Page 121 of Stripped By the Alien

For a long moment, nothing happens except the whine of failing components and Lucius's soft, effortful hum of concentration.

"Come on," I whisper.

"I am trying, Captain, this system was not designed to be hospitable—" His voice cuts off mid-sentence, and for one terrible moment I think he's failed. Or worse, broken entirely.

Then every alarm on the station changes pitch at once.

The whole station shakes and somewhere far below us, I hear it before I understand it. There's a vast, cascading chorus of mechanical clicks, hundreds of them, and it takes a second for my mind to catch up to what it means: Every cell door on this station, unlocking, all at the same time.

"Drone control, disabled," Lucius reports, flashing green, his voice thin with effort but unmistakably, gloriously satisfied. "Restraint fields, offline. Cell locks, released, station-wide. I've also taken the liberty of purging their auction records and client manifest. It seemed a shame to waste the access. I will delete everything except the life support systems."

Sophia lets out a short, disbelieving laugh beside me, and even Brax'tok's mouth twitches into something that might, on another day, be called a smile.

"Good machine," Krix'vorr says, and it sounds as if he means it.

We hurry towards the Beast and the calf. On the way we meet captives, dozens of them already, from dozens of alien species. They seem dazed, but determined, no longer confined to cells that no longer exist.

“It's not a rescue,” I mutter to Sophia. “Not really.”

“Hey, it's a door left open,” she replies. “I would have killed for that. What they do with it now is up to them.”

"We should hurry," Krix'vorr says finally, one hand resting against my back. "Before the Gzet navy remembers we exist."

We move fast through corridors that look nothing like they did on the way in. There are blast marks on every wall, shattered drones sparking in corners, freed captives pressing themselves flat against the walls as we pass, staring at Krix'vorr with expressions I can't tell apart from the ones his own crew wears.

Lucius, cradled once more against my chest, manages a small, tired chime as Krix'vorr leads me back toward the breach the Beast tore in the outer hull.

The Beast is waiting exactly where we left her, pressed against the station's flank, and beside her, still lodged in its own smaller wound, the calf trembles with what I can only call relief.

We climb aboard. The membrane closes behind us, sealing out the alarms and the wreckage and the whole ruined machine of the place. Sophia and the Inquisitor follow us, Sophia's eyes wide as she tries to comprehend the living space ship she's inside.

Krix'vorr's hand finds mine. “Navigation chief, take us out.”

“Yes, Chief Harrower!”

For a moment it's just Krix'vorr and I, standing together at the back of the command chamber, watching the station recede through the great dark eye.

The Beast draws back from the station's hull in one long, unhurried motion, patient and enormous and finally free to leave. A moment later the calf pulls itself loose as well, small and quick beside her, and falls into place at her side like it never once considered doing anything else. Mother and calf, moving away together into open space.

"We did it," I marvel, hoping I'm right.

"We did." His hand tightens around mine. "Not the way I expected to, when I sat on that Nest's threshold a lifetime ago."

Sophia comes in, followed by the Inquisitor. “This thing is insane,” she says, running her fingertips over the living wall as she moves further inside.

I look up at Krix'vorr. "What did the Queen say?"

He looks away. “I didn't go to the Nest after all.”

My jaw drops. “You didn't go?!”

“There's nothing the Queen can offer me that you can't do better.” He reaches out to touch my hair. “I will never leave you again. On the way there I finally understood. You're my galaxy.”

I punch his hard chest, very gently. “You're crazy. But what will she do now? What about the Royal Mate thing?”

He taps his lips. “Yes, I want to make absolutely sure that I can never be Royal Mate. And I was thinking, I can't very well be Royal Mate if I already have a mate. Say, a wife. Are you aware of the concept?”

My mind goes blank at the sudden change of topic. “Of course I am. But I'm astonished that you are.”