Claim the Stars: A Jensa story

Chapter 3

Jorgen POV:

My room was full of slugs.

(That's something I'd never thought I'd say.)

There was so much blue and yellow everywhere, my eyes screamed at me every time I went in there. So I moved into Spensa's room.

"You did what?" Nedd asked, smirking at me. 

"Just until she gets back!" I said defensively. "Those slugs are driving me crazy!" Not because I actually enjoyed sleeping in Spin's room--no of course not. The smell of her on the sheets wasn't nice to fall asleep to at all.  (Not sure if that's weird or not, couldn't find a way to word that correctly.)

"Whatever, Jorg," Nedd said, still smiling. "But what happens when she does get back? The room is going to smell like you."

I froze. 

He laughed. "Come on. I'll help you change the sheets or something later. If we take any longer, Cobb's gonna ask why we're late.  You wanna tell him you were--"

"Point taken," I said, blushing. "Let's go."

Rodge, Arturo, Quirk, FM, and Captin Ulan of engineering were in Cobb's office when we arrived.

"Flight leader," Cobb said as we entered. "Good."

"This is about the slugs, isn't it," Rig said. 

Cobb nodded. "We have the hyperdrives," he said, "but no place to put them to use. Any ideas on how we can hook them up to ships?"

Ulan leaned forward. "You're talking about living/machine hybrids. We've never done that before."

"Obviously," said Cobb, "Otherwise we wouldn't still be here."

"Perhaps," Rig said, then blushed as all eyes in the room turned toward him. "That is—if we could use diodes somehow—what is it that makes the slugs so special?"

"Mystical brain powers," Nedd said under his breath to FM, who snickered. Rig looked away. 

I looked back and forth between the two like a tennis match. Quirk caught my eye and raised an eyebrow, like, you saw that too?

I looked at her mystified. She shrugged.

"Do the slugs emit any radiation?" Cobb asked, and I jumped. 

"Cobb," I said, "I've practically been sleeping with the things..."

"We'll run some tests," said Captain Ulan.

"Good," Cobb said. "And scan Jorgen for cancer while you're at it."

I started, and they led me out of the room.