Star Conqueror: Recompense: An Epic Space Harem Adventure

by J. A. Cipriano

  Despite the dimness of the light, I could tell by the way her head was hung and the glimmering of her piercing blue eyes that she had been crying. One hand still lingered next to the access panel, while the rest of her short, perfectly sculpted body, encased in her shining gold power suit, trembled slightly. I crossed the space between us with two quick steps and placed my hands carefully, gently on the much shorter woman’s shoulders, causing her white wings to flutter at my touch.

  “What’s wrong?” It was a simple question, but it probably didn’t have a simple answer.

  Alyra’s chin turned up, well, as up it could go. At five feet nothing, she barely got it up to my chest. “Nothing,” was her snap answer … but a moment later, she let out a sigh and shook her head, copper-wire curls bouncing. “Everything.” She stepped away slowly, turning to go deeper into her cabin, with me on her heels. “Surely you know, my dragon, for as you said, every part of my mind is inside your own head now, is it not?”

  It was the first time I had really walked into Alyra’s cabin and was struck by how utterly Spartan it was. Sure, this was a combat ship, but with the super-advanced technology it was made with, the rooms had tons of customization options available at the press of a virtual button. And yet, Alyra had barely made a change to the room, save for the lighting, something I figured was more comfortable to her native species’ eyes.

  But otherwise, it was a bare-basic crew cabin. A retractable bed on the far wall was out, and there was a food reconsitutor and small refrigerator mounted in the wall next to the bed. Opposite that was both the doorway to the restroom and sonic shower and a small cubby with a desk, computer terminal linked to the main ship’s systems, and a few shelves. To the right of the main door were rows of drawers for clothing and gear.

  For someone who had joined up with the Matriarchy out of the desire to never be poor again, it seemed a bit odd for the place to be made up like a monk lived there.

  “Actually, Alyra, I know everything about what you were.” As I spoke, she strode stiffly to the bed and turned to sit on the edge of it. So I could keep close to eye-to-eye with her, I grabbed the chair from the cubby and sat myself, turning it so I could lean over the back of it. “All of your past, everything from both before and during your time as a Matriarch got downloaded into my brain by the Dragon Will, but from there on out, your thoughts and feelings are private. Sure, I can make some pretty solid guesses based on the past, but no, I’m not inside your head, so I don’t know why exactly you’re upset now … but I damn sure know that you are.”

  Alyra sniffed and stood up straight, the swell of her breasts pressed hard against her suit. “Of course, I am. Would you not be yourself in my position? To have the damage wrought by your hand thrown up in your face, impossible to ignore.” She closed her eyes and tears pressed out of them, rolling down her marble cheeks. “It is one thing to see your crimes in the abstract, to know merely the facts of the matter. I could handle that. But now …”

  I nodded in sympathy, even if she couldn’t see me. “You’re taking it full on the chin. You can’t deny it, and you can’t rationalize it.” Alyra’s eyes opened, her gaze moving to me. “So, you’re trying to do the next best thing, to hide from it, even though you know the people you hurt are hanging out in space, not a klick out from us.”

  “If you’re trying to make me feel better, David Briggs, you are not.” Alyra wiped at her face madly. “Hiding is all I can do, anything to put those girls’ faces out of my perception.”

  “And that’s not exactly helping, is it?” I skootched the chair closer to her, close enough to hold out an open palm towards her. “The truth is nothing will make the pain just go away, and there’s nowhere you can hide from it. Besides, you’re too smart to hide your head in a hole and deny the truth.”

  Hesitantly, Alyra put her small hand into mine. “Am I to live with the shame and pain then? Will I hear every imagined scream of torture from the girls I sentenced to those camps, simply for my own comfort?” She searched my eyes for help, lips trembling. “I may be strong, dragon, but under such a burden I would surely break.”

  “The problem is that you’re trying to run from it, to ignore it.” I squeezed her hand softly and put my other over it. “That’s the wrong strategy. Instead of trying to forget, you should try to do better, be better. Instead of staying away from those girls, do something to make it up to them, something to make them proud.”

