Origin (5 page)

The captain and Anders hadn’t come by to see me, but they’d made it plain I was free to go anywhere on the ship, so I finally ventured out, still wearing the baggy pants and long-sleeved beige shirt from the night before. The healing gel had worked well and there was only a faint twinge of pain left in my thighs. I’d tied my hair into a tail at my nape and washed my face, but didn’t bother to use any of the makeup Anders had included in the box of “lady stuff” he’d given me. The face that had stared back at me from the mirror had been pale, eyes red-rimmed, and my lips looked swollen from me biting them.

Now I just desperately wanted something to drink and this was the third time I’d started toward the galley. The last two times, the voices had made me turn back. And this time, again—though there were still voices—I was too thirsty. I stopped a few feet from the open door and listened.

“So, I think I have some time, you know? I mean, when a woman goes into the bathroom to get ready for you, it usually takes some time. Last thing I wanted was to pass gas when we were in the bed together, so I let ’er rip. But this woman
had
to be different—she was out within two minutes and draping her insane, fucking sexy body along the wall. I wanted to wave her back in there so badly, but I braved it out.”

“I told you not to eat those Toquarian meat pies,” another man muttered. “Smelled off.”

“I wished I’d listened. My stomach was puttin’ up such a fuss, felt like it was trying to kick its way out of my body. And I’ve never smelled anything so foul in my life. Poor woman leaned against the wall, showing off the most amazing set of—”

“We get it. She had a good body. What happened?”

“The smell hit her and she made this strangled noise, gasped. I mean,
my
eyes were watering it was so bad. And I’d just lifted the covers and waved the air her way.”

“What’d she do?”

“She left. She fucking left. Grabbed her stuff out of the bathroom and walked out naked. I hated to see her go for about ten minutes. Then I was glad she did. Our one layover on a place I can get laid and I’m strapped to a waste receptacle like I’m about to land it in Sector Two. Damned meat pies.”

The laughter then seemed to last forever. Sounded like three different voices and none were the familiar tones of the captain or Anders.

My dry throat forced me to take the last few steps. The men stopped talking when I walked into the galley. Three of them sat in one of the booths and two stared at me. Juniper glanced up, blushed and looked back down. I didn’t think he was the one who’d been telling the story. That had probably been the tall, skinny man with a shock of orange hair in a stripe over the middle of his scalp. The rest had been shaved off. He faced another man who was shockingly gorgeous with dark brown skin, full lips, long ropy black hair and strange opaque eyes.

I’d seen one of his kind before. He was a Replicant.

My owner had found one for the ship, but she hadn’t stayed long. Nobody could figure out how she got away—there was nothing on the cameras. But as I understood it, they could take anyone’s DNA and shift into someone else. They were hard to catch and hard to keep.

“You must be our new passenger,” the skinny redhead said with a friendly smile as he stood and came toward me. “I’m Speero.”

He came too close. I stepped back, my spine hitting the door jamb.

He frowned but stopped moving toward me.

The Replicant sitting across from Juniper chuckled. “Speero, the woman just heard you tell a story about blowing out your own ass. Think she wants you close?”

Red blotched his milky-white cheeks. “Yeah, um, sorry about that story. Ever had Toquarian meat pies?”

I shook my head.

“The general ‘meat’ description is bad enough, but it’s best to stay away from the ones pedaled on hover vehicles,” he advised. He held out his hand, frowned again when I only stared at it.

“What’s the proper Gwinarian greeting?” Speero asked the question with a glance over his shoulder.

The Replicant frowned at him. “How the hell would we know?”

“Juniper goes with the captain on all planetary excursions.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Juniper finally spoke. “She won’t want you touching her. Was Lashin’s.”

Real regret flooded Speero’s bright green eyes. He dropped his hand. “I’m sorry.”

I opened my mouth to tell him it was okay, that he hadn’t known, but I couldn’t get words to actually form. Humiliation became this hot flush rushing throughout my body until every part of me burned. I stepped back out of the galley.

