“Why didn’t you get rid of it when it was small?” she called out, looking up at the ceiling, addressing the house itself. “Before the destruction?” Not that what she’d describe what happened outside destruction, more like beautiful chaos, but non-sentient robots cared nothing for human opinions.
“When you brought it in, we accepted it as part of the outside ecosystem. Your late father and mother never overlooked—”
“Stop, please,” she interrupted. Thinking of her parents and their actions made her feel raw. If she could focus all her attention on the problem at hand, then maybe she’d find herself happy on the other end.
I’ll get rid of it myself.Her back straightened.I’ll have my normal, peaceful, restful, wonderful day tomorrow.
At least this situation was nothing compared to her last visit to Elyria and how her brother’s secretary mistook her for a sexbot, or when her brother overrode her ship’s systems and sent her flying around the same galaxy for two months straight, making her miss her final exams, or when a Trentian clothes designer kept her trapped in his studio for six months because she was hismuse.
A nearby android stepped to her side. “Mistress Lucy, what would you like us to do?”
Lucy narrowed her eyes.
“Assemble all my guards and make sure they come bearing weapons,” she ordered, kicking off her black heels and rolling up her sleeves.
2
Lucy stood on the veranda looking out over the grounds. Androids flanked her on either side. They waited patiently together as their chosen sacrifice strode slowly through the water while sending images back to the others.
There was far more damage then she’d originally thought. Much of it had been hidden by the enormous tropical plants that grew around the walls, and the steely determination of her robotic staff in trying to repair the damaged parts to its original beauty.
But cracks ran up the walls, and the back half of the pool had become a dangerous lagoon. Whatever was invading her paradise had dug deep into the foundation.
Her nostrils flared, and her belly roiled with unease.All I wanted was an escape—a blissful period of time to myself before the lawyers find me.
If it were possible to die from sighing, she’d have perished yesterday.
Suddenly, the android within the water vanished.
“What the—?” Lucy took a step closer and leaned over the marble railing.
“We’ve lost signal with 10567.”
“It was just there!”
“Would you like us to investigate, Mistress?”
“No,” Lucy answered quickly. She squinted and eased forward. One second itwasthere, the next… All that was left of the robot were ripples of water coming out from where it had disappeared. “No,” she repeated under her breath. “You said it was a large organism? What does it look like?”
A holographic image appeared beside her showing her numerous pictures of a wild plant in full bloom. It was long, thin, and rounded out slightly in weaves of vines. Instead of front and back legs, the creature had vine-like tentacles that split farther out and then split again, making the tentacles far more numerous and tinier the farther they were from the main body. Gross, wrinkly suction cups covered the underside of them. The whole animal looked ridiculous as far as she was concerned. Like some kind of flower-octopus wearing a seaweed skirt.
“Eww.” Her lips pursed, and she lowered her infrared glasses over her eyes. The dazzling daytime colors of the garden were immediately washed out as heat signatures became apparent. Lucy located the giant, glowing, red mass. “There!”
She took another step back. The creature was much larger than she’d imagined.
The legs spread out in thick tendrils from the main mass much farther back and tapered off to points at the very end—some of which were less than a dozen yards away from her where the pool started.
Lucy lifted her glasses and peered at the semi-clear waters but couldn’t see them.Hmm.That wasn’t good. They either blended seamlessly with the blue-brown waters or this beast had amazing camouflage.
There was no sign of the android anywhere.
She dropped her glasses back down and stuck noise-canceling earbuds into her ears.
“Hand me the Star Blaster bazooka,” she muttered, moving her stylish infrared eyewear up and down, again and again where the heat signatures slithered nearest her.
This wouldn’t be her first time using a Star Blaster, nor her second. She’d been invited to a bachelorette party once for the daughter of the biggest interplanetary resort hotel chain, and each party-goer had been given one to shoot in celebration. Lucy grinned. The second time she happened to have one on hand while on vacation on Elyria.
“Here you go, Mistress,” one of her androids said through her earbud as the other unfolded a tarp at her feet and carefully placed out a row of missiles. “Would you like us as back up?”
