Alien Interludes

by Tracy St. John

  “Has he alowed others to undergo the procedure?”

  “Only two. Their circumstances were extreme.”

  “In what way?”

  “Both had been molested and raped repeatedly as children. Their abusers were caught in these acts, and the girls were sentenced to life imprisonment under Earth’s morality laws. Their youth was taken into account so they weren’t mutilated or placed in the work camps, where they would have died in a matter of months.”

  “By the ancestors,” Lidon swore. “Innocent children being punished because of the actions of others!”

  Degorsk nodded. “They continued to suffer terribly in detention. They were seen as ‘ruined’ because of the rapes. Once incarcerated, their guards apparently continued the abuse.” Cassidy blinked back tears. She couldn’t imagine the horror those two girls, and who knew how many others, had suffered. “So they were a real mess, I suppose?” Her Imdiko sighed. “They’d never known any joy in living. These young women grew to adulthood in a kind of hel I don’t even want to contemplate. They’d both made multiple suicide attempts, and neither had anything close to sanity left to them. So Govi alowed Kivokan to erase their entire identities, taking away al the memories of their pasts.” Cassidy swalowed. “I guess in those cases, it was for the best,” she said.

  “I suppose.”

  “You don’t sound terribly certain,” Tranis prodded gently.

  “They’re very happy now,” Degorsk said slowly. “Wel adjusted with their new identities. No sign of trauma whatsoever, and one has joined a clan. She’s due to have her first child in the second quarter.

  So yes, I’l concede in their cases it was probably the best solution. But when they first came out of the procedure, they were so … blank. Souless.” Cassidy felt him shudder next to her. “And that’s what wil happen to the general if Kivokan gets his way?” Degorsk nodded. Tranis and Lidon looked as grim as he did.

  “Wil I get a chance to make a plea on his behalf? As his last living relative?”

  “You prefer he’s executed?” Tranis asked.

  Their food arrived then. Cassidy looked at the Mexican dishes, and her favorites smeled as wonderful as she remembered. Someone who ate for comfort as much as to stave off hunger, she grabbed a nacho chip loaded with beef, refried beans, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole.

  Chewing morosely, barely tasting the delicious food, she thought hard about her grandfather’s fate. Execution was final. It was the martyr’s death Hamilton thought he deserved for ‘saving’ most of humanity from sin. If a sentence of death was carried out by the Kalquorians or the Dantovonians, it would be a long, horrific, and bloody affair. The Kalquorians believed in an eye for an eye, and to their way of thinking, Hamilton owed hugely for bilions of innocent lives. For the population of Dantovon, execution was just another form of entertainment. They would draw out Hamilton’s demise as long as possible for tourist dolars. They were campaigning hard to get the chance, offering a percentage of the proceeds to the survivors of Armageddon.

  Cassidy despised her grandfather, for both what he’d done to Earth as wel as what he’d done to her personaly. But she quailed at the thought of anyone, even someone as evily deranged as Hamilton, dying under either circumstance.

  Now there was this mind wipe issue. Thanks to her grandfather, she’d had a taste of losing a piece of herself through brainwashing. Hamilton had supplanted the horror of Cassidy seeing her mother raped.

  He’d erased the memory of Cassidy kiling the man who had done it. In his version her mother had invited her downfal, had seduced her stalker into a carnal encounter before kiling him. Hamilton’s efforts had led Cassidy to testify at her mother’s trial, sending Jacquelyn Hamilton to prison where she was tortured and eventualy kiled for her sins.

  While rediscovering her true memories of that horrific evening had shredded her heart with pain and guilt, Cassidy had also regained the mother she’d loved, the mother who’d sacrificed everything to save Cassidy from a terrible fate. She’d no sooner have her memories lost again than cut off her own arm.

  And to imagine completely losing what her life had been, the good and the bad … Cassidy thought she might wel invite an eternity of torment rather than have that happen. It was a fate that left her frozen inside. A fate her grandfather faced.

  I should have killed him myself when I had the chance. I shouldn’t have let my clan talk me out of it.

  Cutting his throat seemed so much more humane than his other options.

