Escape from Endeavor by Daniel A. Jones

  ***

  Everyone was expected to eat lunch together to give them a chance to talk about what was going on. Daemon had Shektee wait in his cabin so the others could eat and talk without worrying about her. He tended to stay out of most of the conversations unless he was asked a direct question. Angelica had taken over as the main cook with Nelson helping with some of the equipment and foreign foods. Daemon and Shektee had gone out the day before and collected herbs for Angelica to make tea with.

  “Daemon, I am going to need Shektee’s help with Stacey. I’ve tried everything I can think of but nothing seems to be helping,” Angelica said.

  “I’m sure she’ll do whatever she can to help.”

  “How can you trust her?” Sara asked timidly.

  “It’s not that I trust her; I understand her reasons for doing things. I think she believes it’s in her best interest to help in any way she can. I guarantee everything she does she’s doing to improve her situation. She doesn’t want to be here but she doesn’t have a choice. There are rules I don’t understand yet that are making her serve me.”

  “I hope we can trust her because if Stacey doesn’t improve, she’s going to have to take the knowledge from her on how to pilot the ship,” Nelson conceded.

  “I owe her my life and I have no doubt that she would collect if given the chance. I also believe she will do what she can to help,” Mystique said, knowing Daemon didn’t want the others to know about the ancient spirit he was linked to, or the fact that Shektee was serving that spirit, not him.

  “I’ve been wondering, Nelson: Why are the plants here so valuable? Sara told us you came to collect them,” Angelica asked, trying to change the subject.

  “We came here to collect eradiated plants from near the Rift. Some of the plants near it absorb the radiation coming from the Rift and store it. The radiation has been found to enhance psychic abilities and, in some cases, grant abilities. Certain people are willing to pay a lot of money for those plants,” Nelson said as he sipped his tea.

  “How can you tell what plants have the radiation in them?”

  “I have a modified hand-held sensor that detects it.”

  “Have you checked the tea?” Daemon asked with a chuckle.

  “No. Why should I? Isn’t it from the ship’s supply?” Nelson asked, not sharing Daemon’s humor.

  “I collected it yesterday while I was checking the area around the ship,” Daemon told him.

  Everyone looked in their tea cups, wondering.

  “I’ll be right back,” Nelson told them as he quickly left the mess room.

  A few minutes later he returned with a small device with a metal loop at one end. He passed the loop over his tea cup and looked surprised at the results. “These are some of the highest readings I’ve encountered.”

  Sara pushed her cup away with enough force to tip it over.

  Mac just took another sip. Mac was still under Shektee’s control but she’d been able to loosen it to the point where he was acting and thinking on his own again. “Tastes good to me,” he said.

  “We’ve been drinking tea all our lives. It hasn’t hurt us,” Angelica told them.

  “Oh, I think it has had an effect. This explains how you got your special abilities.”

  “I guess that could explain why so many people in town were developing abilities,” Mystique added.

  “So how much do you want? I can take Shektee and we can collect it until we’re ready to lift off,” Daemon offered.

  “Jim and I were collecting it until he went crazy. I’m not sure how much we have but any you can collect well help pay for repairs at a real star port.”

  “All right, I’ll get Shektee and meet you in Medical; after that, we’ll go collect more herbs,” Daemon told him as he got up and walked to the hatch.

  “I think I’ll help them. Unlike you two, I don’t have a bag full of jewelry to live on when we get where we’re going and I don’t plan on being a whore,” Mystique told them.

  “I don’t know how much the jewelry is worth but you can have a share of what we sell it for,” Angelica offered, knowing Daemon wouldn’t mind.

  “Thanks, but I’ll go collecting with Daemon. I want to talk to him about Shektee and what his plans are for her.”

  Everyone perked up at the mention of Shektee. They all had questions but none of them, not even Angelica, was willing to talk to Daemon about her. Each had their own reasons. Angelica didn’t want to get into another discussion about her abilities, Sara was just plan scared, Nelson was worried about being turned into a slave like Mac, and Mac remembered hating her and Daemon but no longer felt it, which worried him. Mystique was the only one who didn’t seem scared of Shektee.

  “I for one hope he leaves her here,” Angelica stated, letting everyone know that she didn’t like Shektee.

  “I don’t think that’s going to be an option if we want to leave here. Stacey isn’t getting any better, which leaves Shektee’s little mind trick the only way we’re going to have a pilot,” Nelson said. What he wanted to ask Shektee was where she came from and what her society was like.

  “The two of them have been practicing flying, using the main computer on the Bridge,” Sara said. “I spotted it running when I was doing some repairs and checked to see who was using it.”

  “That means Shektee already went into Stacey’s mind,” Nelson deduced.

  “I don’t care what they do as long as they stay to themselves and don’t bother me. Once we get to Nebular 4, you can all get off the ship and leave us be,” Mac grumbled.

  “I’m sorry for any trouble we may have caused, but we’re not the ones that killed your captain and crewmates,” Angelica apologized.

  “It’s not you, it’s that brother of yours and that thing with him.” Mac replied.

  “When we get to Nebular 4, I’ll introduce you to a few people and help you get fake ID chips,” Nelson offered. “Nebular City isn’t the kind of place innocent people should be walking around in, though I don’t think you’ll be in much danger of being mugged,” Nelson added to everyone’s amusement.

  “Thank you. I’m sure we’ll be all right,” Angelica said with a smile as she got up and put her dishes in the washer. She collected Daemon’s out of habit and put them in the washer, too. The rest got the hint and started clearing the table before heading back to work.