My Bad Boy Werewolf Quadrillionaire Space Lord

Epilogue 2: Introducing 'Merfolk on Mars'

Introducing 'Merfolk of Mars', by CrystalScherer, the third (and first finished) tale in the Werewolves on Mars series.

Nightmare drifted in the dark. Her stealth protocols were engaged; the engines were out and she was running on battery power. Internal heat was being collected and use to accelerate the chemical reaction in the batteries to ensure the hull temperature matched the rocks and debris in the void of space. Sensors were set to passive, and even the on-board AI battle suite was held to the bare minimum.

Despite that, I had the heat up and the lights on as I read a book. Following spaceships was tedious work.

I was just hitting the steamier part of the story when I heard footsteps on the bridge. It was a surprise for two reasons. First, the ship was at drift, so there was no gravity. And second, there was no one else aboard.

I whirled about and pointed an oversized handgun at the source of the noise.

But I saw the chiselled abs and well-muscled chest of my boss, and tucked the gun away with an irritated sigh. "You shouldn't sneak up on a girl like that. She might shoot you in surprise. Or see you and get her hopes up, then shoot you when you let her down again."

"That would prematurely end your very lucrative contract," Luca said as he sat down in the other chair. To my ongoing surprise at the breadth of his knowledge base, he pulled up the sensor suite and started going over the telemetry for the convoy I was following.

"The Leviathan," Luca said as the ship started identifying weak points in the hull. "Decent sized ship, that one. For some reason they think it can stand up to asteroids. It's one of the things their king, Trident, asked for when he had the fleet commissioned."

"King Trident? What the heck kind of a name is that?" I asked, about ready to whack a crazy werewolf in the back of the head. "Is that some sort of merfolk colony?"

"Actually, they are. Trident was rather, uh, animated when I mentioned I had a potential ocean moon. Didn't want to pay my shipping rates, so he packed his people onto his armada and has spent the last several weeks on a hard burn to my ocean moon," Luca explained.

"So, how long until Trident decides that it's his moon? And his planet, for that matter?" Isabella asked. "He has a fleet, and you have one Corsair."

"If I stuck Alcuard in the gunnery seat, the three of us could take their entire fleet. And if it really got hairy, I could portal them all to the far end of Jupiter. Repeatedly."

"Well, I guess that's all right. But I'm not going to introduce myself to them. If I say 'hello' it'll be with a railgun barrage," Isabella insisted.

"Just make sure they're not shipping anything but kelp," Luca said.

"Kelp?" I shrieked, and shuddered. Kelp tasted like someone saturated slime in protein powder and dyed it green. Pretty much the exact opposite of rum.

"Yeah, it's the biggest health craze right now. I'm supplying kelp jerky as an organic and humanely grown alternative meat to the folks in Brasslantis," Luca grinned. "Part of the reason Trident likes his fleet is he's convinced he'll make more money by not using my portal services. Except I'm his sole supplier for fuel and repairs, and I'm charging way more than I would if he could just portal his supplies in bulk."

"So you have merfolk with kelp plantations on your planet now? I didn't even know merfolk existed. Are they some kind of genetically engineered thing?" I asked, kinda curious now.

"Nope. Just if they dry their tails off, their fins turn into legs. They've been living on the surface since the 21st century when our moronic ancestors made the oceans hot and uninhabitable. It seems their kingdom has had an Unobtanium Stone since who-knows-when, and they've used that to help themselves stay incognito."

"Wait, they have one of those stones?"

"I wasn't lending them mine. Oh, and Trident did ask me to keep an eye out for trouble. Apparently the teenagers are shaping up to be rather rebellious," Luca said. "So don't launch torpedoes at a joyriding cruiser."

"Yeah, that's fine. Anything else I should watch out for?"

"Just make sure they don't start interacting with Brasslantis. Last thing I need is for either group to realize the other has an Unobtanium Stone and decides that two is better than one," Luca said. He turned around and started to walk back to his portal. But before he reached it, he added, "And let me know if anyone down there wants to start exporting clamshell bikinis. I feel like the world doesn't have enough of that."

"Wow, that doesn't make you sound creepy at all," I said, grinning.

"Hey, I can only claim new ventures as part of my overall wealth, so I'm trying hard to not be a billionaire anymore. If seeing seashells instead of shirts is the price I have to get someone else to pay me to get there, so be it," Luca said. "Be seeing you, darling."

Luca stepped through the portal, and with what sounded like an unhealthy expulsion of gas, was gone.

Isabella smiled as she turned back to watching the merfolk convoy, and idly wondered if Luca wasn't on to something about those clamshells.