Marauder Aegus Read Online Free PDF Page A

me,” the Tsar says, motioning for me to follow him.
    We walk across marble floors lined by ornate, gold-trimmed walls. Huge oil paintings depicting what seem like key events in human history and important looking historical figures adorn the walls.
    The Tsar opens a door and ushers me inside. The royal guards remain standing outside the doorway, not following us into the Tsar’s office.
    “Your Excellency trusts me enough to leave the guards outside?” I ask.
    “Sit down,” he says, pointing to a chair.
    I sit down as he begins pouring drinks from a crystal container into glasses. The liquid is thick and brown.
    “No,” he says, passing a glass to me. “I don’t trust you . I trust the reports from the spaceport enough to know that the guards couldn’t stop you. I’d be dead already if that’s what you wanted.”
    I nod.
    “What do you want, Aegus? I know it’s not really Anya you’re after.”
    “Your Excellency,” I say, stalling for time. “Your daughter is more lovely than all of the jewels in the–”
    “Cut the shit,” the Tsar interrupts.
    “I wouldn’t lie–”
    “No,” the Tsar says. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. I know you’d bed her.”
    I clench my jaw, and chug the drink to numb my anger. It burns as it travels down my throat. I can’t hit this man; too much is riding on his cooperation.
    “But she’s not why you’re here. You arrived on the spaceport in Venusian orbit with some plan in your head; running into Anya just happened.”
    “I want to end the war,” I say, clutching my glass.
    The Tsar laughs, then takes a sip of his own drink. “Doesn’t everyone? I fully intend to end the war, at least between Venus and the Empire. Mars can do what it likes.”
    “Surrendering to Bahamut will end nothing,” I say. “He controls the emperor as if he were a puppet, and he’ll string you up–”
    “Watch yourself, alien!” the Tsar warns, leaning forward, face red. “I know what I do. You’re an outsider who knows nothing.”
    “I have crucial information,” I say, “that will drastically change the course of the war...do not forget that the real war is coming when twenty million Marauders arrive. There will be one hundred warships, each one stronger than the entire imperial fleet. Do you think I really know nothing? ”
    “It will be Bahamut’s problem,” the Tsar says. “All of that, after I surrender to him. And if you end this farce with Anya, she’ll get to stay in this palace. Maybe she won’t rule for real, but she’ll have a good life, and if I can offer her a safe and comfortable life...I will. If I defy the Empire, and stubbornly stick to the losing side of this war, then she’ll be killed–at best.”
    I grind my teeth. He wants to protect Anya, but he’s too short-sighted. I’ve seen this in the years since I’ve been among humans. They have a curious ability to ignore anything that is not right in front of them. Our warships are a few years away, and to people like the Tsar, they may as well be non-existent. They are a future problem to him, and he doesn’t understand how much they endanger his daughter’s future.
    “I represent a faction of Marauders–no, I lead a faction of Marauders, ten million strong, who want to exist peacefully with humans. I need them to arrive to a humanity not at war with itself, or I may lose them. If even one warship changes their mind, millions of humans will die. I’ve made it so my faction will arrive earlier. They’ll have a few months lead-time, and–”
    “So what do I do?” the Tsar says, cutting me off. “Tell Bahamut to end the blockade? The alien said it doesn’t matter? How does your ten million nice aliens arrival help the lives of my people?”
    “Your Excellency,” I say. “Allow me to present my full case. I can show you things that will change everything. They will give you leverage over Bahamut, but you will have to trust me.”
    “After dinner,” the Tsar says. “I need time