Marauder Aegus (9 page)

I
watch the screen
. My fists are balled up tight, and I dig my nails into my palms. My chest is tight against my pounding heart. Phase two of Aegus’s plan is about to begin. The friendly ships are tens of millions of kilometers in front of the enemy’s ships.

Everything I see on the feed now happened a month ago, as the fleet was a light-month away when the minefield detonated. But this is the first time we’re seeing if Aegus’s plan worked.

“Relax, Brother Fenrir,” Dr. Wang says. “This all happened already a month ago, we’re only just now able to see the lightwaves! So whether you worry or not cannot change the outcome. Mr. Einstein not only found out about the limits of light-speed, but postulated also that time is simply a fourth spacial dimension...so
either way
you look at it, we cannot change the outcome!”

“That’s an obnoxiously logical way to look at it,” I say through gritted teeth.

I look around the room, and everyone seems just as nervous as me. Except for Dr. Wang.

“My wife is pregnant, Dr. Wang,” I say. “If this minefield doesn’t work, what future does my child have?”

Dr. Wang never answers questions that don’t suit him, and this is no exception.

The screen in front of us is a feed from our most powerful orbital telescope, and it shows around one hundred pinpricks of light. It looks like a field of stars laid out in a grid. Each little star is the antimatter engine of an enemy Marauder ship.

There’s a timer below–a countdown to the detonation. It reads two hours.

Suddenly, one of the engines cuts off.

“Shit!” I shout, my ears standing as rigid as they’ve ever been. “Wang, what the fuck?”

“Erm,” he says. “It’s possible they spotted the minefield.”

“It’s too late, right?” I ask.

Wang pulls out his tablet and starts hitting buttons. “Hmmm,” he says.

“Don’t ‘hmmm’ me! Tell me it’s too fucking late for them to dodge the field!”

Five more lights cut off. “Shit! Shit!” I shout.

Wang hunches over his tablet, and I shout loudly at all the scientists and physicists and other assholes to figure out what’s going on.

Over the next hour, twenty more ships cut their engines, leaving just over half still on course for the center of the explosion.

“Okay,” Wang says. “The first few ships that cut their engines.
If
, and this is a big ‘if,’
if
they cut their engines, turn all the way back around, and restart their engines toward us...they
might
escape the blast.”

“The first few,” I say. “How many ships?”

“Six,” he says.

Six too many. Even one hostile ship like that–one antimatter torpedo launched into Mars–could destroy everything in the universe that I care about.

There’s nothing left for us to do but watch.

My adrenaline never stops pumping, and as the countdown approaches two minutes, I feel a thick rush of blood burning through my rock-hard, perked-up ears.

“Aegus,” I hiss. “You cocky fucking shit. If this doesn’t work…”

10, 9, 8, 7, 6…

The countdown hits zero, and nothing happens.

I inhale and hold my breath, and just before I let it all out in a roaring expletive of anger and despair, the entire screen flashes pure white.

“Boom!” Dr. Wang says, “See, Brother Fenrir, I told you–”’

“Shut up!” I shout. “When will we know for sure?”

The light begins to fade away, and when all the white is gone, there’s nothing left on the screen but black space and the regular constellations.

It’s what we were supposed to see, but how many of those six ships have survived?

“We’ll know within an hour, I’d wager,” Dr. Wang says. “Every extra moment they spend not braking will mean more mass they need to shed, more lives and life support ejected. They’ll need to get those engines back on ASAP.”

“Wang!” I shout. “What is your first name.”

“Arthur,” he says.

“Thanks, Wang,” I say.

“Why did you ask me that if you’re just going to call me Wang?”

“Because,” I say, “if Fiona wants to name our kid ‘Arthur,’ I’ll tell her no.”

A low chuckle reverberates through the room, but I was dead serious. That smug bastard scientist has been on my nerves ever since I landed on Titan, and it’s easier to take my anger out on him than it is to worry about what I might see on that godforsaken screen.

