Page 1 of Essa

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Essa

Who would've thought that out of all the things humans have done on their boring little planet, their food would be the best thing about them? I expected little of Sloane and Avery's home planet when we first arrived, but I changed my tune as soon as I tried the delicacy known as nacho cheese.

Alik and Jovi have filled the food synthesizer on the ship with mountains and mountains of human recipes. Rytharian food was the first to go. Holoth's no longer on the ship, and Helna probably won't be permanent crew. Varon food was next, much to Jovi's annoyance. They left some sort of fruit-stuffed pastry, but other than that, there's only the food from my home and a plethora of human food. I don't even want to know how many credits Alik spent on it, but he would spend them all if he thought it would make Sloane, his mate, happy.

"Essa, I need to talk to you," Alik says as he grabs a slice of pizza for himself.

Of course, he needs me as soon as my food is ready to be eaten. I frown hard when Jovi strolls in behind him, rubbing his belly with a lower hand. He's going to eat all of my food before I get a chance.

"Oh, did you make pizza?" Helna asks, darting between the big purple Varon bodies and grabbing two slices before Jovi can reach them.

"Save some for the rest of us," Jovi mutters, but he doesn't go for the pizza right away. Instead, he moves to the food synthesizer, starting it up to make another pizza. Good, I will want more when I finish speaking with Alik.

"Is something wrong with Sloane?" I ask as I follow him down the hall toward the ship's exit.

We're waiting for Phial and Avery to return from their safehouse here on Earth. We had to come here so Avery could testify at her father's trial. He helped smuggle humans off Earth for many years, and she was working with the Intergalactic Alliance to build a case against him. That's why she was ultimately kidnapped from her home planet, had her body altered, and wound up on our ship.

Phial messaged us earlier and said they were on their way back, and then we were all going to decide where we would go. I'm hoping to go back to Rythar so we can be there when K'Vella has her babe.

"No, Sloane's fine," Alik says, rubbing the back of his neck as he walks around the ship.

Strange that we have to have this conversation away from the others, but then again, Alik probably doesn't want to worry the more carefree members of the crew unless he has to. With Holoth being gone, I'm the next closest thing he has to someone serious, which means he's desperate.

"What's going on, then? Is something wrong with Avery and Phial?" I ask, panic starting to settle over me.

If there's something wrong with someone on board the Jolly Folly, I can protect them, I can help. Phial and Avery are not on board. I don't even know where they are on this planet, and if something is wrong with them, I–

"Essa, calm down," Alik winces when I turn to face him. Okay, I'm getting much too worked up if my scary face is starting to come out. "No one's hurt. I need to ask your opinion on a job."

"Oh." Relief floods through me, and my body relaxes. "Start with that next time. You had me worried."

Alik presses his lips tight together and shakes his head. "Sloane received a message from that Straxion who helped her with her pleasure crew application, Via."

Via also helped Sloane find someone to help Holoth through his heat, and we're all very grateful for that. If she hadn't conspired behind everyone's back, Holoth and K'Vella wouldn't have met and realized they were fated for one another.

"Well, Via asked Sloane if we'd be willing to help her with some organic cargo." Alik's jaw works before he continues. "Two clones, no papers, no identification. They escaped some sort of facility here on Earth. We only have to keep them on board until Via's brothers can pick them up."

"Were they…?" I let the question trail off because I don't know how much of the clones' pasts are any of my business. Really, none of it is, so before Alik can answer, I shake my head. "Of course, we'll help them. That's what we do."

"Hopefully, we can get back to doing it more often," Alik says, staring off across the port we're docked at. "I still haven't heard back from the IA on when we'll be able to start taking jobs again."

"We could always become pirates," I tell him, wiggling my brows as a smile breaks across my face. "Your mate would love that."

"We're not pirates," Alik says, rubbing at his temples. He tries to hide the small smile dancing across his lips, but I see it trying to break free. "Let's get back on the ship. I want to head out as soon as we get the clones on board."

"Will anyone be coming after them?" I ask, following Alik back toward the ship's entrance.

"I don't know," he says, his narrowed eyes scanning over the crowds around us. "But we'll be careful just in case."

Until about thirty minutes ago, I'd never met a clone. I've been traveling through the cosmos for the last ten years after fleeing my planet on my seventeenth birthday to avoid marrying a male I had no interest in. In all of my time in space, I've never, not once, met a clone. But, looking at the two clones in this room with me, I don't know if I would've ever known if I'd met a clone.

I narrow my eyes on the two human males sitting on the loveseat in the entertainment room. They don't look dangerous, but they were being held in a research facility before they fled. Who knows what was happening to them while they were there? I don't know what they had to do to escape, but they'd have to be strong. Well, strong by human standards since they're not exactly a strong species.

My tail thrashes back and forth as we wait for Alik to tell us if we were followed when we jumped away from Earth's galaxy. My job is to monitor the clones to ensure they don't do anything stupid. At least for now, once we know their level of stupid is on our level, it'll be fine. What we don't want is for their level of stupid to be hurting someone on the crew.

The message we received to help the clones was easy enough to follow once Alik had Sloane show it to the rest of us.

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