Marauder Kronos: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Mating Wars) by Aya Morningstar Read Free Book Online

“Put that thing away!”
    I don’t really know how, but once I feel Kronos grab my shoulders and pull me in toward the rail, I feel safe again, and the tendril pulls itself back into the biosuit.
    “Minna…,” he says. “You can’t use that thing on New Rotterdam. Pirate code or not, if someone sees you doing that, they are going to try to get their hands on your suit. And if you really can’t get that suit off...then they’ll try to get their hands on you. Not all pirates are as nice and chivalrous as me.”
    “I can’t control the suit,” I say. “Not really.”
    “So how did you do that?”
    “When I saw that I couldn’t reach the rail, I panicked.”
    “If you had let me catch you – ”
    “I know. Sorry. But I thought I was going to float away and it felt like I was falling, and then the next thing I knew the tendril had grabbed the rail.”
    “So fear, panic, that kind of thing activates it,” Kronos says.
    He’s still holding tightly to my shoulder, even though I’m holding securely to the rail.
    “Just avoid getting scared or panicking while we’re here,” Kronos says, “and you should be good.”
    “Right,” I say. “I’ll avoid panicking when monkeys with knives and a habitat full of barbarians like Ramu are all around me.”
    “There’s nothing to fear,” Kronos says. “Not with me protecting you.”
    As silly as it is, those words reassure me, and I let out a long, relieved sigh. “All right, let’s go.”

    * * *
    “ F inally , you guys made it,” Delphie says.
    She’s holding onto the rail outside one of the elevators. The hangar bay is located in the center of the habitat’s rotation, so there is no artificial gravity there. The habitat rotates around the hangar. The elevators move from the hangar and down to the outer rings of New Rotterdam, where all the buildings, parks, lakes, drugs, whorehouses, and monkeys with knives are.
    Once we reach the outer rings, the rotation of the habitat will make it feel like we’re walking in Earth’s gravity.
    “What’s your rush?” Kronos asks Delphie. “You didn’t even want to come here.”
    “I want to get it over with,” Delphie says.
    The elevator opens, and we float in.
    As it moves, we slowly are drawn toward the wall of the elevator, which becomes the ground. Once we are on the ground, the gravity slowly increases as we descend toward the habitat’s outer rings.
    “So you guys are forced to come here since no habs will take you?” I ask.
    “Yep,” Delphie says. “Racist fucks.”
    Marauders and Seraphim are not allowed on the other habitats. The habitats have the highest technology and standard of living in the entire solar system. New Rotterdam is the black sheep, and the only hab that allows non-humans.
    “If you can get the suit off while we are here,” Kronos says, “it would be really good. I can probably get the best price for it here, and I won’t just kick you out with money you earn from cooking and cleaning dishes. I’ll give a good chunk of the money that I get from the biosuit to you.”
    “What?” Delphie snaps. “I didn’t agree to that – ”
    “I’m the captain!” Kronos says. “And I’ll pay her out of my share, so calm down!”
    I nod nervously, but I say nothing. Jerky isn’t just a biosuit. It’s a living thing. It’s not Kronos’s right – or mine – to sell it like some inanimate object.
    But he may just be playing nice to me. Trying to make me feel safe enough to give him more information. It costs him nothing to claim he’d give me part of the money from the sale – talk is cheap.
    I haven’t been on Earth for many years, but my body never forgets its gravity. As soon as we hit Earth gravity, the elevator stops and the doors open.
    I’ve seen photos from the good, non-pirate habitats. They are breathtaking and gorgeous. They have long rolling hills of emerald green, marble-white statues towering up into the sky. And the sky is nothing but the other end of the