Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 135784 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135784 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
They’re also very uninterested in me sexually. In a way, that’s both good and bad. If I was spreading my legs for the crew, I’d at least feel like I was earning my keep. But they’ve firmly put me into “little sister” territory…or at least “annoying cousin.” They’ve made it quite clear that they’re not interested in that way, which was nice. Sometimes I wish it was different because that’d be easier, but this is what I wanted.
I wanted to earn my keep in a way that doesn’t involve me being on my back.
I just didn’t expect to suck at being a normal employee.
I fight back feelings of panic, hugging my knees as the ship rocks back and forth, the boarded vessel trying to shake free from the anti-grav clamps that are supposed to be illegal. Since I’ve been with the crew, they’ve done this six or seven times, each time no less terrifying as the Little Sister sways in space and the sounds of distant explosions kick up. It sounds nightmarish, but the crew has this handled. Minutes pass as I wait for things to die down.
“We’ve got a runner,” Adiron calls over the comm band. “Be on the lookout, Soph!”
Okay, maybe they don’t have this handled. I head to the armory closet and grab the small blaster that’s tooled for my fingerprints and turn it on. It hums in my hand and I hold it tight, then creep toward the docking tunnel that connects us to the other ship like an enormous umbilical cord.
Someone’s coming through it.
I see movement and green skin, and the prominent, froglike eyes of the ooli. This one’s bigger than most, bulky and wearing heavy-looking clothing that might pass for armor. He’s got a blaster in his hands and paces quickly through the tunnel, heading right for me.
I swallow hard, holding up my gun. I can do this. I can. I know in a life of piracy, shit happens. The people we’re stealing from are bad guys, drug runners and thieves and slavers. I shouldn’t feel bad killing this monster.
I hold my blaster up. All I have to do is shoot.
My hand trembles and sweats, and my finger moves to the trigger.
The alien moves faster. He sees me now, and his pace picks up. I’m a human, and in his eyes, helpless garbage. I’m little more than a trained fuck-toy. He’s not afraid of me, even though I hold a gun, and I’m desperate to prove him wrong. Just one shot, and he’ll take me seriously. One shot, and I can prove my worth to the crew.
One shot and I’ll kill another sentient being.
The alien—the ooli—locks eyes with me and my arm shakes with a mixture of terror and dismay.
I…I can’t do this.
Oh fuck, I can’t do this.
I make a squeaking sound in my throat as the ooli marches right toward me and snatches the gun out of my grip. “Looks like the pirates have a pet,” he croaks at me and the look on his face turns to one of pure evil. “They’re not going to like what I do to you.”
I tremble, frozen in place. “Get away from me.”
He makes a strange, growling sound in his throat. “I’m going to kef you up—”
From behind the alien, a muscular, blue arm appears around the frog-man’s throat. I watch, unable to move, as Adiron puts his blaster to the ooli’s head and fires. There’s a splatter of green liquid on the walls of the ship and the scent of cooked meat, and I want to vomit.
“I’m starting to think you’re not cut out for this lifestyle, little one,” Adiron teases, a wild grin on his broad face.
I’m starting to think he’s right.
2
SOPHIE
I scrub at the walls of the Little Sister, cleaning blood and ooli goo off of computer panels. All’s quiet on the other side. We’re still docked with the other ship, hours later, but the fighting is done. The other crew—slavers and cutthroats returning from a prison rendezvous—have all been disposed of. It should bother me, knowing that people on the other ship just got killed by my friends, but I’ve grown surprisingly jaded about some things.
There are no good guys on this end of the universe. Everyone’s out for himself, even the va Sithai brothers.
So I clean the walls of the ship, try not to think about where the green goo was before, and listen to the brothers chitchat over the comm. It seems that we’ve caught this particular band returning from some place called Haven where they dropped off some drugs. There’s no cargo to be found, just a lot of traceless credits, and the brothers joke about that even as they strip expensive parts out of the enemy ship. This feels routine. I know from past experiences, they’ll cobble what they can from the other vessel for salvage or re-sale, and then the other ship will be scuttled, abandoned and her computer disabled, and it’ll disappear into deep space. Problem solved.