Marauder Ramses (14 page)

I
shut
the outer door of the airlock, and it cuts me off from the woman’s beauty. It’s like cutting myself off from the sun, but more painful. First I have to save the one inside, and then I’ll get to the one outside...and...and
what?

The hard entry used up so much fuel that I can’t make it to Darkstar. I’m trapped here with these two unless I can get their ship running again. If I can repair their mining drill, I might be able to refuel my own ship too.

And then...leave them. I couldn’t even see her body through that bulky space suit, but her face was all I needed to see to know. To know deep in my bones. In my heart.

But I have to go to Darkstar. Cold. Devoid of light and hope. The opposite of her.

I shove open the inner door of the airlock, and I see the second woman flat on the ground, drenched in sweat. Her eyes are closed.

I remove my helmet, and heat worse than the floating jungles of Venus crushes me. I drip with sweat immediately, but I pull out my heat sponge. It’s made of nanoparticles that can absorb incredible amounts of heat into a small, dense sphere.

I pull the tab on the sponge, and it activates.

I feel no difference at first, but after only ten seconds the brunt of the heat is gone. In twenty I feel a slight chill, and I push the tab back in to shut the sponge off.

The inner door’s handle starts to rotate, and I tug it impatiently. I pull the door open and see
her
again.

Her mouth drops open as she looks at me, and I lick my lips with my tongue.

She looks down at the other woman, then back up at me.

I hold up the heat sponge, though I doubt she knows what it is. It’s advanced Marauder technology that isn’t widely available outside the richest human settlements and habitats.

She narrows her eyes at me, and I gesture to her to remove her helmet.

She looks at her wrist, which displays the internal temperature, and her eyes widen. She reaches for her helmet, twists it, and pulls it off.

We look at each other in stunned silence, and suddenly her feminine scent floods my nostrils. My tall ears pull back and wiggle in ecstasy, and I breathe her in deeply.

“We…” I start to say. “I need water, a towel.”

She nods and rummages through a drawer. She pulls out a towel and holds it under the faucet. She hands it to me, and I put it onto the unconscious woman’s forehead.

“Human bodies are weak,” I say, offhandedly. “They can only survive within the thinnest margins. Not too hot. Not too cold. But she should make it.”

“Goldilocks,” the woman says.

“Goldilocks,” I whisper.

A beautiful name. It must refer to the golden locks of her long hair.

“Goldilocks,” I say, louder, “I am Kain.”

“Oh,” she says. “I’m Kara.”

She gives me a nervous smile, then holds out her hand.

I remember the proper human greeting and take her hand rather than her forearm. It’s soft and warm, just right.

“Is this one Goldilocks?” I ask, pointing down at the woman with the sponge on her head. “Her hair is black.”

“No,” Kara says. “Goldilocks...it’s a kid’s story. She breaks into someone’s house--three bears, actually--and she eats their food and sleeps in their beds.”

“Humans have strange stories for children,” I say.

“There’s three different sized bears, one’s stuff is too small one’s is too big...and the other’s is just right.”

“How can a bed be too big?” I ask.

“Uh,” she says, “I don’t know...I’ve only ever slept on a bed that was too small.”

“And how can there be too much food?”

“I’m starving,” she says.

Marauders are always hungry.

“How does this story end?” I ask.

“The bears come home and find all their stuff ransacked, and when they get to the beds, they find Goldilocks asleep. She gets scared, jumps out the window, and runs away. No one ever sees her again.”

The woman on the ground opens her eyes and murmurs. “Goldilocks zones...that’s what we call the distance from the sun that a planet can be habitable. Earth, Mars, and Venus are all in the Goldilocks zone…”

“Felicia!” Kara says, dropping down beside her. “You feel okay?”

“Yeah,” she says, “Thanks for rescuing us…”

“Kain,” I say.

“Kain.”

“You two are sisters?” I ask, looking down at them. I can see resemblance.

“Yeah,” Kara says. “You saved my sister. And me.”

When should I tell them that I do not have a way to get them off here. Or that I am headed to Darkstar. I should tell them the first piece of information now. And I should never tell them the second.

“I have some unsettling information to share,” I say.

