ROGUE HUNT

ROGUE STAR: BOOK TWO

ELIN WYN

AVA YORK

CONTENTS

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Epilogue - Shenna

Letter from Elin

Rogue Instinct

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Given: Star Breed Book One

Vrehx: Conquered World Book One

About the Author

AAVAT

“I don’t think Katzul is the answer to our problems,” I announced to Dejar as I entered the office.

I’d never seen the point in dressing things up. It was a waste of my time and the time of the person I was talking to. If I had something to say, I said it.

“I’m aware,” Dejar nodded and turned his attention back to his pad.

“Aren’t you going to ask me why?”

“I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” he chuckled.

“Don’t be an hurg,” I rolled my eyes. “It doesn’t suit you.”

“It doesn’t suit you, either, yet here we are.” He looked up again, and we stared each other down for another moment before he broke away, laughing.

“You almost had me going there,” I chuckled.

“You looked ready to stage a mutiny,” he grinned.

“The thought crossed my mind,” I admitted.

“Have a seat.” He gestured to the chair opposite him.

“You’re inviting me to sit in my own office? How generous.”

“Could’ve fooled me. I’ve never seen you in here for longer than five minutes,” he replied. I strode over to the chair but didn’t sit down.

“Katzul-”

“I know,” Dejar sighed. “It’s dangerous, unpredictable, and we’ll have no allies. You’ve said it all before.”

“Then why doesn’t it concern you?” I asked.

“It does,” he admitted. “But I still believe it’s our best option.”

“Our situation can’t be so dire that Katzul is the best option,” I scoffed. “That place is despicable.”

“I thought it was nice when I last went,” Dejar shrugged.

“That’s because you didn’t really go into Katzul. You vacationed on the glittering surface,” I replied.

“It’s a planet for the ridiculously wealthy,” Dejar objected. “The entire thing is the glittering surface.”

“Tell that to all the people who live there as servants,” I replied. “Spend a day with them and then tell me how glittering Katzul is.”

“We’re not going there to evaluate work conditions.” Dejar threw his hands up. “We’re looking for jobs off the Dominion’s radar. Tell me there’s a better place.”

“Yes, it’s a hub of unofficial trade,” I agreed. “But there’s no enforcement whatsoever.”

“Isn’t that the point?” Dejar asked.

“Without the Dominion backing the contract, chances are high we’ll have people backing out of payment.” I really, really didn’t like this. Even if I didn’t have another option in mind, I didn’t like it.

“We’ll have to go by the honor system,” Dejar said, “And insist on some of the payment up front.”

“You think a planet filled with the wealthiest citizens of Dominion space uses the honor system? Dejar, you strike me as many things, but naive isn’t one of them,” I barked a laugh.

“I’ve considered the risks,” he insisted. “Why do you think I’m holed up in the office all the time? I’m in here trying to sort out our futures. Someone has to do it, since you can’t be bothered.”

“I’m busy managing the day-to-day operations of the Rogue Star so you’re able to sit here and fret,” I replied.

“You’re right,” Dejar admitted. “But can I ask you one question?”

“What?”

“You never really minded the shady jobs. In fact, you showed an obvious preference for them. If that’s all that Katzul is, why the sudden hesitation?”

“That should tell you there’s something seriously wrong with Katzul if I’m shying away from it,” I replied.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Dejar pressed.

“Katzul is nothing more than a bunch of wealthy citizens who believe they are above any law. Should we make a wrong move, every single one of them has the power to destroy us. Hell, one of the elites could murder us and no one would bat an eye,” I grumbled. “No, they’d just order it done. None of them would get their hands dirty.”

“I doubt it would ever come to that. We aren’t going to Katzul to make trouble,” Dejar replied.

“Has Kovor even heard my argument?” I asked. “I might just be the Chief Mate to your Captain, but he’s the owner of the Rogue Star, after all. He should know about all possible outcomes regarding the safety of his ship.”

“He knows the risks.” Dejar leaned back in the chair, eyes closed. “We all do.”

“Bring him in,” I insisted. “I want to make sure he knows exactly what he’s sending us into.”

With a sigh, Dejar pushed himself away from his desk slapped a button on his desk.

“Kovor, have you got a moment?” he asked.

“Always,” Kovor’s chipper voice crackled through the intercom speaker. The wires for the intercom system would need replacing soon.

Fantastic. Another expense to add to the growing pile.

Kovor swept into the room moments later.

“Is there a problem?” Kovor never looked bothered by anything. In that regard, I was envious of him.

“Aavat is expressing concerns about Katzul that he thinks you should hear,” Dejar explained. I shot him a look.

“I’m listening,” Kovor grinned. I quickly explained the same points I’d previously discussed with Dejar. Kovor was silent for a few moments, pondering everything.

“Can you think of a better solution that will guarantee income?” Kovor turned to me with an expectant look on his face.

“We can pick up jobs anywhere,” I replied.

“From pirates and smugglers,” Dejar added.

“You say that like we’re law-abiding citizens,” I shot back.

“I don’t want to add anything more to the bounty already on our heads,” Dejar replied.

“I think that’s wise,” Kovor nodded. “Katzul isn’t ideal, but if something goes wrong, it won’t be reported to the Dominion. It’s the best course of action for now.”

And that was that.

It wasn’t often that Kovor pulled rank on us. He usually signed off on whatever we thought was best without giving it a second thought.

He trusted us that much.

And as much as I wanted to argue, I knew a direction from the ship’s owner was something you couldn’t oppose.

Under most circumstances, I liked Kovor. He was always good for a laugh and a drink. However, sometimes he behaved like he knew more about the ship and its condition than Dejar or I did. Kovor lacked the experience we had. To his credit, he was learning quickly.

But when he got high and mighty about things, it took restraint on my end to keep my temper under control.

“We’ll be there in a few hours. Taking Aavat’s concerns into consideration, we shouldn’t dock until we have a job set up,” Dejar said.

“It’ll only look suspicious if we take up space at the port and then stay on the ship,” I said.

Kovor nodded, then looked thoughtful. “And what about the women?”

“What about them?”

“Their unusual appearance is bound to attract attention,” he said. “Surely some of the citizens here know about what happened at Outpost Nine.”

“No one on Katzul cares about anything happening off-world,” I scoffed.

“You’re probably right, but I don’t want to take that chance. At the moment, we’re quite low on options.”

“I’d actually realized that,” I snapped.

Dejar shot me a warning look and I took a steadying breath.

My temper was my biggest flaw. Years of living in open space made a Shein a little rough around the edges.

Maybe more than a little.

Kovor looked at me with one lifted brow.

“Well, if we’ve reached a decision, then you no longer need me.” He nodded to both of us before exiting the office.

“I think you offended him,” Dejar said.

“How could I have? He knows we know how strained we are,” I replied. “He’s likely eager to get back to playing cards and flirting with the females.”

“He did raise a good point,” Dejar admitted. “We can’t have them walking around the way they are. They’ll attract attention as an unknown species, even if no one knows about what happened on Dominion Outpost Nine.”

“There’s no reason for the females to be walking around in public,” I replied. “No one would see them unless they came into the ship, and we would stop them before they saw anything.”

“We can’t confine the women to shipboard every time the Rogue Star docks.” Dejar shook his head. “None of the crew would put up with it.”

“If the alternative is drawing attention to our operation, they’ll see they don’t have a choice,” I replied.

“Have you bothered to meet any of them?” Dejar demanded. “If you thought about them as crew members instead of inconvenient cargo, you’d realize you’re being unreasonable.”

“I speak to Kalyn all the time.”

Dejar rolled his eyes. “Any of the others?”

“I’m going to speak to them when I give them their permanent work assignments.”

Aside from Lynna and Maris, most of the females didn’t have specialized skills. Dejar had granted me the ‘honor’ of figuring out what to do with them.

“Directing them isn’t getting to know them,” Dejar laughed. “They’re part of the crew now.”

“Yes. And I’m glad for the extra hands. We’re going to have to do most of the upkeep ourselves now since no shipyard will have us,” I nodded.

“Get to know them,” Dejar repeated. “You might be surprised.”

SHENNA

“Thanks for letting me take Kalyn’s old bunk,” I said. “I think Maris was getting ready to exile Persephone to the kitchen.”

Upon hearing her name, the skinny calico chirped at my feet. I reached down and gave her a pat.

“What about Aryn?” Lynna asked.

“Aryn’s hardly ever in the room. I don’t know where she goes,” I explained. “Though I don’t think she’s fond of the cat, either.”

“No need to thank me. I like cats,” Lynna extended her hand for Persephone to sniff. “I’m so used to bunking with roommates, it’s difficult for me to sleep in a room alone now.”

“I know what you mean,” I nodded. “I haven’t had a room to myself in my entire life.”

My sister Alista and I had shared a room since we were little. Even when we had the option to sleep in separate rooms, we declined.

On Persephone Station, all of the lower-level workers like me slept in one long room filled with bunk beds. If I were to have a room completely to myself, I think the silence would keep me awake. I’ve grown too used to the sounds of another person breathing and shifting in their sleep.

“That’s not your bed, silly,” Lynna cooed to Persephone, who’d curled up in a ball on Lynna’s pillow.

“Sorry!” I quickly lifted Persephone into my arms. “She’s got it into her head that the entire Rogue Star belongs to her now.”

“It’s fine,” Lynna smiled. “As I said, I like cats.”

“I still have no idea how she survived on the station for as long as she did,” I marveled.

“I still can’t believe she survived the shockwave,” Lynna added.

“Don’t cats have nine lives?” I lifted Persephone so we were eye to eye. She wiggled in indignation.

“If that’s true, then Persephone is down at least two. Three, since she must have traveled via Flosh Drive to get to the station. A human can barely withstand that journey, let alone a cat.”

“I didn’t think I was going to live through it,” I recalled.

“You were unconscious for a full two days after your arrival,” Lynna said.

“I’m glad we don’t have to worry about that anymore.” I ran my palm down the length of Persephone’s back. She purred contently.

“Me, too,” Lynna replied. “That was the worst part of the job for me. I dreaded opening the transport pods, knowing that there was a good chance the person inside hadn’t survived the journey.”

“How did you handle it?” I asked.

“I don’t think I did,” Lynna confessed. “I’ve sort of…blocked out that part of the job.”

“Whatever works,” I shrugged. All of us from Persephone Station had stuff we wanted to block out. If our lives were peachy and perfect, we wouldn’t have been on the station to begin with.

“Now we’ve got the Dominion to worry about, though,” Lynna said.

“Do you really think they’re a threat?” I asked.

“You don’t?”

“I’m not sure.” I chewed on my bottom lip and tucked a strand of brown hair behind my ear. “After what happened on Dominion Outpost Nine, I definitely want to avoid them, but I don’t fully understand why they’re after us.”

“We’re in their system illegally,” Lynna replied. “But from what Kalyn overheard about experiments, there’s more to it than that.”

“Do you think it’s true?” I bit my lip. “Not that I don’t believe her, but maybe she misheard something? The translators might have messed something up, you know?”

“I think the Dominion officials really didn’t want us to leave the Outpost,” Lynna said. “I don’t believe they had any intention of taking us home.”

“Me, either,” I confessed. “Maris seems to think that everything that’s happened to us since the shockwave has been part of one huge conspiracy.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Lynna chuckled. “I’m sure she and Aryn stay up all night coming up with theories.”

“What do you think?” I asked. Persephone dozed off, trapping my arm under her body.

“Everything lined up too perfectly for it to be a coincidence,” Lynna replied. “The shockwave, the ship that attacked us, and everything that happened on the Outpost feels staged. However, no one can figure out why the Dominion would do something like that, especially the shockwave.”

“Maris is certain the Rogue Star didn’t cause it,” I said.

“I’d trust Maris on that,” Lynna nodded.

“But it doesn’t explain why anyone would do that to us on purpose,” I replied. “Why would a governing force of an interstellar system want to take down a tiny station in a system outside of their jurisdiction?”

“That’s what Dejar and Kalyn have been asking themselves since we left the Outpost.” Lynna fluffed her pillow, shaking loose all the hair Persephone had left behind. “There’s no sense in it.”

“I feel like we’re missing a giant piece of the puzzle,” I sighed.

“More like we have only three pieces of a three-hundred-piece puzzle,” Lynna replied.

“I can’t stop thinking about that dark ship that attacked us. It was so fast! It came out of nowhere. What if it’s trailing us right now? Would we even know?”

“We aren’t carrying anything valuable. No one has any reason to bother us,” Lynna soothed.

“Except for the fact that we’re fugitives,” I replied.

“That’s why we’re going to Katzul,” Lynna said. “No one there is going to care that we’re fugitives. I doubt anyone will find out, now that the ship’s registration has been altered.”

“I just wish we knew more.” I ran my fingers through Persephone’s fur. “I think I could handle just about anything so long as I knew all the information.”

“Try not to let it stress you out,” Lynna advised.

“Everything about this is stressful,” I laughed. “But at least we didn’t die in the void of space. And I always wanted to travel.”

“There you go,” Lynna beamed. “Now you have the chance to see things people only dreamed about back in the Terran System.”

“The Terran System wasn’t that great, for that matter,” I shrugged. “I was going to spend the rest of my life on Persephone Station anyway. Pretty much anything is better than that.”

Persephone started kneading my arm with her paws. Her little claws rhythmically dug into my skin. It was uncomfortable, but I knew perfectly well if I tried to move her now, she’d only dig her claws in deeper.

“You don’t think you would’ve returned to your family?” Lynna tilted her head to one side.

Many of the women stationed at Persephone had been convicted of crimes and were there to serve their punishments. My case was slightly different.

“No.” I let the silence hang between us.

My family wasn’t something I liked to talk about. Thankfully, Lynna didn’t press the topic.

“Aavat is supposed to give everyone proper jobs tomorrow,” she said brightly. “Are you looking forward to that?”

“I like the idea of having regular work,” I nodded. “I know I’m not trained for much. I’ll probably receive a job similar to what I was doing on Persephone Station.”

“I could always take you under my wing as a medical apprentice,” Lynna offered.

I gave her my most sincere smile. “Thanks, but I don’t have the stomach for that.”

“Didn’t you once tell me you wanted to become a vet?” Lynna asked, puzzled.

“I did,” I replied. “To be honest, I don’t think I have the stomach for that, either. I wish I’d been born decades ago when zoos were still a thing on Earth. Taking care of animals in a zoo is the best job I can imagine.”

“Maybe they have zoos somewhere in Dominion space,” Lynna said.

“Maybe.” I stroked Persephone’s fur absentmindedly. “I don’t think they’d hire me, since I’m an illegal species and all.”

“Good point,” Lynna laughed.

“Aside from the space whales we saw a few days ago, I haven’t seen any non-intelligent lifeforms,” I said thoughtfully. “What if every planetary lifeform in this system has evolved to be intelligent?”

“It’s possible,” Lynna allowed.

“At this point, I’d consider anything to be possible.” I picked up Persephone, disturbing her nap, to hold her in front of my face. “You and the space whales could be the only animals in Dominion space. How cool is that?”

Her expression revealed to me that she did not, in fact, think it was cool. I set her back down on my lap. She threw me a rueful glare as she jumped off my lap and went to lie on my pillow.

“She looks like she’s planning to kill you in your sleep,” Lynna chuckled.

“That’s accurate,” I shrugged. “That’s half the reason Maris didn’t like having a cat in the room.”

“Only half?” Lynna raised one brow.

“The other half was because Persephone thought Maris’s curls were the world’s best toy,” I laughed.

“Maris never did strike me as an animal lover,” Lynna giggled.

“I think she likes animals. Just not that one.” I pointed to Persephone. Persephone stretched forward to push her nose into the tip of my finger before ignoring me once more.

AAVAT

“I know that we’ve been at this for a while, and you ladies have made yourselves useful, but it’s time we get you assigned to more permanent positions around the ship.”

I had gathered the women, and some of the men, together in the hangar bay. During their time here, the women had done an admirable job, but they had also skated by on just “helping” wherever.

Only a few of them had bothered to take on actual jobs, like Lynna and Maris.

It was time to get my ship back in order.

“We work in three shifts: ten hours on-watch, ten hours off-watch but on call, and ten hours personal time. Now, before you ask, let me explain. When I am ‘on-watch,’ as Chief Mate I am acting captain of the ship and I am in charge. When I am ‘off-watch,’ I am still on duty, but I answer to Captain Dejar.”

Most of the women looked interested. A few just looked bored. I made sure to note what they looked like. Kalyn would know their names.

Anyone who didn’t shape up, who wasn’t willing to learn how the ship ran and contribute to the general good, had no place on the Rogue Star.

“We rotate our shifts in order to ensure that one group of people aren’t always working the same shift. Now, as for the duties on board the ship, many of you have already helped out with several of those, but now you’re going to be assigned to one particular job. After a few months, there will be opportunities for you to rotate and learn a different role. This is how we ensure continuity onboard, so in case someone decides to leave or is incapacitated, we are able to continue on without a drop-off in production. Questions?”

“What kind of jobs are we talking about?” a woman with narrow, suspicious eyes asked.

“There are several,” I answered, waving for the AI to pull up a display on one of the walls. “Because we were initially a small crew, we each learned as much as we could about as many jobs as we could while still having our focus. While Orrin is our chief engineer, he is also capable of being the quartermaster and is a back-up navigator. Zayn, our resident medical expert before Lynna, was also part of the load crew, and thanks to his proclivity for electronics, he’s one of our communication officers.”

Another voice spoke up, “So, will we be able to be part of those positions?”

“If you are capable, or if you train for it, otherwise you’ll most likely be part of maintenance, loading, inventory, or kitchen, for now,” I answered.

There were a few mumbles about being sexist because I said the women would cook, but I ignored them.

A crew needed to eat, and not everyone was capable of cooking. Our own cook was passable, and some of the women had already proven to be better at it. Certainly they had become creative, as they continually tried to recreate dishes from their home.

I held up my hand. “But, as I said before, there will be chances to learn some of the other jobs. We won’t hold you back unless you’re terrible. However, you are expected to accept whatever job you’re assigned, and conduct said job to the best of your abilities. There will be no slacking off aboard my ship. If you have any special skills, speak with my men standing to your left and they will work on creating opportunities for you to utilize said skills. But you may have to deal with what you ladies call ‘menial’ work before you get your chance. Now, move.”

“Well, we know you don’t have any special skills,” the first woman elbowed another. As she stumbled, I realized I knew her.

Shenna’s cheeks reddened with color, emphasizing the freckles on her face that were the same light brown color as her hair.

The last time I had interacted with her, she’d asked me to look after that damn cat when they left at Outpost Nine, before the trouble started.

And for some fool reason, I’d agreed.

Her fear had been for the cat, never herself.

And while she’d been not at all bashful when worried about a creature made of razor-sharp teeth and claws, when dealing with the other women, it seemed like she’d pulled into herself, become unsure.

What an intriguing little human.

I brushed her shoulder. “Are you alright?”

She nodded and stepped away, and I watched her as she stood in line, eyes on the floor.

If there was some problem with the humans, that should be Kalyn’s issue to address.

But any personnel issue on the ship was my problem.

And something within me didn’t like seeing the other woman harassing Shenna.

I stepped away from the group, ignoring the questions being hurled my way.

It was simple; if they wanted to stay, they would work. If they didn’t, they could easily be dropped off somewhere. We were headed to Katzul, I’m sure whoever didn’t want to work could find something there. Rich people always needed more servants.

The more exotic, the better.

Over the next hour, my men listened and separated the women into groups.

My group of ten, the ones without a discernible skill or just not able to utilize their skill at this time, would follow me as I showed them where their responsibilities would lie.

I led the group to the pantry.

“This, ladies, is what I call the backbone of the ship. Things we need to defend ourselves, to repair the ship, and to maintain basic life functions are stored here. Without these things, the ship would be a debacle.”

“Three of you will start off in here. You, you, and you,” I said pointing to three of the women that I felt would be capable of working with Hewlit in maintaining the pantry. “The rest of you come with me.”

I led them back to the hangar bay and selected four of them to work with the load crew, leaving three. They were going to be part of the maintenance crew, and that meant basic tasks, minor repairs, and cleanup.

Not the best job, some thought it was the worst on board any ship, but it was a crucial task.

An unclean ship was a sick ship, and that meant it was a dead ship.

“Sir?”

It was Shenna again.

“What is it?” I asked in annoyance.

“You’ve picked the three of us to be part of maintenance. What if we don’t know how to do any of that?” She glanced away. “I mean, everything here is different. What worked at home might not work here, and what if I don’t know how to fix something, or how things are used to being done, or…”

The more I looked at Shenna, the more I found myself not annoyed by her.

“Well, Shenna,” I said slowly, “what did you do back at Persephone Station?”

She dropped her eyes again. “I was sort of used to doing anything that needed to be done.”

“What did you do, exactly?”

She looked up at me, her eyes filled with anxiety. “I just did basic cleaning and whatever grunt jobs there were. I didn’t want to be a…” she hesitated.

“An extra mouth to feed with no real contribution?” I finished for her, making sure to frame it as a question.

She nodded.

I’d had enough. “Look at me,” I ordered sternly as I stopped walking.

All three women stopped and looked at me, eyes a bit wide.

“Every job, no matter how ridiculous you think it is, is important. You did something no one else was willing to do, and it was necessary.” I looked at all three of them to make sure they all knew I was talking to them.

“This may feel like the worst job on the ship, but it’s just a job. I will not have whiners aboard. We will teach you how to make repairs. We will teach you how to do maintenance on the systems and everything else. You will work, we will work, I will work. That’s how things are done here. Do you understand?”

All three of them nodded. I paid particular attention to Shenna, who still seemed a bit unsure of herself.

“Shenna.” She looked up, and for a moment I was caught by her eyes. “I’m assuming you made yourself useful at the station?”

Another nod.

“Good, then you’ll do just fine here. Remember, it’s not about prestige aboard a smuggler’s ship, it’s about working together. One person’s mistake can hurt everyone, but one person’s hard work can also make a difference.”

She looked up at me, straightened just a bit.

“Never let anyone tell you that you’re worthless. It’s their way of making themselves feel better. You are as powerful as you want to be.”

Her smile made me feel something odd.

I shook it off, showed them their duties, and went back to mine.

Even if watching her for a bit longer seemed far more interesting.

SHENNA

As I had assumed from the beginning, my assigned job centered around cleaning.

None of the other women believed me when I said I was fine with this. All of my worries really had been around the strangeness of it all.

Sure, chemistry had to be the same here, but I couldn’t assume that the metals or polymers, or whatever, that made up the Rogue Star were the same as we’d had on Persephone Station.

And certainly, the rigged cleaning supplies I’d had there weren’t going to be the same.

The last thing I wanted to do was break a part of a spaceship.

The others who received cleaning duties grumbled and objected, not that Aavat paid them any attention.

The other women declared they were better than a low-ranking cleaning job. The logic of their argument was lost on me.

Aavat had just said everything was necessary. Besides, I didn’t believe anyone was better or worse than someone else unless they purposefully behaved with cruelty and malice.

And it came down to one basic fact: we were in debt to the crew of the Rogue Star. They hadn’t had to save our lives. They didn’t have to offer us permanent positions.

“Lynna, Maris, and Kalyn have better jobs than we do,” one girl, Xyla, huffed when we went to the storage closet to pick up cleaning supplies. “This is bullshit.”

“Did you work in the medical or engineering field before you were sent to Persephone Station?” I asked.

“Is that some kind of joke?” Xyla whirled around, sloshing water all over the floor.

I blinked slowly, waiting for her to catch up.

“Aren’t you upset because they received better jobs?” I asked.

“Yes!” Xyla snapped.

“Then I assume you’re qualified for one of those jobs,” I finished. “Why would you be upset about someone getting a job you’re not qualified for in the first place?”

“Are you saying I’m not good enough to have one of the cushy jobs? Is that it?” Xyla demanded.

“I wouldn’t call any of those jobs cushy.” What Lynna did in the clinic didn’t sound cushy at all.

“You think I’m only good enough to be a cleaning lady, don’t you?” She hissed.

“What’s wrong with cleaning?” I tilted my head to one side. I liked cleaning. In an odd way, it was therapeutic to take something grimy and soiled and make it sparkling clean again.

It was a physical manifestation of what I wanted to do to myself.

Someday.

“I’m not surprised someone like you doesn’t understand,” Xyla sneered. “Everyone knows your father sent you away because you’re such a fuck up. Naturally, you’d think cleaning is the best job in the world since it’s the only thing you know in whatever gutter-trash life you lived before you came here.”

“There’s no need to be cruel,” I said quietly.

“Don’t pull that pouty shit. You’re the one being a bitch!” she spat. “Telling me I don’t deserve a good job.”

“I never said that,” I replied. “I think you’re projecting your insecurities onto our conversation.”

“What the fuck did you just say to me?” Xyla demanded.

“You’re projecting insecurities,” I repeated. “But the thing is, you don’t have anything to be insecure about. Aavat was really clear about how they feel about this. You’re doing your part to keep the ship up and running. That’s a good thing.”

“I’m not projecting anything, bitch,” Xyla hissed.

“Then why are you being so aggressive for no reason?”

Xyla set her bucket down with a thump and more water sloshed on the floor.

“I don’t like it when people talk down to me.” Her face was inches away from me now, though I was taller than her.

“I’m sorry if I came off like I was talking down to you,” I said. “I was only trying to understand why you’re upset about not getting one of the high-skilled jobs.”

Confrontations like this weren’t uncommon on Persephone. There were a handful of women like me who came to Persephone by choice. We were resented by the ones who didn’t get a choice.

Almost everyone was nice to Lynna, though. It’s not a good idea to make enemies of the one person who could save your life.

But I didn’t have any specialized skills, so hating me didn’t have a negative consequence for the other women.

When I first came to Persephone, I tried to fit in. I tried to convince the others that I wasn’t different from them. I had a dark past that ultimately sent me to Persephone, just like them. But, in truth, there was a difference. Many of the women sent to Persephone were born into rough lives and knew nothing else. I wasn’t. I sought out a rough life for entertainment.

“You’re dumber than you look if you don’t understand,” Xyla hissed.

“What’s going on over there?” A bronze Shein called to us from farther down the hall. Xyla sprang away from me as if I’d electrocuted her.

“Nothing,” she called back. The Shein looked at me for confirmation. I nodded.

“All right, then,” he said. “Get on with your duties. No slacking off just because you’re new.”

“Understood,” I replied.

“I’m going to work over there.” Xyla pointed to the far side of the hallway. “Don’t follow me.”

“I wasn’t going to,” I replied.

Xyla gave me a nasty look over her shoulder. I hoisted my cleaning supplies and bucket of water over to the area I’d been assigned. Along the corridor wall was a section of exposed piping that was showing signs of rust. As I cleaned, I noticed the rust came away easily, but the brown stain it left behind wouldn’t budge. Back on the Persephone Station, I always used lemon to remove rust stains.

I tucked my cleaning supplies out of the way and walked over to the dining hall. The cook, a coppery-orange Shein named Sars, nodded when I entered.

“Lunchtime already?” he asked.

“No,” I smiled. “I just wanted to see if you had any lemons you weren’t going to use.”

“A what?” he asked.

Oh, right. No lemons in space.

“It’s a yellow acidic fruit,” I described. “Do you have anything like that?”

“I have these Gorgbens,” he tossed me a navy colored food item that was shaped like a check mark. “They aren’t yellow, but they’re acidic. This batch more so than I wanted, hadn’t decided what to use them for, honestly.”

I cracked it open and took a tiny bite. Oh my! It sure was acidic, more like a lime than a lemon, and super, super tart.

“Thanks! I’ll give this a try.” I took the Gorgben and returned to my cleaning station. I squeezed the juice into the water and then wiped at the rust stains.

After a bit of hard scrubbing, the pipes shone as if they were brand new. I paused, smiling with satisfaction before moving on to the rest of my assigned section. At least some things in space were the same.

I fell into the comfortable rhythm of rinsing, scrubbing, and polishing. My mind wandered, like it always did,

Aavat had been kind. He’d promised to look after Persephone when we’d left the ship, thinking the Dominion would help get us back to human space.

Not that there was much back there for me.

With long habit, I pulled my thoughts away from the past. This wasn’t the life I’d planned, but honestly, being sent to Pluto wasn’t what I’d thought of, either.

Here on the Rogue Star there was a chance for a new start. I’d thought aliens would be scary. But even grumpy Aavat, with his strange copper skin and slightly pointed teeth, had taken care of my cat.

I giggled, thinking of my little troublemaker. She’d probably played with that long dark hair of his.

I wondered how it would feel.

My cleaning rag slipped from my hands, startling me. It landed in the water bucket, sprinkling me with droplets of Gorgben water.

While lost in thought, I’d finished nearly all of the first section. I surveyed my work. All of the exposed pipes were gleaming.

If only it was as easy to wash away the stains inside of me.

AAVAT

It had only been two days since I had assigned the women their new jobs, and already Shenna had impressed me.

She was a hard worker and did her best to make sure she understood what it was that we had been trying to teach her.

She had even come up with a more efficient way of cleaning. The ship, already clean from our remodeling job, sparkled in the places she had worked.

“You should really compliment her on what she’s done,” Dejar told me as we met up for our morning meeting.

“Who?” I asked, grumbling.

“That woman you put on the maintenance crew, uhh, Shenna,” he finally said. “All three of the new maintenance crew are doing good so far, but from what I’ve been hearing, she’s working the hardest. You should tell her that.”

“Why should I have to tell her? If you think she’s doing such a great job, you tell her.”

He gave me that look he likes to give when he’s trying to be stern, or responsible. Or whatever.

“Because assigning the women to new jobs was your responsibility, so complimenting or disciplining them is your responsibility, as well. Besides, it’ll do you good to talk to the women more often.”

“Go kout yourself. I talk to the women enough,” I growled back at him. I hated it when people told me I had to do something, or that something was good for me. I’d survived many years on my own, and many years out in space.

Qal came in with a navigational issue, and I was briefly glad not to be the captain in charge.

Dejar was right, although I’d never tell him. He was far too cocky as it was.

I’d just check on all the women, see how they were settling in.

Of course, Lynna was doing fantastic. She had taken over as the ship’s doctor, letting Zayn settle into a role he was more comfortable in, as the medic.

Maris and Orrin, despite Maris’s exceptional job reworking the ship’s signature, weren’t exactly getting along down in engineering. They weren’t fighting, but they weren’t talking much, either, only enough for Maris to temporarily work the second shift.

Kalyn still didn’t have an official position, but she was earning her way amongst the women, and the men, and had been learning more and more about bridge duties.

There were a few other women working in specified areas, but I couldn’t remember who they all were. It was hard enough remembering their names. It had taken me nearly a year to remember everyone’s name after Dejar’s crew and mine united.

I double checked with my men on how the rest of the women were doing. After months of being around one another, they had already gotten used to each other. Most of the women had spent time with the auto-tutor so they at least spoke Shein, and we could keep the translators for when we were in port.

One headache down.

With the women on specific jobs, there were still a few minor complaints, but simply due to it having only been two days since their assignments, and things were still new.

Each of them was working hard, and willing to learn. Some a bit more than others, but no true problems.

Essentially, it was exactly the report I had been expecting after only two days.

I found Shenna in the dining hall, helping with some repairs to one of the cooking units. While I sat back and watched, Shenna was the one that noticed something wrong inside the thermostat itself, while the others were trying to see if there was something wrong with the wiring of the unit.

She ended up saving a lot of time and effort by doing the simple thing. I wasn’t sure if she was just lucky or smart, but I liked how she worked.

“Shenna?” I called to her.

One of those adorable blushes rose in her cheeks.

Not adorable.

Of course not.

“What can I do for you, Chief Aavat?”

“Come walk with me.” Where did that come from? That wasn’t what I was planning on doing at all.

“But I have things I need to finish, sir.”

Well, I had work, too. But now that I’d asked her, I didn’t want to back down.

“You’re also entitled to a break, and if anyone says anything, you’re busy with the chief mate, simple.” I walked away and began heading towards the rec room.

After a few steps, Shenna rushed to catch up. I hid a smile, until I realized that my unplanned visit meant I’d need to make conversation.

Koso.

“Tell me about yourself, Shenna.”

Why? What possessed me to ask such an asinine question? I didn’t need to know about her. I needed to know how her work was going, if she had problems with the crew.

My jaw clenched. The crew better not be giving her any problems. I’d…

Koso.

At least I wasn’t the only one taken by surprise by the topic.

“I…I’m sorry?”

“Tell me about yourself. Who are you? What makes you the person you are?”

Not for the first time, I cursed the streak in my nature that wouldn’t let me retreat. Instead, I charged ahead.

“Should I guess? You decided to take the job at Persephone Station because you had nowhere else to go, you were looking for somewhere to belong, and then realized you were in over your head when you got there, so you tried to show you weren’t completely useless by taking on any menial job you could find and caring for that useless furball you snuck into the station. Am I far off?”

And… apparently, I’d missed orbit, maybe even the whole star system.

If I had learned human expressions properly, her face had gone from shock, to anger, to downright combative.

“First of all, I wasn’t the one that brought Persephone to the station, someone else did. I just adopted her and took care of her after her original owner died in an accident.” Her lip snarled, showing blunt white teeth. Adorable.

“Secondly, I did not end up over my head at Persephone, it’s just that my job wasn’t as important as anyone else’s. I volunteered for the crap jobs, not because I wanted to fit in, but because I didn’t want to be sent back.”

Wait. What?

“What do you mean? Why didn’t you want to return to your home?”

She spun and headed back to the kitchen. “Why don’t you guess, since you’re so good at it?”

Koso.

SHENNA

The old cook, Sars, offered me a portion of his weekly earnings if I’d clean his kitchen.

I declined his money but agreed to do the job. I liked staying busy, and besides, I’d learned never to make an enemy of the person feeding you.

“It’s not like you’re earning a proper wage,” Sars argued. “Just take the money.”

“I know you pay out of pocket for all of the special ingredients you find in the floating markets,” I said, referring to the bands of ships that seemed to drift throughout Dominion space selling everything imaginable. “The delicacies you prepare are enough.”

“You’re sweeter than ripe Stardew, but I don’t feel right about not paying you,” Sars grumbled.

“Pay me in food,” I suggested. “Food’s more useful to me than money.”

“I’m paying you in credits and that’s final,” Sars huffed.

I tried to argue more but he wouldn’t hear of it. The Rogue Star provided me with everything I needed, but I supposed it wouldn’t hurt to have a little extra money tucked away for emergencies.

I was halfway through the grimy stack of pots and pans when an announcement crackled through the intercom.

“All hands prepare for arrival into Katzul,” Qal, the navigator, announced.

Excitement swelled in my chest, even if I doubted most of the human women would be allowed to leave the ship.

Even though the Dominion’s presence on Katzul was supposedly minimal, Captain Dejar wouldn’t want to take the risk.

“Go and have a look,” Sars offered. “I can tell you want to.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “I still have a lot to do.”

“Those stains aren’t going anywhere,” he chuckled. “You can get back to them after we’ve docked.”

“Thank you!” I beamed and ran out of the dining hall. When I reached the observation deck, Kalyn, Lynna, and a few other women had gathered to watch our arrival, as well.

