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)
Someone steps over me. I’m not sure who. A big, muddy footprint appears on the grate right where I just scrubbed, and all the little indents I just got to shine are covered in fresh muck.
I curse under my breath. Don’t know why I bother because it wouldn’t matter if I swore at the top of my lungs.
The responsible party is one of the crew who has been down on the planet, obviously. We used to have protocols about not stamping alien filth all around the place, but it’s safe to say things have gotten a little slack around this pirate ship.
There’s a handful of us left, and most of those left are running reconnaissance, attempting to find some way to get those of us who have been captured back. Captain Lettie is waging war on the saurians, but there’s a limit to how much war you can wage when the object of the conflict is to recover people from the surface.
I finish up my chores and go back to my private nook on the ship. I try to get a nap, but I can’t. There’s an unsettled vibe, has been since we lost the captains, and it’s only getting worse. It also doesn't help that nobody cares if they wake me up. They come past here practically shouting at the top of their lungs whenever they feel like it.
No sooner do I close my eyes than two louder than necessary voices echo through the internal metallic shell of this part of the ship.
“Their cocks are huge. And they know how to use them. Have you heard Lettie and Shan? She sounds like she’s being split open. And loving it.”
“Scales inside a human vagina seem like…”
“Hot?”
There’s a high-pitched giggle. “Stop it!”
“And they’re so dominant. They have to be in control all the time. That must be driving Sullivan and Raine crazy. They’ve been down there for months. What must it be like to be a captain and then be an alien’s fuck toy?”
“I don’t think they’re coming back. We should never have come to this planet. We should have given Sullivan a wave on the way past and just kept going.”
The women talking are the Mare’s engineers, and they’re not wrong. That’s because they’re the smartest of us all. They are indispensable to keeping the ship in the air, and they’re two of the last people to remain untouched by aliens — besides me.
“Who are we looking for?”
“Allie.”
“Oh. The cleaning girl. Cinderella. Where’s she?”
“Probably asleep in the cleaning supply closet.”
“God, why?”
“That’s where she lives.”
“Is it? Why?”
“Does it matter?”
My door is wrenched open. They don’t bother to knock. I find myself being stared at by two pairs of curious, somewhat socially stunted eyes.
“The captain wants to see you,” they say, practically in unison.
That’s a strange enough summons to get me out of bed, which is a thin mattress that I made out of stuffed up plastic bags in a bigger plastic sack. We do have actual mattresses on this ship, but none of them fit under the racking in this closet. I’ve made pretty much all my little bits and pieces of furnishing from what would otherwise have been discarded.
“It’s a trash palace,” Cadence says, somewhat surreptitiously, but while I am still in earshot.
“A garbage imperium,” Casey responds with a little giggle.
“A junk mansion,” Cadence shoots back.
They’re not trying to be cruel to me. They’re just trying to entertain one another. The fact that my feelings might be hurt in the process almost certainly does not occur to them.
Ireport to the bridge, wondering what our new captain Lettie wants me to clean up. The bridge as always been a chaotic, bustling place. Captain Sullivan used to occupy the captain’s chair with her wild blonde curls. Raine would be commanding anybody who needed to be commanded. And the rest of the crew would be rest of the crewing. Right now, the bridge is empty besides Lettie and her saurian mate, Shan. The pair of them make for a striking couple, because Shan is several feet taller than she is, and also an alien. I try not to look at him. I don’t want to anger him inadvertently. The crew has never said anything negative about him, but my nature is to avoid potential conflict with massive aliens.
“You wanted to see me, Captain Lettie? Do you need me to clean something?”
Lettie was a spy before she became captain. She always kept to herself, so I never really had much of a sense of her. Some of the crew like to dress outlandishly and make themselves as striking as possible. Lettie has always been the opposite. She dresses in plain colors, cuts her brown hair in a plain way, and only uses a little makeup.
“I want you to put this on,” she says, tossing me a bag. “Get changed and report back here as quickly as possible.”