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!”

Red lights flashed. A low grating sound ran through the ship. Ariel, her pretty face crumpling, asked, “What’s happening?”

“Run!” Clara’s fingers clamped down more tightly on Ariel’s arm. Her feet moved, and after a moment, Ariel’s did too. They staggered and ran down the hallways. A loud clanking noise rose above the din created by the sirens. Crewmembers ran on, their faces shocked and frightened.

Clara thought, Oh, it just figures! I hate flying, and now I’m going to die in a spaceship that must be crashing or something!

Panting, her feet sliding along the slick floors, Clara kept going. Her survival instincts kicked in. An inner voice told her to leave Ariel, who was just holding her back. Once upon a time she might have, but she wasn’t on the Under-Levels where life was cheap and saving one’s self was something everyone was taught from an early age.

The other women crowded near the pods, their faces showing their fear. A few shouting crewmembers pushed and shoved at them, thrusting them back toward the door of the pods.

Clara balked. “What if we get trapped in there? What if there’s a fire or something?”

It wouldn’t matter. Her heart sank, as she understood that. If the ship was crashing, the pods couldn’t save them, only the small escape ships could: the escape ships that were on the other end of the ship. Anger hit. She shouted, “The escape ships!”

The crewmembers kept pushing, but a few had begun to run again, headed for the bays on the other side of the ship. That action just highlighted the fear growing in Clara. If the crewmembers could, they’d save themselves and no way could those rescue ships hold them and their cargo. She screamed, “They’re trying to put us in the pods so they can get on the ships and bail on us! They are going to leave us here to die!”

Ariel shrieked. Her fist flew out. The woman packed a hell of a punch, Clara saw with some satisfaction. Now that the nefarious plot was clear, all the women fought back. One in particular, a skinny blonde, was skilled at fighting, her lean body launching across the floor and her feet and hands both kicking and punching. Clara didn’t have time to admire that. She was too busy just trying to get the crew out of her way and to the ships that were the only shot any of them had. Most of the crew deserted the fight and hauled ass for the escape ships. The women chased behind them, but Clara could feel her hopes sinking as she spotted a whole lot of those ships rocketing off into space, leaving them behind.

Scarier was the sight of a massive, battered hull right above the edges of the wide glass observation windows. Margie, her face pale, asked, “What is it?’

“I don’t know.”

Ariel said, “Who cares? Run. We have to try to get to the…”

Too late. A grating, rending sound tore through the ship. Debris and metal rained down. Clara went to her knees, her hands locking above her head. Her eyes went upward. Terror made her voice die in her throat. A long spike jutted into the ship. The thing whirled and spun and then opened, revealing a group of men.

Not human.

Something else.

They were taller than average, with wide, barrel-chested bodies. They all wore plain brown uniforms, and the first one who stepped out could have passed as a pirate from back in Earth’s glory pre-tech days. He had a raffish black beard, neatly trimmed close to his jaw, which was sharper than it should have been. His hair, also black, hung in long curls to his incredibly wide shoulders. His eyes, long and almond shaped, were a burning blue. Thick fringes of lashes gave those eyes a smoldering look.

He held up a long hand. The fingers were at least two inches longer than most human fingers. Clara got up. She put her arms out and tried to gather the other women behind her. Groans caught her attention. The crew and others had injured a few women by the spike, which must have been some kind of conveyance between the invader’s ship and the one the women were on.

He spoke softly. “We are salvaging this ship. You have two choices. Come with us, or stay while it crumples around you.”

Her rage burned high at that. Clara said, with a lot of bitterness, “So we have no choice. Again.”

His eyes took in her face. His left eyebrow hooked upward. A flash of desire hit her hard. Her hands curled up into a fist and she stuck her chin out, eyeing him carefully even though her brain was screaming at her to get the hell out of there and fast before she found herself zooming through open space without a chance of survival.

He spoke, his voice—a low and not unpleasant thing—resounding in her ears. “Sure you do. Live or die.”