“Put this on, Shenna,” Kalyn instructed as she handed me one of the hoods we’d made from curtains on Dominion Outpost Nine.

“Can the dockworkers see us up here?” I knotted the makeshift hood around my neck and pulled it low on my forehead.

“I don’t know,” Kalyn confessed. “But I don’t want to risk it, either way.”

The Rogue Star turned to port and the planet of Katzul came into full view.

My mouth fell open. I’d never seen anything like it in all my life.

On the planet’s surface was a glittering city of reflective skyscrapers. I could see balconies that looked like miniature forests, bursting with greenery. Unbelievably, there looked like floating slabs hovering between the skyscrapers. Mansions that looked more like castles perched on the slabs, each one more opulent and spectacular than the next. Some even had waterfalls flowing off of them.

Vehicles of all sorts buzzed around the skyscrapers and between the floating palaces like flocks of birds.

Captain Dejar had told us this was the wealthiest planet in Dominion space. I didn’t doubt it.

I pressed my hand against the observation window, traced the lines of the strange towers.

What I wouldn’t give to explore such a place…

“Do you think your false registration codes will work?” Lynna asked Maris.

“Of course, they’re going to work,” Maris scoffed. “This isn’t my first time altering a registration chip, you know.”

“It isn’t?” Kalyn asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Maris smirked.

Kalyn rolled her eyes and I was glad to see she wasn’t intimidated by Maris anymore. I’d long suspected Maris’s bark was worse than her bite, but I’d never say as much.

“Kalyn,” Captain Dejar appeared in the doorway. “We’re about to be inspected by the dockmaster. I need you on standby in case we have to charm our way in.”

“Yes, Captain.” Kalyn winked at Dejar before gliding out of the room.

“It won’t come to that,” Maris muttered, even though neither Kalyn or Dejar were there any longer to hear her. “The new registration chip will pass as legit.”

“I think having her there makes him feel better when there’s any uncertainty,” I commented to no one in particular. My eyes were still fixed to the opulent cityscape stretched out before me.

“Or he’s whisking her away for a quick tryst in a supply closet,” Aryn snorted.

“Always the romantic, aren’t you Aryn?” Lynna sighed.

“I’m a realist,” Aryn responded. They continued talking, but I stopped listening, my attention was drawn to the lower levels of the skyscrapers, closest to the planet’s surface.

There were many small buildings clustered at the feet of the skyscrapers, like children clinging to their mother’s legs. The smaller buildings didn’t reflect the sky like the skyscrapers did. They looked dull compared to their towering counterparts. Even from here, I could see loops and bands of fluorescent lighting in every color imaginable, but I couldn’t read the words they formed. Advertisements, maybe.

I’d have to look when we got there.

Except…

My heart felt a little heavier as I realized I wouldn’t get the chance to explore the city. I had no reason to leave the ship.

With a resigned sigh, I forced myself to be content with admiring the city from afar.

Maybe if Kalyn had a reason to go, I’d give her the money I’d earned from cleaning the kitchen in exchange for a small souvenir.

Better yet, I wondered if there was something like a camera I could use somewhere on the Rogue Star. Even just photos that I could look at later, prove to myself I’d been there, well, close to there, that it wasn’t just my imagination.

I could be happy with that.

I felt eyes on the back of my neck. On instinct, I looked over my shoulder to find Aavat had entered the observation room. He stood still, staring at me with a strange expression on his face. He didn’t look unhappy, just somewhat confused.

I still wasn’t sure what to make of our conversation yesterday. I never could stay angry, and for a change, I don’t think he’d meant to be rude. I didn’t expect him to be as polite as he had been, honestly. From afar, he always seemed gruff and angry.

But maybe, just maybe, he was trying.

I smiled and waved at him, but my movement only seemed to confuse him. He lifted his hand and waved back awkwardly, as if he’d never waved at someone in his life. The Shein knew what waving was. I’d seen them do it often around the ship.

Except for Aavat.

Maybe he didn’t do casual greetings.

I giggled to myself before turning back to the scene outside the windows. Maris’s false registration chip must’ve worked.

The Rogue Star lowered into a docking point at the port. Dock workers rushed about to secure the ship. The familiar rumbling that had often lulled me to sleep since we came on board faded away as the engines fully powered down for the first time in over a week.

“Looks like I’ll finally have a chance to really get to work on an alien space engine,” Maris said excitedly, fingers already twitching in glee.

“Don’t muck it up,” Aryn warned. “We might need to make a quick getaway.”

“Thanks for your overwhelming faith in me,” Maris snarked. Aryn laughed and patted her friend on the shoulder.

Little of the city was visible now that we’d docked, and the curve of the Rogue Star’s structure prevented me from looking up into the sky where the floating palaces were. I stepped away from the window with a sigh. I might as well go back to the kitchen.

Aavat still stood halfway in the observation room doorway.

“Leaving already?”

I halted, surprised that he would be the one to initiate a friendly conversation.

“I’ve seen as much as I’m going to see,” I shrugged. “I have work to do, anyway.”

“I see,” he said thoughtfully. “Carry on.”

“Yes, sir,” I nodded. I left the observation room but paused in the doorway. “Have a good rest of your day.”

He didn’t answer. Maybe that confused look meant something different for Shein. No way of telling, and now it was time to get back to my pots.

I walked slowly back to the dining hall. I was usually a fast walker, but it was like my body was openly protesting against leaving my only viewpoint into this exciting new world.

“You look gloomier than when you left,” Sars remarked.

“It’s nothing,” I smiled weakly. “I’m a little sad that I won’t get to fully experience the city, that’s all.”

“That’s a good thing,” Sars replied. “Katzul isn’t all it’s made out to be.”

“But it’s so beautiful,” I sighed wistfully.

“There’s a reason its beauty is so blinding,” Sars warned. “It’s to distract from the ugliness happening behind the scenes.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Believe me when I say Katzul is best admired from afar,” Sars patted my head. “Keep your pretty imaginings about how the city is. I promise you, it’s better than the reality.”

“I want to take your word for it, but I don’t think I can,” I admitted sheepishly.

Sars chucked and handed me a rag. “That’s okay,” he nodded. “As long as you never learn the harsh reality, I’m fine. Now, what should I make for dinner?”

I wanted to ask Sars more about the darker reality of Katzul, but I could tell he was done talking about it.

“Well.” I grabbed hold of a pot half my size and started scrubbing. “Once I finish cleaning this, you can use it to make a big batch of steamed cadrins. Extra spicy?”

“Not a bad idea, girl,” Sars chuckled. I grinned back and tried to put the glittering image of Katzul out of my mind.

AAVAT

“So, who exactly is this idiot we’re meeting?” I asked.

We sat in Dejar’s office, going over the latest supply listings, armament inventory, and cash reserves. He was looking into some surface reports to see if there was any word about us while I finalized ship reports and orders for my shift.

I was a bit worried about letting Qal run my shift while I was out with Dejar, but the boy needed to learn.

With a roll of the eyes, Dejar stifled a chuckle. “Itair is one of the more successful businessmen on the planet. According to an acquaintance of mine, he’s one of the people you want vouching for you if you want to continue working on the planet. Please don’t insult the man while we’re meeting with him.”

I let out a huff and rolled my own eyes. “Fine. Any idea what this ‘master businessman’ looks like?”

“He’s a Pronarian.”

It was the only answer I needed. Four-fingered hands, tails, obnoxiously long, decorated hair, and a thinness that most races coveted, I hated dealing with them. I hated looking at them. I couldn’t stand listening to them, their accents were so thick.

None of it would have mattered, except for one, annoying fact.

Pronarians were a pretentious race that held themselves as superior to every other species, just because they believed it.

I dropped my head in resignation. Why? That was all I could ask, and I didn’t dare ask it out loud. We needed the work, and if we had to work for a Pronarian, the least I could do was keep my mouth shut and do the job.

Then when they tried to cheat us out of our agreed-on payment, rip the green-skinned bastard in half.

I was struck by a brilliant idea. “I was thinking…”

“That makes me worried. You know that, right?”

“Kalyn managed to be a big help on one of our first jobs, she’s got a good sense of how to work with clients. I can bring one of the other women along, so the focus isn’t all on her. Besides, several of them have a keen eye. They may notice things we don’t.”

I knew who would be perfect to bring, but I didn’t want to say immediately. Not until Dejar approved the idea, since he was the Captain.

Nominally.

“Have the women been using the auto-tutor on the language translators?” Dejar asked. “We don’t want them to speak Terran by mistake They need to be able to speak Shein when we’re in public, or everyone will know we’ve got something a little more interesting than just cargo on board.”

“I believe a number of the women have become reasonably fluent with the auto-tutor, yes,” I replied, pretending boredom.

Dejar nodded. “Okay, I like the idea. It might also help us with Itair to have an extra set of eyes and ears, or two. Who were you thinking of bringing along?”

“Shenna. She’s shown herself to be a hard worker. She doesn’t complain, she does what she’s told, and she’s smart,” I said. All of which was true, she really was a good worker and deserved a bit of a reward for what she’s done.

Besides, I wanted to give her a chance to see something other than the inside of this ship. The look in her eyes when she’d watched Katzul come into view…I wanted to see that again.

“Sounds like a good idea. Let’s go tell them.”

“After you,” I said as we both headed towards the office door. We left the office and headed down towards the personal area.

Dejar stopped off at his quarters, where Kalyn had moved to, and I continued on down towards Shenna’s room, which she shared with Lynna.

I knocked on the door, waited, knocked again, and after there was no answer, I knocked on the next door. The woman that opened the door was one of the load crew, someone with an “R” name, I think. She was a bit surprised to see me. “What can I do for you, Aavat?”

“Have you seen Shenna? She’s not in her room,” I said, motioning to my left.

“That’s because that’s not Shenna’s room, sir. Her room is one more that way,” she indicated to my right. “But, unless she came back recently, she’s not in there either. I think she went to the rec room with some of the men.”

I gave her a nod, went and knocked on the door just to be sure, and when no one answered, headed to the rec room.

Sure enough, there she was with several of the men, and things looked a bit rowdy.

She was playing against one of the men in a game of chance. The object of the game was to shake six marbles in a cup, then roll them out towards several holes in a board. The more marbles that made it through the holes, the more points you received. The more marbles that missed, the more points you lost.

I had never gotten into the game, but several of the men loved it. Some had turned the game on its head, making it a challenge to see who could win, but with the added complication of the lowest possible score.

Poor Qal had the not-so-happy distinction of being the only one to never win a game, and but still to have the lowest score ever.

From a quick observation, it seemed as if Shenna was absolutely destroying her opponent, and the others were loving it.

She spotted me as she laughed with the men and came over to talk.

“Chief Aavat, how are you today?” she asked. Her voice was a bit higher in pitch due to her excitement, and I found myself smiling at her good fortune, and at her own smile.

“I’m doing very well, thank you. I wanted to ask you a question.”

Her curiosity was evident as she asked, “Of course, is there something wrong?”

“How would you like to come with the Captain and me on a business meeting? It would get you off the ship and let you see a completely new place.”

She hopped up and down, clapping her hands and letting a little squeal of joy escape her lips.

I couldn’t help but laugh at her zeal.

“I take it that’s a yes?”

“Yes! Yes! I’d love to,” she said. Her happiness bubbled up, lightening the air. It was strange. Nice.

Before I could think about it too long, I motioned for her to follow and we headed to the med bay where Lynna was already working on disguising Kalyn.

Shenna looked a bit confused as we walked in. “What’s happening here?”

I looked at her and indicated she should sit on the table next to Kalyn’s. “We don’t want to run the risk that there’s someone here that knows anything about what happened at Outpost Nine and is willing to sell that information to the Dominion. It’s better if we disguise you ladies until the idea of you being here is less problematic.”

She nodded as she sat down. It wasn’t long before both women had been disguised as Shein, my own race. Their faces, hands and arms were covered in a fast-setting cream mixed with shining particles known as “stardust” to give them a shimmering pigmentation to their skin. Thin ceremonial lines were drawn on their arms and hands. None of it would be permanent but should stay in place well enough unless anyone grabbed either of the women.

And if that happened, there’d be a whole different set of problems.

We left the ship and headed towards Itair’s primary slab. “Now,” Dejar explained as we walked the docks and towards the city itself. “Katzul is essentially one big empty planet with one massive city that stretches over most of the surface. It’s massive, and surprising, but try to remember to keep your mouths closed.”

“Excuse me?” Kalyn snapped, stepping away.

“Polite Shein women keep their teeth filed flat,” Dejar shot a look at me, “as do most civilized men. But human teeth are still a little different.”

“Humph,” was all Kalyn answered, but she walked a little closer to him.

I had already been to Katzul before, and I hated the place.

The only city on the planet stretched for hundreds of miles in each direction, and was home to so many people, they could have easily populated the rest of the planet. You could buy, rent, steal, and find virtually everything you could want in this city of the same name, and you could spend years wandering the place and rarely see the same street more than twice.

And Shenna was mesmerized by it. “Oh. My. God.” I wasn’t sure who her god was, but she called for him more times than I could count.

She was caught up in the glamor of the place. The city was large enough to have evening happening on the west side of it while it was early afternoon on the other.

It was going to be very difficult to think of her as anything other than a Terran, her eyes were so wide as she looked everywhere. “Ho…ly…shit! There’s a floating continent up there!” she shouted as she nearly wrenched my arm off. She pointed to the sky where a land mass, easily four or five times the size of the Rogue Star, floated. It didn’t really float, it had engines keeping it up, but the illusion was there.

“That’s one of many,” I responded, and she looked at me in total disbelief. We had lost her. She was so enthralled by what she saw, the markets, the people of at least a dozen different races (and sometimes gender,) the vendors, the shops, and if you looked hard enough, the darkness of its shadows, I had to hold onto her hand to keep her walking with us.

I noticed Dejar and Kalyn share a little smile, but I ignored them. I just didn’t want to lose one of the crew to the insanity of Katzul.

She had yet to see the buildings we were approaching. She had told me of a place called “New York” back on Earth with its massively tall buildings. If her descriptions were correct, Katzul’s buildings made New York’s look short. When she finally saw the buildings and stopped, her jaw practically breaking through the pavement, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

I dragged her along towards Itair’s.

SHENNA

“Where are we going?” I asked.

The others been talking, but I couldn’t focus. Couldn’t see anything other than the amazing city all around us.

“Itair’s place is that one up there.” Aavat pointed to one of the floating palaces. Its walls and towers were made from a shimmery blue-green material that reminded me of a mermaid’s tail. I wanted to say as much but I knew Aavat wouldn’t know what a mermaid was.

At least, I didn’t think so. Maybe his people had mermaids, too? I thought of Aavat with a tail and giggled.

“Who’s that?” I asked Aavat as we approached an alien in what looked like professional livery. He stood in front of some kind of vehicle. I kept my hands pressed against my sides in an effort not to scratch off the cosmetics that were liberally rubbed over my skin or mess up the false tattoos painted on the backs of my hands.

“That’s one of Itair’s employees,” Aavat explained. “He’s going to transport us to Itair’s home.”

“Itair has someone whose whole job is to bring people up to his house?” I gasped.

“Indeed,” Aavat chuckled. “But Itair’s slab also has a variety of shops and businesses for the well-heeled to visit.”

“You mean like a city floating over another city?” I asked.

Aavat nodded. “It’s quite the destination for nightlife if you have the money,” he answered.

“We would normally use a public taxi or those public transport tubes,” Aavat pointed to a shuttle designed to ferry people up to the floating slab. “But today we travel in style.”

It confounded me that one person could have an entire section they owned that would require its own method of public transportation to get there. The excesses in wealth were staggering.

“Do you have an appointment?” The alien in livery asked. His voice sounded like three garbled voices speaking in unison. I couldn’t see his eyes. It occurred to me that he might not have eyes. Could beings without eyes still drive? Or fly?

“Yes.” Dejar stepped forward. “I’m Dejar. My colleagues and I are here to discuss the particulars of a delivery with Itair.”

“You need four people to do that?” the alien asked.

“Each of them has a stake in my business,” Dejar replied smoothly. “It seemed only right for them to be involved in the discussion, to protect their assets.” Technically, it wasn’t a lie. The alien pondered us for a moment longer before opening the door to the vehicle. Dejar helped Kalyn in before climbing in himself.

Aavat offered his hand to steady me while I tried to enter the vehicle without ruining my disguise. Kalyn and I sat side by side with our backs ramrod straight and our hands firmly planted on our laps. The last thing we wanted was to leave a trail of stardust on the high-end interior.

I wanted to ask a million questions, but I remained silent. If the driver heard me asking everything I wanted to ask, he’d know at once that I wasn’t from Dominion space.

The vehicle shifted as we lifted off the ground. I carefully swiveled my head in an effort to avoid sending puffs of stardust into the air. I wished I’d thought to ask someone to take a picture before I left the Rogue Star. I wanted to remember how I looked as a female Shein. Since we used stardust to alter the color of our skin, Kalyn and I were silvery and blue compared to the gold and bronze tones of the male Shein.

I hadn’t seen many other Shein walking around Katzul, and the ones I did see were clearly male. If anyone noticed me or Kalyn, no one could say for sure that we weren’t female Shein, I hoped.

The hovercraft rose higher above the city streets. The glittering cityscape came into view once more. I was immediately hypnotized by every gilded surface. I wondered who lived in the other floating palaces. Were they nice? Did people raise families here? So many questions I couldn’t ask until we were all safely back on the ship.

The ride up to Itair’s stunning home was too brief. Aavat helped me out of the hovercraft. The house, if it could even be called a house, was even more breathtaking up close. Now I saw that the roof was made from gold shingles, and fine gold veins shot through the iridescent blue-green material of the walls. Instead of a garden or yard, the mansion was surrounded by overlapping, perfectly circular pools of sapphire water. From where I stood, I could see living things swirling and twisting around in the pools. Everything here reminded me of the coral reefs that used to populate the Earth’s oceans.

“Close your mouth. You’re going to drool,” Aavat reminded me. I blushed and shut my mouth.

He chuckled softly, and I realized he’d been teasing me.

“You make jokes now?” I replied.

“It’s been known to happen once or twice a year,” he smirked.

“Welcome, esteemed colleagues!” A voice called to us as a figure appeared halfway between us and the sprawling manor. Dejar stepped forward with a friendly smile and an outstretched hand. Kalyn followed on his heels.

I stayed closer to Aavat.

I swore someone said Pronarians like Itair were supposed to be thin. If this was Itair, he was rather portly and shorter than I thought he’d be. I stood at attention, worried I’d have to say something to justify my presence, but Itair ignored me. He was only interested in speaking with Dejar. I breathed a sigh of relief.

As we walked toward the mansion, I walked as close to the ponds as I could without drawing attention to myself. The ponds were filled with colorful underwater flora. I wondered if the other floating palaces had exotic gardens like this one. A fish-like creature darted close to the surface, pulsing with color.

“Shenna,” Aavat whispered. I looked up. The others were almost to the door. I’d stopped walking without realizing. I hurried to catch up.

“Admiring my garden, lovely?” Itair drawled. “I’ve spent years scouring Dominion space for rare aquatic life. Spent nearly one billion credits on construction, as well.”

“How wonderful,” Aavat jumped in.

“It is, isn’t it,” Itair chortled.

I forced a smile. If we were in the Terran System, Itair’s attitude would be considered tacky. Perhaps, blatantly discussing exorbitant sums of money was considered socially acceptable on Katzul.

Hell, considering the amount of money people here seemed to have, maybe it wasn’t just acceptable, it was required.

When Itair turned his back on me to open the grand double doors to his home, I risked a glance at Aavat. He looked like he was struggling to hold back laughter. I rolled my eyes.

If the outside of Itair’s residence looked like the ocean, the inside looked like the inside of a conch shell. The stone walls and floors were pale pink veined with gold. A crystalline lighting fixture hung from the domed ceiling. It hung from a single point and expanded into a teardrop shape only a few feet from the floor.

“Holy shit,” I murmured under my breath.

Itair led us up the curving staircase to the second floor and down a hallway dripping with what I assumed were priceless works of art. Itair stopped at a dark wooden door. A butler of some sort was waiting to open it for him.

We’d been brought to a study. The far wall was lined from floor to ceiling with books. Actual, antique books, just like I’d seen in old movies. There was an official looking desk and chair but also an array of plush couches and armchairs.

“Please sit,” Itair smiled at all of us as he hastily cleared some pads off his desk and put them in a drawer. “May I offer anyone a drink? I’ve just received a shipment of Burindy that’s almost one thousand years old.”

For the first time all day, Aavat looked interested in something. I hid my smirk and thought about kicking his ankle. Just a little bit.

“No, thank you,” Dejar declined politely. “I prefer not to mix spirits and business.”

“That’s the only way I’ll do business!” Itair laughed too loudly as he pulled out a decanter filled with blue liquid. He poured himself a full glass and took a long sip. Kalyn’s pale eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Sit, everyone!” Itair ordered.

We plopped down in the seats closest to us. Aavat and I sat beside each other on a small plum-colored couch.

“Now,” Itair lumbered over to a high-backed chair with evergreen upholstery. “Let’s talk money. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

“Straightforward, I see,” Dejar smiled politely. “Yes. Your job advertisement was rather vague. I’ll need more details before I can determine an accurate fee.”

“Details are challenging,” Itair replied. “It’s very sensitive business, you see. I have some products that were brought to me…where the necessary customs paperwork might have been misplaced. I need an off-world delivery team that won’t log this delivery with any official channels.”

“You need someone who isn’t from around here to deliver something that should never be here in the first place,” Dejar summarized.

“Precisely,” Itair said with a smile.

“We just need to know weight, size, and delivery distance,” Dejar explained.

“Well, my men will be delivering it to your vessel,” Itair stated. “Discreetly, of course.”

“Why can’t your men just take it to the delivery destination?” I asked, puzzled.

“I ship a lot of cargo through the ports,” Itair responded as if talking to a child. “One more crate will not arouse suspicions. But any connection from me to the delivery target is something I want to avoid. I want to minimize how often my men are seen with the…package.”

“And the likelihood of someone attacking us to get to whatever we’re transporting for you,” Aavat interjected.

Itair looked nonplussed.

“For insurance purposes,” Dejar clarified, shooting Aavat a warning look.

Aavat shrugged in response, and they kept talking.

While everyone discussed terms and payment, I let my eyes wander around the room.

The green walls were covered with more works of art. On every surface there weren’t books, there was a sculpture. Itair appeared to be a serious collector of…everything.

A darting movement near the desk caught my eye. On the corner of the desk was a small golden cage. Inside, was a creature I could only describe as a perfectly round tuft of pink fur. Its color was so bold, I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice it the moment I entered the room. It bounced around its cage, which was obviously too small. A tail uncurled from underneath its body. It used its tail to swivel itself around. Two huge shining eyes peered at me from behind the bars of the gilded cage. The little creature blinked. Its fur shifted from pink to the same green color as the walls, then back again.

That explained why I hadn’t seen it sooner.

It began to bounce again with renewed vigor like it was trying to knock its own cage over. When it looked at me again, I would swear I could see sadness in its eyes.

It didn’t want to be here, at all. Of course, it didn’t. No one would want to be in a cage.

Surely, Itair paid an exuberant sum for it.

If I asked him how much, I had no doubt he’d tell me. Why would he buy a living thing like that little critter, only to keep it in a tiny prison on a desk?

To Itair, the fluffball was nothing more than a trophy. Determination surged in me as I looked into the creature’s sorrowful eyes.

I needed to rescue it.

AAVAT

“No.”

“But…”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No,” I said with exasperation.

Why would I go back to that idiot’s office if I didn’t have to?

“Please.” She drew out the word, batted her eyes, and looked at me like that stupid cat of hers when it was hungry.

Except I’d never been quite so drawn to the cat’s eyes. Or lips.

Shenna had been phenomenal at Itair’s office, after she got over how opulent his place was.

While we had dealt with Itair and his delivery job request, she had sat there quietly and absorbed everything about the room, about Itair’s posture, his tone.

Unfortunately, that also included noticing some little creature in a cage. It had mesmerized her, hypnotized her, something.

“I saw you, Aavat,” she insisted, apparently trying a new tactic. “I saw you casing the place, looking for security weaknesses while we were in the meeting. No one else may have recognized it, but I was watching you.”

“Why exactly were you watching me?” I asked, wondering when I’d gotten so obvious. And maybe flattered. Just a bit.

Shenna’s face turned red and she looked away. “Because you told me to pay attention to everything, didn’t you?” she snapped back. “And you know how to get in!”

I couldn’t help but shake my head at the absurdity of her request.

She wanted me to sneak her back into this office, so we could “rescue the poor, innocent, depressed, and obviously not properly cared for little thing.”

She was entirely serious.

I didn’t want to.

Because I was a lot of things, but not insane.

But I couldn’t stop looking at her face and feeling like I was losing the battle.

“Shenna, you need to understand. If we get caught, we’re not just in trouble, we may be killed, and the crew will suffer and yet another planet will be shut off from them. Is all of that really worth some caged…thing?”

“Yes. I trust you. You’ll make it work.”

That was it. That was her answer. A single word, her trust in me and a look.

A look that chipped at me, wormed its way into my chest.

“Alright,” I sagged against the bulkhead. No wonder none of the crew could win against her at games. “But you have to promise to do exactly what I say.”

“I knew it!” She jumped against me, wrapping her arms around my neck, and for one brief second, I felt her body pressed all along mine.

Before I could move to keep her there, she’d bounced away, eyes bright. “I’ll do anything you say. I knew you couldn’t leave a helpless creature there.”

She left, happy with the world, while my thoughts spun.

This wouldn’t, couldn’t, go well.

I spent the rest of the evening eating, finishing my normal duties, and getting together the gear we’d need.

“We shouldn’t do this,” I said to her when she came into my quarters at the agreed time that evening.

Her chin went up, the fire and steel beneath her softness drawn out. “Why not?” she asked. Her eyes shone, but I couldn’t tell if they were sparked by anger or tears.

Neither option was what I wanted, but someone had to be the responsible one. Usually it wasn’t me, though.

“It’s too dangerous. Do you realize the ramifications of this if we get caught?” I tried to remind her how bad the situation would be. “If we get caught…”

“I know,” she interrupted me. “We could die. But there was a very key word in your statement there.”

I was confused. “What word?”

“You used the word ‘if.’ That means that, yes, there’s a chance we get caught, but there’s also a chance we don’t. And I know you won’t let us get caught because you won’t let Itair have something over you.”

She sat back and smiled.

Clever, clever lady.

I’d wanted her to come along because I thought she’d see things, notice things. Never thought she’d turn that watching eye quite so closely on me.

She had me down to the core, and oddly, I wasn’t terribly upset by the idea.

I hated Itair.

I admitted that I disliked a lot of things, but I had true hatred, dislike, disdain, and a sincere unpleasant feeling for Itair.

The man just annoyed me to no end with his excessive opulence, his show-off mentality, and his fundamental need to be a typical Pronarian.

They were one of the most reviled races in the universe, and he was a prime example.

I also liked Shenna.

There was just something different about her, her sweetness and her spice. While in the beginning, I hadn’t been the biggest advocate of having the women on board, I had come to like the idea of seeing her every day.

A lot.

With a slightly over-exaggerated sigh, I acquiesced.

The smile on her face was all I needed to know I had done a good thing.

Maybe a stupid thing, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

“Let’s get started then. Relax, smile, and cheer up. I’m taking you out on the town for an evening of fun.”

She looked at me, cocking her head to the side and arching an eyebrow. Good.

With some gruff in my voice, I explained. “We’re leaving the ship and walking right down the main way towards a restaurant close to Itair’s slab. That’s our destination. Once we’re close, we duck into one of the alleyways I saw close by, we change into something much less conspicuous, and we go get your damn pet.”

A hard nod and a slight lip bite were her response.

I sent her away to go change and clean up, as well as to reapply her stardust, then I changed, as well. I knew a way off the ship where no one, or almost no one, would see us.

When she reappeared, freshly made over, wrapped in the delicate silks, an odd feeling ran through my gut.

She was lovely.

But lovelier as just every day, in her human skin, Shenna.

And right now, it didn’t matter. Couldn’t matter. We had a job to do, even if it was ridiculous.

I took her folded day clothing, tucked it with mine and some tools in the only messenger bag I could find that looked something like a businessman would be seen with, and sealed the cabin.

As we exited the ship through one of the external service ports, I dropped to the ground first, then turned and caught her, my hands wrapping around her waist as I placed her gently on her feet.

We made our way down the street where I acted as a guide and protector while Shenna acted as an awe-struck tourist.

It wasn’t much of an act for either of us.

She put her hands on my arm and leaned her head against me as we walked. We looked like a simple couple in love enjoying the town.

Despite the voice in the back of my mind reminding me what a stupid idea this was, it wasn’t an unenjoyable evening.

The opposite, in fact. The curves of her body pulled against me, her sweet scent still clear despite the covering mask of the cosmetics, the pleasure and enjoyment she took in everything around us.

It might have been the best damn night of my life.

And then it was time to act.

We would obviously be unable to take Itair’s chauffeur to his floating slab in the sky.

Ducking into the alley, I pulled out the long, plain cloaks I’d packed. The hood framed Shenna’s face, somehow drawing more attention to it.

“Keep it pulled down low,” I barked, then kicked myself when she winced.

She obeyed silently.

As we stood inside the jostling throng of revelers in the public shuttle that endlessly looped up and down up to Itair’s slab to visit the restaurants and shops that he hosted, I had to resist the urge to pull her close, apologize.

We spilled out, at the far end from his mansion. From here it was the plain, back end. All the frills and garden spaces had been arranged at the front entrance, the better to impress his guests.

All the better for us.

Following one crowd, then another, as they filtered through the shops, Shenna relaxed against me again. I bent my head to hers, nuzzling the side of her neck.

“Just play along, alright?”

Her light laugh was the first response, but as her tiny hands wandered across my chest and back, I found myself less interested in our ridiculous rescue mission, far more intrigued by the subtle curves that now pressed against me.

But she wanted the thing.

And with every touch, every laugh, my resolve to get it for her hardened.

As did other things.

When we were close to Itair’s building, we pretended to be all over one another and ducked into a nearby alley.

“Ready to do this?” she asked as she looked up, eyelids heavy and cheeks flushed.

For a second, I wasn’t sure if she meant the rescue or something else.

Something else sounded much, much better to me, then I pulled myself together.

We quickly pulled off our outer layer of ‘going out’ clothing and made our way to the service entrance I knew would be here.

Someone like Itair would have staff.

Lots of staff.

And there was no way they’d be coming up the front entrance.

The lock was painfully simple to circumvent, and we were inside in a matter of seconds. From the previous trip, I had a pretty good mental layout of where we needed to go.

Straight to the top.

“Let’s move, stay low,” I whispered in her ear. We made our way through the service entrance and into a back hallway. There were people awake all over the building. My hope was that they would all be too busy, caught up in their own affairs to hear us or if they did, to bother paying attention.

There was a section of the back hallway that was lit up thanks to an opening, and as I snuck up to it and peaked around, I saw two maids sitting at a table, talking and drinking. If either one of them had any sort of peripheral vision, there would be no way we could sneak by unnoticed.

“What do we do,” Shenna mouthed as I looked back at her.

I pantomimed for her to wait a moment as I thought. There really wasn’t a way by them, so the plan was going to be attack and hope that I was able to incapacitate both of them without a sound and without them seeing me.

The odds of that happening were slim.

Just as I was about to say ‘kout it’ and rush in, I heard a chair scrape on the floor, followed by footsteps going away. A quick look showed one of the maids was gone and the other one had turned her chair away from the opening.

I motioned for Shenna to stay quiet and follow and we made our way past the opening and further down the hallway. We found some stairs and headed up.

Half way up, we heard a door open above us and another open below us, and footsteps headed in our direction. The footsteps at the bottom ended quickly and disappeared as another door opened and closed. We silently made our way back down as whoever was above us kept coming down. When we were nearly back at the bottom, the person above us left the stairwell.

This time, the sounds of a crowd echoed through the stairwell as the door opened, then cut off suddenly.

A party. Perfect.

With a deep breath and a sigh of relief, we cautiously made our way back up. We made it to the floor with Itair’s office and I motioned for Shenna to wait while I checked the door for sensors.

Might as well not have any, if everything was going to be this simple to bypass.

Maybe I should talk to Dejar, have him pitch a security consult for this idiot.

Miraculously, the floor was empty and our way to Itair’s office was clear. Shenna’s smile of excitement lit up the room.

This was far, far too much fun.

And so was she.

SHENNA

“Hey, little one,” I whispered to the little fluff ball on the desk. It opened its huge eyes and peered up at me.

Even though my hair was pulled back and I wore a different set of clothes, I was sure it still recognized me. It bounced up and down, hitting the top of its head on the roof of its cage until the cage rattled on the hard surface of the desk.

“Shh!” I urged the little creature. “You have to be quiet while I get you out of there.”

Of course, it couldn’t understand me.

Or maybe alien critters were smarter than I realized.

Hell, I really only thought the cat understood me when I was sure she was planning some mischief.

Either way, it settled down immediately, and that’s what I needed.

“Cute little thing,” I cooed, sliding a finger through the bars. It rolled closer and pushed its face into my finger like Persephone did when she wanted to be petted. I wiggled my finger. Its fur was unbelievably soft, like touching spun sugar.

“You can have cuddle time later,” Aavat whispered. “We’ve got to go now!” Aavat stood with his shoulder in the doorway of the office, keeping it propped open just enough to see into the hallway just in case one of the staff happened upon us. So far, no one had come upstairs from the gathering below.

“All right,” I replied. “Keep your pants on.”

“I’m not removing my pants.” Aavat looked at me quizzically.

“It’s a figure of speech.” I turned my attention back to the gilded cage.

There weren’t any hinges to mark the presence of a door or gate. I looked over my shoulder at Aavat. “I can’t get the cage open.”

Aavat peeked into the hallway one more time before slowly closing the office door and locking it. From one of his many pockets, he pulled a short blade.

“I don’t think that’s going to-”

With one quick, precise movement, Aavat sliced the top of the cage clean off.

“Oh.” I pressed my lips together. The little furball started bouncing up and down again.

“You’re welcome,” Aavat smirked.

“Nicely done,” I replied. I extended my hand over the top of the cage slowly, so I didn’t startle the fluffball. To my surprise, it uncurled its tail and wrapped it around my wrist and pulled itself up. It perched on the back of my hand, blinking up at me with an expectant gaze.

“I don’t know what this is but it’s the best critter ever,” I gasped. The fluffball hopped up the length of my arm and settled on my shoulder. I turned to Aavat, grinning so broadly my cheeks hurt. “This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“I find that sad but not surprising,” Aavat replied.

“Dick,” I laughed.

“I’m don’t need the translator for that,” Aavat warned. “Don’t make me leave you here,” but his eyes crinkled at the edges, like he wanted to smile at me, had just forgotten how.

I didn’t expect this easiness between me and Aavat. I knew he was capable of getting me here, then getting me back out, but I hadn’t expected to have fun with him in the process.

And I certainly didn’t expect the heat that pooled in my stomach as he’d wrapped me in his arms while we made our way here.

Apparently, it was a night of pleasant surprises.

