Chapter Two
Niki was so weak kneed when he set her on her feet again she had to lock her knees to keep from settling in a puddle on the floor as she had before.
“What’s happening?” her navigator whispered loudly.
The man who’d picked her up—and he did look like a man even though she was as sure as she wanted to be that he wasn’t—glanced sharply toward Beth.
Niki shook her head in warning.
When the giant alien holding her stopped speaking, apparently into a communications device, he herded her and her crew—the only ones, so far, that had been awakened—into the storage area just beyond the pod bay.
Still weak and washed out from the sleep pod, and further physical distress because of the invasion, Niki picked a spot on the floor and sat down. The rest of her crew settled close to her, stealing wide eyed, terrified glances at the aliens.
They hadn’t been waiting long before the remainder of the group returned. A conversation ensued—a report, she was sure.
One was posted at the door to watch them and then the others disappeared into the ship again.
Niki wasn’t sure if the guard might react violently if she spoke or not, but she decided to try it.
“I think we should focus on trying to remain calm.”
Amy stared at her like she’d grown another head.
“Do you think they mean to kill us?” Beth asked shakily.
Niki chewed her lip. “They could have already,” she pointed out.
“If we could get to the weapons …,” Jenna whispered.
Niki considered it and reluctantly discarded it. “That group that left to search the ship very likely got them.”
“We don’t know that,” Annette pointed out.
“Shut up!” the guard bellowed abruptly, making all of them jump.
Ok, so there was a definite limit to what they would be allowed—at least at the moment.
And it could well be their last moments.
Niki hated like hell going down without a fight, but she didn’t see a high probability of getting to fight.
And she doubted it would last more than five seconds—not much to show for the loss of her life.
The one that had grappled with her on the floor had been huge and heavy and too strong for her to have a fighting chance. She didn’t see anything to indicate any of the others were more than a shade or two different in terms of height and weight and most likely strength.
According to early speculation, people from a denser planet would be strong, but probably squat. People from a less dense planet would be tall and thin and probably weak compared to humans.
So somebody hadn’t figured out all of the factors and what effect they would have on evolving life because these bastards were bigger and stronger than humans and that just didn’t compute in her mind.
Not that she needed to understand. That wouldn’t help her.
They wouldn’t have had a chance of overcoming an army of men the size of Earth men. They were outnumbered. If they had outnumbered the invaders—which they would have if they’d all awakened—then—maybe.
As it was—not a snowball’s chance in hell.
They were screwed. There was just no getting around it.
If they were being taken prisoners—well, they might have some chance of survival, but she was having a really hard time trying to pull her wits together.
And what kind of survival were they looking at?
Unless she was really wildly mistaken—and they were aliens so anything was possible—he’d gotten a hard on for her.
Considering they looked like humans—she could see it.
Except they must be somewhere around seven foot—six and half to seven.
She banished the thought.
It came back.
Because rape was what men did—always had—everywhere—in this kind of situation—and she had a bad feeling that was a universal truth.
She remembered an old redneck ‘joke’ about you couldn’t rape a willing soul.
She thought they needed to brace themselves and work on willing. That might keep the aliens from beating them to death.
It might not.
But fighting sure as hell wasn’t going to win friends.
And there was no cavalry to call.
Nowhere to run to.
It made her more tense that she couldn’t try to convince her crew to cooperate—whatever happened—so that they had a chance. Granted, it was probably a really thin one, but she didn’t see anything else that they could do.
Of course, if any of the others thought of something doable she was all in.
They weren’t going to beat their guard down, race to the weapons locker and grab weapons and take the ship back. That was for damn sure.
And the one she thought was at least the leader of the group had been talking to someone that wasn’t on the ship, so that meant others—somewhere.
Maybe they were close to a planet?
They shouldn’t have been anywhere near one—unless they’d somehow gotten off course—or they’d reached their target and everything they’d thought they’d learned was wrong.
She didn’t have a clue, unfortunately.
She decided she didn’t believe it was the target planet that was their destination—the colony world they had picked out of hundreds as being their best chance—because there’d been no indication of a higher order of life forms.
Two hundred women and sperm donations from the most diverse group of males they’d tested to build a human settlement to give humans a fresh start—to put some of their eggs in another basket to preserve humanity.
Well that hadn’t fucking worked worth a damn!
But who would have thought there was anybody else out here?
Nobody but kooks!
* * * *
Jurik was more confused than enlightened by the time they had searched the ship from top to bottom. “There are no males on board. None,” he said to Taurin. “The hold is filled with things that appear to be nothing more than household items—as if they were traveling to a new home—nothing of any great value. There are weapons, but no males. And I cannot reconcile the suggestion that they were on their way to build new homes, a new colony, when there are no men with them. Do you think these are … warrior women? Or mayhap not women at all?”
Discomfort flickered through Taurin and then anger.
