Alien Conquest

by Tracy St. John

  “Yes, Cap­tain. You three, use the Earther shut­tle and take these two pris­on­ers to our ship.”

  De­gorsk walked down the hall at Tra­nis’ side, paus­ing here and there to study the women’s faces. “If the clans se­lect Mataras in or­der of se­nior­ity, that gives us first choice.”

  “Still hat­ing your rank?”

  “Did I say that? I must have been tem­po­rar­ily in­sane. Struck dumb I sup­pose by the sight of a pretty, white-skinned Earther, all soft and round and run­ning from us.”

  “Who do you think I’m look­ing for right now?” Tra­nis turned to call to Osopa, who was hud­dled in con­ver­sa­tion with Li­don. “Where is the girl we saw out­side?”

  “We haven’t found her.” The weapons sub­com­man­der red­dened. “I looked for her my­self.”

  Li­don stud­ied his clan­mates and al­lowed one cor­ner of his mouth to turn up. “My apolo­gies, Osopa, but your clan will have to choose some­one else. It seems my Dramok and Imdiko have made their se­lec­tion.”

  Tra­nis couldn’t help but grin back. “Only if our Nobek is in agree­ment.”

  “Oh, ab­so­lutely. Any­one who can elude my staff is wor­thy of my in­ter­est.”

  “In that case, I want the girl found as soon as pos­si­ble. Let’s hope she’s of age.”

  * * * *

  Cas­sidy sneaked a look at her grand­fa­ther as he was led away by three Kalquo­ri­ans. She mar­veled at how small and help­less he looked next to the aliens. Her pow­er­ful, ter­ri­fy­ing grand­fa­ther had been ren­dered im­po­tent! It was unimag­in­able. And though she didn’t wish be­ing cap­tured by Earth’s sworn en­emy on any­one, she felt a mean kind of sat­is­fac­tion to see Patrick Hamil­ton bul­lied for a change.

  Her gaze re­turned to the ap­par­ent leader of the Kalquo­ri­ans, stand­ing just be­low the vent open­ing she peered from. Cas­sidy shiv­ered. He and his com­pan­ion with the long, thick braid were hand­some, a sur­prise con­sid­er­ing the mon­sters his kind were re­puted to be. Weren’t they sup­posed to re­sem­ble demons? That was cer­tainly the de­pic­tion she’d got­ten from pro­pa­ganda vids and posters. The aliens didn’t look much like denizens of Hell, how­ever. They sim­ply looked like men to her, al­beit huge men with funny cat-slit­ted pur­ple eyes and big­ger than nor­mal mus­cles.

  She won­dered what it would be like to stroke the leader’s wavy black hair. Her naughty mind went to her fa­vorite pic­ture in The Kama Su­tra, the one of the man tak­ing his woman from be­hind. A stab of de­sire shot through her womb. Imag­in­ing the mus­cled, dark alien mount­ing her in such a fash­ion made her lower re­gions clench.

  The other alien looked ab­so­lutely scrump­tious as well. Not only was he hand­some and mus­cled too, but his leaner face wore an easy smile. The pleas­ant ex­pres­sion was a sharp con­trast to the se­ri­ous­ness of his bearded com­pan­ion. Cas­sidy won­dered how he would look with all that hair un­bound and ly­ing loose to his waist. An­other im­age shot through her mind; the gen­tly smil­ing Kalquo­rian crouched over her, his hair a cur­tain con­ceal­ing their com­bined naked­ness.

  A third alien sound­lessly joined them. His sud­den ap­pear­ance star­tled Cas­sidy. He walked with a limp, but she still hadn’t heard his ap­proach.

  This one had a feral as­pect to him. There was some­thing about the heavy mas­cu­line fea­tures that hinted at an an­i­mal wild­ness, a prim­i­tive bru­tal­ity that no civ­i­liza­tion could ever rein in. Yet he was beau­ti­ful in his bes­tial ap­pear­ance, like a hunt­ing pan­ther. The in­tel­li­gence in his eyes some­how added to his aura of dan­ger.

  Gosh, are they all so gor­geous? Al­though some­thing about that one scares me. He looks like he could kill with his bare hands and not think twice about it.

  The third mut­tered with his com­pan­ions in their growl­ing, stac­cato lan­guage. De­spite the sense of peril Cas­sidy got from him, she still couldn’t keep her lust­ful thoughts tamed. The feral limper was in­cluded in her new men­tal cat­a­log of sex­ual po­si­tions with aliens. The Kalquo­rian ver­sion of The Kama Su­tra teased her senses even as she trem­bled in fear.

  While the three con­versed, other Kalquo­ri­ans col­lected some of the un­con­scious nuns, care­fully cradling the women in their arms and car­ry­ing them to­wards the end of the hall. Cas­sidy watched the men dis­ap­pear into the in­fir­mary.

