Alien Conquest

Alien Conquest Page 22

by Tracy St. John

  “Don’t wave me in front of him like a piece of bait, Tra­nis. It’s be­neath you.”

  “I swear it wasn’t my in­ten­tion. When I saw the pain in your eyes, it in­fu­ri­ated me. I wanted to get back at him, and I chose a very im­ma­ture way of do­ing it. Again, I apol­o­gize.” Tra­nis raised her hand to his lips and kissed it.

  At that mo­ment, two more clans came onto the shut­tle. They brought Sis­ter Kather­ine and Tina with them. The two women were softly gig­gling, the small punc­tures on their necks con­firm­ing they’d been bit­ten. They snick­ered more to see Hamil­ton naked in the back. Their clans gen­tly shushed them as they coaxed them to sit.

  Cas­sidy barely reg­is­tered the go­ings on. She stared at Tra­nis, the anger over her grand­fa­ther’s hyp­o­crit­i­cal cen­sure dis­si­pat­ing. “You wanted to pro­tect me from him. You re­ally do care,” she said, her voice faint with won­der.

  Li­don, who sat on the other side of Tra­nis, smiled at her. “How can we not? You are part of our clan and our cho­sen mate.”

  Tra­nis and De­gorsk both nod­ded in agree­ment, and Cas­sidy again felt the de­light of free­dom that their love and pro­tec­tion gave.

  Her clan couldn’t grant her lib­erty from the con­vic­tion that what she did with them was a sin. That was be­tween Cas­sidy and God. Yet they’d gifted her with in­de­pen­dence from Earth’s un­fair judg­ment. How could the fal­li­ble hu­man gov­ern­ment, peo­pled by men like her grand­fa­ther who hid their sins, tell her she couldn’t love three aliens? How could they de­cide it was wrong for her to be mar­ried to a Kalquo­rian clan and bear their chil­dren?

  And how dare her grand­fa­ther, with his greater trans­gres­sions, find her virtue want­ing!

  Even if join­ing Tra­nis’ clan damned her in the af­ter­life, Cas­sidy had al­ready known Hell. She’d been crushed un­der the weighty pres­sure of a life dic­tated by the whims of oth­ers un­wor­thy of the re­spon­si­bil­ity. Maybe she’d find peace at long last with these men who had set her free by tak­ing her pris­oner. Maybe by ac­knowl­edg­ing the love she felt for them, the love she’d tried so hard to deny, she’d claim a sliver of the par­adise too long de­nied her.

  “Some things are worth dar­ing damna­tion for,” she mur­mured. When Tra­nis squeezed her hand, she twined her fin­gers in his and hung on for all she was worth.

  * * * *

  “This is the for­mer cap­tain’s quar­ters,” Li­don an­nounced as he led them into their new berth on the Earther trans­port. Cas­sidy thought it very spa­cious af­ter the clan’s cramped space. Tra­nis and De­gorsk’s eyes widened.

  The liv­ing area was dec­o­rated in re­lax­ing shades of choco­late and cream. It was laid out in three dis­tinct ar­eas: a sit­ting space with a small couch, chairs and ta­ble; a din­ing sec­tion just large enough for four peo­ple; and a minis­cule kitchen where a light meal might be pre­pared. Cas­sidy poked her head in the tiny re­frig­er­a­tion unit and pantry, hop­ing for a taste of Earther food. Find­ing a small bag of potato chips, she crunched into salty good­ness and won­dered what was in the mess hall.

  “All this space for one man,” De­gorsk mused.

  “There’s a sep­a­rate sleep­ing room,” Li­don said. He went into an­other room. “The bed is quite small. Only one at a time will fit, plus Cas­sidy,” he called.

  Cas­sidy tossed the empty potato chip bag in the re­cy­cler. Brush­ing crumbs off her fin­gers, she went into the bed­room. Tra­nis and De­gorsk fol­lowed.

