Alien Romance: Arcturus Mates Complete Series (Book 1 - 9): Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Invasion Romance, Alien Romance) (7 page)

“You are on the Tribunal! Couldn’t you let me have just a brief…”

Alexander rolled his eyes, and was very pleased to see how impressed the others were by this gesture of clear annoyance. Human eyes were so expressive.

The slavers were giving him furtive looks and he saw them smiling as they enjoyed the buyer’s annoyance. Clearly, they had not enjoyed working with him either. Some species were just ubiquitously repugnant.

In response, the humanoid responded, “Personally, I recommend that you be thankful we are taking her off your hands. One use is about all they are good for before humans start to fall apart.”

“Once is better than not at all!”

Through with the discussion, Alexander took a step forward, “Accept the loss and enjoy the fact that you had a few moments of anticipation.”

The slavers let out barely suppressed laughs, which annoyed the humanoid even more. Still he had a role to play, so he had to hide his feelings as he menaced the slave’s master.

“But what of my money? I demand to be compensated!”

Not wanting to get any closer, Alexander held his breath and took two more steps forward. He towered over the creature. Now in the Commander’s shadow, its courage was waning.

“Consider not being arrested and executed as an enemy of the Tribunal your compensation.”

Despite the obvious fear, the alien wasn’t quite ready to let it go, “But it’s all of my allowance…”

Alexander was about to say something but the giggles coming from the slavers gave him another idea.

“I see the creatures who sold her to you still right here. See if you can turn it into their loss.”

He ignored the shocked sounds coming from the slavers who were no longer able to avert their eyes. They were giving him looks of horror and shock. Pleased with the response, Alexander reached out and took the woman’s arm.

“I’m not going with you,” she tried to shake him off. This was exactly the kind of response he had been dreading.

“Madam, you have no choice.” With that, he swooped her off her feet.

Alexander was pleased with her initial shock. Trying to carry her and drag the large dress was more than enough trouble. If she had been struggling, it would have slowed him down considerably. The sounds of the alien and slavers arguing brought a smile to his face. Too late, he realized that was a bad idea with the woman in his arms.

“Put me down!” Immediately, she started to squirm. Alexander tensed his arm muscles and felt the woman gasp.

“Please settle down. I’m not taking you anywhere you don’t want to go.” He kept his voice low and focused so that only she could hear him.

Unfortunately, the woman had no qualms with letting her voice carry, “The only place I
want
to go is home.”

“Exactly. Now if you would please keep your voice down before they realize that I have just stolen you for myself and not for the Tribunal.” Wrong choice of words.

“Oh, so you’re a thief as well as a pervert.”

Alexander stopped walking and looked down at the woman. Her face was one of pure disgust. Shaking his head, he resumed walking.

Chapter 2

“I simply meant I stole you so that I could return you home instead of stealing you for the Tribunal. I have no interest in forcing any creature to do copulate without consent. Only the weak or lazy resort to slaves for that kind of entertainment.”

Glancing down, he was pleased to see that the look of repugnance had changed to one of doubt. It was an improvement, at least.

Finally, she spoke, “How do I know that you are just saying that to make it easier to carry me off to do whatever you want?”

“Of course I want to keep you from struggling, that just makes it easier to move with you in this massive piece of clothing. But, it’s also the truth.” He swallowed, realizing how that must sound.

“I suppose it would be better to introduce myself.”

The pair had reached the exterior of the building, so he placed her on the ground and extended his left hand.

“My name is Alexander.”

She looked down at his hand, then up at his face, her eyebrow raised, but she didn’t speak or move.

Alexander tried again. This time, he placed his hands by his sides and gave a bow, “My apologies if that is not the proper greeting. I am told there are several ways humans introduce themselves, and that was the most likely to be recognized. A testing for weapons as a way to show respect. It appears that was the wrong choice.”

He stood up and looked into the woman’s amused expression.

“Humans don’t shake hands to test for weapons anymore. And I am not from a culture that bows.” She reached out and took his right hand from his side.

“It’s the right hand, and it is called a handshake. We just don’t use it for checking to see if people are armed anymore.”

“That is good to know. I will make sure to remember that. May I please know your name?”

“Trisha.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you Trisha. Now if you would, my vehicle is nearby. I must retrieve it and I cannot take you out of this area. Please stand over here,” he took her hand and was glad to find this time she did not fight, “and wait for me to return.”

“If I can’t leave, how am I supposed to get into your vehicle?”

“I will bring it within the atmosphere so that you will be alright.”

“I don’t understand what that means.”

“Don’t worry Trisha. I will explain once we are away. My deception will work for a while yet, but by the time people realize that it was merely a deception, I would prefer to be a long way from here.”

Trisha looked around, looked into his eyes, sighed, and nodded.

“I swear I will return shortly.”

True to his word, Alexander was not gone more than 5 minutes, but it was enough time for other aliens to take notice of the human standing outside of the building. Alexander stepped out of his ship and held a door open for her. Trisha was looking it over as she climbed in. Alexander followed her into the craft and they left the lives they had known behind them.

The passenger’s life had been changed by the abduction. No matter what happened, her life would never be the same for the experience. The driver was giving up everything he had earned to do what he believed was right.

Once they were safely away from the facility, Alexander put the ship into a different drive, set the coordinates, and turned on the ship’s pilot.

“Is that safe?” Trisha asked as he moved away from the controls.

“Perfectly safe. This is one of the newest models, so it can do far more than simply navigate us to where we are going.”

“Earth?”

“I believe that is where you live, yes. Unless one of the species on your planet has finally learned how to travel through space.”

“Humans have been in space plenty of times.” Trisha’s face showed annoyance and … was that pride?

Alexander smiled, “Farther than the Earth’s moon?”

