“Because….” Jin says, “If we captured your brother and broke him, then I wouldn’t know him as I do. He’s strong...and his convictions are fierce. But he never gets angry at a friend, and when everyone else has lost hope...he still can laugh.”
Cygnus lets go of Jin. His nostrils flare, and his ears twitch. He begins to pace the room.
“Tell me about the bounty,” I say.
Jin faces me. He has dark black hair and expressive, deep brown eyes. “This pirate you two ran across. He tried to get Mars-Venus to make a good deal to bring you in alive. They didn’t believe him, thought he was pulling their chain.”
“So if they don’t believe him,” I say, “then why would he waste so many resources to pursue us?”
“Earth believes him,” Jin says. “They want this war with the Marauders to happen. They want to kill the two of you, to silence the truth.”
“What about my brother?” Cygnus asks, clutching the pistol to his side. “Why is nobody after him?”
“He keeps hidden,” Jin says. “A few of us found him a couple of years ago. He told us everything, and we realized what would happen if anyone knew. He’s been slowly recruiting surface dwellers...people know of him here, but only as ‘the Prophet.’ Few people know he’s an alien.”
“Shit,” I say. “I’ve heard people talking about him when I came here on scrapping runs. I thought it was just some religious mumbo jumbo.... I had no idea it was Cygnus’s brother all along!”
“That’s how we want to keep it,” Jin says. “But Cygnus here is throwing a big fat teal wrench into things.”
He winks at me, and I blush.
“My brother is recruiting warriors?” Cygnus asks.
“Yes,” Jin says. “We have a few years left to grow. We need to convince enough people of the truth...that we can peacefully exist and breed the Seraphim.”
Cygnus grabs Jin and presses him into the wall once again. “How do you know about the Seraphim?”
“Aegus’s found a mate,” Jin says, grinning. “The first Seraphim, your niece, has already been born.”
Cygnus lets go of Jin and puts his hand over his mouth.
“I guess we won’t be the first,” I say. “No shame in being second.”
Cygnus grabs hold of me and hugs me tight. “You see! It’s true! We can save my brother and your sister, we can stop the war! There’s still time!”
“All right,” Jin says. “Sorry to break this up, but if I found you, the pirates and bounty hunters can, too. We need to get out of Rust Bucket as fast as possible.
Jin points to the black bulge on Cygnus’ shoulder. “Is your bio-suit fed?”
Cygnus bites his lip. “It was fully drained, almost dead. It’s not quite ready...but we have this.”
Cygnus pulls open the cargo container and reveals the weapons.
Jin whistles. “Good. Take all you can carry in your coats, but we need to ditch the box.”
“We have a buggy,” Aura says.
“That’s how I tracked you in the first place. It’s hot, and we can’t use it. I’ve got my own buggy hidden on the lip outside, but we need to get through the gate to reach it.”
Cygnus grins. “I know the guards.”
18 Cygnus
I cram as much food down my throat as I can, and I pack the rest into my jacket and pants pockets. We shove as many weapons and water canteens as possible into Aura’s backpack, and I shoulder the weight. It would be too heavy for Aura or Jin to carry, but it’s a mere inconvenience for me.
We sneak out a back entrance. We all move fully hooded and masked, which I realize as I see the bare faces of most of the people in the city, looks quite suspicious.
Jin tells us the bounty has only now hit the networks. It’s one of the biggest bounties in recent memory, so word of mouth will travel fast. Bounty hunters will pay simply for information, and so everyone, from street vendor to street urchin, is dangerous.
Everyone is looking for a tall man with a small woman, but since Jin has joined us, we’re moderately less conspicuous as a group of three.
I keep my hand on my gun as I move through the city. I make sure Aura stays within arms’ reach of me. They don’t want her alive. They want to kill her. If I hear even a hint of danger, I need to be ready to take a bullet for her.
Without the buggy, it takes a long time to pass through the city.
We avoid the main road as long as we can, but when we’re a few blocks away from the tunnel which leads to the gate, Jin leads us through a crowded alley packed with food stalls.
