Alien Interludes (20 page)
Authors: Tracy St John
One hand shoved her skirt up then yanked her panties until they tore with a protesting purr. Cassidy felt the light fabric drift from her hips and crotch, the shreds fluttering like broken-winged moths to the floor. Then rough fingers pushed into her, finding her already wet and ready for entrance. Tranis growled around his mouthful of breast. His fingers went next to her anus, filing and stretching the back passage in preparation for taking.
Cassidy gasped and writhed in his grip, not sure whether to encourage him or try to escape. Tranis could be as punishing as Lidon, but where the Nobek tended to be exacting and deliberate with his ferocity, the clan leader was al primal instinct. He mauled her with animal hunger that left her aroused and frightened.
He kept at her breasts until they were red and aching. Then Tranis freed his fingers from her tightest sleeve and yanked Cassidy down, putting her mound at the level of his burgeoning crotch.
He rubbed against her, finding just the right angle so that his rigidity stroked her clit with delicious friction. Cassidy moaned long and loud as everything below clenched with reaction.
“Say it,” he ordered her.
Tranis loved to make her say words that had been an anathema to her due to her religious upbringing. Forcing the filthiest language in the form of pleas for sex delighted him to no end, especialy when she pretended to be humiliated by it.
“Don’t Tranis,” she begged. Her legs wrapped around his waist, pressing him closer to her.
His open palm slapped the side of her buttock, sending tendrils of heat through her. “Say it. Beg me for it.” He freed his cocks, letting them press against her flowing wetness, battering rams of flesh that would invade without mercy.
“Please fuck me,” Cassidy said with weak reluctance.
“More,” he growled in her ear, positioning himself at her entrances. She groaned to feel him there, poised with the tips of his cocks creeping in by the merest quarter inch.
“Please fuck me hard.”
Another firm slap. The sting to her buttocks made her hiss, and he grinned ferociously. “You know what I want to hear.” She shuddered in his grip, fighting the smile that wanted to break over her face. “Fuck me, Tranis. Shove your cocks up my pussy and ass so hard I scream for mercy. Fuck me like you own me, like I’m just your pet whore who only exists for you to pour your seed inside. Fuck me, damn you, fuck me, stop being a shit and do it!” With a low roar he shove inside her, parting her tender flesh with his iron, thrusting so hard she shrieked with mingled pleasure and pain. He pounded into her over and over, making Cassidy take it hard and fast until climax bounded towards her, ready to devour her in one swalow.
Tranis halted before she could succumb to the rending ecstasy. She shrieked her rage at the denial, clawing his back and shoulders with her fingernails. He hissed and pushed her up against the wal, crushing the very breath out of her until she relented.
He eased back and Cassidy drew in a breath. They stared at one another, two animals facing off.
And suddenly started laughing.
“Oh you merciless brute, look what you made me do!” Cassidy exclaimed through the hilarity, showing Tranis the blood on her fingertips. “Degorsk wil never let me hear the end of it.”
“I love you wild,” he answered. “Getting you so hot you turn violent makes me crazy.”
He looked at her with such love that Cassidy’s laughter ebbed away. “What am I going to do with you, my Dramok?” she whispered, putting al her feelings for him in her voice so he’d know the love was returned.
“I’m afraid I’m hopeless, my beautiful Cassidy.”
His kiss was as gentle as his initial plunges into her body had been brutal. His tongue twined silkily with hers, tasting her with al the care of a gourmand. When his hips moved against hers once more, it was with slow tenderness.
She moaned at the feeling of him slipping in and out, their melded bodies making delicious moist sounds as they moved. Being made love to so sweetly after the first animal onrush had her body trembling.
“I can’t wait,” she moaned into his mouth.
“Come for me then,” he whispered back.
Two more thrusts knocked her over, and she writhed helplessly in the throes of sweet surrender. Tranis continued to move in and out as she rode wave after wave of bliss, feeding the ongoing pleasure until he groaned too. His cock pulsed hugely within her, soaking her insides with his seed.
“You are my reason for breathing,” he told her as he carried her to bed, his body stil immersed in hers.
