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Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 01

By: rxm76



1. Leia had been alone for nearly a year now. She was tall and blonde with sleek musculature. Eighteen winters had passed since her birth and she now had full and firm breasts, a narrow waist and rounded hips that bode well for childbirth. The cruel winter was behind her and the green shoots of spring had begun to appear in the valley. Early berries that she had discovered the previous year began to appear again and she was able to come off her diet of pine nuts and other dried roots that she had saved the previous autumn. She had her sharp spear, but her skills as a huntress had not been sufficient to bring meat to her fire. She recalled the tang of the raw and smoked meat from her days with the Clan of the Stag and grew wistful over it. But she put it behind her. She would continue to try and eventually she would master the art of bringing down the antelope, as she had seen her clan brothers do many times.

This morning, however, she felt a human presence. It was near and while she could not see it, she instinctively welcomed it. Loneliness had been gnawing at her all winter and she hungered for human contact.

Aablar had been hunting alone. He was a tall, powerful Neanderthal with a sloping forehead on a thick skull that was covered with matted jet-black hair. He had too much of manhood in him and the chief had caught him lying with one of his women. The punishment for this was death, but the chief feared Aablar and did not wish to face him in combat. He was banished from the group and now was traveling alone and in search of his basic bodily needs.

He smelled the woman long before she was aware of him. He approached cautiously, staying below the ridgeline and making quick surveys every few hundred yards. It had been over a month since he had fucked his woman and she was now lost to him, taken by the hated chief. His manhood hardened and thickened as the woman's smell grew stronger. He grasped his bone-headed club and his spear more tightly and quickened his pace. Another glance over the ridge and he saw her. She was sitting on a thick polar bear skin and eating some red berries. Every so often, she looked around as though she was looking for something.

Aablar saw that he could approach within a few yards of her position if he stayed on top of the ridge. There were bushes behind her and he could remain invisible as he descended from the top of the ridge. He was a skilled hunter, both of game and of women and he was soundless as he flitted down under the cover of the undergrowth. She wore deerskin panties and a deerskin halter with cunning leather ties. She had fashioned leather bound knee-high deerskin boots. The clothing was worn from over a year of use as she had not been able to replace it with her own hunting.

Aablar undid his bearskin robe and placed his club, spear and stone dagger on it. Now, naked save for his moccasins and club he covered the last few yards to Leia in an instant. She had not time to cry out before he seized her and threw her to the ground. Grunting in his urgency, and expecting resistance, he struck her hard with his open palm - once on each side of the head.

The blows disoriented her and her head rang. Before she had time to recover, he pushed her onto her back and with one hand on her throat, he choked her till she felt a red haze descending over her eyes. Thus incapacitating her, he manhandled the clever knots and stripped off her deerskin panties and pulled off her halter. But before anything else, he took a handful of her berries and in the custom of his clan, chewed them to a pulp before kneading her full breasts and sucking and biting on her nipples, smearing the red pulpy berry juice all over her torso.

As he sucked and kneaded her breasts, his other hand slid to her mount and began to knead it roughly. He found her clitoris and began to manipulate it with an expert touch. Soon Leia was panting, her hormones were raging and all her animal instincts were signaling her brain saying, 'Fuck this man! FUCK THIS MAN!!' Still she wished to resist, for something emanating from deep in her conscious mind told her that this was not right, that this was not what she wanted. 

But she had not choice in the matter. Aablar spread her legs and pushed her thighs up till her knees were almost by her head in the bearskin. She whimpered and attempted to twist away, but this sparked an enraged grunt from the Neanderthal. He struck her head again with his open palm and this time she tasted blood in her mouth. 

The next thing she felt was his manhood at her crotch. Leia had never been fucked before, protected as she had been by the old medicine woman in the Stag Clan. However, something told her that this was not right. She cried out as she felt the tip of his cock penetrate her and then she screamed as he rammed several inches in. He had entered her ass! This was his special treat and the pain it caused gave his satisfaction an extra edge. His cock was huge – fully nine inches long and extremely thick, so Leia, relax as she might, still felt as though she had been penetrated by molten metal. She was crying now, sobbing and begging him to desist. This drove him on and he began to piston her savagely. The coupling continued for fully twenty minutes – Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon – until Leia was hovering near unconsciousness, too spent to exhale anything but hoarse pleas for mercy.

Finally he withdrew his shaft. It was still hard and erect. He brought her legs down and mounted her again, this time finding her cunt, wet and slick as it was from all the sex, and penetrating her deeply again. She moaned and her tight cunt peeled back his foreskin. Her tightness and wetness drove him and on and he quickly mounted to a fast tempo. This time her hoarse moans grew louder and in spite of herself, in spite of the pain in her ass, in spite of the voice in her head telling her that this was wrong, she rose with him to a climax and began to come explosively. Her tight cunt gripped him spasmodically, her torso twisted against him, her nipples were as hard as pebbles and her thighs threshed. She gave way to wordless cries of passion. Aablar had never fucked a woman like this. He could not hold back and exploded, pumping gouts of semen into her through three gigantic thrusts.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2. Aablar rolled off her and hit the side of her head again with his open palm. Weak and dizzy, her eyelids fluttered and she blacked out briefly. When she came to, she found her wrists tightly bound behind her back with a length of supple vine. Her head rang from Aablar's blows and her ass was a mass of pain. Her cunt felt sore and she saw a trickle of blood mixed in with the copious mixture of semen and vaginal fluid at her crotch and down her thighs. She groaned.

Aablar was covered in his bearskin cloak and was gathering his spear, club and dagger. He lifted her spear and hefted it. With a contemptuous grimace, he put it on his knee, broke it in two and flung the pieces into the bushes. He picked up her deerskin halter, panties and boots and threw them to her. She raised her bound wrists and spoke in the language of the Clan of the Stag – 'I cannot put my clothes on.' Her voice rasped from her throat. She wondered if he would understand.

Her speech was thickly accented to Aablar's ear, but understandable. He nodded briefly and leaving his weapons at a safe distance, freed her wrists and watched her dress. When she stood, he roughly twisted her arms behind her back and bound her wrists again. Then he draped her polar bear cloak over her shoulders and motioned her to follow him.

Leia was young and the veteran of many marches with the Clan of the Stag, but Aablar's pace was faster than she any she had known before. She was soon panting and aching quads added to fire of pain in her ass. As the sun began to set, Aablar slackened the pace and eventually stopped just below the crest of the ridge they had been following since she had become his captive. He expertly tied her ankles together with the same type of vine and left her on her polar bear cloak, grunting, 'I'll be back soon.' His speech was guttural like her Clan brothers, but accented differently, so she strained to understand.

The sun had set by the time he returned. Without a word he unfastened her ankles and motioned her to follow him. He led her to a narrow opening the hillside. Once through the opening, it widened into a shallow cave with a sandy floor. He had spread his bearskin on the floor and took hers from her shoulders without ceremony and threw it on top of his. He arranged his weapons by one wall of the cave and unfastened her wrists. She rubbed them and even in the dim light of the cave she could see the angry red marks left by the cord. She held them out to him, saying piteously, 'It hurts a lot …'

He merely took both her wrists and re-fastened them just as tightly in front of her. Then he pushed her down on the bearskins, raised her bound arms over her head and quickly stripped off her deerskin halter and panties. He was hard and impatient and sank his huge cock into her cunt. He rapidly worked up a tempo and this time she began to lose control much sooner. He gripped her biceps tightly and began to grunt as her tightness began to constrict him. She was crying out words that she had heard women in the Clan cry out in the night – 'Fuck me, oh, fuck me hard, mighty hunter, fuck me and give me your children!' She came suddenly and explosively, her contractions wrenching and gripping, but he did not slacken his piston-like thrusts.

His grunting was a monotone now as was her vocal litany – 'Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, FUCK ME, FUCK ME ….'. Her nipples were as hard as pebbles now and she twisted her full and firm breasts against his hard chest. Her vaginal fluids flowed copiously and she felt herself mounting to a second crescendo, higher and more intense than the first. This time she screamed as she came and her jagged and uneven contractions brought him over the edge. He ejaculated, pumping semen into her in thrust after thrust, thick, viscous and extremely pungent – more than she had believed possible. When he was done, they were both spent and cuddled together, swathed in the bearskins. But he did not untie her wrists.

She awoke to find herself on her back again and Aablar astride her. He took her twice more that night, and once again at first light. Each time he brought her to gut-wrenching orgasms.

As the sun rose, bringing light into the cave, she stirred. She found Aablar was already dressed. He was munching on food and she realized that she was starving. She had to eaten since her capture. 'I'm very hungry,' she said. He picked up one of his leather pouches and threw her a thick scrap. She picked it up and smelled it. It was dried and smoked deer meat!

She ate it ravenously as he watched, a slight hint of amusement fleeting across his face. It was her first meat in almost a year and after she devoured it, she looked up at him hopefully. He almost smiled and threw her another thick piece. She ate two more and lay back, her basic needs – sexual and nutritional – sated.

He untied her and allowed her dress. Then he led her to small stream that ran close by and allowed her to wash herself. They returned to the cave and he bound her hand and foot again and lay her on the bearskins. 

'I will hunt. I will return before nightfall,' he said, turning to go. 

'Please take me with you,' she said, piteously. "I can help you. What will I do if you do not return?'

'I will return,' he said with finality, 'You are my woman.' Then he was gone.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

3. The hours passed slowly for Leia. She could not see the sun, but she could see the shadows in the cave. This gave her a rough idea of the slow passage of time. Her thoughts were centered on Aablar. She went backwards and forwards with regard her to feelings for him. He had brutally raped her, but she did not fault him excessively for it. She had witnessed enough rapine in the Clan of the Stag. Sex and violence were rarely disentangled in the Neanderthal Clans. But for the protection of the medicine woman, she would have been deflowered years earlier. She had seen many of her Clan sisters taken forcibly and sometimes killed by the powerful men of the Clan. She had even seen some killed by jealous former mates.

Once the Clan had happened upon a smaller group of Neanderthals and she had witnessed as the males were slaughtered en masse and the women were raped. Indeed she had stabbed one of the grievously wounded males to death herself. So, barring his painful penetration of her anus, Aablar's violence was no more than she had expected. Of course, she expected that he would not trust her and her present helpless state was not unexpected either.

He needed her for sex, she reasoned. But how long would it be before he tired of her? What then? It was quite conceivable that he would kill her when he had no more use for her. This would probably be precipitated by his acquisition of another woman, for she figured that with his prodigious sexual appetite, she was safe as long as he had no other sex object in his control.

Aablar's sexual appetite kept her captivity from becoming too oppressive. He fucked her four or five times a night and again twice or thrice in the afternoon when he returned from hunting. He would often become almost priapic, retaining his erection after ejaculating to pump more semen into her in the same bout of fucking. She invariably climaxed twice and sometimes thrice during each sexual encounter, so she was having ten to fifteen orgasms a night and another five or six in the afternoon. Bound hand and foot while he was away, she just lay limp with exhaustion. She had seen her Clan sisters fucked many times, but never like this! Aablar was no ordinary Neanderthal.

Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 02



1. The weeks passed. Aablar's routine never varied and Leia began to chafe at her long periods of inactivity, bound hand and foot for much of the time. They were continually on the move, covering up to twelve miles a day as Aablar followed signs of game. She was now able to fashion herself a new deerskin halter and panties from the hides he gave her and she dutifully made new bearskin cloaks for both of them.

She continually asked him to refrain from tying her up while he hunted, but it was like talking to a post. Now and then he responded to her pleas by cuffing her head sharply, making it ring for hours. Finally one evening, as they ate some fresh venison, she said, 'I am your woman. Why don't you trust me?'

He looked up and she involuntarily flinched, expecting a blow. But he merely looked at her. After a long pause, he said, 'You are Zon.'

'But I am from the Clan of the Stag,' she protested, 'The medicine woman told me that I was with them seventeen winters. I know no one else!'

'You are not a Stag woman,' he said shortly, 'You are Zon.'

'The medicine woman said that they found me with my mother,' Leia admitted, 'My mother was badly hurt when she was found by the Clan brothers and she died. I was but a few moons old.'

'Your mother was Zon,' said Aablar harshly, 'Zon women hunt our men from their flying baskets and ride us down on their horses. The Zon killed my father and they have taken many of my brothers as slaves. The Zon are have always hunted us. That is why the Stag Clan cast you out when you were full grown.' He paused. 'But I do not fear you. You are Zon, but I will keep you as my slave.'

'But you said I am your woman,' she pleaded, 'I know no Zon, they are nothing to me. You are my man, mighty hunter. I will bear your children and rear them and they will become mighty hunters in their time.'

Confusion briefly flitted across Aablar's face. Leia was a Zon and he knew that Zon women had hunted him all his life. But Leia was beautiful. Her blue eyes were wide and guileless, not at all like the steely eyes of the huntresses of his boyhood. And while she was fit and strong, her hunting and fighting skills were poor.

He remembered pale blonde Zon with colorless eyes who had beaten down his father. They knew her only as 'Lady Death'. He lay at her feet, his spear broken, his right arm shattered with a blow from her steel shield. The tableau played often in his mind. 'You are a savage,' the Zon said, 'If we didn't need wild sperm from your kind, we would exterminate you.' With that she plunged her sword into his belly and twisted it as he writhed in pain. She sheathed her sword and turned away from him and from the young Aablar, displaying her powerful bare back. 'Turn the boy loose,' she had said contemptuously to one of her raven-haired lieutenants who had just finished shackling some of his Clan brothers, 'He is too young to be of use to us. Maybe we will catch him in a few years!' She laughed. It had taken his father many long hours to die. 

His face hardened. 'I was wrong,' he said firmly, 'You cannot be my woman. You are Zon. You are my slave.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2. The next day they broke camp before dawn, as was his custom and began moving quickly. They were in hilly country and Aablar moved just below the ridgeline, constantly scanning the distance and surveying the air. This last activity puzzled Leia. She had never feared any of the birds she saw in the air and they made poor eating, so she wondered about Aablar's constant surveillance of the sky.

The sun was high in the sky when Aablar stopped suddenly and sniffed the air. Signaling her to silence, he cautiously made his way up to the ridgeline. Leia followed him noiselessly and peered over his shoulder. The hillside fell away steeply below them into a narrow and rocky canyon. The bottom was sandy and covered with scrub. At first she did not see anything. But then, following Aablar's keen gaze, squinting against the bright sunlight, she saw two figures. They were quite far off, but moving towards them at a steady pace. They were perched high from the ground and it took her a few moments to recognize that they were on horseback. This was a fearsome sight! The Stag Clan was rarely a target of the Zon, but on the rare occasions that they were attacked, she had fled with the Clan and hidden. Her strongest Clan brothers had invariably been caught and taken. She had learned to tremble with fear at the smell of the Zon and their horses.

Aablar dropped below the protective ridgeline again and pulled her down with him. Grabbing her by the hair, he twisted her face towards his. 'They are Zon,' he hissed, 'If you make a sound, I will kill you.' He quickly bound her hand and foot and ripping a strip of deerskin from his pouch fashioned a gag and fastened it tightly. She knew he would beat her if she protested, so she accepted this in silence.

Aablar dropped his bearskin cloak and all his other gear by her. Armed only with his heavy bone club, he emerged over the ridgeline and moved silently through the sparse undergrowth. He was a brilliant hunter and remained undetected by the two approaching Zon. He found his way to a thick piece of scrub that was on an overhang about twenty feet over the sandy canyon floor. He crouched behind it soundlessly. The canyon was quite narrow here, so that the horsewomen would have to pass directly beneath him.

While the shadow of the scrub made him invisible to the oncoming riders, it was still possible for him to see through it. The riders were now only about hundred yards away and his keen eyes could make them out clearly. One was clearly a huntress, for a long bow, a quiver of arrows, a small round shield and lengths of chain and rope hung from her saddle. She wore a sharp two-edged steel sword around her waist and had a long dagger strapped to her one thigh. She wore steel shoulder pads and breastplates and a very short skirt of thick chain mail. She had on elbow length gloves of heavy leather with steel rings sewn into them. Her thigh high riding boots has similar steel rings sewn into them. She wore a steel helmet with a plume fastened tightly with a chinstrap. She was tall and Aablar could see her sinuous muscles that denoted great strength. The second rider was similarly attired, but smaller and less heavily armed. She wore a shorter sword and dagger and her saddle only bore a shield and some leather pouches. She rode behind the first rider. Both of them rode very erect in their saddles and were approaching steadily, without fear.

Aablar had seen such Zon pairs attack his Clan several times. He knew that they could kill from afar with their arrows and could hack off heads with their swords. He knew that as the Clan fled, they would separate out one or two brothers to beat down and take away in chains. But he also knew that their attacks always followed their being found and observed by Zon flying baskets. Like gods, the Zon could speak into the air and be heard miles away by their sisters on horseback.

So Aablar constantly scanned the sky behind him looking for Zon flying baskets. So long as he was unseen, he had the advantage. The Zon had always hunted him, but now he was the hunter. Enslaving Leia had given him confidence. He could fight the Zon! He would not always run and hide!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

3. Caitlin and Althea had been riding for three days through craggy and mountainous terrain since they had been put down by their airship. They were on a training mission and had completed their minimum required surface time. Caitlin had decided to do one more unsupported day before calling for aerial pickup.

'I don't know why we must do these stupid training missions,' Althea was saying, 'We can become strong inside the safety of our walled citadels and we can hunt the savages from our airships. Why must we do this dangerous unsupported training?'

'Because,' Caitlin explained again, patiently, 'we cannot stay cooped up in our citadels if we are to rule this planet. All of us must be able to survive in the wild in an emergency till we are rescued. You will never become a huntress Althea, but you may find your airship down on day and it may take some one like me days, if not weeks to find you.' She paused and scanned the canyon walls, glancing at the time-dial on her wrist bracer. 'We are due to call in. But I don't like this place. Let's move on and we'll call in once we're out of this canyon.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

4. Aablar's hunting instincts led him a quick decision. He would attack the huntress first. In doing so, he must distract the horse of the second Zon, hoping that it would give him enough time to deal with the huntress. They passed almost directly below his overhanging perch and Aablar launched himself into the air with a blood-curdling scream. Aablar's screaming descent made Althea's horse rear back and she fought desperately to control it and retain her seat on her saddle. They had been attacked! While they often spoke of it, this had never happened before!

He hit the huntress from the rear, his left arm encircling her neck. All two hundred and eighty pounds of his muscle and bone hit her between the shoulder blades and she was dislodged from her saddle. She hit the sandy floor of the canyon with Aablar on top of her. Together with the surprise of the attack, the wind was completely knocked out of her and she coughed and spluttered, fighting to regain her breath. Aablar had seen Zon huntresses before and he knew that she was immensely strong and had many fighting skills of which he knew nothing. He knew he had to act before she recovered from the initial surprise. He shifted his hold on her neck so that his left forearm pressed on her throat and inexorably tightened, choking her. At the same time, he raised his bone club and pounded on her helmet.

Her helmet rang like a gong from his blows. While her skull was protected, the power of his blows was such that the shock waves penetrated and concussed her. She felt her eyes lose focus. Aablar could see that her efforts at raising herself to shake him off begin to weaken. However, he did not stop pounding her helmet until her elbows gave way and she collapsed under him. Only then did he roughly grasp her wrists and bind them tightly with one of the lengths of vine he had tied around his waist. He unsheathed her sword and long dagger. He threw the sword some distance away, but stuck the dagger in his waistband.

He now heard a horse snorting and looked up to see Leia launch herself from the overhang at the second Zon. The two landed heavily, but Leia was unable to control the fall and they rolled. Leia found herself winded and the second Zon sprang to her feet. She drew her sword and dagger and advanced purposefully on Leia. (Althea recalled the constantly circulating rumors that one of her sisters had fallen into the hands of the savages as a baby.)

Aablar quickly advanced on the pair, his heavy bone club in one hand and Caitlin's long dagger in the other. Althea found herself facing two fronts, for now Leia stopped retreating and began to advance on her. She stood no chance. She raised her weapons to square off against Aablar, but Leia picked up a rock and hurled it at her. It clanged off her steel shoulder pad, but distracted her enough that Aablar was able to hit her arm with his club. The pain caused her to drop her sword. He was now able to come closer because of her shorter reach and feinting with his dagger, he landed a heavy blow on the side of her helmet. Like Caitlin, the shock concussed her. She felt her vision blur and her knees go rubbery. Aablar quickly finished her with two more heavy blows. When she came to she was lying on her back, her wrists and ankles tightly bound with vine.

Caitlin shook her head repeatedly to clear it and failed repeatedly to get to her feet. She continued to try, ignoring the pounding pain in her head. She finally raised herself unsteadily and swayed on her feet. Aablar had just finished binding Althea. He picked up his club and the dagger and advanced on Caitlin again. Leia advanced also, but from a different angle. Aablar's hulking form swam into and out of focus and Caitlin only dimly perceived Leia's blonde form in her peripheral vision. She was acutely aware that with her hands bound behind her back, she stood little chance.

