Page 8 of Warped

CHAPTER 8: BINX

I am alone now.

Rek and Traven have gone upstairs to the cockpit to prepare for takeoff, and they’ve left me lying here naked and quivering on the bed. The wall imagers are turned off now, and the room is dark except for a few blue-green nightlights glowing dimly around the walls. The only sounds are my own ragged breathing and the soft, steady hum of the ship’s power systems.

That big thing the warpers used to test me is gone now too. Before he left, Rek carefully pulled it out of me and put it back in the room with the other “toys.” I can still feel it inside me though, like a phantom limb.

Or a phantom cock.

That’s a funny idea, but it doesn’t make me laugh. If anything, I feel like I should be crying after what just happened to me, but I don’t do that either. I’m pretty sure I already used up all my tears yesterday, when I found out what Stanley and those other creeps at the Gaia Group are planning.

That thought brings me upright on the bed.

The Gaia Group. Caldera. The datastick.

After the intensity of everything that just happened, I almost forgot why I’m doing all this in the first place. Why I set up a fake profile on WarpSeekers. Why I’m traveling with Rek and Traven. Why I let them strip me naked and shamefully probe my body.

On my hands and knees, I crawl across the rumpled sheets to the edge of the bed where I put my trench coat earlier. There’s a moment of panic when I discover that the coat isn’t there anymore, but it only fell on the floor during my testing. I climb down from the bed and plunge my hand into the trench coat’s pocket. There’s another flash of panic as my fingers touch nothing but fabric.

Then I feel the hard metal tab of the datastick, and relief washes over me like a cool spring rain.

I take the datastick out and hold it up in the dim light. It’s not much bigger than the tip of my pinky finger, but it contains a wealth of information.

Information that will save the lives of every single human on Caldera.

And put the jerks at the Gaia Group away for good.

Whatever I do, I can’t lose this datastick. I can’t let the warpers find it either, especially not Traven. Rek is more easygoing. Perhaps he would be sympathetic to my cause. But Traven is too much of a hardass. If he found out what kind of trouble I’m mixed up in, there’s no telling what he might do.

I have to hide the datastick.

I gather up my trench coat and underwear, along with my little wheeled suitcase that I left sitting next to the bed earlier, and I take everything into the closet that Rek pointed out to me during my tour of the ship. Not the sex-toy closet. The regular closet for clothes.

Only, it’s not regular at all. At least not by my standards. To me, a closet is supposed to be a tiny little nook with a rail for coat hangers, a shelf for holding boxes, and never quite enough space for everything you need to store.

This closet, on the other hand, is an entire freaking room.

Actually, the closet is shaped almost exactly like the giant bathroom where I first met Traven. In other words, it has a sort of flattened half-moon shape to it. The wall opposite the door follows the curvature of the ship’s hull, while the inner wall curves more gently to match the rounded triangle of the central bedroom.

A quick glance is all it takes to figure out how the closet is organized. The right side is obviously for the guys. Jeans, T-shirts, and even some expensive looking suits.

That means the other side is for me.

It’s not empty though. Not even close. The racks are lined with skimpy dresses and even skimpier lingerie in a wide variety of colors, styles, and sizes. Outfits that have been worn by previous Warp companions.

That shouldn’t make me feel jealous.

But it does.

I don’t know why. It’s stupid, really. Rek and Traven are both long-term warpers. I know their reputation. They’ve probably had sex with hundreds of women. There’s no reason for me to think that I’m special—aside from the fact that I’m a lot less skilled than the women who came before me.

Besides, I barely even know these two men. I haven’t even been with them for an hour. There’s no reason for me to feel anything toward them except—

I shake my head.

Focus, Binx. Focus. You’re supposed to be saving the world, remember? Well, a world, at least.

I carry my stuff down to the far end of the closet, where there’s a bit of empty space. I push my suitcase in beside a rack of expensive looking shoes, and I hang my trench coat up on a coat hanger.

