Page 19

M organ enjoyed experimenting with alien foods and hummed while she prepared dinner.

Tonight, she tried a combination of chopped vegetables with meat in a stew.

Using a spoon, she tasted her concoction.

Hmm, needs more salt and something savory.

Good thing we’re headed to Arona. Our stash of crusty bread rolls is running out. They’ll go great with this meal.

Rummaging in the spice compartment, she found what she needed. She let it all simmer as she rolled out a pastry dough and made mini fruit pies. I’m really glad that vendor on Nulorn allowed me to taste samples. This drisima from Ladorta tastes like apples.

Taking liberties with the ingredients and using a sugar found on Pellotia, she added some homemade caramel.

Its scent combined with the cinnamon took her thoughts back to Stalad.

She only saw him briefly during the day.

The Jalaxians kept him busy in the training area discovering what the Svesti remembered.

It’s gotta be weird to not know who you are or remember how you know things.

After she put the pies in the oven, she fanned her face as she pictured how he looked while he sparred.

Clad only in tight pants that hugged his legs, his muscles tensed and released with his surprisingly graceful maneuvers.

His tail fascinated her. He exhibited superior control of his when he sparred.

Yet sometimes his emotional state showed itself in his tail’s movements.

Rivulets of sweat ran down his taut abs and she licked her lips.

Her cheeks flushed and she rubbed her thighs together.

Shit. It’s been three years since I’ve truly been horny.

I need to think of something else before everyone else shows up.

“Do you need any help?”

Morgan turned sharply with a hand on her chest at Stalad’s question.

“You startled me.”

“My apologies.” His brown eyes twinkled.

“Dinner, uh, evening meal won’t be ready for another half hour or so.” She pushed some strands of hair back from her forehead. “How was your day?”

“I’m enjoying the Fortitude . Everyone is friendly and I’m discovering how much I have retained from before the accident.” He leaned back on the counter.

“Anything in particular stand out?” She wiped her hands on a towel and picked up a water pouch. “Would you like one?”

“Not at this time, thank you.” His head tilted slightly, and his eyes grew hazy as he thought.

“The sparring feels very familiar. So far, there hasn’t been anything specific that I haven’t known.

Generalized knowledge about species and worlds seems intact, although I’m not sure how I know as much as I do about humans as I do.

According to Makai, your race isn’t widely known to be in space. ”

“Makai’s correct. Although I have a feeling that will be changing.” Morgan sipped some water.

“How so?”

“I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say.” She wrinkled her nose. “I guess no one told me I couldn’t talk about it.”

His tail swayed.

“If you believe you’ll betray a confidence, you don’t have to explain.”

She smiled at him.

“That’s nice of you.” Morgan inhaled deeply. “Before the Wing Raiders rescued me from a Zuvgran lab, I spent a year on Costonia.”

His tail snapped behind him.

“The Zuvgran experimented on you?”

She placed a hand on his tense forearm.

“I’m fine now.”

“It should not have happened.”

“No, no one should have to go through what we did.”

“We?”

Her vision wavered for a moment.

“There were two other women with me.” She glanced away and whispered, “They didn’t make it out.”

“I’m sorry, Morgan.” His tail gently wound around her ankle and stroked softly.

Sighing, she said, “Thank you. But to go back to what I was doing on Costonia. I agreed to medical tests.” She patted his arm when his tail tightened on her ankle. She registered the shocked look on his face. “No, nothing like the Zuvgran did. Every exam or test received my consent beforehand.”

“But why?”

“To see if humans and Svesti are biologically compatible and can have babies together.”

His eyes widened.

“And?”

“Yes, we are and should be able to. I think King Sovex was planning to open up negotiations with Earth to bring humans to Costonia.”

“Svesti might be able to have younglings again?” A sheen of tears coated his eyes. “It’s been so long. Our females died thirty years ago.” He rubbed his chest.

“I know. The virus the Zuvgran released did a lot of damage.” Lowering her voice, she asked, “Do you think your mother was one of those lost? I know some females survived.”

