Her Alien Commander (4 page)

“I see. In that case I should acquaint you with a little of our recent history.” He paused to sip his water again. “Have you heard of the Oestral Pandemic?”

Caria shook her head, forcing her concentration back to the matter at hand and her somewhat unpredictable situation.

“It’s a disease, a viral infection to be exact, virulent and highly contagious. It swept through Vahle some twenty-seven years ago and halved our population within a matter of three par-cycles. We were able to develop a vaccine, but not quickly enough to prevent the spread of the disease. By the time we were in a position to control it, the damage was done.”

“Half your population, you said?” Caria gaped at him. She could barely comprehend such a tragedy.

“Yes. The female half. The Oestral virus only affects females, and it proved fatal in ninety percent of cases. Those Vahlean females who did survive were rendered infertile by the virus. We became a race of males and a handful of sickly females, doomed to become extinct unless we could find some way of producing a next generation, and over time re-establishing a gender balance. So you see, as a healthy female you are of great value to us and we will reject demands for your extradition in order to secure your… contribution… to our efforts.”

“But, I am not Vahlean.”

“No, but humans are among the half dozen or so compatible species who can be impregnated by Vahlean males to produce young who are themselves fertile. Your offspring will be half human, but we are prepared to accept the dilution of our species if that is the cost of survival. We are a pragmatic race, Caria, and a determined one. When we learned that a human female remained trapped on the planet, it became imperative that we extract you alive. That is the only reason you are here.”

“So, if I had been of no value to you, you would have left me to die?”

Phahlen had the grace to shrug, his expression decidedly uncomfortable. He hesitated, clearly reluctant to answer.

“Wouldn’t you?” Caria was not about to allow him to evade her perfectly fair question.

“Yes, probably,” he bit out at last. “The situation on planetoid three seven nine was perilous in the extreme. If you had been a male, or even a female past her fertile years, I doubt I would have risked my life and the safety of my crew in affecting a rescue. And now…”

“Now you will have your payback.”

“In a manner of speaking. I have been in contact with the Vahlean High Council and registered my claim. Confirmation was received just a few moments ago, and you are now fully under my jurisdiction and protection. The authorities on your planet have accepted this ruling in exchange for our guarantee that there will be no repetition of your earlier transgressions and that you will be held in a secure unit for an appropriate length of time. The suggested sentence for piracy is thirty of your Earth years, I am advised. Needless to say, you will cause no further trouble to Earth or other allied civilisations, and I have no doubt we can provide the required level of security to satisfy the conditions imposed by your home world.” He paused, as though waiting for her to concur with his view of the matter. Caria remained silent. She was stunned.

Thirty years! Thirty fucking years…

Phahlen lifted one eyebrow, then continued. “You are no longer Caria, of the Montgomery line. From now on, and for the foreseeable future, you will be designated as convict three seven zero, Delta class. I regret that no appeal will be permitted, and that I can offer you no choice in the exact nature of your confinement and the treatment you will receive whilst in my custody. The stakes for Vahle are far too high for that. You are, to all intents and purposes, mine now. You will make yourself available to me, and your children will be part of our repopulation project.”

He paused to cast a swift smile her way. Caria believed he intended to offer reassurance. He failed utterly.

“However,” he continued, “as I assured you earlier, this need not be an unduly unpleasant existence. I am prepared to treat you fairly, with respect and consideration, and of course your good health will be my paramount concern.”

“Because I am breeding stock? No better than a brood mare?” Caria managed to grind out the words, her lips dry, her throat already closing as she struggled to catch her breath.

He chose not to reply, but she couldn’t mistake the incline of his head.

“How is it that you get to stake your claim to me? The privileges of rank?”

“In part, yes. However, given our need to optimise the outcomes of the Vahlean repopulation programme, we also vet all males to grade their fertility. It would be foolish indeed to allocate one of the few females we do have to a male who may fail to produce the goods. My grading is alpha ten, the highest fertility ratio in the Vahlean spectrum, so I have priority status in such circumstances. I am at the head of the line, so to speak.”

