Earth's Last Days: The Invasion

Jess walked into the tavern. She stopped, her gaze moving from one side of the tavern to the other before stopping at a large booth in the back corner. Aleigha, Niki, and a girl with blond hair sat together with the two infants beside their prospective mothers.

Jess smiled and headed toward them.

"Can I sit with you?" Jess asked her sisters once she reached the large booth. Her eyes briefly went to the blond with them.

Niki smiled. "Sure, Jess." She then turned to the blond. "This is our younger sister, Jess," Niki introduced her sister to the blond girl, then turned back to Jess. "This is Jada. Now have a seat."

Jess smiled, sitting down beside Niki. Jada gave her a once-over as she watched her sit down, eyeing the boots that she also wore. "I guess you can fight too?" she asked.

Jess nodded. "Yeah. It was kind of a family thing."

The door of the tavern slid open, and two human boys walked in. Both of them were around Jess's age. Jess, seeing them, pressed her head to the table. "Damn it, they must have followed me."

Jada looked over at the two boys. "Is that a bad thing or a good thing?" she asked Jess.

"It's an annoying thing. They've been trying to get me to introduce them to Aleigha since they found out she was my sister," Jess groaned.

Aleigha chuckled. "Might as well get it over with. I do have a mate and a son, so I'm pretty sure they will lose interest pretty quickly."

The two boys scanned the room; seeing Jess, they smiled. When they realized who she was sitting with, their grins grew.

Aleigha picked her son out of the carrier. He was starting to fuss as the two boys headed toward them. Niki's infant, Drake, stayed asleep, oblivious to everything around him.

"Hey Jess, can we sit with you guys?" the first boy asked.

Jess looked up. "I don't know Robert. My sisters might be waiting for their mates to come. They will want to sit with them if they are," she told the first boy, stressing the word 'mate.'

Robert scanned the girls, seeing the infants. "I'm Robert. This is my friend Neil. We came to find Jess. Can we sit with you while you wait for your mates? I have some questions I want to ask," he told her, smiling widely.

Jada eyed the two boys. "I've seen you before. Where have I seen you before?" she asked them.

"Both of us or just one of us?" Robert asked Jada. He looked puzzled, trying to figure out where she had seen either of them before.

"Both of you. I know both of you. Where have I seen you before?" she asked again, her tone going hard. She knew them, and something about them told her she didn't like them.

Robert shrugged. "Was it at school before the invasion or something?" he asked.

Jada studied them, her eyes narrowing at the two of them. "No, it wasn't school."

Neil studied her, trying to figure it out himself. Both boys looked at each other and then back at Jada. "Before or after the invasion?" Neil asked.

With Neil's question, Jada's face paled. It was a moment of recognition. She pulled her staff from her boot, clicked it open, and held it firmly toward them; her grasp was steady, unwavering, ready to fight. "I remember now. If you touch anyone inappropriately, I will cut your dicks off and stuff them down your throats. Got that?" she hissed.

Jess looked between Robert and Neil. She had known both of them. They were part of Keith's mountain city. "What did you do?" she asked them. "I've known you for nearly a year, and you've never done anything that I recall. Clearly, either you did, and I never saw, or whatever you did to her was a one-time thing. What was it?" she demanded.

It was clear that both boys had finally remembered. They stared at Jada in shock. The bladed staff poised to slice one of them. Their eyes nervously went from Jada to the razor-sharp blade held toward them.

It was Robert who spoke first. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, then looked at Neil. He nodded, not saying anything. Their eyes kept going from the staff to Jada.

Jada sneered at the two boys. "Perhaps you should have the truth serum used on you to find out if you've been doing things to the girls from the city you just came from." Her voice was hard. Her eyes narrowed. Her face radiated pure hatred.

Niki looked between the two boys, watching their reactions to Jada's comment about the truth serum. Both of their faces paled further.

Pulling out her wrist comm, Niki typed a message. Looking at the two boys, she smiled. "You do know that I can authorize it used on you. If you harmed anyone or did anything you shouldn't have, I can have you put in the cells. Jada is a good friend to us. She's like a sister. If she wants you interrogated for something, I believe I will allow it." she told them.

The door to the tavern slid open, and Orik, Guard Commander Drevick, and Trei walked in. Niki looked up and smiled at her mate. Niki pointed to Orik. "That's Jada's mate. If you hurt her, I'm pretty sure he'll kill you. Of course, I doubt he'll have to. Jada is capable of doing it herself," she told them. Her eyes went to the staff in Jada's hand, then back to the two boys. "She is amazingly good at using that."

All three men sat at the booth, Orik next to Jada, Drevick, and Trei, who had pushed the two boys between them, making sure they were boxed in so they couldn't escape.

Guard Commander Drevick held his hand up for a server, who quickly approached.

"Pizza and a jug of strong beverage," he ordered. "I also need the partition closed. We'd like to speak to our mates in private as soon as our order is delivered." Drevick told the server.

The server nodded, then rushed off to get their order. After she delivered it, she closed the partition and disappeared.

Orik picked up a glass of beer and took a drink. The boys focused on him, not seeing that the other two had pulled an injector out. Robert and Neil watched Orik smile as Drevick and Trei quickly injected the two boys. They both felt the pain of the needle before their faces went slack, their eyes unfocused.

