Red Planet: The Revolt (Tamarians Book 2) Read online

  Jensen's smirk dims a little bit, but still his sexy pale blue eyes twinkle in amusement. “Apologies, Kelbara. I shall keep my tongue on a shorter leash.”

  “Jensen,” Tauren warns while trying not to laugh. “Come on, we've got to clean up, and then we've got a meeting. Kelbara, my apologies.”

  “Wait, before you go,” Audra says, holding up a hand to her husband and her brother. “Let me see your grav pods.”

  “I'm the king now, I don't....” Tauren starts, before he can't hold back his laughter anymore. “Okay, okay. Thirty kilograms.”

  “Thirty-five,” Jensen says, showing his control belt, “but Tauren's heavier than me naturally, it balanced out to us moving the same amount of weight.”

  “A politic answer to help my husband save face,” Audra laughs, showing me Jensen's control belt. “What do you think, Kelbara?”

  It's hard to not blush deeper, looking at Jensen as he gives me a cocky smile. I'm trapped, I can't say Jensen did poorly without making Tauren look bad, but if I tell the truth.... fuck it. “You did quite well, Lord Jensen.”

  “Like you, I prefer just Jensen when I'm not working,” Jensen says, giving me a wink. “And among those who I like to let watch me work.”

  “So the traitor comes to visit me.”

  It's bare and raw under the palace in the dungeons where Ambaris, my father, is being held. I don't even like thinking of him as my father, but I am comforted by the fact that the place he's being held used to be used by the former Queen, Tauria, as a punishment area and sexual torture room for her drugged up human slaves. The rumors of what Tauria, and even worse Queen Audra's former owner Neyilla and her father Neyton, did in places like this have left me quaking and waking up from nightmares too often. Despite what the King may think of me, despite the calm patience shown by Lord Mogar, I know that I helped put innocent humans in places like this. It doesn't matter if my father was the leader, I should have stuffed a Gauss pistol up his ass and pulled the trigger a few times.

  At least Tauren's provided some basic comforts to Ambaris down here, the cell's floor is smooth, the room's warmed, and he has a decent looking bed along with a writing desk and a flexi on top of it. “I came to see if you were healthy, and to see if you wanted any books, I can bring you a new data chip for your flexi.”

  “I want nothing from you,” Ambaris hisses, getting off his chair to drop to the floor. He starts doing pushups, a common activity he used to do around the slaver camps to work off energy. “Unless you're giving me a key to the door.”

  “You know I'm not,” I reply, watching him go up and down. He might be bald, he might not look as young as most Tamarian noblemen his age since we had quite a few years where our house could not afford the life extension drugs, but Ambaris is in peak physical condition. “I also came to ask you about the terrorist attack yesterday.”

  “How would I know about that?” Ambaris asks. “Ask your human friends. They're the terrorists, not me.”

  “I didn't say you were a terrorist. But your former allies have risen up against the King.”

  Ambaris hops to his feet, his eyes shining in anger. “Our allies haven't risen against the King, they've risen against that pretender and his human bitch who are currently sitting on the throne. Tauren's no king, he stole the crown from his father.”

  “His father who you let be mutilated by Mathias and his band of fanatics!” I yell back, my temper slipping. Years of this, years of this being force fed his views on humans as being beneath Tamarians, of listening and having to deal with Ambaris' ambition, greed, and desire for a Lordship. I'm tired of it. “You put yourself in here, not Tauren and not me! If you'd just moved to rescue Joren when you saw them, he'd never have been harmed! But you had your plan, didn't you?”

  “It wasn't my plan,” Ambaris says with a sneer. “It was hers.”

  “Whose?” I ask, caught off guard. “Who told you to wait?”

  “I did,” a cultured woman's voice says behind me. Before I can turn something jabs into my ribs, and I feel the shock rip through my body, leaving me twitching on the ground, stunned. My eyes are swimming in and out of focus, so I can do nothing but watch as Tauria squats down, grinning at me.