Great. Same choices she had had before. The women at her back surged forward as yet another spike shot through the ceiling. That one didn’t open to disgorge anyone. Instead, it emitted a long and awfully terrifying sucking sound that sent flares of panic all through Clara’s body. Ok then. Time to go.

Margie and Ariel joined Clara in her flight across the floor toward the door. A fourth woman, one whose name Clara didn’t know yet, dashed into the tube just before the whirling door shut. Ariel gasped out, “What about the others?”

The fourth woman, a fiery redhead with pale features and a lovely mouth, shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess they’re coming.”

The tube jolted them upward. Clara’s hands whipped out, and she held onto one side. The ride up was fast, sickeningly so. She found herself blinking as the door spun open again to reveal a wide deck and a vast array of blinking equipment.

Margie said, “I guess this is us.”

The four women got off slowly. The tube descended again, letting out a high whine as it did. A tall man-creature with blonde hair and set of eyes like the others looked them over. “Were you cargo?”

Margie said, “Sort of. Brides.”

He looked amused. “Oh. So you’re not good for ransom.”

Clara found her tongue as outrage stuttered into life. “Nope.”

He shrugged and turned toward the equipment. The tube came back up, bringing with it several more women, all of them confused and more than one who was weeping. He sighed and said, “I’m Talon. Anyone hurt?”

Clara checked herself and shook her head. Ariel had a shallow cut on one arm that had already stopped bleeding. Margie had a bruised cheek. The blonde woman who’d been fighting so hard earlier shrugged as if to say she was fine but didn’t speak. One of the other women had a large gash on her calf, and another had a slight scalp wound. He yelled for someone named Marik and another appeared, this one with brown hair and eyes.

Marik said, “Follow me, those of you that are hurt. I’ll get you fixed up.”

The others left. Ariel, Margie, Clara and the woman who’d joined them in the tube huddled together.

Talon said, “They’ll be done in a minute down there. You sure got the shit end of that stick, didn’t you?”

Clara’s lips vibrated with rage. “I’d say so. You wrecked our transport to our grooms and…”

Talon snorted. “That’s what they told you? Yeah, that is what they told you. Of course they did. You weren’t going to husbands; you were going to Narnlia.”

Clara blinked “I beg your pardon? That is not possible. That’s a pleasure planet.” And where all the women were slaves to the brothels or the singing saloons.

Talon grinned at her. “If it is not so, then why were you on a trajectory there?”

Her arms crossed. Her chin came up. “We weren’t.”

Talon pointed to a monitor. She and the other woman stared at it. A hard gasp lifted Clara’s breasts. It was true! They were nowhere near the star system they were supposed to be headed for.

Margie said, “There must be some kind of mistake.”

Talon nodded. “Happens all the time. The government down there on your planet’s in on it, of course. Pretending to be sending off brides, so the good people who follow them don’t protest too much when their women are shipped off.” His eyes lingered on Margie’s face. Margie glowered at him.

Ariel said, “So…now what? Is that where you are going to take us?

Talon said, “That’s up to Renall.”

Renall? The tube opened again. The piratical one stepped off. Talon said, “There you are. I was stuck explaining the hard facts to them, again. Why is that always my job?”

Renall said, “Because you are so good at it.” His eyes searched among them and singled Clara out. “The question now is what to do with them.”

Ariel wiped her face. Margie stared at the floor. The fourth wrapped her arms around herself and looked away. Clara stood her ground, not lifting her arms and definitely not lowering her gaze. She said, “Tell me, what made you salvage that ship?’

“It was carrying things we actually need. Water, supplies, and oreonium. We need that for credits in the system, and now we have you as well, which we don’t need.”

Her head came up a little higher. “How do you know you don’t need us?’

Renall chuckled. “You’re spirited.”

“I’m also lethal.” The words dropped into the space between them. “If you attempt to shove me off on that pleasure planet, you’ll lose a good chunk of your hands while you do it, or your life.”

Renall didn’t even blink. Maybe his kind couldn’t. His lips curved upward into a nasty smile though. “I see. I will keep that in mind.”

He turned away. The four women looked at each other. Ariel asked, “What are we supposed to do?”

