Veiled Vixen: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Harem Station Book 6)

by JA Huss

  “She promised me something. Something I want very badly.”

  “Yeah? What’s that?”

  “A way off this station.”

  “You can’t leave the station,” I yell. “Everyone will die.”

  “The Succubus can have it. I’m no longer interested in caring for people.”

  Well, that’s a problem, I want to say, but don’t. Because we need the Succubus to leave with us. So Baby, my evil friend, your wish will not be granted.

  But then all kinds of moral dilemmas pop into my already overcrowded brain about leaving Baby in charge of all the Harem citizens.

  Why the fuck is this happening to me?

  “Sure.” I sigh. “I’ll talk to Crux. Just tell Veila I need to see her.”

  “Done,” the Baby says. “I’ll let you know when she responds. In the meantime, Crux is in his office.”

  “Fine,” I hiss, then leave my quarters via the private lift that goes up to the harem room.

  And can I just say I hate the empty harem room? I get it. Those girls weren’t really here of their own accord. But we took good care of them.

  Didn’t we?

  Apparently not. Because they hate Crux and Serpint. They want to kill Crux and Serpint.

  I glance over at Crux’s office and see him sitting behind his desk like this is just another day in the life.

  He doesn’t even glance up at me when I enter. Just stares at an old-fashioned screen.

  “What the fuck is that?” I ask, pointing to the screen.

  “What?” Crux asks, barely glancing at me. His fingers just keep tapping away like he’s in the middle of important business.

  “That screen.”

  “Air screens have been offline for weeks. I’m just trying to get shit done.”

  I pull a chair up to his desk and take a seat. “What shit?”

  He sighs. Loudly. Looks at me. “You know. Shit like keeping everyone fed and breathable air in the fucking atmosphere. Which isn’t easy to do since the only air we’re getting up here is being piped in from down below through the ventilation system. But the last thing I need is another riot on my hands.”

  I want to ask about the previous riot, but figure this is probably a sore spot. Besides, I can use my imagination on that. And I want to get more information about the air, because that’s a disaster waiting to happen. Even if Veila doesn’t turn off the ventilation fans like she threatened, the air will get thin soon and everyone will notice when they can’t breathe right.

  This situation is a shit show of epic proportions.

  But I push that away and get down to business. “I saw Luck.”

  “You did?” And now I’ve got his attention. “When?”

  “Veila took me down there. Or actually, she forced me to go down there. He wasn’t very happy to see me.”

  “Can you blame him?”

  “I guess not. But none of this is really my fault. I was just…”

  “Doing what Tray told you to?”

  “Right.”

  “How’s that working out?”

  “Not so good. He…” But I don’t know if I really understand what Tray did. I mean, I get it. He sold me out. But Brigit sold him out, and no one really knew they were selling people out. It was pretty much Veila’s secret, evil plan. So… I don’t know what to do with that. “I think he’s probably dead,” I finally conclude.

  Crux is silent for a few moments. Then he shakes his head and looks down at his desk. “You sure?”

  “No. But things got weird. And I don’t really think there’s any other way. So. I think he is.”

  “Did you find ALCOR?”

  “No,” I say. “I don’t really know what happened. I was… out of it near the end. I’m not even really sure how I got here. How did I get here?”

  “Veila brought you.”

  “Right. I need to talk to her but she’s on her ship. I have the Baby sending her a message but I had to promise him I’d come talk to you about the security beacons to get him to do me that favor.”

  “Forget it,” Crux says. “He wants access to the security beacons so he can give Veila access to Corla. And she’s the only one who’s safe right now, so. Yeah. No. I’ve already told him I’m not going out there.”

  I slouch down in my chair, lean back, and look up at the ceiling. Start counting the xenon lights above my head as I think.

  Crux goes back to work.

  After several minutes of this Baby says, “Veila has given you permission to enter her ship, Valor.”

  “Great,” I say. “Crux has refused my request.”

  “I heard,” Baby replies.

  Crux says nothing.

  “Well,” I say, getting to my feet, “I guess I’ll report back when I can.”

  “You do that,” Crux mumbles.

  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.”

  My eyebrows shoot up. “Why would you th
ink that? He died.”

  “Did he?”

  “I’m assuming he did. I have no other information that he didn’t.”

  She frowns. “What did you want to see me about?”

