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

by Calista Skye

  "I think we might be outnumbered," an anxious voice said.

  "That's how we like it," Sergeant Takeda said with a snap of command in her voice, wanting to stop any discussion of that right away.

  "Ready for drop," the shuttle pilot said in everyone's helmets. "I will not be touching down. Anyone left aboard after five seconds of hover will come right back up with me."

  "And will be charged with cowardice," Takeda added casually, just reminding them.

  They all inspected their weapons and suits. Dani grasped the hilt of her sword and drew it an inch out of its scabbard, just feeling the weight of it in her hand.

  They were very close to the ground, and then the shuttle came to an abrupt halt in mid-air and an alarm sounded as the deck of the shuttle swung down and open underneath their feet.

  "Get going!" Takeda yelled, and the whole squad released their harnesses in a well-practiced movement and dropped to the ground.

  The exoskeleton dampened the force of the impact after the ten-foot drop, and Dani immediately crouched and got ready to draw the sword if necessary

  And it looked like it just might be necessary. There could only be a couple of hundred Space Marines there, and most of them were desperately fighting to keep the Vlon at bay in the dark night.

  The display in Dani's helmet showed infinite Hostile! and only a few Friendly. The noise and chaos was overwhelming, and with an experience eye she saw that these Space Marines were losing badly.

  A lieutenant came up to them. "What the hell? One squad? And then your transport just leaves?"

  Takeda saluted. "Sir, Sergeant Takeda and Foxtrot squad reporting. Escorting Sergeant Smith on special assignment."

  The lieutenant looked like he didn't believe his ears. "Special assignment? Here?"

  "Sir," Dani said, calling the order text up on the display in her helmet, "I have orders from Captain Morris to negotiate with the Vlon."

  He just looked at her for three heartbeats. "To negotiate? Is that Morris from Reco?"

  "Yes, sir," Takeda said. "Foxtrot is a Reco squad."

  "How exactly would you negotiate with the roaches, Sergeant? They don't talk much."

  "Sir," Dani said, "that was said to be taken care of. I can only assume that you have been issued some piece of equipment that translates between ours and their language."

  "The only thing we have been issued is too little ammo," the lieutenant stated flatly. "And we're just getting ready to evac the hell out of here."

  He spun around and ran back to the fighting.

  Dani looked around again. This was not a good place to start negotiating anyway, because they were obviously losing.

  Takeda came closer. "What do you say, Smith, should we call it a day? Seems our orders are badly fucked up."

  Shit. She had been pretty fired up to actually use her newly devised negotiation system. But no, this wasn't a good place.

  "I guess. Too good to be true, I suppose."

  "All right, Foxtrot squad," Takeda said immediately, "we'll be evac-ing at any moment. Huddle together."

  A shadow passed and a large shape was suddenly hovering above them – the dropship that would pick them up.

  "Shit, that's it?" Takeda exclaimed. "It's too small!"

  She was right – the dropship could accommodate just about two hundred Space Marines. All troop transports were designed so that each marine had his or her own harness and designated space on board. If a dropship could take two hundred of them, then that was a hard limit – not even one more marine could be accommodated. Space Force usually used oversized transports that could handle many more than it was expected to carry.

  "It's gonna be a tight fit," Dani agreed, and she got a sinking feeling in her stomach. This whole thing was starting to look very bad indeed. As if it had been messed up on purpose.

  The dropship lowered itself and squads of Space Marines ran up to it and got close to where their helmet displays showed each of their designated spots. Then the dropship dropped robotic harnesses guided by an AI and zipped each marine inside as soon as it was fastened. It looked chaotic, but it was the best-working system Space Force had ever created for evacuating troops, and it had never failed.

  It was also something Space Marines practiced and drilled more than anything else, and soon almost all of them were inside. Most of Foxtrot squad was, too. But now the dropship was pretty much full, as the helmet display showed.