  “You make it sound so simple,” Alyra scoffed, though she didn’t pull away. In fact, she added her other hand to our pile, holding on tight. “An empty platitude, something easy for someone as noble as you to say. But for me …” Her voice trailed off as she lowered her head and sighed.

  “You haven’t looked deep enough into my memories, have you?” I slipped one hand free, reaching forward to gently tilt the ex-Matriarch’s beautiful chin back up. “I’ve always tried to be a good guy, sure, but I’m no saint. Look back, Alyra. Think up my time in the war.”

  Her eyes looked deeply into mine, and then she nodded, closing her eyes. As she began to concentrate, I kept talking, my words soft as I drifted back in reminiscing myself. “I never did anything I didn’t think was right … but that doesn’t mean I didn’t wind up making the wrong choices. Didn’t wind up hurting people I didn’t mean to. People died when I made mistakes because that’s the nature of war.”

  Shaking my head slowly, I squeezed Alyra’s hand as her eyelids twitched and her wings shivered. She must have hit the memories I was talking about. “Maybe you’re thinking how that can stack up to what you did, but how is it any different? You made one choice in a moment of weakness, and after that, the Matriarchy had their hooks in you. Just like I made one bad choice in a moment of chaos.”

  “I see it,” she murmured. “I remember it all.” Alyra’s eyes crept open, the last few tears welling up in them. “No, my dragon. I feel the pain you carried. The friends you had to bury. How you tortured yourself in the aftermath, just as I am doing now.” She let out a shuddering sigh. “And yet, you endured. You came to terms with the past … made your peace with it.”

  I nodded and stood up, drawing her up with a gentle tug. “Yes, but more importantly, I worked hard to do anything in power to make up for what I did. I personally made amends to the families of the friends I lost, and I promised myself that I would do better. Be better, just like I said.” As we both stood, Alyra kept her blue eyes locked in mine, pressing her body up against mine. You would have thought her marble grey skin would have been cold, but she was hot against me. “Now, I have the big chance to truly be better. I’m not going to let you guys down.”

  Those words hung in the air as our gazes locked. I released Alyra’s hands, bringing one arm around her shoulders, careful not to bang into her wings as I held her close. With my other hand, I gently wiped away the last of her tears with my thumb. Though warm, her cheek had the perfect smoothness of stone.

  “Then how can I do any different?” she finally said, some strength coming back into her voice. “If I am to be your Wings, my dragon, then I must live up to your example. I will not … cannot hide from those I hurt, I see this now.”

  I smiled softly and nodded. “Good. And you’ll make it up to those girls because you’re going to help us save the galaxy, make it so that no other girl is going to some prison camp ever again.”

  “Yes, I will. We will.”

  Alyra finally cracked a small smile and suddenly popped up onto her tippy-toes, stretching just enough to plant a quick kiss on my lips, the first kiss she had ever given me. As she dropped back down, eyes soft and full of longing, I bent down enough to let us have a good, proper kiss. Her lips were smooth and warm, tasting strangely of chocolate and mint.

  After a long moment, our lips parted, and I stepped back slowly. “Wow.” I smiled softly. “You know, part of me says that I really should check in on the bridge, what with us leaving shortly, but …”

  Alyra closed that short distance, her arms going around my wai
st, her massive wings shrouding us. “Please, David. Stay with me.” She buried her head in my chest. “I may see the way forward, but … I don’t want to be alone. Not right now.”

  “Then what kind of a man would I be if I left?” I replied.

  “I would not judge you, my dragon, but I know that you mean to stay.” Alyra’s voice was soft as she pulled back for a moment, to my puzzlement. “Could you please turn for just a moment? I have to … to prepare myself for this.”

  “Well, okay.” I did as she asked, wondering if maybe I was reading the situation wrong. Maybe she just wanted to talk, or maybe something else entirely not involving sex at all, no matter what signals she was sending. “Just know whatever you need, I’m here for you. Hell, we all are. We’re family above all else.”

  I heard the rustle of clothes and the faint hiss of air, as Alyra replied softly, “Turner says that word … family … often, as do the rest of you. I know you believe that, but it’s harder for me to accept that.”

