Signing up for the program was a core memory for me, something to be reminded of constantly, and I fucking hated that fact.
	Samantha had answered the add on a whim, something she easily could have overlooked if not for a dozen arbitrary coincidences. A small startup office downtown, still smelling of fresh paint and shrink-wrapped leather couches. A technician still in grad school, spinning tales of what this technology would do in the next few decades. He was cute, and Samantha listened with half an ear.
	The full-body scan took less than half an hour, recording in precise detail every part of her body and brain. At 13, she was at the bottom of the program’s age range. Knowing her, she probably took the 1,000-nyen payment, bought herself that cute red dress she’d seen at the mall the day before, and never thought about the scan again for the rest of her life.
	That was way back in the year 3143, in Nyantis’ calendar anyway. Even if I could ask what year it was, I doubt the number would mean anything to me. I have no idea what year it is on Nyantis now, but that doesn’t matter. This may as well be the other side of the galaxy, I’ll never see Samantha’s home planet in my lifetime.
	The crewman shot his load all over my face. It was a dull purple in color, thick and sticky, adhering my whiskers together in a way that made me feel half-blind. His twin shafts, both protruding just over a foot from his pelvis, were enough to drench me from ears to pawtip, though the material slid easily off of my ear tag. His second set of arms, smaller and more dexterous, usually used for detail work, roamed over my body even as I jerked him to completion. He’d spent the entire handjob roughly tweaking my nipples and clit, hard enough to hurt, but not enough for me to complain. I’d long since stopped reading any malice into it, the females of his species seemed to need a rougher touch. 
	It made sense, given their stature. The alien picked me up, squeezing me against his body as his orgasm subsided. His kind averaged around 8 feet in height, covered in fine silver scales. The larger, heavily-muscled arms he held me with were attached to his shoulders, while the smaller pair sprouted from the middle of his torso, and were still copping a feel. His head was an immense, shark-like wedge, with a set of 3 beady eyes poking out from each side of his immense jaw.
	He set me down, bringing my face back down to the level of his deflating junk. His dicks were long, skinny rods with a tapered tip, featureless and with the texture of firm rubber. Now, being spent, they were retreating back into his cloaca. 
	I licked each tip for him, cleaning off the excess jizz. He spoke to me in a low rumble, a word which slid from a low to high tone that I’d learned meant some kind of praise. Ruffling my ears, he donned his jumpsuit and left the cabin, his break nearly at an end.
	I sighed, wiping the man’s seed from my face as best I could before I made my way out of the cabin. The new copy was probably awake by now, and I was the one stuck with her. The ship’s long and winding hallways led me back toward the printer room. Time for my least favorite part of the job.

---
	
	The autodoor slid open upon my arrival. The printer room was neutrally lit, the slick white sterility of the floors and furniture giving it a hospital’s veneer. The new spin-up crouched in a corner of the room, doing her best to shield herself with a nearby steel table. Her number, S-926, was stamped in bold block letters on her ear tag, a gaudy yellow piece of plastic stuck amid her tabby orange fur.
	I flicked my ear in annoyance. Same shit as always. I picked out my preferred spot  to stand, positioned so that 926 would naturally turn to face me as she stood up. I sucked in a deep breath.
	“Samantha Arbury Taylor, you come out from there this instant!”
	The new girl bolted upright, brought to attention by a phantom wave of guilt. My impression of Samantha’s mother had been honed over multiple iterations of this process, now accurate enough that it could shock the new spin-ups out of their fear, and prime them for further compliance.
	926’s eyes widened, drinking in my body, my face, a perfect mirror of her own. I’d grown a few inches in my time on the ship, putting my height just over 4 feet, but it wasn’t enough to break the uncanny effect. She blushed, noticing our mutual nakedness, and covered her lower half with her bushy tail, crossing her arms over her chest. 
	I rolled my eyes. “Uncover yourself.” Flat and matter-of-fact.
	926 flinched. “What? Who even are you?”
