Centauri Fury: A Harem Space Fantasy (Centauri Bliss Book 4) Read online

  With a security officer down emergency protocols kicked in, the lights flickering as armored shutters came down and tasteful light fixtures proved to hiding stun turrets that opened up on the crowd.

  They were mostly aimed at Tourmaline. With her boosted metabolism she took several shots and kept on fighting. The flying body of another security officer actually disabled one turret, and over a dozen guards were down before Tourmaline finally slumped to the floor. A large swathe of guests was knocked out around her from the radius of the blasts.

  It only took one shot for Quinn, the world going black.

  2

  Quinn awoke in a cell. The first thing he checked was his comm, and fortunately he still had it. A glance was enough to confirm the good news, they had the package.

  In the event of a security emergency the items in Reynard's private museum dropped from their display cases into a heavily armored vault. The cases in the museum were surrounded with sensors, as was the vault itself. The space in between them was the only minor flaw in an otherwise tight security system. The drone had just used that flaw to substitute a replica for the real scepter.

  The signal here was better than in the ballroom, Reynard must have had a small prison near his quarters. Quinn thought it best not to dwell on that overmuch, but he did take the opportunity to maneuver the drone back through the maintenance tunnels, taking it slow—his head was groggy.

  From outside his cell he could hear shouting.

  "It was asinine! I should space the both of you," shouted a male voice.

  "Would you care to know how many statutes that would break? More importantly would you like to know what the next Tourmaline would do to you?" Tamara asked.

  It must be Reynard. They'd gotten a meeting with the man himself after all.

  "You're not her. You can't be her. My people assured me," Reynard snapped, his exasperation clear.

  "Did your people also assure you I was some timid little mouse that would be cowed by your snub? That I'd take it and slink back to deliver your message? You underestimated me, and you underestimated Joline. Cut your losses Reynard and stop making the same mistake," Tamara said, smoothly now with no hint of the earlier anger. Precise, controlled.

  There was a third voice, too soft for Quinn to make out.

  It must have been regarding him though. Soon enough footsteps were approaching his cell.

  A guard stepped into view, his expression serious. "The Emperor is already talking to your companion. You may join them. Try anything we will kill you."

  "I think we made our point," Quinn said. He'd just barely had enough time to get the drone into position. Out of the conduits the routines had kicked in to kill the power. It was now just a piece of debris drifting slowly towards the edge of the system.

  The guard led him down a short tunnel and into an ornate bedchamber. Right, prison attached to the bedroom. Quinn wished that was a first.

  Reynard was dressed in the same strappy fashion as most of the party-goers, although his were a deep purple with platinum threads woven through. Mustached, with a sharp nose.

  Flawless features were by and large a feature of those who served the nobility, not nobility itself. The magic in their blood caused issues with the complex alterations that made so much of what Tamara and Mara had possible.

  "Emperor," Quinn said, giving a perfect bow. It had better be perfect, Tamara had drilled him on the process for hours.

  Reynard looked him over and finally inclined his head just a fraction. "Captain Jade. Your wife is busy trying to convince me not to kill you both."

  "If you're looking for my opinion, got to admit, I've got her side on this," Quinn said.

  Tamara said, "Killing us makes you an enemy of an Empress who may yet cause you problems, and an immortal who will find a new host amongst my sisters." She was seated across from Reynard. Eight guards were present.

  "Not to mention the rest of our family. I've found I kind of have a type. Scary," Quinn said.

  "You disrupted my ball. You wounded my guests. I can't let that go," Reynard said, scowling. "I won't."

  "You were fed wrong information. It happens, move on," Tamara said.

  Reynard shook his head. "I think not. Joline is a has-been and you two publicly insulted me. You are more use as a warning than as allies."

  Quinn again caught that faint shift in posture as Tamara shifted to Tourmaline. It was becoming almost easy to see, the more time he spent in the presence of them both.

