by Maia Starr
I now had a new fervor and anger to get rid of as I went about the training. The fact that there might be something between the sergeant and Nicole made me very angry. I would kill him if I found out.
Chapter Nine
NICOLE PLIMOC
I was in a bad way. I was pregnant with an alien child and I had no idea what I should do about it. I couldn’t tell anyone. I wanted to confide in Sheila, but I was not sure how she would take it. She would judge me. She would think I was a freak, or maybe she would tell on me. I did not want to tell anyone until I told Vycon, but the problem was he was nowhere to be found. I didn’t know if he was still at the mines. But the way he had spoken to me let me know that it would not matter. He had jilted me. So, when I saw him at the base that day, I was shocked.
I watched as he shouted for Private Martinez. I had been walking between the buildings on the backside, but I heard his voice, and I knew that it was him. Dread and excitement filled me when I heard him shout. I quickly and quietly made my way to the corner of the building and peeked around the corner. When I saw him, my heart fell to my stomach, and my stomach grew knots and butterflies all at the same time. It was a combination of being happy to see him but scared to see him. I had his alien baby inside of me, and he would not give a damn.
But fear gripped me as I heard him tell Private Martinez to get Sergeant Banks. What the hell did he want with Banks? Since I had not spoken to the commander in days, I had no idea what he was up to. I wanted to step in because it was my job to do so. I was there to diffuse tensions between the Zenkians and the Earth soldiers. But I couldn’t do it. My feet would not move no matter how much I wanted them to. So I just watched.
But I was not prepared for what I saw. It wasn’t until the commander explained it was training that I exhaled in relief. I had to admit that it was pleasant to watch the commander defeat Sergeant Banks. But I had stayed too long. I knew this when the sergeant came over to me.
“Nicole, what are you doing here? Did you see that? He cheated, the filthy alien,” he said breathlessly.
“I don’t think that he cheated. Just admit that he is a better soldier than you, Banks. It is nothing to be ashamed of; he is bigger than you,” I whispered to him.
He grabbed my arm. “You would know, wouldn’t you? You would know just how much bigger he is than I am. Have you sucked on his disgusting blue cock, Nicole?” he pressed on my arm.
“You’re hurting me,” I said yanking my arm away from him.
“If I find out it is true, I will report it, Nicole,” he said angrily.
“It is not true; just leave me alone,” I said as I turned and walked away.
I had enough drama for one day. I went back to my apartment, taking the rest of the two hours that were left of work, off. I told my boss I had a headache and felt ill. Commander Eriks was understanding as we all had been working overtime. I went home and slept.
The next morning, I had to deal with it. I had to deal with this pregnancy head on.
I could not believe it. I was pregnant with the child of a Grantsion Zenkian. This was awful. I did not know what to do. I desired to tell him. He would know what to do, but I knew he could get in a lot of trouble for it. It was forbidden for the Grantsions to be intimate with humans. It was against their rules. It wasn't exactly looked upon with approval on my side of things either. I was screwed no matter what, so I thought I might as well tell him.
I found Commander Vycon Dase in the common area of the Grantsion base.
“I need to speak with you,” I said.
“Nicole, always good to see you. Yes, of course, I will give you my time; where shall we speak?”
“This way, the conference room,” I said, trying to make it look like official business to the Grantsions that he was sitting with. He nodded to the soldiers and then followed me into the hallway all the way down to the private conference room.
“What is it? Is there news of the Waysaw invasion?”
“No, this is more of a personal thing,” I said.
“You know that we cannot do that. We especially cannot do that here,” he said arching an eyebrow at me.
“No, it is... Well, I don't know how to say this. I'm searching for the words,” I said feeling very nervous.
“Just say it; be blunt. Be like me,” he said.
“I am pregnant. I am carrying your child,” I said in the bluntest way possible.
He looked at me stunned. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I have taken the test. I have all the symptoms. I am pregnant,” I said.
“No, are you sure that it is mine? Are you sure that it is not the child of Sergeant Banks?”
“I have not been with him since before my last cycle. I have only been with you; it is yours,” I said, feeling angry that he would even ask me that. “If I had any question at all as to who the father was, then I would say so.”
“We must keep this a secret. You know that I am not allowed to be intimate with humans. I have already gone against the law of my own kind by being with you. This must stay between us,” he said.
“Don't you think I know that? I wasn't going to tell anyone,” I said.
“And yet, it will eventually be known, but maybe I will have returned back to my own planet by then,” he said.
“What?”
“Maybe I won't have to deal with this at all,” he said.
“Are you serious, Commander? You expect me to deal with this alone? You expect me to suddenly have an alien hybrid baby and to not say who the father is?”
