Page 8 of Escape Velocity

“Keep your pants on until I get you something to wear. Pick up your cloak and shirt and come on.” He turned and headed for his cabin, glancing briefly over his shoulder to make sure she was following.

From behind him, she asked, “I think from the way you sounded that I made you curse— “Kahlad” is a curse?”

“It is.”

“What does it mean? Is it another word for slat or fek?”

He made a rough sound. “No. Kahlad was an evil ruler from a . . .” He stopped and thought for a moment. “A twenty-second century kingdom on old Earth.”

“And I make you think of this evil ruler?”

“No. It’s a common expletive. Like saying Christ!”

“Another evil ruler?”

He made a rough sound. “No, he was revered religious figure.”

“I don’t understand. One is good and the other bad?”

“Yeah. Not everything is going to make sense.”

They had reached his cabin, and he pressed the door lock. Stepping inside, he said, “You need to get dressed.”

She had folded her arms across her breasts. “Yes. I was not considering what I could put on when I discarded the slave shirt. I just wanted to get it off me.”

He was thinking she would look gorgeous in a sexy gown, but he didn’t have any of those on board. Plus, he didn’t want to keep getting charged up.

She was glancing around the small space with its bunk built into the wall and storage compartments above and below.

“It smells good,” she murmured.

“Does it?”

“My bed stank.”

He repressed another curse as he took one of his own work shirts from an upper cabinet.

You can roll up the sleeves, he said as he handed it over without looking directly at her.

“This is yours?”

“Who else’s would it be?”

“And you do not think I will contaminate it.”

This time the curse spilled out. “Sagan’s balls. Of course not.”

“Was Sagan a good man or a bad?”

“He was a scientist interested in space travel and alien civilizations before most humans thought about leaving Earth or what it might mean for humanity.”

“And why are his balls a curse?”

“I don’t know.”

He breathed out a sigh of relief as she slipped on the shirt and slid the buttons closed. The garment hung almost to her knees. It would give her the appearance of modesty, but he thought she should have something covering her butt. From a bottom cabinet, he extracted a pair of boxers. She pushed her fingers through the slit in the front before quickly shucking her torn slacks and pulling on his shorts.

He gave her a long look. “That will do for now. Let’s eat.”

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