Nyx’s head is pounding when she comes to. The back of her neck is sore where the tranquilizer had struck her. Her arms at the wrist and elbow also ached.

  “Oh, looks like she’s waking up.” She hears a boyish voice.

  Nyx’s eyes flutter open, and she sees red eyes looking at her from above.

  Nyx hisses and tries to jump away, “What the spark!?”

  Nyx notices she’s in a sterile room on a simple cot. It’s almost identical in size and shape to the nursery on Barnard Station she lived in before the pirates took her. There’s even a drone hatch on the wall opposite the door.

  Immediately she feels her chest tighten as she recalls her siblings’ dead bodies floating in the room. But she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath to help calm her before looking around more.

  Sitting next to her is a young human woman. Her red eyes, pale skin, and white hair make her stand out. She’s cute, with a heart-shaped face, large eyes, plump lips, and a large chest. Not as large as the women in Cai’s simulation, but they were larger than every woman she’s seen outside of the simulation. She’s wearing a modest white dress that does little to hide her very curvy shape.

  Nyx feels self-conscious as she stares at the woman’s chest. How could such size differences between women exist? Not that she would want them this big…

  Cai would love her.

  The woman notices Nyx staring and covers her chest, blushing.

  There’s a laugh, “Roxy! Looks like you got another fan!”

  Nyx looks to the source of the voice, realizing it’s the one she heard when she woke up.

  It’s a teenage girl wearing a frilly dress that’s pure white, with embroidered patterns of gold along the sleeves and skirts. The girl’s face is as boyish as her voice. Her hair is even blonder than Nyx’s, but cut very short. Her eyes are the same green as every other Felis she’s seen. She has perky ears that twitch as she picks her nose, her tail wagging lazily behind her as she flicks the booger onto the wall. She’s even less curvy than Nyx, but not by much, which makes her a little happy that she’s not the least womanly of the group.

  There’s another Felis girl sitting on the floor, drawing with a stylus on the table’s surface. She has long black hair in a braid with a blue ribbon at the back of her head. Her dress is also blue and is the same style as the blonde girl’s. It’s embroidered with black patterns. She’s petite, but has some curves. She’s got a cute face as she draws, her tongue poking between her lips as she concentrates.

  The white-haired girl turns to the blonde, her voice is soft despite scolding the blonde, “Zone! How many times do I have to tell you to stop flicking boogers!”

  The blonde, Zone, waves the white-haired girl off, “Roxy, the drone’ll get it.” She wipes her dirty finger on her dress.

  Zone is right, as soon after, a small cleaning drone appears from the drone hatch and heads straight for the offending booger.

  Roxy sighs and turns to Nyx, her voice almost a whisper, “Um… Sorry. He doesn’t like to listen.”

  Nyx’s mouth opens in shock, she thought Zone was a girl. He? That meant she was barely curvier than a boy a few years younger than her.

  Nyx shakes her head, “Where’s this place bein’?”

  She knows. It can’t be anything else. It has to be the lab on Mars.

  Zone laughs, “Where’s this place bein’? What kind of way to talk is that? The AAs speak better English than you do, and they’re still little kids!”

  Roxy turns back to Zone, “Zone! Be nice!”

  Nyx bristles and hisses, “It’s how I was sparkin’ bein’ raised! Ya try livin’ with pirates for fifteen years and talkin’ all shiny!”

  Zone laughs, “All shiny!” He leans forward, “But pirates? That’s so cool! Allison shows us old Earth movies all the time, and the pirates are so cool!”

  Nyx growls, “Those pirates were starvin’ me. Stealin’ people’s things. And they’re always smellin’ like shunk and az!”

  Roxy panics, “Zone! Stop it!”

  Zone crosses his arms, “What! Roxy, why are you always like this?”

  Roxy pouts, her cheeks puffed out. She looks more adorable than angry.

  Nyx is getting frustrated at the bickering, “Can ya be tellin’ me where we are bein’?”

  Zone sticks his tongue out at Roxy before turning back to Nyx, “Here’s here. We just call it the Lab. Never been outside.” He leans forward, “Is it true people are starving and fighting each other like animals? Allison’s always saying it’s much better in here, and we’ll get robbed or starve if we leave.” He looks at Nyx’s body, “And you’re all skin and bones! So maybe she is right!”

  Roxy looks at Nyx, and she appears curious too.