“Probably. When I think of my mother, all I can recall is a scent. No name or face.” His lips twisted. “Talking about the virus makes my heart hurt, but there are no memories to go with the emotion.”

“I’m sorry, Stalad. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it at all.”

“Please, always speak your true thoughts with me.” His expression softened.

Oh, my, he’s a heartbreaker.

“Okay. Want to help me carry everything to the table?”

“As you wish.”

“What time do we arrive at Arona tomorrow?” Morgan wiped the sweat from her brow.

“Rain said not long after breakfast.” Pink suffused Kara’s face from her exertions. “Damn, girl, how can you make me perspire so much with stretches? It’s not even hot yoga.”

Abby’s laugh mixed with Morgan’s at Kara’s complaint.

“Don’t you get sweaty with your mate?”

“Of course, but at least I get orgasms in trade. Yoga’s never done that for me.” Kara’s eyebrows wiggled and she tapped the ashes off an imaginary cigar.

Morgan shook her head with a grin.

“It’s official. You’re insane.” She picked up some water pouches to hand to the women.

“Damn straight.”

All three of them straightened and their eyes darted to each other in alarm when loud yells sounded from down the hall. Morgan still had the water pouches in her hands as they ran out of the cargo bay in the direction of the noise.

They veered into the hangar bay and wrinkled their noses.

“What the fuck is that awful smell?” Kara wheezed as she made a beeline for the open transport.

Running up the ramp, the women headed for the loud cursing. They turned a corner and stopped dead at the sight of three large garbage-covered beings and a wall panel lying on the floor. Abby pinched her nose.

“Eew.”

The males looked up from flicking refuse off their bodies and the largest one walked toward them.

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare.” Kara narrowed her eyes and pointed her finger at him. His fangs poked out from the mess on his face when he smiled.

Looking like something from a horror movie, the others approached.

Morgan’s breath stuttered in her chest and her hands reflexively clenched.

Water shot from the pouches in her hands and hit the first two in their faces.

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened in a huge O of surprise.

She stared at the second one as debris slid down his face.

Water droplets hung from his long eyelashes and a single one held on tenaciously to the tip of his nose.

“Oops.” She dropped the empty pouches and bent over with her hands on her knees while her shoulders shook.

“Are you alright?” Stalad shook his head, and the watery mess spattered the women.

“Stop that,” Abby giggled and her face turned pink.

Morgan couldn’t contain her laughter any more.

“I’m…” Wheeze. “sorry.” She desperately tried to inhale more air. “Oh my god. I can’t…” Her face reddened. “Your faces.” She gestured. “You look like…” Her hands pushed against her stomach when it began to ache. “swamp monsters.”

“What happened?” Kara held her hand out, palm open, to stop Crax from advancing.

Morgan’s laughter slowed.

“We took Stalad out to see how he handled the transport. He noted that it operated sluggishly on one side. The diagnostics all came back as normal, so we returned to physically check it out.” Yaz unsuccessfully tried to rub his face clean.

He held up a dirty instrument. “Scans showed an unusual mass behind a wall panel. When we removed it, this mess exploded from the interior.”

Morgan imagined it and tried to suppress her laughter again. Tears streamed from her eyes.

“What is it? It stinks.” Abby’s entire face scrunched.

“We’ll have to investigate more, but I believe the recycler on the transport hasn’t been working properly for a long time.

Diagnostics and alerts failed, a line broke when it became full, and the waste ended up in the wall.

We don’t use this transport regularly, so it went unnoticed,” Crax grumbled.

“Swiss cheese theory.” Kara nodded.

“Swiss cheese?” Yaz said.

“It’s a cheese with holes in it on Earth. Swiss cheese theory is that while many layers of protection exist to prevent accidents, if flaws in each layer line up, that’s when incidents occur. If each layer is a slice of cheese with holes in it, the holes are the flaws,” Kara explained.

All three males nodded in understanding.

Kara squealed when Crax picked her up and held her against his chest.

“You bastard. Now that crap is on me and I smell, too.” Debris squelched when she slapped his shoulder.

“We should take a shower,” Crax growled.

