But she’s given me one thing I can keep, that I hope will give Pan a reason to fight as well. We have found something we believed impossible: a mate. And if anything can compel us towin the coming war, it’s the knowledge that Nemea exists, and that she can be ours.
About Ophelia Bell
Ophelia Bellwritessexy dragon shifters and other magical races in her menage andreverse haremstories, all of which feature epically endowed heroes and magical beasts in many flavors. Browse her other books here:https://opheliabell.com/
Myra’s Monster
by
Leslie Chase
Chapter 1
Myra
The stale air had a hint of burned plastic, and the airmaker made a worrying whine. The artificial gravity kept glitching, too.Myra’s Joywas falling apart around me and if I didn’t get some repairs made soon, she’d be my tomb as well as my ship.
Worst of all was the worrying silence from the engine room. Ever since I bought her, theJoy’sengine had made an awful racket you could hear through the entire ship. I doubted it had suddenly fixed itself, so I had to assume it was on the verge of death.
“Well? Found anything yet?” Hess asked, flicking a knife across the cabin. Despite the faltering gravity, it struck the center of the target he’d set up. I shivered, wondering how close he was to using me as target practice.
Volkov growled something at his partner. I didn’t speak Russian, but from the way he looked at me with his cold, shark-like eyes, I didn’t think he’d taken my side. The huge, genemodded hulk of a mobster dwarfed his slender counterpart, and he looked like he could crush my skull if I annoyed him enough.
Fortunately, I finally had something to report. Outside, in the darkness of space, hung my hope of salvation. The answer to all our prayers, wrapped in the dark between the stars.
“I’ve found a Tyradyn bioship,” I said, trying to sound happier than I felt. “That’s worth your time, right, Mr. Hess?”
Both mobsters were behind me in the cockpit before I finished speaking. Hess only had eyes for the viewport, scanning the black for his prize. To my surprise, Volkov rested a massive hand on my shoulder and gave it an encouraging squeeze.
“Good. Good find.” Despite his harsh accent, he sounded almost friendly. I repressed a shudder—there was still no hint of emotion in his dark eyes.
“Don’t congratulate her yet,” Hess said. “We don’t have a thing to show for this trip yet, right? Your debt’s not paid till we’ve got a prize worth selling.”
“The bounty alone—”
Hess cut me off with a sharp chopping gesture. “We never cooperate with the Reps. Never. Anyway, they’d just destroy it, right? A criminal waste when there could be anything aboard.”
Which was exactly why the United Republics would destroy it. Tyradyn ruins had ahistory,like all the Ancient civilizations that had died out before humanity reached the stars. Several seats in the Republic senate were empty because of idiots bringing back civilization destroying ‘prizes’ from Ancient ruins.
Now it was my turn to be that idiot.
Don’t think like that.Doing my best not to show fear, I focused on the controls, centering the sensors on the bioship.Most discoveries are fine, lifesaving even. Better medicines, food crops that will grow in near vacuum… we might be about to revolutionize the galaxy.
I tried not to think about Dr. Danforth, who’d come back merged with an ancient war machine. I’d made a deal with Hess: he got this chance to loot Ancient technology from uncharted space. In exchange, he forgave my debts and paid for the Joy’s repairs. It was too late to back out now.
The bioship hung in perpetual darkness. Out here among the comets, even the star it orbited was barely more than a distantpoint of light. I’d only found it because it was slightly warmer than its surroundings.
I hit the spotlights, bathing the bioship’s surface in light. Or part of it, at least. I’d thought I had a grip on its size, but seeing just how little of its hull I illuminated really drove home how much it dwarfed theJoy.
Cracked and rough, the bioship’s hull was in remarkably good condition for a ship abandoned ten thousand years ago. Humans were still figuring out farming when the Tyradyn civilization ended in a war using technology we still didn’t understand.
Hess whistled, low and long. Batting my hands from the controls, he swung the viewer across the mottled black and green hull, muttering to himself. I resisted the urge to wrest my ship back from him. It wouldn’t be a healthy choice.
“Mr. Hess studied xenoarchaeology,” Volkov said. “Excuse his impatience, he has always wanted to see more than sterilized Ancient ruins.”
I nodded, unwilling to risk speaking. If I did, I’d probably ask something stupid like, ‘Why didn’t he just charter a ship, then?’
No good would come of that, especially since I knew the answer. This way, his ride was practically free—all it cost him was my debt and the cost of the repairs. Any pilot willing to raid an Ancient ship would do it for themselves, not get hired to do it for someone else.