Barbara kept screaming at the aliens, making threats. It was causing Darla’s headache to worsen. She’d woken with it, probably from the gas that had knocked them out.
Despite that, she felt grateful. Her sister was with her, they were still dressed, and since the aliens didn’t wear clothes, it was readily apparent they were either female, or they just didn’t have dangling bits in the groin area. She hoped that meant they hadn’t been taken to become sex slaves. Rumors of people frequently kidnapped and sold for that purpose had reached her planet often.
Part of the wall opened, and three aliens came in. They each held a round metal device in one lifted tentacle.
Barbara rushed at them, looking ready to attack.
A blue streak shot out of one of the devises and hit her in the chest, sending her flying backward. She hit the floor hard and gasped.
Everyone else in the room immediately tried to put distance between themselves and the aliens.
“We are Elth,” one of them stated in a whiny, high-pitched voice. “You will do as told. We own you.”
Barbara sat up, rubbing her chest. “Fuck you! No one owns us.” She stayed down, though, and didn’t try to attack them again.
“We do,” the Elth stated.
“What do you want from us?” asked a woman with short dark hair. “Are you going to sell us or something?”
Each Elth peered at her with their unnerving trio of eyes. “We need test subjects.”
A chill ran down Darla’s spine. “Shat.”
Becky clutched at her tighter and a soft whimper escaped from her sister.
“Fuck you,” Barbara hissed. “You’re not going to do anything but return us to the fleet, if you’re smart. That’s the only way you’ll live. No one fucks with United Earth!”
The Elth stared at her for long seconds before they glanced around. One of them lifted a second tentacle, pointing it at Barbara. “Her first. She’s loud and rude. The male will probably kill her. He’s very enraged. I’ll enjoy watching it.”
“You will breed with the Veslor,” another of the Elth ordered.
Darla jerked her head in the direction of Barbara, still on the floor, to see her reaction to that news.
Barbara shook her head. “No fucking way!”
“You will,” the Elth stated calmly. “We need his young. All of you females will breed with the Veslor to give us many young to train.”
Darla felt sick. “To train for what?”
The Elth all looked at her. She instantly regretted asking. They gave her the creeps.
“To kill for us,” one of them answered. “Veslors are skilled at killing. He killed many of our race before capture. We recently learned Veslors have bred with Earth females.”
Another one spoke. “We’ve run analysis. A mixture of your species should make excellent trainable killing creatures. Humans will follow orders after training, where Veslors won’t. The combination will be a perfect solution to find the right balance.”
“I’m not fucking that animal or having a mutated freak with it.” Barbara struggled to her feet.
“You will,” the Elth paused. “Many times.”
“What did you do to the others? The men and the older women?” It was the dark-haired woman who asked.
One Elth turned its attention on her. “Dead. They were useless to us and not worth feeding.”
“You fucking monsters!” Barbara spat. “You killed Adam and the others? The fleet is going to destroy your entire squid race!”
“There are a few serious flaws in your, um…analysis,” stated a soft-spoken woman in her mid-twenties. She wore casual wear, like the short-haired woman. Her hair, black with bright blue streaks, was pulled back into a ponytail that fell midway down her back.
Then Darla noticed her eyes. One was dark brown…but the other was a brilliant blue that nearly matched the streaks in her hair.
The Elth simply stared at her.
She looked as if she might faint, but instead licked her lips and hugged her middle. “I’m Doctor Jessa Brick, and I work for the fleet. I’m very familiar with the Veslors, since a group of them were assigned to Defcon Red. We were concerned about what would happen if they had sex with our women. You know, could an accidental pregnancy occur, or would our birth control prevent it?” She paused. “I spoke at length with the doctors from the Veslor home world. Their males can only breed children with a mate. That’s sort of like a biological bond they form with only one female. It’s what triggers their fertility. Without that bond, they just aren’t fertile. You can force all of us to have sex with that Veslor, but no pregnancies will result. It’s biologically impossible.”
The three Elth huddled together, emanating chirps as they spoke amongst themselves.
Dr. Jessa Brick cleared her throat.
They stopped chirping, staring at her.
“I mean, you can breed a Veslor, but first you need to figure out which one of us is mate-compatible to the male. If any. That’s the only way you’re going to succeed in getting a human impregnated by a Veslor.”
The Elth chirped at each other some more but then withdrew from the room, the wall sealing behind them.
Barbara turned on Dr. Brick. “What the fuck? You’re helping them? I’m going to report you for treason!”
Shock flashed across the doctor’s features, which quickly changed into anger. “I’m not helping them. I’m being honest and hoping to spare all of us a lot of unnecessary trauma. You heard them. They planned to make every one of us have sex with the Veslor—and for what? An experiment that’s doomed to fail? I shared information to avoid having to endure that.”
“You’re going to get us killed if they think we’re useless.” Barbara glared at the doctor.
“That’s why I added that last part—to give them hope that they might get what they want.
