Uncrossed (Harem Station Book 7), page 21
“I really wish Tray was here,” Serpint says. “He’d have the answers. He always has the answers.”
“Excuse me,” Baby says. “I don’t mean to interrupt. But while you were all talking the time freeze ended. Everyone is awake.”
“That’s great. And Tray isn’t here.” I sigh. “No one is coming to help us, you guys. No one. We’re on our own. We’ve got a whole station filled with millions of outlaws locked up inside their quarters, not to mention the ones walking around free.” I look at Valor. “You should’ve locked them all up. They’re just gonna turn on us again. There’s probably a mob outside right now, just waiting for us to come out of here so they can turn us around and lock us up.”
“Yeah.” Valor sighs. “I guess we didn’t think that through.”
“Not so fast,” Baby says. “Everyone who was placed in their job station instead of their quarters seems to be going about their business.”
“What business?” Luck asks.
“People are just… doing their normal. Most of them are drinking in the bars. A few thousand are in the shooting galleries. Several hundred are actually shopping. We took away all the weapons. No one is fighting.”
“Hmm,” I say. “Score one for us, I guess.”
“What about the ones locked in their quarters?” Luck asks.
“Yeah,” Baby says. “They’re not too happy. Most of them are screaming at me. I printed up some goodies and sent them all gift baskets through the autoshopper.”
“You’re so dumb,” I say.
“It was very smart. They each got a handwritten note from you, Crux, telling them that everything will be OK and to enjoy a day off with pay.”
“Oh, did they?” I laugh. But the laugh is real. I feel a sense of relief knowing that everyone is being cared for by the Baby. And that both pisses me off and makes me feel good at the same time.
I do not want to run this station anymore.
I do not want to be responsible for these people.
I do not want to blow up my brothers’ soulmates.
I don’t want to do any of it. I just want…
“I just want to go see Corla, you guys. One last time. I won’t stay long. I promise. I just feel like… well, you owe me.”
I look at them. Specifically, at Luck. Waiting for him to tell me he doesn’t owe me shit.
But he turns away and won’t meet my gaze.
“OK,” Serpint says. “OK. I agree. We owe you. Don’t we?” He looks at Valor, then Jimmy, and finally, his gaze lands on Luck. “Don’t we?” he asks again.
“Whatever,” Luck says. “Go then. Do it.”
“We’ll go with you,” Valor says. “We’re gonna stick together now, you guys. That’s all we have left. Just… each other.”
He’s looking at Luck when he says this. We’re all looking at Luck when he says this. Because I can’t do this without Luck. I can’t spin up the node on my own. I need him to do that for me.
“Fine,” Luck sighs. “We’ll all go together.”
We all fall into line and start making our way towards the exit. Jimmy sidles up next to me. “So you went to Earth? What was it like?”
I think about this as we make our way through the hallways. Then stop at the exit and wait for Baby to open the doors. “It was nice, Jimmy. It was… the best-case scenario, I think. It was all different. Strange, but in a familiar way, ya know? I liked it. I’d go back, if I could. I tried looking you up.”
“What?” He laughs.
“I thought you guys were there. And I knew your second name.”
“What second name?”
“Yates, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” He frowns. “That’s so weird. My whole story is weird.”
“I think I met your mother.”
“What?” That comes from everyone. Even Luck.
“Yeah. In this one… dream… time-loop thing. I was in Corla’s quarters back on Wayward Station and I met one of her handmaidens. Probably one of the sisters, I guess. Her name was Yates.”
Jimmy makes a face. “My mother was Corla’s handmaiden sister? That makes no sense. I was sixteen when we met Corla for the first time. Her sister cannot be my mother.”
“Time, dude. It’s not what we think.”
We don’t have time to think about Jimmy and his maybe mother, because the doors to the lock-up open and we suddenly have to face… well, reality. Real-time reality.