  Quinn stepped back and slammed his forehead into the nose of one of the guards, grabbing his gun as the man stumbled back.

  Tourmaline had already disabled another guard with a punch to the throat and she was going for a gun of her own.

  Quinn took a shot in the shoulder. The energy round brought the smell of his flesh burning as he dove behind the bed and put several shots into the chest of the guard.

  The bed caught fire as more energy rounds were fired, hitting it.

  Quinn fired at the foot of the guard from beneath the bed, dropping the man to the floor where Quinn put four more shots into him for good measure.

  Tourmaline had taken the opportunity to kill two more, one with a kick to the throat and another with a shot to the head.

  A final guard dropped when Tourmaline wrenched his neck to produce an audible snap before she threw the corpse aside.

  "I'm sure we can come to some kind of arrangement. You're right. Nobody profits from anybody important dying here," Reynard said, hands above his head as he rose from behind a chair.

  Tourmaline shot him in the face, and the would-be Emperor fell backwards. She took the few steps necessary to put several more shots into his chest.

  "Tamara is going to be pissed. The goal wasn't to kill him," Quinn said, wincing as he got up from behind the bed.

  "Man made it clear he was the type to hold a grudge. You know I don't leave threats at my back," Tourmaline said, kneeling beside Reynard's corpse to go through his pockets. Pulling a security control from his pocket she tapped at it. The sound of security shutters lowering into place came from nearby.

  "Docks are way too far away for an escape that way," Quinn said.

  "Going to have to be Plan B," Tourmaline said, glancing at the bed still on fire. "Shame they set fire to that. Regicide, gets me all kinds of hot and bothered."

  "If it’s Plan B you're going to have to change back anyways," Quinn said.

  Tourmaline rolled her eyes. "Fine. One very pissed-off bitch incoming."

  There was again that shift in body language.

  Tamara jabbed Quinn's shoulder. At least she picked the one that hadn't been shot. "Why did you let her do that? Killing Reynard wasn't the plan. Humiliating him would have gotten us more of his people than killing him."

  "Why am I getting the blame for this? I don't control either of you. You're the one in her head. Plan B," Quinn said.

  "I'm aware," Tamara said, the heat of her anger fading into the far more typical cold calculation. Pointing at a corner of the bedroom she said, "That wall. Shoot us a hole."

  Quinn exhausted the energy clip of his gun on the wall, and it was on fire in several spots by the time he was done. It wasn’t enough, but it wasn't the only gun in the room. Three more were expended before the other side of the wall was exposed, a faintly glowing energy barrier keeping open space at bay. The wall must have had some mechanism to slide away revealing a view of the stars. Shooting through it had been crude, but it had exposed the atmospheric screen on the other side.

  Tamara had spent the whole time wearing a distant expression. A sign that she was making use of her implants.

  "We're good," Tamara said.

  "Anything worth stealing while we're here?"

  "I already helped myself to his private files. Get ready for some pain," Tamara said.

  They moved to stand before the atmospheric shield. Quinn took a deep breath and the shield dropped.

  Quinn and Tamara were instantly sucked into space along with a lot of
bodies following closely behind.

  To say that vacuum was no fun was something of an understatement. Quinn's vision went in a moment, cold and pain came seconds later.

  There was no perception of time, not really. Just disorientation, the pain, and the sickening sense of life quickly being sucked away.

  Soothing relief, a bloom of sudden healing that dug into Quinn's chest. Dry rasping as lungs were suddenly forced to breathe again. Light, as eyes began working.

  "You're okay, sir," Taki said, kneeling beside him in the airlock.

  Tamara lay nearby, a medpatch on her chest. Quinn knew he must have a few on his own.

  "Don't forget the payload," Quinn said.

  "Jinx and Dela are on it, don't worry, sir," Taki said.

  That was good, because the tranquilizers were starting to hit him and the world was fading fast.

  3

  Dinner time.

