‘Luxury cruise liner’ was a stretch. Sarah’s hair had been greasy since her first shower aboard Sky Chaser 4, and the stale stench of cannabis hung in the air no matter where she walked. But she was four hundred light years away from Earth and aboard a space ship! She couldn’t be happier.

Winning the radio contest had seemed an impossibility when she entered, but the impossible hadn’t stopped her from being born and it wasn’t about to stop her from seeing the universe. Sure, her cabin didn’t have a window. Sure, the ports of call were a bit… rough. And sure, her translator only understood about six of the twenty or more languages spoken by the passengers on the ship.

But none of that was going to get her down. Not today. They were doing a flyby of a vacant planet, REX-9863, or Rex as the guidebook helpfully called it, and then they were going to Honora Station, the busiest trading post in this sector. She’d spy aliens that she’d never dreamed of.

Nearly two weeks earlier, on her first day on the ship, she’d been self-conscious about her conspicuous humanity. She’d been afraid that she’d be plain. Back home, no one noticed a dark haired, dark eyed, curvy girl with too much curiosity and mischief for her own good.

The Sky Chaser line catered mostly to bipedal, vocal species. But from the moment Sarah stepped aboard, she hadn’t felt plain. Several of the incredibly buff warriors whose skin ranged from blue to dark purple stared at her wherever she went. Their ringleader, a devastatingly handsome purple man who was nearly two meters tall, had even opened the door for her to the entertainment deck.

Lithe, green men made eyes at her as she walked through the dining hall. And the pink women with bright yellow hair flirted and smiled, casually touching her whenever they could draw her into conversation here.

No, here she wasn’t plain. For once, she felt like one of the pretty people. Or, if not pretty, then someone unique. After all, she was the only human on the ship. She’d been self-conscious for about a day, but then the strangeness began to feel ordinary. Everyone on the ship was an alien. Everyone was weird. And that just made her normal.

Sarah pulled on her swim suit and then covered that with a bright red jumpsuit. The upper deck pool would be the perfect place to watch the auroras on Rex. She’d knock back a few of the fruity drinks that made her head delightfully tilty and maybe work up the courage to talk to the purple warrior leader.

That was, if she could get him to step away from his friends for two seconds. That man never seemed to be more than a five meters from his own people. Clearly he hadn’t settled into the same comfort that she had. But still, if Sarah worked up the nerve for it, she’d be happy to show him a little bit of Earthling hospitality.

What was a cruise light years from home good for if she didn’t get some really memorable alien sex out of it?

That thought in mind, Sarah left her room and headed for the pool. Sky Chaser 4 was huge and her room was located in the very bowels of the ship. She could hear the engine and life support system churning at all hours, but it had become white noise by now.

Sarah made it to the elevator bay without meeting another soul. She’d become accustomed to that. Despite its size, the ship could have taken on twice as many passengers as it seemed to have now with room to spare. As far as she could tell, she was the only person occupying a room in her hallway, and possibly the only person on the entire floor.

She’d just pressed the button for the elevator when a siren blared: three short pulses followed by a long, bleating honk. Sarah’s heart kicked up and she looked around, but her eyes had trouble focusing on anything because of the red lights flashing from the ceiling.

Shit. What did that siren mean? She was either supposed to go directly back to her room or to go directly to one of the lifeboats. She looked around, hoping that she could follow someone else’s lead. But she was still alone. She had to make the decision herself.

Life boat, she decided.

She took off, jogging back down the hall toward the emergency exit. The room through that door was barely warmer than freezing. She hugged herself and rubbed her arms over the thin fabric of her jumpsuit. The heating system clearly didn’t reach this far.

Every level of the ship was equipped with a dozen or more life boats. They were located behind thick steel doors with heavy lock wheels to make sure they stayed shut. Sarah had expected someone to be there to direct her into one of the boats, but still, she was alone.

Maybe she should have gone back to her room.

No. Now that she’d made the decision, she was certain it was right. The siren meant they were supposed to get off the ship. Something was wrong. She spun the wheel and heard metal clank inside the door. With a tug, she pulled it open and stepped inside the dark escape vessel.

The life boat was little more than a narrow tube with benches bolted to either wall. The only thing to demarcate the seats were the restraints bolted above them. Sarah strapped herself in and waited, watching the door and trying to listen past the sound of the siren to see or hear if anyone would join her.

Minutes passed.

Then more minutes.

Still she was alone.

The siren cut off abruptly and her ears rang with the sudden silence. Was the threat over? Had this just been a drill? Sarah decided to give it one more minute before crawling out of the life boat and heading back to her room. She was barely keeping the catastrophic thoughts at bay, and now was not the time to think about the various reasons for the alarm to cut off.

She heard footsteps tromping down the hallway outside and two low voices arguing urgently. Her translator didn’t understand the words. Not for the first time, she cursed the sub-dermal device.

The door slammed open and the purple warrior that she’d been eyeing for days stumbled in. He looked around, eyes darting to every corner, his brows drawn down in a harsh expression.

When he saw her sitting down, strapped to the wall, he let out an honest to God growl that did things to her private places. Sarah shivered. But any nascent fantasies were dashed when he turned around and banged on the door, yelling in that alien language. She didn’t need a translator to know that he was cursing at whoever had locked him in.

Sarah was just about to speak up, but the escape vessel lurched. Her stomach jumped into her throat and she held on tight to the straps holding her in place as the gravity disengaged.

They’d been jettisoned and their life boat was falling through space.