Orik faced them. "What did you do to Jada?" he asked Robert evenly.

Robert answered without hesitation. His voice was monotone. "We saw her sleeping in a cave and went in. We both quickly attacked her and raped her."

Orik gritted his teeth, not liking what he was hearing. "Have you touched any of the girls in the mountain town led by Keith?" he asked Robert evenly. He didn't like what he had just found out. He didn't like hearing that they had forced his mate.

"Yes," Robert stated without hesitation. His voice was still monotone, his eyes focused at nothing.

"When was the last time?" Orik asked them both.

Robert and Neil spoke in unison. "The day before we came to this ship."

"You raped the girl together?" Orik asked them, his features going like stone.

Again, the two boys spoke in unison. "Yes, we always do it together."

Jess looked at the two boys in shock. Unable to let Orik finish, she asked her own question. "Why didn't you ever try anything with me?" she asked. She didn't even know they were like that.

The two boys spoke in unison again. "We saw you fight. We knew if we tried, you would fight back. We couldn't fight you. You're too strong."

"Do you plan on raping or touching anyone else? Anyone on this ship?" Jess asked them. Her tone was in a hiss. She was clearly angry. Orik let her take over the questioning so he could listen.

"Yes. We have several we go to regularly," they stated in unison.

Orik took over the questioning again. Making sure to ask for all the names of the girls they had touched.

After they had gotten all the names of the girls, Orik, Guard Commander Drevick, and Trei allowed the serum to wear off. Neither boy remembered any of it. They didn't even know they had been given the serum. They remembered nothing.

Guard Commander Drevick typed on his wrist comm, then finished his beer. While the two boys remained trapped in between the two Ramesians, guards had been headed to all the girls they had named. They made sure to get all the names, re-asking to ensure they didn't leave any out. The girls were being taken, first to the clinic to be scanned for damage or pregnancy, then to the council room for Niki and Council Leader Vorik to help.

They ordered more pizza and beer until Guard Commander Drevick's wrist comm buzzed. Looking down at it, he smiled. "Looks like I have work to do," he said, getting up. "I believe Orik and Trei need to accompany me."

Both men nodded, sliding out of the booth.

Drevick looked at Robert and Neil. "Come with us. I believe you two have a job to do."

Robert and Neil followed them out of the tavern. Since they didn't remember their interrogation, they had no idea what was going to happen. They thought they were given a job. Nothing more. They felt relieved that nothing was said about what they had done to Jada. Orik, Jada's mate, didn't seem to know. He walked with them to wherever they were going, a smile on his face.

Orik, Trei, and Guard Commander Drevick led the two boys into a room. All the girls they had touched were in the room. Their faces paled. "Ladies?" Guard Commander Drevick stated, smiling at them.

They all looked down at the floor, nervous. Drevick sighed. He knew they weren't used to Ramesians. Not only that, but they knew it had to do with Robert and Neil and what they had done to them.

"Do you know these two boys? Speak the truth; nothing will happen to you if you speak the truth," Guard Commander Drevick told them kindly.

One girl nodded as the others stayed quiet.

"Can you identify these two boys as the ones that forced you?" Guard Commander Drevick asked carefully. They had been through enough. He didn't want to make them feel worse.

The girl looked up at Robert and Neil. Her face paled before she nodded again. "Yes," she said suddenly. It was so quiet that it was barely heard.

Drevick looked around the room filled with girls. "Can anyone else identify these two males as being the ones that harmed you?" he asked them all, scanning the group of females.

One by one, they nodded or answered with a quiet 'yes.'

Hearing the confirmation from the girls, two guards moved behind each boy, binding them in bar shackles so they couldn't fight back. They had to leave their legs unshackled so that they could walk to the cells.

Guard Commander Drevick smiled at the group of girls. "Then you need to decide what his punishment should be. We will put him in the cells as you decide. You can request them to stay in the cells for the remainder of their lives, execution, or removal of the offensive appendage or appendages. Of course, it could also be a combination of any of them."

One girl looked up at the guard commander in shock. "We get to choose his sentence?" she asked in disbelief.

Guard Commander Drevick folded his arms, smiling. "You are the victims. These two males gave you no choice in what they did to you. Therefore, you get to decide their fate. What you choose for them is something neither male has a choice of." Drevick shrugged. "They got to choose what they did to you; you get to choose the consequences of their actions."

"Anything?" the same girl asked slowly, wanting clarification.

Drevick's smile grew. "Anything except their freedom," he told them. "I can't let them free to harm anyone else. They clearly have a history of repeatedly harming others with the attention of continuing their behavior. That history is why they forfeit their freedom."

The girl nodded. Tears falling down her cheeks. "Thank you. Thank you for caring enough to help us."

The group of girls watched as the guards led the boys out. Robert and Neil had fear in their eyes. They knew the girls could ask for anything, and the aliens would give them what they wanted.

As Trei, Guard Commander Drevick, and Orik left the council room, Orik stopped and scanned the girls. He was taking this opportunity to help the group of girls because he couldn't do anything to the two boys himself for what they did to hurt his mate. "Be creative if you'd like. They deserve anything you choose to subject them to. Whatever it is, it's your choice." Winking at the girls, he turned and left the council room.