Suddenly, a new star appears, and moments later, a second.

“Shit!” I roar. “Two fucking ships.”

“So far,” Wang says.

I growl at him.

We wait for several hours, and decide that it really is only two ships.

“Two ships,” I say. “That’s four hundred thousand Marauders hell-bent on obliterating humanity. On killing my wife and child.”

“Hmmm,” Wang says.

I grind my teeth together. “What?”

“Their dodging the mines will mean they’ll have to sacrifice an incredible number of crew and life support systems if they want to brake in time. It will be much fewer than four hundred thousand.”

I sigh. “Get an encrypted message sent to Venus. Let him know.”

“Aegus may not even be alive,” Wang says. “The Imperials are claiming he was killed on Venus—“

“Fucking do it!” I shout.

I
pull back the bowstring
. My arm is strong now, and I pull the bow back with ease. I still remember my first attempts, unable to even get the arrow knocked.

I steady my breathing and take aim at the boar.

Just before I release the string, the boar squeals and dashes to the side. I keep calm, and I lead the boar, moving the bow along with it as it runs.

The arrow flies, and I lead it just right. The arrow lodges into the boar’s neck, and it topples to the ground.

“Clean shot,” Aegus says, putting a hand on the small of my back. “No pain.”

He runs his hand up my body to my hair, which is now thick with dreadlocks.

“It will be different when I get my shot at Bahamut,” I say, lowering the bow.

I see a subtle twitch of the ears from Aegus. I’d not have noticed it months ago, but now I know it means he’s worried about something, but stubbornly will not say anything.

I sigh at him and walk toward the fallen boar.

I pull out my arrow and wipe it clean on the leaves of a nearby tree, while Aegus hoists the 100-kilogram boar onto his broad and chiseled back.

He’s recharged his biosuit to full capacity on boar’s meat, fruit, and bugs, but he’s not used it since. He’s saving it for the coming battle. Which means I’ve enjoyed his full nakedness for the past six months...and he’s enjoyed mine.

If he weren’t mad at me now, I’d consider taking him right now here on jungle floor, but he’s definitely mad at me. He avoids my gaze as he hauls the boar back toward the village.

After far too many silent steps, he says in a low whisper. “I can hear your every footstep.”

“I’m not trying to sneak up on you.”

“You never know when you’re being tracked, so always walk quietly.”

I stop walking, and he takes a few steps without me before stopping himself.

“I didn’t mean to stop walking entirely,” he says.

“Why don’t you just say what you mean then,” I snap back.

He turns to face me, the big bloodied boar still hoisted across his back, and he’s hunched down looking at me with his ears pulled back.

“Forget it,” he says. “We’ll talk about it later.”

“Aegus,” I say. “Put the fucking hog down and talk to me. Now.”

He huffs.

“Drop the pig, Yelda!”

He throws the boar down, and it jiggles as it hits the ground. His purple body is sweaty, and his muscles are bulging and glistening.

“How fast do you think you can fire that bow?” he says, pointing at me.

I look down at the bow, clutching three arrows in my right hand.

“I don’t know,” I say. “A few seconds?”

“Turn around,” he says, “and close your eyes.”

He still seems mad, and I know I’m not going to get a sexy surprise, so I start to feel a nervous tightness forming in my chest.

“Why?”

“I want to show you what is bothering me,” he says. “If I
tell
you, you’ll deny it.”

“Fine,” I shout, and I turn around and close my eyes.

“If your bow is drawn before I’m on top of you,” I hear his voice say. “You win.”

“Win what?” I ask.

“Stop talking,” he says, “and listen. Count to ten, and then turn back around and open your eyes.”

I’m starting to feel fucking furious at him for being a cryptic asshole, but I decide to play along with his little game, if only to prove him wrong.

I start counting back from ten, and I listen as closely as I can.

