Alien Invader's Baby (Science Fiction Alien/BBW Secret Baby Romance)

by Calista Skye

  "Very well. Then I'm ordering you down there with Foxtrot Squad. Wear your battlesuit. Probably there's no need to carry your multigun, but I'm not going to order you to go without it. Use your judgment. Hangar at ten. Dismissed."

  She straightened to attention and marched out of the office, suddenly feeling a whole lot better. If she could negotiate something good here, or even just succeed in talking to the Vlon, then maybe her approach would gain some traction. If she succeeded extremely well, then it might be the key to peace with the Vlon without years of desperate warfare.

  Yes. This could be good.

  32

  He thought of them as Benirsheba's minions, but of course they were all her minions. Including him. Without the power that sprang from her, they would all be less than they were now. Even him. She hadn't taken everything from him. Not yet.

  The minions were two males, both olive-skinned and probably supernaturally beautiful, like they all were. They taunted him for a few minutes, and then, when it had no effect on him, then took him out of the cage and led him up the levels of the spaceship.

  For the first time he wondered who had built the ship. Certainly that alien species must be extinct, because that was how the Ethereals repaid the invaluable services that others rendered. This ship was so to the Ethereals' taste that it had probably been made to order. Some highly advanced alien species must have offered to make this for them if they would just leave and be on their way. And the Ethereals had agreed, probably quite warmly. And then, when the ship was finished, the Ethereals had accepted it and then exterminated its builders and laid waste to their civilization. Crixael had seen it many times, but it had never affected him much. His Ethereal side had been too much in control. Which was probably natural when he had lived among them.

  There was gold and gemstones everywhere in the ship where he had lived most of his life, but it was as if he saw it for the first time, saw how wasteful and useless it was. The Ethereals were hated and feared everywhere they went, and now he understood why.

  Benirsheba wore gold too, glittering sheets of interwoven gold chains so fine and thin that one would require a microscope to make out the individual links. The sheets were draped carelessly over her body, still mysteriously leaving her chest and crotch uncovered as she rushed to greet him.

  "Oh, my Crixael," she cooed. "How I have missed you!"

  She brought her lips close to his cheek and made a kissing sound without touching the skin. "I've been thinking of you for several minutes," she whispered. "Such a silly man you are. Why not be on my good side?"

  She looked up at him with the excited expression of a child on Christmas, then touched her dark hair and sauntered over to her terrible daybed, swinging her bare behind enticingly all the while.

  Crixael was only mildly amused. Now he knew what real beauty was, the fake stuff didn't do anything for him anymore. "Oh, you know me," he said calmly. "I love to entertain. Never wanted you to be bored, my beloved queen."

  She sat her perfectly shaped rear on the daybed and hid a giggle behind one little hand. "Really? You did all this for me? So thoughtful of you! Yes, you know I am easily bored on these endless journeys through space. I should have known that you had something like that in mind. But dear Crixy, perhaps next time you won't involve dust in your entertainments? Female dust, especially?"

  He walked over to the wall that appeared to be just open, as if there was no barrier between the room and space. He had seen it many times, but now he marveled at the skills of the designers of the ship. Such artful technology!

  "Oh but Your Majesty, I must also be entertained. And nothing entertains me more than the jealousy of my queen. For is that not the purest of emotions?"

  She laughed, but he thought he detected the tiniest little dissonance in it, just the slightest imperfection. He smiled in satisfaction. It was a sign as good as any that he was getting at her.

  Her smile was pale. "Crix, I appreciate your attempts to entertain and shorten my boredom. But for someone like you to talk to someone like me about jealousy... well, I'm afraid that just isn't good comedy."

  "I know that," he said and glanced at her sideways. "But comedy is not what I'm aiming for. You see, jealousy is in the realm of tragedy. Now, is that tragedy yours or mine?"

  "What a good question, young one. I have pondered the same thing. Very briefly. And any tragedy here is definitely yours."