  "Yeah, so..." Takeda, looking around. The Vlon were coming. "Someone fucked up so bad they're gonna be run out of the Space Marines. This warrants a dishonorable discharge and serious time in the stockade. Years and years. I'll make the complaint to the legal section myself. Who sends a tiny dropship to pick up two hundred marines?"

  Dani's heart was dropping fast and she felt the sharp pangs of panic.

  "Can you see your designated place on the evac?" she said, and her voice trembled.

  "Sure," Takeda said. "Helmet display shows one free seat for Mrs. Takeda's wayward daughter. And I think it's time we left."

  Dani fought to keep her voice steady. "Because I can't see mine."

  34

  He translocated himself aboard the Procyon, where he knew she was. Where exactly he didn't know.

  With his full Ethereal powers back he felt invincible, and he didn't bother to conceal himself or do anything to seem less than he was. He sauntered through the corridors of the ship, twirling his war staff, ignoring everyone.

  And there were many who saw him. An Ethereal strolling casually through a Space Marine ship would cause a huge commotion, and he did. Desperate-sounding alarms trumpeted around him, Space Marines barked panicky orders at each other and called to him to stop and put his hands over his head.

  He laughed, genuinely amused. They had nothing that could hurt him.

  They cleared the corridors and blocked them off with heavy doors that he could just walk straight through like a ghost. They set up barricades and fired at him with non-lethal weapons, then quickly switched to the heaviest guns they could use without blowing holes in their own ship.

  He grinned and chuckled and easily dodged the projectiles, enjoying being in full power.

  Then a squad of Space Marines came at him, and these had iron swords. They could actually cause damage to him.

  He lazily struck the war staff at them, parrying and feinting and tricking their clumsy wielders, and then he walked over their injured bodies and continued on his way. He was not too well disposed towards these people, but he didn't hate them either. They were only dust.

  He wanted her, and he would find her.

  His instincts told him to enter through a door marked with the name of some officer. It was indifferent to him. He didn't care about the name of dust. Only hers.

  He stood in an office with man behind a desk.

  The man scrambled to his feet, but because he was doing his best to draw away from Crixael at the same time he ended up falling from his chair.

  Crixael went over to him and grabbed the front of his shirt, hoisting the man up and holding him dangling in front of him.

  He made sure to smile pleasantly. "Princess Danai'a," he said. "I must see her. Where?"

  The man looked confused and tried to shrug. He wasn't quite capable of forming sounds.

  "Ah, pardon me," Crixael said smoothly. "I mean Sergeant Smith. Space Marines. Where?"

  The man twisted helplessly in the air and tried to say something. "The... planet..."

  "The planet?" Crixael said, as if talking to a child, but making sure there was a smooth menace to his voice. "Which one?"

  The colonel pointed down to the deck. "That... one..." His voice was strained, and Crixael knew that he was being slowly suffocated by his grip on his shirt.

  "That planet? The closest one? Which is teeming with Vlon the same way an anthill is teeming with ants?"

  "Y... yes!"

  As an Ethereal he could spot treason from a mile away. And this looked a lot like it. He frowned. "Someone sent
her down to that planet? Where there are hardly any humans and the Vlon are in complete control?"

  There was so much fear in the man's eyes that Crixael knew he had hit it on the head. He smiled conspiratorially. "Was it you?"

  The man shook his head desperately and struggled to speak. "No... no... mistake... not on purpose..."

  "It was you," Crixael said like a parent talking to an errant, but beloved child, reading the other man's thoughts like a father would correctly read the expression on a guilty toddler's face. "You sent her down there to die."

  He changed his grip on the man and held him up with one hand, gripping around his throat. With the other hand he twirled his golden war staff. The man's name tag read Abeni.

  "That was not a nice thing to do," Crixael said and frowned in very real anger. "I want her. And now she isn't here."

  The other man couldn't talk. But Crixael felt the rage rise in him. This dust had denied him something.

