Sneak Peek—Stories from The Expanding Universe Anthology #4: ‘Sycorax’ by Jenetta Penner

There are 20 short stories in the latest volume of Craig Martelle’s The Expanding Universe anthologies. Today, with his permission, we are taking a sneak peek at the start of Jenetta Penner’sstory, ‘Sycorax’. Here’s how it begins:----------------------------------------------------------------
An arrogant black market space trader, a broken down ship with an attitude, and a beautiful girl trapped on a deserted space station. What could go wrong? Probably everything.
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear the Tempest just coughed.
My hands fly over her controls, checking that the heading is still correct. The entire ship—who am I kidding? It’s basically a one-man space rowboat—rattles incessantly behind me, but if I get these goods to Taruk’s lair in the Letiri System by tomorrow, I can get her fixed. Again. And have plenty of credits left for me.
“Come on, old girl.”
 “Ferek, if you call me an old girl again, my life support system may suddenly develop a malfunction.” Tempest’s flat, female voice comes from everywhere and nowhere.
I roll my eyes.
“I detected that,” Tempest says.
“Now Tempest, you know I couldn’t do anything without my best girl. Don’t get your thrusters all in a wad. If we don’t deliver this load in time—”----------------------------------------------------------------Would you like to read more? 
TheExpanding Universe #4 is now available on Amazon. You can also find Volume 1, The Expanding Universe: An Exploration of Science Fiction Genre , Volume 2, The Expanding Universe: Exploring the Science Fiction Genre , and Volume 3, The Expanding Universe 3: Space Opera, Military SciFi, Space Adventure, & Alien Contact! on Amazon in paperback.