  The leader and his com­pan­ions clapped each other on the shoul­ders, draw­ing her at­ten­tion once more. The lean one with the long braid hur­ried to­ward the in­fir­mary where the nuns were be­ing taken. The leader left the dorm with long, pur­pose­ful strides. The limper stayed be­hind, watch­ing the other Kalquo­ri­ans gather nuns for a few mo­ments. He sud­denly spoke loudly in a deep, rich tone that made Cas­sidy shiver. The com­mand in his voice was clear.

  The oth­ers moved faster un­til they were dark blurs flash­ing up and down the hall. Cas­sidy’s eyes widened in shock to see how quickly the huge crea­tures moved. She gasped.

  The limper looked up at the vent as if he heard the in­take of breath. His bluish-pur­ple gaze met hers, and Cas­sidy’s heart nearly stopped.

  A slow grin spread over his face. “There you are,” he said in Eng­lish.

  He jumped at the vent. What­ever made him limp was no ob­sta­cle to his leap­ing prow­ess. Cas­sidy emit­ted a lit­tle scream and scram­bled back­wards as the Kalquo­rian yanked off the vent cover in a screech of metal.

  She crawled fran­ti­cally for the main shaft, hear­ing a growl­ing chuckle be­hind her as the Kalquo­rian en­tered the vent. Her head scarf caught on the over­hang of the smaller con­duit as she clam­bered into it. The scarf tugged free, but Cas­sidy paid it no mind. Only es­cape mat­tered, and she scram­bled down the tight con­fines as fast as her hands and knees could carry her.

  Not hear­ing pur­suit, she paused to dart a glance over her shoul­der. The Kalquo­rian stared at her from the wider shaft sev­eral feet be­hind. Too large to fol­low her any fur­ther, he could only watch as she fled.

  In the dim light, she saw the glint of his teeth as he smiled at her. He seemed amused rather than an­gry that she’d slipped out of his clutches. He held her head scarf in his fist and raised it to his nose. Cas­sidy heard him in­hale.

  “Aren’t you a clever girl? That’s twice you’ve eluded us. I con­grat­u­late you on your re­source­ful­ness, pet. En­joy the free­dom while you can, be­cause I will have you, my lit­tle Matara. You may be sure of that.”

  Cas­sidy was star­tled to hear him speak her lan­guage with only the barest slur­ring ac­cent. His voice was low and thick, al­most an an­i­mal’s growl. She licked her lips as the full im­port of what he’d said struck her. I will have you. Spo­ken with as­sur­ance, and as if he was mak­ing her a prom­ise.

  He’d called her Matara. Cas­sidy knew it was the Kalquo­rian word for child­bearer. The man’s race was sup­pos­edly dy­ing out, and Earther women were the only com­pat­i­ble species they could breed with. Cas­sidy had no doubt the Kalquo­ri­ans were on Eu­ropa just for that rea­son.

  Was this alien plan­ning to force him­self on her? The preda­tory glint in his eyes made her feel small, like a mouse trapped in a cor­ner by a cat. Cas­sidy forced her­self to look at him full in the face. She had a feel­ing show­ing fear to this man would be a huge mis­take.

  She fought to keep her voice steady. “Leave me alone. Go away.”

  “Such a beau­ti­ful girl should never be alone with­out the com­pany of men. It’s not nat­u­ral.”

  “It’s for the best. It keeps us from shame and temp­ta­tion.” Cas­sidy won­dered what it would be like to kiss this man’s full lips. She won­dered if it would be dan­ger­ous to do so. He looked like he might bite. She fought off a shiver that ran a de­li­cious course down her spine.

  The alien snorted de­ri­sively at her state­ment. �
��I’ll tell you what’s shame­ful: that you poor women have been locked away in this hor­ri­ble place. You’re be­ing kept from the life and plea­sures to which you’re en­ti­tled.”

  She sat down and looked at the dark sil­hou­ette of his head and shoul­ders, un­sure what com­pelled her to re­main near enough to talk to him. Maybe it was the rich bari­tone of his voice and how it seemed to roll within her belly. “What do you want from me?”

  His chuckle washed over her, so deep she felt it in her bones. “From you per­son­ally? That’s eas­ily an­swered. I want to show you what na­ture in­tended a man and woman do to­gether. I want to make love to you, my pale and lovely girl.”

  A thrill ran through Cas­sidy’s body. “I’m en­gaged to be mar­ried. I will do those things with only my hus­band un­der God’s bless­ing of holy mat­ri­mony.”