I hear the regular sounds of the jungle, which I barely even notice anymore. Birds chirping, crickets buzzing, leaves rustling– but I don’t hear Aegus moving. The arrogant bastard is trying to prove to me how quietly he can move. I
do
move quietly, but he has alien and bear super hearing...it’s not
my
fault he can hear so well.

I reach zero and spin around, opening my eyes.

I’m hoping to catch sight of purple skin, but I see nothing but green and brown. He could have cleared a lot of distance in ten seconds, and he could have gone in any direction.

He was standing about five meters in front of me when I first closed my eyes, and he could easily have gone another twenty meters in either direction.

I grip the bow and nock an arrow, dropping the other two to my feet.

The moment the arrows hit the ground, I see leaves rustling to my left. As long as he’s more than a few meters away, I’ll see his big purple ass coming in time to draw the bow, I don’t know what Aegus is trying to prove, but he’s going to fail. The only way he could sneak up on me would be…

I start to spin around, and I pull on the arrow and start to draw the bow even before I can look over my shoulder. When I’ve turned only about forty-five degrees, I feel the bow snatched out of my hands. I finally turn around only to see Aegus’s smug grin towering above me, my bow in his hand.

I’m left holding just the arrow.

“You see–” he starts to say.

I raise the arrow up like a weapon. “I could jab this into your stupid face!”

He snatches it out of my hand before I can even blink.

I grit my teeth at him. “You
cheated
,” I shriek. “You snuck up behind me, making out like you’d come from the front, as if it was all about whether I could draw the bow fast enough after seeing you.”

“No,” he says. “I did what anyone trying to kill you would do. I took advantage of the situation, and you failed to defend yourself.”

“So you’re mad at me,” I say, “because I’m not an elite fucking warrior after six months of training?”

“No,” he says. “I’m not mad. I’m
worried
. You talk about killing Bahamut as if you will lead the charge into the palace.”

I glare up at him. And I realize that I
have
imagined the attack this way, with me leading a charge of warriors into the palace. I don’t admit this to Aegus, of course.

“You can’t blame me for wanting to kill him,” I say.

“We
have
to kill him,” Aegus says. “For the greater good, not just for revenge–”

“Come on!” I shout. “You know that’s not why you’re mad. Don’t preach that shit to me.”

He narrows his eyes at me.

“This stupid test,” I say, snatching an arrow from the ground and poking it toward him. “You don’t care about
why
I want to fight, you just don’t want
me
to fight.”

“I want to have something to fight
for
,” Aegus says, leaning into me. “If I lost you…”

“The only way you’ll lose me,” I say, “is if you force me to stay safe while you and all the others fight my battle for me. How could I live with myself after that? Whatever you see in me, it would be gone if I let you, Yulia, Irena...even old ass Yuri, take back my own palace. What would I be then?”

“Beautiful,” Aegus says, gently gripping my chin. “Charming, radiant…” His other hand grabs my waist and pulls me tight against him. “And safe.”

I punch him hard in his ribs, but it just hurts my fist.

“Mark my words, Aegus,” I say. “I will take back my palace.”

He reaches down and squeezes my butt. “And I will take you...to bed!”

He flings me up and hoists me over his shoulder. I laugh and pound him with my fists, no longer angry, and he starts to carry me back toward the village like one of the wild boars. His prize.

“Aegus!”

“You can’t talk me out of this,” he says. “I will make you come so hard you’ll be too tired to fight–”

“Aegus, the boar!”

He stops and spins back around, making me dizzy as I hang over his shoulder.

“Ah,” he says.

He places me down gently. “I still mean what I said.”

“I know.”

He nods and heads back toward the fallen boar. He hoists it up onto his shoulder and grabs my hand with his other. We walk hand-in-hand back to the village together.

* * *

W
hen we arrive back
to the settlement, there’s a man in filthy clothes standing among the tribespeople.

As I get closer, I realize who it is.

