Alice recovers first, and parks the mech, “Come on, we have some spare quarters where we dumped the gear from your stash… and we have something for you when you're decent… you can get cleaned up in your quarters….” she leads the lich away.

  My eyes linger on her derriere as Alice escorts her out of view.

  “The lich is a beautiful woman,” Charlene is next to break the silence.”

  “Yeah,” Brenna broadcasts.

  I blink a few times, “Well… it doesn't change our pns, such as they are.”

  “True,” Charlene takes a breath. Let's be ready when she comes out.

  We grab the electroencephalon from storage, and gather outside what will be Hayden's quarters for the duration of her stay. And wait. And wait. Most of us switch to pying games on our comms after a bit.

  She comes out a good two hours ter, with her hair done up in curls, smelling kind of like daffodils, and wearing a yellow cocktail dress with a matching purse and heels, Alice right behind her.

  She freezes when she sees what Charlene is holding, and Alice picks up, “Ah, right. We had pnned to give that to you when you came out, but we all got distracted by ‘beautiful bare babe’ where we expected ‘decayed corpse’.”

  “So… here you go,” Charlene lifts it to present it to Hayden.

  She doesn't move to grab it, “You're just… giving it to me? No strings? You haven't messed with it?”

  Brenna answers that telepathically, “Correct. If you want a reason beyond ‘it's the right thing to do’, then think of it this way: It's a long-term strategy. A willing ally is better than someone who serves because they think they'll die if they don't.”

  “Sooner or ter,” Alice adds, “the person who is forced to serve will regret it, even if it was their idea. And then they'll look for a way out.”

  “If we're holding your life in our hands when that inevitably happens with you,” I get in on the expnation, “whether that's because you think all debts are paid, we're insufferable idiots, you're better than this, you have a better offer, or any other reason… you can't just walk away. You have to do something about us first.”

  Charlene is next, “Now, while we're pretty confident in our own contingenciesif you metaphorically or even literally stab us in our backs… it's better if we don't need to watch for it. So here… when you decide it's time to walk away… you can just walk away. You have that option now. We'd prefer that - when the time comes - we part on good terms, peacably. This makes that possible.”

  The lich freezes like a deer in the headlights for a bit, then looks down, and speaks very softly, “It's not mine.”

  Alice raises an eyebrow and looks at me, “It IS an active electroencephalon,” I confirm. Brenna and Charlene also nod.

  “It belongs to an old lieutenant of mine…” Hayden continues, still very softly, “...who did exactly what your actions today are intended to prevent me from doing… and who was instrumental in my ending up in that box. I wanted to make you think you were in control until I could… do what… she did… but… you…” she stops being coherent, and breaks down crying, colpsing to the ground.

  I fully possess my minion and sit down next to the lich, putting my arm around Hayden's shoulders. She turns to me and keeps crying into my armor as I start whispering reassuringly at her.

  “Wait… are we doing the ‘Evil Sucks’ trope?” Alice frowns.

  “Looks like we're going to get a full ‘Heel Face Turn’ out of it,” Brenna replies telepathically.

  “That'll put us squarely on ‘Evil Redeemed in a Can’,” Charlene considers, rubbing her chin, “which is a good thing, I think.”

  “Well, yes,” Alice speaks up, “but it is SO overdone.”

  “Everything is,” Brenna shrugs physically as she speaks into our heads, “you could do a literally random plot line and you would STILL match some tropes.”

  “True…” Alice's turn to rub her chin.

  “What are you babbling about?” Hayden manages through her tears.

  I try for a soothing voice, “We come from a world that has a LOT of stories. So many, in fact, that pretty much every plot element ever has already been written, many times over. Those elements have names, and right now… well, ‘every plot element ever’ means we’ve read stories about fake people going through what you are actually experiencing. That's what they're discussing…” I turn to my party mates, and raise my volume, “Which is quite rude. Begone!”

  They shuffle off quietly, ignoring that we're currently in the main hallway of the ship. I pick her up (between the decent base strength of my summon and the boost from my miniature mech suit, this isn't hard) and carry her into her quarters, sitting down on the couch, where I resume trying to comfort her.

  Eventually her sobs settle down, and she whispers, “I'm going to be okay. You can go.”

  I give her a quick pat on the head, and get up. When I reach the door, she speaks up, “You shouldn't exist, you know.”

  I shrug, “and yet, we do.” I step out, and the door closes behind me.

  I head to the bridge, finding everyone else is already there.

  “So… that went well?” Alice speaks up.

  “Yeah,” I shrug, “But we probably should add biometric locks the next time we upgrade the ship if we're going to have guests.”