  Nyx tests her weight. She feels as light as she did in Sandel Colony, so they must still be on Mars somewhere, “I’m thinkin’ we’re bein’ on Mars. They’re bein’ low on food, but Cai…” She looks around again, “Where’s Cai bein’!? Were they bringin’ in a man? He bein’ good lookin’ with huge muscles…”

  Zone shrugs, “Just you from what I’ve seen, but they don’t let us out much.”

  Roxy looks at the door, then back to Nyx, “His name is Cai?” She covers her mouth in shock, “Oh! We haven’t been introduced yet! I’m RXX, but everyone calls me Roxy.”

  Zone sighs, “Right… I’m CZX 1, but everyone calls me Zone since I’m the first kid from Generation Z.” He points without looking at the girl at the table. “That’s my little sister, CZX 2, but we call her Twoey. She doesn’t talk much, so don’t bother.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Twoey looks up from her drawing to Zone, “I can talk!”

  She sticks out her tongue at Zone, then goes back to her drawing.

  Nyx looks between the two siblings for a moment, “I’m likin’ her.”

  Twoey just gives Nyx a thumbs up as she draws.

  Zone huffs, “Yeah, yeah.”

  Nyx turns back to Roxy, “I’m Nyx. I think it is meanin’ somethin’ like yer names too, but I don’t remember as I was bein’ four years old before… Well… the pirates sparkin’ found me.”

  Roxy gives her a gentle smile, “Hi, Nyx. I think Allison told us we’re supposed to say ‘Nice to meet you’ when meeting someone new?”

  Twoey glances at Nyx, “Generation Y?” She glances at Roxy before going back to her drawing, “Nice to meet you.”

  Zone leans back in his chair, “Whatever.” He shoves a finger deep into his nose, “Ugh… got a deep one in I can’t get out.”

  Nyx ignores Zone, she’d seen pirates do worse with their noses, and looks between Twoey and Roxy, “Uh, nice to be meetin’ ya too. Or I would like to be sparkin’ sayin’ but wasn’t exactly wantin’ to be comin’ here.”

  She gets off the bed and notices a pain in her chest and a wave of dizziness hits her, “Sparks!”

  She falls back onto the bed.

  Roxy rushed to her, “Nyx. You had heart surgery. We were told to make you rest while you recover.”

  Nyx recalled she’d come to Mars for heart surgery in the first place, though she didn’t recall being tranquilized as being part of hospital procedures, “Yeah, Cai was sayin’ somethin’ was bein’ wrong with my heart. That’s why we were comin’ to Mars.”

  Zone scoffs, “Your heart? More like something wrong with your brain. ‘Sayin’ somethin’ was bein’ wrong?’ Did you hit your head and forget how to say your ‘g’s?”

  Roxy shoots out of her chair, “Zone!” It’s the loudest Nyx has heard the woman speak, which is barely louder than a normal person talking normally, “Manners!”

  Zone uses his hand to mock her talking, “Blah blah blah. We’re stuck in here, Roxy. Just us. Who cares about manners.”

  Roxy’s cheeks puff out, “Someday we might…” She doesn’t sound convinced herself.

  Nyx’s ears flatten in anger as Zone insults her, “Zone, yer bein’ a brat. Shut yer bilge hole before I’m doin’ it for ya!”

  She tries to stand again, but falls back down as the dizziness hits her.

  Roxy returns, “Nyx, just… just ignore him. We’re normally quiet, but we’re excited to see a new face.”

  Nyx looks at Twoey, who looks like she doesn’t care about anything other than her drawing. Zone reminds her of Blackie condemning her for invading his territory. Roxy, who looks like she could fall into a nervous fit at any moment as she wrings her hands, looks between Nyx and Zone.

  Twoey doesn’t look up, “I’m excited.” She taps the table, and her drawing appears as a hologram above the table. It’s Nyx, Roxy, and Zone. Though she’s drawn Zone much more crudely. Nyx sees herself scowling at Zone. Roxy panics as she tries to calm them down. Zone has a finger shoved up a nose so large it takes up most of his face, the only other things are his comically small eyes and a mouth that’s yelling with rotten teeth.

  Nyx holds back a laugh, then loses it, “It’s lookin’ just like ‘em!”

  Roxy panics as predicted by the drawing, “Twoey! Everyone…”

  Zone finally gets up and stomps to Twoey, “You brat!”

