Corsairs: Kaspar (Corsair Brothers 2) - Page 2

"Drink some water," he tells me.

"It tastes like pee." Ever since I found out that the water's recycled from a variety of things, well…now I can't get the taste out of my mind.

His mouth curves in a half-smile. "Be glad you have it."

"So what's worse than tabs?" I ask again, because it's a topic we haven't exhausted yet. I pull my legs up against my chest and hug them, watching him. "Is it a gross food you ate somewhere once? Or is this a noodles joke?"

Kaspar shakes his head. "I'd love noodles right about now, actually. I was thinking of inukni worms."

I recoil a little. "You eat those?"

"Not if you can help it." He carefully drags the cloth over his boot, frowning down at the glossy finish. "They're parasites ingested on poorer planets. It grows in your gut and tricks your body into thinking you're not hungry. There's a large black market for such things." He swipes at an invisible splotch. "If you leave it in for too long, though, it'll grow too large and explode right out of your innards, though."

"Jesus Christ," I say, horrified. My skin crawls at the thought. "Why would anyone do that?"

"Because it beats starving to death?" He shrugs. "I have one on me if we run low on tabs."

"You what?"

"Well, actually, I have the eggs." Kaspar gives me a look. "We can grow a couple of full-sized ones in the space of about three or four days if we need to. Just in case."

"Oh my god, why would you keep such a thing on you?" I'm revolted. This sounds like the tapeworm from hell.

"Because I don't want to starve to death if our pod runs out of tabs?" He shrugs. "I've learned that being prepared means you live to fight another day. It won't be ideal, but I'd rather choke down a worm than die just because we're drifting for longer than anticipated."

I swallow, because it didn't occur to me that we might “drift” for that long. "I thought the pod was supposed to shoot us toward the nearest civilized planet. Or station. Or something."

Kaspar keeps on shining his boot, oblivious to my worry. "It's supposed to, yes, but a dozen things can go wrong. Maybe the ice field interferes with readings. Maybe the controls are keffed after three years without maintenance. Maybe a passing meteor knocks our flight path astray. Who can say? That's why I'm prepared."

I look over at the tab dispenser. For some reason I thought we'd have an endless supply of food. "How many tabs are in a pod like this? Roughly?"

Kaspar flicks a look over in my direction. "Roughly? About three weeks."

That…doesn't seem like nearly enough.

2

KASPAR

Being in close quarters with the human Alice reminds me far too much of how we met. How she'd pressed her lithe body up against me and gave me sultry looks with those bright eyes of hers. How she looked up at me and put her hand on my chest, telling me she was so grateful. Whispering things like, "Want to see what I can do with my mouth?" and things designed to entice and distract.

It worked, too. It worked really keffing well.

I know it was a trap. Still can't stop thinking about it, though. How she'd looked so fragile and lost the first moment I saw her and then flung herself against me, pressing her soft body against me and burying her face against my chest. Her slim, delicate form with a fine-boned face, bright eyes, and two topknots of sunny yellow hair. How her pink mouth had curved into a smile as she’d gazed up at me. We're saved, she'd declared, clinging to me as if her life depended on it.

I didn't know what to think at the time. Still don't. She'd seemed so very vulnerable that it was terrifying, though later on I'd found out that she wasn't quite as vulnerable as she pretended. When we separated the females and quizzed them, Alice had talked. And talked. And talked. She'd told me one rambling story after another, all of them equally misleading. She'd told me how she'd arrived with another pirate ship. Then she'd told me how she'd just been woken up the day before. She told me that she was a lonely bride looking for a mate. Then she'd told me she was a space nun.

All of it was just talk to distract, and I refused to fall for it again. When I'd glared at her, she'd surged forward and put her mouth on mine, in a last-ditch effort to distract me. We'd kissed, our lips pressed together in that strange human way my sister Zoey would go on and on about, the way that it's always shown in human vids. I'd been fascinated…except it wasn't real.

It was just another manipulation.

Tags: Ruby Dixon Corsair Brothers Fantasy
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