  “It's not like she can steal it permanently…” Brenna speaks into my mind, “But yes, we probably should.”

  “Speaking of…” Charlene switches to talking to the air, “Ferdinand?”

  He pops into existence, “What can I do for you, Charlene?”

  “How are we coming on our next level?” our almost-giant smiles at him.

  “The necrovite's heartfelt gratitude got you there,” he shrugs, “so… next long rest.”

  I look around, “Any objection to ‘now’? We're in a safe orbit, so it seems like it should be fine.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Brenna broadcasts telepathically, and everyone else nods.

  “Great!” I settle into my chair to rex, as does everyone else.

  Soon enough, we're on the wrecked rainbow bridge.

  SpoilerThinking about temptes… “Hey Ferdinand?”

  “What do you need?” He is acting just as subservient as always.

  “Check my reasoning on this…” I pause, “We have access to all the rules, and that includes Pathfinder's old monsters as races section, correct?”

  “Yes, you can fill a ‘css track’ in your gestalt with a monster's challenge rating if you like, although obviously changing your base race like that means you can't also use the race builder.”

  “Temptes are compatible though, right?”

  “Yes. Is there something you're after specifically?”

  “I was looking at Starfinder's type and subtype grafts. Those are all essentially plus zero CR temptes, correct?”

  Ferdinand blinks a few times, “They are. Which makes them free. What are you after?”

  I grin and get to work. For my base race, I dump the undead type on the race: It's no longer needed, as I can get almost everything it grants by other means. That frees up a full sixteen points, and as I don't generally have a use for the extra nd speed, I drop that as well. Some of those seventeen points I spend on an at-will spell like: Enable Function (it's third but valid at six points; I keep Heroic Fortune, of course). For the other eleven, I nab the regur traits of Encve Protector (for the constant Nondetection effect, but the other one a day spell like abilities may prove useful; two points), Deep Magic (for easier dispelling and penetration of spell resistance; three points), static bonus feat (magical training, which becomes extra magic talent when I gain casting separately, two points) and the flexible bonus feat (four points, pick any feat for which I qualify… which I use for extra magic talent again).

  I go for several of the free temptes. Outsider gives a few minor pluses (one point to attack rolls, and I put the two point save bonus to Fortitude), but it serves mostly to meet the requirement for the next thing I grab: Spectra. That gives me Void Adaptation (I can wander around in a vacuum unharmed), a little damage reduction, reasonable spell resistance, plus Machine Telepathy (letting me perform Engineering and Computers checks from a hundred feet away, plus talk to people through their electronics from the same range), Truespeech (I get to ignore nguages from here on out), and Slip Drive (I can travel back and forth to the Drift and other pnes on my own). The Space environmental graft gives me a supernatural flight speed, lets me maneuver between pnets and such, ignore radiation, and be fine with zero gravity. The Fire and Cold subtypes make me immune to fire and cold damage (respectively) and nicely counter each other's vulnerabilty to cold and fire (again, respectively). Subterrainian gives a burrow speed, aquatic a swim speed (and blindsense for vibration, plus immunity to pressure). Having basically everything I want, I toss the Construct type with the magical subtype on top to get broad immunities… and be subject to my own Enable Function. That will make me flexible as all get-out on the Spheres side.

  Then of course, I grab a paid tempte. The effective three levels for the walking deity tempte is still a little rich for my blood, but the Primarcane tempte (with the discount for not getting the stat boosts) is affordable enough at two… and gives me half my intelligence to saves and armor css, better spell resistance (I get eleven plus my level from the free temptes, this makes it sixteen plus my level), some fun things I can do when someone fails to get through my spell resistance (I can send it back to them or heal from it), unlimited spell points, bonus magic talents, and a limited ability to pick up Spheres talents on the fly (Enable Function does it better and longer, but also takes longer to invoke).

  I also revamp my build basically entirely. My “Main” track I set as the Eldritch Godling, using Divine casting from the Generic Spellcaster, and making it Intelligence based. For my minor Ascendancies (I get two at fifth), I pick up Magic is Magic (to stack my caster levels… Spheres casters are not, in general, treated as full casters per that ability's definition, but it does mean I have a native caster level of one and half times my level for everything) and Talent for Mysticism to grab Force of Intellect (it bases all of my saves on Intelligence, and let's me migrate three skills to that: I go with Piloting, Perception, and Mysticism). For my Major Ascendancy I select “By Will Alone” - as it lets me ignore all components for spells ince a day... and more than that, because I can recharge it via Heroic Fortune. For my Lineage Domain, I pick Pride… because I hate rolling one's on saves, and that domain gives me some insution against that. My Divine Trait goes to Divine Portfolio I and the Lunar mystery for Prophetic Armor, so that I can use my Intelligence instead of my Dexterity for my armor css. Yes, I'm making myself very Intelligence focused: It's a pretty good stat.

