Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“Yes, Captain. Right away! Right away!” Snuffy exclaimed, his long nose wiggling in excitement. “You two, follow me!” he said to me and Gurflug. “Hurry up now—we’re almost ready to get underway.”
And he scampered away.
9
JESSINA
Ifollowed Snuffy to the hole in the floor at the far end of the bridge and climbed down after him as he skittered quickly down the rungs of the ladder set inside the tube.
Gurflug came right after me—which I soon had cause to regret. The minute we were both in the Gensen’s tube, he let loose with a blast of the most noxious smelling gas I’d ever been subjected to.
Goddess! I nearly gagged and began climbing down quicker, trying to hold my breath so I didn’t inhale the toxic fumes. Luckily, Snuffy was even faster than I was. He was already at the bottom.
“Right this way—right this way!” he exclaimed, his long nose wiggling. Then he frowned. “Was that you, navvie?”
“No, absolutely not.” I nodded at Gurflug, who was laboriously making his way out of the tube, and made a face.
“Ah, I thought so, I thought so.” Snuffy nodded. “Galafruxians always get the wind in their bellies, so they do! I don’t envy you at all—no I don’t. No I do not.”
I would have been charmed by his way of repeating things if his words didn’t alarm me so much.
“Er, what do you mean?” I asked, frowning.
“Why, it’s you that has to bunk with him, navvie. So it is, so it is,” he emphasized.
“But—don’t we have separate quarters? I mean the navigator isn’t part of the main crew, right?” I protested. “They’re like one of the ship’s officers so surely that must warrant a private bunk.” I had been counting on that as part of my plan from the very beginning.
“Ah, the navigators’ quarters are separate from the rest of the crew, all right—a fact I’m sure the crew will appreciate when they see that mountain of stench,” Snuffy wiggled his long nose at Gurflug, who—having finally exited the tube completely—was making his way down the narrow corridor towards us.
“So you’re saying I have to share a room—er, share my quarters—with him?” I demanded in a low voice.
Snuffy shrugged.
“All part of ship’s life, so it is, so it is. You’re lucky to have a semi-private room, navvie. You’re too pretty by half to bunk with the rest of the crew,” he remarked.
“Pretty?” I put a hand to my face reflexively—I had thought I at least looked masculine. But I didn’t have time to worry—by that time Gurflug had finally caught up with us—and so had his stench. Goddess of the Four Faces, he smelled like low tide on the banks of the Rotten Sea! And I was sharing a room with him.
“Come this way—this way,” Snuffy told us. He led us down a narrow white corridor, leaping nimbly over the pipes and tubing and the other machinery of the ship that encroached on the available space.
The thing about the inside of the Illyrian was that it seemed like every spare inch and surface was out to hurt you. There was nothing soft or pretty or comforting about her interior at all—it was stark and white and filled with obstacles that hurt when you bumped your shin on them.
I was able to dodge around the protruding machinery pretty well, but I could hear Gurflug cursing as he knocked into things behind me. Why would he want to take a job in a vessel that was so obviously too small for his massive frame?
Probably for the twenty thousand credits, I thought, dodging another protruding pipe. Most people would do anything for that kind of money.
We passed the mess hall—it had metal tables that were magnetized to the floor and had gaming boards etched into them. The better to while away the empty hours when traveling between planets that weren’t close enough to a worm hole, I guessed. Beside the hall was the galley where the food was made. A perfectly indescribable smell was coming from the window—I honestly couldn’t decide if it made me hungry or nauseous.
Snuffy stopped momentarily, putting his head through the broad open window that separated the galley from the mess hall.
“Hey, Cookie!” he squeaked. “Poke your head out—meet our two new navvies!”
“Two navvies?”
A male who was at least half Brute came to the window to stare at me and Gurflug. His skin was a pale gray and his hair was bright orange. His horns were painted dull gray, which meant he held a low rank in his Clan. He was wearing the standard uniform of black pants and a black shirt with white collar and cuffs but he had the cuffs rolled up to his elbows and the shirt open to show a hairy chest.
“Why are there two of you?” he demanded, as if we should know.