“You should clean this shit up.” Kara’s feet flailed. She protested until he squeezed her ass, then her body went slack in his arms. “Take me to our quarters.”

“I’ll set up some cleaning bots to take care of the worst of this for now,” Yaz yelled after Crax. “I expect you to help with the interior wall and maintenance.”

“Allow me to assist,” Stalad’s brown eyes glinted with humor.

“You guys stay here. We’ll get the bots. We won’t track nearly as much mess as you two.” Abby grabbed Morgan’s hand. “Come on.”

Morgan’s breathing normalized as they walked to a storage compartment.

“That was hilarious.”

“I don’t know how Kara kept a straight face.” Abby pulled out a cleaning bot and hit the button for it to follow them. Morgan grabbed another. They ended up with six bots.

“I think she was more concerned with not getting dirty. Looks like that didn’t work out for her.”

“Guess she’ll be getting sweaty again.” Abby winked.

Morgan smiled.

“Sometimes I think this crew is nuts.”

“Yep, but you have to admit we’re a lot of fun.”

“True.”

They helped Stalad and Yaz program the bots, then led the way into the hangar bay. The males entered a decontamination unit in the corner.

“I’m not tracking this into the main corridors. Makai will kill us,” Yaz said.

“Good plan,” Stalad said as the door closed.

“Should we wait for them and go in ourselves?” Morgan looked at Abby.

“I think so. We don’t want this odor in the other parts of the ship.”

“Do you think Kara and Crax used it?”

“I hope so. Yaz is right. Makai will be pissed if they bring this into the residential quarters.”

They chatted while the decontamination cycle ran. Morgan’s eyes widened when the males exited naked. Seeing the women, both men covered their genitals with the clothing in their hands.

“Geez, guys.” Abby grabbed some towels from a nearby compartment and threw them at the males.

Morgan turned so she wasn’t looking directly at the males as they wrapped the towels around their waists. But she couldn’t help looking at them from the corner of her eye. Wow, both are well-endowed.

Cinnamon and caramel hit her nose and the wetness in her panties became uncomfortable. Stalad inhaled and his tail straightened momentarily.

“We weren’t expecting you to still be out here.” Yaz smiled at Abby. “Are you going to use the unit instead of a shower?”

“I’ll have a shower afterwards. We didn’t want to spread the smell throughout the Fortitude .”

Morgan took a couple towels and handed one to Abby.

“Let’s get this done.”

Juggling a tray laden with food and using her elbow, Morgan tapped a spot on the wall. A small tabletop slid out and she placed the heavy tray on it. The smell of hot food filled the bridge as she opened the containers.

“Please tell me some of that is for me,” said Yaz.

“Of course.”

“What did you make for midday meal today?” Kara said.

“A chunky soup and the last of the rolls. There’s some fruit for dessert.”

“Yum.” Kara tapped her console. “Uh, Makai, you’re going to want to read this.”

Sitting in his captain’s chair, Makai pressed the armrest. His eyebrows rose as he looked at what Kara mentioned.

“Emperor n’Tuli died.”

“Who’s that?” Morgan’s nose crinkled. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“The Zuvgran emperor.” Kara tapped some more and a picture of an old Zuvgran appeared on the viewscreen with a biography. “A royal piece of shit.”

Morgan crossed her arms over her torso hugging herself. The sight of a Zuvgran made her shiver in remembered fear. She snorted in disgust. His supposed accomplishments read like a fascist dictator’s resume.

“Who’s taking his place?” Deliberately, she relaxed herself and inhaled deeply before delivering food to everyone.

“That’s the interesting part. He never named a successor.” Makai’s braids swung when he turned her way. “There are several contenders, but it won’t be pretty until they resolve their leadership. I’m not sure any of them will be better than n’Tuli.”

“Chaos,” said Crax from his spot near Kara.

“Mayhem,” said Yax with a grin.

“Opportunity?” Kara smiled at Morgan in thanks as she took the container from her.

“Monitor communications, Kara. I want to know what’s going on and what beings are saying.” Makai bit into a roll. “Civil unrest in the Zuvgran empire will affect operations.”

“You got it, boss.”