“He will have to wait the requisite three weeks,” the Drolgok official declared in an annoyed tone. “We will then do an evaluation on her. Depending on what we find, he can then apply for the license.”
Travis’s smile slipped.
I’d heard that evaluations were done, but despite my inquiring mind, lacked any details. “What are you looking for?” I asked.
While the Drolgok assistant placed everything back in the case and began to rewrap his scarf, the boss said, “We are evaluating your suitability.”
My heart thudded. “Suitability for what?” I pressed.
Travis’s mouth opened as if to ask as well, but then, he closed it again. Spineless wimp.
The Drolgoks ignored me as they turned to leave. “We will be back in three weeks.”
Then they were gone, leaving me without answers and with a damned sore ear and neck. Travis and Kurt walked out in their wake, leaving the door open.
If I bolted now, they could find me, no matter where I ran on this planet.
Two tags in one day.
Guess I was just a lucky girl.
When I moved to stand, I discovered that my legs shook.
Could just be a sugar crash. Maybe I’d put a little too much jam on that toast.
I forced myself to my feet and did my best impression of an outraged stalk, aware of eyes tracking me as I passed my brother and Kurt, hunched close together in the office. Exiting the admin building, I headed for the closest hangar.
The admin staff might have gone home for the day, but the night shift was in full swing, hauling crates of merchandise into our fleet of starhoppers—smaller merchant vessels that we primarily used to shuttle goods to the larger freighter in orbit, theStonehenge.
As I strode through the hangar, I became hyper-aware of the hot and heavy male stares following me as I crossed the busy stretch of floor. Just as I had with Travis and Kurt, I’d grown up with some of these men, those that had worked for my father. How much had the unnatural absence of female company affected them? I’d always danced around the question. Thought I’d been considered family, and that here, in the compound, the scary craziness that happened outside it, stayed outside.
Kurt had always been the bane of my existence. Hovering, interfering, trying to control me. Insisting that he and I had a future. It wasn’t something I even remotely considered as a possibility.
I just hadn’t expected my brother to make the decision for me. I’d been deliberately, obliviously blind. As I glanced around at the men who met my eyes—I finally saw through the smiles, to the lust and longing that shone within them.
First my father, then my brother. The men had respected my father, but they feared and disliked my brother. Until I’d come of age, it had been enough to keep me safe, so long as I remained inside the compound.
But all that was over now. If I didn’t pass—or passed, I wasn’t sure which it was—the Drolgok’s evaluation, it meant I was fodder for any individual human male capable of being approved for a mating license. And even if I was claimed, I would always be rich fodder for the gang harems.
The noose I’d hoped to avoid was tightening around me. Despite my efforts, I didn’t yet have enough currency to strike off on my own in an alien world. But my choices were now limited.
It was all I could do to turn my back on the hungry glances, and climb theStardrifter’sramp.
I’d named it after one of my favorite games growing up. Not that I’d been granted much time to play it, but I still had it loaded on the ship’s computer. As a long-range starhopper, it was a spacecraft large enough to have its own slipstream drive. We used them mostly to shuttle cargo to the much larger freighter, but theStardrifterwasn’t just the ship I piloted.
It was also my home.
A short time later, I sat in my quarters with the only individual I truly called a friend.
Ariyani had started off as a mother figure to a young girl who didn’t have one. But as I aged, she became more like an older sister. Drolgoks were very long lived, and I’d known her all my life.
Unlike the purple skin of the males, her tones were a buttery cream with violet shadows, and eyes more orange than yellow. Due to the fact that we kept theStardrifterunnaturally warm, her compact, slightly globular body was relatively skimpily clothed in her customary green mechanics coveralls, complete with authentic grease spots and a hole for the only non-stubby thing on her—her long tail.
As she was a Drolgok and because I kept my own quarters a bit cooler to avoid sweating profusely, for today’s visit she’d crammed a sweater over top of the coveralls. It was orange—I’d crocheted it especially for her, along with two others in pink and blue.
I’d taught her to crochet, and she regularly raided the thrift markets for yarn of dubious origins and colors. She crocheted with more enthusiasm than skill, and the most recent results currently covered her hairless head—it was a rather hideously striped beanie that she was inordinately proud of.
I had ground based quarters within the compound, but the small berth I had on theStardrifterwas my true home. It had a bed, atable, and a minuscule bathroom with a shower. The walls of the tiny space were covered in my drawings.
