“Having a… what are you talking about?” Dexter asked, confused.
“That is how she found me. How she always knows where I am,” Jenna explained. “They must have taken something from me, some hair perhaps. It, together with the ring, control her. She may not be driven to come after me, but there is a link between us that I cannot knowingly permit.”
Dexter nodded, understanding her better. He had to admit he would have a hard time with such a thing himself, being the private person he was. Jenna slipped next to him, allowing him to hold her close in a supportive embrace. She buried her head against him and he felt her tears wetting his shirt.
“I don’t want to leave… not the ship, not you, not any of them,” said her muffled voice. “There’s no other way around it.”
“Are you hinting that I should kill her?” Dexter asked, suspecting he was being manipulated into being given an ultimatum.
Jenna looked up sharply. She shook her head. “No, I am not. Damn you, human, you proved yourself better than me. Your example with Keshira has proven to me that she deserves a chance to live, or the chance to try to find a life.”
Dexter smiled, happy to have made a difference.
Jenna sighed and said, “I hate you sometimes, you know? But I’m going to miss you.”
He felt a sadness within him but refused to pay attention to it. He just shrugged and said, “Still got a week till we end up someplace, lot can happen in a week.”
Jenna leaned in and surprised him by pressing her lips to his. Once he overcame his shock he returned the kiss, even though he knew he should not. Jenna broke away and whispered, “Especially if I have my way.”
She stepped away from Dexter and winked at him, which made the captain blush. She reached up untied the three separate ties holding her vest closed, one at a time. Dexter found himself staring, unable to pry his eyes away. His eyes found hers and she winked at him again, then let her vest slide off her shoulders to the floor.
Dexter cleared his throat and reached for the door behind him. Fumbling with it, he opened it while trying not to stare at her athletic breasts. He failed miserably, but still managed to open the door behind him.
“I, uh, need to go to…”
“Captain,” Jenna said, stepping closer to him so that she was within arm’s reach. “We’ve had this discussion before. I don’t mind if you look.”
She reached down and grabbed his free hand, lifting it up slowly. “This is how I dress in my quarters, though I’m only changing clothes at the moment. I want you to see me so you are accustomed to it. If you want to spend time with me in here, then you need to accept me like this.”
She raised his hand higher and turned it so that it was his palm faced towards her. “Perhaps this will help you?” She mused, pressing her breast into his palm.
Dexter gasped and opened his eyes wide in surprise. He felt her nipple harden against the skin of his palm, poking into it and urging him to caress it.
“Does feeling my body make it easier to look upon it?” Jenna asked softly, her words and tone weaving a spell over him.
Dexter shook his head and pulled his hand away. “It’s very nice — you are very nice,” Dexter corrected. “But you’re a member of my crew and that’s that.”
Jenna shrugged, a smile on her face. She turned and stepped away from him, her hands busy in front of her so he could not see them. “Well then, Captain, I suspect a week will not be nearly long enough, and it will be a lifetime too long.”
She bent forward and slid her breeches over her hips as she did so. As soon as Dexter saw her doing this he turned and rushed out the door. He knew that as much as he yearned to watch her show, he knew what would happen should he stay. As it was he was overdue to take over on the helm for Bekka. She could use all the time with Rosh and Bailynn that she could get.
In his second attempt at the helm, Rosh found himself fascinated with the feeling of being so in tune with the Voidhawk. The ship felt like an extension of himself; because of it he was able to forget about his own body as he focused on the sails and the hull of the ship. It still took Dexter a couple of times of repeating an order to get the man to hear it.
The gravity well of an obstacle caught him entirely off guard. The Voidhawk was dragged off the course they had set, making everyone shift and nearly lose their balance. Jodyne cursed as a skillet fell from a cupboard and glanced off her arm, promising Rosh a mouthful the next time she saw him.
“What happened?” Rosh asked, looking around for Dexter, who had already rushed to the windows of the bridge.
“That… rock?” Dexter asked, trailing off as he stared into the void. “It’s a tower or something, or what’s left of one. Looks like it was based on an asteroid but it’s been blown into mostly rubble.”
“Huh?” Rosh asked, not understanding what the man meant.
“You had us under full sail and we ran into the gravity field of those rocks, it pulled you out of it,” Dexter said. He hurried to the door to the bridge and opened it up, yelling for Bekka as he did so.
Bekka was already heading towards the bridge; Dexter cut his yell short to spare the half-elf from damaged hearing. Lynn trailed behind her, obedient and quiet as ever.
“Rosh, move,” Dexter said. “Let Bekka take us in.”
Rosh got up from the chair and collapsed to the ground. Bailynn rushed forward, kneeling beside him and wrapping her arms around him to help him. Rosh looked up and shook his head, then chuckled.
“Still hard getting used to getting my own feet back,” he said. He glanced back at Bailynn and did a surprised double take. She had hardly spoken since they had calmed her down, or even done much more than follow them around and listen to them as they instructed her. Now here she was trying to help him out.
Rosh grinned at her and slowly climbed to his feet. “Um, thanks,” he said, at a loss for words. To his greater surprise he saw a hint of a smile in her eyes as she looked up at him. Then her gaze dropped and she returned to behaving as she had before.
“Rosh, on the deck, it looks abandoned but we should check it out,” Dexter said, holding the door open.
Rosh nodded and started towards it. Then he grinned, “If it’s ruins, might be some treasure to be had!” He took the stairs up to the deck two at a time.
Dexter shook his head and followed.
Dexter and a fully armed Jenna gathered on the forecastle to watch the approach. The others worked the sails and rigging as Kragor called out orders to them. The Voidhawk closed rapidly with the broken up rubble, and soon passed into the surprisingly clean bubble of atmosphere that still surrounded the tower.
“Kragor!” Dexter said as he turned and started towards the main deck. “You, Bekka, Keshira, Jodyne, and Bailynn stay with the ‘Hawk. Rosh and Jenna with me.”
Kragor scowled at him as he walked past, causing Dexter to hesitate and then grin. “Sorry old friend, you’re just so good with the ship!” Dexter found himself glad that Kragor did not possess Jodyne’s talent, and tendency towards, throwing things. The look the dwarf gave him still left him worried the dwarf might ask his wife for some lessons.
With the sails furled and Bekka concentrating on holding the ship on station, they slid down a rope to the rubble strewn surface of the asteroid that the tower used as a base. Weapons in hand, they approached the tower and studied it carefully. Only a little over twenty feet tall, it had once been much taller but the top had been knocked off of it.
The door to the tower lay in rubble at their feet, leaving an open doorway. Dexter led the way while Jenna followed close behind. Rosh brought up the rear. At first glance the inside looked much like the outside, strewn with rubble and debris. Stepping over the threshold caused each of them to stumble and gasp as the tower’s contents shifted before their eyes.