Sister Katherine Read online

  She shook her head. “No. Vadef encouraged me to, but I’ve felt too wired. I’m on edge.”

  Simdow felt a bolt of guilt. The poor girl was so uneasy, and he was about to make her more so. Her eyes were shadowed and red with exhaustion however, so he hoped the needs of her body would overcome her stress.

  He told her, “It is late night hours on your colony. I think we’re all overdue for some sleep.”

  Miv asked quietly, “Sleep only, my Dramok?”

  Simdow saw his Nobek’s concern. Miv turned slightly towards Katherine, as if to shelter and defend her with his body, though he was careful not to touch. The little nun didn’t know it, but she had a hell of a protector on her side.

  The Dramok smiled despite worrying over what the next few minutes would bring. He’d had the opportunity to read the report Vadef had sent on the convent’s practices and the religious beliefs of Katherine’s people. His clan would not push her, at least not nearly as much as the other women had been. Yet, she was not going to like what was about to happen.

  He told them all, “Sleep only.”

  Katherine relaxed her tense posture. Her exhalation was audible.

  Simdow stood. “But we will sleep as we normally would, as will our Matara. We will sleep as a Kalquorian clan.”

  Vadef nodded, and after a moment, Miv did as well. They stood too. Without further ado, the three men began stripping off their boots and duty formsuits. Katherine’s gasp rang out.

  * * * *

  The men were taking their clothes off, peeling the clinging fabric from their muscled bodies. They were making themselves naked, right in front of her. That could only mean one thing.

  Katherine’s hands flew up to cover her eyes. “Oh dear God, please no—”

  Simdow’s voice was quiet, but it still seemed to fill her ears, much as the rustling fabric sounds did. “Katherine, there is nothing to be afraid of. We are not going to require you to give us sex.”

  That helped slow her galloping heart, but it didn’t change the fact they stripped right there in front of her. “You’re taking your clothes off!”

  “We sleep nude. It is our way.”

  The sounds of the men disrobing ceased. Silence reigned, so absolute that Katherine could only hear her own thudding heart and gasping breaths. The quiet pressed down, a near-discernable weight on her. It made her feel as if she had to look.

  No. She did not want to do that. She did not want to see the three aliens naked.

  Yet she did.

  Simdow’s tone held a slight tremor. “Have you ever seen a man without his clothes?”

  Katherine tightened her fingers against her eyes, as if they would fly open of their own accord and force her to look at what she should not. “It is forbidden.”

  “If you were on Earth, perhaps. But now you are a part of Kalquorian society. You may look.”

  “I don’t want to.” Her voice shook.

  Vadef’s voice couldn’t be more gentle. “Because you are afraid?”

  Well, what else would she be? Katherine retorted, “Of course I’m afraid.”

  “It is only our bodies. Not knowing what we look like might be more terrifying than facing up to what your life is now.”

  His words were too reasonable for her to discount. The awful curiosity pulled at Katherine, the intrigue almost too great to bear. She realized fear of the unknown might indeed be worse than if she got the looking over with. After all, there was no escape from this fate of being with the Kalquorians, was there? She was trapped.

  The tremor in Simdow’s voice had resolved into outright amusement. “Start high, with our faces. You’re used to looking at those. Then work your way down.”

  Katherine’s spine stiffened. She neither appreciated that Simdow found her reactions funny, nor that he condescended to her. She was not a child.

  Fine. If they want me to look and see their shamefulness, then I will. Perhaps the humiliation of it will make them behave.

  Her voice tight with disapproval, she said, “All right. I’m going to look at you.”

  She slowly lowered her hands to her lap. Then she tilted her head upward, so she wouldn’t see their nakedness right away. She opened her eyes and stared into their faces.

  Simdow was biting his lips together, his eyes sparkling with merriment. He was as naughty and mischievous as a young boy, and Katherine gave him her most stern look. That only seemed to make it harder for him to keep the hilarity in.