  “‘The brute who destroys without conscience invites his own destruction. He welcomes it with open arms,’” Lidon quoted from the Kalquorian Book of Life. “General Hamilton has brought justice upon himself, my pet. Leave him to his deserved destiny.”

  “Easier said than done,” Tranis observed. “Is your food not good, Cassidy?”

  “It’s excelent,” she answered, taking another laden chip. And it was. To taste Earth food again was a treat, especialy since it wasn’t the healthy fare Degorsk usualy insisted on. But the sentences hanging over the general’s head were stealing the pleasure from her meal.

  “I wish you had listened to me and not alowed her to attend the trial,” Lidon growled. He tore into his food as if to take out his anger on it.

  “I needed to be here. And stop treating me like a child, old man.” When her Nobek stared at her with fury, Cassidy gave him a slow wink. Over fifty years separated them, and though Lidon was stil young for a Kalquorian she loved to tease him about the age disparity.

  “You little—” he started before erupting in laughter.

  Cassidy grinned. Lidon didn’t laugh often, but when he did it lit up his whole face. Chuckling, he leaned over to give her a spicy-flavored kiss. “I’l remember that,” he warned, deviltry filing his blue-purple eyes.

  “I certainly hope so,” Cassidy deadpanned, her stomach going fluttery inside. She loved receiving discipline at the warrior’s hands as much as he enjoyed dishing it out. She wasn’t sure why a good open-handed spanking lit her internal fires, but she’d reached the point of not caring either.

  Just like that, the tension at the table eased. Degorsk and Tranis shook their heads, snickering. Cassidy’s appetite returned ful force, and she put concerns about her grandfather aside to enjoy her meal.

  She ate until she thought her guts would split.

  * * * *

  Later that night Cassidy sighed over her physics studies. She’d brought her instruction with her to the Galactic Council station even though she’d been sure she wouldn’t be able to concentrate on a single thing during the trial. She’d been glad to be proved wrong. Science and math work had been a welcome escape each day when court adjourned, and rather than fal behind while she was off Kalquor, she’d actualy moved ahead of her tutors’ schedules until one, her math instructor Dramok Pentyr, had suggested she take some time off.

  Cassidy loved her studies. Her inteligence scores and scientific aptitudes were such that various biology and physics teams on Kalquor were already vying for her to join their departments once she’d finished general instruction. She had her pick of groups to do her practical application internship with, and her clan was very proud of their Matara. She prayed she would never let them down.

  But tonight the thought of her grandfather’s fate had returned to haunt her. The clan had never answered her question as to whether or not the court would hear a plea on Hamilton’s behalf from her. And even if they would, what would she ask for? The merciful execution he didn’t deserve? The slow, painful slaughter the Kalquorians and so many Earthers demanded but turned her stomach? Or the erasure of his identity, leaving the husk but not the soul of the man?

  So many questions. No clear answers.

  Her religion, a hybrid version of the three older faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, demanded an eye for an eye. Lidon’s beliefs, which he quoted often but never forced on anyone, pretty much said the same. She agreed justice needed to be served on behalf of so many dead. Cassidy just wishe
d she knew what form that justice should take. Praying on the matter had given her no insight.

  She finaly gave up on her scholastic exercises. She couldn’t concentrate. Cassidy glanced at the other corner of the smal room the clan had designated as her and Degorsk’s study space. Like hers, Degorsk’s area had a table and seat. Soothing tones drifted through the room which the Kalquorian said helped him relax and focus. Cassidy tended to tune it out entirely. The Imdiko hunched over his own vid, deep in making comments and observations on several cases his study group were involved in. He was making strides in his new field, and Govi had guaranteed Degorsk a spot on his team when his internship was completed. Degorsk loved the chalenge of healing broken spirits even more than his former career of healing broken bodies.

  Cassidy queled the urge to walk over, undo the long, thick plait of hair lying down his back, and kiss him to arousal. He was intent on his work. Suppressing a sigh of longing, she left the room quietly.

