Star Crossed (Harem Station #2)

by K. C. Cross

  “It’s OK,” she says, patting my chest. Her face is buried in my neck. And when I glance down, her eyes are closed. “You can’t help it. We can’t help it, Crux. They made us this way.”

  “What?”

  She makes an effort to sit up a little and open her eyes. They’re silver. Still glowing. She’s beautiful, I realize. Her hair—God, Jimmy was right. Because I pick a few strands of it up and in my hand, unable to hold in the urge to run my fingers through it. It’s soft, and sparkling with her white light.

  “They made me for you,” she whispers. “And they made you for me. That’s all.”

  “What do you mean?” I whisper back.

  She sighs, then pulls herself together and gets to her feet, holding out a hand to me.

  I take it and let her pull me up, thinking I probably should’ve been the one to help her up, but… fuck it. I don’t understand what’s happening to me.

  “I can’t believe they didn’t tell you anything.”

  “Tell me what?” I ask, tucking my cocks back into my pants and straightening my clothes.

  Her dress is perfect. Like this never happened. I realize there’s a hidden slit up the middle, covered by panels that flow over her hips. I realize her dress was made so I could fuck her in it.

  “About the breeding ceremony,” she says. Then she takes my hand and starts pulling me down the tunnel of stars. “Come on, they won’t follow us. They got what they wanted and now we have one night to make our plan.”

  “What plan?” I ask, allowing myself to be tugged along.

  She glances over her shoulder and smiles. “Our escape, of course.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Happy birthday, you little shit,” Jimmy says to Draden as he ruffles his hair.

  Draden is tall now. The years we’ve been here on ALCOR Station have been good to him. We have more food to eat than we ever did on Wayward. We have clean air, and a constant supply of water. Serpint, too, has grown big and strong. Over two meters tall, like the rest of us.

  But it feels good to know they had a real childhood. That none of my friends will ever have to go through what I did with Corla.

  I’m twenty now. Which means only a few more years before I’m considered a man. Akeelians age differently than other humanoid species, taking almost twenty-six years to reach full maturity. There’s this weird in-between stage—the age Draden and Serpint were when we got here—where you’re still a child in your mind even though your body is growing. It lasts until about age fifteen. Then you get muscles, and your second cock drops, and urges begin to take over.

  Except there’s no one here but us still, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to keep everyone happy. Jimmy is the only one sorta satisfied, and that’s because he and Xyla hit it off early. But they don’t… do that. They are just friends. It’s not enough for him. It’s not even enough for her. Or us.

  We all want to leave. We all want to find girls, and go drinking, and have fun.

  In other words, we all want to live. Not just exist.

  ALCOR has called a meeting today in the common room where we sleep and hang out. It’s like a pod, I guess. Everyone has their own private quarters around the perimeter of the circular room. There’s a kitchen, and some screens, and we have access to the net. Which satisfies our need for porn.

  And Tray has been working on the virtual-reality sector—which he calls the Pleasure Prison—so we have that. He’s made some cool places in there—a whole other galaxy, actually. Suns with systems and habitable planets. Ships that can travel faster than light. Cities and small towns on the planets. And no money required to do whatever you want. There’s also people. Millions of fake people.

  But still. It’s not the same. It’s not… real.

  Something’s gotta give.

  We can’t stay here like this. ALCOR Station might be our home, but it’s also a prison.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Xyla says, pulling me out of my introspection.

  “Just replace it all,” Jimmy says. “And get armor instead.”

  “What are you guys talking about?” I ask.

  “Xyla. She doesn’t want to look like a sex bot anymore.”

  “That’s not what I said. I don’t want to change me, just change the way people perceive me. So they don’t think I’m just here for sex.”

  “We don’t think you’re here for sex, Xyla.” I laugh a little. Because… no. She’s like a sister to us, not a sex bot.

  “Not you,” she says. “The others.”

  “What others?” everyone but Jimmy, Tray, and Xyla says. And you can’t miss the eagerness and excitement in our voices.

