Starr vs the Emperor of Space Pt. 13

"I see that ultra-sleep slows all bodily reactions!" she said. "Lest, I think you'd have realized it by now."

"R-Released what, you brute?" Claudette huffed, her hands going over her chest, feelign the throbbing sensation of Jasmine's grope before.

Jasmine smirked, stood, walked to the miniature space bar she had built into her smallish cabin. Using the acceleration gravity of the moment, she poured herself a cocktail - shaking it casually. Claudette pouted when she saw no glass being poured for her, which provoked a wry grin from Jasmine. "There's a reason I'm not making you one, my dearest!"

Claudette's brow furrowed.

***

Altair groaned, her eyes fluttering open. This was, in and of itself, a shock. She had not expected to ever awaken again. She lifted her head, and saw that she was within the very medical bay of her very own ship! Her heart raced. Had she...had she dreamed it all? But no, her side ached - and then pleasure startled her, making her groan quietly. She flipped back the sheets covering her, and saw not only the furrowed scar of recent surgery, covered by a thick space bandage...but also the blond tresses and bobbing head of Claudette T.S Grant! Her wife to be was currently sucking upon Altair's very own girlcock, her head bobbing with gusto and grace alike.

"F-Fuck!" Altair groaned, grabbing onto her hair with a single, tight grip, her breath catching as the pleasure swamped her for a moment. Claudette, rather than drawing back ot trying to slow, instead drove herself all the faster, bobbing her head on the cock before her with more and more eagerness. Altair, unable to resist, laid weakly back in the bed, not using her hand to impel more motion, but simply placing it against Claduette to feel her. Sketchy, half formed thoughts buzzed through her brain.

We are alive!

We escaped!

She...still loves me...

That last was warmest of all - and it came on the cusp of her orgasm. Altair groaned, her balls clenching as she came inside of Claudette's eager, wanton Earthwoman mouth. Her fingers clenched, then released her blond hair, and Claudette drew back, panting, licking her lips slowly and gently, her eyes half closed. She licked her lips clean and smiled, shyly, at Altair. "Welcome back," she said, her voice a playful purr.

Altair chuckled, quietly. "Thanks..." she whispered, then gestured. "Get over here!"

Claudette was more than happy to swing her leg around, nestle against Altair's body, their breasts pressed together, separated only by the thinnest of thin gauze in the shift that Claudette wore. Their lips met, and Claudette moaned into her mouth, gently, and then drew back. "My love, my dearest love..." She nuzzled against her. "I am so sorry to have frightened you."

"Oh, no, never you worry, never you worry," Altair said, quietly. "The vampires of Mars can do quite a number on your brain, with their hypno-vision." She nodded, slightly, brushing up and down her back, stroking her slowly as she sighed quietly. "But I have you back and those squid-faced bitches are dead, dead, dead."

"Yeah..." Claudette flushed. She looked haunted, glancing aside. Altair used her red knuckles to gently brush against her cheek, turning her around so that she had to look back at her, their eyes meeting - one to two.

"What's wrong?" Altair whispered, softly. "Tell me, goldie..." She grinned, showing her sharp fangs to the blond haired goddess that she had somehow managed to get to agree to marry her - a fact that remained a dizzying shock to the cosmic corsair. Caludette flushed, then whispered.

"I...have learned something, and I'm afraid, that you will...not like it. Or want to...that is...I..." she stammered.

"What is it?" Altair asked - and felt a lurch in her belly. She knew how closely Claudette cared for her Jasmine Starr - if Jasmine was returning to Earth...did Claudette...was she going to return to Earth? Altair tried to imagine living on the Earth, with the Earth men, and the image made her skin crawl. But she forced her immediate reaction down, stammering. "Is it...I can...what is it?" She said, unable to fully articulate what she would or would not do.

Claudette gasped, then closed her eyes. "I...am with your child!"

Altair tensed, as if she had been struck in her solar plexus. Shock and joy warred with her - and her cock hardened almost at once, as if it had been called to attention by Claudette's confession.

"I am a few weeks on...y-you must have...sired in me at Eros...your surgeon has checked and told me it is to be a daughter," she said, quietly. "I know if you aren't interested in caring for me and a child but-"

"What!?" Altair exclaimed, sitting up, despite the twinge in her side. "Claudette, no!"

"I...Jasmine did say she knows who could adopt-"

"Claudette T.S Grant, I will move the solar system itself to be a father to your daughter," Altair said. "Gender be damned!" She grabbed onto Claudette's hips, grinding herself against her, her forehead pressed to hers as she murmured. "I...I would even go respectable for you."