	I stepped forward, uncovered and leading with my chest, closing the distance between us. I snarled, just enough to antagonize but not enough to cause fear. “You think you’re allowed to ask questions?” I spat. 926’s brow furrowed, but I cut her off before she could respond. “You’re going to shut up and do as you’re told, understand? No, you won’t be getting any answers here, nor any clothes, for that matter. You’ll count yourself lucky if you’re given rations and sleep time. Not even your name belongs to you anymore, number 926.”
	The new unit, as expected, was fuming. Her fur puffed up in anger and confusion. She threw herself in my face, hissing, ready to scream all of her worthless frustrations at me.
	I hit her. Hard. Open slap to the face, claws out.
	She hit the ground like a sack of bricks. Samantha had lived her pretty little life free of any violence, and the shock was enough to crush her rebellious streak, at least for the moment. I let her lie on the floor, giving the shock and humiliation time to set in, letting her notice the threads of blood dribbling down her cheek.
	Her sniffling was my queue to act, gently pulling her to her feet before she started a bawling fit. “Hey, you’re going to be fine, okay?” I took hold of her chin, dropping my curt facade and donning a sympathetic one. “Look, it’s not too bad, just a few small scratches. I’ll get you patched up in the infirmary, and then we’ll show you your assignment, okay?
	She nodded, afraid, but clinging to me as a lifeline now as I led her out of the room. 

---
	
	926 spent the first half of the walk gaping wordlessly at the labyrinth of metal corridors. It wasn’t until we were halfway to the infirmary that she finally opened her mouth, spilling out the usual drivel. 
	I sighed. “It’s a spaceship. Yes, you’re in space, aliens are real and they run the ship. Yes, you can see one later. No, us Numbers the only Nyantians on board. I’m number S-787. No, I don’t know the machinery works. No, I don’t know where we are in space, and no, you can’t go home.”
	She wanted to protest, but the glare I gave her was enough to keep her quiet.
	Calling the chamber an infirmary was overly generous, but it was the best we had. If I had to guess, it was originally a small storage room, now set up with a handful of cots and whatever meager medicines we’d been able to scavenge during work. S-800 sat at the far end, scribbling notes while tending to an unconscious S-911. I gave her a nod.
	Dabbing a cloth with what we’d identified as an antiseptic, I cleaned 926’s face. Her eyes were locked on the other two numbers, eyes searching their fur patterns, features, lengths of their tails and whiskers; realizing that both were exactly the same as hers. “Don’t worry about 911.” I lied, patting dry the girl’s cheek, “800’s gotten pretty good at minor surgery. She should be back on her paws in a few shifts. C’mon.”
	I led her out of the room, back into the inscrutable maze of metal tubes and toward what I suspected was the bridge. We passed two crewmembers on our walk, but each time I forced 926’s eyes to the floor, hushing her. They wouldn’t appreciate being bothered during work.
	“What job am I supposed to do, exactly?” She asked, when the silence between us had reached the appropriate length. This was a good a place as any. I let her to a bend in the corridor, her back to a recessed corner.
	“Lucky for you, you get an easy one. We’re going to service the captain first. He has a thing for virgins. You’re going to let him fuck you. Once he’s broken you in, you’ll do the same work with the rest of the crewmen whenever they request it.”
	926 stopped dead, fur standing on end in terror. She backed away, trapping herself against the sharp corner wall. “You’re… y-you’re fucking with me. Or this is a dream, or… fuck.” She whimpered, tears soaking into the fur of her cheeks. Her paws clamped themselves over her vulva, once again painfully aware of her nakedness.
	“Tough luck, buttercup, you have to. You don’t have to like it, but it’s your job. It’s literally the only reason you exist right now.”
	“Fuck you, fuck this stupid job bullshit! I’m not touching an alien’s dick!” She cried, sobbing in a heap on the floor. A smaller meltdown, and it was better that she got it out of her system now than when the captain got his claws on her.
	“If you say no, or make any trouble for the captain, he’ll blow you out the airlock.”
	“Fine!” She sulked.