Aablar waved his club at Leia, who trotted into Caitlin's field of vision, arms in front of her. When she was within reach, Caitlin's boot extended and caught her ankle, viciously tripping her. As she fell, Caitlin drove her shoulder pad into the side of her head. Leia crumpled to the ground, but the opening was enough for Aablar. He was on the crouching Caitlin and his club struck the base of her helmet heavily. Already weak and disoriented, Caitlin felt the world begin to whirl. Another blow to the side of the head and she lost consciousness.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

5. Caitlin groaned as she came to. A well-trained huntress, she became instantly aware of her situation. She fluttered her eyes, taking in the scene around her. Her wrists and ankles were tightly bound – she tested them and found them secure. She was in a shallow cave with a view over the surrounding land, so they had climbed up the hillside. She reckoned that not much time had passed, so they had no traveled far – they were probably at the top of one of the sides of the canyon. Her helmet was gone and her thick long red hair swirled around her head. Gone too were her shoulder pads, breastplates, leather gloves, sword-belt and chain mail skirt. She only had on her black silk strapless brassiere and panties, her leather thigh boots and some small items of jewelry.

She cautiously glanced around. Leia sat at the back of the cave. Althea was similarly stripped of her arms and armor and lay bound beside her. Aablar was at the mouth of the cave, scanning the land and the air. 'Who is this savage that dares to attack us?' Caitlin thought.

At length Aablar came back into the cave. 'I know you are awake, huntress,' he said to Caitlin, 'I saw your eyes.' When she did not respond, he sank his hand into her hair, raised her head and began to cuff her temples repeatedly. He continued to beat her until her body began to go limp again. Caitlin desperately tried to retain her hold on consciousness. She felt him strip off her brassiere with surprising adeptness. Then he spat the juice from the berries he had been chewing onto her breasts and began to knead them roughly and bite and suck on her nipples. At the same time, he began to knead her crotch through her panties.

Caitlin had been pleasured by many of her Zon sisters including Althea, but never by a man! The savage had no finesse and no concern for her pleasure. Yet she had to fight to remain stiff and disconnected. He untied her wrists and a voice in her head said, 'This is your chance!' But the repeated beatings to her head had left her disoriented and her body refused to cooperate. Try as she might, she could not summon her strength to her arms to strike at him. And the opportunity swiftly passed as he bound her wrists again in front of her. She felt the cold blade of her dagger on her belly and the thought crossed her mind that she was going to die, but she merely felt him slit the thongs of her panties and strip them off.

He roughly rolled her onto her belly and his hand forced her thighs apart. Again he was kneading her now naked crotch and then pushing two thick fingers into her cunt. He rapidly worked his hand like a piston, drawing gasps from her. When she attempted to twist away from him, he pounded her between the shoulder blades with his open palm, driving her face into the sandy cave floor. The blow was so powerful that pain shot up to the base of her skull and white lights flashed before her eyes. Caitlin had fought many hand-to-hand combats, but no one had beaten her like this!

He kept finger fucking her, while his other hand was sunk in her hair, pulling her head back and arching her back like a bowstring. She used her bound arms for support to reduce the pressure on her back. In spite of herself, the finger fucking aroused Caitlin's natural bodily instincts and she began to get moist, then wet. And the sight of her powerful and striving back muscles gave added zest to Aablar's erection. Aablar withdrew his fingers and smeared her vaginal fluid over her crotch and then worked some into the crack between her butt cheeks. She felt his thick fingers spreading her cheeks and then grunted as he drove them into her ass. She was an anal virgin and his fingers created a burning sensation that gradually became less unpleasant.

When he withdrew his fingers, she let herself relax slightly. But where his fingers had been, she now felt a smoother, bulbous entity. In capturing savages, Caitlin had seen cocks before, and had seen the Zon technicians give them hand-jobs to draw semen. But she had never experienced the touch of a cock, much less a penetration by one. She winced and struggled anew, but Aablar only pulled harder on her hair and arched her back until she felt her neck would break. Then the feeling in her neck and back was as nothing when he pushed his huge cock into her ass. The head entered, and then her tightness stripped back his foreskin as he sank more and more into her. She screamed as the burning sensation engulfed her. When he had fully penetrated her, she felt he was tearing her ass cheeks apart.

Aablar quickly worked up a tempo, pounding her with jackhammer thrusts. Never penetrated before, her ass was very tight and ridged. It gripped Aablar's shaft like a soft vice. She screamed again and again as the pain of his assault wracked her. She felt like she was impaled on a sword. But Caitlin was mentally tough and highly trained. While she screamed, she did not beg for mercy like Leia had. She did not cease struggling. But this only increased Aablar's pleasure. He reached around with his free hand and roughly tweaked her nipples as he rose to the heights of his passion.

Aablar enjoyed inflicting the pain on Caitlin, the Zon huntress. Althea watched in horror from the back of the cave. Bound as she was, Leia prodded her from time to time with her sheathed sword. Caitlin cries began to crescendo as Aablar began to rotate his hips, twisting his huge cock in her ass. Her iron will to resist oscillated wildly, ebbing as he filled her ass and rising again as he drew back. Finally, her sweating, bound and struggling body, her screams and her pain drove Aablar over the brink. He came through a series of massive thrusts, his copious semen burbling out of her as he continued to pump more in.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

6.Leia watched Aablar and Caitlin's coupling with a mixture of pride and apprehension. Pride in his strength and virility as he fucked her in the ass for fully half an hour - for she still dared to hope that she would be his first woman, the mistress of his household. Apprehension arose from the thought that she must compete for his favor with the beautiful Zon huntress. She was confident in her ability to match and best the redhead in sexually competing for Aablar's cock. However, in a world where physical prowess was the key to power, she knew that the Zon huntress' strength and vigor were sexual attractions that were beyond her.

Aablar lay on Caitlin for just a few moments after his release. He feared her and after making sure that none of the weapons were within her reach, he crawled over to Leia's side. 'How did you get down from the ridge into the fight?' he asked her in a rough whisper.

'You were hasty, mighty hunter,' she said in a low tone, 'You did not set my bonds tight. I was able to wiggle free. When I saw you in the fight with the two Zon, I knew that I must help my man.'

He stroked her soft blonde tresses and kissed her cheek gently, the first show of affection she had ever received. 'You are Zon,' he said, 'But you are my Zon woman. You are my woman.'




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 02



She thrilled at the sound of his words. She knew that they signified the end of her bondage. But her instincts told her that both the Zon huntress and her acolyte would be dangerous, both as captives and as rivals for Aablar's sexual attentions.



Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 03



1. Aablar came from the Clan of the Bear whose members were amongst the biggest Neanderthals. But even among them, Aablar was huge – he stood almost six feet and three inches in height and weighted over 280 pounds of pure bone and muscle. 

However, Caitlin the huntress was also nearly six feet tall and sleekly built in a manner that belied her strength. She was perhaps half his weight, with bright red shoulder-length hair and piercing green eyes. Her breasts were firm without a hint of sag, and while they were rounded and well-sized, they seemed small on her large frame. Her were nipples dark red and meaty with small aureoles. Her waist was narrow and her rear was rounded without being generous. Overall, she was a beautiful and very athletic specimen. However, there was a hardness about her face with its high cheekbones, and a flinty shine in her eyes that suggested that she was used to command and capable of considerable cruelty. Althea, the smaller Zon, was still about five foot six, but her figure was much more of an hourglass, with breasts the same size and a bigger rear on a much smaller frame. Her hair was jet black and cropped short in a pageboy cut. Her nipples were little buttons atop her full breasts.

Even an hour after her sexual encounter with Aablar, Caitlin was still only semi-conscious. She had never known such pain – Aablar had really reamed her ass with his huge cock and everything from her waist down felt like it was on fire. In addition, her head still rang from his beating. She knew that she must think clearly to get herself and her acolyte Althea out of this predicament. And to think clearly, she must control the pain. As she had been trained, she began her breathing exercises to achieve a trance-like state and lessen the intensity of the pain. Thus, she did not really respond when Aablar returned from Leia’s side and untied her wrists and re-tied them again behind her back.

Aablar surveyed his latest prizes. He was pleased with his efforts, but he knew that his success had brought him grave danger as well. The Zon huntress was extremely dangerous and possession of her and her acolyte would bring Zon pursuers. He would be hunted more than ever before, but a part of him welcomed the challenge, sought the chance to do battle on his terms, to seek some more victories before his own death.

He now drew some dried meat from his pouch and wolfed down several chunks. Still munching, he passed some choice scraps to Leia and some drier ones saying, ‘See if the little Zon will eat these. And use some of our deerskin to make panties and halters like yours for these Zon.’ 

After satisfying his hunger and drinking some water from his gourd, Aablar ‘walked over and stood over the huntress.

‘I am Aablar, son of Jondolar,’ he said. ‘What is your name, huntress?’

When she did not immediately reply, he kicked her ribs, viciously. From the back of the cave, Althea reacted with a cry. ‘Don’t hurt her any more, savage! Her name is Caitlin d’Orr.’

Caitlin feared Aablar would turn on Althea, so she spoke, painfully, ‘Yes, I am Caitlin of the Orr line, one of the oldest among the Zon. I am a huntress in the Queen’s Household Legion and a priestess in the Temple of Artemis. My mother is Princess Deirdre, Principal of the Legion of Pentheselia. My acolyte here is Althea Spalding, whose mother is Princess Andromache, High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis. Our sisters will not rest till they find us. If you harm us, they will hunt you down and kill you slowly, with much pain. You will do well to free us immediately.’ With this she turned to Leia. ‘We know who you are, Leia. Your mother was a troubled woman – she fled one of our citadels into the wild while carrying you in her womb. You have been lost to us, but at last we have found you. Don’t worry, your sisters will come and free you.’

Aablar listened in silence. Finally he replied, ‘I have been hunted by you Zon since I was a boy. Zon huntresses tortured my father before killing him. I have seen many of my Clan brothers tortured, mutilated, cut to pieces. My own mother bore three sons, but both of my brothers have been taken into Zon slavery. Whether or not I free the two of you, my fate will be the same. But for the first time in my life I have control, I can ask the questions. Why do you Zon always hunt us of the Clan of the Bear? What have we done to wrong you? None of the other Clans are harassed as we are. Why us?’

Caitlin took a deep breath. What did it matter what she told the savage? Her sisters would find him and he would die a slow death. It was a shame to destroy him, for he was such a magnificent specimen – by far the best and most powerful she had ever seen. 

‘You of the Clan of the Bear are the biggest and strongest savages. We need strong savages to help us. You would not understand how we use you. But you are the best.’

* * * * * * * * * *

2.Heretofore Aablar and Leia had traveled by day and rested by night, but now he changed this routine. He spent the rest of the day by the mouth of the cave, ceaselessly scanning the terrain that fell away below them and the sky above. As soon as darkness fell instead of preparing to bed down, he gathered his gear. He fashioned a rough leather collar from deerskin and fastened it around Althea’s neck. Then he tied the collar to a length of vine.

He took another strip of supple deerskin and tied it around Caitlin’s mouth, jerking it tight and then tying it, fashioning a crude but very effective gag. Finally, he looped a long length of vine and fashioned a noose. He slung this around Caitlin’s neck and jerked it tight. Only muffled sounds emerged from her tight gag and her eyes grew wide and then began to fade. He then loosened the noose, and she revived slowly, her chest heaving, her breasts quivering, as she strove to recover from oxygen starvation. He repeated this exercise twice more before he was sure he could quickly bring Caitlin under control. Tears coursed down Althea’s cheeks and she whimpered at the sight of Caitlin’s rough treatment. But apart from the sounds forced out of her, Caitlin herself endured it all with stoic composure and her eyes soon regained their hard and steely glint, promising vengeance.

‘Why are we leaving by dark, mighty hunter?’ asked Leia.

‘The Zon will soon be looking for these two,’ said Aablar, not unkindly. ‘The darkness will protect us. But we must move quickly. You must take control of the little Zon.’ He handed her the vine attached to Althea’s collar. ‘If she misbehaves, pull hard and choke her. Don’t give her any slack.’ Leia nodded. Althea would get no soft treatment from her!

Aablar himself picked up the noose around Caitlin’s neck. ‘You will move quickly,’ he said to her. ‘Any misbehavior, and I will strangle you.’ With this, he untied her ankles and helped her to her feet. The testing of the noose had left Caitlin acutely aware of her vulnerability. She did not resist him and matched his brisk pace as he set off purposefully in the moonlight. Leia followed, and with a few sharp tugs, Althea fell into the march as well.

Aablar led the way down the far mountainside and unerringly led them to a swift-flowing stream. The water was cold from ice-melt, but he waded in, pushing Caitlin in front of him. Leia followed with Althea. They were soon in thigh deep water and Aablar led them upstream, to higher and higher ground, never approaching the shore. Caitlin continued to stride in front of him like an automaton. Leia felt her toes and then her feet go numb from the cold water, but Aablar did not appear to notice. Finally, Althea could go no further. In spite of Leia’s pulling hard on her neck strap and the choking sensation this brought about, she could not walk no further – her legs were numb and she was completely spent. She swayed on her feet and then toppled, face-first into the icy water.

Leia frantically pulled Althea towards the bank. Aablar did not aid Leia, as she manhandled the soaking Althea onto the muddy bank and slapped her face twice to bring her out of her shock. He kept a wary eye on Caitlin, suspecting treachery. But there was none. Althea coughed and retched, bringing up some water. She shivered uncontrollably. ‘Cold,’ she said, ‘so very cold.’ Leia wrapped her own bearskin cloak around her and she slowly began to return to normal.

It was clear that Althea could not proceed immediately. Aablar emerged from the water and drew Caitlin behind him. They were in a natural bower, sheltered from the sky by a huge willow, thickly hung over with leafy vines. The bright moon was barely visible through the thick undergrowth. There was little wind, so Aablar’s nose could not detect distant smells and he was edgy. His hunter’s sense told him that something was not quite right. He dropped his satchel and cloak, tightened his grasp on Caitlin’s noose and hefted his heavy spear in his right hand. There was something out there, but what was it? His foreboding grew rather than abated. The hackles on the back of his neck rose and he was sure that danger was near. Was it a saber-toothed tiger? No, even on a still night his keen nose would have detected it. It must be the Zon.

A moment later her heard it – a swishing sound, so faint yet so familiar. A Zon flying basket! Caitlin heard it too and looked up. Aablar pulled tight on the noose and threw himself at her, knocking her to the soft earth and pinioning her body. Urgent rasps escaped her gag, but he pulled savagely on the noose again, cutting them off. Leia and Althea still had not heard it and were transfixed by the sudden action.

‘The Zon are here,’ hissed Aablar at Leia. ‘Hold Althea down. If she moves a muscle or makes a whisper, slit her throat with the dagger.’

Leia pushed Althea down and drew the steel dagger. Grasping it firmly, she rested the razor sharp blade on the side of Althea’s neck. Her hands bound behind her back, the acolyte lay perfectly still. She knew that even in untrained hands, the stainless steel blade would slice through her carotid artery like butter. 

Caitlin also lay still, the noose biting into her throat. She regimented her breathing to draw in shallow soundless draughts of air through her constricted windpipe. The sharp point of Aablar’s spear was under her chin and she knew that he could drive it into her brain in an instant.

They all saw the powerful beam of light through the undergrowth. Tracing it back, they could faintly see the winking running lights of the Zon airship. The Clan of the Stag had never been targets of the Zon, so Leia had never seen an airship and she was wide-eyed with wonder. It was moving slowly and the searchlight was making slow circuits over the landscape. Caitlin grimaced as Aablar’s muscles tightened involuntarily, pulling on the noose. He drew her even closer to him, their bodies tightly pressed against each other. It was inevitable that this proximity should stimulate him. Caitlin felt his tumescence growing against her rump. Aablar knew that self-preservation demanded that he control himself. Aablar had many strengths, but control of his natural instincts was not one of them. Soon his huge erection was full and raging.

He unfastened the hip ties of the deerskin panties Leia had made and stripped them off, continually choking her completely and then backing off to let her draw a quick breath. Then he brought his sharp spear tip down to her rump and whispered in her ear, ‘Try to fight, huntress and I will kill you. I can fuck you just as well dead as alive.’ With this he cut the vine on her bound wrists, simultaneously jerking hard on the noose. He never gave her the chance to fill her lungs, so Caitlin fell into oxygen debt immediately. Her arms were now free and her first instinct was to stop her strangulation.

Leia watched helplessly. Mighty hunter, she thought, why do you risk all that you have won? Why do you free the huntress who is so dangerous? Why not kill her and take your pleasure in me and in this weak acolyte?

Caitlin tried to wedge her fingers between the noose and her throat and was beginning to get some purchase, when she felt the bulbous head of his cock at her ass. He pulled even harder at the noose, arching her back and forced his dick head into her. Even with the tight leather gag, the muffled remnants of her scream escaped. He drove more of his huge cock into her ass and her strength began to desert her. Her fingers desperately clawed at the noose, but a red haze of pain was descending over her eyes. But for the red- hot pain in her ass, she would have lost consciousness now.

Then, suddenly, a cool rush of air hit her lungs. He had loosened the noose! But it was only for an instant. He tightened it again and pulled her head back. His cock was now fully sheathed in her ass and he began to thrust into her slowly, watching the powerful searchlight from the Zon airship draw closer and closer to them. He increased his tempo and Caitlin’s eyes began losing focus, she could not see the airship, was not even aware of its presence, all she felt was the pain of his huge dick in her ass. She was drooling saliva around the leather gag, her eyes were watering but even in this state, her cunt was sopping wet with her vaginal fluid.

The airship was almost directly above them now, the beam of its powerful searchlight traversing just yards away from them. Aablar had increased his tempo and was now stabbing into her rapidly, with short inch-long thrusts. Every time he penetrated her fully, his pelvis rammed her rounded muscular rump with a soft smack and he grunted under his breath. Every few thrusts, he slackened his grip on the noose, letting her suck in a small gasp of air. His free hand roughly kneaded her crotch, every now and then inserting two thick fingers into her cunt.

They could all now hear the gentle whooshing of the airship’s engines. Aablar was now pounding her, his grunting now guttural and urgent. Caitlin continued to fight him, but her great strength was worn down and she could only weakly hold on to his wrist holding the noose. Her sisters were only a few hundred feet above them! This thought gave an edge to Aablar’s sexual stimulation and he whispered in her ear, ‘Feel my cock, huntress, feel how I fuck your ass, within sight of your Zon sisters. NOW … FEEL … MY … JISM!’ This time he impaled himself fully in her and rotated his hips again and again, pumping his semen deep inside her ass. She felt the sticky warmth gush into her innards and now involuntary hot tears began gushing down her face.

The airship had moved on, its searchlight beam probing the undergrowth on the far side of the icy stream. Althea’s heart and hopes shriveled within her. Caitlin felt only the merciful release of Aablar’s withdrawal. His recovery was virtually instantaneous. He had trussed her wrists and ankles with the vines well before she recovered and was breathing painfully through her abused and sore windpipe. Warm semen from his copious ejaculation still seeped out of her ass. He pushed her onto her side and scooping some of it on his hand, began to massage it into her crotch and belly. Digging some more out of her ass with his finger, he untied her halter and kneaded his semen into her firm breasts, roughly tweaking the rubbery nipples between thumb and forefinger. All four of them knew that the airship was fading away in the distance.

* * * * * * * * * *

3.The Princess Deirdre, Principal of the Legion of Pentheselia was a tall magnificently built blonde. She now strode down the corridor in the innermost sanctum of the huge Central Military Complex or CMC. She placed her face in the final security sensor by the far door for the optical scan and entered the conference chamber of the Council of Principals. Hildegard, First Principal and Queen of the Zon, sat on a simple wooden throne, surrounded by a squad from the elite Cohort of Palace Guardians, a unit of the Queen’s Household Legion. As required, they were all at least six feet tall. They were all in uniform – purple and green leotards with high cut hips and full wrist length sleeves, shiny titanium plumed helmets and black highly shined leather thigh boots. They all wore long barreled laser pistols holstered on their leather belts, and carried heavy long-range microwave disintegrators. Their boots had sheaths for long stainless steel daggers.

Deirdre wore a similar uniform and sidearm, but her leotard was yellow and red – the colors of the Legion of Pentheselia – and her sleeves each bore a silver star indicating her rank of Principal. She approached the Queen and bowed low. ‘I am at your command, majesty,’ she said.

The Queen leaned forward and drew her into an embrace. Kissing her on the cheek, she said, ‘I am so sorry, Deirdre. We are doing everything in our power to find them.’

At that moment, the stainless steel door to the chamber hissed open, admitting the Princess Andromache, High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis and the supreme religious leader. Since the priestesses controlled all learning and science, she was the Zon Scientific Principal as well. She was smaller than Deirdre and dark haired like her daughter, Althea. She was unarmed and wore the flowing white semi-diaphanous muslin robes of a priestess. Her robes were gathered at her slim waist by a red silk sash and under them her white leotard was faintly visible. She too approached the Queen, bowed and was drawn into an embrace with words of solicitude.

The Queen waved both princesses to high backed chairs by her sides and with a motion of her arm dismissed the Guardians, who retreated to the door of the chamber, out of earshot.

