Synthesis – A Harem Science Fiction Novel

In 2036, an eccentric billionaire funded his ultimate ego project: a manned spaceflight to Mars. He expected that the crew would return to Earth with some soil samples and in so doing would solidify his place as an important figure in humanity’s history books forever. When the crew reached Mars, they instead stumbled upon an intact outpost left behind by a mysterious alien civilization known only as “the precursors” over 2 million years ago.

The technologies found at the outpost revolutionized humanity overnight. ‘Hyperspace’ technology allowed spaceships to travel faster than light, and so long as they stuck to pre-designated ‘hyperlanes’ humanity could travel to distant stars. Planetary terraforming was suddenly a possibility, allowing humans to settle on worlds that would normally be toxic. Previously-deadly illnesses could be cured and eradicated with the advancements in medical technology. Advances in genetic engineering let people alter their physical characteristics, allowing them to live in new environments such as on high gravity worlds or underwater.

These technologies could not have come at a better time for humanity. Earth was dying – decades of ignoring warnings from climate scientists caused the oceans to steadily rise, triggering mass migrations which led to rampant xenophobia and anti-refugee riots. Previously fertile lands dried and shriveled, causing food shortages. Zoonotic diseases became more common as humans began to destroy more natural animal habitats. In short, the future of Earth as a habitable planet was looking bleak.

Unfortunately for humanity, the billionaire who discovered these civilization-saving technologies had one thing on his mind – making more money. Over the next 30 years he created the first wave of colony ships, charging exorbitant sums of money to anyone who wanted to leave Earth. Most people were unable to afford the trip however, leading to them toiling away on a dying planet. Eventually some token charity efforts were made to stabilize Earth’s environment, but it was only enough to prevent the situation from getting worse.

As humanity spread further and further across the galaxy, the wealthy elites in the colonies gradually took advantage of genetic engineering technologies, changing themselves to become less and less ‘human’ and calling themselves ‘trans-human’. By 2096, the population of the colonies of Eden Prime in the Virgo system and Elysium in the Sirius system had become so different that they no longer recognized themselves as the same species. Political relations quickly broke down, and they declared war on each other.

Realizing that they needed more troops to wage war, Elysium created a program to conscript poor people from Earth into their army in exchange for access to genetic engineering treatments and a home on the colony when the war was over. This program became known as the ‘WARP’ (Wartime Active Recruitment Program) and was so successful that all other colonies replicated it for every armed conflict afterwards. Gradually, 3 major power blocks emerged: the Sol Corporate Interests, the Roccan Alliance, and the Lokken Star Collective. Between these 3 powers there existed several ‘free’ independent systems which acted as buffer-states.

Kayden Reynolds grew up poor on Earth. During a famine riot, his arm was crushed by an automated security robot and had to be amputated. Normally, this would remove the only job prospect available to him: working at one of the mega-factories that produced the ships, weapons, and other goods required for the colonies. ‘Fortunately’ for him, the Roccan Alliance was looking for volunteers for an experimental medical program which involved connecting a neural interface directly to human brains. They offered to outfit him with a prosthetic arm to replace his missing one, and in desperation he accepted.

The good news for Kayden was that the operation was a success – the doctors implanted him with a neural interface and connected it to his new prosthetic mechanical arm, giving him full functionality and feeling through the arm as if it was a natural one. The doctors also implanted a control cable into his new arm which he could plug into anything from computers to spaceships, allowing him to interface directly with most technology and control it with his mind.

The bad news for Kayden was that out of the 1000 people who volunteered, he was the only one to survive. The Roccan Alliance deemed to program to be a failure and demanded that Kayden pay them back for the price of his treatment. When he told them there was no way he could afford the bill, they offered him another option: to join their WARP program and pay them back over time.

With his ability to control technology directly, Kayden quickly rose through the ranks of the Navy as a pilot. By 2134 he was a lieutenant, piloting an interceptor and leading a squadron in the Roccan war against the Lokken. While he still resented the Roccan for forcing him into service, he’d also become close friends with his squad as well as his commanding officer, Captain Ashley Brown.

During a routine patrol mission in the Virgo system, Kayden and his squad are attacked by “the Black Company” – a mysterious mercenary organization on contract to the Lokken. They’re quickly overwhelmed and Kayden is forced to watch as his squad is killed. Ashely orders Kayden to retreat and get help from the fleet, which he reluctantly does after seeing the space station she was on destroyed. By the time he reaches the rest of the Roccan Alliance fleet though, he learns that the Lokken have just signed a peace treaty with the Roccan – meaning that his friends died in a meaningless battle.

With the war over he’s released from the WARP program with all debts paid. He leaves the Roccan Navy in disgust, turning down their offer at an honorable discharge knowing that they’d just force him to serve in whatever conflict came next. Without many other options, he travels to the free colony of Port Vega in the Andromeda system. Situated on an asteroid in one of the few systems with hyperlane access to each of the Sol, Lokken, and Roccan spaces, Port Vega is a hub of commerce. It’s also dirty and crowded, with the entire population living in a series of connected habitation domes and relying on trade to provide everything from food to finished goods.

