Page 9 of Savage Union

“Got it.” I nodded. “Er, thanks.”

“Don’t thank me, girly. Just doing my job.” He shrugged. “Be safe out there. And if anyone catches you or finds out about the implant, I don’t know you and I never saw you before.”

“Yeah, okay.” I nodded.

It was time to make my way to the Space Port where I knew Turk was getting the Illyrian ready for a long trip to the Triplex Cluster.

I was determined to be on it when he left.

4

TURK

Ikept my word to Slade—I and my crew searched the Space Port from top to bottom, looking for Jessina. But my little bird was nowhere to be found.

Finally, with only a few hours before we were set to lift off for the Triplex Cluster, I had to call a halt to the hunt. I sent Slade a message that I hadn’t found her and went back to The Illyrian with a sore heart. Where could she be?

I didn’t know but I had to push my worry to the back of my mind. I had put out a call for a navigator and a qualified one had applied for the position. I had to interview him and be sure he was a good fit with my crew before I could take off.

It was always a pain, finding a new navvie. Those who are able to navigate outside the galaxy and go where there are no Space Gates to ensure a safe entry and exit from the fabric of Space Time are few and far between.

Illyrian’s last navigator had crafted a bad jump and landed us too close to a brown dwarf star—waytoo fucking close. We were nearly sucked into the star’s gravitational field before my pilot was able to steer us clear at the last second.

It had been a close call—one I didn’t care to repeat. As soon as we got back to the Imperium Galaxy, I let the old navvie go.He begged and pleaded for a second chance but I’m not that forgiving when it comes to risking the lives of my crew—not to mention the expensive cargo we were carrying. The Clan Savage Chieftain would have been extremely pissed off if that had been lost.

So it was out with the old navvie and in with a new one—I hoped. I just had to be sure the next person I hired was able to jump a star ship outside of intergalactic space without killing me and the entire crew.

5

JESSINA

The Space Port was crowded. Up and down the vast corridors there were vendors with carts and stalls—the curving walls echoed with the sounds of them hawking their wares. Crowds of people were walking swiftly in every direction with their luggage, clearly intent on getting to the right gate in time.

A thousand scents assaulted my nose—sweet spice from the roastedjakanuts in the stall beside me mixed with the exoticprithabone perfumes of a vendor to my left. At the same time I smelled the sharp bite offrillianmustard to slather on the fattyhuatsausages as thick as my forearm coming from a food cart, which was wheeling slowly through the crowd. And of course, the stink of a thousand people of all races and species from the Imperium Galaxy was also thick in the air.

I saw a group of pink-skinned Jacobians rushing past, twittering in their bird-like language, their long yellow beaks clacking in agitation as they hurried to make their flight. I stepped out of their way only to be elbowed rudely by a Kanth three times my size who snarled,

“Watch where you’re goin’ boy!” before lumbering away, his trunk swinging.

Well, at least my disguise was working.

You may be wondering how I planned to get aboard The Illyrian in the first place. I certainly wasn’t going to go to Turk and let him know who I was—he would send me back to Slade and then I’d be right back at my father’s mansion under house arrest until my Binding Ceremony with the horrible Grr. Malofice.

No thank you.

I wasn’t going to tell anyone who I really was—my Synth implant should keep me safe as long as I was careful. I fully intended to stay undercover the whole time I was aboard The Illyrian.

But even though I knew I couldn’t reveal myself, I longed to be near my Fated Mate. That was the reason I had chosen The Illyrian over any other random ship. Also, I knew that Turk’s ship was headed for the Triplex Cluster—a trio of planets in the Wing Galaxy which was a place I knew well. At least in theory—I had visited it in the simulator many, many times and I had memorized the star maps.

And that was how I intended to get hired on board The Illyrian, even though nobody knew who I was. I had a skill—one that almost no one knew about.

I could navigate a star ship.

Not just galactic navigation—that’s nothing. You just use Space Gates, which are like man-made tunnels bored through the fabric of Space-Time to jump from place to place within the galaxy. That’s easy.

What’s really difficult is Cross-Dimensional Navigation—which is what you use when you’re traveling to other galaxies in the universe and there are no Space Gates to use.

Cross-Dimensional Navigation isn’t so much a skill as a talent you’re born with. I didn’t realize I had it until I took some piloting lessons along with Slade when I was younger. My father didn’t want to let me take the lessons, of course—he pointed outthat as a Clan Princess, I would always have someone to fly me anywhere I wanted to go. But Slade stuck up for me.

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