Harem Assassins : King Sekton's Harem Planet, Book 2: A Space Opera Harem Adventure Baron Sord (good books to read for adults .txt) 📖

into the Interceptor’s cramped bridge, his cybernoid centaur body hunched over clumsily behind Vok Nyfe, who sat at the controls. Numerous holographic windows floated in front of them, tracking the position of Tim Pittwell’s YX-37 Dragonfire where it coasted away from Zalaxia in a straight line.

“Well, Nyfe?” Hade challenged. “Are you going to activate this Technomantic Labyrinth of yours?”

Vok Nyfe said nothing as his skele-mechanical hands worked the controls, making dozens of minor adjustments. Like his staff and the hull of his ship, the large control panel surrounding Vok Nyfe was in a constant state of transformation, an ever-changing metallic landscape in miniature, constantly undulating, rising and falling, rotating and hinging, folding and spiraling, clicking and ratcheting quietly in response to the movements of Vok Nyfe’s skeletal metal hands.

Outside the Interceptor and underneath the long hull, a cannon barrel assembled itself where none had been before. A rainbow storm of chaotic energy collected at the end of the barrel.

Inside on the bridge, a small portion of the undulating control panel in front of Vok Nyfe swelled up to form a pistol grip with a trigger. He said, “Pulling this trigger will fire the Labyrinth Cannon at the target. The Labyrinth will reach the Dragonfire in 3.7 seconds and envelope it.”

“Have you accounted for his velocity?” Hade asked.

“Yes. The Labyrinth will manifest itself traveling along the same vector the Dragonfire currently follows.”

“What if he changes course or speed in the next four seconds?”

“It’s best to fire the cannon immediately.”

“Are you saying that honor shall be mine, Nyfe?” Hade asked.

Vok Nyfe tipped a nod.

“In that case…” Hade hunched forward, reaching over Vok Nyfe for the pistol grip with one of his armored arms. Hade’s magnesium eyes fired with hateful glee as he depressed the Technomantic trigger.

—: Chapter 81 :—

With my afterburners now dark, I could hear the powerful turbine whine of the reactor core. It was winding down from screaming to singing. Its whine had been inaudible during maximum acceleration, out-shouted by the 21,000 gun salute that was the afterburners booming.

By comparison, the sound of the reactor core cycling down was soothing.

As the force of acceleration quickly ebbed, I reduced my compensating POSITION vector to zero until I felt myself become effectively weightless.

With the engines quiet and the reactor core no more than a pleasant hum, I became keenly aware of the vast, black expanse of space surrounding me. For once, it was the most peaceful experience I could imagine. Peaceful because I wasn’t worrying about saving Cygna’s life or mine or the other Bombshells from Blorgo’s space pirates, or anybody else’s life from space demons and CyberKnights, or Terrorsaurs and Titanosaurs.

The quiet of space was all-consuming, the vastness of it overwhelming.

Amazing.

I took a deep breath and relaxed.

Now felt like the perfect time to kick back and cruise for a while.

How fast was I going?

Can I see my rate of climb? And please highlight the gauge? And show it in meters per second?

12,700 m/s and slowly falling as Zalaxian gravity started to tug on me and my Dragonfire.

Whoa!

My speed relative to Zalaxia was faster than escape velocity back on Earth! That was only 11,200 m/s. I was going 1,500 m/s faster. Even better, I’d achieved this speed faster than any Earth astronaut ever had by a factor of seven or more. Because astronauts never had to endure 20 G’s of sustained acceleration to reach escape velocity. The maximum continuous G-load they generally had to tolerate was a meager 3 G’s, give or take.

Me?

Just now?

20 freaking G’s!

For a full 65 seconds before I had cut engines.

Wow.

And, 12,700 m/s meant I was going Mach 37!

Insane.

Sure, the Bombshells and I had gone faster in the Artemis when we had gone crashing toward Zalaxia a few days ago — the Artemis had topped out at Mach 55 or 60 relative to the surface — but something about falling fast during a ballistic reentry wasn’t as impressive as climbing at ludicrous G’s — or accelerating to “Ludicrous speed!” snarf, snarf, snarf — like I just had. Wow, wow, wow.

“Mira to Crown. Not done showing off?” she teased.

“What? Sorry. Crown to Mira. No, I was enjoying the view. I already cut my engines. Out.”

“How did you not pass out?”

“Oh, uhhh…” I didn’t want to say I’d cheated by using my ring’s POSITION vectors to compensate for the incredible G-load. Well, I hadn’t intentionally cheated, I’d just made it easier to win the bet.

Snicker.

I was suddenly reminded of that classic scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where an irritated and impatient Indiana Jones shoots dead the scimitar-wielding swordsman in the market square. One of the best scenes in the movie, and one of the best and most memorable in cinema history. Fans of the film will know: the only reason they shot it that way was because Harrison Ford had picked up a wicked case of dysentery during production, and he and Spielberg agreed to cut out the elaborate bullwhip vs. scimitar fight they had been rehearsing for weeks. According to legend, over lunch on the day they were to shoot the scene, a nauseous Ford had suggested, “Let’s just shoot the sucker.”

By sucker, he meant the swordsman.

My opinion: I suspect Harrison Ford, grimly green with dysentery, didn’t use the word “sucker.” But that’s a four-letter tale for another day.

The question was, should I reveal to Mira that I had unintentionally pulled a Harrison Ford to win my bet with her?

Naaaaaaaah.

“Mira to Crown,” she said sickly. “I’ll meet you down on the landing deck, my king. I need to rest a minute.” In the comms window, she looked greener than Harrison Ford on the day of his infamous scimitar scene.

“Crown to Mira. Are you sure you didn’t hit G-LOC at any point?” I waited.

“G-LOC?”

“G-induced Loss of Consciousness.”

“No,” she said greenly. “Close. But no. I’ll meet you on deck. Mira out.”

“Okay, sure. See you in a few. Crown out.”

Two seconds later and without warning—

KRA-KOOOM!

Space exploded all around me in a blinding rainbow brighter than a super nova.

Everything ended.

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