“You will do fine,” Kol assured me and pressed a kiss to the crown of my head. “Now listen to me carefully, okay?”
I bobbed my head.
“We’ll be reaching Ealra soon, so what we want to do is slow down, and to do that you need to fire all forward facing thrusters.”
I knew that; my father had told me the functions of every part of every machine in an engine hall, but I still appreciated Kol’s guidance because I suddenly forgot everything I had ever been taught about a spacecraft.
“Okay, and how do I issue that command?”
“You simply think it.”
Uh.
“Okay… is that all?”
“You have to start your command with ‘Ebony’, or she won’t do what you tell her.”
I gasped. “Is she self-aware?”
A lot of androids on Earth had become self-aware over the years.
“No.” Kol laughed. “She is just programmed to react in conversation as if she were a living Maji female. She has personality.”
“Right,” I said, relaxing. “Will I do it now?”
“Let me announce our heading to the passengers first.”
I hesitated. “Okay.”
He closed his eyes. “This is the shipmaster,” he spoke, his voice stern. “Prepare for deceleration. Humans, you will feel odd for a few minutes, so I’d advise you to sit down and place your head between your knees now. All males assist any female that is in need… Please note that my mate is heading the deceleration.”
The crew on the bridge practically wrapped themselves around their consoles.
“Oh, that’s reassuring!” I said sarcastically as I scowled at them.
“You can go ahead,” Kol murmured to me.
I didn’t know why I was so startled by his voice, but I was. I figured it was my nerves over flying the ship that was filled with not only Maji salvation, but human too. I quickly looked down at my hands, and before I lost my nerve, I thought, Ebony, can you fire all forward facing thrusters to slow us down… please?
Yes, Princess Nova, a sultry female voice flowed through my mind.
I gasped when my body was suddenly, in slow motion, pulled forward. I felt so bizarre and almost instantly lightheaded. My hands slipped from the control panel, and before I knew it, I was sitting on my behind with my knees raised to my chest and my head resting on them. A large warm hand was stroking up and down my back.
You did well, shiva.
I was trembling.
I can’t believe you let me do that. I’m never doing that ever again.
Kol laughed as he continued to stroke my back. It didn’t take long until I was back on my feet and feeling back to normal. I worried for the rest of the human women who were possibly weak, but Kol assured me there weren’t many cases of humans fainting, and those who had were being cared for by males until Surkah, or another healer, could help them feel better.
“Do you want to see the engine hall?” Kol asked me. “You won’t be back on board the Ebony in the future, so it’s your last chance.”
So he thought. I didn’t tell Kol that I eventually wanted to start my trade as an engineer, but I figured I’d wait until we were settled on Ealra before I made that declaration.
“I’d love to see it,” I beamed up at him.
We left the bridge hand in hand, and a few minutes later, we were on the lower decks of the Ebony and walking into the incredibly huge engine hall. I imagined the engines of the craft to be roaring with life, but they were eerily silent, though they were working from the look of them. I was a little unnerved that I couldn’t tell which engine was the main one used for converting energy from the reactor core and which ones were the propulsion engines used to fire up the craft’s thrusters. It all looked different than what I was used too.
“Thane?” Kol shouted, looking around for his friend.
I saw no males anywhere, and I found that extremely odd because an engine hall usually had a crew with specific skills that kept everything in check from the moment the rector flared to life until the moment it was shut off. I smiled when I suddenly heard the familiar growl of an engine, a hiss of pneumatics that flowed to the reactor core, as well as some reverberating. The Ebony was virtually silent, as Mikoh had once told me, but an engine was an engine, and all an engine wanted to do was to be heard.
“This is amazing,” I said in awe.
I jumped when I heard a loud bang that was quickly followed by harsh curses.
“Is that you, Kol?”
The voice that spoke was deep and had a natural rasp to it.
“It’s me,” Kol confirmed. “And my mate.”
I blinked when a male rounded from behind a black engine pump with a rag of some kind in his hand. His skin, or what I could see of it anyway, was a warm blue… the patches that weren’t covered in a thick black liquid anyway. Like every other Maji male, Thane was tall, muscular, and ridiculously attractive. His chestnut brown hair was tied into a knot on the back of his head, but wild strands escaped the tie and hung loosely around his chiselled face. His cat-like eyes were emerald green with white strikes throughout them, and a white scar stood out against his skin, curving up from his neck and onto his cheek in a jagged pattern. I didn’t focus on it. Instead, I locked my eyes on the black patterns that decorated his neck, the top of his chest, and his bare arms.
He had spilled an oil of some kind on himself, and he was busy wiping it off, but I mistook some of his obvious tattoos for oil, too.
“I’m not presentable for the new princess,” Thane angrily scowled at Kol.
My mate laughed. “I think you look just fine, like a young one with a skin rash after he got into an alder berries bath.”
Thane’s glare told me he’d love to beat the shit out of Kol.
“Stop teasing him.” I clicked my tongue and nudged my mate.
He put his muscled arm around my shoulder.
“This is my female,” Kol stated, his show of dominance not going amiss.
Thane rolled his eyes and focused on me.
“Princess,” he said and placed his fist on his chest before he… bowed.
I tensed. “You really don’t need to bow. I’m not really a—”
“You’re my mate, shiva,” Kol cut me off. “You’re a princess through our mating.”
That was never going to be possible to wrap my head around.
“Yes, but still—hey, wait a second! How come you aren’t freaking out at Thane for looking at me and talking to me?”
No male—except Mikoh and Nero—was allowed glance in my direction or mutter a word in it. And more than once, Kol had attacked them both when they made me laugh. Kol had been very firm about no one interacting with me since our bond snapped into place and I became his mate.
Kol raised a brow. “Because he is Thane.”
He said that like I knew the meaning behind it.
“Explain,” I demanded.
“He is my brother in arms,” Kol shrugged. “I trust him, and my instincts do, too.”
“In other words,” Thane interjected, “he knows I pose no threat to take you away from him.”
Oh.
“Well.” I nodded. “Okay then.”
Thane’s lips twitched then he flickered his eyes to Kol.
“The deceleration wasn’t very smooth. Are you well?” the male asked, worry laced in his tone.
“Did you not hear my announcement?” Kol asked.
As if on cue, one of the engines roared.
Thane raised a brow. “I never hear you in here unless you contact me through our comms.”
“I forgot.” Kol waved him off. “It was nothing anyway.”
“Nothing?” the male blinked. “It stalled engine one.”
I winced and looked up at Kol. “You said I did well.”
“You did,” he assured me. “Gravity pockets are all over space. Anyone could fly into their path when deceleration is issued, even you.”
“Excuse me?” Thane cut in.
“Did I hear that correctly? You let a female pilot the Ebony?”
I could hear the amusement in his tone.
Kol set his jaw. “For one minute, yes.”
“Why?” Thane asked, astonished.