Marauder Ramses (15 page)

“No,” I say. “It looked just like their adorable pets. Exactly like them.”

Both of the women give me a queasy look.

“It would pretend to be this animal until a blue-skin family had bonded with it and accepted it--loved it. And then, in the middle of the night, it would attack and eat their skin.”

“Wonderful,” Kara says.

“So what did the blueskins do?” Felicia asks.

“They killed every last animal. Every last pet. This was before they had technology such as blood sampling or knowledge of DNA, so they had to kill all of their beloved pets just to eradicate the skin eaters.”

“Okay…” Kara says, “What part of this is supposed to make us feel better?”

“When Darkstar takes us,” I say. “They will think I am like the blue-skins’ pet. But I am not. I will kill every last one of them--flay their skin--if they touch you.”

“
W
ait here
,” Kain says. “I will procure rations from my ship. You’ll want to eat well before they take you hostage.”

He rips the inner-door open, shuts it behind him, and tightens the seal.

Felicia looks at me with a wide-eyed expression.

“Don’t say it,” I say.

“He’s kind of hot--”

“God!” I shout. “I told you to not say it!”

“He’s clearly not interested in me,” Felicia says. “But I think you have a real shot--”

“Felicia. We’re about to be taken prisoner on Darkstar. I’m happy if I have a real shot at ever seeing the sun again. “

“Those cheekbones though,” Felicia says. “And it’s hard to tell with his armor, but he looks...
strong
.”

“I guess he’s hot in a ‘I AM GOING TO FLAY THEIR SKIN!’ kind of way,” I say, rolling my eyes.

I won’t admit it to my sister--and she knows I won’t admit it--but Kain
is
hot, and considering how awful our current situation is, his offer to protect me is quite moving. Minus the skin flaying

“At least he’s going to get us food,” I say.

“See,” Felicia says. “He wants to provide for you.”

I bite my lip to stop myself from smiling.

“Is this really any better?” I ask. “Before Kain found us, we were most certainly going to starve to death. It would have been painful, but if he turns out to be all talk, can you even imagine what those other Marauders will do to us?”

Felicia leans back in the pilot’s seat. “I suppose we could have just not plugged the heat in. We could have just slowly frozen to death. That wouldn’t have been so bad.”

“So what’s our plan?” I ask.

“Uh, does it even matter?”

I look out the window and see Kain already exiting his ship, holding a big crate.

“Of course it matters!” I snap. “We need to know everything we can about Darkstar. The more we do, the more likely we can get rescued.”

Felicia forces a confused smile at me.

“What?” I ask. “Were you just planning to sit on your ass and see if he’d rescue us?”

“I wanted to at least have a small break from fighting tooth and nail to survive. These last few weeks have been rough.”

I shake my head. “You know how rough it can get as a prisoner on Darkstar...and hopefully you weren’t ever planning on having kids.”

I see Felicia’s neck bulge as she swallows.

“So as soon as that sexy skinflayer gets back,” I say, “We press him, hard.”

Felicia grins, “Maybe he’ll press you, hard.”

I kick the back of her chair, and it tips forward on its pivot, dumping her onto the console.

She starts laughing. “You asshole!”

The airlock wheel starts to turn, and Kain bursts back inside.

He throws the crate down onto the ground. “I have food.”

Felicia and I nearly dive into the crate.

It’s full of dried fruit, jerky, vacuum packed curry, rice,
chocolate
, everything I’ve ever dreamed of while slowly starving the past few weeks.

I tear into the chocolate and bite into it. I feel a crunch. “Oh, my, God,” I say, my mouth still full.

“What?” Felicia says, tearing the chocolate out of my hands.

I point at the bar. “Almonds!”

She wolfs it down even more greedily than me.

Kain removes his helmet and bites into a stick of jerky.

Felicia swallows, then elbows me. “Press him hard,” she whispers, then takes another monstrous bite of the chocolate.

“Kain,” I say, looking up at him. “Can you tell us what exactly will happen once we are on Darkstar?”

He furrows his eyebrows, and his ears pull all the way back. He doesn’t speak.