‘I summoned you both as soon as I heard. As you know, Caitlin and Althea were on a routine unsupported training mission out of our citadel in the Dacin Alps. The airship ‘Thetis’ dropped them off with horses and provisions. They were armed with as usual with non-technical weapons – swords and daggers, and I understand that Caitlin had a crossbow that she is very good with’ (here the Queen glanced toward Deirdre, who nodded), ‘and had ample rations for their three day mission. The airship was waiting in the area of their planned rendezvous. They did not call in yesterday when they completed their three days. And they have not called in today – it has been almost 48 hours since their last call in. The ‘Thetis’ began a search in the area between their drop-off and rendezvous points just before nightfall yesterday. I have dispatched two more airships to the search. We will find them – it is only a matter of time.’

‘Caitlin often stays out longer than the mission minimum,’ observed Deirdre thoughtfully. ‘But she would never miss calling in to update her log.’

‘I have always spoken against these unsupported training missions,’ Andromache said, with a trace of bitterness. ‘Airship supported huntresses have never failed to deliver us the native Earthmen that we need for our purposes. The legions will never be required to operate without technical support. All this activity is just to ensure the domination of the military.’

‘Come, come, Andromache, this is no time for rancor,’ Deirdre said soothingly. ‘We must stand united in times of trouble. My daughter is missing as well. As Hildegard says, we will find them soon.’

But the Princess Andromache would not be consoled. ‘You huntresses have always sought domination,’ she said. ‘Centuries ago, on our home planet of Atlantis, you campaigned to subjugate males and then to eliminate them. We priestesses warned you at the time that this would have dire consequences and so it did. The potency of the stored sexual material declined with each passing generation and succeeding generations of our foremothers became less and less fertile. We were within an ace of dying out altogether.’

‘If you wish to rake up ancient history, Andromache,’ said Deirdre, losing patience, ‘bear in mind that it was the huntress legions that organized the evacuation of our few surviving foremothers and commanded and navigated the spaceships that brought us to this planet five centuries ago. And the huntresses who conceived the idea of using savage DNA to re-vitalize our stored sexual material so that our current generations have regained strength and fertility. Only a thousand of us arrived on this planet we call Eartha. Today there are fifty thousand of us to the four million native savages. We will grow in numbers, conquer this planet and return to the heights we achieved on Atlantis!’




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 03



‘It is the priestesses who run the labs,’ Andromache retorted. ‘Our research makes our survival possible. Our work has returned our lifespan to the 150 years it was on Atlantis. It is our work that ensures that fifty-year-olds like us are at the height of our powers. Our seventy-year old sisters are still taut and beautiful and fertile. When we came to Earth, we were not much different from the native Earth people who are dead before they have seen forty winters.’

‘We will get nowhere by blaming each other,’ the Queen interjected gently. ‘Both the priestesses and the huntresses are essential to our survival.’

‘It is the legions that control the throne, Hildegard,’ said Andromache. ‘And they ensure that we remain in this warlike situation with the native peoples of this planet. Why can’t we work with them and civilize them, rather than treating them as mere livestock and sources of potent sexual material? We hunt them, we butcher their weak, their women and their old, cull their strongest males for sexual seed and then murder them in our gas chambers. I warn you, my priestesses are becoming increasingly restive.’

‘Your priestesses would repeal the Male Abortion Law, if given the chance,’ said Deirdre. ‘Andromache, our situation is precarious. Your ideas are dangerous.’

They were interrupted by one of the Palace Guardians, who approached and bowed respectfully. ‘We have word from Captain Rhea Candaris of the airship ‘Thetis’,’ she said. ‘They have news of Caitlin d’Orr and Althea Spalding.’

‘Put her on the view screen,’ said the Queen gravely. 

Rhea Candaris appeared on the screen. She was on the bridge of her airship and wore the yellow and red leotard of the Pentheselia Legion, gold captain’s rings on her sleeves. Her voice was level, but her face showed strain. ‘We have found their horses and equipment,’ she said. ‘They appear to have been attacked. Their body armor, helmets and most of their weapons are at the site – only their daggers are missing. Lady Caitlin’s helmet bears superficial dents and appears to have been struck repeatedly with a blunt instrument. The blows destroyed her communicator and it cannot be analyzed. Lady Althea’s helmet exhibits superficial damage, but her communicator is operative. We have analyzed Lady Althea’s communicator, but there is no distress call and no log, so we have no track of their movements prior to the attack.’

The Queen turned to Princess Deirdre. ‘What do you suggest, Princess?’

Deirdre was all business. ‘Set down two fully armed squads on horseback to find their trail from the attack site. I want any and all information about their attackers. Set the ‘Thetis’ to a spiraling course outward from the attack site. What other airships are in the area?’

‘The ‘Hypatia’ and the ‘Andromeda’, Princess,’ said Rhea Candaris.

‘Set up a concentric search pattern with all three ships,’ said Deirdre. ‘Rhea, I’d like you to take local command of the search mission. Report back to us on the hour or when you have any news.’

‘It will be done, Princess. Salutations, your majesty. Out.’ Rhea Candaris bowed low and cut the transmission and her image faded from the view screen.



Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 04



It is the middle of the last Ice Age, about 50,000 years ago. The Neanderthals roam the Earth, but co-exist with a recently arrived tribe of technologically advanced aliens known as the Zon. The Zon hunt Neanderthal men for their wild semen. Aablar has captured a Zon huntress and her acolyte and is now the object of a massive search.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. As soon as the airship was safely over the horizon, Aablar drove his small party onward. He was under no illusions – the Zon search for them would continue. They would soon find the site of the attack and begin to track them. Althea was incapable of walking, so Aablar bound her ankles and threw her over his shoulder. Caitlin was weak from his repeated garroting and anal fucking. So he decided to move over land, hoping that the many miles he had put through water would slow down the Zon hounds.

Weak and disoriented as she was, Caitlin recognized that they were moving to higher and higher ground. It was getting colder, they were now passing patches of snow and ice and even in the dark she could make out the outlines of vast vistas. Aablar’s endurance astounded her. She had been brought up on Zon science that held that while some of the savages were immensely strong, their stamina was inferior. She had believed that as a huntress, even bound, she would be able to outlast him on a long march. However, she was beginning to flag, while Aablar marched on like a machine, even with Althea on his shoulder. She could see that Leia was tired, but the girl worshiped Aablar and would march to her death if she had to.

As they climbed there was an increasing incidence of ice and snow and the temperature dropped steadily. Caitlin began to shiver constantly, until Aablar wordlessly took off his bearskin cloak and draped it around her shoulders, typing the laces around her to hold it in place. He marched on, carrying his burden, seemingly oblivious to the cold. Even with the bearskin, Caitlin was cold. She thought longingly of the warm temperature shield she could have deployed from her titanium wrist bracers.

By the time the first warming rays of the sunrise appeared, they were on the top of a high ridge. They could see a snow-capped peak that loomed in front of them, with a broad valley on one side and dense forests on the other. Aablar seemed to know where he was going, for he unerringly found a cave in the mountainside and guided them into it. It had been used before, for there were drawings on the walls and bones littered the corners. It was well chosen, for Caitlin’s trained eye noted that the mouth was overhung with vegetation making it virtually invisible from the air and while it commanded a panoramic view of the valley below, there were high rocks obscuring its mouth from the line of sight of those at a lower level.

In the inner recesses of the cave the floor became rocky and there was moisture and several stalagmites and stalactites had formed. Some had fused together forming pillars up to a foot in diameter. Aablar bound Caitlin’s ankles and then bound her to one of the pillars. Similarly binding the exhausted Althea, Aablar turned to find Leia curled up in her bearskin, fast asleep. Tired as he was, the hard march had fueled his prodigious sexual appetite. He had fucked Caitlin twice in the ass, but that had merely whetted it. He stripped off his loincloth and with relative consideration unfastened Leia’s panties and halter. She was only half awake, but his insistent hand and probing fingers at her blonde crotch slowly roused her and aroused her. He was now fully erect and impatient and mounted her without ceremony, driving his huge cock into her wet cunt. As was his wont, he fucked her hard and thoroughly, and she responded in kind, arching and twisting, and crying out. Her cries reached crescendo as she reached a powerful orgasm. But he was just beginning. He continued to piston her, and she came again. And again. Each time she screamed with her release, and by the third time these took on a note of hysteria.

The sight of such rampant penetrative sex was horrifying for both Caitlin and Althea. Poor Leia! To be penetrated so violently by a savage! No wonder she screamed! Brought up from childhood to regard sexual penetration as a religious ritual and a sacred duty required for propagating the Zon population, they could only view Aablar’s fucking of Leia as repugnant. But it left them confused, for they could not understand why such an awful assault should arouse them to the point that their panties were soaking wet.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2. After Princess Deirdre gave her orders to Captain Rhea Candaris, the communication channel was closed. The Queen inclined her head toward the squad of Palace Guardians, and Lady Alexandra Scheel, her personal handmaiden approached her and bowed deeply.

‘Summon Cornelle Diana Tragina. Tell her I want her here immediately.’

Alexandra withdrew to a respectful distance and spoke softly into her helmet communicator. They did not have long to wait – within minutes the stainless steel door of the chamber hissed open and Cornelle Diana Tragina, commander of the Palace Guardians strode in. She was a very tall and very pale ice blonde with a body that was voluptuous for a huntress. Her rather full breasts were extremely firm and rode high. Her rounded derriere was rock hard and her small waist still managed to display a perfect set of abs. But it was her eyes that held the viewer’s attention. They were the palest gray, almost colorless and gave her face a ghostly appearance. Each of her uniform sleeves and titanium wrist bracers bore a single crown denoting her rank. She approached the Queen and bowed low.

‘Cornelle Diana, I thank you for coming so quickly,’ she said. ‘We have a terrible situation on our hands. Lady Caitlin d’Orr and Lady Althea Spalding have been attacked while on a routine unsupported training mission. They have been out of contact for nearly 48 hours. I would like you should take overall command of this search mission. The airship ‘Thetis’ under the command of Captain Rhea Candaris is at the site. Draft as many of the Household Legion as you require. If you require forces from the Pentheselia Legion, I am sure that Princess Deirdre will cooperate with you fully.’

Deirdre bowed slightly and addressing the Queen, Princess Andromache and Cornelle Diana, said, ‘I think we should call a meeting of the Council of Principals. In such an important matter, we must select our best possible team.’

‘Let us wait until we have more information,’ said the Queen. ‘By tomorrow, we will have their equipment examined and analyzed and the squads on the ground should have picked up the trail. We may even have them back by then, and we will all have happier news to report.’

Andromache nodded.

‘In that case,’ said Deirdre, ‘I shall be happy to command the search in an interim capacity until the Council meets.’

It was well known that there was no love lost between Diana and Deirdre. Diana was in her mid thirties and had done her huntress qualification as Deirdre’s acolyte. They had been very close. Even though Diana was a commoner, Deirdre had nurtured her career for many years. However, when Deirdre’s own daughter Caitlin had done her huntress qualification as Diana’s acolyte, she had not obtained the coveted first appointment in the Cohort of Palace Guardians. Deirdre blamed Diana for her daughter’s appointment to a lesser unit and then for her lack of rapid promotion.

‘You are too personally bound up in this matter, Deirdre,’ said the Queen soothingly. ‘Let Cornelle Diana command the search till tomorrow.’

Deirdre considered her options. She could force the issue, but her enmity with Diana was too well known for her position to be considered unbiased. Diana was now a protégé of Princess Selene d’Allerand, Principal of the Household Legion who was a close friend and ally of Deirdre’s. Best not to confront Selene over this issue, she thought. Better to retreat gracefully.

‘As usual, you are most wise, my Queen,’ she said, bowing low. ‘Diana, you have my full support. I will leave orders with the Pentheselia HQ to place all resources at your disposal.’ Diana bowed. Deirdre impulsively strode over to her and took her in her arms and hugged her tight. In the Zon custom, they rubbed their nipples against each other but did so cautiously, unsure of each other’s reaction. Each felt her own and the other woman’s nipples pucker and harden under the thin uniform material. They had been lovers for many years and a brief flash of passion passed between them, ignited by warm memories of orgasm filled nights. Deirdre kissed Diana on the cheek and whispered in her ear, ‘Find my girl, dearest Diana.’

The Queen accepted Deirdre’s capitulation with equal grace. ‘We hope you will give us the benefit of your advice, Princess. Cornelle Diana, keep me informed of all developments. Make sure that the Pentheselia Legion HQ is in the comm. circuit at all times.’

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

3. The priestesses and huntresses were the Zon aristocracy and had never constituted more than ten percent of their population. The priestesses were the scholarly elite and held the highest position in Zon society. Everything had originally been designed to maintain their power. All Zon children were raised in state run nurseries and boarding schools. Potential priestesses were selected at a very young age and went through rigorous educational and physical training. At the age of eighteen, only the very brightest were selected to serve apprenticeships in the Temple of Eos, also known as the Lower Temple. Only by passing a further series of high level tests could they advance to serving in the Temple of Aphrodite, also known as the Middle Temple. The priestesses in the Temple of Artemis or Upper Temple passed the third and highest level of tests and were at the top of the Zon intellectual and social pyramid.

The huntresses held a position in society only slightly below the priestesses and in like manner, potential candidates were selected at a very young age. While they received education along side the priestesses, their advancement was more dependent on their athletic prowess. Also at age eighteen, the best were selected to serve as acolytes of highly rated young huntresses. At the end of a two-year apprenticeship, only a select few were commissioned huntresses. Those selected were ranked as well, and only the top few were invited to join the Cohort of Palace Guardians.

At the height of their power on Atlantis, the Zon faced no threats and the huntresses had been very few in number. In terms of political power, they had been marginalized. However, ever since the flight from Atlantis, the huntresses’ power had inexorably increased. The Legions had controlled the evacuation, had navigated the spaceships to the life-supporting planet they had named Eartha and had defended the early pitifully weak colony against predators. The discovery of the technique to splice savage DNA into Zon genes to re-vitalize them cemented the huntresses’ control of Zon society. For the huntresses alone could capture the strongest and best savages for use in the Zon plans for racial re-vitalization.

The Queen was elected by all huntresses and priestesses, but was required by law to be a priestess. She was the First Principal in the ruling Council of Principals, only two whose members were huntresses. These were the Principals of the two Legions – the Queen’s Household and the Pentheselia. Apart from the Queen, the other three priestesses on the Council were the High Priestesses of the three Zon temples of Artemis, Aphrodite and Eos.

No priestess had a chance of being elected Queen without the support of the Legions. The Principals of the two Legions, together with their cohort cornelles carefully scrutinized all senior priestesses and chose the Temple High Priestesses. Hildegard had been Queen for almost thirty years and before that had been the High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis. But she knew that she had always been chosen by the Legions.

Hildegard also knew that she was nearing the end of her reign. She was nearly a hundred years old and age was catching up with her. She was still vigorous, but she could no longer fool the mirror. She was beginning to lose the tautness of her figure and the first hints of sag had begun to appear on her cheeks. The Zon were lovers of perfection in the female form – their advanced research enabled them to genetically engineer their children, so that virtually all of them fit one of the Zon ideals of beauty. The Reproduction and Life Sciences Institute (known as the Repro Institute) was the most important center of Zon science. And while they had succeeded in extending the Zon life span to 150 Eartha years, they found it intolerable to view the ravages of age. For most Zon, a hundred signaled the beginning of the loss of physical beauty. At this point they retired from Zon life to the Ostracis Citadel far from the Zon capital of Atlantic City. Retirement was mandatory and could be enforced by court order. It was rare for an active Zon to visit an elderly relative in the Ostracis Citadel, so retirement ceremonies were very much like wakes.

Who would succeed her? Andromache was young, just over fifty. As the High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis and a Princess of the Blood, she was the obvious candidate. However her views regarding the native savages did not sit well with the huntresses. Hildegard suspected that Deirdre nursed ambitions of becoming Queen. Like Andromache, she was young and a Princess of the Blood. She was one of the first huntresses to also serve as a priestess – she had earned a position in the Temple of Aphrodite. She had served as Cornelle of the Palace Guardians and was popular with the Legions. A huntress as Queen! Hildegard shuddered inwardly.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

4. The HQ of the Pentheselia Legion was in outer ring of the Central Military Complex or CMC. A squad in the yellow and red uniform leotards of the Legion snapped to attention as Deirdre approached. She still had to use the security optical scanner to gain entrance to the low building. Her personal staff was assembled in the main situation room and a detailed topographic map of the region was on one view screen while live feed from the airship ‘Thetis’ displaying the scene of the attack was on another.

Deirdre unfastened her helmet as she entered the room and shook her long blonde tresses loose. ‘Patch a link directly through to Cornelle Diana Tragina,’ she said to her chief of staff, ‘I want the link with her to be open at all times.’

A second view screen was opened and almost immediately, Lady Alexandra Scheel appeared on it. She bowed and addressed Deirdre directly. ‘Princess, I have been detached from the Queen’s staff to serve as Cornelle Diana’s aide and liaison. The airship ‘Andromeda’ is returning at full speed to pick us up and relay us to the site. In the meantime, we have been told expect a communication from the ‘Thetis’.’

‘Thank you, Lady Alexandra,’ said Deirdre formally. ‘I wish you the best of luck. We are standing by to receive communication from the ‘Thetis.’’

Within moments, the view screen linked to ‘Thetis’ filled with the familiar features of Captain Rhea Candaris.

‘We have progress to report. At the site of the attack we have DNA evidence of two attackers. One of the attackers has been identified as a savage. The other is unquestionably Zon, but does not match any active or retired individuals on our central database. One of the mounted squads picked up a clear trail up the hillside from the site of the attack. They tracked it to a small cave over the ridgeline of the canyon. They have forensic evidence of the presence of the Lady Caitlin and the Lady Althea as well as the two attackers.’

Here Captain Rhea paused and her voice grew strained. ‘The squad found evidence of a sexual assault in the cave. Copious and fresh deposits of savage semen were found, as well as a substantial amount of vaginal fluid. The assault appears to have involved penetrative sex. Arterial blood, saliva and intra-anal skin tissue have also been found. The semen matches the savage attacker. The female bodily fluids and sexual material have all been identified as the Lady Caitlin’s.’

‘All forensic material is being relayed back for complete analysis to Atlantic City. Both mounted squads are following the trail of the attacker and captives. An electronic signal marker has been placed outside the cave where the assault occurred.’

Deirdre listened with a mixture of horror and grief. Penetrative sex! Intra-anal skin tissue! Lady Caitlin d’Orr, her darling daughter fucked in the ass by a savage! Hot tears formed behind her eyes, but her face remained steely and impassive. Penetrative sex was taboo with the Zon and was only performed by priestesses during ritual impregnation at the Repro Institute. Deirdre had such a horror of it that even though she had wanted more daughters after Caitlin, she could not bear to go through the impregnation ceremony again. She could only imagine Caitlin’s pain and humiliation.

As her imagination conjured up images of Caitlin with a huge savage cock in her ass, the strain on her composure became too much. Muttering, ‘My comm. channel is open,’ she hurried from the situation room, out of her HQ and out of the CMC into the street. Once there, she used her helmet communicator to open a personal line to Cornelle Diana Tragina.

‘Diana,’ she said, pausing only to hear a confirmation, ‘you’ve seen the same report I’ve seen. I want you to identify this savage’s immediate clan and find and kill every non-essential adult. Slowly. Roast them over open coals. Use any methods necessary to get information. When you find this savage, I want him. You inform me and only me immediately. Is that clear?’

‘Are your orders confidential?’ asked Cornelle Diana.

‘This is a personal matter, Diana,’ said Deirdre, ‘Inform your women on a need to know basis. I will inform the Princess Selene in due course.’

‘I hear and obey, Princess Deirdre,’ said Diana Tragina.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

5. Deirdre wandered aimlessly, her mind in a whirl. The news of the attack had confined to the highest reaches of the Zon government, so the corner news-screens were merely displaying some sports results and the latest results from the labs. The streets were crowded with the lunch hour crowds. Ground-speeders shushed by and sidewalk cafes did brisk business. The Zon favored tight and skimpy clothing that displayed their fine bodies and many wore brightly colored shapes drawn with body paint – the latest fashion. But today Deirdre had no eyes for the beautiful female form. She absently returned the salutes of the few uniformed huntresses that passed her and nodded to a small group of robed priestesses. 

Without conscious thought, she found herself outside the abode Caitlin shared with Althea, her acolyte. Caitlin drew stipends from both the Pentheselia Legion and the Temple of Artemis, but even these could not begin to pay for her extravagant lifestyle. The Zon aristocracy lived in the acropolis that was constructed on the high hill at the center of Atlantic City. Caitlin lived in a rambling bungalow with a pillared portico in the very highest reaches of the acropolis, within a stone’s throw of Deirdre’s own palace. It was perched on the edge of cliff that fell away hundreds of feet, providing magnificent views from all rooms. A powerful ground-speeder was parked in the garage. The d’Orr and the Spalding families were the only two surviving direct lines to the old Zon royal family from Atlantis and drew a substantial royalty from the Zon state.

Deirdre placed her palm on the front door identification panel and it hissed open. She entered and wandered through the living room into Caitlin’s master bedroom. There was a walk-in closet that was open. Deirdre walked in and found herself surrounded by Caitlin’s Pentheselia Legion uniforms and white Artemis Temple priestess robes. She had very few civilian clothes. Her pistol belt and disintegrator hung on pegs on the wall.




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 04



Deirdre drifted over to the bedroom’s picture window and looked out over the city. She recalled the many happy times she had spent in this room and her eyes misted over. The Zon had totally divorced sex and reproduction from each other. Children were reared in protective state care till the age of eighteen during which time sex was prohibited. However, once children were of age, they had no taboo against incest.

