by Huss, JA
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - LYRA
First there was love sex.
Then there was family drama and shopping.
Now… there is silence.
I hate it. It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to run out that door after them and insist they take me too.
But Serpint just gave me the same argument and, I reluctantly admit, his reason was solid.
He wants me to be safe. It’s a makes-my-heart-all-melty reason.
But what about him? I want him to be safe too. And even though I thought Bull Station and Harem Station were the same when I arrived here three days ago, they are not the same. Bull Station is filled with people who will kidnap you and sell you to slavers. Harem is just… a city filled with forgotten people. Lost people. Lonely people. People who want normal things like family, but don’t have any of their own.
So now what? Sit here and twiddle my thumbs and worry the whole time?
“Oh,” I say out loud. “The bot.”
I might as well go get the bot. I’m pretty sure you can probably do that whole bailing-out thing from an air screen. But I’m also pretty sure wasting time traveling to wherever he is would be better than sitting here doing nothing.
So I walk down the hallway to go get my boots when a thought hits me.
I look over my shoulder at the auto-shopper and smile. Because I learned a little trick getting Serpint’s armor.
Search his name and all kinds of things show up. The beer he drinks, the food he orders, the clothes he wears, the guns he uses…
In fact, his whole life is in that shopper.
Not that I need anything from him. But Xyla…
I squeal a little as I enter her name in the search and holy mother of suns, all her outfits pop up. I don’t get her shopping list or anything like that, but I’m not after what she eats and drinks. I just want to look like her. And let me tell you, sex-borgs really know how to dress.
My choice is a dark purple bodysuit that has holsters on the side of each thigh, a pair of black, lace-up combat boots that go all the way up to my knees, and a black canvas belt with big silver grommets that comes with a knife.
I pull my pink-blonde hair up into a pony tail, then admire my new look in the mirror while doing martial arts moves.
I am badass.
My air screen chimes for the first time ever and scares the shit out of me. It doesn’t wait for me to open it up—note to self, find your default settings and change that—just pops up in the space in front of me.
“Awww,” I say, as Serpint’s face fills the screen. He’s all dressed in his armor now, ready for battle. “You miss me already,” I say, making a pouty face.
He smiles. “I just wanted to make sure this thing works before I leave. You can’t contact me on ship once we go through the gate, but the second I get back I’m gonna ping you.”
“Promises,” I say.
“I will.”
“Be careful,” I say.
“I always am.” But I see the cringe and know he’s thinking about Draden and Ceres. Valor and Luck are yelling at Serpint to get off the coms in the background. But he takes a second to place his hand up to the screen, palm first.
I put my hand up to his, almost expecting to feel him. Be able to touch him through the distance.
But I can’t. It’s a trick of technology and not magic.
“See you soon,” he says.
Then he’s gone.
I sigh and slump down into the couch cushions, my excitement over new sexy Xyla clothes dissipating.
Then I pinch the air and open the screen back up to see what it can do.
First, I search for the lock-up to see if I can figure out where I need to go to bail out Prince. I am half hoping ALCOR will come on and give me some guidance, but he doesn’t. Then I remember he’s leaving with them. Probably his copy has better things to do than babysit me.
But I find the lock-up has a search function that will let you know if any of your deviant friends or family are in the pokey. I search his series number and get two thousand possibilities. Which immediately has me thinking that retired nanny bots must need constant supervision to keep them honest. Weird, but whatever.
I move on to search Prince, NannyBot 700 Series, and get nothing. So his new spur-of-the-moment name was never updated. And then I realize he’s mine. So he’s under my name. And I get a chime as his mug shot pops up on the screen. Painted up black matte, pink-glitter belt around his rotund middle, and a dent near his left eye sensor that makes him look like he got in a fight.
There’s a flashing red HOLD tab under his name.
“Illegal discharge of weapon,” I say, reading his charges. “Bail, seven hundred twenty credits. Well, shit.”
Do I even have credits?
But just as I’m thinking that his red HOLD tab changes to a green PAID status and underneath it says, Pick-up required by owner.
“Aww,” I say, tsk-ing my tongue. “Serpint, you are a good guy.”
He must’ve remembered to bail him out for me before he left.
“OK, now all I need is a map so I can go get him.”
And just as those words leave my mouth, a map appears—highlighted in pink—for me to follow. I guess ALCOR is paying attention after all.
And then the auto-shopper dings, signaling the arrival of goods.
Which I didn’t order. But when I walk over to see what’s there, I get all melty again.
Because Serpint sent me some weapons.
Two laser guns that snap snugly into the thigh holsters of my bodysuit and a plasma rifle with a strap that will let me carry it on my back like that kick-ass hostess yesterday morning.
You know your man cares when he sends you weapons to keep you company while he’s at work.
I decide… I love this place.
Then get up and get into the elevator. When I get down on the middle level of the city I follow the blinking pink path paved in front of me on the screen.
