"Cargo's secured and passengers are ready to go," a female voice said from behind Kolya. Its accent was a mixture of Scottish and Russian. Kolya glanced over her shoulder and found a muscular zorai female and a young human male jogging through the corridor toward them.

Kolya looked each of them over quickly. The human appeared to be in his early to mid-teens and had shoulder-length brown hair and an easygoing way of carrying himself -- quite unlike the boasting, aggressive, borderline-insane-thanks-to-raging-hormones boys she'd known while growing up. He wore black cargo pants, ankle-high sneakers, and a T-shirt with the caffeine molecule on the front.

The zorai wore olive drab cargo pants and a tight-fitting black shirt that showed off every impressive bulge of her burly frame. She appeared to have barely any fat on her at all, and thus her chest looked almost masculine, yet she still had curves and a way of moving that made her femininity clear at first glance. Her waist-length burgundy hair contrasted nicely with her dark green skin and was tied into a ponytail with a pair of thick locks hanging past the sides of her face, almost like any number of anime characters Kolya had seen in vids while growing up.

Lorkis zipped up to her and she arched an eyebrow. He smiled and held a hand out. "Well, hello there. My name is Lorkis Azanar. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The female appeared to stifle a sigh as she shook his hand and released it quickly. She waved her hand at the male and said, "I'm Grishnag. Grishnag Engstrom. And that's Dylan Engstrom."

"A-ah." Lorkis deflated visibly but forced a smile back on. "Glad to meet you."

Donovan glanced around at them and raised an eyebrow. Cora chuckled.

"I didn't actually have a last name, originally, so I just took Dylan's when we got married. All the others did the same."

Donovan cocked his head like a confused puppy. "All?"

"Yes. Dylan, Grish, Syala, and I have three other wives, and they're all members of the crew, though they're busy with other tasks at the moment. You probably saw one of them helping load the crates. That was Ayastal."

"So, there are other females on the crew?" Lorkis's expression brightened.

"Just those three," Dylan said with a grin.

"Ah." Lorkis deflated a little more. He forced another smile and fell silent.

Donovan turned away and held his breath to avoid laughing. When it passed, he leaned closer to Kolya and whispered, "Holy shit. The poor kid."

"I know." Kolya had to suppress her own laugh, but she could easily imagine something similar happening if she tried to ask a guy out. The result would probably be a quickly-concealed wince and a stammered excuse to turn her down.

Donovan turned back to Dylan. "You're married to all the women on the crew?"

"Well, we're all married to each other, but yeah. I'm the only male on the crew." His grin expanded.

Kolya stifled another laugh. No wonder the kid seems so mellow. It's because he's exhausted.

Donovan whistled softly. "Lucky bastard."

Dylan smirked and nodded slowly. "I really am." He shrugged. "It probably seems weird to you two, but, uh …"

"Not really." Kolya laughed softly. "One of my aunts has four husbands and two wives. Several of my friends have dated synths, anthros, and aliens. And a lot of the guys I knew in middle school went out and had zorai hookers demolish their virginity as soon as they could scrape up enough money. So none of this is exactly a foreign concept for me."

"That's a relief." Dylan sighed. "I keep forgetting where I am and expecting to catch a little crap from people."

Kolya shrugged. "Eh, the weirder things get, the more interesting they are. We experience ‘normal' almost every moment of every day, and that gets boring after a while. It's fun to shake things up every now and then."

Cora grinned. "I think we're going to get along famously." She turned and walked on to the next hatch. "We've got everything prepped ahead of time, and our scheduled launch isn't for another half hour. So, for now, we'll show you to your quarters and let you stow your gear."

"Sounds good." Ralissa smiled. "Lead the way."

Everyone followed her through the corridors and up a ladder into a hexagonal hub area with a hatch in each of the walls. The first thing Kolya had noticed about the ship's interior was that the floors appeared to be hardwood and the walls were lined with wood paneling -- probably synthetic, but quite easy on the eyes. The only bits of metal were around the edges where panels connected and joined with the ceiling and floor, and pieces that framed monitors and touchscreen consoles.

"The upgrades this ship has just gotten include four of these crew and passenger quarters sections. One hub is reserved for the crew, one room for each of us." Cora's grin turned a bit saucy. "And one room for all of us. The other three hubs are for any passengers we might be hired to transport."

Kolya opened the nearest hatch and took a quick look around. The quarters were about the size of a motel room, with the same wood paneling and floor. A full-size bed sat at the far end of the room, and a large vid screen was set into the wall beside the door. Underneath it sat a desk with a keyboard.

She grinned and placed her bag on the bed. There'd be plenty of time to put her stuff away later. She returned to the hub and waited for the others to store their belongings.

Cora led everyone to the flight deck. It was much larger than Kolya had expected. A huge window took up most of the forward wall, with graphics and data in a heads-up display overlaid on the view of the hangar deck outside. At the rear of the compartment was a large, circular station with consoles lining the outer edge and a holographic projector in the middle.

Wow. This is one hell of a ship. Kolya turned to Cora as the synth eased herself into the pilot's station and waved at another alien woman seated to her left. "Everyone, this is Zilaka Engstrom."

"Hi. Glad to meet you." Kolya smiled and stopped herself from cocking her head. She'd never seen Zilaka's species before. The young woman appeared to have both equine and bovine traits but had the same number of digits as the other aliens. Like the mulathi and the shonari, she had digitigrade legs and hooves.

Kolya glanced at Lorkis and barely managed to hold in another laugh. Poor kid. All these females on the ship and none of them are available. If he's anything like the kids I grew up with, he's gonna be spending a lot of "alone time" in his quarters.

"Go ahead and take a seat, everyone." Cora motioned at the other chairs. She put on a cheesy grin and added, in an old-timey vid narrator's tone, "Prepare for … a journey into the unknown!"