Page 24 of Veiled Vixen

“A fight?” Serpint says. “That’s what you’re calling it? Our water generators are offline. All the gardens are dead. Wait until you see the parks and greenhouses, Valor. They’re gone. We don’t even know how everyone is still breathing.”

“What the fuck?” I say.

“That was not my doing,” Baby says.

“The hell it wasn’t!” Serpint is agitated now. “You and that evil Mighty Bitch ruined all of it.”

“And yet you’re all still alive,” Baby retorts. “Why do you suppose that is?”

“Because Luck has some secret garden. You already told us.”

“Wait,” I say, putting up a hand. “What secret garden?”

“That’s what Veila wants,” Serpint says. “Baby says there’s a huge forest down on the lower levels where Luck is holding out and that’s how we’re still breathing. And in that forest there’s some kind of flower that enables the Cygnian princesses to get pregnant. Luck and Nyleena both know about it.”

“Hmm,” I say. “Veila told me that she needs to get to Earth to save her babies. That she needs something from there to bring them to term. Or, possibly, she can take something from Corla’s blood and use that to make what she needs. But both of these things are unavailable to her. She just spent the better part of the last hour trying to convince me that I need to help her get one or both of these things.”

“Lies,” Serpint says. “She might have Crux convinced, but not me.”

“Not me either,” I say.

“She’s not lying,” Baby says.

“No one cares what you think,” Serpint says. “You’re not in control of anything anymore.”

“I still control the ventilation,” Baby mutters.

“Yeah,” I say. “About that. Veila threatened to cut off the air up here so everyone has to move to the lower levels if I don’t talk Luck into surrendering.”

“Baby,” Serpint growls. “I swear to the fucking sun god of all the universe, I will hunt you down and kill your data core if you go through with that.”

“Veila has control over me,” Baby says. “There is no way for me to resist her.”

“OK. How the fuck did that happen?” I ask. “Someone needs to fill me in.”

Serpint gets to his feet and straightens his black t-shirt. “You need to talk to Crux about that. That story is all his.”

And then he walks away. Just gets into the lift that goes directly to his quarters and disappears.

“Whatever you’re going to do,” Baby says, “you need to do it fast, Valor. Because we don’t have much time.”

“What does that even mean?”

But he’s gone. And the only answer I get is silence.

Crux’s office is just down the curve of the station a little ways and I can see it from where I sit in the harem room. But it’s dark and empty right now.

I can’t remember the last time I looked at his office and found it to be dark. He’s always in there working on something. I don’t even know what he does, to be honest. Runs the docking bay schedules. Deals with immigrants. Security bullshit.

But right now the docking bays are all under Luck’s control, the gates are locked so there’s no immigration happening, and as far security goes… well. The beacons are offline and if all the hints people have been dropping are true, then there is no security.

So I go to his quarters.

I chime the bell, but there’s no answer. So I push in a special code and enter anyway.

“Crux?” I ask. The whole place is dark. No lights on and the windows blacked out.

“Go the fuck away, Valor. If I had anything else to say to you, I’d have answered your chime.”