Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
I gave him twenty lashes—no more and no less—and Jerx grunted and groaned with every one. When I was finished the hairy pelt that covered his back was nearly bald—the whip having burned the hair away as it stung him.
“That’s twenty,” I said, coiling the whip again. Touching it didn’t hurt me because it was keyed to my DNA.
Jerx groaned as he let go of the grips but he didn’t dare to give me a look. He did, however, shoot an angry glance at Cass, who was still sitting silently in my desk chair.
“Get out,” I told him. “And don’t let me catch you doing anything like what you tried again or you’ll never crew with The Illyrian or any other ship run by Clan Savage for the rest of your miserable life, crewman.”
“Yes Sir,” he muttered and left the office—which only left me Gurflug to deal with.
“Well,” I said, looking at him. “Looks like it’s your turn. Ten lashes for lying and putting a crewmember in danger.”
“What? Me?” He took a step back from me, his muddy cheeks going pale. “Surely you can’t mean to punish me when I did nothing wrong!”
“You gave the entire crew the idea that your fellow navigator was a sex worker,” I growled. “Cass was nearly raped tonight because of your lie! I don’t tolerate liars aboard The Illyrian, any more than I tolerate rapists.”
“You don’t dare whip me!” he protested, frowning. “I’m the navigator! You need me!”
I shook my head at his arrogance and willful ignorance.
“Weren’t you on the bridge when Cass showed us his navigation skills?” I demanded. “You have no leverage here. Now get up to the whipping cross and assume the position!”
Gurflug took another step back, his doughy face a mask of defiance and fear.
“If you lay a single finger on me, I promise this stinking ship will end up in the middle of a black hole during our next jump!”
I could feel the growl rising in my throat. Nobody insults or threatens my ship—fucking nobody.
“Are you threatening me, Galafruxian?” I demanded. “Because if you are, then I’m never letting you navigate again. And you’ll spend the rest of your time aboard The Illyrian in the brig!”
Gurflug’s face went dark with anger.
“You wouldn’t dare to lock me up!”
“Try me,” I told him. “Now are you going to take your punishment like a male or do I need to call some crewmembers up here to hold you down?”
“I…you…”
His rubbery lips worked but he couldn’t’ seem to get a coherent sentence out.
“It’s clear you’ve never been held responsible for any of your actions before,” I told him. “But that ends now. Get up to the whipping post!”
I saw the dawning realization on his face that he wasn’t getting out of this. Finally he stepped up to the cross and reached for the grips.
“Take off your shirt,” I told him.
Gurflug cast an enraged look over his shoulder.
“Take off my shirt? You already made me remove my layer of protective slime!”
“And you smell a little better for it,” I pointed out. “Now take off your shirt—the pain conductors won’t work otherwise and you deserve to feel every bit of the pain and terror that Cass felt tonight when Jerx attacked him.”
He gave me a furious look but finally removed his shirt, baring a greenish brown back. His smell still wasn’t pleasant, but it wasn’t as eye-wateringly bad as it had been before his shower. I shook out the whip, listening to it sizzle, and then gave him the first stroke.
“Ohhhhh! Ahhhhh!” Gurflug roared and groaned. “You must stop, Captain—I cannot take anymore!” he moaned.
“That was just the first one,” I told him. “Man up—you’ve got nine more to go.”
Of course the big Galafruxian cried and groaned dramatically through the rest of his whipping. By the time I reached the tenth stroke, I was thoroughly sick of him and wishing I could leave him on the next stable planet we passed. But I had hired him which meant I was stuck with him now. It’s against the Captain’s code to abandon any crew member outside their home galaxy. So like it or not, Gurflug was with me for the rest of this mission.
When I finished the whipping, there were a few, faint red marks on his back but you would have thought that I’d whipped him until he was bloody from the way he lurched away from the whipping cross, groaning and cursing. He gave me a baleful look and then glared at Cass.
“This is all your fault, pup!” he snarled, pointing a thick finger at the other navigator. “You’ll be sorry!”
Cass turned pale but raised his chin defiantly.
“Maybe if you hadn’t spread lies about me you wouldn’t have been whipped!”
Gurflug started to say something in return, but I held up a hand to stop him.