Page 65 of No Strings Attached

“Great!” She beamed at him. “And did you? Nothing has changed for us. We still need a broker. And we’re still willing to cut you in on the transactions. So, what’s the fucking problem?”

“You are not royalty.”

“Wrong again. We are absolutely King and Queen of a place called Oz. Right guys?” Everyone nodded their heads. “And we are committed to building diplomatic relations across the galaxy. Let’s take the Ophidians waiting on us. Did you ever dream that you would enjoy the prestige of hosting a royal reception for the Ophidians on your station? What is that going to do for the prominence of you and the station? The Ophidians chose this location for our meeting, but if you were ourvery good friend,” she approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder, “then we might consider returning in the future with another high-profile meeting. As it is, your station has the honor of being the place where the whole galaxy was introduced to the House of Oz. And believe me, it’s a name everyone’s going to hear a lot more of.”

“What kind of friend?”

“Well, there’s the kindness we’ve already asked of you. Since you feel we mislead you, I’m prepared to increase our offer to 2% of all transactions handled through the broker you provide.” Bahbi saw Prag’s eyes flash. “Your feelings are hurt, I get it. However, my feelings are also hurt. You held guns on my boys, and I didn’t like that one fucking bit. So, I think you’re going to have to soothe my hurt feelings by setting us up with a very nice suite aboard your station, indefinitely, while we wait for our broker, transactions, and accounts to get lined up. And keepfeeding us. Then, once the money has come in, we’re going to need an introduction to the best ship builder in the galaxy. What do you think? Are you interested in being our very good friend?”

A slow smile spread across Jarxtan Prag’s face as he looked into Vi’s eyes and said, “My Queen.”

Twenty-Seven: I See We Have the Same Taste in Shoes

Vi nodded, wearily.Yep, nothing like upping the bribe to win friends and influence people. She gestured at the Trallian force around them and spoke to Prag.

“Organize these Trallians into an honor guard around us. Then lead us to the Ophidians. We can’t let them wait any longer.” She looked around at her boys, as she had started thinking of them, and said, “Oz, back to our original places.”

Bobby came forward and put an arm around her waist, and she leaned into him, gratefully. The adrenaline was wearing off, leaving her feeling cold and shaky, so she pressed into his warmth. She noticed the Trallian force staring in shock at their half embrace. Acken came over to them and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Little she-beast, you never cease to surprise me. I was resolved that there would be a lot of blood spilled in this hangar, but you kept us from shedding a single drop.” He seemed to take in her weariness before he went on, in a lower voice, “Bobby hadalready arranged for you to have a little break when we returned home, but I think we shall make sure that it happens here,” he turned his head toward Prag and raised his voice a little, “in our nice, spacious, well-supplied station suite.” Then he looked around at the unmoving Trallians and clapped his hands, booming, “Queen Violet has spoken! Guard formation, NOW!”

She gave Bobby a final squeeze as the Trallians scrambled to follow Acken’s orders and even Jarxtan Prag looked as if he felt urged to comply, though he wasn’t sure how. She understood—shewanted to stop and take more comfort from Bobby; she knew he wanted to give her more, but she didn’t know how to accept it or what to do with it if she did.

So, she moved into her position and took Caussus’s arm, then said to Prag, “I think you should lead the group to the Ophidians, dismiss the guards, then introduce us—the King and me, unless there’s already someone set to handle those protocols?”

Prag shook his head at the question, then nodded in assent at the recommendation, and went to the front of the guard, slowly walking forward and the now much bigger party following.We’re even more impressive now, Vi thought, and wanted to laugh;talk about your major tactical fuckups on Prag’s side. But more importantly,what fresh hell will be next?

As Prag led the guard and royal party towards the Ophidian reception in the lush space station gardens, all Vi could think was:holy shit, those snakes have arms!She was sure they were making a major impression with their entrance, which she had fully intended to observe, but she found that she was toohyper focused on what was to come to take in much of their surroundings or the reaction they were garnering.

She craned her neck and whispered up at Steve, “What’s with the arms?”

He leaned down and whispered, “Neuro-prosthetics. Brain-machine interfaces. They are commonly used on Serpentia. How did you think we became an advanced, technologically sophisticated, space-faring civilization without limbs?”

She hadn’t given it a moment’s thought, in all honesty. “Cool! Do you have an implant?” He nodded. “Then see if they will give you a pair along with that wormhole endpoint device. Never know when those might come in handy.”