Claudette gasped, softly, her eyes widening. "R-Respectable?"

"Altair Polaris...Governor of Ceres has a ring to it," Altair said, flashing her a wicked grin. "Maybe see about making that little ball of spinning ruins something that the Devilmen can call home again." She cupped Claudette's rump. "With you at my side...I feel as if I could do anything. I..." She paused, knowing then, that she had gone too far. To go with Claudette to Earth, to raise her daughter there, that would have been the better offer. But now, she set Claudette's heart in opposing directions: To go with her, or to go with her dearest Jasmine. As it was, Claudette looked as if she had been struck in the temple by a hefty brick.

"N-Nevermind," Altair said, quickly. "J-Just a silly flight of fancy!"

Claudette grabbed her hand before she could reach back to rub her own neck in a self depreciating way. She kissed her palm, then laughed, softly. Her eyes flashed and she looked over Altair's palm - her eyes flashing. "I believe...it should be Governor Claudette T.S Grant! With her Admiral Polaris at her side. Hmm?"

Altair melted within and without, sagging into Claudette. "Yes..." She kissed her, fiercely, then drew back. "Yes!" She slid her arm around her, then spun her about, wound be damned, and pinned a squeaking, giggling, wriggling Claudette to the makeshift cot within the surgical bay. With a growl, Altair exclaimed: "Let us give her a twin sister!"

"That's not how that! Ah! Works!"

"No!" Grunt. "Reason!" Grunt. "To not!" Grunt. "Try!"

Claudette's thrashing arm knocked over the IV tubes, and scattered the saline-blood enrichment fluid upon the floor. As the Captain thrust into her lover, the crew who had gathered about the bulkhead to eavesdrop on the reunion were started by the rocketsun who strode forward along the deck, bellowing.

"Look at this load of lubberly gawkers! Give the Cap'n and her missus their DAMN PRIVACY!" he shouted, swatting about the space pirates with a stick. They scampered off, rushing away in every direction and the rocketsun stepped to the window, peered in...and whistled quietly. "...well, damn, Captain!"

He hurried off before Altair noticed.

Not that she would have. She had but an eye for her lady love.

***

Jasmine, Altair, and Claudette stood at the astrogation room of the Salty Sirius, frowning as they watched the trajectories. "Even if we burned every droplet of hydrogen, we'd only arrive a few hours ahead of them," S'hira said, shaking her head. "There are Zardonian fleets coming in on every trajectory."

"What about these launches?" Jasmine asked, pointing.

"Those are the Underground of Free People's...but...only half of their rockets launched. Because..." S'hira tapped at the controls and the hologram was filled with the sneering face and upper torso of Emperor Aytan Zardo himself, dressed in a combat space suit, clearly designed for the field and for impressing enemies as much as his imperial robes were.

"Tremble, solar system...for you hear the voice of Zardo," he said, his eyes flashing. "Even now, my unstoppable clone Legions have completed what I have long planned for: The destruction and slaughter of the leadership of the so called Underground of Free People's." He sneered, his voice saying free as if it was the most vile insult he could levy. "Witness their destruction now!" He snapped his fingers and the holo changed to show a well built, beautiful wolfwoman, kneeling beside...

"Skar," Jasmine growled, remembering the man who would have been her rapist - had it not been for her own quick thinking and his own foolishness. The burly lizardman stood beside the wolfwoman, holding a pocket death ray in his hand.

"Say your name, bitch," he growled. The wolfwoman snorted, then glared at the camera.

"I am Senator Luna Lazuli," she said. "And I will never surrender to you or your vicious master." Behind her, her tail twitched in a furious, rapid pattern - twitch twitch, twitch...twitch...twitch twitch...twitch, twitch, twitch...as it twitched, she continued to speak: "We shall forevermore stand against the evil that is Zardo. We will fight you in orbit. We will fight you in our habitats. We will fight-"

"Silence! You need not surrender, bitch! You need but...die!" Skar said, then aimed the death ray. Claudette cried out, turning away as the brave wolfwoman threw her head back, agony transfixing her features - then fell, smoke rising from her back as Skar holstered his death ray and the hologram cut back to Zardo, who chuckled, then laughed, his booming, mocking laughter ringing off the walls of the astrogation chamber - as it echoed throughout homes and bars across the whole of the solar system. From Venus to Saturn to the vicious Death Zone of Jupiter, everyone with a holo-viewer and radio-communicator could see the triumph of Zardo over his enemies. His eyes flashed mercilessly and he sneered.

