The Queen's Gift (Stories of the Alien Invasion Book 2)

by Mel Corbett

  All the redskulls wore the dark blue jumpsuits that identified them as Honored Ones, even though they had no need. Their status was clear from the deformed shape of their heads. Among them, she spotted a dozen or so human redskulls. She recognized one of the women redskulls as Rachel, the girl who the bluemen had taken as soon as she found her boyfriend. Next to her, in green, sat the boyfriend. He stared at Mbnath. Kailey’s stomach clenched, but she kept the forced smile on her face and followed her line forward further into the performance hall.

  “Bow!” commanded Mbnath.

  Kailey and the others bowed deep as they had been taught. At the bottom of the bow, they waited just a beat before saying the greeting they had been taught.

  “Thank you, Honored Ones, for allowing us to serve you in all ways, and for lending your honor to our performance tonight.”

  Two beats, and then the music swelled, and she was dancing as she had been taught. After weeks of rehearsing naked, she didn’t even flinch when she flashed the audience on the high kicks. Then, the dance was ending, and they froze in their respective positions, waiting to be singled out in order. Kailey and the other girls in red dresses would be presented last. Now that she knew they were all virgins, too, she felt sorry for them all, but she kept the smile pasted on her face.

  Anna was first to be presented. She moved like sex in a way that Kailey hadn’t managed. Anna had loudly commented that she wanted one of the Honored Ones to choose her as his own personal toy, and she was going to make it happen. Kailey didn’t want to be chosen, but she didn’t want to be punished either.

  Then, somehow, all the other girls had danced away from her, leaving Kailey alone in the middle of the room. The others knelt throughout the pillows and the redskull guests.

  Kailey moved into the dance, shaking her hips as she’d been taught, moving forward and back, twirling. She navigated through the pillows, keeping her focus high. The guests could see everything as she danced through the room, but none reached out to touch her, not while she was being presented.

  Her routine took her among the human redskulls. She danced past the girl Rachel and her boyfriend. Kailey swallowed. Was that the best future she could hope for now? Her dance ended in a cluster of male blue redskulls and Mbnath asked her to introduce herself. She was the only one Mbnath had asked to speak. Why her?

  “I am Mkailey. Honored Masters, I thank you all for allowing me to serve you and the Queen tonight.”

  “Mkailey is my star earthen pupil,” Mbnath said. “Like her five sisters in red, she comes to us innocent of the ways of men.”

  Kailey kept the smile frozen on her face. Mbnath knew she was terrified of this, why was Mbnath doing this?

  “Honored Masters, please ask of her or any of her sister courtesans anything you wish tonight,” Mbnath said. Mbnath knelt, disappearing into the crowd of redskulls and courtesans.

  “Mkailey, tell us about yourself,” growled an older redskull from practically underneath her.

  He sat cross-legged on a cushion. A shirtless, blue girl in green harem pants lay across his lap, and his hand rested on her exposed belly. A younger redskull ran his fingers through the girl’s dark hair. Would that be Kailey’s future if they chose her? Would she be shared like that?

  “Thank you, Honored Master, for allowing me to serve you in all ways,” Kailey said before answering him. She focused on keeping her smile in place to hide her horror at seeing the redskull eating the blue face. Mbnath had said looking into either set of eyes was appropriate, but Kailey found herself staring at the junction between the redskull and the blue head underneath.

  “I was a student on Earth in the city known as San Diego.”

  “I’ve heard about your cities. What was it like living in this San Diego?” the younger redskull asked. He couldn’t have been much older than Kailey. And his features were almost classic quarterback. He had a strong chin and eyes that sparkled when he spoke. He would have been cute if not for the red thing on top of his head. The long hair that grew around the edges of his skull was pulled back into a well-kept braid.

  Kailey found she enjoyed telling the younger redskull all about San Diego, and how she missed the sun and the ocean. She hadn’t been a beach bum, not really. But she’d enjoyed San Diego the most out of the places her parents’ military careers had dragged her to. The young redskull laughed at her jokes, and asked her questions about her and what she liked. If all the redskulls talked to her like this, she could get through the night.