Steve only replied, “Careful what you say now. Mind the Ogo recording drones all around us.” Then he rose up again to loom above the party.

Vi glanced around and saw that there were dozens of hummingbird-sized drones recording the event from all heights, vantage points, and angles. She didn’t see any operators, though, so she assumed it was all being directed from somewhere else. On the station? Who knew?

Up ahead, Prag stopped, turned, and spoke to the guard force. They dispersed quickly, leaving just the House of Oz. He proceeded slowly forward toward the pants-shittingly terrifying collection of giant snakes.With arms. Giant snakes with arms.

Vi had time to take in the scene: two giant snakes waited forward of the others. One was banded green and blue, like Steve, and the other was banded orange and yellow. Both wore some kind of golden headpiece, so it was a good bet they were the King and Queen. They sat still, raised high above their coiled bodies, their arm prosthetics held in a clasped hand posture in front of each of them. The 10 or 12 snakes behind them were also raised, lower than the King and Queen, and in various statesof coiled and uncoiled. They were all banded, but in an array of different colors. Some wore arm prosthetics, but some did not.

The area they were being led to had an interior circle of comfortable furniture designed for bipeds in sizes ranging from her to Acken. That furniture, chairs, stools, loveseats, tables of food and drink, was all spaced in such a way as to allow an Ophidian to place themselves comfortably between the pieces. Outside that ring of furniture and tables, and covering it, was half of a giant dome of…monkey bars? It reminded Vi precisely of those playground climbing domes from elementary school, but it was open on each end so that it did not enclose the furnished space below. Vi tried to imagine herself sitting there on the loveseat while giant snakes crisscrossed the bars above, occasionally dropping down to “hang out” and join the conversation. She shuddered.

Prag brought their procession to a halt, cleared his throat, and said, “King Kalt and Queen Lala, honored Ophidians, it is my pleasure to introduce King Caussus and Queen Violet, of Oz, and their royal party of Ophidian, Estranian, Garoxian, Trallian, and Trawg.” He gestured at each as he mentioned their species, a collective gasp rising from the onlookers as he said, “Garoxian.”

After Prag stepped out of the way, Caussus led Violet forward past Friend, as Acken and Mister Beastly stepped farther to the side, and they performed a slow, shallow, sideways dip of the head in unison as Steve had instructed them to do. The Ophidian King and Queen returned the gesture.

Caussus spoke first, also on Steve’s advice, saying, “King Kalt, Queen Lala, it is our most sincere pleasure to meet with you. We are honored that you would travel so far from Serpentia to receive us, and it is our heartfelt wish that we will begin a friendship today between Serpentia and Oz that will last far into the future. I would also like to personally thank you for allowingPrince Steve to travel with our party and serve as a critical ambassador in our understanding of Ophidian culture.”

King Kalt lowered his face to the height of Caussus and Vi, spread his prosthetic arms and hands, then said, “King Caussus, Queen Violet, you honor us by agreeing to join with us here, in friendship, as well as by eschewing clothing—which I understand is not normally your way—in order to show respect for our customs. I am eager to discuss the overlapping interests of Oz and Serpentia, but the Queen and I would first like to take a moment in private withPrinceSteve, as we have not seen him in a very long time. I hope you won’t find our need for a brief family reunion unforgivably rude?”

Steve had told them to expect this, and Vi hoped the shit he was in wasn’t too deep. Caussus returned three or four flowery sentences that amounted to “knock yourselves out,” while Vi looked around the reception area. There was a wide array of non-Ophidians waiting to join the reception, too, it seemed.Let’s hope they break out the booze right fucking soon, she thought.

The Oz crew held their positions as Steve came forward and went off with his folks, disappearing behind a decorative, pagoda-like building in the garden and already beginning what looked like would be a rather heated family discussion. That transition broke the hold on the gathering, and everyone started coming toward the middle seating area to mingle.

Vi felt a huge, furry body pressed into her backside and looked up and over her shoulder into Mister Beastly’s eyes. He said, “Ah-hee,” and she understood. Bobby had asked Mister Beastly to stand with Vi as people looked to start approaching her. She was happy to have something, anything, covering her bare ass. She glanced over and saw Acken doing the same for Caussus, but with a little more daylight between them. As she turned back around, a Trallian placed a stemmed glass of somethingpink and bubby in her hand, tried to offer one to Mister Beastly without meeting his eyes, and quickly retracted the proffered glass.

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