Caitlin had been Diana’s acolyte when Deirdre had first made love to her in this room. It was late and they had both had a few drinks. Hugging and rubbing nipples, prior to leaving for home, Deirdre found herself aroused by her beautiful daughter. In very short order they found themselves in the wide bed. Deirdre gently slid her uniform leotard and panties off. Then she had tenderly manipulated Caitlin’s clitoris, teasing her and arousing her, making her cry and moan. Her fingers had worked faster and faster until she finally saw Caitlin’s whole body tense and thrash as she began to scream, ‘I’m coming! Oh, mother, I’m COMING!! Oh, Hera, mother of us all, I’M COMING!!!’

The memory of their love making was very sharp. Deirdre was caught up in conflicting emotions – tears streamed down her face but at the same time she felt warmth descending to her lower belly and moistness in her crotch. She was almost in a trance so that she barely noticed the fingers that reached around her and lightly caressed her breasts and gently pinched her hardening nipples.

Deirdre slowly turned and found herself in Andromache’s embrace. She stood nearly a head taller and looked down at her miserably and found her misery mirrored. Words were not necessary. They kissed, first tentatively and then with increasing urgency. Deirdre was surprised by Andromache’s sexual aggression. She found her pistol belt unfastened and her leotard unzipped. Soon she was naked save for her thigh boots and titanium wrist bracers. In turn she undid Andromache’s silk sash and robes. They stumbled rather inelegantly to Caitlin’s bed and Deirdre found herself on her back. Andromache was sucking on her meaty nipples, the tip of her tongue darting out to tease and excite, while her hands kneaded Deirdre’s firm little breasts. Then her mouth traced lower on to Deirdre’s belly and when her lips reached the silky blonde down at her crotch, Deirdre moaned softly. Andromache was in no hurry and her tongue traced Deirdre’s nether lips, the tip darting in and out of her tight cunt, tasting the sweet smelling vaginal fluid and stimulating the emission of more. Finally her tongue found Deirdre’s clit and began to tease it in earnest. Deirdre was now sopping wet and uttering sharp little cries each time her clit was tongued. Her fingers were now intertwined in Andromache’s soft black tresses and she arched her back to draw the High Priestess’ face deeper into her crotch.

Deirdre’s vaginal fluid flowed copiously now and its strong musky aroma was driving Andromache wild. Her own moist cunt began to get wet, but she focused on Deirdre, her tongue working tirelessly and her hands ranging from her powerful buttocks to tweaking her rock hard nipples. Then, Deirdre’s cries began to rise in pitch, her fingers gripped the silk sheets and Andromache felt the powerful contractions of her cunt as she came violently. As her orgasm gripped her, she screamed out, ‘Sweet Hera! Oh, my lady!! I’M COMING!! I’m COMING!!!’

Finally, exhausted and drained by grief and passion, covered with sweat, vaginal secretions and tears, Deirdre lay prone. Andromache crawled up and they cuddled each other. Later Deirdre very lightly stripped off Andromache’s white leotard and made love to her slowly. Andromache rose to a very smooth climax and when she came, her orgasm was muted. However, she quickly rose to another climax and came again and again, mini-orgasms that caused her to her breath to rasp and her body to shiver. When she finally lay still, she drew Deirdre back into her arms and they dozed – political enemies, rivals for the throne, but lovers for now.



Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 05



It is the middle of the last Ice Age, about 50,000 years ago and the Neanderthals roam the Earth. They co-exist with recently arrived tribe of technologically advanced aliens known as the Zon, who have arrived about 500 years ago. The Zon hunt Neanderthal men for their wild semen. Aablar has captured a Zon huntress and her acolyte and is now the object of a massive search.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. Another dusk and Aablar continued to push his small party onward and upward along the ridge. Althea was soon in trouble, stumbling and in real danger since they were now at a considerable height. Without a word, Aablar picked her up and slung her over his shoulder again. Their night hike was much steeper now and they made slow progress. Aablar called a halt considerably before first light. Leia's exhaustion was apparent and Caitlin was weakening. Again Aablar unerringly found a strategically located cave. As the one before, it had been much used and animal bones littered the rocky floor and crude drawings decorated the walls. It was deep and also had the characteristic stalactites and stalagmites and fused pillars, indicating the run of moisture through the mountainside.

The sun rose soon after they stopped. Aablar had spent the day curled up in the bearskin with Leia and had fucked her twice. Their supply of meat were running low, as he had not hunted in the past few days and they were feeding two more mouths. He knew that a species of mountain goats frequented this mountainside. He brought one down with his spear and returned at twilight. He now used one of the long Zon steel daggers to butcher the goat quickly and efficiently, wasting little. He passed some bloody hunks of meat of meat to Leia, who wolfed them down with relish. He then ate some himself before walking over to offer some to Althea.

The fresh, raw meat nauseated both the Zon women. They had both eaten Aablar's dried meat, but the sight of the fresh kill and the thought of eating it uncooked were repugnant. So Althea shrank back from the bite-sized piece that Aablar offered her, dripping blood on her breasts.

'Choke it down, Althea,' said Caitlin in Greca, 'we will both need to keep our strength up if we are to survive.'

Althea opened her mouth and took the piece, chewing on it painfully, expecting retch. But she found it surprisingly sweet tasting. Aablar calmly walked over to Caitlin and hit her hard. Bound as she was, the blow knocked her down. She went down hard, her back hitting the hard cave floor with a thump like a drum. She lay still and through her full mouth, Althea uttered a muffled scream.

'Don't speak in Zon, Caitlin,' he said. 'Speak my tongue so I can understand you.' Then he glanced over his shoulder at the crying Althea. 'Don't worry, Althea. Caitlin is a huntress. She is very tough. She will be fine.'

As if to prove his point, Caitlin began to shake her head to clear it and sat up. Her abs strained to lift her body weight. One side of her face bore the mark of his blow. The beginnings of purple discoloration indicated that she would soon have a magnificent black eye. Aablar squatted down in front of her and ran his rough calloused hands over the finely defined abs on her belly.

'So strong, Caitlin,' he said wonderingly. 'You huntresses are so strong. And here I am, feeding your strength.' With this, he put a hunk of bloody meat in her mouth and she chewed on it, preparing to be revolted, but was pleasantly surprised that it tasted rather sweet. She suddenly realized that he had addressed the two of them by their names for the first time.

There was silence in the cave as they all ate. Aablar sat by Caitlin and as he ate, he continued to stroke her hard stomach, muttering over and over, 'so strong, so strong,…'. His fingers strayed lower and lower until they slipped under the waistband of her deerskin panties. Her pubic hair was downy, soft and fiery red and he stroked it, before finding her nether lips. Still eating and feeding her, he finally found her clit and was surprising gentle. Her mouth full of meat, Caitlin tried to concentrate on chewing to take her mind off the heat building in her loins. She was getting moist and would soon begin to get wet. She closed her eyes and regimented her breathing. Then, abruptly, he stopped. 'Don't stop!' was Caitlin's first thought, as her eyes jerked open, her mouth still working on the last mouthful of meat.

Aablar went over to Leia and took her in his arms and they kissed deeply, tongues probing. She rubbed her full breasts against his rock hard chest.

Aablar continued to hold her in his arms. Leia was surprised when after kneading her breasts and crotch and getting her quite excited, Aablar did not fuck her again. He just held her and rocked her and his mind seemed far away. For a mighty hunter like him, it was natural to have many women and female slaves and father as many children as possible. His lust for both the Zon huntress and her acolyte was powerful. Yet his feelings for Leia had changed him and he yearned for her to be his partner, to share more than a fuck with her.

'Mighty hunter, you must make more use of your slaves,' she whispered to in his ear. 'You must fuck the huntress and the acolyte until they beg you to take them. I will always be here for you and the more women you have, the greater my honor.'

Her words released him. His feelings for her, if possible, grew stronger.

'You are my woman, Leia,' he said. 'I will never forsake you. I will bring you much honor. But now we must rest. We must remain strong and alert.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2. Aablar and Leia crawled into their bearskin again. The high altitude meant that in the darkness of the cave, it was very cold. They had barely settled in when they heard Althea's plaintive cries. Aablar rose and went to her.

'Aablar,' she faltered, 'I am so cold. Please, I cannot bear it.'

Caitlin listened, stoic, but resigned.

Aablar stood over the bound Althea. Then wordlessly, he undid her bonds and picked her up as he had on their long trek. He carried her over to the bearskin he shared with Leia, and they both made room to accommodate her between them.

Leia's words were still ringing in Aablar's ears. The scenes of Aablar's huge cock plunging into Leia's cunt and her screaming orgasms were playing in Althea's mind. As the three of them snuggled together for warmth, Aablar's cock inexorably hardened and Althea's cunt moistened.

Aablar's hand slipped under the waistband of Althea's panties and he felt her dark and downy soft public hair. The Zon pubic hair was so different from the rough and coarse pubics of the females of his people. Althea felt his thick fingers and stiffened. But his touch, like his earlier play with Caitlin, was gentle. His rough and calloused hands were unlike anything she had felt before. He unerringly found her clit and the feeling that began to build in her was unfamiliar yet strong. She felt a lump form in her throat and felt she could hardly breathe. The taboo ritual of sexual penetration, forbidden and buried, but now close and desirable fed her anticipation. Her moistness grew and then she was wet. He lifted her rump, pulled her panties down and rolled her on to her back. When his hand returned to her crotch, she felt his fingers tease her clit again and she mewed. Their eyes met and hers were warm, but confused.

Two of his fingers now entered her cunt and quickly worked up a tempo. She had never been penetrated before, but like all Zon, she had worked hard developing her vaginal muscle strength. Her cunt gripped his fingers tightly and his patience was quickly exhausted. He mounted her. He unfastened her deerskin halter and gripping the back of her neck tightly, kissed her hard. His tongue was rough and demanding, much more so than Caitlin's. She felt his huge dick at her cunt and with his other hand he steadied it. Then with a groan, he entered her. Her tightness stripped back his foreskin and he fought the urge to come immediately. A few inches into her he ran up against a rubbery obstacle. Her hymen!

The hymen was sacred to the Zon and they worked hard to preserve and strengthen it so that it was intact during ritual impregnation. Priestesses and huntresses particularly prided themselves on their tough, muscular hymens. Aablar had ruptured Leia's hymen and it had bled, but she was unschooled and untrained. Althea was highly trained and her hymen was extremely tough. Aablar's first push at it did not rupture it, but drew a muffled cry of pain from Althea. He grunted and pushed again. The muscular tissue stretched, but held, forming a tight sheath over his cock. The pain was sharp now and she was twisting in her arms, trying to free herself. Her tongue fought his in her attempts to cry out, succeeding in emitting only muffled sounds of distress. Caitlin watched helplessly and Leia with proprietary smugness.

Again and again Aablar assaulted her hymen, each time with greater force. And each time her writhing grew more frenzied as the pain grew more excruciating. Saliva drooled out of her mouth as her vocal wails were muffled under his oral assault. Paradoxically, his inch and half penetration of her tight cunt increased rather than reduced his desire. His cock grew even harder with the challenge of her resistant hymen. 

Finally, he put all his two hundred and eighty pounds behind a mighty thrust and bore down on her. Her hymen stretched even more, allowing him another half inch of penetration. He did not relent and her hymen stretched further and finally, at its limit, it began to give. First a small tear and then it ruptured. His weight and pressure caused him to sink his entire nine inches into her in a single thrust and her scream of agony, even through his muffling lips, echoed off the cave walls.

Gouts of arterial blood spurted out of her cunt, but by now he was beyond caring. He worked up a rapid tempo, pistoning her hard in his need. Her cunt was extremely tight and her small pebble-like nipples squeezed against his hard chest. The pain of her ruptured hymen quickly receded to be replaced by mounting excitement and her bleeding was soon replaced by lubricating vaginal fluid. All too soon, she mounted up to an orgasm. She could feel it coming, but when it came, she could not believe its intensity. He broke his lips free of hers and when she came she was screamed on and on, contractions racking her sweat-covered body. The pulsating contractions in the tightness of her cunt drove Aablar over the edge and he began to come. He pumped a huge gout of semen into her and when he thought he had no more and began to withdraw from her, she arched her back and drew him into her once more, eliciting yet another thrust and another ejaculation. They collapse together, spent.

Leia looked on in satisfaction and pride, her earlier trepidation only a memory. Caitlin's face was stony. Aablar glanced over at her. If the acolyte was such a fuck, what would the huntress be like?



Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 06



It is the middle of the last Ice Age, about 50,000 years ago. The Neanderthals roam the Earth, but co-exist with a recently arrived tribe of technologically advanced aliens known as the Zon. The Zon hunt Neanderthal men for their wild semen. Aablar has captured a Zon huntress and her acolyte and is now the object of a massive search.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

1. Diana Tragina stood on the glass domed flying bridge of the airship 'Andromeda', overlooking the captain's command station. She was armed for combat with a microwave disintegrator slung over her shoulder, her special issue laser pistol in a holster on her belt and a long steel dagger in a sheath on her right thigh boot. In addition, she wore her 'singing' sword in a scabbard on her pistol belt, so called because of the whistling sound it made when swung. It had a two-handed hilt and a razor sharp blade. Diana was one of the best Zon swordswomen and proud of it.

Lady Alexandra Scheel, similarly attired for combat, though without a sword, approached her. 'We have received further analysis of the savage's DNA from the Repro Institute,' she said. 'It confirms the original analysis done on the 'Thetis'. It is from the Clan of the Bear. However, the genetic signature appears to hold some unique impurities. Repro has matched it to a boy that was picked up and entered in the database in a raid twelve years ago. His name was recorded as Aablar and he was recorded as verging on puberty. The boy's father's name was recorded as Jondolar and he was killed in the raid.'

'Who was the raid commander?' Diana asked.

'You were, Cornelle,' said Alexandra impassively.

Diana took the statement without comment. She had been one of the most successful (and some said, the most ruthless) of the huntresses in the pursuit of savages. Her love of swordplay was well known and her 'singing sword' had seen much blood. 

The ship's captain, Hebe Nevis called up, 'We have a large grouping of the Bear Clan on the scope, Cornelle. There are about two hundred of them. Your orders?'

'Prepare for immediate debarkation. Debark two squads on to the north and two to the south.' She turned to Alexandra. 'Quinta Lady Alexandra,' she said addressing her aide by her rank, 'you will command the southern squads. I will come from the north. Drive them towards us. I want to capture them all this time.'

Alexandra bowed. 'It will be done, Cornelle,' she said. They left the flying bridge together and made for the holds where their huntress squads waited with their horses. The debarkation of the two units about two miles apart was completed within half an hour. Diana's plan worked like clockwork. When Alexandra's twenty huntresses galloped into the Bear Clan grouping, they had already caught their smell and begun to flee. Chaos reigned, with men frantically looking for escape, women screaming and trying to protect their children, belongings discarded. 

'Shoot the old men,' Alexandra ordered over her helmet communicator and quickly ten men were blown to pieces with disintegrators. This served to increase the panic still further and at this point they suddenly found themselves running squarely into Diana's squads. They were brought up short and milling around in confusion, shrieking and begging for mercy.

Diana switched her helmet communicator to megaphone mode. Her use of the savage tongue was heavily accented with the Zon sing-song cadence, but quite understandable. 'We want you all to stand still. We will shoot any one who moves. Is that clear?'

Surrounded by the mounted Zon, the Bear Clan group members subsided into a hum of mutters and eyed their captors wide-eyed with fear. Diana quickly clicked her helmet's magna-vision into place and identified six prime age males for semen harvest. Setting her laser pistol to its lowest setting, she methodically fired six times, burning two-inch long brands on each of their shoulders. They howled with pain as Diana spoke into her helmet communicator, 'Alpha Squad, take those six.'

The squad moved forward into the milling crowd, laser pistols at the ready, and golden zircon lassoes whirled through the air. The six branded men found themselves caught and dragged away from their clan group by the Zon horsewomen. They were quickly shackled and led towards the 'Andromeda', now anchored a few miles away.

Diana surveyed the cowed and crowded mass of Neanderthals grimly. Her long experience stood her in good stead – she located one older male, taller and more powerful than the rest, surrounded by three or four females and looking at the huntresses defiantly. She judged him to be the chief of this group of the Bear Clan. Without warning her golden zircon lasso whirled through the air and he found himself ensnared. Backing her horse quickly, she pulled him off his feet and dragged him out of the surrounding crowd, which parted with murmurs of fear. She pulled him about twenty yards from the milling group and stopped. He raised himself erect again with difficulty, since his arms where still pinioned to his sides by the lasso.

'Tell me your name, savage,' Diana demanded, 'and point out your group elders.'

He was still defiant. 'I will tell you nothing! Others may call you Lady Death, but to me you are just a Zon bitch!'

Diana smiled. 'You will point out your group elders or I will kill each and every one of you, starting with your women.' To underline her point she drew her laser pistol again and branded one of the young women who had been clinging to the chief. She was just a girl, perhaps a teenager, and she began to howl with the pain of the laser burn. The chief's expression changed rapidly to a mixture of rage and concern. His powerful muscles knotted under the unbreakable zircon lasso.

'You are evil, Lady Death,' he rasped, 'I will tell you what you want. I am Shabor, chief of this group of the Bear Clan. I will point out my three elders.'

He proceeded to do so and they were quickly lassoed and brought up to join him by Diana's huntresses. Diana now holstered her laser pistol and hung her disintegrator on her pommel by its strap. She dismounted, leaving her horse to hold the lasso binding the chief. She walked up to the four bound Neanderthals and said, 'We are looking for one of your Clan. I am almost certain he is one of your group. His name is Aablar. Where is he?'

The four looked on in stoic silence. Diana drew her 'singing' sword and hefted it with a two-handed grip. The next move happened so quickly that not even the highly trained huntresses actually saw it. There was the sharp whistling sound of Diana's blade and then the head of one of the elders fell to the ground with a thud, his face registering a look of mild surprise. His body remained standing and swaying for a few moments before pitching forward and hitting the ground in cloud of dust.

Diana made slow circles with the bloodstained blade in front of the remaining three. 'That was a very easy death,' she said, poking the chest of one of the other elders and drawing a trickle of blood, 'I can make it much slower and much more painful. I want to know where I can find Aablar.'

'Lady Death, you are very brave attacking bound men with your weapons,' said Shabor scornfully, 'Turn me loose and I will make you suck my big cock and then stick it in your tight ass.'

'I see,' said Diana evenly, 'I would very much like that. I like a savage with spirit.' With that she returned to her horse and took up her round stainless steel shield. As she began to loosen her zircon lasso to release Shabor, Alexandra's worried voice came over her communicator.

'Cornelle, this is against regulations and I must register my concern.'

'Concern noted, Quinta Lady Alexandra,' returned Diana formally. 'By all means make a note of it in your report.' She switched her communicator to megaphone mode. 'My huntresses will immediately shoot anyone who interferes. Shabor, collect weapons of your choosing.'

Within moments, they were arrayed against each other. Diana now hefted her sword in one hand balancing her round shield in the other. Shabor had collected a heavy bone club and a stone-tipped spear. From ten feet away he hurled the spear with all his might, a throw that would have brought down a mastodon. Diana's shield moved a fraction and caught the stone point at an angle on her shield, dissipating its force and deflecting it away from her. The point shattered on her shield and the shaft landed forty yards away. She smiled grimly.

'Come to me, Shabor,' she taunted, closing in. Shabor was the veteran of many combats. He was wily and strong and liked his chances in close combat with this woman. His eyes followed her sword and shield like a hawk's, his heavy club at the ready. She watched his eyes rather than his arms and could almost read his thoughts. She was amused by the irony of situation. She reckoned that Shabor and she were virtually identical in their chronological ages – about 35 Eartha years. Yet she was a picture of youth and health, her skin smooth and unblemished, her forehead unlined, her eyes clear and her pale blonde hair fine and thick. At six foot two in her stocking feet and taller in her heeled riding thigh boots, she overtopped him by a good six inches. He, on the other hand, was an old man. He had a slight stoop, his hair was almost all white, his faced was wrinkled and his eyes bloodshot. Only his muscles were big and powerful.

Her next move was a ballet choreographer's delight. She spun on her left foot and her right leg kicked high up describing a vicious arc. Her steel toe caught Shabor just under his heavy jawbone, completely lifting him off the ground. She completed her spin and landed on both feet, sword and shield at the ready.

Shabor was lying on his back and groaning, blood trickling out of his mouth. The blow would have shattered the jawbone of a lesser man, but Shabor's jaw and skull were incredibly thick. He still managed to haul himself to his feet as Diana approached.

'Come to me so I can push my big cock into your wet cunt, Lady Death,' he slurred through broken teeth.

Diana did not answer him. As she closed in he raised his club, but now his attention was divided, as he warily watched her feet as well. Again her sword issued its warning whistle and he raised his club to protect his head. The sharp blade met the bone, and cut through it cleanly, leaving him holding a stump. Raising her shield, she jammed it edgewise into his club arm. Bone and muscle were no match for stainless steel. He screamed with pain, for this time she had pulverized his right elbow. The stump of the club dropped from his nerveless fingers and he cradled his elbow, his face grimacing as he resisted the urge to whimper. His three women set up a cacophony of wails and were only frozen in place by the huntress' disintegrators trained on them.