  “My son caved in, my husband caved in. It seems you've caved in too, haven't you? Oh, I understand my little midget. I've seen the way you look at him, and I must admit, Jensen looks like he'd be one tremendous fuck. But there's a difference between fucking them and thinking they're actually equal to us.”

  “You...... bitch......” I rasp, causing Tauria to cock an eyebrow.

  “She's been hardened as much as a Royal Lancer,” Ambaris advises. “You should kill her now.”

  “This stunner won't do that, and we don't have time to do much else,” Tauria says, standing up. She reaches into the bodice of her dress and pulls out a key, which she passes to Ambaris. “I believe this is what you were looking for, Lord?”

  “Of course, my beautiful Queen,” Ambaris says. He reaches outside the bars and unlocks the door, an alarm going off almost as soon as he opens the gate. “What the fuck?”

  “Stars! Tauren must have put a sensor on this place. We must move,” Tauria says. “No time to kill her now.”

  “No, but she deserves this,” Ambaris says, kicking me hard in the ribs. I feel something break, but only a breathless grunt comes out, the stunner is making sure I can't cry yet.

  Tauria kneels down, the Neyla crystals in her head sparkling. She grins, madness and anger written in her eyes, and I wonder just how long this crazy bitch has been trying to gain control of the entire planet.

  “Give my love to my son,” she says, pressing the stunner against my side again. A shock goes through me, and everything goes black.

  Chapter 2

  Jensen

  “You know Audra, we set up the exercise area in the personal quarters area specifically to avoid having people come walking through there all the time,” I remind my sister after Kelbara leaves the conference room. “Why did you bring Kelbara around?”

  “You know exactly why,” Audra teases, grinning. “Because she thinks you're cute, I've seen the way you look at her even if you pretend you're not, and because I'm the Queen, by heaven and stars. As my husband reminds me from time to time, it's good to be the Queen.”

  I roll my eyes, knowing that Audra only throws around her title with me on this one subject, and then only in private. Despite she and I not always seeing eye to eye on some of Tauren's policies over the past three months, we never disagree in public or at the Noble Council. There are enough snakes even in the reconstituted Council that I do not want there to be even a hint of dissension among the royal family. “Audra, she's still a child. She's eighteen, for heaven's sake! What business do I have being interested in a woman that age?”

  “She turns nineteen before the Blood Moon, and you just called her a woman, not a girl,” Audra points out to me. “Besides, I'm also significantly younger than my husband, more than you and Kelbara are, and you don't see me or him complaining, do you?”

  “That's different,” I grumble, sliding down into my seat around the meeting table. “Tauren's been taking the life extension pills since he did his year with the Lancers, you two biologically are the same age. I noticed he's stopped while you're pregnant even, in order that you two can start up again once you have the baby.”

  Audra smiles warmly, rubbing her belly. “Yes, Tauren's sweet like that. None of the doctors have been able to tell me exactly how the life extension drugs would affect our baby's development, so I'm going all natural until after the delivery. So, what's the problem for you? We just start you on a high effective dose of life extenders until Kelbara is twenty-five or so, and then you two will be close enough that nobody will notice, or care.”

  I sigh, knowing I cannot win this argument. It doesn't matter, as a moment later Tauren comes in with Mogar, the two of them having stepped out for a moment on something private. I'm surprised when Tauren comes in carrying bottles of
koplin juice, a great delicacy that some call a superfood. “Here, fresh from the stocks in the kitchen,” he says, setting a bottle down for Audra and myself. “You looked thirsty after talking with Kelbara.”

  “And you look.... never mind,” I start to tease Tauren before remembering that it's not just him and me in the exercise yard any longer. There, we can totally forget the rank between us and engage as equals, like we did in the months he was my 'prisoner' in the Resistance. While neither of us mind keeping it up with Audra around, Mogar's a different story. Our teacher, and Tauren's advisor, we still feel like there has to be a return to 'decorum' around him.

