Meiko broke the silence. “That’s not something we need to worry about right now. Although I will say - both of you are very attractive. If a romance develops between Noah and any of the crew members, that’s definitely something we’d look at on a case-by-case basis. I’m not a jealous person at all - it’s not going to bother me.”

  “Gee, hun, you sound so professional when you talk about me screwing other girls,” I said, a mad little laugh escaping my throat. Were they really talking about this right in front of me, like I wasn’t even there?

  “I have no qualms,” Bathory chimed in. “As long as he keeps up with my mating schedule.” She punctuated the statement with a sharp slap on my ass. “It’s a very aggressive schedule.”

  Enough, I thought. “You’re doing that thing again,” I said, giving Meiko an accusatory glance.

  “What thing?”

  “The thing where you make decisions about my sex life without my input,” I growled, taking charge of the situation. “I’m really getting sick of it. It’s a bad look on all of you!”

  There were shocked looks all around the cabin. Even Bathory looked a little taken aback.

  “Like I’ve said, I’m not some piece of meat all of you can divide up between yourselves,” I said, turning to the display. “If I’m interested in having sex with someone, I’ll tell them. Until then, let’s focus on the thing we actually need to be divvying up: this energy budget.”

  Nova whistled through her teeth. “Geez, he’s touchy,” she muttered.

  “No,” Bathory said, a strange alien pride in her tone. “He’s a King. He does not allow small cats to boss him around, pierced one.”

  Nova made an offended face and held her hands over the bulges in her top. “Stop staring,” she purred, arching an eyebrow. “I already told you, I’m not interested in you! I’m engaged to-”

  “The King of the Universe,” I said, shaking my head. I missed my old crew deeply. Ruby had always kept discussions like this from getting out of hand. Even Shay’s psycho bullshit was easier to deal with than this constant squabbling. “You keep saying it.”

  Nova’s face lit up. “Hey, that’s what we should do! Daphne, tell him!” She batted the redhead’s side with a paw. “We should call my fiance! He’ll get us out of here!”

  I pulled a face. “I don’t think calling some fictional King is going to help us,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  To my surprise, Daphne was the one who looked offended. “He’s not fictional,” she said, her face neutral. “He’s Vinnie Mayhem.”

  “Am I supposed to know who that is?” I asked. Yet, even as I asked it, I couldn’t help but notice the stunned look on Meiko’s face.

  “You,” she whispered, pointing at Nova, “are Vincent Mayhem’s girlfriend?”

  “Fiancee!” Nova corrected. “We’re tying the knot as soon as I get out of this place!”

  Meiko turned to me, her expression amused. Or at least as much amusement as she ever let touch her cool, beautiful features when the two of us weren’t alone.

  “Noah, I hate to say this,” she said, leaning in towards me, “but if she’s telling the truth she might actually be right.”

  “What!? Meiko, you can’t seriously be entertaining her delusions.”

  Nova rose to her full height - which honestly still wasn’t much. She approached me with her chest puffed out, the hand over her piercings forgotten in her anger. It made it even harder not to stare.

  “You haven’t heard of Vinnie Mayhem?” Nova demanded, a clawed finger poking my chest.

  “He’s not up to date,” Meiko said, her features going stony as she elbowed Nova. “Too much time in this prison, you know?”

  I knew. Meiko was trying to explain to Nova that I didn’t know shit about the rest of the universe because my consciousness had been uploaded into a Core a long, long time ago. But she couldn’t say that, because Bathory was standing just a few feet away from us. Even though the succubus queen didn’t look like she was paying attention, one wrong word and she’d have completely snapped.

  Once Nova calmed down, Meiko turned to me. “Vincent Mayhem is one of the most prolific criminals in the galaxy,” she explained, sounding almost impressed. “Piracy, thievery, drug smuggling...everything you can think of, he’s done it. He’s worked with every syndicate in the galactic belt.”

  “He’s a celebrity,” Nova said with pride.

  “In as much as a career criminal can be a celebrity,” Meiko said. “Yes.”

  I nodded, thinking it over. “So you’re the Bonnie to his Clyde,” I said.

  Nova frowned. “Who?”

  “Never mind. Not important. You really think this guy would help us, Meiko? If he found out his fiance was stuck in the Oubliette?”

  Meiko nodded sagely. “A prison break is exactly the kind of thing he’d go for,” she said, running a thumb along the curve of her chin. “He’d probably attack the station directly. That would definitely be a way to put the heat on Shay.”

  It sounded like it. But I still wasn’t sure. Something inside of me rebelled at the idea of having some other asshole swoop in and save the day. Wasn’t that what I was here for? And what if he decided to muscle in on my women? I knew from the bottom of my heart that Meiko and Ruby weren’t going anywhere, but what about these new girls? What about the new prisoners who were almost certainly going to be arriving any day?

  “I don’t like it,” I said, shaking my head. “But I figure we can’t turn down help - no matter where it comes from. Chirrup?”