  “That’s why we’re here,” ALCOR says, morphing into a hologram in the center of the room. “I’ve decided we’re ready.”

  “Ready for what?” Luck asks.

  ALCOR spreads his arms wide. “For all of it. We need people. Real people. I’ve had bots working on building you ships.”

  “Ships!” Serpint says. “Fuck, yeah!”

  “And I’ve developed an advertising campaign for the net. We’re going to change our name.”

  “To what?” I ask.

  “Harem Station.” ALCOR beams in the center of the room like this is the most brilliant name ever.

  “Why?” I ask. “That implies we have girls here, and clearly we do not.”

  “But we will,” ALCOR says. “We will have lots of girls. That,” he says, pointing to Draden and Serpint, “is your new job. You are now official bounty hunters for the new Harem Station.”

  “Oh, hell, yeah,” Draden says, doing a little dance. “We’re gonna go and get some girls.”

  “You mean steal them?” I ask.

  ALCOR smiles at me. “Not steal. Convince. That’s all. Convince them to join us. We’re going to need a lot of girls, because boys, I have a vision for the future. We’re going to turn Harem Station into the preeminent place for outlaw fun. I want the desperate, the jaded, the lost, the ruthless. I want pirates, and assassins, and bounty hunters, and soldiers. I want all the people this galaxy rejects. I want the Prime Navy—”

  “Who?” Valor asks. “Who the fuck is the Prime Navy?”

  “Oh,” ALCOR says. “I forgot. I didn’t share that with you.”

  “Share what?” I ask. I never know if this AI truly cares about us, is just using us, or is prepping us for some bigger, unknown part in some diabolical plan. But he’s always made me nervous. I’m not sure how to trust an immortal self-contained entity like ALCOR. He’s manipulative, and secretive, and when he says he has a vision for the future, he’s not talking about a ten-year plan. He’s talking about a ten-thousand-year plan.

  I’m just not sure I can wrap my head around that.

  “The Prime Navy formed after word got out that you boys were staying here with me,” ALCOR continues. “It was an overreaction when I had to take out a fleet of Cygnian and Akeelian warships about a year after your arrival.”

  “What?” Jimmy laughs.

  “It’s not funny,” I say. “What the fuck, ALCOR? Why didn’t you tell us this?”

  “Because,” Tray says, “you would’ve had a problem killing half a million people just to make the point that you could.”

  “Shit,” Draden says.

  I glare at ALCOR. He smiles at me. He’s no longer just code in the shape of a man. He’s got a face now. Kinda nice-looking, actually. Young, but not as young as us. Light hair, blue eyes, and sometimes he has a shadow on his jaw like he forgot to shave.

  I think this was Tray. I think all the changes in ALCOR over the years have been Tray and it kinda freaks me out that I have no idea who that guy is anymore.

  “Anyway,” ALCOR says. “The point is, the Prime Navy now exists under the false presumption that I can be contained.”

  “Hmm,” I say.

  “Don’t worry, Crux,” ALCOR says. “I’m going to make a promise to you now.”

  “What kind of promise?”

  “That in t
he end you will love my plan.”

  “And in the meantime?”

  “Deal with it.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  WAYWARD STATION

  “The plan,” Corla says, now that we’ve reached the end of the tunnel and are entering the park, “is to get the hell away from these crazy fucked-up people. Are you in?”

  “Who are you?” I say.

  She laughs. And God, she’s pretty when she laughs. “I’m your genetically engineered princess, Crux. Duh.” She stops in the middle of the grass and takes my hand. There’s still that feeling hiding underneath my skin. I don’t understand it, I just know every time she and I make contact I have this overwhelming urge to never let her go. “Listen.” She sighs. “I don’t know what they’re doing. I just know you and I were brought together to make babies. Congrats, by the way. You’re going to be a father.”

  “How do you know that? We did it once for less than five minutes.”

  “Trust me,” she says. “I’m pregnant. They didn’t drag me a hundred light years from home and set up that crazy ritual back there for nothing.”