  Tauren's commiserating smirk lets me know that a part of him wishes he could keep it simple between us too. I'm glad he's got Audra, the idea of being King without someone he can share the burden of the crown with chills me to the bone. They've got me.... and right now, I've got nobody except a house full of formerly drug addicted slaves that I'm doing my best to nurse back to health and sanity, or at least keep them comfortable. No wonder I'm having problems with the current Slaver rebellion.

  “So what do you think?” Tauren asks me. “The Slavers are consolidating power on the far continent.”

  “It's always been a challenge, the far continent. Even with hypersonic transport, it takes time to put troops on the ground over there. A lot of things can be done over there before we can respond,” I note before adding, “we kept an entire Resistance going for years right under the government's nose, Tauren. We never took you to the far continent, after all.”

  Tauren nods, sighing. “The boot's on the other foot, it seems. You ran a guerrilla movement for years, one I gladly joined there at the end. Now it seems we are the establishment trying to conduct anti-guerilla actions.”

  “The challenge you have Highness is that you are still using the same forces that your father did,” Mogar responds. “You heard what my young guest said. The Slavers are just as flexible as the Resistance was. They've had time to learn how to adapt, and they were already decentralized, each little band owing its allegiance to their boss, not to a central power thousands of kilometers away.”

  “There's good and bad about that though,” I retort. “Without the ability to work together, the Slavers really have nothing more in common than hating Tauren. They don't work together well, and can easily be split apart. And, we have an advantage too. Ninety-five percent of humans are for the government.”

  Audra hisses, sipping her juice. “Five percent. Are they mad, to support those who would keep them in slavery?”

  “No offense intended Audra, but what were your thoughts before Tauren asked you to marry him? What if Tauren had taken the throne and kept slavery intact? Would you have stayed here in the palace as his slave?” I ask quietly. “Would you have expected me to stay in his service as a slave?”

  Audra's eyes flash as she gives me a glare. “Jensen, I love Tauren. I would have stayed regardless!”

  “And there is your five percent,” I reply softly. “You were unlucky enough to have had the most evil of Tamarians as your owners, while I was lucky enough to have a good man as mine. What about those Tamarians somewhere in the middle, wrong enough to be willing to fight the government over slavery, but somehow fallen in love with a human? And what if that human loves them back?”

  Audra's face hardens for a moment before she nods, accepting my argument. “Point taken, brother. Apologies if I came off a little too.... Queenly.”

  Her choice of words makes everyone laugh, Audra joining in after a moment. “You're doing just fine, my love,” Tauren says supportively. “I often wonder what exactly I'm supposed to do to act like a King, and I grew up in this palace. Then I remember... just be myself. The people who support us love you, last I've heard your support is greater than mine. As for you, Jensen..... keep being honest. I appreciate it, my friend.”

  “With that in that mind, I had an idea,” Mogar says. “No offense Jensen, but with you having to go to meetings, do workouts, taking care of the refugees of Neyton's house is hardly the best use of your skills. What about getting back out in the field?”

  “What do you mean?” I ask. “I couldn't take command of Lancers, or even regular Guardsmen. I'd never be accepted by the troops; I haven't earned their respect.”

  “You have their respect, but you're correct. They'd never accept you in a regular unit, but you could be very useful as someone who can bring the insurgency against the insurgents,” Mogar muses. “You rally the people, Jensen. You have thousands if not a million humans or more who would fight at your side against the Slavers. And, to be honest, your figure would attract a large number of Tamarians as well. Perhaps it would be best if Lord Jensen took command of an elite unit, made up of Tamarian and human troops.”

  Tauren raises an eyebrow, looking over at me. “What do you say, Jensen? This isn't the sort of job I could order someone to do who doesn't want to do it.”

  “I.....” I start to reply, but before I can, the door to the meeting room opens, and Joren, the former King, stumbles in. He's crying, and I swear he looks drunk, something that's happened far too often the past couple of weeks. I thought that Tauren had told the staff to keep his father out of the wine bottles, but it seems that Joren's found another source somewhere.

