When the star pirate, Black Mamba demanded one of us give birth to his child, my older sister didn't hesitate to sacrifice me. I never imagined that after my cruel death and eventual rebirth, she would throw herself into his clutches instead.

When I saw that terrible serpentine swelling once more, horrifying memories sent shivers through my body.

All I wanted to do was run.

But my sister grabbed me by the jaw.

"You've been reborn too! I'm going to make you suffer!" I could tell she meant it.

"If you wish to be spared, then one among you, a female, must volunteer to be my wife."

My consciousness stirred from among the agonizing darkness. I opened my eyes to find myself looking up at the man who had caused me such pain I had wished to die.

The star pirate captain, Black Mamba!

The evil in those eyes, the familiar greed and lunacy.

Had I been reborn?

Had I been transported back to when the space pirates were boarding our ship?

As the end of the Earth approached, my parents had sold everything to buy passage for my sister and me on this ark.

But the ship had been intercepted by animalistic space pirates.

Before my rebirth, my sister had sacrificed me to the space pirate, Black Mamba.

Afterward, she had thrown herself into the arms of the astral admiral sent to rescue us.

In a twist of fate, due to us humans' greater ability to bear children, she had been used by the astral nobility as a tool to provide them with offspring.

All the while, the space pirate captain had treated me with kindness and care.

Out of spite and resentment, my sister killed me.

I had then been reborn at the moment when my sister had shoved me in front of Black Mamba.

This time around, I decided to hide at the back of the crowd.

As I did, a familiar figure strode past me and threw herself in front of the space pirate, whose great, black serpentine tail was coiled behind him.

"Captain, I volunteer to be your wife."

My sister's voice was devoid of its natural haughty and willful tone; she had imbued it with a deliberate allure.

My skin prickled as goosebumps covered my flesh.

This must mean she too had been reborn.

Seeing her eyes, staring up at Dirk and full of admiration, I couldn't help but want to laugh.

Despite having lived this moment once already, she was still as selfish and stupid as ever.

"Very well. Seeing as you're so eager, let's get right to it." Dirk gave a maniacal laugh.

He grabbed my sister with his massive hands and started groping her wantonly.

Even by the relatively unrestrained norms of astral society, this was extremely degrading—never mind the more conservative standards of humanity.

My sister's body went rigid, but after a while, she pulled herself closer and pressed her body tightly against his.

He was clearly pleased by her enthusiasm.

He threw her over one shoulder and prepared to leave, his crew of pirates cheering bawdily.

"Wait!" My sister shouted, suddenly.

She stuck out her hand and pointed straight at me, a triumphant look on her face.

"Dearest, I want my sister to bathe me first. That way I can be clean when I attend you."

Dirk did not object.

He fixed me with a cold look and I followed my sister, not daring to disobey.

My sister slipped out of her clothes, with Dirk still watching, apparently unashamed.

She went so far as to slip him a wink.

"Good. Make sure you're nice and clean. I'll satisfy you soon." Dirk said, his voice hoarse.

From where I was standing, I could see that special swelling that only snake-men had.

Horrifying memories from before my rebirth resurfaced. My face turned pale in fear and I immediately lowered my gaze.

Once he had left, my sister gripped me by the jaw.

She forced me to raise my head.

"You've been reborn too!" There was no doubt in her voice.

Her eyes were full of malice and hate.

I gritted my teeth, furiously, unwilling to respond.

She raised her foot and used it to shove me down the stairs.

She stared down at me from above.

"Last time out you watched those astral nobles use me like a toy, all while you enjoyed nothing but love. I'm sure you were more than happy with how things turned out!

"This time, I'm going to be the one who's loved. But don't worry, when the nobles have finished with you, I'll make sure to collect your corpse!"

I couldn't get my head around what she was thinking.

Did she not realize that only the most evil and fiercest dregs of society turned to the life of piracy?

Had she failed to notice that Dirk was a huge black serpent?

Did she not understand how snakes reproduce?

How could a human possibly withstand such torment?

I opened my mouth, wanting to warn her.

But the desire in her eyes was so strong, I closed my mouth again, without saying a word.

Let her have her way.

Who knows, maybe she'll enjoy it.

"Let me help you wash. Dirk isn't a patient man, and you don't want to make him angry."

I knew she was only doing this to humiliate me, but knowing what she was about to face, I wasn't going to cause any trouble.

I got to my feet and made to help her.

She seemed satisfied with my subservience.

She raised her head, haughtily, and instructed me to scrub her entire body clean.

Soon, Dirk returned to the room.

"Get out!"

He didn't even look at me when he said it.

His eyes were fixed on my sister's naked body.

I immediately backed out of the room, watching him change from a half-human, half-snake into a giant serpent.

In their fully-animal forms, the astrals were twice the size of their half-animal, half-human counterparts.

From the other side of the thick metal door, I could hear my sister's blood-curdling screams. The sound sent shivers down my spine.

Before my rebirth, Dirk had been patient with me. Seeing that I was reticent, he had given me three days and nights to become accustomed to him.

And even then, he had stayed in his entirely humanoid form most of the time.

He would only transform into his half-snake form when he was angry. But even that was enough to make me wish for the merciful embrace of death.

And my sister ... Her first time was to be like this.

I let out a sigh, praying that she would prove to have a hidden talent for pleasing him.

Otherwise, his innate cruelty would leave her begging for an early demise.

But she had made her bed now, it was too late to change her mind.

After all, astral males were known to mate for life.

