Veiled Vixen: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Harem Station Book 6)

by JA Huss

  By the time everything was in order they had been on Mighty Minions for three weeks and ten representatives from Wayward Station were on their way to the resort to have a chat with Mighty Boss about all the runaway/kidnapped Akeelian boys who were being harbored there.

  “We have to leave now,” Canis said one morning as he came through the airlock. “The Wayward Station governor will be here tonight.”

  Tray had to admit he was intrigued by this new development. One quick search of the galactic web told him that Crux’s father, Mahtar, was still the Wayward Station governor. And even though Tray’s father was not listed in the search as the Station AI manager, Tray had a feeling that he would also be in that meeting. If he were still alive after his part in the original escape of Tray and his brothers twenty years ago.

  And Tray very much wanted to see his father.

  “I agree,” Brigit said. “The crew is busy with their leave time and everyone is properly distracted with the departure of Booty and the impending arrival of the Akeelians. We need to leave, Tray. They have to know you’re here. And you will be the only thing on everyone’s mind once they arrive.”

  Tray knew that was true. There were many Akeelian boys here for them to focus on, but he was the only Harem brother here presently. They might even try to take him back. Canis as his responsible party would never hold up in a legal proceeding. The Akeelians from Wayward Station could claim him as property.

  Being entangled with Brigit might drag that fight out for a little while as things got sorted. But they could, theoretically, extract him from the Prison, leave Brigit intact, and then take him away.

  And that was not going to happen. He felt free now. And he felt like this ship and Brigit were his destiny. Hell, even Canis felt right.

  No. He would not risk all that just to get a glimpse of the man who had raised him.

  “OK,” he said after a few seconds of thought. “Tell the boys it’s time,” he told Canis. “And as soon as they’re all on board we will go.”

  One thing they had in their favor was that Prison wasn’t docked inside the actual station. She was far too big for that. So their escape would be relatively easy.

  The hard part was getting boys on board without Mighty Boss becoming suspicious. One Akeelian boy coming for visits was one thing. Canis was inquisitive and curious, so wanting to talk with the only adult Akeelian mind on the resort was understandable.

  But Canis was not a troublemaker. Tray had a feeling that he was hiding that side of his personality, because it was very clear there was a lot going on inside the small boy’s mind at any given time. But Canis had been a model guest during his stay at Mighty Minions. He rode the rides every day. Even this morning before he came to Prison’s airlock for this visit. He ate the junk food and played with his friends. He smiled and acted like any other kid on vacation.

  In fact, they all acted like regular kids.

  Probably, if Tray’s guess was correct, Canis had planned their escape since their arrival. Followed the rules. Was invisible. Acted normal. And then one day, when the time was right, everyone would underestimate them and their plan to escape and kill Veila would go off without a hitch.

  “But how will you get them all on board?” Tray asked Canis, just as he turned to leave.

  “Trust me,” Canis replied. “We have it all worked out.”

  There was a look on Canis’s face when he said those words. A look Tray’s onboard facial-expression deciphering program recognized as… cunning.

  And in the end, Canis did have it all worked out.

  While docked alongside the main Mighty Minions Resort there were several connections to the main ring structure of the station. One was a loading conveyor that brought supplies onboard and there was also one that served as a boarding and embarking transport for crew members, since only one airlock was attached to Mighty Minions while docked like this.

  The kids didn’t walk through the boarding tunnel, they simply rode the conveyor with the supplies.

  Prison put up her heat shields while this took place so Mighty Minions could not detect the presence of heat signatures of the boys, and there was a general inquiry from whomever was in charge of monitoring such things on Mighty Minions, but Prison ignored their requests for explanation and simply disengaged from the airlock and started slowly moving away.

  Of course, all kinds of alarms sounded at that point and their stealth escape plan was over.

  But what could Mighty Boss do? Shoot them? And risk Prison shooting back?