  “Yeah, what was up with that? Red and black? Why am I wearing this stupid outfit?”

  She looks me up and down, taking in my ceremonial uniform. “It is kinda creepy.”

  “Evil creepy,” I say.

  “Well, they are evil creepy so I guess it fits. But I’m sort of envious of you. I’d rather not have known what was coming. Your father was probably afraid you’d reject me or something. And believe me, that’s not in the plan.”

  “OK, back up. What plan?”

  She sighs, then walks over to a tree and says, “Sit. It’s a long story.”

  I sit, and she talks, and it is a long story. But I get the main points pretty quick.

  The Akeelians and Cygnians used to be one race of people. Then something catastrophic happened and they were no longer genetically compatible. So for the past however many years they’ve been engineering children so that one day—today, in fact—the two species could mate again and produce—wait for it—

  “Stars.”

  “Mmm-hmmm,” I say. “OK.”

  She makes a face at me. “I light up. Do you not find that weird?”

  “You’re a star?” I say. Then I laugh. I can’t help it.

  “That’s fine,” she says. “It’s weird. I get it. But this light comes from somewhere. And these two races sure are trying really hard to produce children.”

  “Maybe they’re just a bunch of sick fucks who get off on watching two teenagers get horny?”

  “You think this is funny?”

  “Not at all, princess. I think this is… I think… I don’t fucking know what I think. But people don’t turn into stars.”

  “OK,” she says. “But maybe this thing inside me isn’t people.”

  “Well, I’m a people. And you’re a people. So it stands to reason that if we create offspring, they’ll be people too.”

  “Maybe we’re not people? Ever think of that?”

  I sigh and massage the center of my forehead with two fingertips. Tired, and confused, and not ready to fight this battle, that’s for sure.

  “Look,” Corla says, placing her hands on my shoulders. I like her touch. It makes me close my eyes and forget all this bullshit about babies, and stars, and escape plans. “You don’t have to believe me. Just believe this. Something is going on. You are standing here in a creepy red and black uniform talking to a girl they set you up to breed with. That’s an irrefutable fact. So if you want to forget about the baby, and the stars, and the light, cool. Let it go. But you can’t just pretend that creepy clown show back there didn’t happen. The only other thing you need to accept is that these people have to be stopped. Whatever is growing inside me is too powerful, that’s why ALCOR helped separate the Cygnians and Akeelians thousands of years ago.”

  “Who?”

  “ALCOR? That insane AI who runs that station that guards the gates to the Seven Sisters?”

  “Go on,” I say. This might actually be useful information because I sorta-kinda remember hearing about this AI from some gate-mapping class.

  “ALCOR messed up the offspring of the Cygnians and Akeelians thousands of years ago and our races have been struggling to survive ever since. The Cygnians genetically engineer our daughters, then back-breed them to a previous paternal generation trying to create one girl—like me—who can actually mate with an Akeelian boy, like you.”

  “Oh, God. I feel sick.”

  “And you Akeelians… well, you guys just screw any woman who will have you, hoping that you get more boys. But—and this is the big but—you and your friends, like that guy you were with last night? You’ve been altered to match one of us. You and I were meant to be together, Crux. True soulmates, so to speak. But there’s another but. Are you ready for it?”

  “Hit me,” I say. “I have a feeling I’ll never be ready, so just give it to me straight, princess. I need to know what’s happening.”

  “We can’t ever be together. I need to get the fuck out of here. And so do you. We can’t ever be together because whatever they’re trying to make by putting us together—a star, a baby, a monster—doesn’t matter what you call it. It just can’t be born. OK? You are the one who said evil a few minutes ago and you said that because you felt it. But believe me, Crux. They are evil, evil people. We can’t let this happen. So you are going to shoot me through the spin node where my friends will pick me up and… take care of the baby. And I’m going to send you to ALCOR Station. And we’re never going to see each other again.”

  “Shit.”

  “There’s more,” she says.