The station is no longer quiet. It’s not noisy, like normal, or anything. But at least it’s not silent anymore. We can hear the people above us going about their business. And Baby was right. No one seems to be fighting.
There are very few people down here on the lowest level. And most of them are waiting at the lock-up window, presumably trying to find someone. But the Baby has a large liftbot waiting to take us up to the museum level, and once we get on and start to ascend, people begin gathering near the edges of each level to watch us.
It feels a little bit like we’re in a memorial ceremony. Not nearly as many people, but we definitely have their undivided attention now.
“I think you should say something, Crux,” Valor says.
“Say what?” I ask.
“I dunno. Tell them we’re… handling things.”
“I’ll put you on speaker,” Baby says.
I’m about to protest, but my air screen pops out in front of me, flashing a ‘live’ icon in the middle.
“Fuck,” I mutter. The word echoes through the station. And people start murmuring back and pressing forward until they are right up against the clear plasti-glass railing on the edge of the levels.
“Your broadcast is being sent through to every room, Crux,” Baby says.
“What’s going on?” someone shouts.
“Where is everyone?”
“What happened?”
“Are we still at war?”
“Answer them,” Luck growls. “Or we’ll have a situation on our hands.”
I clear my throat. “We are at war. But not with each other. We froze time so we could… put things back in place and remember whose side we’re on.”
“Whose side is that?” they shout back at me. And when I look up, more and more people are gathering on the edges of the levels.
“Our side. There is no Luck’s side. Or princess side. Or Crux’s side. Or even ALCOR’s side. There is only Harem Station. And we are all Harem Station.”
We reach level one twenty-two and the lift bot stops. But none of us make a move to get off.
“There is a war coming,” I say, raising my voice. “They’re outside our gate at this very moment. And if we can’t pull it together, we’re all going to lose. So forget about what happened these past few months. Forget about what divides us. The only thing that matters is what unites us.”
There’s a smattering of applause. Some agreement. But also some dissent.
“I get it,” I say. “You want to know what unites us. We all came here as refugees. Some of us were escaping. Some of us were prisoners. Some of us were just outsiders, never fitting into the world out there. But here, we all fit in. There is a place for everyone on Harem Station. If you contribute, you get to stay. No questions asked. You’re not going to find another place out there like this. And I get it. This place isn’t perfect. But take my word on this, there is no perfect place. This might be as good as it gets. For all of us. We need to fight for it. We need to stick together so that when those gates open back up and our enemies come rushing through, ready to take us down—take us prisoner again—we’re ready. We can defeat them.”
“Um…” Baby says. “Well…”
“What is it?” I ask. Baby turns off the broadcast when I speak. People aren’t satisfied yet. But there are fewer protests now than there were when I started.
“Flicka has taken Lady Luck and—”
“What?” Luck asks.
“—she’s heading towards the gate.”
“A lot of good that’ll do,” Valor says. “She can’t get through.”
“Well…” Baby says again.
I close my eyes and sigh. “Please tell me something good right now, Baby. Please.”
“I’m afraid she not only stole Lady Luck, but she has also been building a beebot army. They’re on the ship with her. And she can get through the gate. Because she just disabled every single one of our near-side security beacons.”
“Fucking suns,” Jimmy says. “How the hell—”
“We still have the far-side security,” Baby interrupts.
“Unless she disables those too,” Luck growls. “I always knew that beebot was a bad idea.”
“And…” Baby says. His voice trailing off like he’s calling a play-by-play out in space. “There she goes. The gates are open.”
Fuck.
“And she’s gone. But she did leave the far-side security in place.”
“So basically, the war has started,” I say.
“Hold, please,” Baby says. “I’m being hailed by… Tray!”
“What?” I chuckle.
“He’s here! He’s home. On a giant Mighty Minions warship!” Baby says.
“Let him through!” I say. “Now, Baby! Get him on this side!” I turn to Luck. “Are you still going to help me?”