  The bed was a dou­ble, at best. A small built-in night­stand stood to one side, and shelves held the for­mer cap­tain’s per­sonal be­long­ings ar­ranged tidily.

  “We’ll sleep in shifts,” Tra­nis said.

  “Li­don first,” De­gorsk said. “He’s been up for a cou­ple of days now. Then you, Tra­nis. I won’t have you un­do­ing all my work. The crew needs you healthy.”

  Cas­sidy sat on the edge of the bed, not­ing the photo dis­play unit on the night­stand. She turned it on. A free-float­ing vid shim­mered into be­ing over the unit, show­ing a still pho­to­graph of a girl about Cas­sidy’s age, her smile bright as she laughed at the per­son who had snapped the shot. It had to be the cap­tain’s daugh­ter, she sur­mised. No doubt the young woman now wor­ried over why her over­due par­ent hadn’t re­turned from his lat­est trip.

  “Poor girl,” Cas­sidy whis­pered. She knew all too well what it felt like to lose a beloved fa­ther. Her heart swelled in sym­pa­thy.

  De­gorsk’s voice was heavy. “I never would have given him the drug if I’d known it would kill him.”

  Cas­sidy switched off the dis­play. She pat­ted his hand in un­der­stand­ing.

  Li­don sat next to her. He cupped her chin, mak­ing her face him. “My pet, I don’t want you in the ven­ti­la­tion sys­tem try­ing to es­cape.”

  She looked up where he in­di­cated. The vent open­ing, cov­ered by an eas­ily re­moved grate, was near the ceil­ing. It was more than large enough for her to squirm into.

  Cas­sidy shrugged, dis­miss­ing the vent. “Where would I go? I can’t re­turn to Earth now no mat­ter what hap­pens. They’ll throw me in a work prison for lewd­ness, and no one who goes there comes out alive.”

  Li­don wasn’t at peace with her dec­la­ra­tion. “Prom­ise me you won’t use the shafts to at­tempt es­cape.”

  Cas­sidy blew out an ex­as­per­ated breath and rolled her eyes. “Are all Nobeks so dis­trust­ful? Okay, I prom­ise.”

  He crooked a smile and kissed the tip of her nose.

  Tra­nis said, “I have to get to the bridge. We’ll start for the worm­hole en­trance right away.” He turned to go.

  De­gorsk was right be­hind him. “I’ll un­pack a few things and join you in a few min­utes.”

  “I don’t need a nurse­maid.”

  “You most cer­tainly do. If I don’t watch you, you’ll overex­ert your­self.”

  They both halted in the door­way, Tra­nis glow­er­ing at his clan­mate. De­gorsk didn’t seem one bit im­pressed with the fierce stare.

  He poked his leader in the chest. “Don’t ar­gue or I’ll re­move you from com­mand un­til you’re fully re­cov­ered. You’ll lose three days that way.”

  “You wouldn’t dare pull a stunt like that.”

  “Try me.” De­gorsk grinned, but it wasn’t a nice ex­pres­sion at all.

  Tra­nis growled. “Over­pro­tec­tive Imdiko.”

  “Stub­born, thick-skulled Dramok.”

  That ended the con­test as Tra­nis threw his hands up in ex­as­per­ated sur­ren­der. “Ass­hole,” was his fi­nal word on the mat­ter.

  De­gorsk only laughed.

  Li­don shook his head in amuse­ment and stood. “I’ll see to Gen­eral Hamil­ton.”

  De­gorsk turned from Tra­nis to chal­lenge the Nobek next. “I’m sure your staff has him well in hand. You need some sleep.”

  Tra­nis left as a new ar­gu­ment erupted. Cas­sidy scooted back on the bed, amused to watch the dy­nam­ics of the clan un­fold. There was no ran­cor be­tween them. Their dis­putes seemed more like a chess game than true con­flict, an op­por­tu­nity to see who could ver­bally out­ma­neu­ver the other. De­spite Li­don’s fierce na­ture and Tra­nis’ easy com­mand, De­gorsk seemed to win most of their dis­agree­ments.

