Venus Rising
VENUS RISING
AN EPIC SCI-FI ROMANCE
Seven Steps
Contents
Connect With Me
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Part II
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Part III
Night of the Broken Moon
Part IV
The Squid And The Whale
Part V
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Chapter 147
Chapter 148
Thank You For Reading!
Connect With Me
Copyright ©2018 by Seven Steps
All rights reserved by the author.
Venus Rising is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, or persons, living or dead, is wholly coincidental.
No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, recording, by information storage and retrieval or photocopied, without permission in writing from Seven Steps.
Proudly Published in the United States of America
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EMAIL: INFO@SEVENSTEPSAUTHOR.COM
Part 1
1
Outer Ring, Habitat Alpha
Planet Venus
7009
On unsteady feet, sixteen-year-old Nadira Marie gripped the side of the iced over, metal vat. She raised a clear bottle to her lips and took a deep drink of blue wine.
Above, the orange and black Venian atmosphere swirled and coiled, clearly visible through the transparent dome. The clear, metal walls of the Habitat were hundreds of feet thick, built to withstand the pressure, heat, and general fury of the planet’s atmosphere.
Around her was the reservoir. The vats agitated and churned as they pumped water through underground tunnels and into the homes of the women and men in Habitat Alpha. Ahead, firelight bounced off the vat’s scrubbed surface.
Nadira took another swig of wine, the liquid sloshing in the bottle as she stumbled forward. “May our mothers be well, and may we never become them!”
Kiln, her Prime Servant, laced an arm around her waist, his massive biceps squeezing her close to him.
“Steady, Naddie.” With gentle hands, he plucked the bottle from her fingers, ensured that she was steady on her feet, and freed her from his grip. Six and a half foot tall, and blond, he held the bottle out of her reach.
“I think you’ve had enough,” he said, his nineteen year old voice deep and clear.
“Do you?” She reached up on tiptoe, clutched the back of his neck, and drew him to her awaiting mouth, covering his lips in a brief, drunken, wet kiss.
One side of his mouth broke into a lopsided grin, and he set to kissing her back, dropping his arms to wrap them around her. Seizing the moment, she snatched the bottle from his distracted hand and held it over her head in triumph.
“You are too easy,” she slurred, taking another sip before falling on her backside.
Kiln let out a frustrated breath, reached down, and set her back on her feet, “Naddie, I think we should go home.”
“No. I want to see my friends.”
“Alright, but just for a few minutes. After that, I’m taking you home and straight to bed.”
“So you’re my Mistress now?” Nadira teased.
“No, but if an Enforcer finds us out here, it’ll be our third infraction, and I’ve made it a point not to die this week.”
Two hovercrafts turned their noses to the walls of the dome. In unison, they shot forward. Their reflections grew as they got closer to the wall. Then, at the last possible second, they pulled up, followed the wall upward, touched the ceiling, and looped back around to do it again.
Ahead, three girls and a dark haired boy sat around
a crackling fire. Their voices echoed through the reservoir.
“…and then she said: ‘Kiera, if you can’t respect my home, I’ll have no choice but to send you to Habitat Omega’.” Kiera, a dirty blonde, shrieked to be heard over the sounds of the crackling fire and the gurgling vats. “Let’s see how disrespectful you are when they’re shaving your head and making you an Enforcer.”
Kiln guided Nadira to the colorful blankets that were strewn on the dusty ground around the fire. Once she was settled, he planted himself next to her.
Shar-jon’s blonde hair was almost white against the flames. “Do you think she was serious?”
“She made the comm,” Kiera said. “I’m leaving the day after tomorrow.”
Shar-jon wrapped her arms around Kiera’s shoulders and sniffled.
“You can’t go,” she said, her voice heavy with threatening tears. “You’re not cut out to be a baldy.”
“Tell that to my mother,” Kiera said. “But don’t worry. I have a plan.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Tomorrow, after nightfall, when everyone’s asleep, I’m running to Mahala. Me and Satch will be free.” She took the hand of a raven haired, freckled, blue-eyed boy who sat next to her.
“Mahala?” Bragnia, a soft-spoken redhead, gasped. The daughter of a retired High Priestess of the Temple of Venus, Bragnia was new to the Outer Ring. “The free slave place? Kiera, you can’t. What if the Enforcers find you?”
“Then we’ll die together. Either way, I’ll never be an Enforcer and my mother won’t control me anymore.”
“Do you remember Empress Star’s daughter?” Shar-jon asked. “They say she ran away to Mahala, too.”
“That’s not what I heard.” Kiera put a hand on Shar-jon’s knee. “I heard that she refused to apply to Beta Council, and her mother went nuts and killed her.”
Shar-jon wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “That’s crazy. Mothers from Beta aren’t like that.”
“All mothers are the same,” Kiera said. “But, on the off chance that I’m wrong and Star did run away, I’ll say hello when I see her in Mahala.”
“No one is going to Mahala,” Nadira slurred. “You don’t even know where it is.”
