disappeared.”
“Blew up?”
“No. That’s the weird part. Everything about him just… disappeared. Everyone on board too. He and his friends were heading across the galaxy to Gold Sand Beach for a pre-wedding getaway.” She air quotes that part. “And they all disappeared. Everything about them disappeared. Other people were suddenly living in their apartments. Their stuff was gone. Their records missing. It was like they never existed, except we could all remember them.”
“Fuck. That is weird.”
“Yep. And now that I think about it, this wasn’t the first time that people have appeared from this spin node. But anyway. My father was pissed. Thought it was a plot or something. He left me, and my entourage, here and went back to Cygnus. And that’s how I ended up in this situation.”
“And then your light—”
“Yeah. So… Aleric was my name mate.” She shrugs. “I was expecting it. Everyone knows you don’t last long after your name mate dies. But then the whole dimming thing started happening to every single princess on the station.”
“And that freaked everyone out.”
“Yep.” She sighs and takes the sparkling pink glass I hand her. “This looks delicious.”
“It’s a special drink I make for the princesses when they complete servitude. Kind of a celebratory thing.”
“Servitude. That sounds ominous.”
“Yeah. I’ll get to that. But my story actually starts on Wayward Station as well.”
“No shit? You’re one of them?”
“Them?”
Her mouth drops open. “The mythological Akeelians?”
I point to my eyes and they heat up with the light they emit. “Yep. No fucking shit, princess. I’m one of them.”
“Wow. Well. This already sounds promising. I might as well get comfortable.” She wiggles her butt back a little farther on the bar so she can cross her legs.
She looks ridiculous in those too big clothes, but at the same time she also looks… cute.
“Tell me everything, Crux from Wayward Station. Are those Akeelians everything the conspiracy theorists say they are?” She waggles her eyebrows at me.
I nod. Slowly. Because… suddenly… a small part of me can see myself with this girl.
This… Alera.
And I think… if I tried just a little bit… I could… maybe… find a way to light her back up.
“I’m listening,” she teases.
Right. Focus, Crux. This is your last fucking chance to figure shit out. “OK. But don’t stop me. Just let me talk. It’s all very crazy. And when I’m done you can do whatever you want with my story. Deal?”
“Deal.”
So I tell her.
I start with the night in the dining room.
Which is… not this dining room. But close. Everything about this place—this time—it feels very close for some reason.
Just… never close enough, right?
I keep going. Telling her about the great escape. Her eyes go wide as she sips her drink and realizes that I was one of those boys who fucked up her life.
Maybe I wasn’t that specific boy. But then again, maybe I was?
I describe the left-behind feeling in the ship as we travelled through the gate and then I pause because she decides she can’t go on without interrupting.
“Wait. Left behind feeling? Like a time distortion?”
“Maybe? I’m no time expert. I barely understand it.”
“Join the club. I don’t think anyone understands it. But time is all people talk about these days. They are convinced that there was a time distortion and that’s why that Wayward Station ship came through and Aleric’s ship disappeared. Maybe they switched places?”
“Huh. That would probably be a disaster for Aleric. ALCOR Station back then? He wasn’t hospitable. We had a special code and a message to deliver. That’s the only reason we got through.”
“So if he went there with no code?”
“He’s dead. They’re all dead. I can’t fathom ALCOR being patient in that kind of situation.”
She sighs. Deeply. “Thank the suns. All this time I’ve been worried that he would come back and then everything would be normal again.”
“Don’t you want things to be normal?”
“Would you want things to be normal? I was being forced to marry him and have his babies just so the crazy Harem Station governor can have his princess breeding program.”
“Interesting.”
“Not the word I would use.”
“I mean, in my world we had that too. But they were breeding us. Akeelians and Cygnians.”
“Wow.” She blushes. “I could maybe be up for that.”
“What?”
“I’ve heard all the Akeelian myths.” She waggles her eyebrows again. “You guys are hot. Angels…” She shakes her head. “That is a big, fat no.”
“Angels.” I get a sick feeling in my stomach. “What year is this, Alera?”
“Year?”
“Yeah. What year is this?”
“Twenty-five-thousand-ninety-nine.”
“What?”
“Why? What year is it for you?”
And then