Chapter 47: Chapter 46: Loyal Opposition

Contrary to his expectations, Vesta wasn’t the harpy-run hellhole that Lucius Serrano expected to find.

It actually wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t Dangallu but Vesta was appealing in its own way. It had certain . . . assets that made it a suitable stopgap from his major plan.

“Boss, are you listening to me?”

Serrano shook his head briefly and looked back over at Ross. It meant tearing his eyes away from Belladonna’s spectacularly formed ass but only for a moment.

“What?” barked Serrano. “What were you saying?”

“I was saying I just got the notification that our candidacies have been approved for the Vestan Council,” said Ross, the one-time pilot who’d helped Serrano take over the Racine. “We’re in.”

“About fuckin’ time,” replied Serrano. “As soon as they announced it, I wanted us to be in for the two slots. It’s the only route to power on this planet.”

Ross started to shake his head. “Boss, I don’t mean to disagree with you, but why exactly do we want power on Vesta? What happened to the Dangallu plan?”

Serrano glared at him. “Lower your voice goddamnit.” He then gestured his head to Belladonna, who thankfully hadn’t heard anything.

“She doesn’t know about that and I don’t plan to tell her,” said Serrano, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Sorry, Boss. So is it off the table then?”

“No, you idiot. The Dangallu plan still exists. It’s just been put on the back burner for right now.”

“I don’t like it,” said Ross, shaking his head. “I don’t want to be here, especially when we were looking forward to another planet.”

“It’s only temporary,” said Serrano, keeping his voice low. “And we can use this planet to our advantage. I’m thinking about all the gold and silver they keep pulling out of the mines. I’m working on a plan right now to use that to get us out of Vesta and onward to Dangallu. I just need a little more time to put it together.”

Ross started to nod his head. “I got you, Boss. I just wanted to make sure we still had the same plan.”

Serrano leaned back in his chair and put his hands over his head. “Just leave it to me, Ross. We get on the Vestan Council and we’ll get our first taste of power. Power is the gateway here toward bringing our other plan to fruition.”

“Bringing what to fruition?”

Belladonna had stopped whatever she was doing and had made her way closer to the two men. Serrano searched her face briefly to see if she’d overheard anything else but her face was simply curious instead of angry.

“About winning the election,” lied Serrano. “Getting our candidacies approved is the first step toward winning the election.”

“Good, I’m glad it was approved quickly,” said Belladonna. “I told Cassara to fast track both of your applications. With a little bit of luck, we’ll have both you and Ross sitting on the Council a week from now.”

“And if we don’t have enough luck?” asked Ross.

Belladonna sneered. “Then we’ll use a little hard currency to make our own luck.”

Serrano looked at her with approval. It was possible he found the only woman in Vesta just as conniving as he was. The fact that she had the entire planet at her beck and call only helped.

“There should be nothing standing in our way then,” said Serrano, smirking to himself. “But we will need support from the rest of the men. Get the word out to all of our friends from the Racine. Make sure they know who to vote for.”

Ross grinned at him. “It’s as good as done.”

With that, Ross left the housing unit, leaving Serrano alone with Belladonna. She didn’t waste any time climbing into his lap, resting her perfect ass against his crotch.

“I was thinking that he’d never leave,” pouted Belladonna. “It’s been too long since I’ve had you inside me.”

“What? Is it too much to wait since this morning?”

“I have very high needs, Lucius,” she said seriously. “And so far, you’ve been very adequate at meeting them.”

“Only adequate?”

“You know what I mean. But if you don’t take care of me, I just might find myself in the arms of another man.”

Serrano reacted on sheer instinct. He wrapped his hand around Belladonna’s throat. It wasn’t a gesture meant to hurt but merely to warn.

“Now why would you do something stupid like that?”

Belladonna’s eyes flashed with arousal. “That’s the spirit. Take me to bed. Now!”

Less than an hour later, Serrano and Belladonna were still breathing heavily, nude, in her bed. Red marks covered both of their bodies and there was even a bite mark on his shoulder where she drew blood. That didn’t bother Serrano though. He liked a little feistiness when it came to women, and Belladonna was a good fit for him.

“Very nice,” she purred as she turned toward him. “I ought to have you move in here full-time. That way, I can put my hands on you whenever I want.”

Serrano scoffed. “Only if you make room for Daniela. She’s still my companion after all.”

Belladonna rolled her eyes. She’d met the mousy Daniela only a few times and she hadn’t been impressed. Neither had Daniela but Serrano suspected she’d be secretly happy if he moved out of their housing unit to live with Belladonna permanently.

At least then her ass would have a chance to finally heal.

“To hell with Daniela,” said Belladonna, waving her hand. “I’m not the kind of woman that shares.”

“I guess you’re on the wrong planet then, sweetheart. Every woman shares in Vesta.”

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Belladonna growled and her eyes narrowed for a moment. She began to tap her hand against his chest. Finally, a look of curiosity took hold on her face.

“Let me ask you something. Be honest with me,” she started, still tapping her hand. “Have you ever heard of Dangallu?”

“Dangallu? What of it?” asked Serrano nonchalantly, not bothering to look her in the eyes.

“I just heard a rumor about Dangallu earlier today,” replied Belladonna.

