by Alma Nilsson
Married to the Alien Doctor
Renascence
Alliance Series Book 2
Alma Nilsson
Married to the Alien Doctor © 2019 by Alma Nilsson. All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Cover designed by Alma Nilsson, Photo 94329877 © Anna Ivanova - Dreamstime.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing: June 2019
ISBN-9781073315185
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, she became a butterfly.”
― Barbara Haines Howett, Ladies of the Borobudur
Abbreviations:
Universal Credits: UC
Instant Communicator: IC
Video Message: VM
Traded to the Alliance Empire
Dru stood up quickly when her captain entered the brig. She and her 25 female crewmates, from the human starship Dakota, were being held in a tiny cell on an Alliance Alpha Warship. Humans were at war with the Alliance Empire. Not directly of course, humans weren’t quite that stupid. They had joined their allies, the Jahay, to push the Alliance back from colonizing their desolate corner of the galaxy or so they were told. The war had been going on for about one year and it had not been going well for the Jahay and their allies. The Alliance was far too strong and their military prowess too great. Surprisingly, instead of being destroyed in their last encounter with an Alliance fleet, all the humans had been taken prisoner after their ship had been disabled. And their captain had not returned in over a day, until now.
There were rumors that the Admiral of this fleet had married her. It was the most unlikely thing any human could imagine. It was true that Alliance people and humans were genetically similar, however, the Alliance had never taken any real interest in humans and humans liked it that way. Because the Alliance Empire and humanity could not have evolved any differently. The Alliance ruled the galaxy, their population was in the trillions and they had thousands of colonies. Their culture was one of strict religious codes and hard efficiency and they had appearances to match, although physically looking like humans, their skin was grey. They all had black hair which they wore in long braids and either grey or green eyes. Conversely, humans capped their population at 12 billion and had barely made it out of their solar system. But humans, despite being the lowest technically advanced species in the galaxy, were universally adored for their charming subpar technology and beautiful colors. And this admiration gave them a kind of cheeky confidence, even in situations like now, when they were confronted with their Alliance enemies that were more than a 100 times stronger and more powerful than they were.
Dru knew very little of galactic politics. She did not know that the Alliance was suffering from a demographics issue, not enough females were being born. Nor did she know that the strictness of the Alliance religion kept them from using their superior medical technology to artificially engineer more females. Nor did she realize that the Alliance felt that humans owed the Alliance for their sovereignty. Because it did not occur to humans that they were being protected by anyone. However, if they would have asked anyone else in the galaxy, that interviewed alien would have replied that humans were indeed kept safe because of the Alliance Empire. And this was something the Alliance Empire never had to explicitly say because it was so implicit. In all of the thousands of civilizations, these two, humans and Alliance, were the only species that were genetically compatible. So no other species, with any sense, would ever try to attack humans and take them as slaves or worse, as long as the Alliance ruled the galaxy.
Conveniently, now with the war with the Alliance’s true enemy, the Jahay, the Empire had just the opportunity they needed to take human women. To see if a small number of them may be successfully integrated into their culture and bear them daughters.
Dru stood curiously and respectfully to attention as her captain walked into the brig with the Alliance Admiral and many guards, all carrying modern weapons and traditional Alliance short swords.
She carefully took in her captain’s appearance and thought she looked tired, but she was wearing a clean fleet uniform and her short brown hair was not the matted, dried blood mess it had been the day before. Dru closed her eyes and focused on the Captain, entering her mind easily and reading her thoughts, and then said out loud, “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.”
None of the other women in the cell noticed Dru’s small outburst. They were too busy trying to listen to what Captain Rainer was saying to the male crew, being held in the other cell. They were told that they could return to Earth if they promised not to abandon their positions in the war. The women were all hoping the same would be applied to them.
Dru knew that it wouldn’t be though. She had looked into Captain Kara Rainer’s thoughts and saw intimate images of the grey skinned Admiral and her. Not only that, her captain’s mind was running on a loop, If I can survive a couple months of marriage to survive this war, they can too.
Dru wholeheartedly agreed with her captain’s sentiments. She had come too far in life to die over something so ridiculous, if her options were to be executed or to become an Alliance man’s wife, she would take the latter. There was always a possibility for escape if she was alive.
Dru had grown up in a cordoned off area of Earth known as the Exterior. It was where people who rejected modern technology and or insisted on believing in religion were sent. Usually these two traits went hand-in-hand. And to keep the residents of the Exterior ‘safe’, the whole area was sealed with a forcefield and guards. No one left. No one but Dru, that is. She had escaped at 16 years old. However, she only realized when she was outside the Exterior, that she was supposed to be 18 years old to be considered an adult. Instead of returning, she simply began telling people she was 18 years old. She joined the fleet to become a doctor because she couldn’t afford to live otherwise and medicine was all she knew. Although she had never had a formal education, she had apprenticed with her mother, who was the Exterior’s priest, medicine woman, counselor and witch all rolled into one. What Dru lacked in understanding about modern technology, she more than made up with basic skills and understanding of what she called ‘fundamental humanity’. Her entrance exam had been a verbal examination by a panel of doctors and fleet instructors as well as an old-style IQ test. She was nervous but quickly became intrigued by both exams and passed both easily.
