The Worldship's lower archive layers had stayed sealed for decades. When they powered up without warning, alarms ripped through the command decks.
Aiden arrived with the full harem and a security team. Neural crowns—freshly fabricated from the ship's progenitor tech—sat heavy on their heads.
The crowns linked their minds to the archive systems. One wrong move and the entire section could lock down forever.
They descended into the King's Vault. The space wasn't a room. It was a shifting crystalline mindscape.
Floating thrones drifted past memory rivers that glowed with raw data. Walls formed and dissolved based on whoever held the strongest will in the moment. At the center waited Isolde.
She manifested as a semi-solid woman in regal robes, sharp features framed by silver hair. Her eyes scanned the group with cold calculation.
"A new ruler arrives with his collection of women. How quaint. I offer better. Absolute loyalty. No doubts. No messy hearts."
