Alien Penetration

by Kaitlyn O’Connor

  Shocking! Unbelievable!

  She’d laughed herself silly.

  Arrek hadn’t found it the least bit amusing, unfortunately. He’d been enraged at the woman’s arrogance.

  She’d been intrigued, tried to imagine what an arrogant woman would be like.

  Like the men?

  That seemed unlikely. Arrek had called her a fool.

  “But, Arrek,” she’d said placatingly. “She is a woman.”

  He’d looked at her suspiciously. “Yes.”

  Lielani had shrugged. “You have always said that women were like children.

  They needed the guidance of a man. You should bring her here so that she can benefit from your guidance.”

  “A breeder! In the palace?”

  Lielani sought patience. “It was sometimes done in the old days,” she pointed out. “She is carrying your grandsons. If she is a fool and arrogant, wouldn’t it be better to watch over her than to allow her to do anything else foolish? What if she is not wise enough to care for herself as she should? What if the sons of your sons suffered as a consequence?”

  Arrek had studied her for so long that she’d felt both hopeful and uneasy, and then he had dismissed it. “In the old days the breeders were good drak women—not these creatures! The Empire will see to the care of the infants. The rabble is jealous enough. Favoring my own sons would only cause more dissent.”

  And he would certainly not consider doing that, Lielani thought angrily!

  The women stopped singing, drawing her attention back to them and began to shout something instead. She listened intently, but she hadn’t learned their language.

  She had no idea what it was they were shouting.

  Something that disturbed the men, certainly.

  Or were they only staring because they had never seen so many women in one place? She had not seen so many herself and she had many years behind her.

  It made her chest swell with some indefinable emotion. She thought it was sorrow. There would never again be so many drak women as she saw now. What must their world be like that they felt confident enough to march in the streets and shout and sing, she wondered?

  Admiration filled her, hopefulness, and then worry chased them both away. The woman would be there, she realized, the woman her dearest warriors could not chase from their minds, the woman they loved with such painful desperation.

  The urge filled her to rush down and beg them to go back, to remember their place, to accept that they were only women and they could not do such things, but, of course she didn’t because she was only a woman herself.

  * * * *

  “We’re people, too! Women have rights! We’re people, too! Women have rights!” Simone shouted with the others as they reached the end of the street they’d been following and turned onto another.

  They were certainly attracting attention! She had the feeling that their protest wasn’t being well received—the men they’d passed had stopped. Most of them had simply gaped or glared, some had shouted after them, but they’d drowned them out.

  Then again, she hadn’t expected the protest to be well received. She’d known it would probably make more people—men—angry than it would convert—which was probably around zero, but the point was to show them that they weren’t just going to lie down and take it. The draks couldn’t pretend that they weren’t there, or that they were content to be used.

  Uneasiness flickered through her, though, when she saw warriors racing from one of the buildings they were approaching. Her heart executed a nosedive. She switched from the chant to the song again, fearing their protest was about to end—possibly in an uncomfortable confrontation.

  She knew it absolutely when she heard her name called.

  And heart still went crazy with the thrill of adrenaline that shot through her. She whipped her head around.

  “Camryn!” she breathed when she met his gaze.

  He was furious, of course. Everything about her seemed to inspire him to anger.

  Kael and Ean looked furious, as well.

  She smiled and waved at them and threw them a kiss.

  Hear me roar, In numbers too big to ignore!

  No one’s ever going to keep me down ….

  It was too much to hope that would stun them enough that she could escape, although she could see that it had set them back on their heels. Liz and Sharon looked at her worriedly.

  She’d almost begun to think they were going to make it to the next turn when she heard them pounding behind them. Wincing, she refused to glance toward the sidewalk.

  It didn’t do any good, unfortunately.

  Camryn, Kael, and Ean stalked from the sidewalk and cut directly in front of them, forming a wall.

  She stopped and the entire brigade of marchers stopped behind her.

  Camryn looked furious—pale, shaken, ill. If she hadn’t noticed that, she might have said something she shouldn’t have.

  Well, she did. “Oh my god! Camryn! What happened?”

  She saw something flicker in his eyes.

  He shook his head. “Go back to the barracks, Simone. Take all of them back.

  Now!”

  She lifted her chin at him. Some of her bravado abandoned her when she glanced at Kael and Ean and saw that they looked ill themselves—and still as furious as Camryn was.

  “We’re going. We’re just going to march this way.”

  “Now!” Camryn said with emphasis. “You’ve created enough of a disturbance.”

  Her lips tightened. “Good! We’re people, too! Women have rights!”

  “Women have rights?” someone close by bellowed in disbelief.

  Simone felt a little weak in the knees when she saw who it was—the same asshole that had confined her for a week! “Thank you! I appreciate the fact that you acknowledged that,” she said a little shakily. “I think we’ll go back now.”

  The bastard looked like he might pass out. “Guards!” he bellowed. “Escort these breeders back to the barracks and see to it that none of them leave.”