“Leave me here and Maris and Aryn will avenge me,” I taunted.

“I’d rather be caught by Itair’s security force right now than risk their wrath,” Aavat joked, reminding me of how strange it was that no one was checking on the upper floors.

“Weird how security inside the house is almost non-existent,” I remarked.

“Itair relies on the ground security and the outside security to identify any threats,” Aavat replied. “To him, and his neighbors, it’s unthinkable that something as unpleasant as a robbery could happen to them.”

“Yet here we are,” I chuckled.

“This was your idea,” Aavat said defensively. “So, if we get caught and end up in Itair’s dungeon, where he cuts off our toes or drips acid into our eyes, it’s your fault.”

“I think Itair would torture us by telling us how much each and every item in his house costs,” I replied.

“I’d rather have acid splashed into my eyes,” Aavat muttered.

I stifled a laugh as his mouth curved up in one corner.

“We should go.” He jerked his head toward the office door. “You’ve got the furry thing. There’s no reason to hang around.”

A pull in the back of my mind, a half-memory, made me slow my steps.

“I think we should look around,” I suggested, slowly.

Aavat looked at me like I was crazy.

“Bad idea.”

“I thought you were the risk taker of the Rogue Star.” I tilted my head to one side.

“Risk taker, yes. Reckless fool? No.” He shook his head.

The new Shenna, the good, quiet Shenna I should be, wanted to leave.

But old Shenna still lurked in me somewhere. It was hard to resist being the old Shenna.

“Aavat, do you remember Itair putting away some things as we walked in the room?” I asked. “What do you think it could have been?”

“Any number of personal things that he didn’t want to discuss with strangers,” he muttered.

“But what if it was important?” I pressed on. “What if it could give us a clue about anything? You said he was connected to all sorts of business. Don’t we need every advantage we can get?”

He didn’t look convinced.

“The door’s locked, isn’t it?” I asked. I could feel it rising in me, the desire to push the limits and play with fire. On Persephone Station, I was able to repress it. There wasn’t much trouble to get into on Pluto unless one wanted to die in the process.

“Yes, but-”

“Come on.” I could see his reserve wearing down. He wanted a little adventure as much as I did. “When will we ever get the chance to explore a place like this unattended? It’s not like we’re going to steal anything.”

“Besides the fluffball?”

“Besides the fluffball,” I nodded. “Itair doesn’t even care about the fluffball. I doubt he’ll know it’s missing. We won’t be stealing works of art or priceless jewels or whatever else he keeps in this damn palace.”

“I can’t believe I thought you were a nice, sweet female,” Aavat sighed and stepped away from the door.

“I’m a nice, sweet female that likes to have a little fun every once in a while,” I shrugged.

“If I didn’t already dislike Itair, I wouldn’t agree to this.” Aavat strode over to the desk and began opening drawers.

“You’ve wanted to snoop through his desk since we arrived on his floating slab,” I accused him.

“Haven’t you?” Aavat asked.

“I can’t read any of the writing, so no.” I wandered over to the vast collection of books and ran my fingers over the worn spines.

“You can’t read the writing, yet you immediately go for the books.” Aavat shook his head and he scanned a handful of documents.

“I can’t read them, but an old book is as valuable as any treasure,” I replied. “It’s like touching history.”

“Perhaps,” Aavat agreed. “But an old book isn’t going to send me on a luxury vacation.”

“If you read it, it might,” I said. Aavat sighed in response. With a satisfied grin on my face, I traced my fingertips over the worn spines. My finger glided over something that didn’t feel like the spine of a book. It felt like the edge of a slip of paper, but stiffer.

I paused and looked closer in the darkness. The corner of a piece of film jutted out between two pads. I pinched the corner and pulled gently, not wanting to tear it.

“Hey, Aavat?” I asked, squinting in the darkness, trying to make out any of the symbols on the film.

“Yeah?”

“What’s this?” He turned away from the desk to look at the piece of film I held out to him.

“Looks like some kind of invoice or packing slip.” He turned it over in his hands. “Why wasn’t it in the desk?”

“People hide secrets between books,” I replied.

Aavat strode over to the window to take advantage of the natural light of Katzul’s three small moons.

“It’s a Dominion-authorized shipping contract,” he said, but frowned. “Definitely some kind of shady deal.”

“How can you tell?” I stepped close to his side to peek at the film, even though I couldn’t read it. I had to stand on my tiptoes to see over his shoulder. Until our stroll over here, I’d never been this close to him before, hadn’t realized how nice he smelled. He didn’t smell like anything I could name, but it was enticing.

Intriguing.

I caught myself leaning closer to him, then shoved the thoughts away. Now wasn’t the time.

“There’s no description of the merchandise and the contract is for half a million credits,” Aavat explained. “Even weirder, it’s from Ankor.”

“Should I know what that is?” I asked.

“No, because you’re not running a cargo ship. It’s an outside world,” Aavat explained. “Not part of the Dominion.”

“Would they have applied to join Dominion space at any point?”

“Probably. I don’t know much about the process. My home world has been part of Dominion space since the beginning,” Aavat answered, eyes roving up and down the slip, as if searching for something that would make sense. “And I don’t even know what this little mark is here,” he muttered.

An intricate design, no bigger than my thumbnail, was stamped at the bottom left of the sheet. It tickled a memory far in the back of my mind, but nothing useful came up.

“If Ankor isn’t part of the Dominion, then what could they be shipping to it?” I asked.

“There’s plenty of reasons to ship something illegally. We wouldn’t be in business if there wasn’t. But it’s strange for such a new world to go against the Dominion like this. Especially since the Dominion would’ve surveyed the world to see if there was anything it would want.” Aavat continued to study the slip with a scowl.

“Itair covets anything rare or expensive. Perhaps he learned of an art piece or animal and wanted it brought here,” I suggested.

“Possible,” Aavat muttered. “But why go to the trouble to hide it? It’s not like Itair would get in trouble for it. I’m sure the majority of his animals and art were obtained through shady deals. Breaking Dominion law to obtain something exotic is a point of pride here. He’d be flaunting it, not hiding the evidence between books.”

“So, what does this mean?” I asked.

“Nothing good.”

AAVAT

“We need to get out of here,” I whispered.

There was something very wrong about that slip, and I had no interest in getting caught up in some random mystery.

We had enough trouble without looking for more.

I didn’t want to be here when the next shift arrived, or when Itair showed up to show someone at the party one of his treasures, or whatever.

And… maybe I wanted to get back to the ship to find out what the information on that film was all about.

Umbba mysteries.

Shenna tucked her new pet into the bag, whispering promises to it as we headed back to the service stairwell.

But our luck had run out.

Staff were heading up, and we had no way of telling which floor they’d stop at. We backed into the office quickly.

“Umbba,” I cursed under my breath. We had to find another way down without being seen.

There were the main stairs, the elevator, and a very difficult climb down the side of the building.

There was no way Shenna would be able to make the climb. I could carry her on my back, but it’d be too easy to spot us against the glittering surface.

That left the main stairwell and the elevator.

Even someone with as lax security as Itair would likely have cameras in the elevator, so the stairs were the answer. “Let’s go,” I hissed as I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her behind me.

We stayed low and made our way quickly to the main doors of the floor. As I cracked the door open, I heard voices. I swallowed another silent curse, grabbed Shenna, and hid us behind a large couch.

The main doors opened, and two guards walked in, heavily armed, while two more stood at the doorway.

There was no way out.

Four heavily armed guards plus whoever was coming up the backstairs.

We were going to die.

For a ball of fluff.

I had just started to resign myself to fighting to the death to give Shenna a chance to get away, when a loud commotion downstairs drew the guards’ attention. The two at the doors left to check it out while the two inside went back outside of the office and closed the doors.

I rushed over to the window to see what had saved us, and apparently, some of the festive activities had gotten a bit out of hand and some partygoers had managed to take a vehicle and had ended up crashing it into a restaurant.

Shenna was just coming up to look as well, when the door from the back stairwell opened. We both dove behind Itair’s desk, her face very close to my own.

Her breath was hot against my neck, and all I could think about was when we had put on the ruse of a couple going to the alley to copulate.

It caused my heart to race faster than this sort of situation usually commanded.

The voices we heard belonged to the two maids from downstairs. Chances were slim they were trained in combat, but the guards were far too close.

They’d hear any noise of a fight.

One powered up a cleaning device, the loud whirr filling the room.

I whispered to Shenna. “If we can subdue them quietly, we can make a break for it down the back stairwell.”

She shook her head vehemently. “No. We can’t hurt them,” she whispered back. “They haven’t done anything wrong.”

By the mother world!

“How else do you recommend we get out of here then? They won’t just let us go.”

“I don’t know, but we can’t hurt them.” Then her eyes widened. “Itair’s a very rich guy that probably has some enemies, right?”

“Assuredly,” I whispered back.

“Do you think he has a secret door or something?”

I shook my head. “No way to find it without them noticing us.”

“Not unless there’s a button at the bottom of his desk,” she said and moved her head a bit to the side. There it was, a button.

The problem was that that button would probably alert the guards that he was in trouble. And since he wasn’t supposed to be in his office, the button being triggered would be a bad thing.

Her face drooped as she realized her brilliant idea had a big hole in it. The cleaning noise was getting closer and our options were limited.

A decidedly stupid idea popped into my head, and my only hope was that the maids weren’t terribly bright. Slowly, I eased a desk drawer open, only moving in time with the roar of the cleaner.

Shenna opened her mouth to say something when the noise stopped.

Too softly for me to hear words, the maids talked and laughed as they puttered through the room.

I risked a quick glance, saw that they weren’t looking at us, and threw one of the items I had taken out.

It was a small bauble of some sort and it hit a statue on the far side of the room, close to the doors where the guards had come in. The statue fell, the women let out a short scream, then went over to see what had happened.

I motioned for Shenna to follow and we crawled as quickly as we could behind a chair closer to the backstairs.

With another quick glance, I threw another small glittery thing, this one very light and unlikely to break anything.

It struck the window with a loud “thump,” and the maids headed over to the window, further away from us.

Shenna and I made our way over to the door for the back stairwell and hid in the shadows. The maids turned around and went back to the broken statue. One of them started to clean it up while the other one went out the door. We could hear her going down the passage way, calling to the guards.

Taking the chance, we rushed through the service door and down the stairs as quietly as possible.

It was an agonizing several minutes before we got to the bottom floor, raced through the back hallway, and out the service entrance we had used.

We took a moment to catch our breaths, then quickly retrieved our cloaks, changed, and rushed back into the public area of the slab.

“Can I help you?”

Koso.

A security officer, crimson patterned skin contrasting against the dark gray uniform, watched us emerge from the alley with narrowed eyes.

His gaze raked over us, taking in our disheveled appearance, no doubt noting our faces despite the hoods.

Shenna leaned against me, burying her face in my chest as one arm snaked around my neck. “I told you we’d get caught, silly. You and your shortcuts.”

Me and my… what?

Right.

I wrapped an arm around her waist, held her tight against me as I pressed a kiss on her hair. “It turned out alright, didn’t it, my sweet?”

“Mmmm,” she giggled, “I think I could call it reasonable.”

The officer cleared his throat. “I take it you… got lost?”

I let my fingers trail down Shenna’s arm. “We needed a bit of privacy, that’s all.”

“I see.” Either his species had permanently raised eye ridges, or we weren’t the first pair of slightly drunk, overly amorous fools he’d dealt with tonight.

“I’d suggest you try one of our lovely hotels.” He rattled off directions. “Many of them only charge by the hour.”

Shenna stiffened against me, her body shaking. Small sounds were muffled by my chest, and I tensed, fists clenched.

Then I figured it out.

Laughter.

Shenna bounced to her tiptoes, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and promptly smacked my backside. “I hope we’d need more time than that!”

The officer shook his head, told us to get out of there, and walked away from us.

We didn’t dare disobey. We made our way back towards the ship, and once we were a few blocks closer, we broke out laughing.

“Oh my god, can you believe we just did that?” she said between laughing breaths. “I’ve never been more scared. Well, when the station collapsed. And on Outpost Nine. But this was close!”

I grinned at her like a stupid school boy. “You were fantastic, and that smack on the backside. I think he probably thought we had a little too much to drink.”

“You were the one that told him we had gone to go make out!”

I wasn’t sure what ‘make out’ was, but I could guess.

“Well, I had to explain why we were both still breathing hard and looking a bit worse for wear.”

“Yeah, well,” she started, then bounced against my arm in glee. “Oh, oh, oh, we did it. We saved the little guy and didn’t get caught.” To emphasize her point, she opened her bag and took a look at her new pet.

It was a…I had no idea what it was. It was just an indescribable ball of fur with a tail. It cooed at her, and purred a bit, then ducked itself back into her bag.

“He’s cute.” She insisted, glaring at me as if I was going to argue her point.

I held up my hands in mock surrender, smiled, and extended my arm out to her.

She took my arm and we headed back to the Rogue Star, a couple on the town, just slightly less obviously infatuated with each other than we’d been for the officer.

When we arrived, she stopped cold. “How do we get back in?”

“Same way we got out.” Her eyes went wide, and a small yelp came from her mouth as I grabbed her around the waist and lifted her above my head.

She opened the hatch we had come through and climbed in. I passed her the bag, then jumped up, caught the edge, and pulled myself up and in behind her. We dusted ourselves off, then made our way back to the personal area.

Before we got back, I stopped her. “No word about where we’ve been or what we’ve found. Not yet.”

“Of course.” She looked up at me, her lips slightly parted. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” I replied. There was something else, something I wanted to say, but no words came. “I had fun.” Not exactly what I meant to say, but true enough.

Her happiness was the perfect end to the evening.

I carried the image of her glorious smile with me back to my quarters.

SHENNA

I awoke long before I was expected to start my next shift. I should’ve been fast asleep still. By the time Aavat and I had returned to the ship, the sky was already growing lighter. Judging by the clock Lynna had brought in from the med bay, I’d only slept for two hours.

Persephone was curled up in the crook of my knees, fast asleep. The little fluffball had tucked itself under my chin, warm and snuggly.

I had no desire to move. I let my eyes drift closed once more…

“You were out late last night.” My eyes snapped open. Lynna was on her sleeping mat, her head propped up, so she was looking right at me.

“How long have you been staring at me?” I asked.

“Since I noticed the yellow ball of fur crawling around your bed.”

I looked down at the fluffball. Sure enough, its fur had changed color.

“It was pink when I found it,” I mumbled.

“Interesting,” Lynna nodded. “Where did it come from?”

“I found it in a supply closet. I think it must have found a way on board shortly after we docked.” I didn’t like lying to Lynna.

But if she didn’t know anything about what I did last night, she couldn’t get in trouble for it.

“It’s really cute,” she grinned.

“It’s friendly, too!” I picked up the fluffball and placed it on the floor between the sleeping mats. It looked to me, then to Lynna, giving us both sleepy blinks. “Hold out your hand,” I urged. Lynna did as she was told. The fluffball looked at her hand for a moment before hopping over.

“Does it have a name?” she asked, running her fingers over its soft fur.

“Poof!” I blurted.

“How fitting,” Lynna giggled. Beside me, Persephone stirred and stretched. I reached over to pet her and found that her muscles were coiled tight. I looked over my shoulder at her. She’d spotted Poof.

“Persephone, don’t you dare,” I chided. Her pupils dilated. She gathered her legs under her body, ready to pounce.

Poor Poof had no idea it was being stalked. Persephone leaped forward but I was ready for her. I caught her in the air and tucked her against my chest. She wriggled and yowled in protest, digging her claws into my skin.

“Poof is your new sibling,” I scolded her. “You will be nice or you’re sleeping in the hall from now on.”

“You’re asking your cat not to chase a critter that looks exactly like a cat toy,” Lynna rolled her eyes. “I’m sure that’s going to work out fantastically.”

“I know,” I sighed. “We’re going to have to keep an eye on them when they’re both in the room.”

“What do you mean we?” Lynna asked. “You’re the one who keeps bringing in animals.”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t want to spend every moment of every day cuddling Poof.” I lifted an eyebrow.

“You’re right,” Lynna laughed. “I’ll gladly take care of this little sweetheart. Are you sure he’s not poisonous or dangerous?”

“If he is, I think we can train him to do our bidding,” I chuckled.

Lynna blinked at me in surprise.

“That was a joke,” I clarified.

“I know. I didn’t realize you had a dark sense of humor,” Lynna explained. “You come off as innocent as Poof, here.”

“That’s the result of years of training,” I smiled faintly.

“Training?” Lynna asked. “What do you mean?”

I didn’t answer right away, picking my words carefully. “I wasn’t a very nice person before I came to Persephone,” I explained. “So I decided to retrain myself. I guess an air of innocence is a side effect.”

“Interesting,” Lynna nodded. “Well, I think you did a great job. I don’t know what you were like before, but I can’t imagine you as anything other than the nice person you are.”

Her words struck a chord, sounded like something my sister would say. She always tried to see the best in everyone, even me. My chest felt tight and full.

“Thanks. That means a lot,” I smiled, but the happy moment stopped as something punctured my arm.

Persephone wiggled against my grip and clawed at me.

“Okay, okay,” I sighed. “I’m putting you down, but if you go after Poof, you’re getting a time out.” I placed Persephone on the floor. Poof, the little idiot, decided it wanted to get a better look at its new furry roommate and hopped toward Persephone.

Persephone’s tail twitched with excitement as Poof bounced too close. Persephone swiped at the little fluffball with delight and Poof curled its tail in and rolled away.

At least Persephone was trying to play, not kill.

Probably.

“I’m going to take Poof into the dining hall for some breakfast.” I scooped up Poof before Persephone could swipe at it again. “I should try to find out what fluffballs eat.”

“I’ll see you later,” Lynna called to me as I padded out of the room with Poof balancing on my shoulder.

The dining hall wasn’t busy when I arrived, and I was grateful for it. Sars gave me an extra portion of the purple sausages I liked. If he noticed Poof, he didn’t say anything.

I sat down at an empty table in the center of the room. For every bite I took, I offered a little nibble to Poof to see what it ate or if it even had a mouth. Poof liked to investigate whatever food item I offered, but it never actually took a bite of anything.

“What do you eat?” I wondered out loud. “Do you even eat?”

“I don’t think it understands you,” a deep voice startled me.

I looked up from my messy plate of food and Poof to find Aavat standing by my table, tray in hand.

“You never know,” I shrugged. “Stranger things have happened to me lately. Do you want to sit down?”

“Sure,” he smiled and lowered himself into the seat across from me.

I hadn’t forgotten about that moment last night before we said goodnight. There had been something different about the way he looked at me that I couldn’t place, and traces of it were in his expression now.

“Get much sleep?” I forced myself to look away from his face. There was no way he didn’t notice me staring.

“No.” He shook his head. “Actually, I stayed up looking into the world where that illegal shipment came in from.”

“Oh?” I raised my brows. “Anything interesting?”

“Ankor wasn’t just outside of the Dominion, it was classified as a non-evolved world,” Aavat replied.

“What does that mean?” I asked. “What’s the difference?”

“Non-evolved worlds are determined by the Dominion as worlds or systems that don’t offer anything to benefit Dominion space and are forbidden to be contacted. The Terran System is classified as non-evolved,” Aavat expanded.

My mouth dropped open. “I resent that statement,” I gasped.

Aavat stopped mid-bite to laugh. “Now that I know you, I think the Terran System’s been misclassified,” he grinned.

“Is that your attempt at flirting?” I teased.

“Yes,” Aavat nodded seriously.

I almost choked on my food. Well. That was unexpected.

“Oh,” I coughed. Poof bounced up and down, its huge eyes bulging with concern. I patted it on the head to soothe it.

Aavat smirked at me from the other side of the table. “Looks like I took your breath away,” Aavat winked.

“That was way too smooth and too human for to you have come up with on your own,” I laughed.

“It worked though, didn’t it?” Aavat smirked.

“Maybe.” I twirled a lock of hair around my finger. “What’s with all the charm?”

“Last night was fun. Risky and stupid. But fun. I’m glad we did it,” Aavat grinned.

“Me, too,” I beamed. “Poof agrees.”

“Is that what you named it?” Poof rolled across the table to bounce in front of Aavat.

“I think it’s fitting, don’t you?”

“Quite.”

“Weren’t you talking about a non-evolved world before you decided to be suave?” I asked.

“Ah, yes I was. I’ll get around to being suave later.”

I laughed again, but in the back of my mind, I wondered. How much was he joking? With a wrench, I brought my attention back to what he was saying.

“Non-evolved worlds have a less than zero percent chance of ever becoming part of Dominion space.”

“Because the Dominion’s already determined that the world in question has nothing of value?” I asked.

“Exactly. It would be more trouble for the Dominion to bring in a useless world than the world’s worth.” He scowled. “But apparently the status of Ankor changed recently.”

“What would make the Dominion change their mind?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. As far as I know, it’s never happened before.” Aavat’s brow furrowed. “They might eventually accept an evolved world, but the Dominion is thorough when they analyze a potential planet. It’s unlikely that they missed something.”

“Wait, if the Terran System is classified as non-evolved, that means the Dominion has been there, categorized us. How come no one in the Terran System knows anything about it?” I demanded.

“The Dominion doesn’t inform planets that they’re being analyzed,” Aavat explained. “Imagine if you knew your planet was being considered to become part of Dominion space or even eligible as a trading partner, but then your planet doesn’t meet the requirements. Wouldn’t you be angry?”

“I guess,” I conceded. “That still doesn’t make it right.”

“There isn’t really a question of right or wrong when it’s done by the Dominion,” Aavat admitted. “They have the absolute power to dabble in anything they deem necessary.”

I bit my lip. “If that slip of film we found is any indication, then someone is dabbling in something else now.”

“But is it the Dominion, or a new player?”

AAVAT

“What in the kopa were you thinking?” Dejar yelled.

The whole mess was too weird not to tell him.

As angry as he was, I was glad I’d skipped over Shenna’s part in our little reconnaissance.

“I wanted to know who he was. I wanted to make sure we weren’t dealing with someone that was going to turn us in to the Dominion.” I pointed at the copy of the slip I’d made. “And based on that slip there, he is working with someone, and on something, shady. I don’t trust him to not turn us in.”

“Of course he is,” he shrugged. “That’s why he hired us, right?”

“There’s shady, and then there’s Dominion levels of shady.” I leaned back against the bulkhead. “That’s not exactly what we signed up for.”

My choice of words seemed to calm Dejar down, not to the point where he was no longer angry with me, but to the point where I could tell he was thinking long-term about the crew and the ship.

It would do.

“Alright,” he finally said. “What did you find out?”

I told him. “It worries me that this particular shipment has to be kept a secret and that our current employer is working with the Dominion. If he finds out who we are, this gets very bad, very quick.”

“I know. That’s why we’re going to ignore this film and,” his voice became harsh, “never again sneak into Itair’s home. We can’t afford to lose this as a job, or him as a contact, understand?”

He was right, and I hated it, but he was right.

“Fine.” If he was too cowardly to look into it, I’d look into it myself.

That was my job, to make sure the Captain didn’t do something colossally stupid like ignoring a potential threat.

But it would have to wait.

I switched subjects. “When are we doing the drop-off for the package he had us pick up?”

“That was why I called you in here. How would you like to get some fresh air?”

I hated it when he asked me that. It only meant one thing.

“Love to.”

He rolled his eyes as he stood up from his desk and headed for the door. “Let’s go. We’re taking the Skimmer.”

I grunted, and even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew his smile was from ear to ear.

The Skimmer was a small vehicle we used to transport things while on-planet, and it was a terrible mode of transportation. It had terrible balance, the handling was atrocious, and the seating was as comfortable as a bag of bolts.

The only good things about the Skimmer was that it was fast and powerful and beat trying to carry things by hand.

We made our way down to the hangar bay.

“You want a run at it?” Dejar asked me, holding the keys out for me.

I shook my head emphatically. I didn’t like the thing. Despised it. I didn’t want to pilot it unless I had to, and since Dejar was here with me, I didn’t have to.

He chuckled, shook his head, and climbed up behind the controls.

The Skimmer was long and skinny. While it had sat on four wheels in the cargo bay, the wheels were capable of folding up and under the vehicle as it hovered along.

I had to admit, it was a brilliant little vehicle in terms of being able to go over most terrains, but it was ugly and far more of a bother mechanically than it should have been. I climbed up next to Dejar, buckled myself in, and held on for dear life as he drove us out of the hangar bay.

“Where are we going?” I asked him while he was still able to drive slowly.

He tapped something on his wrist and a holographic map popped up. A blinking dot showed our location. “There,” he said. “It’s on the far side of the city, so it’ll take us a little while to get there.”

“Why didn’t we just fly it over, then?”

“Flight restrictions.”

I looked up to see several different vehicles flying through the air above us. “Really? Flight restrictions?” I pointed up.

He nodded as he turned off the docks and got us onto one of the streets. “We’re restricted. I looked into it last night, and because we’re new and don’t have the proper clearance, we can’t get a license to fly over the city.”

“Proper clearance.” I repeated. That basically meant we didn’t know the right people or have the right connections.

“That’s what they said.” He drove us down several streets, following the map, then, when we reached a major thoroughfare where he was allowed to go faster than jogging speed, he pushed the accelerator to full.

The idiot weaved us in and out of traffic at breakneck speeds. Our only protection from death if we crashed would be luck, and personally, I’d used all of mine last night. My knuckles were white from gripping the side of the Skimmer.

“SLOW DOWN, YOU MANIAC!” I was forced to yell over the rush of air forced into our faces by his insane driving.

His insane laughter echoed as he slung us around a transport truck and between three personal vehicles. I don’t believe I’ve ever survived a longer five minutes in my life, and I swear that I used every conceivable curse word in six different languages. I think I even made up a few curses along the way.

When he finally slowed us down to take the exit we needed, the look of the city had changed. Behind us, the city dripped beauty and opulence.

Here, it looked run-down and broken.

There were several warehouses in the area, but all of them looked abandoned and forgotten.

This was the real Katzul, the darkness under the glittering surface.

“We’re going in there?” I asked.

Dejar nodded as he slowed us down. According to the map, the warehouse we had to deliver to was just on the other side of a wall on our right, but we didn’t see an opening to get into the complex.

We drove around the perimeter wall for nearly a kilometer before we found a way in. The gate was open, abandoned, and barely hanging on by one hinge.

I didn’t like it.

“This doesn’t feel right to me,” I said as we drove in.

Dejar didn’t bother responding, there was no need.

We drove through the area slowly, weaving our way around massive potholes, broken warehouse walls that had fallen into the road, and a few burned-out trucks left in the middle of the road.

We finally arrived at the drop-off location.

It was a warehouse, not unlike the others. The windows were broken or cracked, the walls were beat-up and covered in graffiti, and the pavement around it was covered in holes and rubble.

The only thing about the warehouse that separated it from the others were the locks on the doors. Those looked brand new.

We looked at one another and I must have had a particular look on my face, because Dejar shrugged at me. “This is where it says.”

With a half-hearted shrug, I got out of the Skimmer and helped Dejar unstrap the crate from the back. We picked it up and I was caught by surprise with how light it was. It felt as though I could carry it myself if it wasn’t for the bulk.

We set it down in front of the black door as the instructions had stated, then stepped back. The crate was as tall as my chest, and just as wide, and based on that, I expected it should have made us struggle.

“That was a little light, don’t you think?” I asked as we got back into the Skimmer.

“A job is a job. Let’s go back, report the delivery and wait for the rest of our payment.”

“You’re not interested in figuring out what is happening here? What if we just helped out with that delivery that’s supposed to be a secret?” I countered.

He gave me an exasperated look. “Let it go, okay? There aren’t a lot of places where we can find work anymore in Dominion space. This happens to be one of those places. Don’t. Mess. It. Up.”

The look on his face was not a happy one.

He didn’t like this any more than I did.

“Fine.” I hadn’t given up on figuring things out, I had just stopped doing it out loud for now.

As Dejar drove us back home, with another run of insane speeding and dodging, I thought about what had happened in the past two days.

Itair was not to be trusted, and that meant his jobs weren’t meant to be trusted either.

I needed to figure out what was happening, and I needed to do it now.

SHENNA

I didn’t think there’d be a downside to doing my assigned work quickly and efficiently, but I was wrong. After adding Gorgben juice to the cleaning solutions, it took more time for things to dirty themselves up again. The fruit were bitter enough that most of the crew didn’t want them, so there was plenty for me to use.

Now, most places only required a quick dusting to get them up to standard. Xyla and her lot would never admit it to my face, but I knew they appreciated my little innovation.

I finished all of my assigned work within a few hours when it should’ve taken me the better part of the day, and Sars didn’t have another task on hand, either.

On Persephone Station, there had always been something that needed to be done, cleaned, or repaired.

The frost from the below-zero temperatures always found a way to creep inside the structures. It used to take me hours to chip away the ice buildup. I swear, it was sturdier than the diamond alloy the walls were made of.

As I wandered around the ship looking for something to do, I spotted Persephone stalking about with a suspicious bit of electric blue fluff hanging off her whiskers. Last time I saw Poof, it was orange but that was a while ago.

“Persephone,” I called to the cat. She halted at the sound of the name she now barely acknowledged as belonging to her and looked at me with an expression of disdain.

“What have you got there?” I demanded. I walked down the hall in her direction quickly, but not so quickly that I risked startling her.

Persephone, in typical cat fashion, pretended that I didn’t exist and continued walking.

“Naughty cat,” I sighed. “I went to a great deal of effort to rescue that little fluffball and if I discover you’ve eaten it, I’ll have you made into mittens.”

“Are you talking to me?” One of the Rogue Star crew members stood in a small alcove inspecting a control panel.

I jumped, startled by his voice. “I’m talking to the cat,” I stammered.

“The cat can understand you?” he balked.

“Not exactly.” I wasn’t sure how to explain why I would talk to something that couldn’t talk back without sounding like a lunatic. “She can understand tone but not words.”

“Fascinating!” His eyes lit up. “It’s so exciting having you human females on board. I’m learning so much about non-evolved worlds. It’s a shame we aren’t allowed to travel to them.”

“Humans are quite evolved, thank you,” I sniffed.

“I mean no offense,” he said quickly.

“I know.” I offered him a half-smile. “It’s strange to hear, though. We humans think highly of our accomplishments. Space travel was a huge milestone for us.”

“Doesn’t the tech you use have a twenty-five percent chance of killing the person using it?”

“We’re still working out the glitches,” I winced.

“Right.” He nodded. “Oh, by the way, the cat you were following just darted around the corner. It looked like she was going to pounce on something.”

“Shit!” I broke out in a run in the direction he’d pointed. When I rounded the corner, I saw her with her paw over Poof’s tail. Poof didn’t seem bothered by the attack, just bounced up and down, changing colors with each bounce.

“Persephone!” I scolded, scooping her off the ground, but her claw had become stuck in Poof’s tail floof.

Poof swung itself back and forth as it hung from Persephone’s claws.

“Would you be this naughty if we’d named you Aphrodite instead?” I grumbled.

I untangled Poof from Persephone’s claws and placed Poof on my shoulder, far out of Persephone’s reach.

“Naughty cats have to stay in the kitchen with Sars,” I told her. She let out a low meow that sounded not unlike a human groan.

“Sars!” I called as I entered the empty dining hall. “I have a kitty that needs to be put in time out.”

“You call it time out but I think Persephone there sees it as a vacation. I’ve got plenty of scraps left over from lunch for her to lick up,” Sars replied. “Put her anywhere.”

I set Persephone down on one of the tables. She looked at Poof with murder in her eyes. Poof wiggled excitedly and tried to bounce off my shoulder towards Persephone.

I caught it in my hands and placed it back on my shoulder. “She just tried to kill you! Why do you want to be friends with her?” I asked the little fluffball. It blinked up at me in silence.

“I’ll be back for you when dinner is over.” I bopped Persephone on the nose. She flattened her ears and narrowed her eyes.

“Persephone’s been in a foul temper lately,” Sars commented.

“She’s used to being an only child,” I laughed. “She’ll learn sooner or later that she has to play nice with her new sibling.” I scratched the top of Poof’s head.

“Whatever you say,” Sars chuckled before returning to the kitchen with Persephone eagerly twining through his ankles.

Poof and I left the dining hall. Now that the proverbial cat and mouse game was over, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself.

Wandering through the halls, I realized I was looking for Aavat.

I didn’t have anything I wanted to discuss with him specifically, but…

He was funny. Conversation flowed naturally between us.

Lynna and I got along well, as I did with Kalyn, Aryn, Manda, and Maris. I considered all of them friends to some degree, but, somehow, I didn’t share the same connection with them as I did with Aavat.

And I didn’t like that he was off on such a shady delivery.

Aavat had said Katzul citizens sometimes hired people and then didn’t pay, knowing they wouldn’t have any consequences.

Itair was so wealthy, I doubted he’d stoop to such a level, but who knew?

What bothered me the most was not knowing exactly what they were delivering. It could be an untested weapon or something equally dangerous.

Aavat might not mind the risk, but, suddenly, I did.

I paced by the open door of the main office.

Kalyn sat at the desk looking as bored and lonely as I felt, and I wondered if she worried about Dejar when he went out on a deal.

Maybe I should talk to her. We were sort of friends, after all. But just as I started into the office, a chime sounded, and she sprang from the desk, a smile brightening her face.

When she realized I was there, she grabbed my hand and tugged me after her.

“Dejar and Aavat just got back,” she grinned.

The weight I’d been carrying around in my chest vanished instantly as my mouth automatically curved up into a smile. I followed Kalyn to the docking bay and waited for Aavat to come through the boarding door.

When he did, he wore his usual scowl but, as our eyes met, it softened.

I’d read about the sensation of feeling butterflies in your stomach when you look at someone you cared about. I didn’t think it was real, but I felt it just then.

“How’d it go?” I asked when Aavat approached me.

“No complications, no surprises. All in all, a smooth delivery.”

I sensed the hesitation in his voice. “But?” I prompted.

“But the whole job was odd.” He struggled to find the right words.

“How so?” I asked.

“Come with me to the dining hall,” he offered. “I’m starving. I’ll tell you all the weird stuff while I eat.”

At the mention of food, my stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and even then, all I had was a piece of toast. Someone had taken it upon themselves to teach Sars something like a sourdough bread recipe and I’d be eternally grateful.

“Sounds great! I could eat my weight right now,” I replied. We left the bridge walking side by side. As we walked, Aavat began to fill me in.

“Itair gave us pretty big crates,” he explained. “The strange part was how light they were. It felt like there was hardly anything in them.”

“That reminds me of the crate that was on board right before the dark ship attacked us.” Worry twisted my stomach every time I thought of that ship and of the women that lost their lives when it attacked.

We grabbed trays once we reached the dining hall. Aavat piled food onto two plates until each was overflowing. I took small samples of everything Sars was offering. I peeked into the kitchen and saw Persephone munching on…some sort of beans?

Weirdo cat, but she was happy and occupied. I’d take it.

“The weight of the package was unusual enough.” Aavat continued once we sat down. “But the drop-off location was even stranger. The delivery entrance of a warehouse in a grimy part of town. There was no one to pick up the crates and we were told not to seek anyone out.”

“Just drop the crates and go?” I asked.