  He nodded, looking out into space. He wondered if she was anywhere in his current field of view, if he was looking even vaguely in her direction. Perhaps she was looking out at the stars from whatever primitive vessel she was on, and perhaps they were at this very moment looking straight at each other without knowing. "One never knows with tragedy. Sooner or later, it will strike everyone."

  Benirsheba curled up on her daybed of bones. "You speak in riddles. I fear now that being forced to realize the fate of dust over many days and weeks in our food section has broken you. I have no use for broken men, Crix."

  He laughed out loud. "Broken! I assure you, my queen, that never have I been more whole than at this moment. I see everything so well now. But you, I fear, never did."

  "You're right to fear. I spared your little piece of dust on the planet because it pleased me to do so, that I might test you once more, test if you will at last do my bidding and remove the life from her. Or bring her here to me, though I see now that perhaps that was not a realistic idea. But still. I simply asked you to do away with her. She's your enemy too, you know. Not just mine. Did you not see her sword? Do you know why it exists? She still has it. I made sure she would find it."

  "Ah," he said and glanced at her daybed. "But you don't understand. She's not our enemy. It is we who are everyone's enemy."

  "I was right," the queen countered and hid a yawn. "You were broken. I would apologize for doing that to you had it not been for the fact that you deserved every second of it and more besides."

  She shifted her position, elegantly and slowly, crossing her endlessly long and perfectly shaped legs. "Dearest Crix. I want you to be by my side and, yes, in my bed. I admit it. I want that. Does it give you pleasure to know it? And it has made me weak. You are my weakness, young one. Of course I realize that it is because you're different. You're not like the rest of us. You're more serious, more principled, more active. At first I thought it was because of your youth. Then I realized that it is the human part of you, the impure and cursed part of you that is dust. And it made me weaker! Can you imagine? I am weaker for you because... because... oh, I don't even know. Is it the imperfection itself? Is it that you're a lesser being who still retains so many of the greater qualities? Is it that I find you exotic? Different? Strange? Primitive? Oh, who cares." She sighed and waved a hand in the air in a theatrical display of exhaustion.

  Crixael had always known that the queen was weak for him. He had never acted on it, and it had only served to make her more interested. But now he thought he knew why.

  "Be that as it may," he said, "I wish to leave your service forever. Will you grant me that, at least?"

  He had the satisfaction of seeing the unflappable Queen Benirsheba go ever paler, and she even snarled before she caught herself and laid back more on the pile of bones. "I can't even laugh, Crix. That the idea would even enter your mind saddens me so much I lose my appetite. Is that supposed to be tragedy or comedy?"

  "It's an honest request," he said, feeling that at least he had to try this approach. "Taking into consideration the many services I have done for you over the years and my unshakeable loyalty. I even went to the planet to get you young Vlon, degrading though it was. I can hardly be blamed for you deciding to make it impossible for me to fulfill your request."

  "Loyalty?" Benirsheba sneered. "Which you have now discarded for a fat little piece of dust with a slit that juices whenever you come within a light year of her? That you can insult your queen like this is a clear sign that I have been too indulgent with you. But that stops now. I grant your request."

&nb
sp; The room was silent for a moment while Crixael tried to grasp what had been said. He frowned. "You grant it?"

  "Am I speaking some primitive Earthling language that you just can't understand?" the queen snapped. "Yes, I grant it. You may leave my service. If you do, I will cancel all your Ethereal gifts that it is in my power to cancel. You will be dust. Forever. Living as worthless dust until I meet you again, at which time I will grind you up and feed you to the dust in our food section. And I will meet you again. I have decided that we are to travel towards the Earthling homeworld and conquer and exterminate their pitiful dust species once and for all. I fear you might get caught in the middle. No, what am I saying. I don't fear that. I look forward to it."

  Crixael tapped his lips with one finger. His request had been a spur-of-the-moment thing. He hadn't thought much about it, it was said on impulse. And losing his powers didn't thrill him. It would be like losing a limb to any other species.

