Claimed by the Conqueror

by Alyx X

  Eventually, when I judged I was close enough, I slid from her back and patted her rump to send her home, feeling the smallest twinge of regret. I’d miss her. Among other things. Deciding now was not the time to get into my guilt, I leaned against one of the giant legs of the spaceship and took a couple of breaths before looking around for a point of entry.

  A ramp at the other side of the ship had been lowered and I could hear movement, so I crouch-walked beneath the enormous vehicle, crossing my fingers they wouldn’t start the engines or thrusters and incinerate me as they took off.

  The same rough language that Qui had spoken with Roe filled the air around me, and the harsh sounds brought me a strange comfort. I could literally reach out and touch my goal. Then the noises changed, becoming a sound I was much more familiar with—the low mooing of cattle. What the hell? Hooves walked up the ramp, making me think the TerraLink reps had managed to cement some sort of deal with Qui after all, and they’d convinced him to take some cows.

  I wrinkled my nose. It seemed an odd choice, but who was I to say whether space beef was a delicacy? Cattle here was certainly bred and farmed differently than it used to be before everything changed, so maybe it was an oddity rather than an actual delicacy. A souvenir.

  My mouth soured. I was supposed to have been the souvenir.

  I crept closer to the loading ramp and peered around it. Maybe I could get an idea of how many people were loading. If I could just see what the cattle were doing, I’d be able to work out a plan.

  It was worse than I thought. Five huge, red-skinned male aliens stood along the sides of the ramp, guiding the cows up into what only could be the cargo hold. I needed to create some sort of distraction. I bent down and picked a rock up near one of the feet of the ship, then I flung it as hard as I could at the leg on the other side.

  It struck, and a loud metallic ping echoed under the ship, the metal body amplifying the sound. A loud voice shouted, and I pressed myself against the leg where I was hiding, almost sliding into a gap in the metal. The three aliens closest to me slipped under the ship, and I moved away from them, sticking to the shadows, as they drew their weapons and stalked their way to the source of the commotion.

  They moved like military or law enforcement, but it seemed an overreaction for a group just loading cattle. I hadn’t seen anything like that since… I paused. Since we’d had some rustlers. Well, well. The Euquanians appeared to be taking an unagreed shipment of cows, throwing a big ‘fuck you’ to the TerraLink Program. I could add one human to that number.

  I hurried to the unmanned side of the ramp and clambered on, avoiding the cow hooves that threatened to smash down onto my hand or head. Then I pushed my way to the middle of the moving cows, trying to match my strides with some of theirs. I bent over too, so I didn’t stand above them. It was growing darker, but I couldn’t be too careful.

  One by one, the cows began to moo as they noticed my presence, so I did the only thing I could. I lowered my head and moo-ed along with them. Perfecting the tone took a couple of moments, but the Euquanians probably weren’t used to listening to cattle.

  Eventually, I escaped into the hold, and I stopped breathing and mooing. The smell of too much cow dung in such a small space launched an attack on my senses, burning the inside of my nose and making my eyes water. Perhaps Qui didn’t know about transporting cattle. If that were the case, he’d certainly need me onboard. Maybe he even needed advice on milking.

  He definitely needed me.

  I straightened and glanced across the cows, who were shuffling about to make room for the cattle still walking up the ramp. They were noisy and grumpy, and I didn’t want to stay in the hold with them once the Euquanians had closed the cargo ramp. Where had the aliens even found these cows? I’d thought all the cattle were locked up inside The Glass City. Maybe they were even more powerful than I thought...

  I heaved myself onto the broad back of the nearest cow and crawled across it, straddling cow after cow as I headed to what looked like a door protected by railings I’d have no problem shimmying over, but cows wouldn’t be able to manage. Each cow murmured her complaints at my sudden weight and awkward movements, and I patted many and murmured soothingly.

