56. Jessina
56
JESSINA
I was lying on the bed, wearing my pink flowered pajamas and reading on the entertainment cube when it happened. Even though I wasn’t on the Bridge, I knew at once that something wasn’t right. I could feel the strange stretching sensation that accompanied a trip through a wormhole, but this one was rough. Instead of speeding up or slowing down, everything seemed to double and then triple for a moment.
I looked down at my hand and saw that I was holding two cubes…then three…then two again. What the Hell?
Somehow I managed to get off the bed and lurch towards the doorway—which kept doubling and then tripling itself. By the time I made it into the Ready Room, everything was settled down and I only saw one of everything again.
But that was when the screaming started.
I’ve said before that the Captain’s quarters were soundproofed, but apparently that didn’t apply to the Ready Room. Because through the door, I could hear people shouting.
“That’s a fucking asteroid field! Yorrin, take evasive action!” That was Turk’s voice—I was sure of it!
The Illyrian lurched back and forth, throwing me from one side of the Ready Room to the other.
“Gurflug—navigate us out of here!” I heard Turk shouting.
“Never!” I heard the Galafruxian burble in reply. “We will all die together here in Deep Space! And may your Gods have mercy on your soul!”
This was too much. I knew I was supposed to be protecting my true identity and hiding until the end of the trip, but I couldn’t anymore. No one else on board was able to navigate us to safety!
Slapping the door mechanism, I rushed through as soon as it opened and ran out onto the Bridge.
Everyone was staring at the Viewscreen, which was filled with huge, lethal-looking asteroids. Yorrin was doing his best to steer the ship around them, but Gurflug had managed to shoot us out right into the middle of the field and the huge chunks of rock were only getting thicker and closer together.
I saw at once that we only had moments before there was a fatal collision that would, indeed, send us all to Eternity. And Gurflug was just sitting there with a smirk on his flat face, his purple eyes bulging in satisfaction as he waited for the inevitable crash.
I rushed over to the self-satisfied bastard and snatched the nav band off his head. It was none too clean, but I jammed it over my temples anyway.
“Hey! What are you doing?” he demanded in his gurgling, underwater voice.
“Fixing your mess, asshole!” I snapped. Then I closed my eyes and brought up the star charts.
Working faster than I ever had in my life, I found a route to another wormhole—one that was barely a click away.
“Yorrin!” I yelled, pointing at the viewscreen. “Look at that route! Can you get us there?”
His eyes widened and he looked at me in surprise.
“Cass?”
“Can you get us there?” I demanded. “Can you?—”
“Give me that!” Gurflug made a snatch for the nav band but I managed to dodge him.
“Do what she says!” Turk was roaring. Then he was up and striding over to punch Gurflug as hard as he could in the gut.
Ooof!” the Galafruxian wheezed and folded in the middle before falling to the floor. “How dare you?” he whined.
Turk ignored him. All of us were watching the viewscreen. In a few more tense moments, Yorrin had us to the edge of the wormhole I had found.
“Go—take it!” Turk ordered.
I jammed my thumb down on the Jump button and the ship dived in.
This time there was no time dilation—only the feeling of being stretched for a moment. And then we were out the other side and, thank She of the Four Faces, I could see Rigelis Nine in the viewscreen.
We were home.
But my elation and relief didn’t last long.
“Navigator Cass? Where have you been?” a voice asked me.
I turned and saw that Frux, the Clan Savage Union Rep, was staring at me in surprise. I started to turn away at once, but it was too late.
Striding over to me, he grabbed me by the arm and yanked me around to face him.
“Why, you’re not Cass—at least, you’re not a boy , anyway. Why do you look so familiar?” he demanded.
“I don’t know—let me go,” I mumbled. And then Turk was there, shoving in between us.
“You heard her—let her go,” he growled, his bronze eyes flashing possessively.
But the damage was done—I could see it in Frux’s beady little eyes.
“Captain, isn’t that Jessina—the Clan Cruel Princess who was missing before we left?” he demanded. “You had us search the spaceport high and low for her, and all this time she was here, with us! Have you been hiding her in your quarters?”
“Shut the fuck up, Frux,” Turk growled. “Don’t talk about things you don’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand, all right,” the Union Rep sneered. “I understand that you kidnapped another Clan’s Princess and you’ve been holding her hostage doing the Goddess alone knows what to her for the past two months!”
“It wasn’t like that!” I protested. “Turk didn’t kidnap me!”
“Well, my dear, we’ll see what your father has to say about that,” Frux sniffed. “And my Chieftain will want to know as well, I’m sure.” He shot Turk a venomous glance. “I’m sure many people will be interested to hear that the Princess has returned—and all of them are going to want to know exactly what you’ve been doing with her in your quarters!”
“You fucker, if you say a word—” Turk threatened, raising a fist.
“It’s too late,” Frux said coolly. “If they don’t hear it from me, they’ll hear it from another Crewmember. And if you dare to touch me, I’ll let the Chieftain know about all the other suspicious circumstances that have happened during this trip! I have a whole roomful of witnesses here.” He nodded around the Bridge where every eye was glued to the scene unfolding. “You don’t dare touch me.”
I wanted to call Slade and do damage control, but Frux was right—word spread fast. And someone must have called the Spaceport because the moment The Illyrian landed, we were overrun by a unit of spaceport guards, all dressed in white armor with visors that covered every part of their faces but their mouths.
At first I thought they were there to look for smuggled goods, but they skipped inspecting the ship in favor of putting Turk in restraint binders.
“You’re under arrest for the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a virgin female who was reported missing two months ago,” one of them growled as they led him away.
“Wait, stop!” I begged them. “Please—he didn’t abuse me and he didn’t kidnap me either! That’s a lie!”
Of course the guards didn’t listen. Turk turned his head to look at me.
“Jessina, stay with Snuffy and Yorrin!” he shouted. “Stay close to them until your family comes.”
It broke my heart that his last thought was of my safety when he was the one being dragged away in binders.
“I love you!” I shouted back, tears stinging my eyes. “Oh Turk, I love you so much!”
And that was the last I saw of him. The next thing I knew, my big brother, Slade was there, taking me by the arm.
“There you are.” His face was grim. “What’s all this I heard about Turk kidnapping you?”
“It’s all a lie!” I exclaimed. “He never kidnapped me—I got a Synth Implant and tricked him into hiring me as his navigator!”
Slade gave me a surprised look but then he shook his head, his expression going dark again.
“So you’ve been out in Deep Space on a ship full of males for two months while we’ve all been fucking scared to death?”
“I had to run—I didn’t want to get Bound to that horrible Grr. Malofice!” I protested. “He?—”
But Slade only shook his head.
“Enough, Jessina. Come on, you’ve got a Hell of a lot of explaining to do. Our Sire is not happy.”
And then he led me with a firm grip on my arm, out of the spaceport and away from any hope I had of ever being with my Fated Mate again.