Asahel Rex shouldn’t have been gambling—not when he needed every credit he could scrape together to free his mother from her contract with the Vermilion House.

  But desperation made people stupid, and Asa had been desperate since sixteen years old.

  "You brat!” NET yelled when Asahel Rex tapped his purple stick chip to the pot to digitally transfer the winnings to his account. “You cheated!”

  “Don’t hate the player,” Asa said, winking. His hand of winning paper cards lay on the fold-up table, a relic of the far-gone past before digital had completely overtaken paper products. “Hate the game!”

  NET—which was short for Nuclear Evasion Technician—was a robot that pre-dated humanoids on the HD 40307 Stelunaria Space Station. NET was still extremely bitter about the rise in humanoid populations on the Station even though it’d been like, three hundred years already. For one thing, NET refused to just call it the Station like everyone else who lived there—they full-named the Station every time.

  “I ought to take you before the SAD for fraud,” NET grumbled, aggressively adjusting their hot pink snapback hat that said “HOT MESS” in plastic rhinestones.

  Asa snorted. “Yeah, okay,” he said. The Satellite Administrative District (SAD) was the satellite governing body on the Station that represented the galaxy’s central government: the Eternal Crystal Imperium. “Then we can talk about your little digital currency scam and how it’s—”

  “Okay, okay, whatever!” NET said, crossing their metal arms, their large face-screen showing a little emoji frowny face. NET was the general size and shape of a humanoid, but they were all metal with an old-fashioned computer screen for a face–and still taller than Asa, which Asa tried not to feel bitter about. “Get out of here before I decide to sell you for parts on the Black Market.”

  “Thanks for paying my rent today,” Asa said, grinning, patting the little beat-up cards. “See ya!” Asa said, ducking out of NET’s seedy little back-room to their main shop full of dubiously acquired items. He reflexively dodged as NET threw an empty can of oil at his head. Asa flung open the door of NET’s shop with his mother’s order of paper books in his bag, the little bell jingling—and then he strolled out to the back alley streets of the Station.

  Bright neon lights lit up restaurant signage that advertised cheap chicken skewers and baked sweet noodles. Pawn shops and digital currency shops littered the back alleyways, with robots loitering in the same spots for days at a time because they didn’t need to sleep. This was the downtown area of the Station, and it was full of nightclubs and bars that were closed during the day.

  When Asa had been an apprentice at the Vermilion House, he had often escaped his duties in demon contracts under Madame Katusha in order to go to this exact place to learn gambling games from robots like NET. The smell of trash and oil and fried food from the streets of the Garnet Market was just as familiar to him as the scents of delicate floral perfumes, wood polish, bergamot tea, and ink that he associated with the House.

  “Asa, you shouldn’t be in this part of town right now,” Digital Evacuation Device (DED) said, looking up from where he was playing cards with a couple other bots. “Rose is really cracking down on outsiders in his territory.”

  DED, NET, and most of the other robots had originally been created using the same model blueprints, but they had made changes to their own programming over time. Currently, DED wore an excessive amount of gold chain necklaces that were probably stolen. Two well-fed cats sat on the table, watching the movement of the cards as if they were judging the game-play.

  Asa scoffed. “He can’t claim the entire downtown area as his,” he said.

  “He can if Boss says he can,” DED warned. Boss had been leader of the organized crime network Gold Seal Syndicate for longer than anyone could remember. Even the SAD couldn’t touch the Gold Seal, seeing as how the Gold Seal funded the SAD’s projects.

  Asa rolled his eyes. “Rose can face me in the ring tonight and say that to my face,” he declared, ignoring DED shaking his box-shaped head, his screen-face showing a :| emoji.

  “Say hi to your mother for me!” DED called after him, as Asa swung around to turn the corner.

  “Will do!” Asa hollered back. He touched his purple earring to activate his holo visor to check the time. “Aw, crap, I’m late!”

  He heard DED laugh as he scaled the roof of the nearest restaurant building, using their old rickety metal ladders. Then he ran across the top of the buildings, which would be faster and safer than navigating the maze of the Garnet Market. The Eternal Crystal Imperium had trashed several new time-lines yesterday to the Station, and they hadn’t settled yet. Asa had no desire to get lost in a new time-line when he was already late to meet his mother.

  The Crystallum Lux star glittered outside the enormous windows of the Station but its light was weak and cold, as the Station was located at the ass-back end of the entire star system. The eight official Eternal Crystal Imperium planets were in the habitation zone of the star and filled with lush greenery, fresh air that smelled like flowers, and a blue sky that went as far as the eye could see—at least according to his mother’s bad fiction novels that she had also sourced from the robots. Asa couldn’t even imagine what rain would actually feel like, even though he had watched all the contraband space pirate holovids he could find.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Asa climbed down the metal ladder of the Blood Orange cafe to the streets, where the restaurant name was written in a large light-up red sign. This was one of the locations controlled solely by the House, although Asa knew that the Gold Seal Syndicate had been trying to slowly absorb the House for decades. Madame Katusha had complained about it all the time. When Asa walked inside, there was a new hostess that he hadn’t seen before.

  “Are you lost?” she said, raising her eyebrow. “If you’re looking for the Gilded Cloud, it’s ten blocks away.”

  The Gilded Cloud was under control of the Gold Seal Syndicate and catered to people passing through the Station on their way to somewhere else, which mostly included assassins, spies, and mercenary soldiers. Asa raised a counter-eyebrow, cleared his throat, and unzipped his jacket to point to his thick, jeweled flower collar that signified affiliation with the House.

