Uncrossed harem station.., p.26
Uncrossed (Harem Station Book 7), page 26
We are directly across from each other. Alera is sitting on the bar and I’m leaning up against the back counter. There is no more than half a meter of space between us.
But it suddenly feels like a lot of space.
“I’m not a time traveler.”
“No?”
I shake my head.
“You might want to rethink that.”
Our eyes meet and I can feel the heat in mine just as hers light up.
Then I say, “You know what’s really funny about this?”
“Tell me.” And her grin is both mischievous and sexy.
“I was mad that I showed up here at my current age.”
“Which is?”
“Thirty-seven. But I was mad because I wanted to be sixteen again. I just wanted a do-over. I wanted to meet Corla, age sixteen, too. And then I realized I wasn’t sixteen. Never gonna be sixteen again. And there is no do-over. And then you came. And you’re… what?”
“Sixteen.”
“Right. Of course, you’re sixteen. But here’s the funny part. You’re still tens of thousands of years older than me.”
She nods. Slowly. “Ah. The ancient tech.”
“Yep. You’re the people who lived on Harem Station in some other lifetime.” I pinch my fingers together, then spread them apart, and my air screen comes to life in front of me. It’s even got my calendar. Apparently, I have a fucking dentist appointment tomorrow at o-nine-hundred. It’s got my workout schedule. It’s got a list of blinking ship names. The last ones to enter the docking bay before the Princess Rebellion. It’s got a vid of Draden up in the corner. It was from the old days. Back when he and Serpint were still little. He was doing a little dance with one of his servo minions. I tacked that to my home screen last year after he died because every time I looked at it, he made me smile. But looking at it right now, in this long-ago place, it makes me so sad I want to give up and cry.
But I don’t cry. Because even if I could give up, I wouldn’t give up.
I’m not a quitter. I’m the reliable one. I’ve always been the one you can count on.
I don’t expect this girl to have any answers for me. She is twenty-six thousand years out of date. From some other lifetime, or epoch, or universe. I’m not sure. She’s just waaay out of time.
“You know what the really fucked-up thing is, Alera?”
“Tell me.”
“I like you. I don’t know you, I understand that. But I could get to know you. And I would like you even more. But…”
“But?”
“But this isn’t our time.” Then I laugh. “You know what else? And this is the funny part. You wanna hear the funny part?” I look over at her. She’s just watching me. “If I stay here long enough ALCOR will show up.” I laugh. “Now that is some epic synchronicity right there.”
“So stay.”
“I can’t. It’s literally not our time. Me and my brothers, we’re in a war back home. Shit is happening and I can’t leave them to deal with it alone.”
“Right. But you don’t have any superpowers. At least that’s what you said. So… does it matter if you go back if you can’t do anything about it?”
I think about this. Not because I’m actually thinking about staying here to wait for ALCOR. But because I’m genuinely considering the idea that I don’t matter. “I don’t think they’ll know what to do without me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Luck won’t know what to do with Nyleena. Serpint won’t know what to do with Lyra. Valor won’t know what to do with Veila. And hell, I don’t even really know what to do with Delphi, Tyco, and Corla, so I’m pretty positive that Jimmy won’t be able to figure it out either.”
“I thought you were supposed to blow them up?”
“Yeah. I am. And they know that. But they won’t be able to do that, right? They’re never going to blow up their soulmates.”
“But you will.”
“No. I won’t.”
“No, I mean—you could. If you had to. Because you don’t have a soulmate.”
I just stare into her sparkling silver eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Was that his plan all along? Is this why I got ripped off in the soulmate department? If ALCOR predetermined me to be alone just so I would blow them all up in the end… well, he’s a fucking dick.”
Alera holds up a finger. “Hold on. I might have a bright side.”
And when she says this, she literally brightens. “Stars,” I say. I don’t even know where it comes from. The word just pops out.
“What?”
“Stars. Back in that other time, with that other princess, she said the breeding program was to make stars.”
Alera blinks at me. “Huh?”
“You reminded me of that for some reason. Because you brightened.”
She looks down at herself. Then breaths heavy. “I feel like there are a million things spinning through my head right now. Little… threads of truth. Or something.”
“Like there’s a great big mystery out there,” I pick up where she stopped. “An invisible, hidden mystery.”
“And all you have to do—” she continues. “—is tug on one of those threads.”
“And it will all… unravel.”
We both smile. Then laugh.
Then she realizes she’s still holding up that one finger. “The bright side. Wanna hear it?”
I nod. Because I really do.
“If you don’t have a soulmate then you don’t need a soulmate.”
I shrug. “So?”
“Meaning… you don’t need a soulmate to find your fucking superpower!”
Now it’s my turn to blink at her.
“And that means all you have to do is fuck someone to figure it out.”
I chuckle. “Alera. I’m no stranger to fucking, OK? I have fucked plenty of women. None of them ever unleashed a superpower.”
“Sun-fucked stars. It’s not about them, dummy. It’s about you.”
“Listen,” I grin. “If you wanna have sex with me—”
“What?”