What about my underwear? It’s brand new, but already in need of a wash. The bra is damp with sweat, and the panties are even more soaked with a different kind of wetness. There’s a metal bin in the corner labeled HAMPER, so I toss everything in there.

Now that just leaves the datastick.

Where should I hide it?

I briefly consider sticking it inside a pair of shoes or tucking it between some garments stacked on the shelves, but I’m worried I might forget where I put it. I’m also worried Traven or Rek might find it if I do that. All these clothes belong to them, and there’s always a chance they might decide to move things around for no reason.

So, I decide to go with the simplest option for hiding the datastick. The same one I’ve been using so far. I drop it back into the pocket of the trench coat.

That’s the safest place for it.

“Binx?”

The sound of Rek’s voice nearly makes me jump right out of my skin—which, at the moment, is the only thing I have to jump out of. For a second I think he’s standing in the closet with me, but when I whirl around to look for him, I see that I’m still alone.

Then I realize where his voice is really coming from. There’s a speaker built into the ceiling. He’s speaking to me over the ship’s intercom system.

Does that mean there are cameras in here too? Is he watching me right now?

Probably not. If he was watching me, he would have seen how confused I was by his voice, and he would have said something about the intercom.

Unless he didn’t want me to know he can see me.

Or maybe that’s just me being paranoid. After everything that’s happened to me over the past couple days, my paranoia threshold has shifted. I don’t know if I can trust anyone anymore. But I’m going to have to trust Rek a little. I’m on his ship now. I’m in his hands. His and Traven’s.

“Um… hi?” I reply, uncertain whether or not he can hear me.

Apparently he can, because as soon as I’m finished speaking, he says, “Hey, Binx. Just wanted to let you know, we’re about to enter the Warpgate. I thought maybe you’d want to see it.”

Holy crap, we’re about to enter the Warpgate? I didn’t even think we had taken off yet. The gravity field generators work even better than I realized.

“Um… do you want me to come up to the cockpit?”

“No need, Binx. There’s no window up here, just a view-screen. I can send the image to the bedroom if you’d like to watch.”

Duh. I should have thought of that.

“Yes, please.”

“Okay, great. I’m sending the live image to you now.”

I start to head back to the bedroom, but then I stop. I’m still completely naked, and it feels a bit weird wandering around an unfamiliar place without any clothes on. I quickly grab a robe off one of the hangers. It barely comes down to the tops of my thighs, but it’s better than nothing, and the light blue silk it’s made from feels as smooth as butter against my bare skin.

I rush back to the bedroom.

The room is still dim, but now the screens are displaying an image of the vast, black void of space scattered with thousands of glittering stars. And there, right in the middle of one of the screens, is our immediate destination. A floating metal wreath bristling with vanes and antennae encircling an inner whirlpool of multicolored light.

The Warpgate.

Even though it’s only an image, the sight of it takes my breath away. I climb onto the bed and sit there, mesmerized by the beautiful swirl of light.

Wow. If people can create something as amazing as this, maybe there really is hope for humanity after all.

A voice comes over the intercom again. This time it’s Traven.

“Preparing to enter the Warp in ten… nine… eight…”

As he continues his countdown, the image of the Warpgate keeps expanding, until it fills the entire field of view. The spiraling rainbow of light is almost hypnotic. I can’t pull my eyes away from it.

“Four… three… two…”

I’ve made it. I’m safe. And soon the people of Caldera will be safe too.

“One…”

The wall imagers glitch briefly and go out. The bedroom sinks back into darkness. For a moment, I wonder if something has gone wrong, but I don’t feel any jarring sensations, and I don’t hear any alarms. Everything seems to be fine.

Then the feelings come, hot and fast.

An explosion of lust ignites within my core and surges outward to my extremities, scorching every atom of my being with a hunger I’ve never known before. I drop back onto the bed with a desperate cry as my fingers dart between my legs to try and extinguish the fire burning within me.