Suddenly, I hear his voice from the comms in my suit. The comms were broken, but apparently his biosuit can repair them.
“Get up!”
He tugs my arm again, and I fall back down.
“Stop fucking knocking me over, and maybe I will get up!”
“She’s feisty,” the Marauder says. “You didn’t tell me she was feisty, Kain.”
I grit my teeth and stand up. “I’ll walk with you if you promise not to–”
He shoves me, and I fall flat on my back.
“God,” the Marauder says, “I love when they get mad.”
The second Marauder pushes the first one away from me, and I hear his voice in my helmet, “We don’t have time for this shit, Senka. Let her walk.”
I hear Senka laughing, and already I fucking hate him. Maybe I do want Kain to flay his skin.
“Thanks,” I say to the one that rescued me.
“Don’t thank me,” he says. “I don’t think you’re worth the oxygen and food we’ll waste keeping you alive. If it were up to me, I’d execute you on the spot.”
“Well,” I say, “at least you’re not shoving me.”
“Raius!” Senka shouts. “You can’t protect both of them at once!”
I shudder thinking of him getting his hands on Felicia.
“Don’t touch my sister,” I say, seething.
“Sisters!” Senka shouts. “Oh, this is too good to be true! You must be the big sister, huh? Want to protect little sister–”
The voice cuts out.
“I broke his uplink with you,” Raius says.
“I thought you didn’t care about me.”
“I don’t,” he says. “Now keep moving.”
He leads me up the ramp, through an airlock, and then once I’m inside, he helps me out of the suit.
The moment the suit is off and in his hands, he turns his back to me as if I don’t exist.
“I really am grateful to you for not being a total piece of shit,” I say to his back, but he doesn’t show any hint of having heard me. He shuts the door to the airlock and is gone.
The door swings open again, and Felicia falls headfirst onto the floor. Senka is behind her.
He shuts the door again and leaves us alone.
Felicia pulls her helmet off and screams. “I want to fucking flay that dickbag’s skin off!”
I help her out of the suit, then hug her. “We’ll make it out of this, I promise.”
“This is so miserable, Kara,” Felicia says. “I just want to curl up into a ball and die. You should have let me freeze to death.”
I hug her tighter. “We’ve had a shitty life. Really shitty. All kinds of awful things have happened to us, but that’s made us strong. The night is darkest just before dawn–”
“No, it’s not,” Felicia says.
“It’s just a saying….”
“It’s factually incorrect, though.”
“But the point stands. This is our last ordeal. If we make it through this, everything will be okay.”
“Our mining haul,” Felicia says. “They’re crating it all up and hauling it onto their own ship. After Kain claims you–”
Felicia coughs and smiles at me. “Maybe you can convince him to rescue our mining haul while he’s at it.”
“Felicia,” I say. “Do you really want to make our rescue include hauling a ton of heavy rocks? As if breaking two human women out of Darkstar isn’t difficult enough on its own?”
“Fine, fine,” Felicia says. “But it sucks. Even if we get rescued, we won’t even have a mining ship anymore. I guess we could go to Mars as refugees.”
“Kain is a peacekeeper,” I say. “He could probably get us to Venus. I’ve heard Sankt Petersburg is nice.”
“I think after Darkstar,” Felicia says, “that anywhere will seem nice.”
“There you go!” I squeeze her arm. “Now you’re thinking like an optimist.”
“You could see that as pessimism about how bad Darkstar will be,” Felicia says.
“I could.” I smile at her. “But I’m an optimist.”
After what feels like a very long time, the door opens, and Raius– the nice one that only wants to kill me but doesn’t want to shove me or taunt me– throws down a crate.
“Gruel,” he says. “The trip to Darkstar will take four days. We will be accelerating at 1.5gs, so you will be uncomfortable the entire time, and you’ll struggle to digest properly. The gravity on Darkstar is slightly higher than 1.5gs, so this may very well be your last few comfortable moments. I recommend staying on the acceleration couches, though, if you want to try to kill yourselves, you may choose to forego them. Suicide is a decent option, considering your situation objectively and without bias.”
Okay. Maybe he is an asshole, too. “The nice one” my ass.
He is gone before either one of us can ask any questions.
I try opening the door he left through, but it’s locked.
“Come on,” Felicia says. “You thought it would be unlocked? And even if it were, what then?”
“I don’t know! It was at least worth a try.”
The acceleration couches are on the wall, and when I sit down on it, it conforms itself around my body, locking my shoulders and stomach in. Felicia gets into one of the couches, and it encircles her, as well.
“They have such good technology,” she says, “and they are so fucking stingy with it. The Marauders have been among us our whole lives, and I’ve never seen a couch that can do this.”
“They have to slowly bring us up to speed,” I say. “Imagine if you went to ancient Rome and gave them all machine guns.”
“That would be pretty cool.”
“Never mind.”
A red light starts to flash, and a voice starts speaking in the Marauder language.
I don’t really speak any Marauder, but I at least know the numbers, and I hear the voice beginning to count down.
I grip the couch, but when the countdown reaches five, the couch grips me even tighter.
