Claimed by the Conqueror

by Alyx X

  With one last look at the moon, a cruel reminder of all my current ills, I slammed out of my room and headed for the bridge. I couldn’t pull my head away from the dilemma Emma had caused. She’d been lodged in my thoughts since I’d seen her with Fin. Since before that, but seeing them together hadn’t helped at all.

  I kept my eyes fixed ahead as I marched forward, and junior crewmen fell to their knees without a second thought. Barely suppressed rage ran through my system, heating me and turning my skin a blistering red. My temper was on view for all to see, and I didn’t know how to cool the burning.

  The usual greetings from the crew I passed in the corridors were whispered in voices they almost didn’t want heard in case they drew my attention. No one wanted to be the focus of my obvious anger. I wore it like a cloak I couldn’t take off.

  My heavy footfalls echoed in the corridor and my breaths rumbled out of my chest, telegraphing my mood to anyone nearby. As I entered the bridge, Fin turned to face me. “A communication from the warship has just been initiated,” he said. “Shall I patch it through to your console?”

  I took in the lines of fatigue on his face and the shadows beneath his eyes after the shift he was due to finish, but I just nodded and stalked to my chair. I didn’t know what to do with all the pent-up energy inside me. I didn’t know how to fix the problem that was making me so angry.

  The communications light on my comm device at my desk flickered, and I jabbed my finger against the screen as I sat down. The picture flickered to life, but the face of my general, Tir, flickered with interruptions of static.

  The poor quality of my comm enraged me further, and I slammed my hand against the desk. The equipment jumped and flickered harder, big wavy lines travelling through Tir’s face for a moment.

  “Why is your comm quality so poor?” I barked. There were other, bigger issues to resolve, but this had captured my irritation for now.

  “Remaining cloaked is using a lot of power,” he replied. “How soon until we’re ready to take the core?”

  Speaking to Tir centered all of my thoughts right back on the moon. My Euquanian warship was in stealth mode in the shadow of the rock where I planned to leave Emma, ready to destroy Earth and take the core.

  “Let me cast you to the big screen,” I said. “We can talk about the next steps.”

  The idea of the next steps both thrilled and horrified me. To come so close to realizing my dream, yet having thoughts of one human jeopardizing that, kept my anger at a rolling boil.

  Talking with Tir would help. He’d speak sensibly and leave me without a doubt that my plan was the best one. I shrugged. I already knew that it was the best, but it never hurt to have someone validate my excellent judgement.

  Once Tir’s face filled the bigger screen—still a little grainy, but recognizable—we all sat and waited for him to speak. Euquaniar had been building to this moment and others before it right from when I overthrew our corrupt government. For years, the corrupt ‘government’ kept wealth from the people, and now I sourced wealth in abundance for all of us. Euquanians would never again need to be ruled by a government intent on holding all wealth and acquisitions for itself. We’d risen up and we had power, now. I had the power, and I used it for my people.

  “What is your status?” I asked Tir.

  I’d sent him the readings we’d taken from the core, and he agreed the iron was perfect for our purposes.

  “It’s all progressing according to plan,” he answered. “We’ve adjusted the laser’s angles and tested the beam strength. We’re running computer modeled scenarios of the density of Earth’s crust. We have calculations for how long extraction will take.”

  A vid filled the screen. “Let me show you this one.”

  I leaned forward, my elbows bent up on the desk, my chin resting on my tightly curled fist as I watched a digitally created actualization of my laser pinpointing Emma’s Dad’s farm, then boring through to the Earth’s core. In the model, the disruption to the Earth’s crust destabilized everything, causing earthquakes before magma was released, flooding the desert surface, creating scenes more like those I was used to on Euquaniar. But the visual didn’t show the images I watched in my mind. Greenhouses shattered and fell, and the bodies that burned had faces I recognized.

  The laser rotated and pulsed, spinning, almost dancing as it widened the hole. Toward the end of the boring phase, I almost couldn’t see the edges of the giant hole we’d created. The farmhouse, the farm, the ridiculous dome, and a significant portion of the rocky desert had all disappeared, obliterated from existence.

