Alien Mine Ch. 09

Rhys could feel the storm of emotions coming from her. He was tempted to suppress or change them but refrained. He wanted to see where this would go. What Leslie would do. It would determine his course of action with her and with others, he would need.

"But how do you know that's true, Rhys," she argued. "You only know what these Drans told you and what a symbiont that is programmed tells you. And this power you are going to have over the whole human race. We kill dictators, Rhys. Every day I look at ways to undermine the authoritarians of the world. You are asking me to help you build something that goes against everything I believe in. You will create a government controlled by a tiny group of super-humans. Everyone else will be second-class citizens. How do you think the rest of the world will feel? It's a recipe for disaster."

"I agree," He said, looking thoughtful. "But I believe what I was told. The Drans were killed trying to prepare us, I was on the spaceship, and I barely survived. But that's why the rest of you are so important. I have no intention of setting myself up as some kind of tin god. But we must get the entire human race focused on survival; we cannot take the chance we are wrong. And the first thing we have to do is defeat the Om on this planet. We cannot do that if the world is fighting each other."

"So that's the plan, kill the Om then take over the world?" Leslie said sarcastically.

"Kill the Om, yes. Unify the world to focus on the next invasion, Yes."

Leslie just shook her head. Seeing her standing there with her arms wrapped around herself, entirely out of her comfort zone, made Rhys realize the stress they were putting her under. Her Bob was not mature enough to help stabilize her mental processes, and she had been through a lot in the last few hours. Rhys walked over to her and took her in his arms but not touching her mind. Holding her felt pretty good. Not like the other girls yet,. With them, he just sort of hugged their bodies and their minds. Mature Bobs allowed a more direct mental connection, but deeper. Leslie did not have that yet.

"There," he said, "feel better?"

"How do you do that?'' she asked but not pulling away.

"It's part of being a One, I can sense emotions, exert some influence. Calming works the best," Rhys said with a straight face. He wasn't ready for Leslie or Thea to know precisely how much influence he did have.

Leslie did feel better; Rhys indeed had a calming influence. Being with him made dealing with the crazy things she had seen much more manageable, as if it was all going to be okay. It had terrified her not knowing what was going on, unable to comprehend exactly what was happening. Also, how they all seem so calm while destroying an alien ship; how did they do that? Plus, the way they were interacting and controlling the ship and weapons with just their minds was inhuman.

Yet here she stood, pressed up against the man who had deliberately infected her with an alien symbiont. She should be angry, furious, something, but she was not. That bothered her the most. How did a man do this to her? There had never been anyone who could take her to such extremes. Losing control; that scared her; she was always in control. That is how you survived in the field and in the morass that was headquarters. Now she felt completely out of her league.

Rhys pulled away and slapped her on the butt, "get busy," he said, handing her vegetables and a knife. Feeling her body suddenly respond confused her. Damn, thought Leslie. Since when does chopping vegetables excite me. Leslie chopped, and Rhys found some food. He paused for a moment, and when she looked at him with concern, he said he was just getting instructions from Sandy. "She is a pretty good cook, but Amancia is the best."

Leslie blushed when he said that, and Rhys looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Leslie turned to continue massacring the carrots, then said, "I saw a picture when researching you; it was a picture of Amancia and Sandy."

"Hmm, thought we got all of those; what about it?"

"They were in a club, Amancia had on a collar, and a leash, a woman who looked like Sandy, was holding it."

"Ahh, yes, that was them," he said while instructing Bob to hunt it down and delete it.

"The relationships between you all are a little confusing. I have heard Sandy refer to Amancia as your submissive, but she was with Sandy."

"Yes," said Rhys, "things changed a little bit when Bob was first put in me; things were a little difficult, he was not sure I was going to survive. Sandy and Amancia came to my house, and Bob convinced them to stay, for about six weeks."

"Six weeks," Leslie asked?

"Yep, it was touch and go for a while if we would survive the process; Bob needed additional hosts to ensure his survival. All of that is very fuzzy in my memories. Apparently, we did nothing but have sex and eat until Bob stabilized in me, then in Sandy and Amancia. Somehow in that process, I replaced Sandy as her main focus. But we are all happy with the arrangement."

