"No," I told him firmly with a cocky shake of my head. "You'll retreat back to your ship and wait for us to launch. Then you can go on unloading your equipment and living the rest of your lives. You’ll go back to your unfortunate wives and children without them ever having to know how close you all came to your death this day. Or our dragons can melt your faces off before any of us can pull a trigger."
He didn't like his options. That was clear. His men were scared, as was he. His backward glances told me that he might be more worried about what his crew would think of him than about their safety.
"There is another ship approaching," Strawberry informed me. There was no way for her not to be overheard.
"That will be the peacekeepers," the man said with a shaky smile. He was liking his chances a lot better all of a sudden. "This is your last chance to save yourselves. Just give us the girl with wings and you can launch before they arrive."
I shook my head again and said, "I hate this."
"You have no choice," the man answered, gaining in confidence.
"You are not going to sell Mixi for our freedom, are you?" Aeren asked.
"No, not at all," I answered. "I hate having to kill men that I don't even know, just because they are too stupid for their own good."
The enemy rifleman closest to Mixi turned abruptly and lifted his rifle in her direction. A snap of her bow sent an energy blast that knocked him on his ass. Two others fired their rifles. Both bullets must have struck the dragons in the chest. They quickly retaliated by gruesomely biting off the heads of their attackers. Teddy somersaulted from out of nowhere to blast that last crewman in the ass with an electrical charge. The guy fired his rifle wildly until Strawberry sent a blast to obliterate his face.
The captain was so panicked then that I could almost smell the shit in his pants. He stumbled backwards as he fired off a few rounds, some of which buzzed past me. I dove forward to the ground in front of him and swung my sword at his left leg. The blade went clean through. He went down screaming, but fully intended to empty the clip of his rifle before he died. I cut his plan short as my next swing was directed at his neck.
All opponents were down, three of them no longer in one piece. The dragons had spat the bloody human skulls out so accurately that they landed beside the disgusting headless bodies to which they belonged.
"Is everyone okay?" I asked as the peacekeeper's ship was getting close enough to see what was happening. Both Aeren and Honeysuckle were down on their knees, facing each other. But neither appeared to be hurt. Between them on the ground was Strawberry holding her belly as the blood seeped through her fingers.
"Get her inside!" I yelled. "Everyone inside!"
The dragons brought up the rear, which was their tendency. Selfless in that way, just like they had happily taken bullets intended for us. If only they understood that they brought this trouble upon us. If it wasn't for their feeding frenzy, we could have left this planet on reasonably good terms. But honestly, if I was a dragon, I probably would have done the same thing. It was hard to fault a creature for simply being what they were. It wasn't like they had ever encountered a real code of ethics before in their lives. I found it truly a wonder that they hadn’t rebelled against the restrictions that I had already placed on them.
There was no place for the newly arriving ship to land, so they hovered there and gave commands from an external speaker that we had no plans to obey. Once in the control room their demands were coming through the communications speaker.
"Remain on the landing pad. Do not power up your engines. Hey, what did I just say. Now power down your engines. You can't just fly away from the scene of a crime. There are dead men on the ground. There needs to be an investigation. Wait, no, do not lift off! Commander, these starship people aren't listening to a word I say. I told them not..."
Then the microphone was disconnected. The peacekeepers either had a rookie comm expert or never experienced this type of trouble before. I instructed Cinnamon not to reply at all but leave the channel open so we could hear whatever else they had to say. Let them provide us with any intel they wanted to share. So far it was a bit humorous.
Once we achieved an altitude of thirty meters, a new voice came on the line.
"This is Commander Jonton of Peacekeeper Seven. I require that you return to the landing pad immediately. Otherwise, I will be forced to fire plasma bursts into your exhaust ports to disable your engines. The ensuing crash will likely cause even more damage to your ship. You have ten seconds to comply."
I took manual control of the ship which caused both Cinnamon and Honeysuckle to gasp in shock somehow. They just weren't used to their ship's pilot doing much real flying. I turned our ship around to face our new enemy. That solved problem number one. They could no longer shoot into our exhaust ports. The commander was an idiot to announce his plans, in my opinion. Then I started flying right for the peacekeeper ship.
"What are you doing with my ship?" Honeysuckle demanded to know. She was simply taking pride as a mechanic, and not wanting to see it all torn up again. "We don't have ramming capability!"
I continued toward the police craft slowly as the commander's voice became more panicked. When I doubled my speed, he ordered evasive maneuvers. After that I increased altitude and speed as fast as I could, heading for the sky. Then another voice joined in the mayhem. Air traffic control was demanding that I drop down and hold a position until they provided a clear exit path.
"Should I respond?" Cinnamon asked.
"Don't bother," I told her. "We can't afford to stick around. It doesn’t make sense to reveal anything to them."