“Did you need something from the simulator?” he asked, following me.

I shook my head, turned and scurried back into my bunkroom. After the door shut behind me, I stood there, quivering and burning up with embarrassment. I’d been fine with Clay and Anders, had shot out lights, glared into my owner’s cameras. But I couldn’t even open my mouth to answer a simple question with others.

A ringing sound filled the room and I turned toward the door.

“Siri?”

The relief I felt at the sound of Anders’s voice outside my door made me feel even more ridiculous. I wrapped my arms around my waist and leaned against the wall, wondering if I’d ever be able to function normally. Wondering just what functioning normally really was. Would I ever be able to sit around a table discussing gross bodily functions?
Probably not.
I couldn’t stop the short chortle that escaped my mouth as I imagined the expression on the woman’s face when the smell hit her. Unfortunately, I’d spent a night or two dealing with unpleasant bed partners who’d eaten things they shouldn’t have.

Anders’s voice came through the door again. “You okay, Siri?”

I reached up and palmed the door open. Anders’s big form filled the doorway. He saw me leaning against the wall and stepped in to do the same. He stared down at me, his bulk making me feel small. “It’s nice to see you smiling. Speero thought he’d scared you. There’s no need to be worried about him. Has a mouth like an Earth speed junkie, but he’s harmless. Juniper, on the other hand…”

“He’d hurt me?”

He shook his head. “No, never. I was kidding. All three of those men can be dangerous when needed but they’d never hurt a woman. They might stare. A lot. Your face is too pretty to ignore.”

I snorted, then gasped and covered my mouth.

Anders gently tugged on my wrist and pulled my hand down. “Remember, you can say whatever you want. So, why the noise? Don’t think you’re pretty?” He frowned. “From everything I’ve heard about your former owner, he only ever wanted the prettiest, so surely you know you are.”

I shrugged. Today’s red-rimmed eyes and swollen lips hadn’t looked pretty to me. But I’d looked worse. Much, much worse.

“Speero also mentioned they ran you out of the galley. You hungry, sweetheart? They’re all gone now, so the room is clear. I was about to grab some food if you want to join me. Then we’ll have to take care of the pesky enforcer questions on the vidscreen.”

I cleared my throat. “I won’t be able to tell them anything important.”

“Don’t worry about that—just tell them what you do know and let them do their own damn jobs. Wanna eat?”

I nodded.

“Come.” He held out his hand.

I stared at it for a long moment then slipped my fingers into his grip. His hand felt warm, comforting…yet it also made me feel something else I didn’t truly understand. A sort of anticipation and excitement. Frowning, I let him tug me from the room and followed him down the passageway into the galley.

“We’ll be restocking this thing at the next stop when we pick up the rest of the crew. I believe there are still some Kithran dishes available.”

“I had gorvo fruit last night.”

“Clay loves that stuff and Lux surprised us when she filled the replicator with it. We were in a hurry and didn’t have time to get a lot of things before going after Lashin.”

“Who’s Lux?”

The question surprised him. He halted briefly, frowned. I looked away because it shocked me too. Especially because the emotion that prompted the question felt fast, powerful…and strange. I hated the idea of him and a woman, and the vehemence shocked me.

“She’s the captain of the one ship that can fly into Kithra—though that’s about to change. They’ve mined enough kithronite to build a couple of ships now. You’ll meet her. She married a human and a Gwinarian man and made Kithra her home.” He programmed something into one of the simulators. It smelled so good, I stepped closer to see.

There were four white circles, like flattened bread, stuffed with meat and vegetables I didn’t recognize. “What are they?”

“Chicken tacos like my mama used to make on Earth. Well, as close as I can get to ’em. I programmed the recipe in myself.”

I sniffed again and my stomach grumbled.

He grinned, handed me his plate and keyed in another. “What would you like to drink? Want to try my mama’s lemonade? Programmed that one in too.”