  “When your own family abandoned you, for whatever reason,” I began, turning towards her as I spoke, “I can understand why you might, but …” My voice trailed off as I took in Alyra’s now completely naked body, her depressurized power suit a filmy white pile around her feet. It wasn’t out of embarrassment, no. Tulip had done a good job of erasing any lingering bits of ‘primitive Earther’ body shame out of my system.

  No, I shut my mouth because Alyra Azani was a sight of beauty that’d make angels weep. Hell, maybe she had made an angel cry because in a universe I knew now had dragons and magic, maybe God existed too. That wasn’t to cast a single ray of shame on either Tulip or Clara. The other ladies in my life were lovely, and they each had their own particular charms. Tulip was busty and curvy, tall with an hourglass figure, while Clara had the lithe, flexible physique of a dancer.

  Alyra, though, was a perfect blend of the two. The polished marble grey of her skin made the bluish light play off every feature just so, accenting the best her body had to show. Her pure white wings were spread like a heavenly backdrop to her form, the frame to a glorious painting from the brush of a master. From the swell of her hips through the toned stomach up through the pert breasts just the right size, the total package made me feel like Goldilocks.

  The last one was juuuust right.

  The tingle of desire sparked down my spine as I took a step toward her, blood rushing through my veins. “You’re gorgeous, Alyra.”

  Her eyes flitted upward to meet mine, her cheeks flush. “I … thank you, my dragon.” She took a deep breath, an act that made her chest heave in all the right ways. “I would ask you for the honor of … well … as you stay with me …” For someone who usually had no problem speaking her mind, Alyra was having a problem getting to the point. “I would wish the honor of you being my first, David Briggs.”

  My eyes widened a bit as my mind raced, plunging into the vast cloud of memories in the draconic part of my mind. Looking through the pasts of Clara and Alyra, all the information the Dragon Will had dumped into my brain, was kind of like sorting through a database. After the initial rush upon freeing them, I needed to actually ask for specific information, and I damn sure had never considered asking myself if Alyra was a virgin or not before now.

  “I didn’t know,” I admitted, as the memories raced through me. Alyra had been taken young by the Matriarchy, and she had submitted to them willingly, so to know she hadn’t had sex during her free life made sense. But after …?

  “For my sisters and I, the chosen of the High Priestess and daughters of the Mother,” Alyra intoned, her voice quavering but still reverent as she closed the rest of the distance to me, “purity is prized above all. To … to make love is denied. There can be no love for us but that for the Matriarchy and the High Priestess.”

  As she spoke, the memories flashed through me, the preaching of the priestesses, Alyra spending long hours reading holy texts much like the ones we had recovered on Balarian. I’d started to go through them myself, but there hadn’t been much time to do so. Frankly, I’d been looking for mentions of the dragons and the Matriarchy’s own prophecies, not their sexual decrees.

  “That’s bullshit,” I growled as I pulled her close, feeling her warmth even through my own suit. “It’s as stupid as when priests on Earth pledge celibacy. Love’s free, and sex is beautiful.” I took one of her hands and guided it gently up to my collar, to the depressurization studs.

  Alyra didn’t need any more prompting to push the studs in, the hiss of air cutting the air as my own power suit unsealed, turning into loose fabric around me as the back seals opened. “I see that in your memories, David Briggs, but it’s been hard. Hard this past month to fight a decade of the sermons and preaching pressed into my mind.” She bit her lip as she tugged the limp suit around my chiseled frame. I’d never stopped working out once I was out of the military, and the last month or so back in active service, even if it was half a galaxy away, had done wonders. “I’ve been jealous, my dragon, of what Tulip and Clara had with you. I am sorry for that. For everything.”

  Alyra was about to go on as my suit fell to my feet, but I cut her off with a deep, passionate kiss. I wanted her, something my erection made plain, and from the feel of her hard nipples against my chest as she pressed against me, I knew she wanted the same. Her body tensed for only a moment before she melted into me, her lips hungrily pressing into my own as she pulled us together with all her might. After a timeless moment, we reluctantly pulled away, Alyra’s blue eyes burning with want as our gazes locked.