Aavat nodded between bites.

“What if they get stolen?”

“That’s what I’m worried about. Itair could blame us and then refuse to pay.”

I made a face. “That’s dirty business.”

“That’s how it works on Katzul.” Aavat didn’t try to hide the disgust in his voice. “After finding that packing slip, I’m sure something is going on that Itair doesn’t want anyone to know about.”

I took another nibble, steel creeping into my back as I made a decision. “I want to know what’s in those crates.”

Aavat looked up from his food with a sly smile.

“Up for another adventure?”

AAVAT

We waited until my shift on the bridge was over, then Shenna and I headed down to the hangar bay. There was no way I could sneak the Skimmer off the ship, so I signed it out under the pretense of looking for work.

I had found the name of some random person offering a job and told Dejar that I was going to check into it.

Shenna had to get the cosmetics from Lynna and redress as a Shein. I had plenty of time before she flitted to my side.

“I hate this thing,” I grumbled as I helped her into the Skimmer.

“But you know how to drive it, right?” Even under the stardust, she didn’t look like anyone but Shenna.

“Of course I do,” I muttered and started it up, taking to the surface and away from the Rogue Star as quickly as possible.

“So, how do we go about doing this?” Shenna asked. She had to lean fairly close to me to be heard without having to yell. Even though we were still on the smaller streets and weren’t able to drive very fast, the Skimmer’s lack of cover left us open to the world and that meant our voices would carry.

I didn’t mind her closeness at all.

“We don’t have enough information for a plan. We’ll just have to get back to the warehouse and evaluate the situation.” I turned us down another street and brought us to the big road where Dejar had nearly killed me when he was driving like a maniac.

I was much nicer on the Skimmer and to my passenger. I did bring us up to speed, but I did so gently and drove like a professional, not an idiot.

“Punch it!” I heard Shenna yell at me. I looked over at her like she was crazy, but she motioned for me to increase the speed.

I didn’t want to, not at all.

But for reasons beyond all understanding, my foot dropped down and we began racing down the road. As Shenna whooped and hollered, I did my best to not hit anyone we passed, all while laughing my head off.

There was something about this woman that made me act out of character. If anyone had tried to talk me into changing, I’d have bit their head off.

All she had to do was laugh, and I was ready to go.

Odd.

We were having so much fun, we actually missed our exit, so I was forced to take us to the next one and then double back.

It turned out to be a good thing. Instead of having to drive all the way around that large wall to find the gate, we drove directly towards it. While driving at night, the warehouse district was even creepier than it was during the day.

During the daytime, it was a large collection of gray, white, and brown buildings with the sun reflecting off the windows, making it nearly impossible to see inside unless a window was broken.

At night?

Some of the warehouses were lit, with vehicles parked in front of them, doors open, and people working in them. Others had small flickers of light coming through broken windows or holes in the walls which meant that there were drifters and deviants using them as a place to sleep.

The gate came up ahead and, to my surprise, it was now manned. When I pulled up, we were greeted by some over-muscled, over-sized, two-headed monstrosity.

His voice was a combination of an avalanche and a broken converter on the ship’s engine. “Tickets.”

Tickets? For what? I patted myself in a mock search, then looked over at Shenna. “Did you bring the tickets?”

She had a look of total dread on her face as she answered. “Me? I thought you had them.”

With a slight drop of my head, I let out a curse, then turned back to the behemoth beside us. “How much to get in without tickets?”

The first head that spoke, the one on the left side, looked at us and just repeated what he had said, “Tickets.” The right head, however, looked at the left head, said something that my translator didn’t pick up, and then turned to us. “Girl pretty. You go in, but pay Rut fifty credits to go in.”

“Fifty credits?!” I was incredulous. That was an insane amount to pay, but before I opened my mouth again with a stupid comment that probably would have ended up with the two of us pounded into the pavement, Shenna put a hand on my arm.

“Please, darling.” She made her voice pouty. “You promised.”

“I…hmm. Very well. You’re right, I did promise.” I reached into my pockets and pulled out the money.

Rut, whether that was the name of the creature or just one of the heads, took the money and I was very happy to pay it.

His hand dwarfed my own by at least three times, and the muscles that twitched in his hand honestly scared me.

He pocketed the money, opened the gate, and let us through. After we drove away, I pulled behind a warehouse and stopped.

Shenna looked at me in worry. “Are you okay?”

“Did you see the size of that monster? Oh, by the mother world, that man was huge.”

She snickered a bit as she put her hand on mine. “Oh my god, you are right. What was he?”

“I honestly don’t know. The only two-headed race I know of are Bexians, and they don’t come that big. They’re smaller than you.” We spent a minute or two laughing at the insanity of what that creature was, then spent a minute trying to figure out what was going on.

“That gate wasn’t guarded when we came before,” I said when we had calmed down a bit.

“What do you think is going on?” Shenna asked.

“I…” I had no answer. I was at a complete loss, and I hated that feeling. My mood soured. “Let’s go find out.” I put the Skimmer back into gear and headed to the warehouse where the delivery had been made.

As we approached, a loud thumping began to reverberate through the hull of the Skimmer.

“Sounds like a nightclub,” Shenna yelled at me as the thumping got louder.

“What’s a nightclub?” I yelled back. Then we rounded the corner and my question was immediately answered.

The warehouse was lit up like some sort of celebration was happening inside, and music was pumping out of it at decibels I didn’t think were safe for our ears.

A line of people stretched out the front of the building all the way to the next one.

“Well, scro,” I cursed. In everything that I had thought of since we dropped off the crate, this was never in my imagination.

“Take us around the other building and bring us around to the back,” Shenna suggested. I took her suggestion and brought the Skimmer around one of the other warehouses in this walled-off section of the city and brought it around the side. We parked by the back door, where there was no crate.

“Well, if they turned the warehouse into a nightclub, and they needed whatever was inside the crate, someone would have had to move it, right?”

I nodded.

“Okay. Then let’s see where they put it,” Shenna said enthusiastically. She jumped out of the Skimmer and fairly skipped around to my side.

“Did you not see that line? We’re not getting in.”

She snickered at me, slapped me on the leg, and pulled me out of the Skimmer. “You’ve never snuck into one of these, have you? There’s a door,” she said as she pointed at the black door. “We just go in there.”

She kept surprising me. “Okay, how do we open the door?” I asked. “Unlike our previous trip, I wasn’t planning on any burglary tonight.” I spread my hands. “No tools.”

“Silly boy, just watch.” She went to the door, pulled something out of her hair, and lowered herself to the lock. Within a few seconds, she stood up, smiled at me, and opened the door. “Please, come in.”

With a shake of my head, I joined her. Inside, the music was even louder and more painful. The bass that pounded from the speakers hurt my head.

I could see Shenna talking to me, but I couldn’t hear a single word she said. “What?” I yelled back at her, but I wasn’t sure she could hear me, either.

Hundreds of people milled about inside. There was a temporary bar on the far side of the warehouse where they had racks of liquor bottles lined up on quick-build shelves behind it. A makeshift stage had been built off to my right, and some idiots were up there jumping around while another idiot was at a massive rolling computer, pushing buttons and gyrating around like someone being electrocuted.

Shenna put her hand on my arm and pulled me down so she could talk in my ear. “Do you see anything that might have fit in that crate and been that light?”

I stood up straight and looked around but found nothing that made any sense to me. I looked down and shook my head. The only thing I could see in there were a bunch of people dancing, drinking, and I think I saw a few having sex in the middle of the crowd.

Shenna tapped my arm again and motioned me down. “What about over there?” she yelled into my ear.

I looked to where she was pointing and saw a large collection of women in highly elaborate costumes dancing and, standing a little way away from them, trying to look inconspicuous, were several people dressed incredibly well.

Not dancing, not jumping around, just standing.

Observing.

I watched them for a moment, but nothing about them screamed Dominion, so I stopped paying attention, kept scanning for threats.

“Want to dance?”

I shook my head. There was no way she would get me out there.

None.

SHENNA

It was fun to let a little bit of old Shenna out, but I wasn’t going to let myself get out of control.

I had no intention of stealing a vehicle or psyching myself up on stimulants, but I was going to get Aavat to dance.

“Come on!” I shouted over the pulsing music. Aavat gave me a stern look that only succeeded in making me laugh. “Don’t be boring.”

“We’re here to work,” he yelled back. “I don’t dance.”

Shocker.

Truth be told, I wasn’t much of a dancer. My sister was the graceful one. I let my body sway with the music, letting the rhythm carry me.

The stardust I’d covered all of my exposed skin with fell off me in flurries. Thankfully, the colored lights and inebriated state of anyone else around me prevented anyone from noticing.

Most of the stardust still stuck to my skin, so I wasn’t worried. No one would be able to tell what I really looked like under these lights even if someone dumped water over me and washed the stardust and fake tattoos away.

I looked over my shoulder at Aavat, who watched me with a stare so intense it practically knocked me over. He wasn’t smiling but he didn’t look angry. He looked…focused. And maybe a little grumpy. I couldn’t help but laugh at him.

I shimmied over to him and took him by the wrists.

“You stick out like a sore thumb standing there like you’d rather be anywhere else,” I spoke directly into his ear, so we wouldn’t be overheard. “Keep it up and someone’s going to figure out you’re not here to party.”

“I would rather be anywhere else,” Aavat replied. “You seem to have no problem fitting in.”

“It’s called blending. I expected you to be better at this,” I teased. “Don’t tell me you’ve never been to a nightclub before.”

“How did you know I didn’t spend all my time in places like this in my wicked youth?”

“You’re still in your youth,” I laughed.

He cracked a smile. “Only on the outside.”

“Speaking of your outside, move your body or something!” I urged. I continued to rock and sway as I spoke to him, but he stood still as a statue.

Then, begrudgingly, Aavat began to mimic my movements. If he wasn’t so determined to have zero fun whatsoever, he wouldn’t be a bad dancer.

“Better,” I nodded. “At least the bouncer stopped staring at you.”

We danced together for longer than I expected us to. After a few songs, Aavat started to loosen up a little. I’d almost forgotten why we’d come here in the first place when someone grabbed my arm and tugged me away from Aavat.

Quick as a flash, Aavat snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me back to him.

“You need to be on stage,” a titan of an alien snarled at me. His face resembled that of an Earth boar, with a pushed-up nose and two thick teeth peeking out over his bottom lip.

“She’s with me.” Aavat stepped between me and the boar-man.

“Not unless you pay for her,” the boar-man snorted. Realizing his implication, my face grew hot and my anger swelled.

“What did you just say about me?” I hissed. Old Shenna reared her ugly head in full force. I lunged forward, fists tight.

Aavat caught me and held me steady, glaring daggers at the boar-man.

“I don’t know who you think you are, but this is my mate,” he snarled. “You will apologize and leave us alone before I report you to the owner of this establishment.”

My attention snagged on the word mate.

Of course, Aavat was only saying it to get the boar-man to let me go, but something about the word caused my heart to flutter in a way that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

“Watch it before I-”

“Or I could knock those ugly fangs out of your head,” Aavat hissed. “Your choice.”

The boar-man tried to stare Aavat down. Something in Aavat’s gaze must have convinced him, for he soon released my arm. His entire palm was coated in stardust. He looked at his hand, then looked back at me in confusion but didn’t say anything.

I was sure it wasn’t uncommon for patrons to wear over-the-top cosmetics in a place like this.

Hopefully.

“Thanks for that.” I took a shuddering breath as the boar-man stomped away.

“Are you all right?” he asked, his arm still wrapped around my waist.

“Yeah,” I hesitated. “Do you think we could dance for a little while longer? It’ll settle my nerves.”

Aavat offered me a kind smile. “Of course,” he nodded.

This time, he put some effort into his dancing. I was impressed. He was better than me by a long shot.

Clearly, he wasn’t lying about having a wicked youth.

I wondered if he had an old Aavat the way I had an old Shenna.

Maybe, if I ever worked up the nerve, I’d ask him about it.

Maybe, I’d even tell him about my own past.

He twirled me under his arm and pulled me in close.

“I have a confession to make,” I said. He looked at me with deep interest. “My nerves weren’t that frazzled. I just wanted to get you to dance more.”

His mouth dropped open in surprise. He looked torn between outrage and amusement, but in the end, tilted his head back and laughed.

“You got me,” he chuckled. “Well done.”

“Admit that you’re enjoying yourself,” I grinned.

“I am,” he replied. “But we mustn’t forget why we came here.”

“Of course,” I nodded. “Should we split up? We might find something useful faster.”

“No,” Aavat said quickly. “I’m not about to leave you alone to get grabbed again.”

“Thanks,” I smiled up at him. He grinned back for a moment before looking around the overflowing room.

“This is the best vantage point we’re going to get,” he said. “Look around for anything out of the ordinary.”

“Literally everything in here is out of the ordinary to me,” I muttered.

“Right, how could I forget,” Aavat chucked. “Look around anyway. If you aren’t sure about something, let me know.”

“I can do that,” I nodded. We continued to dance but halted all conversation as we looked around.

The more I watched, the more familiar things looked to me. Alien women, no two of the same species, danced on raised platforms in revealing outfits while patrons ogled them and tossed credits their way.

Many of the patrons crowded around a neon-lit bar waiting to be served drinks that came in every color imaginable while three harried workers hustled to fill orders.

The…humanness of it all surprised me. I suppose some things were universal regardless of species or galaxy. Everyone here wanted to dress up, have fun, and wake up the next day with an interesting story to tell.

At this very moment back in the Terran system, thousands of humans were doing the exact same thing. Some were dancing, some were drinking, some were just trying to make it through the night.

A flash of white caught my eye on the far side of the room. It stood out starkly against the bright colors of the lights and dark clothing most of the patrons preferred.

I let my eyes adjust to the flashing lights, focused on her more clearly. A female alien stood halfway up a spiral staircase I hadn’t noticed before. She looked like what I suspected Itair was supposed to look like if he looked like a standard Pronarian.

A white fur wrap perched around her impossibly tiny shoulders. A slit was cut in her dress to accommodate for her tail, but the tail wasn’t what stood out about her, believe it or not.

The glittering evening gown was impossible to miss in a sea of skimpy dance clothing. Her hair was elegantly piled on top of her head and held in place by a gemstone brooch that sparkled brighter than anyone’s ornamental glitter. She continued up the stairs, followed by an alien of another species in a fine jacket and well-tailored trousers.

“There,” I yelled to Aavat. He couldn’t hear me but followed my gaze to the spiral staircase just as another cluster of well-dressed patrons made their way up.

“They aren’t here to…party, as you say,” Aavat remarked. “They look like Itair’s ilk. I wonder what brought them down from their floating manors.”

“Let’s find out,” I urged.

Aavat took my hand and led me from the dance floor. A guard wearing a different uniform from the club bouncers stood at the foot of the staircase, proudly displaying the weapon strapped to his belt.

“How are we going to get past him?” I leaned in very close to ask softly.

“I have an idea, but if it doesn’t work, get ready to run.”

“If that was supposed to instill confidence, it didn’t,” I answered into his ear.

Aavat took my hand and gave it a squeeze as he approached the guard.

“Hello there.” Aavat plastered a non-threatening smile on his face as he spoke. “I don’t know if you were informed, but a shipment was delivered a few hours ago-”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” the guard said through gritted teeth. He placed his hand on the grip of his weapon as a silent threat.

My body tensed, ready to flee.

“Yes, you do,” Aavat said. “And so do I, because it was my shipment. I asked a Pronarian friend to organize the delivery.” He waited, eyebrow cocked, supremely arrogant.

The guard took his hand off his weapon and straightened his jacket.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to ensure my shipment went as planned.” Aavat’s risk paid off.

“Of course,” the guard replied. “Deepest apologies, sir.”

He stepped aside and allowed us to pass.

AAVAT

The staircase led us to a large, luxurious room, dimly lit with plush seating separated by screens.

Each group of visitors were directed to a separate seat and the screens pulled forward to further hide us from one another.

I handed Shenna to the chair as I stood behind her. In front of us stood a brightly lit stage, with two steps leading up to it from the front, and what looked like a curtained off area of the room behind it.

I couldn’t figure out what was happening here, but my gut tightened.

Shenna fidgeted in the chair, just a bit, but enough for me to know she didn’t like this any more than I did.

I gave her shoulder a light squeeze, both to reassure her and to calm myself. She looked up at me with an anxious smile and gripped my hand. I had never noticed how soft her hands were.

I liked how they felt.

I leaned down, close to her ear. “Just stay calm, relax. You know I won’t let anything happen to you. Now, smile, we want to look like we belong.”

She nodded quickly, squeezed my hand again, and relaxed, or at least made it seem as if she relaxed. I saw the corners of her mouth rise, so I knew she was doing her best to look like she was happy to be here.

I scanned the room, flagging potential exits for if things went sour. Heavily guarded, but workable. Rubbing my hand over her shoulder again, I re-examined everything. Workable wouldn’t be good enough.

We were offered drinks and expensive-looking food while we waited, and a few more guests made it up the stairs Finally, all of the lights in the room turned off except for the ones lighting up the stage.

A woman walked confidently onto the stage and sang for us. Her voice was beautiful, nearly mesmerizing as she sang in a language I didn’t recognize.

The oddness of a language the translator couldn’t handle was matched by the melody, strange dissonances resolving as she swayed.

Her indigo skin matched her sparkling dress, while the horns sprouting from her temples shone black and silver in the light. A thickly encrusted choker encircled her neck, a shining pendant just above the collarbone.

When her song was over, our small partition and, based on the murmurs I heard, the other partitions as well, began to glow faintly.

Then a voice from above began to speak, “Welcome esteemed colleagues, V.I.P.’s, and people with far too much money to burn and time to waste.” That brought a chuckle from some in the room. “Tonight, we have a fantastic array of goodies for you to choose from, so let’s not waste any more of your time.”

With that, the blue woman stepped off the stage behind the curtain and returned with another woman. The second woman had deep burgundy skin and a tail, and was dressed in a thin, finely patterned emerald silk dress that accentuated her body thanks to the very low, high, and deep cuts in the pattern.

If this girl tried to run, she would expose her body for all to see. She looked nervous, almost scared, to be on stage.

Shenna stiffened under my hand, and I tensed, as the pieces started to fall into place.

As the blue woman showed her off, the announcer continued to speak. “Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a Komodan, a lovely species from the Skyla province, known for their exceptional cooking skills, acrobatics, and their…ahem…talents in other areas. Take a good look, my friends, and let’s begin the bidding process at five hundred credits.”

My hand closed tightly on Shenna’s shoulder as her hand squeezed mine.

I had never heard of the Komodan race, or the Skyla province.

This was a kouting auction. The Dominion had outlawed the sale of any intelligent species centuries ago. Yet, here we were, and no one seemed to care about the law, or even basic morals.

These people were happy to be here.

My breath ripped from my chest in short bursts and my vision blurred.

The only thought in my head was how happy I would be to tear every single one of these people apart. The blue woman prodded the Komodan girl to dance and move in provocative ways, which only spurred the bidding higher.

Shenna looked up at me, fear and shock plain as day on her face.

“Twelve-hundred and fifty,” came a voice from the left of us.

Kout that.

“Fourteen-hundred,” I barked out.

“Oh-ho-ho, a new player in the game,” came the overhead voice. “Do I hear fifteen?”

The bidding continued higher and Shenna stared at me as I kept raising the bid. Finally, with a shout, I bid again. “Three thousand, five hundred!”

“Oh, my! The loud, angry man has bid three thousand, five hundred. Does anyone care to bid higher for this amazing Komodan woman that I can personally vouch for being a remarkable companion? Anyone? Anyone? No? Very well then, if there are no more bids…” there was a hesitation in the voice. The silence was broken by a cough from the back corner. “Well, I guess we have a winner. SOLD, to the grumpy looking Shein man and his extraordinary woman.”

I really hated the way the voice said that. Shenna was extraordinary, but here, in that voice, made it sound like she was just another piece of meat for them to sell.

Through my rage, I barely heard the instructions to go to the far corner and “gather my prize.”

“Wait here,” I whispered to Shenna as I made my way over.

The strange girl stared at the floor, visibly trembling.

The blue woman, whose beautiful singing voice was just as beautiful in speech, smiled at me. “My, you truly seemed to want this woman. What are your plans for this sultry one?” She toyed with the pendant of her necklace, the intricate design oddly familiar.

My plans are to beat someone’s face into a wall until nothing is left of it, then do it again, I thought as I looked at her. “That’s my business,” I said calmly.

She tilted her head. “Of course. How will you be paying for your delightful prize?”

I handed a thick card over to the woman who scanned it in her reader. After a moment, the transaction went through.

Giving me a broad smile, the woman handed the card back to me.

“Thank you for your payment,” she said and handed me a small gray box lined with buttons. She laughed a bit at my glare. “That’s the girl’s controller, so she doesn’t run. Now, take her away, my night’s still very full.”

With that, the woman went back to the stage where another girl was brought out. Another species I had never seen before. As the announcer came back on the overhead to speak about this girl, the curtain behind the stage moved.

I caught a glimpse of more women, possibly a dozen or more, all dressed in revealing clothing.

“Did you just pay for her?” Shenna asked as I came back with the girl to find her standing by the chair, lips thin beneath her makeup.

I shook my head. “Not now.”

The bidding started again, and at the voices, my vision edged in red. I must have growled, because Shenna grabbed me by the arm. “Let’s get out of here,” she said.

She motioned for the girl to follow her. Apparently Shenna seemed the safer bet, because my new purchase ran to follow her.

With our new companion, we edged through the crowd until we could get back to the Skimmer.

No one said anything as I drove the Skimmer away. We left the walled area and had crossed back into the glittering city when I pulled over by a small park and slammed the Skimmer to a stop.

“The transaction will continuously loop for several months before declining completely,” I answered, focusing on small facts that didn’t make me want to kill someone. “Long enough that we’ll be long gone.”

“Is that…” Shenna started but I stopped her.

“Very, very illegal,” I said to her. “I don’t want to cheat merchants, but you never know when it’s going to be useful.”

“What could it be useful for?” Shenna asked.

I shrugged. “Paying bribes,” I said matter-of-factly.

“Or buying slaves?” Shenna whispered.

“What in the kopa is happening back there?” I couldn’t breathe. My hands had the controls gripped so tightly, I felt something crack.

The girl’s voice made me snap my head around to look at her. “I promise to be good for you, Master.”

Her voice shook, and I just got angrier.

Springing from the Skimmer before I broke something on the kouting thing, I snapped the controller I had been given.

Shenna helped the girl out of the Skimmer, but her eyes were wide in surprise and fear.

“I am not now, nor will I ever be, your master. I don’t believe in that scro. What happened in there was wrong, do you understand that?”

She barely nodded. I calmed myself down and tried to put on a nicer face. There might be an ever-growing list of people I wanted to beat to a pulp, but she wasn’t one it.

“What I’m telling you is that you’re free. You don’t belong to anyone.”

Shenna found a latch at the back of the collar I hadn’t even noticed and threw it away. I did notice the scar that the collar hid, and my fists clenched again.

The girl visibly paled and I held up my hands.

“No, you’re fine. I promise.” Then a thought hit me. With a flick of my wrist, a small knife fell into my hand. I took the forearm scabbard off, showed her how to put it on and activate it.

“It’s yours. If anyone tries to take you or hurt you again, you use that. Understand me?”

She nodded warily. “Are you really letting me go?”

“You’re free. What do you want to do now?”

She flung her arms around me, then grabbed Shenna into the hug as well. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Before we could say anything, she’d darted into the trees, her smile lighting her face as she turned to wave once more.

Almost as beautiful as Shenna’s own smile as she looked up at me.

SHENNA

We stood in silence together as we watched the alien girl disappear into the trees, making her way for the lights of the city. I bit my bottom lip and hoped with every fiber of my being that she would be all right, my heart pounding so loudly, surely Aavat could hear it.

I felt like the old Shenna again, blood rushing through my veins. Adrenaline pulsed throughout my body, making me feel lightheaded.

As I stood still, surrounded by an electric city with a cold breeze flowing over my skin, I realized I was wrong.

It was as if old Shenna and new Shenna had fused together to create someone new. The fire and drive of old Shenna burned brightly in my chest, but now I felt the need to build something good rather than chaos.

Old Shenna would’ve chased after the alien girl and dragged her into the nearest interesting looking place to go hunting for misadventures. Now, I felt the rush I used to crave more than anything, but this time it came from a better, calmer place.

Aavat still looked furious. I wondered if he felt the weight of our good deed as I did. His breath punctuated the night air in faint puffs and the anger rolled off his shoulders like sweat.

“Hey,” I said softly. I reached towards him and let my hand just barely make contact with his shoulder.

Something snapped in him, and he blinked like he’d just come out of a daze.

“Hey,” he replied.

“Are you okay?” I stepped closer to him, soaking in his warmth as the nighttime chill seeped into me.

“There are others in there that we can’t save,” he said after a tense pause. “Whoever they are, it’s too late for them now. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“You don’t know that for certain.” I tried to comfort him, but I knew his words were true. By now most, if not all, of the alien women had been auctioned off. His magic credit card trick wouldn’t work more than once, even if we’d made it back in time.

Someone would notice us, wonder why we were still there, instead of playing with our new “prize.”

“Who knows where they’ll be taken?” Aavat scoffed. “It’s not like I can hunt down all of the buyers.”

“The best thing we can do for those women is to tell Dejar what’s going on,” I reasoned.

“What? Why?” Aavat demanded.

“Because the more people we tell, the sooner we can put a stop to it,” I explained.

“We’ll have to get the Dominion involved,” Aavat frowned. “The Dominion lets Katzul get away with a lot but selling other beings has always been illegal in Dominion space and is almost as serious an offense as murder.”

“If you and Dejar busted an illegal slave trade, I bet the Dominion would forgive you for accidentally crossing into the Terran System,” I said hopefully.

“The Dominion doesn’t do business that way,” Aavat said bitterly.

“Deals like that happen in the Terran System all the time,” I shrugged.

“Maybe that’s what got the Terran System classified as a non-evolved world,” Aavat said. I looked at him, ready to argue, but then spotted the faintest smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“Very funny,” I smirked.

“Speaking about non-evolved worlds, there’s something about those women that’s been bothering me,” he said.

“Oh?”

“I didn’t recognize any of them,” he said. “There are hundreds of species, maybe more, living in Dominion, but I reckon I’ve seen most. I’ve spent most of my life crisscrossing all of it.”

“Are you saying they’re from outside of the Dominion?” I asked. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

“It’s also possible that they’re all of species I never encountered. Either way, something isn’t sitting right with me,” Aavat replied.

It seemed a lot wasn’t sitting right with him.

Or with me, for that matter. I knew next to nothing about aliens, the Dominion, or this vast world but I knew when to trust my instincts. Itair’s deep need for discretion, the delivery slip we found in his office, and the illegal auction were too suspicious to be coincidental.

Something wasn’t right on this planet.

“Whatever the case, I’m willing to do whatever needs to be done to figure out who’s behind this,” I said with a determined nod.

Aavat’s expression softened for the first time since we arrived at the nightclub.

“If you think I’m going to let you chase after slave traders, you’re mistaken,” he laughed.

“Try and stop me,” I challenged.

“You’re going to get me into even more trouble.” Aavat shook his head and extended his hand toward me. “Let’s get back to the ship. We’ve done all we can do tonight.” I nodded and took his hand.

Aavat helped me climb into the Skimmer before climbing in himself. The engine sputtered to life, drowning out the sounds of the city. As we made our way back to the ship, I slid closer to Aavat. Frigid wind bit at my skin. My fingers felt like ice.

Somehow, heat still radiated off Aavat.

Realizing I was cold, he draped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me against his side. I wanted to say thank you but, between the roar of the engine and the howling wind, I knew my words would blow away.

I’d already admitted that I misjudged Aavat initially, but I felt horrible as I realized I’d never imagined him to have such a deep capacity for selflessness and compassion. He risked his life and the fate of the Rogue Star crew to rescue that alien girl.

He didn’t think twice about it.

I let my head rest against his shoulder as we sped through the city. My heart began to pound again, but not with adrenaline like it had after we smuggled the alien girl out of the club. I’d read about this sensation before. It happened to women in romance novels when they realized they cared for the handsome hero.

Thanks to the almost nonexistent birthrate for males in the Terran System, books and old movies were the only way to learn about men.

I looked up at Aavat, marveling at the way his bronze skin shimmered under the different colors of Katzul.

Handsome hero, indeed.

Scenes from various books and movies unfolded in my mind’s eye, except that Aavat and I played the main characters, now. In my half-dreams, we shared kisses, secret touches, intimate moments, and exhilarating happiness.

We pulled into the tiny docking bay of the Rogue Star and disembarked. Aavat rubbed his warm hands up and down my arms to jump-start my circulation. I kept my jaw clenched shut to stop my teeth from chattering.

“Next time we investigate something, bring a coat,” Aavat smirked.

“Good plan,” I agreed. “Can I borrow a coat?”

“I’d lend one to you if I had one. Shein don’t get cold easily, and they’re not exactly useful at most of the stations we stop at,” he explained.

“Humans prefer a narrow range of temperatures,” I said. “It’s inconvenient.”

“Yet you ended up living on the coldest planet in the Terran System,” Aavat observed.

“Life’s funny that way,” I shrugged.

For a moment I thought about telling him everything, but now wasn’t the appropriate time. To be honest, all I wanted to do was curl up in my warm bed with Poof and Persephone.

But if I did tell Aavat one day, I felt an overwhelming sense of certainty that he wouldn’t think less of me for my past.

We reached a junction inside the Rogue Star. My room was off to the left, his to the right. Rather than bid him goodnight and hurry into the warmth of my room, I hesitated.

So did he.

“Thank you,” I said before the silence stretched on for too long.

“For what?” Aavat gave me a confused look, as if that was the last thing he expected me to say.

“For helping the alien girl,” I replied. “You have a big heart, Aavat, even if you don’t believe so yourself.”

“My heart is normal sized.” He tilted his head to one side.

“It’s an expression!” I laughed. “The translators are wonderful, except for when they’re not.”

He grinned down at me with mischief in his eyes. I felt a pull deep inside me and before I knew it, I’d stretched up onto my toes and pressed my lips to his. A rush of pleasure shot through my entire body, quickly followed by a wave of panic.

I had no idea what I was doing.

Aavat must’ve sensed my hesitation, for he brought one hand up to cup my cheek and kissed me deeper, the tip of his tongue dancing at the seam of my lips.

The panic drained away, leaving behind only pleasure as I opened to him, let him taste me, claim me.

I could’ve kissed him all night.

Hell, I wanted to kiss him all night.

What was I supposed to do about that?

AAVAT

Shenna’s smile was everything that I had ever dreamed of, without realizing that’s what I wanted.

The feel of her lips, the spark that ran through me at the touch of her skin, even her laugh, brought a sense of peace that I hadn’t felt in a very long time.

I was legitimately, honestly happy.

And that worried me.

Not only was bliss not exactly an emotion I was known for, I’d done a little research into humans since they’d come aboard.

The males of the species were rare, most placed into breeding programs. Few women would be exposed to men, at least not very often.

If Shenna had been around men, it wouldn’t have been in any sort of normal romantic way.

Patience wasn’t one of my better-known virtues.

Actually, it was about as common as ice on a sun, but she was worth it.

I wanted to make sure that I treated her right, gave her what she deserved.

That meant not just all the time she wanted, but a safe place to live and work, and that brought my thoughts back to the women we had seen the night before.

Something needed to be done, and while I wanted to tear the whole operation down by myself, I knew that I couldn’t. I had to have help, and while Shenna was amazing, the two of us weren’t going to be enough.

I had to tell Dejar.

He would be in his quarters about this time, so I went there. He let me in and I took a seat, glancing around for Kalyn. She’d need to know, but Dejar would be the first hurdle.

“We need to talk.” I proceeded to tell him about my suspicions with the package and how it led me back to the warehouse where it was being used as a nightclub.

“Koso, Aavat,” he slammed his hand into the table. “We talked about this. We can’t risk losing this client.” His eyes narrowed. “Who went with you?”

“Just me,” I answered.

“Really?” I knew he didn’t believe me. “Because someone said you took someone with you on the Skimmer.”

“They must have seen it wrong. Just me,” I lied. Shenna shouldn’t get into any trouble for this, if Dejar took it wrong.

“Uh, huh. Okay. So, what happened at this nightclub? Find anyone to dance with?” He asked slyly.

“Shut up,” I shot back. “There was a lot more going on than just music and dancing. There were some extremely well-dressed people inside and they started to make their way up a flight of stairs. I conned my way up the stairs with them.”

“Well, not the worst thing you’ve done. What was up there?”

As I remembered, my hands began to open and close into fists. I tried to keep myself calm, so I took a few deep breaths, tried to imagine the scene as it happened. “While up there, we were placed into some expensive chairs that had screens around them, so we couldn’t see one another. Then, they brought a girl out and sold her.”

His eyes went wide, and his face darkened. “I’m sorry. They did what?”

“It was an auction. They were selling women. The first one up was something called a Komodan. Have you ever heard of them?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Neither have I. I couldn’t even find them in our database,” I said. “The other women that I saw, I didn’t recognize any of the races. None of them.”

Dejar hit me with a look, as he walked through it. “So, what you’re telling me is that, despite Dominion laws specifically outlawing the sale of people, there was an auction last night selling off women of races that you didn’t know. And somehow, you think the package we delivered was part of it. Right?”

“Mm.”

If his face could turn red with anger, it would have. Instead, his golden skin went nearly bronze in color and his nostrils flared so wide, I thought I could fit some Pronarian coins in there. “How many people did you say went up there?”

“I can’t be totally sure, but at least eight other people were inside making bids.” I sat back in the chair and brought my leg up. “There was also a blue woman, again, don’t know her race, that was running things and an announcer. All-in-all, there had to have been at least a dozen people up there, not counting the women.”

“Kout. Okay, so maybe you were right about that piece of film you found back at Itair’s. Something very wrong is going on here, and someone has dragged us into it.” He sat back in his chair, ran his hands through his hair, looked around his room, and just shook his head. “I assume you’ve probably thought of a plan already.”

He was right.

I did have a plan, or two, and one of them he wouldn’t like.

So, I didn’t bring that one up.

“We need more information. Not that I want to get the Dominion involved in any of our business, but we need to know more before we get someone to help us out. And, the only person I can think of to help us out is the person who got us involved…”

I let the statement hang because I knew he knew the person I was speaking of.

He dropped his head and blew out a sigh that I hadn’t known he had in him. “So, we need to talk to Itair, and hope that we don’t get him angry, blow our identities, or get ourselves on the wrong side of whatever this is. Why do you do this to me? Why?”

I shrugged and winked at him. “Simple. It’s fun.”

He shoved a fist out, signing for me to go do anatomically impossible things to myself, so I gave him my sweetest smile.

“Well,” Dejar said as he got heavily to his feet. “No better time than now to go ask, unless you have another building you want to infiltrate and another immoral, illegal thing you want to turn into a crusade.”

I shrugged, made a point to look like I was thinking about it, then stood up. “I think I’m okay for today. I’ll be nice to you.”

The sarcasm dripped like a waterfall. “Thank you, I appreciate it,” he said as went to open his door. It was, yet really wasn’t, a surprise to see two women standing at his door, specifically, our two women.