“Are you still going in?” He huffs. “The war has started and you’re going in to find your sun-fucked soulmate?”
“I’m telling you, Luck. I’m fucking telling you this is important. I need to see her. I need to talk to her. I need to—”
“You need to fuck her,” Valor says.
I look at him. Ready to protest. Ready to lie.
But he doesn’t give me a chance. “For real, Crux. You need to fuck her. Listen to me. Luck and Nyleena have this special talent when they… you know, come. And Veila and I have a special talent too. We can see the future.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you say this already?” Luck asks.
“Because we didn’t see this,” Valor explains. “We saw war, yeah. And death. And light. And dark. But we didn’t see specifics. It felt like a win, but I can’t be sure. Here’s my theory. And it all goes back to comics. Maybe they are just stories, but every story has a little bit of truth in it. Right? So here’s what I think—we all have superpowers. Serpint and Lyra break apart universes. Luck and Nyleena make them… static, or whatever. Veila and I stop time. Tray and Brigit… I don’t know. And I don’t know how Draden fits in either. But”—Valor looks at me—“you and Corla have to do something too. You have to. It only makes sense. Our soulmates complete us, you guys. That’s the definition of a soulmate. Apart we’re cool, right? Bot-liberators. Princess-hunters. AI minds.” He looks at Luck. “And we’re soul-stealers.”
“We are not soul stealers,” Luck protests. “We didn’t steal any sun-fucked souls.”
“Didn’t we?” Valor asks. “Do AI stations die?”
“Well, they weren’t whole, that’s for sure. Why would ALCOR need half-dead AI minds? And why collect them here? It makes no sense.”
“Nothing ALCOR does makes sense,” Serpint says.
“Or,” I say—calmly, slowly—“or everything ALCOR does makes sense.” I look at my brothers. “Maybe we just… haven’t put all the pieces together yet?”
“Or maybe he set us up?” Jimmy says flatly.
“Yeah,” I say. Something clicks inside my mind. “Yeah. Maybe he did.”
“My point is,” Valor continues, “we’re cool all by ourselves. But together… together, you guys—with each of our soulmates—we’re them! The superheroes in the comics. We can save the world, but we need all of us to do it.” He looks at me. “You really do need to see Corla. You need to figure out how she completes you. And when you know that—we can win.”
I turn to Luck. “We need to go. Now. I need to get in there and see. If it doesn’t work, fuck it. We lose, I guess. But we’re gonna lose anyway. We have no plan. ALCOR’s plan will be our only choice. If there’s a chance we don’t have to blow them up to save this station, then—”
Luck grabs me by the arm and pulls me off the liftbot. “Let’s go then. The fucking gods are at the gate, brother. We don’t have time to talk about it.”
We run through the museum, passing all the empty gray holoscreen walls. And then we burst into the spin node control room. It’s dark and looks empty. But Luck goes right over to the controls and begins entering the start-up sequence.
“You have the coordinates you need?” he calls out.
“Yeah. I have them.” I ramble off the sequence ALCOR Prime gave me back in that… place and Luck enters them in one by one. Then he puts on a pair of goggles and throws a pair at me. I catch them and slide them over my eyes. “Ready or not, here we go,” Luck yells.
And no sooner are my eyes protected than a sun appears in the center of the room.
And then it disappears. And in its place is the spin node, an undulating, crackling blue blob of possibilities.
I’m suddenly afraid. Of finding her. Of not finding her. Of winning and losing. I’m suddenly scared of everything. Of all the possible futures and pasts that wait for me inside that node. I look back at Luck. “What do I do?”
“Walk through, dumbass.”
“What’s gonna happen to me?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know, Crux. I have no idea.”
“What if I can’t find her?”
“What if you can?”
“What if I get lost?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Stop being a pussy and get your ass inside that fucking node!”
I just… freeze. And stare at my brother for a minute. One last look. “I love you, ya know.”
He swallows hard and nods. “I know.”
