Star Conqueror: Recompense: An Epic Space Harem Adventure

by J. A. Cipriano

  “Let me aid you, dragon,” Xara’s even voice said, even as more chains shot out of the nothingness around us, curling around my forearms before I could start to slash at the bindings.

  Nodding, I growled, “Go for it, then we run for the door.” Unlike Alyra or Clara, Xara seemed to have some understanding of what was happening to her, maybe due to the internal nature of her magic, so I assumed she knew what I was talking about. To ensure she wouldn’t split again, at least for a moment, I kept breathing, pouring out the purifying flames for as long as I could.

  The silver fire roared around her, and she seemed to grow almost imperceptibly as she slid forward into a martial stance, lashing out with a single stiff-fingered strike right into the densest mass of the chains now snaking around my chest. My own dragonfire mixed with something in Xara’s essence, the links of the chain bursting apart and then starting to melt, the silvery napalm sparking off of her shrouded body.

  With a roar of my own, I tore free from the wounded things, the chains rattling and retreating back into the orange-gold blankness that surrounded us. “We don’t have much time,” I growled to Xara, already seeing how the silver fires were starting to flicker. “Lead and try to explain it on the way!”

  Xara nodded ever so slightly and took off in proper sprinter’s form. I was right on her heels, just matching pace with her, as we tore off into the nothingness. That was always the most disorienting part of the mindscape, the utter lack of direction. The only saving grace I had found in these three treks through it was that it seemed to be flat, or at least I’d never tripped over anything in the invisible ground.

  “You are very perceptive, David Briggs, as you managed to divine the nature of my magic,” she called behind her, the fires that kept her whole dying bit by bit. “All of my power is focused inward, strengthening my body, my mind, and my spirit. In fact, at my height, my will was so strong that it was unbreakable, even by the High Priestess and the Mother of Chains.”

  “Speaking of chains, I can still hear them,” I growled. An occasional flash of black iron skated the edges of our perception, scuttering along like assassins waiting for the time to strike, no doubt the moment my dragonfire died out around Xara. “I can guess that’s at least one reason they wanted to bind you, but how did they …” I would have facepalmed myself as I realized it. “The whole body splitting thing! We’re in your mind, and these are spiritual representations of ourselves, so they found some magic that sundered your mind, split it up into parts!”

  Xara glanced back at me with a serene smile. “Brilliant, dragon. You indeed adapt quickly. With my will fractured and my spirit out of balance, I was vulnerable, and the seeds of the Mother were planted. Your fires, though, are healing the rift, restoring my inner strength … for as long as they last.”

  Out of the burning orange void, a door emerged … and then another. Two metal doors, one brushed-finish silver and the other badly corroded copper, almost black in color, stood side by side. The Mother’s black chains wrapped around the portals, the worst kind of tinsel you could ever imagine for your Christmas tree, and much like the door in Alyra’s mind, each set of chains was locked tight with a pristine iron lock stamped with a letter M.

  As we pulled up in front of the two doors, I took a deep breath, glancing at Xara. “Do I burn free both doors? Or only one? If only one, which one?”

  For the first time, this reformed Xara looked lost. “I … I do not know, David.” She took a deep breath, hands coming together in some strange gesture that looked like something an ancient martial arts master on a summit would do to help center themselves. “I feel as if there are parts of my essence being pulled towards both, so … both?”

  Despite the uncertainty in her voice, I nodded. “And if we’re wrong, we’ll fix it.” I stepped towards the silver door. “I’m really good at fixing things.”

  The fire around Xara would be gone in seconds now, but if I could do this quickly, it wouldn’t matter. Sucking in all the air I could, I let the heat of my heart building my lungs, dragon oil pooling into my snout. Smoke roared out of my nose as the fiery concoction built inside of me, and then, in one mighty breath, I unleashed the concentrated stream of blue-white flames right at the first lock.

  And nothing happened. The fire cascaded around the lock, almost like it wasn’t even there. To save my breath and time, I cut off the jet of flame the moment it looked to be ineffectual, staggering back a step as burning drops of oil ran down my maw. Around us, there was a rattling of chains, almost like the Mother was laughing at our efforts.