“The line? You mean, there are others, other males who would also have a right to, to…”

He shook his head. “No. Because of the virus, our need for females is somewhat primitive, and the biology, regrettably, is very basic indeed. But we like to think of ourselves as a civilised culture even so. I mentioned respect and consideration already, and I meant it. You will not be passed around, and no other male will be able to assert any right to you unless I relinquish mine. I cannot foresee circumstances in which I would wish to do that as I am unlikely to find myself in a position to replace you very easily.”

Caria shuddered. The entire situation was cold, unfeeling, utterly functional, with her fertility right at the heart of it. She was valued by this handsome Vahlean for nothing more than her female biology, and by the sound of it she would never have been wanted otherwise
.
She would have been considered worthless and left behind to die.
And therein lay her predicament. An infertile female had no worth at all by the sound of it. Should she tell him? Should she describe the years spent with Petros her previous partner and cook on the privateering vessel they had called home? They had failed to produce any children, despite Caria’s longing to be a mother. Petros already had two sons and a daughter from his previous relationship, so it had to be her fault…

She shoved that notion aside. If he were to learn this secret, the Vahlean commander would send her straight back to Earth to face the authorities there. A lifetime of incarceration beckoned and she did not fancy it, not one bit. Even so, she had no desire either to play out this ridiculous charade.

“I won’t do it. You can’t force me. There must be interplanetary regulations governing the treatment of prisoners. I demand that you—”

“Interplanetary law is not on your side, Caria.”

She shook her head, tears brimming in her eyes as she got to her feet and backed away from him. “You’re a monster. I shall never agree to this.”

“I won’t ask you to. Your agreement is not required. You have no say in the matter, none at all. As for whether I am a monster or not, I prefer to think of myself as a man who does what must be done.”

“And if I don’t cooperate, you will kill me. Or hand me over to Earth.”

“You are not listening, Caria. No such unpleasantness will arise. I intend to fuck you, because that is what must be done, but I will not harm you. You will become pregnant and our daughters will be raised as part of the next generation of Vahleans. Of course, you will be welcome to remain too. We would not forcibly separate you from your children. Once your child-bearing years are over, if you then wished to return to Earth we would not prevent it. I could not, however, guarantee your freedom once you arrived there since that would be a matter for the Earth judiciary to determine.”

She glared at him, trying to process this implacable future he laid out for her. At last she asked the questions whirling around inside her head. “What if I don’t? Become pregnant, that is? And how can you be so sure our children would be female?”

“Vahle is not short of males. We require females in order to repopulate our planet, and since the gender of our offspring is one aspect of reproductive biology under the control of the male parent we have genetically altered those males designated as breeders to produce only X chromosomes. Do you understand the significance of this?”

Caria did. She managed a brief nod. “But I may not conceive at all…” she began.

“You will,” he affirmed softly. “Believe me, you will.”

* * *

Caria replaced the glass on the tray, and noted that her hand still shook. After their heated exchange, Phahlen had instructed her to retake her seat. For want of a better alternative, Caria had obeyed him. He had then brought her a glass of chilled water and ordered her to drink it. She had done so, and had managed to restore some semblance of calm. It was enough to enable her to ask her next question.

“When? When will this… thing… start?”

“Soon. At once, if I deem you fit enough. It’s clear you’ve not been well treated by the Galeians. You’ve been undernourished, certainly, and I’ve arranged for our on-board clinician to examine you in order to ensure you are free from infection or other medical problems. We shall take care of you and ensure that your physical needs are fully met. To that end, I have some questions regarding your experiences in captivity on the planet. Are you feeling ready to answer me?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Ultimately, no. But you look exhausted right now and I appreciate the events of today will have taken their toll. If you prefer to rest now and resume this discussion at a later time, I could allow that.”

Caria sighed and shook her head. “No. I, I don’t mind telling you about what happened on the planet. Not that there’s much to say.”