  Twoey ignores Zone and merely starts her next picture.

  Zone erases the image, Twoey not even reacting.

  Nyx pats Roxy’s head, “Hey, we’re just here havin’ some fun.”

  Nyx realizes she really is having fun, and she’s forgotten about her earlier panic attack. With Cai, she’s always on edge and trying to look good, but these three make her feel welcome and she can be herself.

  She looks to the door, her ears flattening against her head, “Cai…”

  Had they brought him too? Killed him? Left him there and took her?

  Roxy calms down at the sight of Nyx, “Cai? You said that name before. Is he your boyfriend or husband?”

  Nyx blushes, “Spark no! We were just meetin’ a few days ago. Not married…”

  Zero walks over to Nyx and laughs, “Gross! She’s thinking about it!”

  Twoey doesn’t look up, “Husband? What’s it like?”

  Nyx hisses, “I’ve never been bein’ married before!”

  Roxy blushes, “Um… everyone… Let’s not…”

  Zone’s lips curl in disgust, but there seems to be something more to his reaction that she can’t place her finger on, “Ew… marriage. Like with a boy and girl? Babies should grow in artificial wombs, not that disgusting way.”

  Nyx nods in enthusiastic agreement. After fifteen years of being with pirates, she wants nothing to do with this, “Dum right we’re not gonna be talkin’ about that.”

  And how does she feel about Cai?

  She doesn’t know what to think other than that it’s making her depressed.

  Roxy takes Nyx’s hand, “Um… if you don’t mind, I’d love to make a dress for you.”

  Nyx looks at their clothing again, “Yer makin’ all the clothes?”

  Zone laughs, “Oh, Roxy’s going to be putting you in the most girly dress she can, even us boys!”

  Nyx is actually interested. So many years of hand-me-down oversized men’s clothing. What would it be like to wear something feminine? “Mya?”

  Roxy stands, “Let me get my things, and I’ll have you a dress by tomorrow!” Roxy looks as excited as Nyx felt drinking milk for the first time. “Oh, you’re going to be so pretty!”

  Roxy heads to a set of drawers and digs through them.

  Zone picks his teeth with a fingernail, “Roxy was gushing over what kind of dress to make you while we waited for you to wake up.”

  Nyx looks to see that she’s still wearing her sundress. She also peeks inside and sees a bandage above her heart where they’d done her surgery. There are also bandages on her arms and she remembers the times as a child they’d drawn her blood or injected drugs into her.

  Her bracelet is gone, and Nyx feels her heart drop. It was like she’d lost her friends again.

  Nyx notices Zone looking at her hands and arms, “Pirates do that to you? The scars? The long one going up your left wrist looks nasty.”

  Nyx covers the scar on her left wrist, “They’re bein’ from putin’ my hands in places to be fixin’ things.”

  “Didn’t you have drones for that?”

  Nyx laughs, “Pirates broke ‘em long ago.”

  Roxy returns with some measuring tape, a fire in her eyes as she measures Nyx, “You’re going to be adorable with the dress I’m thinking of.” She touches the fabric of her sundress, “And you don’t mind if I make other dresses like yours?”

  Nyx shrugs, “Be goin’ ahead.”

  Before Roxy can reply, the door opens.

  It’s a man wearing sterile white clothing and a medical mask pushing a wheelchair, “N-Y-X, it’s time for your check-up.”

  Roxy immediately lowers her eyes and stares at the floor, and she’s shivering. Zone’s grin falters, but he shrugs and takes a step back. Twoey just keeps drawing.

  Nyx’s head swims as she tries to get up, but the man catches her and helps her into the chair, “Cai? You be knowin’ where he’s bein’?”

  The man ignores her as he wheels her into the hallway.

  Nyx sees its much the same as the lab on Barnard Station, though she sees more people here than she remembers seeing there. All young. All probably with anti-aging therapy.

  She can’t tell what’s inside most of the rooms as she passes by, but in one she sees human children of various ages playing inside, as the door is wide open. One even gives her a curious look, but goes back to playing. The children are all beautiful, as if designed perfectly. And knowing this place, they probably were.

  They round a turn, and there she sees a woman that reminds her of Heidi, but much younger, waiting there, “N-Y-X, it’s good to see you in person. We were delighted when Mr. Halley brought you back to us.”