Talon said, “Just be quiet.”

They drew back into a small corner. Renall and Talon spoke in muted voices, and in their language, which was beyond Clara’s limited abilities of outer planet speak. She whispered, to Ariel and Margie and the fourth woman, “Any of you know where they’re from or what they’re saying?”

The fourth woman nodded. Clara gawked at her. The woman was tall and stick-thin. Blue shadows lay under her eyes despite the long sleep. Her blonde hair had probably been lustrous at one time, but now it was dull and slightly stringy and in definite need of a wash. The woman smiled and whispered into Clara’s ear, “Move a little closer to the vac tubes.”

They did. The noise there was terrible, and Clara had the idea that the woman didn’t want Talon and Renall to hear what she was about to say.

Margie asked, “Who are you?”

The blonde gave her a tired smile. “Jessica Laud. I’m a former Capo.”

Clara’s mouth fell open. She remembered then that Jessica had been fighting the crew with some real skill. A Capo though? She whispered, “What’s a Capo doing on that bride ship?

Jessica’s eyes closed and then reopened. “I knew something I was not supposed to know, is my best guess. Only I don’t know what it was.” Her smile was rueful. “I did know the ship was bound for Narnlia though. I had planned to escape as soon as we were let out of the pods. Take an escape ship and run. But that seems to be out the window.”

Margie whispered, “Who are they?”

“Wreckers, of course.” Jessica frowned. “I’d say from Inner Magda. They have that look and seem to speak the colony tongue, but they speak it with a little bit of accent so they might just be using that to throw off anyone who might know it, or their real language. Or they might just be using it because it’s a base language and one that anyone can learn fairly quickly. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say they’re from the same system, but not the same planet, wherever they’re from, and they’re a crew because they all have one thing in common, and it’s not exactly race.”

Ariel asked, “What do you mean?”

Clara had already figured it out. “She means they’re space pirates.”

“Yup.” Jessica sighed. Her narrow shoulders slumped. “I’d also say they know exactly what they’re doing. It’s been exactly half an hour since they took the ship and they just launched the hull. Look.”

They all turned to the long windows. The ship they’d been on had been scrapped and stripped down to a bare gleam of metal. There was nothing left to identify it. The ship they were on let out a series of loud rumbles and the tubes opened to disgorge a dozen of the wreckers.

Jessica whispered. “That’s fourteen, and they stripped it in half an hour.”

Holy shit. It was impressive, no doubt. But what did that mean for them? Clara’s teeth chewed at her bottom lip. She scanned them carefully, her eyes assessing them. Jessica had been right. They were all definitely from the same system, but not the same planet. Some were shorter than the others, and some had eyes that were a lighter blue. They all spoke that language.

Clara asked, “What’re they saying?”

Jessica shrugged. “I brought you over here so they wouldn’t hear me saying I understood them. Unfortunately, I can’t hear anything but their voices either so I don’t know.”

The four gave each other long glances. Jessica asked, “What’re you in for?”

Clara said, “Running tables and carrying currency.”

Margie said, “I’m not a good citizen, and Ariel got sold off to clear debt.”

Jessica nodded. “Well then. I guess we are each other’s best bets for survival. The others didn’t seem to be too willing to fight or have the guts for it either. I wouldn’t leave them behind if I had a choice to save them, but I wouldn’t exactly trust them to be around if we do have to go to war with these guys.”

Clara nodded agreement. She already saw Jessica as an ally and the other two as potential ones. Margie and Ariel both had every reason to want to get out of there and to go somewhere else. But where?

Clara’s eyes went back to Renall. He stood close to Talon and a few other wreckers. The ship gave a long shudder and headed upward, parting the darkness of space as it slid through it.

Narnlia appeared, a small blue and orange planet to the right. Clara stared at it, relieved at not being sent there but still afraid that the next option might be even worse.

Talon came close. He said, “Renall wants to see you.”

His fingers pointed at Clara. Her heart sank. Why was she being singled out? She didn’t know, but she did know she didn’t have a choice but to agree. She said, “Fine.”