Needing a job, Kayden goes to a job fair and demonstrates his skills as a pilot. He attracts the attention of Selina Onassis, an attractive trans-human manager at the Black Company with genetic alterations that gave her cat ears and a cat tail. She offers him a job but he turns her down, telling her that he’d never work for the Black Company and recommending that she look up what happened in the Andromeda system.

As he storms away he’s caught by Dawn Parker, a beautiful diplomat working for the Port Vega government. She offers him a contract for a one-off job: investigating the infamous space pirate, Samuel Barbossa. He agrees, and over lunch she tells him more about the job. Apparently Barbossa and his crew have been making outrageous claims that they’ve found a new hyperlane from the Andromeda system – one that leads to a system with a world perfect for human habitation. Normally these claims would be dismissed as the ravings of a madman, but the promise of free land and the ability to produce food is a tempting one to the Port Vega government, so they’re sending Dawn to investigate.

Together with Dawn, Kayden meets with Barbossa. He surprisingly validates his claims, taking them to the new verdant world. There, they see that he’s already started to establish his own ‘colony’, kidnapping people from across the galaxy and forcing them to work there. Kayden is disgusted by this and together with Dawn they kill Barbossa and his crew. During the battle Barbossa’s spaceship is destroyed and the shuttle containing the hyperlane coordinates to return to Andromeda is damaged – temporarily stranding them there until it can be repaired. After the battle, Kayden and Dawn become lovers and Dawn implies that she’d be happy inviting other women into their relationship as well.

While stranded in the new system, the two of them find a mysterious derelict spaceship. When Kayden tries to use his neural link to control the ship he is flooded with a series of images and passes out. When he wakes up he hears a voice in his head introducing itself as the AI that controls the ship. Through his neural link it accessed his thoughts and memories, and has named him ‘Praetor’ (commander) of the ship. It requests that he return the ship to the nearest “Vrul Technocracy” shipyard. Together with Dawn, Kayden quickly realizes that the “Vrul Technocracy” are likely the “Precursors” from the Mars outpost, making the ship the archaeological find of a lifetime.  

Unfortunately for Kayden, linking with the ship has overloaded his neural link. If he’s unable to find a Vrul shipyard to repair the link, it will kill him in the next few years. He’s momentarily despondent, knowing that finding an intact shipyard of a long-dead alien race is next to impossible.

Kayden quickly learns that he’s not without help. Linking with the ship has given him control over a swarm of nanobots – tiny machines which can carry out instructions sent over his neural link. Not only that, Dawn offers to help him, revealing that she’s part of an elite group within Port Vega’s diplomatic corps which act as spies, assassins, saboteurs, and infiltrators. He resolves to beat the odds, find a Vrul shipyard, and repair his neural link.

Back on the planet, he ask for help from the former captives. One of them – Muradin Morozov – is a master mechanic, and offers to help extract the hyperlane coordinates from the broken shuttle so that they can escape. He estimates it may take several months though. While Kayden and Dawn wait they settle into a routine, helping the other former captives turn the prison camp into a true colony and naming the world ‘Sanctuary’. Kayden takes a leadership role in the colony alongside several others who they freed.

Another former captive – the archaeologist Doctor Cassandra Collins – investigates a set of ruins with Kayden and Dawn on the planet, discovering a gene-editing facility apparently left behind by the Vrul. The accidentally activate the facility, splicing Dawn’s DNA with that of a local creature. This turns Dawn into a trans-human, giving her a set of demon-like horns and a tail. It also imbues her with a set of powers – namely, the ability to ‘trans-dimensional shift’ so that she can pass through solid matter, as well as the ability to emit a set of pheromones which can control other creatures.

Afterwards, Cassandra makes a stunning discovery – there were two power blocks around the time of the precursors: the Vrul Technocracy and the Holy Kel-Azaan Empire. The Vrul believed in the advancement of technology at all costs, whereas the Kel saw genetic engineering as the way to enlightenment. The two powers fought against each other while a small splinter group from either side tried to make peace. They settled on Sanctuary and tried to achieve ‘Synthesis’ – or the combination of biological and technological powers.

Realizing that they’d only found the Kel lab so far, Kayden and Dawn go searching for the Vrul lab. Dawn enlists the help of the local wildlife using her pheromone powers, and together they find it. While in the lab Kayden finds a ‘simulated personality matrix’ device and integrates it with the ships AI, turning it into an independent sapient being. They name the AI “Ali”.

With Ali’s help they repair the shuttle and reestablish contact with the wider galaxy. Upon finishing, they receive a surprising call from Selina. She tearfully reveals that she did the research that Kayden suggested into the Black Company and has learned that they are truly evil. She only started working for them a few months ago, and only did so to get away from her wealthy but controlling family. She wants to leave the company, but she’s afraid of reprisal. Kayden and Dawn invite her to come back to Sanctuary, but before they can rescue her she’s captured by the Black Company’s CEO – Malachi Black.