Kalyn and Shenna looked only slightly embarrassed to be caught eavesdropping, but only slightly. “Hi,” Shenna said.

“Uh, hello. What are you two doing here?” Dejar asked.

Kalyn gently pushed her way into the room. “I live here, silly.” She sat herself down in Dejar’s chair and looked at the two of us smugly. Shenna mimicked her look as she took my chair. “So, what are you two talking about?”

“Nothing,” Dejar lied, but I knew from the look on his face that he knew the women had heard everything. “At least, nothing you ladies need to worry about.”

“Mm, hmm. Really?” Kalyn gave Dejar a look, and I could see him waver. Before he could spill everything, Kalyn continued. “You two were talking about going to Itair’s to find out what is happening with those women being sold at the nightclub, weren’t you?”

We both nodded. No point in them not knowing where we were headed, and maybe they could run some research, see what else they could-

“We’re going with you.”

“No, you’re not,” Dejar and I said in unison.

The women looked at us, looked at one another, then burst out laughing.

“I don’t really see what’s so funny,” Dejar tried to say over them.

Between breaths, Kalyn answered. “Because you two are so adorable. You think you’re keeping us out of this, and you’re not.” Then she pointed at me. “If you would have listened to your damn suspicions from the beginning, and had made this,” her pointed finger went to Dejar, “lovely, stubborn fool listen, this would be much easier. We notice things, we pay attention, and so far, our hunches have paid off. Now,” she looked at Shenna and they shared a devilish smile, “you need us, and you know it.”

They sat back, crossed their arms over their chests, and gave us a look of victory.

They were right.

I knew it.

I knew that Dejar knew it.

I was curious who would admit it first.

SHENNA

“What is all this, Kovor?” I stared at a table filled with pots and bottles of every color imaginable.

“I thought you’d know,” Kovor replied. “The shopkeeper insisted I needed all of this.”

“For what?” Kalyn asked, examining a tin filled with bright purple liquid.

“To make yourselves look less human!” he exclaimed as if it were obvious. “If you’re going to be walking around in public, you need to look convincing. Stardust is too easy to wipe away and one good splash of water will melt your fake markings right off.”

“Right,” I nodded. “Now, why would we know how to use any of this?”

“You’re females, aren’t you? Females love this kind of stuff,” he replied, waving over the array of tins.

“We’re human!” Kalyn cried. “We don’t know what any of this stuff is!”

“You’re more likely to figure it out than I am,” Kovor replied. “Now, hurry up and get ready. I want to get to the bottom of this as much as Dejar and Aavat do.” He closed the door behind him as he departed.

“Okay, then,” I said through clenched teeth. “Let’s figure this out.”

Through trial and error, we found skin dye, hair pigment, liquid drops that changed the color of eyes, an array of products that were purely cosmetic, and a paste that stuck to our skin that could be molded into almost any shape.

Once we figured out how to use everything, and with a tablet with a variety of vaguely humanoid species to use as reference points, creating our new appearances wasn’t difficult.

Kind of fun, like the ultimate costume party.

Kovor had taken it upon himself to purchase clothing for us, which he graciously dumped in a pile in the corner of the room. We rifled through the mountain of fabrics and found pieces that looked like something the alien women at the auction wore. After much bending, twisting, tying, and fastening, we were dressed.

“What do you think?” Kalyn asked Dejar and Aavat, who were waiting for us on the other side of the door. Their mouths fell open.

Kalyn had gone all out, using the skin dye to turn her body pale green. She wore a silver gown that exposed much of her legs, back, and torso. She used the eyedropper to turn her eyes milky white. One of the products Kovor found was a collection of fake eyes that blinked and moved as if they were real. Kalyn dyed one white and placed it in the center of her forehead. To complete her look, she used the special paste to mold a thin row of scales onto her cheekbones. Only her ash blonde hair was left untouched, because it complimented her new look so well.

I wasn’t brave enough to try out the paste or fake eyes. I’d rarely employed the use of cosmetics in the Terran System, so I stuck to what I knew I couldn’t mess up.

I used colored powder to change my hair to black. Every inch of my skin was dyed dark blue, with smatterings of silver on my shoulders, collarbones, and cheeks. I painted my lips pitch black to match the color I dropped into my eyes.

In an attempt to cover what my gold dress didn’t, I wrapped my arms around my body. It didn’t help much.

“You look…convincing,” Aavat gasped.

“I choose to take that as a compliment,” I mumbled.

“It was. It most certainly was,” he said quickly. I’d never seen him so flustered. If I weren’t so uncomfortable, I’d find it funny. Dejar still stared at Kalyn, completely flabbergasted.

“Are we ready to go?” I pressed.

Dejar snapped out of his trance.

“Uh, yes. Yes, we are,” he stammered. “Oh, and you’re posing as if you were purchased at an auction, so…”

“Act convincingly?” Kalyn purred as she ran her hand up Dejar’s arm. I looked at the floor. I’d only just had my first kiss, I didn’t know how to be alluring and seductive.

“You’ll do fine,” Aavat assured me as he wrapped the long cloak like we’d used on our previous visit around me, then offered his arm. I took it with a grateful smile and let him lead me to the docking bay.

Kalyn and I spent the ride in the Skimmer trying to protect our disguises from the gusty wind. We arrived in the heart of the city looking a little windblown, but still intact.

When we arrived at the hovercraft to be taken up to Itair’s floating palace, the same alien in livery stood to attention. He recognized Aavat and Dejar, he even called them by name. But when he looked at Kalyn and me, there wasn’t even a glimmer of recognition. When we arrived on Itair’s doorstep, we passed more of his staff.

Our disguises tricked them all.

“Hello, friends!” Itair drawled when we entered the grand foyer. “I wasn’t expecting you. I heard the delivery went splendidly. Is there a problem I’m not aware of?”

“We aren’t here on business,” Dejar smiled easily. “Or at least, not that sort.”

Kalyn pressed herself up against his side. Itair’s beady eyes roved over her with an understanding smile.

“Oh, I see you’ve found a way to spend your earnings,” he chuckled. Aavat slung his arm around my waist and pulled me close against him. My heart started to pound. “I haven’t seen women like these on the market. Come, let’s speak in my office.”

I followed behind Aavat, doing my best to mimic the sway of Kalyn’s hips as she walked. Clearly, she’d learned a lot from her evenings with Dejar.

As Itair led us into the office, my eyes immediately went to the desk where Poof was once kept, but the cage was gone. Poof hadn’t been replaced with another poor creature. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Itair closed the door and bade us to sit down. Aavat sat in a plush high-backed chair and pulled me into his lap. I draped my legs over the armrest and let my head rest against his shoulder. I trailed my dark blue fingers over his bronze arm. Our colors looked good together, even though mine was fake.

Dejar sat on one of the couches. Kalyn stretched out along the length of the couch and laid her head in Dejar’s lap.

“Your women are remarkable,” Itair appraised us. “Wherever did you find them?”

“A place called Scorpus,” Aavat lied smoothly. “We didn’t think much of it going in, it was rather run down. These two were the only girls worth paying for.” He swept my hair to the side to expose the curve of my neck.

“I don’t know that one,” Itair said thoughtfully. “Though I only frequent a select few establishments of that ilk.”

“Scorpus doesn’t cater to the elite. It’s so far beneath your status, I’m not surprised you don’t know it,” Dejar replied. “Aside from these beauties, Scorpus has few redeeming qualities.”

“Not surprising,” Itair chortled. “But why have you brought them here?” Itair’s eyes drifted to me. “Are you offering them in trade?”

Aavat’s hand gripped my wrist, the beginning of an angry growl rising from his chest. I ran my hand up and down his hard thigh until he relaxed, tracing his fingers along the expanse of my bare leg. Warmth spread through my body like gentle flames. I was glad the skin dye hid my blushing.

“As I said, these two were the only ones worth purchasing,” Aavat explained. “However, we feel that our crew deserves a reward for their hard work. We want to purchase a few more for the ship and we reasoned someone of your standing would be able to point us in the right direction.”

“Oh, I see.” A wicked grin spread over Itair’s face. “I believe I can help you as a show of good faith for handling my delivery so well. As it happens, I’m a cloth merchant by trade. I bet you didn’t know that, did you?”

“We didn’t,” Dejar said.

Aavat’s hand moved farther up my body, trailing his fingertips along my arm. Remembering the wonderful sensations that accompanied our kiss last night, I turned my head toward him and planted a small kiss on his neck. He sucked in a breath.

“I supply the top designers of Katzul with the highest quality fabrics from all over Dominion space,” Itair declared. “And, between you and me, sometimes from beyond Dominion space.”

“Hence your need for discretion,” Dejar grinned.

“Precisely. If you’re looking to purchase women of this caliber,” he looked at me and Kalyn for a few moments too long, “I suggest you go to the place where you dropped off the delivery. It’s called Nova, moves regularly, word of mouth only. The women they acquire are magnificent. I provide them with the most spectacular costumes. The last order I filled was my best work yet.”

“Where do the women come from?” Aavat asked.

“That, I cannot tell you,” Itair said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I only supply the clothing. I don’t deal directly with the auctioneers, only the venue managers. As you can imagine, the auctioneers are quite keen to keep their identities a secret.”

“Naturally,” Dejar nodded. “Well, we were only asking for curiosity’s sake. We’re new to all of this.”

“That’s one of the privileges of Katzul,” Itair beamed. “All of your desires are at your fingertips.”

“Indeed,” Aavat said softly, his mouth inches from mine. I bit down on my bottom lip in an effort to suppress the urge to kiss him in Itair’s office.

“Thank you for the information,” Dejar said with a note of finality. “You’ve been very helpful. We don’t wish to take up any more of your time.”

“One of the staff will see you out.” Itair rose from his chair. The rest of us followed suit. “I’ll be in contact shortly to arrange another delivery. I’m considering taking you on as my personal clothing delivery service.”

“We’d be honored,” Dejar said smoothly.

My heart pounded as we left Itair’s home and didn’t stop even when we arrived back on the ship.

But I couldn’t tell if it was from the information, or Aavat’s touch.

Or which was more dangerous.

AAVAT

Well, that meeting with Itair had been interesting. I felt somewhat relieved that the slimy bastard wasn’t directly connected to the auction ring, or slave ring, or sex-trade ring, whatever it was.

He merely dealt with the people involved. That made working for him slightly less disgusting and I felt less dirty than I had before.

So, at the very least, there was that.

On the downside of the meeting, there was a tremendous amount of information we still did not know. We didn’t know who was involved, just why. And that was a guess.

I wondered, not for the first time, if I should have brought the red-skinned woman back to the ship. She could have given us so much information; who had taken her, where she was from, and maybe even why she had been taken.

However, instead of bringing her here, I had let her go. Her freedom had seemed more important than possible information, and her smile had been enough for me. I had made the right decision and there was no one that would convince me otherwise.

But with no rescued woman for information, no actual intel into the operation itself, and a shady contact that sort of had connections to the world we were trying to shut down, we had no chance in kopa of succeeding.

But we were going to try anyway.

At least I was.

And Shenna. That phenomenal woman impressed me. She had played her part very well during the meeting with Itair. Her actions at the nightclub the other night? Fantastic. She’d been amazing. Her drive to always be useful, always be someone helpful, that was something that I admired about her.

She was just an amazing woman all around. She had chosen to go with me when I had told her I felt awkward about that first delivery. She had backed me on my decision to get the girl out and let her go. She had even volunteered to go with us to meet with Itair, and the way she looked…

Shein women were beautiful, but there was something about her and the way she looked. I loved her wavy hair and her willowy tallness.

She’d fit against me perfectly, as naturally as if we’d been made for each other.

I swallowed hard at the image, forced myself to relax.

Her speed, her needs first. But I wanted to find her, even if just to spend time with her.

I left the hangar and started heading towards the personal area. I stopped by the dining hall to see if she was getting a bite to eat, but she wasn’t there. Once in the living area of the ship, I checked the rec room first, but no Shenna.

As I turned the corridor towards her room, she stepped out of the showers, wrapped in only a towel.

The sight hit me like a blow to the chest, shoving aside every good intention in the urge to have her, taste her, claim her.

Her hair was back to her beautiful light brown, the black contacts were missing, and her skin glistened with the water that she had yet to dry off. She saw me and stopped dead in her tracks, a bit of embarrassment evident as her cheeks flushed. I noticed a few faint streaks of blue dye still on her body and all I wanted to do was to help her clean those off just so I could touch her.

“Hello,” I said quietly.

With her eyes down a bit, she responded sheepishly. “Hi.” She pulled her towel up a little bit.

“Um, so…” I couldn’t believe that I was hesitating. “Why are you coming from the showers in only a towel?”

“My room is just right there, so I figured I could make it to my room without being seen. Barely anyone uses this hallway unless it’s shift change.”

She looked up and down the hall to see if anyone was coming down to prove her wrong.

I looked around myself. No one else was in the hall, just the two of us. Without thinking, I snapped my arm around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss.

Her soft moan as I ravaged her mouth, my tongue darting, tasting her, only spurred me on. She curved into me, the sweet press of her body, even through my clothes, better than the finest silks.

As her scent filled the air, I pulled back, grasping for a tiny bit of control.

“Are you sure,” I forced out, eyes searching her face for any trace of uncertainty. She was a little flushed when she put eyes to me to begin with, whether it was from the shower or from the embarrassment of being seen in only a towel, but this was something else entirely. The deep blush stood out stark against her pale skin, stretching out to her ears, even their tips glowing hot.

Her lips traveled down my neck. “Yes,” then she bit my skin, the prick of sensation pushing me beyond my control.

Lifting her until her legs wrapped around my waist, I walked her back into the empty shower room, kept walking until her back pressed into the steel.

No escape.

But she wasn’t trying, instead, as her feet touched the deck, her hands worked down the front of my shirt, opening it, delicate fingers smoothing over the planes of my chest. The towel dropped, ignored, exposing her perfect form to me.

A small groan forced its way from my clenched jaw at her touch, and I knelt before her. “Stay still, sweetheart.”

Her eyes widened as I kneaded her breasts, rolled her nipples into hard nubs, then took one carefully into my mouth, mindful of my teeth, but wanting to taste every inch of her skin.

“Ooh,” she gasped, then covered her mouth with her hand, checks reddening.

Adorable. But I hadn’t even started.

Gently sliding my free hand between her thighs, I worked one finger back and forth between her slick folds, tempting, teasing as her legs stiffened.

“Aavat, please,” she gasped. “I’m going to make too much noise.”

I could fix that.

I pulled away and gazed at her, my beautiful, alien heart.

“Do you trust me?”

She nodded without hesitation.

“Then turn around.”

When she turned, I was totally transfixed. She was far curvier than her usual clothes had led me to believe, a tight pinch at the waist flaring out to surprisingly wide hips—proportionally, anyway.

The thing I found myself fixated on more than anything wasn’t her ass, shapely and beautiful as it was. It was her back. The deep divide beneath her shoulder blades, the defined but graceful musculature, the way her lower back tucked so tight before flaring back out.

Shenna looked over her shoulder at me, her face absolutely pink.

She was definitely alien, but rather than confusion, I felt myself swelling with a deep kind of appreciation I rarely felt. She was a work of art in a gallery I’d never think to visit. A treasure stumbled upon along some mostly-abandoned path. I felt lucky to even get to see it, and it took me a bit to remember that seeing wasn’t what I was there to do.

I slid one hand over her mouth, the other arm wrapping over her middle, pulling her back tight against my chest.

“Breathing alright?” I whispered into her ear, then licked the perfect curve, her shuddering nod all I needed.

“Close your eyes, let me catch you.”

Her lashes resting on her cheeks blazed an image through my mind, what she’d look like, sleeping next to me.

Time for that later. Now, she was open, and her skin against mine was on fire.

As I pressed my hips to hers, I could feel her legs trembling beneath her already. I’d hardly done anything to her, and she was already melting in my hands.

I slid my hand over her stomach to grace the underside of her breasts, then curled back down over her hips, just enjoying the feeling of her for the moment, as I tilted my head to speak.

“You’re beautiful, you know that? You have… no idea how bad I want to just drag you back to that bed right now and ravage you.”

She shuddered and gave a little nod, pushing her hips forward to meet my hand as it slid between her thighs. After a fleeting moment of idle stroking, I found the electric button that sent shivers through her.

Her eyes fluttered open, then squeezed closed. “That’s it, focus on where I’m touching you.”

A muffled moan urged me on, and I dipped one finger into her core. I pressed my length tight to her back, and she seemed torn between pressing back to feel more of it or shifting forward to keep me stroking her clit.

“One day, I’m going to bend you over, grab those lovely hips and take you,” I growled as she wriggled against me.

I hissed in shock as she licked at the hand covering her mouth, her own hand wrapping around my wrist, not to push me away, but to keep me in place.

So eager, so lascivious underneath that shy exterior. It didn’t seem possible, but she only turned me on more. When I slid my finger away, she whimpered a plaintive little moan, but that quickly died off when I slid down to press the length deep inside her. She cried out and brought a hand up to my cheek, her eyes rolling behind closed lids as I began pumping.

“I’ll lick you, tongue you until you shatter then, when you’re ready, I’ll take you, fill you, until you scream my name.”

When I pressed my thumb against her clit, giving quick strokes in time with my pumping, she began panting hard, moaning my name behind my hand.

Actually hearing my name pass her lips in such an erotic way turned me on more than I could have possibly imagined. I absolutely throbbed against her, and the way she rocked and shifted against me, subtly sliding up and down with that warm flesh around me… it was almost too much to take.

I absolutely had to have her, but I was going to make her come first. I was desperate to watch her come undone.

There’d be plenty of time for other things later.

I slid a second finger in her, driving into her tight heat.

Keeping the pumping at a steady, firm rhythm, I picked up the stimulation at her nub, coaxing, pinching lightly until she began to shake. “Come for me, beautiful. I’ve got you.”

She gasped, her body suddenly going rigid in my grip. Her eyes shot open before rolling back, her legs now trembling hard beneath her as she came. It was a hell of a lot more intense than I was expecting, and before long I was all but holding her up with the hand that had brought her to such a brutal climax.

I held her close to me, stroking her shoulder as she quivered against my chest.

“I want to tell you — “

Then someone came into the showers, whistling, oblivious.

I put Shenna down and she grabbed her towel and disappeared out of the showers.

KOUT!

SHENNA

What the hell is happening to me?

I stood in my room, which was thankfully empty, still in my towel, with my back pressed against the cool metal of the door. I’d been like this for ten minutes and I was still panting.

My blood felt like it was on fire.

Was this what it meant to be attracted to a male? This was torture!

Though it wasn’t pain I felt. No, it was a deep longing, a need to be touched and held so strong that quenching it seemed impossible. I’d go on feeling like this forever, hating it and addicted to it all at the same time.

Despite everything Aavat had done to me, every place he’d touched, I wanted more. Wanted him.

I stepped away from the door and started to pace between mine and Lynna’s sleeping mats. I needed to burn this energy off, I’d never be able to think straight if I didn’t.

For once, Persephone and Poof stood still beside each other. They watched me cross the short length of the room again and again, no doubt thinking that their caretaker had finally lost her mind.

“Don’t judge me,” I snapped at them. Poof bounced nervously while Persephone narrowed her eyes. Sometimes I felt certain they understood me.

My head felt too full, but it was completely filled with Aavat. Images of his eyes, his smile, his lips, his body, were all I could see in my mind’s eye. I wanted to run my hands over his chest, kiss every inch of his body, and so much more that I couldn’t bring myself to form into a proper thought. My entire body throbbed with need.

It was maddening.

Worst of all, I felt like a liar.

Aavat hardly knew me. He thought he did, but he really didn’t. I’d gone to great lengths to reinvent myself and atone for the mistakes of my youth.

I’d fooled so many into believing I’m sweet and maybe even a little naïve, with endless compassion. I did such a good job at creating this alternate version of myself that I even believed it…until recent events brought out aspects of the old me.

I knew I wanted him.

I wanted him the way women in books wanted the hero. I wanted him the way Kalyn wanted Dejar. Aavat clearly wanted me, too, he’d demonstrated his desire very clearly with his touch, with his words.

But I couldn’t move forward with him if he didn’t know the whole truth about me. I had to tell him, even if it changed the way he thought of me.

“You think it’s the right thing to do, don’t you?” I asked the fluffball. Poof blinked and started bouncing again. “I’m going to take that as a yes,” I sighed. I dried my hair and pulled on a top and a pair of pants. I was so distracted, I put my shirt on inside out. I had one hand on the doorknob before I realized.

“Is this truce going to last while I’m gone?” I asked Persephone and Poop. Poof blinked. Persephone swished her tail. “Play nice, children,” I warned them as I stepped out of the room.

As I neared Aavat’s cabin, my heart began to pound once more.

I knocked on the door with a shaking hand. My breath came in quick, little bursts that only succeeded in making me dizzy.

Aavat opened the door. His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Shenna, I didn’t expect to see you so soon,” he said.

“What?” My voice was barely more than a rush of air.

“I might have crossed a line earlier,” he confessed gruffly. “You ran off so quickly. I want to apologize for my actions. I thought that-.”

“No, don’t apologize!” I blurted. “What we did earlier was great! I’d love to do it again sometime.”

Oh my god. I couldn’t believe I said that.

What was it about Aavat that turned me into a babbling idiot?

“That’s good to know,” Aavat chuckled. “Did you come by just to share your enthusiasm?”

“Actually, no,” I replied.

His smile faded, and his brow pulled together.

“There’s something I want to tell you.”

“Would you like to come in and sit down?” he offered.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.”

He stepped aside to let me enter his cabin. It was small, about the same size as the room I shared with Lynna. It contained nothing but a bed, a dresser, a small desk, and a chair. He offered me a choice between the chair and the bed. I took the chair. He sat on the bed across from me, our knees brushing.

“Is everything alright?” he asked. “I shouldn’t have gone so far so quickly, I know.”

“What?” I shook my head. “This isn’t about that. I mean, it is, but not exactly.” I took a deep breath, pulled myself back together. “But there are some things about me you need to know.”

“I’m always eager to learn more about you.” His smile made my heart flutter behind my ribs.

“First of all, I like you. Very much. I didn’t want to stop what we were doing in the showers,” I admitted in a rush.

“Neither did I,” he winked. “Is there a second of all?”

“Yes,” I nodded shakily. “I used to be a very different person than I am now. Before we move forward together, you need to know who I really am.”

“What do you mean?” He reached across the small distance between us to touch my hand.

“Do you know about the male birth crisis in the Terran System?” I asked.

“I looked it up after Dejar mentioned something about it. Near zero birth rate for males, correct? Due to the aftereffects of one of your wars?”

I nodded. “I was one of the very few raised by a father. My mother died giving birth to my younger sister and my father had skills to contribute to society other than breeding, so he was allowed to care for us,” I explained.

“My father showed my sister preference from early on. It’s terrible to even think, but I always suspected he was grateful to my sister for having a complicated birth. If my mother hadn’t died, my father would’ve been kept in a breeding facility. Most of the men enjoy it, it’s an easy life. But others despise it. I don’t think my father enjoyed living at a breeding center.”

“Understandable,” Aavat nodded.

“It wasn’t easy for my father to earn respect. His first priority was to keep our reputation above reproach. If others saw that a man was able to raise two daughters to be productive members of society, they would know they could trust him with business deals.”

I closed my eyes, remembered everything that seemed a world away. Oh hell, it really was, wasn’t it?

“He was very strict with us. Everything from what we wore to what we ate was closely monitored. Our appearance had to be pristine. We had to receive the highest marks in school. He even had a list of careers he deemed acceptable. I was sent to one of the most prestigious private education centers in the Terran System. I knew I received opportunities that thousands would kill to have, but I hated all of it. My life was never my own.”

“That’s not what parents should do.” Aavat scowled.

“He was trying to give me opportunities,” I tried to explain, but it was all such a muddled mess. “One day, during a break between classes, I saw these other girls from a nearby public school. I was immediately envious of them. They were so free and wild and beautiful. I wanted to be just like them. So, I did everything I could to befriend them until finally, I was part of the group. Their leader, Arcania, could charm anyone. For a while, we were as close as sisters.”

Aavat rubbed my knee, offering silent support.

“We got into so much trouble. We broke windows, we stole things. We liked to keep a constant storm of chaos around us at all times. It was so exciting. Every day was an adventure. I became addicted to the rush.”

“One night, Arcania came up with the idea to sneak into a nearby breeding facility. Arcania always dreamed of falling in love. At least, that’s what she told me. I’m not sure if I believe her now. At the time, it was just one more adventure.”

“We went to the facility in the middle of the night and hopped the fence. Arcania was strung out on stimulants and drew the attention of a guard immediately. I don’t know if the guard was new or just surprised, but she fired at us. One of our friends was shot, dead before she hit the ground.”

Tears welled up in my eyes and I let them fall. What was the point of holding them back? Then with a swoop, Aavat had pulled me onto his lap, his strong arms a safe place to keep remembering.

“We were all charged with endangerment of the facility and with causing a death while committing yet another crime. My father, eager to protect his reputation, offered me a choice. I could go to jail and sever all ties with the family forever or go to Persephone Station as a “volunteer” and keep a criminal charge off my record. The choice was obvious. I wanted to get off Earth as much as father wanted me gone. I was shipped off the day after that and I’ve been on Persephone ever since.”

“Thank you for telling me.” His warm smile did nothing to ease the knots of confusion in my stomach. “I’m honored that you chose to share such a personal story. But this doesn’t change the way I feel about you.”

“But…someone died because of me,” I stammered. “I’m a monster!”

“No, you aren’t,” Aavat said firmly, brushing my hair from my face. “If you were a monster, you wouldn’t care so much, and you wouldn’t put so much effort into trying to become a better person. You’re strong. Strong enough to reinvent yourself.”

I fell against his chest, all of my worries and doubts swirling, fighting against his words.

“Tell you what,” he whispered, leaning back until he lay on the bed, and I lay on him. “You said before you trusted me. Still do?”

I nodded, throat too tight to speak.

“Then I’ll let you know if I think you’re a monster. Leave it up to me.”

I could… maybe do that.

Burying my face in his neck, I wrapped my hands around his shoulders, drinking in the warmth of him.

He wound his arms around me and held me tight, long into the night.

And for the first time in a very long time, I felt clean.

AAVAT

“Suit up, we’ve got another delivery.”

Of all the stupid—“Really, Dejar? ‘Suit up?’ Since when have we ever said that?”

He shrugged, tossed me the keys to the Skimmer, and walked out of my quarters. I wasn’t sure how to react. He just walked in, told me to get ready, tossed me the keys, and left.

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be angry, slightly upset, annoyed, or if I should just blow it off and go.

Luckily for us all, Shenna had already left, so he hadn’t upset her. Angry would have been an understatement.

However, it was a paying job and we needed the money. I let out a growl of frustration and stomped out of my room.

I plotted five different ways I could make Dejar’s death look like an accident before I got to the hangar bay, to see him standing next to the Skimmer, a big smile on his face.

“What are you so umbba happy about?” I snapped.

“Nothing, really. I just heard something about you and…it’s, to steal a phrase from Kalyn, about damn time,” he said back. We supervised the load crew as they put the next light-weight package on the back of the Skimmer.

“I’ve heard that word, ‘damn,’ used by the women. What does it mean?” I asked.

“Apparently, it’s the same as our ‘umbba.’ I can see how it works for them. Short and sweet,” he smiled at me wickedly as he leaned in close and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Just like Shenna,” he said in a sing-song-y voice.

I glared, he smiled, I contemplated a sixth way for him to die, and we were finally told by the crew that the Skimmer was ready.

“I hate you, you know that.” I got into the Skimmer and fired it up. “Well, are you coming?”

I watched him hold back whatever involuntary action he was about to have as he climbed in. I didn’t wait for him to strap in. As soon as he was on the Skimmer, I threw it into gear and mashed down on the accelerator.

As Dejar screamed and partially fell over the seat, I wove my way through the crowd on the docks and took the Skimmer through the streets. I felt a thud on the side of the Skimmer and hoped it was Dejar’s head, but when he finally sat down next to me, unharmed, I had to concede that I had failed in causing his death.

“So,” I yelled over the rush of air. “Where are we going?”

“You really don’t want to talk about Shenna, do you?” he shouted back. In answer, I swerved for no reason, which bounced him around and nearly tossed him off the vehicle. He looked at me as he straightened himself up.

“Okay, okay. I’ll leave it be. We’re heading to a similar location, just instead of taking that first exit and turning right, we’ll take the second exit and turn left.”

With a nod, I put us onto the main road and floored it. I decided that I was going to show this maniac how to drive at high speeds. I maneuvered us cleanly through the nighttime traffic and got us to our designated exit in quick-time.

I brought us down some halfway lit streets where the buildings looked like old businesses left for dead. We passed by a refueling station that was home to at least four or five drifters, an old grocery store that was crawling with drugged-up losers, and an old…something…where I swore I saw a pile of bodies.

“This is where we’re dropping off?” I asked Dejar.

“Another block on the left. This place looks bad,” he answered back.

“Well, I’m not thinking they’re doing these auctions in high profile hotels, so…”

“Fine. Good point. Turn here.”

I made the turn and brought the Skimmer around the back of the building where we had been instructed to leave the package. “Want to look into it?” I asked.

“No. Let’s just leave it and go. We’re in deep enough as it is.”

“Seriously? You know as well as I do that this is probably going to be another auction. We can help those women.”

Dejar shook his head.

Wordlessly, we unloaded, then headed back to the Skimmer.

“Drive,” Dejar snapped.

When I hesitated, he glared at me and re-emphasized his statement. “Now.”

I put it in gear and sped off, angry. When we were maybe a mile away, Dejar reached up to slap my shoulder.

“Stop here.”

“Wait, what?”

“Stop,” he said insistently. “If you want to go back and check it out, then stop the Skimmer so we don’t have a ridiculous hike there and back.”

I slammed on the brakes, yanked the Skimmer to a stop, and shut it off. “What in the kopa are you talking about? Why didn’t we just…are you saying that you want to go back and look into it?”

“Yes,” he said with a nod.

“I hate you, you know that.”

“Eh, you know you don’t. Come on. Because you were dense, we have a hike ahead of us and we don’t want to take too long to get there.” He started jogging back towards the delivery point, leaving me behind.

I threw my hands up and started after him. About a quarter of the way back to the delivery point, I finally caught him. “Why didn’t we park closer?” I asked.

“Didn’t want it to look like we were about to do this. Did you notice anyone there when we dropped off?”

I shook my head as I swerved around a vagrant passed out on the ground. “You?”

He shook his head, as well. “I figure that means we can sneak in easier. Had to take the job to get the new address.”

Okay, I had to admit that I liked the idea better and better now.

We made it back to the drop-off point, snuck in through a side door, and made our way towards the center of the building.

“I’ll check the back” Dejar whispered. “You take the front. We’re not leaving until we have something.”

I found nothing. After an hour of searching, there was nothing there, except everything needed to quickly erect a stage and speakers.

Kout.

“Aavat.” I heard my name whispered loudly. I turned to see Dejar at the entrance to the back, motioning me over.

“What is it?” I asked when I got next to him.

“You need to see this. We’re in the right spot, we’re just too early. Look,” he showed me a piece of film. It was a list.

“Is that what I think it is?” I asked.

He wore a grim look. “I think so. It’s the list of women that are going to be sold at auction tonight.”

“How can you tell? It’s just a bunch of numbers and names.”

He pointed at the numbers. “These are measurements. See? These,” he pointed to the first number, “are their heights. Then these,” he pointed to the next set of numbers, “are their body measurements. These,” he pointed to the last set of numbers, “I’m going to guess are the desired prices. But this,” he tapped a mark in the corner, “this I can’t figure out.”

I looked at him in bewilderment. “How would you know any of that?”

“I tried to think how I would run something like this. That’s how I would organize the information. These names are probably the types of species they are and where they’re from.” His lip curled into a snarl. “I very much doubt they’re interested in the women’s actual names.”

He surprised me. I hadn’t thought of how to run something like this because it disgusted me. But he was right. In order to fix it, I had to know it. It made sense to try to think about how to run something like this so I would know how to stop something like this.

“Okay,” I said. “So, if those are the…” I let out a big breath of air. I hated this whole thing. “If those are the ‘rates’ for the women, they’re looking to sell to some high-profile clients again. Right?”

“I think so.”

I turned and walked away, then walked back. I was barely containing myself. “Have you ever heard of these races or these planets?”

He shook his head. “No, I haven’t. This makes me wonder if these women are being kidnapped like what almost happened at Outpost Nine.”

Like what had almost happened to Shenna.

“Kout. What if it is? We need to do something.”

“I agree,” he said.

Then there was a noise as we heard the back door being opened. We looked at one another, then snatched the list, and made a break for it.

We made it to the Skimmer with just a little more haste than caution, jumped in, and rushed our way back to the Rogue Star.

“What do we do?” I asked as we parked in the bay.

“We figure it out. Somehow. I need to think, and so do you. We need options.” With that, he left, and I headed to my quarters.

I didn’t think I was going to be able to sleep that night.

SHENNA

I paced the length of the dining hall with my arms folded tightly across my chest. Itair had hired Dejar and Aavat for another delivery, but they should’ve been back hours ago.

The drop-off point was in a different location than last time, but it wasn’t that far away. Now that we knew what was going on in the nighttime establishments, deliveries felt more dangerous.

What if Itair figured out that Dejar and Aavat hadn’t bought women after all?

What if this delivery was a set-up?

What if Dejar and Aavat were hanging from their ankles in a dark basement somewhere while a sadistic auctioneer tortured them for information?

“Shenna!” Someone shouted my name, diverting my attention from my anxious imagining.

I looked up, startled. Aryn and Maris were laughing at me. They waved me over.

“We called you three times,” Aryn giggled. “You look so intense! What on earth are you thinking about?”

“Is ‘on earth’ a proper term to use anymore?” Maris joked.

I couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“We’re keeping the memory of our home world alive,” Aryn replied. “Don’t get off topic. I want to know what’s going on in Shenna’s head.”

“Is it about that fluffy thing you found? Persephone has her eye on that thing for sure,” Maris snorted.

“Let her answer,” Aryn nudged Maris.

“I was thinking about the crew members out on delivery right now,” I answered honestly. “I think they were due back a while ago.”

“You’re worried about Aavat,” Aryn nodded sagely.

I must’ve been giving her some kind of look, for she burst out laughing. “It’s common knowledge you’ve got feelings for each other. The ship’s not that big, people are bound to notice things.”

“That obvious, huh?” I sighed.

“Everyone’s heard about your little romp in the showers,” Maris grinned.

I felt the color drain from my face.

“Don’t give me that look! You’re not the only one to fall victim to the allure of the showers.”

“What?”

“Kalyn and Dejar have their fun in there all the time!” Aryn laughed.

I cringed and buried my face in my hands. “I didn’t need to know that.”

“At least it’s an easy place to keep clean,” Maris teased.

“If it makes you feel any better, we all predicted you and Aavat would end up in the showers sooner or later.” Aryn placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.

“Oddly enough, it doesn’t,” I laughed dryly. “How long have people been watching us?”