  Vadef was smiling too, but it was with hopeful concern. He didn’t want her to be afraid, she saw. The Imdiko was as sweet as ever, but he was still naked. Katherine couldn’t find a glare for him nonetheless.

  Miv’s expression was grave. Apprehensive. His ferocity hid behind a mask of anxiety. Katherine was touched by how uneasy this exercise made him feel.

  Well, she couldn’t look at their faces forever. She inched her gaze down to their torsos.

  Miv wore more scars there. On his strong, chiseled frame, they accentuated the powerful muscles rather than detracting from them. He was a wonder of form, his chest and arms swollen with brawn. His stomach was a fascinating study of uniform hills in double rows. Miv’s body was the most robust she’d ever seen, daunting and yet awe inspiring all at once.

  Simdow was not as imposing, though his body was filled with taut muscles as well. He was built more gracefully, his body well-formed without the heaviness. Seeing him and Miv side by side was like looking at a buck deer next to a moose. Simdow displayed strength and refinement all in one stunning package.

  If Miv was a moose and Simdow was a buck, then Vadef was a gazelle. His lithe frame still possessed the lovely defined lines of muscles, but they were so much more delicately drawn than the other two. He was not nearly as formidable as his clanmates. In fact, he almost looked fragile in comparison.

  Katherine had to restrain a snort at herself. Vadef was the smallest male of the trio, but he was still built like a tank compared to most Earther men she’d seen. He certainly could overwhelm her if he chose to. She had no doubt she was no match for him, strength-wise.

  Katherine readied herself to look farther down at the sinful baby-making flesh. The men’s shameful parts were at the bottom of her vision. So far she’d managed to keep herself from really seeing it. Her heart pounded anew as she prepared to sully her gaze.

  Forgive me this sin. If they are to malign my body with theirs, I need to see the weapons so as to prepare myself.

  Since Vadef intimidated her the least, she looked at him first. Two lengths of flesh hung between his legs, one behind the other. They were shaded slightly darker than the rest of his skin, and but for the difference in their sizes, they were identical. Broadest at their bases, they tapered gradually to bullet tips. Though somewhat large to Katherine’s worried gaze, they looked soft and blameless and utterly harmless.

  She looked at Simdow and Miv’s sexual organs. Again, they simply hung from their groins, looking odd but not monstrous. Katherine frowned a little. Hadn’t these pieces of flesh been likened to battering rams? Terrible, goring appendages designed to brutally invade the softness of woman and make her quicken with child?

  Something confused her. Her voice stronger than she expected to hear it, Katherine said, “I was told men only have one – um – one—”

  Simdow chuckled as he supplied the word she couldn’t drive past her lips. “Cock. Or penis, if you prefer.”

  His continued amusement with her discomfort made Katherine angry. “Yes. Penis.” She tried not to notice how her face heated at the word. She had every idea she’d gone as red as a lobster. “You’re only supposed to have one.”

  Miv corrected her, his voice careful. “Earther males have one. Kalquorian males have two.”

  Katherine realized she was still staring at their private parts. Flushing hotter still, she jerked her eyes back to their faces. “Okay. I knew there were some differences in our species. I wasn’t aware that was one of them. Will you stop laughing at me?” she said to
Simdow, scowling at the repressed hilarity he was struggling to control.

  He managed to look a little contrite, though the corners of his mouth still twitched upward. “I am sorry, Matara. I have never known anyone to be so uncomfortable around nudity than your people. It just seems so funny to me.” He gestured at his clanmates’ groins. “To me, this is natural. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “According to my beliefs, it is shameful.”

  Vadef cocked his head to one side and looked at her with real puzzlement. “But why? Your beliefs state God made you in his image. Is that not true?”

  “Yes. But – but – it’s wrong, that’s all!”

  “‘And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed,’” Vadef quoted. “Even the first words of your holy book show God meant you to be free from worrying over such things.”

