Because what could we do? How do you fight a station when you’re inside of it and outside there is nothing but immediate death in an infinite dark, lonely vacuum?
No, thank you. I’d rather pretend everything is fine.
This is why a station AI should not be so smart. They are already freaky fucking powerful. Like his ALCOR. Sure, that whole situation going on at Harem Station is sexy and intriguing, but look what happened when the AI left them to go blow up a Cygnian warship.
People died. Lots of people died.
This is why the Prime Navy has regulations about station sentience. They hold humanity in their figurative hands.
Almost no one lives on planets anymore. They are really just tourist attractions. Or treasure vaults. Places you go to visit or hide things.
I know living on planets was a thing in ancient times and if our ancestors could manage to tame the atmosphere and terrain of a celestial body, we could too.
But it’s all so unpredictable. Some stations have weather on them. Most have at least a small weather system in the greenhouses. And there’s some others that are so big clouds form in the upper levels. We had one station back in Cygnus System that snowed. The higher-ups went there to ski.
It’s all controlled by the AI’s though. There’s no random hurricane or tornado brewing on the entertainment deck. There’s no flood coming to the food court. There’s no lava flowing in the docking bays.
Suns. I should stop thinking about this. I’m starting to freak myself out. And Jimmy is still talking about that… whatever it was back in the meadow.
“I mean,” Jimmy says, continuing his train of thought, “it felt so real, didn’t it? Did you see that one beast? The way he looked at me? I think he could smell me, Delphi.”
“Just look at this place,” I say. “Isn’t it adorable?”
It totally is. I’m not lying. A small cabin made out of wooden logs. Very primitive and rustic. Ironically, something you’d find on a planet. And it’s surrounded by dark green, stiff-needled trees on all sides. Just the cabin itself is open to the station sky above.
I look up and find clouds, which allow the fake sunshine to filter through and beam gorgeous rays of light down onto the roof. There’s a few small windows with bright red and white checkered curtains that blow a little in the station wind.
“Yeah,” Jimmy says. “It’s nice. Like… too nice.”
“No,” I say, forcing myself to laugh. “Things can’t be too nice.”
Although even I know that’s not true. Things can be too nice. Too perfect. It’s usually a very bad sign.
The steed stops near the cabin entrance, pawing the ground and throwing his head. Like he wants us off his back and he wants that wish granted immediately.
“How do we get down?” I ask.
Jimmy throws one leg over the steed’s hindquarters and jumps down like he’s an old pro at steed dismounting, then looks up at me, offering a hand. “Just do it like that. I’ll help you.”
That melty feeling he invokes inside me is back. I hold on to that feeling and force myself to forget about the creepy Mighty Minions Station.
Because again, if this place is out to get us there’s pretty much nothing we can do about it.
Jimmy places his hand on my thigh closest to him and says, “Come on. It’s not that far of a jump.”
I swing my leg over the way he did and momentum pretty much does the rest. I slide down the beast’s side and Jimmy grips my waist to steady me.
God, I love that feeling.
I think he does too. Because he responds with a deep, low rumbling growl of lust.
I turn slowly to face him. He’s a lot taller than me, but both of us are small compared to the Boss Steed. Jimmy smiles. “Hungry?” he asks, just as the Boss Steed walks off towards the woods.
My stomach rumbles loudly, answering his question. But I’m not thinking about food. “I am hungry,” I say, staring up into his bright, violet eyes. “For you.”
It’s not even a stupid come-on line, either. It’s just… true. Suddenly I don’t care about the station, or the predicament we’re in, or even the weirdness of that meadow experience.
I just want him. I want him to touch me all over. I want to get naked. And get him naked too. And feel his skin pressed up against mine. His hands on my body and mine on his.
“Well,” Jimmy says, smiling slyly. “That ambassador did assure us this place was private.”
I take a step towards him, my hands sliding around his waist the way his are around mine. I press my breasts up to his chest and say, “Should we go inside?”
Jimmy reaches for the button on my tactical pants and pops it. “What’s wrong with right here?”