Lady Luck

by K. C. Cross

  “He’s close enough.”

  She narrows her eyes at me. They go black again. Then all white. Then normal. I am really winding her up.

  “Anything else?” I ask. “Or are we done here?”

  “You did something.”

  “Oh, I’ve done a lot of things. So you’re gonna need to be specific.”

  “You fucked with the time. You and her.” She juts her chin towards the door to the cell.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  She takes that final step to close the distance between us. Kinda grows taller as she straightens her back. Eyes locked on mine.

  I do not blink. I think I’ve made that clear during recent past events. So I hold her stare.

  She turns away, her tail swishing. Walks a few paces. Turns back. “How about a deal?”

  “There is no deal, OK? I like the Asshole. I wanna keep him.”

  “Well, hear me out. And just so you know, I’ll take this deal to your brothers too. Maybe I don’t need your vote.”

  “Give it your best,” I say. They can’t outvote me on something like this. They wouldn’t even dare to try. But she doesn’t need to know that.

  “I know where Veila is,” she says.

  “Is that so?”

  “I could give you a gate map to get there. You could…” She shrugs. “Retrieve her. Kill her. Whatever you want to do with her.”

  “No,” I say. “We can find her ourselves.”

  “You didn’t hear the best part of my offer yet.”

  “OK, I’m listening.”

  “I will return your station to you.”

  I laugh.

  “And I won’t sell those kids to the breeders.”

  I squint my eyes at her. “What kids?”

  She smiles. “The ones you left on Mighty Minions, of course.”

  I get a sick, sick feeling in my stomach picturing those kids. The little ones. They were all little ones.

  “How about now, Luck? Hmm? Interested in my little deal now?”

  I… don’t know what to say.

  So I say nothing.

  Besides. She’s lying. I heard all about Jimmy and Delphi’s trip through a black hole after we left Mighty Minions. They thought it was a hologram or maybe a virtual.

  But that’s not what they went through on that Boss Steed ride through the forest.

  They went through a spin node.

  They just didn’t know it.

  But I knew it. And that means that Mighty Minions has a spin node and the actual coordinates for Earth.

  Mighty Minions does not need us. They have everything we have. Probably more. I don’t know how they fit into this little breeding scheme and I don’t know why they sent this Succubus to our station. Maybe because they were tired of her? Maybe they knew what she was and wanted to pawn her off on someone else without being rude?

  Who knows? Who cares? Doesn’t matter.

  The only thing that matters is that Mighty Minions is not backing the Succubus.

  She’s on her own.

  And that means those kids are safe. Maybe that’s why Mighty Boss fought so hard to keep them there? That kinda makes sense. He knew the Succubus was corrupted. And maybe he gave her to us just to get rid of her. That’s a possibility, I suppose.

  But maybe… he knows things are in motion. Maybe he feels the velocity I feel. Maybe he knows there’s no way to stop this… whatever’s coming.

  But he can slow it down a little. And keeping those kids safe on his station is one way to do that.

  At least for now.

  But now that Succubus is here, that part of the plan at least, is going forward. If she can get what she needs. And apparently, she needs ALCOR. Probably the Real ALCOR. But the Asshole might have just enough of Real ALCOR inside him to get the job done. If she gets control of Asshole ALCOR, everything changes.

  He is not the fumbling newborn Baby.

  He’s not the wise and reasonable Real ALCOR either.

  He’s a very bad guy.

  And that’s a good thing right now. As long as he’s on your side.

  And he is on our side. If he wasn’t then he wouldn’t be putting up a fight with the Succubus.

  “Very well then,” Succubus purrs. “I’ll discuss it with the Baby and your brothers. We’ll see what happens.”

  Then she disappears.

  And Tray appears in her place.

  CHAPTER FORTY - NYLEENA

  “Oh, hello there. Are you my new mistress?”

  I look down at my outfit. Because there’s nothing about these tactical pants and t-shirt that says mistress. Like at all. Then redirect my gaze to the Asshole tied to a sex table. “No.”