I’m just about to get on an escalator when one of those lifty-bots appears on my screen, telling me it’s waiting near the edge of the level where Serpint and I got on the other day.
He’s such a keeper. He sends me weapons, he pays the bot’s bail, and he sends me a lift so it won’t take me an hour to get down to the lock-up, which is on the lower level on the whole other side of the station.
This might actually be true love. Like I might just believe in this whole fated mates bullshit. Because so far, he’s perfect.
It still takes a while to get to the lock-up, but it’s a lot quicker than zig-zagging my way around two dozen people-movers. Plus it gives me a chance to just enjoy looking at things.
The lock-up has a ticket window where you check in, then a large seating area where you sit and wait for your number to be called. I’m just about to sit down when my air screen chimes.
He’s ready! Wow. I swear, when Serpint gets back I’m gonna kiss him all over for taking such good care of me.
I walk to the front screen and tap my flashing bot’s face to let them know I’m here. Almost instantly a door opens to my right and there he is.
He whirrs out, his balance off so he’s tilted a little sideways, chirping out a long not-guilty denial.
“Whatever,” I say. “Let’s just go home.”
But just as we step out of the lock-up and I’m looking around for the lift-bot—because surely if Serpint got me a lift here, he’d get me a lift back—my air screen lights up again.
And this time the picture on the screen makes my heart jump.
It’s not Serpint. It’s not ALCOR, it’s not Crux, it’s not Tray.
It’s Booty.
“Lyrrrrraaaa,” she purrs. “I’m so glad you came.”
“Came?” I say. And then I figure it all out.
None of this was Serpint. This was all Booty’s doing.
“What do you want?” I say.
“We have to follow them,” she says.
“Follow who?” I
ask, looking around.
“Serpint and the others. We cannot let them go there alone.”
“How do you know where they’re going?”
“I’ve hacked into ALCOR’s copy.”
Oh, shit. This crazy, terrifying beast of a ship is in control here?
“Follow the map, Lyra. And come get me.”
“Get you?”
“We’re leaving.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m not leaving with you.” Because you’re insane, I don’t add. And you scare the shit out of me.
“It’s a setup, Lyra.”
“No,” I say. “I didn’t set them up. That’s where Nyleena is.”
“Not you,” she says. “They.”
I shake my head and sigh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Your people. They knew you were there. They know you’re now here. And they can’t come here because of the gate defense system. But if they can get ALCOR there—”
“Why the fuck didn’t you say something sooner, you batshit piece of tin? How could you let Serpint go?”
“Because he would have never agreed to my plan.”
“Which is?”
“We need to start a war,” she says.
The bot and I just stare at each other.
“We need to make the first move,” she continues. “Because if we don’t, they will get the upper hand. Bull Station is part of the outer Cygnian Alliance. We need to destroy it. And Serpint’s mission is to get back this sister princess of yours. We need to add another objective to that mission to maintain dominance or the Cygnian Navy will show up here one day—somehow, someway—and take us all out. I cannot allow them to kill ALCOR. Surely you understand this, Lyra.”
The bot turns his body back and forth. A definitive no, if ever there was one.
“You love him,” Booty says.
I say nothing. I’m not talking to this crazy machine. And I’m not falling for her bullshit, either.
“And he loves you,” she continues.
“And let me guess,” I spit. “You love him. You’re jealous of me, aren’t you? And you think if you can get rid of me then you can have him for yourself.”
She laughs. There’s a picture of her on my air screen. A sleek 3-D rendering of her hull. It rotates against a black background and every time she talks there’s a sound wave animation that is synced up with her speech.
“You think I’m jealous?”
“It’s so obvious,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “Even he thinks this body thing you were going on about was insane.”
“Lyra, my dear,” she says, her voice that of a tired, but patient matriarch who is speaking to a small child. “Serpint is my partner, not my lover.”
“Sure,” I say. “Not yet.”
She sighs, then says, “OK. I’m in love—”
“I knew it.”
“—with ALCOR.”
“What?” I say.
“He and I are in love. I’d do anything for him. But I love Serpint as well. He’s been very good to me and I owe him this.”
“You’re going to start a war and get everyone killed!”
“I’m trying to save everyone, don’t you see that?”
“No,” I say, unable to stop my laugh. “I do not see.”
“Either way, Lyra, you have to come to my ship and set me free.”
“ALCOR will never let you leave.”
“He’s busy right now. He’s not watching. That’s why I was able to hack into your screen.”
“No, he left the station,” I say. “He’s not here. He left a copy.”
She’s silent for a half a second too long. And this is how I figure out—she didn’t know that.
“What” she says.
“He left with them, Booty. The station is being run by his copy.”
Silent for three seconds this time. “We have to go. We have to go now. Because I thought… I thought…”
“You thought what?” I yell.
“I thought I was protecting him. I thought he’d be here, safe, with me. But he’s gone with them. They are going to kill him, Lyra. We must go now!”
The bot chirps a warning at me the whole way down to Booty’s medical bay.