“Since he singled you out to go meet with that rich guy,” Aryn replied. “We figured he must have some interest in you for him to offer something like that.”

I didn’t know what to say. Luckily, I didn’t have long to be flustered, as Kalyn jogged up to me with a relieved smile plastered on her face.

“Shenna, they just got back.”

“Excuse me, ladies,” I said to Aryn and Maris.

“We’ll warn everyone to stay out of the showers for the next hour for you, okay?” Maris called after me. Aryn doubled over, cackling.

“Don’t you dare!” I shouted back.

“What are they talking about?” Kalyn asked.

“Nothing important.” I blushed. Someone else could tell her. I’d had my share of embarrassment for the day.

As soon as I saw Aavat, I took off running towards him and threw my arms around him in a hug.

He squeezed me back, and the vise that had been around my chest all day loosened.

“What took you so long?” I demanded.

“Dejar and I did some investigating,” he explained. By the look on his face, I knew they must’ve discovered something.

“Why don’t you tell me about it over dinner?”

He was unusually quiet as we walked together. Whatever they’d found was clearly troubling him.

“I learned something today,” I said in an effort to distract him.

“Oh?” he asked.

“Apparently, word has gotten out about our little shower encounter.” I’d brought it up, but I still couldn’t meet his eyes.

“It’s hard to keep secrets on this ship,” he smirked. “Are you all right with people knowing about us?”

“Of course!” I reached for his hand to prove it. I ran my thumb over the tattoo pattern on the back of his hand. One day, when we weren’t worried about underground slave trading, being on the run from the authorities, and me being an illegal species, I’d take the time to memorize every curl of every tattoo.

Dinner had just started when we arrived back at the dining hall. Sars dashed back and forth around the kitchen preparing multiple dishes at once. The poor guy really, really needed a full-time assistant.

I grabbed a tray and took a large portion of green noodles in a dark sauce with a variety of roasted veggie-like foods. I still hadn’t learned all the names for everything, but I’d figured out what I liked, which seemed far more important.

“Sars, you never cease to amaze me!” I called to him.

He looked over his shoulder and grinned.

“I made some of that spicy sauce you’re so fond of. It goes great on the Marloush.” He pointed to the food on my plate and produced a small bowl of bright red sauce.

“That stuff goes great on everything!” I gushed. I looked at Aavat. “You have to try some.”

“You and Sars have become good friends, haven’t you?” Aavat took a slab of roasted meat and put it on his plate next to a pile of something that looked like purple mousse.

“He likes me because I clean his kitchen better than he does. I like him because his food is better than anything in the Terran System,” I laughed. “It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.” The good food and great company put me in such a chipper mood, it was almost easy to forget Aavat had information.

Almost, but not quiet.

We took a seat in a quiet corner and I pestered Aavat to add some of Sars’s sauce to his meat. His eyebrows rose.

“I agree, it really makes a difference,” he said as he devoured another bite.

“I can’t believe you’ve gone this long without trying it.” I poured the rest of the sauce over my noodles.

“Sars didn’t start making it until recently. I think he created the recipe just for you,” Aavat said.

“Wow,” I gasped. “I didn’t realize. That seems like a lot of effort, when he always has so much to do.”

“He’s got a daughter that he doesn’t get to see too often,” Aavat explained. “I met her only once before. Now that I think about it, you and she have similar dispositions. Maybe that’s why he’s soft on you.”

“I’ll have to thank him somehow,” I resolved.

“I’ll help you come up with something,” Aavat grinned as he polished off his food.

Most of the worry vanished from his face as he relaxed.

I decided to wait for him to bring up the last delivery when he was ready. I figured he’d earned a few moments of peace.

“Dejar and I broke into the establishment Itair’s delivery was sent to,” he said suddenly.

I nearly choked on my food. “You what?” I demanded. “That’s why you took so long.”

“We couldn’t pass up the chance to learn more about what we’re dealing with,” he said. “It’s a good thing we did, too. We found something.”

“What?”

Aavat reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a folded sheet of paper

“That place is putting on an auction tonight,” he explained as he unfolded the paper. “This is a list of all the women up for auction.” He placed the list flat on the table and pushed it towards me.

“I can’t read this yet,” I reminded him. A project I should move up the list, apparently.

“Scro. I keep forgetting.” He took the piece of paper back and ran a finger down each column. “There are no names, but Dejar reasoned these are body measurements, species name, and place of origin.”

“Eew.” I wrinkled my nose.

“I agree. And this is even more unsettling. Every single one of them is from a world or system originally classified as non-evolved but has recently been changed to ‘evolved’ and absorbed into Dominion space.”

“That can’t be a coincidence.” My brow furrowed. “What’s that symbol at the top of the page?”

“That’s another odd detail,” Aavat continued. “When you were on Dominion Outpost Nine, did you see the mark on the robes of the official?”

“No.” I shook my head. “In the panic, I never got a good look.”

“Well, the official sigil of the Dominion is a two-dimensional map of Dominion space enclosed within a silver circle with the primary star systems where the Dominion was first started. The circle is supposed to represent the Dominion keeping us safe within the boundaries of Dominion space or something like that.”

“Seriously?” I arched a brow. “That seems a little patronizing.”

“It’s what they taught us as children,” Aavat shrugged. “Here it is, on a copy of one of our contracts. Look at the one on the list, next to it.”

I peered more closely at the two marks. They were similar, easy to confuse at a quick glance. However, instead of a star map enclosed in a circle, the one on the list Aavat had found depicted a map enclosed by a serpentine creature eating its own tail.

“The map looks different, too. What does it mean?” I wondered.

“It’s close. Clearly a map of Dominion space, but with only certain points depicted.” Aavat tapped each one as he thought.

“Why does it look so much like the Dominion’s sigil?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Perhaps the slave traders all belong to one organization and they’re trying to pose as the Dominion, so no one will question them.”

“But wouldn’t everyone immediately know that they aren’t Dominion the moment they get a good look?” I asked.

“If these slave traders are traveling to worlds new to Dominion space, the new world might not know any better,” Aavat suggested. “It’s not a perfect theory, but it’s the only thing I can think of that makes any sense.”

“Why women from these specific worlds, though?” I wondered. “And what is this,” I asked, slowly drawing my finger over the swirling lines of a tight design at the bottom of the sheet. “It doesn’t look like any of the written languages I’ve seen.”

“I don’t know. It’s familiar, but I’ve run it though the AI, and nothing’s popping.” He leaned back in the chair. “I’m asking all of the same questions myself,” Aavat sighed. “The real question is, what are we going to do about this?”

“Someone on this ship might have seen the sigil before they were hired on. Or someone could think of something we’re not realizing,” I suggested.

“You’re right,” Aavat agreed. “It’s time to tell the crew.”

AAVAT

We called the entire crew, Shein men and human women, into the dining hall, the only place other than the hangar bays big enough for everyone. The advantage of the dining hall? It had seats, and I had a feeling this was going to be a long meeting.

After everyone arrived and found a place to sit, we began.

I started. “Let me begin by telling you that we’ve called this meeting to discuss something that potentially has an effect on all of us. When we dropped the women off at Outpost Nine, they were held there and nearly kidnapped. Here on Katzul, we’ve discovered a similar situation.”

Several of the women began to mumble amongst themselves as a few of the men looked angry.

I continued. “During our time here, I, Shenna, Kalyn, and Captain Dejar have uncovered a trafficking ring that is selling off women.”

This brought about a new bout of talking from the crew. Questions were thrown out, as well as threats, and things were getting out of control.

I held up my hands and called for silence. After a few moments, things calmed down enough for me to go on.

“What we’ve discovered so far is that the women being sold off are species that none of us recognize,” I indicated Dejar, Kovor, Shenna, and Kalyn. “And they all come from worlds that the Dominion deemed uncivilized or non-evolved, then suddenly changed their designation to evolved. The only thing that we know is that they’re being sold here, despite Dominion laws, and that there is a sigil, or symbol, that is similar to the Dominion’s own.”

At that, the ship’s AI put a copy of the sigil up on the wall, then placed a copy of the Dominion sigil next to it. “Now, as you can see,” I said as I went to the wall and pointed at the sigil on the left, the one we had found, “it has its similarities to the original Dominion one, but the outer circle on this one is a serpent eating its own tail. We can’t figure out who they are, and we’re looking to all of you for suggestions and ideas.”

The room erupted with conversation, ideas, and questions. It was a little hard to keep track of everything, but one comment stuck out to me.

“Whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on!” I shouted over the noise. Everyone quieted down quickly and looked at me. “Who said something about the Outpost Nine official being a fake?”

One of the men, and one of the women, raised their hands. “Okay, Weeber, what did you and…”

“My name is Carrie.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Carrie. So, what were you two saying?”

Carrie and Weeber looked at one another, and Weeber indicated she should talk. Not a surprise. Ever since an accident in the loading bay crushed part of his jaw, his speech had been oddly accented. Usually in large groups, he stayed quiet.

“Okay. We were just saying that the guy from Outpost Nine that tried to take us might not have been an actual Dominion official. He could have been an imposter from this other group and pretended to be from the Dominion to get to us.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Dejar said from behind me. I looked back at him as he stepped forward. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but I don’t think he was an imposter.”

“Why not?” Carrie asked.

“His guards,” Dejar answered back. “They were Dominion guards and they followed him. Not to mention that the other officials at Outpost Nine would have noticed if he was an imposter. The rank he showed would have made him well known amongst the other officials.”

This time, Weeber spoke up. Apparently, a threat to his crewmates was enough to break his silence. “So, how come he went aftah de women, den? If he one o’dem Dominion peoples, how come he gone aftah dem?”

“I’m not sure, Weeber. It’s possible that they really were trying to help, but from what the women have told us, if they were trying to help, they were going about it in a very weird way.” Dejar looked around the room. “I’m not saying that he wasn’t an imposter, I’m just saying that it’s unlikely. Does anyone else have any ideas?”

While several people spoke up, Maris raised her hand as she stood up. I pointed over to her and Dejar acknowledged her. “What do you have, Maris?”

“Well, I was thinking about what happened to us back at Persephone Station.”

Kalyn spoke up behind us. “What do you mean?”

“That shockwave that hit us,” Maris responded, actually polite for once. It was good to see her treating Kalyn with respect now, not like she was when we first picked them up all those months ago.

“We originally thought it was caused by this ship when it exited the fold, but I’ve been running numbers since then. As you know, I don’t think that you guys were responsible at all.”

“So, what are you trying to say?” Dejar asked.

“That dark ship that chased us to Outpost Nine,” she reminded us. “What if, and I’m just saying ‘if,’ what if that ship was part of this whole thing? What if they were the ones that set off the shockwave in order to knock us out, then when you guys decided to rescue us, they chased us down and tried to push us?”

I stepped forward. “But then, why would they push us to a Dominion Outpost if they weren’t Dominion?”

“What if they were?”

This created a whole new argument and conversation within the room. The idea that maybe the Dominion was involved was unusual, and confusing, but sort of made sense.

Or did it? I was even more confused than before.

It was Shar that stepped up to the wall and began studying it.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Both of these symbols are similar in that they show a map inside a circle, but they’re different maps. Do we know where?”

I shook my head. It was one of the first things we’d had the AI check out, and it came back with nothing definite. Since functional star maps really were three dimensional, a 2D representation meant you had to have an agreed-on reference point.

With a shrug, he turned back to the symbols. “We’re not handing over the women though, right?”

“Of course not, they’re part of the crew now,” I said.

“Good. What about the other women? The ones being sold off. What do we do about them?”

I looked over at Shenna, then the others. We all shared the same look. We knew something had to be done.

But how far could we risk the safety of the crew?

“Ay. Boss,” Weeber called out. We all turned to look at him. “We gowna save dem udder women, right? You said der was some more women in trouble, so we gowna try ta save dem, or not?”

“No, we’re going to try,” Dejar said. “I can’t guarantee that we will, but we’re at least going to try. We can’t leave something like this behind, not without putting in an effort.”

“Why don’t we just tell the Dominion?” one of the women asked.

“Because, after what Maris and Weeber brought up, there’s a chance that the Dominion is involved, and we can’t run that risk. We’re already on the run from them because of Outpost Nine, so we don’t want to bring them down on our current location.”

Dejar looked around the rest of the room. “Are we together on the idea of trying to help these women? Are we united in trying to stop this?”

Dejar might be the friendly one, good with people and all that nonsense, but the unified shout from the crew warmed even me.

Some.

Every last member of the crew was united in the idea that we had to find a way to stop this slave trade, or whatever it was, and we needed to stop it soon.

“Okay,” I said as I clapped my hands together. “We suspect there will be another auction in the next night or so. Dejar, Shenna, Kalyn and I are going to try to do something about it. What we need from the rest of you is to make sure that we are ready to get out of here at a moment’s notice, keep your eyes open for anything suspicious, and keep thinking of possible answers. Can you do that?”

A resounding ‘yes’ answered that question.

I looked at the others.

“Well, let’s come up with a plan.”

SHENNA

“Getting into the nightclub won’t be the problem.” Aavat stood in the center of the office with his broad arms folded across his chest.

“Aavat and I managed to do that once already,” I added. “And as long as we look the part, I think the club attendants will ignore us like they do all of the other scumbags participating in the auction.”

“It’s the guards we’ll have to worry about,” Dejar jumped in. “No doubt at least one will be on duty wherever they’re keeping the women.”

“That’ll give us a good idea of where to look,” Kalyn interjected. “If we see some burly bastard in front of an unmarked door, there’s a fair chance the women will be back there somewhere.”

“I’d bet the women will be kept close to the auction room, so no other patrons see them,” Aavat replied. “We’ve seen it once, before they set everything up. Once we get a chance to scope the place out, I’m sure we’ll get an idea of where the women are being kept.”

“So, at some point, the guards will need to leave their post,” Dejar stated. “Any ideas on how to make that happen?”

“I could punch you in the face,” Aavat suggested.

“Very funny.”

“No, I’m being serious. If two patrons they think are participating in the auction start a fight, the guards will likely step in,” Aavat explained.

“Do you want to do that because it’s a good plan or because you want to punch me in the face?” Dejar asked skeptically.

“A little bit of both,” Aavat grinned, and Dejar laughed, apparently totally unconcerned.

“You two have the oddest relationship.” Kalyn looked back and forth between the captain and his first mate.

“We used to be competitors once upon a time,” Dejar reminded us.

“Old habits die hard,” Aavat agreed.

“Okay. So, once you two start punching each other, what next?” I asked.

“You and I can sneak away while the guards are distracted,” Kalyn answered. “We’ll find the women and sneak them out.”

“We’ll need a way to get the women back to the ship if we manage to save any of them,” I replied.

“I’ll get some volunteers to sit with the Skimmer and guard the women once they’re out of the building,” Dejar offered. “I don’t recommend sneaking them all out at once. A large group will draw attention. It’s best to take them individually or in pairs.”

“Right,” I nodded.

“I think this will work,” Aavat said confidently.

“There’s one small problem,” Dejar said. We all turned to look at him. “Once we do this, we’ll have to leave the planet as soon as possible. Itair knows we know about the auctions. I expect the auctioneers will search for their missing women. All they’d have to do is ask the right questions of the right people and they’ll be led right to us.”

“The connections between this ship and the auctions are flimsy,” Aavat said dismissively.

“But what about the women?” I asked. “If the auctioneers search for them, we can’t let them out into the city and let them risk getting captured again.”

“They need to be taken off-planet, too,” Kalyn reasoned.

“You’re right,” Aavat admitted. “In that case, I know a place we can go.”

“Where?” I asked.

“There’s a station out in the far reaches of Dominion space. I don’t know what the business prospects for us would be like out there, but while it’s legal, it’s so far out that the Dominion rarely bothers with it. Ships traveling in deep space often end up there if they have mechanical problems,” Aavat explained.

“That sounds ideal,” Dejar nodded. “A constant flux of residents means we’re less likely to be recognized. There’ll be plenty of opportunities for the women we rescue to slip away, maybe even find a way back to their homes. Get me the coordinates, and I’ll inform Qal of our destination, so he can prepare the ship for departure the moment we get back.”

“I won’t miss this place,” Aavat grinned.

“Shenna, we should go get ready,” Kalyn urged.

I nodded in agreement. Together we left the office and walked to the storage room with all of the skin dye and cosmetics.

Kalyn and I started the process to change ourselves into female Shein, only this time, we had better supplies to make it happen. The new dyes wouldn’t come off without a special remover, so no more being nervous to touch anything, or leave a shining trail behind.

“None of these dyes shimmer the way their skin does,” Kalyn let out a frustrated groan.

“Mix it up with a little of the stardust,” I suggested.

“Can you picture Kovor buying so much makeup?” Kalyn asked as she fetched a small canister of stardust and poured it into the dye she was going to use. “Perfect.”

I laughed as I imagined Kovor striding into one of the fancy shops in the heart of the city and pulling whatever he thought a woman would wear off the rack, then dropping a huge pile of clothing in front of a salesperson. Or would I call them a sales-alien?

I grabbed a floor-length evening gown with thin straps and a low back. The black fabric felt like water as I ran my hand over it.

We helped each other dye our skin, making sure the dye went on evenly and covered up anything that could potentially be exposed.

“We should start doing this regularly,” Kalyn suggested.

“I don’t have the patience to do this every day,” I laughed.

“Not full-body, that would be exhausting,” Kalyn replied. “But it would be fun to use it like makeup back in the Terran System.”

“Are you suggesting a ship wide makeover session?” I joked. “I think Maris would shoot herself out the airlock before participating.”

“Why not?” Kalyn shrugged. “My friends and I used to give each other makeovers before my life started sucking.”

“My father wanted my sister and me to wear makeup as part of keeping up our appearances. However, we had a very specific color palette to choose from.” I raised a shimmering arm. “This certainly wouldn’t have met his approval.”

“Father?” Kalyn asked.

I froze up. Almost everyone knew about my father on Persephone Station, except for Kalyn. She’d only just arrived when the Rogue Star appeared in our sky and a shockwave tore the station to shreds.

“Uh, yeah,” I said awkwardly. “My sister and I were raised by my father.”

“Wait, was he an arms developer?” Kalyn asked.

“He still is,” I nodded, a bit nervous about where this was going.

“My mother knows him!” Kalyn exclaimed. “She attended a few of his gatherings during her routine visits to Earth. She dragged me along, too.”

“My father used to make me and my sister go to all of his gatherings.” I rolled my eyes. “Unless it interfered with school,” I added.

“I bet you and I attended at least one of them at the same time!” Kalyn laughed. “I didn’t ever meet your father, though. I would’ve remembered seeing the only man around for miles.”

“You’re probably right,” I grinned. “I bet we would’ve been friends if we’d met then. Sounds like our childhoods had some similarities.”

“I remember seeing a girl about my age once. She wore a massive pale blue dress and refused to move from her seat the entire night,” Kalyn recalled.

“I still have nightmares about that dress,” I shuddered. “It was so itchy! Walking was painful. My father was angry that I didn’t socialize with his colleagues. I must’ve been ten at the time.”

“Now I really wish I’d gone over to talk to you,” Kalyn laughed. “We could’ve been miserable together.”

“Strange how we both ended up here in the end, isn’t it?” I said thoughtfully.

“It is,” Kalyn agreed. “Though I don’t think I’d go back if I had the choice.”

“Me, either,” I replied. “I wasn’t going to go back even if we didn’t end up in an alien galaxy. Although this is much better than the old station, really.”

“Everything worked itself out,” Kalyn said cheerfully. “Can you help me fasten the back of this dress?”

I helped Kalyn button up the back of a lilac-colored gown with elaborate silver beading. Thankfully, my simple dress didn’t come with any complicated fastenings.

After making sure our skin was completely covered, we left the storage room. Aavat and Dejar were waiting for us in the hallway as they had the time before. They’d dressed in the closest thing to formal wear they possessed.

“You look incredible,” Aavat’s eyes widened as he took in the sight of me.

“Thanks to Kovor’s impulsive shopping habits, we’re practically shapeshifters now,” I joked.

“Indeed.” Aavat offered his arm, which I took. “You certainly make it easy to call you my mate.”

I didn’t bother hiding my smile.

He leaned over me, breath hot on my ear. “And I enjoy doing so, every time.”

Oh.

AAVAT

I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Shenna.

But the more I looked at her, the more I realized something…

Shenna was stunning.

Dressed as a Shein, made up in the revealing outfit she’d worn at Itair’s.

In her plain Terran skin.

She took my breath away, just being her.

The ride to the club was silent, tense.

No point in going over the plan again, not when so many parts could change at a moment’s notice.

We arrived at the club to see that there was a line not only out the door, but around the side of the building and the one next to it.

The three crew who had volunteered to stay with the Skimmer slipped away, to wait by the back.

“Well, this could be a problem,” Kalyn said, eyeing the crowd.

I agreed with her. “We don’t know how quickly the auction will start up.”

Shenna grabbed my arm and leaned into me, her presence twisting my resolve. She was smart, brave, a fantastic partner.

And I didn’t want her anywhere near these bastards.

With a wink that did nothing to untangle my thoughts, she looked over at Kalyn and Dejar. “Let’s just tell the truth.”

“What?” Kalyn blurted. “How is that going to help?”

“Easy,” Shenna smiled. “We tell them we’re here for the auction. They’ll have to let us in. They didn’t have a list of expected patrons before, I can’t imagine they’d have one now.”

Huh. I’d always expected to be the bluntest person in the room.

“Sounds good to me,” I added. It was a good idea. Even though it would immediately mark us as different than the other patrons, it might be the easiest way in.

Kalyn looked up at Dejar, who was pondering the idea.

Finally, he agreed. “Sounds like the only way we have to get in quickly, so let’s do it.”

As we made our way towards the entrance, we were glared at and yelled at by people in line.

We ignored them, doing our best to put on an air of superiority. Shenna held on tight and stayed close to me.

That part of the plan I had no objection to at all.

At the door, we approached the bouncer. He was a Tutahn, a massive, hulking beast that stood nearly ten feet in height and had arms almost the diameter of my legs.

However, Tutahns weren’t terribly bright.

They were mostly employed in jobs where their size and strength would be their primary use, like cheap bouncers and bodyguards.

I decided to let Dejar do the talking, he was better at it. He approached the beast and motioned for him to bend low, so he could speak to him privately.

He started talking, pointing back at us on occasion, and after what seemed like minutes, but I was sure was only seconds, the beast nodded and let us through.

“What did you say to him?” I asked as we walked in.

Dejar shrugged. “I told him that I was here to make a special purchase and that I was bringing my ‘very rich’ friend along. He seemed to hesitate a bit, but when I told him that we were looking for new companions to play with, he let us in.”

“Not bad. Glad I’m the rich one.”

“Aw, don’t be so gracious, old friend. Now we need to blend in while we look around.”

When we’d searched the building before, the only place that would be easily secured was a small warren of rooms towards the back.

The music pounded throughout the building with heavy bass and loud synthesized sounds. We made our way towards the middle of the dance floor, then positioned ourselves a little closer to the entrance to the back, scouting the area for guards.

“Let’s show them what we can do,” Shenna yelled at me over the music. Remembering how much fun the last time was made it easy to do whatever she wanted.

As Shenna and I danced, Dejar and Kalyn stayed stiff, awkward.

“Relax,” I yelled at them. “Have some fun.”

Dejar glared at me, then looked at Kalyn. They both had the same look of utter embarrassment on their faces.

The sheer ridiculousness of the moment sparked off a round of giggles with both Kalyn and Shenna, enough to loosen Dejar up to start moving, at least a bit.

The music changed to a new song. This one I recognized as one that used to be slow and romantic, but someone had messed with it to turn it into a dance hit.

Bastards.

Shenna moved against me, looking as though she was having the time of her life, and I wasn’t about to let her move alone.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Dejar and Kalyn doing something that I assumed they called dancing and let a grin slip.

After a few minutes, Shenna and I left to get some drinks for the four of us. When we returned, we left the floor and found a small booth, confident we’d be able to talk without being overheard.

“Any ideas?” I asked after a sip of my drink. “Three guards on that one door make me pretty interested.”

“Agreed, but there’s too many people and absolutely no way into the back without being seen…”

Dejar stopped and looked at me.

I hated the look on his face. It usually meant something was going to happen and that I wouldn’t like it, so I decided to hate the whole thing right now.

“Just remember, it was your plan. It’s the only thing I think can actually work.”

“What?”

“You and I, after another one or two of these,” he held up his drink. “Pretend to get into a fight and draw the bouncers and guards away from the back. The women use the opportunity to sneak into the back. They claim they were looking for a bathroom or something if they’re spotted.”

Now that it was time to act, I hated and loved the idea.

There was no way I was comfortable with leaving Shenna and Kalyn alone in this place. It wasn’t the worst idea he had had, but it wasn’t one that I liked in the slightest.

With a dejected sigh, I nodded.

“Fine.” I looked at Shenna and Kalyn. “Better get us a couple more drinks, ladies. We have to put on a good show.”

I turned to Shenna. “Are you going to be okay with this?”

She nodded, perhaps a bit too fast, but she nodded.

“The two of you stay together,” I insisted. “And if something goes wrong,” my gut clenched, “you yell your head off. I’ll be there, no matter what.”

I brushed a finger over her lips and leaned in to whisper, “Still trust me?”

There it was, that sparkle in her eyes.

Better.

Dejar and I slammed back two more rounds, just enough to ease the coming sting, not enough to make us sloppy.

Then we headed back to the dance floor, trying to get as close as possible to that door without being obvious, so the women had less ground to cover.

“Ready?” I asked as we danced. At a nod from Dejar, we ‘accidentally’ bumped into one another and exchanged a few words.

Then, after another ‘accidental’ bump, we took things further and pushed one another.

“You need to keep your hands away from my woman!” I yelled at him.

“If she was really your woman, why was she looking at me?” he said back with a shove of his own.

We jostled one another a few more times before I threw a punch that I pulled short. His exaggerated dodge of my punch made him tumble into some nearby patrons.

Their yelling and anger brought the guards towards us, and I discreetly motioned for the women to go.

We yelled at one another again, but this time, I noticed we weren’t the only ones yelling. Another fight had broken out in the far corner, and it was spilling over in our direction.

Useful, even if a complication.

I got bumped from behind as Dejar threw his punch, but his connected, thanks to my being jostled.

Instinct took over and I tackled him to the floor, then dragged him to his feet and tagged him lightly in the face. All around us, the club erupted into chaos as more and more people inside began to fight amongst themselves.

The Tutahn from outside, along with two other guards, pushed and shoved their way through the throng of partygoers right to us. “You two leave, now!” the Tutahn growled. It seemed a bit funny to me that I was able to hear his growl over the loud, thumping bass.

“What? We didn’t start this!” I yelled back at him.

“You two leave, NOW!”

His shout shattered the spell. Everyone immediately around us stopped moving and stared at the big beast.

A guard appeared on either side of me, another pair flanking Dejar.

Fantastic.

As we made a show of being reluctantly dragged away, another shout stopped us.

“Wait.” We turned around to see the big Tutahn calling to the guards. “They have women with them. Find those, too.”

Kout.

If they found the women, all of this would have been for nothing.

I shrugged away from my escort and rushed forward. “Hey, big one.”

He turned to look at me and I had a momentary feeling that he wanted to crush me where I stood. I stood my ground and glared up at him. “If you get rid of the women that came with us, your employers will lose out on a very significant sale.”

I had lost him, using words that were far too large for his miniscule, insect-sized brain.

I tried again. “If you find the women and make them leave, they won’t spend big money. Your bosses will get angry if they lose a lot of money, right?” He nodded.

“Okay. We,” I pointed between Dejar and myself. “We are the ones that fought, not the women. Let them spend big money. Okay?”

He thought about it for a minute, but eventually he nodded. “You go, women stay. Leave.”

I wasn’t able to say much else as the guards came over, one of them making sure his blaster was visible.

A glance at Dejar showed me that he saw it, as well.

“Okay. We’re leaving. Thank you,” I said as I turned to walk away. I looked back to notice two of the guards following us.

Scro.

SHENNA

The back area of the establishment was tiny, which made it easy to search, but far too hard to hide if anyone came to look for us.

Luckily, there weren’t many options for where the women could be.

I rested my hand on a door panel and glanced at Kalyn. “Ready?” I whispered.

The racket the guys were making back in the club covered any noise we’d make, but they couldn’t keep it up forever.

It had to be now.

We forced our faces to vacuous grins, ready to giggle and ask where the ladies’ room was.

But it was empty.

As was the next.

And the next.

I kept opening doors while she watched the hallway, nervously pacing. By the time I reached the fourth door, my nerves were stretched tight waiting for someone to find us, for us to walk into a nest of traffickers, something.

But instead, I found a group of women crammed into a room hardly bigger than a closet.

From their scanty clothing and their scared expressions, we’d found them.

“Kalyn!” I whisper-shouted. “They’re here!”

“Get them out of here as fast as you can,” she replied. “I’ll keep watch.” She moved farther down the corridor towards the main part of the nightclub as I turned my attention back to the women.

There were nine of them in total. Half of them glared at me as if they wanted to slit my throat, the other half cowered.

“Can any of you understand me?” I asked, hoping that, like the last woman, someone had been fitted with a translator.

But they remained silent until one alien girl with three eyes, each a different color, skin as pale as porcelain, and a head of long, thick black hair stepped forward.

“I can.” Her voice was barely audible. “I am a Flaxion. We understand all languages.”

“Amazing.” I offered a friendly smile. “Can you tell the others I’m here to rescue you?” She relayed my message and eventually the women looked at me with a hopeful expression.

“My friends and I have a ship. We can take you away from here,” I said. The Flaxion girl translated. I wished she would speak faster. A guard could come at any moment.

“They want to know more,” the Flaxion girl replied.

“I will tell you everything you want to know, but if you want to make it out of here, we have to go now,” I insisted.

She translated, and I waited.

“We will go,” she finally announced, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’ll go one at a time,” I explained. “The door to the outside isn’t far. My friends are on the other side ready to take you someplace safe.” The Flaxion girl nodded. I reached out and grabbed the arm of the nearest girl and pulled her out of the closet. She tripped on the train of her dress as we dashed for the service door on the opposite end of the corridor from where Kalyn kept watch.

“Please be there,” I sent up a silent prayer as I peered around the edge of the door.

One more place this could go wrong.

One more…

But Orrin, the engineer, was on the other side, jaw tight.

“Oh, thank goodness. Get her to the Skimmer. We have to act fast.” He nodded and motioned for the girl to follow him. She was apprehensive and looked like she was about to bolt.

“Please go,” I urged, even though she couldn’t understand me. “It’ll be all right.” Something in my tone must’ve convinced her, for she nodded and followed Orrin. I ran back into the building to grab the next girl. My heart pounded so hard it was painful. I tried to hide how scared I was from the alien women. I didn’t want them to feel even more frightened than they already were.

Orrin and another crew member took turns meeting me at the side door, ferrying the women back to where the Skimmer was idling out of sight a block away, driver ready to go.

I went back and forth from the door to the closet, trying not to think about how quickly this could go wrong.

I focused on my steps. One in front of the other. I barely looked at the women as we walked. If I didn’t consciously remind myself to breathe, I would hold my breath until my lungs ached.

This wasn’t a fun rush of adrenaline and excitement.

There was nothing but cold, hard fear. The same fear I’d felt when I jumped the fence of the breeding facility and my friend ended up dead because of it.

When the last girl was out, I motioned for Kalyn to leave her position. We dashed to the Skimmer, already warmed up and ready to speed off.

But two of our group weren’t there.

“Where’re Dejar and Aavat?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” Kalyn bit her bottom lip. “The guys say they were escorted out of the club, but I don’t see them anywhere.”

“We have to find them!” I hissed as the remainder of my resolve cracked, my hands trembling uncontrollably.

“No time,” Orrin insisted. “They’re going to notice their women are missing any second now. We can’t be here when that happens.”

“I won’t leave without Aavat.”

“Dejar and Aavat are smart. I’m sure they’ve found someplace safe,” Orrin assured me. “They’ve gotten out of way worse situations than this. But if you don’t come with me now, we will be caught, and all of this will be for nothing.”

I wanted so desperately to argue. I hated the thought of leaving Aavat behind, even though Orrin was certain he was fine. If he wasn’t, and I left him behind, I’d never forgive myself.

“He’d be pissed if you got caught,” Orrin added. “Especially if it was because you were worried about him.”

I looked to the alien women, crowded and shivering and cowering in the Skimmer.

Orrin was right, I couldn’t stand in the way of their safety, not when we went so far to rescue them.

“Okay,” I sighed. Orrin helped me into the Skimmer and we sped off into the night. I was a nervous wreck the entire ride back to the ship. As soon as the alien women were safely aboard, I’d go out and find him. Kalyn looked worried, too, but didn’t seem as shaken as I was. She trusted Dejar to come out of any situation.

The ride back was cramped and miserable, the Skimmer over double its capacity. Some of the women sat on each other’s laps, though none looked happy about that arrangement. Others curled up on the floor, wedging themselves between the seats. I reckon they were much warmer than the rest of us.

No one talked.

The Skimmer pulled into the docking bay and there, waiting for us on the loading platform, were Dejar and Aavat.

I cried out from joy and relief as I leaped from the Skimmer while it was still parking and ran into Aavat’s arms.

“I was so worried! I thought something happened to you! Why would you disappear like that without telling me?”

“We were being watched. We couldn’t risk a guard following us to the Skimmer. Dejar and I hopped into a transport unit for hire to throw off any suspicion,” Aavat explained in a gentle voice, running his hand through my hair. “I would’ve told you if I’d had the chance.”

“I know.” I nodded into his chest. “But I didn’t like not knowing where you were. It was terrifying.”

“You’re trembling,” he murmured. He looked to Dejar. “I’m going to take Shenna. You got this?”

“We’ll get the women settled,” Dejar agreed. He offered me a concerned smile that only made me feel worse.

“I feel ridiculous,” I said as Aavat and I walked through the ship.

“Why? You’re reacting to fear and stress in a normal way,” Aavat reasoned.

“It’s not just that.” I struggled for the words as we reached his room.

He opened the door for me and urged me to sit down on his bed, the long gown tangled around my feet.

“Getting the women out was stressful, but manageable. When I realized you weren’t in the Skimmer, I felt like I was going to fall apart into a million pieces.”

“Not knowing where I was is causing you so much stress?” Aavat sat next to me, his expression a picture of confusion. “Why would that frighten you so much?”

“Because you were missing!” I cried. “There’s nothing scarier to me than losing you.”

“Oh, Shenna.” Aavat wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in close. “You’ll never lose me.”

“How can you be sure?” I twisted, murmuring into his neck.

“It’s going to take a lot more than a nightclub guard to keep me away from my mate.”

I lifted my head so quickly I almost hit his chin.

“Your mate?” I whispered. “You don’t need to pretend, it’s not part of a disguise now.”

He rubbed my exposed back, still covered in the Shein dye, every touch sending warmth pooling through me. “No pretending. No disguise could change that.”

A smile so big it hurt my cheeks spread across my face, as he pulled me tightly to his chest. He kissed me gently at first, as if asking permission. I leaned in, desperate to reach him, to be closer.