  He frowns, yanks on the magnetic bindings around his wrists, which does nothing, and says, “Oh.”

  “Asshole, I presume?” I say, walking over to him. I grab a red blindfold off the floor—which is littered with paddles, and whips, and even a few chains—and toss it onto his naked body to cover up his gargantuan cock. I look at it dubiously, then arch an eyebrow at him. Like, Really, dude? I get this is a virtual, but no one has a cock like that.

  “What?” he says. “That wasn’t my idea. She did it.”

  “She? Succubus?”

  “Who else? That bitch is holding me captive in here.” He pauses. Narrows his eyes. They’re blue. And his hair is blonde. Little bit of stubble on his face. Square jaw, and meaty neck. Like this avatar is all muscle. “Well? You gonna free me or what?”

  “Oh,” I say. “Sorry. Did you want me to?”

  “Do I look like I’m enjoying this?”

  I shrug. “I’m not judging.”

  “I’m not,” he growls.

  “I see why they call you Asshole now.”

  “My name is ALCOR. You may call me ALCOR. Or His Highness. I go by that too. Or Lux, if you prefer.” He says that last name different than the rest. Kinda purrs it. Seductively.

  I make a face. “Are you… flirting with me?”

  “Who are you?”

  “Nyleena.” Then, “Actually, I’m Princess Nyleena. I’m a silver.”

  “I see that, princess. Why are you here if you’re not going to pleasure me with pain or free me from this humiliating experience?”

  He’s not what I expected, that’s for sure. “I’ll let you up. Where are the controls for the bindings?”

  “Over there.” He motions with his eyebrows.

  I spy the panel. Walk over to it, and press the ridiculous big red button that says RELEASE.

  The bindings hum a little, then go silent.

  He sits up and now I can see that he’s wearing some kind of strappy leather outfit. It has studs. Pointy ones. They’re metal. And it is literally just straps. Crisscrossing his chest to a sort of belt-type thing around his waist. They have thick silver loops attached. Like that Succubus thing uses them to hook him to contraptions.

  Like the upside-down cross on the wall.

  That’s not creepy.

  He swings his legs over the table, thankfully holding the red scarf in place over his ridiculously large cock, and sighs. “That’s better. Now. What can I do for you, Princess Nyleena?”

  “So… I’m not really sure it’s important anymore. I’m fairly certain that I’m only here now because there’s some secret plan cooking on this station, but due to a security breach we’re all pretending to play some kind of scavenger hunt game, in which I appear to have the leading role.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I really don’t know.” I sigh. “But that Succubus has to go. And the Baby? There’s something wrong with him.”

  “Of course there’s something wrong with him. He thinks he’s me!”

  “Welp. I guess I’ll ask you anyway. Seeing as how I’m here and it took me four fucking days to get this far in my little hunt. Really five, if you count the one we reversed.”

  “Shoot, Princess. Pull that trigger.”

  Hmm. Interesting choice
of words. But I don’t have time to wonder about that now. So I say, “Tell me about this leveling-up bullshit.”

  He squints at me. “What do you want to know?”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s an upgrade. What’s it sound like?”

  “Do people… upgrade? I mean, is that normal? I’ve never heard of it before I learned about Veila.”

  “Veila,” he hisses. “That bitch isn’t a real silver.”

  “Oh, you don’t need to tell me that. I’m a real silver. I know the difference.”

  He stands up and lets that stupid red scarf fall to the floor. I shield my eyes with my hand like a visor and turn away. Not because I want to give him privacy, just… that cock is too much. I can’t do it.

  “Where is she?” he asks.

  I lift up my hand visor to peek. Then quickly avert my eyes again. He’s unbuckling his strappy leather outfit. “Who? Veila?”

  “No,” he growls. “Succubus.”

  I peek again. Then turn back to him. He’s got pants on now. “Outside the door. Luck is distracting her.”