"We have no navigator," Honey said urgently. "How are you going to fly us out of here?"
"Kash, there are ships in our path they say," Cinnamon informed me urgently.
"Then they should move out of the way," I responded in total calmness. This was starting to become my element. I settled into it like a safecracker with a stethoscope.
Immediately after that I heard Vanilla's voice in the hallway. "Strawberry! Come back here! Just because you stopped bleeding doesn't mean that you are healed!"
"I'm here," my freckled first officer announced as she stumbled weakly through the control room. Her bubbled butt caught on the vacant captain's chair and almost spun her around. Three female voices were screaming for her to go back to medical. She ignored them all and eventually found her seat before she could rupture open the doctor’s handiwork.
"Three minutes maximum to get me nav-points out of here," I told her. "Then back to bed."
"Yes, captain," she responded as she fumbled with the controls.
I had mad respect for anyone that stared death in the face just to do their job in a crisis. I had no idea if she was dying but being shot in the belly had to be right up there with professional athletes continuing to play with broken bones. This was her hero moment, or should I say heroine. I wasn't going to take that away from her. Not now that she had committed her allegiance to me. If her life was in real danger, I fully expected Vanilla to overrule me. But she didn't.
We managed to clear the atmosphere without being shot at, or at least hit by the threatened plasma bolts. I narrowly missed two other craft that sent my crew into pants pissing panic. I was practically aiming for the tail ends of those ships to avoid getting in front of them. Then Nav-Berry got me a spot behind a large asteroid in a small cluster just three minutes away. I sent her back to medical and let the computer take us there.
No one chased after us and the frantic traffic control messages eventually ceased as well. I toyed with the idea of powering down, maybe even landing on the huge chunk of space rock. But it seemed an unnecessary risk. I put us in a holding position just three hundred meters from the asteroid and took a deep breath of relief.
I did it again. The adrenaline rush culminating with an impressive successful escape had me feeling high.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:
Vanilla worked her medical magic on Strawberry's gut wound, like usual. The inju
red woman would be released from care the next morning, and ready for control room duty by the end of the day. It was the second time since I joined the crew of the ship that she laid injured on that lounger. Both times were for impressive bravery. I was digging the whole fuck-buddy scenario. But this girl had some strong qualities to her character. It made me want to keep her as close to me as anyone. The decision to make her my first officer, as if I had a choice, was a good one.
Both dragons needed treatment for bullet wounds too, but they played their injuries off as nothing. They were ridiculously proud beasts. When I suggested that maybe they could do without Vanilla's feel-good injection, they quickly and quietly changed their minds.
I thanked Teddy for his heroics, then apologized for his rec time getting interrupted. He said that it was fine, but I could see the sadness in his eyes at leaving the planet behind so quickly. I needed to come up with some ideas to get these guys more freedom. I felt like my command depended on it. They each helped me rise to this position and deserved to be rewarded with the things that made them the happiest.
I checked in with Cinnamon and Honeysuckle. I was certainly lucky to have them. Sharing my bed gave them a privileged position in their minds I could tell. But it also meant that I didn't need to maintain their morale constantly during the day. I couldn't completely ignore them, but an occasional soft kiss and a gentle caress of their bodies took me a long way.
Mixi thanked me for not selling her off. I assured her that I hadn't even considered the idea. I was very appreciative of her quickness to battle for the sake of the team. When I told her that I looked forward to having her among the control crew, she flashed me an innocent smile. It took me by surprise. She was always so sophisticated and proper, even more so than Aeren. I gave her a warm embrace before I left her quarters, but no kiss. Our relationship was nowhere near that point. Hopefully, one day.
That brought me to Aeren. I left her for last for a reason. I planned to progress my relationship with her significantly before bedtime. In at least one way if not more. Emotionally, romantically, and sexually if it went well.
When I chimed her door, she opened it immediately. She stood sideways off toward the corner peering cautiously at the doorway. Her long hair was black at the moment and hung all the way down to her knees blocking all view of her body.
"Ah, captain," she said as she happily stepped up to me. "I was hoping that it was you."
Turning to face me I could quickly deduce that she was naked. That was when I noticed the discarded uniform on the bed. Her hair was pushed mostly to the back and sides and made no legitimate attempt to block my view of her goodies. And her goodies were oh so good.
Perfect breasts, nearly as big as Honey's despite her smaller frame. Narrow tapered waist that women of Earth two centuries ago would have died for. Tiny-lipped vagina peeking at me from below a naturally well-groomed bush. Legs of an anime goddess.
"Is this a bad time?" I asked, gesturing toward her nudity.
"Not at all," she replied. "You have seen me naked before. It is no big deal for me. However, if it is somehow a dishonor to reveal my nature to my superior, I'll happily cover up for you."
"No, no! I'm good. I just want you to be comfortable."
