Alien Penetration

by Kaitlyn O’Connor

  “I think we need to make a concerted effort not to think, or talk, about Earth. I don’t think it would be productive and I do think it’ll just depress the hell out of everybody,” Simone said. “It depressed me, anyway.”

  “I don’t know, if memories are all we’re going to have ….”

  She supposed she could see the woman’s point and yet putting things from her mind that bothered her had always worked better for her. Given time, she could pull them out and look at them with more distance and less pain. “I’m Simone,” she said, introducing herself.

  They made introductions around the table, but Simone was doubtful she was going to remember half of their names more than five minutes. Faces, she was good with. Names … she had to work on.

  It seemed vitally important, suddenly, to make that effort when the draks seemed determined to remove their identities. “My best friend back home was named Sharon,” she told the woman who’d spoken.

  “I thought we weren’t going to talk about Earth?” Liz said.

  Simone shrugged, trying to dismiss the misery that had rose in her the moment she’d mentioned her friend. “I don’t think it’ll help, but if everybody wants to ….”

  “It’s supposed to be therapeutic to talk about things and not keep them bottled up,” Patsy volunteered.

  Simone stirred her food. “I don’t know if I have enough sheets to handle a lot of therapy.”

  “I know what you mean. I cried when I saw my ‘apartment’, too. I had a beautiful place back home. I’d just bought the damned thing, too!”

  “My apartment wasn’t much,” Simone admitted, “but the bathroom was bigger than that closet. I’m glad I’m not claustrophobic.”

  They complained for a while and compared everything they’d had to what they’d been ‘given’. When they sat so long that they were beginning to get numb from the waist down, they got up and looked around for a place to dispose of their dishes. A robot popped out of a segment of the wall, raced toward them, and snatched the plates from their hands, stuffing them in a mouth-like opening.

  Liz screamed when the thing grabbed at her plate, dropping it on the floor.

  Another, smaller robot shot out of the wall, scooped the mess up, even wiped it down and then disappeared again, all while they stood gaping.

  Shivering, Liz rubbed her arms. “Creepy little bastards!”

  “Shall we retire to the large salon, ladies, or the small salon upstairs?” Sharon asked.

  “Let’s gather in the ‘large salon’, why don’t we? I’m not in any hurry to rush back to my cell,” Simone suggested.

  When they’d rearranged it into a more comfortable conversation area, they settled and talked about whatever popped into their minds until they were sure the men had left.

  “They’re gone,” Liz said abruptly.

  Simone glanced around, just to be sure. “I have to tell you before we start anything that this could be the most dangerous thing any of you have ever done. This isn’t a game and these people aren’t playing around. So if anyone doesn’t want to get involved, don’t. Just stay out of it and those who want to try to find a way will do it.”

  She looked around at all the women who’d gathered and noticed a lot of them were shifting uncomfortably.

  “Nobody is going to be judgmental,” she added. “I’d far rather you leave if you’re too scared and you don’t want to than for someone to get involved that will get us caught.”

  “You’re saying you aren’t scared?” someone from the back asked.

  “None of us are stupid. We’re all scared. Tag along and do a little scouting if you’d rather and then, if it looks like something you can’t do, just bow out. We don’t even know if there is anything we can do about our situation. But I for one want to know there isn’t before I give up and accept this for the rest of my life.

  “Just think about it for now. Nobody has to make a quick decision. I’m in favor of going out in the morning and looking around just to see what we see. So if anybody else wants to go we’ll meet down here in the morning.”

  * * * *

  Simone hadn’t realized until she settled on her narrow bunk that she’d gotten used to the sounds so many people made when they were sleeping, or tossing and turning, or snoring. She hadn’t been able to sleep except fitfully on the ship because she was used to being alone and now that she was alone again, she lay staring at the ceiling, trying to command herself to relax enough to sleep.

  It didn’t help to close her eyes either. Closing her eyes just set her mind to churning thoughts.

  Camryn, Kael, and Ean were predominant, unfortunately. She hadn’t seen them since they’d returned her to the cell. She’d hoped she might catch a glimpse of them when they were all herded out and loaded onto the shuttles, but she hadn’t.

  She wondered where they were, and what they doing, and if she had crossed their minds once since she’d convinced them she was going to be a good little slave and behave herself.

  Probably not, and she wished she could dismiss them from her mind, but they were like yo-yos. Every time she dismissed them, they came back.

  She managed to focus for a little while on trying to discover some way to save herself from the horrible thing that had happened to her, but there wasn’t much food for that kind of thought.

  She hadn’t learned much of anything about their language and that was going to make it damned hard to learn anything about their laws—laws that might help them.

  Akule had spent most of his time explaining the laws that prohibited them from doing much besides breathing.

  That was helpful, but not the kind of help she needed.

  It was probably a dead end, anyway, she thought morosely.

  * * * *

  It was disturbing in an indefinable way to suddenly find that she was a nonentity, Simone thought as they walked the city streets. It was almost like becoming invisible, or finding out you were a ghost when you hadn’t realized you’d died. “At least Akule didn’t lie to us,” she remarked dryly. “We can go anywhere we like, alright. It’s like we don’t exist.”

