Aspirant: A Sci-Fi Harem Adventure

by Whittaker, Maxx

  Oh no. Of course not. That’s when the giant error message appears.

  Red words, painted across space above us, so enormous I can’t guess how long they are. Billions of light years each.

  SYSTEM COMPROMISED

  PURGE INITIATED

  SYSTEM REBOOT IN 00:15:00

  “What… the…” The enormous clock starts to tick away as the words hang above us like a message from God.

  “I don’t think we’re supposed to be here.” Mika’s words are the last thing I hear before a volcanic explosion of fire and lightning erupt forward and tear through the shielding like paper.

  Valka’s dragon follows with a boom of thunder so powerful it drives us to our knees. Lightning crackles along the metal side of the ship and through all the cannons, giant white forks that blind me momentarily. I can’t hear myself shouting for the others, and the air is charged like I’m in the middle of a thunderstorm.

  My vision clears just enough to see Mika prone nearby. Syl is already on her feet, claws again carved into the deck. “Are you okay?” I shout over the thrum in my ears.

  Syl doesn’t answer. Her gaze is fixed on something behind us, further down the deck.

  Valka. Her dragon drifts away behind her to join the others who swirl in a ball around the slowly regenerating shields. She stands at the end of the ship, towering above us, beautiful and terrible. I thought Rose was a giant, but Valka… I couldn’t tell from space, but she’s at least thirty feet tall. Her axe is slung over her shoulder, as long as a small tree. Tines of light still crackle from it, impacting bits of the ship. “Now, we end this,” she says with deadly calm, almost conversationally.

  Rose bounds down from the poop deck. She’s dwarfed by Valka, not half her height, but she doesn’t seem to care. She pulls her enormous cutlass from her back, grinning from ear to ear. “Glad to, lover.”

  “Don’t call me that. Not ever again.”

  “Fine,” Rose pouts. She does something with her sword, and its blade ignites with neon pink energy. “We haven’t been crew for long, but if you value your lives, you’ll fight with me. Or you can lay down and die.”

  It takes a minute to realize she’s talking to us. The Ewoks have vanished, belowdecks or into space. There’s no one else. The ship has changed, too. The mast is gone, somehow, along with all the rigging. The deck is huge, expanded like an arena, at least double the size it was before. The gunwales are as tall as Rose, jutting around us, and the cannons are gone like they’d never existed.

  Because why not? At this point, if something impossible can happen, it’s going to.

  I almost laugh as the two women stand at opposite ends of the deck, staring each other down. Valka’s eyes glitter as she glances over to size us up. She laughs. She’s wearing nothing more than tattoos into battle, and she laughs.

  I don’t blame her. She’s terrifying. How the hell do we fight that?

  Behind her, visible through a thicket of swarming dragons, are the numbers.

  00:13:11

  “You two good?” I murmur.

  Mika’s up, Inferno held before her. It’s flame is tiny, a candle compared to the Rose’s energy blade and Valka’s lightning axe. But she grins, somehow, despite all this. “You have to admit, this is nuts.”

  “You’re having fun?”

  She shrugs. “If this is where we bite it, at least we’re together. And I can’t think of a more epic way to go.”

  Syl claps her on the shoulder. “I will try not to die today. But if I do, it will not be like the first time. It will be with you.”

  “Yeah, maybe no more death talk,” I say, smiling. “I’m not done with you two.”

  Mika blushes. The fact that she still can, after all this, is just about the most adorable goddamn thing I’ve ever seen. Her eyes dart from me to Syl. “Okay. I’m good with that.”

  Syl’s tongue flicks out, and Mika turns redder. “A worthy motivation to carry me into battle.”

  “System reboot,” I say, watching the giant numbers tick away. “What system?”

  “All of this?” Mika says. “I don’t know. I don’t want to know.”

  “One battle at a time.” Syl’s claws snap longer with a clack . “That won’t matter if we die in the next few moments.”

  We scramble across the deck, flanking Rose. The captain acknowledges us with a wink of her human eye. “This mean you’ll be taking me up on my offer when we kick this trash off my ship?”