"Did Bob make her a submissive?" Leslie asked with a bit of trepidation.

Rhys smiled, "not completely, but we think he had some influence. Amancia has always been in sub/dom relationships since she was in high school."

"That's a little early, don't you think?"

"Perhaps, it was the older woman/young girl relationship as I understand it, a friend of the family."

"Older woman," asked Leslie, "not a man?"

"No, Amancia was a lesbian; she had never been with a man before me."

"Is Bob responsible for that?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, Bob needed more hosts, so naturally, he needed Amancia to want to mate with me. But he is not really good at understanding things like sexual preference. Fortunately for me, it was two women that came by and not any of my male friends," Rhys added with a smile.

They both laughed about that as Rhys pulled a dish from an oven of some kind. As they prepared to take dinner to the bridge, Rhys thought about Leslie's questions. He figured she wanted to know how she would change if she would become a lesbian or bisexual.

Well... the answer was yes; Rhys liked to watch women make love to each other; he liked it a lot, which meant that Leslie would as well. But it was a way of integrating her into their family. Leslie had already had sex with everyone and would continue to do so. Thea as well. Interesting that Thea didn't question it. Her reaction to learning about the symbiont had gone from confusion and fear to enthusiasm in just a few days.

With her, there had been no awkwardness as she became bisexual if she wasn't already. Nor did she fight him like Leslie did. Perhaps being such an engineering nerd kept her focus on AI and technology. Sandy had told him that Thea loved the AI so much that she would have no use for him if she could have sex with it.

"

How's Thea doing?" he asked Sandy.

"Fine, she's handling it much better than Leslie; she would really like to be in there with you right now."

"I wonder why the difference?"

Well, Thea had been with us continuously since we rescued her, whereas we only see Leslie occasionally. Someone is always around Thea, even when she is working. Her symbiont is not mature yet, of course, but it seems to make a difference. She is definitely 'on the team', unlike your CIA agent."

"Yes, that could be a problem, he admitted with a mental sigh. "I think we are at a critical point with her. I can't let Leslie go back unless I think I can trust her."

"No, that would be a disaster," Sandy agreed. "She needs to be committed. We can keep her in the base as long as necessary, but that negates her value in the short term."

"I agree. We have a week, though, and I don't want Leslie left alone for a second. Someone needs to be with her constantly. We need to convince her to want to be part of this until her Bob matures to the point where I can control it. She is going to get a start on obedience training after dinner," he said firmly.

Hhmmm, that's my kind of dessert; you really know how to get your women excited," she added with a mischievous laugh. Kiania and Amancia agree and are looking forward to it.

"Ok," Rhys said as they sat down to dinner, let's see if we can get ahead and still stay out of their range." The stealth system on the Drans ship was better than anything the Om seemed to have, at least on these smaller intersystem craft. "I would like to know what they think is so important that they will risk their ships against us when we have the advantage," he said.

No one had a real answer, so they enjoyed dinner instead, even if Rhys had helped prepare it.

Leslie felt a little lost as they sat and talked. These women were much younger than her, more beautiful. Sandy was speaking about their route, speculating what they might find, but Leslie's mind was elsewhere. Looking around, she thought about these women all sleeping with Rhys. There was a frustrating surge of jealousy. Leslie wasn't used to these kinds of emotions; they were so much stronger than she was used to.

Today she had gone from euphoria when Rhys held her to terror during the short battle with the Om. What was the matter with her? It was not the first time she had been in danger. Now she was sitting here eating dinner with Rhys and four other stunning women. Three of which she had been very intimate with. She smiled wryly to herself at that thought. Intimate wasn't a very good euphemism for what they had done together. No, it had been much more than that.

Damn, I am getting wet again, she thought as she squirmed in her seat and then crossed her legs again, trying to scratch her cunt. She shifted uncomfortably, and she realized the conversation had stopped. Rhys looked at her, and she felt her face heat up.

"Leslie, eat; it's been a long day," Rhys said firmly.

