With a swallow Simdow replied, "I believe we should transfer all personnel and the data banks to the Earther transport, destroy this ship to keep it out of enemy hands, and continue with our mission."
The young man waited, his expression hinting at only a little of his nervousness. Tranis gave him a nod. "Excellent. Give the order, Simdow. The task is yours to command."
Simdow relaxed, even smiled a little. As he began the preparations to abandon the spy ship, Tranis used his private channel to call Lidon.
"Captain Tranis to Weapons Commander Lidon."
"Lidon here, Captain. It's good to hear your voice."
They spoke in Kalquorian, but Cassidy looked at Tranis when Lidon's voice emerged from his personal com unit. A slight smile warmed her expression. Tranis was beginning to entertain real hope they might win the Earther's bruised heart.
"Our ship is dead, Lidon. We're transferring operations to the transport, along with all personnel and prisoners on Europa. Coordinate security for the transfer and assign a detail to take charge of the Earther general."
"I'll take care of him myself." Lidon's voice lifted, a sure sign of good feeling. "I have news for you."
"Let's have it."
"I've broken a few more codes. I know where the entrance to the Bermuda Triangle portal is. It's only two days' journey from here on the other side of the security grid."
Tranis' heart leapt. "Excellent job, Lidon. I'm glad to know I won't have to take the information from our Matara."
"How is she?"
Tranis thought of Cassidy's nightmare, of her continued pain. "She's as good as one can hope for a woman in her situation. I'll see you soon. Tranis out."
Cassidy and Degorsk joined him. "Those Tragooms sure made a mess out of your ship," she observed. "Almost as bad as what they did to you."
"Worse, actually," he answered, taking her hand despite being on duty and surrounded by a large number of his crew. To hell with protocol. "The ship is dead. We're going to use the Earther transport instead."
"I'd better get to Medical and pack up," Degorsk said. "Then we'll work on our quarters."
"Can I help?" Cassidy asked.
"Thank you." Degorsk eyed Tranis. "No lifting, Captain. Doctor's orders."
"Matara's orders too." Cassidy squeezed his hand, making Tranis smile. He bowed his head in assent.
"As you command."
* * * *
Cassidy found she wasn't much help to the Kalquorians when it came to packing up sick bay. They were too fast and too organized for her to keep up. In the end, she sat to one side, out of everyone's way.
When Degorsk had finished directing his staff and finalizing how they would set up on board the Earther transport, she went with him back to the clan's quarters. Lidon was there with Tranis. For a wonder, the captain was behaving himself, sitting on the bed while Lidon carefully packed objects from his altar in a container. Cassidy sat down next to Tranis, who kissed her. She felt relief that his color had returned. The bruising had already begun to fade. She'd heard Kalquorian medicine was far advanced of Earth's, and Tranis was proof of it.
Lidon lifted his altar, exposing a mold of - Cassidy gaped - someone's buttocks? The Nobek snickered and showed it to Degorsk. "I suppose you want this back."
"My ass!"
Tranis laughed, grabbing his stomach as if the hilarity hurt. "I knew you wanted to keep his ass all to yourself. Greedy Nobek."
Lidon's back was to Cassidy, but his shoulders shook, letting her know he was laughing too. "As you said, it's a very nice one."
Cassidy couldn't contain her shock. She stared at the sculpture, disbelieving her eyes. "Why do you have that?"
Tranis answered, still chuckling. "One of his jokes. Degorsk thinks it irritates us to have it hanging on the wall."
Degorsk grinned. "Our clanmates are so serious all the time, precious girl. Haven't you noticed? A little humor is needed to combat the rampant somberness around here."
Tranis couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "You might not laugh if you saw the attention Lidon gives it when you're not around."
Lidon caressed the mold to underscore the Dramok's words, his expression lascivious. Degorsk snatched it from him.
"Get your hands off my butt."
That prompted more laughter from Tranis. He winced at the effect on his battered insides.
Cassidy looked at the three men, trying to wrap her mind around what they intimated. It had to be a joke. But when Lidon patted Degorsk's real backside with affection and the medic shot a warm smile at him before putting the sculpture in a padded container, she grew more suspicious.
"You're not serious. I mean you three don't - don't -"
She couldn't finish the question. They looked at her, bland patience removing the hilarity. Her stomach squirmed as she saw the truth in their eyes. "But it's a sin! The worst possible!"