  Katherine scowled at him. She could easily argue the nuances of biblical passages with Vadef, but she knew the bible well enough to recognize that they would be flinging conflicting tenets all night. One could find support for any position taken with the bible as a reference. It was why she tended to follow the parts that showed love and mercy.

  Vadef wasn’t done despite her refusal to debate. “With a few differences, we are made like your people, the Earthers made in God’s image. You even acknowledge God created Kalquorians as well as yourselves. So how can our appearance be shameful?”

  Katherine strove for compromise. “I understand your argument. I don’t have an answer for it, except that nudity opens the way for sin.”

  For all his sweetness, the Imdiko was dogged. “Do you mean, ‘be fruitful and multiply’? You’re supposed to breed, according to your beliefs.”

  She could have shaken him. “Stop quoting the bible at me! You’re – you’re taking it out of context. Nakedness leads to temptation, the wish to lie with each other in sin. That’s the main issue here.”

  Their conversation had Simdow blinking. “So you fear our nakedness because it makes you want to have sex with us?”

  Katherine knew she shouldn’t be having this conversation, not when the men could twist her words to suit their wishes. It was time to stop it. Her voice cold, she said, “I have no wish to sin at all, Dramok Simdow.”

  Being in the room with these men – these naked men – had her guts churning strangely again. She was sick or something, a new symptom of the stress that made her stomach hurt when she ate. The stray idea of running her hands over those alien bodies, of discovering if their skin was rough or soft, cool or warm, flitted across her head. The heat in her guts coiled tighter. No, she absolutely did not want to be intimate with them at all.

  Simdow said, “If you have no inclination to commit any transgressions, our being nude should not be an issue. You are not tempted to sin, so you should have no concerns about us sleeping naked with you.”

  A new terror crept over Katherine’s heart. “All of us on the same bed?”

  She had known that was what had to happen, but knowing they’d be bare in a bed, right next to her, had her shaking again. The squirmy feeling infecting her stomach grew larger than ever. She went hot all over.

  All the amusement had fled from Simdow’s face. His gaze on her was kind, but his words made her heart stutter. “This is the clan’s sleeping mat, which we all share. You will sleep between us and you will be naked as well.”

  If she hadn’t been sitting down, Katherine would have fallen to the floor in her shock. As it was, she swayed with a wave of dizziness. When she recovered enough to speak, she cried, “No, Simdow! I can’t do that!”

  His gentle expression never faltered, but there was no compromise in his tone. “We have sworn we will not have sex with you. You have no fears of that, though as your clan it is our right to coerce you into it.”

  Miv quickly said, “That is not our wish, however. We only want you to share your body entirely with us if you want it as well.”

  Simdow continued. “You will sleep with your clan in the accustomed manner. That is all.”

  He meant it. Katherine could see it in his eyes. If she refused, would he force her to comply? Would he demand she do all the rest despite their assurances that they would not make her?

  She stared up at the Dramok, desperately trying to hold on to some thread of courage. Yet her voice shook as she said, “I really have to do this?”

  Misery touched Simdow’s handsome features. “I would not for all the Empire wish you to be afraid. I hate that you look at me the way you are. However, you are our Matara and you must get used to our ways.” With effort, Katherine saw his resolve firm. His jaw tightened, and he said, “Please remove your gown, or we will remove it for you.”

  Katherine’s misery mounted. She was afraid seeing her naked would make the men insane with lust. Women were inherently evil, their bodies temptations that destroyed the naturally saintly natures of men. Would these three aliens, unaware of how wicked her kind were, be able to deny base urges when they saw her flesh?

  She wished that strange, hot, churning feeling inside her body would go away. Its force centered low, all the way down to her sinful sex. The flesh there was indeed immoral, warming like the fires of Hell itself, ready to consume the minds and bodies of these men. They would not be able to help themselves. She would lead them to their ruin, as well as to her own.

  Yet if Katherine did not disrobe as ordered, the Kalquorians would put their hands on her anyway. There was no doubt in Simdow’s face. He was ready to pull her gown off, to make her stand there before them in her shame. It would be worse if it happened that way.

