Page 51 of Veiled Vixen

CHAPTER NINE - VALOR

Once I arrive at the airlock to Veila’s ship there’s a bot waiting for me. It clicks and beeps in a language I don’t understand, but I get the general idea and follow it down several hallways and then the hallway opens into a vast, open space.

A park.

Weird. But isn’t all of this weird? Hasn’t my whole life been weird?

There are tall trees, and flower beds, and meticulously maintained grass divided up into large squares with alternating coloration, so that when you look at the entire expanse from above it appears to be some kind of lattice. Or a game board.

I’m going with game board. That’s Veila’s specialty, isn’t it? Player of games.

She’s lying down on a blanket in the middle of the space. Eyes closed. Fake sunbeam shining down on her face. Both hands protectively placed across her stomach.

All this time with no genetic Cygnian-Akeelian babies and now we suddenly have two pregnant princesses?

Something’s wrong there. I can feel it. But I don’t know enough about anything to make the connection.

“I didn’t have time to find those comics,” Veila says with a sigh as I approach.

“I’m not that interested in them.”

She sits up and smooths out her long gown so it’s splayed majestically in the grass around her. “Well? What did Luck say?”

“You know. Little bit of this. Little bit of that. But pretty much it boils down to…he hates me.”

“You did leave him behind.”

I sigh. And it’s loud and filled with frustration. “Where’s Tray?” I ask.

“I have no idea.”

“Funny. Last time I saw him, he was with you.”

“Last time you saw me?” She scoffs. “Well, a lot has happened since we last… spoke.”

“I can see that. Are you going to fill me in?”

“This is my last ship,” she says.

“What?”

“This ship. This is my last one.”

“OK.”

“The other one was… unexpectedly disabled. I had to escape through its spin node.”

I narrow my eyes and drop to my knees in the grass. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” She lets out a long breath. “I mean someone reversed the beam on my SEAR cannons and sent an electromagnetic pulse into my ship, thereby killing all my borgs and bots and disabling my ship. Luckily, spin nodes require analog security measures and start-up protocols, so I had a way out. But I’m not going to lie. It was dicey there for a moment.”

“Someone attacked you? And Tray?”

“I’m not entirely sure. Logic dictates that he and Brigit were killed in that EM pulse, but I find it somewhat coincidental that the Booty Hunter and a ship I disabled appeared at that very moment my ship was taken offline. Do what you will with that information. I just have no idea.”

“Booty,” I say, smiling. “Who was the other ship?”

“I’m not sure. It was Demon Girl, but I killed her. I know for a fact I killed her. So some other mind had taken over the Demon Girl.” She looks at me. “I think it was ALCOR.”