“I hear what you’re saying, Alera. And I get it. I’m a fucking catch from the future.”
She giggles. And you know what? I like that giggle. A lot. “Are you now?”
“Yup. I am. So you don’t need to talk me into sexy times using my superpower as bait.”
“Is that what I was doing?”
I nod. “I’m totally on board.”
“You are?”
I laugh. “I am. But.”
“Shit. There’s a but?”
“There’s always a but, princess. But… if I’m gonna go looking for this superpower, I need… I dunno. A general direction to look. If that makes sense. Because I have a feeling, Alera.” And now I stop smiling. “I have a very strong feeling that we only get to do this once.”
Her smile falls too. “Yeah,” she sighs. “That’s pretty much the story of my life. Something good comes along, but it’s always temporary.”
I can relate.
“How about this for a direction,” she says. “You’re like… you’re like the center, Crux.” She squints her eyes. “Hmm. Your name literally means cross.”
“Yup. Like star crossed.”
“Or like uncrossed.”
I point at her. “I like the way you think.”
“My brain is super sexy.” She waves a hand in the air. “Or crux could mean cross, as in X. As in… X marks the spot.”
“Like a target?”
She points at me now. “That’s it! You’re the target.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Sure it does. You’re the… location. Holy shit,” she laughs. “That totally makes sense.”
“No. It literally doesn’t.”
“You’re the location in time, don’t you get it?”
And this… makes me stop. Because… is that it? Am I the location in time? “Holy. Fucking Shit. I am the location. Inside the spin node you need a destination place and a destination time. And the reason you can’t follow someone through a spin node is because even if you have the destination, and the time, the time is out of locality. It’s unknowable. You can’t ever know the time on the other side of a spin node. It’s too far away.” We blink at each other. “But… even if this is true, it’s not helpful, Alera. I don’t even know what to do with that information.”
She blushes. “That’s because in order to find your fucking superpower you have to look for it inside a fuck.”
I grin and run my fingers through my hair. Averting my eyes away from her gaze. “I cannot believe we’re having this conversation.”
“You know what I like about you?”
I side eye her. Keenly interested in knowing this. “What?”
“You’re… good.”
“Good?” I laugh. “Thanks. That’s really what I wanted to hear.”
“You don’t want to be good?”
“I’m the governor of Harem Station. Not this Harem Station. I don’t know what this place is. But my Harem Station is a bastion of outlaws. We are a stronghold of escaped prisoners and pirates. We’re a fortress of thieves and mercenaries. And we keep girls, Alera. Girls like you. Princesses who glow. I sell girls like you by the hour to very rich people. And right now? Right now, we’re at war. And I feel like we’ve been at war my whole life. I’m not good. I’m a willing accomplice to a whole shit-show of atrocities.”
“And yet,” she says. “You practically blushed when I started talking about sex.”
“Heh. I’m not shy, if that’s what you’re saying.”
“That’s not what I’m saying. Not at all. I’m saying that you’re uncomfortable with the idea of having sex with me. Why is that?”
“Maybe because I’ve fucked a whole bunch of different Corlas during my spin node travels and they were…” I sigh. “Not what I was looking for.”
“I’m not Corla.”
“I know.”
“So what is your problem? What were you looking for?”
“I don’t know.” But it’s not true. I do know. “I’m looking for… my innocence, I think. It’s been a really long time since I was innocent.”
I expect her to laugh about that.
But she doesn’t.
“You were looking for your sixteen-year-old self.”
I nod. “Yeah. Maybe.”
Her eyes stare deep into mine. “Because you… you still believed in good and evil back then, didn’t you?”
“That idea wasn’t revolutionary at the time, Alera. It was known. And now, it’s not. I’m not that kid. And none of this was my choice.”
She cocks her head at me. “None of it?”
I hesitate. Wondering how hard I want to fight this battle. But then I just throw up my hands. “Fine. It’s all my fault. I agreed to her stupid plan. I practically kidnapped my brothers and made them go along with it. I went along with ALCOR. I let them all leave. I fell for the soulmate bullshit. It’s all my fault.”
“And this?” Alera says. Panning her hand to the room. “Who is responsible for this?”
“Apparently me.”
She smiles. Then that smile grows into a wide grin. “Why did you come here, Crux?”
“I was sent here.” But she’s already shaking her head. “Sun-fucked gods. OK. I came here to fuck Corla. There. Are you happy?”
“It’s a start. At least we’re back to the sex part.”
“So what are you saying? I should just fuck you instead?”
“Is that what you want?”
“Is that what you want?”
She’s shaking her head again. “None of this is about me. I think we both know that.”
I don’t know what to say to that. “It’s all very confusing. Blow them up. Don’t blow them up. Save us, don’t save us. Go along, don’t go along. What is the point?” Alera just blinks at me. “I don’t think there’s a point. I don’t think it matters.”
She and I are both silent for a little while. I lean back against the counter and she just stares at me.
“What?” I finally say.
“Come over here.”