Kayden and Dawn race back to Port Vega to rescue Selina. They use their technological and biological powers to infiltrate the Black Company offices and find that she’s being held on the Black Company’s private prison ship, the Alcatraz. While infiltrating the office they find all sorts of incriminating evidence about the Black Company’s misdeeds and release it to the public, sparking a riot on Port Vega.

Using the chaos of the riot as cover, Dawn and Kayden escape Port Vega and travel to the Alcatraz. They commandeer the ship, killing the guards. They rescue Selina and Ashley, who Kayden is surprised to see alive. Together they travel back to Port Vega to pick up Dawn’s mother, father, and brother only to discover that the riot has escalated into a full-scale mutiny by many of the former Black Company employees. Dawn and Kayden assist the mutineers in overthrowing the Black Company, destroying their offices and rescuing Dawn’s family before retreating back to Sanctuary with Ashley and her ship full of escaped convicts.

When they return, Selina reveals that the Black Company discovered a Vrul shipyard in the Tau Ceti system and have been using it to build a fleet. She tells them about how Malachi Black is filled with delusions of grandeur and seeks to build his own empire. Kayden realizes he’ll need a fleet to help him break into the shipyard, and Dawn begins calling her contacts to put one together. As they’re waiting for responses, Selina joins Kayden and Dawn’s relationship as another lover.

With help from Dawn’s parents, Kayden contacts a group of pirates known for their actions against the Black Company. He’s shocked to learn that the group is made up of former slaves who escaped the Black Company after they were unwillingly put through rounds of genetic engineering that imbued them with increased resistance to radiation and decreased their caloric requirements, but also gave them a distinctly goblin-like appearance. Kayden works with the group’s leader – Anna Bedford – to free the rest of the enslaved ‘goblins’, destroying a refuelling station and stealing several spaceships in the process. While they retreat to Sanctuary to plan their next move, Anna joins the relationship with Kayden, Dawn, and Selina, becoming their 4^th.

Back on Sanctuary, Anna helps Ashley retrofit the stolen prison ship and renames it to the ‘Emancipation’. They learn that Daniel and Cassandra have become a couple. Afterwards, they receive a frantic call from the new, post-riot leadership of Port Vega, pleading for Kayden’s help in defending the colony against an impending Black Company attack. Kayden agrees, enlisting the help of the goblins, former convicts, and colonists to crew the fleet. They join forces with Port Vega’s defenders and repel the Black Company’s assault, capturing several more ships in the process and forming a true fleet.

In the aftermath of the attack, Kayden meets with the Port Vega leadership and convinces them to lend him their forces in an assault on the Black Company headquarters/shipyard in Tau Ceti so they can end the threat once and for all. While resupplying and rearming, Kayden takes each of his women on dates around Port Vega – culminating in him confessing his love for Dawn. He becomes closer with Ali as well, treating her like another member of his crew.

The morning before the attack, Kayden receives a message from Daniel and Cassandra with instructions on how to use his nanobots to enhance the genetically engineered powers of others. They try it on Selina and Dawn to great effect – Selina becomes stronger and more agile, and Dawn’s pheromone control powers are enhanced to the point where she can use them on humans. Anna declines any enhancements, saying that Selina’s enhancements made her more catlike and Dawn’s enhancements made her more demon-like, pointing out that she doesn’t want to be more goblin-like, and revealing that she’s insecure about the genetic engineering that the Black Company did to her.

Finally, they launch the assault against the Black Company. Ashley leads the fleet, expertly deploying them and assaulting the Black Company defenses. In the chaos of the battle Kayden infiltrates the Black Company headquarters alongside Dawn, Selina, and Anna. During the infiltration Kayden unlocks his own genetic powers, achieving the ‘Synthesis’ of technological and biological powers that the Vrul and Kel dreamed of. He becomes stronger and faster, and gains the ability to activate an ‘adrenaline rush’ on command which dilates time perception while numbing his pain receptors – essentially making him even faster and stronger for a short period.

After fighting through the Black Company headquarters they reach the Vrul shipyard only to be confronted by Malachi Black. He surrounds them with a battalion of soldiers, but Kayden uses the nanobots embedded within the shipyard to defeat them and kill Malachi. Ali then uses the nanobots to repair his neural link and upgrade the Broken Shackle, making it much bigger and more powerful. She also uses the nanobots to build herself a physical body. They download all the information they can find from the Vrul shipyard, including coordinates for many new, unmapped hyperlanes. They then use their upgraded ship to destroy the shipyard so that it can’t be used by anyone else.

After the battle Kayden surrenders his leadership position on Sanctuary, intent on pursuing new adventures with his women. Several months later they decide to try one of the new hyperlanes recovered from the Vrul shipyard. They successfully transit to a new system only to be confronted by an alien ship claiming to be from the “Kel Confederacy of Systems”.