  “This is the good part.” Tir’s voice boomed through the bridge’s speakers.

  The probe retracted into our ship and an enormous claw replaced it.

  “See what I’m saying?” Tir chuckled. “Now this is what I’m talking about. We’ve sped this part up, because in reality, digging the solid core out could be quite lengthy.”

  As the simulation continued, pieces of Earth broke off, disrupting its gravity to the extent that the entire planet began to wobble and separate. The axis was off, and the rotation became erratic.

  “How is our ship protected?” The image on the screen was almost as hypnotic as it was horrifying. I’d destroyed many planets, but this one was different for reasons I wasn’t willing to admit, and I hated it for that.

  “The Earth is among the smaller of the planets we’ve destroyed. It just has a particularly good core for our needs.”

  “And the moon?” The question came out of my mouth before I thought the words through, and I wanted to grab them from the air and stuff them back in. Who gave an alien fuck about the tiny moon of a puny planet?

  Fin glanced at me, his eyebrows raised, and I cleared my throat.

  “That is, the moon won’t pose a problem to the core extraction, will it?” I glared at Fin and he looked away.

  “No.” A second simulation filled my screen. “We were worried it might break loose and collide with us, but our best analysis suggests that, once released from the Earth’s gravitational pull, it will drift aimlessly into space until it gets pulled into another orbit by a different planet.”

  I swallowed; my throat suddenly dry. “Okay,” I croaked.

  Tir’s face filled the screen again, and the grainy image grinned. “But the best part of all is that all of our predictions suggest Earth’s core is exactly what we need to get to Xten.”

  Xten. I should have felt relief, but I couldn’t summon any of the joy on Tir’s face, even though we’d been working on powering ourselves to that planet since we learned our government had been trying to get there and conquer it for generations. We’d crawled the records to find everything we could about a planet that was almost mythical in the way our history presented it.

  According to the documents we’d found, the mineral deposits there were so rich that our people would live like kings for thousands of years. It had become my burning desire to conquer that planet and do what the governments before me couldn’t. It was the way I could prove myself to my people.

  I would conquer for them.

  I would provide for them.

  But to do either of those things and reach Xten meant a death sentence for Emma.

  “I think that’s all for now, Tir,” I said. “We’re on our way—” I glared at Fin again. “Just very slowly.”

  Tir chuckled. It took a lot to disrupt his good humor. “I heard about the cows. They’d better taste as good as Roe has told everyone they do.” I chuckled without humor, then waved him off. He’d answered all my questions. His face disappeared and was replaced by a still of the simulation laser destroying Emma’s farm.

  I reached forward and turned off the screen just as the door opened behind me. An unusual aroma filled the room, and I turned in my seat to see Emma bustling onto the bridge. If she’d arrived even a moment earlier, she would have seen our plans for her planet and heard far too much. My chest hollowed at that thought.

  “I’ve brought food.”
She almost sang the words, and I drank her in. From the smile wide on her face to the clothes that she’d amended to cling to all of her curves, it was all so inviting.

  My palms tingled with the urge to cup her tits and ass again, and my cock stirred, ready to vibrate just for her. Fin stood, craning his neck for a better look at the tray in Emma’s hands.

  “What did you bring?” He smiled at her appreciatively—the bastard.

  “Bring it here,” I barked looking at Fin, but talking to Emma, and Fin shifted his gaze away before he sat back down. “Fin, go to bed. Your shift is over.” The large man stood and did as commanded, no questions asked.

  Emma approached me. “Do you like cookies? I made them especially for you.” Her voice was low and breathy, and my cock twitched again.

  I didn’t know if I liked cookies, but I wanted her to feed them to me so I could find out. I shook my head to clear the thoughts of her holding whatever she’d made to my lips. I’d take a bite, then lick her fingers before sucking them into my mouth. That particular image sent a jolt of desire through me, but I took Emma’s tray from her.

