CHAPTER ONE – JIMMY
The Vacation Sector isn’t a place I usually spend time. Hell, I don’t even pass through here even though there are more than two hundred different gates in this sector that go to pretty much anywhere you can think of in the galaxy.
Too much traffic. Too many people. I hate people.
Spending those first several years on Harem Station with just ALCOR, Xyla, and my brothers changed me, I think.
Before we had to run from Wayward Station I was a pretty sociable guy. Hell, my father was a diplomat and his hope was that I’d take his place when he retired, so I went to all the parties and met all the people.
At least… that’s what I thought he wanted for me.
Before I learned the truth about who and what I am.
Crux told me his Corla story about six months after we arrived on what was then called ALCOR Station. ALCOR had whipped up some fermented wine from printed fruit for us to celebrate my birthday and we got a little bit drunk, so Crux’s whole sordid tale came burbling out of his mouth unasked for.
I knew parts of it already. I knew we helped Corla escape, I knew everyone was pissed about that. But that’s it. That’s all I really knew.
It grossed me out, to be honest. The creepy ceremony and breeding just gave me the fucking shivers. So when ALCOR finally let us leave the station several years later, the first thing Xyla and I did was book on over to a biogenetics lab just off the Outlaw Highway and have a DNA signature scrambler made.
If I ever did get caught by the Cygnians or the Akeelians there was no way in hell they’d figure out who I was. And I would not be forced into some creepy breeding ceremony because the DNA signature scrambler would make sure there was no true soulmate for me.
Pretty clever, I think. It was Xyla’s idea. She’s been around. She knows things.
The DNA signature scrambler bought me time, at least. If I ever did get caught it would take my captors a little while to figure out there was something wrong and maybe that’s all the time I need to make an escape.
The scrambler wears off but I go back every year to get a boost.
Xyla and I talked about this stuff ad nauseam back in the day. Came up with dozens of scenarios and plans of escape should I ever get caught and once we acquired Dicker about a decade ago, we clued her in. Inputting all kinds of sequences into her core for what to do in case of a capture scenario.
But… time passed. Lots of time passed, actually. And no Akeelians or Cygnians ever came looking for me. Did they forget about us? Did they move on to phase two of their diabolical plan with new violet-eyed boys?
Hard to tell.
But I did move on. I got a little relaxed. A little bit complacent, maybe.
But now? I laugh to myself as Dicker takes us towards the docking station of Blue Sand Beach. Oh, hell the fuck no. As soon as I drop Xyla off here to meet up with her friends for some girl time, I’m going right to the biogenetics lab to make sure all my shit is up to date.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Xyla asks. She’s autoshopping from the pilot’s chair, cycling through all kinds of skimpy bikinis and summery dresses for her ten spins in the sun. Which I find kinda cute, if I’m being honest. She’s been looking forward to this reunion with her sex-bot girlfriends, Cha-Cha and Ladybug, for months. Cha-Cha is Luck’s partner now. Ever since Valor decided to stay back on Harem to help Tray manage all that Baby ALCOR AI bullshit Luck has been on his own.
But Cha-Cha is a long-time friend of Xyla’s so I think it’s working out OK.
“Me on a Blue Sand beach with three former sexbots?” I say. “No, thanks. I’ll be fine. Dicker and I have plans.”
“To do what?”
“To just… chill, ya know. I told you. We’re just gonna float around and take it easy. Besides, it’s not fair if we both go down and Dicker can’t.”
“I don’t mind,” Dicker says in her sweet, yet seductive voice. “You can go—”
“No,” I say, cursing Dicker for being so selfless. “No. I’m not leaving you alone up here.”
“I don’t think you two should be alone either,” Xyla says, pouting her new lavender synthetic lips as she looks over at me. They glitter a little too. Kinda flashy. “That meeting with the Angel people was kinda intense. Maybe I should skip my trip and we should go back to Harem and let everyone know what they said?”
“Xyla,” I say. “That’s dumb. We’re already here. Just enjoy yourself. We’re fine.”