“It’s going to happen whether you tell us or not,” I say. “If you tell us, we’ll at least be prepared. Escaping is going to require work on both ends--yours and ours.”

Kain’s ears are still back all the way. Like a dog who was just caught tearing up a pair of shoes.

“Come on,” Felicia says, “It can’t be
that
bad…”

“The good news...” Kain says.

We both groan.

“Marauders, despite their name, will not force themselves onto you.”

“Wow!” Felicia says, elbowing me, “
Great
news!”

I punch her arm.

“However,” Kain says, “They will recycle you if you are not providing sufficient value.”

“Gross,” Felicia says.

“I have two questions,” I say. “First, what is ‘recycle,’ and second, is being a sex slave the only way to provide value?”

“Recycle is self explanatory,” Kain says. “You will be broken down in the bio-reorganizer, and your organic matter will be redistributed through our life support systems.”

“They’ll eat us?” Felicia asks.

“The reorganizer will break you down molecule by molecule, sometimes atom by atom, there won’t be a
you
left for us to eat.”

“Wonderful,” I say. “And my second question?”

“The human slaves are a taboo subject on Darkstar,” Kain says. “It’s very hippo...I forget this word. Hippocratic?”

“Hypocritical.”

“Yes,” he says, “It’s hypocritical. Darkstar’s stated mission is to eradicate humanity. Though in recent years there’s been a push to focus instead on simply
leaving
. I stayed with Darkstar because I was in favor of leaving. But the ‘eradicate humanity’ idea is gaining fresh traction once again. So the human captives--most all female--are...a contradiction.”

“Fucking assholes,” Felicia says leaning back in her chair.

“Yes,” Kain says, “Sometimes they do that--only in the ass--to avoid the taboo of ‘mating with a human.’”

“What!” Felicia shouts. “I was calling them assholes! Not--”

“Oh,” Kain says, “Sorry, that was likely too much information. But anyway, it’s not widely spoken of within Darkstar society. The prisoners are kept on Darkstar itself rather than the ships.”

“What is the main difference between Darkstar and the ships?” I ask.

“Uh,” Felicia says, “One is a big rock, and the other are ships? Seems obvious.”

“Yes,” Kain says, “But Kara’s question is important. The ships orbit Darkstar, but the ships are total luxury compared to the planet itself. Darkstar is typically reserved for the training of soldiers, resource mining, and so on. An officer in High Command, for instance, is stationed on one of the ships. For him to give into temptation and take a human slave, he’ll typically say that he is going to supervise training, or observe the mining operations--some excuse--and everyone will look the other way.”

“So,” I say, “It sounds like rescuing us won’t be impossible.”

“Rescuing you would be simple,” Kain says. “The issue is getting out of range of the plasma cannons. I will need a biosuit to defend us from them.”

“So take one off the rack,” Felicia says.

“While my father was still alive, I may have been able to easily gain access to one. But I have no idea what my position will be on Darkstar after all that’s happened.”

“Maybe they won’t come,” I say, “Can you just ignore the signal?”

“I already told them I was here with two prisoners,” Kain says.

“You couldn’t have just,” I say, “Like, not done that?”

“They already heard your distress beacon, and they already saw me landing. Their scanners can pick up that I’m Marauder and that you’re two living human females. I needed to get them to believe I’m still on their side. It’s your best hope.”

“How long do we have?”

Kain looks at his wrist. “A few minutes more.”

“Any final thoughts?” I ask, “Pieces of advice?”

“Back to your question,” Kain says. “You can avoid recycling by providing value. Show a willingness to do manual labor, if you would not like to have sex, that is.”

I try to swallow, but it sticks in my throat, and I end up coughing.

“I can claim one of you,” Kain says. “Once claimed, it will be assumed we are fucking each other, and you will be seen as having value.”

“Wonderful culture you have there,” Felicia says.

“Claim Felicia,” I say, “She’s not well suited to manual labor.”

Felicia jumps to her feet. “I’m not going to--” She sucks air in through her teeth, looks at Kain, and shakes her head. “Ignore what I said earlier, about him being...dammit, Kara, I told you!
You
, should do...
that.
”

“What language is she speaking?” Kain asks, cocking his head. “All the important words are missing.”