  Tranis was busy speaking on the vid com in the main sitting room of their temporary quarters, no doubt conducting business as an admiral of Kalquor’s military space fleet. Despite her extreme inteligence, Cassidy had found learning her new home’s language difficult. She was definitely geared more towards the math and sciences than language, and her ability to speak Kalquorian was halting at best. She could pick up a word or two of Tranis’ vid conference, but he spoke too fast to make out much. From the grim set of his mouth, it probably had something to do with the smal but growing threat of trouble from the few Earther ships stil fighting the long lost war or the dissenting Kalquorians who didn’t want the two races mixing and had made a few raids against outposts in protest. Bloodshed continued, though thankfuly on a far smaler scale.

  She went instead to the bedroom they al shared. The quarters, decorated in soothing sapphire and gray tones, were specificaly geared to a ful Kalquorian clan. The soft sleeping mat took up most of the room, leaving little space for anything else. Lidon had found just enough room in one corner to set up his altar, which he now sat cross legged on the floor before, his eyes closed in meditation. His thick copy of the Book of Life lay open before him.

  Cassidy didn’t love the warrior-philosopher any more than the other two men, but she did feel a deeper connection to him. Lidon was many things to her: the exacting disciplinarian, the instructive mentor, the spiritual guide, and of course her beloved mate. Despite her youth and naivety, he never made her feel stupid or that her opinion didn’t matter. In fact, he seemed to weigh her words with as much seriousness as he did the other two members of their clan.

  She stood motionless in the doorway, looking over the sleek black hair and the strong and handsome face. His loose, white tunic and pants did little to hide the muscular perfection of her fierce but fair Nobek. Lidon knew she was there, of course. His eyes slid open and he looked over at her with a slight smile.

  “I’m disturbing you,” she said.

  “Not at al. But I thought you had set aside this time for studying.”

  “I can’t concentrate.”

  He stood, not at al as fluid as Tranis or Degorsk, but getting to his feet quickly nevertheless. Cassidy swalowed, looking at him. He was like a barbarian god of war, animal violence kept at bay only by the grace of a shrewd mind. Lidon was a scarred and savage beauty, much like a hunting tiger.

  He approached slowly, his limp better than it had been earlier in the day. “The trial is bothering you.”

  “Not the trial. The general was found guilty as he should have been. It’s the sentence that has my head in a muddle.” Lidon took her into his arms, letting her burrow into the shelter of his chest. “My Matara, it is out of your hands now. ‘Despair not over that which you can exert no control over.’ He must face his justice, however horrible you may find it.”

  “I know. But this memory wipe … it realy, realy feels wrong.”

  Lidon kissed the top of her head. “Of course it does. You suffered a lighter version of it, so naturaly you’re going to have issues with it.” Cassidy raised her face so he could kiss her lips as wel, which he did with great expertise. Clean, lovely lust warmed her bely just as his mouth warmed hers. She dove into it, but anxiety nibbled at the back of her mind no matter how hard she rubbed against her mate.

  “Get these worries out of my head,” she begged when the kiss ended.

  Her eager gyrations had aroused Lidon, and he gave her a bestial grin. “Gladly,” he growled, making her insides tumble with nervous desire.

  Lidon yanked her clothes off with rough hands, the way he knew she liked it with him. Cassidy whimpered, feeling divine helplessness as he exposed her lushly curved body. When the Nobek brought out his hover cuffs, she trembled but offered her wrists without hesitation. Feeling them clamped over her flesh turned her wet. Lidon barked a command in his own language, and the hover cuffs lifted into the air, taking her with them, until she hung a foot off the ground, almost at eye level with the Nobek.

  Completely at his mercy, knowing he had none, Cassidy stared into his cat-slitted eyes, gone dark with feral desire. His respiration came fast, and his cocks strained the crotch of his pants.

  “My Matara needs discipline, doesn’t she?” he growled.

  A bolt of arousal shot through Cassidy. She bowed her head, looking at his big, strong hands, hands that delivered the most exquisite pleasure and pain she’d ever known. “Yes, my Nobek,” she whispered.

  Liquid fire gushed from her as he stepped around to her side, placing one of those paws on her mound. He pinned her clitoris between two fingers and rubbed back and forth, making her cry out immediately with sharp arousal. His other hand smacked hard against her buttocks, sending a wash of heat through her to join the burning need of her sex.