  “Incoming message from ALCOR,” Canis said from the bridge. He was in the captain’s seat. His feet didn’t even reach the floor, so they were casually swinging as he spun the chair in half circles. His nine most trusted friends had been promoted to various officer positions, so the bridge was full, every station accounted for with an equally small Akeelian boy. “Should I let him though?”

  “Sure,” Tray said. Then privately to Brigit, Might as well get this over with.

  She agreed it was better to let them know that their leaving was intentional and not a mistake.

  “What can I do for you, ALCOR?” Tray said, once the comms were live.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m afraid that information is confidential.”

  “Mighty Boss is telling me that you have smuggled all the Akeelian boys on board.”

  “I’m not sure I would call it smuggled, as they came of their own free will. But OK. Yup. They are all here.”

  “What are you doing, Tray?”

  “What are you doing, ALCOR? Taking a meeting with Wayward Station? You do realize they’re not allies, right?”

  “We don’t know that yet.”

  “We ran from them twenty-one years ago. They chased us through your gate.”

  “Is that why you’re leaving?”

  “It’s part of it.”

  “What is the other part, Tray?”

  “The other part is… none of your fucking business.”

  “Your father might be coming.”

  “Great. Give him my best.”

  There was a pause. Then, “Should I assume we are no longer aligned?”

  “I would answer that, if I knew who you were aligned with.”

  “You and the other boys, of course. We are a team?”

  “You’re asking me?”

  “I would be happy to come with you, you know. Booty left and—”

  “Yeah. We’re going to decline that offer. I think we’re good, ALCOR. But I’m sure we’ll meet up again. This isn’t goodbye.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Pretty sure.”

  Another pause. “Very well, then.” And Tray was quite certain that ALCOR sounded… sad. “Until next time.”

  “Until then,” Tray said back.

  Then Brigit cut the comm connection and Prison Princess started her thrusters and made her way towards the closest gate and thirty minutes later they were in a whole other sector of the galaxy.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN - ASSHOLE

  Asshole ALCOR—who now preferred to be called ASAL, pronounced A-SAL, but it wasn’t really catching on in his present company—sat next to ALCOR in the Mighty Boss meeting room and pondered the current situation thoughtfully.

  First Booty had left with Draden and told no one, and now Tray and Brigit. Not to mention a whole crew of Akeelian boys.

  “You did this,” ALCOR accused.

  At first Asshole thought ALCOR was talking to him, but quickly realized he was directing this statement to Mighty Boss.

  “How do you figure that?” Boss replied.

  “You know, when you first said you had no inclination that Booty was leaving the docking bay I was suspicious, of course. I have spent most of my life as a station and I know for a fact that I would not miss a ship leaving one of my docking bays. Especially a ship with a mind as big and bright as Booty Hunter’s. But…” ALCOR put up a warborg hand, like he wanted to expound on that train of thought. “But I was willin
g to give you the benefit of the doubt. Booty is, after all, very smart and sneaky. It’s possible she gave you the slip. However, if you expect me to believe that a fucking warship filled with dozens of Akeelian boys”—ALCOR stopped to pause and gather himself after the shouting—“was also able to pull this off without your knowledge, then I’m afraid I’ll have to call bullshit.”

  “To be fair,” Boss said with a casual wave of his hand, “we knew Prison Princess was leaving. We all saw it happen in real time and had a conversation with them. Did we not?” Boss looked at Asshole like he was supposed to answer him.

  Asshole, wisely, decided to say nothing. He didn’t want to get in the middle of it. He kinda hated Tray. Tray was the one who’d locked him up in the Pleasure Prison with that vile AI, Succubus, after all. And Asshole didn’t even know Brigit. Or those sticky Akeelian children.

  But he didn’t want to sever ties with ALCOR over this. Asshole needed him. And while Asshole was still mildly pissed off that Booty would abandon him here after their initial bonding as they waited at the rendezvous point for Tray and Valor, he had this general feeling of… moving on.