He kissed me more deeply, his tongue pushing past my lips to dance with mine. Fire shot through my veins as desire took over my senses. He grabbed me by my waist, lifted me to face him, kneeling over his lap.

Keeping me tight to his chest, he leaned back onto his bed.

“We never finished our business in the showers,” he growled. Warmth pooled in my belly as his hands slid up the hem of my gown, tracing over the outside of my legs, the curve of my hips. Lifting me slightly, he slid the gown away, tossed it into the corner, then pulled his own shirt off in one smooth motion.

I sat still for a moment, taking in the sensations of his hands as they caressed my skin, gently drawing invisible patterns, leaving aching tingles in their wake.

“Remember in the shower…all the things you said you wanted to do to me?”

He froze, nodded.

“I want them, too.”

That cocky, knowing smile I loved so much flashed over his face immediately, a deeper hunger clear beneath it. “Is that right?”

Something about the way he looked at me in that moment flipped some sort of switch inside me. I couldn’t explain it then, and maybe I never would be able to, but I felt called to do what he wanted.

Anything he wanted.

To let him give me the gift he’d promised then. To lose myself completely in him and his attentions.

There was no room for doubt or hesitation anymore.

Trying to shake the thoughts from my head, I inadvertently signaled the negative, surprising him, his brows shooting up. Once I realized, I stammered, caught and flushing. “I-I mean, yes! I was just… thinking too much again.”

Aavat laughed and pulled me back into another firm, loving kiss. I relished the feeling of being skin-on-skin with him properly, our chests pressed tight together, joined in all ways but one—and that was coming.

His hips shifted beneath me, and his hardness pulsed and slid against my core as he moved. He brought his hands down to my hips to slide my panties down, and I brought one leg up at a time.

The feeling of his length beneath me was even more intense, though I was still agonizingly separated from it by the last barrier of cloth he wore.

I sat up straight, pulling back from our kiss. As much as I didn’t want to leave those wonderful lips, I needed to feel that divine pressure, to let him see the flush growing over my chest, how hard my nipples had become—all those little things I knew he’d notice right away and take for exactly what they were.

Runaway desire for him, quickly growing out of my control.

I trailed my hands over his chest as I pressed down against him, the heat rapidly growing between us as I tightened my legs around his waist.

Aavat let out a long, rumbling sort of growl, his own hands busying themselves at my thighs. He laid his palms flat at first, but soon found something new to enjoy—the feeling of me twitching and twisting atop him as he dragged his nails featherlight over my skin, moving further and further inside my thighs.

I reflexively spread my thighs further apart, and the moment I did, he urged me up onto my knees to hover over him as he hurriedly slid out of his pants, removing the last barrier between us.

As he laid back, his eyes settled on the point where our bodies joined. I could feel the thick heat spreading me wide as I lowered myself against his shaft. I couldn’t help a mischievous little smile of my own when I began slowly bucking my hips, sliding along the underside of that heavenly appendage, drawing a hissing gasp from him.

Something very new and very alien grew in his gaze. I’d caught a small glimpse of it when we were in the shower—the driving hunger, the almost predatory need to claim his mate properly.

I wanted to see it. I wanted to see all of it, and I knew the only way I could do that was to tease him a little longer—at least, as long as he’d let me. I rocked my hips back just as he slid down, keeping our joining at the same point, and he let out a frustrated sort of huff, his gaze never turning from that point.

I could see the muscles of his chest beginning to flex, his hands trembling and intermittently tightening at my hips, no doubt trying to keep some kind of rein on the urge to throw me to the bed and ravish me completely. I think, despite every protest and desperate urge toward climax his body was so obviously sending, he was enjoying the build-up just as much as I was.

The twitching pull at the corner of his lips, almost as if he’d taken on some great challenge, was all the proof of that I needed.

I began rocking my hips a little more eagerly, bringing my hands to his sides as I leaned down to really pick up the pressure. His eyes finally met mine then, equally intoxicating parts visceral intensity and profound love. His tongue swiped out over his full lips, and he settled into the rhythm I’d set.

“Do you like that, beautiful,” he purred, his fingers pushing and pulling me along the hard length, the feeling causing my breath to catch.

I couldn’t answer, just panted, lost in the sensation.

“It’ll be even better with they’re inside you.”

What? I blinked.

I hadn’t looked down to see just what I was sliding along, but there was certainly something different from what I would have expected with any human man.

There was a secondary motion aside from the twitch and pulse of the main length, and I could faintly feel the touch of something smoother and apparently at least somewhat able to move independently of the other.

As much as I wanted to drag it out as long as possible, I couldn’t take the suspense of not knowing.

It almost felt like unwrapping a present as I sat straight once more and slid down past the base of his cock to perch on his muscular thighs, looking down as I took the ridged thickness into my hand.

To my surprise, a second appendage came up, as well, situated just above it. It was definitely slenderer, but only really by comparison.

Apparently, it’s hard to tell just how big something is until you have it in your hand.

A thrill somewhere between bliss and fear shot through me as I wrapped my hand around him, the tips of my fingers hardly touching. The second appendage slid autonomously over the top of my thumb, and when I looked back up to Aavat, he seemed to be all but overwhelmed.

He panted quietly, each sharp exhalation punctuated with a rumble from somewhere deep in his chest. While he seemed to want to look at me, his eyes rolled back when I started stroking in earnest, making a point to bring my thumb up and over the secondary appendage, squeezing along its length with every pump.

Before I had a chance to really settle into any kind of rhythm, he sat up suddenly and wrapped his arms around me, pressing his lips tight to mine. I was surprised, but his intent was made clear when he tightened his grip and effortlessly lifted me up just enough to line up the tip of that huge length. I shuddered hard as I felt myself stretching to accommodate him already, even though he’d only let me descend a little.

Bit by bit, he eased me down, leaving me whimpering and squirming, but utterly trusting him to take it slowly enough.

If he wasn’t going to, he would have slammed up into me the moment he had me in his grip.

Little more than a third of the way down, I felt the secondary stiffening and sliding up over my clit, sending a sudden crashing jolt of pleasure through me. I froze in place, and he didn’t push me down any further.

Aavat seemed to be getting just as much out of that sudden collision as I was. He laid his head against my shoulder, and his lips trembling as he opened his mouth just enough to kiss and suckle there. I remembered the shocking, almost terrifying, first sight of those razor-sharp teeth he had. I wondered if he might have given more than a little nip if my skin was as resilient as his and found myself thankful that he knew just how soft I really was.

Instead, his hot breath and the almost worshipful ministrations of his tongue and lips left me tingling.

He dragged his nails lightly down my back before he resumed the slow process of getting me used to his massive length, pressing our hips closer and closer together by the moment. The secondary appendage seemed more and more animate the deeper he got, and soon I could feel it pulsing hard against my clit, pushing in hard every time he brought my weight up and settled it back down.

Soon, my body seemed to understand how badly I wanted everything he had to give, and I could feel myself opening up more and more for him. The bliss when I finally rested firmly in his lap couldn’t possibly be described as anything other than transcendent.

I rocked slowly in his lap, and he leaned back for the moment, placing his hands at my hips to begin guiding me up and down his huge, ridged manhood, every stroke sending another sudden jolt of pleasure through me, my body shaking with the thunderous intensity of it as we finally hit our stride.

As careful as he’d been with me to begin with, I soon found myself completely in his grasp, no motion I could make likely to make any difference to what I was being given. He bounced me hard in his lap, leaning back against the pillows to watch me.

Even buried so deep, the hunger persisted in those beautiful eyes.

He was still careful, controlled.

I thought back to what he’d said in the shower.

He wanted to have me on my hands and knees. The thought of the raw, animalistic fucking he was so desperate to give me made me just as desperate to give it to him.

Through shuddering moans and deep gasps every time he slammed me down, I managed to tell him exactly what I wanted—what I knew he wanted.

“I thought you planned to bend me over,” I gasped. “Make me scream.”

I met his gaze, challenging him. “Change your mind?”

No sooner had I finished speaking, I found myself being rolled from his lap, the sudden absence of his pulsing length inside me creating a terrible emptiness I absolutely had to have filled. I shifted back to rest my knees at the edge of the bed, laying my chest flat against the bed. My legs were spread wide, and I could feel how utterly soaked I was at the thought of being so wantonly on display for him.

“Perfect mate,” he growled, then grabbed my hips roughly, positioned the head of his cock against my slick heat, and plunged deep inside with one long, brutal stroke. I buried my head in the bed at the suddenness of the sensation, my hands shooting down to the sheets to grab them tightly, holding on for dear life as something between a moan and a scream was pulled from me, muffled deep in the plush bed.

I made a few barely-there attempts to push my hips back against his, completely overwhelmed and unable to do much but wait for him to take anything and everything he wanted, but I didn’t have to wait long.

He began pounding into me wildly after a few cursory strokes to make sure I was still ready for him, a near-roar of a groan issuing forth as he began bottoming out inside me, striking with every thrust my deepest, most sensitive place.

This was worlds away from clinical breeding. This was brutal nature, an overwhelmingly powerful predator taking his all-too-willing mate.

The secondary appendage slid over my ass, sending a strange, new sort of shiver through me every time I felt the sudden pressure, adding to the confusing barrage of sensation. The next thrust came just as quickly as the ones before it, and I found the slender appendage sliding deep into me.

The new sensation was so crushingly intense that I found myself with my head buried back in the covers once more.

His hands lifted me by the hips, then one slid forward, rolling across my clit even as he kept the driving rhythm from behind.

“Aavat!” I screamed as I shattered, white stars exploding across my vision, every nerve alive, just for him.

Barely managing to lift my head long enough to move at all, I looked back over my shoulder at him. I was desperate to see what I was giving him, how I was making him feel. When our eyes met, what was a near-roar before now came suddenly, unburdened, a feral sort of vocalization as he mindlessly pounded into me, peaking with a powerful, resounding bellow as he climaxed.

I watched him for as long as I could, but the sensation of his hot seed shooting so deep inside me pushed me over the precipice again, tumbling from the edge I’d been holding so desperately to. My body shook in a tight, electric tremble before I was plunged into the depths of a second, deep, mind-shattering orgasm.

Feeling everything and nothing all at once, I’d been pulled into a dimension where nothing but our bliss existed, expressed in a pleasure so full in soul and body that nothing could ever begin to approach it. My body at once seemed simultaneously entirely absent and too stimulated to be contained physically, my being splintering in every direction as I held on for dear life.

The sensation that brought me tumbling back to reality was the feeling of his weight against my back, the sudden divot on the bed beside me where he’d placed his hand to keep from collapsing atop me completely. His breaths were ragged, gaspy, almost frantic.

Gently he rolled to the side, pulling me with him.

“Sweet, perfect mate,” he murmured, kissing the top of my head as his hands stroked up and down my sides.

Despite everything, I twitched at his touch.

“Hungry for more?” he laughed. “It’s a good thing I could never deny you.”

“There were a few other things you mentioned in the shower,” I managed to gasp.

“Good thing we’re not on duty for hours yet,” he answered, as gently strokes grew demanding.

A very good thing indeed.

AAVAT

“Ho, Dejar.”

He looked up from his desk tablet and motioned me into the office. “I was looking into the station you recommended, and you were right, it is way out of the Dominion care circle. That’s going to give us a chance to breathe for a few, let things settle down just a bit, and maybe give us a chance to figure out our next move.”

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” I said. “I wanted to thank you for all of this. I know that this is costing us potential work, but it’s the right thing to do.”

“That’s alright. We’re going to take it out of your cut and make you work for free from now on.”

I looked at him, my mouth slightly open as I absorbed what he said. As I stared at him, he struggled to hold back a smile. By the mother world, I hated him at times.

“You know, I really do hate you sometimes,” I jest.

He burst out laughing for a few seconds, then got serious. “Can I say something without you getting emotional about it? Or punching me?”

That got my attention since I wasn’t the emotional type. Punching, maybe. “Go ahead.”

“I like the person you’ve become since the women arrived.”

I tilted my head a bit.

“You’re still tough when you need to be, but you’ve mellowed. Some.”

I flashed him a sign I had seen the women use when they were mad at one another, a single middle finger.

With a roll of the eyes, he chuckled a bit. “Yeah, fine. Think what you want, but you’re not the unfeeling asshole you used to be.”

I matched his smile with a gruesome frown. “You do realize that I can, and will, beat you until you’re a part of your desk if that will help you stop this ludicrous line of discussion.”

For a second, I wasn’t sure if he took me seriously or not because his smile vanished. Then we both laughed.

I went over to Dejar’s bar, held up a bottle questioningly and, at his nod, I poured us both a glass of vandaron. I set his glass down in front of him and took my seat. “You were saying?” I asked.

“You know, as well as I do, that you’ve mellowed. You’re not the temperamental, angry person you were.”

I had to agree with him, and I wasn’t upset about it. “The women have been good for all of us, not just me. You’ve changed, as well.”

“True. I never thought I’d be able to find anyone to be with while flying around out here. I honestly expected to either die alone or not be able to find someone until I was far too old for a family, children.”

This was different. I had never heard him talk like this before.

But I had been thinking the same thing lately. If it wasn’t for Shenna, I had been thinking I would die in an accident, in a fight, something random, and I had been fine about that.

Now, I wanted to live for her.

My mate. And maybe, someday, our children.

“Shenna has changed my feeling towards what we do, and I think Kalyn has done the same for you.”

“She has. It feels good, too, doesn’t it?”

I nodded.

“Is that why you jumped at the opportunity to save that girl?” he asked.

“I’d like to believe that I would have acted the same even if Shenna had never come into my life.” I took a sip of vandaron before continuing. “But I know, without a doubt, that because of the women, I acted more readily to save her than I would have before. Honestly? I think I would have just gotten into a fight and done my best to beat everyone inside that first auction senseless. Because of Shenna, I’m more interested in seeing if we can end this at the top.”

“I totally agree,” Dejar said. “I want to see where this goes and try to stop it from happening anymore.”

I sat forward. The conversation had grown serious and we needed to figure things out. I pushed my drink to the side. I didn’t want it for this part. “So, what do we do?”

“Do you agree that these auctions go deeper than just some rich people on Katzul?”

“Without a doubt. This has to involve some major players.”

“Which is why that sigil worries me so much. If it is Dominion, a branch of the Dominion that we don’t know about, then they will have full Dominion backing and we can’t fight that.”

“True,” I admitted. “But what if they merely made that sigil in order to make people think they’re official? What if the crew is right and they’re something else entirely?”

“That’s something we’ll hopefully find out soon,” Dejar said. “Here, look.” He flipped what was on his desk tablet to the wall. It was the sigil and a copy of the list we had found in that second nightclub. “What I’ve been seeing is that the list has nine different planet names on it, right?”

“Mm, hmm.” I wasn’t sure where he was going.

“Well, the sigil has more than nine stars on it, but these nine here,” he highlighted them, “are brighter than the others. What if their sigil is part of a map to show them where to go?”

“You’re thinking the nine stars on the sigil are actually planets, not markers for systems?” I wasn’t seeing it, but it sort of made sense.

He nodded at me. “Maybe. We’d still need the reference point for the map. Have we gotten anything from the women we’ve rescued?”

I shook my head. “Not that I’ve heard so far. Most of them don’t understand what we’re saying, and we don’t understand them. Our own computer doesn’t have enough of a sample to translate, even as patchy as it was with Terran. We’ve only got that one woman who seems to be able to understand all of us, so that leaves us with only being able to do one interview at a time.”

“Umbba.”

“That’s not all,” I added. “The women don’t seem very trusting of us, so they’re resisting.”

“Well, that’s understandable based on what we can assume they’ve gone through.”

“Which brings us back to the sigil and the possible Dominion connection.” I decided I did need a drink, so I swallowed half of my vandaron. “Could the situation at Outpost Nine have been a set-up? Could Maris have been right with her scenario?”

“That’s the part that worries me. We cannot take on the Dominion on this.”

“You already said that,” I commented.

“That’s how serious it is,” he commented back. “You know that we’re going to have to go back to Katzul eventually, don’t you?”

“Yes. We’ll need the work, but we’ll also need to deal with the problem there.”

He nodded as he sat back in his chair. “That’s right. But I don’t want to deal with this blind.”

“We need more information. I just don’t know where to go to find it without returning and talking with Itair again, and I don’t think he’ll be willing to talk right now.”

As I sat back in my chair, I looked back at the list on the wall screen. I knew nothing about those names, not even what systems they were in.

I had travelled to places that even Dejar hadn’t.

This entire situation reeked of something bigger than what we saw, and that worried me. We needed ‘our’ women to get the new women to talk.

“Well,” I said after a long pause between us. “We won’t figure this out now. Another drink?”

At Dejar’s nod, I refilled our glasses, and we stewed over our nonexistent options.

SHENNA

As a crew, we’d decided it would be best if the human women looked after the alien women.

In addition to my normal cleaning duties, I now had a shift with our new passengers every other day, though I often helped out more when I could.

The language barrier was difficult to overcome. Only the Flaxion girl, Vixaine, could understand us. Poor Vixaine was running herself ragged as the group’s communicator. I considered asking Dejar to give her a wage for all she did.

To make matters more complicated, the women we’d rescued didn’t trust anyone, not even the other alien women.

That was to be expected, of course. All of them had been through some kind of hell. But that distrust hindered communication.

Most of the time, when asked a question by Vixaine on our behalf, the women simply refused to answer.

Aavat had the idea of hanging up the auction list in the cargo hold. If the women didn’t want to speak their names out loud, he figured they should have the option to identify themselves from the list. Already, Vixaine had sketched out a small design next to her name. I wrote her name in Terran on the page as well, so the human women could easily figure out who was who.

A few other women also marked themselves on the paper. In addition to Vixaine the Flaxion, there was Sayl the Ori, Wedla the Binx, and Ilyss the Xanxi.

The rest continued to remain anonymous.

There was one alien girl who refused to interact with anyone, even the other women. There was something different about her. She didn’t hold herself like she was tired and scared. She held herself with poise and grace.

Out of all the alien women, she looked closest to a human. Her skin was the color of melted chocolate but had a shimmery hue to it like a Shein. Her eyes were the color of amber. When her mouth was closed, her face could easily be mistaken for human. But when she opened her mouth, which was only when she ate, rows of needle-thin teeth could be seen between her naturally dark lips.

She also had a downward curving black claw on each of her elbows. I assumed they were for combat. She rarely left her spot in the back of the cargo hold, where she sat ramrod straight with her legs folded over each other.

When she did stand and walk, she was about my height but so thin that, if she were a human, I could snap her bones like toothpicks. But when she moved, she showed nothing but strength. I avoided her without being aware of it. When anyone wanted to ask her something, Vixaine refused to talk to her.

Three days after we rescued the women, I was bringing trays of food down to the cargo hold with the help of Manda and Lynna. Meal times were the most stressful. There were a few women that had yet to eat anything. However, we couldn’t tell if they were ill or if they simply didn’t need to eat as often as humans did.

Lynna always had to be present for meal times. At three meals so far, a different woman had some kind of allergic reaction to the food we served. Lynna and the ship’s medic, Zayn, put together a variety of different allergy treatments just to be prepared.

When we had first been brought aboard the Rogue Star, it was simple to tell what we could process and what we couldn’t because we had all been Terrans, and the AI had a surprising amount of data on our system.

But with so many different unknown, unregistered species, there were bound to be cracks.

On the first night, one of the women had a bad reaction to something she ate but none of the allergy treatments worked well on her, and she had to spend the night in the med bay under constant watch, which she hated, trying to rip out her IVs and escape multiple times.

Aavat had to leave our bed to deal with it.

Now, she only ate bread.

“Lunchtime, ladies!” Lynna chirped when she entered the cargo hold. Now that the women were getting used to us, they stopped dashing to the back of the cargo hold every time we opened the door.

Some of them actually smiled back at us.

“What is it?” Vixaine asked.

“Something simple,” I answered. “Bread and soup with lots of protein.” Vixaine translated my words to each girl. Sayl approached me first. I passed her a bowl filled with steaming soup.

“Thank you,” she said in halting Shein. I almost dropped my tray in surprise.

“You’re welcome!” I beamed. “Well done!” She smiled and went to sit beside the two other alien women she often ate with. It made me happy to see some of them making friendships and forming bonds. It reminded me of how the Persephone Station women were when we first arrived.

I checked the list tacked up on the wall. To my surprise, another girl had indicated her place on the list. I took the sheet down and tucked it into my pocket. I’d ask Aavat to read it to me later and then add the Terran spelling. I wasn’t sure why these women had such a deep aversion to speaking their names out loud, but if the list was working, I wasn’t going to question it.

The girl that made me uneasy, the one with the amber eyes and claws, stood up from her usual place at the back of the room. The moment she did, the other women went still. They didn’t look at her, but all of their attention was focused on what she was doing.

She glided over to me and stopped, only an inch or so from my tray. She bent forward and sniffed once, before sneering in disgust and walking back to her spot. As soon as she was still again, the other women went back to eating.

“Guess you won’t be eating lunch,” I muttered to myself. Her head snapped toward me, her amber eyes blazing. Her reaction implied that not only did she somehow hear me from the other side of the room, she also understood the meaning of my words.

A cold chill came over my body and I left the cargo hold the moment my tray was empty and Lynna was sure everyone would be alright.

As I walked through the ship, I checked the time. Aavat should be done with his afternoon duties by now. He was probably in our room, waiting for me so we could have lunch together.

When I opened the door to our room, he was half asleep on the bed. I tapped his foot lightly. He grumbled and sat up. When he realized it was me, he smiled.

“I thought you were Dejar coming to tell me I filed my paperwork incorrectly,” he grinned.

“Does that happen often?”

“Daily,” he replied.

I snorted.

“How are our new passengers doing today?” Aavat asked.

“Some of them are doing much better,” I replied. “One of them even thanked me in Shein. I was very impressed.”

“But?” he prompted, sensing my hesitation. I sat down on the bed beside him.

“Some of them aren’t eating enough. Most of them still won’t talk to us, or even each other. One’s particularly not happy with us, or anything.” I shivered again at the memory of those piercing amber eyes.

“She’s likely still on the defensive after all she’s been through,” Aavat reasoned. “Many creatures are at their most aggressive when they feel threatened and cornered.”

“True. She hasn’t done anything violent. She’s just so creepy.”

“I’m sure she’ll come around,” Aavat assured me. “Did any women add their name to the list?”

“Yes! Thanks for reminding me.” I took the auction list from my pocket and handed it to Aavat.

“Priak. She’s blue with white hair,” Aavat read.

“I know exactly who you’re talking about,” I grinned. I grabbed a pen off the desk and scribbled her name and description in Terran. “I hope we learn all of their names one day.”

“I hope we can get them off the ship as soon as possible so they can start their new lives,” Aavat replied. “They probably want to get back to their home planets.”

“I’m sure they do,” I agreed. “We just have to hide them until that’s possible.”

“You sound nervous,” Aavat remarked.

“I keep thinking about that ship that attacked us,” I confessed. “What if the Dominion or someone from the auction group come after us and attacks us for the women?”

“Even if the Rogue Star is linked to the missing women, we’re already long gone. If someone is looking for the women, whoever they are, they won’t find us,” Aavat replied.

“You don’t know that,” I sighed.

“You’re right, I don’t,” he shrugged. “But I do know one thing.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“That if anyone is stupid enough to try to harm you, there isn’t a place in the entirety of Dominion space that could keep them safe from me,” Aavat swore. “You’re mine as much as I’m yours. There’s nothing I won’t do to keep you safe.”

I placed my hand on his cheek and leaned in to kiss him.

“Just don’t do anything too reckless,” I said to him.

“No promises.”

EPILOGUE - SHENNA

Despite being off duty and cozily tucked into Aavat’s cabin, I couldn’t stop thinking about the women we’d rescued.

They were safe with us now, but I couldn’t stop myself from imagining all of the horrible things that might’ve happened to them if we hadn’t intervened.

Might have already happened.

I wondered how far away their homeworlds were. Surely, they had families. Mothers, fathers, brothers.

Sisters.

My heart ached as I thought about how awful it would be for my sister to just vanish from her bed one night, never to be seen or heard from again.

Then it hit me like an asteroid.

That’s exactly what I’d done to my own sister.

She knew I chose to go to Persephone Station rather than prison. I never got the chance to ask her how she felt about my choice.

When I left for Pluto, she wouldn’t stop crying. I think she secretly would’ve preferred me to go to prison on Earth. She could’ve visited me there, at least.

By now, she would’ve heard about the destruction of the station. She’d never know what really happened to me. Just like the families of the women in our cargo hold would probably never know what happened to them.

My heart felt heavy and tight. There was a very real possibility that I might never see my sister again. We used to be inseparable.

She was my best friend, more so than Arcania ever had been. Hell, Arcania probably just liked having people around that she could manipulate. I’d made it all too easy for her.

Maybe Aavat knew some way I could get a message to Alista. I pulled myself out of bed and started to pace the length of the room. That was when I spied a stack of film and pads in one of the desk drawers that had been left slightly ajar.

I grabbed a few sheets of film and then scoured the room for a stylus. I found one under the desk, of all places. I took a seat and started writing a letter.

DEAR ALISTA,

I know you might never read this, but I’m sorry for not writing sooner. I should’ve sent you a message every day while I was still able to. Eventually, I’ll be able to visit home without the threat of death (don’t worry, I’ll explain that later). By the time that happens, maybe I’ll have written a book’s worth of letters for you to read.

Before I go any further, you should know I’m alright. I’m more than alright.

I’m in love!

We never thought that day would come, did we?

He’s named Aavat, and he’s a Shein. Umm, he’s an alien, all of the crew of the Rogue Star are Shein. Which I guess is something else I’ll have to explain, but believe it or not, it’s not important.

Aavat was a little rough around the edges when I first met him. Turns out, he’s one of the most compassionate, caring beings around. He has bronze skin (yes, it really looks bronze), he’s covered in tattoos, and I’m pretty sure his teeth would be sharp and pointed if he didn’t file them down.

He helped me break into a mansion and rescue a fluffy little thing that I’ve named Poof. You’d love it. If I find another one in need of rescue, I’ll bring it back to Earth for you to keep. We’ve got a cat, too. Yes, an Earth cat.

We’re a strange family floating out here in space.

I wish I knew what you were up to. You would’ve graduated university by now. Did you end up studying art? I know father wanted you to study something like astrophysics or engineering. I wonder if he ever realized that I only rebelled so much because of his strictness. I hope he did and he’s gone easier on you as a result.

I wish I could talk to you. I miss you every day.

Your loving sister,

Shenna

I READ over the letter again and again until I thought it was perfect, even though it didn’t matter.

“You’re working hard on something over there.” Aavat’s voice pulled me from my letter. He stood in the doorway with a contented smile on his face.

“How long have you been standing there?” I asked.

“Long enough to know you’re writing something important,” he replied.

“A letter to my sister,” I explained. “I know I can’t send it right now. I’m going to save it until I can give it to her in person one day.”

“When you return to the Terran System?” Aavat asked, a faint crease of worry appearing on his brow.

“If it’s ever possible, I’m not opposed to visiting my home system.” I reached out and grabbed his hand.

“Just visiting?” he asked.

“I don’t want to live there again,” I admitted. “I have no future on Earth or Mars. My sister is the only thing that would bring me back, but I wouldn’t turn away from this amazing galaxy I’m only just starting to discover.”

“Sounds like I should try to convince you a bit more,” he growled. “Since your furry friends seem to be out exploring again.”

“Oh? You think you can convince me like that, huh?” I grinned up at him and tossed a little wink his way.

Aavat closed the distance between us. Just before he had me wrapped up in that warm, loving embrace, he nodded and spoke, each word punctuated by a heated caress. “Fuckin’ absolutely I do. I can’t keep my mind off you—not that I’d want to. I keep getting drawn back to the memory of that feeling… how hot you were, how soft, and smooth, and…”

I gave him a little nudge. “I’m right here, you know. You don’t have to remember. We can just…” A little nod of my head toward the bed.

He guffawed and let his arms drop from around me. “And interrupt all your important work? You’re clearly swamped. Maybe I should come back a little later, huh?” His grin was growing by the moment, soon stretching wide across his face, baring those beautiful teeth of his.

He knew just how to get me, the bastard.

I might, possibly, have stamped my foot.

“No, you have to stay because I said so and because I love you.”

The moment I turned around, I heard a quick succession of thumps, the distinct and unmistakable sound of boots and clothes hitting the deck. He slipped past me and into bed with an almost reptilian smoothness, sliding into a portrait-perfect pose, propped up on one elbow like some shining bronze statue. He was beautiful and he knew it.

A smile pulled at my lips, but I quickly put on my best serious face. “Excuse you, sir, that’s a little presumptuous, don’t you think?”

Aavat just laughed and sat up long enough to grab my hand, pulling me into bed with him and immediately smothering me with affectionate little pecks over my cheeks. The kisses didn’t stay innocent for long, and soon I could feel his breath quickening a bit, his lips trailing to the side of my neck and then to the crook of my shoulder, inhaling deeply as he pulled the fabric of my shirt aside.

I was all too eager to make it easier for him, and quickly pulled both my shirt and bra off, chucking them carelessly across the room before sliding out of the rest of my clothes. He squared back a little to watch me, taking in and appreciating every revealed inch in the way I knew only he could, his eyes lighting up as if every moment he got to see what I kept hidden was a treasure to be guarded. Only once I laid back and stretched my arms up above my head did he move at all, immediately pressing his lips to my belly, just above my waist.

I squealed and squirmed at the sudden onslaught of ticklish pleasure, but he steadied my hips and continued unabated. When it became clear that he was drifting down, my body seemed to get the message and stopped its giggling struggle entirely.

He slid down between my legs, urging them apart and back with gentle pressure, his eyes fixed on the nexus of his treasure. The hunger he’d shown me before was present, but having come through all we had, there was something new there, too, and I was starting to think I’d always see new little things in that loving gaze of his. He wasted no time lowering his head to press his wonderful lips to my clit, stimulating me with slow, soft kisses, though he soon escalated to long, lingering laps of his tongue.

When he focused his attention on my clit in earnest, I couldn’t help my legs suddenly coming together on either side of his head, my body apparently intent on keeping him there forever—and I couldn’t say I disagreed. The ecstasy was indescribable, and so completely different from anything else he’d given me up to that point.

I brought a hand down to stroke his hair as he lapped and sucked, and no doubt my gaze said the same sort of things his had told me. That he was my treasure, my beloved.

My mate.

Aavat moved gentle and slow with me, lingering a long time, seeming to luxuriate in the experience just as much as I was, never picking up the pace beyond one that had me panting softly and rocking my hips against him. When he finally pulled away, he ran his tongue over his lips and chin, his chest rapidly rising and falling with apparent excitement and anticipation.

I urged him up between my legs and wrapped them around him once more, guiding his massive length inside me. It didn’t take nearly as much adjustment as it had the first time, almost as if my body had immediately taken to him, conformed to accept him completely.

Our love was soft and slow, quiet and loving, our hips slowly rocking together and against each other in turn. I knew it would end in an unbelievable orgasm and a beautiful afterglow with him, but I was in no hurry. Just watching him, feeling him, showing him how much I loved and treasured him, was so much more important than any conclusion. When it came, we locked together, our arms wrapped tightly around each other, our lips pressed tightly in a kiss I wished would never end.

As feeling returned to my limbs, I snuggled into him. “I’m pretty convinced.”

“That’s a relief,” Aavat laughed. “I’ve grown attached to you. It would be most inconvenient for you to return to your home system.”

“I would hate to cause you any trouble.”

“Where was that thought when you dragged me out in the middle of the night to steal the fluffball?”

“Don’t pretend like you didn’t have fun,” I teased. “Besides, Poof is eternally grateful to you, and so am I.”

“Did you write about Poof in your letter?” Aavat asked.

“Do you want to read it?” I asked him.

“I do. But you’d have to teach me how to read Terran first,” he chuckled.

“Oh! Let me read it to you, instead,” I offered. Aavat listened intently as I read through my letter to Alista. When I got to the part about him, he grinned from ear to ear.

“You think of us as a family?” he asked.

“Of course!” I exclaimed. “You, me, Kalyn, Dejar, the animals, and everyone else. We’re all part of a big family now.”

“I’m glad I’m able to bring you into the family.” Aavat kissed my neck, a gentle nip sending shivers down my spine.

“I’m glad I found a new home in you.”

LETTER FROM ELIN

If you’re on my mailing list or in the facebook group, you’ve seen plenty of photos of my helper cats and dogs - they keep me focused on the important things of life… like more scratches.

So it was great fun to have a character who can’t help but rescue furry friends of her own!

And you know Aavat really doesn’t mind :)

Keep reading for a sneak peek of Rogue Instinct, or grab your copy now!

XOXO,

Elin

P.S. I’ve just added the first chapter from Given, the first book of my Star Breed series, and Vrehx, the first of Conquered World.

Give them a try and let me know what you think! You can always reach me at elin@elinwynbooks.com

ROGUE INSTINCT

Orrin

“I SUSPECT you may be the most intelligent member of our new crew mates,” I grumbled to the only other occupant of the engine room.”

“Power transfer conduit is connected to the fold coil which is connected to output shaft coupling which is connected to…that doesn’t look right.”  I was pouring over the engine, trying to keep my head clear.

The output shaft coupling was supposed to be connected to damper disc three that was connected to the output shaft, but for some reason, it had been moved and was now connected to damper disc two which had a more direct connection to the fold generator and the distributors.

We had been away from Katzul for days now, headed towards Qasar Space Station, and we couldn’t get there quickly enough.

We were forced to move slowly in order to avoid leaving behind a trail and to avoid leaving a big enough heat signature to be seen on a long-range scan.

That meant that when I was sleeping, it was in short bursts so I could wake up once an hour to monitor the engine’s output.

And something wasn’t right.

I set down my tools, grabbed my tablet, and called up the AI to run a simulation on what the effect of this new connection was.  I didn’t like anyone messing with my engine.

I had suffered that human, Maris, helping me rework things on my baby in order to change her output signature, but if she had messed with my output settings and made things worse, I was going to get her removed from my engineering bay.

Huh.

The AI came back with word that the new configuration was 8% more efficient than before and had been part of the signature rewrite process.  I flipped the tablet off, set it down, and studied what had been done.

It was a more direct, and therefore, shorter connection which meant that the engine didn’t have to work as hard. However,  my concern was that damper disk two wasn’t built for that kind of connection and would short out faster. I took my notebook from my pocket, flipped to today’s page, and made note of what I had found and what I needed to do.

“I’d appreciate you telling Maris to keep her hands off my engine,” I grumbled.

Unfortunately, Persephone the cat wasn’t taking messages. Instead she sauntered over, rubbed up against my back with a loud purr, then curled up in her little space in my tool box.

Maris was an intelligent woman, probably the only one other than their doctor that I respected, but she was given permission from the Captain to mess with my engine, and I didn’t like that.

I had built this engine and rebuilt it several times.  I knew this engine as if it were my own child, and this human woman, with no knowledge of the Shein NX-01-T engine or our fold technology, was going to tell me how to rewire it, reroute it, and rebuild it.

Not likely.

Her ideas had worked, I’d admit that.  But, then she was assigned to work in my engineering bay.

Why?

