“What?”
“Quick,” she whispers. “Touch me. I need to know, because if it’s true, it changes everything and I need to make new plans.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Don’t you know why I’m here?”
“Uh… to foster better relations between the Cygnians and the Akeelians?” I ask, parroting something I heard my father say.
“Duh, no shit,” she snaps. “I mean… you know, what they expect us to do.”
“Ummm… what are you talking about? What do you mean, us?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she says, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand as she lets out a long sigh. “Can you just touch me? Please. Because… you’re a myth, OK? A fantasy. Or… I don’t know. A monster from a very dark fairy tale. I just need to know which. I need to know what’s true and what’s not, because I can’t go through with this, Crux. It will be the end of everything if we do this.”
“Do what?” I’m so confused right now. Because she seems to know who I am and the only thing I know about her is that she’s gonna marry her father on her twenty-third birthday. And that’s still gross, even if she is seven generations removed. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You really don’t know? Your father didn’t tell you why I’m here? What you’re expected to do?”
“Ahhh… uhhhh… be nice to you?” I offer, hopeful. Because I’m starting to get a very sick feeling in my stomach.
“No, you simpleton. I’m here—we’re here,” she amends—“to make a baby.”
“What?” I laugh so loud she rushes forward in a panic and cups her hand over my mouth.
And in that instant—when she touches me, when her skin meets mine—my whole world explodes.
There’s a great flash of bright white light. And some kind of electric shock runs down my spine, and the station shudders, and shakes, and then…
Both of my cocks are suddenly hard.
“Oh, shit,” she says, pulling her hand away to cover her own mouth in surprise. “It’s true! You’re really him!”
“Who?” I ask. My body suddenly on fire. My hands reaching for her hips. Pressing myself forward into her.
She pushes me away, gasping. “No, not now. I have to go. But don’t worry. I’ll see you tomorrow at the breeding ceremony.”
“What?”
But she’s already rushing for the door.
“What did you just say?” I call after her.
But she’s already got the doors open, already crashing into the waiting circle of guards, who surround her and whisk her off.
And then… she’s gone.
Poof. As quick as she came.
“Breeding ceremony?” I call out. “What fucking breeding ceremony?”
CHAPTER THREE
Waiting to be pulled through the ALCOR gate is agony. There is no light, there is no gravity, there are no screens to monitor, and the suits are way too big for Draden and Serpint, so they spend the entire time floating around the ship, flapping their sleeves and pant legs as they try to continue their game of war in zero G.
Draden can see again. At least well enough to play war with Serpint, so whatever. I’m sure this ALCOR place has some kind of medical facility to take care of any permanent damage.
Right now I only have room to worry about actual emergencies. Like getting through this fucking gate. I’ve only ever been through six gates in my life and all of them were at high speed. This slow, limping-your-way-through-time thing is unsettling. It feels like you’re traveling fast, but part of your body is six feet over there.
Luck complains of a stomach ache the entire time. He’s got himself strapped into a hammock off to my left. Tray is talking to himself in some secret language no one understands, still buckled in his station seat. Jimmy is sitting across from me, buckled into his stool, looking at him, then me, then back at Tray with an expression that says, That dude should really be quarantined. And Valor is holding on to grips by the airlock just looking out the window and repeating, “We’re gonna die. We’re all gonna die,” over and over again until Jimmy finally threatens to rip his suit off and throw him out the airlock if he doesn’t shut up.
I think about Corla, wondering if she got away, then decide she did, and that’s why the Akeelians came after us. They need me to tell them where I sent her.
Then decide no, they’re coming after us so they can drag me back to be killed by my father.
Then decide no again. She got caught somewhere on the other side of the node and they need me to make more babies with her, since the one she’s carrying probably didn’t survive her first trip.
There are about two dozen spin nodes in the galaxy and Wayward Station is in charge of the most active one. They are gates on steroids. If you were to stand in front of one you’d see a thousand gates lined up in the portal. It really is a thousand gates, but to your eyes it looks like you’re looking into a mirror, looking into a mirror, looking into a mirror, that goes on for eternity.