He made love to her again, bringing her twice more before their clanmates returned to their quarters.
* * * *
“Speak, Matara Cassidy Hamilton of Earth and Kalquor,” the head judge invited.
The court page’s caling her to the stand had resulted in a heaving undercurrent of whispered conversation from the galery. It ebbed, and breathless anticipation hung over the room.
She bowed her head in respect to the panel before continuing. “I petition the court to not pass a sentence of mind wipe, both as a concerned Galactic citizen and the last blood relative of General Patrick Hamilton. I find the option an abomination, a punishment of barbaric proportions.”
The Alneusian judge signaled for her silence. She waited with hard-won patience as the judges muttered amongst themselves. Onlookers buzzed until the Alneusian spoke.
“Do we understand you correctly, Matara? You prefer your grandfather face the possibility of execution rather than a new life?”
“It would not be a new life for him, Your Honor. It would be his body, yes, but it would not be him. The mind wipe would make him an empty shel, to be filed with someone else’s idea of what he should be.”
“And he wil escape true justice!” someone in the galery yeled furiously. “Execute the bastard!”
The outburst prompted more cries for blood, and guards escorted several people out of the galery. Cassidy waited for silence to descend upon the courtroom once more before continuing.
“I do not ask for leniency, Your Honors. I have no love for this man, though I share his blood. But I have been the victim of losing part of my identity myself and subjected to false memories. I tel you from harsh experience that the sentence of mind wipe is more inhumane than any other fate I can imagine. If you’ve never suffered such a loss of self, you cannot know the pain and horror it inflicts. I would endure five lifetimes of torture than face such a sentence. And I would never wish it upon anyone, not even Earth’s executioner.” Cassidy’s voice remained steady, even though tears coursed down her cheeks. The courtroom held its breath in complete silence.
At last the Head Judge nodded. “We have heard you, Matara, and we wil take your plea under consideration. Thank you for sharing your concerns with us. There are no more arguments for sentencing, so this court wil adjourn. Our decision wil be announced when it is made.”
With that, the judges rose and left. The comforting bulk of one of Cassidy’s mates was at her back, and she sagged against it as Hamilton was escorted from the room. He was as stone-faced as ever, but he mouthed ‘thank you’ just before he disappeared. Lidon, escorting him, gave her a solemn wink before he too left the room.
“Wel put, my sweet,” Degorsk whispered in her ear.
Tranis’ hand covered hers. “I would certainly discard the mind wipe option after hearing that was I on the panel.” Cassidy smiled at the two men, wiping the wetness from her face. “For what it’s worth,” she said.
“Excuse me, Degorsk? With your Dramok’s permission, may I have a word with your clan?”
Cassidy felt her Imdiko stiffen. They al turned to face the speaker.
Kivokan stood a few feet away, his smile as charming as ever, his attitude one of supreme reasonableness. Despite there being no threat whatsoever in his demeanor, Cassidy felt a twinge of anxiety.
They can call mind wiping humane all they want, but it’s not. This man erases people.
Tranis stepped forward, putting himself between Kivokan and his two clanmates. It was the natural reaction of a Dramok to an unfamiliar Kalquorian male; as clan leader he assumed a position of superiority. As a Dramok with a Matara, he staked his claim with any strange man. There was nothing in his behavior for Kivokan to take offense to.
Underscoring the normalcy of his actions, Tranis’ voice was perfectly even. “You may speak, Dramok.”
Kivokan sketched a bow. “First and foremost, may I extend my appreciation for your brave actions in bringing an end to the war, Admiral Tranis. I have often told Degorsk how your work may have very wel saved al of Kalquor.”
“That remains to be seen. However, thank you for the accolades.”
Kivokan looked at him with some surprise. “Then you haven’t heard the news from Kalquor today? With so many Earther Mataras giving birth these last few years, as wel as the impeding pregnancies, the clock to our culture’s extinction has been turned back two more centuries. We have real hope our way of life wil survive in the form of Kalquorian-Earther hybrids.” Tranis exchanged a cautious smile with Degorsk. “That is very good news.”
