Now that Cue and Chance have joined us, it has become obvious we need supplies. Most of the items Naomi and I bought in Albany were left to escape. Cue and Chance also want the opportunity to get in contact with their crew. Chinchi is the closest country to us and an ocean away from Gandalia so I doubt anyone is looking for Naomi there. To avoid suspicion and Chinchi military entanglement by using the Rift in its jet form, we are using the Rift as a boat to float in to dock at a fishing port on the east coast of the country. It will take a couple hours but everyone needs rest. The two doors that appeared in the hallway lead to small bed rooms that we let the women take.

Tak wakes me up as we dock. Chinchi police are worried by the design and size of the Rift. We are surrounded by them in the water and several on the dock move in cautiously. Cue and Chance wake. The two nonchalantly walk to the hall, climb the ladder. The police disband almost instantly. Cue jumps back into the Rift and walks up to me.

“Now that we are here I need to meet up with my crew,” He says. “Naomi should come with us.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Her Copy Seed has messed her up pretty bad. She needs to see a doctor and a Copy Seed specialist.”

“Her grandfather made her Seed,” I say. “Will a specialist here even know how to help?”

“I’m not saying anything for sure but, if she continues without treatment I doubt she’ll live much longer,” he says. “But this is your ship and she is your crewmate so it’s your call.”

“Tak,” I call.

“Yes, Master,” she says as she materializes in front of me bowed.

“Is he telling the truth?” I ask.

“Naomi’s bio scan does indicate severe damages to the heart, and lungs and minor damage to the spine and nervous system,” Tak says. “If she continues to use the Copy Seed with these left untreated her life expectancy is five months, fourteen days and three hours.”

“I’ll go,” Naomi says as her door zooms open. “But Chance has to stay here.”

“Fine by me, babe,” Cue says. “I would love some alone time with you.”

“Touch me and your dead,” Naomi says.

“Ha, ha. I would never dream of such a thing,” Cue says sarcastically. “Right this way.”

Naomi walks over to the ladder and before she has the chance to grab it, Cue reaches out to her, starts laughing and jumps up through the hatch. I hear Naomi use a few nasty words I never heard her say before. Chance climbs down and closes the hatch sealing the raucous outside.

“So… what’s up, guy?” I ask.

“Nothing,” he says completely uninterested in conversation. “I’m going back to sleep.”

He walks to the cockpit. I follow right behind. I feel a hand grab me and before I have the chance to turn around it yanks me backwards. It only takes a second before I feel the warmth of someone’s body behind me. I’m in Ayesha’s room, the door closes. It is bigger than I expected it would be. In the center is a table and two chairs all made of shiny reflective metal. On the wall to the right of the door is a bed that folds up and down and a window on the far wall.

“I told you we have to talk,” she says as she moves from behind me.

I honestly hoped she had forgotten about that whole “we need to talk,” thing. However I do want to find out how she knows Cue and Chance and why she hates them so much.

“I get that you don’t trust them,” I say, “but why?”

“They came after me once,” she says. “During one of my missions with the Black Talons. We were hired by the Chinchi Imperial army to secure a drop zone for soldiers in a rebelling province. Cue and Chance attacked us and separated me from my team. They were contracted to find my Seed Destruction. After discovering it was inside the body of someone so young, they didn’t want to remove it themselves. Only because Seed removal kills the host. Cue tied me up and took me to be killed by the people that hired them so they could get the Seed themselves. I escaped, killed the employers and went after Cue and Chance. They fled because they wouldn’t get paid for finding me with their employers dead. If not for you I would have shot them the second they took a step on this ship.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“That’s horrible,” I say outraged.

“I can forget about that little incident for now,” she says with a sigh. “We do need more Black Hosts on our team.”

“Black Hosts?” I ask.

“You need to study up on Black Technology,” Ayesha says. “A Black Host is someone with one or more Black Seeds. A Vector is a person that has a Copy Seed. Next time before you let someone join, can we vote on it?”

“Of course,” I say as I head for the door.

“Wait,” she says as she grabs my hand. “How is your stomach? Shouldn’t you go to see a doctor as well?”

“I’m fine. It’s already healed.”

“The Vortex has a healing program?” she asks as she lifts my shirt.

“No. I have nanites inside me,” I say.

“I did not know nanites were real,” she says as she lowers my shirt seeing that there is not even a scar left. “We haven’t had the opportunity for alone time since then and I am sorry about that whole mess but can we… continue where we left off?”

“Where we left off?” I ask.

“You know,” she says as her face turns bright red. “At the k-kiss.”

“Oh, yeah. Right. Of course you mean that,” I say scramble-brained. “What other thing could you have meant?”

I look her in the face and see she is serious and I grab her by her hands trying as hard as I can to recreate the confidence I had the first time we almost kissed. It is difficult being my first kiss but I do manage to pull myself together and lean in. She starts to do the same and once again we find ourselves only inches from each other’s lips.

“Sorry to interrupt, Master,” Tak says completely snapping Ayesha and me out of our moment. “But there is a police captain here to see you.”

“Umm, well we… we’re kind of in the middle of something here.”

“I understand I am interrupting you in the middle of you courtship with Miss Ayesha. Please excuse me,” she says as she vanishes.

“It’s okay. Go,” Ayesha says. “We don’t want any extra attention focused on the Rift.”

I sighed and let go of her hands nearly tripping over myself as I headed out the door.

“Smooth move,” I hear her giggle as her door closes.

I call Chance to come up with me but to no response. Tak could probably be a better translator anyway. I climb the ladder and open the hatch. The Police Chief is standing right above me. I climb all the way out and look him in the eyes. He is tall, well-built and looks about thirty-five. He does not say anything; he just looks me over almost in a disappointed way as if he expects more.

Tak suddenly appears and does a slight bow to the Police Chief and to me. She then begins a conversation with the man in Chinoku.

His mood lightens up. “So you are the hero who saved our Cūe’nitol and Chance,” He says in perfect Nayate. “Any hero to them is a hero to us all.”

“Oh, you speak Nayate,” I say.

“I am versed in many languages,” he says.

“Are Cue and Chance famous here or something,” I ask.

“Those two are saints,” the Chief replies. “They are the reason this province isn’t third world.”

“I don’t understand,” I say.

“I have been looking into some of your human computer data,” Tak says. “As it would appear Cue and Chance were born here and they have been making very large cash donations to this province, Hai, over the past few years. Because of the donations this Province is no longer the poorest in Chinchi. With the money, the province was given the economic relief it needed to expand.”

“I wanted to thank you on behalf of the Hai Police,” he says.

“No problem,” I say. “I will be on my way.”

“I will have no such thing,” he says. “Come let me show you the city that you saved.”

“That’s not necessary,” I say as I take a step back. “Really.” What I want is to get back to Ayesha not to hang out with this old man.

“I won’t take no for an answer,” he says.

“But I must decline,” I say.

“Come on, Elvion. Don’t be like that,” I hear Ayesha say from the hatch.

She is hanging half way out.

“This is a marvelous opportunity to look around and stretch our legs. Besides I would love to have solid ground under my feet for once.”

I quickly turn completely around to see. Ayesha is lifted up out of the Rift by a hand underneath her butt. Slowly Chance lifts his head out of the hatch after Ayesha runs behind me with her hands behind her guarding her hindquarters.

“Will there be food on this tour?” he asks.

“Watch your hands, you freak,” Ayesha says.

“Don’t block the exit,” Chance retaliates. “Now about that food.”

“Of course, Chance. When you and Cue return, it’s our honor,” the man says.