There’s fresh food cooking in stalls located up and down the street, and I’ve eaten nothing but dried and cured meat for days. I feel my mouth water as the smell of dozens of exotic and alien dishes hits my nose at once.
“Perhaps we can buy some fresh food,” I whisper to Aura.
She looks up at me and shakes her head. I can’t see through the tinted faceplate, but I’m certain she’s rolling her eyes at me.
The alley becomes so crowded that Jin has to shove his way through. I move in front of him and shove harder, as my size and strength allow me to clear a path more effectively.
“Cygnus,” Jin says. “Stay back, you’re drawing too much attention.”
I shove a man hard before Jin finishes speaking, and I see him whispering and pointing at us as we continue on.
“Ah,” I say. “I owe you shame.”
“Forget it,” Jin says. “Just move faster, this is bad.”
We make it to the main road, and a man on a buggy does a double take. I prepare to draw my gun.
The man jumps off the buggy and pops open the cargo hold. Jin joins him—he seems to know him—and together they remove some rusty engine parts, tossing them on the side of the street.
“Aura,” Jin says. “Get in.”
“No,” I say, putting myself between them. “I protect her.”
“She’ll be safer inside,” Jin says. “At least until we clear the gate….”
I consider it briefly. “You know this man?” I ask Jin.
“This is Trang, he follows the prophet,” Jin says. “I told him we’d need help getting through the gate….”
I grab Aura and lift her into the cargo hold, and then slam it shut. Her voice is calling out in protest, but when the door shuts, her voice is silenced.
Jin and I hop onto the buggy with Trang driving.
I’m worried Aura will be foolish and try to break out of the cargo hold, but she remains hidden.
“We’d have shoved you in there,” Trang says to me, accelerating toward the tunnel, “but you wouldn’t fit. Can you like...slouch down? Try to look smaller?”
I’ve never slouched down once in my life, and I tilt my head at him to show my confusion.
He lets his shoulders sag and drops his head. He looks suddenly like an old, weak man. It will be shameful for me to take on such a pose, but to protect Aura, I must.
I imitate Trang, and he shakes his head.
“You still look huge, but it’s better than nothing, I guess.”
We’re now three men rather than a man and a woman. I hope this will serve as sufficient deception.
I feel some shame debt toward Aura. I shoved her into the cargo hold without explaining myself. It’s something I’d have done to her before she was my lifemate. I will explain myself to her later, after she is safe.
We enter the tunnel, and the guards approach us, raising their guns.
“Hold up, hold up,” they say. “I need to know what you were doing in the city. I don’t remember seeing you guys come in together.”
Jin speaks before I am able.
“Remember me? I came in to hire a bodyguard.”
It’s Yannick. He gets closer. “Didn’t you say you were getting your sister, too? Where is she?”
“She eloped,” Jin says. “I was too late.” He frowns in an attempt to look sad.
“Tough luck,” Yannick says.
He steps up closer to me, and I try to sl
ouch down even more. I avoid his gaze.
Tobias taps Yannick on the shoulder, who holds a screen out to him. They both look at it together, then glance up at me.
“Hey!” Yannick says. “Jerky man!”
I try to slouch more, but I grip tight to my gun, as I know the likelihood of getting through without the gun is decreasing by the second.
“Take off your mask, big guy,” Yannick says, staring at me more closely.
I rise to my full height and leap off the buggy. My feet crash to the ground just in front of Yannick. Tobias takes a step back.
I press my faceplate up against Yannick’s, and I speak in a low growl. “If you call it in now, I’ll shoot you dead right through my coat. Understand?”
Yannick nods, but Tobias reaches into his jacket.
“Tell him,” I say, tapping my faceplate against Yannick’s.
“Tobias,” Yannick says. “Wait, he’ll kill us.”
Tobias stops moving, but his hand remains in his coat.
“You’re not just walking away,” Yannick says. “The bounty is too juicy.”