Serrano turned his head. “What rumor?”

“Nothing that I believe,” she said quickly. “But that the reason your colony ship exploded was because you were trying to take it to Dangallu and not Vesta.”

“Who told you that?” growled Serrano, quickly becoming infuriated. Who would dare try to implicate him? Who had the balls to tell the truth about what really happened?

“It was nobody,” said Belladonna quickly. “Just a passing rumor, one that I obviously didn’t believe.”

“Good because it’s not true,” said Serrano. “I took over the Racine at the last minute to stop her from disintegrating but there was nothing I could do. After that, I made sure everyone got into the escape pods. If you want the real truth, it was Alex Hawthorne who was trying to hijack the ship.”

Belladonna’s eyes narrowed. “Alex Hawthorne? The one that beat you?”

“The man that tried to start a fight!” corrected Serrano. “He didn’t beat me. And he only did it because I prevented him from doing the hijack. That’s why he has it out for me.”

“That actually makes a lot of sense now,” said Belladonna. “That Hawthorne is trouble—I could tell from the first time I looked at him. And the fact that he was brought in with that bitch, Ellie Vesta, doesn’t help his cause either.”

“The man is trouble, I’m telling you,” said Serrano, silently pleased with how he’d turned the tables. “And now I hear he’s in the Vestan Defense Force. That won’t bode well for anyone.”

Belladonna grinned wickedly. “Except I control everything that the VDF does. They can’t even take a shit without my approval. I think he’ll find that being under my thumb isn’t that enjoyable.”

Serrano couldn’t help but grin with her. With Belladonna signed on to make Hawthorne’s life hell, perhaps this Vesta adventure wasn’t going to be so bad after all?

*****

Alex had just gotten back to his housing unit that afternoon when the doorbell rang. For the last few hours, he’d been checking out the view on the top of Biosphere One. There was a lookout point at the very top that was the highest point in the city, allowing him to see for kilometers in either direction.

At one point in time, it had been Allen Vesta’s personal office, where he ran the colony in those precarious early days. Alex had to wonder what it felt like, being the first humans on a foreign planet and having to build everything from scratch. They certainly faced their own challenges, even without the bears.

Although Alex had to wonder if the colony would have even succeeded if they had to deal with the bears at that time too.

Shaking the thought from his head, Alex opened the door only to find the jovial face of Annette Moore looking back at him.

“Alex, there you are,” said Annette, looking into the unit. “I have news for you. Is Jenna in?”

“No, she’s working right now,” replied Alex. “She’s on food storage detail.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I guess we can tell her when she gets back,” said Annette. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

Annette floated into the unit quickly, her red hair bouncing with every step. Even though Annette bore little resemblance to her cousin, Ellie, she was still very attractive in her own way. Alex remembered how Ellie told him that she and Annette used to share a man before he was killed and he couldn’t help but picture how that probably looked.

No doubt, any man would be happy to share the same bed with both women.

“Anyway, I’m sorry for stopping by unannounced,” said Annette as she sat on the couch. “I just wanted to let you know that both of your applications for the Council have been approved. You and Jenna are cleared to run in the election.”

“We’re making progress,” said Alex with a smile.

“It’s even more than that,” continued Annette. “The announcements of who is running for the Council are immediately sent out to the entire population. Your announcement has caused considerable buzz because of your reputation. This is really promising, Alex. Name recognition is half the battle when it comes to politics. All we have to do is keep crafting this ‘warrior mystique’ you have going and you’re a shoe-in.”

“Warrior mystique?” asked Alex, chuckling. “Annette, I hate to burst your bubble but I’m a jaded soldier. A criminal even. I came to Vesta because it was better off than dying in a prison cell. If you’re looking for some kind of face-saving politician, I’m not him.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” replied Annette quietly. “What you’ve done with killing the bears speaks volumes. For the first time in years, there’s hope that Vesta might just make it again. That we won’t become a failed colony. There’s reason to hope in that, Alex, and the people see that already. After all, this is our home. If we won’t fight for it, who will?”

At that moment, Alex saw just how passionately she viewed not just the colony but her role in it. He could truly see that she was Ellie’s cousin—the love of politics and public service ran deep in their blood.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get so melancholy just now,” he said. “My head is just reeling a little from my first couple days in the VDF. It hasn’t put me in the best mood.”

“That’s understandable,” said Annette, reaching over to touch his arm. “Believe me, all of us have had run-ins with Belladonna and her short-sighted policies over the course of the last few years. There’s a lot of resentment against her, and we’re going to use that as fuel to win and to change what we need to change.”

“Do you really think we have a chance to win?”

Annette smiled at him. “I think it’s almost guaranteed for you, Alex. Now listen, there’s a few things we need to do first. You and Jenna will both have to give a speech at some point to declare why you’re fit to sit on the Council but that won’t be too much of an issue. The biggest thing we’ll need to do is—”

She never got the chance to finish her sentence as Alex’s P-com started to go off. Quite suddenly, Alex was faced with a hologram of Commander Rooney.

“Hawthorne, I need you to get to the mining biosphere at once,” said Rooney without much in the way of a greeting.

“What’s wrong?” asked Alex.

“Another man has been killed by the bears.”

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