  “Yes, Warden?” The AI-daemon chimed in as if she’d been listening intently to our conversation - which, of course, she had. “How can I help?”

  “Say I wanted to spend some energy credits on a long-range communication device,” I said, phrasing the idea as a kind of thought experiment. “How would that happen, and how much would it cost?”

  Chirrup hummed in thought. “My scans indicate the Gamma Spire does have an inactive ansible array,” she said brightly after a few seconds. “It’s been out of service for several decades, as the one in Shay’s quarters is functioning perfectly well.” More humming as Chirrup did the computer equivalent of thinking. “I could dispatch automated drones to repair ours, Warden. We would have the ability to contact the rest of the galaxy within eighteen hours.”

  “Honestly, it sounds like something we should do anyway,” I said, looking around the room. “Without the ability to speak to other stations and planets, we’re effectively voiceless. Shay will be able to shape whatever narrative she wants about what’s going on at the Oubliette. I don’t like the idea of her going unchallenged one bit. What do you all think?”

  Meiko nodded. “As long as it’s not too expensive,” she said with a faint smile. “I don’t want to get our phone lines working only to have Shay cut them. We need to harden the station defenses as well.”

  “Noted,” I said, pleased with the progress we were making. “How much is that going to cost, Chirrup?”

  This time there was only a moment of the humming before she came up with an answer. “Based on my scans, the repairs will cost approximately seven hundred and fifty credits, Warden!”

  That gave me pause. “Yikes,” I said. “That’s almost half our budget!”

  “37.5% of our budget, Warden!” Chirrup chimed in.

  “Okay, let’s think about it,” I said, holding up a hand to stop Nova from whining. “We’ll table it and come back to it at the end. Right now, I don’t even know what we can get for the remaining twelve-fifty. Let’s do a deep dive into this…”

  A deep dive was exactly what we did. I lost track of time as we analyzed figures and graphs, trying to get a handle on exactly how much it would cost to give Gamma the kind of makeover Shay was laying on the rest of the Oubliette. As it turned out, the answer was way more than we were able to spend.

  “I know I sound like a broken record,” Meiko said smoothly. Bathory had returned to her hive a while ago, bored with the proceedings, and the four of us were clustered around a terminal, fighting over exactly what we should spend our initial two thousand credits on. “But we need to be spending more on defense.”

  I stared bleary-eyed at the screen. The lines of text blurred in front of me - I’d been focused on them for too long, they were starting to lose sense. “You think so?”

  “Shay could attack us at any time,” Meiko said seriously. “She’s already proven she doesn’t care about our lives. I wouldn’t put it past her to turn everything she’s got on us as soon as she realizes you’re not coming back.”

  A thought coalesced in the back of my mind. “So she can’t think that,” I blurted.

  Around the terminal, three faces turned to me in unison.

  “Excuse me?” Meiko asked.

  “It’s going to be like walking a tightrope,” I said, growing more and more sure of myself as I spoke. “But you’re right. Our best defense against Shay isn’t to harden our walls or buy more guns - we can’t keep up with her, anyway. She can overpower us easily, even if we spent every last credit on shields and lasers.”

  Meiko blanched. It was clear her train of thought hadn’t gotten that far out of the station yet. “Well, yes,” she said. “But Noah…”

  “I have to string her along,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “If she thinks there’s a chance, just the smallest chance she can turn me to the Dark Side, she won’t blow this place up. She wants me too much to throw the opportunity away.”

  Meiko wrinkled her nose. “The Dark Side?”

  I groaned and stared up at the ceiling. “I’m putting in a requisition with Chirrup tomorrow to find a copy of Star Wars and a projector,” I said, crossing my arms. “I am so tired of nobody around here understanding the most basic references!”

  Meiko wasn’t listening. She had her hands folded in her lap, seemingly deep in thought. She closed her eyes for a few heartbeats, then smiled.

  “You’re right,” she said. “Fuck, Noah, when you’re right, you’re right.”

  “Of course I am,” I said, grinning.

  “Playing the game with Shay will keep her off our backs,” she admitted. “For now. But don’t trust her, Noah. No matter what she says to you - what she promises - she’s lying. We both know she’s a monster.”

  I gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Absolutely,” I said, meaning it. “Trust me. I know she is. We both know Ruby’s still trapped over there.”

  A tear worked its way slowly down Meiko’s cheek. “I miss her so much,” the obake said, her voice nearly cracking.

  “Me too,” I said. “She’s the best. We’re getting her back, Meiko.”

  Meiko’s shoulders shook silently, but she nodded along with me. Then something unexpected happened - another hand came down on Meiko’s other shoulder.

  Daphne’s.

  “I know what it’s like to be separated from someone you care about,” the redhead said, squeezing Meiko’s shoulder a little harder than I had. “You are strong, obake. You care about your family. When the time comes, I will help you rescue this ‘Ruby’.”

  Meiko looked up, surprised. “That means a lot to me, Daphne,” she said. “Thank you.”