'Come on, Shabor,' said Diana with great good humor, 'I thought you wanted to fuck me.' 

Then she grew serious, and switching to Greca the Zon language, rapped into her communicator, 'Lay out the coals and set up the grills. I want all of these three trussed up and ready to roast. Separate out the valuable breeding stock and get them out of here. We need them to procreate and multiply in the wild. Once they are out of sight, shoot the rest.'

Led by Alexandra, the huntress squads immediately rode into the cowering Neanderthals and with a few well-chosen disintegrator blasts shepherded the younger women and fit boys and men away from the clearing. Diana's thrashing of Shabor had knocked all the fight out of them.

Two huntresses dismounted and emptied coals from sacks on their saddles and set up large metal grills with heavy iron rings set in them. First they manhandled Shabor on to one of them and shackled him spread-eagled to the iron rings. He screamed anew as they dragged him by his arms, aggravating his crushed elbow. The other two elders yielded with only minor struggles.

Diana walked up to Shabor, now reduced to wheezing in pain.

'Let me warm you, Shabor,' she said mockingly, 'and then ask you some questions again.'

She pointed her laser pistol at the coals under him and emptied the entire charge, turning them instantly from cold and black to glowing red and blazing hot. The heat took a few moments to begin to be uncomfortable. Diana watched impassively and placed the small indentation in the butt of her laser pistol on a small protuberance on her wrist bracer. It matched seamlessly and the powerful energy pack in her wrist bracer quickly returned the pistol to full charge. She repeated her actions twice more under the other two elders.

Very soon, Shabor called out to her.

'For pity's sake, Lady Death, kill me! Kill me now!'

'I want to know where I can find Aablar,' Diana said sharply, 'then we can discuss killing you.'

'I threw him out of the group almost a moon ago. He was fucking one of my women and I banished him.' Shabor's voice was faltering with the increasing pain. The skin of his back was beginning to peel off. Fortunately his women were young, fertile and excellent breeding stock, so they had been amongst those herded away. They were now almost a mile away and fleeing further as fast as they could go.

'Where can I find him now?' she asked patiently.

'Please, I cannot speak! Dowse the fire!'

'All in good time, Shabor,' said Diana, 'I'm still waiting for your answer.'

They were interrupted by disintegrator blasts as Diana's huntresses began to shoot the old, the feeble and the other remnants of the Neanderthal group.

'All Bear Clan chiefs go to the Cavern of Eternal Spring at the edge of the ice in the week of the vernal equinox.' Shabor paused, laboring for breath. 'He must drink of the Spring and bring up a blue stone from the sacred pool to top his staff, since he wants to be a chief.'

'Where is your blue stone, Shabor? And where is this cavern?'

'The cavern is on the north face of the Claw Peak.' Shabor's fought to make his thick tongue form words now. The coals were beginning to burn through his outer skin and his grimaces of pain were giving way to whimpers. 'I left my staff on the ground when I came to do battle.'

'Thank you, Shabor. You have been most helpful.' Diana nodded to one of her huntresses, who quickly went over to where Shabor had been standing with his women and recovered a stout staff that would have been lost among the rocks. Diana hefted the staff, her eyes gleaming. Glued to the head of the staff was an egg-sized raw and uncut sapphire.

'Lady Death! Lady Death! You promised! Please kill me now!'

Shabor implored in vain. Diana ignored him. She returned to her horse, hung her shield on her pommel and carefully placed the staff in one of her saddlebags. Then she hefted her disintegrator and swung back into her saddle. She looked down on him scornfully.

'Shabor, you couldn't have known it, but banishing Aablar was probably the worst decision you ever made.'

Within a few more minutes, their screams of agony were so loud that the huntresses withdrew a few hundred paces from them. Diana opened a personal line to Deirdre, who responded at once.

'Princess Deirdre,' she said formally, 'we have captured the savage Aablar's group of the Bear Clan and your orders have been carried out. All non-essential adults have been killed. We are roasting the chief and his elders over the coals. They have told us all they know. We have some leads to go on.' With this she widened the reception band of her helmet communicator and the screams of Shabor and his elders came as music to Deirdre's ears.

'I knew I could count on you, Diana,' said Deirdre warmly.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2. Dusk was beginning to gather when Aablar stirred. It would be dark within another hour and it would be time to move again. Althea was still lying on her back, an unaccustomed position for her, breathing shallowly and sharply, causing her firm little breasts to quiver. She was unconscious to the world.

Leia stirred with Aablar and sat up, stretching and yawning luxuriously. Caitlin, however, was awake and her cat-like eyes followed Aablar's every move. He drew some more meat from a deerskin pouch and passing some to Leia, walked over and fed Caitlin a few pieces before wolfing down several large chunks himself. When they were done eating and had drunk water from Aablar's leather satchel, Leia gathered up the remaining meat and wrapped it in a deerskin pouch to carry with her. Almost at the same instant, both Aablar and Caitlin froze. Their ears pricked up and they strained to hear more of the faint sound they thought they had just heard. An instant later Aablar flung himself at Caitlin and pinioned her bound body to the ground. He produced the leather gag and tied it on tight, heedless of her struggles. Then he quickly went over to the sleeping Althea and tied a leather gag on her, and ignoring her shocked awakening, bound her wrists and ankles again. Leia was frightened by Aablar's urgency, for though she had heard nothing, she knew that danger must be nigh.

Aablar picked up his spear and stuck Caitlin's steel dagger in his leather waistband. He crouched behind the rocks at the mouth of the cave. Both Caitlin and he knew what they had heard – microwave disintegrator blasts that meant there were huntresses close by. Aablar peered into the valley below and checking over his shoulder to make sure once again that all was secure in the cave, descended several hundred yards quickly and soundlessly. He made excellent use of the scrub on the mountainside and eventually settled behind a clump of rocks and brush about half a mile along a line of sight from the scene unfolding on the valley floor.

He saw the shooting, his erstwhile group rounded up, the six prime age males selected and taken away. Then he saw Shabor square off against Diana. His mouth tightened. Even at this distance, and after the long years, he recognized her stance instantly. It was the pale blonde Lady Death, who had beaten, tortured and killed his father!

As if in a dream, he saw Shabor beaten and then the roasted alive along with his elders. The screams carried clearly up to his ears. Shabor had been no friend of his, but to see him die in this way still gave Aablar pain. He made his way very carefully back to the cave, using every hunter's wile to remain invisible to those below.

The screams of the three roasting and dying men were plain to the three women. One at a time, Aablar picked up Caitlin and Althea and carried them to the rocks at the mouth of the cave. Leia came up and crouched beside them as well. The mounted huntresses were just more than specks on the valley floor far below them. But the even at this distance, Caitlin could make out the purple and green leotards of the Queen's Household Legion. It was clear what was happening with the grills and the spread-eagled screaming men. A faint smell of burning flesh reached their nostrils. Aablar caught a hank of Caitlin's hair and twisted her head, gag and all, to face him.

'See what you huntresses do to my people,' Aablar whispered.

Was it his imagination, or were her green eyes less flinty that they had been?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

3. It was deep twilight by the time the last of the three roasted Neanderthals died. It was Shabor who hung on the longest, almost half an hour after his elders were dead, beyond speech, beyond conscious thought, but in excruciating pain till the end.

Diana opened a channel to the 'Andromeda' and Captain Hebe Nevis answered immediately.

'We are ready for pickup Captain Hebe,' she said. The Zon used their first names for official addresses.

'We are on our way, Cornelle Diana,' Hebe Nevis replied.

'Andromeda' was the newest, largest and fastest of the four Zon airships and she was hovering above them literally within minutes, her running lights winking. Hebe ordered the large platform lowered. It was a huge rectangular metal sheet with grooved wooden floorboards and a five-foot high railings. It was large enough to accommodate two fully equipped mounted squads. It hit the ground with a clang. At an order from Diana, Alexandra embarked her two squads. A powerful winch on the airship whined and the platform was quickly hoisted into one of the 'Andromeda' holds. A few minutes later, it was lowered again and Diana embarked her squads. She embarked last, leading her huge eighteen-hand stallion. He snorted and pranced. She patted him and cooed in his ear, calming him down. As he calmed down, she surveyed the carnage around her. I was assigned to this search just a few hours ago, she thought. And I already know where that savage is headed. All I have to do is go there and wait.




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 06



She surveyed the valley around her as the platform rose. Her sharp eyes were ever watchful, scanning the mountainsides around like a hawk's. Was there a tiny movement on the mountainside in front of her? Her gaze zeroed in on what looked like a minute cave opening. But all was still. Maybe the dim twilight was playing tricks with her sight. It was probably one of those infernal mountain goats that were so plentiful in this area.

Diana made her way to bridge as soon as she settled her horse in his stall. Hebe was at her command post looked questioningly at her.

'Take us to the north face of the peak the savages call the Claw,' she said. 'You know the one?'

'Yes, Cornelle,' said Hebe quietly. 'Its due north along this ridge to our starboard side about fifteen miles from here. The weather is always awful around there and the mineral deposits in there really impede our comm. channels.'

'Good,' said Diana ignoring Hebe's misgivings. 'I'm going to get cleaned up and changed for dinner. I'll see you in the wardroom, Captain. In the meantime, please ask Quinta Lady Alexandra to stop by my cabin at once.'

'I will relay your orders, Cornelle. And I look forward to dining with you.' Hebe's voice was very level, but not very warm.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

4. Aablar and the women lay very still, as the dying men's screams faded and finally stopped. Caitlin's gaze grew wistful and then desperate as the 'Andromeda' appeared over the horizon. She watched in despair as Alexandra's squads were embarked. Then as the last squads were being embarked and she saw the unmistakable form of Diana, tall and erect in her saddle, she gave way to desperation and began to struggle and cry out through her gag.

'Mmmmphphff!! MMMMphphphffff!!!' Her cries did not carry far and her struggles brought forth a swift reaction from Aablar. His powerful hands went around her throat and he choked her, cutting off all sound. Her body continued to thrash for a while, but he was able to subdue her and drag her away from the cave mouth.

Within minutes the airship was gone over the horizon again.

Aablar left them in the cave and descended to the valley floor. He took the charred remains of his former comrades and buried them so that they would not be set upon by carrion. 'Goodbye, Shabor,' he said gravely. 'You did your best as chief. You deserved a better end.'

Then he returned to the cave and pushed his small party onward and upward along the ridge. Althea was soon in trouble, stumbling and in real danger since the path was now narrow and the drop to their left was nearly sheer and hundreds of feet. Without a word, Aablar picked her up and slung her over his shoulder again. Their night hike was much steeper now and they made slow progress. Aablar called a halt considerably before first light. Leia's exhaustion was apparent and Caitlin was weakening. They rested on the path and after an hour, Aablar had them moving again, slowly. They made two more rest stops. The women were too exhausted to talk and Aablar did not make or invite any comment.

Finally, the first fingers of dawn appeared, but Aablar still continued. With the gathering light, they could make out their surroundings much more clearly. They were extremely high! There was snow and ice all around them and the path itself was slippery. The drop to their left was now thousands of feet and there were clouds obscuring the valley far below them. Mists began to surround them as well and Leia grew very afraid.

Aablar sensed this and said to her, 'Don't worry, my woman. We will be there very soon.'

His words were soothing and turned out to be true. A few hundred yards down the path a large rock loomed. As they approached it, it turned out to be a carved gargoyle. It was worked in exquisite detail and held a battle-axe in its claws. Leia had never seen anything like it and it defied everything that Caitlin and Althea had been taught about the savages. The gargoyle guarded a small opening in the mountainside. One by one they entered, Aablar last with Althea still on his shoulders. He set her down on the floor and unfastened her wrists and ankles.

It was a cave of wonders! In contrast to the cold outside, it was pleasantly warm. It was more a cavern than a cave and the ceiling was very high, well beyond their sight. It was lit with a surreal bluish light that Caitlin traced to openings in the ceiling far ahead. Shafts of light streamed in and reflected off a luminescent pool of the palest blue. A stream of water gushed from the cavern wall, feeding the pool. Steam arose from it, indicating that the water was warm, perhaps hot.

'Aablar,' said Caitlin, in awe, 'I have never seen anything like this in my life.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *



Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 07



It is the middle of the last Ice Age, about 50,000 years ago. The Neanderthals roam the Earth, but co-exist with a recently arrived tribe of technologically advanced aliens known as the Zon. The Zon hunt Neanderthal men for their wild semen. Aablar has captured a Zon huntress and her acolyte. He is now the object of a massive hunt led by the ruthless Diana Tragina, known to the Neanderthals as Lady Death.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

1. At Diana's orders, the 'Andromeda' cruised as low as Captain Hebe Nevis dared take her in this mountainous terrain. At fifteen thousand feet, she was barely a few hundred feet above the highest known peaks in this area. All her bio-scanners were on full power and a mounted squad was in the ready room to investigate each time they registered a promising hit. Alexandra took command of the ready squad for the first two-hour watch. She had led the squad on two fruitless forays. The first turned out to be a small grouping of young adults of the Bear Clan who were quickly rounded up and questioned. They knew nothing of Aablar and had no prime quality males. Alexandra turned them loose to breed. The second group picked up by the scanners moved very quickly and scattered by the time the huntresses hit the ground. They rode hard and caught their prey that turned out to be two wild highland sheep. In frustration Alexandra blew their heads off with her disintegrator. She did however, have the squad transport the carcasses back the ship's kitchen for butchering.

After stabling her horse, Alexandra clattered to the for'ard cabins and paused by the command stateroom. There was a light panel on the door in runic Greca script spelling out 'Cornelle Diana Tragina'. She hesitated. Alexandra considered herself confident and self-assured, but like almost all who worked with Diana, she found the steely Guardian Cornelle intimidating. She steadied her nerves and knocked.

'Enter,' she heard Diana's deceptively melodious voice.

She entered and bowed. Diana was lounging on a leather club chair by one of the clear stateroom portholes surveying the thick cloud beneath them. She wore her formal uniform, a purple and green bustier and matching short skirt, high gloss black ankle boots, a titanium choker marked with the single crown indicating her rank and her titanium wrist bracers that huntresses were seldom without. Her pale blonde mane hung loose over her shoulders.

She eyed Alexandra up and down, taking in her sweat-stained uniform, the dusty thigh boots with jingling spurs and the plumed helmet. She did not miss the flash marks on the disintegrator barrel indicating recent use. She rose and said, formally, 'Welcome and greetings, Quinta Lady Alexandra.' She advanced with extended arms and they met at the center of the room and rubbed nipples. Alexandra was built more like the typical huntress with small breasts and button-like nipples and she always marveled that a huntress of Diana's prowess could manage such full breasts. And maintain their firmness with no hint of sag!

Alexandra's strong female smell went to Diana's head like a drug and she held her slightly longer and tighter than formality decreed. She released her and stepped back, returning to her club chair by the porthole. She signaled Alexandra to join her and indicated the club chair facing her own. Alexandra seated herself, unfastened her helmet and shook her short hair loose. She was a dark blonde with darker streaks.

'I was just preparing to go to the wardroom for luncheon. But I'd like to hear your report first.'

'Unfortunately, there is nothing to report. Just a small herd of highland sheep. We will dine on wild mutton tonight.'

Diana said nothing. Alexandra waited respectfully and then asked, 'May I retire to my cabin, Cornelle? I'd like to have a quick shower before luncheon.'

Diana seemed far away and did not respond immediately. Alexandra was about to repeat her question when Diana asked, 'What's it like making love to the old girl?'

'What!?' Alexandra was taken aback.

'You know, the Queen. Surely she asks her handmaiden to service her?'

'Really, I am not at liberty to discuss this.'

Diana laughed. 'Such a fine blue-blooded aristocrat! Spoken like a gentlewoman and a true member of the sisterhood! I am sorry if my crude red-blooded remarks offend.'

They faced each other, Diana's pale gray eyes cool and challenging, Alexandra's gray-blue eyes hot with suppressed anger. Zon society was a confusing and often uneasy mixture of meritocracy and aristocracy and the two of them illustrated it perfectly. Diana, the meritocratic commoner, had ascended to the highest realms of power and privilege, but made do with her relatively modest officer's pay. Alexandra, the aristocratic daughter of the Countess Dorothea Scheel, had achieved her rank through merit, but lived luxuriously in the Scheel mansion on the Acropolis in Atlantic City. Her mother had not achieved selection to the Legions or the Temples and neither had her sister. They both worked in relatively undemanding positions.

'I have nothing to be ashamed of,' Alexandra said hotly.

Diana's cool colorless eyes continued to bore into her. 'Come here,' she said sharply. Alexandra stood and approached her, leaving her helmet on the chair.

'Get down on your knees.' Alexandra's anger churned in her stomach, but she obeyed rigidly, controlling her temper.

Diana's powerful hands went into her hair and massaged her scalp, firmly, but not roughly. She turned her aide's angry face up to her and to Alexandra's consternation, kissed her on the lips. She kissed with authority and passion, her tongue aggressive in soliciting a response. Alexandra found her anger replaced by confusion and as she opened her mouth, found Diana's aggressive tongue snaking around hers to arouse and control.

Diana's hands unbuckled her disintegrator strap and it slipped to the thick carpet with a soft thud. Her holster-belt followed. Alexandra felt Diana's active hands on her breasts, kneading and caressing them. Her nipples that had puckered when they first rubbed, now hardened into long pencil-like points. They quickly unclothed each other and found themselves rolling on the floor. Alexandra indulged her fantasies now, kneading Diana's full breasts and finding them supple and pliant with hard and meaty nipples. She found and caressed Diana's highly developed chest muscles that held her magnificent tits high and firm. Their lips traced patterns on each other's bodies and they playfully bit at and sucked each other's nipples.

Alexandra was only slightly shorter than Diana and they fell into a comfortable 69 position with Diana on top. They worked each other into a frenzy of mewing and moaning. Finally Diana returned to her club chair, spread her legs and let Alexandra service her clitoris with a will. Her moans turned to groans and she began to buck with both her hands holding Alexandra's head to her crotch. Then her climax was upon her and she began to scream, calling to Hera and Athena as huntresses were wont to do. Her contractions were spasmodic and wild. Alexandra felt her own excitement rise.

When Diana was finally calm, she drew Alexandra up on to the wide chair beside her. With nimble fingers, she quickly worked her clit and brought her to a fever pitch of excitement, and then to a climactic release. Alexandra squirmed and moaned and came. Diana's lips found hers and she kissed her through her orgasm, prolonging it as her tongue induced more excitement.

They lay on the club chair together, naked save for boots and wrist bracers. Alexandra giggled suddenly.

'You're going to need another shower before luncheon, Diana,' she said.

'When I smelled you in my arms, the peasant in me wanted to strip you then and there,' said Diana without a hint of guile. 'We'll have a shower together. We're late and will have the wardroom to ourselves for luncheon.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2. Meanwhile, the Queen called an emergency meeting of the Council of Principals. The Council chamber was hushed, the High Priestess' handmaidens were in the outer reception room. A squad of Palace Guardians was dispersed around the Chamber at a discreet distance out of earshot. 

The details of the kidnap were explained with Rhea Candaris attending on a comm. channel from the 'Thetis'. There was horror all round. Huntresses had been killed on raids before, but attacked and kidnapped by a savage male! Both by breeding and conditioning, male domination was the deepest fear in the Zon psyche. The findings of the mounted search squads were received with increasing dread. Who could have imagined more prominent victims? The daughter and sole heir to the Royal Tiara of d'Orr fucked in the ass by a savage! Who knew what was in store for the youngest and (some said) dearest daughter of the Royal House of Spalding? Both Deirdre and Andromache sat immobile and received the commiserations of the three other Council members formally and without any displays of their inner emotions.

'I move that we confirm Cornelle Diana Tragina as search commander,' said Princess Selene d'Allerand, Principal of the Queen's Household Legion. All around the table nodded assent. Deirdre received some surprised glances, but Andromache knew that Diana was firmly back in the good graces of the House of d'Orr. The details of Diana's work as interim search commander were discussed and her idea of forming an ambush at the Claw Peak was endorsed.

'I would like to place a commendation to Cornelle Diana in the official record.' said Deirdre.

'Hear, hear,' said Princess Selene.

This too was passed without opposition.

'Before I adjourn the meeting and offer you some refreshment, I would like to make an announcement to the Council,' said the Queen. 'I have decided to retire, with immediate effect. I will, as required by law, supervise the election of my successor. I will allow the minimum period before the election – 48 hours after the public announcement. I would like your permission to make the announcement this afternoon. I plan to leave for the Ostracis Citadel immediately after the declaration of results.'

There was shocked silence around the table. All in the Chamber had expected the Queen to retire fairly soon, but no one had imagined it would be now, in the midst of this crisis.

'You will stay to supervise the coronation of the new Queen, will you not?' asked Heliodora Bucca-Senora, High Priestess of the Temple of Aphrodite.

'No,' the Queen responded, tiredly. 'The Council can take care of that. You all have my best wishes and blessings.'

'But why the rush, your Highness?' asked Andromache, voicing the thoughts of all the Principals.

