Page 13 of Savage Union (Brutal Universe #2)

12

JESSINA

A fter using the communal bathroom, I went back to the navigators’ bunk and got dressed in my pajamas. Gurflug wasn’t there yet, but his stench still lingered. I felt my stomach roll again as I changed. Goddess of the Four Faces, how could I live with this smell in my nose for a whole solar month?

I hung my uniform neatly on one of the hooks mounted on the wall and crawled into the bottom bunk. Once my noxious roommate came back, I would be forced to move to the floor. Aside from the danger that he might fall through the sagging springs and crush me, I also knew I couldn’t bear the stench of his flatulence all night. But while the room was my own, I curled into a ball in my bunk and pulled the covers over my head.

A while later—maybe an hour—Snuffy stuck his long nose in my room. He was carrying a towel which he hung on a hook by my uniform. He placed another, larger towel, on the top bunk—no doubt for Gurflug.

“Hey, navvie—you all right? Are you? Are you?” he asked me, coming over to bend down and peer into the bottom bunk which was only an inch off the floor.

“I don’t know,” I croaked, honestly. “Think it was something…something I ate.”

“Yes, I heard you were sick—all over Jerx too. Yes you were—yes you were,” he emphasized, grinning.

“I didn’t mean to puke on him!” I protested weakly. “I don’t…don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“I do. Yes, I do,” Snuffy told me. “You have worm hole sickness—that’s all.”

“What?” I looked up at him, horrified. “Are you saying that jumping through that worm hole is what made me sick? But I’m a navigator! I can’t get sick in worm holes—what good would I be?”

“Don’t fear, navvie. Do not fear,” he said to me. “It’s just something that happens sometimes to a few people when there’s a time dilation—that’s all.”

“Great!” I groaned, pulling the thin pillow in its shabby white case over my head. “So every time we make a jump that has a time dilation…”

“When we do that, you’re better off not eating for a while,” Snuffy told me. “The effects take some time to catch up—especially if everything is slowed down during the dilation. See, it’s just your body catching up to the way you actually felt during the jump, only it was slowed down at the time so you couldn’t feel it. Then you eat something and your body catches up—and like as not throws up— as a response. Do you see? Do you see?”

“I see,” I groaned. “Now please leave me alone—I just want to sleep.”

“I’ll talk to the Captain for you,” Snuffy promised. “You should be excused from shower time tonight. Worm hole sickness is one of the few excuses he’ll accept.”

“Thanks,” I groaned. “Please, Snuffy—I need to rest before Gurflug comes back.”

“You probably should,” he said sympathetically. “That greasstain is probably going to give him awful wind in his belly.”

I groaned again at the thought and buried my head in the pillow. Goddess of the Four Faces, if I’d known what I was getting myself into, I would have stayed home and gone through with the Binding to Grr. Malofice!

Snuffy left but I only had a few more moments of peace before Gurflug came into the room, bringing a cloud of stench with him.

“Well, that was quite a scene you caused in the mess hall, Catamite,” he chortled, kicking the bottom bunk with his size forty boot. “The whole ship is talking about it!”

I really wanted to tell him off for lying but I still felt too queasy for confrontation. I decided the best course of action was to keep quiet with my blanket over my head so he couldn’t tell I was awake.

“Sleep while you can,” he sneered, kicking my bunk again. “I’ll be seeing you after this ridiculous mandatory shower.”

He began stripping off his uniform, which was already nasty from his slimy skin, and threw it carelessly on the floor. Which was unnecessary—I had left half of the hooks on the far wall empty for his use. Gurflug clearly didn’t care though. At least he wrapped the towel Snuffy had left around his waist so I didn’t have to see him naked though—thank the Goddess of Four Faces for small favors.

I lay in the bottom bunk for the rest of the night, until lights out. Gurflug came back from the shower but he still smelled as bad as ever. I noticed—when I peeked out from under the covers—that his hair still looked greasy and his skin was still slimy. Had he showered at all? It certainly didn’t look like it to me. I wondered if anyone else would notice.

Of course, as soon as my noxious roommate came back and got in his bunk, I had to move to the floor. The springs of the mattress above me were sagging down nearly to my face and the minute Gurflug lay down and got comfortable, he started farting.

In a matter of minutes the smell was so bad I was afraid I might pass out or puke again. The floor was hard and cold but I couldn’t lie underneath him with that going on—not that and the threat that he might come through and squash me at any moment.

I spent a truly miserable night, thinking that I had gotten myself in over my head…but the next day, things got even worse.