Kivokan bobbed his head in agreement. “In fact, we may see the threat of extinction erased within our lifetimes.” He bowed to Cassidy. “Your race’s fertility and its ability to overwrite our damaged DNA has been our salvation. Thank you for taking a clan, Matara.”
Cassidy considered teling him she’d been clanned against her wil and then thought better of it. She was now happy to be with her three men, no matter how their bond had come to pass. Reminding Tranis and Degorsk of how they’d forced her acquiescence would only grieve the two men. Tranis already carried more than his share of guilt.
To Kivokan she said, “I am happy to know the Empire wil survive. The Kalquorian bloodline is one that should not disappear.” She smiled up at her mates.
“I am glad to hear it, Matara. Just as I am grieved to hear your concerns for your grandfather should he undergo the mind cleansing.” Cassidy’s smile faltered, fel away. “It is wrong to steal people’s identities, Dramok. I know that better than most.” Kivokan gave her a conciliatory smile that was more than just a touch condescending. “But General Hamilton has never been happy forced to live at odds with his natural inclinations and brainwashed by a fanatical government. Is what I propose so different from what he’s already gone through?”
Cassidy had to admit, at least to herself, that he had a point. Hamilton had been denied the chance to be the man nature intended. Stil, it felt fundamentaly wrong what Kivokan would do to him.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right, Doctor. What might have been for the general is a moot point. He is the man he is, and to make him someone else wil not change anything, especialy at this late date.” Cassidy sighed. “You can’t rewrite history or restore the opportunities forever lost. Patrick Hamilton should die with his mind intact.” Kivokan raised his gaze to Degorsk. “She is a little philosopher, isn’t she? Your devout Nobek’s influence perhaps?” Cassidy saw how her Imdiko’s brows drew together. She knew he took offense to Kivokan’s treatment of her, as if she was someone to be talked over, not to.
With a muscle jumping in his jaw, Degorsk evenly replied, “You would be wel advised not to argue with her. My Matara’s thoughts are her own, and the mind they come from is quite formidable.” Kivokan chuckled. “Is that so? Then I suppose we must agree to disagree, Matara Cassidy. Thank you for such an engaging discussion.” He left them with a courtly bow and strode jauntily out of the nearly emptied courtroom. Degorsk released a chestful of air. “I realy dislike that man. He treats everyone like they don’t have the sense to scratch an itch.”
Tranis snorted. “Be glad you’re not Govi, having to keep your thumb on that.”
Lidon was suddenly at their side. “Was that Kivokan speaking to you? What did I miss?”
Cassidy smiled up at him, glad to have her clan close to her. “He accused me of being influenced by you.”
“We should be so lucky.”
* * * *
On their way here, Lidon had told Degorsk what was in store. With the man’s sentence set to be passed the next day, Degorsk knew this would be the last time he’d see him. Tomorrow the judges would hand down their decision, and the former general would be taken away to his fate, whatever that may be. Only after his departure would the public learn the Galactic Council Court’s decision. That would keep would-be assassins from dealing their own judgment, fair as it may be.
Their discussion on the way to the brig had been in low-voiced whispers. As always, the men’s chief concern was for Cassidy. They were very afraid of the effect a sentence of mind wipe would have on her.
As Degorsk put away the instruments that had fed Hamilton his evening meal, the general spoke, startling the Imdiko. Hamilton hadn’t said a word to him since Armageddon, his silence unshakeable. So to hear the strong tenor directed at him and for it not to be shouting religious nonsense was a shock.
Stil staring at the ceiling, Hamilton said, “You wil take care of her?”
After a moment during which Degorsk wrestled with whether or not he should reply, he finaly decided to do so. “Of course. Cassidy is the center of our lives.” Hamilton sighed. His gaze flicked to meet the Imdiko’s. “Thank you.”
“I don’t do it for you.”
“I know. Thank you anyway.”
Earther and Kalquorian looked at each other. Degorsk took Hamilton’s hand in his, palm to palm, and squeezed it tight. The general blinked in surprise, then squeezed back.
Finished with this last duty to Cassidy’s grandfather, Degorsk rose from his side. “Good journey, General, wherever it may take you.”