  I shiver. It’s impossible not to imagine, just for a moment, the three of us tangled up with her. “Why not?”

  “Touching,” Valka says, striding toward us. “You picked the wrong side.”

  I don’t know what to say to that, so I don’t. My rifle is on sniper mode, and I bring it up, firing without warning. It feels low, like starting a fight by kicking a guy in the balls, but fuck it. We need to win and fast, before the air becomes water or our arms become snakes or some shit.

  I’m as surprised as anyone when the shot hits, especially after watching her block cannon fire effortlessly. It strikes Valka’s cheek, ripping most of it away, snapping her head back. Blood and flesh spatter behind her as she staggers back a step. Her axe drops to the deck, holding her up as she screams. More in rage than pain, I think.

  Rose doesn’t waste the opportunity. She bounds across the deck, cutlass above her head, bellowing a war cry in a language I’m certain doesn’t exist on Earth. Her blade swings in, so fast I can’t follow it as Valka still reels.

  Can it be that easy? End so quick?

  Of course not. Somehow, without looking, Valka’s axe moves, blocking the hit with an explosion of lightning that sends Rose staggering back.

  The thunder goddess rights herself, crouches at the ready. Her grin is terrifying with the flesh of one cheek missing, like a bloody skull. She watches as Rose regains her balance, axe ready, but her words are for me. She drags the back of one hand across her face, painting her forearm crimson. “I’m going to relish every scream as I make you pay for that, and I’m going to make it last before I feed you to Alkammir.”

  I laugh, almost maniacally, and point up. “You don’t have that long.”

  She glances up. So does Rose. Valka’s brow furrows. “If this is some distraction tactic, it won’t work.”

  They can’t see the numbers. Of course. They’re part of the Citadel, and the message is meant for us.

  What do we try for? Survive until time runs out? Wait for the reboot and hope it only applies to the trial? Hope that Astra pops in to rescue us like she did with the Shepherd?

  “Syl?” I ask as Rose attacks. Her blade is quicksilver, and the two giants trade a dozen blows in half as many seconds. Each strike is shattering, mighty enough to carve a mountain face.

  “Wait for opportunity,” Syl says. She looks to me, smiles with half her mouth. “Stay together.”

  “Gladly,” Mika says.

  We dash around the arena, Syl leading. I crouch low, try to keep a low profile, but I’m sure I’m not fooling Valka. But she’s busy with Rose and can’t afford to take her eyes off her former lover as we circle behind her.

  I raise my rifle and take a few potshots, hoping to distract at worst and injure at best. But this time, each shot is deflected by a lance of lightning, arcing from her axe as her impossible dance with Rose continues. The two move together, rolling in and out of the fight, and despite being half the size of Valka the captain holds her own. Her living arm is like a piece of cordwood, and her muscles bunch spectacularly as she blocks a vicious downward cut. She responds with her robot half, and her metal arm and leg hiss steam as she pushes up like a piston, throwing Valka backward.

  The thunder goddess stumbles back, toward us. Electric blue tattoos glimmer in the ship’s torchlight as she comes close in mighty, unsteady strides.

  “Now,” Syl says, dashing forward. It doesn’t trouble me, this time. She knows we’ll be with her.

  And she’s right.

  I flip my rifle to shotgun mode as
Valka brings her axe up, desperate to ward off Rose whose following her with her blade. No mercy there. I dash at Valka’s left leg. This close, the detail of her naked body and the ink covering it is incredible, exquisite. She’s a statue come to life, perfect in every detail, like a living piece of art. For a moment I feel real regret at what we have to do.

  But she’s not real. None of this is.

  I fire at point blank range, right into the back of her calf.

  At the same moment, Mika unleashes Inferno into her other leg.

  Muscle explodes, showering us with gore. Valka falls to her knees.

  Syl scrambles up her back, claws puncturing skin as she clambers up the giant in seconds. Mika and I pass, coming even with Rose, and turn just in time to see Syl climb over Valka’s head. Dark claws flash before plunging downward, punching out Valka’s eyes. And explosion of lightning wracks Syl as Valka screams and falls.

  Syl bounces from her back, scales smoking, muscles twitching, and I catch her before she goes boneless.