“Satch does,” Kiera said. “He’s been there before.”
The group took in a collective gasp, and Kiera's Prime Servant’s pale skin gained color as all eyes turned to him.
“You’ve been to Mahala?” Kiln asked.
Satch cleared his throat. “Well, not there, but close. Kiera’s mother sent me to work in Habitat Beta for a few months to pay off a debt. In the forest, near the wall of the Habitat, we would sometimes hear singing, and smell smoke. None of us were brave enough to sneak out and investigate, but we knew that something was out there.”
“This is insane!” Bragnia threw up her hands. “You can’t turn rogue and run away to Mahala.”
“Better than being an Enforcer,” Kiera replied.
“You're throwing your life away.”
“What life? The life that my mother wants me to have? No. I won’t be her puppet.” She drank from a brown bottle and leaned against Satch’s shoulder. “Think about it. We’ll be free. Free from their stupid slave laws, free from the petty rules of High Council, free from my dumb mother.”
“And free from their ancient ideas,” Nadira said. “Don’t feed on the lies your mother tells you. Life isn’t just about who’s getting the High Council seat this year, or who has the most control over their minions. How we’re living, what we’re doing … it’s a prison.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic?” Bragnia asked. “We’re women. It’s not in our nature to be brutal.”
“How else would you describe a society that buys and sells men from all over the universe, takes them away from their families, wipes their memories, presses them into slavery, beats them, and, when they’re done with them, kills them?”
“I’d call it progressive. After all, men were doing it to women long before we did it to them. Look at Mars. They keep women locked up in camps and impregnate them in public. It’s disgusting. We are only passing along the practice to those that invented the concept.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?” Nadira asked.
“Everyone believes that,” Bragnia answered.
Shar-jon threw a bottle, missing Bragnia’s foot by a few inches. “I thought I was inviting you here. Not your mother.”
“May our mothers be well!” Kiera called.
“And may we never become them!” Nadira answered, completing the group’s mantra.
“I’m not my mother!” Bragnia pulled her knees into her chest. “I’m just level headed.”
“More like brain washed,” Satch spat.
Bragnia ignored him. “Kiera, please don’t run away. There has to be something you can do.” She snapped her fingers. “Maybe my mother can talk to your mother; you know, get her to change her mind? My mother used to be a High Priestess in the Temple. She can be very persuasive.”
“Yes. That’s an excellent idea,” Kiera mocked. “Please tell your mother about our little talk, and perhaps, if the Mother Goddess wills it, instead of turning me into an Enforcer, they can execute me instead.”
“I was just trying to help.”
“Yeah. You were trying to help me. Help me right into the grave.”
“Whoa. Everyone calm down!” Nadira raised her hands, tried to stand, swayed, and fell down again.
Shar-jon’s twin slaves rejoined the group. They were indistinguishable from each other, both possessing barrel chest and powerful builds. They would have looked like any other man, if not for their green skin, long canines, and amber colored eyes. They sat, on either side of Shar-jon, the one on the left passing a bottle to the one on the right. The left one waited until his brother drank his fill, then reached his hand out for the bottle and took a long drink.
Nadira watched them, an idea slipping into her consciousness. “We will settle this with a hovercraft race.”
“A hovercraft race?” Bragnia asked. “That’s ridiculous and unsafe. You know, I would have expected more from an ambassador’s daughter.”
“I’d expect a mother to say that.” Kiera rolled her eyes. “It sounds about right coming from you.”
“Empresses, please! If Bragnia beats Kiera to vat twelve, then Kiera stays and calls Bragnia’s mother for help.”
“And if I win?” Kiera asked.
“Then Kiera does what she wants, and Bragnia has to bring her Prime Servant with her the next time we meet.”
“Why would I bring him?” Bragnia asked.
“For the same reason anyone brings their slaves here.” Nadira turned to Kiln and kissed him slowly to the oohs and aahs of her audience.
“That’s disgusting.”
“Have you tried it?” Nadira asked. “Come on, Bragnia. What’s Kiera’s future worth to you? One little race? One little kiss?”
“Don’t bother.” Kiera flicked her wrist. “She’s afraid, and her slave is disgusting. I wouldn’t want to kiss him either.”
“Nadira, is this about the junior High Council seat?” Bragnia whispered. “It’s down to just me and you, isn’t it? Are you trying to sabotage me so that you can take the seat for yourself?”
“You can have the junior High Council seat. I never wanted it in the first place. My mother did.”
“I’m sure.” Bragnia sounded incredulous.
“First off,” Kiera said, “Nadira will never serve on High Council because she has a brain and can think for herself.”
“Yes!” Nadira cried.
“And second,” Kiera continued, “don’t change the subject. I’ll take you up on that race. I’ll have you know that I am unbeaten in a hovercraft.”
“You’ve never raced in a hovercraft,” Satch said.
“Not now, Satch,” Kiera retorted. “So, Bragnia. What do you say? Race for my life?”
Bragnia squeezed her lips t
ogether, her already red face turning crimson.