Martin Berman-Gorvine - Monsters of Venus

Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright 2017 by Martin Berman-Gorvine

All rights reserved

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

www.wildsidepress.com

ALSO BY MARTIN BERMAN-GORVINE

Seven Against Mars

Save the Dragons!

Heroes of Earth

DEDICATION

For Daniel

And with thanks to my friend Naomi Schwartz Jacobs for help with Aramaic, and to my wife Jackie, my real-life gal with moxie, for her endless love and support.

CHAPTER 1

Those jerks from Venus were going to be good and sorry theyd kidnapped Sonya Goldberg-Webb. Sonya herself had told them so, several times an hour, for the past three weeks, ever since theyd grabbed her on the way home from school on Mars and stuffed her in this rocketship. That meant, by rough reckoning, and even allowing time off for sleeping and eating, she had told them so more than three thousand times. But far from getting tired of it, she was enjoying it more and more all the time.

She loved watching the face of the tall kidnapper, the one she called Fatso because he had a slight paunch, bunch up and freeze as if his jaw muscles were developing a cramp from being clamped down so hard and so often, while his nostrils flared out so wide they looked like garden hoses. She loved even more making the short kidnapper, the one she called Spazzo, jump about a mile by reminding him suddenly just how sorry he was going to be, right when he was least expecting it.

Hey SPAZZO!

AIEEEEEEEEEE! The short guy had dozed off in his bunk, and Sonyas shout made him crack his head on the metal frame for the one hundred and twenty-ninth time. She was keeping count.

You know what theyre gonna do to you when they catch you?

Just ignore her, Gildie, the tall kidnapper said. Dont give her the satisfaction.

Please, please let me gag her again, Ross, the short one said. I promise this time Ill make it loose enough for her to breathe.

Theyre gonna lower you sloooowly, oh so sloooooowly, into the boiling-hot magma of Olympus Mons, Sonya said with satisfaction.

The face of Sergeant Guild N. Sternthat was his full name, as shed learned when she found his wallet during another of his naps, just before reducing its contents to shredsturned almost as red as the soil on her parents Martian farm. Which was very satisfying. He started snarling and spitting, like a rabid dog only not as cute.

No they AINT! Cause they aint gonna catch us! And if they did, your bleedin-heart queen has abolished the death penalty!

Sonya ignored this. Do you know what sound lava makes when it swallows a person up? Well, I do, cause I done heard it when that rotten no-good skunk King Ares was shoved in! It goes gloo-OOP! She made some extra-juicy slurping noises to demonstrate.

Spazzo Stern clapped his hands to his temples and shrieked like a tea-kettle on a too-high flame. A hand reached down and grabbed Sonya by the neck.

Hey, you better let go of me, Fatso, Sonya gasped. Im sure Da Mayor didnt go to all the trouble of sending you two goons a hunnert million klicks just to strangle me! She was lifted up, wriggling, until her face was on a level with Fatsos clenched jaw.

Im getting so I dont care what Hizzoner Beppo Bellissini wants, the taller goon rasped. His breath stank like vomit.

Shouldnt have put quite so much salt in his instant coffee this morning.

By the Great Venusian Monsoon I swear, by the rings of Saturn I cast a mighty oath, as my name is Captain Ross N. Krantz of Bellissinis Bullyboy Bastards of Venus, if you dont sit down and shut up like a good little girl Im gonna open the airlock door and HIG-IG-IG-IG-INK! he howled as Sonya jabbed her fingers up both of his nostrils. He let her go and staggered around the cabin, clutching his face with both hands as blood dripped from the middle of it.

Sonya was scurrying around two steps ahead of Spazzo Stern, when the ships loudspeaker suddenly came on and started bawling louder than both kidnappers put together.

Hello, PEEPS! it roared, and the two thugs both stopped where they were and piped down, except that Krantz was still making wet snuffling noises.

Yes, Yeronner, they mumbled, using the traditional form of groveling to the head honcho of humans on Venus.

Sonya perked up. Hey, are you Da Mayor?

Thats me, missy, the loudspeaker said after a ten-second pause.

Sonya did some quick math. The delay meant they must still be a good million and a half kilometers (klicks) from the planet that was Earths morning star. Her Martian science teacher, Mrs. Wynetski, would have been amazed to learn that shed actually been paying attention in class.

So, youre the one responsible for kidnapping me, Sonya said thoughtfully, while her captors held their breath.

Ten seconds later the loudspeakers gave out with a gravelly chuckle. Thats right, missy. Ive got you now and theres not a damn thing you can do about it. Im gonna use my Corrector to make you nice and docile. Youll be my little blond lap-dog, and youll do whatever tricks I tell you to.

Cold prickles cascaded down Sonyas back and arms. King Ares had had a Corrector, and shed heard lurid rumors about what he could do with it. Nasty stuff to girls and young women. Even Queen Anya, who back then was only a princess and a dangerous rival to the tyrant, had almost given in to the things hypnotic power. Or thats what Martian people said.

Sonyas bossy stepsister Katie, and Katies know-it-all, carrot-top best friend Rachel, who were from Earth like her, had a way of looking at each other and smiling mysteriously whenever the subject came up, but they kept saying she was too young to know the full truth and shed just have to wait until she was a little older.

They said that about a lot of things, like how theyd all gotten to Mars in the first place, when Rachel and Sonya had been trapped along with their families in a crumbling apartment in the Warsaw Ghetto where the Germans forced them to live, and Katie had been living with her parents in faraway Texas. It seemed to Sonya they had all somehow been magically transported into the world of Rachels imaginationthe redhead used to write crazy stories about rockets and monsters on distant planets, back in Warsawbut Sonya couldnt be sure, and it might have helped to know what kind of threat she was facing.

Instead, all she could do was bluster, so she raised her voice and began to shriek so loudly her captors clapped their hands over their ears, threatening the Venusian dictator that her best friend Queen Anya was going to declare war on his whole stupid planet, which he was too stupid to realize was named after a girl, and when the fearsome Martian warriors captured him they were going to throw him alive into the enormous red-hot cauldron of Olympus Mons.

Eventually she had to pause for breath. Fatso grabbed her from behind and tied her to a chair, making the knots so tight she gasped in pain. More chuckling came from the speakers, but Sonyas arms were bound too tightly for cold prickles this time.

Is that all youve got, little girl ? Im going to take a good look at you when my men bring you in, and decide whether I want to keep you around until youre a little riper . And if not, Ill use the Corrector to command you to walk into a lava crater and youll be happy to do it!

* * * *

Queen Anya wasnt, in fact, considering throwing anybody into red-hot lava. Instead she was meeting with Sonyas adoptive parents, Mike and Mary Webb, and her best friends, Katie and Rachel, to deliver the grim news.

Im afraid shes no longer on Mars, the red-haired queen of the Red Planet said quietly.

Mike Webbs lower lip vibrated. Weve got to get her back. Shes a good girl, after all.