  “I’ve been in your kitchens. These should be about the same as they are on Earth, but I made a couple of substitutions. There’s enough for everyone.” She babbled a little and spread her arms wide, taking my attention from her lips.

  I glanced around—my crew were all starting to stand to come and see what she’d brought, so I shoved the tray onto my desk.

  “Help yourselves,” I muttered as I grasped Emma’s arm and drew her toward the door.

  “You don’t like cookies?” She pouted a little, but her eyes sparkled as she looked at me.

  I ignored her question. “You shouldn’t be here at all.” I walked through the door and kept her with me, pressed to my side. Closing my eyes, I took some deep breaths to bring myself some small measure of control. It was hard to think with her body cooling mine. It felt like just what I needed as my anger subsided a little.

  “If you can’t confine yourself to the areas where you know you’re permitted to go—”

  “Yes?” She looked at me, her eyes wide. “What will you do? Build that airlock to throw me out of?”

  “I…” I hesitated. “I’ll tie you up again,” I ground out, my cock suddenly desperate for her attention.

  She unwrapped my fingers from her arm one at a time. “Oh, yes please,” she breathed. “I think we’d both like that.” As I watched her, my breathing coming in spurts as I fought off images of her naked and submitting to me, she slid her tongue over her lower lip. She had to go.

  I threw my hands up as frustration burst forth. I had to get her away from me now before I pulled her closer. “Go and busy yourself somewhere that isn’t my bridge,” I instructed her, my voice as hard as I could make it.

  But she laughed. “Okay, Qui.” Her hips wiggled as she walked away. Then she glanced over her shoulder. “Roe was right. You really do seem to be affected by me.”

  16

  Emma

  “I swear to you,” Roe said. “This is the absolute best thing for a hangover caused by FireSlug juice.” She held up a forkful of something that smelled like bacon, but looked like ground brains.

  I swallowed against a lurch of nausea. “If I eat that, I’m going to need more FireSlug juice to blot out the memory.”

  She laughed and scooped some of the suspicious-looking meat product onto my plate, anyway. “Trust me.”

  The dining hall was quiet this morning. Or maybe it was that I didn’t usually join Roe for breakfast before her shift. The few crewmen finishing their meals were quiet and business like, as if they were preparing for a busy day ahead. Their movements were efficient and mechanical as they consumed food.

  I still couldn’t get over some of the differences between what I was used to eating and what Roe’s people ate. “No wonder you liked the beef,” I said as I looked at the breakfast offerings again. I usually tried to stick with fruit, which seemed the safest option, but today my stomach revolted at the thought.

  “This is your own fault,” Roe told me, an eyebrow arched. “You were the one who insisted you’d be able to handle that third jug of juice.”

  I rolled my eyes carefully in case the movement set off another display of lights. “I’m still here.”

  She laughed “And your color is returning.”

  “No, and I finally won at ceskel.” I poked her in the shoulder to emphasize my victory.

  She laughed again, the sound easy and increasingly familiar. “And booze was all it took for you to do it.”

  I shrugged. “Hey, I’ll take my victories any way I can get them. Without booze, with booze, it’s all the same to me.” I returned my attention to the gray meat. “I think I’d need a lot more booze to want to put this in my mouth, though.”

  “Oh, I bet you’ve had worse things in your mouth,” she said, and I giggled.

  She sighed suddenly, and it surprised me because I never really heard her sound deflated or disappointed. “I wish I could skip my shift today and just spend time with you, roaming about the ship and chatting.”

  “Believe me.” I nudged something far too green-looking to be breakfast food across my plate. “There is nothing special about wandering around all day. I literally have nothing else to do.”

  Some days I even wondered if I’d wasted my time sneaking aboard Qui’s ship. It had become more and more apparent that he truly hadn’t meant to bring me, and the days were becoming boring.

  “I mean, I came to see the stars, and we haven’t even left Earth’s orbit. I’m essentially being dumped on the moon, for fuck’s sake. Like I’m trash someone forgot to take out. I’ve been relegated to an unwanted pitstop.”