  The women behind them had bunched up in fear as the men began to surround them, but apparently some of them had become emboldened by the march.

  “We aren’t breeders, you bastard! We’re women and we have names!”

  “Coward! You’re too afraid of women to treat them like equals because you know you aren’t our equals!”

  “We aren’t half as strong as you and your bullies, but we’ve got more balls!”

  “Who died and made you god, you son-of-a-bitch? What gives you the right to take us from our homes and treat us like this?”

  Simone glanced uneasily at the men and turned to the women. “You’re right!

  They’re bullies, but we agreed to have a peaceful protest, ladies! Let’s go back to the prison!”

  To her relief, the women turned and began to march back. They began to chant again, too, louder than before. Simone’s belly was churning with uneasiness, but she linked arms with Liz and Sharon again, and chanted and sang with everyone else. She’d almost begun to hope that she was going to escape and could cower in her cell and quiver for a while when the guards stopped her line again, broke the grip they had on one another, and marched her back toward the building Camryn had emerged from.

  * * * *

  The charges of treason were dropped. Camryn wasn’t certain if it was because the women had so completely rattled the council that they were far more interested in ranting over the behavior of the breeders than the debacle on Kylo or not, but he was afraid that was it. His father called him into his private chambers as soon as the men charged had been dismissed.

  Struggling to gird himself when he’d felt ill before he’d discovered what Simone had done, Camryn bowed respectfully and followed his father.

  “This behavior will not be tolerated!” Arrek bellowed the moment the door had closed behind them. “It is an outrage! If any man had dared to call me a coward …!”

  Camryn met his father’s gaze with a hard one of
his own. “Yes?”

  Arrek had the grace to look discomfited. “I did not bring the charges against you!”

  Camryn ground his teeth. “Nor support me.”

  “It was the council’s decision,” Arrek ground out. “Examples have to be made.

  Failure cannot be rewarded. The honor of the House of Jakaar is at stake!”

  Camryn felt his face heat with anger. “I regret, father, that you feel that way, but I see no honor in dying uselessly. If my dying might have resulted in a victory for Macedon, I would have been willing to die. If I had been allowed to complete the mission assigned to me, according to my judgment in matters of war, I would have retaken the mine once we had the weapons to do so and the men it would’ve taken.”

  “It would have risked the lives of far more men to re-take the mine than it would have to hold the mine!”

  Camryn clenched his teeth. “Except we did not have that manpower because we had no warning that the enemy was advancing in such numbers and no way to communicate with the ship to drop the men and weapons we needed!”

  They glared at one another for several moments and Arrek finally settled at his desk, waving a hand dismissively. “That is settled. You and the men responsible are relieved of duty until further notice.”

  “Disgraced, you mean,” Camryn growled.

  “It is appropriate punishment and far less than any of you deserve!”

  Camryn drew in a shaky breath and lifted his head to glare at the ceiling.

  “At ease! Sit down before you fall!” Arrek said testily.

  “I prefer to stand, thank you, Your Highness.”

  “I want to discuss these … creatures you’ve brought among us,” Arrek said after a moment.

  Camryn ground his teeth.

  “The one you called by name—Simone. This is the one that you asked me to house in the palace.”

  It wasn’t a question and Camryn didn’t bother to answer. He knew full well that his father had already looked over the data and knew it was Simone who carried his son.

  He wanted to demand to know why so simple a request had been ignored, but he knew it would only emphasis her importance to him and that could be dangerous to her.

  “I was considering the request,” he continued after a moment, “when she was brought before me for displaying herself publicly and creating a disturbance.”

  Camryn shot him a look of surprise in spite of his determination to remain aloof.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “She displayed her body—her legs to be precise—which nearly caused a riot.”

  Camryn felt his face heat with anger—jealousy to be more exact. “The people of her culture do not see this as shameful. It was not a part of the material taught to them by Akule. She had no way of knowing that it was unacceptable.”

  “The women, you mean?”

  “The people. We saw as many men who went about in public partially dressed as women. They often go without their chests covered—if the weather is hot.”

  “The women?” Arrek demanded, outraged.

  “The men,” Camryn said tightly.

  “I’ve no interest in the men.”

  “I also had no interest in the men. I was pointing out that their customs are different.”

  “It was Akule’s task to make certain they completely understood our customs so that they would fit in.”

  It was on the tip of his tongue to point out that breeders didn’t have a place in their culture beyond their biological function. He stopped himself with the reflection that his father knew gods damned well they didn’t and would merely see the comment as provocation and an excuse to punish Simone in some way.

  “I have grave doubts that they will fit in,” Arrek added after a moment.

  “It is unjust to expect them to adjust in a matter of weeks. Their culture is entirely different from ours. Our women, when we had them, were reared to expect no more.”

  “You no longer count Lielani as a woman?”

  Camryn’s lips tightened. “I beg pardon. I should have said, when we had women capable of breeding.”

  Arrek studied him for a long moment and spoke into his communicator. “Bring the breeder in.”