  When the cargo ramp began to whine behind me, I pressed myself as flat as I could and hoped the lone human clinging to the back of the cargo wouldn’t be noticed. No one came in behind me, and the ramp slammed shut with a clang that agitated the herd of cows. They moo-ed and shuffled, and I made use of the disturbance to move faster, confident an extra noise from my misplaced heel or knee wouldn’t be noticed.

  I reached the exit out into the wider ship and paused. It could all go horribly wrong from this point. If they’d locked the door or stationed a guard outside, my exploration of the galaxy would be over before it had even started.

  Taking a deep breath, I slid open the heavy door, just enough to slide from the room. I didn’t want to make any big movements that might be picked up by anyone watching. I was probably far enough down inside the ship that any noise I made would be drowned out by the engines, but I still needed to be careful not to alert anyone I was here.

  I glanced down the corridor I found myself in. It dead-ended with the cargo hold, so I only had one way to go. I peered through the windows of other doors as I passed until I spotted a staircase. I wasn’t sure where I was going, so up didn’t seem like such a bad decision. Maybe my end game should just be somewhere comfortable to hide out until this thing took off, which couldn’t be long now that the cargo hold was closed.

  I crept up the steps, aware that each sound I made funneled upward through the metal staircase shaft. Above me, a door opened, and I glanced up, watching the staircase spiral around the walls. A hand gripped the rail, and I moved out of sight. Shit. I knew that voice. It was the female who didn’t seem to approve of me.

  “Yes, but are you able to prepare this meat?” she asked, her voice insistent, like she’d asked the question a couple of times before.

  My ear buzzed in a way that I recognized as my translator chip calibrating to a new language. It seemed TerraLink had treated adding Euquanian to their catalog as an emergency, and it had happened just in time for my plan. It wasn’t often TerraLink did me a solid like this—although it was information I planned to keep to myself. It would certainly make my stay more interesting if I could understand them even when they didn’t intend me to. I grinned despite my predicament.

  “They’re down here in the hold. I want your honest opinion,” Roe continued.

  I moved quickly back down as the volume of their voices increased. Each of their strides brought them closer, and I hid out in the obscured corner at the back, underneath the very last steps. It was dark and probably not spider-free, but I had to remain quiet.

  They opened the door I’d come through, and I cursed quietly again. I’d just avoided meeting them in the corridor. I didn’t know how long I had before they came back, so I took the stairs at a run, spilling out of the door at the first empty corridor I came to.

  I walked along for a little bit, still sliding along the wall, although that was mostly pointless given the bright light reflecting from the metal surfaces. It wasn’t like I was actually hiding. Voices started off quiet in the distance, then grew louder. Acting fast and without much thought, I opened the door I was passing to dart inside, hoping for a closet.

  Once inside, I pressed my back to the closed door, breathing hard as I waited for them to pass. After a few heart-pounding moments, they passed and the corridor was silent. I heaved a sigh, opening my eyes to take stock of my situation.

  This certainly wasn’t a closet.

  It was a grand bedroom, messy, but not overly comfortable. I sniffed. It had a scent I recognized. I grinned and sucked down a great big breath of eau de Qui.

  This was Qui’s bedroom. Perfect.

  6

  Qui

  I’d dispatched scouts to hunt around the local area. It had seemed a waste to leave with nothing. No sou
venirs at all. That simply wasn’t my style. I’d come to conquer, and I would. It didn’t mean I was above a bit of looting beforehand. In fact, it tended to help wear down people’s minds when I took the things that mattered.

  Roe and I walked the short distance into our ship, and I looked back before I went through the door. Night was approaching, and I had plans to make. Plans the humans and TerraLink wouldn’t be privy to.

  I glanced back at the farm, regretting one human in particular, but I didn’t do what-ifs. Those were weak. I conquered, and I moved on to conquer again. I would do whatever it took to reach my goals. Because I was strong, and I was powerful, and all others had to answer to me.

  I swallowed as I faced the entrance to my ship. My next step forward would decide the fate of my people, would decide the fate of Earth and the humans left to rot here.

