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So I looked up—all the way up. The ceiling of the ring we lived inside was so far away, the window my brothers and I stood under all those years ago when Xyla first brought us to ALCOR was just a speck of flashing red light curving around the top of the darkness.
“What the fuck is that?”
ACLOR appeared in front of me in his holographic form. Something he rarely did anymore. And he said, “We have guests.”
CHAPTER TWLEVE
We met them on the top level under the same window where ALCOR met seven Akeelian kids almost a decade earlier.
It was one ship. But it was a special ship. A sentient ship calling herself Booty Hunter. And while she brought several dozen people with her, that’s not the reason she came to Harem Station.
She came looking for the man called Serpint.
Who wasn’t here, obviously. But hearing someone I didn’t know—and yes, by this time I’d come around. All bots were people. All thinking things, no matter how simple, were people to me now—so hearing someone I didn’t know say my brother’s name felt like someone stabbed me in the heart.
The man called Serpint. That’s what she said when she spoke to me.
I look Serpint in the eyes now. His violet eyes that look just like mine. And I say, “You were just a kid, ya know. That’s how I thought of you. Just my kid brother. And here was this powerful sentient ship showing up at my station calling you a man.”
Serpint frowns, then looks out the window of the small security beacon we’re sitting in. I brought him up here to tell him this story because he and Draden never really understood. They were too young to understand, so no one ever bothered to explain who we were and what we were doing. Why we left Wayward Station. Hell, he probably didn’t even know it was called Wayward Station until I told him just now.
“After that everything changed. Those people in that first ship had all escaped from a prison planet. ALCOR, and Tray, and I stood there in the center of the top-level lift and he spoke to them. He told them I was the governor of Harem Station and they could stay, no payment required for the first year, as long as they worked and treated everyone with respect. All sins would be forgiven, all crimes dismissed.
“Pretty soon more people came. The levels started filling up. The restaurants opened, the shooting galleries and arcades were full, and the city… grew up.”
“How long?” Serpint asks. “How long were we gone that first time?”
“Almost four years.”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t know, Crux. It didn’t feel that long.”
“Time is like that when you travel through gates,” I say. “Unreliable.”
He and Draden brought back four princesses when they finally returned. Four beautiful, special girls who had managed to escape Cygnia with the help of a cyborg they called Master.
“Why do you think she came looking for me?” Serpint asks.
“Booty? I dunno. She was never very talkative. She and ALCOR got pretty friendly and that’s how you took on her galactic registration.”
“She’s not right, Crux. There’s something wrong with her now. Ever since that attack back on Cetus Station she’s been weird. Even after Tray said she was fine.”
“I know, brother. That’s why we’re talking up here instead of down there.”
Both of us look down at Harem Station, slowly spinning in the middle of deep dark space. Surrounded on two sides by two ancient gates.
“So what about her?” Serpint asks. “What do we do with her?”
We both look down at the cryopod that contains my frozen star-crossed princess and frown.
“I don’t know, Serp. The only thing I do know is that I’m never letting her go again.”
He nods. Sighs. “I get it. That’s how I feel about Lyra.”
“I knew you’d understand. And you’re the only one I could talk to about this because… something is wrong inside the Pleasure Prison.”
“What do you mean?”
“Tray told me once. Long time ago. That ALCOR made a copy of himself inside the prison. You know, like a backup. A real backup.”
Serpint squints at me.
“Yes,” I say, reading his mind. “Real ALCOR is living in there.”
“So is Booty,” he says.
I nod. “I know. They’re up to something. I haven’t told anyone else and I’m pretty sure Tray knows and is keeping it secret. So this is just between you and me. But… you know all those rumors about ALCOR being insane are true, right?”
“You think?”
“Serpint. We changed him. We did that. Us, when we came here. It changed him. That thing living inside the Pleasure Prison is Old ALCOR. Not New ALCOR. That backup was made back when we first got here. Before the Pleasure Prison was even finished. He’s dangerous. And your ship, I’m sorry to say this, but Booty Hunter has an agenda. And it’s got something to do with you.”