	Ugh. I was tempted for a moment to oblige her, these new spin-ups were always so annoying, but having to replace her with a new one would just be more annoyance for me to deal with. “Okay,” I said, “I need to show you something before you make a decision.” I turned around and walked the way we came, not looking back, silently counting down in my head: 5. 4, 3, 2…
	926 stood, jogging to catch up.
	
---
	
	The Sanitation room stank of bleach and humidity. A web of metal pipes and boxes hummed away, purifying the ship’s plates, bottles, and unidentified metal containers at the behest of the chamber’s operator.
	S-789 sat with her back to us. Her bald forepaws forced a metal box closed, the interior rattling with a burst of steam as she pulled a nearby lever. She also had an article of clothing, a rare occurrence among the numbers; a thick apron. I’d fought like hell to get it for her, and it gave her reasonable protection against workplace burns.
	“789?” I asked, keeping my voice gentle. “Would you mind saying hi to our new spin-up?” I put a paw on the small of 926’s back, pushing her forward and discreetly setting her next to a rubbish bin.
	“Hi?” 926 asked, quirking an eyebrow and swishing her tail from side to side.
	789 turned around.
	Gaping black pits.
	You couldn’t call that thing a face anymore.
	The new girl gasped, staggering back in shock. I pushed her toward the bin just before her gag reflex triggered. A spray of watery bile spilled from her mouth, followed by the remains of a stack of blueberry pancakes. The last thing Samantha ate, however-many years ago.
	“789 here also decided that she’d rather deal with the airlock than let the crew fuck her. She got her wish. What do you think, 926?”
	“They thought it was a game.” 789 says. Her voice was thin, scratchy. Depressurization did a number on her lungs. “The tech in charge decided to open the airlock just a crack. Not enough to kill me, just enough for… this.”
	Memories came flooding back to me. Terror, blood, 789, clutching my chest, screaming in a broken voice that she couldn’t see. Both of us too new to understand what was happening.
	“C’mon. You’ve seen enough.” I grabbed 926 by the wrist, pulling her out of the room. She felt weak, all the fight had gone out of her. Good.
	
---
	
	The captain’s suite was surprisingly spartan, considering how large the rest of the vessel was. Dark blue walls gave the impression of being deep under the ocean, and furniture designed for a species twice our size loomed over us, gnawing at the upper parts of our vision. The captain lay hidden in wait within his bedchamber.
	“Remind me what you’re going to do?”
	“Whatever you tell me.” 926 whined. She was still, arms clasped behind her back, face cleaned of her tears and vomit.
	“Good. That, and if he gestures for something obvious, go ahead and do it. He has a pretty solid grasp on our body language by now.”
	I took a glob of lubricant from the bottle on the side table. The room contained our usual sex amenities, as well as a jar of finger-sized confections that resembled hard candy, though with a bit too much salt. I’d have to grab one on the way out. Something nice to give 789 in exchange for using her the way I did.
	Stepping face-to-face with 926, I brought my paw between her legs, prodding at her entrance.  Her face scrunched with discomfort, but to her credit, she didn’t complain. I pressed between her folds, working the fluid deeper inside her. A foreign feeling for the girl, something that Samantha had never experienced in her life. Sure, she could’ve ended up happily married decades after the scan, but I hoped not. Fuck her.
	926 whined, and I drew my paw away, damp with lube and just a touch of her fluids. Her tail thrashed, but she kept her paws down and claws retracted.
	“That’ll make it a little easier for you. Imagine that feeling, but more so. It’s really not so bad, okay? We’ll get something to eat after you’re done.”
	I pulled down on the bedroom door handle, needing my full body weight to push open the analog door and opening the yawning passage the predator’s lair.
	The captain lounged on his bed. The lights were dim, casting shadows from the open doorway across his body. He growled as he parted his lips, displaying his rows of serrated teeth. Contrasting the dark ocean of his scales was a crimson spot at the man’s groin. His swelling penises had just started to emerge from his genital slit.
