anyone.
It was fine. There was also always a chance the nightmares would start later, and if they did, they’d most likely start on the 3rd of September. So, really, they just needed to be back on Earth by the 3rd. No big deal…everything would be okay. Maybe…
In theory, it would be. Ender had never lost it before the 5th of September, so as long as there were no fuck ups, they’d reach Earth with six or seven days to spare.
There was nothing to worry about. Ender just had to ignore the glaring issue that the whole damn reason he was here in the first place was because some bastard Fate had in fact fucked with his…
He frowned. No, that was wrong. It had nothing to do with his own fate. Whoever was involved, they’d messed with someone else’s, and it had inadvertently pulled him into it.
Fucking hell, what was on that ship…or rather, who?!
Ender rolled his eyes. That definitely was something he should have tried to figure out sooner than while he was in the middle of space!
Spinning, he unlocked the door, it sliding up to reveal FUCKING Soren still standing there with his arms crossed. His hair twisted and coiled together into snakes in an instant, as he hissed, them snapping with him. “Move!”
Looking completely unperturbed, his brother had the audacity to roll his eyes, but he did step aside, so there was that.
Hmphing, Ender smoothed his hands over his still hissing coils and walked past, hurrying back to the bridge and the meeting he’d abandoned.
For some completely unknown reason, the conversation stopped as soon as he entered the room. He’d even go as far as to say everyone was eyeing him almost apprehensively—again, for some reason he could not point out.
Smiling, Ender took a seat, ignoring Soren, who had followed him. Not wanting to show too much of an interest in what he actually wanted to fucking know, he sweetly barked, “Why isn’t Calico here yet, hmm? The little shit is a bit late, ain’t he?!”
Really, the Succubus should have been there by now, based on his watch. They were wasting time. Not to mention, Ender always got a bit antsy the longer they waited in a single spot in space. It was always a risk. Really, it was a risk anywhere, space or otherwise.
His eyes narrowed when the others just stared. His hair, still very much alive with a mind of its own, reacted to his anger, snapping before he did. “What?!”
Soren snorted. “The man had engine trouble. Something you would have known if you had been paying attention during the meeting yesterday.”
Ender blinked, before sniffing and patting his snakes this time, as he said, “Refresh me.”
Meara, who, on top of being his Interstellar Intelligence Officer, was in charge of communications on Kore’s ship, smiled, but it became more of a snarl as she said, “As mentioned yesterday, boss, the two-ship assault turned into one ship, because the fool managed to damage his vessel during a recent…venture.”
The way she said ‘venture’ told him enough.
He clucked his tongue. “That little bastard couldn’t have waited until AFTER our agreed upon joint task was completed to steal some no doubt worthless piece of junk?
! If he thinks he is getting the same cut as he was before, he is two hens short of a coop! ”
The Manticore shrugged. “He claimed he saw something pretty. As for the other, he was made aware already.”
Ender sighed. “Speaking of cargo. Do we know exactly what Riker is transporting? Surely, Calico gave a full list before comms were cut?”
Meara snorted. “Normal shit; people, weapons, and some random-ass illegal goods worth a bit of value.” She handed over the thin, clear tablet.
Taking it, he swiped up, reading through what appeared to just be a ship manifest, and a crappily done one at that.
Most things were not actually named outright in terms of goods or weapons, as if the person was teasing them with what could be there.
And as for the people, all he had was a description, age, danger level, and species—and only sometimes was the last part included.
Tsking at how fucking vague shit was, he tossed the tablet onto the table with a huff. “His inside man sucks at his job.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, whoever it was is bloody awful. Didn’t even think to expand on the ship manifest, just sent it as is. But I'm afraid, after that solar flare, that’s as good as it’s going to get. They would have been in range, if I’m not wrong.”
“Calico’s ship was definitely in range.” Saffire snickered. “Closer than we were, but the good news is…so was Riker.”
Ender sighed. As he thought on the matter, his hair slowly uncoiled, turning back to strands as he tried to think about how else he could get to the bottom of whatever the fuck he was here for.
His gaze flicked to Meara. “Meara, before we lost communications, did Dessa happen to report on anything odd going on around the time we left Earth, or while in space?”
She pursed her lips. “One thing.”
“Well?” he ground out with a smile.
The woman smiled back, too used to Ender to fear him—the brat.
“Heightened activity at the Enforcement Bureau, specifically the one under Cyrus Grimm’s command.
Though it expanded outward from there. The details were harder to come by.
As you are aware, our higher placed agent in the main branch in North America was kicked out last month after being discovered, and his replacement isn’t where we want him to ultimately be at the moment.
So much of this was digging through their systems, and they have, as of late, improved their security so much that it’s likely you are going to have to take a swing at it, to get us a real opening again. ”
“Would have been nice to know that BEFORE our systems were down, Meara,” Ender huffed. “So, what exactly did you manage to find out?”
“The same day we left, Cyrus Grimm and Severo Ambrose also headed into space. As did other Bureau ships from various locations.”
His brow rose at that, before his eyes widened as he recalled what he read near the end of the ship's manifest.
“Ah shit.” Ender grabbed the tablet, scrolling to the bottom of the ‘breathing’ goods list. “Fucking traffickers.” He groaned before reading the last two listings out loud, “Item Number: 609. Species: Siren. Age: 200+. Hair: Teal and purple ombré. Eyes: Blue. Danger Level: Max. Item Number: 610. Species: Water Nymph. Age: Under 2. Hair: Cyan. Eyes: Gold. Danger Level: None.”
As he had read the descriptors, Soren and a few of the other’s eyes had widened in horror, clearly having come to the same realization he just had.
“Fucking hell,” Kore groaned.
Ender laughed, more in disbelief than anything, while he cheerfully and tiredly announced, “Well, ladies, gents, and everyone neither and in between, buckle up. We are about to get fucked five ways to Sunday, because that dumb bastard, Riker, took Killian Neftlem and Skya North.”
His words brought silence, but it was broken by a beeping noise, and Meara standing to move to her area of the control panels.
“The Delgrim Pirates have arrived,” she stated, as she started typing on a holographic keyboard, no doubt using old school methods to communicate with the pirate’s ship.
“Calico is planning to leave part of his team behind to work on his ship.”
“Whatever, whatever, just let his ass on.” Pushing up with a groan, he left the table again. Not caring enough at the moment to meet Calico and discuss a damn thing, Ender headed back to his room, once again ignoring Soren, even as the Harpy followed him inside.
Cyrus-fucking-Grimm… He couldn’t say he’d have ever expected that son of a bitch to break the rules. The question was: which had he broken them for?
Either way, Ender supposed he had found out the reason why he was here, and basically the who.