Marauder Ramses by Aya Morningstar Read Free Book Online Page A

already is. But the straps hold, and though my skin shakes and my stomach sinks, I remain conscious. The adrenaline alone may be the only thing keeping me from passing out.
    The seats are angled so that it feels as if I’m lying on a bed with my knees facing the ceiling, and I look over from the corner of my eye to see Ramses. He looks way too fucking calm for the situation, but some of that calmness spreads to me and helps me relax.
    The other thing that helps me stay calm is the lack of windows. I can’t see just how low the Earth is below us, nor can I see a beam of purple plasma almost killing us. If we get hit, we’ll die instantly, so it’s best that I can’t see anything.
    I don’t know how much time passes, but after way too many seconds of brutal g-force, there’s a jolt, and complete weightlessness overtakes me.
    “Shit,” I react. “We’re in orbit already?”
    “Yes,” Ramses says. “Stay strapped in though, I’m initiating a burn to Venus as soon as we’re in position.”
    Venus. What the hell am I going to do on Venus ? Fucking Ramses Ivanov is the only person I’ve ever met from Venus, and I barely even know him. Though speaking of what I could do on Venus...I could do Ramses Ivanov, if –”
    “Ramses,” the ship says. “Incoming transmission from Sankt Petersburg.”
    The lag between Earth and Venus is about six minutes, so no real-time communication is possible.
    “Put it on the screen,” Ramses says.
    A Marauder with deep purple skin fills the screen. He’s a man of about fifty, and instantly recognizable as Aegus, the Tsar of Venus.
    “Ramses,” he says. “When you got in range of the ship, it started plotting a course to Venus. But at around the same time, three ships halfway between Venus and Earth started their engines, and they are preparing to intercept you. I saw this just minutes ago, but it looks as if you will not be able to make it to Venus. I don’t know what’s happened on Earth yet, but if there’s any way for you to stay there...do it. If not, there may be one other option, but I don’t like it. Here is the thrust vector you’d need to start out on....”
    The screen cuts off, and the thrust vector goes into the computer.
    “Fuck!” Ramses says. “Of course he tells me there’s another option, but doesn’t let me know what the hell it is.”
    “Ask him!” I say, panicked. “According to the navigation screen, that vector is going to just blast us out of the solar system.”
    “It will take six minutes for him to get our question, and six more for us to hear his response. We need to burn most of our fuel in a minute and thirty seconds to hit the window he gave us.”
    “How long if we wait until we’re in position again?”
    “Too long,” Ramses says. “Harmony will get us before we have another shot.”
    I bite my lip and look at Ramses. I still feel the plummeting sensation of zero-g, or maybe that’s just how I always feel looking at this man. I grab his hand and say, “I don’t know your father, but I know you. And I trust you. If you trust him, start the engines and go to his mystery location.”
    “I’m glad you trust me,” he says, grinning. He squeezes my hand back, then says, “And it’s not like there’s any other choice. We trust my father, or we wait here until they kill or capture us.”
    I see the timer blinking red now. The ship’s voice asks, “Would you like to initiate burn?”
    “Yes,” Ramses says. “Do it.”
    The last few seconds count down, and suddenly it feels as if there is gravity again, though it’s really just the acceleration from the engines. There’s a lot of shaking, but the thrust feels just about 1g, so it’s much more comfortable than before – just like being on Earth’s surface.
    “Engines will burn for eight minutes,” Ramses says, “then we’re locked in. Now, let me ask my tight-lipped father where the hell we are going.”
    He hits a button, and suddenly we are recording.
    “Should I