  Liz made a sound that was neither agreement or disagreement.

  “Hmmph!” Sharon snorted. “Don’t you believe it. They’re just pretending we don’t exist because its bad form to notice. We haven’t passed one male of any class that hasn’t cut his eyes to watch us. I’ve almost been tempted to do something childish. You know—like in England? The Royal Guard at the palace isn’t ever supposed to acknowledge anyone? So all the tourists walk up to them and make faces at them to try to get a reaction.”

  Simone stared at her a moment and started laughing. “Actually, it sounds like fun! I haven’t done anything totally childish in a long time!”

  Liz looked doubtful. “You think we should?”

  Simone considered it. “I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the lectures. Did they say anything about disrupting the peace?”

  “I don’t see how making faces at them would disrupt the peace,” Sharon argued.

  “I don’t see how it could either. I was just wondering how far we could take it,” Simone replied. “At the very least, assuming they wouldn’t punish us some way for it, it would improve morale. I have to tell you mine is about as low as it can go right now.”

  “Oh, what the hell?” Liz muttered, staring at the warriors on the ‘high’ side of the street until she caught one’s eye and then scrunching up her face and sticking her tongue out.

  He almost missed a step, allowing his head to swivel toward them for a split second before he realized what he was doing. Simone and Sharon laughed until they nearly peed themselves. Their laughter, they discovered, was nearly as distracting to the males on both sides of the street—all around them—as the tongue incident.

  “I guess they aren’t used to people laughing,” Sharon observed.

  “That isn’t making a face!” Simone said when she’d caught her breath. “This is making a face!”

  Sharon and Liz both
looked horrified when she used her fingers to stretch her face out of shape, making a pig nose, evil eyes, and a clown mouth. Two of the warriors collided on the sidewalk.

  The women bit their lips, snickering. When the men had recovered themselves and moved on, they laughed until they hurt.

  “Oh, I feel better!” Simone said with relief.

  Liz sighed. “It’s not going to last.”

  Simone followed the direction of her gaze and stared at the first unobstructed view they’d had of the world beyond the dome, feeling the bottom fall out of her stomach. Naturally enough, none of the thick tangle of vegetation they could see looked even vaguely recognizable beyond being green—or mostly green. It looked as if the jungle came right up to the dome on the outside, however.

  She swallowed a little convulsively and tipped her head back, but she couldn’t see anything but the wall of jungle. Turning, she looked around at the buildings. “Let’s see if we can find a higher spot to look. Maybe we can see something?”

  “There’s no way to tell what the buildings are for,” Sharon said doubtfully.

  “They might all be apartments and not public buildings.”

  “Well, we’ll just try and see, why don’t we?”

  There was a fucking guard at the door of every single one they tried who looked down his nose at them and informed them that breeders weren’t allowed inside.

  Frustrated, Simone finally demanded of the last they tried to know where they were

  allowed. “The breeder barracks,” he responded coldly.

  “You know what? Fuck you! Does that translate, dick-wad?”

  The man gaped at her in disbelief and dawning fury, but she whirled and stalked off before he could think of a of come-back. Liz and Sharon, looking uneasy, followed her.

  “What now?”

  “Well, hell! We can’t just cave in at the first little road block!” Simone muttered, studying the buildings. “They must have rear exits, right? Stairs?”

  “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to try to sneak in,” Sharon said worriedly.

  “It isn’t like we’re going to do anything but take a look,” Simone said reasonably.

  “We’ll sneak in and just go right up the stairs. They use the elevators. If we can get to the stairs we probably won’t see a soul.”

  Liz flopped her gown. “I’m not sure I could run in this thing. Besides, we’d look like a fucking ship under sail with them flapping around us!”

  “Good point!” Simone muttered, looking down at her own speculatively.

  “There’s yards of extra material, though.” Bending down, she caught the back hem and brought it up between her legs, trying to figure out how she could wrap and tie it in place.

  “Oh my god! Simone! Don’t do that here!” Liz gasped.

  “Why not?” Simone demanded irritably.

  “Because you’ll start a riot!”

  Simone glanced up at her sharply and then whipped a look around them. Her heart slammed into her chest wall when she discovered she’d literally stopped traffic.

  There must have been a hundred men around them on the streets and all of them looked as if they’d been abruptly switched off. They were staring at her legs with glassy eyes as if they’d never seen legs before. She dropped the hem guiltily.

  They blinked, looked as if they’d awakened from a coma and had no idea where they were for several moments, and then their faces tightened and they strode away.

  “Uh oh,” Sharon said uneasily. “I think you’re in trouble.”

  “Thanks!” Simone snapped.

  “Hey! It wasn’t me that decided to wave my twat at them!”

  “I wasn’t waving my twat, damn it!” Simone said indignantly. “It didn’t seem to bother them when we were buck ass naked in the damned showers on the ship!”

  “Where were you?” Liz demanded. “They had exactly the same reaction—except they all saluted and these guys were too stunned to salute! Or I was too scared to notice.