	926 stopped at the foot of the bed, frozen. This wasn’t the casual nudity she had been spun-up with, that she’d been desensitized to over the past hour. She was acutely aware of her fragile nakedness before a male that was about to fuck her. His sets of eyes twisted in separate directions, raking over her face, eyes wide with fear; her budding breasts, nipples barely showing through her fur; and her pussy, displayed for a male for the first time in her short life, slick from my ministrations, and pounding with her heart as the sight of the naked alien.
	He made a low barking noise, pitched up at the end, and waved her forward with his larger left limb. His right one terminated in a dark gray stump, just below the elbow, though both of his smaller arms were intact.
	I placed my paw on 926’s back, pushing her toward his waiting claw.
	She wouldn’t budge.
	I huffed. I had a method to preemptively negate this last bit of resistance, but hadn’t used it for a while. The creature on the bed seemed to prefer them with a token bit of fight left.
	I grabbed 926’s headfur, dragging her toward her soon-to-be rapist. She cried out in pain, scalp stinging, as I threw her into the center of the bed, face-first. The captain took ahold of her eagerly, his good claw grabbing her waist like a vice, so strong that she couldn’t pull away without serious injury. 
	He pulled her close, cradling her against his body like the ghost of an old lover. His smaller arms roamed over her body, rubbing the small of her back and pinching her nipples. Her tears were quiet, for now, and he nuzzled against the girl’s head and inhaling deeply. He moved lower, his deft fingers tracing the length of the girl’s slit. She shivered, feeling the creature tease her just enough for her body to crave more. I’d gotten her accustomed to it such that she didn’t pull away.
	Satisfied with his foreplay, the alien pushed her forward, giving a short command in a low tone. Taking his queue, I helped 926 to the position he preferred. I bent her over, back arched and her tail curled up along her back. Not a comfortable position, but it wouldn’t last past his first thrust anyway.
	She was utterly exposed to him, baring the fullness of her vulva and anus to the older male. Her body was wet, and prepared for mating even as her mind recoiled at the concept. 
	“It’s time.” 
	She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. “P-please, help me.”
	I took her paw. “Just focus on me. It won’t be so bad, really.”
	The captain lined himself up, placing the tip of one of his cocks against her outer folds. 926 let out a sob, her whole body clenching with fear and adrenaline at what was about to happen. 
	Despite her terror, he didn’t move much at all. 
	The captain prodded at the girl’s sex playfully, giving little satisfied hums as he rubbed his dick along her inner folds but refused to fully penetrate her. The wet squelch of flesh against flesh came from behind her, and 926 looked at me with confusion.
	Her tension tapered off a tad, her mind churning to find out what was happening, if this was what penetration felt like. Poor girl. It lasted just long enough for her to turn her head around to look at the being behind her.
	Only then did he thrust inside her.
	The girl screamed, throwing herself against the mattress. His cock had split her open, filling a place inside her that she didn’t even know she had. Her walls ached, suddenly stretched to accommodate a much larger member than any Nyantian could provide. 
	He didn’t give her a chance to rest, picking up a steady rhythm and thrusting and out of the girl, heedless of her panic and pain, Her rear claws extended, kicking at her invader, but it wouldn’t do any good. Our claws weren’t able to penetrate his scales.
	“Shhh… You’re doing great.” I whispered, squeezing 926’s paw. She looked back, still sobbing, mouthing voiceless pleas to make it stop. “Just a little longer, okay?” I reassured her.
	The new girl cried harder. The meaty ‘plap’ of his dick slamming into her filled the room, stuffing her fresh, virign pussy again and again. The stabbing pain of her first violation would be wearing off by now, replaced with an acute ache within her groin, accompanied by a thin wave of pleasure. She wouldn’t acknowledge that for at least a day, and it only made the experience worse in the interim.
	I reached out to her again, intending to comfort the girl, when something unexpected happened. The captain beckoned, eyes on me, calling me closer to him.
	That was new.
	New things… didn’t happen.