  No, he thought. It would be like losing all his limbs and then have all his senses taken away and then have his intelligence lowered by sixty points. That was how bad it would be.

  No.

  Worse. It would be worse than that.

  His mind reeled and he had to take a step back to keep his balance. It would be like becoming dust. The dust they always despised and ridiculed for their short lives and their worthless pursuits and their damn tenacity in building things that they knew might not be finished in their lifetimes anyway.

  He would be one of them. Like a human suddenly losing all his humanity and finding himself in the body of a fish. Able to perceive what had happened and to grasp his loss, completely unable to reverse it.

  He shuddered at the thought.

  Benirsheba chuckled, and it would have been a pleasant sound from her young, sultry voice if he hadn't known what lay behind it.

  "You've gone quiet, young one. Are my terms too difficult for you? I thought they might be. Forget this nonsense now and go and bring me the slitted dust that fascinates you so much. I want to see her from up close. And I want to enjoy her song when I take the first bite. What do you think, one bite per day? No, I want to enjoy her for a long time. How about one bite per month? A small bite might almost heal in that time and she might start to hope that I've forgotten her. Oh, it will be a pleasure. Yes, you've convinced me. I will do that anyway, regardless of what you choose. I will go and get her myself if need be. But it won't. I still have loyal servants."

  The magnificent room spun around him as he thought about his options. Would she still love him if he was only dust?

  He made his choice and steadied himself.

  Yes. That was the only real option he had.

  He turned and laughed, filling the room with his voice in the way he knew she liked. "My queen, I think my little tragedy must end here. If we carry it on, there might be real consequences. But admit that you were entertained!"

  She gave him an enigmatic smile that could mean anything, fanning herself with one hand.

  He walked over to her, grasped her hand and kneeled by her feet. "Majesty, our journeys are long. And then you wanted to just drift here while you made up your mind about our route. Madam, I am young! Young things get bored when there is no progression. Can you blame me for wanting to shorten the wait by this little charade? At great cost to myself, I might add. Why, I have been without several powers for days by now!"

  The queen's smile widened. "Oh, you devious young thing! How dare you make such a fantastic joke at my expense! You are wonderful. Too wonderful! A tragedy! Such an idea!"

  She looked like she wanted to both slap and kiss him at the same time, but the tension had gone out of the room. She wanted to believe him, and so she did.

  He laughed again. "You were taken in! Hah hah, you really thought I could love dust? Oh, my queen. How could anyone, Ethereal or dust, ever compare to you? A queen in the bloom of both youth and maturity? I thought you had become dull. Sitting here contemplating something as indifferent and dusty as which way to go? Are we suddenly not free not to do whatever we want? To go wherever we want? We seemed to me to have become tragic! But end the tragedy now. Majesty, let us go now! Pick a direction at random and we'll continue. Let us wait no longer! "

  The queen laughed again, now genuinely delighted. "Oh, the impertinence of youth. You entertained me! I never thought it would be possible to break through the boredom. But I only needed a tragedy!" She held his hand tighter and sensuously stroked his hair with the other. "Of course I knew it was a farce. I was not taken in as fully as you seem to think. But I wanted to see how far you'd go. And you went far!"

  He got back on his feet and then sat down beside her in the most daring move he had ever made. Sitting beside the queen on her throne of bones was unthinkable, even for Ethereals. But he had to get close to her. "Tragedies are thus, Majesty. There must be real loss or there is nothing. Shall you now return my powers? Or do you prefer to continue the tragedy, now at my expense?"

  Queen Benirsheba touched a finger to her lips, as if deep in amused thought. "I think I will return them. Indeed I think you'll find I already have. Oh, but we can't continue yet. I want to see you carry out my command. It's disagreeable to be so pedestrian and tedious and insist on something like that. But you understand, I'm sure. A royal command must be obeyed. And you must bring me that dust princess that I may toy with her and consume her. Now. Then we will begin moving. I know where to go now. We will avenge Denibael. Not because we care, Crix. Just because we can."

