Page 9 of Saved By the Servali

Words jammed in her brain, too many questions to ask at once. Muscles jammed in her throat and jaw—too weak, too tired, but no longer terribly painful and dry.

“No,” she croaked, aware of the irony, and that made her smile.

The warm, comfortable haze vanished. The being above her smiled, too—revealing a wide mouth with fangs and sharp teeth, and cat-like-humanoid features.

“I am Kamau, the chef of theComet Stalker. You are our honored guest. I have been assigned to take care of you.”

Nessa felt her newly regained vision go black.The chef with big teeth is my nurse?

That ain’t right.

I hope I’m not on the menu!

Then she passed out again.

Chapter Four

“Hello, Nessa. I’m Layla. This is Wendy. You’re safe, okay?”

Nessa’s eye muscles weren’t coordinated enough to manage an eye roll under her heavy lids but that didn’t stop her from trying. She was sick, not stupid. The condescending, soothing tones... Well, she was cranky. Maybe once she was feeling better, the voices of everyone around her would quit sounding so patronizing or worse, so like she was dead and they were just talking over her.

Her eyes worked themselves open, ratcheting up fractions at a time, confusion settling into her features when she saw two women hovering over her, sweet expressions of concern on their faces. “Hi?”

“Hi!” The one with long blonde hair and a black uniform beamed. “You’re going to be okay.”

“That’s good.” Nessa tried the same trick with her shoulders as she had with her eyes. Little by little, she hoped she could wriggle herself up into a sitting position.

Nope.

“You were in a shuttle—more like a capsule—that went through a hyperjump. You weren’t in hypersleep. Were you?”

Panic flashed in Nessa’s eyes.

The men! Hot lasers. Dead bodies!

No, sleeping women, last-ditch efforts, the coordinates that she used.

“Am I in Felix Orbus?” she whispered.

The smaller of the two women nodded, lustrous dark hair bouncing around her petite face. “Yes! This is theComet Stalker,a ship with a registry in the Leonid System. It’s a long-haul freighter currently heading toward Leonid-One. Do you know how you got here?”

“Yes. Hey, there were two other women on that shuttle.”

“They’re waking up slowly, too. They’re healthy—you’re a miracle. You must have been a week without food or water.”

“I had water in my canteen and part of my breakfast bar in my pocket. I know I was thirsty...” Nessa shook her head in its pillowy rest, but that didn’t clear it. “And I knew we would be making a hyperjump to enter the Felix Orbus Galaxy from the MWIP. Wait, you two are... Sorry, I’m groggy. I feel like my brain was put in a compactor. You said you two aren’t the women in the chambers, right?”

“No, no. How we got here is a long story for when you’re feeling better. Can you tell us how you got here?”

Nessa looked around as best she could. “There was a big furry guy.”

“Dr. Marcus? Graying, Leonid, glasses?”

“No... Spots. Gold?”

“Kamau!” Both women did that too-perky nodding that made Nessa want to hit something.

“Yeah. Can we get everyone in at once who needs to know stuff? I don’t know how much energy I have to tell the story multiple times.”

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