Page 41 of Savage Union

Turk sent a message to Snuffy and the cabin boy ran down to the navigators’ quarters and collected all my personal possessions and my uniform and boots. I hadn’t brought much and he was able to bring it all up in one pile, but his long, flexible nose quivered when he handed it to me.

“I’m afraid your things don’t smell very good, navvie,” he remarked. “No they don’t…no they do not.”

I took a careful sniff and grimaced. All my clothes smelled like Gurflug. When I unfolded the uniform, I saw why—brown, slimy smears streaked the black fabric.

“Ugh!” I dropped the clothes reflexively and almost gagged.

“Gurflug,” Turk growled, his face like a thundercloud. “I never should have hired that asshole in the first place!” He looked at Snuffy. “Send these through the steam cleaner right away and bring them back in the morning.”

“Yes, Captain. I’ll see to it. So I will.So I will,”Snuffy vowed.

He gathered my clothes again, though he left the boots which were unmolested, and scurried from the ready room at once.

Turk sighed and ran a hand over his head.

“All right—enough excitement for one day. It’s time to turn in. Come on, boy.”

He led me through the back door of the ready room and I found myself in his private quarters. The place he lived in wasn’t huge, but it looked extremely spacious compared with the tiny navigators’ quarters I’d been sharing with Gurflug.

It smelled much better too. Turk’s warm, spicy, masculine scent permeated the small space. Breathing it in made me feel calmer. Even though I was nervous about pulling off my deception while living in such close quarters with him, I told myself I could manage—I would just have to be careful.

“This is it. I’m afraid it’s not much—just a bedroom and a bathroom,” Turk remarked. “At least it should dispel any idea you might have had about the captain living in fucking palatial splendor.”

“I never thought about it,” I said quickly—though I had often wondered about where he slept and how he lived when he was out on deep space missions. He didn’t go into those details when he visited and talked to Slade.

The bathroom was nothing but a shower unit and a toilet—nothing to see there. I turned my attention to the bedroom.

The bedroom was small and extremely neat without a single thing out of place. The bed was covered in a dark blue spread. It was large compared to the bunk in my former room—but not really large enough for two—especially if one of them was a seven-foot-tall muscular Brute clansmen like Turk.

“I, uh, guess I’ll be sleeping on the floor,” I said, looking at the narrow strip of floor at the foot of the bed. At least it was carpeted, unlike the cold steel of the floor I’d been sleeping on in the navigators’ bunk.

“You don’t have to do that,” Turk objected. “I didn’t take you into my quarters to treat you like a dog!”

“Oh, I don’t mind!” I said quickly. I was afraid he might find me out if I slept too close to him. After all, there was only so much the Synth implant in my arm could hide. “I’ve beensleeping on the floor in the navigator’s bunk,” I added. “And at least your quarters is carpeted.”

“Sleeping on the floor?” He frowned. “Why the fuck did you do that?”

“Well because, Gurflug claimed the top bunk,” I explained. “And the springs on his mattress sagged so much I was afraid he might fall through and crush me. Also, there was the smell when he…” I trailed off, not wanting to go into details about my former roommate’s excessive flatulence.

Turk’s face grew grim.

“That fucking entitled asshole! There’s no way someone his size should take a top bunk—especially with another crew member below.”

“I tried to tell him that but he wouldn’t listen,” I said. “And it wasn’t like I could roll him out of the bunk and claim it myself. He’s about three times bigger than me.”

Turk frowned.

“That’s true, but just because you’re small doesn’t mean you can’t defend yourself.”

“I tried…with Jerx, I mean.” I felt myself go cold all over as I remembered the awful attack. “He was just…he was too strong.”

“Hey now…” To my surprise, Turk put out a hand and cupped my face. I felt him wipe my cheek with his thumb and realized that I had started crying—or at least, my eyes were leaking a little.

“Sorry, Captain.” I pulled away from his gentle touch and hastily swiped at my eyes. “I just felt so…so helpless when he came for me like that. It…I guess it made me realize I’m the smallest and weakest one on this ship.”

“That’s true, but it doesn’t have to mean you’re helpless,” Turk told me. “Look, now isn’t the time for it but I’ll show you some close-quarters self defense moves later on. In the meantime, let me see this.”

He reached for my hand—the one I’d scraped in the shower—and brought it to his face.

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