Very few people wanted to serve in the human fleet so they dismissed that she had no place of birth, no parents, no surname, no money, only the clothes on her back and was clearly lying about her age. But as far as the human fleet was concerned, she was too valuable to be returned to the Exterior, which by the law, was what they were supposed to do.
Over her four years at the fleet academy, she had fought hard to catch up on everything she had missed, she mimicked her roommates in how to be a modern woman and she pretended she came from a small town just across the border from the Exterior. She told people she wasn’t close with her family and no one questioned her about it. She studied hard and had many acquaintances, but few friends and no lovers, she figured all of that woul
d work itself out over time. Her position on the Dakota had been her final victory in throwing off the Exterior and creating a good life for herself. She was not going to give all of that up to go live in the Alliance Empire married to an alien.
Dru was not only telepathic but she could sometimes see the future. However, in all her premonitions about life in the fleet, she never once felt that she would be taken prisoner. She was blindsided now, but it didn’t feel wrong either and she couldn’t help but think, Maybe I kept this from myself or I would have never left the Exterior if I saw myself intimate with an alien. And then suddenly remembering a terrible experience she knew she subconsciously hid from herself before, she thought, Maybe I should fear what happens now.
Captain Kara Rainer stood in front of the holding cell where her female crew were waiting to hear their fate. She looked at them all evenly, “All female crew of the Dakota will be sent to the Alliance Capital Planet to be married to Alliance men. We must sacrifice ourselves to preserve humanity. I’ve been assured that if we cooperate, less human women will be taken.” Kara had been assured of no such thing, but she couldn’t tell these women that they were just being taken as wives, a social practice that was only observed by the most backwards of civilizations in the galaxy. “Be strong and be proud to be human. They need us more than we need them. I’ll find you all after the war.” Kara felt guilty and silently vowed that she would escape and free them from this Alliance slavery.
As Captain Rainer was speaking Dru had a flash, a premonition, of her captain in a different uniform on a different ship. She couldn’t concentrate on the image as all the other women around her were protesting loudly and flaying around as guards tried to corral them into a moveable bubble like forcefield. If one of them moved too fast or too slow in the bubble they would all receive a painful shock. Dru was hit in the face by one of the guards and told to stop resisting and get into line. She hadn’t been resisting but she had been inadvertently shoved out of line with all the chaos.
Dru looked to the Admiral then and quickly tried to read his thoughts. She picked up instantly that this was more than a demographics issue. This was something else, something that was very personal to him. She saw, or felt rather, a deep inequality that he felt he could correct. Dru tried to concentrate more, to dig deeper, she closed her eyes. As he looked at them he was mentally praying. She recognized a prayer when she heard one as her mother, Exterior priest, witchdoctor and healer, often used prayers. He was praying not for forgiveness for abducting them, as one would expect, but he was praying they would be the catalyst of change. But this wasn’t about daughters, this was about something else and she was just on the verge of reaching the thought when the shock from the forcefield hit her. She was thrown to the ground. Everyone was screaming from the pain from the forcefield being pulled too far. After a few seconds of numbing pain, the guards began roughly putting them in order again like little ducks.
Kara looked at her crew without emotion and let them protest. She hated herself for letting this happen but she wasn't going to let anyone die over the Alliance's foolish plan to integrate human women into their society. She honestly couldn’t think of anything more ridiculous than what her new ‘husband’ and the Empire planned to do. The Alliance was the most rigid and closed-off, racist culture in the galaxy. The idea that they would simply accept human women into their most intimate and private circles was ludicrous. She wanted to say this to her crew, to reassure them that it would be less than a year and then the Alliance would give this up and make some prayers to their gods to use their superior medical technology to balance their demographics issue. However, she knew she could say nothing in front of Tir. She needed to play along just like they did.
Tir looked at Kara, “Calm your crew, Wife.” He purposely used her new title to humble her in front of her crew because he knew humans thought it was a disgrace to be married.
Kara pretended she didn’t hear him. When she saw the last woman go through the door she said under her breath, “Don’t give up, this is not a permanent situation.”
