Page 16 of Claim
“This ship has all it needs,” Mag intoned from the dais, turning slowly so that his deep, sonorous voice projected to all of the columns and hidden corners of the gather-hall like a searchlight of sound.“From the cargo hold overflowing with ore to the smallest most precious jewel, from purest ice to Amma’s yezo”—a riffle of resonant amusement from the gathered crew—“we have it all.But most valuable of all: you.You, my orcs, are the muscles and bones of this ship.And the heart and the soul.”He waited for another, louder response from the crowd, then he spread his arms out, as if to hold them all.“By slag and by sludge, the Luster will see our shine.”This time, a roar from the gathered orcs, and he crooked a finger toward June.“June.Will you make us shine?”
The rush of heat she’d been holding back returned thousand fold as every gaze pivoted to her.It was one thing to send her prom queen and beauty pageant clients out to applause, but this was too much.Still, when an apex called…
She approached the dais, hauling her hover cart of goodies.At the base of the first step, she looked up.He was so very far above her.
Averting her gaze, she checked the datpad and sent a public message to the group.“If everyone wants to take their assigned stations, we’ll get started with the fittings and palette tests.”
At Mag’s gesture, everyone went to their places.How had a small-town hairdresser from Earth become showrunner on an alien ship?
She was so lucky to have friends to help.Sil was still half-asleep from his late nights, but with Kinsley’s assistance, he divvied up his sung stones which would be the focus of much of the attention at auction.Carmen got to work immediately with Mary Louise as her assistant.Both women been excited to try the orc version of a sewing machine that Teq had designed for the project.It fabricated, cut, sewed, and finished on the fly.Anne and Maria had brought their chosen life-mates, and all five were assisting wherever they could, looking to June for direction.
No pressure or anything.
But there was no time for nerves or doubt.She rotated among the stations, checking on looks.Adeline, who had organized many business dinners before her divorce, had created basically a mobile seating chart to best display their auction goods—and to serve as a protective formation.
“The Luster is a well-respected professional society,” Teq had explained earlier.“It’s just that a lot of the members are pirates, scavengers, and reprobate criminals.”
One of Maria’s mates snorted.“Likeweused to be sometimes,” Pars said.
“Only the scavenger part,” his cousin Iffo countered.
“But we’re better now,” Sil said which had made Kinsley laugh until she choked.
But theywould bebetter once they got the sales and contracts they needed.Everyone believed that.
Everyone except, it seemed, Mag.
Oh, he did his part, trying on the parts of the costume that were ready and admiring his brother’s handiwork, but somehow June saw past it.She saw his nerves and doubts as if his carapace had turned transparent beneath the tunic-cape she’d designed and Carmen had pieced together.The open weave had a certain barbarian splendor and would show off Sil’s most impressive sung stone, the impossibly faceted fractal gem hung on a thick chain and centered on Mag’s, um, splendorous pectorals.
Not that she was lusting over the apex’s pecs, of course.Just because she’d had her hand on that thick pad of muscle under his tough hide didn’t mean she still dreamed of her palm burning with desire.Not more than once or twice anyway.But as dreamy hot as he was, the image truly seared into her memory, beneath her fingers, was his glyph.Even spread wide, her hand was too small to cover all of the scar.
I am apex.
Though she dithered, eventually she had to circle round to him.“How does it feel?”She made sure to keep her voice perfectly, utterly flat.“Anything bothering you?”
He stared down at her, his expression perfectly, utterly blank.“No.”
“Perfect.”She pivoted on her heel.
“June.”
Reluctantly, she turned back.Even with the gather-hall full of people, everyone seemed far away, Mag’s body and presence blocking out everything else.
“You’ve done good work,” he said.
“It wasn’t just me.Lots of others are working too.”She glanced around.“Everyone wants to be part of it, even if they won’t actually be at the Luster.I just hope they can rock their looks.”She chuckled, then tried to swallow back the hectic if not quite hysterical sound.“Which they will, because they are orcs, and all orcs rock.”
“It is good you think of them.I must focus on the ship.”
She peered at him.“The shipiseveryone.”
He was silent for a heartbeat.“If I think about it that way, I will be overcome.”
Surreptitiously, she glanced around them.What he was admitting wasn’t anything anyone else needed to hear at the moment.She knew from listening to some of Sil’s comments to Kinsley that his bigger brother never hesitated, never faltered—or so he believed.So all the orcs believed about their apex.
But with his broad shoulders hunched under the brand-new, unfamiliar cloak, he looked…smaller.Oh, that had not been her intent at all.From the corner of her eye, she noticed Teq twirling his own cloak, much to Ollie’s delight, but she needed theDeepWanderapex to be absolutely stupendous.
Gripping his lower elbow, she spun him away from the others, as if she were just angling him toward the light to get a better look.“Mag.You’ve been in charge of this ship—and all its people—basically since before you were born.And you’ve kept them going all this time.Why are you doubting yourself now?”