And then I feel the thrust, and the harsh pull of 1.5gs.
The couch softens in certain places, but it stays firm enough that my body stays straight.
My stomach churns at first, but once the acceleration stabilizes and the vibrations die down, it feels simply as if I’m really fucking heavy. Like I’m lying on the couch with a heavy-ass barbell across my chest and stomach and legs.
“Wow,” Felicia says once the engine roar dies down. “This kind of sucks.”
“Raius told us it would,” I say.
“So how do we eat?” she asks.
“You’re hungry again?
“No, but I’m just wondering.”
“I think we have to walk– or crawl– very carefully to that crate. I don’t think this acceleration is enough to kill us if we fall over, but it could break a bone if you don’t fall down the right way.”
“Is there really a right way to fall down?”
We wait in silence in our couches. I fall in and out of sleep, and the couch works with me when I try to turn over or switch positions, but I simply can’t get comfortable, and I keep waking up.
“Can you sleep?” I ask Felicia.
No answer.
“Felicia!”
“I was asleep,” she says. “Just fine, until you shouted and woke me up.”
“Sorry...I can’t sleep.”
“So you want me to share in the misery?”
“Yes,” I say, nodding. “Are you hungry?”
“I guess.”
“I’ll get us some food. You can stay there and relax.”
When I move to stand up, the couch releases me, and I fall right back into it.
“Pretend that didn’t happen,” I say.
Felicia stifles a laugh.
This time, I get my center of balance lined up, and I keep my back straight. I push myself up with my legs, and the simple act of standing feels like I’m using one of those machines at the gym. I hate the gym.
“How’s it feel?” Felicia asks.
“Shitty.”
She frowns. Didn’t they say Darkstar’s gravity was even higher than this?
“Maybe they were just trying to scare us,” I murmur.
“Doubtful,” Felicia says.
I take my first step. I can feel the acceleration trying to crush me to the ground. Each step has to be deliberate, and I have to keep my back and stomach flexed and ready. I take one careful step after another careful step toward the food crate, and when I reach it, I pop it open.
The gruel crate.
It’s full of silver bags with Marauder writing on them, but I remember now that it’s all just full of gruel. Drinking gruel out of a silver bag. Ugh.
I grab a handful of bags– so that I won’t have to make this trip again for a while– and start to to make my way back.
“Why don’t you just slide the whole crate over to us?” Felicia asks.
“It would be heavy, even on Mars,” I say. “Why don’t you get up and help me slide it?”
“Err…,” she says. “Those few packs will do just fine. I’m comfortable here in this acceleration couch.”
I trudge back toward my couch, and when I get in range, I just collapse down into it. It wraps back around me, and I no longer feel that it’s so uncomfortable. Maybe I’ll even be able to sleep.
I throw half of the packs to Felicia, but I forget about the gravity, and they drop to the ground halfway between us.
“Oops,” I say, frowning.
“You want me to–” I start to say.
“No,” she says. “I’ve got it.”
Felicia starts to lean out of her chair. The pack is quite far from her, so it will be a real stretch for her to reach all the way over to it without getting up.
“I’ll get it,” I say.
“No,” she says. “I told you I got it!”
There’s no reasoning with her when she’s like this, so I just lean back and watch her out of the corner of my eye.
As she leans further, with her arm totally outstretched, the couch still holds her tight.
“Stupid couch,” she says. “How am I supposed to reach this thing if it doesn’t let me go--?”
And then it lets her go, all at once.
She tumbles out of the couch, rolling as she falls, and she smashes onto the ground– and onto the pack.
“Ahhhh!” she screams.
Not wanting to repeat her mistake, I get ready to stand up again, but she hisses at me from the ground. “I told you I’ve got it, Kara!”
I ignore her this time and stand up. I take the few steps over to her and squat slowly down. I hold my hands out to her and wait for her to swallow her pride and grab hold.
Once she gets a good grip, I flex every muscle in my body and start to press upwards. I feel my legs nearly turning to jelly, and sweat drips down my forehead almost immediately.
Felicia gets her feet underneath herself, and she pushes them flat onto the ground. Once I see her stabilized, I start to slowly let go.
“Make sure you’re steady,” I say. “I’m going to totally let go of you now.”
“I’m steady,” she says.
When I let go, my hands are wet. “Are you bleeding?”
I examine my hands, but they are covered in a watery liquid, not blood.
Then I look down at the pack of gruel. It’s broken apart, and gruel is all over the floor.
“That gross food is all over my back, Kara,” she says. “You should have let me freeze to death!”
“Stop being a baby,” I say. “Once we are on Darkstar, getting some gruel on you will seem like nothing.”
Felicia collapses onto the acceleration couch and glares at me. “If you’re going to be optimistic, at least do it in a way that isn’t totally insufferable. At least cheer me up!”
“If we survive and escape,” I say, “we’ll be the first humans to ever come back from Darkstar alive….”
I trail off, realizing that’s even worse than my last attempt.
“Never mind,” I say.
I open my gruel packet, and a straw pops out the top. “Oh, you’re supposed to...drink it.”
“Gross,” Felicia says.
“Do you want some?” I ask.
