After a few hours, I receive a reply to my email from Brenna: “Sounds good, I ‘get’ why you didn't want to ask, and had we wanted to go elsewhere, no harm done given Drift travel times.” She CC'd everyone, so… cool. Side note: It's weird opening my email with my personal comm still in my pocket.

  Handy, though.

  I possess my Conjuration Companion, get up, and stretch… then take a walk, leaving the bridge to the summon. We're cloaked, there's nothing anywhere nearby, and the summon can summon us if there's a problem: This is a non-issue. The hallway is nice… plush carpets, and the smaller mechs could get through here if needed. I just enjoy the luxury for a bit, walking down to engineering, and taking a look at the reactor: It's an Abysium Pulse Red, and is really intended for Tiny ships, while this ship is Medium. Still… the mounts fit it, it covers our needs, it's not too expensive, and the radiation it lets loose when damaged isn't too bad for us.

  And as a bonus, there's a lot of space to work around the reactor if needed.

  I stop at the Industry to get my mind off of… recent events… and get to work using the machines to turn inert spsce dust (mostly hydrogen) harvested by the ship into programmable matter, practicing renewing a possession while I work, and adding both Crafter's Fortune and Divine Insight into the mix to get a nice fat skilI (and thus, productivity) bonus. It's repetitive and time-consuming, but that's fine… it's more productive than just watching movies all day.

  Charlene, Brenna, and Alice come in and join me at some point, taking a shift. They chat while they work.

  “Mistress Flux is wonderful, isn't she?” Alice announces.

  “Oh, the best,” Brenna telepathically agrees, “she got me off so good!”

  “You should join us next time…” Charlene chuckles, “The Mistress would welcome you with open arms.”

  “No thank you,” I shake my borrowed head, “I'm not into the whole sadomasochism thing, nor the group thing. You all can have your fun.”

  “She can be tender, too, and very understanding.” Brenna broadcasts, “I'm sure she'd be willing to skip the chains and whips for you… we could fabricate some roses and candles, set the two of you up with a nice dinner.”

  Hmm. Pity I don't have ranks in Sense Motive: The team is pushing hard. “You've all fallen for her fast and hard, it seems.”

  “The Mistress is wonderful,” Alice smiles at just the thought.

  “She's the best ever,” Brenna agrees, signing this time.

  “Virtually a goddess,” Charlene confirms.

  Hmm. “Give me some time to think about it, eh? We have a couple of days before we reach Absalom Station.”

  “Sure thing,” Alice smiles, “Take all the time you need.”

  I keep working as I think. Hmm… I need to pick up Sense Motive at some point. They could just be legitimately infatuated… hard to Charm constructs, but this sudden of a change and pressing for others… hmm. For now… I'm going to make a point of NOT possessing my summon, as anything targetting his mind will hit me if I'm piloting: Share Skill will do for now… and I should stay in ring form, not mentioning I have another shape, or even that the ring is really me. I can't Bluff worth a dime, but I can simply not mention things.

  I wonder what would happen if I asked Brenna directly? She has a good Sense Motive check as a Wisdom-based build, and even has the css bonus as a Mystic Dreamer… and has an Oath of Candor so she won't lie for anyone… yes….

  I target just her with my Machine Telepathy, “Hey, Brenna, can you do me a favor?”

  “Probably. What do you need?” She replies immediately.

  “I'm worried that our friends might be Charmed or something,” I'm not going into detail, but I'm being truthful as far as it goes, “Would you please check them over with Sense Motive for me to make sure they're OK?”

  “That's ridiculous, who would…” Brenna practically ughs in my head.

  “Remember the campaign with the Succubus big bad?” I remind her, “We identified her because she was the only one in the room who was fully herself, and everyone ughed until we revealed the demon the hard way.” That was a tough campaign… a shape-shifting demon with some at-will mind control was wrecking a city… Sense Motive trainwrecked the dungeon master's plot, however… which is what the DM wanted, really.

  “Fine, fine…” she pauses for a bit… “ookay… no, they're not entirely themselves. We'll need to check with The Mistress to see…”

  “Thank you. We'll get to her in a bit. Now… check yourself, please?” I interrupt.

  “Like anyone could…”

  “Just do it. The skill has no restrictions that prevent you from contempting your own actions.”

  “Fine…” she pauses, and then curses very loudly in my head.

  “That's what I thought. Am I clean?”

  “...yes. I checked you first. Let's go get The Mistress so she…”

  “Thanks, I think.” No. No evil lich! “Okay, so… do you feel any particur compulsion to do what I say or anything? Can you be reasonably confident I'm not the charmer, and trust me to spam some dispels?”

  Brenna pauses for a bit, “I don't, which ironically means I can trust you. Okay. Let's go get The Mistress….”

  “No. Remember, you can't trust your own judgement right now. Wait until you know you're clean before you tell anyone what's going on. Okay?”

  “But I can trust…”

  “Why?”

  That brings Brenna up short, so I continue, “We met her like a day ago. Sure, she's a great y, beautiful, everything you want. Why is she ‘a trusted friend and ally’?” That's a line out of the basic Charm Person spell, by the way, “Wait until you can confirm you are clean before trusting anyone you've known for less than a year, all right?”