“Donovan!” I shout, throwing my bow and arrows to the ground. I rush toward him in a full sprint. I slam into him, wrapping my arms tightly around him.

His body feels like a limp fish in my arms, and he begins trembling even as I squeeze him.

I let go of him and stare at him in worry. His face is pale white, and he’s looking down at the ground, not daring to face me.

“Donovan,” I say, “What’s wrong? Please–”

“Tsarina…” he says, still trembling.

“You can tell me, Donovan, you–”

“Tsarina...
please.
It’s not right…”

Oh. God. I’m naked. I’ve been naked for the last six months, and I haven’t even thought about it after the first week.

But I’m the Tsarina of Venus, and Donovan is...seeing me naked for the first time. Not only that, but I grabbed him and pressed myself up against him.

“Aegus,” I call. “Get me a rain blanket.”

Aegus slams the boar carcass onto the dirt, ducks away into a tent, and fetches a woven rain blanket.

He hands it to me, and I wrap it around my body.

“I’m sorry, Donovan,” I apologize.

He looks up at me, and his face has gone from ghostly white to deep red. “Please, Tsarina, let us never speak of this again.”

I resist laughing, and gave him a regal nod. “Can we get you something to eat or drink?”

“No,” he says. “Well, yes, later, but I need to deliver this. To Aegus.”

He reaches into his pocket and holds out a tablet. “I...didn’t know if you had a way to open a hard drive here, so I brought the tablet.”

“Is it a message?” Aegus asks. “From Fenrir?”

“It’s encrypted,” Donovan says. “But the signal came from Titan.”

“It’s Fenrir,” Aegus says. “Thank you, Donovan.”

He grabs the tablet and starts entering an impossibly long password string. Finally, the tablet shows Fenrir. He looks a lot like Aegus, but his eyebrows are...meaner looking, and his ears are pointier. His chin is pointier, too, but he’s definitely a good looking guy. Or good looking alien, I remind myself.

“Brother Aegus,” Fenrir says. “I don’t know if you received my first message…”

Donovan looks up at us and shakes his head.

“So I’ll repeat everything from the start…”

Hundreds of tribespeople begin to gather around, but the tablet is too small, so Yuri repeats everything loudly back for everyone to hear as Fenrir speaks.

“...so two hostile ships unaccounted for,” Fenrir says. “They cut their engines and went dark around the Oort cloud. We guess they are biding their time, and we’ll have to be on guard for decades against them. The good news...our reinforcements are here. A lot of people think you’re dead, but I don’t believe it. We’re going to hit Earth hard, with everything we’ve got. The Emperor’s reign is over…”

There’s some cheering from the tribespeople, but the question on everyone’s mind is what will happen to Venus.

“That leaves Venus,” Fenrir says. “We can’t really infiltrate those cities. The best plan we have so far is a blockade. Just starve out General Bahamut until he surrenders. If you’re still there and alive, and have a way to get a message to us...we need to know what you’ve got cooking so we can coordinate. We’ve got a stealth receiver floating in dead space between Earth and Venus. I’ll give you the coordinates for it, and you can send your message there. It shouldn’t be interceptable.”

The message ends, and everyone starts talking at once.

I go to hug Donovan again, but my blanket opens up and gives him another full view. He turns away as if I’m going to kill him, and I quickly pull the blanket closed. “Sorry,” I mutter.

“Aegus,” I say, squeezing his hand. “Your plan worked. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel already.”

He squeezes my hand back, but looks down at me with a worried expression. “It could have gone much worse than it did...but two hostile ships lurking outside the solar system is a big problem.”

“It’s not something we can deal with now,” I say.

“Yes…” he says. “We have enough to deal with on Venus alone.”

“If only there were a good way to send a message to that receiver.”

“We could use the science hut,” Irena says.

“The...science hut?” Aegus and I ask in unison.

“Yes,” she says. “The hut where we keep the scientific equipment and the tokamak reactor that powers it.”