Page 11 of Savage Union (Brutal Universe #2)

10

TURK

I watched from the Captain’s chair as my two new navigators came back up the Gensen’s tube and onto the bridge. The huge Galafruxian struggled to get his bulk through the narrow opening but the boy was quick enough. However, Gurflug came first and despite his size, he made it to the navigator’s station first.

Casting a triumphant look over his shoulder at Cass, he jammed the silver ring of the nav helmet over his greasy temples and then turned to me.

“Head Navigator reporting for duty, Captain Turk. I’m ready to plot our route to the Triplex Cluster whenever you give the word.”

I only nodded absently—I was keeping an eye on Cass. There was something about the boy that bothered me, though I couldn’t put my finger on it. When I’d had him by the throat and brought him so close to my face, I had noticed that he smelled oddly familiar. He looked familiar too, but that didn’t make sense at all. I didn’t know any other male like him…and yet, he intrigued me.

Not like that of course—I’m no lover of other males. The farthest thing from it—I love the female form and everything about women. But still, the boy was on my mind, much more than a crew member—even a new one—ought to be.

I should still be angry about Frux, who had tried to second guess my choice to hire two navigators. He’d even called the Chief of our Clan…and had been summarily swatted down. I had the feeling that the Chief only kept him because of his relation to his wife—he didn’t actually like Frux either. Nobody did.

Currently, The Illyrian’s Union Rep was standing to the left of the Captain’s chair, his arms crossed over his narrow chest, fuming. He was always pissed off and complaining about something or someone—it was his whole fucking personality. Someday he was going to go too far and when that happened, I was going to fuck him up. But today was not that day. For now, my attention was on the boy.

I watched to see how he would handle Gurflug’s preemptory actions. He stood there, his hands clenched into impotent fists, a tight look on his face. But what could he do?

I saw the question running through his mind along with possible solutions—his face was very expressive, though I could tell he was trying to hide his emotions. Of course the Galafruxian was too big to physically push out of the way—not that I would tolerate that kind of physical conflict on my ship. And if he complained to me, he risked looking weak and whiney—not a good impression to make on your commanding officer.

“Come here, boy,” I said to him, and nodded to the right of my chair.

He shot me a wary look—probably remembering the last time I’d gotten him close—but he didn’t hesitate. He came right up to the side of my chair and stood at my right hand, watching the viewscreen, as we all were.

The star maps came up as Gurflug concentrated and I saw the jumps appearing in golden lines drawn from one worm hole to the next to the next. I counted them—five in all.

Beside me Cass stiffened and his jaw locked but still he said nothing.

“Yes, he’s using your routes,” I murmured, keeping an eye on his expression. “What are you going to do about it?”

He turned to me, his face a mask of fury. He opened his mouth, but I cut him off.

“Careful, boy,” I said softly. “There’s only one right answer here and that is nothing.”

“But he’s stealing my route!” His voice was soft but filled with barely suppressed rage.

“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. I know who plotted the course first,” I told him.

“Why did you bring me on board if you aren’t going to let me navigate?” he asked, glaring at me.

I should punish him for that insolent look, I thought. But somehow I didn’t want to—I understood why he was angry. I had once been the low man on the crew roster. Unlike my friend Slade who had been born as Clan Cruel royalty, I’d had to work my way up from the bottom in Clan Savage.

“Oh, I’ll let you navigate,” I told the boy. “I’ll need you once we get away from our home galaxy and there’s no Verifier to check the routes. For right now, stay back and let Gurflug have his fun.”

Some of the fury left his face, which was almost too pretty to be masculine. I frowned to myself—now where had that thought come from? I pushed it aside and waited for the first jump.

“Have you ever gone through a worm hole before?” I asked Cass.

He shook his head.

“No, never.”

That was pretty much what I had thought. The boy had a lot of raw talent but it was clear he was green. Yorrin had been right in advising me to hire both him and Gurflug. The crew would never have accepted such a young, inexperienced boy on his own as their navvie.

“Brace yourself,” I told him. “We might go through a rough patch. In fact, here.” I put out a hand and gripped him by the arm to hold him steady.

“Captain?” He looked at me, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

“You’re the only one who’s not sitting on the bridge,” I pointed out—wanting to give both him and myself an excuse to hold him. Of course, Frux wasn’t sitting, but he didn’t count. Not to me, anyway, the fucker.

“Oh, er…thank you, Sir,” he said humbly and I thought I noticed a hint of color on his smooth, light brown cheeks. Was he blushing? And was I the cause of it?

Before I could answer those questions to my satisfaction, The Illyrian was through the outer Space Gate and then flying directly into the first worm hole. On the viewscreen it looked like a void in space—a blackness so deep it even swallowed light. There was a fiery halo of red light around it—like a gateway to Hell itself.

And then we flew right into it.

Suddenly, time seemed to slow down to a crawl. I looked away from the viewscreen and sloooowly turned my head. I found myself staring at the boy on my right.

Under his uniform shirt, his arm felt warm and firm but not at all muscular. He really was lean—it had been hard to tell under the extremely baggy clothes he’d had on earlier. But now that he was wearing the standard uniform of The Illyrian, I could see his form more clearly. He was well-built, I thought, but he still had a lot of growing to do. He didn’t even have a hint of a beard shadow.

He must have felt my eyes on him because he turned to face me too. Our eyes met and I had time to think that he had unusually long lashes for a male and that his light amber eyes were actually quite beautiful which was a fucking weird thing to think about a male crew member…

And then we were through the worm hole and on the other side of the jump.

“Whew!” The boy staggered a little and would have fallen if I wasn’t still gripping his arm. “What was that?” he asked, looking confused.

“Just a time dilation,” I said casually. Didn’t your teacher warn you about those?”

“No.” He shook his head. “He was too busy making me memorize star maps and setting me the most difficult jumps he could think up. Er…is it always like that?” He cut his eyes at me and I wondered if he was thinking of the staring contest we’d found ourselves in.

I was thinking of it myself, though I couldn’t figure out why.

“Not always,” I said, turning my attention back to the viewscreen. “Sometimes time seems to speed up. And sometimes you get time-turbulence where things speed up and slow down in waves.” I shrugged. “Or sometimes, you just sail right through and barely notice you’re in a worm hole at all. Worm holes change all the time so you can never tell which it’s going to be.”

“I see.” He cut his eyes at me again. “Thank you for keeping me from falling, Tu…er, Captain. You’re very kind.”

I frowned—had he almost called me by my name? That was fucking unacceptable.

“Don’t presume too much, boy,” I said coldly, taking my hand off his arm. “I made an investment in you—I didn’t want to lose it on our first jump.”

But despite my irritation, I couldn’t help looking at him again. What was it about him that kept drawing my attention? I was so focused on the boy that Yorrin had to call my name three times before I looked over at him.

“Captain,” he said, when I met his eyes at last. “The first jump is completed. We now have at least a day until jump number two. Unless you wish to increase velocity?”

I shook my head.

“Not worth the extra wear and tear on the engines. We’re not in a hurry—yet. Let’s save our reserves for any kind of conflict we might encounter in the Triplex System.”

“Understood, Captain.” Yorrin nodded in his slow way. After a searching glance, he turned back to face the viewscreen.

I tried to do the same, but my gaze kept traveling back to the boy. What was it about him that drew me?

I had no answers and I couldn’t help finding the question disturbing…