“Give me twenty minutes,” I say. “Then call it in. You’ll still get paid the same.”
“Five minutes,” Yannick says.
“Twenty!” I shout back. “And a pack of jerky.”
“Take the deal!” Tobias shouts to Yannick. “Just let him through!”
I tap my faceplate against Yannick’s, harder this time. “If you call it in even a minute earlier than agreed upon, I will find out. I will come back here, and I will kill you. I will make it slow, and you will die a painful death as you watch me pull out each of your entrails—one by one—through your soft stomach. If you doubt I am capable of this, ask yourself why the bounty is so high. Am I clear?”
“Yes, fucking go!” Yannick says.
I jump back on the buggy, and Tobias pulls open the gate.
As soon as we clear the gate, Trang swerves off the main road and starts racing along the lip of the crater.
“That was fucking crazy!” Trang says. “Holy shit! Now I know why they call you guys Marauders!”
I pop open the cargo hold and retrieve my lifemate.
She seems angry, however, and punches me with both hands.
I laugh. “Aura, the guards knew I drove a hard bargain, and they respected and feared me. I was right. It’s just as I told you.”
“Okay,” Aura says. “But you still owe me great shame debt for stuffing me into the trunk like a sack of potatoes!”
“We will relieve this tension, lifemate,” I say. “When we again find a private moment.”
She makes a frustrated grunting sound, and hits me one last time. I smile.
19 Aura
The nerve! Does he really think I’m going to have sex with him after pulling a stunt like that?
Just when I thought that the insufferable alien had learned his lesson, he shoved me into a cargo hold. It’s much worse than when he locked me in the airlock. At least that was on my own ship, and it was well lit, and there was enough space that I didn’t have to curl up into a fetal position.
I’m back on the buggy now, and the cold Martian air is biting into me as we bump up and down along the lip of the crater. I’m in the backseat with Jin, and Cygnus is trying his best to slouch down in the front seat. He looks like Olympus Mons trying to pass as Mount Everest.
He turns back to speak to us. “Jin, please trade places with me. I will sit beside my lifemate.”
Jin nods, and jumps into the front, and Cygnus takes his old place beside me. He looks at me, but I can’t see through his faceplate. Does he know I’m mad at him, or is he oblivious? Which is worse?
I nod to him, and he reaches into his coat. He removes a few sticks of jerky and holds them out to me.
I take one and lift my facemask just long enough to eat it.
Cygnus takes five sticks and munches them down before I can even finish one.
He puts an arm around me when he finishes eating, and I lean into him. It’s hard to stay mad at him. I know he’s just trying to protect me, and if we keep at it the way we are, I really will be pregnant with his child before long if I’m not already.
“Sorry you didn’t get to sample any of the food in the city,” I say to him. “If we can stop the war, things will cool down and we’ll be able to try it.”
“Of all human things,” Cygnus says, “you are my favorite, Aura. Human food, however, is my second favorite. I look forward to this.”
We switch to the hidden buggy and part ways with Trang, who continues back onto the road alone.
Cygnus falls asleep sitting up, so I move to the front with Jin and let Cygnus sprawl out along the back bench to get some real rest.
Jin drives along in what feels like a random direction. There are no roads or tire tracks, and it feels as if he’s simply driving us into oblivion. I keep waiting for him to stop and tell us that we’re lost, but every time I ask him, he says we are on track.
I finally give up worrying and try to catch some shuteye myself.
I wake up to find the buggy slowing down by a heap of rocks.
“We’re here,” Jin says.
He jumps off the buggy and hits Cygnus on the shoulder.
Cygnus jolts upright and removes the gun from his coat. He points the gun at him, but then remembers who he is and lowers the weapon.
“The entrance to our base is through these rocks,” Jin says. “I didn’t want to risk sending even an encrypted message, so no one knows yet that Aegus’s brother is here. They’re going to be pretty excited, so brace yourselves.”