“No, you can have the baby. You can say who the father is, but I won't be here. I will be on my own planet,” he said. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have work to do,” he said as he walked out.
I could not fucking believe it. I was in shock. I wanted to burst into tears, but I couldn't do it where I was. I quickly walked out of the conference room and walked as fast as I could to my own apartment. It wasn't until I was inside that I let myself cry. This was the worst thing that could happen. What was I going to do? I was all alone in this. The commanderwas not the honorable alien I thought he was. Why did I ever think differently? Just because he was charming and was able to seduce me? I let my lust get the better of me, and now I was paying for it.
Chapter Ten
COMMANDER VYCON DASE
It felt wrong. I knew that I should not have done what I did. I was mean to Nicole. I gathered all of my hatred for the humans and took it out on her. It was immature of me to respond the way that I did. But I desired time to think. I was shocked, and the only way I knew how to push her away with to be mean to her. I regretted it. Now, I was in a landspeeder driving recklessly over the Earth areas on a scouting mission. I wasn't scheduled to scout, but I volunteered because I desired to release some of the energy before I took it out on someone like Sergeant Banks.
Sergeant Banks was one reason that I hated humans. It was the arrogant and entitled pieces of crap like him that made me think all humans must be that way. But now that I had lived among them, I started to think differently. Nicole had showed me what a big heart a human could have. It was made it clear to me why she had the job that she did; she was able to calm and soothe those around her, including myself.
After she told me, I went straight to the fighting rings. I disguised it as training, but I needed to release some steam.
“Who wants to demonstrate!” I shouted as I walked in, heated.
“I will take the offer for training,” an Earth soldier said.
“Maybe next time. You, Captain Bidu, care to show the Earthlings what we are made of?” I said with a grin.
He looked at me, and the corners of his mouth curled up.
“Gladly, Commander,” he said.
I was relieved. The Captain was only five years older than I was and he was skilled in all kinds of battle and hand-to-hand combat. In a sense, I wanted him to kick my ass.
We both faced each other in the outline of the ring.
“Come for it, Command
er Vycon Dase,” he said.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Absolutely. I am rusty; this is good for me,” he said.
I jabbed at him, and he dodged my punch and punched me in the abs. The wind left me. It was a good hard punch. I swung at him quickly and punched him in the chest. He came back and grabbed my arm. Then we went down on the ground. Now it was a wrestling match as we punched and kicked while rolling across the floor. The soldiers were shouting and cheering. They were having a good time, and I thought Nicole would be proud of me for this. Watching to Grantsions fight was good for the relations between the Earth soldiers and the Zenkians. I could see them cheering together, not divided. It seemed that boys would be boys, no matter the species.
Finally, I let the Captain get the best of me. He punched me in the ribs over and over, and I did not resist. Finally, he stopped and looked at me.
“Had enough, Commander?” he asked.
“Yes, I believe so,” I said.
“Did I knock whatever was bothering you out of your mind?” he asked with an arched brow.
“Almost, sir. At least the anger is partly gone,” I said.
He laughed. He stood up and then held out his hand to me. He helped me to my feet. The crowd cheered and clapped.
“And that is how it is done!” the Captain shouted. I smiled nodding in agreement to him defeating me.
But the beating did not help. I needed more of an adrenaline rush to get this out of my system. I went to wash the blood off my face and cleaned up. I could not stop thinking about how I responded to Nicole. I had to get out of the base. I got into a landspeeder and went for a scout. The scout was a good distraction. I could see just how much work needed to be done to defend this area and taking note of it was good work. The next day I did the same thing. I went for a scout as soon as I was able to take a landspeeder. I spent all morning out there running that landspeeder recklessly trying to occupy my mind. But it was not a good enough distraction. I thought about Nicole over and over.
The poor human female. I had just told her that she was in this alone. What was I thinking? Of course, I wanted the child. It was my flesh and blood too. I had made a big mistake. “Fuck!” I shouted to myself. I needed to fix this.
I needed to speak with her. It had been twenty-four hours since she told me, and I felt guilty for making her wait that long to come to her support and side. I could only imagine how she must have spent the night alone and in such turmoil. She could not confide this information in anyone but myself, and I had betrayed her. I turned the landspeeder around to head back to base. I needed to see her as soon as I landed. I needed to make sure that she was not in a long meeting. I got on the communication line and radioed back to the base.
“This is Commander Vycon Dase; I need to set up a meeting with Nicole Plimoc. I am on my way in from a scouting mission and I would like to speak with her as soon as I arrive” I said.