  “More? That’s not enough?”

  “I’m also a weapon.”

  I got nothing for that.

  “That light inside me? It’s more powerful than a sun going supernova. I am literally a bomb. They can take out entire planets with girls like me. And if they get this breeding program off the ground, the whole universe could cease to exist with the children they create.”

  I’m shaking my head the whole time she’s talking.

  “It’s true,” she insists. “Whether you believe me or not. Whether you help me or not. This is happening. So I need to meet up with my friends on some station on the other side of the spin node so they can… you know.” She points to her stomach.

  “Kill it?” I ask, horrified.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Fuck that!” I say, getting to my feet. “Fuck that! They’re not… you’re not… no!”

  “What am I supposed to do? I’m pregnant now, like it or not. It’s done. I’m not going to raise that thing.”

  “Thing?”

  She sighs and gets to her feet. “It’s not what you think, Crux. It’s dangerous. These… babies can change everything. And not in a good way. It needs to be handled.”

  Handled. I just can’t. I turn away from her and grab my hair, trying to force all this shit to make sense.

  “We have to leave. And I have to see your friends before I go.”

  “Why?” I ask, turning around to face her.

  “Because all of them need to leave too. And the only way I can be sure that you get all of them to ALCOR Station is to give each one of them a message to relay to him once you get there.”

  “And what happens if I don’t get them all there?”

  “Then he’ll kill you. You must have them deliver my message in the correct order or he’ll know you can’t be trusted.”

  “You set me up,” I say.

  “They set us up, Crux. I’m just trying to make the best of a bad situation.”

  “Why do I have to go to this ALCOR Station?”

  “I don’t know. You just do. It’s part of the plan the station people gave me. They need this AI for some reason. And he needs you.” She sighs. “So. That’s it.”

  “And I’m just supposed to trust you? Just supposed to take your word that this is all real, gather up my friends—which inc
lude two little kids, by the way—and what? Steal a ship and—” I throw up my hands. “You’re insane.”

  “It’s the only choice you have left. Believe me, if you’re still here tomorrow your life becomes a living nightmare. They will sedate you and farm you for…” She looks down at my groin area. “You know. Sperm. Then they’ll use you to make more babies. And if I stay, they’ll be harvesting my eggs the second after I give birth. I won’t live to see this baby grow up, that’s for sure. So…” She sighs. “Choose then. Stay here and be a lab rat or do as I say and live to fight another day.”

  “And I thought I got lucky,” I say.

  “What?” She scowls at me.

  “‘Oh, Crux. You got yourself a princess for a soulmate. A beautiful silver-haired Cygnian princess. Go you.’”

  She makes a face. “I’m sorry I’m not the princess you were expecting. But that’s all I have going for me now. Be the unexpected.”

  I turn away and pace the grass in front of the tree.

  “So are you in? Or not?”

  “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

  “Not if you want to live, you don’t.”

  “How do you know this ALCOR will help us?”

  “Let’s just say… it’s in his best interest to keep you alive for another twenty years.”

  “Just twenty, huh?” I force a smile, seeing if she’ll take the bait.

  She doesn’t. She just shrugs. “It’s going to take that long to get things ready. But you’re never going to see me again. And if you do, then something has gone terribly wrong and no matter what, you need to stay away from me. Never come near me again, do you hear me? Never.”

  “Star-crossed.” I sigh.

  “What?”

  “You know. Star-crossed lovers. Two ships passing in the dark. Meant to be together, but never able to be together.”

  She nods. “Yes. Then that’s what we are. Star-crossed.”

  We stare into each other’s eyes for a moment. Hers are still lit up with sparkles of silver. Mine, I have no idea.

  “Violet,” she says. “Your eyes,” she clarifies. “That’s how they knew you were the one. The violet inside you mixes with the silver inside me and makes… them. This baby, if it’s ever born, will have all the bad things inside us and none of the good. They’ve been breeding Akeelians for your violet eyes for thousands of years and you’re the first.”