  Li­don had the look of a man who knew he’d al­ready lost but couldn’t re­sist a good fight. “My staff is ca­pa­ble, yes, but I have ques­tions that need to be an­swered be­fore we get to that se­cu­rity grid.”

  “Which we won’t reach for two days.” De­gorsk looked at Cas­sidy and grinned. “Why don’t you prop­erly in­tro­duce our sweet­ling to her new bed be­fore you rest? Tir­ing your­selves out will en­sure good sleep and make me happy.”

  The heated look Li­don gave her made Cas­sidy’s lower parts clench. “Never let it be said I can’t com­pr
o­mise,” he said in a low voice.

  The door shut­ting De­gorsk out cut off his laugh­ter. Cas­sidy was breath­less with an­tic­i­pa­tion as Li­don stripped.

  “What can I do for you, my pet?” he asked, stand­ing next to the bed. “Tell me what you want most.”

  She swal­lowed. A vi­sion of her­self in the hover shack­les drifted through her mind’s eye. Warmth trick­led from her sex. Cas­sidy knew ex­actly what she wanted. She thought Li­don would be happy to oblige her, though the urge seemed a bit bizarre.

  Won­der­ing at her lusty bold­ness, she said, “I’ve been very naughty. Even be­fore you came and made me do things I shouldn’t, I read books I shouldn’t, books that gave me ideas.”

  Li­don licked his lips. His penises, al­ready thick with arousal, swelled larger still. “Yes?”

  Cas­sidy’s heart pounded. From far away, she heard her­self say, “I should be pun­ished for my wicked thoughts.”

  The Nobek’s gaze on her dark­ened, and his ex­pres­sion sharp­ened to that of a preda­tor. “‘Dis­ci­pline, though some­times harsh, keeps the con­science awake.’ I doubt that quote was meant for this par­tic­u­lar sit­u­a­tion. Still, it fits for our pur­poses, doesn’t it my pet?”

  The hun­gry vi­o­lence in his eyes kept Cas­sidy from speak­ing, but she man­aged a slight nod. Ea­ger ter­ror sent shock­waves of de­sire through her body as Li­don sat on the edge of the bed and grasped her tiny wrist in his huge hand. “Come here and ac­cept your pun­ish­ment.”

  She bowed her head, hardly be­liev­ing she was do­ing this as she crawled to him. She shiv­ered as he stripped her of the un­der­dress, leav­ing her naked. The vul­ner­a­bil­ity ex­cited her.

  I should feel shame for want­ing this. I should, but I don’t.

  Her new­found free­dom to en­joy all the base urges she’d been de­nied made her dizzy. She thought she might faint.

  Li­don tugged Cas­sidy to lie across his thighs. His erec­tions poked her hip, let­ting her know his an­tic­i­pa­tion matched hers. He ca­ressed her but­tocks, his hand warm on the soft, trem­bling mounds.

  “Such a gift, my love,” he whis­pered, the other hand set­tling be­tween her shoul­ders, pin­ning her down. “You are more than I ever dared to hope for. A true trea­sure which I will al­ways cher­ish.”

  His palm struck her rump with a meaty smack. Cas­sidy jerked at the first strike, feel­ing the sting with acute sen­si­tiv­ity. Then the blows came with clock­work pre­ci­sion, warm­ing her quickly, and she gasped with min­gled pain and arousal. The heat of the spank­ing ra­di­ated through­out her nether re­gions, and she con­cen­trated all her at­ten­tion on the sweet­ness of the sen­sa­tion.

  Li­don’s thighs were slick be­neath her as her juices flowed. He was metic­u­lous with the dis­ci­pline. He gave ev­ery inch of her bot­tom harsh at­ten­tion, spread­ing the pun­ish­ment evenly over her well-padded flesh. His big hand bore down on her again and again, and she smiled through her tears to be so well chas­tised.

