Taking Tilly by Stacey St. James Page A

relatively short time.
    To his relief, the nanos also reported
that the life-form growing in her belly was still alive and
unharmed.
    Leaving Tilly to the care of her
nano-suit, he returned to the bridge.
    There was no sign of the sister.
“Where is the female we captured?”
    The men exchanged uncomfortable
glances.
    “ She is not much like her
sister,” Kane responded. “She has either been conditioned to enjoy
the sort of pain that cat-bastard enjoyed inflicting or … well,
Tilly said that she had followed her little sister to that place
where we captured her. It seems to me that she has reacted
viciously because she was just where she wanted to be. She is
furious with Tilly for ‘ruining her life’ and made threats of
violence against her sister.”
    Torin frowned and studied Max
thoughtfully. “She can be retrained, although it may take time. She
will have to be left in the dark for a while, I think, to
contemplate her situation—the nano-suit should hood her. And then
we will teach her to please Merkdar men and she will have a place
among our people.”
    Kane studied his commander
thoughtfully for several moments. “I have given some consideration
to your suggestion. I believe that you are right and the women
would be more welcome if they are breeding when we arrive with
them—but there are only two. Would it not be … safer to collect a
few more?”
    Torin thought that over.
On the one hand, he did not especially care for the idea of taking
Tilly anywhere near her home world. It seemed too risky to him,
that they might lose her and it could be disastrous all the way
around. They might not lose her per se but might run into strenuous
efforts to prevent them from stealing more women and then they
would be risking their lives and the lives of the women and the child.
    Of course, they had risked their own
many times in the past—they were soldiers—and most recently when
they had captured the Earth women, but he had been considering the
good of the many outweighed the good of the few—and they, the many,
were in desperate need of supplies for their fledgling
colony.
    Was that still the case? Or could it
be said that the one that was the hope of a future for them was
more important?
    On the other side was the point that
Kane had made. And it was just as valid.
    If they arrived on their new world
with only two women—and those two were not Merkdar—they would not
be cherished as the few Merkdar women were, would not have the
consideration for their safety and comfort that might make a
difference in their survival.
    It would be safer, he finally decided,
to risk capturing a few more. They could bribe the men at the
places they had visited before and it would lessen the risks. They
would cloak the ship and wait until their prey walked into their
trap, beam them aboard and move to the next trap. If it worked as
before, they would not be in one place long and could collect a
good haul to take back to the new colony.
    A dozen would be more comfortable
odds, he thought. The men would not feel the same sense of
desperation and frustration. They would be able to expend
themselves on a woman—even if it was an alien woman—at least once a
month and those were tremendously better odds than they had
now.
    It seemed to him that it
was likely that there would be outrage from the men in general if
anyone even tried to dispute their right to keep the women.
    “ I do not like that we
would be taking our women into danger when Tilly is already
breeding, but I agree that it would be safer in the long run. We
will keep both women locked in their rooms until we have made the
raid and processed the new women. I would not like to take a chance
on either of them escaping. And I do not feel like we would want to
have to retrain Tilly—which we might have to do if she is exposed
to others of her kind before they have been
conditioned.”
    The decision made, they set a course
back to Earth to collect another group of women before