  Oh, it was so on now … but despite Xara’s growing look of desperation and the dimming silver fire around her, I didn’t panic, and I didn’t rage. That wouldn’t help us, not at all. I frowned for a moment, taking a low breath to clear my mind in imitation of Xara, trying to clear out the mocking chains to think clearly.

  Xara said that parts of her were being pulled towards both doors, and when my fire died, she was splitting into two beings. From there, my mind started running it down rapid fire, and it suddenly struck me as obvious, well, at least obvious in terms of the bizarre logic of the mindscape.

  “Two sets of memories, two pieces of your mind,” I murmured, then looked over at Xara. “I can’t free these memories because they aren’t yours, well, not precisely!”

  Xara looked horrified at that. “But … they must be! I can feel a connection to them!”

  “Right, because they are in part yours,” I explained, putting comforting hands around her shoulders. “Or, to be specific, they are the memories of the parts of you, the fragments that the High Priestess made to weaken you. Remember, you said your will was too strong to be broken until they sundered your spirit.” I cocked my snout back towards the doors. “So, those locks aren’t linked to you. They are linked to the two halves of your spirit … which means …”

  “You have to let the fire go out, let the Mother rip me apart one last time.” She cast her eyes down, biting her lip, trying to not to break down. “But those parts of me, they will try to kill you. That is the trap, you see. The fragments of my soul have been broken, twisted, and—”

  I cut her off with a gentle, scaly finger that pulled her chin up to look me eye-to-eye. “Stop. It’s okay. I’ll save you. That’s kind of what I do. If I take a few licks in the process … well, don’t worry about it.” I glanced at the last embers of the silver flame. “I’m just sorry you have to go through this.”

  “It is all right,” she said softly, smiling up at me. “It is for the last time. Now, David, prepare yourself, for they are coming.” She stepped back as the last fire died, and I spun, summoning up my dragonfire as I rushed for the silver door.

  I’d get one good shot at one door if I were ready to breathe the moment they finished splitting. I wasn’t sure if that would take one of the two fragments out of the fight, but it was still half the job done. Then I just had to melt the other lock before a part of Xara killed me or stalled me long enough for this to go to hell.

  So, yeah, no pressure at all.

  Behind me, Xara let out a sharp, painful gasp, about to say something before the ripping sound of the chains through her turned those words into a terrible scream. I let the fire build inside, waiting, waiting for the right moment. I didn’t want to risk a misfire, breathing too early before they split entirely, just in case it wouldn’t be enough, but damn, it was torture to hear her cries, to hear the horrible ripping sounds.

  I held on though. I couldn’t save Xara until the process was done. It only took a few seconds, at least, ending in a sort of wet plop and two distinct sounds of ragged breathing behind me, matched by two very distinct smells, one cold, crisp, and emotionless, the other brimming with the musk of animalistic fury. To look would be a wasted moment, so I trusted my draconic senses and spewed fire for everything I was worth.

  Dragonfire cut through the first lock like a plasma torch through, well, just about anything. The chains started to fall away as the door began to splinte
r into infinite shards of kaleidoscopic light, but instead of what I was used to, those shards didn’t explode outward. Instead, they turned into a spiraling cloud of glittering light … not that I stayed still to watch the light show.

  No, the moment I saw the lock split, I turned on my heels, foot claws finding purchase in the invisible earth. Pushing off towards the copper door, my ears filled with a roaring scream, Xara’s voice if she had gargled a cup full of rusty razor blades, as the utterly cold voice I remembered from outside the mindscape urged, “Dissect the beast. I want to see every blood vessel laid bare!”

  I got two steps, just focusing on the task ahead instead of wasting time to look behind when one of them crashed into my back with tremendous force. I staggered from the hit, managing to keep my footing thanks to my own power and weight, even as those powerful thighs wrapped around my midsection and sharp-nailed hands scratched my hide as they scrambled to find my head and snout. She was trying to squeeze the breath out of me, to keep me from a gout of fire long enough for her to get to my jaws.