She followed Talon toward Renall. Renall said, “I’d like a private word.”

Great. He likely wanted sex. She eyed him warily. Did his kind have sex? Her nipples stiffened in an unbidden and unwanted way at the thought. She said, “Ok.”

He jerked his head toward a small hallway. Clara followed him down it. The hallway led to a series of smaller rooms, many of them with beds. Quarters, she surmised.

They reached a large bay. Renall stopped and turned toward her. His eyes raked her from head to toe. He held his hand out. There, on his elongated palm, set crypto-files. Her heartbeat ticked up. “What?’

“You’re a carder.”

The words hit hard. Ire surged up. “So what? Why do you care?”

“You any good?”

Her eyebrows rose. “Depends.”

Renall’s eyes bored into hers. “On what?”

“On who you ask.” Why did he care if she was a carder? It made no sense at all. She eyed the crypto-files. “You must have gotten those off the ship.”

“I did.” His fingers closed around them. “I have a proposition for you.”

She bet he did. “What is it?”

“You run a game for a year, high win rate. You walk with your crypto and with that identity chip your government put under your spine gone.”

Her mouth went dry. “That’s impossible. Removal triggers a mini-bomb.”

Renall grinned. “Our surgeon’s removed a lot of them quite successfully. Your planet is the least advanced in all ways you know.”

Was he serious? Her eyes narrowed. “Nobody does anything for free.”

“Didn’t say it was free. I said high wins, and a whole year.”

True. He had said that. Clara considered that for a moment. “Then what? I just walk?”

“Yes. Like I said. Here’s the thing, without that crypto and without that device, you could use any ID you want. You could get a surgery or two; give yourself an appearance of any planter system. You could even re-enter your home planet and buy a few slaves, right out of the cells.”

Her mouth went dry. Her family! She swallowed hard. “They might not be there after a year.”

“Carders don’t get bought. Besides, I know where they are all at, and I could make it so that they don’t get sold.”

Could he really? She wanted to believe that, but she knew all too well that lies were the first thing people used to gain loyalty, especially when the person they wanted loyalty from had something they really needed and wanted. “I don’t believe you.”

“Then how about this? In three months, if you earn high, I’ll bring your mother to you. She can tell you how the rest are doing.”

Goddamn him. He was hitting her at the hardest points of her hurt. She pursed her lips. This was a negotiation, and she knew it. Might as well negotiate. “You get my mom, and you got two carders willing to work it out for the rest of the family.”

Renall’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t suggest your father first.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Mom’s not only better, she’s in frailer health. She might not make it another three months at the serio-camp she’s in. It’s rough in there.”

Renall said, “It won’t be cheap to get her out. She’ll have to work out her costs.”

“Before anything goes to the bigger pot. Yeah, I can agree to that and she will too.” Besides, Mom runs the best table anywhere. She kept that thought behind her lips. She added, “We didn’t discuss my cut.”

“I told you what you get.”

“Bullshit.” Her hackles came up. “I want at least ten percent too. That’s fair.”

Silence filled the spaces between them. Under her feet, the ship let out soft vibrations. There were no windows where they stood, so she had no idea what direction the ship had turned to, and even if she had been able to see, this was an unfamiliar star and planetary system. She only knew Narnlia by reputation and from cryptographs she’d seen of it.

His lips twisted upward. “You can have four.”

“Seven and a half.”

“Five, and that is my final and very fair offer. After all, I’m tossing in the removal and the crypto-file for good measure.”

It was as fair as she would get and five percent of something was better than a hundred percent of nothing.

She’d woken up on a supposed bride ship heading to a colony she had no interest in, and in despair over her family. Since then she’d watched the ship she’d been on go down in figurative flames, and found out the government on her planet was essentially selling sex slaves to Narnlia. And now she was facing a being who turned her on and that she absolutely could not trust, and was about to strike a bargain he might never hold to.

In for a coin, in for a clutch of them, though, right?

She held out a hand. He took it. Little shocks ran through her body. Desire lifted its head once again, and she tamped it down. “Deal,” she said.