	I approached, gut churning. It couldn’t be a problem with 926, could it? So far, she was a model fucktoy, just like all the other’s he’d seemed to enjoy. What was the problem?
	He took me in his good arm, and I let him exert his strength over me. Whatever reprimand he had in mind, best get it over with. It never came though. Instead, slowing his thrusts to a crawl, he gestured at his second penis, fully erect, leaking fluid, and bouncing against 926’s ass cheek. A smaller hand, reaching between my legs and spreading me open, told me what he wanted.
	Strange. As long as I’d been here, the captain had never taken anyone other than fresh spin-ups. Had this ever happened before? S-621 never mentioned it when she was alive.
	A growl from the impatient alien spurred me to action. Reflection on this could wait, for now I had a task to do.
	Positioning was a challenge, as I’d never serviced a crewmember with another girl before. The extra body in the way made things harder than a normal double-penetration. The captain stopped, hilted inside his crying victim, to allow me room to maneuver. I decided to turn the 926 on her side, hugging her as I wrapped my legs around her waist, pressing my vulva against hers and allowing the captain easy access to both of us. She stared at me, baffled and afraid, but I only glared at her, and pressed myself down on his waiting cock.
	Damn, this was... better than I remembered. 
	The alien bucked his hips forward, shoving himself deeply into me and making 926 squeal. He slid in so easily, when had I last been this wet? I purred, his cock scratching an itch inside me that I wasn’t even aware of.
	He was moving again, effortlessly back to his rhythm. He felt smaller than I remembered, better than the other crew who thew themselves inside me like I was a fleshlight. He knew what he was doing, going just deep enough before pulling out. I found myself clenching down on him whenever he hit just the right depth. I wasn’t even faking this, I wanted him to keep going.
	The man’s twin cocks pistoned into us, strong and steady. Each movement made a thick meaty slap, wet flesh pushing together and pulling apart. Now that he’d started moving, I was absolutely soaked. My paws grabbed the sheets of the bed, shaking as I pushed myself deeper onto him. It was rare that I’d get any real satisfaction from servicing one of the aliens. The welling feeling of warmth and ecstasy he was giving me, that I was desperate for more of, was leagues better than even my rare moments of ‘alone-time’.
	“787? Please? P-please say something!”
	926’s complaining sucked me out of the moment. The girl was a wreck, breathing so fast she was sucking wind, eyes red and leaking all over her face, mouth twisted into a silent scream.
	What a brat. 
	The first good experience I’d had with a man, an anomaly that might never happen again, and I’m stuck babysitting this ungrateful whore. She didn’t realize that it would get worse, that she’s getting the best fucking she’ll ever get, and had the gall to ruin it for me as well.
	“Shh, quiet, quiet.” I told her, halfheartedly, pinning her between the mattress and my body. I tuned her out as the captain increased his pace, kneeling taller above us and thrusting down, letting the artificial gravity push him harder and faster inside us. As I repositioned, making sure he had the best possible access to me, I pulled 926 along with me. Our bodies now entangled, I felt the front of my groin grind against hers, still slick from the artificial lubricant. She sobbed as I let him thrust deeper inside us.
	He was at his peak now, sharp thrusts followed by small pauses, as he was preparing to cum. I wanted that more than anything at that moment, I needed to cap off this good fuck with him soaking me, filling me to the brim with his cum, pushing me over the edge to cum with him. I was so close, my walls milking him as hard as I could, the pressure in me ready to spill over, just a little mo-
	“It hurts! It hurts!”
	Fuck.
	I’m so close, and she just keeps whining.
	He’s cumming in me, I can feel it, and I can’t focus.
	Bitch.
	I grabbed her, claws sinking into her face. The alien’s cum spilled into us. “SHUT UP!” I screamed at her, inches away. “JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU STUPID WHORE!”
	To her credit, she did. Her pussy tasting a man’s cum for the first time, she stared at me. Blood joined the tears in her fur, welling beneath my paw. Her eyes were pinpricks, jaw locked so tight it could crack. It was a look of pain, fear, and something new. Betrayal. Something I’d never seen on Samantha’s face.