'I am tired, Andromache,' Hildegard returned. 'And I am growing old – I see it in the eyes of all around me. The Ostacis Citadel calls to me. It is time for someone else to shoulder the burden of presiding over the sisterhood. This incident with Lady Caitlin and Lady Althea is the final straw. I don't want to preside over our policies any more. A younger woman with fresher ideas must be Queen.'

'Then there is nothing for it,' said Calliope Philosthela, High Priestess of the Temple of Eos. 'I move that we accept the Queen's retirement and support her wish to announce immediately.'

They all nodded. Each calculated the impact of the decision on her own position. Andromache and Deirdre were thinking about their manifestoes. Andromache wondered how she could pacify the huntresses and Deirdre wondered how she could get enough support from the priestesses who outnumbered the huntresses four to one. Heliodora wondered whether she should support Andromache's bid for the throne, with the promise of becoming the mistress of the Temple of Artemis. Or should she try for the throne herself? Calliope wondered if she should work with Andromache to try and leapfrog Heliodora to become Abbess of the highest Temple. Their handmaidens served fine clove wine in the outer reception room and they maintained exquisite decorum in their talk. But they were all wrapped in their own thoughts and plots.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

3. Diana and Alexandra, both freshly showered and wearing their formal uniforms, entered the 'Andromeda' wardroom for a late lunch. Contrary to Diana's expectations, several of the ship's off-duty officers lounged around over hot mugs of katsch, the thick, sweet and black Zon stimulant. The buzz of conversation died down as the tall huntresses entered. Among the off-duty officers was Hebe Nevis, the ship's captain. Hebe was a dark brunette whose silky hair now hung loose over her shoulders. She brushed it back as she arose and formally rubbed nipples with Diana.

Technically, airship crew-women were huntresses, but practically they formed a very distinct cadre with their own traditions and rules. Nominally the 'Andromeda' and the 'Hypatia' were assigned to the Queen's Household Legion, while the 'Thetis' and the 'Atlanta' were assigned to the Pentheselia Legion. Hebe wore the purple and green leotard of the Household Legion. Each airship had a crew of roughly a cohort and airship captains were nominally equal in rank to the cavalry cohort cornelles. In practice, however, cavalry cornelles always took precedence. As Cornelle of the Cohort of Palace Guardians, Diana was the most senior cavalry cornelle. Hebe recognized her as a superior officer and deferred to her respectfully.

'What can I do for you, Cornelle Diana?'

'Lady Alexandra and I were hoping to have a late lunch, Captain Hebe. I hope that will be possible?'

'Of course.' Hebe snapped her fingers and a couple of stewardesses quickly laid a fresh table and ushered the huntresses to it.

Hebe joined them in their repast, sipping her katsch as they ate. Afterwards, they took their own mugs of katsch and joined the airship crew in a lounge area. One of the airship officers produced a gwendell, a Zon stringed instrument and began singing Mirabelle, a ballad about a girl and her wild horse on the open high plains of their home planet of Atlantis. Diana joined in and proved to have a surprisingly melodious and powerful singing voice. One by one the airship crew-women fell silent, listening to her in admiration. The legend of Diana Tragina was further embellished.

Diana finished and there was brief pause. Alexandra took up the gwendell and began to play a lively jig. Several of the crew got up to dance. In the midst of this merry-making, Hebe tapped Diana on the shoulder and whispered in her ear –

'Cornelle, I've just heard from the bridge. The north face of the Claw Peak is on the starboard bow and the bio scanners have picked up a strong multiple signature. I suggest that the three of us proceed to the bridge at once.'

All the mirth faded out of Diana's eyes.

'No, Lady Alexandra and I will join the team in the ready room immediately. Have a briefing for us there in ten minutes.'

Hebe nodded. Diana signaled to Alexandra and the two tall huntresses hurried out of the wardroom, leaving behind a buzz of excitement.

Both Diana and Alexandra were in the ready room in under the promised ten minutes, in their combat uniforms, fully armed. Almost immediately, Hebe's face appeared on the view screen.

'The bio-signatures are strong, but the atmospheric distortion here makes them very fuzzy. They appear to be mammalian but we have no accuracy on their size or precise location. They are human size or larger.'

'We will proceed to the surface at once,' said Diana decisively. 'Please prepare an air-boat for immediate launch.'

Hebe looked pained. 'I am sorry, Cornelle, but that is impossible. The weather outside has become drastically worse. We are now in a major storm system. The outside wind-speed is over eighty miles per hour and below us it is snowing heavily. Big as she is, we are having considerable difficulty holding the 'Andromeda' steady and on even keel. An air-boat would not survive more than a few minutes out there.'

Diana felt the deck sway gently beneath her feet. She looked out of the porthole of the ready room – the skies were steel gray and the clouds below them had thickened considerably. She cursed inwardly. 

Outwardly calm, she said, 'We must get to the surface now. If we cannot pilot an air-boat, we will have to use rocket-packs.'

Hebe looked worried. 'Cornelle, this is also highly dangerous. A controlled descent with a rocket-pack in this weather would require enormous skill and a great deal of luck. You want to make a landing about twelve thousand feet up on Claw peak in near zero visibility. Our comm. channels are highly distorted this area due to the large heavy metal deposits in this mountain. We will have virtually no audio contact with your team. I would strongly advise against it.'

Diana nodded. 'Noted, Captain Hebe. Thank you for your concern.' She turned to the squad in the ready room, relieved that it was a squad of Palace Guardians, the best huntress cohort. 'How many here have summa rocket-pack qualification?' she asked. Four of the ten put their hands up. Diana glanced over at Alexandra, who nodded affirmatively. 'This is a mission of extreme danger,' Diana continued. 'Participation is completely voluntary. Declining to participate carries absolutely no stigma.' The four hands remained up and Alexandra inclined her head slightly in assent.

'Then we six will launch. Captain, please have rocket-packs prepped and ready on the launch deck. We are proceeding there at once.'

Hebe was persistent. 'Cornelle, we must have your plan and time schedule for recovery.'

Diana paused and smiled. 'Of course, you are right, Captain Hebe. I assume you will keep a rough track of us with your bio-scanners. If the weather does not clear, we will make a laser signal indicating our readiness for recovery. We will reach altitude using the rocket-packs. Please have grappling hooks and a recovery team on the launch deck. We will use our zircon lassoes if necessary. We hope to complete the rescue within a maximum of twenty-four hours. In the event you have no contact from us within forty-eight hours, you are free to seek further instructions from Princess Selene.'

Hebe bowed in the video screen. She knew that everything in their exchange was on the video log. She would review it and made detailed plans later.

A squad of airship crew met the six Guardians on the launch deck with rocket-packs. They checked them thoroughly before helping each of them fasten the shoulder and waist straps. When they were done, the airship squad Seignora bowed and said: 'Cornelle Diana, all packs are secure. Please set your temperature shields and lash yourselves to the bulkhead D-rings before we open the jump-door.'

All of them, airship crew and Guardians alike tapped their wrist bracers to set their personal temperature shields to their liking. The Guardians lashed their zircon lassoes to metal D-rings by the jump-door, while the airship crew did the same at the rear bulkhead. The airship Seignora was at the door control panel. When Diana nodded to her, she pushed the lever and the jump-door slid open noiselessly. Immediately they were assaulted by the howling of the gale. The temperature in the launch chamber dropped to the outside temperature of about forty degrees below freezing. They all felt a gentle tug towards the door caused by the slight decompression.

Diana was first in line. The light above the jump-door glowed red. She could not hear the jump-count that the airship Seignora was chanting, but as soon as the light turned to green, she loosed her zircon lasso and launched herself into the storm.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

4. Aablar led the way further into the cavern. Huge stalagmites and stalactites formed pillars of white to both sides, all lit with the bluish hue reflected off the pool. The central nave of the cavern was open and huge. As they approached the pool, it became clear that the water was very warm. There must be hot springs in the mountain, Caitlin thought. The pool was an oval - about 50 yards and 40 yards along its two axes. The stream flowed into its leftward side as they faced it. Aablar led the way around the right side. As they passed the water's edge, Caitlin noted that the pool appeared to be very deep – the water was clear so she could see a long way into it, but she could still not make out a bottom.




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 07



On the far side of the pool a there was an immense throne carved out of rock. It was polished to a high gloss so that it shone black in the bluish light. Three steps led up to it and at the end of each arm was an intricately carved gargoyle, identical to the one at the entrance to the cavern. However, in their claws they held scepters rather than battle-axes. Between the throne and the pool was a forming stalagmite, about five feet tall. A shaft of light from one of the skylights far above fell nearly directly on this small pillar. Every few seconds, a drop fell from far above and landed on the tip, splattering droplets in all directions that sparkled in the light like crystals. The drops had created a small indentation in the very tip.

At the edge of pool by the small stalagmite were two reasonable sized rocks. A steel O-ring was sunk into each one and a long length of very shiny chain connected them. As they approached the throne, Aablar spoke.

'The precise vernal equinox will fall within the hour,' he said, pointing to the small stalagmite. 'At that moment, the shaft of light will strike the tip of the growing stalagmite. I must place a blue stone on its tip so that light, water and stone will be one by my hand. My seed must also emerge at that time.'

Aablar moved quickly now. He bound Caitlin's ankles again, but judged Althea too cowed now to offer resistance to Leia. He left her free. Without another word, he grasped one of the chained rocks and heaved it to the pool's edge. With another heave, he swung it into the pool, and to the amazement of the three women, followed it in. Both the rock and Aablar disappeared from view into the depths of the pool. Leia screamed and ran to the edge of the pool. All she could see was his dark shape in the clear water, sinking rapidly. Caitlin craned her neck, but could not see him from her angle.

Leia began pacing about, her brow furrowed with worry. Caitlin, ever the analytic huntress, counted down the seconds since Aablar's splashy disappearance. A minute passed, then two minutes. Three minutes and it was rapidly approaching a very long dive for a well-trained huntress. At four minutes, Caitlin began to think that her freedom was at hand. Five minutes passed. Caitlin knew that the time had now exceeded the longest recorded dive by a huntress and she felt sure that Aablar had perished. Leia still clung to hope, wringing her hands and hoping fervently.

It was almost six minutes when Leia saw a dark shape rising from the depths of the pool. Caitlin saw the hope in her face, but felt certain that the hope would be disappointed. It was nearly six and a half minutes by Caitlin's count when Aablar broke surface – alive! He swam slowly to the pool's edge and hauled himself out and lay on the rocky cavern floor, gasping for breath and swallowing huge gulps of air. Finally, when his breathing slowed, he was able to sit up and survey the three women. Leia came up and tenderly ran her fingers through his dripping hair and kissed him lightly on the lips. Caitlin and Althea looked at him in disbelief. What kind of man was this?

Aablar stood and held his fist up high. Then his opened it. Balanced on his open palm was a brilliant, glittering uncut sapphire, the size of a hen's egg. 'I will be a chieftain!' he cried.

Aablar now placed the sapphire in the small indentation in the tip of the small stalagmite. The blue shaft of light missed the sapphire by only a few inches, but before their very eyes they could see it advancing imperceptibly toward it. He shed his loin- cloth and with his manhood swinging loose, ascended the throne. He sat there with legs spread and beckoned to Leia. He had trained her well and she immediately knew what he wanted. She advanced and dropped to her knees between his widespread legs on the top step of the throne. She began to fellate his semi-tumescent prick with her long fingers, causing him to stiffen quickly. Caitlin had seen Aablar's manhood in dim light and under the part cover of bearskins as he fucked Leia and Althea. But both she and Althea watched in amazement as Aablar's rampant manhood grew and grew.

Finally Leia stopped and glanced over her shoulder, proudly displaying Aablar's nine-inch erection. Then she returned to attentions to Aablar. She began to lick his shaft thoroughly, from the base at his balls to the tip. She let the tip of her tongue gently spear the eye of his cock, drawing out drops and then a continuous dribble of pre-ejaculate. Leia's expert attentions were novel to both Caitlin and Althea, familiar as they were with oral sex between women. They both felt their mouths go dry and their cunts go moist as they watched. 'What's next? What's next?' a voice seemed to be saying in Caitlin's head.

Leia's rosy lips parted and she kissed Aablar's penis head, first once and then again and again, each time opening her lips further and engulfing a little more. Finally, with a shrill sigh that echoed in the cavern, she held his shaft steady with her hand and swallowed his dick head and began to suck it. Aablar now began to grunt and his hands sank into her blonde tresses, working her head so that each time she dived, she took more of his enormous erection into her mouth.

She sucked hard as she sank down on him, and inhaled as she withdrew. As he thrust more of his prick into her mouth, he held her down longer and longer so that she began to suck for air. The suction became more and more pleasurable and Leia breasts heaved with the effort of breathing as she choked on his cock. Even deep-throating him, she had only swallowed six of his nine inches!

Finally, he released her and she sat back on her haunches, breathing heavily, still gently fellating his rampant cock. Caitlin's attention had been focused on Leia, but with this break she found that Althea was no longer by her side. She had wiggled out of her deerskin panties and halter, and now naked save for her thigh boots ascended the throne to Aablar. She kneeled and her hands joined Leia's in caressing Aablar's huge cock. Leia's looked up at Aablar in anger, but his eyes quelled her. He made a slight motion of his head and she withdrew to the bottom of the throne steps.

Now simultaneously Althea stood and Aablar's knees came together. She straddled his thighs, continuing to hold his huge cock in her hand. She now guided it to her cunt and stood poised with it silhouetted between her legs. Aablar's hands came around her to grasp and knead her round buttocks. Even in the silhouette, Caitlin could see the drop of vaginal fluid forming on Althea's nether lips, grow heavy and then quiver and drop onto the eye of his shaft. The thought formed in her head that – 'God! She's really wet!' – but at the same time a cry escaped her lips.

'Althea! No!'

No one appeared to hear her. Leia remained on her haunches like a statue. Slowly and with the appearance of inevitability, Althea lowered herself. As Aablar's penis head spread her vaginal lips, her hands moved to his massive shoulders to steady herself. She continued to impale herself, her tight cunt stripping back his tough foreskin. When his dickhead had fully penetrated her, she felt her thighs go weak as if they would no longer support her. His powerful arms held her up by her buttocks. He continued to lower her gently, entering her more and more deeply. Finally, when he was almost completely sheathed in her, he arched his back and thrust till her pliant mount was tightly astride his.

She was looking at him, eyes glazed and panting. She was uttering half moans, straddling his powerful body and impaled on his huge cock. Aablar held her buttocks tightly and began to thrust into her, first slowly and then with increasing urgency. Althea's moans grew louder. Soon she reached a powerful orgasm and her screams echoed off the cavern walls. Aablar did not stop pistoning her and she felt herself rapidly ascending to another climax.

Aablar was intent on fucking Althea thoroughly. He did not appear to notice the shaft of bluish light creep within a hair's breadth of the sapphire on the stalagmite. Without seeing it, Althea seemed to sense it and began urgently squirming and rotating her hips. Her lips found his and their tongues dueled before his held hers in thrall. She felt the onset of another orgasm in a first small contraction. It was followed by a huge, powerful one that gripped him from his penis head in her womb to the base of his shaft at her vaginal lips. As she began a third contraction, he felt his ejaculate course up his shaft and with a hoarse cry he began to pump his load of semen into her.

Just as the first gush of semen coursed into her womb, the shaft of light pierced the center of the sapphire. Immediately the throne and its environs were engulfed in a glowing sphere of incandescent blue light – so bright that Caitlin had to shield her eyes. A drop from above had splashed on the sapphire at that very instant and each droplet shore like a bright shooting star. Still she could not tear her eyes completely away from the scene. In the bright glow, Aablar's profile stood out sharply and the nagging thought that had been lurking in her sub-conscious mind for the past few days coalesced into a clear realization. Aablar's forehead was almost straight and his nose almost aquiline! He looked more like a male version of a Zon than a savage! 

Aablar continued to groan and pump semen into Althea, and she in turn was screaming anew with her continuing orgasm. Finally, the shaft of light moved on and the glowing sphere of light diminished and was no more. Covered with sweat, Althea was splayed over Aablar's lap, impaled on his still rigid member. His semen burbled out of her, warm, sticky and highly pungent. The smell seemed incredibly sensuous to her. Her own vaginal fluids flowed copiously, intermingling with his jism, her gentle musky scent overpowered and barely discernable even to his keen nose. Her gaze at him was now clear and her gray-green eyes deep and serious.

'Aablar, I will bear your son.'



Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 08



It is the middle of the last Ice Age, about 50,000 years ago. The Neanderthals roam the Earth, but co-exist with a recently arrived tribe of technologically advanced aliens known as the Zon. The Zon hunt Neanderthal men for their wild semen. Aablar has captured a Zon huntress and her acolyte. The ruthless Diana Tragina, known to the Neanderthals as Lady Death, is hot on his trail. Meanwhile the incident has led to political turmoil in the Zon establishment.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

1. Just a few hours after the meeting of the Council of Principals, Deirdre rode a few hundred yards from her palace to the Chateau Reine, the Queen's official residence, on her magnificent chestnut stallion. Her personal handmaiden and her military aide from the Pentheselia Legion, both mounted, escorted her. The Chateau Reine was at the crest of the Acropolis, adjacent to the huge cathedral housing the shrine of Artemis. Deirdre could have walked, but this was a very formal occasion and tradition demanded that she arrive on horseback. She wore the white gold tiara of the Royal House of d'Orr and flowing red diaphanous robes over a red bustier, a short red skirt and knee length lace-up red boots. Around her narrow waist was a slender silver chain on which hung a short ceremonial sword in a jeweled silver scabbard. 

Seignora Stacia Dragova, the Queen's second handmaiden stood at the bottom of the wide steps leading up the entrance hall with a squad of Palace Guardians, all in formal uniforms of bustier and short skirt with short ankle boots. They wore ceremonial short swords in their belts. Their titanium chokers and wrist bracers were polished to high gloss. Stacia came forward and took Deirdre's horse and two others did the same for her escorts. All three swung down from their saddles. The squad formed up and stood to attention and saluted. Deirdre returned their salute and proceeded up the steps, followed by her escorts, with the squad of Guardians bringing up the rear. The Queen was in the main reception hall, standing by the throne. Andromache and her handmaiden and aide had already arrived.

The Queen wore her ceremonial robes of semi-diaphanous silver clasped at her small waist with a slim white gold cummerbund. The outlines of her finely sculpted body were clearly visible to all, as was traditional at this very formal meeting. She wore the ancient Zon jewel-encrusted crown, made over a thousand years ago on Atlantis and the royal scepter was in her hand. She wore very high stiletto heeled thong sandals on her feet with the laces criss-crossing up her calves almost to her knees.

Andromache wore the white leotard and semi-diaphanous robes of her position as High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis. However, she now wore the gold tiara of the Royal House of Spalding and a small ceremonial sword similar to Deirdre's hung at her waist.

Deirdre approached the Queen and they rubbed nipples. Stepping back, she bowed and announced in a clear voice: 'Your majesty, I seek your approval to run in the upcoming election for the throne. I seek your blessing.'

Hildegard replied with equal formality. 'Princess Deirdre, the sisterhood is fortunate to have the benefit of your loyal service. We are all honored that you seek the burden of this office. You have my blessing and encouragement.'

'You are too kind, my Queen,' said Deirdre.

The Queen invited the two princesses into her inner reception chamber. The handmaidens, aides and Guardians remained outside.

'High Priestesses Heliodora and Calliope have decided not to run,' Hildegard said as soon as they were alone. 'It is only fair that I inform you that High Priestess Calliope has expressed the intention of publicly supporting the candidacy of Princess Andromache. Princess Selene will similarly declare support for Princess Deirdre. High Priestess Heliodora has not committed her support to either of you.'

If Andromache wins, Calliope will become High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis, Deirdre thought. But by not declaring, Heliodora is backing me. This is the split in the priestess vote that I was hoping for!

Andromache felt her heart sink. Heliodora was very energetic and outgoing. She was better liked than Calliope, who had a reputation for being rather sour and a stickler for rules. Heliodora would campaign hard, though behind the scenes, for Deirdre. This was going to be a hard election to win anyway. Without Heliodora's support, it would be much harder.

They accepted clove wine that Hildegard poured herself. 'Please join me on the balcony, royal ladies,' she said. 'I would like to give you some parting advice – for one of you will be Queen and you must deal with the throne as well as with each other.'

They stood out on the balcony and admired the setting sun, while Hildegard spoke to them of supporting each other and uniting the sisterhood. It was a beautiful sunset, with some low clouds lighting up with a bright russet color. Ever since the meeting of the Council of Principals, a plan had been taking shape in Deirdre's mind. She had been hesitating. But now she put aside her doubts and set it in motion.

'Your majesty, Princess Andromache, I have reached a decision. My beloved daughter, Lady Caitlin is taken from us. With a mother's heart, I fervently hope that we recover her safely. But the fate of the Royal Tiara of d'Orr cannot be allowed to rest on this hope. I have therefore decided to place my body in the service of the sisterhood and apply for an impregnation ceremony immediately. Princess Andromache, I beg you to officiate at the ceremony.'

Both Hildegard and Andromache were thunderstruck. Even in a society where penetrative sex was taboo, Deirdre's fear and loathing of penetration was legendary. Pregnancy would be a huge electoral advantage for her. It would be show her making a personal sacrifice to propagate the sisterhood. It would allow her to display a mothering, softer side to the priestesses. In short, she would appear to be a perfect combination of all Zon ideals. And in asking Andromache to officiate at such an important impregnation – a signal honor – she was displaying magnanimity that would find favor with the electorate.