  “Tauria.... Tauria....” Joren wails, half collapsing onto the floor. Tauren's out of his chair in an instant, going over and helping his father up and into a chair. Joren still is making no sense, just repeating his wife's name over and over. I have no affection for the woman, but I do understand why Tauren's not jailed her, as a sign of acceptance to former slave owners, that while they won't be financially compensated, they also won't be jailed for their actions, as much as some of them deserve it. It's an uneasy compromise, but a necessary one.

  “He's drunk,” Tauren says, waving his hand in front of his nose. “Father.... what did you do?”

  “No.... drunk.... drugs....” Joren rasps, his eyes starting to roll back in his head as he goes into convulsions. Tauren looks up in shock, and without a word Mogar runs out of the room, coming back a moment later with one of the Royal Lancers who is carrying a medical kit.

  “Lay him on the table please Highness,” the Lancer says, opening the kit. I see on his armor the mark of someone who is a combat medic, and he moves with professional skill, getting his diagnostic sensor ready quickly while Tauren and I lay Joren out on the table, holding him down when he starts to go into convulsions. The Lancer starts his sensors, nodding. “Poisoning, sire. I've got a treatment, one second.”

  It actually takes him five to get the injector out and into Joren's shoulder, the convulsions stopping seconds later. It's a nervous half minute before Joren's eyes flutter and open, squeezing shut for a moment before opening in shock. “Tauren! Tauria.....”

  “I'm here Father,” Tauren whispers soothingly. “What's happened?”

  “Tauria and I.... we argued, she said that she was sickened by my support of you and Audra... she said she had new friends, a new way.....”

  Before Joren can go on, an alarm goes off, and I jerk my head up, shocked. “What's that?”

  “The dungeon,” Tauren says, pointing to the Lancer. “You, with Joren. Jensen, with me. Audra, stay with my Father, protect him.”

  Audra nods, her hand going to her powerlance, something she carries all the time, while the Lancer hands me his powerlance. It's not an officer's model, but it's better than nothing as we go running out of the meeting room. We meet the commander of the Lancers, who is at the head of a squad of men. “Highness!”

  “Lance!” Tauren commands, taking a powerlance from one of the men and leading us down the steps to the dungeon level. I've been down here twice before, each time to check on Ambaris before giving up on the man. I've got too many things to worry about, the hatred of the only prisoner in the palace isn't worth my time.

  We find the door to his cell block open, and in the hallway Kelbara lies knocked out. Of Ambaris, there's no sign at all. Tauren
looks quickly, turning to the commander. “Tend to Kelbara! The rest of you, spread out, search the dungeon level!”

  I help out, but in the back of my mind I'm worried for Kelbara. Perhaps her crush on me is more widely recognized, but at least in private I can admit that I do find her.... appealing. She's got spirit, and when I was her father's captive.... I don't have time for this shit.

  Our search reveals nothing, and when I go back to the cell block, Kelbara's awake, holding her ribs. “Easy, Lady Kelbara,” the medic with the Lancers says as he helps her up. “It will take a while for the treatment to work.”

  “What happened?” I ask, going over and helping Kelbara. “Where's Ambaris?”

  “Tauria broke him out,” Kelbara groans, wincing before taking a shallow breath and letting it out. “I was talking with him when Tauria hit me with a stunner.”

  Tauren's skin's gone pale, and he looks at the Lancers in the room. I jerk my head in understanding. “Lancers, out. Search the level again, look for evidence of where they may be.”

  The Lancers leave, and I look to Tauren. “Tauren?”

  “If my mother's helped Ambaris escape, the Lancers could search for years and not find anything,” Tauren says. “There's escape tunnels and secret passages all around the palace, they were built hundreds of years ago and never put on any blueprint. Family secret.”

  “Well, it might be time to shed some light on those secrets,” I try not to growl and half succeed. “What do you want to do?”

  “They don't have a big lead, only a few minutes,” Tauren says. “But in those tunnels, that can be a lot. Come on, I might not know which tunnel they took, but I know where they'll probably end up. Let's find out what's going on.”