  The hostess made a show of looking Asa up and down–his purple mechanic jumpsuit, his ratty leather boots–and said, “If you are not on our VIP approved list, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave–”

  Asa sighed loudly because his mother had started to call him, which made this situation even more stupid because Asa was already here. “My Mother is Galatea Rex,” Asa said, and he had hardly finished his sentence when the hostess’ eyes widened and she immediately started apologizing.

  Asa was going to have to send a strongly worded review regarding staff training to Master Lumen, who would probably proceed to directly send it to his digital trash.

  “Come right this way, Sir,” she said, leading him to his mother’s regular table in the back, which faced an enormous porthole window with a view of the star—and what was probably the eight planets of the Eternal Crystal Imperium, if the Station wasn’t so far away.

  Galatea Rex was famous throughout the Station for her beauty, her fluency in demonic dialects, and the long-running favor of her patrons. Her long black hair was intricately braided, studded with red gemstones, and she wore a long silk red dress with voluminous sleeves. “Asa!” she said warmly, turning to look at him.

  Acanthus—a Class 2 demon of the Vermilion House—accompanied her and looked disapprovingly at him as he approached. Acanthus had known Asa since he was four years old and had never liked him.

  “Mother,” he said, flashing a smile as the hostess fled. He ignored Acanthus. One of Acanthus’ functions was as an eye of the House, and while he had been surprisingly loyal to his mother over the years, Acanthus would have to report whatever she and Asa talked about.

  “What did you do to her?” Mother said, amused.

  Asa shrugged, a little lopsided. “I just mentioned your name.”

  “Oh, so it’s my fault, huh,” she said, reaching up to pinch his cheek.

  “Mother,” he complained. “I’m eighteen years old—"

  “And how old does that make me?” Mother said dangerously.

  Asa mimed zipping his mouth shut and throwing away the key.

  “Smart kid,” Mother said, finally releasing her hold. “Acanthus, darling, wouldn’t you much rather find Master Lumen and receive as many treats as your heart desires?” She rested her chin on her folded hands, looking at Acanthus with raised eyebrows. “You’ll be so bored here with us.”

  Acanthus gave his mother a long look before standing on his four feet and silently padding to the kitchen, where Master Lumen was most likely terrorizing the staff.

  “Come, sit down, I’ve already ordered,” Mother said, smiling. Asa slid into the red chair across from her and pushed her books across the table. “Ahh, such a good child,” she said, already flipping open the cover of the first book in the pile.

  “I still don’t understand why you want paper books,” Asa said, taking a sip of heavily sugared black tea—the only way he would drink it. His mother didn’t approve of tea with additives, but she disapproved even more of his drinking a million cups of coffee per day, so this was their compromise. “Digital books are a lot more convenient. And cheaper.”

  “Maybe they look nicer on my shelf,” Mother said, raising an eyebrow. “Perhaps my clients respect a woman of clear taste and pedigree–they look at my bookshelves and they think, ‘Ah, now that’s a woman who is serious about life and philosophy—'”

  Asa snorted. “Stop messing around,” he said. “Your clients don’t care about that stuff.”

  Mother sighed. “Hope springs eternal,” she said, performatively staring off into the distance, wistful, and then she winked at him. “Paper books are far less traceable than digital,” she said, which is what she always said when he asked but Galatea Rex always had an ulterior motive.

  Asa narrowed his eyes at her. “Aren’t you always the one telling me to stay out of trouble?”

  Their server appeared with enormous platters of food: delicately filleted fish, a rainbow of vegetables, warm bread, hot soup, delicately spiced rice. Mother quickly and elegantly served them both from each plate, giving Asa a double portion. “You’re too skinny,” she said. “Isn’t PQ-9 taking care of you?”

  Asa rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mother, PQ-9 keeps trying to sneak vitamin supplements into my coffee.”

  Mother nodded approvingly because she had built PQ-9 herself. “And are you getting enough sleep?” she asked, even as she flipped through the pages of the paper book.

  “Yes, Mother,” he lied. Pod-races and his commissions didn’t care about his sleep schedule—and since Asa could no longer live at the House, he had to make money somehow. He was grateful Madame Katusha was willing to look the other way that Asa hadn’t returned the House collar. “What are you going to do with these books?”

  “Read them,” his mother said promptly and then laughed when he glared at her. “You need to lighten up, darling. If you’re not careful, your face will stick that way.”

  “Mother,” Asa scolded. “I know you’re the House favorite, but even the House won’t look the other way if you get too much contraband.”

  “You worry too much,” Mother said, waving a hand dismissively.

  Asa felt his face tighten even further. “You don’t worry enough,” he argued, falling into the old argument, even as he hated himself for doing it. He snuck all of his earnings that didn’t go to rent or PQ-9’s upkeep into his mother’s account. But none of it seemed to be enough. “You keep saying how close you are to earning out the contract, but when are you—“

  Mother sighed. “Darling, Madame Katusha is kind enough to pretend she doesn’t know about these meetings,” she said, pouring him more tea. “Let’s not spend our rare time together arguing, hm?”

  Asa crossed his arms but didn’t say anything else.

  “After all,” she said, raising her eyebrows, smiling mischievously to try to lighten his mood. “I think I know what the Eternal Crystal Imperium is trying to find in all those time-lines.”

  [TIMELINE: 001]