Page 24 of Claim
“Of course you’re going.”Amma grabbed June’s hands and hauled her back into the chaos.“Adeline, Kinsley, Carmen, come.June has forgotten to make a look for herself.”
“I’m just not really a power and sparkle girl,” June protested over the other women’s exclamations of abject horror.“And anyway there isn’t time now.”
“I can whip up a dress, no problem,” Carmen said.
“And there are a few sung stones still,” Kinsley said.
Adeline smiled at her.“You just do your hair.”
The rest was a whirlwind.
She didn’t have a chance to catch her breath—or even glimpse Mag again, although what she would’ve told him about Amma’s revelation she wasn’t sure—until the away party was on the shuttle, heading for Luster Station.She hadn’t seen the space station on theDeepWander’s approach, being too busy, so this was her first glimpse.Actually, it was only her fifth encounter with an alien vessel—and it looked kinda like a pinwheel of conjoined hair dryers with diffusers spinning slowly through space.
Three long barrels poked out from a central power core, making a huge triangle, while smaller tubes bristled from the ends of the barrels.Those docking stations could hold a dozen ships at each of the three barrels, and judging by the mosquito cloud of shuttles like theirs swarming the station, there were probably a hundred-plus crews in attendance.
Static electricity of nerves crackled through her.So many aliens.Certainly there’d be buyers for their wares and future contracts to be negotiated, right?
But would it be enough to ransom theDeepWanderand its apex?
As their group boarded in the large landing bay, she’d seen Mag outside the shuttle, examining the recent repairs to the little ship and the bay itself.When Kinsley and Sil had been rescued rather calamitously from their adventure with Roxy, the shuttle had taken heavy damage—and done almost as much damage when it crashed into theDeepWander’s hold.While Teq promised that the overhauls would be fine for the short hop from their ship to the station, the ugly patchwork of scratched, scorched plasteel and new fabrication was a silent testament to how much they needed the connections and contracts promised at the Luster.
How could a small-town hairdresser dream of disguising the truth that their crew was teetering on the edge of ruin?Would everyone see right through her illusions of grandeur?
When they launched, in the viewscreen beside her shuttle seat, Luster Station loomed large—but the black void beyond was vaster yet.
Her gaze locked on the screen, and she leaned forward, her heart pounding.Was that… She clutched at Adeline seated next to her.“Is that thePratorim?”She’d never seen the pirate ship in person, of course, but they’d all watched replays of the ship that had tried to retrieve Dorn when he’d stolen Roxy, and when it had attacked Kinsley and Sil’s shuttle in the Zarnox Zone.“Adeline, you need to tell Teq.”
Adeline scowled, an anomalous look on her elegant face.“He knows.When Mag sent a protest to the Luster council, we were told that the matter would be dealt with during this gather.I sort of got the impression that their idea of handling things is getting drunk and duking it out.”
June swallowed hard.“That seems like a bad idea with space ships and laser guns.”
“That does up the ante quite a bit,” Adeline agreed.
June slumped back at her chair.“I’m scared,” she said softly.“Even if they don’t shoot us on sight, what if they see us and start laughing?What if we can’t make any connections or contracts?What if…” She stopped herself before she revealed Mag’s secret.That wasn’t just her own fear to share.
Adeline took her hand, and they held each other tight.
“When I divorced Robert, I thought that would be the hardest part,” Adeline mused.“It wasn’t.There was worse.But I had to start there to come out the other side.”Her smile shimmered like the stars beyond.“Now Ollie and I have Teq and a whole universe.”
Caught between teary joy at her friend’s happiness and silent dread at the bubbling Ajellomenes threat no one else knew about, June bit her lip.What if they’d found their home only to lose it all?
But she didn’t have much time to fret since the shuttle was already swooping toward the station, matching its spin.She’d never been on an airplane on Earth—the IDA transport have been her first flight ever—but she’d seen movies, and the place where the shuttle landed seemed like a slightly smaller version of an airport, except inside the gigantic bay of the space station.Most of the other shuttles were parked and powered down, only a few still emptying of their arriving passengers.But as they disembarked, even from a distance, she could see that they were not human nor orc.
“I will not gawk,” Kinsley muttered as she came up beside June.“Gawking is for closed worlders.”
“Can I say oh my god and what the fuck really quietly under my breath?”June wondered.
Kinsley snickered.“Just when I think you are too hopelessly kind.”She straightened, tossing back her shiny hair.“Let’s do this thing.”
But when they set foot onto the station, even Kinsley’s insouciance faltered with their suddenly too-light steps.They steadied each other against the spin of the station, not quite fast enough to provide Earth gravity while their datpads automatically updated with maps to their assigned quarters for the duration as well as a schedule of the various events.The identifier beside theDeepWander’s ident tagged them as aspiring applicants only, not entitled to even the lowest tier considerations, and large parts of the station outline were grayed out as restricted.
June tightened her hands into fists, as if she could crush her anxieties like…like a crusher.Yes, there would be doubters and competitors here, maybe even enemies like thePratorim, but she would not do half their work for them by freaking out.
The quarters they’d been assigned were like the cheapest motel on Earth—only worse, because the rooms were not designed for Earthersororcs but meant to accommodate the widest range of body types and environmental requirements possible.
Teq made them all wait in the bland corridor outside their suite while he reviewed their security precautions.“Atmospheric mix is compatible,” he announced.“Probably a little cooler than truly comfortable, but we won’t be here that long.Standard surveillance is very much present so watch what you say and do.”He looked at them all one at a time.“Keep your datpad and personal ident on you at all times.There is an emergency beacon installed.Stay in touch.”
When Teq finally let them in, they quickly went about their assigned tasks.June was supposed to be prepping the looks for the opening ceremony.Not so different from any of the beauty pageants she’d worked, she told herself.Presenting themselves as worthy of an assigned berth at Luster Station was basically just Little Miss Elephant Garlic in space.