  Again and again Lidon spanked her wel-rounded rear, never losing his rhythm as he simultaneously rubbed her clit. Cassidy’s cries rebounded off the wals as agony and delight warred for supremacy. Her world shrunk to the conflagration of passion and punishment, the two sensations swirling around each other, vying for her attention. She jerked helplessly in the cuffs, unable to defend herself from the harsh discipline and exquisite stimulation of her Nobek’s work.

  Lidon was a master of both realms. The tyrannical hand that slapped her vulnerable buttocks left not one inch of the quivering flesh untouched. He spanked her thoroughly, making sure every part of her hindquarters stung with equal torment. Meanwhile, his fingers kept her clit caged between them, slipping back and forth through her drowning wetness, occasionaly rubbing his thumb over her engorged clit to make Cassidy kick the air with desperate need.

  “Stop, Lidon! Please!” she begged.

  As she’d known he would he only chuckled, his fangs extended as he enjoyed her helpless pleas. He spanked her harder, and Cassidy’s pussy clenched with reaction. The pain was changing, transmuting into pure intense sensation. Lidon was absolutely capable of bringing her to orgasm this way.

  “My Nobek! I beg you!”

  He growled, low and continuous, feeding off her powerlessness every bit as eagerly as she did. They both knew Cassidy didn’t want him to let up at al. Lidon’s complete dominance over her was what they were both after. Had Cassidy truly wanted him to stop, al she had to do was say it in Kalquorian.

  She was nowhere near saying sholt. Not with climax closing in hard and fast.

  Cassidy’s cries were continuous, and she kicked and twisted against her bonds as the spanking peppered her backside faster and faster until she couldn’t tel where one strike ended and the next began.

  Lidon’s other hand worked her furiously, making her guts seize in a spasm that wound tighter and tighter, doubling in knots until crescendo loomed huge and undeniable. She shrieked her Nobek’s name, as if it was the magic word that would open the floodgates of release.

  Lidon answered by ending the spanking and releasing her pleasure button. Cassidy hung on the precipice for an endless eternity, poised for the fal. Then the hand that had delivered so much pleasure to her
sex slapped once, twice against her clit. The sharp reports filed her ears and the stinging ecstasy slammed her ful tilt into orgasm.

  She arched in the air, her scream pouring from her wide open mouth as starlight burst blindingly throughout her body. Molten elation seemed to erupt from every pore, pulsing in rending throbs from her sex to her toes and fingertips.

  Before the convulsion had finished washing through her body, Lidon was naked in front of her, his growl filing her ears. He thrust into her pussy with both cocks, hard and deep, the combined pain and delight sending her into another paroxysm of passion. His powerful hands held her straining hips stil for his frantic rhythm, the double thicknesses of him rubbing the cluster of nerves inside her sleeve that felt best. Cassidy exploded yet again.

  Al rational thought ceased to exist. There was only the insanity of physical exaltation, bilowing wide to tear her to shreds. It was agonized pleasure, cresting over and over with no end in sight. She couldn’t see the man whose body pounded into hers, couldn’t hear his panted snarls. Cassidy only knew the massive velvet steel that fed her loins until they burst, and then fed them over capacity again. She thought she might die in the clutches of such merciless bliss.

  Then a howl broke through, and the tireless friction within stuttered, stopped, started, stopped and started again. The flesh within hers pulsed hugely, feeding her its life fluid in unfurling ribbons of heat.

  Cassidy gasped for breath, feeling the cuffs at her wrists once more, her weight hanging from her arms, the firm muscled body of her Nobek, his arms wrapped about her waist. His chest heaved against hers as his cocks jerked a few more times inside her sheath.

  “Everyone al right in here?” came Degorsk’s amused voice from the doorway.

  Cassidy and Lidon each mumbled something uninteligible but affirmative. The Imdiko’s chuckle was joined by Tranis’. Cassidy wondered how much of the encounter they had watched.

  Lidon took her down and put her to bed a few minutes later. She fel asleep almost instantly, never once thinking of her grandfather.