He pulls out a small device, presses a button, and a rust-colored tarp explodes outward. Cygnus grabs the other end, and the two of them put the tarp over the buggy, and ruffle it around until it looks somewhat like the natural surroundings.
“It’s mostly to throw off the satellites and habitats, but now with pirates coming into orbit soon, it will do double duty.”
“Is my brother seen as a criminal by the habitats?” Cygnus asks.
“No,” Jin says. “He’s been smart. He doesn’t have us attack anyone, raid anything...he just slowly recruits people, and most outsiders think the Prophet isn’t even real. The only real indication he’s real is when people suddenly disappear to go join us here.”
It sounds great: being tucked away safe underground with friends and keeping a low-profile. I wish we could do that so that I could have some quiet time together with Cygnus.
“He’s smart,” Cygnus says, “but no coward. We will need to take action soon, and that may mean revealing ourselves.”
Jin nods.
“Do we?” I ask. “What if we just lay low? They have a bounty out on Cygnus and me, but if no one sees us for over a year, surely interest will die down.”
“No,” Jin says. “They want to kill him to silence him. If he disappears and our message grows and gets louder, they’ll know he’s involved. We were getting ready to ramp up, and Cygnus’s arrival only gives us more reason to do so. The Marauder fleet is only ten years away now. We have little time.”
I sigh. It was a tempting thought, to live a quiet life in hiding, but if I’m really going to have children with this alien, I need to think about giving them a real future. Cygnus is in a unique position to stop an invasion and a war, and I need to help him achieve that.
Jin pulls back another rusty tarp, and there in front of us is a metal airlock door. He slams it with his fist in staggered rhythm, and a few moments later the hatch wheel starts to turn.
The hatch pops open, and a woman in a long coat and facemask nods to Jin.
We step down a few stairs onto a clearing with another hatch, and Jin shuts the outside hatch.
Jin jumps down the steps, then leans in close to the woman. “We have a visitor, and everyone will want to see him. Have everyone gather in the dining hall. I’m bringing him in for introductions.”
Cygnus nods to the woman. He throws back his hood, and his purple ears perk up.
Then he pulls off his facemask.
The woman jumps back in surprise, and takes her mask off as well.
She has dark features and short-cropped hair, and her dark-brown eyes are wide. “It’s...it’s not the Prophet!”
“I’m his brother, Cygnus.”
Cygnus reaches a hand out, but rather than shaking his hand, the woman falls to her knees and bows her head.
“Mira,” Jin says. “It’s fine; stand up.”
Jin looks back at me and whispers, “She’s one of the more religious ones.”
She stands slowly, but keeps her head bowed. It seems as if she’s afraid to make eye contact with Cygnus.
“Welcome...brother of the Prophet,” she says.
20 Cygnus
We’re standing in the kitchen, and all of my brother’s followers are gathered just beyond the door, waiting to see me. To hear me speak.
I decide that I will just introduce myself and Aura. I don’t know what Aegus has planned, and I don’t think it wise to risk contradicting him. My first concern is protecting Aura, and if I upset these people, I can’t risk that they throw us out onto the surface of the red planet.
“All right,” Jin says, coming back into the kitchen. “They’re ready to see you.”
I take Aura by the hand and walk through the door into the large dining hall.
There are over one hundred people gathered around, and at least half of them fall immediately to their knees. They bow to me like Mira did. I can’t imagine that Aegus would have encouraged this kind of behavior, but if he thought it necessary to exploit the humans’ religious nature to help prevent the war...then maybe he would have resorted to this.
“Please stand,” I say. “I am Cygnus.”
They all look to each other, and I can hear them saying my name, whispering it across the room.
“Cygnus…Cygnus...Cygnus…,” they chant.
Odd indeed. Before I found my lifemate, I might have basked in such worship, but now I live only to please her and our future children.
“I am a simple warrior,” I shout, cutting them off. “Whatever my brother has taught you holds true. I come here to support him, but I bring with me my lifemate. And she is pregnant with my child!”
Marauder Cygnus: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Mating Wars Book 1) Page 10
