Alien Mine Ch. 09

"You are stealing my soul," she mumbled worriedly as sleep overtook her.

Thea's turn Sandy announced before Rhys had a chance to think about Leslie's words. Thea threw herself into his arms, kissing him and reaching for his cock that Leslie had recently drained. "That was so hot," Amancia said. "Yeah," chimed in Kiania, "that was better than any stage act I was ever in, and I have been in a lot."

"Come on,'' said Amancia, leaning down and taking his well-worn cock in her mouth.

"Yes," said Sandy with a grin moving into his arms, "Thea's turn," she said again.

"What were you doing in Leslies mind?" he asked gently.

"Just reinforcing the associations of pleasure with following your orders and some girl stuff.,"

"Wow," said Kiania, "I can't believe the uptight career woman had such a dirty mouth. She needs a better vocabulary though, and I can help her be a little more expressive."

Thea wasted no time in mounting Rhys. Today was as surprising to her as it was to Leslie. The combination of the sex and cool technology really got her off.

***

Rhys sat alone in the control room, the girls all asleep in the bed. He was connected to the AI and could have been anywhere on the ship, but he chose the bridge. Rhys thought about what Leslie had said; her words bothered him. Was he stealing her soul? What about the others, had it been the same with them. Examining his feelings, he looked for an answer, picturing each of them in his mind. Did what he was about to do, he asked himself, in some way mean that he was acting like some tin god as Leslie had accused him of? Was he was repudiating the principles by which he had abided, the ones that allowed him to fight, kill when necessary. He had always respected these principles, lived by them, and had sent men to die by them.

Leslie was wrong; he was no god. Absolutely not. But he had his own personal judgment, standards of right and wrong. And sometimes, what he thought was right did not agree with the judgment of others. And vice versa. But he had been given this task, chosen by the Drans for whatever reason. He needed Leslie, needed her expertise, and he would have it one way or another. At the end of the day, he could only act within his own conscience. He had to win, Humanity had to win. He would sacrifice himself and others as necessary. Leslie wasn't the first, and she wouldn't be the last.

Rhys took a large sip of his bourbon. Later he would have Bob wash it out of his system, but right now, he needed it. Unconsciously his mind sorted through the emphatic connections to the girls in the stateroom. The link to each of them was so strong, at least with Sandy, Amancia, and Kiania. He examined the emotional connections in his mind, tracing the patterns he was familiar with. The bonds between them were strong, thick, and colored like rainbow-bright splashes of red, yellow, purple, and dark blue.

Rhys traced them to each girl and back to him. That's interesting, he thought as he looked closer, faint lines were connecting the girls to each other. The ones between Sandy and Amancia were the strongest. Kiania was connected to both, but the bonds were thinner, weaker, Rhys supposed. There were very faint lines running between Thea and the girls and Leslie as well. Another puzzle, he thought, thinking how much he loved them. As he did, the bands running from him to the girls flashed into brilliant colors. He certainly wasn't a god because if he had stolen their souls, then indeed they had stolen his as well.

The alien was deep below ground in its hive when it sensed the sudden absence of the others it had sent back into space. The being did not feel loss, only frustration that its plans had been thwarted. The destruction of the two surviving scout nests was a blow; all possible communications with the greater nest were now cut off. Reproduction was a necessity, as was locating the Drans. There was no emotion associated with the ancient enemy; it just was. The alien was not capable of emotions; the nest was all that mattered. Survival came first, but the location of the Drans was imperative. It knew of one human the Drans had been in contact with, but their effort to use that human to locate the Drans had failed. The human would be retrieved if it returned and examined to find out what it had learned. This time one of the Om would be there to ensure success.