I already had my own crew, and they all knew not to mess with my engine unless they could guarantee that their work was going to be correct.  Then this human comes in and wants to do things that just can’t possibly work.

You can’t reroute the post-stage fold tuner assembly back into the intake collector with a series of filters to filter out the impurities caused by the fold.  It just wasn’t a feasible action. The heat alone would force the cooling units to work exceedingly hard, and we didn’t have enough spares to replace all of them.

Then, she wanted to rework my formula for dispensing the fuel.  Really? How did that woman know anything about starship fuel?

Speaking of fuel, while we weren’t running low, we certainly weren’t in an area to refuel.  There were three stations semi-along the way to the Qasar Station, all of them Dominion controlled.

Well, there was a chance that one of them was pirate controlled, but no one knew for sure.  It exchanged hands at least three or four times a year in small skirmishes.

However, if we were forced to run and use the engines at full for any reason, for any length of time longer than a few minutes, we wouldn’t have enough fuel to make it to the station safely.

We couldn’t fold there, which would guarantee our arrival, because it would leave too strong of a signature and anyone looking for us would know exactly where we went.

“Every solution brings more problems.”

Persephone had moved to my lap, and was now rubbing her head against the tablet, rousing me from my thoughts.

I blinked, realizing I’d been blanked out, staring at the screen for nearly fifteen minutes.

I shook my head, got to my feet to stretch, which sent Persephone running in annoyance, and yawned until I could feel it in my toes.

There had to be a way to give us speed without leaving behind a signature.  I pulled up the blueprints of the engine and began cycling through different configurations, looking for efficiency, speed, and a negligible heat signature.

I had to find a way to fix this.  I couldn’t continue working the way I was, the crew couldn’t continue sitting around doing nothing, and I couldn’t handle another request for work from Maris.

Not right now.

Not ever, if I could help it.

Maris

I CAREFULLY BALANCED a tray piled high with some kind of smoked meat and vegetables. Aryn followed behind me with bread and something that resembled an Earth salad that’d been colored by a toddler. Parria, brought up the rear, carrying a huge pot of steaming sauce.

I didn’t understand why we still brought meals to the alien women in the cargo hold. It wasn’t as if their door was locked. Shenna and Kayln had repeated they were free to move around the ship.

It’d be nice if they felt free enough to take themselves to the mess hall.

Though, if I had the option to lounge in my room all day while someone fed me, I’d take it, at least for a while.

Maybe they had some kind of complex? They’d been prisoners for ages for all we knew. Maybe they forgot they had free will.

God, that would suck.

When we reached the cargo hold, I bumped the door open with my hip.

“You’re late,” one of the alien women attempted a smile.

I knew she was joking, but she’d only just grasped the basics of Terran and didn’t understand how tone affected the meaning of words. She sounded like a spoiled madam. Her smile was unsettling. The way her mouth was shaped made me think that smiling wasn’t natural gesture among her people, whoever they were.

“Keep your pants on, we aren’t going to let you starve,” Aryn said when I didn’t say anything.

“I do not understand,” the alien girl spoke again. Her white hair shone in the perpetually dim light of the cargo bay.

Rescuing these alien girls was a great idea at the time. I mean, it was the right thing to do, but seriously the consequences were a complicated pain.

They were about to be sold off to rich perverts one by one when the Captain, Chief Aavat and our very own Kayln and Shenna stepped in and smuggled them onto the Rogue Star.

I wish I’d taken part in the rescue. I would’ve gladly smashed the face of anyone who tried to touch these women.

And, to be honest, that’s probably why I wasn’t included in the mission.

I still couldn’t believe it was Shenna of all people who found them. She and the first mate, Aavat, snuck off the ship a few times. I didn’t think she had the nerve to do something like that. In a weird way, I was proud of her. She always came off as innocent, maybe even a little naïve, but it turned out she has bigger balls than half the males on this ship.

“You don’t have to understand,” I assured the white-haired alien girl. “Come get some food.”

The girls lined up as they always did, except for one. The same one that never moved from her spot in the back of the cargo hold. Her dark skin almost blended in completely with the dark steel of the hull, except she shimmered in the light, just a bit. Her eyes looked like amber pebbles. I swear, she never blinked.

She was one creepy chick.

The ship’s doctor Lynna, who was more of a mother than my own mother ever was, used to worry about Amber-Eyes when she didn’t eat.

But it’d been nearly a week, so I guess Amber-Eyes belonged to a species that didn’t need to eat often.

Lynna still fretted, because that’s what she did. Maybe it was part of being a good doctor.

As I moved through the cargo hold, passing out food and putting on my nice face, I noticed Amber-Eyes following me with her unblinking gaze. I felt her eyes on my neck and back as if she was pressing her fingers against my skin.

It didn’t take long for me to get fed up with it.

“Can you hold this for me?” I pushed my empty tray at Aryn.

She scrambled to take it without dropping her own.  “What the hell, Maris?” she grumbled, but I’d already walked away. I crossed the cargo bay and stopped a few feet from Amber-Eyes.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked.

Her expression twisted into something fierce and ugly.

She rose to her feet faster than a human would’ve been able to do. She bent her arms inward, exposing the black talons that stuck out of her elbows.

She spoke to me, but I couldn’t understand a word of it. Her language sounded like a hissing snake.

“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” I groaned. “There’s no need to be a hostile bitch!” I threw my hands up in exasperation. Amber-Eyes hissed and swung at me with extended claws that looked like miniature versions of the talons on her elbows.

“Big mistake,” I snapped.

“Maris!” Aryn appeared at my side. “I don’t think the Captain would like it if you battered one of our charity cases,” she muttered to me.

“She’s going to batter me!” I said in defense.

“She’s a nutter for sure, but be the bigger person,” Aryn insisted.

Aryn was the best friend I’ve ever had. We met on the Persephone station years ago when my temper was twenty times more explosive than it was now. She was good at talking me out of a rage, though she wasn’t known for her mellow disposition either.

For some reason, people always thought the best way to get me to stop being angry was to say things like relax, calm down, or the dreaded take a deep breath.

Aryn figured out early on that a healthy dose of do you know how dumb you’re being? was the best way to take the fire out of me.

“Fine.” I stepped away from Amber-Eyes who still looked like she was ready to kill me.

“She’s just psychotic because she went through hell,” Aryn reminded me.

“I know, I know,” I nodded. “But the others went through hell too. You don’t see them trying to slash me up.”

“You know better than anyone that people cope in different ways,” Aryn reminded me.

“When did you get so wise?” I rolled my eyes. “I’m not a shining example of healthy coping mechanisms, I know.”

“She won’t be with us forever,” Aryn reminded me. “Just try not to punch her lights out while she’s here.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “Now, you need to mess something up so I can lecture you.”

“It’s not even midday yet,” Aryn laughed.

“I know! You’re behind schedule,” I replied. I risked a glance at Amber-Eyes. She was still staring at me, unblinking and seething with anger. “I think I’m going to go.”

“Smart choice.” Aryn patted my shoulder.

The other human women, Parria, stared at me with wide eyes as I left the room.

I told Commander Kalyn that putting me on the care rotation wasn’t a good idea. I didn’t have those naturally nurturing tendencies women like Lynna had.

Though, aside from Amber-Eyes, I liked the other alien women well enough. They’d had it rough, even rougher than us human women. And we moments from being exposed to vacuum, so that’s saying something.

I wasn’t sad to leave Katzul. That place was weird and my definition of weird had changed considerably over the last few weeks.

Aliens?

No, that wasn’t weird to me anymore.

Aliens putting on fancy clothes to go and buy other aliens?

Yes, extremely weird.

And disgusting. Even Amber-Eyes didn’t deserve a fate like that.

She was still a bitch though.

I stomped through the halls. My sisters always told me I walked like a tornado. Everyone knew when I was coming. Everyone knew when I was going.

I tried my best not to destroy things as I moved. Sometimes it happened anyway.

Sometimes I felt bad about it.

I made my way to the engineering workshop near the rear of the ship. A station had been set up as my workspace, but I was still settling in.

I was the Head Engineer on the Persephone station.  Technically, I was the only engineer so the Head Engineering position was mine by default.

Humility be damned, I was one of the best engineers in the Terran System.

The best thing about the station being destroyed, being dragged into an alien universe, and probably never going home?

Brand new, interesting tech to learn.

I was immediately put to work on the Rogue Star, which was great. I loved my work.

It was fun getting to know the inner workings of an alien spaceship.

Unfortunately, the Head Engineer of the Rogue Star was not enthusiastic about sharing a workspace. Orrin was a talented engineer. We might not be the best of friends, but I could give credit where credit was due.

But as talented as Orrin was, he had a bit of a sharing problem.

I felt qualified to comment on this, because I had one too.

Since he was technically my superior, he decided who did what job.

Morning, noon, and night he had me doing basic upkeep jobs I could do in my sleep. It was unbelievably dull.

Though I hadn’t been aboard long, I already had so many ideas to make the ship operate more efficiently.

Orrin never listened, though. Clearly he didn’t trust anyone else with his ship. One day, I’d prove to him that I could take on more complex jobs without blowing us into a black hole.

But, for now, I had to be content to tinker at the workbench.

I sat down at the workbench, which only had one stool, and picked up pieces of scrap.

Working with my hands melted the tension right off my bones.

I forgot about Amber-Eyes, grumpy pants Orrin, and everything else immediately and entered my happy place.

GET ROGUE INSTINCT NOW!

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GIVEN: STAR BREED BOOK ONE

Kara

It was all Juda’s fault.

I kicked him out of my bed three weeks ago for cheating on me, but apparently, he wasn’t done screwing me over.

I crouched low on the roof of the abandoned gambling den across the street from Sary’s “general store” and cursed the limp-dicked bastard all over again.

There wasn’t a lot of traffic at this time of day. Not that that meant much in Ghelfi; the thieves’ city never truly slept. There was no point in waiting for night, like in the old vids Mom used to watch over and over. Like all sealed cities on the surface of Neurea, lighting in Ghelfi varied throughout the day’s cycle, but never to a true night.

I saw real night, once. I stowed away on the back of a surface crawler that was heading to Lashell. I don’t know why, somehow I’d thought it would be better if I got out of Ghelfi, started over somewhere else.

The velvet sky, studded with stars, shone clean and cold. Perfect. Not like the barely organized chaos of the cities.

But halfway there, the crawler broke down, had to be towed back. I realized then that there was no way out. Not for me.

In the old vids, everything always turned out alright, something swooped in at the last minute to save the day.

That’s how you knew they were only lies.

So here I was, half-hidden among old wires and debris that had been kicked up to the top of the store years ago, long forgotten. Watching time slip away on the chrono, crossing my fingers to old gods I didn’t believe in.

“What’cha doing?”

I jumped, furious with myself.

Bani crouched next to me. His dark brown hair hung down in his face, but I could still see the twinkle in his eye. Snuck up on me and was proud of it, little bastard.

I socked him gently in the arm, just enough to let him know I cared.

“Everybody’s looking for you, Kara,” he said under his breath. He didn’t look at me but instead kept his eyes scanning across the street, trying to see what I was interested in. Smart kid.

I ran my hand through my own tangle of hair. It was past time to cut it, but things had been a little busy lately.

“How mad is Xavis?” I really didn’t want to know the answer.

Bani shrugged one bony shoulder. “He’s playing it down a little bit, but I think he’s pretty steamed. If you, of all people, don’t show up by the end of the tithe, he’s gonna lose a lot of face.”

A light crackled, the burnt smell of frying wires wafted by. But I wasn’t paying attention to the noise or to the stink of ozone that permeated the air of Ghelfi. If Xavis really was mad, I was in trouble.

I shoved the thought far to the back of my head. Nothing to do about it but keep moving.

A shuffling sound below surprised me, and I risked another glance over the ledge. A miner, wrapped in rags so filthy there was no telling the gender, half-staggered down the street. He, she, whatever, paused in front of Sary’s storefront, then stumbled inside.

Ice gripped my spine. Rings willing, he’d be quick. Claim whatever he came to trade, and get out. Not stay there, spinning stories of life in the Waste, screwing my timetable.

“Is that the job?” Bani’s wide eyes fixed me. “A snatch and grab on the miners after they bring in the dust?”

I rolled my eyes. “They’re just trying to get by, same as us.” Besides, credits were no good to me, not with so little time to clean them. But the antonium dust the miners brought in was untraceable. ‘Dust knows no provenance’ was the saying. I just needed to get enough of it.

Agonizing minutes passed until he left. I glanced at my chrono again. If she didn’t show up today, I didn’t have a backup plan. This was my backup plan. No more nets to catch my fall.

I closed my eyes to try to find the calm, cold center within that had kept me alive so far on the streets of Ghelfi, and waited. I didn’t need to see, didn’t need to check the time. I could only wait and listen.

Finally, the sound came. The sharp click of stiletto heels across the permasteel walkway. I opened my eyes and leaned forward ever so slightly to peer down the street.

There she was. Charro’s secret indulgence. Silver hair teased into a high fall down her back, her face paint marked her as one of Sary’s working girls. When I first found out about Charro’s extracurricular activities, I’d half thought of sending a note to Sary, stir up the nest a bit. Then I started thinking long term. That’d been almost two years ago.

Two years of planning and waiting brought to a crash by that bastard Juda. I should have gutted him like a fish instead of just kicking him out.

Bani glanced at her and then looked up at me, frowning.

“That’s your mark?” He risked another look but I pulled him back sharply by the collar of his jacket.

He glared at me, with all the scorn a preteen could manage. “I know her. She works the landing pad. Even if she did have the sort of money you’re going to need to get out of trouble with Xavis, she isn’t gonna be carrying it with her on a job.” His eyes narrowed. “So what are you really up to?”

I grinned. I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t pleased to have to use this job to get out of the hole Juda left me in, but it was pretty brilliant.

“Just keep your eye on the alley, kid, okay?”

I checked my chrono again, but I didn’t need to. I’d timed this pattern so often. Like clockwork, the shadows of Charro’s two goons came into focus on the tinted plex of the storefront. Just like every other time I’d watched, they paced back and forth, no doubt joking about their boss and his hobby.

“They’re supposed to be guarding the back room, but he always kicks them out when she visits.” I checked the time again, stupid habit. Couldn’t help it. “He might be there, but he’s more than a little distracted right now.”

I worked my way across the roof, down to the collection of rubble in the back alley that had let me gain my vantage point.

Bani followed me and I glared at him.

“Stay up here,” I snarled. “I don’t know how this is going to turn out.”

“Then you’ll need a second pair of hands.”

The kid had a point, but I’d be damned if I was going to let him have it.

“No, I need a second pair of eyes.” His shoulders sagged a little. But I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t follow me anyway.

“Besides, I don’t know if I can trust you on this job.” His white face told me my words hit their mark. Hated to do it, but I didn’t want to be worried about him. I was in enough trouble as it was.

His face slid out of sight as I worked my way down the trash heap.

Even before I crossed the street, the bitter stench of the acid bombs I’d planted clawed at my throat. The air recirculators only worked intermittently in this neighborhood, and in the alley, the smell almost forced me to my knees.

That the miner walked by without flinching, I could understand. I’d heard too much time in an environmental suit would have you smelling nothing but rubber. But the silver-haired doxy must have been high on something to not notice something was wrong.

No time to linger in the alley. Microcams swept every ninety seconds, watching, waiting for anything out of the ordinary.

I dashed to the hiding space I’d carved out of the fallen wall that backed up to Sary’s, and held my breath, trying to hear over the drumming of my heartbeat. The rushing in my ears slowed, and I poked my head out. Still all clear.

Nobody in their right mind would take on Sary, he ran half the games in town, and word in the pits said he wanted to take control of the city over from Xavis. Unlikely, but still, not someone I really wanted after me. But if the choice was Sary or Xavis himself….well, it was a sucky choice.

I counted, waiting for the next clear moment to check on the results of the clustered acid bombs, then ran back around the corner.

Ninety seconds is a long time.

Ninety seconds is long enough to make one chip in the wall a day until a section can be lifted away and replaced seamlessly.

Ninety seconds is long enough to plant one small acid bomb at a time, then wait for a few days for the smell to dissipate, for the interior wall that led to the vault to weaken, bit by bit, day by day.

Ninety seconds is long enough to die in the Waste, outside of the protection of the domes.

And if I didn’t get my tithe to Xavis by tonight, that’s where I’d end up.

Davien

Really, everything would be so much easier if I just snapped the fat fool’s neck. Only the endless lessons in control back on the ship kept my hands still at my sides, fingers barely flexing. The tips of my claws ran across my palms, bringing me back to focus.

“Davien, are you even listening to me?” Xavis rumbled.

And he wasn’t a fool, even if I despised him. Xavis had clawed his way to the top of the dirtiest pile to run Ghelfi. The trip to the top had been over the broken bodies of plenty of enemies. He’d stayed on his perch for over twenty Imperial years. I didn’t have to do much research to know his methods hadn’t changed.

Prime example: he’d hired me.

I focused on Xavis, only too aware I’d started to slip away into the hunt. Every moment here, stuck on this rock, was a delay I couldn’t afford. Xavis, bastard though he might be, was my fastest way out of here. Well, the fastest way without an unacceptably high casualty count.

Xavis lounged in his hover chair, fingers tapping in annoyance well away from the control pad. The chair was as much affectation as convenience - he could walk just fine. Just liked to be able to loom over people.

“She’s late,” he growled. “She’s never late.”

I didn’t need to ask who he meant. He’d been on a tear about his precious Kara for hours, first calling her his brightest find, then cursing her ingratitude.

The large room I’d come to think of as the receiving hall was mostly empty now, just the regular workers at their terminals around the edges, cleaning credits, shifting funds until they could be transferred into the most secure banks in the Empire. Repetitive, mind-numbing, but crucial to any modern criminal enterprise. The low drone as they worked filled the otherwise quiet room.

The last traces of the dark festivities of the last day had almost been erased. All day and night long, denizens of Ghelfi’s underworld had streamed in, bringing their tribute to the acknowledged boss of the city, doing their best, or worst, to please a capricious overlord. The whole affair had been boring, and stupidly inefficient.

But the archaic ritual soothed his ego and had been an opening to a job. At the last tithing, some idiot with more guts than brains had tried to take Xavis out. He’d failed to account for the force shield over the hover chair, but his explosives did thin out Xavis’ bodyguards considerably.

Bad luck for them, perfect timing for me. When Doc had commanded we all enter the escape pods, she’d made it clear we were to jump as randomly as possible. It should have worked, should have drawn the attackers away from the Daedalus, but it had been six standard weeks since I’d crashed here, and I hadn’t had a signal from her or any of my brothers.

If I was on my own, I needed credits. And I needed a lot of them.

Six weeks had been enough to battle my way up the ranks of Xavis’ enforcers. Not that they were slouches, but they didn’t have my, shall we say, advantages.

A commotion at the entrance to the room drew my attention, and I angled for a better position at the front of Xavis’s chair. The dais we stood on served as an excellent vantage point for the room, allowing me to take in any suspicious movements at a glance. I’d argued to get rid of the scarlet drapery behind us, observing it provided too obvious of a hiding place. He’d refused. Like the dais, it was all about show.

The scuffle at the doorway turned out to be two enforcers dragging a third man between them. Beneath the new scrapes and swelling around his eye, I recognized him. Marcus, Martin, something like that. A low-level hustler who worked the dive bars near the station. Rigged games of chance, targeting travelers who wouldn’t be around long enough to make a fuss.

Xavis waved me back into place, and I relaxed, just a tad. This wasn’t a threat to his authority, just another loser trapped here.

The enforcers tossed the poor sap onto the lowest level of the dais and stepped back, waiting for orders.

“Malik,” Xavis coaxed the hover chair to the edge of the dais, watching the human wreck below take shuddering breaths. “You didn’t appear for the tithing last night.” He floated down, a pale mass of malevolence, eyes narrowed.

I stepped behind him. I didn’t expect trouble from Malik, but there’d be hell to pay if I wasn’t where Xavis expected me, especially when he was in this mood.

“Well?” Xavis’s low voice was almost pleasant, but a thread of malice wound through it, unmistakable. “We’ve known each other for so long, I’m surprised that you’ve disappointed me.”

“I’m sorry, Lord Xavis,” the man mumbled. Probably had lost a few teeth. “My youngest has been down with the Batdu pox, the medicine was so much…” He gulped. “I thought I could make it up before the tithing.”

“Oh?” Xavis’s eyes glittered. “How is the poor thing doing now?”

“Better now, Lord Xavis. Thank you.”

“You should have told me, I would have lent you the money.”

Sure he would have. At rates that would mean he’d own the service of the entire family.

“But, as it is, we have a problem that needs to be sorted out.” Xavis made a show of tapping his fingers, as if considering, but that sharp brain had already decided on the punishment, I was sure. This was just to terrorize the hustler, and send a message to everyone else in the room.

“I’d forgotten about your lovely family,” he purred. “The oldest is twelve now, as I recall?”

The man shifted uneasily. “Yes, my lord. But she’s not very strong…”

“I’m sure a more active life will be good for her. She’ll have her own tithe to pay, starting next cycle.”

“What?” The man pushed himself to his feet, protesting.

Idiot.

Xavis flicked a finger, and I sprang to the front of the chair to grab the beaten hustler by the front of his jacket. I lifted him off the floor and shook him until his head snapped back.

He pushed feebly against my grip.

“I wouldn’t try it,” I growled, and he froze.

I’m not sure what it is about my voice. On the ship, with my brothers, no one had a problem with it. In all the training vids we watched, I never thought I sounded that different. But here, on this worthless rock at the fringe of the Empire, all I had to do was speak, and the humans cowered.

Weak.

Prey.

I snarled, and the acrid scent of urine assaulted me. The fucker had wet himself. Apparently, he hadn’t liked the points of my teeth, either.

“I suggest you comply, little man. What choice do you have?”

He stared at me, face pale beneath the marks of the beating, but finally nodded. It wasn’t much of a motivational speech, but it was the truth. No one on Neurea had a lot of choices.

“I think you can release him now, Davien.” The smug tone of Xavis’s voice told me he’d gotten what he wanted. He hadn’t had to send a usually reliable worker to the Wastes, and he’d picked up extra leverage at the same time.

I lowered the man back to his feet. His legs buckled, but he scrambled away from me on hands and knees. Idiot. I wasn’t the worst monster in the room.

The rest of the negotiations were predictably short and one-sided. The hustler left, and the business in the room resumed its quiet drone.

“I’ve decided.” Xavis’s voice cracked like a whip as he floated back to the top of the dais. “An example must be made.”

I waited below for orders.

“Find Kara Shimshi. Bring her to me.”

Despite my better instincts, I grinned.

The hunt was on.

Click here to keep reading Given!

VREHX: CONQUERED WORLD BOOK ONE

Vrehx

Streaks of plasma lit the blackness as a squadron of Valorni fighters swooped in dizzying spirals, blasting at the massive Xathi ship that filled the screens of the Vengeance.

We were so close it was the size of a planet. Like two steel ziggurats smashed and welded together. Not practical for space flight, but efficient enough to tear through several worlds.

Designed to intimidate.

Designed to destroy.

And we were going to stop it.

We crept closer, waiting. I sucked in my breath, geared for the inevitable.

I gritted my teeth as the bridge shook, and Karzin let out an undignified whoop from his station on the far curve of the bridge. The purple stripes on his shoulders rippled, and his excited eyes darted back and forth as if cheering on his favorite sport.

Barbarian. His crude Valorni traits got on my last nerve—not that he gave a rat’s ass. Like the lot of them, he had no empathy for others. He barely listened to commands and forget anyone who didn’t at least match his rank.

“You green motherfuckers aren’t supposed to be hitting us, just laying cover for our approach,” I snarled. “They can remember that much, can’t they?”

They had only begun venturing into space when we took them into the alliance, but surely they weren’t that stupid.

I hoped not.

“Fuck you,” the Valorni drawled. The stretched-out sounds of his abominable accent were like bristles to my red Skotan scales. “Not their fault we’re cloaked all to hell.”

What an asshole. Valorni couldn’t even be bothered to speak accurately. Their drawl made it nearly impossible to understand them, and they had idiotic slang for everything.

“They were informed of our flight path before the battle.” The lights of Sk’lar’s implants flickered in the dim light of the bridge. “It should have been simple for them to avoid it.”

I smiled just a little, glad I wasn’t the only one with some common sense. Sk’lar wasn’t much better than Karzin, but he was more tolerable. My biggest problem was his implants.

His artificial augmentation was just creepy and wrong. You could see them light up in biohazard green against his shiny black skin. He looked like a fucking motherboard.

The strike team leaders were chosen for their specific talents and leadership, but Sk’lar’s was not stealth outside the ship.

Karzin made it a point to butt heads with all of us. That usually distracted the rest of us from being at each other’s throats.

Maybe that was his intention. Whatever. He was an asshole.

Karzin shrugged off the K’ver’s barely concealed criticism. “Not gonna matter in a few minutes, is it?”

The sarcasm warranted him a disapproving side-eye from Sk’lar, which he ignored. I hated to admit it, but the jackass was right. In a few minutes, we would probably all be dead.

“Gentlemen,” Rouhr’s quiet word from the command station silenced the chatter, “are you prepared?”

The scar that ran down the left side of his face rippled as he clenched his jaw. He was annoyed.

Of course, we were prepared.

We shut up anyway. Rouhr was very diplomatic. That’s why he was in charge.

We straightened ourselves and regained our concentration.

Tension and anger clogged the air, but there was no fear. Fear had died when our families did, when our worlds had burned under the Xathi attacks.

Around the half circle, each of us activated the new weapons panels, the long seconds drawing out as they lit up and hummed. Every battle had this moment—the waiting before the storm.

But this would be different.

We owned the storm.

“Let’s blow a hole in those bastards,” I growled, eyes fixed on the sickly green hull, thinking of the swarms inside.

They waited for the go ahead to surge through over the squadrons like locusts.

Nothing had been able to penetrate a Xathi hiveship before. They just plowed through and destroyed whatever they wanted, the swarms mopping up whatever the hiveship missed.

The Valorni, as annoying as they were, were inducted into the alliance for one reason. The Sugavians had worked with K’ver scientists using codialite, a mineral from the Valorni homeworld, to make one last attempt.

Just enough had been mined for this last-ditch effort—an experimental weapon that had a shot at penetrating that hull. It was rare, and we were on the losing end of this fight. We only had one shot.

We’d better make it count.

Every Skotan, K’ver, and Valorni warrior on the Vengeance had volunteered in the knowledge that it was a one-way trip. If this worked, the three strike teams below would board the Xathi and battle until there was nothing left.

If it didn’t, we’d all die—just sooner.

Either way, the recorder satellites would beam the results of the experiment back to the scientists and engineers. We’d succeed, or they’d build a better weapon next time. That was the most important part of the mission, and we all understood how expendable we were.

The three of us locked focus on our stations as we crept closer.

“We are now in firing range, Captain,” Sk’lar reported.

“Fire at will,” was the only response.

Karzin sent the signal to the Valorni ships, and I started a slow count.

One.

His comrades had fought stupidly but bravely. There was no discernable pattern to the attack.

I was worried more would take friendly fire than would hit the Xathi, but they somehow made sense of the chaos, dodging fire from their comrades. If any survived the battle, they deserved to escape.

Two.

More likely the crazy bastards would follow us into the breach, but they’d earned the choice.

Three.

I activated the launch panel and braced, eyes fixed on the monitors. The adrenaline rushed through me in anticipation of the blow.

Nothing.

Not a bang or a pop or a whine. Just the hum of the engines, and the wall of the Xathi ship growing larger on the screens.

The anticipation deflated as I looked at the panel in confusion. The damn thing was experimental, but it should at least fire. The engineers weren’t brain-dead.

With a snarl, I slapped it again.

And then the universe turned inside out.

JENEVA

I was in my element.

I was where I belonged.

Completely alone in the silence, except for the gigantic bipedal tree creature with an affinity for spewing poison.

Home sweet home.

A glob of the foul stuff hissed as it ate away the earth beneath me. It was only inches from my boot, but I didn’t flinch or try to move out of the way.

A rapid movement around a sorvuc was far more dangerous than its projectile poison. Its damn branches were covered in tiny neural fibers, capable of detecting incredibly small movements. The fibers were illuminated purple.

The sorvuc searched for me.

Under different circumstances, I would have found it beautiful, but at that moment, it was just a pain in my ass.

The humidity made my short hair damp and scratchy. It clung to the curve of my neck. I longed to brush it away, but a movement like that would be a death sentence.

The luminescent purple faded away to a tranquil pink. I realized I was holding my breath.

Slowly, so slowly, I crept closer to the wide trunk of the sorvuc. I had already made an incision in its trunk. That’s what pissed it off in the first place.

A necessary risk, but I only needed a few more drops of the thick scarlet fluid that seeped from the incision. The right person would pay a small fortune for its sap—or is it blood? Hell if I know.

As I slid my vial into place, ready to collect the liquid the sale of which would keep me comfortable for months, shouts erupted from somewhere nearby.

Damn it.

The sorvuc shrieked, its neural fibers flaring purple once again. It pivoted, razor-sharp leaves dangerously close to me. I rolled away, camouflaging my own movements in its rustling.

The hulking creature lumbered off in the direction the shouts came from—sort of. Its neural fibers must have picked up the sound vibrations, but with so many trees, it would have been difficult for the creature to determine the exact direction.

It’s a good thing sorvuc had those fibers. They were as deaf as, well, a tree—at least, the sort of trees our ancestors brought over on their generation ship. But those trees sure as hell didn’t fling poison or walk.

Walking plants were something the dense forest of Ankau had in excess. Even so, I’d take a hostile tree giant over people any day. At least they left me in peace.

Another round of shouts echoed through the trees. I clenched my teeth.

Speaking of peace.

I moved quickly and quietly through the dense forest, mindful not to disturb any of the thick vines that crisscrossed the forest floor. It was difficult to tell which ones were looking for a snack.

I spied a small herd of luurizi grazing between the roots of the docile Lenaus trees.

Their coats of lilac, sage, and pearl shimmered when they caught the mottled light bleeding through the canopy. Their silvery horns shone like jewels. It was easy to forget how deadly they were.

I was sure they could smell me.

Ordinarily, they would attack the moment they sensed an intruder. But this particular herd had become accustomed to my scent after so many years. It was an uneasy truce, but I still knew better than to take my eye off them.

Another bout of shouting brought me back to the present. It was louder this time. And stupider.

Clearly, whoever it was had a death wish, which was fine. I’d just prefer to be farther away when it happened.

The trees gave way to a small clearing. Two women, who I can only assume are the shouting morons, stood inches away from each other, their faces red with anger. They didn’t notice my intrusion.

“You’re not even trying anymore!” One woman, blonde and petite, hissed at the other. Her voice was tight, like she was trying to stay in control.

Sharp would have been the only way to describe her—sharp cheekbones, sharp chin, and sharp shoulders. Even her mouth was a sharp slash across her face.

I winced at her words, a headache throbbing at my temples. I almost wished something would come along and kill them.

“What more do you want me to do?” The other woman, dark-haired and softer than the other, answered wearily. “If I had known you were going to bring this up, I never would have agreed to meet you!”

Though they were different in coloring, they had the same nose and face shape. I guessed they were sisters—not that I cared.

“What other reason would there be to meet up?” the blonde snapped, her gray-green eyes narrowing. “What else do we have anymore?”

There was more poison in those words than there was in a fully grown sorvuc.

“I hate to interrupt,” I said, startling both women.

I wanted to sound as annoyed as I felt, but my voice was brittle and raspy with disuse. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had spoken aloud.

“But you really should shut up,” I continued.

The blonde pivoted to face me. I was at least a head taller than her, but she somehow seemed bigger than she actually was. And the glare on her face would have made a narrisiri hesitate.

“This is none of your business,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Nope, it isn’t. I don’t want to know about it. I don’t care about it. But you really should find somewhere else to finish your screaming match,” I replied.

“Do you think we’re idiots? We have a howler with us,” the blonde smugly fished a small black device from her pocket.

I hated those damn things. They emitted a high-pitched sound above the threshold of human hearing. It was meant to repel the creatures that stalked the forest, but I always thought it was a scam.

First of all, the people living in the cities and towns hardly knew anything about the creatures that lived out here in the forest. Second, how would anyone know for a fact that a howler was working? No one could hear it.

“Yes, I do think you’re idiots if you think that carrying a howler into the middle of aramirion territory during nesting season is a good idea,” I snapped, fighting the urge to give the blonde a smug smile. “If they can hear that thing, you’re screwed.”

The dark-haired woman paled as she put her hand on the blonde’s shoulder. The blonde stiffened at her touch.

“Leena, is that true?” the dark-haired woman whispered. Her eyes, the same color as the blonde’s, nervously scanned the surrounding forest.

“How the hell would I know, Mariella? You’re the one who moved all the way out to the middle of freaking nowhere!” the blonde, Leena, grumbled.

I turned to leave. Obviously, they had no intention of listening to me. Perhaps the dark-haired one, Mariella, might have seen reason, but Leena had some sort of chip on her shoulder—a chip the size of a damn ravine.

Fine. Whatever. They were adults.

I’d tried my best to warn them. It’s not my fault if they chose not to listen to me.

What would I know, right? I’ve only been living out here for fifteen years. They would come to their senses and leave, or they would keep at it until one beast or another silenced them.

Either way, I got my forest and my silence back.

I could still feel their flurries of emotion as I marched through the undergrowth. If I was going to find another sorvuc to fill my vial, I needed to concentrate, but I couldn’t do that with the feelings of two idiots in my head. I should turn back, try even harder to get them to leave.

A horrible screech unlike anything I had ever heard tore through the air. The sheer force of it drove me to my knees.

I tried to protect my ears with my hands, but it was useless. My vision blurred, stars danced behind my eyelids. I could practically feel my brain thrashing, desperate to escape that terrible sound.

Those idiots either did something to their howler, or the damn thing was malfunctioning. That had to be it.

As soon as I could get back on my feet, I staggered back to the clearing where I’d left the arguing pair. I would tear their stupid howler apart with my bare hands if I had to—anything to stop the noise.

“What the hell did you do?” I yelled.

Again, they didn’t notice me when I entered the clearing, but, this time, they weren’t distracted by an argument.

They stood side by side, looking up at the sky. Their faces were pale and their mouths were open in terror and confusion. I followed their gaze.

A jagged scar of pitch marred the once pristine stretch of endless blue.

The sky, my sky, had been torn open.

There was a beat of silence as if the whole planet had drawn in a collective breath of shock.

Then the forest erupted into chaos.

Click here to keep reading Vrehx!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I love old movies – To Catch a Thief, Notorious, All About Eve — and anything with Katherine Hepburn in it. Clever, elegant people doing clever, elegant things.

I’m a hopeless romantic.

And I love science fiction and the promise of space.

So it makes perfect sense to me to try to merge all of those loves into a new science fiction world, where dashing heroes and lovely ladies have adventures, get into trouble, and find their true love in the stars!

Copyright © 2019 by Elin Wyn

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Aavat

Shenna

Epilogue - Shenna

Letter from Elin

Rogue Instinct

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Given: Star Breed Book One

Vrehx: Conquered World Book One

About the Author

Copyright