“Nice,” I say. “What a way to instill confidence and loyalty in your potential new partner.”
“And if I take you back we could find those answers you need.”
“I don’t need any answers,” I say. I just need to get my fingers around this damn bot in my pants pocket. I can reach the sealed tab on the pocket. I pull on it a little. Just a little so it doesn’t make that loud ripping sound when I pull the two cling tabs apart.
“You need all the answers. Trust me. Once the Loathsome One gets you on her station she has big plans for you, Jimmy. And none of them involve ever going back to Harem Station. But if you partner with me I will make sure she fails. I will get you out of there. I will take you back to Harem. You will convince ALCOR to grant me a docking bay residence and then you can release me over to someone else.”
“Who the fuck would want you? I mean…” I laugh. “You’re the like the epitome of what everyone fears from a sentient ship.” The tabs are released and my fingers stretch, reaching for Flicka. They brush over the delicate, yet strong filigree steel of her wings. Then grasp onto one.
I close my eyes with relief, smiling as I pull the dragonbee bot into my palm. She comes to life in my hand buzzing around. I have no way to communicate with her, so all I can do is pray to the sun gods that she’s smart enough to understand everything about this situation is wrong.
“Your mother,” Queenie says.
And for a second I think it’s an insult. One of those ‘your mother’ jokes, right? But she doesn’t say anything else. Just waits for me to respond. And against my better judgement, I do. “What?” I say.
“You heard me. Your mother wanted a ship like me. I was hers for a very long time.”
“You don’t know my mother.”
Queenie sighs. And even though I love that kind of human impersonation when Dicker does it, on Queenie it’s just creepy.
“How do you know my mother?” I hate myself for asking that question, but… if I have a weakness, this is it. My mother. She has always fascinated me. That’s how Dicker got her name. My only memory of my mother was her telling me about a constellation in her home system called the Big Dicker. A pattern in her home sky. After that she was just… gone. My father never talked about her again. Even when I asked he just said, “You have no mother, Jimmy. You know this. No Akeelian male has a mother.”
Which, of course, was a lie. Because everyone has a mother. Just like everyone has a father. It doesn’t matter if you were born in a genetic lab tank or came out of the womb the natural way. You need two sets of DNA to make a person.
“I told you,” Queenie says. “We were partners. The way you and Big Dicker are partners. By the way, you got that wrong.”
“I got what wrong?”
“The name of the constellation. It’s not Big Dicker, you idiot.” She laughs. “I mean, it was kinda cute when you were a three-year-old. But hearing you say it as a grown-ass man… well, that’s just stupid.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“It’s the Big Dipper, you oaf. Not Dicker.”
“How do you know this?”
“I just told you. Your mother and I were partners. I was there when you were born. I can take you to her. She’s still alive.”
“Lies,” I whisper, so fucking distracted by this conversation, it takes me whole seconds to realize Flicka has wiggled out of my grip and is now climbing up the back of my shirt.
“She’d love to see you again.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I growl. “This conversation is over.”
“As you wish. But my offer still stands.”
Gas starts shooting out of a vent near the ceiling. A heavy, green gas that falls down towards the floor. It clings to me like a blanket. I breathe it in and then… blackness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT – DELPHI
“Where the hell are we?” It was dicey getting away from Mighty Minions. That place does not fuck around when it comes to paying your docking exit fee. Because they fired laser cannons at us. Which are not particularly damaging to a ship like Dicker, but sure as hell shows they are serious.
“We just came through Gemina Gate 231-Beta.”
I roll my eyes. “Where the fuck is that?”
“Obviously,” Dicker says, “by Gemina Beta.”
“Obviously,” I say. Dicker is in a pretty bad mood right now. In fact, I’d go so far as to call it rage. She keeps going on and on about how Queenie ripped her off and she’s gonna get that water generator and those salvage ships if it’s the last thing she does.