It was not a request, and as she picked up her fork to eat whatever was on her plate, she felt a warm feeling, and she actually smiled.

"Good girl," Rhys said, and she felt even better.

"Rhys, somethings on the sensors, take a look."

Rhys opened the link with the ship's sensors. "Damn," he said, seeing a cloud of wreckage spread over numerous kilometers spinning slowly ahead. "How did it get here Bob, you said it was much further away?"

They all stared, seeing an alien ship for the first time. And it was alien, unlike anything Rhys expected. He felt a twinge of excitement and fear, seeing that a third of the Om ship was damaged but intact. "Let's get to the bridge he said to Leslie; you are going to want to see this.

Sandy flipped the shuttle end for end, decelerating hard, veering slightly to port and 'up' to take the shuttle up over the contact and not straight at it. As the shuttle got closer, the alien spaceship's wreckage came into view, drifting in a halo of debris, the result of a violent end. The Om ship was fantastic looking, even damaged as it was. It had been at least a kilometer long, according to the AI but was now in pieces.

"It looks like the remains of a broken beehive surrounded by vine," Rhys finally said, breaking the silence. "Look, you can see places where the outer hull had been torn away, and there are curving passages intertwined as if it was a massive hive or termite nest."

The ship's death throes were marked by burned sections and gaping holes in the many wreckage pieces. The scars from the battle were visible everywhere; at least half of its length was missing, with bits of debris blasted from it, floating in a mass around the largest remaining part. It tumbled slowly in space, a testament to a violent death.

"My God," Thea breathed.

"Indeed," Rhys said, thinking he was lucky to be alive.

"Minimal life support detected," Bob said, highlighting the data.

"This must be the ship that attacked us," Rhys said, "but I thought it was destroyed in a collision. The ship I was in had to slow to let the shuttle out; perhaps the collision occurred at lower speeds, or perhaps just a glancing blow. However, there does appear to be substantial damage caused by missile impacts. And burned areas from energy weapons."

Sandy maneuvered the shuttle toward the largest remaining section, perhaps 250-300 meters in length. They moved slowly now to avoid the debris field. No one spoke as they moved through the wreckage, awestruck at the damage and the sight of an alien ship floating near the edge of the Solar System.

"I can't believe it," Leslie said, seeing the evidence with her own eyes. Being told about it was one thing, but seeing it in person brought home to her the reality, the awful truth. Taking a deep breath, she looked around, trying to make herself remain calm. The vision of an alien ship shook her even more than the battle on the way here. Now she was actually seeing evidence of what Rhys had told her, and it scared her more than she wanted to admit. 'Alien' didn't begin to describe the sight before her. Everything about the structure, even broken as it was, screamed wrong. Designs were different, curves that made no sense to her. It reminded her of a hall of mirrors at an amusement park, where everything was stretched out or bent at weird angles.

Thea stared open-mouthed at the sight, but Sandy, Amancia, and Kiania seemed to take it in stride. Leslie shook her head, a range of emotions flowing through her. Fear, anxiety, and something like terror at the thought that hostile aliens who could build a ship to travel interstellar distances were on earth and what that could mean to the human race.

"Amazing," said Rhys, also caught up in the moment. "Sandy -- let's get behind the largest piece, drop three of our missiles here in the debris field. Hide them in the wreckage if possible. I do not want them on automatic; I will give the order to fire them."

Rhys' order broke the mood, making it all business again. "Yes, sir," she heard from the other four women. Even Thea, though she still looked longingly at the alien wreckage.

Kiania dropped the three missiles spreading them out, putting them in the debris to hide them. Sandy maneuvered the shuttle and climbed 'over' the debris before working back toward the most intact part. "The Om must be trying to salvage their ship or to at least acquire something important from the ship. Sandy, take us in close to the remaining section, and park us out of sight if possible on the other side."

Sandy carefully brought the ship in close and matched the slow spin. Rhys hoped to be taken for a piece of wreckage until the Om were close enough for us to surprise.

"Good," Rhys said, studying the position of the shuttle and the projected path of the Om ship that was following them. "We should be hidden here, shut down any unnecessary power; I want them as close as possible before they spot us."

