For the first time in her life, Lily felt she had finally found herself.
Only one question remained.
If she ever found Earth again…
Would she even want to go back?
It was not as if she had the choice.
Until then, she could only hope for more.
Chapter 4
A Blood-Heating New Rival
Khar
"Honored Vegrun’nur’Aghar,
We are delighted to inform you that your Herion-12 class vessel has been completed and now awaits your first commands in our shipyard dock. Based on the biometric data you supplied, you have already been configured as Super-Administrator. We trust this luxury starcruiser, surpassing even the most modern expectations, will be to your complete satisfaction. Safe travels among the stars, and welcome to the privileged circle of Herion owners!”
Welcome message from Vitromium to Vegrun
Khar stood on the deck of the Vitromium luxury cruiser, checking the control consoles in the command hub. This was the first chrono-cycle his new colleague would report for duty, and he could not wait to demonstrate, once again, that he alone belonged at the top of the hierarchy.
Their employer, a famous oligarch obsessively protective of his privacy, insisted on hiring only the finest species to maintain the cruiser and guard him whenever he felt like traveling. Khar, however, always made sure from the very first meeting that he was the one in charge, and that his counterpart slipped neatly into the role of obedient second.
He hummed to himself, in an unusually good mood as he imagined how he would intimidate the newcomer. Challenge them to a grapple the moment they stepped aboard? No. Last time Vegrun had warned him to give others a little time before he started throwing them around.
That left one option.
He would assign something especially grueling, something Khar could breeze through, and there would be no doubt left about who was superior.
His attention drifted to the scent he had caught in the gym a few chrono-cycles earlier. It had haunted him ever since. He had even considered asking the ship’s owner how refined it would be to use that aroma as Vitro’s ambient fragrance. Khar certainly would not mind smelling it all the time.
How did one even describe a scent like that? Soft. Luxurious. Never intrusive. Sexy, and yet somehow as if it cleansed the soul.
Far too good for his employer, really.
But Khar would never deprive himself of a good experience.
A polite chime from the console snapped him back. Someone had arrived at the dock and was requesting entry.
Khar rubbed his hands together in satisfaction and headed for the cruiser’s main airlock.
He had already chosen the first small but certain psychological blow he would deal the new hire.
"Vitro, raise gravity ten percent above universal standard."
Not enough to stop anyone from working, but more than enough to make simple existence more tiring. Khar had long since conditioned his body to the higher load. His counterpart, if they did not complain immediately, would start grumbling soon enough.
He could hardly wait.
A huge display beside the main pressure gate showed the visitor waiting outside. Even inside the environmental exosuit, the being looked short and slight. These suits were not designed for long walks in hard vacuum. They were typically worn by lifeforms whose breathing or skeletal systems were not suited to standard environments and needed gravitational or other corrections to function in common spaces.
Perfect.
If standard gravity already strains them, what will they say to the extra weight?
