Page 78 of Veiled Vixen

“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?”