  Roe nodded, but the movement was so subtle, I barely saw it. I couldn’t tell if she was agreeing with me or just acknowledging that I’d spoken at all. She didn’t speak, and we finished our food in silence, just the scraping of the Euquanian cutlery in the quiet. Every so often, a crewman would stand and head out the door after returning his plate to the kitchen.

  No one had said if they’d enjoyed my cookies, but I hoped they had. I assumed so, but maybe they looked as bad to them as the bacon brain meat looked to me. I put my cutlery down and pushed my plate away, pulling my drink toward me instead. It was some sort of bitter root they ground down to mimic coffee. It was hot and wet, although bright purple, and it didn’t taste too bad once I got used to it. I got an insane energy boost from it most mornings, too, which probably added to the boredom of just wandering from window to window, checking out the ever-growing moon.

  I looked out at it now and sighed as inevitable loss hit me all over again. Every window in this fucking place seemed to face the moon. Still, at least I didn’t have to watch Earth getting smaller in slow motion instead.

  “Do you think…” I hesitated as I turned to Roe, but I had to ask. I had to know for sure. “Do you think I might be able to change Qui’s mind about leaving me on the moon?”

  For a moment, I thought she might laugh, but then her eyes gentled and she leaned toward me. “My brother is many things. Lots of those many things are good. Great, even. But he’s stubborn.”

  I nodded. I’d gotten that idea.

  “I’m not sure you really get it,” she said. “I mean stubborn like immoveable. Stubborn like trying to push a planet out of orbit, or change the path of a lava flow—where Qui is the planet or the lava. He never changes his mind once he’s made a decision.”

  I chuckled. “Roe, you’re looking at someone who sneaked onboard an alien spaceship because she wanted to explore space. I’m pretty sure if you look for the definition of stubborn, you just see a picture of my face.”

  She didn’t look convinced. Instead, she looked me up and down. “I don’t think Qui will expect anything as small as you to even take him on, let alone attempt to win.”

  “I shrugged, my shoulders suddenly looser as I began to consider options. “I have to try.” Knowing my challenge was half the battle.


  “Well.” Roe sighed as she stood. “Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.” She pressed a gentle kiss to my cheek. “I’ll see you after my shift. We can wander about together. I hope it works out, Emma.”

  She seemed like she really meant it. I nodded. Any time could be my last with Roe, and she was definitely a person I didn’t want to say goodbye to. I watched her leave. The dining hall had completely emptied, and I was alone with my purple root drink. I took another sip, then stood with the clay mug in my hand and walked to the big viewing window.

  Maybe we’d put on a burst of speed overnight, because the moon loomed impossibly big and close today. I sighed, then blew a breath over my drink to cool it. If I could only come up with a plan to get Qui to let me stay. The cookies hadn’t worked, not that I’d had much faith they would on their own, but I didn’t even know if he’d tried one after he’d thrown me off his bridge. I didn’t even know what the big deal was. It was a big driving room where the men sat. I grumbled at the unfairness of being removed when I was pretty much carrying out a civic service, ensuring they were all fed tempting treats from Earth.

  I nodded my head. Either way, I needed a better plan. That much was clear.

  If I could just get close enough to Qui, or even lure him to the cargo hold where he’d kept me, maybe I could chain him up and ensure no one else left me on the moon in his absence. Yeah. I chuckled to myself at the idea. I’d need to stretch a couple of feet and gain about fifty pounds of additional muscle first if I wanted to make Qui do anything he didn’t want to do—like stand still long enough for me to chain him up.

  That said… Maybe he could be persuaded. I’d enjoyed being restrained by Qui. My pussy throbbed at the memory, and I tensed my thighs as my skin heated. I lost myself in the memory of his hot skin against mine and that magical cock inside me. My breathing increased, and when someone tapped me on the shoulder, I whirled around, spilling my bitter drink on myself.