He had desired the woman. He refused to believe that his instincts could have led him totally astray. Granted, he could barely remember the women of his own world and the only females they had encountered since then were so bizarre he neither knew nor cared if they were females, but he had been all over the being he had captured and she had definitely felt like a woman.
“She has breasts—the kind for feeding young. They are not male breasts and I felt no cock.”
Jurik frowned unhappily, not as reassured as he would have liked to be. Although truth be told, he had no idea why it would matter to him one way or another. They belonged to the Delizo Empire.
“And I cannot see them as warriors. Granted, I do not recall the female warriors on our world as well as I would like, but …. I do know they were strong and muscular and nearly a match for the male warriors. I am convinced these tiny beings are not warriors—and not merely because of their size. They have no strength to fight. She was … soft all over.”
Jurik shrugged. “These weapons are more like the delizo weapons—not swords or axes or bows and arrows like we use. They could be trained to use them. They would not take much strength.”
“But you and I know that it takes far more to be a warrior than merely being able to wield a weapon,” Taurin said and shrugged, but he could not dismiss the uneasiness that Jurik had aroused in him. Coming to a decision, he crossed the space separating them and leaned down to grasp the woman he had captured by one arm, hauling her to her feet.
When he did, the other females leapt to their feet and started screaming—he had no
clue of what, if anything, they were saying. He bellowed at them to sit down but it was clear, as frightened as they were, that they were not easily cowed. Then the woman he was holding spoke to them in a low voice and they stared at her for a moment and reluctantly sat.
Annoyance flickered through him. He knew very well they could not understand him, but his tone alone should have made them quail.
They had refused until the woman told them to sit down.
And that suggested they were warriors, even though he had difficulty crediting it and that the woman he held was the leader.
Deciding to just ignore the females, he hauled the one he’d grabbed with him through the doorway and then looked around. Most of the men they had brought with them were there and he had no desire to examine her in a place where all could.
“There are other rooms beyond this one,” Jurik said.
Nodding, Taurin allowed Jurik to lead the way. He stopped when they had gone through the door at the other end.
“This is far enough.” Taurin released the woman. “Undress.”
She simply stared at him—which did not surprise him.
He plucked at her top and gestured for her to take it off.
She understood that. Her face turned red and she looked around as if she was considering flight. After a moment, however, she grasped the bottom edge of her top and peeled it off over her head.
When she had dropped it, he stared at her breasts for a long moment, swallowed with an effort and then, almost like a sleepwalker, he tugged at the bottom and made the same gesture.
She paled, glanced from him to Jurik and then back. After a moment’s hesitation, she peeled those down to her ankles and stepped out of them.
Taurin felt his mind go perfectly blank as he scanned her length and finally settled his gaze on her woman’s place.
She was … the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. To his mind, as perfectly formed as any creature he had ever looked upon
In the space of a moment the stunned amazement was usurped by a tidal wave of desire.
He wanted her so badly in that moment he could taste it.
And that was why he did not dare touch her, even when the urge to do so was so powerful he felt almost dizzy with it.
It almost seemed, for a moment, that it would be worth dying for.
Just one taste of something that could bring him pleasure and peace in a lifetime of bloodletting and fighting.
He shook the insane desire off with an effort, and motioned for her to turn.
“She is … definitely a woman,” Jurik said, his voice strained, almost hoarse.
Taurin had to fight the urge to examine her more closely. “I believe …. Unquestionably.”
“Mayhap they do not need men?” Jurik said questioningly.
“To … produce young? She has ….” If he touched her he thought they might have to kill him to get him off of her. Instead, he crouched and looked—from a distance.
Jurik crouched for a better look, as well.
Niki bit her lip, struggling with the insane amusement that wafted through her when it occurred to her that they were trying to figure out if she was a female.
Never could there have been a less appropriate moment to feel any sort of amusement for any reason.
And, really, it was insulting that they weren’t sure. She didn’t have a penis and she was certain they did. What could they be thinking? That she had one hidden down there?
It seemed inarguable that they had crouched to get a better look at her genitals.
She wasn’t showing them—just to appease their curiosity.
She damned well didn’t want to encourage their curiosity—whether it meant she was throwing away an opportunity she might regret later or not.
A wave of weakness washed through her when the one she thought was the leader met her gaze. Warmth followed it, an instinctual response to the desire she saw in his eyes, she thought—and then a chill of fear right behind that.
She was so relieved when he gestured to her to dress that she was shaking like a leaf and almost too weak to stand up when she grabbed her t-shirt and panties and struggled to get them on.
Instead of grabbing her as he had before when he had taken her out, he simply pointed her in the right direction and followed her.
She didn’t know what to make of that.
By the time she’d been returned to the others, though, she was downright scared—not relieved—that he had only looked her over.
It couldn’t have been desire she thought she’d seen. He wouldn’t even touch her afterward.
