misstep on his part, for sure. This was an important detail that should’ve been retained in his current datacore and not sent away to some far-away storage facility like a discarded piece of junk. There was only one possible way for ALCOR to escape the pain and suffering of an entanglement disconnect.
He was not Real ALCOR.
He had to be a copy.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - FLICKA
On Harem Station
Flicka the dragonbee bot—full name and title Bombardier First Class Flicka Ozae Apis, M.P., A.L.M.O., S.A.B.B. (master of poisons, articulated limb mechanized organism, special assignment beebot)—had been, in her opinion, the model representative for the Apis Army since being conscripted into the Apis Sleeper Ambassador Program almost twenty standard years ago.
She had been keeping a list of all the good decisions she had made since the day she arrived in the Cygnian System and started training to be Princess Delphi’s minder. This job assignment was a way to test her worthiness to be invited into the Apis Special Forces.
Since beebots live outside of time, and thus cannot die, twenty years seemed like a reasonable trial period to Flicka. But she was starting to lose patience with these humans.
Her list of good decisions only had two things on it at the moment. But they were two very big things.
Flicka had not killed a single Cygnian when she arrived on Cygnus.
Delphi was still alive.
These two things were the definition of a successful mission in Flicka’s mind. Monumental achievements. But as soon as she arrived on Harem Station she’d realized that her sleeper mission was going to fail. And a successful ambassador mission would not be enough to ensure an invitation to the Apis Special Forces.
This meant she could not exit this position without doing something spectacular. Something that would make her superiors buzz with excitement and, as luck would have it, this new mission she had concocted had a direct connection to her original sleeper mission.
And so, while Crux was busy inside the spin node figuring shit out, Flicka decided it was time to put her grand plan into action.
And this grand scheme involved going back to the source.
Specifically, this mission was Wayward Station.
And even more specifically, she was going to invade.
It didn’t bother Flicka one bit that she was the only beebot in a three-hundred-light-year radius. She didn’t need her comrades to pull off an invasion. All she needed were the right components to mix up her own little army.
Everyone knew that beebots kept a little pantry of poisons inside their bodies. These components were continuously made, and degraded, and then recycled to make new components. At any given time she could whip up a concoction that would disable and/or kill more than three thousand different species of humanoids, bots, and borgs. That was no secret.
Beebots did have two real secrets though. The first was that they lived outside time. But now that Veila and Valor could control time, that particular secret was out.
It was a big secret, to be sure. But the biggest secret was that beebots could also reproduce.
Crux and the Baby had let Flicka live on Harem Station because they’d assumed she was alone. But a lone beebot is never alone when they can just reproduce. Flicka could just make more beebots just like she made more poisons.
Of course, she could not do this inside her body like most organisms. And she could not even lay an egg to make this happen. She needed parts.
Most of the time enough parts for a beebot to make an army are difficult to come by. But she was not just on any station. Flicka was on Harem Station. And the actual harem of Harem Station wasn’t the main business here. The main business was ship-building, which meant the station had a lot of parts. And a handy database inside the Baby’s datacore detailing each of these parts.
Flicka would’ve started her beebot army assembly the day she arrived if she’d had access to that database immediately. But as it turned out, she hadn’t gotten access to the database until Nyleena went on her little scavenger hunt and tricked Flicka into helping her steal information from it.
Nyleena hadn’t gotten anything out of that failed attempt at scheming, but Flicka had. She would’ve started building her army right then, but the Succubus and the Baby were always tracking her. Until Veila and Valor stopped time. And then Flicka had more freedom than she knew what to do with.
Well, not true. She knew exactly what to do with it. But