Page 59 of Veiled Vixen

Every time ALCOR sent us out into the galaxy with a list we brought that shit back. Like we were his fucking autoshopper.

This means something. I know it does. I just can’t figure out what.

“Hand me that, will you?” Veila says from down the hall. The bot answers her with some good-natured beeping and chirping.

This pulls me back out of my past and has me focused on the present again.

Because I suddenly understand Veila just a tiny bit more.

The fact that Veila is here on her home ship means she feels defeated. She needed the comfort of this place to heal her from whatever happened during the past six weeks while I was under.

What happened while I was asleep?

Luck told me a little. The whole rebellion thing kinda backfired. Who knew those harem princesses were so angry? I mean, I guess I’d be pissed at us too if I were them.

But something else happened and this is about Veila. Because she’s… different. Granted, I was pretty drugged up when I was on her last ship. And tied to a wall. And being tortured and… whatever else she did.

But that’s kind of my point.

This Veila is calm. Almost resigned. But resigned to what? Failure?

Of course she’s going to fail. The bad guys always fail.

But… who are the bad guys anyway?

Because my brothers and me? And everyone else on this station? I would not call us good guys, that’s for sure.

There’s more banging noises from down the hall. Veila talking again. Only her tone is too low for me to pick out actual words.

I begin walking that direction, down the long hallway, and then there’s a wide set of open stairs leading up to another level. I walk up slowly, trying to be quiet. Not to sneak up on her but so I can hear what she’s talking about.

“…and then I added some passion limes. What do you think? Will it be good?”

At the top of the stairs I stop and look around.

It’s a kitchen. Like the biggest kitchen I’ve ever seen. Long white countertops, two sinks, and huge stove. Serpint has a stove in his quarters. He likes to cook. But when I say cook I mean he likes to order shit from an autoshopper and then heat it up.

This is not what Veila is doing. She has that stove packed with large pots and there’s food all around her. Round, red vegetables, and long stalks of green ones, and hourglass-shaped orange ones. And then off to the side are cut up bits.

The whole place is a mess. Knives and silverware are haphazardly strewn across the various counters. Small brown bags of ingredients sit opened. There’s a long slab of raw protein on a cutting board. And steam from the boiling pots fills the air.

Veila’s back is to me as she stirs something within one of the pots. And she’s still talking to the Rexbot, who has settled on the countertop beside her and appears to be listening to her yammer on about passion limes.

“…vitamins, right? They say you need those…”

But what the fuck is she wearing? An oversized long-sleeved shirt that even from the back makes her look frumpy.

And while her hair is still piled up on top of her head, it’s messy now. Most of it has fallen out of the sophisticated updo she had going on the last time we talked just a few hours ago.

The bot spies me and chirps. This makes Veila whirl around and orange sauce goes flying off the end of her long stirring spoon.

“How the fuck did you get in here?” she demands.

“Your bot let me in,” I say, putting up my hands. Because her eyes are lit up white. She looks like an evil silver demon in this moment.

“What?” She whirls to address the Rexbot. “What the hell? Why would you let him in here?”

The bot flies up out of her reach just as she takes a swipe at him with her metal spoon. His chirping fills the room and my eyes follow him as he descends high up into the dome.