They both look up at me with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

“I mean,” I say, struggling to remember the way that humans phrase things. They are weak when it comes to the harsh truths of reality. “I have
good news
...and
bad news
...which would you like to hear first?”

They give me the same worried stares.

“The good news,” I say. “The heat sponge can be toggled on and off. It will drastically reduce the frequency with which we need to toggle the hoses.”

“Why would we need to toggle hoses at all if you can get us off…” Kara starts to say. Then I see her whole body droop down with exhaustion. “Oh. You can’t get us off here, can you?”

“I burned too much fuel to rush my landing. But my engines are still functional. Given enough time, we could harvest the necessary minerals to produce more fuel.

“You’re an optimist too,” Felicia says.

I raise an eyebrow at her.

Felicia smiles, looks at me, and then at Kara. “Good fit.”

“Shut up, Felicia!” Kara says.

“I was on the brink of death,” Felicia says, “And that only buys me a few precious minutes without you being mean to me?”

Kara grits her teeth and huffs.

I’m fascinated, and turned on. Human females’ display anger in the most interesting ways.

I feel my ears poking straight up, and I catch myself smiling.

Felicia laughs, and Kara balls up her fists and pretends to busy herself with another towel.

“It’s already getting cold in here,” Felicia says, “I don’t need another towel.”

“Fine,” Kara snaps. “Take care of yourself then.”

“You are the older one, Kara?” I ask.

“Of course,” she says.

Felicia rolls her eyes.

“You both feel cold?” I ask.

Marauders do not have such a small “Goldilocks zone,” and I feel fine. I won’t be able to tell when the humans feel discomfort.

“Here,” I say, handing the heat sponge to Kara. “If you feel cold, you press this tab in to release the heat. If you feel too hot, pull the tab all the way out to suck it back in.”

I hand it to her, and she nods. “Thanks. I wish we had this thing weeks ago.”

“You’ve been here for weeks?” I ask.

“I heard Marauders eat a lot,” Felicia says. “Do you have--”

“Ah,” I say, “Yes, I have plenty of food.”

Their eyes light up.

“I’d invite you to stay on my ship, but it’s much smaller. It could not fit us comfortably.”

“Well,” Kara says, “That’s fine...but if you have food to spare, and if you don’t mind, we’d be so grateful if--”

“Give us your food!” Felicia says. “We’re fucking starving!”

Kara scowls at Felicia, but then smiles up at me.

“If need be,” I say, “I can hibernate to conserve food.”

“Can you really turn into a bear?” Kara asks me.

I nod. “That will not help us in this situation, however.”

“Oh,” Kara says, “I know...I was just curious.”

“Where are you two from?” I ask.

“Nowhere,” they say in unison.

“I thought all humans had a place they called home. I thought that only Marauders are truly homeless...hence our name.”

“Well,” Kara says, “I guess we were technically born on Earth. Our parents were neo-Luddites, and--”

“What does that mean?” I ask.

“Luddites, uh,” Felicia says. “It was people who didn’t believe in using technology.”

“Everything is technology,” I say. “Did they not use wheels? Fire?”

“There was a threshold,” Kara says, “The original Luddites drew the line somewhere around electricity--”

“But the Neo-Luddites,” Felicia says, cutting her sister off, “Drew the line at thinking machines.”

“No computers?” I ask.

“Computers were fine, just not...the ones that duplicated human-like intelligence.”

I nod.

“So when the Marauders arrived,” Kara says, “I was still a baby, and Felicia wasn’t even born yet. The Empire fell, and Earth decided to put the super-intelligent machine in charge of everything.”

“Harmony,” I say, chills going down my spine. “Perhaps your parents were wise.”

“Well,” Kara says, “
Perhaps
, but they were paranoid, and they thought Harmony would spread to Mars and Venus and the habitats--”

“So we had nowhere to go,” Felicia says. “And we’d occasionally land on Mars to trade, but we could never stay there longer than needed.”

I hold my tongue. Darkstar made a deal with Harmony, and when Darkstar tried to stab it in the back, it seized enough antimatter to destroy the entire planet. These two must not have heard the news yet, that Harmony is holding the population of Earth hostage--preventing anyone from leaving.

Kara’s parents were right to be paranoid.