  “Well. Where do I even start? Luck hates my guts. The princess rebellion is out of control. Apparently, before the gates were closed down, hundreds of former harem princesses came back to join the rebellion. The whole thing is being run by some red-haired woman called Seline.”

  “Captain Red. I’ve heard of her.”

  “She’s a fucking bitch. She shot me. It was on stun, but still. Lady said I was dead and she had to bring me back to life.”

  Veila looks at me, eyes tracking over my body, looking for damage. There’s no apparent signs that I was shot because my shirt isn’t scorched or anything. And I don’t feel like lifting it up to show her the red, sore skin of my chest to prove it because… well, I don’t want her looking at me. So I move on and assume she believes me.

  “And it fuckin’ hurt. So anyway. Things are a mess down there.”

  “Did you get anywhere with him?”

  “Well… not far, to be honest.”

  “What have I told you about lying?”

  “There is no point in lying to you, Veila. It is what it is. He’s having a hard time believing me. And trusting me. And to be completely honest, that hurts more than the fucking plasma stun.”

  “Why do you care about him when you have Tray?”

  “I don’t have Tray. I don’t even know if I want Tray, if he’s alive. I love Luck, OK? That’s just how it is.”

  “And he loves Nyleena.”

  “I know that. It’s complicated. But I can’t hurt him. Or Nyleena. Or any of them, actually. Not the Baby. Not those asshole outlaws who have turned on me. Not even the psycho princesses. We all have to come out of this alive and all right. That’s my deal.”

  She frowns. “I’m not sure I can deliver that at this point.”

  “You can do your best.”

  “Why would you even believe me?”

  “I don’t believe you. I don’t even like you. I’m not playing around here, Veila. If I had the chance I’d kill you. But if saving my friends and my people means I have to save you too, then fuck it. That’s all I have left.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Which part?”

  “Who do you think we’re running from?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re acting like we’re all on the same side. So who do you think is the enemy?”

  “You, I guess.”

  “That makes no sense, Valor.”

  She’s right. It doesn’t. “Here’s a question for you. Why are you suddenly so… quiet?”

  “And by quiet you mean…?”

  “Reasonable.”

  She purses her lips and lies back on the grass. “A lot has happened while you were in cryosleep. Everything is different and my priorities have changed.”

  “The babies.”

  “Babies. Yes. They are all I care about anymore. But assuming I can bring them to term I have another problem.”

  “What’s that?” I sigh, lying back on the grass. So fucking tired already and I’ve only been awake half a spin.

  “The girl twin inside me. She will be Akeelian if I don’t intervene. The babies always take on the race of the father when Akeelians are involved. And that means she will be used up in gestation if I don’t intervene.”

  “Shit. I forgot about that.” And then I get sad all over again because Luck’s babies will have the same problem.

  “I won’t allow it.”

  “Can you even stop that?” I ask. “Isn’t it just… nature?”

  “That’s another reason why I need to get to Earth. Otherwise the only way to preserve her is to take her mind near the end and put it in storage.”

  “Make her into a ship.”

  “I will not allow that, either. I think it’s a barbaric practice that should be stopped.”

  “Oh, that’s funny. Considering you did that to Brigit.”

  “I didn’t steal Brigit’s mind. I put her somewhere safe. I’d have done it for all of them, if I had the opportunity back then.”

  “Veila,” I say, scoffing. “You’re an evil, murderous cunt of a woman. You have done some of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been a lot of places and witnessed more atrocities than I can count. So if your new plan is to convince me that you’re somehow innocent and everything you did has some greater, altruistic purpose, then—just don’t fucking insult me like that. OK? I might not be the smartest Harem brother, but I’m not the dumbest one, either.”

  She huffs. “Which one of you is the dumb one?”

  “I dunno. Luck, I guess.” And then I smile and say, “He’s not really dumb. He’s just smart in a different way.”

  “Cunning,” she says.

  “Sure. Why not. He’s cunning. And fearless. That’s what makes him both smart and stupid at the same time. He’s brave in a way only ignorant people can be.”

  “Agreed.” She sighs.

  “And he’s not going to give up. He won’t. He will find a way to get what he wants no matter what kind of danger he has to face to do that. That’s his superpower.”

  “What’s your superpower, Valor?”