  Or was Colonel Tucker too old for such things? Cas­sidy’s face flushed hotly. She was dis­cussing in­ti­mate re­la­tions with an alien male. Surely that ranked as a sin.

  “Tell me your name.”

  The Kalquo­rian’s in­vi­ta­tion caught her off guard. “Why?”

  “It is only your name I ask. It’s not as if Earth will lose the war if you give it to me. Let me put a name on the pret­ti­est face I’ve ever seen.”

  She con­sid­ered, think­ing he was mak­ing fun of her. Pret­ti­est face in­deed. Still, he’d said it as if he’d meant it, and there were few Kalquo­rian women left. Maybe with his lim­ited ex­pe­ri­ence around fe­males the alien spoke the truth.

  She re­lented. “My name is Cas­sidy.”

  “Cas­sidy,” the Kalquo­rian re­peated, tast­ing it.

  The way he said her name made things down be­low tighten. Cas­sidy licked her lips un­con­sciously, held by his in­tent stare. Kalquo­rian or not, the man was be­yond hand­some. He was hyp­not­i­cally riv­et­ing.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “Li­don.”

  “Why do you limp?”

  “An old in­jury, noth­ing of con­se­quence. Come closer, Cas­sidy. I want you near me.”

  “I’m not stupid. I’m not go­ing to let you cap­ture me.”

  “I will catch you even­tu­ally.” Li­don’s grin gave her the chills. “In fact, catch­ing you just be­came my pri­or­ity.”

  Warm ter­ror rolled through Cas­sidy’s belly. She did not want to be the fo­cus of this man. “Why? You have the oth­ers. Why can’t you leave me alone?”

  “I do not want the oth­ers. I want you, with your pretty white skin and soft, curv­ing body. I want to feel you be­neath me as I take you.”

  “Take me where?”

  Li­don laughed. His amuse­ment rolled over her, em­brac­ing her with its warmth. There was no hint of mean­ness in the sound, only pa­tient de­light. “By the an­ces­tors, you are of age but still such an in­no­cent child. Are you even real? I won’t be sure un­til I touch you. Come here and let me dis­cover if you’re only a sweet fan­tasy.”

  “You still haven’t told me where you want to take me,” Cas­sidy said, re­fus­ing to be side­tracked.

  “When I say I want to take you, it is the same as say­ing I wish to make love to you, Cas­sidy. I have a great need to rid you of all those prud­ish re­pres­sions your lead­ers have bur­dened you with. I want my flesh fill­ing yours. I want to share the sweet­est sen­sa­tions known by liv­ing be­ings.”

  Oh my God. Cas­sidy thought of be­ing en­twined with Li­don in a few of the poses from The Kama Su­tra. Her sex spasmed in re­sponse, and her voice wa­vered as she an­swered. “You would damn me to hell with your lust. I will not lay with an alien. It’s dis­gust­ing.”

  “One man’s evil is an­other’s par­adise.” Li­don sounded as if he quoted some­one else’s words. “I can tell you’re not dis­gusted. I smell your in­ter­est, lit­tle pretty.”

  Cas­sidy’s face burned with em­bar­rass­ment. Could he re­ally smell her arousal from sev­eral feet away? She had to get away from him. “I’m leav­ing now.”

  “Imag­ine my naked body ly­ing on yours while I kiss you deeply. Think of how it will feel to be cov­ered by my warm body.”

  She stared at him in shock. He was de­scrib­ing car­nal acts! “Stop it.”

  “My sex, thick and hard, press­ing into yours, fill­ing your flesh and mak­ing us one.”

  “You’re an an­i­mal. Shut up.” She tried to sound of­fended, but her voice was too breathy. Even to her own ears, Cas­sidy’s words sounded more like in­vi­ta­tion than re­pu­di­a­tion. The im­ages Li­don gave her had her heart drum­ming like thun­der.

  “My body part­ing the sweet, soft folds of your flesh, mov­ing in and out of you, tak­ing you gen­tly at first, then harder and harder un­til you scream with plea­sure. You have not known rap­ture un­til you have felt your­self joined with a man, my pet.”

  Her breath came in gasps, and her panties clung damply to her aching sex. “I’m leav­ing,” she re­peated.

  “No, Cas­sidy. Come to me. Let me show you how good it feels to lie with a man who will give you more plea­sure than you can imag­ine.”

  She wanted to. She wanted to crawl to the dark, deadly Kalquo­rian. She felt an al­most phys­i­cal need to let Li­don pull her out of the vent, carry her to her cell, lay her on her nar­row bed, and do all the things he’d de­scribed. The man was dan­ger­ous in more ways than she’d imag­ined. She had never known such an over­whelm­ing urge to sur­ren­der to some­one, an urge she dared not give in to.

