Lady Luck

by K. C. Cross

  “Got anything to drink?” Nyleena asks. “I could use some tushberry wine.”

  “Sure,” I say, walking over to the autocook to order her some sparkling wine. “So what did he say about that? Did he complain?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “Did you complain?”

  “Absolutely not,” she says.

  The autocook dings and I hand her a flute of sparkling tushberry wine.

  “Thanks,” she says, then greedily gulps it down and sets the glass aside. “So,” she says, and her eyes brighten a little. Sparkle with crackles of light from the infusion of nutrients that recharge her luminous flux. “I’ve been thinking about things.”

  “Our little secret?” I ask.

  “No.” She glances up at the ceiling. And I know what that means. I’ve done it myself enough times over the past twenty years. She’s wondering if the Baby ALCOR is listening in on our conversation.

  He is. I’m sure of it. She just came from his office. Something happened in there. And whatever it was, it’s got his attention now.

  She’s got his attention now.

  She’s got mine too.

  But not in a good way.

  Still, I like Nyleena. She’s my soulmate. And even though that bond was formed without my consent or desire, it is what it is and I’m ready to make the most of it.

  In fact, I more than like her. I like her a lot.

  But she’s always up to something. And she still doesn’t trust me. I showed her my biggest secret.

  Well, maybe second biggest.

  But she has given me nothing in return. Yet.

  I take her hand and lead her over to the couch and we sit. “I want to talk to you about something,” I say.

  “You do?” she asks, swinging her leg over mine so she can settle in my lap. Her hands slide against the top of my shoulders and then her fingertips lightly caress the back of my neck.

  And normally I would not mind this gesture of dominance and hint of impending sex. But I want to talk. “Yeah,” I say, reaching for the hem of her shirt.

  Immediately her hands clamp down on my wrists and we lock eyes.

  “Take off your shirt, Nyleena.”

  “No,” she says.

  “Take off your shirt,” I say again, lifting up on the hem.

  “No,” she insists, pushing my hands away. “It’s none of your business.”

  “I’m not trying to pry. I just want to… look at it.”

  “Why would you want to look at it? It’s ugly. It’s the ugliest thing ever. You don’t want to look at it, you want me to talk about it. And I don’t want to talk about it.”

  I sigh. “I’m not trying to upset you.”

  “I’m not upset. I’m just… firm on this. If you want to talk, let’s talk about you.”

  “What about me?”

  “I dunno,” she says, relaxing a little. Her hands go back to my shoulders. Slide around my neck. Fingertip caressing resumes. “How about… Draden?”

  “Draden?” I ask. “Random. Why Draden?”

  “I don’t know. I guess because he’s the one I’ll never be able to meet. And Little Draden isn’t quite the same.”

  “Well,” I huff. “Maybe not. Maybe he’s not dead. Maybe what Veila told—”

  “We don’t need to talk about that,” Nyleena says, cutting me off. “Tell me something about him from your childhood.”

  “Childhood,” I repeat. “What do you want to know?”

  “Hmmm,” she says. But it’s all an act. I’m suddenly sure this whole thing is an act. This is Nyleena being… Nyleena. She’s using me for something.

  No, not just any something.

  “What was he like as a boy? What kind of relationship did he have with Real ALCOR?”

  “What are you doing?” I ask.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean. Asking me questions about Draden. Coming out of Baby ALCOR’s office. This is all part of your scheme, isn’t it?”

  She looks at me. Bites her lip. Breathes deep. “Not exactly,” she says in a flat, even tone.

  “Not exactly?” I say, raising my eyebrows at her. “Then exactly what is this? Because to me, this looks very much like you’re trying to finish this deal with Crux. And to be clear, I don’t care if you get a ship. I don’t even care if you leave. I told you, we’re partners so I’ll go with you. But what the fuck are you doing right now?”

  “I… I don’t understand,” she says.

  “Yeah, you do,” I say. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. What do you need to know, Nyleena? Huh? Tell me what information you need about Draden. What do you want me to tell you so you can go running back to Baby ALCOR, or Crux, or who the fuck ever it is that needs this info?” I look at her. Lock eyes with her. “Just… do not lie to me, Nyleena. I don’t care about your wild side. I don’t care about your schemes. I don’t even mind your psycho revenge plan. But do not lie to me. Be fucking straight. Now what the fuck are you up to?”

  And I have a moment of hope here. I really think she’s gonna give in and tell me.

  But she doesn’t. Because she says, “I’m not running a scheme. I’m just curious, that’s all.”

  “Just curious,” I repeat. I push her off me and stand up.

  “Where are you going?” she asks, scrambling to her feet.

  “I’m leaving.”

  “Why? These are your quarters.”

  “Because I just asked for the truth and you handed me a lie.”

  “I’m not lying!”

  I turn and point my finger in her face. “That’s another lie.” I pause for a moment. Collecting my thoughts so I don’t fuck up what I’m feeling by saying the wrong words. “I don’t need you, Nyleena. I’ve lived my whole life without a soulmate. It might be hard now that I know you exist, but I could do it again. I don’t need you. I wanted you. At least I thought I did. For about an hour. But not only do you not trust me with the truth about that tragic scar running down the middle of your chest, you leave me out of things. And before this moment, that was just fine. Because I left you out of things too. But I showed you a really big secret earlier today and you took it. And kept it. And gave nothing back in return.”