"Now, my rocket fleets rush to Earth. The Sword of Stars shall be ours - and then, with it, the Empire of Space shall rule over all. Your days of lawless independence and anarchistic hedonism are at an end, people of Space. Enjoy them...while they last!" He laughed again - then the laugh carried on and on as the screen faded to the stylized Z that was his logo, before fading as well, the laughter fading with it.

"What do we do?" Altair whispered. "We can't fight their whole fleet - the Martians...even without their war rockets, he outnumbers us twenty to one! And his rockets are captained by his crack

clone commanders - they won't make the same mistakes as a dilettante like Skullra! And we don't even have any nukes, even if they did."

"What of the Sword?" Claudette asked, her voice grim.

"He attacks from two directions at once," S'hira said - both prograde and retrograde!"

"Diabolical..." Altair's first mate growled, softly, provoking grim nods from everyone along the room.

"Thus, even if half his fleet is wiped out, the other half will land on the Moon and the Sword of Stars will be his," Altairs said, shaking her head slowly.

S'hira nodded, in grim confirmation.

"He will then take the Sword and then use it to obliterate the United States of America and the Soviet Union," Jasmine said, quietly. "The only places in the world that could stand against him - he need not even destroy all of them. Just firing the Sword of Stars at a fraction of its power into Moscow and Washington would cripple both countries - he'd be able to land and take right over with his massed clone legions...there would be fighting, but we'd never have a chance with the Sword hanging over our heads, ready to destroy any city that rose against him!" She frowned, slowly.

"Then what do we do? Flee to the Belt? Live like pirates?" Altair asked. "I'm good at it."

"No," Jasmine said, quietly. "It is here we must make our stand, around Earth. It is here, either we defeat Zardo or we consign our solar system - maybe the whole galaxy - to his eternal empire of evil!" She shook her head, then snapped her finger. "There is but one thing that might stop him!"

"What is it?" Claudette asked, her eyes widening.

Jasmine grinned, slowly. "Why, it's very simple, my dear Claudette. We simply allow the first ship of Zardo's to come in, land, and open her hold," she said, her eyes sparkling. "Then we give them the Sword of the Stars."

The entire crew gaped at her in stunned silence.

***

Aytan Zardo sat back in his throne, watching, moment by moment, as the Earth grew larger and larger before his ship. The raylight tugs of his fleet glowed with reflectved travel-beams that were being fired from across half the outer system, their massed fury making up for the dilution caused by distance. With these raylight tugs, he would arrive with twice the reaction mass he might have - more than he ever could have before...it had been the work of many centuries, subtly coaxing war between powers, slowly convincing - though agents and spies, through private communications and his own subtle manipulations of the interplanetary marketplace - the Kingdoms of Space to build the raylight system and the travel beams that, ere now, sped him towards his final triumph.

So many plans...so many schemes!

All for this...moment! This singular triumphal parade towards purest victory.

For this, he had captured high flying airplanes above Earth and plumbed their crews for information before doing with them as he would. For this, he had captured Jasmine Starr's very own grandfather after tricking him into space with his radio-beam messages. For this, he had set the Hawkmen and Faemen against one another...for centuries! For this, he had had a daughter, trained her most expertly...and when she had betrayed him, he had cut her from his heart and family with the ease of a quick swipe of the knife!

For this, he had spent many lonely years on distant Pluto, his bones growing brittle and weak as he tinkered with the Nuclear Alchemy Engine, the cloning vats, the clone legions!

And now...

And now!

Zardo stood and strode to the view screen, his heart thundering with excitement.

"My sire!" one of his clone commander spoke from behind him, interrupting his revelry. "Skar asks that his war rocket has pride of first pass. He says that he knows it will be the most dangerous - but he wishes to serve you yet more, my liege."

Zardo's lips twisted in a wry smile. Skar had spoken at length in the joy he had felt in raping his little Zella to death, strangling her with her own hair as he thrust into her. The idea of him being immolated in a haze of superatomic death particles...all because of his hubristic foolishness in thinking that bravery or skill had any factor in his survival...it was enough to made Zardo wish to chortle. But he controlled himself, shaking his head subtly.

"Yes," he said. "Allow Commander Skar to take the pride of place. Give him his forelorn hope, the fool!" He waved his hand. "Thus speak's Zardo!"

He turned back to the screen.

To Earth.

To his impending victory...

Is this the end of Earth?

Has Mark Styles and his brave rebellion been truly destroyed?

Will Zardo reign supreme?

All these questions and more will be answered next week! Tune in for the epic finale of JASMINE STARR AGAINST THE EMPEROR OF SPACE in...

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE TRIUMPH OF ZARDO!