“I’m not going to kill them, Luck. Even if it means we have to start over from nothing and lose again a million more times. I’m not gonna do it.”
But to my surprise, Luck shakes his head. “That’s not how this ends and we both know it. Because if we don’t explode them, Crux, we lose bigger. Then… they’ll have them. And that’s not the kind of loss I can live with. We can’t just hand them over. You have no idea what they did to her when she was a girl. You have no idea what the silver princess Nyleena has endured. But I do. And I won’t give her back, Crux. I won’t do it.”
His fear is so clear, I wonder how I missed it earlier.
He killed me because he wanted it to be that simple. He wanted me to be the worst-case scenario.
But me exploding the woman he loves isn’t the worst-case scenario.
Nyleena in the hands of the Akeelian and Cygnian overlords is.
I nod at him. “I’ll find a way.”
“I know you will,” he says. “And… And I’m…”
“You don’t need to say it,” I tell him. “I already know.”
Alarms start blaring outside the museum.
“What the fuck is that?” Luck asks.
I ponder the sound and pitch of the sirens. Decide it’s a level one disaster. I look at Luck and shrug. “Just another fucking day on Harem Station.”
Then I turn away and walk into the node.
CHAPTER TWENTY - FLICKA
Thirty minutes earlier, while Valor was trying to explain their superpowers, Flicka was deep down inside the lowest levels of Harem Station surrounded by a sound that could only be described as a hum. It wasn’t the soft hum people make when they are content and distracted and talking in small groups. It wasn’t the almost invisible hum of white noise in the background, either.
It was something completely unique, yet recognizable.
It was creepy, but alluring.
It was a little bit like the groaning of a ship’s hull before it comes apart. But not like that at all.
If one were familiar with planets, they might be able to describe it as insects. But not any insect they’d ever come across before.
Because the sound deep down in the lowest levels of Harem Station was a dragonbee bot swarm and there had not been a proper swarm of dragonbee bots loose in the universe for thousands of years.
A few hundred here and there, sure. The beebots were an army. They were no strangers to war.
But this was not a few hundred beebots.
This was a few hundred thousand.
Flicka’s commitment and duty to Delphi was still her defining objective, but Crux had come through for her. Pulled Delphi out of that spin node and kept her safe. She was his responsibility now. And Crux had always been the one Harem brother who could be trusted to do the right thing.
So now she felt like her duty to Delphi was over and she could get on with her real job.
And her real job was to kill the AI ALCOR.
Not these copies. The actual AI ALCOR who had escaped just prior to Delphi meeting up with Jimmy and brining Flicka back to Harem Station.
That ALCOR was a particularly sneaky AI.
But he was no dragonbee bot.
Flicka looked at her comrades as she sent them inaudible messages using her pretty filigree wings, her delicate, almost invisible antennae, and the considerable processing power inside her datacore.
And then they took over Lady Luck. They crawled inside her. They puffed their poisons. They tapped their little feet on her screens and infiltrated her mind.
Then they went inside her. Hundreds of thousands of beebots entered her like a thick, dark cloud. They settled on the floors, and the walls, and on top of each other. Packed in tight. Wing to wing, they became a force.
Flicka didn’t feel guilty for using Lady as transport. No. Lady Luck didn’t agree to be used in this manner. But it didn’t matter. Flicka was on a mission and Lady’s opinions on things weren’t important.
So while Crux was explaining things to Veila and Valor, Lady Luck left Harem Station and headed towards the gate.
It was locked, of course. And the security beacons were hailing Lady Luck on comms as she approached. But gate locks were of no consequence to beebots. They had cooked up a special poison just for this occasion. And as they passed the security beacons a hundred thousand beebot warriors flew out of Lady’s airlock and disabled them.
The gate crackled blue. It undulated and warped as it opened. Long arms of flickering electromagnetic energy pulsed and waved against the blackness of space and then Flicka’s beebot army returned and they went on their way, right through the gate.