  Rose stands over Valka, heaving huge breaths, eyes filled with sorrow. “It didn’t have to be this way,” she says, raising her blade.

  “Rose!” Mika screams. “Behind–”

  We’re thrown from our feet as Valka’s dragon appears like magic dragon appears and beats wings the length of the ship. They buffet us, tossing across the deck like dolls. Teeth like swords snap in, biting, ripping Rose in half at the waist,

  The captain grunts, cursing, and like Valka, seems more pissed than hurt as the dragon tosses its head back, throwing her upper body skyward like a ball. Rose’s legs fall to the deck, limp, as the dragon launches with another mighty flap of its wings and chases her upper half. Rose spins toward the shielding, pulling her blunderbuss from her back, and she fires into the dragon’s mouth over and over, laughing the entire way.

  The dragon opens its mouth to shroud Rose in flame, but she does something with her gun. The explosion that rips from its barrel not only tears off the head of the beast, but blows her arms off at the elbows too. The gun explodes in a shower of shrapnel that tears furrows through her flesh and metal, and still she doesn’t scream. Doesn’t grimace. The lower half of her body is gone, her arms are misted blood, and the last thing she does before she pops through the energy field to drift into the night is blow Valka a kiss.

  Jesus Christ. Thank god none of this is real, because if these people actually existed, they’d take over the universe.

  We stand together, mute with shock, barely able to breathe.

  “Pity.”

  Valka.

  How in the fuck.

  She’s standing behind us, watching her dragon’s headless body sail after Rose. Well, watching might not be the best term, considering the fact that her eyes are torn out. Little crackles of lightning fill the holes, like she’s made of electricity. Her legs are shredded, nothing but bone where Mika and I struck her.

  And somehow, she’s still standing.

  “Alkammir was my companion for three thousand years. Rose my lover for two. Now they are dead.” She lowers her gaze, taking us in with her lightning eyes. “The lives of three mortals is hardly compensation, a petty revenge.” Her axe raises. Its lightning seems muted, but somehow angrier. “But I’ll take it.”

  “You can try.” The words sound like fake bravado, but weirdly, they’re not. Something in me is done with being scared shitless, finished with being overwhelmed. I think I understand Mika and Syl a little better. If I die here, I die. The first time, I plummeted from a cliff in an old truck with nothing more than revenge on my mind. Nothing good to live for.

  But now? Now, I have a purpose. I have love. I don’t want to die anymore, but if I do, at least I lived.

  So, I smile up at a goddess of thunder with my companions at my side, and I give her the finger.

  I have to admit, the effect is pretty spectacular. I’d be dead if not for my upgrades. Valka’s axe comes around like a scythe at my midsection. I’m already moving, expecting something like this, rolling back so fast that I feel like a superhero. Mika and Syl are with me, as quick as I am, like they knew what I’d intended. We’ve fought together long enough by now that maybe they did.

  I bounce to my feet, bringing my rifle up, and fire.

  Fuck. It’s on shotgun mode. I forgot. Flame and thunder explode from its barrel, scorching wooden planks spectacularly, but Valka’s out of range. But maybe she’s weaker than she looks, because the force is enough to tear the axe out of her hand, and she staggers back a step.

  That’s enough for Syl. She launches forward like a cannonball, leading with her tongue. It winds around Valka’s neck twice before Syl hits her chest, a hammerblow of claws and scales that finally pulls a scream from the goddess.

  We’re behind her. Mika hammers her staff into Valka’s exposed shin bone. It squelches wetly as it smacks into exposed flesh before igniting muscle and sinew. I can’t fire again, not so soon; my rifle is still recharging. Instead, I punch out with a burst of power that’s coming more and more naturally and try to ignore the tearing in my mind. It strikes Valka in the forehead, spinning her around and dropping her to her knees.

  Even fallen, she towers over us. But she’s axeless, weakened, and I smell victory.

  As Syl rears back, cutting into the giant’s neck, Mika hammers again and again anywhere she can reach, blasting away chunks of smoking meat. I circle behind and jump, launching into the air, and pull some absolute Matrix shit as I take four steps up Valka’s back to grip Syl’s tongue where it’s looped as tight as a noose. Using it as a handhold, I bring the barrel of my rifle up, touching the barrel to the back of her skull.