“Very well. How long were you there?”

“I’m not sure. I was underground for most of the time so I lost track of the days. The weeks. Months?” She looked to Phahlen as though he might be able to assist.

“Do you remember the date when your craft was attacked?”

“Yes, it was ninety-seven, four one point six.”
Caria resorted to the interplanetary standard system of recording time.

Phahlen nodded. “We are now at ninety-eight, five three point zero. In Earth time that would amount to… seven months?”

Caria nodded, hardly able to credit it had been so long. She had managed to block out great swathes of her time in captivity; the monotony had been so mind-numbing. “Toward the end I was kept in the dark, chained as you first saw me…”

He nodded, encouraging her to continue.

“They only came down there to feed me, and that wasn’t every day. I don’t know, it’s hard to judge.” She looked straight at him. “They had no idea what humans should eat. They fed me grass.
Grass!
” She glared at him, demanding some sort of response.

“I take it you are not fond of grass?”

“Do I look like a fucking rabbit?”

He cocked his head to one side. “I am not familiar with that particular Earth mammal though I understand it to bear some similarity to the krevehris common on Vahle. Now you mention it, I must concur that you do not bear so much as a passing resemblance to that creature either. I shall issue instructions that our housekeeping data systems should be updated to ensure that there is no grass on the menu.”

“Thank you.”

“Did they ill-treat you in any other ways? Were they violent?”

Caria nodded, and tried not to twist her hands together. She hated to think of herself as feeble, but the frequent beatings by her Galeian captors had worn down her resolve, especially in the early days. “When I was first taken prisoner they were very interested in me. I was a novelty, I think, something unusual to play with. They used to drag me along the underground passages, and sometimes they would release me, force me to run from them so they could chase me. I did it a few times, believing I might escape…”

“But it was just a game? Am I right?”

“Yes, their idea of sport. I stopped running after a while, and after that they got bored of me and left me chained up.” Tears had started to stream from her eyes, and Caria was shaking now as the reality of her situation began to properly sink in. She had escaped, but to a fate very probably no better than the one she left behind.

The tall alien moved to sit beside her, and slung an arm across her shoulders. Caria stiffened and attempted to move away but he tightened his grip and pulled her in to his body. “It’s all right, Caria. That is over and you are safe here on the
Empyrean
. No one will hurt you now that you belong to me.”

Except you. When you learn that I’m no use to you.

Caria gave up fighting him. It was futile in any case. She allowed herself to be drawn into his embrace, then turned and pressed her nose against the tunic covering his muscular chest. At last she gave in to the urge to sob.

Phahlen hauled her onto his lap and cradled her there. Neither spoke as she clung to him and wept.

Chapter Three

Phahlen gave himself a hard mental shake. He needed to get a grip. This little human might be pretty enough, in a fragile, delicate sort of way, but her appearance was deceptive. He had done his homework, his due diligence, before contacting his home world to register his claim. The
Luminaire
, the pirate vessel shot down by the Galeians, had been wanted throughout three galaxies, suspected of raids on a host of small, defenceless worlds. Caria and her comrades were a gang of ruthless killers, and if the Galeians hadn’t got in the first shots he saw no reason to doubt that the reptilian race would have come off very badly indeed if the pirates had managed to land on their planetoid. Caria was fortunate that her captors lacked the sophisticated communications technology and intergalactic intelligence networking that would have enabled them to discover the identity of their prisoner. They would have executed her without a second thought.

Capital punishment had been abandoned on his home planet generations ago, and he was aware that Earth no longer employed such sanctions either. Caria wouldn’t die for her crimes, but she would face a lengthy period of imprisonment. He saw no reason why her sentence should not be served with him; making herself useful to Vahle would help to atone for her previous misdemeanours. He chose not to dwell on the fact that she had had no trial, and no opportunity to plead her case. The role of judge, jury, and executioner did not sit well with him, but he would manage. Needs must.