Aboard the supply ship, Dru and the other women were put into a large empty room with only a silver toilet and no window. They were let out of the bubble forcefield once they were all in the room, but they didn’t disperse from one another because Alliance ships were kept at a frosty 15C, so the women remained close together for body heat just as they had done onboard Admiral Tir’s ship, but Dru had noticed this room seemed slightly warmer, and she wondered if that was just the numbness from the cold talking or if these men had taken some pity on them. An Alliance officer spoke to them before locking them in, “Welcome to the supply ship the Igu. It’ll take a week to reach the Capital Planet. We will feed you vegetables once a day with clean water. And we have increased the temperature in this room to 19C for your comfort. Please be calm and good. I don’t want to have to punish any women aboard my ship. You can be assured humans; a much better life awaits you in the Alliance.”
Then the officer left, the automatic doors closing behind him, and a red light appeared above the door, no doubt to show it was securely locked. All the women looked at one another, some with tears streaming down their dirty faces and others in complete shock. Jane, the oldest of them and the Dakota’s Chief Engineer, began to speak. Her very short brown hair was sticking up at odd angles and there were dark circles under her blue eyes, but they were clear, and she spoke confidently, “We aren’t defeated yet. Let’s stay close for body heat as we did before. And, when they do come with food, let’s look for any chance we might have to take over the ship and escape. I don’t want to be any zombie’s sex slave.” ‘Zombie,’ was the derogatory word humans used to describe Alliance people because of their grey skin.
Some of the women nodded at Jane’s words, but Dru reckoned most of them were too stunned to think about escape or mutiny right now. They all huddled together quietly in what now was their familiar scents of unwashed bodies and wounds. Some began to cry, but mostly no one made a sound. Except Dru, who spoke quietly, “I’ll ask them for a med kit to clean our wounds. At the very least, we can use clean water.”
“James,” Rebecca, ‘the beauty queen’, as they all called her for her perfect golden face, big golden-brown eyes and straight brown hair, called out to Dru. “One of the guards smashed my toes when they were moving us. Can you have a look?”
Dru shifted in the group to move closer to Rebecca. She was surprised that despite Rebecca’s sweat and blood she even smelled somewhat pleasant. Some people have all the luck, Dru thought as she asked Rebecca to remove her boot and sock. It didn’t take long for her to assess the situation, “These two smaller toes are broken. Keep your foot elevated and try not to use it. It’ll probably heal well enough to walk on by the time we reach the Capital Planet. However, by then I suspect we will be seen by medics anyway.” Dru left off saying, ‘To determine if we are fit to breed children.’ She looked into Rebecca’s brown eyes and then added, “Don’t worry, it hurts worse than it is. I promise.”
“Are you sure?”
Dru nodded, “Yes, I’m sure. Try to rest.” One thing Dru couldn’t get used to outside the Exterior was how fragile her modern counterparts were. Growing up she had had broken bones, overcome illnesses, seen countless babies born and countless people die. These women had never been really ill. If they broke a bone it was healed almost immediately and now birth and death were almost painless, as long as there were no surprises.
Dru moved back over to sit next to Jane. There was an unspoken hierarchy among them and Dru was second to Jane despite her young age. Dru supposed this was because she was the doctor, which especially now, they needed. She closed her eyes and closed her mind to block all of their thoughts out. She tried to focus on the crew of the supply ship. To see if they knew anything like what she had sensed from the Admiral. After a few minutes she sighed, This crew knows nothing except we are to be married and they are under strict orders not to converse with us more than necessary. Dru thought to herse
lf, Obviously, the higher ups are worried about us using our womanly charms to take over the ship. She made a note to mention this to Jane when she woke up. Perhaps they could use this to their advantage. Of course, Dru would try to manipulate the minds of the crew to gain control of the ship if possible.
The days went by quickly on the supply ship. As promised, they were fed once a day, the food was terrible, which was no surprise as Alliance food was just as much the running joke in the galaxy as was human technology. They had no med kit for the women to use, as human translators were for the spoken word only and their med kit was an ancient one that had to be manually operated with only Alliance hieroglyphics on it. The crew of the supply ship had brought it to Dru but none of the officers were allowed to get close enough to the women to use it. Dru couldn’t figure anything out on the old Alliance med kit, so she handed it back and did the best she could with extra water and clean cloths. When her crewmates complained she explained that if she put in the wrong combination into the ancient med kit, she could do more harm than good. She sensed they didn’t believe her, they believed they were in so much pain that she should take the chance to heal them. She held back saying, ‘You have no idea what real pain is, and I don’t want to accidently inflict it on you now.’
Unfortunately, the officers on the supply ship took extreme precautions when bringing them food and water. There were always three or four officers together and always with weapons pointed at them. Despite the women’s best efforts to open personal dialogues, it was always in vain. By the last days, they had given up even trying and even among themselves they were beyond the point of hypothesizing about what awaited them. They just huddled close together for warmth in silence. Thankfully, 19C was more comfortable than 15C but without blankets or any soft comfort it didn’t feel luxurious.