1. Claire

CHAPTER 1

CLAIRE

G etting spotted by an orc patrol is just about the worst thing that could happen to you in deep space.

That's why it's my job on my family's freighter to watch our scanners like a hawk. We are moving a shipload of corn from New Espana to Zagreb Prime, and my stubborn father insisted we take the shortcut through the Badlands.

Yep. Corn . Not the most glamorous of loads to transport throughout the Federation, but it sells consistently, and credits are all that matter in the end.

Those very same credits are why we're taking this ill-advised shortcut in the first place.

"It'll cut down our travel time by a week!" My father said, "Think of all the fuel we'll save!"

Yeah. At the risk of our entire family getting sliced and diced by a marauding gang of bloodthirsty orcs! Well, not our entire family, I suppose. My two older brothers and my father? Yeah. They will get that treatment.

Me? A twenty-year old virgin woman?

If the orcs get a hold of me… my punishment will be much worse.

According to the rumors, orcs take human women captive and put them to work. As breeders .

And those are the lucky ones. The ones not selected for breeding are shared among the entire orc crew as free-use pleasure slaves. Can you even imagine? A non-stop line of horny orcs, using every orifice until you perish from exhaustion?

I'd rather crash headfirst into an asteroid than be triple stuffed by green brutes.

"Claire! Get your ass down here, girl!"

My father's loud cry echoes through the long halls of our freighter. I'm instantly on edge.

"Dad! I'm watching the scanners!" I yell back, as I quickly shut the book I was secretly reading and stuff it under my seat. You can only stare at a blank screen for so long without losing your marbles.

"Claire! Don't make me get you!"

Ugh.

"Coming!"

You know what? Sometimes…

Sometimes being a free-use-orc-pleasure-girl sounds like a welcome reprieve from dealing with my oafish father and two boneheaded brothers.

It wasn't all that bad when mom was still alive, but since she passed we've all been struggling. She really held our little crew together. Now that burden falls on me, except that no one in our family really seems to listen to me, seeing as I'm the youngest of the bunch.

If it weren't for me keeping this bucket of rust going, this heap of junk would have drifted off into the sun ages ago!

I take one last look at the scanners, but there's no one in sight for miles. I really wish we would stick to the heavily guarded shipping-lanes instead of venturing out into the dark and murky depths of deep space, but this ship is not a democracy. For better or for worse, father decides.

I climb down the long ladder from my little nook on the top of the ship, and head towards the noise. It sounds like my brothers are arguing. Again. Their baritone voices carry through the entire ship.

"It's my turn with the VR-set, Liam!"

"No way, Eric! You had it all day yesterday! I just grabbed this new game I want to check out!"

"Oh yeah, what is it? Let me see!"

"None of your business! Hey! Give it back!"

"What the hell is this, Liam? Galactic Love Simulator ?! You downloaded this crap?"

"What? Uh, I have never heard of that! Claire must've done that!"

I turn the corner into the small, cramped space that is our ship's kitchen, dining room and living room all rolled into one. My dad's sitting in his favorite chair with a stiff drink next to him, reading the paper.

He's practically one with that chair. He only gets out of it for meals, and even then, only begrudgingly so.

Meanwhile, my two brothers are fighting in the kitchen. The moment I enter the room, three sets of angry stares are on me in an instant.

"Claire!" My father says. "Did you forget to clean the waste recycling system again?! Do I need to do everything myself out here?"

"Claire!" Liam says. "Did you download this crap? Don't you know there's probably like, loads of viruses in there? What were you thinking?!"

"Claire!" Eric says, piling on. "We're all out of beer! Did you not check our stocks when you made the supply run?! Do you ever do your job?!"

The loud, angry voices all meld into one big ball of sensory overload. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, and think about what mom used to say.

They're a bunch of oafs, but they're our oafs, Claire. Be gentle with them. They mean well, even if they don't sound like it.

Mom was an angel for putting up with these three. Something I wonder if she was too patient.

"Dad, I'm watching the scanners, like you asked me to. I don't have time for sanitary duties, so one of you three will need to get on that. Liam: I haven't touched the VR-device in months because you two don't share. You know that. I don't know who's space smut that is, and I don't really care. Eric: I bought everything that was on the shopping list. Also, we had plenty of beer when we left port."

