The Mars Run (The Pirates Trilogy Book 1) by Chris Gerrib

Author:Chris Gerrib [Gerrib, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chris Gerrib
Published: 2018-05-02T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

We were underway for Earth five day later, on January 2, 2072. I spent the entire time before that locked in a small zero-gee change room next to the forward docking collar. When the Hercules-class ships had been built, there weren’t any lighters available. Thus, each ship could carry two landing crafts, docked on collars on the bow. We no longer needed to bring our own landers, but the small space had survived the SLEP. Since it had a small head and a single door, it made an ideal prison.

At least it had a window. I found myself staring out it a lot. The thought of him touching me was making me ill.

Late in the evening of my first day back, Rachel came in to my prison.

“I brought some food,” she said, as Boris slammed the door behind her. I turned my back, and looked out the window. It was filled with an angry red Mars, which fit my mood perfectly.

“Great,” I said. “Just leave it.”

“You could say thanks,” she said.

“For what – not letting John’s valuable property starve?”

“How about for trying to cover up your escape?”

“You covered for my escape?”

“Yeah, girlfriend. You think I can’t tell an empty cargo bay from one with stuff in it? Stuff that I personally packed out?”

“Thanks,” I said, as ungraciously as I could.

“I’m in a lot of shit over that.”

I turned and glared at her. “For somebody in a lot of shit, you smell OK.”

Rachel shook her head, a sour look on her face. “Damnit, bitch, I could have just told Gus you ran off and had people waiting for you when the wheels hit concrete. It’s not my fault that you didn’t get clear of Boxtown in time.”

I don’t know what made me angrier – the fact that she had a point or that I cared about whether she was OK. At any rate, I wasn’t in a mood to make it easier for her. “OK, thanks,” I said. “Exactly how would you like me to demonstrate my eternal gratitude?”

“I want to make sure our stories are straight.”

“’Our’ stories?”

“Yes, dear, ‘our’ stories. I told Gus that you convinced me he had approved of your trip, and that you rode down in the passenger compartment.”

“And he believed that?”

“No. But he also knows that if I tell Kelly about our little three-way, she’ll cut his balls off.”

I chuckled at that, but with no real humor. “I think I should drop a dime, then.”

“Only if you’re suicidal,” she said with a shudder. “She’s just mean, and might decide to get rid of us too. Do you know how they took over the Sarah Sands?”

“No, nor do I care,” I said, taking a bite out of the sandwich she’d brought me.

“You should, since she made that sandwich,” Rachel said. “Kelly used poison.”

I stopped chewing. With a satisfied smirk, Rachel continued. “She was ship’s cook, right? Well, she fed us all some concoction, and knocked us all out. When I came too, I was strapped in my bunk getting felt up by John.

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