  It was a night of fried foods, although Quinn couldn't quite identify what most of them were. They were now in the Core where foods were more standard, but their freezers were still filled with the more eclectic foodstuffs found on the Rim.

  Melody had done some of the cooking, and somewhat to Quinn's surprise Kalisa had been helping lately. The Unshackled liked her food a good bit more spicier than anything the android prepared and after many failed attempts to get changes to the menu, Kalisa decided the best way was to step into the kitchen herself.

  "Next time you go on killing sprees invite me along," Kara said, her plate piled high with unidentifiable fried meats.

  "That wasn't the plan," Tamara said for at least the tenth time, taking only a few fried vegetables for herself.

  "It won't help Joline. A lot of her backing came from those obsessed with law and order. Assassination will offend them," Mara said. There was nothing small about her plate and she'd largely gone for the spicier options made by Kalisa.

  "Can I totally change the subject here? I've got something that has been bothering me for awhile. Maybe bothering the captain too, but he can speak for himself," Dela said.

  Eyes turned towards her as plates continued to be passed.

  "Go ahead," Quinn said.

  "I got stuck piloting the ship, again, because Quinn, the other person who has to do it, was busy getting shot to pieces—again. I know it's not your fault you’re all genetically modified, magical, shape-shifting dragon, immortal kick-asses, but my very human self is feeling left out," Dela said, her frustration obvious as she looked around the table.

  "I can't turn you into an alien," Kara said.

  "Nor I transform you into a shape-shifter," Vess said, her plate of food rivaling Kara's.

  Kalisa said, "I could make anyone who wanted into mages. Chaos magic is contagious, for all I've been working to contain it. Right now you are all protected as you are sworn to Jinx, but if you swore to me, your immunity would fade." She jabbed at a hunk of meat with a needlessly sharpened fork.

  "How would that work?" "Dela asked.

  "You can't be considering it," Mara said.

  "You just turned into a mage and you were already powerful. I'm tired of always feeling second class."

  Quinn understood. When he'd started he had at least owned the Centauri Bliss, a sanctuary everybody had needed at the time. Increasingly the ship felt like communal property, and while he was delighted to have such capable wives they could also be overwhelming.

  "It wouldn't be a lot of power, at first. Magical affinity grows the more you test it, and the greater the challenges you face. On this ship? I expect you'd find plenty of challenges," Kalisa said.

  Mara said, "And instead of one contagious mage on board we'd have more. We'd be even more of a danger everywhere we go. Let me suggest an alternative—implants. I have them, Tamara has them, and they are responsible for much of what we can do."

  "High-end ones also cost a fortune we don't have," Tamara said.

  "Joline owes us already, doesn't she? The military would have something," Dela said thoughtfully.

  "If not, my organization would. You've provided a lot of intelligence for us, more than we even expected when we formed an arrangement with you. Our goals as a family and theirs are also in alignment right now," Mara said.

  Kalisa shot Mara a challenging stare. "Or you could pass on whatever primitive flailing passes for science on this side of the Divide. Don't forget who I am. If it is implants you want, I could make them, although my knowledge wouldn't come free.”

  Jinx said hesitantly, "This is more for Quinn than Dela, I'm sorry. But I ... I think I might be able to make you an Order mage as well."

  "Order magic is not contagious, my student," Kalisa said.

  "But I have mastery of a rune of evolution, and I bear a child that mixes his blood and mine. I feel that I could follow that backward," Jinx said, giving Quinn a long look.

  Quinn had to think—would he even want that? More power would be nice, and having any would technically make him nobility. Abilities also seemed to have brought Jinx no end of trouble. For all that she was doing her best to make a good life out of what she had, Jinx missed the path her life was on when she was powerless.

  Dela asked, looking around the table, “So maybe military implants from Joline. Kick-ass superspy implants from Mara's family who we mostly trust. Maybe even better implants from a mad scientist lady we don't press at all. Chaos magic for all, and Order magic for Quinn. Anyone else have anything they want to toss in?"