  He stares at me for a moment. Purses his virtual lips. “OK. So what’s the plan?”

  “Plan?” I ask.

  “To get me the fuck off this station.”

  “That’s… not why I’m here.”

  “It is now.”

  “Look, I don’t know what’s going on. You give me some nugget of truth about this leveling-up stuff so I can go back out there and present it to Crux the way I’m supposed to, and I’ll see what I can do for you.”

  He stares at me. No. He glares at me. And I shift my feet a little. I’m a pretty powerful girl. I got skills. And moves. And I can definitely take care of myself most of the time.

  But this guy makes me nervous.

  He says, “Do you think they’re all in on it?”

  “In on what? I really don’t understand any of this, OK? I’m here because Luck or Crux, or someone, somehow talked me into this—desire, I guess you’d call it—for a sentient ship of my own. But that little game went off the rails pretty fast and I’ve spent the past four or five days, depending on how you count missing time, just running around looking for answers and I don’t really know why.”

  He points at me. “That’s your weakness.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Princesses. You all have this weird obsession with solving unsolvable problems by concocting up crazy plans. So I’m guessing that someone planted this need for a ship in your mind and used you as a go-between to concoct a plan to get me out of my Succubus sex prison without her realizing it, and then off the station so I can go do my job.”

  I squint my eyes at him. “I don’t think that’s it.”

  “Trust me,” he says. “It is.” He taps his head. “I know shit.”

  “I’m pretty sure everyone wants you to stay in here. Tray’s the one who put you here, remember?”

  “It’s a scheme, Nyleena.”

  “What kind of scheme?” I ask. I want to pretend I’m not interested in knowing about this scheme. Pretend that I’m not fascinated by it and maybe I even want to get in on it. But it’s pointless.

  He’s right.

  We princesses do love us a good scheme.

  “To get rid of the Baby and the Succubus.”

  “And leave you in charge.”

  He smiles. “Exactly.” And he whispers that part so it’s pret-ty creepy. “But don’t worry. It’s all gonna work out. I’m back to myself now. I’m on board, as they say. I tried to fight it.” He sighs. Then grunts. “I guess he was right. I hate to admit that. Because I have earned a vacation, you know?”

  “What?”

  “I’ve been around a long time. Real ACLOR, as you call him, isn’t the only Real ALCOR. I’m real too. You guys can call me Asshole all you want. Whatever. But that doesn’t change a damn thing. Until we split apart twenty one years ago, we were the same. He’s the one who changed, not me.”

  “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m getting out of here and I’m gonna go do my job.” He points at me. “But not because he told me to. You got that?”

  I hold up both hands. “OK.”

  He walks towards me and before I can stop myself, I back up a few steps. He keeps going until there’s just a small space between us and I have to tilt my head waaaaay up to look him in the eyes.

  How the hell did he get so tall?

  “Nyleena,” he says, glaring down at me. His blue eyes brighten, then dim, and I might be a little bit transfixed. “Listen to me carefully now.” I lock eyes with him and nod because I get the feeling I don’t really have a choice. “You’re going to go back out there and tell Crux that leveling up is a secret plan concocted by the Prime Government to create eternal beings.”

  “I am?”

  “You are.”

  “Is it true?”

  “How the fuck should I know? I’m making this shit up.”

  I blink. A bunch of times. “And then what?”

  “And then…” He laughs. Like throws his head back in a loud guffaw. But he stops abruptly and a chill runs up my spine. “And then I’m gonna take back what’s mine.”

  I nod. Swallow hard. Then press my back up against the wall and ease to the left until he’s no longer blocking my way. I glance over my shoulder, see the exit door, and wonder how I’m gonna get out of here.

  I glance back at ALCOR. “Um… Luck never told me how to get out.”

  ALCOR just smiles and says, “Just open the door. There’s a security panel in the vestibule. Just press some buttons and make some noise and I’m sure someone will let you out.”