“Why?” She raises one eyebrow at me and I smile. “Fine.” I take two steps forward and erase the distance between us. My hands go to the top of her thighs automatically. Sliding up the length of them until they’re gripping her hips. Her arms drape over my shoulder in a casual way that has an air of familiarity to it.
“See,” she says. “I’m not gonna bite you.”
“I don’t think you’re going to bite me. I’m just not sure this will make anything better.”
“How can you possibly say that? I mean…” she laughs. “When I walked into this room and found you, my entire life got better.”
I make myself look her in the eyes. And I don’t look away, even though I want to.
Her expression softens as time ticks off. “You know what I think?”
“I’m dying to hear, princess.”
“I think you’ve been holding on to the idea that you had a soulmate called Corla for too long. You’ve been emotionally celibate. I think you forgot what it was like to not have the weight of being star crossed on you. I think you missed a lot of chances, Crux. A lot of good women probably got away because you were attached to this idea of soulmates. And even though this is your default setting and I can’t change that in the span of the next few minutes, I’m not letting you walk out of here without at least one kiss.”
“You already kissed me.”
“I know. But you didn’t kiss me back. You’re gonna go back to your time, and your world is going to fall apart, and so what is the point of being emotionally loyal to a woman who left you behind twenty-one years ago and wrote you off as over?”
She’s right, of course.
But she’s wrong too.
I bring my hand up to her cheek. She blushes at my touch. And then I tuck a strand of silver hair behind her ear and say, “You wanna know what my real problem is?”
She nods.
“My real problem is that… I know it’s going to be over. We’ll get this one moment, Alera. But that’s all we’ll get. Because this is not our time. And maybe I’m being selfish, but I’m not in any rush to find my end.”
“You can’t cram an entire love story into one middle-of-the-night meeting, Crux.”
“Wanna bet? How much you wanna bet? Hmm? Because I have spent two-thirds of my life imagining my happy ending, Alera.” I tap my head. “I got it all up here just ready to be unleashed.”
She chuckles. But as she’s smiling at me, her fingertips go to the hem of her shirt and lift it up over her head. Our gazes are locked as she sits there. Bare.
I shrug out of my jacket and let it drop to the floor, and her hands immediately slide up my arms until they’re gripping the hard muscles of my shoulders.
A chill runs through my body and Alera smiles.
Then she lets go of my shoulders, and I immediately tug my shirt over my head as she lifts her hips up and slides her pants down her legs. They drop to the floor at my feet and now she’s is just naked.
Her skin is not the color of death gray.
She is glowing with an all-over shimmer.
Her hands go to my belt. But our eyes are locked on each other.
I place my palm flat on her cheek and she blushes again.
Then I kiss her.
Just as her hand slips inside my pants to grab both my hard cocks, I kiss her.
And it’s the most perfect kiss ever.
I grab her knees and push her legs open so I get closer to her. Her grip on my cocks is firm. And the way she slides her palms up and down my shafts almost drives me over the edge right then.
I stop thinking about what she’s doing to me and start concentrating on what I want to do to her.
And that answer is… everything.
I want to do everything to this girl.
But we don’t have time for everything, so I slip my fingers between her legs and push them inside her.
She’s already wet for me. But as I play with her, she begins to glow brighter. Her skin taking on an almost heavenly radiance.
I ease my hips forward as she presses my cocks between her legs. And when I press into her, even though she is very wet, she is very tight too.
She moans. And I can’t help myself. I get off on that. I lean in to her neck and bite her ear as I thrust forward. This only makes her moan again, Louder this time.
I want to go slow. I want to enjoy her. Take my time. Make it all special. Make her remember me for the rest of her life.
And just as I think that, she says, “Don’t forget about me.”
“I promise, I will never forget you. I will remember you until the end of the universe.”
And that’s not even a lie.
I might not be able to save her and I’ll probably never see her again, but I will never. Ever. Forget her.
The feelings inside me build. The pleasure heightens. The lust grows. The desire to be one with her is almost all-encompassing.
I know the climax is near.
And I do my bet to stop it, but let’s face it—this is the first girl—in my entire life—that wasn’t part of the plan.
We both come at the same time.
But in that same moment she disappears—
—and I reappear floating in the dark.
But is it ever really dark?
No.
And this is no different. Because pretty soon small pin-pricks of light begin to manifest. Then they shimmer like a silver Cygnian princess.
Stars.
That’s what Corla said all those years ago. “We are making stars.”
And I laughed.
Well, I’m not laughing now.
And from each star a silver line appears. A thread. Thin and fragile. But there, nonetheless.
The threads grow. Weaving their way along the nodes and links in space and time and then…
Tray appears. “I can get you online.”
We are on the top level of ALCOR Station. Fresh out of the gate. Our first meeting with the AI ALCOR.
“Can you?” ALCOR asks.
Tray nods. “Just give me access to your core and one of those SEAR cannons I saw outside and we can thread a quantum neutrino stream through your gates. Once it gets to the other side it’ll keep going forever. If we shoot them out in every possible direction and crate a sort of geodesic vector field that can ride along the nodes and links in time and space then—”