  “Think nothing of it.” The warrior’s hand retreated. “So, tiny Warden. If we do not spend these credits on guns, where shall they go?”

  I pushed a square on the touchscreen. It flickered through a series of menus and came to a checklist, laid out in a series of squares. “This is my plan,” I explained to the group. “We need to focus on fixing Gamma before we look outside of it. Repair the locking systems, the cameras, the incidentals and the security features.”

  “It almost seems like a waste,” Nova said, nervously tapping the tip of her tongue against her teeth.

  “It’s not. This place is about to become a prison: a real one. We got lucky with you two - you’re both willing to help out. What happens when a prisoner transport shows up tomorrow with a dozen inmates, who outnumber us three-to-one? I can’t convince everyone to help us out. We may need to be able to keep most of those people behind bars - and stop them from trying to break out.”

  Nova’s jaw dropped. “I hadn’t thought about that,” she said, looking at me with new eyes. “You’ve gotta save your lady, defeat your evil ex and keep this place from turning into a riot. Shit, I don’t envy you, dude!”

  “Me either,” I said, “but it’s what I signed up for. That’s why I’m going to authorize the seven hundred and fifty energy credits to get the ansible repaired.”

  Nova’s face lit up. “Holy shit, yes! You give me five minutes with my fiance and I’ll have a whole army backing us up, Noah! You wait and fucking see!”

  I shook my head, smiling. “That would be awesome,” I said. “But that’s not why I’m doing it.”

  Meiko leaned in closer. “Why are you doing it?”

  I cleared my throat. “I want to make this prison better than Shay’s,” I admitted. It felt weird to be opening myself up this much to two crew members we’d only just met - if it were just me and Meiko, I wouldn’t have felt so awkward. “Even though we’ve got less of everything - less money, less facilities, less security - I think we can do it. And when we beat Shay, I don’t want to be quiet about it. The whole galaxy is going to know we shamed her in an open competition.”

  Meiko pondered my words, her hands still in her lap. “Very noble,” she finally pronounced. “There’s just one problem. Shay is completely without shame.”

  I’d thought of that. “That’s why I’ve got to keep up the Scheherazade act, too,” I said, wiping my forehead. “Keep stringing her along, telling her stories like I’m living in the goddamn Arabian Nights. Maybe if I can buy us enough time to shine...I don’t know. It feels like something will have to break. The rest of the galaxy can’t just let Shay run the Oubliette like a gulag when there’s a perfectly good alternative, can they?”

  “Oh sweetheart,” Nova purred, licking her lips. “You really have no idea how the galaxy works, do you?”

  Chapter Six: A Test of Strength

  After our first crew meeting adjourned, all I wanted was to take a shower and climb into my bunk with Meiko for a few hours. But when I stepped outside of the command center, Daphne was waiting for me.

  “Tiny Warden,” she said, a friendly look on her face. “You did a very good job back there!”

  Before I could say a single word, she clapped me on the back. Normally that wouldn’t have been an issue, but whatever species Daphne belonged to slapped people’s backs with roughly the same amount of force as the Kool-Aid man bursting through a wall. Once I was sure I wasn’t going to fall over, I looked up into her eyes.

  “Thanks,” I said, trying to ignore the stinging between my shoulder blades. “I appreciate what you said about Meiko back there, by the way. She’s a great girl.”

  Daphne had a way of smiling that made it seem like you and her were both in on some hilarious inside joke. I liked that about her. As that smile spread across her face, there was a look in her eyes that made me wonder if it was maybe me who wasn’t in on the joke.

  “I heard the pale one call you a King,” she said, good-natured sarcasm in her tone. “And she calls herself a Queen?”

  “They’re ceremonial titles, trust me,” I said quickly. Wait - what kind of government did Daphne’s people have, exactly? Had I accidentally offended her? “I’m in charge around here, but other than that, you don’t really have to worry about what other people claim to be.”

  She shook her head, still smiling. “I was just thinking - if this prison is your court, then Meiko is your Knight.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “She is?”

  “She is the only one here I would be afraid to face in single combat,” Daphne explained. “Your pale friend included. I don’t think that one is nearly as dangerous as she claims, despite her appearance.”

  I had personal eye-witness evidence that Bathory was actually more dangerous than she appeared, but there was no sense in fighting. Besides, I could tell she was just making chit-chat. She hadn’t hung around after the meeting just to gossip about Bathory - she had something more serious on her mind.

  “Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “So what’s up, Daphne?”

  She stared down at me, weighing her words. It was strange to be looking up into a woman’s face for once. Daphne was certainly one of the most physically impressive specimens I’d had the pleasure of meeting since waking up in the future - though she was still incredibly beautiful. Even more so for looking like she could snap me in half without breaking a sweat.

  “You and Meiko are an item,” she said, holding up a hand to keep me from cutting her off. “I take it this Bathory will stay by your side as long as she believes you can give her heirs. And I believe Nova will only remain a member of this ‘crew’ until her fiance arrives. That leaves me to decide my future.”

 

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