“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.
“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.”
5 Kara
“Wait 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?”
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