Andromache could hardly refuse the honor – it would be quickly broadcast and make her seem churlish. With a great effort, she smiled winningly at Deirdre and said:

'My dear Princess Deirdre, I am awed by your spirit of sacrifice in this time of trouble. Yes, I will be honored to officiate.'

Hildegard added her congratulations. 'When will you begin to ovulate?' she added courteously.

'I am peaking today,' replied Deirdre sweetly, seeing looks of concern jump into the eyes of the other two. Propagation of their race was the highest priority of the Zon and instruments to test bodily fluid excretions were installed in every home. 'I wish to schedule the ceremony for this evening. Will that be convenient, Princess Andromache?'

'Of course,' said Andromache, faintly.

'I am forever in your debt, Princess Andromache,' said Deirdre gravely, maintaining impeccable decorum. 'I will proceed to Repro immediately to select sperm and get prepped. May I request you to ensure that all clearances are in order?'

'I will personally direct Repro to issue all clearances, Princess Deirdre,' said the Queen. 'I wish you a healthy birthing and a joyous after-birth.'

Deirdre formally took her leave. As demanded by protocol, she first rubbed nipples with the Queen and then with the High Priestess. Holding Andromache tightly in her arms, she kissed her on the lips, unmindful of the Queen's presence. Andromache was shocked, but aroused by Deirdre's forwardness. She acquiesced and allowed her rival's tongue to quickly dart into her mouth and seek her own.

Stepping back, Deirdre said to the Queen, 'You see, Highness, there is only love in my heart for Princess Andromache. If I am queen, she will be my prized right arm as she is yours. I can only hope that if she is queen, she will not exile me to a remote citadel in the icy wastes of the North.'

In fact, it was quite common for Zon queens to send their defeated rivals to remote outposts far away from Atlantic City. As she left the balcony, Deirdre saw her shaft hit home, for Andromache flushed deep red. She curtsied as she left the two royals – one by birth and one by election – united in their opposition to her.

There was a heavy silence after Deirdre left. Andromache sighed heavily. 

'Deirdre seems to have figured out all the angles, Hildegard,' she said sadly.

'Well, we can never measure a mother's love by the numbers, but you do have two other daughters, Andromache, while Deirdre has none. Her wish could be understandable.'

'I wish I could believe that,' said Andromache. 'She is young and very fertile. If she were only concerned about the d'Orr line and the sisterhood, she could have been impregnated any time. Why now?'

The Queen grew impatient.

'Come, Andromache, fight! There is only so much Heliodora can do while she is officially neutral. You have a loyal following and are far more popular with the priestesses than her anyway.'

Andromache looked at Hildegard for a long time. The setting sun made her skin looked smooth and taut. Her unsupported breasts rode firm and high under the thin robes and her nipples, still puckered from rubbing with Deirdre, stuck out proudly. Andromache had to look very carefully to see the faint crow's feet around her eyes and the faint lines on her forehead. Her ash blonde hair fell thickly about her face in a mass of natural ringlets and had a fine sheen that concealed her gray and white strands. Her gray-blue eyes were clear and bright. The crown sat well on her head – she looked every inch a queen.

'I look at your Highness and I see nothing but Zon beauty. You are only ninety-four. Everyone loves you. You could have ruled for five, maybe even ten more years! Deirdre and I and even Heliodora are still very young! Why retire now and leave us?'

Hildegard did not reply, but continued to stare out into the sunset. The sun glinted off her face and only after a while did Andromache realize that she was weeping silently. She came forward with concern and took the Queen in her arms.

'What have I said, Majesty, to cause such grief? Forgive me, forgive me …'

'It is nothing you said, my dearest Andromache,' said Hildegard, wiping her eyes. 'I know what must happen soon. I must go before I hear of it. I have borne such grief as I would not wish on my direst enemy and I could not bear any more. I will shed my tears and display my weakness in Ostracis where it will bring no shame on our throne. Come, sit with me on the swing and I will tell you why I must leave for Ostracis in such haste. It all began 34 years ago, when I wore your robes as High Priestess of Artemis. You may know that as a young priestess I specialized in the sociology of the savages … '

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FLASHBACK

2. Hildegard Holtzema was born a commoner, but by her teen years she established herself as a uniquely powerful intellect and quickly advanced into the Upper Temple. As a young priestess, she studied the clan structure of the savages. Established Zon theory held that the savages were akin to wild beasts, procreating through rutting and rape with the strong terrorizing the weak and brutalizing them into submission. Hildegard believed this theory to be seriously flawed. Her own theory was that the savages had a close-knit family structure with cooperation and compassion the norm. But how could she confirm it? All her field data came from observations made by huntresses who were pre-disposed to attribute beastly attributes to the savages. In addition, she had her own observations on captured male savages. But with these proud, strong and virile young males, subjected as they were to confinement and daily sperm extraction, all she observed was rage and struggle. These observations further supported the established Zon theory both about the savages as well as about the inherent weaknesses and inferiority of males.

Her theory became known as 'Hildegard's folly' and it became impossible for her to obtain support for this line of research. She reluctantly abandoned it, but continued working in secret, accumulating data and analysis in her spare time. She proceeded to develop an alternative research stream studying the effect of prolonged field operations on the psychological state of huntress cavalry squads. This research led to the publication of manuals setting standard field deployment periods for cavalry units to minimize psychological stress. This work made her reputation and ensured her rapid advancement through the priestess hierarchy. While she was still a young woman in her late fifties, the office of the Pontifex Magna Maxima (as the High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis was officially known) fell vacant. Even though she had no administrative experience, the huntress legions liked her work and threw their weight behind her. To her surprise, she was selected by the Council of Principals over candidates many years her senior, including the Arch Priestess of the Upper Temple and the High Priestesses of the Middle and Lower Temples.

As High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis, she cautiously advanced her theory again, but received no encouragement from her colleagues. So she decided to proceed on her own – she needed to gather field data! Resources were now no longer a problem, since she now controlled the scientific budget of the Zon government. But how could she absent herself for long periods from Atlantic City and her official responsibilities? She decided to use her mother as a decoy.

Hildegard's mother, Margrethe Holtzema had lived out her life as a commoner and had gone into retirement a few years before her daughter entered the Council of Principals. It was well known that Hildegard was close to her and missed her terribly. She appointed her Arch Priestess to officiate in her absence and took a three-month leave to spend in Ostracis. Once there, Hildegard spent a week with her mother, confiding everything and swearing her to secrecy. Using her voluminous data that analyzed literally decades of huntress raids, she drew a route that would enable her, she hoped, to set up an observation post to gather data that would provide decisive support for her theory.

She equipped herself with a horse and provisions for two weeks. She dressed as a huntress in leotard, thigh boots, wrist bracers and helmet – the outfit had been optimally developed over the years for fieldwork in the wilderness. However, but her leotard was sand colored to blend in with the sandy and rocky wastes of the icy cold desert that surrounded the Ostracis Citadel. She was unarmed, but this was no handicap as her weapons skills were virtually non-existent. The worst of it was the helmet. Hildegard had not worn one in almost thirty years and she found it cramped and heavy.

She set out under a setting sun and traveled by night, setting her temperature shield. She made good progress and reached her goal before dawn, a high ridge overlooking a small stream-fed lake. She made her camp under some scrub bushes and settled down to wait. It was late summer, so the temperature was just above freezing. Her records indicated that the Clan of the Bear, one of the prime savage clans, frequented this lake at this time of the year. She hoped to observe grouping of this clan over a period of several days, perhaps more than a week.

She did not have long to wait. She had just finished her midday meal and snapped her telescopic visor down when she picked up a group of savages in the distance. They were undoubtedly making for the lake. She quickly opened a comm. channel to her private voice vault. She began quickly describing the group, a mixture of men and women, young and old, able and feeble. She noted the feeble and crippled being helped and supported by young and strong males, children carried on their fathers' shoulders, family groups chattering amongst themselves. There was some laughter at the antics of a small boy. Her theory was true! She had been right all along! Her voice shook with excitement as she dictated into her open comm. channel with increasing fervor.

Suddenly, she felt as though she had been hit by a ground-speeder! She was knocked to the ground and her helmet rang with blows. She quickly lost consciousness. When she slowly felt consciousness returning, she felt the pain in her side where she had been hit and her head ached. She was bound hand and foot. Two savages stood before her. One was simply huge – savages tended to be much shorter than the Zon average height of five foot eight, but this one was well over six feet tall. He was powerfully built with a heavy musculature. He had a sloping facial structure that was typical of savages, but his was less pronounced than most that she had seen in captivity. He was quite young, and stamped about to show his importance. The other savage was much smaller and obviously subservient to him.

'What is your name, huntress?' asked the large one roughly.

'Oh, I am not a huntress,' Hildegard said eagerly. 'I am a priestess. I am studying your people. I wish to prove to my sisters that we can work with you.'

'You are trying to trick us! I have never seen a Zon who was not a huntress! We have hidden our group for you must have called one of your flying baskets to slaughter and enslave us!' With this, he drove his spear into the chest of her horse, a tall sixteen-hand stallion. The horse staggered back a step and sank down on its haunches, neighing gutturally in his death-throes.

'I should kill you thus, huntress!'

'Let us fuck this huntress, Jondolar and then kill her,' said the smaller savage viciously. 'You go first and open her up with your big cock and then we can fuck her together. You can give her to the chief and I am sure he will give you much honor and let you have the privilege of cutting off her head.'

Hildegard felt her blood run cold. She realized that she still had her helmet on. She could easily open a comm. channel to one of the patrolling airships. Even from Atlantic City, an airship could be overhead within hours, and there was probably one nearer than that. She knew what would happen if she did that. Maybe they would be too late to save her, but the huntresses would slaughter this group. She hesitated, seeing the antics of the small savage boy in her mind's eye.

Then Jondolar responded to his kinsman by cuffing him viciously.

'You will not touch this Zon,' he gritted out. 'She is my prize and I will do with her as I choose.'

'I am Jondolar, son of Bradogun the Strong,' he continued addressing Hildegard. 'And this is my kinsman, Katog, son of Letehar. Who are you, Zon?'

'I am Hildegard Holtzema, a Zon priestess,' she said courteously. Her command of the savage tongue was good and her singsong Zon accent was quite faint. 'You have only encountered our huntresses, but in truth, they are a very small proportion of our society. Most Zon are peaceful. We know many things that we could teach you …'

'Shut up, bitch! I asked for your name, not a lecture!'

He reached down and effortlessly picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. With his bloody spear in the other hand, he trotted down the hillside with Katog trailing him like an obedient dog. They entered a small cave in at the foot of the ridge. It was narrow and dark. Jondolar dumped Hildegard, still bound, on the rocky floor and both savages squatted on their haunches. They waited. Hours passed. The vines tying her wrists and ankles chafed her, but each time she tried to speak to Jondolar, he responded by kicking her side and putting his finger on his lips, commanding silence.

They think that my presence indicates huntresses are nigh, Hildegard thought. They are hiding from airships. Only one of our airships is equipped with bio-scanners, so hiding in caves is a very rational response. So this is what it feels like to be hunted! Darkness fell. Jondolar ventured outside several times and returned. Finally, he said




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 08



'I see no sign or sound of Zon airships or horses. Perhaps they have missed us. I have spoken to the chief – we will return to the group and camp for the night. In the morning, we will return to the mountains, where the Zon have difficulty hunting us.'

With these words, he picked up Hildegard again and they walked down to the foot of the hill. In a narrow gully, a considerable distance from the lake, Jondolar put her down. The group was all there, cowering against the rocky outcrops. They stared at her, awed and afraid. A gnarled old man with a stout staff came up to them.

'Greetings, Jondolar,' he said. 'I see you have captured the huntress unharmed. What do you plan to do with her? She is your prize. But think of the good of our group and our clan.'

Jondolar pondered. 'I will decide in the morning whether to take her with us to the mountains, my chief,' he said, finally.

A young girl in her teens came up to them. She linked her arm in Jondolar's affectionately.

'My fearless one, when will you kill this huntress?' she asked boldly.

'Jana, first we will eat and then you will teach her how to pleasure me,' said Jondolar. With this, he drew some chunks of smoked meat from his pouch and ate before passing some to her and feeding Hildegard. Then he slung her over his shoulder and took Jana by the arm and led deeper into the ravine till they were screened from the group by some scrubby bushes. He now set Hildegard down and cut her bonds. She rubbed her wrists and ankles fearfully, not knowing whether she would survive the night.

Jondolar unfastened her helmet and cast it aside. She shook her beautiful ash blonde hair loose, her large guileless eyes gazing at him fearfully. He took his sharp stone dagger and slit her leotard from throat to waist and ripped it off her, grunting as he struggled with the tough lyntronex fabric favored by the Zon. Now he chewed the red berries and spat them on her breasts and began to knead them, rubbing the berry pulp into her skin. He took her nipples between finger and thumb and squeezed, harder and harder, till she began gasp and then cry with pain. Her smooth, pale skin contrasted with his dark, rough and calloused hands. Angry bruises began to surface on her breasts and nipples. Tears streaked her face and she cried with the pain, but she did not attempt to fight him or hurt him. This puzzled Jondolar, whose encounters with the Zon had always involved violence.

He began to knead her crotch now, feeling the soft, blonde down that so contrasted with the rough, curly pubic hair of his women. She did not react immediately, but when he sank first one and then two thick, gnarled fingers into her cunt, she gasped, 'Please, no!'

He ignored her and continued to probe her tight cunt. Hildegard had been through two impregnation ceremonies, so while she had never been fucked before, she was not a virgin. (Both her pregnancies had been male, so the fetuses were aborted under the Male Abortion Law.) Jondolar felt her tightness and warmth around his fingers and grunted with satisfaction.

'What is this mark just above your cunt, huntress?' he asked, as he continued to finger fuck her. 'It appears to be a birth-mark, but it is the image of a rose.'

'It … it … is … body … paint,' Hildegard gasped. 'Just … paint. It … fades … in … a few weeks.'

'You will be a great fuck, huntress,' Jondolar continued, as he felt her begin to become moist. 'But first my Jana here will teach you what I want before that.'

He beckoned to the young savage girl. Jana was short and squat after the fashion of the savage women, but had the suppleness and tautness of youth. Jondolar unfastened his loincloth and she took his cock in both hands. He was only semi-tumescent, but he was already over six inches long! Jana kissed the tip of Jondolar's cock and her tongue flicked up and down the shaft. Then she opened her mouth and her lips clamped around his penis head. She began to alternately suck and blow on him. His fingers sank into her jet-black hair and he began to push more and more of his dick into her mouth. She was willing, but his erection grew and grew. Finally, he released her head and she rocked back on her heels, still gently jerking him with one hand.

Hildegard's mouth dropped open. She had overseen hundreds of hand job sperm extractions and in her early days as a priestess had even done a few herself. But she had never seen a cock like this! Jondolar was so thick that Jana could not encircle him with one hand. And his prick jutted out at an angle almost ten inches! He crooked his finger at Hildegard.

'Jana has shown you what to do, huntress,' he said. 'Come on, don't keep me waiting!'

Hildegard was paralyzed with fright and just lay there, clad only in her thigh boots and wrist bracers. Jondolar did not repeat himself, but dragged her to her knees by her hair. Fingers entwined in her hair, he held her head tightly with one hand while with the other he squeezed her cheeks and forced her mouth open. Jana held his huge rod and guided it to hapless priestess' mouth. As soon as his tip gained entry, he pushed the penis head in. Her lips contracted involuntarily, forming a tight seal and she began to gag. He withdrew and she coughed and spluttered. Just as she drew breath, he pushed into her mouth again, this time sinking more of his cock into her mouth.

Her tongue fought to gain purchase and greatly pleasured him as it slid around his invading cock. The choking sensation caused all of her glands to secrete fluids – her eyes watered, her nose ran and her mouth filled with saliva. He now had both hands entwined in her hair and rocked back and forth, each time pushing more of his huge member into her salivating mouth. Saliva dribbled out down her chin, but she did not notice. Her hands grasped his wrists in an involuntary defensive move, but had no effect on his immense strength.

Gradually, she learnt to draw quick breaths as his cock retreated and this caused suction that grew as he pushed in deeper. He now arched her neck so that her throat lined up with her mouth. She felt his cock head at her top of her throat. With his next thrust, he pushed into it. He knew that she would gag and withdrew quickly. His tempo increased, and he was fucking her mouth in rapid thrusts, never in long enough to make her retch. 

He kept tutoring her, 'Suck on me, huntress, use your tongue as I withdraw. Suck hard! Come on, that's better, that's better …'

With his huge cock, Jondolar was content to push just over half his enormous length in her mouth – till his tip was constricted by her tight throat. He slowed his tempo and now slowly pushed his cock in to her mouth, savoring her tight, sucking lips. He rotated his hips, exploring all parts of her mouth. Finally he withdrew, saying, 'You learn fast, huntress. Now I'll teach you how a Bear warrior fucks!'

He pushed her on to her back on to his heavy bearskin cloak. He mounted her and she felt his bulbous tip at her cunt. She was surprised to find that she was quite wet – surely this savage was not arousing her? Before she could think further, she felt his huge cock enter her, stretching her painfully. She cried out. Jondolar had two women and one slave, but none compared to this Zon woman. Her pale, smooth unblemished skin, her full and extremely firm breasts with their hard, pebble-like nipples and her shiny and soft blonde mane all were objects of desire as symbols of the dominant Zon.

Now the powerful and highly trained muscles of her cunt squeezed his shaft in a warm and wringing grip, the like of which he had never felt before.

'I knew you would be a great fuck, huntress,' he breathed. With that he put his enormous weight behind one mighty thrust and sank his length into her with one swift motion. She screamed as he spread her tight cunt, for the impregnating probes she had felt years before were nothing compared to his huge prick. He felt her pliant mount with its soft blonde down, yielding against the base of his cock. His need now overpowered him and he began to fuck her with a hard, driving rhythm. The sharp pain began to recede as his huge pounding piston drew forth a copious flow of lubricating vaginal fluid. She felt a rising warmth in her loins that gradually ascended to her head, driving out all reason. He felt it too, for her arms went around him and she began to rub her fine breasts against his stone hard chest.

The physical sensations were new and highly erotic for Hildegard. She had had orgasms before, but this was building to a higher level that she had ever experienced. So when it came, she was as shocked as with its intensity as he was. Her contractions built from deep inside, seeming to originate in her very womb and gain strength as they radiated out through her vaginal walls. Jondolar had never felt such powerful and spasmodic contractions. Hildegard was bucking, her thighs were threshing and her passionate cries reverberated within the ravine.

Katog spoke to the chief with a leer in his voice, 'This huntress is a great fuck! She's giving Jondolar a great ride!'

'She is Jondolar's property, Katog, to do with as he will,' said the chief gruffly. 'You cowered behind rocks while he captured her. Don't grudge him his spoils.' 

Jondolar fucked her three more times that night. He could not get enough of this beautiful blonde Zon. Hildegard's good nature allayed Jana's jealousy, for she sought to involve her. While she did not find her physically attractive, she made an effort to draw her into the bearskin with Jondolar, giving her pride of place between the two of them.

It was the chill of the early morning that she drew her out of deep slumber, for she felt her legs out from the under the warm bearskin. Then she felt a hand at her crotch, kneading and manipulating. Two fingers were inserted into her. Her cunt that was still wet with a copious admixture of Jondolar's jism and her vaginal fluids. The thick, musky treacle began to seep out of her as the fingers probed her, roughly and insistently. This brought her fully awake, for Jondolar had grown increasingly gentle in response to her obvious attempts to please him.

She sat up, but a hand was placed on her mouth and she was violently pushed back into the deep and soft bearskin. It was Katog! Hildegard began to struggle and Jana was instantly awake. She cried out, 'Jondolar!' but the huge hunter was already awake and on his feet. He grasped Katog by the neck and tore him off Hildegard. He lifted him off the ground and threw him down hard. Then he picked up his heavy bone club. The smaller man cowered on the ground.

'Katog, you are my kinsman, however distantly we are related,' intoned Jondolar. 'But know this. The Zon is now one of my women. If you so much as touch her again, I will beat you to a pulp and feed you to the wolves.'

'Jondolar! You allow a Zon bitch to come between brothers of the bear!' Katog's voice was high and hysterical. 'She is a demon, I tell you! She has bewitched you! We must all fuck her in the ass and cut her head off! Ask Aghari, our medicine woman. She will tell you what we must do to the Zon.'

'I spoke to Aghari last night,' said Jondolar quietly. 'She divines that this Zon will bring us no harm.'

Katog began to whimper, rocking himself back and forth. 'Just one fuck, Jondolar! Just one! She is so beautiful, like a goddess and she wants it! Please, let me fuck her just once!'

'Go away, Katog,' said Jondolar, his tone becoming dangerous.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Later that morning, Aghari conferred at length with Hildegard. Finally, she announced to the group that there was no danger, and that they need not hasten to the mountains. They stayed by the lake and four weeks passed very quickly. Jana made crude repairs to Hildegard's lyntronex leotard with deerskin cord. Hildegard used her helmet communicator to make voluminous notes in her voice vault. Never had any Zon observed the savages so closely. Indeed Hildegard was now a member of the group and as one of Jondolar's women, she had high status. Jondolar had two other women, the young Jana and an older crone (though she was only in her early thirties) who had been the woman of his older brother who 'had been taken into Zon slavery.' Hildegard did not have the heart to tell them that he had certainly perished in the gas chambers.