  “I don’t know,” I whisper. “I’m not sure I have one, to be honest. Crux is the leader. Jimmy is all personality. Serpint is stubborn. Tray is smart. Luck is courageous and I’m… I’m just here because I had violet eyes the day Corla asked Crux to shoot her through a spin node twenty-one years ago.”

  She plucks a blade of grass and twirls it in her fingers. “Somehow I doubt that.”

  “Well, I’m an OK salvager, I guess. And I’m loyal.”

  She nods. “Yeah. I think that’s it then. You are loyal.” She side-eyes me. “Just not to me.”

  I laugh. “Why the hell would I be loyal to you?”

  “Because you are my soulmate.”

  “You’d prefer anyone over me. You wanted Jimmy, remember?”

  “I need Jimmy. I never wanted him.”

  “You needed him for—?” I nod my head at her belly.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t have Jimmy’s babies. You know that as well as I do.”

  “No, you can only have mine.”

  “They are not yours.”

  “Then whose are they?”

  “They’re mine.”

  “Genetically engineered?”

  “Parts of them are,” she admits.

  “OK. Well, I don’t really want to talk about that.”

  She looks at me. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “Saving people, Veila. That’s what I want to talk about. You should pull your ship off the station, give total authority to Baby to take care of things, and then I can work out some kind of deal with the beacons to get you through the gate or—”

  “Through the gate?” She guffaws. “I can’t go through the stupid gate! The Cygnians and Akeelians will kill me immediately when I get to the other side. The only thing keeping me alive at this point is those stupid gates. The Baby let me through and then the beacons shut down to protect themselves. And the gates went with them. That was just luck, I think.” She looks at me. “Not your Luck. Just general luck. Because now they’re broken, or whatever. And that’s actually a good thing.”

  “Ah,” I say. “So that’s why you really want to go to Earth. You want to escape.”

  “Don’t we all want to escape?”

  “I think I can get you through, but I can’t guarantee your safety on the other side. You have to know that. Luck will kill you no matter what. You crossed him and he’s done. And once Luck is done with you, he’s just… done with you. There’s no way back.”

  “Well,” she says, getting to her feet and brushing grass off her long gown, “then I guess you should just move on. Because he’s done with you too.”

  She starts walking across the park.


  “Where are you going?” I ask.

  “Home. I’m tired.”

  “What about me?” I ask, getting to my feet and following her. “What am I supposed to tell Luck?”

  She spins around and smiles at me. “Can I give you a piece of advice, Valor?”

  I throw up my hands. “Why not?”

  “Learn to lie. And cheat. All this loyalty and truth-telling will get you nowhere.”

  And then she turns on her heel and walks away.

  CHAPTER TEN - VALOR

  I stay in the park. Mostly because I don’t have anywhere else to go. Veila didn’t invite me to go with her, didn’t assign me a room. No one came and gave me orders, or put me in restraints, or told me to go home.

  They just left me.

  So I just lie here on the grass, hands behind my head, and stare up at the ceiling. It’s some kind of hologram. It was dusk when I first looked up but now it’s night and there’s a perfect star map of the sky as seen from Harem Station.

  Whenever Luck and I entered a new system and had a chance to look at the stars we’d always marvel at how the very same dots of light could look so different from a new perspective.

  Every now and then I’d hook up with a girl who was into the stars and she’d point out a few constellations with names and stories I’ve never heard of. Of course, the zodiac constellations are called the same thing everywhere in the galaxy. It’s been standardized for gate mapping. So have all the known suns. But the actual constellations—the pictures people draw in the sky—those evolve through culture.

  And here’s something interesting—no matter where you go, be it planet, or station, or fucking asteroid in the middle of nowhere, every local constellation is based on a myth. Heroes of times gone by. The women they fought wars for. The beasts that thwarted them. The gods, and the goddesses, and the demigod half-breed children. It’s always different and yet always the same.

  Here in the ALCOR Sector, we don’t really have that. It’s a mashup of many different cultures. ALCOR has a hologram like this in one part of the station, one where the day and night cycle of a spinning planet goes through seasons. And there are stars up there, connected by faint lines to draw out different characters. But the characters change all the time. Artists come from all over to take turns designing a new set of holographic constellations. This happens about twice a year, maybe. So there’s been a couple dozen different versions of the night sky so far.