"I am quite comfortable with my body..."
"As you should be."
Then with an alluring smile she continued, "But I am not yet comfortable with our relationship. I assume that you are here to rectify that issue."
"Yes, I am," I replied as I sat down on the bed. I motioned for her to join me on the far side. Instead of walking around, she crawled over me. When she caught me starting at her breasts, she paused momentarily to give me a good up-close gander at their perfect form.
"What color do you prefer my hair?" she asked as got situated beside me. I could see her interest in seducing me in her own way, but it was currently being overruled by caution.
"Can you change it at will?"
"To a degree," she replied. "It alters naturally on its own according to my mood and surroundings. As you can see it is turning green now without any effort on my part."
"I like the green," I told her. "Combined with your long, pointed ears and sexy slim body it makes you look like an elf. I personally find that to be incredibly attractive."
"What exactly is an elf? This is not the first that you made such a reference," she asked as the braids on her crazy long mane continued its transition over to a dark green before steadily brightening in color.
"It is a humanoid creature of myths on my home planet," I explained. "Sometimes they warred with men, but their women were often portrayed as desirable. Unlike the dwarves and the goblins, though I'm sure there are men somewhere that prefer those."
"But you are into elves?" she asked as she turned toward me.
"No," I answered, intent on guiding this conversation as best as I could. "I am into you. Your elfish appearance is just a contributing factor."
"I think I understand," she said as she reached for my hand. Her narrow long fingers interlaced with mine like slithering snakes in warm oil. Her touch was welcome and timely. "What other factors make me desirable to you, captain?"
"You don't have to call me captain all the time. You have known me as Kash since we first met. Though our situation has changed dramatically since then, our personal relationship doesn't need to reflect that as much as you are allowing it."
"I see," she replied as she gently caressed my knuckles. "Okay, Kash. What else about me do you like?"
"You are smart," I told her, trying not to stray too far from our purpose in my response. "Stronger in battle than anyone could possibly imagine. You care deeply for your friends and take your responsibilities seriously. But mostly you have a way about you that makes me want to hold you in my arms and protect you."
"Would you like to hold me in your arms now?"
"Yes," I answered. I adjusted my position to recline and showed her how to lay her head on my chest like the other girls did. I pulled her willing thigh over my crotch placing her slender shapely calf on my right leg. She then reached for my right hand with her left to continue the fond gesture.
"What do you like about me?" I asked.
"You are a strong male," she answered without hesitation. "You have demonstrated your ability to produce semen on demand. I know that is not the answer that you are looking for, but it is a huge factor in attraction among my people. Doctor Vanilla has suggested that you even ejaculate more often than needed."
"Has she?" I used to be embarrassed by the divinely beautiful doctor watching me cum uncontrollably. Since establishing myself it is much less of an issue. Kind of like the difference between fondling yourself in front of strangers and doing it in front of your wife or longtime girlfriend.
"You are a good leader," she continued, her face warm against my chest. "Your ability to gain respect from all the crew members so quickly is a testament to that fact. Due to the wide variety of their personalities and needs, you have shown impressive ability to adjust to each of your subjects well. Even dragons and Pithynos follow your lead."
"Anything else?" I asked when she paused.
"I genuinely like you as a person," she said, glancing up at me before returning her lovely face to my shoulder. "That began while you were still being held captive in our city. The way you responded to your challenges was unexpected. You tended to think before you acted. Males of my species weren't much for thinking at all."
"So, these qualities have led to you choosing me as a mate?"
Aeren lifted her head to look me in the eye. Her smile was hesitant. I wasn't sure what to make of that. But since the conversation was going well, I was prepared to deal with whatever she had to say without getting frustrated.
"My options are limited, Kash," she told me. "I am blessed to have the opportunity to mate with you, and even more so that you are eager to oblige. Based on what Cinnamon and Honeysuckle have told me, if there were a hundred human males for me to choose from, I would still
select you."
"Thank you," I replied softly. That was one hell of a compliment. I can't imagine any woman from my past, back on Earth, ever saying anything close to that flattering.
"I am enjoying our conversation," she whispered as she approached for a kiss. Her hypnotizing eyes peered deeply into my soul as I gently pressed my lips to hers.
"Me, too."
"I would very much like to copulate now, if you are willing," the words flowed quietly from her lips like the song of a siren. It was not exactly the most seductive bedroom phrasing that I had ever heard. Yet it came across like it was.
"I am more than willing, Aeren. What do you want me to do?" I asked. Then feeling silly about that question, I followed it up. "I mean, I know what to do. I'm asking what are you comfortable with? How can I make this the most pleasant experience for you?"
"That is very kind of you to ask, Kash," she said as she rolled smoothly up to straddle my lap without the slightest change in position of her face just inches before me. "May I detail how I would like for things to go?"
Alien Girls Page 17