"What now?" Leslie asked. She felt lost, out of her element here, and she did not like it. Also, she had nothing to contribute, it was frustrating, and she hated the feeling of helplessness.

"Now we wait," Rhys said in a soft rumbling voice. "You understand this part; I am sure you know the feeling of waiting for your target, the patience of the hunter."

Leslie watched as he walked over to Thea and put an arm around her. Thea visibly relaxed, calm again.

"I need you to focus on the ship. You don't have a mature symbiont yet, but you will soon, us the AI and the hologram, watch our energy signature and the stealth field. The AI can handle most of it, but I want a human in the loop. Just talk to me as things happen, keep me informed. We will stay here until we see if the other Om ship has continued on its course. If so, we are going to destroy it. The Om do not know we are here; we should be able to catch it as it maneuvers into the wreckage."

"Second contact," said Sandy as another one was highlighted at the edge of their sensor range.

"That's the Drans ship," Rhys said as information slotted into his brain, "the big one I was on." Even from here, they could see it was severely damaged, in pieces really.

"Scanning reports that there may be parts of this Om ship with minimum life support and may contain survivors," Thea said quietly with tension in her voice.

Kiania looked at Rhys with concern.

'Don't worry about any survivors now; focus on the incoming Om. Any survivors are stranded. However, if they know we are here and can communicate with the other Om ship, our surprise won't work," Rhys said out loud while he conferred through the link with the others and the ship's AI. The merged mind as he thought of it. The four of them and the AI sorted and weighed options and dangers before deciding on a plan.

"We didn't get to finish dinner; how about a snack while we wait," he said, looking at Leslie.

"Sure," she said though she didn't think she could eat anything right now. Leslie found some food, but she wasn't sure how to work anything in the kitchen or galley; she guessed it was called.

"Grab the tray from the wall on the left and set it down on the flat space in front of you. It will heat automatically," Amancia called out.

Bringing the food in, Leslie watched them eat, wondering how they could have an appetite at a time like this. She tried a bite, but her stomach was too tied up in knots. She noticed that Thea only nibbled at a piece as they exchanged strained smiles.

"Here they come," Amancia said, pointing a mental finger at the approaching Om vessel as it came into range of their sensors. It was still moving fast, though slowing even now. "Stealth field up, shutting down power now," Thea said with strain in her voice. Everything went into standby, limiting their energy signature and making the stealth field more effective.

"We want them to get closer before they detect us," Rhys explained to Leslie and Thea. "We are hidden behind the wreckage for now, but if they maneuver, they will see us. But we have left them a surprise which will buy us time if it doesn't kill them."

The Om ship continued its slow approach, now decelerating. They watched silently as it grew bigger and continued to slow. "Well, we know they are here for something Rhys said; let's see what they are interested in."

"The Om are in firing range of our missiles," Kiania said calmly.

"Let them get closer; I want a clean kill if we can get it."

Thea had the ship's systems displayed inside the hologram she and Leslie were seeing. The technology to do just this one thing was exciting; she couldn't wait until she started taking the ship apart and reverse engineer the fuck out of it.

Rhys felt the tension as the Om vessel decelerated toward them. The AI projected when the Om would see through their stealth field, but the life support they were picking up from the wreckage worried him. A little closer, he thought in consultation with the others through the AI. They were exchanging thoughts in milliseconds, waiting on his command to fire or take action. Despite never having done this before, Rhys felt good about the plan and their position. The Om might suspect trouble, but they had no way of knowing they were there.

"Om communications detected," the AI reported as the Om ship abruptly changed course 90 degrees to the solar plane.

"Fire," Rhys ordered at the same time, and the three missiles they had left behind acquired their target. All their energy was expended on acceleration at this close range as they jumped to a fraction of light speed almost instantly. Sandy brought the ship up to full power clawing for velocity and a parallel course to the incoming Om ship. The missiles tracked their target, and Rhys held his breath as one blew up short. Two more came homing in, the first exploding close, but the third lost track and continued past.

"Shit," Kiania shouted, "their countermeasures were ready for that."