Page 1

Chapter 1

Opal

I stopped at the entrance to the docks. My heart was pounding as if I'd run the length of the station. Nervousness and a bit of fear made nausea rise up. I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes.

Get a grip, I told myself. This isn't anything.

Except it was.

Even though Maglia assured me the species who would be paying for my time were breeding compatible with humans, there were a lot of ways I could get hurt even if their penises didn’t have spikes or barbs.

No, I had to stop thinking that way. I’d be fine.

Maglia said she’d talked to the client at length and they seemed to understand that humans were a delicate, vulnerable species. Maglia took good care of everyone she worked with. I trusted her to do her best, but there was always the unexpected.

It gave me confidence that she seemed to know everything about sex work. She’d been in this business a long time and had given me a long lecture on pleasing a client. She'd even given me a bag of goodies. The contents included various lubes and things I could use on myself or the client to create or prolong pleasure.

I hadn't recognized half of them and found myself blushing a few times while Maglia explained how to use everything in detail. Normally I wasn't shy about sex or sexuality, but I'd never had it treated so clinically. It felt weird, but I was determined to treat this like any other job and do my very best to make the client happy.

The problem was that, instead of going to the ship, I was standing here clutching the bag of items and trying hard to calm myself. If I couldn't get my heart to slow down and my stomach to settle, I'd probably vomit all over my client.

This might be my first time working for Maglia, but I was pretty sure that wasn't a good idea.

“Opal?”

I gasped and turned to find Irga standing there with a crawling bot in his hands. The bot’s front six legs were wiggling without any coordination, and the back six legs were all hanging limp.

“Hi, Irga,” I said, overly loud. My volume made Irga draw back. I sucked in a breath and tried again. “What's wrong with the crawler?”

He looked down at the machine before looking back up at me, the tall bushy crown of fur on his head bobbing as he moved. “It's Gilta's bot. It's not acting correctly, so I thought I'd ask Tegta if she could fix it.”

It felt good to talk about mundane things. “If anyone can fix it, it's Tegta.”

“What are you doing here?” he asked, looking happy for me. “Are you working with Tegta today?”

After the mining operation on a nearby moon shut down, a bunch of businesses on our station had also closed. My job had been great, until it disappeared because they closed an entire repair bay. Now, six months later, they’d closed all bays except for Tegta’s. She would hire me when she could. But it wasn't often and definitely not enough.

“I have a job, but not with Tegta,” I said.

It only took Irga a moment to figure out what I meant. “Did Maglia get a contract for you?”

“Yes, it's my first,” I said.

He looked excited. “She gets the best prices for sex contracts. That should help. I know Tegta feels guilty over not having much work for you here in the bay.”

“She shouldn't feel guilty; there's not enough work for anyone,” I said. The only steady jobs were with station staff, station maintenance, and this repair bay. We were still close enough to a trade route that ships would sometimes come in for work or to refuel.

“What about your applications to other stations?” he asked. “You're a skilled multi-level technician. There must be someone willing to sponsor you.”

I sighed. “Nothing yet.”

Within the Massoc Republic, outsiders couldn't simply move from place to place. You had to have a sponsor that would take responsibility if you broke a law or did something wrong. So far no one was willing to sponsor me, even with Tegta's recommendation.

“Maybe you’ll get steady sex contracts with Maglia,” he said.

I snorted. “This is the first one since I registered three months ago. I doubt this will be a regular thing.”

Irga looked around, confused. “If you're fulfilling a sex contract, shouldn’t you be using one of Maglia's rooms?” He took a step closer with an aggravated shake of his head. “You aren't fulfilling the contract on their ship, are you?”