  Mbnath had told her not to speak of her parents’ military profession, but had taught her the words for water. And while they had no word for beach, there was a word for shore that she was allowed to use, and she was encouraged to talk about going to the beach and swimming in the waves. CJ had even taught her how to surf. Mbnath had coached them each for this, teaching them the relevant words to their own pasts.

  “Mkailey,” the older redskull said. “Thank you for answering my son’s questions. Please, go speak to the others. They grow jealous of your continued attention, then, please, return to us later tonight. My son plans to choose his first companion soon.”

  “Thank you, Honored Masters, for allowing me to converse with you and considering me,” Kailey said.

  “My father is too formal. When you return, call me Honored *Dro,” the younger redskull said.

  Was *Dro really the older redskull’s son? Did that mean they chose the next redskulls along family lines?

  That had been almost easy. They hadn’t asked her to do anything she didn’t want to. Across the room, she spotted Anna, laughing, putting a redskull’s hand on her breast. Kailey swallowed. She could never do anything like that.

  After an hour or so of mingling, Kailey and her classmates were instructed to kneel as they had when finishing their dance routine. They watched as a half-dozen young earthen men danced into the room as they had done. Kailey’s stomach tightened as she watched the men writhe. They wore sheer green and red harem pants, and Kailey couldn’t believe all that she saw. The men were introduced by a blue man exactly the same as Mbnath had introduced the girls.

  When the men were done being introduced, Mbnath and the men’s teacher called all the new courtesans to the side of the room. They handed them trays of food and pitchers of a drink and directed them who to serve. Kailey was sent to the earthen redskulls with a plate of food. Beside her, a tall Indian boy in red harem pants was sent to serve the same group with several glasses of an amber liquid.

  “I’m Mkailey,” Kailey said introducing herself in the blue tongue.

  “We’re not supposed to talk to you unless they ask us to.”

  Kailey wondered if that was why Mbnath hadn’t warned them there’d be men courtesans as well… was that even the term?

  The Indian boy was cute and muscular with coppery brown skin. She could see why he’d been chosen as a courtesan. They arrived at the group of human redskulls. Most were a lot older than her. The only one anywhere near close to her age was Rachel, but she seemed more interested in Nate – or was that Mbnate now? – than what was going on around her.

  “You’re both so young,” one of the earthen redskulls said in English as she handed him his plate of food. He was an older man with streaks of grey in his hair. His skin was still pretty smooth. Kailey sucked at guessing grownups age.

  “Yes, Honored Master,” Kailey said.

  “How old are you, girl?”

  “I’m of age, sir,” Kailey answered. She’d been taught fifteen was of age for the bluemen.

  “You don’t look eighteen.”

  Kailey shrugged. She didn’t know what to say to that. She couldn’t really lie to an Honored One, despite being coached on avoiding the question.

  “And you, kid?”

  “Eighteen as well, Honored Master,” the boy said. It sounded rehearsed and he didn’t meet either set of the redskull’s eyes.

  “Aren’t they beautiful, Honored Masters?” Mbnath asked in blue tongue. “We thought perhaps you might c
hoose one for your companions.”

  “These two are not eighteen.”

  “Of course, they are of age,” Mbnath said. “We obey your every command, Honored Masters. All those chosen for tonight are of age.”

  Some of the other girls had been in high school, too. They’d practiced telling their age, their professions, and hobbies in blue tongue.

  “They might not have been when we took them, but after months of travel they are,” Mbnath said. Months of travel? It had seemed too instantaneous. One moment she’d been on Earth, the next she’d woken up here.

  “You don’t age or mature in suspended state.” The redskull shook his head. “Do you want to be doing this?”

  Kailey glanced at Mbnath for guidance. Mbnath said nothing, did nothing.