  That might have worked if Xara was the one actually doing it. But this wasn’t Xara, this was a fragment of her full power, and I knew it from the moment the thing on my back started to squeeze. A roar rose up through me, coming out of my jaws and shaking the mindscape with its ferocity, impossible heat burning in my heart.

  The cold-hearted voice behind me only had time to let out a soft, “Oh dear,” before I let loose the burning stream of napalm from my voice, the white-hot flames blowing through the second lock.

  The memory door exploded as the chains were ripped apart, tearing metal and shattering glass filling my ears in a symphony of destruction. The Xara fragment grappling me blew away like a summer breeze with a last scream. As the memory fragments blew through me and into my mind, I risked a glance at the other one only to see the singular, smiling woman staring at me, tears running down her cheeks as the memories swarmed into her as well.

  29

  As the mindscape blew away, lost in a million lights of memory, the laboratory resolved back into reality around us. The faint sparks of electricity from broken equipment, the soft bubbling of hydraulic fluid from the examination table, and the acrid smell of spilled chemicals all reminded me where we were. More importantly, the thumping heart and warm body of Xara pressed against me, arms still wrapped around her, brought me back, even as the totality of her long life seeped into my consciousness.

  It was an entirely different experience than when I had absorbed Clara or Alyra’s memories. Clara was about as old as I was, while Alyra was several years younger, but Xara was almost a century old, even if in terms of her species, the Zandarans, she was less than thirty. So, it was something to get hit with three or so of my lifetimes all at once. I blinked a few times, forcing myself to stay in the here and now, Xara’s joyful tears keeping me grounded.

  “Thank you,” she said softly, her voice taking on the harmonious warmth of her real self. Somehow, through all the throwing and slamming each other around the room, those little glasses still stayed on, something I realized as she looked up at me. “Thank you for making me whole again, great dragon. I owe you everything.” She was trying to bring herself under control to reach that seemingly effortless calm she showed in the dreamscape, so I did what I could to help, rubbing her back with my scaled hand and gently brushing away a tear with the curved back of a claw.

  “You don’t owe me anything,” I rumbled low. “I’m just happy to know that you’re freed from those assholes, but if you feel like you owe anyone anything …” The dragon spirit was starting to fade inside of me as my growl became more and more like normal speech. “Well, we do have an entire planet of slaves that need freeing and a fleet of Matriarchy vessels in orbit that could be a problem.”

  As soon as I got that out, the shift came on like a ton of bricks. All those sights and smells receded as my senses seemed to close in on themselves. My scales melted into my flesh as I shrunk down to my human form, my lucky boxers somehow living through the process and the battle like Xara’s pince-nez. A pleasant weariness fell down on my shoulders, like the deep-down fatigue you get after a hard day at work, as I was now standing near perfectly eye to eye with the ex-Matriarch.

  Xara watched the process with honest fascination, nodding slightly as it finished. “Truly remarkable.” She tried to take a step back but stopped as she butted up against the computer terminal I had trapped her against. “Ah, well, could …?” She somewhat shyly pointed towards a small desk against a wall, filled with neat stacks of papers and a console. “I need to access the system and—”

  I laughed a bit and was about to take a step back when the same door that I had entered the laboratory suddenly blew clean apart, showering the room with shredded metal and chunks of debris. There was a strangely awkward moment in which I tried to shield Xara while she also tried to shield me, and it ended with us a tangle of hugging limbs on the ground, with me straddled atop her, our eyes locked. Those calm grey eyes widened a bit as they stared at me up and down, almost as if this was the first time Xara had looked at my mostly naked form as something other than a point of curiosity, and her cheeks turned a mixture of red and green I usually only saw at Christmas time.