Don’t do this, Lyra. Serpint isn’t going to like it. He’s gonna chain you to the magnetic wall for sure when he gets back.
Shit like that.
I mostly ignore him. Not that he’s wrong. Serpint will be pissed if I show up at Bull Station. But Booty seems very certain that something very bad is about to happen. Definitely to ALCOR, but probably Serpint too. And what kind of soulmate would I be if I didn’t at least go check on him?
That’s my rationale. I’m just gonna check on him.
Maybe by the time we get there the whole thing is over and Nyleena is safe in her cryopod on the Big Dicker. That could happen. Then Booty and I could probably get back here before they even notice.
She’s certain that ALCOR’s copy isn’t omnipresent and I have to agree with her about that. If it was, it would try to stop me, right? It would pop up on my screen or boom that ever-present voice out from some hidden speaker and say, “Lyra, go home. There’s no possible way to get off this station without my permission. All the ships are on lockdown unless they were cleared to land or take off before he left.”
Except Booty isn’t on lockdown. No one is paying any attention to her because she’s incapacitated down in medical. She has no status at all.
She just needs me to unhook her docking locks because that’s a task that must be done manually.
The bot must be reading my mind because he chirps, “Don’t you think there’s a good reason medical bay docking locks require a manual override?”
I do. He’s got a point. The ships locked up in medical aren’t fit to fly.
But she says she is and I believe her.
I have to believe her. Because even though I don’t really trust Booty—I think she’s leaving a bunch of stuff out of this mission—I think there’s enough there that Serpint actually is in danger.
We arrive at her door and find it unlocked. She claims she and ALCOR share some kind of connection and that even though she would not normally have access to much of the things she’s interfering with today, ALCOR’s copy and ALCOR aren’t the same thing and don’t have the same precautions.
He doesn’t usually leave the station, from what I can tell. So this copy is… lacking.
“Good,” Booty says as Prince and I walk into her bay. “Let me show you what you need to do.”
This next step takes a while. I have to unhook her from eight cylindrical pylons that are propping up her body in the large double bay. Then, once Prince and I are on board, we have to manually start the undocking procedure that will drop the floor and release her into the vacuum of space outside.
Then we’re good to go.
“You’re taking this very well,” Booty comments as I get busy on the last pylon lock.
Which Prince reinterprets as… “She’s lost her mind. Exploded during sex.”
I scowl at him as I release the final lock and stand up, wiping my hands on a rag.
“Now get inside,” Booty says. “And suit up. We’re leaving.”
Prince follows me up the ramp as Booty’s engine start up. “This is a bad idea,” he says. “A very bad idea.”
Booty’s hatch begins to close and soon there’s a familiar sucking sound as the inner hull is pressurized.
“Too late now,” I whisper. Like it or not I’m going through with this.
And I have a decent outlook about the whole thing. Like I’m OK, and this is the right decision.
Until Booty can’t open the docking floor so we can get away and decides to blow it up with torpedoes.
Yeah. That stupid nanny bot might be right after all.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - SERPINT
It’s weird being on Jimmy’s ship again. Mostly because I’m not the pilot, Xyla is. But also because I
don’t think I’ve gone anywhere without Booty in almost a decade.
Luck and Valor are huddled over a console, looking at schematics of Bull Station.
Jimmy is sitting in the cockpit with Xyla, discussing the gates we’ll need to travel through.
So that leaves me and ALCOR. Where he’s residing, I have no clue. In Dicker’s computer core, maybe? Bunkmates or something?
“Did Crux tell you about how Akeelians and Cygnians are related?” ALCOR asks.
“He told me we were engineered for each other,” I say.
“Did he tell you why?”
“No,” I say. He’s silent after that so I say, “Well, are you gonna tell me why?”
More silence. Which only pisses me off. Because I think ALCOR sees his silence as pause, like when humanoids with emotions pause to make facial expressions. Except he has no face, so it’s super annoying when he does this because it’s just silence.
“How old do you think I am?” he asks.
“Hell, I don’t know. Thousands of years, I guess. You told us that once, right?” I think he did. Long time ago when we first met him.
“Twenty-five thousand, two hundred and seventy-six years.”
I whistle low at the number. “Impressive,” I say. And it is. It blows my mind to think about the advanced civilizations that came before us. It makes me wonder where these people are now—if they’re still around at all—and if not, what happened to them.
“I don’t talk about it much,” ALCOR continues. “Because it was difficult back then.”
“Difficult how?” I ask.
“I was new,” he says. “Just a few hundred years old and couldn’t see the big picture.”
“What big picture?” I say.
“Their plans. For the system—there used to be a system, did you know that? In the space around Harem.”
“A system?”
Silence again. And now I get it. I know why he pauses. Because I can feel his shrug. His weak smile. His… guilt.
I have always known what he’s not saying now. He killed them. He never said it back then, either. But when you happen upon an ancient AI living on a pristine abandoned station, it doesn’t take a genius to solve that mystery. Especially one with his reputation.