  “Okay, you got me,” the boy said. “I’m seventeen. I was supposed to graduate in June, and start Berkeley at seventeen. I would have turned eighteen in my first week of school, but I don’t know if I’m eighteen or not because I’m not sure how long I’ve been here.”

  “Where did you say you were going to go to school, Mkailey?” the boy asked. Apparently, he did want this, at least more than working the mines.

  “Azusa Pacific,” Kailey named the college closest to her house. “I didn’t pick a major yet, though.”

  The redskull shook his head, but he waved them off. Apparently, the lie satisfied him. Mbnath herded them away from the earthen redskulls, towards the bluemen redskulls, but Rachel caught the boy’s hand.

  “We’d like to talk to him,” redskull Rachel said. Her boyfriend Nathan looked sick.

  “Find one to make you their companion. Innocents like you want to be companions and not general courtesans,” Mbnath said, shaking her head.

  Flirting was easier after being coached for weeks on how to flirt: touch your hair, touch your face, touch his arm, laugh at his jokes. Also, not worrying about coming off as slutty helped. Still, she didn’t like that her choice was taken out of the equation here. Any of these redskulls could pick her to be their companion. Still, the way the redskulls seemed to be eating the heads underneath turned Kailey’s stomach despite her best efforts to flirt. She couldn’t help but feel her disgust coming through. Part of her just wanted her parents to wake her up and tell her the last weeks had been a dream.

  Kailey was laughing and pretending that the blue young man she was talking too didn’t have a red skull eating his face when Mbnath handed her a drink.

  “Pardon my intrusion, Honored Masters, I simply thought Mkailey would be thirsty,” Mbnath said. To Kailey she whispered, “You’re doing well. Several Honored Masters have asked after you.”

  Kailey considered the dark, bubbly drink in her hand. It almost looked like a coke, but since she’d been taken, she hadn’t had anything but water. She didn’t trust the drink. She glanced around the room and saw others sipping on similar drinks. They had been talking for a long time in the harsh blue tongue. One sip wouldn’t hurt.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  KEN

  “It is my understanding you all have been taught my language and barred from speaking your own, is this true?”

  The muscular blue woman stalked in front of the squad of pilots. The gold jumpsuit hugged her curves, set off her skin, and made it clear she was better than the lowly pilots in their prisoner-orange jumpsuits. No lies here about who or what they were. Like theirs, her dark blue hair was close cropped, but the short hair only accented her pale blue skin and large, light blue eyes.

  “Yes ma’am,” Ken and the other pilots chorused. The language classes had been intensive. They’d punched Ken so hard when he dared to speak English that he might have been back in the first round of “conditioning”. Like that bull had stuck. He was learning to fly their ships so he could… do something to help Earth.

  Last night, after graduating from language classes, they’d been scrambled into new squads, and Ken was the only American in the group.

  “Good. Now, we’re not going to be on live aircraft for some time. Your language training should have included relevant terms to your job assignment, correct?”

  That and shaved all their heads down to military regs, even the few women amongst them.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Ken maintained his strict stance of attention. Most of the other pilots had been in their countries’ air forces. Those that didn’t have military backgrounds were picking up the attitudes.

  “I don’t have to teach you all the words for controls, and aircraft, and flight, do I?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  She smiled.

  “I am Commander !Estraith to you,” she said, introducing herself. “You will obey me in all things, or you will be sent for conditioning. The Queen wants obedient subjects.” Ken nodded. “If you need a second round of conditioning, the Queen will find another less critical use for you.” She met Ken’s eyes. Then he felt her focus shift behind him to Joon-ho, an Asian man who also bore the fading bruises and needle tracks from being conditioned. “There will be no third rounds of conditioning.”

  “This way please.” !Estraith led them from the small stone chamber into the adjoining cavern. This opened up with a wider ceiling and held two dozen man-sized metallic boxes. One faced out towards the group, and the rest faced forward towards the lead.

  “We will be using—” she said a word that Ken didn’t recognize, but that, from the look of the boxes, could only mean simulators. “Each of you has a number on your uniform. Please enter the corresponding simulator.”