  That leaves me with three levels of css features on the “secondary” side. There, I go with Spirit Bde, keeping the ring paradigm and most of what I'm currently doing with the css (I have one less level, and drop Lengthened Control as a result; with only three levels in the css and a Conjuration Companion that will have more hit dice than I do, it doesn't help much anyway). For gear, I add a mark I null-space chamber for when I want to move goods, but keep the Conjuration Implement ring, the Intelligence upgrade, and the Limited Telepathy graft.

  I update my Mythic setup as well. I'm now a Divine caster, so I go with Hierophant for the base, getting Inspired Spell to be able to spend Mythic to cast spells I don't know from my list… and using the Generic Spellcaster list, that's any Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric, or Druid spell, currently of second level and lower. Ferdinand informs me that those include Technomancer, Witchwarper, and Mystic spells too thanks to the conversion… which is nice. I go dual-path to grab Spheremaster's Heirloom and Flexible Counterspell, keeping my Tradition and other Mythic feat untouched.

  I also revamp my Conjuration Companion. There's no more need for the Mindless archetype: The boost to caster level means the creature's hit dice will keep up just fine and even grow faster than mine despite that. I use the Martial archetype on a Biped, and pick up the Battle Creature form talent as a boost. That leaves my companion with two martial weapons (from Battle Creature twice, because there's no reason NOT to give up the natural attacks), three martial talents, all simple weapon proficiency (small arms and basic melee), and a martial tradition. For the martial tradition, I give my pet two equipment talents, namely Firearm Proficiency (because all the best weapons in Starfinder fall under that heading), and Armor Training (so my minion is proficient in light armor, not that she'll ever wear it). For the talents from the tradition, I go with the Barrage sphere and Close Combat Specialist (to avoid the penalty for firing while in melee). Now, this also grants him a minor Spheres of Might talent progression, so I get her Ceaseless Ammo (to never run out), Mobile Focus (for a very easy way to regain martial focus) and Cone of Death (to make a small area attack with basically any ranged weapon… crowd control). His weapons upgrade too; firing in melee is now fine, so a Corona Laser Rifle (long range fire damage) and a static arc rifle (electricity damage at reasonable range). Of course, he also gets feats and skills… fewer total than I get, but more ranks. So I get him the Stealth skill at full ranks, and give him Extra Skill Talent twice to pick up Vocation(Skill Acuity (Stealth)) so that his modifier will keep up and Vocation(Skill Confidence) so he can always take ten on Stealth For his third feat (sadly, he doesn't get our other boosts…) I have him take Extra Combat Talent to get Augmented Grip from the Barrage sphere to reduce the penalty from rapid firing. I invest all of my magic talents into the creature for now, increasing his constitution and dexterity, and giving him the Constructed talent twice (so he doesn't need to breathe, and so I can use Enable Function on him directly). I will want to back down on that next level and invest heavily in Illusions (because Create Reality rocks), but for now it works great because I still have all my regur spells and can flex my magic talents as needed thanks to Primarcane and Enable Function.

  For the main ship, we mostly just bring the sensors all the way up to Ultra rated Long Range, additionally making them Djezet-infused to get the highest range and quality possible... and yes, Biometric locks. For the sub-ships, we basically just push the shields up, up, up, and do the same with the power core, to the limit of what we can afford. For the mechs, we rgely just upgrade the existing systems to keep pace.

  For my feat, I take Versatile Spellcaster. It lets me spend two spell slots of one level lower to cast a spell I know, rather than needing a spell of the same level. Generally it's a pretty low value feat, but in my case the Spheres rules for interacting with feats that use spell slots mean that it lets me spend my per-round spell points to cast spells from my Eldritch Godling side: I simply won't run out of spell slots. And of course, for my spells known at my highest spell level, I take two that I will always want to have Immediately avaible: Wings of Cover (basic defense) and Scorching Ray (basic offense, and better than almost anything else I'm likely to have avaible at this level). Anything from that side that I would cast outside of a fight (or even inside of one, most of the time) I can get by spending Mythic power, which I can recharge via Heroic Fortune.

  [colpse]The others end up looking over my shoulder, going back, and re-writing their characters a bit… good. Maybe we'll all get out of this alive… well, intact, anyway.

  When we're all done, we head back to… if not the real world, at least the prime material pne, and our ship….