Page 23 of Savage Union (Brutal Universe #2)

22

JESSINA

B ut keeping my distance from Turk was no easy task. He stayed close to me as we walked through The Illyrian’s narrow white corridors and made me sit at his right-hand during breakfast—which was poyen berrry porridge and buttered breadloaf.

I washed it down with a cup of hot tea that helped cut through the gluey texture of the porridge. I couldn’t tell if Cookie was a really bad cook or just aggressively disinterested in doing his job, but either way I had yet to get a decent meal here, though nothing was as bad as the greasestain we’d been served the first night.

I knew I ought to feel irritated that Turk felt the need to show I was under his protection—I should be able to fend for myself. But the near-rape in the shower the night before proved that I couldn’t. I would just have to swallow my pride and admit I was too weak to make it on my own.

As if to make my point for me, I noticed Jerx shooting me murderous glances from across the Mess Hall. Also, Gurflug was taking up one whole side of a table, though at least he was sitting with his back to me. When he rose to dump his tray, though, he turned and gave me a look that was pure hatred from his bulging purple eyes.

I shifted on my bench, but refused to look away as he glared at me. Maybe I should take Turk up on his offer of combat training, I thought uneasily. It was clear I had made two very serious lifelong enemies last night—I was really going to have to watch my back.

Turk seemed to think the same thing. When he saw Jerx looking my way, he stared at the Crewman until Jerx dropped his eyes and looked away. He was talking to Snuffy about something, so he missed the staring contest between me and the big Galafruxian, but his presence by my side was enough to send a message to the whole Crew—back off.

I noticed that none of the Crewmembers besides Snuffy and Yorrin would talk to me. They acted like I wasn’t there, though plenty of them shot me dark looks when they were sure Turk wasn’t looking.

Things were worse than I had supposed, I realized uneasily. Jerx and Gurflug must have spread the news about how both of them had been flogged with the pain whip because of me. Now the rest of the Crew disliked me—that wasn’t good at all. How could they trust me to navigate for them if they hated me?

I had no answers for that and the porridge seemed to stick in my throat. I gave up on trying to eat it and just stirred the grayish-purple gloop with my spoon until Turk announced that he was ready to leave.

“Come on, navvie—we need to get this ship through the next worm hole,” he said to me.

I rose along with him and the two of us dumped our trays in the garbage slots so Cookie and his assistant could scrape them clean and run them through the sanitizer for the next meal. Then, we left the Mess Hall together.

But as we went, I felt an itching between my shoulder blades. Turning my head, I saw that every single eye was directed at me and not a single Crewman had a friendly look on their face.

This wasn’t good…not good at all. But I had no idea what I could do about it.