Alien Breeders I:
Deep Penetration
By
Stacey St.James
(C) Copyright by Stacey St. James, June 2010
(C) Cover Art by Mariah LaMott, June 2013
ISBN 978-1-60394-795-4
Smashwords Edition
New Concepts Publishing
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.
Chapter One
There was something in the darkness, something terrifying. Emerald could feel its presence and her heart began to pound with the fear that grew in her along with the certainty that if she didn’t find a way to escape it, the evil thing would catch her. She glanced away, searching for some place to run to, some place to hide, but there was a thick fog rolling around her that obscured her surroundings.
It didn’t matter, she told herself. She just needed to get away, to put some distance between herself and the threat and then she would find a place to hide. Not even the fear seemed to lend her the strength she needed to flee, though. Every muscle in her body strained with effort and she still found she could barely move. Her heart thundered faster the harder she struggled until she hardly breathe for fear tightening her chest.
It was coming. She could feel it coming. Her fear sharpened when she felt it directly behind her. She struggled to scream and came awake with a jolt that echoed throughout her body as if she’d fallen and landed hard.
Sucking in a sharp breath, trying to calm her racing heart, she lay for several moments with her eyes closed, reassuring herself that it had been nothing but a dream and at the same time struggling to recapture the nightmare and figure out what had scared her so much. The little she remembered began to fade almost immediately, though, far faster than the effects it had had on her. Realizing after a few moments that sleep had escaped her and that she really didn’t want to go back to sleep for fear the dream would resume, she opened her eyes.
She almost thought when she had that she was still asleep and dreaming. The wall she found herself staring at didn’t look the least bit familiar. Frowning, struggling now to recall her last memories before she’d fallen asleep, she scanned everything within view and finally turned her head to search further.
Her heart, which had barely begun to regain its natural rhythm, leapt with alarm when she saw the two men—the two beings—standing between her and the door. She would’ve leapt from the bed except she discovered she was bound to it.
The taller of the two moved a little closer. “Don’t be alarmed. You’re safe.”
He spoke English? It threw her. For several moments she wondered if something was wrong with her eyes or her mind, or if it was purely an illusion of light and shadows, but even though she blinked rapidly, the being still looked alien—almost human, but different enough there was no doubt in her mind that he wasn’t.
She stared at him hard, trying to will the strangeness to vanish, searching his features. The sharp angles and planes that made up his face might have been human. His nose was long and narrow, the nostrils slanted upward in a sharp angle that almost bordered a sneer and yet there was nothing else about his expression to suggest contempt. It was merely the natural slant, she was certain, and it gave him an almost regal, superior appearance. His mouth was little more than a slash, the lips hard and thin. The deep set eyes above the prominent cheekbones were the least human-looking feature. Surrounded by long, heavy lashes, they were slanted far more than human eyes, large and heavy lidded. A thick pelt of pale hair, cut in layers and groomed in a style that was almost familiar framed his face and brushed his shoulders.
His skin and hair tones were almost the most human-like features he possessed.
Overall, the impression was almost that of a predatory bird—the angular face and beak of a nose almost hawk-like—attractive enough in a strangely exotic way, and still unhuman-like enough to make her belly stir with uneasiness.
She scanned down his length, her gaze flickering over his hands, his long legs and torso, clothed in some strange metallic-looking material in a style that seemed as exotic as his physical appearance and yet oddly familiar, and finally returning to his face. He was the height of a tall human male, his build almost as angular as his face, but still very human-like in his proportions and shape, his hips and waist narrow and V’ing upward to form a wide chest and broad shoulders, not merely humanoid.
“Where am I?” she asked finally, alarmed to discover speech was a great effort, her voice hoarse as if with disuse.
Something flickered in his eyes. “Earth.”
Emerald felt her heart begin to pound again, although she couldn’t decide why that would frighten her. Maybe because she didn’t believe him? “You’re not … human. What are you?”
The other being moved up beside him. He was taller than the first by several inches, and far broader, less angular. Oddly enough, the ‘predatory bird’ impression persisted with him, however, for his face was also hard and angular, despite the fact that he clearly had more muscle mass. His hair was longer and almost black. “I’m sure you have many questions. Rest. We’ll talk later.”
Anger flickered through Emerald despite her lingering alarm at her discovery that she’d woken among aliens. “Rest? Tied down?” she asked tightly.
The two men exchanged a long look. The first man spoke again. “The restraints were only for your safety, to keep you falling while you were unconscious. I can remove them now that you’re awake.”
Emerald was suddenly uncertain of whether she wanted him that close to her. On the other hand, being tied down was certainly no comfort. She swallowed a little convulsively, struggling to dredge up an attempt to be cordial when she felt more threatened as time progressed. “Please.”
He seemed to hesitate, as if trying to decide whether she was mentally stable enough to make her request reasonable and finally moved closer. The other man remained where he was, which was some relief until it occurred to her that it might be more a matter of precaution rather than for her comfort. He was closer to the door and positioned in a way that would make escape unlikely even if the first man was distracted enough for her to elude him.