  The burn­ing of Cas­sidy’s flesh made her writhe. Her hips jerked to meet his blows even as she wished the spank­ing to end so he might fill the aching empti­ness of her womb. She’d never known pain could spark such plea­sure.

  “Shall I stop?” Li­don asked, not paus­ing with the de­li­cious tor­ment.

  He was giv­ing Cas­sidy con­trol to di­rect him. He was hers to com­mand, though she wasn’t in­clined to rule him. No, in sex­ual mat­ters she pre­ferred the clan’s dom­i­na­tion. Their con­fi­dent strength had se­duced her in the end along with her in­abil­ity to deny their wants. She wanted them to con­tinue to be strong for her. She had no de­sire to dic­tate to Li­don, no or­ders to is­sue.

  Ex­cept…

  “Do as you wish,” she sobbed, her back­side roast­ing from his at­ten­tions. “Take all you want, what­ever you want.”

  The spank­ing ended im­me­di­ately. “On the bed. On all fours,” the Nobek de­manded. She clam­bered off his lap, ea­ger to do all he would com­mand. “Ass to­wards me.”

  Cas­sidy obeyed, her in­sides nearly melt­ing to feel him be­hind her, prob­ing her ori­fices with hard, ea­ger flesh. He slid in­side her, the larger or­gan spear­ing her tighter pas­sage. Her groan of wel­come min­gled with his an­i­mal snarl.

  Li­don took her hard and fast, his groin slap­ping against her sore back­side. Her heavy breasts swung like pen­du­lums from the strength of his tak­ing. She panted, the or­gasm com­ing at her at head­long speed. The Nobek grabbed a hand­ful of her hair, pulling her head back. He owned her. He owned her be­cause Cas­sidy said he could. Be­long­ing to Li­don made ev­ery­thing won­drous, even this vi­o­lent tak­ing.

  The Nobek’s bes­tial grunts and growls filled the air as he thud­ded hard against her, all con­trol thrown aside. What­ever civ­i­liza­tion Li­don had ever known was con­sumed by the purest of an­i­mal urges. An an­cient in­stinct took Cas­sidy over too, and she sur­ren­dered to the pri­mal need of her mate with­out co­her­ent thought.

  Cli­max swal­lowed her with wide-open jaws. She screamed as it ripped through her belly, and Li­don an­swered her with a roar. His fist tight­ened painfully in her hair for an in­stant, and he slammed against her, his sexes bat­ter­ing rams in her quak­ing flesh. Then the ten­sion fled from his body. The Nobek leaned over to cover her, his fin­gers trail­ing gen­tly through her tresses, ex­pos­ing her neck for light kisses.

  “My Matara,” Li­don said. He made a sound that re­sem­bled a sob.

  “My Nobek,” Cas­sidy replied, rel­ish­ing the words. Her arms gave out be­neath her.

  Chap­ter 15

  “Full stop,” Sim­dow or­dered. “This is as close as we can get with­out set­ting off the de­fense grid’s sen­sors, Cap­tain.”

  Tra­nis nod­ded, ab­sently scratch­ing one of the nearly healed cuts on his chest. De­gorsk’s medicine had done won­ders in the last two days. The Dramok would only carry a cou­ple of scars for the rest of his life. The itch­ing of re­gen­er­at­ing skin drove him crazy though. It was worse than the pain.

  “Show me the mag­netic sig­na­ture.”

  The main vid on the bridge switched from the di­ag­nos­tics on Earth’s de­fense grid to the de­tails of the por­tal. Tra­nis’ eyes widened. “Wow,” he said, Cas­sidy’s fa­vorite word when im­pressed. He thought it fit the oc­ca­sion.

