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I glance back and sure enough, ugly Tarekh is beaming in our direction. He's even bigger than Adiron, which surprises me, because Adiron is the most solidly built mesakkah I've ever seen, but Tarekh is in a class all his own. How he hasn't squished this tiny human woman is beyond me. I look over at Jerrok, then reluctantly take my mask off. "Hi," I say quietly. "I'm Sophie."
"Oh, look at how pretty you are!" Cat's sharp voice carries throughout the hangar. Her face creases up in an expression of pure delight. "And your accent! Is that…Alabama?"
"Tennessee," I say shyly. "But it's been so long I can't tell you much about it anymore. My memories of Earth are…" I wave a hand, feeling awkward.
"Feels like someone else's life, doesn't it? I can relate." Her expression is sympathetic.
"Sometimes, yes."
She holds her hand out to me. "The others would love to meet you. Especially Zoey. But get ready to be grilled about her brothers."
Uh oh. "Grilled?"
"Oh yeah. She's talked about nothing else for days now." Cat rolls her eyes, a bright smile on her face. "It seems they're not great at returning comms, so she's counting on you to fill her in on all the gossip."
Well, Zoey's not wrong about that. The va Sithai haven't called me, either.59SOPHIECat leads-slash-drags me into the Jabberwock to meet the other human women, all enthusiasm. I'm a little more reluctant, because it's been a while since I've interacted with those of my own kind. Kim, of course, but that was months and months ago. Before that, it was the occasional run-in with another slave serving a master, and those meetings were never pleasant. Even Kim had been more stressed than happy, but Cat is just…bubbling over with happiness. She talks in a loud voice, slaps her mate's ass as we pass by him, and seems utterly fearless. She more or less hauls me toward the bridge, because “that's where Zoey will be.”
When we get to the bridge, though, I'm a little surprised. The ship is larger than the Little Sister, the controls far more complex than the already mind-boggling array of toggles I'm familiar with. There's two seats at the navigation station, and they're very close together. As I watch, a tall, almost too-proper-looking mesakkah glances over at us. His hair is cut short, and his ship uniform is buttoned all the way up. He looks…starchy. Disapproving. But then the female next to him turns, and she's anything but. This has to be Zoey, but she's not like I pictured. I thought for some reason that she'd be more like most mesakkah I've seen—slender and elegant. This woman is short and busty, wearing a uniform that matches the guy at her side, but her sleeves are rolled up and her brown hair is pulled into a silky ponytail that brushes against her open collar. She looks over at me in surprise. "Holy shit, Sophie. Hi!" She scowls at Cat. "Why'd you drag her on here? We were going to visit their station, weren't we?"
"Your ass is still here on the bridge." Cat waves a finger at her, undeterred. "I figured we needed to come get you before you two get distracted and I see something I don't want to see."
The proper-looking man at Zoey's side flushes, but Zoey just smirks. "Is it my fault if you watched?"
"It is if you guys are fucking on the bridge."
"Must we speak of this in front of a guest?" the male asks stiffly.
"Right. Sorry." Zoey leans over and plants a kiss on the alien's mouth. "Come get me if you need me?"
His expression softens. "Go. I'll be fine here."
Zoey grins and then bounces up from her seat. She immediately comes toward me, her arms outstretched…as if she's going to hug me.
I pull back, alarmed, and retreat a step.
Awkward silence fills the bridge. "Right," Zoey says, managing to smile. "I forgot that you haven't been free for very long."
Cat just pats my shoulder. "I tried to punch everyone in the face for a long time afterward. You know when Tarekh freed me, I spit in his face."
I blanch at the thought. "Was he very mad?"
"Nah, he fell in love." She grins at me and Zoey. "Come on. Let's go retrieve the others before we invade Jerrok's station and make him miserable."
Cat pulls me along through the ship, and I'm a little bewildered at so many people. There are eight crew on board the Jabberwock and Fran and Kivian's new baby, Jasmine. It doesn't seem like that much in the scheme of things, but I'm overwhelmed at just how noisy they are, how crowded despite the large ship. I can't imagine living like this on a day-to-day basis compared to the sheer quiet of Jerrok's station out in the middle of nowhere. It reminds me (a little too much) of the space station we visited where people were wall to wall, talking over one another.