“No, I’ve got plenty all over my back and ass. It’s staining the couch, and I’ll smell it for the whole trip.”
I take a sip. It’s awful. “Okay, it tastes pretty good though, so let me know if you change your mind.”
8 Kain
Once the initial engine burns die down, I get up out of the chair and start to acclimate myself to the higher gravity. It’s slightly difficult to stand up, as I’ve been on planets with Earth-like gravity– Atlantis and Venus– for over a year.
“You got spoiled by the gravity on Atlantis?” Senka asks me, laughing.
I start doing body squats, getting all my muscles used to it.
“Yeah,” I say. “Spoiled. It’s so fucking cold on Atlantis that you have to walk around with a hard-on the whole time, otherwise your dick will fall off.”
Senka and Raius both laugh. “No shit?”
“No shit,” I say.
“Darkstar’s cold,” Senka says.
“Yeah,” I say, “but the suits you wear and the insulated and heated buildings are not.”
“True,” Senka says.
“You’ll want to give your brother a full report as soon as we land,” Raius says. “He’ll need to know as much as possible about Atlantis, including what was in all those books your father took with him.”
My brother? Why would I have to tell Adus anything? He’s been imprisoned since I was a boy.
“You mean Adus?” I ask.
“You got another brother I don’t know about?” Raius asks.
“Shit,” Senka says. “He doesn’t know, he’s been gone too long.”
I grit my teeth. “Fucking tell me.”
“Adus runs the show now,” Senka says. “Do you really think those old fogeys in High Command gave the order to obliterate Earth?”
When I was on Atlantis, our mission was simply to turn it into a staging area. We were to recruit and bring as many Seraphim as possible to Atlantis, and from there we would leave. At the last minute, High Command issued an order to backstab Harmony and blow Earth to pieces with antimatter. This order– and my father’s willingness to follow it– is what made me betray Darkstar in the first place.
And it was my own brother who gave the order.
“How did Adus go from prisoner to High Commander?” I ask.
“Someone’s jealous,” Senka says, laughing.
“He broke out,” Raius says. “He broke all the prisoners out.”
“And a bunch of unarmed prisoners took out High Command?” I ask.
Raius turns to face me. “Adus had begun to spread his message through the guards and up through Darkstar society. He’d not only turned all the prisoners, but many high-ranking Marauders, as well. As soon as he was out, his coup was given full access to the armory….”
“Shit,” I whisper.
Raius narrows his eyes at me. “He still speaks highly of you, Kain. You’ll likely come out of this situation favorably.”
Senka shakes his head. “Lucky bastard.”
“I’m gonna go check on the prisoners,” Senka says. “See if they’re, uh, horny–”
My chest burns with anger, and I clench my fists. I don’t want to blow my cover, but if Senka does what I think he’s going to, I will risk everything to stop him.
“No,” Raius says. “I don’t trust you.”
“Come on!” Senka says, “No one will give a shit–”
“Kain,” Raius says, “Go check on them.”
I sigh in relief, but the anger doesn’t die all the way down. I want Senka’s head on a stick.
“Fine,” I s
ay, walking out of the cockpit.
The door shuts behind me, and I take a few moments to collect myself.
Senka is an idiot. He’s driven almost purely by base instinct, and there’s almost no higher-level thinking from him. Raius, on the other hand, is cool and calculating. He acts like he trusts me, but his near total lack of suspicion is unsettling. Why, for example, would he care enough to stop Senka from checking on Kara and Felicia, and send me instead?
They don’t need to be checked on. They have food and water, and the computer will alert us if there are any abnormalities in their vitals.
I have to assume that Raius is giving me a lot of rope with which to hang myself. He probably is going to be watching my interactions with them, looking for signs that I am no longer loyal to Darkstar. The operation on Atlantis involved dozens of Marauders and scores of Seraphim; and even if Raius wanted to trust me, the fact that I’m the lone survivor and that I came back after almost a full year, is inherently suspicious.
I reach the room Kara and Felicia are being held in, and I steel myself before opening the door.
As soon as the door opens, I affix my angriest scowl.
They both look up at me with wide eyes, but I shout before they can say a word.
“Stand up!”
“Kai–” Kara starts.
“Up! Woman!”
She gives me a shocked expression, but then I see understanding creep across her face.
They both struggle to stand up.
“Are you really so weak?” I snap.
“We’ve been mining in microgravity for years,” Felicia says. “Even Earth would be difficult for us.”
I speak into my recorder, “The human females are weak and cannot quickly adapt to variations in gravity. They will need exosuits to make it on Darkstar.”
Kara starts to talk into her bare wrist in a voice mimicking mine. “The Marauder male is a dumb asshole piece of shit who sees a rescue beacon as an excuse to kidnap people.”
“Quiet!” I snap. “Is the food sufficient?”
“The gruel?” she asks. “It tastes like cardboard.”
“It has all the caloric content and nutrients necessary to keep you alive. It was engineered to taste bad.”
“Wonderful,” Felicia says.
I can see they are both sweating from having to stand.
Marauder Kain: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Mating Wars Book 5) Page 4