The man who’d approached went to a small console beside the narrow bed where she lay and touched several buttons. The restraints across her chest and hips released and retracted. Her attention caught by the movement, her gaze followed instinctively, and she saw she wasn’t lying on a bed at all, but rather inside some sort of coffin-like capsule. The part she was lying on had the look of a narrow bunk or hospital bed, but above her was a clear, lozenge shaped top that she knew, somehow, had enclosed her until very recently. Alarm fluttered through her again. Struggling with it, she scanned the contraption, trying to decide what it was and what its purpose might be.
“Do you feel strong enough to walk? If so, we’ll escort you to … a more comfortable room.”
Emerald jerked a quick glance toward the one who’d spoken—the dark one—searching her mind for some reason she might not be strong enough to walk. Nothing came to her. In fact, her mind was strangely bereft of memories and that alarmed her even more. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
His dark brows rose questioningly, but she could see something flicker in his eyes and the suspicion arose that he not only knew exactly what she was asking, he knew why she might be weak. She dismissed the question for the moment since it seemed clear that neither of them meant to tell her anything and a sense of self-preservation made her reluctant to let them know she couldn�
��t remember anything.
In any case, panic began to claw at her the moment she realized just how empty her mind was of memories. It wasn’t just that she still couldn’t remember what had happened just before she fell asleep. She couldn’t summon any sort of memories from before she’d fallen asleep. The effort to capture something—anything—made sharp pains stab at her brain. The suspicion instantly arose that they might not only know why, but might be responsible for the memory loss. More importantly at the moment, though, she knew her survival might well depend on keeping her wits about her. She couldn’t afford to yield to the hysteria trying to gain a hold on her.
Her body, she discovered, responded sluggishly to the internal command to rise. She sat up with an effort, a conscious command of her muscles rather than the automatic response it should have been. Dizziness instantly assailed her. She closed her eyes, struggling against it and felt hands settle on her shoulders. When her eyes popped open in response, she discovered the fair haired alien had caught her.
Her heart sped up, palpitating in a jerky way that further unnerved her as she found herself staring into his eyes, felt her senses expand instantly to encompass him. Despite the fact that his appearance was lean, she discovered that it was misleading. It was his height that made him seem slender. The hands gripping her shoulders were large and powerful, his chest far broader than she’d realized. Unconsciously, she sucked in a deep breath, inhaling his scent.
It was oddly reassuring when he didn’t look human to discover that his scent was comfortingly familiar—even appealing to her senses—not alien. “I’m alright,” she said a little stiltedly.
He seemed reluctant to release her, but she became certain that it wasn’t merely concern for her dizziness. For a moment longer, he held her, staring at her face, and then he seemed to come to himself. He released his hold and allowed his arms to drop to his sides.
Emerald made a new, unpleasant discovery, when she tossed aside the sheet that had covered her.
She was naked.
Her gaze flew upward with a mixture of alarm and accusation from her bare breasts and groin to the man standing over her. She saw anger flicker in his eyes briefly. Instead of saying anything, however, he picked up the sheet that had dropped from her and held it up in offering. Emerald snatched it from him and struggled to wrap it around herself, sliding her legs over the side of the platform she’d been lying on and inching her buttocks toward the edge. The floor was further than she’d expected. Her bare feet met icy metal when she slipped from the bed to the floor, landing with an impact that sent stinging sensation through the soles of her feet. Her ankles and knees jolted and nearly gave out. He curled his hand around one arm, steadied her, and released her.
Emerald felt as heavy as if she’d just climbed out of a pool of water after being buoyed by it for hours. Striving to ignore the heaviness and at the same time pretend it wasn’t so lest they perceive her weakness, she focused on adjusting the length of fabric to allow herself a few moments to gather defenses.
The room they were in, she discovered from her new perspective, was empty except for the contraption she’d climbed out of. It shouldn’t have been a surprise considering how small the room was, and yet it seemed to speak somehow more of a lab setting than a medical treatment room. She wasn’t certain why unless it was the thing that had contained her itself—which didn’t rule out the possibility that it was, in fact, a medical facility. She might’ve been confined in it for any number of medical reasons. Unfortunately, no firm sense of ‘why’ occurred to her.
The dark one studied her with patent interest as she moved toward him. He waited until she’d halted in front of him questioningly—several moments past that, in point of fact—before he turned and led the way to the door. It slid open silently, disappearing into the wall beside it and Emerald saw a corridor outside. Rather than directional light, the walls, ceiling, and floor seemed to glow, although the light wasn’t phosphorescent but white. Emerald looked around curiously as they left the room, but there was not only nothing to see, there was nothing the least bit familiar about it to jog memories.
The two men fell into step alongside her. She glanced up at them and discovered they were taller than she’d thought, closer to seven feet than the average six of a human, for she wasn’t a short woman even though she wasn’t particularly tall for her own species. She felt short beside them—dainty, in fact. She couldn’t decide whether she liked the feeling or not, but she was inclined to think not. If they’d been attractive human males—maybe—but she wasn’t sure she would’ve liked it even then. In her current situation, it only seemed to emphasize her disadvantage.
