Chapter
One
Beth
Istared at the stamp on my wrist, worry rising that a cruise billed as ultra-advanced would rely on something as primitive as ink on skin to mark who was allowed aboard. The disappointment that our shuttle had no windows piled onto that anxiety; I wanted to see the ship we’d be spending the next several months on. The metal floor beneath my boots vibrated faintly, a low hum echoing through the cramped cabin, and the stale, recycled air tasted metallic on my tongue. My gut twisted as I replayed every detail I might have missed. What if this wasn’t a legitimate singles cruise at all? What if the alien version of a singles cruise was merely a front for a human-trafficking ring? Applying with my friends and paying good money didn’t guarantee legitimacy. The whole thing could be a scam. The fact that the entire trip cost less than my usual cost of living for the same period on Earth had seemed exciting at first, but now it felt like a baited hook. Perhaps our traffickers were using that bargain to lure us even deeper.
My heart was pounding, my hands felt damp. I needed to calm down.
I was letting my head run away with me again. I wasn't in any danger. I was safe.
I took a deep breath. Inhaling slowly, holding it, then exhaling. Focusing on my breath.
My friends had great instincts. They wouldn't have agreed to go on this cruise if it were a scam.
"What kind of space shuttle doesn't have windows?" Dani griped, blurting out my negative thoughts for me. I smiled at her, glad that someone could voice it. She had styled her hair to start off this trip in the form of a rocket, managing to look remarkably similar to a character called Ruby Rhod from an old science fiction movie, except her hair was its natural black instead of bleached. She sat in what would be the window seat in our three-person row, which was another disappointment. When I got on the shuttle to be flown up to the spaceship, I thought I would be getting on an alien shuttle. Instead, we all got our wrists stamped, handed over our luggage, and then walked into what looked like an airline cabin, but without windows. It didn't move like a human plane, though. There had been almost no sensation when we took off, if take off was what we were doing.
Maybe they had just loaded us into a soundproof box and plopped us on a ship so we could be sold off in a different country.
I glanced over at the balding middle-aged man several rows ahead of me.
Then again, maybe not.
"Maybe I should go see if I can talk to the manager," Dani grumbled.
As if by cue, the entire roof of the shuttle vanished, exposing us to the vast, endless dark of outer space.
I screamed.
In my defense, I wasn't the only person who screamed. Several shrieks echoed around the cabin. The balding man actually flung himself out of his chair, elbowing the woman in the aisle seat next to him as he scrambled over her, pushing her down so he could trip and fall into the aisle. He wasn't the only man on the shuttle; there were a good number of them, and he wasn't the only person who got out of his seat in alarm.
"About damn time," Dani muttered.
"This is so cool," Mara agreed from where she sat on my other side.
Of course, neither of them was startled. Both of them were brave in entirely different ways. Mara careened through life like people were popcorn flavors for her to taste and discard, and Dani had a different way of seeing the world that had nothing to do with the fear-mongering mess that lived in my head. I glanced across the aisle to see that Jess and Lin were both staring up at the ceiling with varied expressions of excitement and eagerness.
As usual, out of my group of friends, it was just me who was startled.
"Please remain calm and return to your seats," the sexy cat lady in the front of the cabin sang out as a soothing, low tone filled the cabin, underlying her sung words with a tone that managed to make my shoulders relax just from the sound of it. She was one of the Norratar species, but for some reason, she was dressed up in a maid outfit, which looked rather fetching and was tailored to fit her flat front, as the females of her species didn't have the whole rounded mammary gland thing. Dani had laughed inappropriately hard when we first boarded, and the sexy cat lady seemed pleased by the reaction. "The viewing display has activated, so you can get your first look at Vaurelcar Masak, who will be hosting us for this cruise."
I looked around at the stars over my head, not seeing anything. It was just all empty space, and looking up at it was asterrifying to me as that one time I went snorkeling and the edge of the reef suddenly dropped out from underneath me, a huge cliff that plunged down into the unseen depths. I floated there on the edge, my body entirely frozen as I stared at the vastness below me. I felt like that now, looking up at the endless expanse of nothing that was peppered with the occasional speckles of stars. Except there was one large patch where there were no stars, only black.
External lights turned on, illuminating the black edges with a green glow that made the huge sphere seem as if it just popped into existence from the void.
"Vaurelcar Masak," I murmured to myself, taking in the name of this glorious ship, this leviathan that had appeared out of the depths to reveal itself to us. It grew larger and larger until all we could see was the smooth, seamless sides of it, except for a hole that opened up in front of us, ready to swallow us whole as we headed straight for its maw.
The inherent terror of the moment was muted by the hearts.
They were drawn just above the maw, as if by an excited tagger rushing to get the whole thing spray-painted, were the words: "Welcome Humans!" with two comically large hearts on either side of it.
We entered the hole, and the space lit up in front of us as the wall of the mouth closed behind us. Everyone looked forward to where the lights were, but I looked back. It was always a good idea to look away from the distractions and see what was being hidden. The difference in the lighting made it difficult to focus, but the parts were bright enough that I could see something moving, like hundreds of long white snakes moving to carry dark black panels to cover the gap.
"Get up already, I want to get out there," Dani said, waving her hands at me like she was shooing me. I looked over at Mara, but she hadn't budged yet. No one else in the room was standingyet, either, other than the sexy cat lady. Everyone was staring out at the view of the new space around us.
"If you want to be in charge of that, you take the aisle seat next time," Mara said.
"I didn't know there wasn't going to be a window," Dani grumbled.