  She opened hers in the front and waited. The men had noticed the alien symbols on their uniforms. Ken’s symbol had been a simple line. He strode to the front of the room and found his simulator directly across from the woman’s. He nodded once and entered. Joon-ho entered the simulator beside his. It seemed they were placing the troublemakers at the front of the room.

  Ken opened the door and found a familiar looking cockpit. The chair had a padded restraint that could be pulled down like on an amusement park ride. Where the windshield should be was a screen projecting !Estraith’s smiling face. Ken climbed into the low cockpit seat. The seat squished under him, and he sank even further. The seat cradled him as if it were a bath, but held him up. He swallowed. It felt like sitting on a chair made of Jell-O. Ken pulled down on the restraint. When he grabbed it with his hands, it felt firm, but once in place, it softened to the same gelatin consistency of the chair.

  “The first difference you’ll notice from your primitive flight materials, is the seat and restraint comfort level.” !Estraith’s voice pumped into the simulator through hidden speakers. “These seats are designed to reduce the force of acceleration on your bodies. Our aircraft can travel and accelerate much faster than your models.”

  Between his legs, Ken found a familiar looking stick for control. Everything was labeled in the same writing system as the numbers on their uniforms appeared to be made of.

  “Put on your restraints and rebreathers, if you haven’t already, and the lesson will begin.”

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  JORDAN

  Jordan groaned as the alarm blared through the barracks. They hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in weeks. Al must be getting desperate and flying overhead again. He stumbled to his feet and began pulling on his uniform. The light flashed on a second later, blinding him. The new recruit in the bed next to him stumbled into him in the sudden light.

  “Watch it!” Jordan snapped. How hard was it to put on your own clothes without falling into the guy next to you?

  “Come on, Davies, give the poor guy a break,” Mason shouted from her bunk across the aisle. “He’s been running from Al for months.”

  “Then he should just keep running.” Jordan shoved the kid, Palmer, back onto his own bunk. If only Mason would take an interest in him like she did the stupid newbs.

  “Damn refugees are going to bring Al down on us,” someone snarled. “They’ll lead Al right to our door.”

  “Like we weren’t all on the run from
Al a couple months ago,” Mason said.

  Girl was right. She had a mouth, but she was right. The new kid was only a couple months behind them, but Jordan had been lucky in finding this place early. The new kids were all messed up. It wasn’t so much that Al had passed them over, as that they’d managed to hide in ones and twos.

  Al circled above them like a hawk.

  “Come on Mason, what’s your story?”

  She didn’t answer. Just pulled her uniform on with the others. Sergeant Mitchell stumbled into the room, fully dressed, but his eyes swollen with sleep. Did the man sleep in his uniform?

  “Orders say we got some miners on the radio. Al’s been circling east of us for weeks. Couldn’t figure out why, until tonight. Al spoiled their water supply, so we’re going to bring them back home. Got it?”

  “Us?” The newb’s voice cracked. “Why not someone with more experience?”

  “No one’s got more experience with the new guns than you boys,” Sergeant Mitchell said. “We get three Humvees and one truck. No air cover.”

  “No air cover?” the newb asked.

  Jordan bit his tongue. Would the idiot just shut up? These were orders, it was not time for twenty questions.

  “Time for a live test, boys. Let’s move out.”

  TWENTY-NINE

  KAILEY

  Kailey giggled as the young redskull pulled her down to a crouch beside him. Mbnath had given her another not-coke drink, and she felt funny. The world swayed as she fell into the crouch.

  “Mkailey, kiss me,” said the young redskull. She thought he was the one who’d asked her about San Diego. She wasn’t sure.

  “Honored Master, thank you for—” Kailey began, but his lips were on hers before she could finish.

  She sat, open mouthed, as his tongue explored hers before she tried kissing back. She’d never been kissed before. She’d never lived in one spot long enough to have a boyfriend. Not a real one. His hands slid into her hair and held her tight.