“Well, no, but we have people working on it. And besides, you’re out here, so even if you were abducted, you have learned to travel.”

“What?”

“It’s not my species, it’s our species.”

“Oh, um. No, actually, I’m not human.”

Trisha looked at him, “Oh part human?”

He gave her a small smile and shook his head.

Softly, she answered, “You look human.”

“I chose this form when I reached my final transformation.”

“What do you mean you
chose
this form?”

“It’s a rather long story, but my species, when we reach a certain age, we select our final forms.”

“So it isn’t an alien thing? I mean, not all aliens can do it?”

“No, fortunately. It is just my species and a few others from our system who have that special ability. As one of the founding species of the Galactic Empire, we have always had access to many races, and it has proven to be a most beneficial way of ensuring healthy diplomatic relations with other species.”

“Why human? I mean, if we are so stupid that we can’t even get beyond our own moon, why would you choose to become human? Clearly we aren’t the kind of creature that you need diplomatic relations with. You aliens wouldn’t be abducting us if we were worth the time for diplomacy.”

“This is true. The last I was told humans still largely disbelieve in intelligent life beyond themselves, even though there are a number of species on your own planet who prove there are plenty of intelligent creatures. It shows a lack of logic if not intelligence, but-” 

Trisha was giving him a look that said she was not amused, “despite your species being a bit primitive and mentally delicate, your bodies are really quite resilient. And extremely useful. I mean look at these,” he held up his thumbs and wiggled them, “how incredible are these. My vehicle was specially made for me, complete with steering like humans use. Most species out here wouldn’t be able to drive it. It’s why I had to get my ship myself instead of having a valet do it.”

“So you chose a human form because it is useful?”

Alexander looked out a window, “Partly.”

“So there was another reason.”

“Yes. The first slave I met was my nurse when I was young. After my parents died, no one in my family could take care of me. I was smart and quick, two things that are important to my species and it was a rare combination to be both mentally and physically skilled. So I was given to another family who couldn’t have children.”

“They had recently bought a slave out of curiosity, and she was human. Her name was Racheal. I always felt bad for her because she was kept to a very small area. She could only walk around the side of the house where my room was. Her room was next to mine so she could take care of me. She used to tell me these amazing stories, but there was always a sad look in her eyes. I could tell she missed home.”

Trisha gave him a sympathetic look, “What happened to her?”

“Humans don’t live very long away from their planet. Like I said, you are an extremely delicate species when it comes to your minds. Unbelievably so. Racheal made it longer than most, two and a half years.”

Trisha’s eyes widened, “She only lived two and a half years after being abducted? That’s horrible!”

“Well, that was how long Racheal was with the family. It doesn’t account for the time she was with the slavers either. But a Galactical year is a lot longer than a human year. I don’t know the exact conversion, but it’s something like 10 years for a human.”

“How old was she when she started taking care of you?”

“She said she was 17 when they bought her.”

“So she wasn’t even 50 years old when she died? That’s not right.”

“It isn’t right. It isn’t right that anyone is enslaved. It is barbaric and cruel.”

“Then why is it allowed?”

Alexander cocked his head to the side, “Why do humans have dogs?”

Trisha gave him a questioning look, “Dogs make great pets.”

“Exactly.”

“Wait – you are saying that aliens think of slaves as pets?”

“Yes. Creatures that are enslaved have to be below a certain evolutionary level. Once a species reaches that level, they are no longer allowed to be enslaved.”

“What you aliens do is nothing like what the relationship between a dog and human.”

“How are they not similar?”

“To start, we don’t have sex with our pets. That’s just wrong.”

“Well, not all aliens have sex with their slaves either.”

“But most of them do!”

“And how would you know? How long have you been exposed to aliens?”

“I- well-“ Trisha gave him a pouty look and put her arms across her chest.

“Besides, you do stuff with your dogs that is far more barbaric than that. Dog fighting. Abuse. Neglect. Slaves out here would never be treated so badly. The Empire won’t stand for it. They are all specially marked and monitored to ensure they are properly tended to.”

“Being forced to have sex with an alien
is
a type of abuse.”

“I agree with you there, but it is much harder to change the minds when so many enjoy the existing benefits. I think they will eventually change it. These things always take a long time through.”

“So do you go around rescuing slaves all the time? Is that how you protest the law?”

“No, not at all. This was only the second time I’ve taken a slave for myself.”

“The second?”

He sighed, “The first time, I tried to rehabilitate the woman, Daisy. But you saw how the slavers break most of their creatures. I spent several weeks trying to fix her, but her mind was already broken.”

“Did you … do stuff with her?”

Alexander gave Trisha a cold look.

“I gave her time and attention. I took time off of work, in the middle of a war, to try to rehabilitate her, so yes, I did stuff with her. But if you mean of a sexual nature, never.”

“Then you must have given up on her too fast.”

“She had stopped eating after the second week. Daisy required special time and attention that I could not give her. I think in the end she wanted to go home too badly, but” he cut Trisha off before she could interrupt, “by that time she would never have survived the trip home.”

“I did the only thing I knew to do. I gave her to a family who took care of her with the strict orders to treat her like a prized possession. Daisy didn’t seem to have much self-awareness at that point, so it was clear normal interaction wasn’t going to work. I also told them not to tell me what happened to her, so before you ask, I do not know exactly how long she lasted after that. When that failed, I swore never to get involved again.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate. You are in a position of power, you could help stop this.”

“Do you think I haven’t tried? My position on the counsel is as a warrior, not a politician. My political views are considered…eccentric, as is my appearance. They listen only to my advice and decisions about war. Nothing else.”

“So you enjoy fighting?”

“No, it was simply the choice that was made for me once it was obvious that my physical prowess and mind were an unbeatable combination. I did not select my life, just as you did not choose to be a slave.”