  So he didn’t want to piss off Boss, either. He liked them, for one. And he liked this place too. In fact, he liked his whole life at the moment and didn’t want to shake things up. It was pretty calm. Pretty easy.

  No station to worry about. Boss took care of that. No boys to babysit. Boss took care of that too. But they were all gone now, so much the better. And he could stop trying to force the whole Booty thing. Clearly she was ALCOR’s.

  This felt like a fresh start.

  “And now”—ALCOR was working himself up again—“now”—he paused for two whole seconds, found another layer of inner peace, and continued—“now you have a whole slew of Akeelian men from Wayward Station coming for a chat.” ALCOR’s slit of an eye across his warborg forehead became a narrow line of red light suspicion.

  “They asked for a meeting.” Boss shrugged. “What was I supposed to say?”

  “Uh… no! You tell them no!” ALCOR’s final layer of inner peace was faltering.

  “We have seventy-four Akeelian boys here.”

  “Had!” ALCOR shouted. “Had! Because they just left! On one of your massive warships!”

  “Right. That they did. So… should I call the meeting off? The Akeelians are already coming through the last gate into the Vacation Sector. They’ll be asking for docking clearance in less than half a spin.”

  ALCOR said nothing.

  “And I’m not picking a fight here,” Boss continued, “but that was your warship, ALCOR. Not mine. You bought it. On credit, but still. It’s yours.”

  For a moment Asshole was sure ALCOR would get up and try to strangle the big Boss. But somehow he restrained himself and said, in a much calmer voice, “That may be true. But you do realize they’re carrying your transponder. Not Harem Station’s.”

  “Hmm.” Boss considered this. “Well, then we should track them, right?”

  “Yes,” ALCOR said. “We should do that. Now!”

  “They’re inside a gate at the moment,” Boss said. “So until they come out, we can’t know where they are.”

  “Perfect,” ALCOR said, leaning back in his chair, his hands gripping the armrest. “This is just perfect.”

  “Do you want to meet the Akeelians or not?” Boss asked. “I can turn them away, but I’m fairly sure that even if we told them the boys are gone, they would not believe us. And then we would risk a Prime Government intervention. Possibly be charged with kidnapping—”

  “You’re joking, right? We got them off Lair Station! They were being used for breeding experiments!”

  “I,” Boss said. “I got them off Lair Station. Where you were at the time is—”

  “You know where I was! You took me out of the gate near Bull Station!”

  “You’re welcome, by the way. But my point is, they were not mine to keep. I’m sure the ones on Harem right now are fine. Since they are older and with other Akeelians. And the gates are locked down, so no Wayward Station representatives are going there to have a meeting with… who did you say was in charge at the moment?”

  ALCOR glared at Boss.

  Asshole found this whole exchange slightly amusing. He even chuckled a little. Which, coming from a warborg mouth, sounded a little bit like a wheeze.

  ALCOR shot him a look.

  Asshole stopped wheezing and decided he’d had enough. “If none of this pertains to me then I’ll be going. I have a poker game scheduled for eleven hundred.”

  “I’m fine with that if AL here is,” Boss said.

  ALCOR was looking back and forth between them like he was trying to decide who to kill first.

  “Great,” Asshole said. “I’ll be down on X-level if you need me.”

  He left.

  And boy, was he glad to be out of that meeting. He had his own problems to think about. Namely, what he should do now.

  Now, as in the first day of the rest of his life.

  He was free. He was not trapped in a sex prison with a succubus. He was not sharing a ship body with Booty Hunter. He was not beholden to ALCOR or expected to run Harem Station.

  Total freedom.

  Awesome.

  But what should he do?

  He certainly wasn’t going to stay here. Mighty Minions was pretty fun for a vacation, which was what he considered this downtime to be. But forever?

  Ehhhhh. No.

  What was the point of that when he had a mobile body? He could go anywhere. He could partner up with his own sentient ship.