Even if there was some reason he hadn’t forced himself on her, that he wasn’t allowed to touch the ‘merchandise’, maybe, it seemed to her that, if he had desired her, he would have used the opportunity to grope her at least.
But maybe her problem was that she was attributing human behavior to beings that weren’t human?
Her crew looked relieved and she supposed that meant she hadn’t been gone long enough for them to figure he could’ve raped her.
It had seemed like a very long few minutes to her.
“What happened?” Beth whispered urgently.
“Did he question you?” Annette asked.
Niki gave the group an uncomfortable look. “They can’t understand us and we can’t understand them. It’s going to be hard for either of us to ask any questions and get any answers. I think we’ll just have to figure this out.”
“So what happened?” Jenna insisted.
Niki felt her face heat. “I think they were trying to decide if we were females or not. He made me strip so he could look at me.”
Amy gasped—from fear? Outrage? Or just shock?
“You aren’t serious?” Jenna said indignantly.
“I am serious, but I’m just guessing. I think they’re confused because they didn’t find any men on board.”
“Oh,” Beth said. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“So … we’re accepting that these men—who really look human to me—are aliens?” Beth asked.
Niki, Jenna, and Annette all gaped at her.
“Are you delusional?” Jenna growled.
“You think we just happened upon a stray ship from … someplace on Earth where the men grow really big?” Amy asked in disbelief.
Beth turned red as fire—a clear combination of anger and discomfort. “They look human,” she said tightly. “How could they look human and not be human? Aren’t the odds astronomical?”
“If we were somewhere else,” Niki said carefully, “I’d probably agree with that.”
“But we’re nowhere near Earth,” Jenna said tightly. “We folded space, remember? We are light years from Earth.”
“And the only other colony ship to leave Earth headed out in another direction entirely.”
“Besides,” Annette added, “I saw the men chosen for that mission. They damned well didn’t look like these gorgeous giants.”
That comment had everyone gaping at Annette.
“Gorgeous giants?” Jenna demanded. “You’re as off your rocker as Beth!”
Beth and Annette both gasped in outrage at the insult.
“Get a grip, people,” Niki growled in a low voice when the alien she was beginning to think of as her nemesis turned to look at them.
“What?” Annette hissed back at Jenna. “Because I’m not blind or dead from the waist down?”
Jenna looked for several moments as if she was considering choking the life out of Annette.
“That was cruel, Annette,” Niki responded, angry that Annette had at least seemed to be referring to Jenna’s grief. It was no one’s place to judge whether another person had grieved long enough or hard enough, or how they handled their grief. Guilt for living was pretty common, she knew, and if Jenna’s grief manifested in a refusal to enjoy happiness … well, it didn’t seem especially healthy, but it was nobody’s business but hers as long as it didn’t interfere with her work performance. And it hadn’t. “Ar
e we just going to tear each other apart, now?”
The comment clearly angered Annette more even though it also discomfited her. “She called me crazy … just because I voiced my opinion. I’m just as scared as everybody else, but I have eyes in my head. These guys are built like … some sports team—all lean, mean, fighting machine and the faces aren’t hard on the eyes either. In fact, I saw a couple that were damn fine looking.”
“The keyword, I think,” Jenna responded coldly, “is fighting machines. These guys look … like Attila the Hun—bloodthirsty barbarians.”
Nobody said anything for several moments.
“They do, actually,” Niki agreed. “That’s … well that’s been bothering me. Something just doesn’t seem to fit here.”
“Nothing fits here,” Beth said morosely. “There wasn’t supposed to be anyone out here. How the hell could we just ‘stumble’ across a half barbaric, half advanced technology group of pirate aliens way out here?”
“That look human but act like Attila the Hun?”
Niki frowned, wrestled for a moment with her impressions and finally decided to share. “Actually, I think, all things considered, they’ve been surprisingly … civilized.”
That time everyone gaped at Nikki.
“Civilized?” Beth gasped in disbelief. “When they invaded our ship?”
“You consider this civilized?” Amy asked.
Nikki tightened her lips in irritation. “Look at it from our perspective. If we’d caught somebody, potentially an enemy, in our airspace, we would shoot them out of the sky.”
“Except they obviously wanted the ship and its contents,” Jenna said dryly.
“But they haven’t slammed us around, have they? They didn’t instantly grab us when they discovered we were women and rape any of us. They haven’t since then.”
“It’s still early,” Beth said morosely.
Annette glared at her. “Thank you so much for being so positive when it really counts,” she growled.
Chapter Three
Taurin glanced toward the women again when his translator abruptly ‘decoded’ another word—the second so far, and not enough pieces of the puzzle to make any sense of it. He stopped the guard when he surged forward, as if he meant to approach them and silence them, shaking his head faintly.
Alien Warriors: Invasion Page 2