  Shit. It’s still not recharged. The glowing lights inside are dim, and it hums inside as whatever battery powers it refills with energy.

  We’re so close…

  Hurry. Charge!

  And that’s when we discover why Valka goes into battle wearing nothing but electric tattoos.

  She leans her head back, screaming into the sky. The shroud of ink laced across her skin glows brighter, then brighter as it electrifies.

  “Down!” My warning cry is too late.

  Lightning. It tears from her, from every part of her body, lancing outward with volcanic force as it erupts from the brands that cover her.

  The world goes black.

  I’m not sure how long I’m out. It can’t be long, because I’m not dead.

  But damn. I wish I was.

  I think every kid that watches a thunderstorm roll behind a shroud of dark clouds wonders what it’s like to be struck by lightning. Or maybe the first time you watch The Green Mile, when the gentle giant dies to the electric chair, you empathize just enough that you wonder what it would be like if it were you sitting there.

  Well, now I know.

  And let me tell you, it fucking blows.

  The pain is coruscating, unending, made worse by the fact that the world is moving in slow motion. Or maybe that’s just my perception. It’s hard to tell. My entire body has charlie horsed in an instant, and I can smell burnt flesh. I see only white, and I wonder if my eyeballs have exploded. I’m vaguely aware that my clothes are on fire, that I’m burning, that I need to do something about it. But the pain… I can’t scream, it hurts so bad.

  None of this is real, right? I keep telling myself that. But right now, it’s hard to believe it.

  Control. I have to regain control. Put out the fire. Fight.

  I’m rolling. I don’t know how or where I’ve found the strength, but the animal part of my brain that remembers to stop, drop, and roll takes control. I’ve already stopped and dropped, and now I’m rolling like a goddamned log falling down a hill.

  Finally, I stop. On my belly. My sight returns slowly, and I’m greeted by the gorgeous panorama of scorched wood from a quarter inch away. My muscles slowly relax, enough that I can finally moan.

  Mika. Syl. Oh God, please let them be alive. Have to get to them. Right now.

  Hitching footsteps.
From above. “Still alive? Remarkable. You would have made a worthy consort, I think.” A hand the size of my chest turns me over, rolling me onto my back. Valka looms over me, face torn, eyes ripped out, body shredded and neck punctured. Somehow, she still smiles. “Perhaps you still will. Perhaps I kill the others and take you with me. It will take you a long time to heal, but when you do, you’ll make fine breeding stock, by the look of it.” She runs her hand almost gently along my body as she says it, and I feel every inch. My clothes have mostly burned off.

  “Flattering,” I say. “But I’d really prefer it if you’d fuck off.”

  As I spit the last word, I punch her in the chest. My fist is tiny against her breastbone, my arm almost not long enough to clear her enormous breasts, but I make contact like a hammer against a tree. Into the punch, I throw every bit of power I have left.

  Which, it turns out, is kind of a lot.

  Her torso explodes backward like I’ve fired my rifle between her breasts at point blank range. Her body sails upward in a shower of blood and bone, remarkably high, before hitting the ground across the deck and rolling, trailing crimson bits of her body the entire way.

  Holy shit.

  I lay on my back, trembling and trying not to choke on the sudden rush of blood at the back of my throat. Above me, numbers the size of the universe tick away.

  00:06:18

  No time. No time to lay here. I stagger to my knees, rubbing blood from my nose. My brain barely hurts, and though I taste copper, I don’t even have a nosebleed. Every time I’ve used the power in the past, it’s been a struggle, and has left me reeling. What’s different this time?

  Mika and Syl. I don’t have time for games, for banter with a goddess. I only have time for them. It was need that powered me. Need to save them.

  Their bodies lay crumpled across the deck from me, so tiny in the distance. They were in front of Valka when she used her lightning attack, and I was on her back.

  They’re not moving.

  “No,” I croak, staggering toward them. “Please, no.” Not after all this. Not after we’ve won.