  He smirked. "Pedestrian and tedious. Not words I would ever associate with you, my queen. But then, you are a complicated ruler. I find that very attractive."

  He placed a hand behind the queen's delicate neck and pulled her closer, gazing into her supernaturally beautiful eyes. "Let there be no more tragedies between us, my queen."

  Her lips fell open and he could hear her breathing going shallow. He checked briefly to confirm that she had indeed returned all his powers. She had.

  He placed his other hand on the side of her head, caressing it and at the same time getting a good grip through her impossibly luxurious hair.

  He lowered his face to hers, seeing the otherworldly perfection of her as her eyes widened and feeling her excited breath on his chin while he held her gaze, now going glassy in breathless anticipation.

  "I should have done this a long time ago," he growled softly and opened his own lips.

  33

  The shuttle jerked as it was released from the Procyon's hangar bay and started diving to the surface.

  "There goes the sun," a private said.

  "Never to be seen again," another countered so fast it sounded like a ritual.

  "Unless Ackland finds it in her pants," someone chimed in, and they all hooted with laughter.

  It was a tough and cohesive squad. They must have been fighting together for months or years, and on the way down to the planet they exchanged so many in-jokes that Dani felt completely excluded. But the sergeant in her admired how well they were knit together, and she even felt a little bit envious. Her old squad had been okay, too, but not quite like this.

  She had her battle suit on, but she had declined a multigun. The old sword was the only weapon she carried. She wasn't there to fight anyway, but to do the opposite, try to negotiate a ceasefire or anything she could get. She had no particular hopes of it working. The situation was very different from when she had talked to the Vlon last time. Or rather, when Crixael had.

  She missed him dearly. But she should have known it couldn't last. They were too different.

  Was it truly better to have loved and lost? Not if this was how she had to feel.

  Shit. She had to get it together. If she were to break down in tears again, here in front of a squad of Space Marines that were there to support her...

  Keep your mind on the mission.

  So. First establish some kind of communication with the Vlon. Crixael had said "bring your leader to me," and it had worked. No reason to reinvent th
e wheel there.

  Then, with communications established, however they would get over the language barrier, hopefully they would bring her one of those pale old female roaches that actually had the power to make decisions.

  She had devised a basic system for talking to aliens. First, establish communications with someone in charge. Second, tiptoe around serious topics for a while, listening intently for what the other party was actually saying and what they valued. Third, try to put herself in their position. What would she want in their alien shoes? Fourth, talk to them in a way that would establish some common ground – get them thinking you're not so different after all. Fifth, hit them with the consequences of not agreeing to her requests. Sixth, dangle the rewards for agreeing.

  Well, it was a start. She would probably have to refine that system as she got more experience with xeno-negotiation. If she ever did.

  The shuttle dove hard down to the surface, and it shook and jiggled and creaked on the way down through the atmosphere. There was no reason to take a slower and less uncomfortable route – they were Space Marines, and their comfort was not a priority.

  After a few minutes it flew calmer and straightened up. Dani looked out the window. Clouds, yellowish ground. Some brownish vegetation.

  And millions of huge cockroaches.

  It looked like a black ocean, undulating with the movements of giant Vlon.

  "Fuck," someone said. "That's a serious infestation."

  "I never saw a better target for a couple hundred nukes," another replied.

  "Or one Foxtrot squad," Sergeant Takeda said with her flat voice. "Same thing, pretty much."

  Then the squad leader looked over at Dani and gave her an embarrassed little smile with a little roll of the eyes, as if to say 'the things we sergeants have to do...'.

  That little gesture made Dani happy, and she winked back in approval.

  The shuttle dropped further and went into a long banking maneuver, and now Dani could see the little enclave of Space Marines down on the ground, like a small, green island in a black ocean of Vlon.