  Katherine rose to her feet. Bowing her head in humiliation, she gathered handfuls of the gown’s stiff, coarse cloth. Slowly, she pulled it up. At the same time she hunched lower, as if she could disappear in the voluminous folds and escape the inevitable.

  The billowing fabric went over her head. It inched higher on her legs, skirting over shins, knees, and thighs. Katherine paused, and drew a shuddering breath. She drew her arms in through the sleeves before continuing on, concentrating on baring her back and leaving the front of her body shielded for as long as possible. The fabric made its way over the thin panties covering her buttocks to slide achingly higher over her back. It cleared her shoulders and her head emerged from the hem. She blinked in the suddenly too bright light of the clan’s quarters.

  She stared down at the gown she held clutched to her breasts. She did not want to drop it. She did not. More than that, she did not want the men tearing it from her grasp. It still took all her will to make her hands release the death grip she held the gown with. It slowly slithered from her fingers, puddling in a pile at her feet.

  Katherine stood quivering, her head bowed as she waited for the aliens to lay hold of her, to throw her to the bed, to take their eager pleasure with her body. Silence spun out, thick with anticipation.

  No one spoke. No one moved. Katherine stood there as seconds ticked by, and she was not raped.

  She slowly lifted her head, her gaze moving the opposite direction of before. Now she looked at thick calves and sculpted thighs. The sight of their penises made her suck in a harsh breath. They appeared to be thicker, standing out slightly from the men’s groins. Her nakedness had had an effect on them, just as the Church had warned. Yet the Kalquorians still did not move from where they stood.

  Katherine couldn’t help but look at the now larger male organs. She thought, They want to put those inside me. They want to fill me with their seed to make babies. So why aren’t they? The strange swirl in her loins had gained heat and weight. Katherine was suddenly aware of wetness seeping from her sex. Was she so afraid of the men and what they wished to do with her that she had lost control of her bladder? She felt no need to urinate, though her insides felt like bubbling liquid right now.

  She could definitely feel the dampness soaking into the crotch of her underwear. Embarrassed, she squeezed her thighs together. Wetting herself was the ultimate
humiliation, worse than that of showing her body.

  In a small voice, hoping they wouldn’t notice the accident she’d had, Katherine asked, “May I visit the facility?” She nodded to the closed door of the quarter’s small restroom.

  Simdow’s voice was quiet. “Yes, but keep the door slightly open.”

  Katherine looked at him in horror. He would watch her on the toilet? Yet there was nothing ugly in Simdow’s or either of the other two’s expression. They all seemed sweetly concerned.

  She couldn’t have been more shocked. Not one of the clan looked at her with violent, mindless lust. Other than the growing erect state of their sexes, they showed no indications of wild ardor at all.

  As she tried to comprehend this stunning state of affairs, Simdow explained his direction to keep the bathroom door open. “I cannot allow you to be completely alone right now because I’m afraid you might do yourself harm. We will not watch you attend to your personal needs, but we must be allowed quick access to you. I’m sorry that you won’t be allowed much privacy for a little while.”

  Katherine nodded. She could scarcely believe it as he and Miv parted to let her pass between them to get to the door.

  The Dramok swallowed and said, “Take the underclothes off when you are done, Katherine.”

  She hunched a little but said nothing in refusal. She managed to walk forward, her heart pounding as she approached them. They did not touch her as she passed by. The facility’s door opened for her, and Simdow barked a command in his language. When Katherine went into the room, the door slid shut except for three inches. Through the small gap, Katherine could see none of the men. She waited for a few seconds. When no one peered in at her, she tended to her business. Despite the earlier moisture, her bladder yielded only a few drops. She did not have to pee.

  Katherine stared at the wet spot in the crotch of her panties. It looked thick and clear, nothing like urine. When she wiped herself clean, she discovered she was slippery. Her sex was the most sensitive she’d ever felt it, almost throbbing at her touch.