My smile couldn’t be stopped this time. He just shook his head, muttered something that sounded like dangerous, and grabbed two tubes. He nodded toward the last booth.

We sat across from each other and I waited to see if he used utensils to eat because he hadn’t picked up any. He used both hands to lift the wrapped food and took a huge bite out of it. “It’s not as good as hers—she always had real instead of simulated ingredients—but works in a pinch to satisfy the craving for Earth. Or home.”

“You’re from Earth?” I thought back to the news vids I’d been watching, remembered seeing that the original Earth was barely livable and had been turned mostly into cryogenic facilities that could get around the ration of food to human laws.

“Earth Two. My parents have a ranch. They named it Texas after a state that used to be on the first Earth. My ancestors lived there.”

Ranch and Texas were all new words to me. I followed his lead, picked up the taco and took a bite. The green leaves crunched, the meat was tender and juicy and I recognized the yellow slivers. “Oh, this has cheese! My owner loved this stuff. He let me taste it one time.” I started picking out the small pieces so I could taste them alone.

“Hold on,” he murmured as he slid out of the booth and walked to the simulator. He came back carrying a platter with different sections of white and yellow squares. “Boy did you pick the right pirate ship. Our captain is a cheese junkie. There are different kinds there—some from the Earths and a couple from this settled moon we ran across in Sector Two. They made it from the milk of a three-legged creature called a bork.”

Excitement tightened my stomach as I hovered over each small piece, not sure where to start. Then I clued in to what he’d said. I dropped my hand in my lap, narrowed my eyes. “Pirates?”

Anders took another bite of his taco and rolled his eyes as he chewed. He swallowed, nodded. “You didn’t know you’re on a pirate ship?”

Cold filled my limbs. “Pirates sell slaves.”

“Oh no, sweetheart, we’re not that kind of pirate.” He looked around then leaned across the table. “We don’t steal from anyone other than Saturna. The pirate title is a joke. Just don’t let Claybourne hear you repeat that.”

Even I knew what Saturna was. A huge mining corporation that rivaled The Company. “My owner used to work for them. Sometimes the government officials who visited spoke of Saturna.”

“Really.” He set his taco down and leaned back into the corner of the booth. “Don’t suppose you remember anything of what you heard?”

I shrugged. “It was mostly about mining.”

“Anything about Kithra?”

“No. No one was allowed to talk about Kithra around me.” I chose a soft-looking white square and closed my eyes in pleasure. It had a smooth texture and melted on my tongue. “I like this one.”

“Unfortunately, you’ll have to get Clay to tell you which is which. I’m more of a beef eater myself.”

“Beef?”

“Cows. From the Earths.”

I wrinkled my nose. “You eat real meat from animals?”

“Not that often, but I do go home for a steak every now and then. My parents raise their own food. The government gives them a stipend for doing so as well as extra for providing for other families.”

I eyed my taco. “What did you call this meat? Chicken?”

“That is simulated—not real.”

“Okay then. I like it very much.”

I jumped when the captain’s voice came over the speaker. “Sullivan, where the hell are you?”

“Galley. With Siri. Something wrong with the cameras?”

“Stay there. I’ll come to you.”

The clicking noise signaled he’d signed off.

“Bossy fucker, isn’t he?” Anders’s grin let me know he wasn’t annoyed. It wasn’t the first time he’d called the captain names. Maybe it was a sign of affection for them.

Clay strode into the room and sniffed. “I’ll have what you guys are having.” He worked the simulator, grabbed his plate and shoved Anders over in the booth so he could join us. He eyed the cheese plate, looked at Anders. “Didn’t know you liked that.”

“I got them for Siri. She was curious.”

“What sort of things did you eat on the ship, Siri?”

I was still chewing my last bite of taco, so I hurried to finish and swallow. “I got to taste things every now and then, but most of the slaves ate the same thing. A vitamin and protein paste.”