“She’s saying that she doesn’t want to have sex with you,” I say.

Kain narrows his eyes. “I see. I’ve had many human women on Venus offer themselves to me, but my friend Ramses taught me that I must wait for my true mate. Felicia...you are not my true mate.”

“Well I didn’t want to fuck you anyway!” Felicia says, throwing up her hands.

Then Felicia starts to smile and looks at me with devious eyes.

“Don’t,” I say, raising a finger.

“Why don’t you claim
Kara?
” She asks. “Had you thought of that.”

Kain grins and looks down at me. “I have indeed.”

My face burns hot, and I look away. I can imagine exactly what Felicia’s face looks like right now, and I don’t even want to know how Kain is looking at me.

“If you claim me,” I say, still looking down at the floor. “No one has to know what is happening behind closed doors. We can just plan the escape...we don’t have to...do anything.”

“She does not want to have sex with me,” Kain says. “I appreciate your attempt to be my ‘wing man,’ Felicia.”

Felicia bursts out laughing. “Where the hell did you learn that phrase?”

“I often acted as wingman on Venus, at the peacekeeper academy. I helped many of my human friends get their dicks wet.”

Now I burst out laughing. “Were they all playing a joke on you to get you to talk like that with a straight face?”

“Talk like what?” Kain asks. “Human men’s dicks are not self lubricating, so it’s a logical expression, as the vaginal fluids will--”

“Jesus,” I say, cutting him off, “Please stop.”

Felicia laughs again. “It’s awesome, he talks either like the biggest asshole, or like a biological textbook. There’s no in between.”

Kain taps on the window, and we look outside.

We see a blue glow of engine thrust in the distance.

“I need to go meet them outside,” Kain says. “You’ll need to both pretend that I was not kind to you when we next meet.”

“You weren’t,” I say.

Kain kicks the crate. “Then I will take this food away.”

“Come on, Kara,” Felicia says. “He saved our asses
and
brought us chocolate.”

“Okay, fine,” I say. “You were kind to us.”

Kain nods. “You are both welcome.”

Then he grabs my hand, squeezes it, and locks eyes with me. “And you are especially welcome, Kara.”

I feel my chest tighten, and my throat goes dry. My heart pounds hard against my chest, and a warm surge of adrenaline floods through me, sending all the butterflies in my stomach flying high.

“Uhh,” I croak out. “Okay.”

He twitches his ears at me, locks his helmet on, and goes out the airlock.

When he’s gone, Felicia says in a mocking voice, “And you are
especially
welcome!”

I try to punch her, but she jumps back and laughs.

I
stand outside my ship
, fully suited up and ready to rejoin Darkstar.

But my body is still alight. It’s aflame.

Kara.

All of those long nights acting as wingman, seeing others engage in meaningless ‘hook-ups,’ and all that time I abstained. I waited for the right one.

So many Seraphim--human Marauder hybrids--are suffering. They’re turning toward Darkstar, because they want only to leave this place. They are restless and in pain. When a human and Marauder who are not true mates produce a Seraph, this is what happens. Marauders must take care to only commit to their true mate, and I doubted I’d ever find mine.

Until now.

I will claim her, and I will save her.

She may not want to mate with me now, but she’ll not long be able to resist me.

The Darkstar ship begins its final descent. The dust kicks up and plinks against my faceplate, but I stand tall and wait.

I push the thoughts of my mate out of my mind, and remember my peacekeeper training. I need to convince them I am still loyal and still ideologically pure. I need to convince myself, if I’m to act the part.

The ramp on their ship lowers, and two bio-suited figures walk down the ramp.

I recognize them immediately. It’s Senka and Raius.

It’s been over a year since I was stationed on Darkstar, but before I’d left, neither of these two had earned the right to wear biosuits. I am the youngest remaining pure-blooded Marauder, but Senka and Raius are among the youngest--barely over 30.

I salute them, and they salute back.

Senka’s teal biosuit turns liquid at the shoulder, and a tendril snaps out toward me.

I don’t flinch. If he somehow knows I’ve betrayed them and wants to kill me--he’ll kill me. There’s no hope of fighting these two with biosuits.