  A jolt went through Camryn. He did his best to hide his reaction but he could see from the satisfaction on his father’s face that he’d failed.

  He refused to look at Simone when she was escorted in, but he almost thought he could feel her in every pore, felt dizzy from the effort to inhale the faint scent of her.

  “Your arrogance has made me curious,” Arrek said, addressing Simone. “You are under the impression that you are equal to a man?”

  Simone studied him for several moments, certain the old bastard had something nasty in mind. “I’m not under the impression,” she said finally. “I know I am.”

  Camryn closed his eyes. He should have known she wouldn’t have the sense of self-preservation to keep her tongue between her teeth.

  “Give her your weapon, Camryn.”

  Camryn looked at his father in stunned disbelief. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Give her your sidearm.”

  Camryn felt a cold sweat pop from his pores. Reluctantly, he removed his sidearm and presented it to Simone.

  “I am your enemy,” Arrek said coldly. “Shoot me.”

  Simone stared at him a moment and looked down at the pistol. “I’ve never fired one of these,” she said uneasily.

  “Show her.”

  Camryn was growing more and more uneasy. “There is a point to this, father?”

  “They seem to believe they have more balls that we do. I want her to see that she doesn’t. That she is not the equal of a drak—although she may well be equal to the men on her world.”

  Camryn wasn’t convinced that she didn’t have the balls. “I don’t think this is

  wise ….”

  Arrek studied him coldly. “You dare lecture me on wisdom?”

  Camryn’s lips tightened. Turning to Simone he pointed out the firing mechanism.

  She looked at him. “He’s your father?”

  Camryn nodded.

  Simone lifted the pistol and fired a stream just above his left shoulder that was close enough it left a burn. “Shit! I never could aim worth a damn! Let me try again,” she said coldly.

  It took Arrek a few moments to recover. “As you see. You do not have the nerves of a man—or the coordination. Women cannot kill, even to defend themselves against an enemy.”

  “If you weren’t Camryn’s father, and I’d thought for one moment that it would’ve done any good, I assure you I could have blown your head off and I would’ve slept just fine. In fact, I’d sleep better!”

  “Give me the weapon, Simone.”

  Simone placed it in his palm.

  “You are dismissed,” Arrek said coldly. He exploded the moment the door had closed behind her. “She is not a woman! I do not know what sort of creature she is, but certainly not entirely female. You are certain their species has a male and a female and they are not both? I must say that you have shown a poor choice in breeders with that one!”

  “I beg to differ, father. She has exactly the qualities that I wish for in a son.”

  “Well, you are a fool! And she is a troublemaker!”

  “She will not make trouble if she is housed in the palace. The women are more prone to behave … unbecomingly when they are allowed to support one another.”

  “I am more tempted to dispose of the lot of them and search for females that are more like our own.”

  Fear almost froze Camryn, knocked the breath from him. Wild thoughts of seizing the women and a ship of the Empire to carry them to safety slammed against a block wall of certainty that there was no place to take them. That impossibility sent his mind in search of a way he might realistically prevent catastrophe, however. “These women carry the sons of some of the most powerful men in the Empire,” he managed after a long moment. “They are suitable in every way for breeding sons
. You are not going to convince them that they would be better off with weaker women to carry their sons anymore than you can convince me of it.”

  Arrek studied him for a long moment and finally looked away. “I will have to consider the situation carefully.”

  * * * *

  Simone thought she might faint. What had possessed her to actually point the thing at him and fire? She was lucky she hadn’t blown his head off. True, she’d been a little better at aiming a gun than she was at throwing things, but still so god awful at it that she’d finally given up shooting practice.

  She hadn’t thought there was any chance of even accidentally shooting him, she realized, but his contemptuous attitude had set her back up. Rage and hate had carried her through the demonstration of her ‘marksmanship’ but she’d already begun to suspect that it hadn’t served her well. The realization of just how badly she’d wanted to move the sight of the pistol to the center of the bastard’s forehead almost made her throw up.

  That was nothing compared to how she felt once it began to sink in that she’d fallen into the bastard’s trap, however.

  He’d wanted to know if there was any possibility that they could make her and the other women conform to their ideal of what a woman should be and she’d proven to him just how unlikely that was.

  She’d been too frightened, too unsettled all the way around to have her wits about her. It didn’t matter that she’d expected the draks to react to their protest pretty much as they had. It was still frightening and demoralizing.

  She might have coped better than she had, though, if not for the encounter with the men—her men. They hadn’t just looked pale and stricken because of what she’d done, though she was too preoccupied with her own situation for her mind to piece together the clues at first. They’d looked ill because they were ill. She knew that had to be it. She knew that had to be why they were here instead of off warring—they’d been wounded in battle, wounded badly enough to be sent back to recover, which, to her mind, meant very badly.

  It hadn’t taken long for her mind to leap from that conclusion to the certainty that it confirmed her fears from before—that they’d nearly been killed and she’d had no idea that they were even in danger.