“Come with me,” Serpint whispers.
Every one of these brothers and companions are staring at me.
And it’s no wonder. I do not belong here with them.
The station sounds a chime. But as Serpint leads me off the lift and on to the larger platform, I see that in the center there is a five-meter-tall crystal obelisk that lights up as the station chimes. And now I realize—that’s ALCOR.
Or the personification of him, anyway.
Because when his voice booms through the station, the obelisk glows white with each word.
“Let us begin,” ALCOR says, just as someone to my right takes my hand.
I look up, startled to see that the sex-borg is next to me. Then realize everyone around the circle is holding hands.
ALCOR begins to talk about Draden and Ceres. Tells how they met. What they mean to him, and then Crux has his say. Everyone has their say. Even the bots and the sex-borg, who has a surprisingly feminine voice attached to her military-scary body.
This is his family.
No one expects me or my bot to talk. They are going in a circle to the left, so as soon as the sex-borg finishes, Serpint clears his throat.
He takes a long breath. Stares straight ahead.
I squeeze his hand to let him know I’m here.
Which is dumb. So stupid. I don’t even know this man. I’m just… compelled to comfort him.
“Um…” Serpint says. “I’m not good at this. And I’m still in shock at what happened. But I just want to say… I’m sorry.” He looks at each of his family members. His voice is booming through the station speakers and suddenly, even though just a few seconds ago, there was the low thrum of whispered conversation, the station goes utterly silent except for some far-off humming of machinery.
“That’s it,” Serpint says in the hush. “I love you, I’ll miss you, and I’m sorry.”
All his brothers nod and frown. Then the one to his left begins to talk.
Serpint squeezes my hand, looks at me for a moment, and we frown together.
When the last family member is done speaking—the military bot between the two brothers it rode down with—everyone drops hands except Serpint and me. And they turn to face outward.
“Turn with me, Lyra,” he says. “Face the station. We’re going up.”
I turn with him and find thousands of eyeballs staring back at me. Thousands of sad outlaws who came here to pay their respects to Draden and Ceres.
The sex-borg takes my hand again, just as the platform begins to rise.
We ascend slowly. Seemingly for the sole purpose of everyone getting a good look at us. And I realize that is the reason. They get to see us as we rise. This is some group sadness. Some shared empathy for the family’s sorrow.
And once again, it is pointed out to me in the silence that Harem Station isn’t what it seems.
It is more than a place. It is a home.
Filled with people who care about each other. Somewhere safe where they can rest and be themselves. Or fight against whatever it is they fight against. Or just… live.
I am humbled by this and my heart begins to beat faster as we take the long, almost agonizingly slow ride to the top of the station. By the time we reach the apex I am sure we have passed hundreds of thousands of people. Maybe even a million, they are that packed at the edge of each level.
The platform stops smoothly. Without even a slight jolt. Everyone drops hands again, except Serpint and me, and then once again we turn to face the center where the ALCOR obelisk lights up in bright white.
We rejoin hands just as it begins to rise, still glowing, and once it gets to some pre-determined altitude, the top of the station begins to open.
I gasp for breath out of instinct, fearing the darkness of deep, black space and the suffocating death of the vacuum beyond. But then I realize there is a barrier between us and the great unknown outside. Some nearly-invisible layer of force field that keeps us in the atmosphere of the station.
ALCOR says, “I will join you on your journey into eternity. You will never be alone.”
And less than a breath later, the obelisk shoots through the opening and out into space.
For three seconds there is a heavy silence, then a chime. And another chime.
And then it… explodes. SEAR cannons come out of nowhere and shatter the crystal obelisk into particles of light.
“What the hell just happened?” I whisper.
“The security beacons near the gates,” Serpint says. “They shatter them with cannons so their particles will float in space for eternity.”
“Oh,” I say. “That’s quite beautiful.”
Serpint squeezes my hand just as the roof opening begins to close.
When it’s sealed back up and the layer of field above us has dissipated, ALCOR says, “Goodbye, brothers. We will miss you.”