  Some­one – Osopa maybe – snick­ered at the Earther ex­cla­ma­tion. Tra­nis ig­nored him. Af­ter all, he’d heard the man growl ‘pickle juice’ yes­ter­day. Osopa had been frus­trated in his strug­gle with the Earther food dis­pensers. The sub-com­man­der’s meal hadn’t in­cluded the sweet-tangy green wedges of pick­les that De­gorsk had dis­cov­ered a love for. Tra­nis had as­sumed Osopa was us­ing an Earther curse of some sort. Many crewmem­bers who now had Mataras were pick­ing up some strange ep­i­thets.

  Sim­dow wasn’t laugh­ing. He looked as wor­ried as Tra­nis felt. “It’s a dis­torted vor­tex por­tal, with mas­sive fluc­tu­a­tions in the mag­netic field. Us­ing it would cause in­ter­mit­tent loss of power and huge com­mu­ni­ca­tions lapses. Even a ship this size would ric­o­chet off the edges like a kur­ble ball in a fluxor tube.”

  “Not a com­fort­able trip,” Tra­nis ac­knowl­edged. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one this un­sta­ble. Time from en­trance to exit?”

  “Half an hour.”

  “Worth the rough ride to take out sev­eral days’ travel. Us­ing it will al­low us to skip Earth’s in­ner sys­tem de­fenses, though there’s no telling what they’ve got set up on the other side of that thing. Con­tinue data down­load and trans­mit all find­ings to the in­va­sion fleet.”

  “Yes, Cap­tain.”

  “It’s up to your team now, Li­don.” Tra­nis turned to his clan­mate.

  The Nobek was giv­ing the three read­outs in front of him all his at
­ten­tion. His fin­gers flew over the com­puter con­trols on the con­sole he manned. “Half the se­cu­rity codes are cracked. We’ll have all of them be­fore the fleet gets here.”

  “It’s com­ing fast now.”

  “Once Records Of­fi­cer Vadef fig­ured out each piece of the code was en­crypted sep­a­rately but with sim­i­lar pro­to­cols, the dif­fer­ence was made.”

  Tra­nis al­lowed him­self a smile. “Tell him I said good work, Com­man­der.”

  Li­don shot him a quick glance. He didn’t re­turn the smile, but Tra­nis could tell he was pleased. “Con­grat­u­late us when we have all of it. I es­ti­mate an­other five days.”

  “Sim­dow, con­tact the in­va­sion fleet with the cur­rent time­line for grid breach.”

  The first of­fi­cer’s ex­cite­ment at their en­croach­ing suc­cess erased his con­cerns about the por­tal. “Do you think they’ll en­gage the outer perime­ter soon, Cap­tain?”

  Tra­nis thought about the bat­tle his planet’s mil­i­tary would have to fight just to get to them. More loss, more death for both sides. If the in­va­sion failed, the war would be over. Kalquor wouldn’t have enough men to do more than de­fend the Em­pire af­ter this. They would throw ev­ery­thing they had in the at­tempt to cap­ture Earth.

  He gave no in­di­ca­tion of the grim sit­u­a­tion to his young crew. In­stead he told Sim­dow, “If it were up to me, I’d be­gin fight­ing im­me­di­ately. It’s al­most a week’s jour­ney be­tween where they are now and here.”

  One week, Tra­nis thought, a chill shud­der­ing down his spine at the sud­den re­al­iza­tion. One week un­til his race’s sur­vival was de­ter­mined, one way or the other.

  * * * *

  De­gorsk frowned as he fed Cas­sidy her din­ner: a ham­burger patty, green beans and a sweet potato. To serve her the ready-made food that the dis­pensers spit out meant a host of un­fa­mil­iar preser­va­tives he didn’t like the thought of her eat­ing. Not only that, but he couldn’t hide any drugs in them. He’d con­sulted cook­ing di­rec­tions in the kitchen’s com­puter banks and made an at­tempt to pre­pare the non-treated, freeze-dried Earther foods. Nei­ther the smell nor the ap­pear­ance re­as­sured him that he’d done any bet­ter than what the Earther food banks of­fered. He sighed and cut around the black­ened parts of his ef­forts.

 

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