Tranis moved so his body touched hers. "Cassidy, there are only a very few women of our species left on Kalquor. I can count the number of Kalquorian women I've met on my hands, and three of those were our mothers." He brushed a lock of hair from her cheek. "Our needs are great, and we can't always deny ourselves the warmth of another body. For us, it's unnatural, even impossible to deny our urges."
Degorsk sat on the other side of her, taking up her hand to press to his lips. "There are those who prefer to be with their own sex. I say prefer, but choice doesn't enter into it. It's encoded in their genes. For the rest of us who favor females, we still have the need for intimate pleasures and must accept what we can find."
Lidon added, "We do what we must and count ourselves fortunate that our bond is so strong."
She struggled with that. "Are you in love with each other?"
"We are clan," Tranis said, as if that explained all. When she stared at him, he said, "Ours is not an arranged clanning. We are together by choice."
"It's a family unit with extra advantages," Degorsk supplied. "There is the respect, concern, and yes, the love one shares with family."
Cassidy sat quiet for a little while, absorbing the startling information. There was no shame whatsoever in their attitudes. They accepted the arrangement as if it was the most natural thing in the universe.
Without women, it probably is. Some of the illegal books claim that homosexuality and bisexuality were once accepted on parts of Earth, before the Word became law. In some of the societies, men were allowed to marry men; women married women.
She thought hard about it. There was no doubt in her mind the men of her clan truly cared for one another. Was their relationship such a terrible thing when it was forged from real love, or did her difficulty with such ideas mindlessly stem from the dictates of the Church?
Cassidy spoke with deliberation to let them know she was working hard to understand. "You have to realize, this is complicated for me to wrap my mind around. My people have long had problems with the morality of same sex liaisons. The current religion was formed from three earlier ones: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. All of those beliefs spoke out against such relationships. They were an abomination to God, Yahweh, and Allah."
"'Better to clan the beloved who is hateful to others than to clan the hateful, though he be beloved of others'," Lidon intoned.
Degorsk nodded. "Even under the threat of torture and execution, your people still pursue their natural urges. Even when those urges mean sex with their own gender."
"I've never known any of those people."
The three men exchanged looks. Cassidy could feel them weighing something of importance, trying to determine if they should speak.
"What? Did you discover something about the nuns or aspirants?" None of her spying had ever hinted that anything untoward went on at the convent.
Degorsk's voice was so quiet she strained to hear. "Cassidy, your grandfather is no stranger to this supposed sin of lying with men."
She stared at him. "That's not possible."
He squeezed her hand, his demeanor as gentle as if he'd
just delivered news of the death of a loved one. "I examined him myself to determine his ability to be questioned. My examination was extremely thorough to be sure his health was not compromised in any way before he was subjected to our interrogation methods. The signs were there. He'd recently engaged in sexual intercourse with another man, maybe the very day we captured him."
A sense of unreality washed over her. The man who'd admonished her every waking minute they were together to fight impure thoughts and desires? General Patrick Hamilton, who prayed louder and went to Church services more often than anyone else she knew? He'd turned to men when there were so many women on Earth who would gladly accept his proposal if offered?
At least the Kalquorians, so close to extinction, had an excuse for their same sex encounters.
That thought prompted another terrible idea, and she stared at Tranis. "Did you-?"
His cat's eyes widened. "Absolutely not. Your grandfather has not been touched by us in that way." The disgust in his voice rang true.
"I can't believe he would do such a thing. He's so devout, so determined to punish sinners."
"'The greater the transgression, the louder the distraction.'" Lidon tapped his holy book before carefully packing it away.
"I'm sorry you had to learn the truth like this." Degorsk held her close, and she let him. She felt she might fly apart without his arms around her.
"It's as if everything I've been told is a lie," she whispered.
Lidon drew close. "What can we do to make you feel better, my pet?"
Cassidy's world was crumbling, and she didn't think she could bear it. The shaky foundations that had made her feel so unworthy were all she knew, and they had fallen, taking her with them. What was right, and what was wrong? She no longer knew and couldn't even begin to find her way in the encroaching darkness.
Her lips pressed grimly together, she said, "Make me not care. Even if it's temporary, I don't want to care for a little while."
Lidon's bite came with such swiftness she never felt his fangs pierce her skin. She dove into the euphoria of intoxication, drowning in it until there was only lust's sweet craving.
Cassidy clutched at each one, begging with hands and mouth to be taken all at once, as if daring the heavens to strike her down for her sin. The three men were eager to give her what she wanted, filling every sweet passage with their need. Lidon was in front of her, moving like silk within her sex. Tranis crouched behind, stretching her tightest passage. Degorsk stood over the kneeling trio, his hand cupped over the top of her head as she tasted him with erotic cannibalism.
