Page 57 of Veiled Vixen

A plan?

Beeping pulls me away from the story and when I look up I see the same bot who delivered them is back. Motioning and chirping at me.

I get up, grab the stupid comics, shove them back into the envelope, and follow it. Because even though I don’t speak this bot’s language, that’s the only possible thing he can be saying.

I study the park as we walk down a long, winding path. Many different varieties of plant life. Most of it I’ve seen before. Somewhere. On one of our many soul-sucking adventures.

Soul suckers.

That’s not how people see Luck and I.

Is it?

We didn’t steal parts from any working stations. The stuff we were looking for was all ancient. And most of the stations were dark and lifeless. I can count the number of times we had to fight our way through a station on both hands.

It wasn’t that many. And those things we were fighting—they weren’t even people. And when a Harem citizen decides a thing is not a person, the chances are very high that the thing is not a person. We go out of our way to find the humanity inside weird aliens.

So even if those things thought Luck and I were stealing their station’s soul—who cares? Right?

The winding path I’m on turns into a dimly lit forest flanked on either side by densely-packed trees and shrubs. I catch sight of a small animal rustling in the leaves. But when its wide eyes spy me, it quickly darts into the underbrush for cover.

I want to ask this bot a lot of questions about this park. I didn’t see the outside of Veila’s ship before I entered it, so I have no idea how big it is. But it has to be immense to support a forest biosphere like this.

A warship. Maybe even bigger than a warship.

And didn’t she make a point of telling me that this was her last ship? She seemed pretty upset about that at the time, but I was too overwhelmed to push her on the meaning of that sentiment.

We’ve been walking for a long time and I’m just about to ask where the hell we’re going when I spy a solid steel wall with a large door built in to it.

“What’s this?” I ask. Because it looks like the door to a maintenance garage.

The bot beeps and chirps and I, of course, do not understand one word he’s saying. But then he fucks with a security panel built into the wall and the door slides open.

I stand there for a few moments trying to make sense of what I’m seeing. Because it’s… nothing but black space. And this is so disorienting I hold my breath out of habit, even though if this door really did open up into space holding my breath would not help me. I’d be sucked out into the ether and dead almost immediately.

About two seconds later I recognize what I’m looking at. A massive viewing wall. And it’s either the largest viewing screen I’ve ever seen or… a window.

Based on the curvature of the wall—which is clearly shaped around the outer hull of the ship—I deduce it’s an actual window.

Then I notice the surroundings. A very large room by ship standards. In the center of the room, and placed directly in front of the window, there’s a half-moon-shaped couch covered in midnight-blue velvet that must be at least ten meters across. I think you might be able to sleep an eight-man team of borgs on that couch, that’s how expansive it is.

In front of that is a long silver table made out of some kind of brushed metal. Behind the couch there is a long buffet table with an assortment of bubbly wine bottles and alcohol decanters. There’s also a basket filled with passion limes, tushberries, and youthfruit.

Is it a hotel? I wonder to myself.

But no. Because next to the buffet of drinks and fruit is a flashframe that displays a series of images.

I walk towards the buffet and pick up the frame. Watch it cycle through the display of images. Veila like I know her. All dressed up in her silver-pink gowns. Meticulously coiffed hair on top of her head. Regal, and evil, and… you know. Loathsome.

But among those are pictures of children. Small girls. And if I squint real hard I think I see Veila in the face of one of them. And Corla too. Maybe. I can’t really recall what Corla looks like. But the faces seem familiar.

I pause the image rotation to get a better look at it.

The two girls are in a large, luxurious room. Round bed with a thick mattress covered in silver silks. Canopy overhead with long, silky, silver curtains. More pink and silver throw pillows than I can count. Toys and books at their feet. In fact—I squint at the picture—there’s one of the Akeelian Adventure comics on the floor.

There’s also a bot. Not this bot here with me, but another bot. A gold one that reminds me a lot of Beauty.

Both girls are clearly happy. They are smiling in their frilly dresses. And the one who might be Corla is holding the bot in her arms like a precious pet.