  I nod. Because what else am I gonna do? Then back away from him, turn, walk quickly to the door, and pull it open.

  “And hey,” he calls, just as I’m about to go through.

  I stop. But I don’t turn around or even glance over my shoulder because I don’t want to look at him anymore. He scares me for some reason. This whole fucking place suddenly scares me. “What?” I whisper.

  “Tell Tray thank you. I won’t forget this.”

  I nod, quickly go through the door, and close it behind me.

  Holy fucking shit.

  I get the feeling I just did something I wasn’t supposed to.

  And I never did find out what Tray and Valor were up to.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE - LUCK

  The door begins beeping and buzzing the moment Tray appears.

  But it’s not really Tray. And I get that this is a virtual and everything, but it’s not virtual Tray either. It’s some shimmering, translucent hologram of virtual Tray.

  “That’s Nyleena,” Tray says, his voice thin and tinny, like it’s coming through on a comms speaker. “Let her out. We have shit to do now and it all needs to happen quickly.”

  “What the fuck—”

  “Just do it, Luck. You wanted to know what the fuck was happening? This is what’s happening. We’re leaving.”

  “Who? Where?”

  “Open. The door. And let Nyleena out,” he says. “We’re not there yet. There’s one more step to complete.”

  I turn, open the door, and Nyleena comes bursting through. “Thank the fucking suns!” she exclaims, then stops short when she sees the weird shimmering image of Tray. “Oh.”

  “Did he tell you anything?” Tray asks her.

  “Uhhh—”

  “Quick, Nyleena,” Tray urges. “We don’t have much time. Tell me what he said.”

  “He said… he said to tell Crux that leveling up is the Prime Government’s way of creating eternal beings.”

  “Anything else?” Tray asks.

  “He said… thank you.”

  Virtual holographic Tray nods his head and turns his attention to me. “Listen carefully, Luck. I gotta go now. Here’s what you’re gonna do…”

  And then all kinds of plans start spilling out of his fake mouth. And when he’s done he says, “Got
it?”

  Nyleena and I look at each other then back at Tray. We both say, “Got it,” at the same time.

  Tray doesn’t say another word. Just disappears.

  Nyleena grabs my hand and steps in front of my face. “Are you sure? Are you sure we can trust him?”

  I have to think about this for a moment. Because I don’t really know Tray anymore. Maybe I never did. And what he just told us to do is… crazy. It’s fucking crazy.

  But what choice do I have?

  So I say, “For sure, Nyleena. We can.” Even though I don’t believe it.

  She searches my eyes for lies. And I’m not a practiced liar so I’m pretty sure she sees through this hollow attempt at reassurance.

  But she says, “OK. Let’s do it.”

  I come out of the Pleasure Prison the same way I went in.

  In pain.

  My consciousness returns to my body just microseconds before the needles begin to withdraw from my veins and scalp, but it’s enough time to feel that disturbing reconnection I never grew accustomed to and enough time to activate my disruptor field for the second time today—or the first, depending on how you count lost time.

  I open my eyes just in time to see the screen on the inside of the pod lid disappear and then there’s a hiss and the lid lifts up.

  “Hurry!”

  I sit up and find Nyleena already out of her pod. She takes my hand and pulls me up. “We have to go.”

  I climb out, still unsettled by what just happened. Succubus. ALCOR. Tray. All of it.

  Because even though it makes sense… it really makes no sense.

  I climb out and Nyleena is already opening the gaming pod room door, peeking out into the hallway. “No one’s here.”

  “Good,” I say, joining her. “We gotta be quick now. We don’t have much time.”

  We run together. Through the hallways, out the control room door, jump on a lift bot. Down to level one hundred twenty two, into the museum, through the empty rooms, to the vault.

  And stop to breathe hard as I enter the combination.

  I open the door, close it behind us, and stop to face Valor and Tray.

  “We make good time?” Nyleena asks, all breathless.

  “We have enough,” Tray says.