Chapter 1:
Clara Waters stood at the bow of the spaceship, her eyes fastened on the world outside that window. The same misgivings she’d had back on Earth came flooding in.
This was insane. She couldn’t possibly be on a spaceship flying to a lonely planet as a mail-order bride. She’d hated flying in air planes; the thought of being so far above the ground had never been one she’d liked, but now she was literally hurtling through space, passing by small asteroids and planets cloaked in jewel-like colors.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
Clara looked over at Margie Jones. She had fiery red hair, a porcelain complexion, and a habit of biting her full bottom lip so that it puffed up in a very attractive way. Margie added, “But I’d say it’s way too late to change my mind. We arrive in three days.”
Clara looked back at the window. Her reflection looked back. Her jet-black hair hung to the waist of the baggy flight suit. Her face, a long oval filled with long-lidded blue eyes and high cheekbones, didn’t show the fear she felt. Why would it? She’d always been good at hiding her emotions. She’d had to be.
Clara said, “It won’t be so bad.”I hope.
Margie asked, “Do you think they’ll be hideous?”
Clara didn’t have to ask whom Margie meant. “No, we’ve seen them before, remember? They’re nearly human in appearance. Well, except for the third arm and the pointy heads, but that’s small stuff.” She thought,Or not.I mean c’mon, a fucking third arm? I don’t know if I can stomach it, really but what else could I do?“I don’t know about you, but if I hadn’t gotten on the ship I would’ve had to do life, and that was in a serio-max. So this is way preferable.”
Margie chuckled. “What did you do, anyway?”
Clara said, “My folks were carders. They had a big op running down on the Under Levels below Old Toronto. I ran a few tables for them and I got caught.”
Margie’s eyes widened. “You’re lucky they didn’t send you to serio-max without giving you the choice to do this. If you got caught with real currency that’s…that’s as bad as murder.”
She had been caught with currency, thousands of coins and bills. Her lips tightened. “I wouldn’t have gotten caught; none of us would if it hadn’t been for…” She paused. A lacerating pain hit her chest.
She’d trusted James, and she’d loved him too. He’d betrayed her and her entire family, and now she was on her way to an alien planet, and her family was stuck in cells. It was all her fault, and she knew it. She should never have broken that first rule of carding—never trust anyone, especially someone you love.
Clara cleared her throat. “How about you?”
Margie sighed. “I had a bad work record and was declared a bad citizen. They gave me two choices: come and be a bride or be declared unproductive.”
In other words, Margie’s choices were between being killed in a government-sanctioned ‘sleep facility’ or marrying an alien on the under-populated outer colonies. Clara said, “I guess you made the best of a bad situation.”
Ariel, a tall and elegant blonde with tanned skin and a trim athletic figure, came toward the two. She said, “What’re you guys talking about?”
Margie said, “How we got here.”
Clara asked, “How did you get here?”
Ariel twirled a strand of hair around one slender finger. “I got sold off for my family’s debt to the government. Lucky me, I’m the pretty sister. Nobody even asked if maybe my parents and grandparents, who ran up the debt, wanted to get sold. It just came down to me whether I liked it or not since all debt’s inherited. It would have been my debt any way they looked at it, and so—here I am. But don’t, for a single second, think I’m happy about this.”
Margie gave Ariel a sympathetic look and said; “I think a few other women on here are onboard over inherited debt too.”
Clara looked away. Guilt hit, weakening her knees and sending fresh pain into her chest and heart. If it was possible to buy her family out of those cells, she’d do it in a second, even if it meant marrying a Centipedal from one of the hostile planets to the far left of the system they flew through. Nothing would get her family back, and it was all her fault.
Her eyes closed. James’ handsome face swarmed up. Auburn hair over a high forehead, a slight dusting of freckles across his wide nose, a mouth made for kissing.
And a heart made to turn over his lover’s family to the government in order to curry favor and get out of the Base-Level Tenements and into a nice flat above the ground.
Bastard.
She really hoped the ground below his nice new living quarters cratered and toppled and killed his sorry, betraying ass straight dead.
The crew came to life with a suddenness that startled Clara. She and the others gawked as crewmembers, galvanized by something the three women couldn’t see, dashed by.
The loud clang of sirens rang out. Clara, used to danger, reacted by shouting, “They’re running, so we should be too!”
Ariel’s mouth hung open. Margie, obviously blessed with a sense of self-preservation, took off at a dead run. Clara grabbed Ariel’s arm. “Come on!”