  I think we should leave very quietly and head back to the barracks. I’m sure we all look alike to them and anyway I think they were too focused on your legs to remember what your face looks like.”

  Simone didn’t want to give up on the idea of getting a better view beyond the dome, but, as little as she wanted to admit it, she was worried about repercussions.

  “We’ll do this another day.”

  The small hope she’d held out that Liz was right and they wouldn’t recognize her or that the incident wouldn’t be reported, or it would be dismissed, vanished when they finally made it back to the breeder barracks. There were hard faced guards waiting in front of the building.

  Simone’s bowels nearly turned to water, but there was no escape. The moment the men spotted her, they marched directly toward her and caught her arms. “You are detained and are to be brought before the High Council!”

  * * * *

  It took all Simone could do to remain on her feet when the guards finally let go of her. She wanted to run, but she knew damned well her knees would give out and dump her in the floor.

  She hadn’t expected to be taken straight to the court! She’d thought she would be thrown in a jail cell to give her time to get more scared than she was already, but apparently they weren’t in favor of that type of torture. Or, they were just very efficient and they didn’t have a lot of ‘crime’ to deal with because their own citizens were too fucking well brainwashed to consider doing anything unacceptable.

  There was a tall, older man at the desk in the office where she found herself, but he didn’t really look old enough to be considered an ‘elder’ and she began to wonder if he actually was one of the council elders despite the blinding display of metals on his uniform. She shifted uneasily when the door closed behind her and he continued to ignore her.

  And continued to ignore her.

  Realizing that he was either so engrossed in his work that he’d dismissed her from his mind as soon as she’d been deposited on his doorstep or he was trying to play mind games with her, she forced herself to relax. After studying him for some moments, she turned her attention to the room. Bookshelves lined one wall and on them she saw what looked like scrolls and books—ancient looking records, but she was almost certain that was what they were. The temptation to sidle a little closer and see if that was really what they were hit her.

  She flicked a look back at the man to see if he was still too preoccupied to notice and discovered he was looking directly at her.

  Her heart nearly stopped in her chest when she met his full gaze. It might almost have been Camryn she was staring at if not for the lines on his face that told his maturity and the silver streaks of hair at his temples.

  “You are charged with disrupting the peace,” he said coldly.

  Simone stared at him.

  “Speak!” he growled after a moment.

  Simone blinked. “What do you want me to say?”

  He looked taken aback and then outraged. “You have no remorse?”

  Simone gaped at him. “Excuse you? I didn’t do anything. Why would I have remorse?”

  He surged up from his chair. “Silence!”

  She sidled a little closer to the door, deciding not to point out to him that he’d demanded she speak in the first place. Clearly, reason wasn’t their strong suit.

  “You are confined to the barracks for a period of five days for disrupting the peace and for disrespect!”

  Damn it! She’d wanted to try to sneak into one of the buildings the next day. She was going to have to wait an entire damned week to do it?

  Like father like son! It seemed assholes begat assholes!

  “Thank you, Your Highness!” she said tightly, using the term of respect she’d been instructed to use in addressing him. “May I go now?”

  He looked like he wanted to take exception to her tone, but he merely waved a hand at her.

  “Asshole!” she muttered under her breath.

  She thought he was going to have an
aneurism. Turning on her heel quickly, she headed for the door. To her relief, it opened as she reached it.

  Arrek glared at the closed door long after she’d departed. This was the creature his son expected him to house in the palace, he thought angrily?

  * * * *

  Despite the cooling unit on the back of his suit, Camryn felt as if he was melting and the sweat trickling down his back, from beneath his arms, and down his chest to his balls was sheer torment. Squinting his eyes against the glaring sun, he surveyed the sky for any sign of imminent attack and then scanned the rocky landscape. Kael and Ean should have been back from patrolling the outer perimeter by now, he thought absently, moving to the shadow of a boulder to get out of the direct sun.

  Breathing was difficult and, not for the first time, he wondered if anything on the gods damned planet was really worth what they’d paid in lives for the fucking mine—over a hundred casualties already and less than a ton of ore mined. The thought brought his attention to the miners he could see moving in and out of the shaft and he wondered if they were as fucking miserable as he was or if it was cooler inside the mountain.

  Of course the majority of their losses had been miners and he supposed the council didn’t really count them as much of a loss.

  Maybe he wouldn’t have either a few months ago, but then he wouldn’t have even looked at them a few months ago, not as people, not as individuals. He wouldn’t have wondered what they thought about their lot in life. They had been born to labor at such things just as he had been born to lay his life down if necessary for the greater glory of Macedon—for things he didn’t give a fuck about.

  They wouldn’t either, he thought, because they didn’t even benefit beyond being fed and housed for their trouble. It wasn’t much of a reward considering they got the dregs, the minimum, the least desirable.

  Except they got the breeders as lovers.

  The thought brought Simone’s image into his mind and with it a dizzying wave of thirst, hunger, need—anger.

  His communicator came to life abruptly with a burst of static that nearly deafened him. The fucking planet, he thought furiously! It fucked with all of their gods damned equipment.