Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
There’s a snort from Vendis.
“You’re not going to be made to lay eggs, Allie Katt,” Vulcan says. “Where did you hear that?”
“One of my crew, well, she was crew, and now she’s the third captain we’ve had in a year, she came down here and they made her lay eggs. Now there’s a baby saurian human.”
“How would that even work?” Vendis questions his brother. “Look at the size of her.”
“There’s perversions at all levels,” Vulcan replies. “From the lowest of the low to the highest of the high. These humans are…” He looks at me and closes his mouth.
“We’re breedable,” I say, and then wish I hadn’t. What the hell is coming out of my mouth?
“Is that so?”
“Well, not me. But she obviously was. She had an egg and then the egg hatched, and…” I’m babbling. I’m babbling and I hate it, but I’m really not used to being the center of attention. I am used to letting everybody else take center stage and have adventures and be the brave ones. I’m the one who makes sure the dishes are done and the toilets are sparkling and the ship doesn’t decay completely under an ever-growing biofilm.
“I’m just a cleaner,” I say.
“Just a cleaner,” Vulcan repeats. “So you are a worker.”
“Yes.”
“She needs a bath and some clothing.” Adaine has come hustling back. I can see a short switch in her hand, a sort of leather thing that looks like it has been used to threaten someone or maybe worse. I’ve heard stories about saurian discipline. It’s very hands on. Very rough, sometimes. “And she needs a meal. She can pay her way by helping out.”
“What about Wrath?”
“What about him?”
“He’s sent out word that all humans found should be brought to him.”
“Yes, and Thorn’s done the same, and as far as we know they both want nothing more than to violate alien flesh. It’s scandalous, and it’s wrong, and I don’t care what anybody says, these things are too soft, too stupid, and too vulnerable to give proper mating consent. Anybody I hear of so much as looking at this one better be ready to face the drakken cane.”
I seem to have fallen on my feet here, among an apparently wholesome family of metalworkers.
“Keep her back in the family quarters. I don’t want her being seen by any of the workers. They’ll talk. That’s how rumors spread.”
“Thank you for helping me,” I say sheepishly when she takes a bit of a breath.
“This city has enough trouble as it is without adding more little human minxes to the mix,” she says in that severe way she has. She looks at me again, and I see that expression once more.
If I listen to her words, she doesn’t care about me, or the fate of me at all. If I listen to the feeling I get when she talks, I get the sense she wouldn’t let anything happen to me, because she’s the sort of woman who never lets anything happen to those she considers under her care. I used to trust Captain Sullivan this way. It’s a relief to feel it again.
“Alright,” Vulcan says. “Follow me, kitten.”
I don’t correct him because that name feels cute and sweet. There’s just something about being around an actual family that’s like nothing else. It’s comforting.
After the betrayal and cruelty laced day I’ve had, this is pure relief.
“We don’t have anything small enough to fit her,” Vendis says. “Even the youngest workers are bigger than she is.”
“Bring the smallest work attire we have. It will have to do.”
“You’re being so nice. Thank you,” I say, feeling truly grateful.
“Adaine wouldn’t have it any other way. When she decides she wants something, she gets it.”
“It must be nice to be that kind of person. When I decide I want something… well, I don’t decide I want something. I just… I mean, I never get…” I trail off, knowing that I’m making a mess of what I’m trying to say, and they probably don’t care anyway.
“What?”
“What, what?”
“What do you never get?” Vulcan is looking at me with an inquiring brow raised. Is he actually interested? On the Mare, people usually talked over me if I tried to talk. I sort of got used to only half finishing sentences.
“Er, well, my way, I guess. I don’t usually even think about what I would want because I know I won’t get it. I’m lucky to survive, generally speaking. Like today. I was lucky to survive today. Wanting anything more than that really seems like a lot.”
Vulcan smiles at me. “You’re a sweet thing. I never met a human before. There are so many rumors about your kind in the streets. Most of them imply that you are desperate to be mated.”
Of course. We’ve been repeatedly taken as sex slaves, basically, and now everybody thinks we’re all into it. That’s how this always works. People want to fuck women, therefore women must be sluts. Logic.