  Cas­sidy’s shak­ing hand pushed back a heavy tress that had fallen over her face. “You can’t have me.”

  “Let me kiss you all over. Let me taste your mouth, your breasts, and your warm, wet sex.”

  She had to leave. The temp­ta­tion to sur­ren­der to his se­duc­tion was be­com­ing alarm­ingly hard to re­sist. She was only a woman, af­ter all, a nat­u­rally wan­ton crea­ture. Like Eve, she would be eas­ily led astray by this evil man.

  “Good­bye, Li­don.” She turned her back on him.

  “For now, my sweet Cas­sidy. We will meet again, and I will do all I have de­scribed and much, much more. That is a prom­ise.”

  She crept away into the dark­ness. Li­don’s deep laugh­ter fol­lowed her into the gloom.

  Chap­ter 3

  Tra­nis stepped into one of the con­vent’s tiny sleep­ing rooms where Li­don and De­gorsk awaited him. De­gorsk sat on the diminu­tive iron frame bed, his lithe body stiff as if he found the seat­ing un­com­fort­able. He fin­gered a large white cloth while Li­don leaned against one wall. The Nobek looked at a flat black tablet with an il­lu­mi­nated vid screen.

  Tra­nis looked around the stark quar­ters of one of the con­vent’s in­hab­i­tants. He was only av­er­age height for his species, but his head still al­most brushed the ceil­ing. The Earther women were small, but even for them such liv­ing ar­range­ments must be cramped.

  “So this is where our es­capee sleeps,” he noted. “And I thought our quar­ters were stark.”

  “It’s not ter­ri­bly com­fort­able,” Li­don agreed. “It’s ob­vi­ous to me that she doesn’t spend a lot of time in here. It ap­pears lit­tle Cas­sidy Hamil­ton has been us­ing the vent shafts as an es­cape for quite some time.”

  Tra­nis started. “Hamil­ton?”

  “The gen­eral’s very own grand­daugh­ter, ac­cord­ing to the con­vent records.”

  “That must be why he’s here,” De­gorsk opined. He sniffed the cloth he held, and Tra­nis no­ticed the Imdiko’s aroused state. The medic grinned at Tra­nis’ stern ex­pres­sion. “This cov­ered her hair. She lost it when Li­don chased her. Our would-be Matara cer­tainly smells sweet, my Dramok.”

  Li­don cleared his throat to shut De­gorsk up. “Gen­eral Hamil­ton placed Cas­sidy here three years ago, in­ter­rupt­ing her school­ing to do so. They don’t of­fer for­mal aca­demic in­struc­tion at this con­vent be
­yond ba­sic read­ing and arith­metic, which Cas­sidy could al­ready man­age. Ap­par­ently the Earth­ers con­sider it a waste of time to ed­u­cate nuns.”

  “But she’s of age, right?” Tra­nis didn’t want to think he cov­eted a child.

  “She’s been el­i­gi­ble for mar­riage by Earther stan­dards for over a year now. They count her as a le­gal adult, sup­pos­edly ca­pa­ble of mak­ing her own de­ci­sions.” Li­don peered at what­ever was on the tablet’s view screen. “When it comes to clan­ning, she’s still rather im­ma­ture as far as our so­ci­ety’s norms are con­cerned.”

  “How­ever, the Ga­lac­tic Coun­cil doesn’t care about that. So long as Kalquor ad­heres to Earth’s laws con­cern­ing such, we’re in the clear,” De­gorsk pointed out. “As an Earther of rec­og­nized le­gal age, Cas­sidy doesn’t have to be twenty-five for us to claim her for our clan.”

  “Which is good,” Li­don grinned. “Oth­er­wise, I’d be ask­ing you to wait for her to reach the age of ma­jor­ity.”

  Tra­nis cocked an eye­brow at his Nobek. “Your brief con­ver­sa­tion with the girl im­pressed you that much? You wouldn’t wish to choose from the other avail­able Mataras if Cas­sidy was too young?”

  Li­don shook his head. “Our con­ver­sa­tion and the bit I’ve learned about her from other sources has me suf­fi­ciently in­trigued. Her age is no fac­tor with those mat­ters un­der con­sid­er­a­tion.”

  De­gorsk flashed his most wicked grin. “Li­don and I like younglings any­way. You know that.”

  Tra­nis gave him a mock scowl. “Young or not, I can put you un­der me any time. Stop clown­ing, De­gorsk.”

  Li­don con­tin­ued as if they hadn’t in­ter­rupted him. “We know Cas­sidy is phys­i­cally ready for breed­ing. She’s emo­tion­ally ca­pa­ble as well, judg­ing from what I’ve seen. I found a cache of food and this just in­side the vent shaft.” He handed the tablet to Tra­nis.