  I glanced at Roe. “There’s nothing here worth saving,” I ground out, reiterating my resolve. I couldn’t meet her eyes, though.

  “Then we go to the bridge,” she said, and I nodded because that was what we always did after we’d made our decision.

  “Ready the ship for take-off,” I called to the crew standing around. What were they waiting for? A written request? We usually worked together like a well-oiled machine. My crew read my intentions before I even thought about them, but this time they seemed to hesitate.

  “We’re leaving. There’s nothing here. As soon as the scouts get back from looting, we take off.”

  A couple of the crewmembers saluted as I walked past them before heading to take their positions. There were quite a lot of checks to make before we left. I walked to the bridge, possibly faster than I’d walked there before. It felt like my decision was chasing me this time, and the urge to complete everything before I changed my mind pushed me forward. However, the idea I might change my mind was fucking ridiculous. That had never happened before, and it wouldn’t happen now.

  “Get me the sample readouts.” I held my hand out in the direction of my crewman manning the computers. I didn’t say please or thank you. I didn’t need to.

  “They’re just ready now, Captain.” He pressed a button and a machine printed out a page of statistics. I grabbed it from him and scanned the first line. Then I read farther, and satisfaction rose inside me. Even though the planet was dying, Earth’s core was perfect in every respect.

  I grinned and glanced at Roe with a nod. She smiled back, but she seemed as hesitant as the rest of the crew. Apparently, only my balls were big enough today.

  “We’ve got it,” I said. “The trip wasn’t a waste.”

  “Let’s do this, then.” Roe nodded, and I walked to my chair.

  The window in front of me curved, giving me a huge view of the direction we were travelling in. Nighttime on Earth meant I could barely see anything, but I knew what was out there, and I knew what was beneath us. I knew what I wanted.

  I leaned forward and opened up my messaging software. I wanted to alert our battleship we were coming in. Even TerraLink—well, especially TerraLink—had no idea about the huge battleship I’d left hiding behind Earth’s moon as Roe and I made the journey down to the planet.

  When I came to conquer, I came prepared. And now my warriors needed to know we’d completed our reconnaissance, we liked the initial findings, and the plan was a go.

  As soon as I fired the message off, I looked at my crew. “Assume your stations and ready for take-off.” I glanced at the monitors on my desk, looking at surface temperature and fuel levels. “Set the automatic lock system.”

  A reassuring clunk reverberated through the ship. No one could breach us now. We were about to leave Earth with far more information than they’d intended to part with. Hell, we were about to leave with the perfect reason to return.

  “Input our coordinates.” I watched as my order was obeyed. I cycled through commands as I did every launch, and the crew didn’t miss a beat. “Prepare the thrusters.”

  The ship whined as it powered up, and it vibrated with eagerness to leave the ground, but I held it at the same perfect point of tension as I’d held Emma with my cock earlier.

  I shook my head, trying to rid it of the human female. “Starting countdown… Locking trajectory… Airspace clear…” As I spoke, I flicked the relevant switches in front of me. We’d done this many times before, and it still excited me to hold such power under my control.

  The launch itself was almost an anticlimax. The ship shook and rattled until right when I let it go, then it lifted silently from the ground, the motion flawless and smooth. So much so that unless I looked out of the window, I almost didn’t believe we were moving.

  “Captain, we need more power. The atmosphere won’t sustain upward motion on what we’re putting out.”

  I checked the readouts on my dash and made the appropriate adjustments. “Fucking thin atmosphere,” I growled. It had thinned even in the time we’d been on the ground. Only slightly, but along with whatever my looters had brought onboard, it didn’t offer the resistance we needed to rise.

  Once I was satisfied our system was stable and I’d reached the perfect balance between power and upward movement, I walked over to the window to check our progress. Once we cleared the atmosphere completely, TerraLink couldn’t touch us for anything they didn’t like about our brief visit.