“Our parents died,” Kara says. “But we managed to keep the mining operation going with just the two of us. We almost had enough to buy citizenship on New Copenhagen…”

“That’s a lot of money,” I say.

“Well,” Kara says, “We have a lot of platinum.”

I sit bolt upright. “Platinum? Why didn’t you tell me.”

“You’re going to rob us now?” Felicia asks. “Where are
you
from, by the way?”

“I’m a Peacekeeper,” I say, grabbing my helmet. “Is the platinum in the cargo hold?”

“Uh,” Kara says, “Are you really going to rob us?”

“My ship can convert platinum to reaction mass. I can get you two out of here.”

To where? Perhaps I can go back to Venus. I’ll lose over two months--jeopardizing the operation and crippling the peacekeepers’ mission...but I took an oath to protect people. How can I leave these two for dead?

Or am I being selfish? I look hungrily at Kara, and my cock twitches just thinking about it.

I take a deep breath, and then my wrist starts beeping.

“What’s that?” Felicia asks.

“My ship,” I say, feeling my heart pound. It wouldn’t contact me like this unless
it
was being contacted. I’m too far out for any of the peacekeepers to risk contacting me when I’m supposed to be moving undercover.

“Kain,” the computer says aloud. “You’re being contacted by a ship from Darkstar.”

Kara and Felicia’s eyes bulge, and I steel myself and control my breathing. “How close are they?” I ask.

“They’ll be on you in twenty minutes.”

“Fuck!” I shout, and I punch the console so hard that I dent the metal.

“We can still get away, right?” Kara asks.

“No,” I say. “Even if we already had the platinum in the reaction chamber, it would take hours until we had enough fuel to lift off.”

Even if I let them take the ship without me to save weight. Even if I stripped everything but life support and the emergency beacon.
Even then
they could never lift off.

“I have another harsh truth--” I start to say, but then I correct myself, “I have
good news…
and
bad new--”

“Jesus,” Kara says, shoving me. “What’s the bad news?”

“I am originally from Darkstar--”

“Fuck!” Felicia shouts, and she too shoves me.

“How can there even be good news after
that
?”

“Ironically,” I say, “The good news is that I am originally from Darkstar.”

“His brain is broken,” Felicia says.

“No,” I say. “I am
originally
from Darkstar. I am now a peacekeeper. I’ve defected. But Darkstar doesn’t know. I was out here to re-establish contact with them--to go undercover.”

“So…” Kara says, “Please,
please
tell us that there is actual good news in here. Think of it from our perspective…”

A ship of this size will have at least three fully armed warriors. As part of my cover, I was given a barebones ship with no weapons other than a blade. I could fight, but I would die. I do not fear death, but I fear what would happen to Kara and her sister if I were to die.

To protect them, I must live.

I will maintain my cover, and tell the Darkstar ship that I’ve captured two human females. I will have to find a way to protect them--to break them out--once we reach Darkstar.

But how can I tell them this? It will not sit well with them.

“Where I grew up,” I start to say.

“You mean
Darkstar?”
Felicia asks.

Kara elbows her.

“We also had a children’s story,” I continue.

“Oh, God,” Felicia says. “It’s so bad he’s going to tell us a children’s story.”

Millenia ago, our ancestors landed in a star system with an enchanting alien race. At this time, Marauders had red skin, but these aliens had skin blue as your clearest seas--”

“And so your ancestors had sex with them, and your skin turned purple?” Felicia asks. “Great story.”

“Yes,” I say, “That happened, but it’s not the story. These blue-skinned aliens kept certain animals as pets. The blue-skins thought these were the most adorable animals in the world, much like you humans think of dogs.”

“I’m a cat person,” Kara says.

“Or cats,” I say. “These animals lived in the blue-skins’ homes, and had evolved to do so, just like dogs or cats. However, there was another type of animal. It was vicious and consumed blue-skin flesh--”

“It ate them?”

“No,” I say, “Just their skin. It ripped their skin off and ate it.”

“This is a
children’s
story?” Kara says, raising an eyebrow.

“Marauder children, yes, “ I say. “What do you think this vicious animal looked like?”

“I don’t know?” Kara says, “Gross skin?”

“Sharp teeth, snarling,” Felicia adds.