My words are not well received. All of their eyes flare with anger, and my rebuttal is met with even more raised voices.

"Don't back talk me, missy," my father hisses.

"Yeah, who do you think you are?!" Liam and Eric join in. "Tell her, dad!"

"Fine!" I say, putting up my hands defensively. "I'll deal with the damn waste disposal, okay? But if orcs grab us in the meantime, don't come haunting my ass in the afterlife after they turned you three into minced meat."

"Orcs," my father snorts. "You've been reading too much news, girl. There are no orcs in these parts. We're fine."

I bite my tongue. He's the one sitting on his butt all day while reading the holo-paper, while I'm this ship's chief engineer, pilot, navigator, quartermaster, nurse and cook all rolled into one small package.

"Sure," I say, not wanting to waste time with more fighting. The sooner I get the waste disposal up and running again, the sooner I can get back to watching the scanners… and reading my novel. "Eric, Liam, can either of you watch the scanners while I'm gone?"

"Whatever," Eric says.

"Sure," Liam shrugs.

"Thank you."

I grab my tools and head into the bowels of the ship. My footsteps echo on the long, empty walkways, and as the distance between me and my family increases, I feel the tension in my shoulders dissipate.

I didn't used to be like this. We were functional, once. I think. Mom was our captain, and she knew just what to say to get everyone to pull their weight. I've been trying to fill that gap for the past two years, but it's only gotten worse as time goes on.

Sometimes, I wonder what life would be like planet-side. I dream about owning a small farm on a colony world, just existing in nature with my many, many pets… and my loving, sexy, competent husband.

One who happily maintains the waste disposal unit.

It's just as I feared. The disposal unit is clogged. There's only one way to unclog it, and it's to get your hands dirty. And unfortunately for me, that's not a metaphor.

Please, universe, if you're listening, send me a husband who'll never ask me to unclog the waste disposal unit ever again. That's all I'm asking. It's not too much, right?

I pinch my nose shut and get to work. Thirty grueling minutes later, and I've got the machine purring like a contented cat again.

"Try to hold on for a little bit longer this time, yeah?" I ask the beasty as I pat its side. "I'll get you a new filter once we make it to Zagreb Prime. That's a promise."

I like talking to things as I fix them. It helps me clear my mind — and machines don't talk back. Usually. Depending on the machine. At the very least, they don't shout angrily at me like some other people on this ship.

I take a quick shower to get cleaned up. There's barely enough hot water to make it work; another thing to add to my ever expanding to-do list. A little cottage in the country-side won't require this much maintenance, right?

Ah, who am I kidding? I'll never live planet-side. I'm a spacer through and through. Without me around, this ship will fall apart. Actually, even with my best efforts, she's falling apart. Every now and again the entire ship groans, the metal hull expanding and contracting from time to time as we pass by various gravitational fields.

I worry about her suddenly collapsing and us being sucked into space, but father says that's unlikely. Not impossible. Just unlikely .

Why do I even stick around? I should get off on Zagreb Prime and try my luck with the Federation. I'm sure they could use someone with my skills. I could see all the Prime worlds, make a grand tour out of it. There's more to this world than these rusty walls, right?

Now, now, Claire. They're your family. That means something. You've got to stick together. You know they're lost without you, right?

Yeah, mom. I know. I know . You don't have to remind me. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere…

I slip into my beige overalls and zip myself up. With my hair still damp I head back to the upper-deck. It sounds fancy, but it's really a bunch of screens jammed into a tiny nook where I like to hang out. It's my little escape from the insanity that is my family.

I climb up the long ladder and find my brother Liam sitting in my seat — with a VR headset on. He's got a strange, transfixed expression on his face, and his hands are honking the air.

I don't even want to know what ‘ game ' he's playing.

"Really, Liam?" I ask.

My older brother scrambles as if stung by a bee. He knocks the VR-headset off and looks at me guiltily, his cheeks flushed bright red.

"J-just, uh, just playing a game, sis."

"Yeah, sure."

I shake my head and look over his shoulder at the scanners.

That's when my heart drops .

The orcs.

They are coming.