  “Those poor saps down there,” I said as we rose at a steady speed. “With their atmosphere thinning this rapidly, they won’t survive long.” It was almost a miracle they’d made it as long as they had. Perhaps they were evolving to exist in a less rich atmosphere.

  I shook my head. I didn’t actually care. “Their weakness and closeness to death is just another reason I feel no remorse over this puny species.” I spoke loudly to ensure all on the bridge heard me. “We’re doing them a favor, everyone.” I grinned. “Think of it as a mercy killing.” The crew mostly nodded, never questioning me. Confidence in my decision brought me the usual calm I felt in my position as conqueror of planets.

  When we left Earth’s atmosphere and began to orbit, I relaxed further.

  “Captain.” Fin approached me, and I glanced up from the core sample readouts. Our computer system was refining them all the time, and the results were more convincing with each adjustment. In fact, they might have been the best ones I’d seen so far. Earth looked more and more like it might be perfect for exactly one thing—Euquanian needs.

  “Yes, Fin?”

  “What’s it like?” He sat on the chair next to me and leaned forward.

  “Get up, Fin.” Roe approached us as she always did when one of the crew stole her seat. It was like she had a sixth sense for knowing when anyone else tried to sit beside me.

  Fin stood immediately. “Sorry.” He moved around my console as Roe sat down.

  “What’s what like?” I looked at him, trying to drag my mind away from the core stats so I could work out what he meant.

  “Earth. The planet. Is it as bad as some of the looters said?”

  I chuckled. “It’s probably worse. The whole place is lucky their rotation doesn’t go out of balance and send them spinning into the sun.”

  “I wouldn’t exactly call that lucky,” Roe supplied. “A quick end would probably be best for everyone involved down there.”

  “Well, they grow some very odd food. Funny shapes.” I kept my amusement inside as I remembered Emma and her carrot. Her lips wrapped around the orange skin. My dick twitched.

  “Qui liked eating their stones, though.” I glanced at my sister. She thought she was so funny.

  “They use glass for weird shit, and the sky is a strange color.”

  Fin’s eyes gleamed. “Yeah!” he exclaimed. “We were looking out of the window. Who’d have thought a sky would be blue, right? It made me feel a bit sick. I only feel right under orange.”

  “You lightweight.” I laughed at him. We’d conquered under all different colors, but blue had certainly been a new one.

  “It’s hot down there, but not as hot as home,”
I continued, throwing out the kinds of tidbits the crew liked to know. It was the least I could do when they rarely did much more than land on the planets. Emma had thought space travel was some sort of glamorous exploration, but not for my crew. It was a job, and they did it well, but they weren’t tourists, and they didn’t get to see much of what Roe and I experienced.

  “Of course, Fin, he’s leaving out the puny human female who stole his big old Euquanian heart.” Roe spoke as she pretended to be distracted by one of the dials on the console in front of her. “Pretty little thing, too. It’ll probably be a shame that she has to die trapped on that planet, if nothing else.”

  I scoffed. “Stole my heart.” Fin caught my eye and shook his head. He knew I didn’t just march onto planets and fall for the females I found there.

  “I think you’re reporting this all wrong. She didn’t steal my big Euquanian heart. I conquered her with my big Euquanian cock.” Anyone who knew me also knew I barely had a heart, never mind a big one.

  Roe glanced at me. “But like I said, she was a pretty little thing.”

  More than merely pretty. She was so hot she nearly set me ablaze. My skin heated just thinking about her. My red color was probably deepening for all to see.

  I forced out a laugh. It sounded genuine enough. “She’s probably the only thing worth saving on that dump.” I gestured uselessly. “But it doesn’t matter. We got what we came for.”

  Roe watched me, and Fin looked like he expected me to say something else, too.

  “Anyway, full power and let’s get back to the big ship.”

  Fin’s eyes narrowed. “We can’t go full power, captain.”

  “What? Why?” I wanted away from Earth. The farther away I got, the fewer thoughts I’d have of Emma. So many images, scents and the tingling in my fingers…in my cock. She was driving me crazy. I needed more distance.