  "Are we going to extend this offer to any other of our still-purely-mundane human members of our family?" Taki asked.

  "You've been feeling it too?" Dela asked.

  "I'm carry a big gun and I used to kick all the ass. These days I've just been falling further and further behind," Taki said.

  "I want to be the absolute best I can be. Are her implants going to be better than yours?" Dela asked Mara, with a jerk of her head towards Kalisa.

  Mara studied Kalisa before saying, "I can't answer that. Not truly, not knowing what they have. Much of the Imperium’s technological inferiority comes because of choices the Emperor made to restore order. My organization ignored those directives."

  Kalisa rested an elbow on the table as she leaned forward. "But were they really advancing anything? They cling to old knowledge and call it advanced, because everyone else has been moving backwards. Not us, not me."

  "I don't trust you. I sure don't trust you to put anything into my body. Mara, could you see what you could do for me?" Taki asked.

  Mara nodded, her expression serious. "You've helped us. Even if I can't get you the full package I'll be able to get you something. I'm sure of it."

  "I don't trust you either. But I'm a girl who pays her debts," Dela said to Kalisa.

  Kalisa flashed a predatory smile. "My favorite kind. This ship doesn't have the tools I need. Difficult, with you trying to quarantine me, but if you can get me access to a properly equipped technology center ..."

  "Joline has some vessels still loyal to her. An Imperium exploration cruiser would have what you need and their loyalty to her would immunize them against you. I'll make the call," Tamara said.

  "That just leaves you to decide," Dela said to Quinn.

  "There is nothing wrong with staying human. You're still useful," Jinx said.

  They were damning words of comfort. Quinn already felt that he was falling behind, and if Dela and Taki both became upgraded in their own ways then he'd be the last truly human member of their family left. Well, and Ice, but she was back on the Rim and it was easy forget about her.

  "What would you do? While I don't think any of us like to acknowledge it, you're probably the smartest person here," Quinn said to Kalisa.

  Mara grunted, her arms folding. Tamara also looked less than pleased.

  It was true so far as Quinn could tell. They were both very good at what they did, but Kalisa had been in charge of scientific progress on the other side of the Divide.

  "Mara's implants are your safest option. While mine are st
ronger they are also risky, anything made by one attuned with Chaos is going to be. If you are speaking in terms of raw power I'd accept Jinx's offer, with the warning she is likely to kill you," Kalisa said.

  "You're saying Order magic is stronger than Chaos magic?" Quinn asked.

  "The Emperor won the war. A trained Order mage is the most formidable force I've ever faced. We are powerful in numbers and we have them because of how our magic spreads," Kalisa said, getting slightly weary.

  "I don't feel especially deadly," Jinx said.

  "You killed Ilinar, apprentice. Yes, he was in a weakened state and probably not in his right mind after so long in stasis, but still he was one of the strongest of us," Kalisa said.

  Order magic was genetic, passed within lines. Quinn’s child with Jinx would be a mage, and one way or another magic was going to be a part of his life for a very long time to come.

  "I'll accept Jinx's offer then," Quinn said.

  "If it’s going to kill you I'm going to retract it," Jinx said.

  "I'll help you, apprentice. We can't eliminate the risk, but together we can make death somewhat less a certainty," Kalisa said.

  That was reassuring. Quinn couldn't tell if dinner was just that heavy, or he was weighed down by the thought of what was to come.

  4

  It was a small gathering in the training room. Padded mats covered the floor, Kalisa and Jinx were standing, and Quinn was seated off to the side with Mara.

  Kalisa was as barely dressed as always, her outfit more a black leather bikini than anything else. The five runes upon her flesh glowed a constant ruddy red. Jinx was more modestly dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, although it left her two runes exposed as well, the blue marks on her hand and thigh also glowing.

  "Jinx is my only apprentice here, but the knowledge will get to you others somehow, so you might as well get it first-hand," Kalisa said.