  “You never have to be sorry for your feelings again, Alyra,” I soothed, one arm around her waist as the other traced up her form before settling into her copper hair. Though it looked like fine wire, it was as soft and sensual to the touch as human hair. “Just do like the rest of us and always strive to be better.”

  “For you, I will do anything.” Alyra spoke it like a promise, a pledge, and a prayer all in one sentence. Before I could respond, she pulled herself onto me, filling herself with my length even as she scissored her legs around my sides.

  I wasn’t complaining one bit as we fell back onto her bunk, hands and lips roaming, as we lost ourselves in the passion of the moment.

  4

  I woke up to the insistent beeping of the shift alarm coming from my discarded power suit’s wrist computer. Alyra was curled up against my side, fitting like a glove, one arm and wing draped over me as I reluctantly opened my eyes. As much as I might have wanted to stay here, mingling warmth like this for hours, that alarm meant it was time to start preparing for our actual mission.

  Though sometime in our wild lovemaking Alyra had commanded the lights to go out, there was still a dim glow from the light strips mounted along the edge of the flooring, the standard safety lighting to prevent an accident in the confines of the ship. Between that barely visible light and the enhanced vision the dragon inside me granted, I could make out the room through the gloom well enough. My suit was where Alyra had pulled it off of me, a few feet from the bed. The beeping wasn’t stopping, so I turned my head towards the suit.

  “All right, suit, I’m up,” I muttered. “You can cut the alarm, okay?”

  That shut the thing up, but the sound also roused Alyra beside me. It was for the best really. It was time to get to work, and this entire mission originated with Alyra’s ideas for how to take down the Matriarchy once and for all. She kind of needed to be there. The hand on my chest clutched possessively, nails tugging across my skin and almost enough to make me want to wake her with more than a kiss, but I controlled myself. As her eyes fluttered open, I gave her a quick kiss, savoring that now-familiar minty chocolate taste.

  “My dragon,” she murmured lustily as our lips parted. “Did you wake me for more …?”

  I smiled at her. “As much as that would be, well, incredible, no.” Reluctantly, I slid out of bed. “It’s time to do that whole galaxy-saving thing.”

  “Oh.” The sadness in her voice was plain as she
sat up, covers falling off that magnificent chest of hers. “I … well, yes. I must be better, yes? And to do better, we must do our duties.”

  I stretched as I stood. We hadn’t actually slept much during our off shift, but I still felt amazingly rejuvenated. “Exactly.” I turned towards her as she smoothed her hands over her face. “But before we meet up with the others on the bridge, we do need to get clean.” I eyed the door to the small but serviceable bathroom each cabin had. “And I know from experience that two people can indeed fit in a standard shower.”

  That perked the little, winged woman right up. She tucked her wings and slid out of bed, hot on my heels as we put my knowledge to the test.

  Understandably, Alyra and I were the last ones to get to the bridge. A glance at ship’s time on my screen put us around three and a half hours out from the Leonis system. Plenty of time to formulate a plan for the mission we had. As we stepped onto the bridge, Clara and Turner both looked up at us. The healer perched on the railing behind the navigator’s station where Tulip sat, while the big engineer loomed over the catwoman as she tapped away at her console.

  “Ah, darlings,” Clara cooed as she wiggled her fingers in greeting. “I hope your rest was, well, restful.” She winked a golden eye as Turner let out a guffaw.

  Tulip elbowed the Bolderian in the ribs without even glancing, cutting off the chuckle abruptly. “Turner, please! Whatever happened, it was a lovely and special thing, blessed by both the dragons and the great Felinus above. You shouldn’t chuckle about it.”

  “But I agree!” he countered. “I think you take my laughter too seriously. I mean it as an expression of joy, not as some means of making fun.”

  Tulip rolled her eyes. “I know that, silly, but she—”

  I cleared my throat. “Okay, guys, it’s all good.” I put my hand on Alyra’s shoulder. “The important thing is that Alyra and I talked, and she’s feeling a lot better.” Clara and Tulip exchanged a knowing look at that, and I rolled my own eyes. “And I just started a dozen jokes, didn’t I?”