  “But she wouldn't…”

  “You know this how?”

  “But I can trust….”

  “Again, why? I'm not saying you can't, I'm just saying wait on deciding until you can confirm you are clean yourself, as until then you can't trust yourself, all right?”

  “...okay, dispel me.”

  “In private, I have a feeling this will take a while, and I'd rather not be outnumbered.”

  “...fine. My pce or yours?”

  “Yours, I think. Come on….”

  I announce to my other two friends, “I have a lot on my mind… I think I'm done with work for today… and would like some one on one time to discuss the Mistress… Brenna, if you would?”

  She gets up, and we both walk to her room. She taps the pad, and we both go in.

  “So, how do you want to do this?” Brenna asks.

  “Something I wouldn't spring on a real dungeon master…” I start by buffing. The Enable Function spell on myself grants me a feat; I go with Expanded Arcana to give myself a third level spell known, Dispel Magic. No particur reason, I'm not going to cast it that way, I just need a third level spell known and that onebis on my mind. I also use the same to grant myself Extra Lineage Domain for the Inquisition domain (for a four point bonus to dispel checks) and again for the Purification domain (for a one point bonus to caster level with Abjuration spells, which is Dispel Magic's school). I don't have any third level spell slots, but I can power it with Versatile Spellcaster and Spheres spell points… which means I can cast third level Eldritch Godling spells. So I then use Inspired Spell from Mythic to cast Dispel Magic. I have five levels in the css, and use Magic Is Magic to use my racial and Spheres levels on the other side to get my caster level to seven… which Inspired Spell gets to a caster level of nine, Purification gets to ten, then Inquisition and my racial feature of “Deep Magic” add another six specifically to dispel checks. So I'm rolling at a sixteen point bonus on my dispel check when I hit Brenna with it… and it still takes me two tries to clean the spell off.

  “All right… check yourself now, please,” I fg Brenna as I recharge my expenditures.

  She curses loudly in my head, “I am going to kill that…”

  “We need to do this carefully,” I interrupt, “after all, she got all three of you at the same time, and getting the spell off of you was no easy task. I'm thinking maybe we just fly the ship into a star without warning. She won't be expecting to see us again after that if that box we have on board isn't her phyctery.”

  “You want to destroy the ship?” Brenna pauses.

  “We'll be fine. Fire subtype, radiation immunity, vacuum adaptation, and Spaceflight means we just lose the ship and contents…” I shrug, “and we'll get the ship and our base gear back as soon as we nd somewhere and rest up for a day.”

  “Really weird that THAT is a valid pn,” Brenna shakes her head. “But I'm going to pack everything ‘real’ up into my extra dimensional storage if it's all the same to you.”

  “That's my pn too. But we can survive without them if needed.” I pause, “got any good pns for rescuing Alice and Charlene?”

  I shrug, “Get them alone away from ‘The Mistress’ and dispel them. I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants here.”

  Brenna considers, “Well, I can't even do limited truth, so you're going to need to work around that.”

  I nod my head, “Any issues if I invite one of them here, you hold her down, and I dispel?”

  “I'm game. That's not going to work with Alice…” She considers, “But should with Charlene, provided we keep her from summoning.”

  I smile, “I can Counterspell as an immediate action… a reaction, in Starfinder… so we're good there.” Although I'm going to be running through Mythic power like it's water doing that. Still, I can recharge.

  I hit the comms, “Hey, Charlene? Do you mind meeting me in Brenna's room? I'd like to ask you a few questions about The Mistress.” Once you're clean.

  “On my way,” the comm crackles back.

  We wait, I in an obvious location near the door, Brenna standing just to the side, waiting for her to come in. Soon enough Charlene hits the chime, and I speak, “Come in,” and the door opens. Our target steps in, and my summon and Brenna both dive for her… missing the grab, unfortunately. I cast the Dispel… and it doesn't take. That gives Charlene time to react, and she steps back outside, starting a summon… I counterspell, and her action fizzles. My summon and Brenna move in to grab her again, and Brenna gets a good hold. I cast my dispel, and feel the magic on my friend crack this time.

  “Enough; I got it,” I decre with a smile as Brenna lets go, “So… what do you think of Hayden now?”

  Charlene frowns deeply, “Five minutes ago she was a trusted friend. Now… she's just someone I met. I was Charmed, wasn't I?”

  “Yes…” Brenna begins, “You're clean now, though.”

  “Great,” my almost-giant friend considers, “Let's gather the army and get Alice in here. She's going to be a pain to clean.”

  I smile, “Sounds like a pn…” I start charging Charlene as she summons her invisible minions.

  Once we have the spacious room quite crowded (but not looking like it), Charlene hits the comm, “Hey, Alice, crew meeting in Brenna's quarters. Get on over here.”

  “Be by shortly,” she replies across the comm.

  We wait a good five minutes, briefly discussing pns… which basically amount to “dogpile Alice with Summons to keep her busy while I spam Dispel Magic.” Yes, it's a simple pn, but simple pns are often the best.

  Things go well… Alice hits the door chime, Charlene says, “Come on in,” and the door opens….

  Unfortunately, pns seldom survive contact with the enemy. No, not Alice, she's not the enemy. Ms. Flux standing right beside her, on the other hand….