Page 92 of Savage Union

“Fixing your mess, asshole!” I snapped. Then I closed my eyes and brought up the star charts.

Working faster than I ever had in my life, I found a route to another wormhole—one that was barely a click away.

“Yorrin!” I yelled, pointing at the viewscreen. “Look at that route! Can you get us there?”

His eyes widened and he looked at me in surprise.

“Cass?”

“Can you get us there?” I demanded. “Can you?—”

“Give me that!” Gurflug made a snatch for the nav band but I managed to dodge him.

“Do what she says!” Turk was roaring. Then he was up and striding over to punch Gurflug as hard as he could in the gut.

Ooof!” the Galafruxian wheezed and folded in the middle before falling to the floor. “How dare you?” he whined.

Turk ignored him. All of us were watching the viewscreen. In a few more tense moments, Yorrin had us to the edge of the wormhole I had found.

“Go—take it!” Turk ordered.

I jammed my thumb down on the Jump button and the ship dived in.

This time there was no time dilation—only the feeling of being stretched for a moment. And then we were out the other side and, thank She of the Four Faces, I could see Rigelis Nine in the viewscreen.

We were home.

But my elation and relief didn’t last long.

“Navigator Cass? Where have you been?” a voice asked me.

I turned and saw that Frux, the Clan Savage Union Rep, was staring at me in surprise. I started to turn away at once, but it was too late.

Striding over to me, he grabbed me by the arm and yanked me around to face him.

“Why,you’renot Cass—at least, you’re not aboy, anyway. Why do you look so familiar?” he demanded.

“I don’t know—let me go,” I mumbled. And then Turk was there, shoving in between us.

“You heard her—let her go,” he growled, his bronze eyes flashing possessively.

But the damage was done—I could see it in Frux’s beady little eyes.

“Captain, isn’t that Jessina—the Clan Cruel Princess who was missing before we left?” he demanded. “You had us search the spaceport high and low for her, and all this time she was here, with us! Have you been hiding her in your quarters?”

“Shut the fuck up, Frux,” Turk growled. “Don’t talk about things you don’t understand.”

“Oh, I understand, all right,” the Union Rep sneered. “I understand that you kidnapped another Clan’s Princess and you’ve been holding her hostage doing the Goddess alone knows what to her for the past two months!”

“It wasn’t like that!” I protested. “Turk didn’t kidnap me!”

“Well, my dear, we’ll see what your father has to say about that,” Frux sniffed. “And my Chieftain will want to know as well, I’m sure.” He shot Turk a venomous glance. “I’m suremanypeople will be interested to hear that the Princess has returned—and all of them are going to want to know exactly what you’ve been doing with her in your quarters!”

“You fucker, if you say a word—” Turk threatened, raising a fist.

“It’s too late,” Frux said coolly. “If they don’t hear it from me, they’ll hear it from another Crewmember. And if you dare to touch me, I’ll let the Chieftain know about all the other suspicious circumstances that have happened during this trip! I have a whole roomful of witnesses here.” He nodded around the Bridge where every eye was glued to the scene unfolding. “You don’t dare touch me.”

I wanted to call Slade and do damage control, but Frux was right—word spread fast. And someone must have called the Spaceport because the moment The Illyrian landed, we were overrun by a unit of spaceport guards, all dressed in white armor with visors that covered every part of their faces but their mouths.

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