Subjugate (Companions to the Leviathan #4)

Chapter 1

ONE

"Hey there, Big Guy, you're finally awake," my captor said, her intricately braided rust brown hair falling around my face like a curtain, focusing my vision in on the soft details of her face, such as how wide her eyes were despite the tension around the edges of them, like all the muscles in her face were engaged to create the rictus version of a smile.

Small boxes snapped into existence in my vision, highlighting the small details of her expression as my alien body language subroutine parsed the visual details.

Manic aggression, the subroutine returned the result of its analysis.

I held very still.

I couldn't entirely trust its analysis. The dross who had captured me was from a newly acquired species, taken by an infiltrator unit from the Taygetan home world.

Plexus Command didn't have any additional data on it, but given the high nerve conduction velocity within the synaptic system of the individuals who had been examined, locating their home world for Plexus acquisition had become a top priority.

At least, that was the state of things when I last had access to Plexus command.

It had stopped responding soon after the Wild Vaurelcar attacked.

I had fought against the attack, been damaged, and then woke up in the processing room, near a reconstruction chamber but not in it.

There were loose dross in there, cutting into another unit, and I got up and left before they noticed me.

I found a new, incomprehensible section of the ship had been assembled that appeared to be a social area that one would find in other alien cultures. It was completely out of place on a Calicium ship, and a clear indication that the ship had gotten free.

I had only a few moments to recognize the situation before I was captured.

"You must have been exhausted to pass out like that," my captor said, her fingers trailing the side of my face as she hovered above me, her touch a delicate caress that pulled at the center of my chest, her tenderness carving through my logical thought and seizing it, forcing all of my attention back to her.

I could feel the intricate details of where the soft, round side of my captor's rear pressed against my side from where she sat next to me on the lofted padded surface of what appeared to be her private chambers.

She had led me in there and disabled me.

A flare of heat rushed through me at the awareness of the touch, of how close she was to me, and for a moment I wondered if she was going to do it again, if she was going to slide her hands down my body and…

Biological Suppression initiated.

Cool relief flooded me, a numbness that washed away the rising desire in my body along with the distracting speculative eagerness to experience my captor's touch again.

She tilted her head to the side, lines appearing in her forehead, instantly highlighted by my subroutine.

Worry, the program decided.

It had been updated before the attack using the months of recording of the dross interacting in their cell together to train that piece of software to identify this particular species' body language.

It wouldn't be considered highly accurate until an infiltrator was created and sent to one of their colonies or home planet.

My captor was waiting for a response.

I hadn't passed out because of exhaustion. A unit didn't experience exhaustion. We continued to function until we required repair or perished.

I needed a response that got me out of this situation. Physical violence wouldn't work, as first she had already overwhelmed me easily, and secondly it was clear the ship was free, which meant any action that drew its attention could result in my death.

Plus I couldn't stand the thought of hurting this dross, whose soft body felt so incredible pressed against mine, whose mouth could…

Biological Suppression initiated.

Those thoughts vanished with the stabilizing dose automatically dispensed to prevent me from being influenced by my origin species inefficiencies.

I was designed and equipped to infiltrate my origin species' colony planets.

Her species was not the same, but that was the primary knowledge I had to work from.

Admitting defeat with words was akin to locking oneself in a cell.

If her species felt the same about words, letting her know she was in a position of power would cause her to become overconfident, and I would be able to escape.

"I lost consciousness because you overwhelmed me," I said. "I am powerless against your touch."

"Really?" she said, the word rushing out with an excess amount of air, giving her tone a breathy sound. The muscles around her eyes softened as her eyebrows tilted up slightly, a glimmer of liquid appearing in the edges of her eyes as they produced hydration.

Relief, my body language subroutine reported.

Why was she relieved?

The thought twisted through my thoughts, derailing my focus on my goal yet again. She was escaped dross. My focus should be to return her to the dross cage, not to wonder why she was concerned about me and relieved when I would state such a simple truth.

A bead of liquid slipped free from her eye and trailed its way down her cheek. Without thinking, I reached up to brush it away with the back of my finger. She let out a sigh as she leaned her face into my hand, until I was cupping her cheek.

"Why are you leaking?" I asked.

"Oh, it's just, you know how men are," she said, pulling her face away from my hand as she sat up away from me, turning her entire body away from me until she was facing the wall.

I finally had room to sit up, so I did.

The room was excessively large, and the surface we were sitting on was wide enough and long enough for four people to lie down flat.

Did the dross like to sleep on soft surfaces?

I thought back to how they had been sleeping on the hard floor in the dross cage, and felt a flash of something hot and furious… anger. I was feeling anger.

Biological suppression initiated.

Locational danger identified, my control chip finally decided. Move to safe environment.

The order slid in place with the other orders it had given me: to find Plexus Command, to repair it if possible, and then to recapture the ship.

None of which I could do from a position of captivity.

Without Plexus Command to give detailed orders, my control chip was limited in its ability, having to rely on broad orders instead of specific ones.

But that last one was enough to force me to stand up and move toward the door.

"Wait!" my captor cried out as she dashed in between me and the door, her reaction speed faster than my control chip could anticipate, putting her hands on my chest and stopping me in my tracks.

"I didn't mean to upset you! You're not like the other men; you're an alien, right, so you wouldn't just take what you wanted and then leave.

You wouldn't …. you wouldn't just leave… "

To get past her, I would have to take physical action, but if I did that, she could incapacitate me.

I sent the assessment to my control chip, and it adjusted my orders.

As an infiltrator unit, my control chip had to be flexible to allow me to behave in a believable manner, and without Plexus Control, it would accept and log my adjustments to orders so that Plexus Control could review them later.

Her eyes were wide again; this time they were filling with liquid that began to slide down her cheeks at an alarming rate as she looked up at me. As the liquid continued to slip down her cheeks, she looked down at the ground, her shoulders slumping.

"I'm such an idiot," she said, the words whispered. "Of course you want to leave me. No one ever wants me."

Her words were a knife chipping away at the chemically curated ice block that prevented me from feeling all the things that a Calicium unit could never be allowed to feel.

"I am incapable of leaving you," I said. "Your body is a weapon against which I have no defense."

She looked up at me, her gaze sharp and vulnerable, feral and manic, too many expressions all at once that my subroutine had difficulty keeping up with the sheer flexibility and speed of the small muscular shifts in her face.

"One time is not enough," she said. "Let me show you just how good I am."

She seemed to be waiting for a response, so I agreed.

"Yes," I said. "Show me."

Then she dropped her knees, her hands grabbing the edge of my armored leggings, just like she did before. She found the automatic release, just like she did before, and then she…

Biological suppression initiated.

The cool wash of chemicals was nothing against the raging inferno she triggered as she pressed her mouth against….

Biological suppression initiated.

I couldn't…

Biological suppression initiated.

It felt too good and I…

Biological suppression initiated.

Biological suppression initiated.

Biological suppression initiated.