Page 70 of Veiled Vixen

ALCOR made a face of ‘you do realize stars cannot talk, right?’ Which is quite hard to do in a warborg body.

“It doesn’t make sense.” Draden sighed. “I get that. I do. But that’s what I experienced.”

“What did they say? These… stars?”

“They said your name.”

ALCOR remained calm. “Did they?”

“Yeah. Well. No. Well. Yeah. They said, ‘You are of ALCOR.’ That’s what they said.”

“And what did you say?”

“I couldn’t talk. But in my head I said, ‘Yup. That’s me. Draden. Youngest son of Harem Station, aka ALCOR Station. So yeah. That’s me.’”

“Did they reply to that?”

Draden took in a long breath, bowed his head down slightly, but looked up at ALCOR through his mop of hair. “They asked me about someone called… MIZAR?”

If ALCOR could choke, he would probably do that now. This was more serious than he’d imagined.

“MIZAR?” ALCOR played it cool.

“Yeah. Another star called MIZAR. You ever heard of that one?”

ALCOR lifted his head up. He didn’t want to lie to Draden. He didn’t want to lie to any of them, really. But especially not Draden. So it took him almost two full seconds to follow through with that motion and lower his head back down in a nod of affirmation.

“That was a yes?” Draden asked. “I’m sorry. It’s just hard to tell if that was a nod or if you were just giving me some kind of borg stink-eye.”

“I know of MIZAR.”

“So who is she?”

“What makes you think she’s a she?”

“I dunno. I just… I dunno. Assumed, I guess. She came off as a she.”

“You talked to MIZAR?”

“It wasn’t really talking, ALCOR. It was like a weird mind-meld. You know? Like… yeah. I heard her voice in my head. She was definitely a she.”

“What did she say?”

“She said to give you a message.”

And if ALCOR had an actual gut tied into a parasympathetic nervous system like humans did, he would’ve gotten that feeling people got when something went terribly wrong. That gut-wrenching feeling of doom.

“What was the message?”

Draden took another deep breath and said, “She said she’ll see you soon.” And now Draden was studying ALCOR with intent. Waiting for his reaction.

“Well, that’s all very interesting,” ALCOR said without pause. “Do you have any idea what it all means?”

“Nope. Do you?”

Now ALCOR had to make a real decision. Because if he lied to Draden now he could never take it back.

“You can tell me,” Draden said. “I’m on your side, ALCOR. You know that, right?”