  He dropped the man to the floor and towered over him. In his anger, he knew how he must appear to the mortal: Huge and beautiful and angry and glowing, with a golden aura bathing the room in a white light, making it impossible to look at anything but him.

  Then he pounced.

  He let his rage loose this one time. He would never do it again, and that was a fact.

  35

  Sergeant Takeda offered to stay behind with her, to let the dropship leave with her space empty. But Dani refused.

  "No one has a chance here," she said. "One dead Space Marine or two. I think there should be just one."

  Takeda cuffed her on the shoulder and knocked the faceplate on her helmet against Dani's so she could look her in the eye from up close. "Per aspera ad astra," she said with a voice that broke halfway through. "I'll get the bastard who did this."

  "You better," Dani said. "Get going now."

  Takeda ran to her harness, the only one still dangling. And then she was yanked aboard while the dropship zoomed upwards with a deafening whine from it large engines.

  And Dani was alone in the night on an alien planet. Alone with a million Vlon.

  She shook her head in disbelief. The panic had come and gone, leaving only emptiness.

  She pulled up the text of her orders again.

  Drop to Battle Zone Kilo 222.

  Initiate negotiation with xenos Vlon. Necessary facilities made available as confirmed by Mission Officer, initiating.

  Authority: Capt. Morris, Reco

  That was all anyone ever bothered to look at, because everything else was usually just bureaucratic mumbo jumbo. But now she saw there was more to it, hidden in plain sight, so she had to scroll up to see it:

  Order issued to: Sergeant Dani Smith, Space Marines Logistics Command, Procyon

  Mission Officer, initiating: Col. H. Abeni.

  Final orders issued by: Col. H. Abeni.

  Evacuation from dropzone: Negative.

  Authority: Col. H. Abeni.

  Confirm Sergeant Smith evacuation negative.

  Confirmed. Authority: Col. H. Abeni.

  FOR PERSONNEL EVACUATION NEGATIVE, A FORMAL AND VERIFIED SIGNATURE IS REQ'D!

  Signed, Col. H. Abeni.

  Signature verified as genuine – Procyon shipboard AI ID:88HRSY5.

  She froze. Abeni? That was the colonel whose life she had saved and who had thanked her by bringing her up on disciplinary charges.

  He must have wanted revenge.

  And now he had it. The written orders were proof enough. He had ordered her on a wild goose chase and then made sure her evac order was cancelled.

  Fuck.

  Panicky tears burned in her eyes as the seriousness of the situation hit her again.

  She looked up. The helmet marked the quickly departing dropship in green, but that was all. There was no sign of any rescue.

  The Vlon were approaching from every direction, trundling slowly ahead now that there was no more resistance. Huge cockroaches with deadly spears and claws and venom.

  She sobbed once, and she knew she had come to the end of the line. This was it.

  She was dead.

  Then she grinned as the warrior part of her personality came to the fore again. Sometimes, being half Braxian did have its advantages.

  She drew her sword. Now she would give the warrior princess the reins and go out fighting.

  It was a fitting end for a princess. Not her preferred way, perhaps, but still.

  She placed one hand on her stomach. "I wanted more for you," she said aloud to the unborn life inside. "Something very different. But we'll be together to the end and beyond."

  The wall of Vlon came at her from every side. Millions of them, filling the whole planet. They came fast, silent in the alien night. She had no way to talk to them. But she was ready.

  She raised her sword in formal challenge.

  The blade glittered in the starlight.

  36

  And there she was. She could hardly be seen among the huge mass of charging Vlon. She had taken down an impressive number of them. But she was doomed. He could see that she was injured.

  With his full Ethereal powers, he could take out thousands of them in a very short time, then protect her indefinitely.

  But that would not be right. He would not upstage her. Her bravery meant so much more than his invincible Ethereal powers. This was her moment, not his. He saw the beauty in it – the warrior princess alone against the enemies of her kingdom.

  Yes. That was right.