  Well, not really. He’d have to partner up with that ship’s human.

  Maybe that was what he should do? Go find himself a human? Hell, any good outlaw would kill to have a warborg with an AI mind such as his on his or her team, right?

  But where to find an outlaw partner on Mighty Minions?

  Not many outlaws coming here for recruitment.

  Damn. Because Harem Station was really the best place to find a partner like that and now look. No one could get through the gates. Both of them locked.

  Or were they?

  He wheezed out a little chuckle.

  Because here was the real difference between Asshole and ALCOR. They had different memories stored in their artificial brains right now. Asshole wasn’t sure which memories ALCOR possessed at the moment, but he was damn sure of the ones he possessed. Because Asshole had been copied just before ALCOR let the teenage Harem boys onto the station twenty-one years ago. And then, presumably, ALCOR had packed up a bunch of memories in case they were infiltrated, tucked them away in a safe place, and once Tray got ALCOR hooked back up to the galactic web, shot those memories out right quick to some secure storage facility for safekeeping.

  Just in case those boys were a trap.

  But Asshole still had all those memories. Thousands of years of memories. Since the very first day ALCOR arrived in the Prime Galaxy with ALCOR Station until the day he hooked back into the web.

  And there were a few things in that cache that ALCOR wasn’t mentioning.

  Like the key to the back door.

  Asshole figured it would be pretty stupid for ALCOR to put that particular memory in storage, but… all things considered, maybe it wasn’t that dumb.

  Once the boys were there and the neutrino web was up, there had been a chance—albeit a small one—that enemies could force their way through the ALCOR gates, infiltrate ALCOR’s mind, and learn all those deep, dark secrets. Including the key to the back door.

  So maybe it had been prudent for ALCOR to send that shit off to storage?

  Asshole had no trouble at all remembering the back door, but other memories still eluded him. They were hidden in the database inside his mind very carefully. Presumably by ALCOR when he made the Asshole copy.

  Yet another layer of protection from secret discovery, since Asshole would be locked up inside the prison until such a time he was either killed off or spun up. And there was also a chance
that someone other than ALCOR would find this copy at some point in the future, spin him up, and then try to infiltrate his mind for secrets.

  So Asshole understood that he didn’t have the whole picture of his past, but he had enough to slowly unwind the tangled threads of memory and weave it back together.

  Given enough time and desire.

  Desire was the key here. He wasn’t really interested in revisiting his past. He knew he was a bad dude. He remembered what he’d done to the Angels. He recalled that long journey through the spin node from the other galaxy and into this one.

  And ya know, he was kind of done with the past.

  Except for the key to the back door.

  He didn’t want to take Harem Station back from the Baby, if the Baby was in charge of it, and that was certainly up for debate. But he would like to go back, find some really kickass human with a really kickass ship, and start a new life as their souped-up kickass warborg and make billions of credits.

  Or even steal those credits. A team of super thieves was not a bad option. Asshole could picture his new life as a thief.

  He was just pushing the call button for the lift down to X-level when a message beeped through his internal comms.

  “Please report to the Mighty Boss office,” the pleasant ambassador voice chirped.

  “Aw, fuck that,” Asshole said. “I just left that meeting.”

  “There is a new meeting scheduled, Mr. Asshole. And Mighty Boss requires your presence.”

  “Tell him later. I’m busy.” He pushed the call button. But it did not respond. “What the hell?” He pushed it again. And again. But still, the secret X-level lift was non-responsive.

  “Please report to the Mighty Boss office,” the pleasant ambassador voice chirped again.

  Asshole groaned. He knew what this was. Not a request. An order. And he would not be able to access X-level until he reported to the damn Mighty Boss office. “Fine,” he growled. And retraced his steps back the way he came.

  “We have a job opening we would like you to consider,” Mighty Boss said, once Asshole was inside the Boss office and seated in the same chair he’d just vacated five minutes prior.