“Commander, you have not heard? Nicole left this morning to a copper mine several miles away. It is where we think the Waysaw will invade if they come in this vicinity.”
“What? No, I was not made aware of that. I'm coming back in,” I said as I made my way back to the base. I desired to find out why she had gone, and I was low on fuel. I desired to go to her. If the Waysaw did come, she would be in serious danger. I could not have that. She was carrying my child, and I desired to protect her and the child. I would give my life for it. But mostly, I desired to tell her that I loved her. I desired to tell her how wrong I was. I could not get back to the base fast enough.
Chapter Eleven
NICOLE PLIMOC
I had to get out of the base. After what had happened with Vycon Dase, I could not stay there. I could not risk the chance of running into him and having him treat me so coldly again. My heart could not handle it. I did not want to see Sergeant Banks and have him try to get me to marry him. I just desired to get away. That was why I requested to go to the copper mine on the outskirts of the coastline. It was along the Gulf of Mexico, south of Houston by several miles. I wanted to oversee and check on the production of the shield. By all accounts, it was almost ready, but I wanted to see it for myself, or at least that's the excuse I told my superiors in order to go.
I walked around the copper mine, impressed with the work that had been done. It truly was a benefit to us to have the Grantsions helping us. I could see a difference in the morale of the Earth army soldiers; they were looking more confident now that the shield was going into place.
“Let me show you how it works,” a Grantsion lieutenant said to me as he stood in front of the console.
“Yes, thank you very much,” I said to him. There were a few Earth soldiers standing by that had been trained as well in the way the shield worked.
“In order to activate the energy desired, this lever needs to be pumped ten times,” he said pointing to a very large flat handle. “Then once it is charged, this light here will come on, and that is how you will know that it is ready. After that, it is a combination of buttons: first this square button, followed by the round green one. Then the shield will appear. Should I demonstrate for you?” he said.
“Is it ready?” I asked.
“It is partially ready. What you will see is an incomplete dome over the copper mine. But even that is better than nothing.”
“I would love to see it,” I said.
I watched as the lieutenant went through the motions of everything that he had just told me. He pumped the handle in order to charge it, and the light came on just as he had said. Then he pushed the combination of buttons. I looked out the window and was surprised. Out of thin air, a large dome appeared over the entire mine. It looked like a big glass dome, but it wasn't glass. It was simply a high energy field.
“That is amazing,” I said.
“You see that in the west quadrant there is a large gap about fifty those energy amplifiers are being worked on today. But it would take a few days to get it up and running.”
“Then that is where the majority of our defenses should be stationed. It is in need of the most protection. We cannot have a Waysaw ship getting in here in order to disable the entire shield,” I said.
“Precisely. We have the majority of our defenses there, both Earth and our own. You are good with strategic placement, human female,” he said.
“Thank you. I will send my report of this back to base, good work. We are very excited about this technology; the Waysaw will not be expecting us to have it,” I said very excited.
“No, they will not. It will be a surprise for them, and they will not be ready for it. Defeating them is a victory for us as well,” he replied.
“Yes, it is. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get to the communications room,” I said.
“Yes, I need to bring down the shield. It is not exactly fully charged yet; we need it to rest in order for it to have the most energy possible from your sun,” he said as he took the shield down. It was fascinating to watch it disappear as well.
“What happens if it does not have enough energy and there is an invasion?” I asked.
“It will simply need to be manned and charged with the lever off and on. Nothing for you to worry about,” he said.
“Thank you, Lieutenant. Good work,” I said.
I walked away and went to the communications building. I sent a report to the tower base. I received a message back; it was from Sheila. I was surprised. I was not expecting to get a message from her.
I opened the video message. “Nicole, how are things at the copper mine? Things are exactly the same here at the base. Sergeant Banks has been looking for you. I don't know what he is up to, but it can't be good. He is being very strange; I just thought I should warn you. Anyway, I miss you and hope to see you soon.”
The message ended. Her words had me on edge. When I was on the base, I was there to defuse tensions; now I was away from the base, and Sergeant Banks would be free to spread his hate. I had not thought about this when I left. I was
so concerned about needing to get away from Commander Vycon Dase that I had screwed up.
I worked all afternoon in order to get my work done and get myself back to the mine. I should not have left in the first place, but I had to get away.
When I was done, I left the communications building walking across the mine in order to schedule a transport back to the tower base. But as I was walking, the air raid sirens went off. Shit! We were about to be under attack. I saw the shield go up and battalions rally to the shield opening. It was sudden chaos. The Waysaw ships were fast, and that meant we had ten minutes before they attacked, if they were heading to this mine.