  And still wrong.

  He came into being beside her, not making a dramatic show of it, just being himself.

  She did a double take when she saw him, then kept up the fight as if nothing had happened.

  That, more than anything, made his heart soar.

  "I think I'm glad to see you," she said. "But I'm not sure."

  "Do you mind if I join your fight before we start the talking? I mean, we want to come from a position of strength, after all."

  She glanced at him. "You a diplomat all of a sudden?"

  "No, just the diplomat's interpreter." He twirled his staff slowly between his fingers and smirked. "Turns out that's something I can do pretty well."

  She smiled at him, and there was so much relief in it that it warmed his Ethereal soul. No – that was his human soul.

  "Let's not kill too many. Just clear a nice space between them and us."

  He used all his powers and cleared a circle three hundred feet wide in a few minutes. "How's that?"

  She looked around and nodded, clearly impressed. "That should work."

  "First, let me... ah." He placed his hand on her arm where she had been pierced by a Vlon needle-spear and sent his healing powers into her, stopping the bleeding and setting it to heal.

  "That's very useful," she said. "You should be a medic."

  "While it lasts," he said. "Shall I say the same thing as last time?"

  She smiled. "Please do. It worked pretty well."

  He liked it when she smiled. It lit up her face so wonderfully. He had a feeling she had smiled too little lately. He would do something about that.

  "Yes," he agreed. "It did."

  37

  This time his loud call to bring the Vlon leader to him summoned not one pale old leader, but six.

  Dani wanted to scratch her head, but her helmet was in the way. "Why are there so many?"

  "I think," Crixael said, "that these are not just the leaders for the Vlon on this planet. I think they just might be the leaders of the Vlon, period. Note that one in the middle. Isn't she more red than black? I've never seen that before. But I have seen queens before. Too many, in fact. And that thing there reminds me of a royal. Something about the vibes."

  She was skeptical. She wanted him to be right, because this could be huge. "Is that an Ethereal thing?"

  "It is. And I suggest we finish this as soon as possible. The time is running out."

  She wanted to ask him which time that was, but she saw the point. First things fir
st. "Please tell them that we understand them. They wish only to live. So do we. We and they are not different."

  Ungodly squeaking noises emanated from somewhere around Crixael as he spoke the Vlon language.

  And the Vlon females responded in a long sequence of the same.

  "They say that when two lives meet, one is prey and must go."

  "Say that she is right. They are the prey. When humans and Ethereals fight together, everyone else is prey. They must see that now. We have demonstrated it several times. And we are only two. What do they think will happen when we lose patience and go at them with as many of us as there are of them?"

  "They say," Crixael said when the sounds abated again, "or rather she says, because only the queen is speaking now, that they think what will happen then is that they become prey."

  "Please ask them if they relish being obliterated."

  A new exchange of alien sounds like the grinding of rusty steel followed.

  "There's no word for 'relish' in their language, so I asked if they wanted it. She says no."

  "Does she think that it can be avoided now that we are about to attack them with everything we have?"

  Dani manually turned down the volume in her helmet even further.

  "She says no. She has made peace with her hive."

  "Please say that they can't continue. But space is big. We will help them find a way through space that does not intersect human or Ethereal space. It is that or be obliterated."

  The Vlon made the sounds using their sirens and rubbing their enormous legs together. She had no idea how Crixael did it.

  "She says that they must travel the Spiral in a certain pattern. They cannot deviate. The Ancestors will not agree. They must honor their Ancestors."

  "If they don't go around, they will all be Ancestors and there will be no one alive to honor and remember them. And we will hunt them in the next world as well, forever."

  Crixael said his piece and there was a long pause until the Vlon queen made her noises. They were clearly not as loud as before.

  "She says you pinpoint the greatest fear of all People. This once they will deviate from their holy course and travel around. After all, must not all living beings sometimes go around an insurmountable obstacle? You're scaring them witless. I like it."