But the tendril doesn’t impale me, it slides into my suit’s computer, and suddenly I hear Senka’s voice.

“Kain! Son of Grius!”

“Senka,” I say, “Son of Senka.”

Senka’s family is not very creative with names, his brother’s name is Benka.

“We thought you were dead,” Raius says. “But now we find you...with two fresh prisoners.”

“Yes,” I say. “They are young, too.”

Senka licks his lips.

The tendril pulls back into Senka’s suit, but it’s permanently altered my suit’s computer, so I can still communicate with them.

Raius clears his throat and scowls. I remember he was never one to partake in the human slaves.

They’ve both been promoted, but I don’t know which one is more powerful. I can gain favor with Senka by seeming sympathetic to his appetites, but that will distance me from Raius. Until I know who holds more sway, I will avoid committing.

“I was on my way back,” I say, “and their beacon was within range. I knew it was a mining ship, so my main goal was to take their haul.”

“Good call,” Raius says, “We scanned and saw a lot of platinum. We’ll take it all.”

“Why the hard landing?” Senka asks, voice skeptical. “Must have wasted a lot of fuel. I’d be surprised if there was enough left in that thing to get back to Darkstar.”

Shit. I didn’t think they’d seen me land.

“Everything on Atlantis went wrong,” I say. “All of our forces, Marauder and Seraphim alike, were wiped out. My father included.”

Both Senka and Raius bow their heads, which buys me some time to think up a reason why I burned so much fuel to land.

“That ship,” I say, pointing to my ship. “It’s from Earth. When I was going in to land, the computer realized the two women were facing imminent threat of death--”

“So what?” Raius asks. “All we reallly care about is the platinum. And what good is a bunch of heavy platinum if you don’t have the fuel to get it back to Darkstar?”

“Yes,” I say, “Exactly what I told the computer--”

“I dunno,” Senka says, “Two young human females will do wonders for morale.”

Raius side-eyes him, and I continue my story.

“I told the computer to strike a balance--conserve enough fuel to make it back to Darkstar, but get me down fast. It overrode my decision.”

“Harmony,” Raius says. “We’ll have to blow that ship to hell on our way out. I don’t think she could fit on such a small ship, but who knows what she’s capable of. That fucking thing has always preferred humanity to us.”

“It was designed by humans,” Senka says.

I feel my stomach knot up. The ship’s computer is designed to help me with my undercover operation. I have an implant that links directly to the ship’s computer, and even if I were on Darkstar and it were docked on one of the Marauder ships, I could still communicate with it.

Now it’s going to be blown to pieces. I could try to argue a case to keep it for examination, but then they might find my implant. I’ll have to let it go.

“The humans were malnourished,” I say, “So I gave them a crate of rations.

“We have plenty of space and fuel,” Senka says, “We can carry both their mining haul and the humans themselves.”

“I know which you’re more happy about,” Raius says.

Senka scoffs, and gives me a look.

“I should congratulate you both on your promotions,” I say, pointing at their biosuits.

Senka swells up, sticking out his chest.

Raius pokes him with his finger, “Don’t puff up like that, Senka! We have nothing to be proud of.”

“Why’s that?” I ask.

“Darkstar is on its last legs. We need new blood, and now that you’ve told us all of the Seraphim we spent years recruiting were killed on Atlantis…”

Senka cuts in, “Raius thinks we were promoted because we’re among the few Marauders that aren’t old and grey. They need Marauders in peak physical condition to fight, and I know I fit that description.”

Raius shakes his head. “Would you rather have a permanent post on the Darkstar ships, in a nice, spacious command room? And the power to order around Marauders and Seraphim in peak physical condition. Or would you rather have these biosuits, at the cost of those commanders in their spacious rooms ordering you around?”

The gears in my head start to turn. I am in peak physical condition. That means I’ll likely be given a biosuit, but it also means I’ll be a grunt they order around. I need the biosuit to have any hope of escaping with Kara and Felicia, but the “ordering around” could be a real problem.

What if they order me back to Atlantis?

I grunt, then say, “Either way, let’s get this cargo loaded up. I’m sick of this rock.”

Senka laughs. “Let’s get you off this dark rock and onto another one.”