Page 8 of Logic Broken

“Let me run some quick calculations,” I said firmly. Once, I had been pretty scared of just how big the green-scaled male was, but you simply couldn’t stay scared long when you saw him with his mate, Abigail.

I dropped into the navigator seat, half my attention on Kitan, who was loping around the bridge to slap each of his brothers on the shoulder to eagerly greet them. “We found him. We’ll get him back, Ziame,” he said to the Captain. Ziame was closest to Akri; he’d been the one most worried about the missing AI.

Reaching for the plug for my nav port, I watched Kitan as my vision shifted. Mundane colors became a kaleidoscope of rainbows, dancing along each surface. Like this, I could see Kitan in all shapes all at once, my brain easily understanding and interpreting the millions of possibilities. He was beautiful, he was impossible, and I adored every inch of him.

“Two weeks,” I said, my first rough estimate of our coming journey already coming in. The announcement had a hush fall over the bridge. Two weeks was a long time, even if it was only a relatively short journey when you considered how vast space was.

The deep, dual-toned voice of Da’vi came through over an open com channel. “Just give the order, Ziame. I can have our engine upgrade live in a couple of hours.” Da’vi’s engine upgrade was one hell of a ride to navigate, requiring me to calculate with even more speed and precision during each FTL leap through space. While the others were eagerly agreeing because it would bring them to our friend quicker, my heart leaped for another reason. It was extremely amazing to travel at those speeds.

“Hey beautiful,” Kitan said next to my ear, his large body thumping into the pilot seat at my side. “Ready for another adventure?” he asked. He always seemed to mute some of that exuberance of his when he talked to me just before a leap. He knew he was my anchor when I navigated, and he’d never failed me.

“Yes, with you. Always!” I replied. My fingers found one of his hands, holding on tight as I sank into the task of finding us the fastest way to Akri. Ziame’s deep voice behind me rumbled his assent to our mechanic but it was Kitan when he counted down for the FTL leap a moment later that had my full attention.

“This path will take us past Serant if we want to be fast,” I said for Kitan’s ears only. We’d visited the planet once before, and it was notorious for making ships drop from the sky. Only the bravest and the best pilots took the quicker route past the planet. Kitan was definitely the best; he just grinned as if I’d said something silly.

“Engaging FTL in three, two, one!” And then we took our first of many leaps.

Chapter 5

Jenny

Walking through yet another little alley, I wrinkled my nose at the smell of urine and other bodily fluids I didn’t want to contemplate. Why was it that the underbelly of every major city managed to get this grimy? No matter where you were, be it Kansas or Akrod, it still stunk the same way.

Akri and I had been walking through this city for nearly three days now. We’d hide at night in empty buildings, crossing as much distance as we could without being seen during the day. I couldn’t have done any of this without his help. There were so many patrols sweeping the streets I would have been caught by now if not for him.

My fingers touched my throat thoughtfully as I followed along at his back. He was a good guy, albeit a really strange one. Not that he’d said or done anything inappropriate ever since that weird comment about a surprise erection. I still couldn’t believe he’d said that, sounding so confused about what had to be a normal bodily function. It made me wonder if there was any credence to the way he talked about only just occupying his body, but that was mindbogglingly impossible, wasn’t it?

He was unfailingly polite and hyper-aware of any of my needs. He was probably the best companion I’d ever had on a trip. I was now sporting a nice warm set of pants with a comfy top and sweater. Over it, I wore a nice puffy coat that was more than enough to help keep me warm during the cold Ov’Korad nights. I had a backpack on with extras, blankets, and rations of food to keep me going during the day.

I hadn’t asked for any of those things but he’d woken me after that first night to break into a nearby store to get all of it. I still felt a little shiver of pleasure when I remembered where I’d woken up that first morning. Right there in his arms, curled up against his muscled chest. That had been the best sleep I’d had in possibly a year; Akri’s presence just made me feel so very safe.

You could call that naive, trusting a stranger so implicitly after so short a time. I called it instinct. My instincts had always been good. They needed to be when you spend a lot of time out in the woods, hunting or rock climbing. As a girl alone, when I was hiking, I always trusted my instincts when I ran into strangers.

Akri was a good egg, just a little weird. I could trust him to treat me right, to help me. I didn’t need to fear that he would turn around and betray me at the end of this journey. He was nothing but honest. When he didn’t want to tell me something I always knew, he’d hesitate and then be as truthful as he could without revealing his deepest thoughts. I appreciated that.