Thankfully, the trek wasn’t a long one. She’d felt weak and heavy and awkward from the moment she’d gotten up. She was tired to the point of dizziness by the time they halted at another door. When it opened, she saw a room almost as stark as the one they’d left. It contained a real bunk, however, and a table and two easy chairs. Ignoring the bed, she headed to the closest chair and plopped into it weakly.
“Do you remember your name?”
Emerald sent a sharp look at the dark haired alien. “Why wouldn’t I?” she asked tautly.
He frowned and sent a wry look at the other man. “I’m Tariq.”
“My name is Koryn.”
Emerald glanced from Tariq, the dark one, to Koryn, the fair ‘slender’ male, wondering at her reluctance even to tell them her name. What was the sense of ‘wrong’ nagging at her, as if she was supposed to keep everything about herself ‘secret’? Shaking it after a moment because it seemed more imperative to convince them that she had her memories, she responded, “Emerald.”
Both of them looked surprised. “This is the name of stone considered precious, correct?”
Emerald felt her face heat. “It’s still my name,” she said stiffly.
“For the color of your eyes?” Koryn asked.
Emerald glanced at him, searching her mind. It was dismaying that she didn’t know. She hadn’t even known her eyes were green. She glanced down at the question, though, and stared at the lock of hair across her shoulder. It was red, a dark wine red. How could she know that, know what wine was and the color red, when she couldn’t seem to remember anything at all? “I’m Irish,” she said, the words tumbling from some deep recess of her mind without any attempt to draw them forth. “Of Irish descent, anyway. It’s a trait of my Irish heritage—the green eyes and the red hair.”
Tariq tilted his head curiously. “What else do you remember?”
Nothing! Instead of yielding to the panic, she took the offensive position. “I don’t remember how I got here and I don’t know why I’m here! Am I a … prisoner?”
The men exchanged a look she found hard to decipher. “No,” Koryn said tightly after a prolonged moment.
“Then I can leave?”
“Where would you go?”
Emerald threw a frightened look at Tariq at the question. His expression tightened but she had the sense that he was more annoyed with himself than her.
“You’ve been … asleep for a long time. We’re just trying to discover what you remember,” Koryn said soothingly.
Emerald swallowed a little convulsively, her mind taking flight at that and scrambling madly again for memories that weren’t there. The suggestion, it seemed to her, was that she’d been in a coma and that suggested something awful had happened to her. She looked down at her lap, trying to remember if she’d noticed any scars when she’d seen she was naked. Nothing jumped out at her, but then she’d been too unnerved by her nakedness to really search for healing scars. Still, she didn’t feel anything that suggested healing wounds or even the tightness of a scar, or muscle that didn’t work quite right. She lifted a hand to her face.
“There are no scars,” Tariq said, his voice almost harsh.
She flicked a glance at him, relieved, but still dumbfounded. “I don’t understand. Why was I asleep so long?” She frowned, thinking. “Was I in stasis for some
reason? Traveling in space? Is that I how I got here? This is a ship, isn’t it?”
“We’re on Earth. We found you here.”
Why couldn’t she remember being found then? “You? You mean you and Koryn?”
He seemed to hesitate. “The … androids.”
He’d meant to say something else. She stared at him, trying to figure out what he’d almost said, but she came up empty. “Why are you here … on Earth?” If that was actually where they were and she found that they’d been elusive enough in their answers that she didn’t trust either one. She didn’t feel as threatened as she had at first. They didn’t seem to mean her any harm, but that didn’t necessarily mean they didn’t.
The men exchanged a look she found impossible to interpret. “There are some things that it will be better for you to take your time and remember on your own. We’ve no desire to influence you, when the end result, perhaps, would be the development of false memories due to suggestion,” Koryn answered finally.
It disturbed her that they knew she had amnesia, but what he’d said seemed to suggest they weren’t responsible. Could she trust that, though? “So you’re saying you can’t, or won’t, tell me why you’re here?”
“You don’t mean to rest until you have some answers, do you?” Tariq asked wryly, glancing at Koryn. It wasn’t actually the sort of look that asked permission, but it was something like that, as if he was consulting Koryn.
It occurred to her abruptly, that Koryn must be something like a medic. Tariq seemed to defer to him primarily when the answer to a question might upset her. What would that make Tariq, then?
“She should have food, anyway,” Koryn said decisively moving to a panel on one wall. When he’d depressed the button, he spoke into it in a language that was so clearly not Earthly in origins that it shot a fresh jolt of adrenaline through Emerald’s system.
“We are of the Anunnaki,” Tariq said. “Does that mean anything to you?”
Emerald stared at him, blinking while she tried to access a memory that seemed to tickle her mind, just out of reach. She frowned, straining harder to grasp it and finally gave up. “It almost seems … familiar somehow. Why is that? Are our people … allies?”
Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I Page 1