They moved as one heaving beast within her, and she immersed herself in the sensation of being possessed completely. Right or wrong no longer mattered; only the joy of enclosing them in her body made sense. Beyond judgment, she closed her eyes, concentrating on Lidon's chest pressing her breasts flat, the strength of his manhood as it stabbed deep into her womb, their combined wetness making soft, moist sounds as he slipped back and forth.
Tranis moved slow and careful but with assured thrusts into her rear entry. The pleasure of him there was of a thick, rich quality, adding to the intense passion sweeping her body. Cassidy's hips rocked, now taking Lidon deeper, now moving back to immerse Tranis in her warmth. Meanwhile, Degorsk slipped in and out of her mouth, and she rubbed her tongue against the pounding vein on the underside of his length, his groans a sweet melody to her ears.
I wish Grandfather could see me now, the hateful old hypocrite!
There was no anger in the thought, only delight in the knowledge he had no right to judge her anymore. In her inebriated state, she felt true freedom for the first time. There was no need to fear his condemnation, not when he was condemned himself.
Cassidy held nothing back in her enjoyment of the men. She worked to please herself as much as them, sucking and licking with profound ardor on Degorsk's cinnamon-y sweet larger staff while her hand worked the smaller. She ground her hips in tight circles, sparking thrills of elation in her loins as Lidon and Tranis touched every sensitive nerve of her inner anatomy. Feeling as if heaven itself was in her reach, she rose and fell on the tide of their passionate momentum, glorying in wanton abandon. Cassidy shamelessly pursued rapturous bliss, and when she captured its starlight burst, she stretched to grasp it again. Greedily claiming all she could, all she'd been denied in the name of righteousness, she carried the men with her, absorbing their expulsions like a sponge.
Later, as their breathing returned to normal and the intoxication faded, Cassidy locked eyes with Tranis. "Do you remember what you told me last time we were together?" she asked.
He didn't pause. "I remember."
"Did you mean it?"
"Yes. I love you."
"As do I."
"And I."
The affirmations came without hesitation from all three. Cassidy bowed her head against Tranis' chest and wept.
?
Chapter Fourteen
The moment Cassidy boarded the shuttle taking them from the crippled spy ship to the Earther transport, she stopped short. Her grandfather sat at the back of the passenger cabin, naked and strapped to a seat. Two Nobeks sat on either side of him, holding stun prods.
The intoxicant from Lidon's bite had long faded, and she trembled with rage at the sight of the general. His eyes widened to see her, clad only in the thin, clinging fabric of her underdress.
"Are you still pure?" he shouted.
She had no chance to reply as Lidon moved with breathtaking speed to stand over Hamilton. "You will be silent," he said over the chorus of growls from the guarding Nobeks. Then he whispered something Cassidy couldn't hear, and her grandfather actually cringed in response. She'd never seen him afraid of anything. His often proclaimed assertion, "True believers in the word of God have nothing to fear" rang in her memory.
Lidon turned and stalked back to the clan. Hamilton lifted his gaze once more to Cassidy. Tranis chose that moment to snake his arm around her, pulling her close to himself. He sent a nasty grin to the general.
"Let's sit down Cassidy. You too, Captain," Degorsk urged, pushing them both towards seats where they could sit with their backs to Hamilton.
Tranis sat on one side of her, and Degorsk on the other. Cassidy could still feel her grandfather's eyes on her, burning her like the flames of Hell. Taking her anger out on Tranis, she whispered to him, "Do you have to use me like that to get what you want from my grandfather?"
He was instantly contrite. "I'm sorry I upset you. I didn't do it in an effort to antagonize information from the general."
"Don't wave me in front of him like a piece of bait, Tranis. It's beneath you."
"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."
Two more clans came onto the shuttle, bringing 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, sitting 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 she again felt the tickle of freedom that their love and protection gave. Her clan couldn't grant her liberty from her conviction that what she did with them was a sin. That was between her and God. Yet they'd gifted her with independence from Earth's unfair judgment. How could the fallible human government, peopled by men who hid their sins, tell her she couldn't love three aliens? To be married to them and bear their children?
And how dare her grandfather, with his greater transgressions, find her virtue wanting!
Even if joining Tran
is' clan damned her in the afterlife, she'd 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 took 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."
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. The captain's daughter, she surmised. No doubt now worrying over why her overdue parent hadn't returned from his latest trip.
Alien Conquest Page 15