“We’re almost at the port, aren’t we?” I asked. Akri seemed to always know exactly where we were. It was impressive how he could calculate our distance to the port down to the minute whenever I asked. I hadn’t been able to verify yet if he was right, but I was starting to think that he was. Right now, we were down to less than an hour and I could see the massive long haulers come and go almost right above our heads.

“Once at the port, I need to get us to a short-range supply shuttle. We’ll have to stow away. Is that acceptable?” he asked me. He’d told me the basics of his plan last night, about the science lab hidden out in the desert, the supercomputer there that he needed to crack some data which was stored on that shiny green medallion he wore around his neck. I was more than willing to crawl aboard some shuttle and hide for a couple of hours. At this point, we’d been walking so much that even my feet were up for a bit of a rest.

Akri’s long-legged stride meant he easily outdistanced me if I didn’t hurry. Sometimes, when we were taking a detour to avoid a patrol, I’d stick almost to his back like a little monkey, and without fail, his tentacles would grab me. I was starting to think they were the most honest part of him, and my buddy here was extremely into me. Judging by the heat in my belly each time those tentacles touched me, I was as attracted to him as he was to me.

I reached out a hand just to prove to myself that they would behave as I predicted. His right tentacle curled over his shoulder as if it had eyes itself, twisting around my fingers. I didn’t think anyone would blame me for thinking Akri was sexy if he wasn’t forgetting to eat, which happened all the time; he walked proudly and confidently. Tall, broad-shouldered, and packing serious muscle underneath that leather coat. He could easily pass for a superhero from one of my favorite movies.

His head swung my way when our skin touched, his starry sky eyes wide. “Please do not encourage them to malfunction,” he said with a strangled sound to his voice. Did he not like this attraction between us? Oh boy, did he have a girlfriend or wife back home? When I asked, he looked even more shocked, adamantly shaking his head, though the firm grip of his tentacle meant it never dislodged from my fingers.

“Good, I like it, alright? Don’t hold back on my account,” I said, which wasn’t my best flirt but I hoped the directness would get through to him. He swallowed, the deep orange streaks along his cheekbones looking darker than normal. His tentacle never left my hand, the warm, dry grip tightening a little around my fingers.

Dipping his chin in a tentative nod was all the answer I got, our little interlude interrupted by a loud shout at the end of the street. We both froze in place, assessing the approaching threat. I spotted two men behind us, each kitted out in leather, with weapons strapped to their bodies. They had to be mercenaries or bounty hunters which was bad news for us. They would be far more determined to chase us down and go about it in far less legal ways.

“We are surrounded. I calculate that our bests odds are to fight them,” Akri said with a note of resignation to his tone. His eyes weren’t on the two men behind us, he was looking ahead, where I noticed three more males had turned the corner. They blocked our way; there was no way out but through them.

“Please do not let my fighting scare you, Jenny. When I fight… I… Just trust that I’d never hurt you.” He risked looking away from the group of men slowly closing in on us, to stare at me with a pleading look in his eyes. It almost felt like he was apologizing and warning me in one go, as if he thought that what he was about to do would send me screaming into the woods. I’d seen him fight at the bar; I hadn’t found that terrifying. He’d looked amazing and in his element, a total badass that I could only admire.

Nodding seriously, I gently squeezed the tentacle I was still holding. “I promise, but I don’t think anything you do could scare me.” And if it did happen, he’d be horrified; Akri was a good guy. His eyes stayed on me, boring into mine, desperately trying to decipher if I meant those words. It looked to me like it was him that was scared of his own mood when fighting.

We didn’t have more time to talk about it so I could reassure him. I didn’t even know if things would turn out alright since we were severely outnumbered. One of them was in the lead, a big Tarkan male with rings of spiked steel circling the claw tips of his big leathery wings. One tusk was broken in his lower jaw, a jagged, splintered piece barely making it past his thick bottom lip.

“Brake!” he yelled, his deep voice rumbling like a gravel avalanche. “You’re surrounded. Surrender now and no one will get hurt.” The way he said the word brake made me think it was meant to be a name. Was this a case of mistaken identity? Why were they calling Akri that, and with a hint of reverence, if I wasn’t mistaken?