  “Luck,” she says.

  “No. Just… no. I’m not done yet. You want to take a little more from me? You need more information about Draden? Or Veila? Or Jimmy? Or Delphi? Who do you want to know about next? Because I got shit on all of them.”

  “Luck, listen—”

  “No. You listen. Draden fell. Crux has always said that he was the one who saw him the best because he was on level twenty-six when it happened. But that wasn’t true. I was the one who saw him hit that lift bot and crush his spine. Me. I was on level nine. And ALCOR was standing right next to me when it happened.”

  “What?” she says.

  “You heard me. ALCOR was standing right next to me. And you know why he and I were together on level nine when Draden died?”

  She starts shaking her head.

  “Sorry, princess. But…”

  “Luck, STOP TALKING!” She says it so loud I actually do stop talking. “I don’t want to know anymore.”

  “Because you got enough?”

  “Luck, can you just please—”

  “Choose, Nyleena. I don’t mind if you play games with all of them. But you don’t get to play games with me.”

  “Luck, listen—” But she doesn’t even continue. She just stops, her mouth opening and closing like she’s trying to spit out words but can’t quite make it happen.

  “Forget it,” I say. “Just fucking forget it.”

  And then I turn away and walk out.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - NYLEENA

  What the hell?

  I stare at the place where he just was in confusion.

  “Well, that went well,” Baby ALCOR says.

  Dick. “You got what you wanted,” I say, forcing myself to be sweet. “Right?”

  “I need mo
re, Nyleena. That’s not enough.”

  I want to swallow, take a deep breath, and collect my thoughts. But I can’t afford to. Because shit just got real. I had no clue what Luck was gonna tell me next, but I don’t want this Baby to know about it.

  I rally. Quickly. And say, “I’ll get you whatever you need. I have something to bargain with now. He wants personal information from me. If I give him my secrets, he gives me his. We seem to have made some kind of unspoken deal.”

  “That’s fine. I can wait.”

  “But I need the location of those flowers.”

  “You get me what I need first.”

  “No deal,” I say firmly. “I’m in the middle of something, ALCOR. And I don’t have time to fuck around. So either you trust me to get more or I move on to my next best option.”

  “Which is who? Luck?” He laughs. “He’s not even speaking to you.”

  “No,” I say. And I didn’t want to use this threat so early on in this scheme, but it seems I have no choice. “Booty.”

  I count his silence in seconds. Two.

  “I’ll have to look in the data core for the locations.”

  “Good,” I say. “Do that. I’ll wait.”

  I wonder what he’s going to do now? He doesn’t have that information. I know he doesn’t have it.

  “I can get you something better than those flowers,” Baby says.

  “I need the flowers,” I insist.

  “I know why you need them. I know what they’re for. And I have that chemical in a different form.”

  “Like… a pill?” I ask.

  “A chemical formula.”

  “And it works?”

  “Trust me. It works.”

  “Well…” I huff out a laugh. “Excuse me if I don’t take your word on that. Because as we all know… Lyra isn’t pregnant.”

  I almost hold my breath. It takes a lot of effort not to hold my breath.

  “Now it’s time for you to trust me,” he says. “I know what I’m doing.”

  I play the last card Booty gave me. And part of me hopes he’ll deny it. A big part of me, I think. “There’s someone else, isn’t there? Some other princess who’s pregnant?”

  “Right now you’ve earned the formula and that’s it. Get me more information and I’ll tell you what I know.”

  But that’s not a denial. It is, however, exactly what I needed.

  “OK,” I say, forcing myself to sound resigned. “Deal. Where do I get this formula?”

  “It’s waiting in the autoshopper in your quarters right now.”

  I smile. It’s a real smile too. “Thank you, ALCOR.”

  “Nice doing business with you, princess. I hope this is the start of a very… fruitful relationship.”

  The chill runs up my spine before I can stop it. But I do not shudder. I just walk out. Head straight for my quarters, grab the little piece of paper with a chemical formula written on it, and take it back to Booty.

  I know he’s watching me. I can feel the Baby’s invisible eyes following me every step of the way. Burning into the back of my head as I put on the envirosuit, go out into the docking bay, and then board Booty Hunter, cycle through the airlock, and place the formula on the table.

  “This is what he gave me.”

  “I knew it,” Booty says.

  “What’s it mean?” I ask.

  “Nothing good, Nyleena.”

  “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

  “No. But I have the information you asked for. Are you ready?”

  “I’m ready,” I say.

  And she tells me more than I ever imagined.

  She spills secrets that stun me speechless.

  I listen. Silent the entire time.

  And then I get up, retrace my steps, and go back inside the station.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - LUCK

  She finds me. It takes her a couple hours. I just wandered around for a while. Grabbed something to eat, avoided everyone, and then finally walked to our regularly scheduled tryst location and started dozing off in the grass.

  “Thank the fucking sun,” she says upon arrival. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been looking for you?”