No matter how vicious Dirk might be, he would never allow my sister an easy way out.

In truth, due to the difficulties the astrals had when it came to reproducing, astral females were allowed up to three husbands.

It's just that Dirk's jealousy and need for control were such that his wife would never be given the chance to find another.

As I returned to the part of the ship where the passengers were being kept prisoner, the other humans stared at me contemptuously.

My sister's willingness to please had been a grave insult to our species, so much so that I was an object of disgust by mere association.

Even though they were currently being held captive by the space pirates, as far as the nobles of Earth were concerned, these astrals were lowly savages.

In our previous lives, my sister and these other humans had eventually been rescued by the Astral Alliance.

They were taken away in an astral spaceship to live on the astral planet.

Yet I was left to drift among the stars, surrounded by nothing but unending darkness.

All I could do was fantasize about the astral forces saving me from the clutches of Dirk and his space pirates.

But later, I heard how at the great banquet to welcome my people, the high lord of the Astral Alliance had demanded that each human female must choose at least three "guardians".

My sister had called these astrals barbaric. She said they were debased.

She said she'd rather die than meet their demands. She screamed that she would only accept lifelong monogamy.

The astrals, despite what to them was a grave insult, did nothing to punish her.

On the contrary, they showed patience. They gave the human women half a year to make their choices.

During this time, my sister would frequently contact me via optical computer.

She would brag about the splendid gifts that the astral nobles had lavished upon her.

I begged her to reject them all.

Even on Earth, it was considered rude to accept someone's gift if you had no interest in their advances.

This was even more so for the astrals, for whom only one in ten thousand were female.

The lifespan of an astral could be 500 years long. Even though one of their number might look as though they were 20, they could easily be 200 years old.

My sister's greed, along with her unique way with words, would not go unnoticed by those with so much experience in life.

It was only because they were so desperate to find a spouse that they were willing to put up with her behavior.

My sister thought I was jealous of all her endless gifts.

In the end, the Astral Alliance ran out of patience with her protestations that she be allowed lifelong monogamy.

They locked her up inside their "breeding center".

The result was that any astral male who was willing to part with a significant sum of money could, through the use of my sister, acquire their own child.

After I lost contact with my sister, I made a deal with Dirk, whereby I would give him a child if he helped me to rescue her.

While Dirk was far from happy with my proposal, his desire for his own progeny was so strong that he sacrificed half his pirate crew to attack the wealthiest part of the Astral Alliance.

The high lord of the alliance sued for peace, and in the negotiations that followed, Dirk secured my sister's release.

Despite all I had done to save her, my sister felt nothing but jealousy. At my wedding to Dirk, she brought in a concealed dagger which she used to end my life.

I curled up in the corner and slept fitfully all night.

It was only when the person next to me shook me awake that I noticed Dirk standing over me, a satisfied look on his face.

"Good morning, brother-in-law," I said, as endearingly as I could.

My choice of address seemed to please him.

"Julia wants you to attend to her." Having said his piece, he turned around and left.

I hurried after him.

Thinking of the night she must have endured, I was certain my sister meant to take out her misery on me.

It was clear that she did indeed have hidden talents.

In my previous life, I had remained unconscious for a full day after every night I spent with Dirk.

When I pushed open the door to find my sister looking like her very essence had been sucked dry, my knees went weak from shock.

There didn't seem to be an inch of her skin that had survived intact.

Her body was covered with fang marks, deep holes piercing every surface.

She had clearly applied medicine but was nonetheless covered in scabs.

The thick scent of photinia flowers hung in the air but did little to mask the tinny aroma of blood.

Once Dirk had left, I found a container of nutrient solution and put it to her lips.

"No! Bring me pork broth!" My sister's eyes snapped open and she stared at me, venomously.

"Julia, resources are scarce on the pirate ship, there's no pork to be had."

But my sister wouldn't believe me.

"Liar! You're just jealous that I've taken your place by Dirk's side. You're trying to make things difficult for me." My sister's voice twisted as she roared.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Julia, if the space pirates were living in a state of plenty, don't you think all the other astrals would come begging to join them?"

She must have had things too good in the Astral Alliance before her rebirth, otherwise she'd have known that the abundance of food available on Earth was not something that was common elsewhere.

In reality, foodstuffs that seemed plain and ordinary on Earth were a rarity even to the nobles of the Astral Alliance.

My sister seemed to have finally accepted that I wasn't trying to deceive her.

Her expression suddenly turned ugly.

"Kneel!" She screamed at me.

I furrowed my brow and looked at her coldly.

"I want you to kneel! Feed me!" She gritted her teeth, spitting out each word as though it were its own sentence.

I had no intention to follow her orders.

"You can't always blame every misfortune on me."

My sister let out a mocking laugh. "You dare to disobey me?"

Without waiting for my reply, she raised her voice and bellowed, "Dirk!"

The door opened instantly and Dirk sauntered inside.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

My sister replaced her wrathful expression with one of pitiful distress.

"My sister is jealous that you married me. She was saying mean things to me."

Dirk turned his cold, emotionless gaze toward me. My blood seemed to freeze in my veins.

I wanted to explain myself, to protest my innocence, but I knew that male astrals would always side with their wives, no matter the circumstances.

No matter how fierce Dirk might be, he could never overcome his biological programming.

He swung his tail around in a massive arc, throwing me hard against the wall.

The rancid stench emanating from his mouth was almost enough to make me faint.

Seeing my obvious distress, a look of smug satisfaction overtook my sister's face.

But the next moment, her smile froze in place.