  The sound of charging feet hammered across the marble floor as Turner’s unmistakable shout echoed across the laboratory. “Hurrah, David! We are here to help! I’m here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, but I’m all … out …”

  His bluster ran out of steam as I pushed myself back to my feet, glancing behind me to see him, Clara, Tulip, and Alyra all arrayed in an arc near the wrecked door, all of them staring at me. I cleared my throat and offered a hand down to Xara, who took it shyly. The moment she was on her feet, I turned to my squad, unable to contain a huge smile.

  “Good gods, am I glad to see you? All of you!” I arched an eyebrow at Tulip and Alyra. “But the plan was to use the Orion’s returners to get them out of here, not drag them along into a fight with a Matriarch.”

  Tulip giggled as Alyra simply shrugged. “Surely, my dragon, you did not expect your zadavios to agree to such a thing. They insisted they help us with the, uh, unnecessary rescue.”

  I took a step forward, punching Turner lightly in the arm. He and Clara were in prison-style jumpsuits, laden with weapons no doubt taken from dead Quibs, while Alyra and Tulip were in their full glory. Though they all looked worse for wear, they all were alive and kicking, and that’s all that mattered. From there, I moved past him, grabbing each of my ladies in turn, hugging them fiercely with a kiss doled out to all three for good measure.

  It devolved quickly into something of a happy cacophony as all four of them tried to explain what had happened, all talking over each other, Tulip purring as she stroked my arms and chest. Alyra handed Clara her Wander as the medic fussed over my wounds, while Xara, seeming to realize where she was again, ignored our happy cloud to rush to the desk and console she had indicated earlier.

  “Hey, David,” Turner said as he clapped me on the shoulder, something that brought some focus to the mess. As I glanced at him, he thumbed over at Xara. “Is she, you know, not brainwashed anymore? I mean, I’m only guessing, but you were on top of her, and I’ve seen how this goes before.” A massive, shit-eating grin was spread across his massive face, showing every one of his perfectly square teeth.

  “Yes, Xara’s freed, and …” All eyes save hers snapped to me. “Guys, I was just trying to shield her from the door blowing apart.” Xara cast a glance back at me, and I got the distinct feeling I should amend my statement. After all, I’d have to be dead not to find her attractive and the way she was looking at me when we were on the ground … “Uh, that’s not to say that there are no future possibilities and … Tulip!” I gave the Fertish woman an exasperated look that she only met with that mischievous Cheshire cat smile. “You know what I’m saying, right?”

  Clara let out a melodic giggle. “Oh, darling, you are so cute when you’re flustered … and you’re even cuter w
hen you’re flustered and mostly naked.”

  “Excuse me,” Xara interrupted, right as Alyra was raising a finger to say something, “I do not mean to interrupt your happy reunion.” The odd thing was, with her exacting tone and lilting voice, I could tell she really meant that. Like she was actually a bit ashamed to interrupt the whole thing. “But I require some minor assistance.”

  Tulip did blush a little in embarrassment as she hopped across the room, picking her way across the trail of wreckage we had all contributed to. “Oh, Felinus’ whiskers, we really should focus, shouldn’t we? There’s still a mission to finish!”

  The rest of us gathered in her wake. I’d get Xara to return our gear, but not until we had things wrapped up. “If I know Xara like, well, I actually do after the Dragon Will, it’s okay, Tulip,” I said, looking over the emerald-skinned woman’s shoulder at the console she was rapidly tapping at. Her fingers were flying almost as fast as Tulip’s in hacker mode. “She understands what we’ve all been through and what it means that we are back together. So, what can we do to help?”

  Xara’s eyes watched us through the reflection on her screen, darting around from person to person. “If we are to liberate Leonis IV from the Matriarchy, we must coordinate both an assault from the planet’s orbital defense systems with a certain experimental device that the High Priestess wished me … the split me … to develop. That, well, weapon is immensely powerful, a Siege Wander capable of projecting magical energy from a ground installation to orbit, but I cannot power it. It requires external magic, spellcraft of the highest order.”

  Alyra puffed up a bit, wings flaring. “If it is raw power you require, then I will be all too happy to assist.”

  “What about me, Xara?” Clara asked, frowning a bit. “Though my powers are more focused on healing others, they are external …”