  I don’t even bother opening my eyes. I’m mad. Super fucking mad.

  She’s up to something and it feels big.

  “You know, it’s really not the lying. Because I sorta understand that.”

  “You do?” she asks, kneeling down next to me.

  “You want to scheme? Fine. Scheme. I don’t need to be a part of that, I guess. The part that bothers me is your lack of trust.”

  “The scar,” she says.

  I open my eyes and turn my head to look at her. “Yeah. If we’re gonna be partners, Nyleena, then I get to know shit like that.”

  She nods her head and takes a deep breath. “I don’t deserve your trust because you think I don’t trust you back, but that’s really not the issue here.”

  “Then what is the issue?”

  “The issue is… I’m in the middle of something.”

  “Obviously.”

  “And it’s really important that I play my part. And telling you about my past would… derail things, Luck. I will tell you, but not right now. I know I don’t deserve your trust, but I need it.”

  We stare at each other. Her eyes are dark. No light at all. But then she smiles and they sparkle. And I can’t tell if she did that on purpose, or if she’s reacting to me. “What do you need?”

  “Please, I’m begging you. Tell me what you know about Valor and Veila.”

  “Just like that, huh? Tell you what I know?”

  “Trust me,” she says, taking my hand. And the instant she does that I have a vision of the hidden galaxy on the other side of that spin node. “Please,” she begs. “I’m doing this for you.”

  “For me?” I say.

  She nods. “I swear. I am in the middle of a scheme but I can’t tell you yet. I don’t have all the information. I need that information, Luck. Or I would not ask.” Her eyes search mine. “I would not ask.”

  This is the part I believe.

  She would not ask.

  That’s one hundred percent true. Nyleena isn’t a girl who asks for anything. She goes and gets it herself. Because she doesn’t trust anyone to help her out.

  So this request… it is a sign of trust.

  “OK,” I say.

  “Really?”

  I nod. “But you’re not gonna like what I have to say. And I don’t know how it’ll be helpful because… it’s not good, Nyleena. Nothing I’m about to say is good.”

  “I don’t know either,” she says. “I can’t say for sure that it will be. I just know I need to get to the Asshole ALCOR. Soon. And the only way I can see to do that is to play along with this stupid scavenger hunt Crux sent me on.”

  “Do you think he’s involved in something bad?”

  “Hard to tell. Not enough info.”

  I don’t like that answer, but it’s all I get.

  So I sigh and say, “All right. So this is what happened to me on Lair Station…”

  Chach and I come out of the airlock firing. There are about a dozen borgs waiting for us, but she mows them down with her souped-up exoskeleton defense system and in just a few seconds there’s nothing but a pile of borg bodies.

  “Fuck yeah,” she says. And I’m just about to high-five her when we hear screaming from somewhere down the hallway.

  “What was that?” Chach asks.

  I know what it is. Instantly. But I have a hard time getting the words out. So I don’t say anything.

  We move forward to the edge of the hallway, her on one side, me on the other, and I peek out.

  “Nothing,” I say.

  “That screaming wasn’t nothing,” Cha-Cha says.

  We hear it again.

  “Shit,” Chach says. “It sounds like kids.”

  “It is kids,” I say, a sick, sick feeling in my stomach. Because it sounds like Draden. Or Serpint. Back
when they were small.

  “OK, so what do you want to do? Split up? Or go together?”

  I’m just about to say together, when we hear the voice of a woman in the other direction screaming orders.

  “I’m gonna assume that’s the boss here?” Cha-Cha says.

  “OK, you go after the kids. I’ll take care of this bitch. If you find Jimmy before me, head towards Dicker. I’ll meet you there.”

  “On it,” she says, taking off down the hallway to my left. I watch her a moment. The woman is still barking orders off to my right, but I want to make sure there’s no ambush waiting for Chach once she gets to the next hallway intersection.

  She stops, peeks around the corner, shoots me a thumbs up, then disappears.

  I’m just about to make a run in the other direction when I hear the tell-tale sound of borg boots heading my way.

  I slip back behind the wall, pressing myself up against it, plasma rifle at high ready, and wait.

  They run past, heading in Cha-Cha’s direction, and there’s only six of them, so I step out and fire.

  Two go down immediately. Two more are only knocked backwards, and one doesn’t get hit at all.

  He fires and I go careening backwards, my chest slammed with the force of the hit, and crash against the wall.

  But I’m heavily armored. So I don’t die.

  The armor is on fire, but no time to worry about that just yet. I aim, take his head off, then hit the others in the same way until they too are a heap of borg bodies in the middle of the hallway.

  I drop my rifle, snap the tabs on my chest armor, and shrug out of it. Then I tug my scorched and smoldering t-shirt over my head, drop it to the floor, and in the same motion pick my rifle back up, aiming at the hallway in the direction these assholes just came from.

  A barrage of firing and blasting echoes from the hallway where Cha-Cha just disappeared.

  But she is more equipped than I am now, so instead of following her and fucking up the plan, I turn away and jog down the hallway to my right.

  The woman who was barking order just a few seconds ago is quiet or gone.