	I came, hard. My pussy clamped down, drinking all the semen that was still pumping inside me, my body convulsing against the new girl’s rigid frame. I made some kind of noise, like a feral animal, a sound from deep in my gut that I was barely aware of. The captain didn’t even pull out until I was done. I could’ve kissed him.
	He left us in a heap on his bed, panting, both of us an absolute mess. 926 was still motionless by the time I got up and took stock. It didn’t look great.
	“That…” I sighed. “That was fucked up.”
	The girl looked up at me by inches, eyes dead.
	“Sorry.”
	Her face didn’t change.
	I looked around, breaking eye contact. “Look. We aren’t allowed to stay in here much longer. Let’s go shower off and get some food in you. You can take a nap, and we’ll still have some leisure time when you wake up.”
	926 sat bolt upright, ears splayed back. “You fucking asshole.” She spat. Her teeth were bared, face flinty and livid. “What the fuck makes you think I’m going to play nice with you after what you did?”
	All the softness had been ripped out of her over the past 20 minutes. That new hardness in her was familiar. Interesting, it usually took a while for that to build up. Could be useful if I could salvage her.
	“Because it’s me or nothing.” I said, meeting her stare. “You might not know it yet, but you’d do the same, and worse. You can’t talk to the aliens, can’t leave this place. We’re locked in here with only ourselves for company. We’re all the same once you drill down a little. You don’t have to like it. It might as well be hell at times, but if you’re leaving, you’re alone and gone forever. You wouldn’t be the first one to make that choice, and probably won’t be the last.”
	My tail twitched, and I willed it still again. “I really fucked this part up this time, though. I can’t blame you if you want to check out early. If I have to spin up another replacement, I can’t complain, that’s on me.”
	I let her stew for a moment, cleaning myself with a washcloth and grabbing a handful from the sweets jar. With time running down, I went back to the foot of the bed.
	“God, I hate you.” She mumbled.
	“Yeah, that’s fair.”
	“What’s for lunch?”
	I held myself back from smirking. “Imagine haddock, but a little worse.” I held out one of the sweets to her. Reluctantly, she unfolded herself out of her pit of misery and took it.
	“Glad you’re getting up.” I untucked the sheets from the edge of the mattress. “We’ll need to drop these off at the laundry on our way.”
	
--Two Years Later--
	
	S-926 made her way to the printer room. Her eyes were rimmed with dark bags, her gait slow and plodding. The past month had been a living hell, even by the ship’s standards. The infection had torn through the Numbers, leaving the crew unscathed but killing Nyantians by the dozens. Probably something the ship had picked up when docked at a port, or taking on new cargo. Didn’t matter, she’d never know the specifics. 
	Losing S-787 and S-800 had been especially hard. Much of the girls’ knowledge of the alien language, and the medicines on board, had died with those two. The survivors were left to pick up the pieces.
	What was worse was that the mass culling had required mass printing to replace them. 926 had lost far, far too much sleep over spinning up too many copies at once. Enough of them together would get ideas, think that they could work together to ‘get out of here’.
	Some of them had even succeeded, after a fashion.
	926, as the oldest instance now, still had to onboard another half-dozen prints before their numbers were above water again. Still, this one would at least be a novelty.
	The tired girl walked through the autodoor. The onboarding of S-999 had been almost painless. Their terror was becoming mundane, her own empathy worn down over endless repetitions. A small part of her worried about that, but it got quieter every time.
	She was early. The new copy was still unconscious, fluid clinging to her fur, the machine slowly revving up her internal organs into functionality. 926 focused on the tagging device, positioning itself over the girl’s ear. The big one-zero-zero-zero. Shame, the blocky typeface seemed tailored for 4 digits. The new one would probably look weirdly stretched. 
	The machine locked itself in place, clicking its marker onto the girl’s body. It lifted, job complete, the same way it had done every time before. 
	T-001 would be ready shortly.