She taught them many things about diets, about cleanliness and about simple medical treatments like the splinting of broken bones and the dressing of wounds. Aghari was a quick learner and Hildegard's stock in the group rose. Only Katog and few disgruntled woman-less males remained her enemies.

She awoke one morning feeling nauseous. All day she kept vomiting. She wondered if she had food poisoning. Aghari took her aside in the evening.

'You are feeling miserable, Hildegard,' she said, kindly.

'Yes, I think it may have been something I ate,' she replied, weakly.

'I don't think so, my dear. I think it is something you took in through another orifice.' The medicine woman leaned forward and rubbed the gentle curve of Hildegard's belly. 'You are carrying Jondolar's child.'

Hildegard was thunderstruck. The connection between sex and reproduction was so remote to her that it had never occurred to her. A conflicting mix of emotions coursed through her. In the end, all she felt was a powerful protective instinct towards the developing life in her womb – must stronger and clearer than she had felt during her previous two aborted pregnancies. This is our child, she thought, Jondolar's and mine. I will do whatever it takes to protect it. She sought out Jondolar and explained the plan that had formed in her mind.

'You must take me back to the Ostracis Citadel,' she said earnestly. 'I am not due back in Atlantic City for another month. But if I do not return before then, the legions will begin searching for me and they will quickly find us. I will return to you in seven months to bear this child. Jana and you must bring it up, for if my sisters learn of it, they will kill it. Tell me where I can find you then.'

'It will early Spring then,' said Jondolar, gravely. 'We always go to the Vale of the Ice Bear south of the Claw Peak that marks the boundary with the northern ice. How will you find us?'

'I will find you, my love,' she assured him tenderly.

Jondolar and Katog took her back on the long trek to Ostracis. They left her within sight of the walls. Jondolar stayed to see the gates opened and her safe entry. He sighed, heavily.

'Huntresses will descend upon us and slaughter us within days,' said Katog, darkly. 'You, Aghari, the chief and all the others are bewitched by this Zon witch. As we watch, she is telling the huntresses all she knows.'

Jondolar did not bother to reply.

The guards at the Ostracis Citadel were old, retired huntresses. They quickly bore her to the visitors' wing and to the Suite of Honor that she was entitled to by her high rank. Her mother, Margrethe, joined her as she was relaxing in a deep whirlpool tub filled with aromatic herbs.

'You are back safely and I am glad to see you,' she said, simply, her eyes warming at the sight of her beloved daughter. 'You look well for one that has been out in the wilderness.'

'I have much to tell you, my mother, but it can wait till we dine out on the balcony,' said Hildegard, mindful of possible dedicated comm. recording devices that were often placed in transient apartments like these.

FLASHBACK (Continued)

3. Seven months later, Hildegard took another month's leave to visit her mother. It had been a hard seven months. She had had to wear opaque robes to conceal her growing belly and distance herself from her personal handmaiden. The Zon, who delighted in exhibiting their beautiful bodies, considered this very odd behavior. The 'Thetis' bore her to the Ostracis Citadel and this time she borrowed a small single-seat airboat from it.

A few hours after he 'Thetis' disappeared from view, she packed minimal provisions and took leave from Ostracis on a 'research trip.' She had had a precise low-flying route stored in her personal data vault and she downloaded it to the airboat's autopilot through her personal comm. The airboat moved swiftly, but not swiftly enough for Hildegard, who was now in a fever of anticipation. The Claw Peak came into a view and then the Vale to the south of it. The airboat touched down softly near a large clump of trees. She emerged from the vehicle and surveyed the land around her. Surely they were here!

She waited half an hour before Jondolar appeared – alone. He approached cautiously, but when he discerned her alone, he broke into a run. He caught her and picked her up in his arms and they kissed passionately.

Three weeks later, Aghari delivered their son. He was paler than most savage babies and had brown down on his head. Hildegard thought she could never love anything more. They named him Bradogun the Young after his grandfather, who had been a great chief. Hildegard could only tarry a few days after the birth and with many tears and a heavy heart, she returned to Ostracis and on to Atlantic City.

Two years later she repeated her adventure and bore Jondolar a second son, whom they named Tuval. Two years after Tuval was born, Margrethe had a bad fall and before Hildegard could leave Atlantic City, news came that she had died. It was considered very inauspicious for active Zon to attend funerals. In her exalted position, it was particularly inappropriate for Hildegard, who grieved in private. In addition to her grief, her avenue of seeing her lover was now cut off.

Two more years passed. They were full of activity for Hildegard, who threw herself into her career. Her findings about the savage society remained buried in her personal data vaults, for how could she divulge it without revealing the existence of her sons? The huntresses would quickly find and destroy these threats to the racial purity of the Zon.

That year Queen Sarah retired. Years earlier, Hildegard had been her handmaiden and they were close. Sarah nominated Hildegard for the throne and the legions supported her. Her personal popularity along with this powerful support discouraged anyone from standing against her and she was elected unopposed. She was Queen of the Zon! If only her mother could have lived to see it. If only Jondolar could share her triumph!

As queen, her movements were much more circumscribed. She could not take a 'leave' – she was always on duty. Every day was planned. She had so much to do. Eight more years passed. While she was still young and beautiful, she knew that time passed far more quickly in the wilderness. She had to see Jondolar soon, or it would be too late. She just had to!

She made a desperate plan. It was early Spring and she knew where to find them. She would visit the Ostracis Citadel. As queen, she wanted to be sure that facilities there were maintained at the highest standard. Retired sisters deserved no less. She would make the visit incognito so that she could see everything in its normal state – nothing primped for a royal visit. The Council of Principals reluctantly accepted a week's secret visit – she would arrive with a normal group of retirees, with no escort. At the end of a week, a Quaginta of Palace Guardians led by Quinta Lady Deirdre d'Orr would come and formally escort her back to Atlantic City.

As she debarked, she asked the airship captain for the use of an airboat – a request from the Queen was not easily denied! Again she flew to the Vale of the Ice Bear, sick with worry and anticipation. How would she find them? The autopilot gently landed the airboat and she waited with it. Surely they would have seen it in the sky? Perhaps Jondolar was no longer alive. Perhaps new savages, mere boys when she last visited, would find her. Perhaps they would kill her in front of her own sons! A day passed.




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 08



She ate sparingly, worrying also that the airboat would attract the attention of a patrolling airship and bring down huntresses. Finally, she saw a group of savages emerge from the tree cover. They hung back, so that they could easily melt away into the woods if danger threatened. She advanced towards them eagerly. Faster and faster she walked until she was almost running. One of the savages detached himself from the group and advanced towards her. He was so tall, so uncommonly erect that it could only be the man she sought – and it was!

He had aged. His face bore the marks of time, his body bore the scars of many hunts and combats. His hair was iron gray with swathes of white, but his body was still powerful. He did not speak, but his eyes were warm and soft and spoke his delight at seeing her. She fell into his arms and he picked her up and carried her like a child back to a set of caves in the hillside where the rest of group awaited them.

Aghari was very old now and had gone completely blind. She was so delighted to see her that she began to cry, hot tears running out of her sightless eyes. She petted Hildegard's shining ash blonde curls and felt her unlined face.

'Ah, you are still a goddess come among us,' she said with love in her voice. 'You bring us love and luck.'

The old chief had died many years previously and the current chief was on his deathbed. Hildegard examined him and quickly discerned that he had suffered a stroke and there was considerable internal bleeding. There was nothing she could do. He would die soon, she hoped, for he was in great pain.

Jana had borne Jondolar many children, but only two – daughter and a son survived. She herself was into her thirties and an old woman now. She marveled at Hildegard.'s youth.

'Are you Zon immortal?' she asked in wonder. 'You have not aged a day and the seasons have come and gone more than ten times since we were last together! We are all old, even mighty Jondolar.'

'No, we are not immortal' said Hildegard kindly. 'But we age more slowly than you for our lives are much easier than yours.'

Of course, Bradogun and Tuval did not recognize their mother. They knew that they mother was Zon, but Jana was the only mother that they had ever known. They were awkward with this exotic Zon priestess, calling her 'lady Zon.' They would not call her 'mother.'

After the evening repast, Jondolar took her aside.

"I shall be the new chief,' he said. 'Many years ago I dived and retrieved a blue stone in the Cavern of Eternal Spring. I very much desire to perform the ceremony of light, water, stone and life this Spring. The Vernal Equinox falls the day after tomorrow.'

Hildegard knew about the ceremony from her previous stays with them.

'Do you have a womb for your seed?' she asked.

'Yes,' he indicated a young savage girl, still in her teens. 'That is Dali, daughter of Anib, one of our old chiefs. Her mother wishes her to receive my seed.'

'Oh,' said Hildegard, uncertainly.

'But you are and will always be the mistress of my heart. It would give me much joy if you would accept my seed one last time.'

Hildegard mind was a blur. She forgot her responsibilities, her throne, all the practicalities of her position.

'Yes,' she said fervently. 'Yes, Jondolar, my dearest love, I will accept the gift of your seed. Our son will be a king.'

Thus it was that Jondolar sat on the ancient Vernal throne with Dali sucking on his cock to bring on a magnificent tumescence. And Hildegard impaled herself on it, her cunt still tight and gripping his shaft with clinging warmth. She felt the approach the appointed moment more than he. She bucked and threshed and gasped in his ear, 'Now … my … lord! Now … you … must … impregnate … me!' 

Dali gazed on in wonder as they climaxed together, gouts of his warm semen ejaculated into her womb and the shining blue globe of bright light engulfed them.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

There was silence as the swing rocked back and forth. Hildegard was far away in the Cavern of Eternal Spring with her love.

'Oh, Jondolar, love of my life, heart of my heart,' she whispered. 'I pinned the Order of Merit on the breast of Diana Tragina for striking you down in your old age. I watched two of our sons herded into the gas chamber. Soon Diana Tragina, will butcher our last son, our youngest son. I cannot carry the burden any longer! I cannot share in the joy of my sisters when my child falls to our invincible huntresses. For what chance have stone and bone against lasers and steel? No, I will be in Ostracis and will weep there, without fear of besmirching the honor of the Queen of the sisterhood. For what is left for me but to weep?'

Andromache was stunned. She faltered, 'Then Aablar is … is your son.'

'Andromache,' said Hildegard, gently. 'I have known the love of a savage. I have known the love of a brave, honorable man. We Zon have not known this love for over a thousand years. I wish you could know this love some day.'

The Queen composed herself and stood up.

'Come, my dear,' she said. 'You have a princess to impregnate and an election to fight.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

4. Even though she was prepared, Diana was shocked by the ferocity of the wind that bore her away from the 'Andromeda'. The airship's lights were lost to view within seconds and she had literally no inkling of which way was up. The force of the gale bore her so strongly that there was no sensation of falling. But she knew the laws of physics had not been repealed. The 'Andromeda' was riding on sky-anchors to the north of Claw peak and its adjoining mountain range. The gale was from the north and would drive her right into the face of the mountain unless she took control of her descent.

Diana rotated her free-fall to face the direction of the gale and ignited her rocket-pack. The sensation of deceleration was dramatic and the rocket-pack straps were jerked taut. The ignition activated the data feed from the rocket-pack and her altitude and ground proximity appeared on her visor. She carefully adjusted the power and nozzle directions on the pack until her read-out indicated that she was approaching the mass of the mountain at a slow and steady rate of descent.

Then all of sudden the grayness surrounding her was replaced with a swirling, misty white froth. She had entered the cloud layer that lay below the altitude of the peak itself. Her temperature shield held and the whipping snow condensed on her skin as a fine warm spray. Then she emerged from the thick cloud cover into the raging blizzard.

She could see the thick miasma of snow-flakes, driven into seemingly chaotic patterns by the howling gale. Her ground proximity chimes began to go off, indicating that she was less than fifty feet from landfall.

She peered over her shoulder into the murk, but could see nothing. The chimes grew louder and proximity arrow indicated that the surface was just behind her. Finally, barely ten feet away, she glimpsed the black rocks of a cliff face. Gingerly she used her power nozzles to maneuver till she was able to place her left palm on the rock. Carefully setting her power for a controlled descent, she got both hands and feet on the cliff face and proceeded to work her way down the cliff face. The data distortion was very high now and only fuzzy and intermittent readings appeared on her visor. The cliff face became smoother and then she caught sight of a snow-covered level area below. Reaching it, she shut down her power and nimbly hopped on to the snow. Immediately, she sank down up to her armpits in a soft snowdrift!

She surveyed her position. The level area was actually a saddle in a ridge. Across from the cliff face she had descended, the mountain rose steeply into the clouds. However, to either side of her there seemed to be openness. Her instruments gave her no usable information. She decided to try and raise the 'Andromeda'. But as Hebe had warned her, she got nothing but static. When she tried to open a comm. channel to Alexandra, the outcome was the same. In addition to the heavy distortion caused by the minerals in the region, she was deep in the broadcast shadow of the surrounding cliffs.

She began slogging forward towards the openness in her field of vision. Even with her great strength, it was tough going through the deep snow with the heavy rocket-pack strapped to her back. The drift grew shallower until it was only knee deep. She rounded the cliff face she had descended and was now in the lee of the mountain, sheltered from the wind. All at once the howling dropped. She rested her rocket-pack on the black rock to catch her breath and let her own heavy breathing return to normal. Through heavy static, she could just make out an incoming comm.

'Cornelle Diana … Lady Alexandra … forward, due south of your position … beware … sheer drop …'. The voice faded out again. It sounded like Hebe, but the static was so intense that it was hard to be sure. The compass reading on her visor spun wildly, so she shut it off in disgust and continued forward, stepping warily through ankle deep snow. Then she heard the unmistakable roar of a rocket-pack, very close. She stopped. A second later, her rocket-pack under controlled power, Alexandra appeared before her, barely ten feet away. She had powered up another cliff face, a sheer drop just a few feet in front of Diana position!

Alexandra brought herself over the edge of the cliff and powered down her rocket-pack. 'Two found, four to go,' said Diana, clapping Alexandra cheerfully on the rump as they rubbed nipples.

'I've been up and down this stretch of the mountain, Cornelle,' Alexandra said. 'There is no path from the ridge saddle this way. Then I got a garbled signal from Captain Hebe guiding me up to this ridge saddle to you.'

'The cavern we seek is on the north face of the Claw,' agreed Diana. 'The path that leads to it must be on that side. Let's wait here in the lee of the wind for the others. Captain Hebe should be directing them to us.'

Diana opened a comm. channel to 'Andromeda' again. This time, through the hisses and clicks, she could discern a scattered pattern of words.

'… two Guardians … closing … range two hundred yards …'

Obviously Hebe was guiding the others to her as she had guided Alexandra. Soon the roar of the rocket-packs became audible and two tall Guardians joined them. They waited another twenty minutes. Diana activated a light beacon from her laser pistol every few minutes to provide a quick fix on their position. Finally her patience wore out.

'We're still missing Seignora Megara Paulus and Chiara Henn,' said Diana testily. 'Alex, try to raise Captain Hebe and inform her that we are moving out along the north face. Ask her to convey my orders to Seignora Megara and Cara to return to the 'Andromeda'.'

Alexandra did as she was bid. 'I sent the message, but I have no confirmation, Cornelle,' she said.

'It's the best we can do. We'll leave our rocket-packs here in the lee of the wind. Form up and follow me.'

The Guardians placed a light beacon on the site of the rocket packs. Then they followed Diana in single file as she led them back across the level ridge saddle. Communication was now impossible in the howling gale. Their communicators worked by locking into the Zon aerial net and bouncing on to the desired destination. So while they had very poor communication with the 'Andromeda', they had none at all with each other.

They waded into deeper and deeper snowdrifts. The snow got up to their necks but then began to get shallower – they could only move because of their temperature shields. The heavy snow continued to swirl around them. Diana moved warily as the snow grew shallower – she suspected that the other side of the ridge saddle would be a sheer drop as well. When they came to the edge her suspicions were confirmed. However, a narrow path emerged from below along the cliff face to their left and continued along the cliff face to their right. If there were any tracks to be found, the heavy snow had eliminated them. She opened a channel to the 'Andromeda' bio-scanners and found a faint and flickering read-out on her visor with a scratchy and flickering directional arrow pointing RIGHT. Diana pointed to the rising path to their right and led on towards it.

The path was slippery and was made more treacherous by the powerful winds that drove them into the cliff. About a hundred yards up the path, Diana paused and peered ahead into the thickly falling flakes. Her keen sight picked out the faint outlines of a small cave mouth in the cliff. Diana indicated it to the huntresses behind her. They approached it cautiously. Diana made hand signals indicating that she was going to enter and for them to cover her. They all drew their laser pistols and set them to 'high'.

The entrance to the cave had low headroom and Diana stooped to cross the threshold. It was pitch dark inside and it took her eyes a few moments to adapt, even from the dim light outside. It was not a large cave, perhaps twenty yards to the rear. Millennia of civilization had dulled the Zon sense of smell, but even so Diana's nostrils curled from the strong animal scent. Then she saw the mass of fur at the rear of the cave. Even as she watched, one large shape stirred and a massive head became apparent – an ice bear! And there were several of them!

Over ten feet tall on average and with huge teeth and claws, ice bears were the graceful hunters at the top of the food chain in glacial north. The coming spring meant that their hibernation was due to end and they were slumbering fitfully. The one bear that had stirred rubbed his eyes and wrinkled his nostrils, catching the strange and strong smell that had roused him from a fitful slumber. He began to come life and a deep coughing rumble came from his throat as he lumbered to his feet. The other bears began stirring as well.

Like all Zon, Diana loved beautiful wild predators and was loath to harm them. So she sheathed her pistol and cautiously backed toward the cave entrance. Suddenly the first bear lunged forward, displaying his huge yellowed teeth and uttering a loud snarl. It was too late to re-draw her pistol. Diana took two quick backward steps, gracefully ducking under the cave's low threshold and out on to the path. She was signaling her huntresses to back away from the cave mouth when her boot heel caught in a rocky crack on the path. She felt her balance going – she knew was going to fall over the precipice.

Diana screamed, 'Alex!', hoping her voice carried above the storm. As she began to fall backwards, she tossed her zircon lasso curling out with amazing accuracy. Alexandra was backing down the path in response to Diana's hand signal. She watched with horror as Diana began to fall and then saw the emerging snout of the ice bear. She only dimly heard her name called. But Diana's shining zircon lasso came almost directly into her hands. 

She caught it with her free hand and quickly fed it back to the two Guardians behind her. They worked like a well-oiled machine. Both holstered their laser pistols as they grasped the lasso. The third Guardian in line quickly wrapped the end of the lasso around her waist and braced herself as the anchor of the team. The second had both hands on the lasso and tensed her muscles to absorb the shock of Diana's falling weight. Trusting her two sisters-in-arms, Alexandra lowered the power on her laser pistol and fired, branding the bear just under its jawbone. There was a hiss and the smell of burning fur. The bear reared back and roared in pain. She stood ready to fire again and at the same time braced herself to hold the lasso with her left hand.

Both events now happened simultaneously – the lasso jerked taut and the ice bear charged. Alexandra felt her left arm would be torn out of its socket by the shock, but she leaned into the mountain and held on, knowing that the bulk of the weight was being borne by the Guardians behind her. At the same time, she thumbed her laser pistol to maximum power. She was focusing so hard that all she saw was the charging bear and all she felt was the burn in her left arm with the effort of steadying Diana's weight on the taut lasso. Her pistol barrel was steady as she squeezed the trigger. The hiss was louder this time and the next moment there was loud pop and a fountain of blood as the bear's head was vaporized. Its body continued forward on the path and came to rest at Alexandra's feet. She and the Guardians behind her were drenched in its blood.

They did not pause for an instant. Immediately they began hauling up on the lasso that they knew was cinched to Diana's belt. They had hauled two arm lengths when suddenly they felt the lasso go slack. Worried, they pulled the lasso up quickly. At the end of it hung Diana's broad leather belt with her holstered laser pistol and her sheathed sword. The belt's waist clasp flapped open in the wind.

Alexandra stared at Diana belt, horror-struck. Her mind refused to accept the possibility that Diana was dead.

'Lady Alexandra,' said Felicia Andrus, the tall Guardian immediately behind her. 'Shall we report to 'Andromeda'?'

'No,' said Alexandra, decisively. 'We cannot waste an instant. I will scale down immediately. If I am lost, the two of you must return immediately to 'Andromeda' and report the situation.'

They hammered in a piton and anchored Alexandra's zircon lasso. Alexandra used Diana's lasso as a safety line, belayed by Felicia and her sister Guardian. She quickly lowered herself down the cliff face, oblivious to the swirling snow, mists and howling wind. Her mind was completely focused on her task, but deep inside she was frantic with worry.

She reached the end of her lasso and reached a rocky protrusion from the cliff face, covered with the brambles. The thorns on the brambles were wickedly sharp. She cursed aloud as one cut a gash in the tough lyntronex of her uniform, drawing blood. She worked her way back and forth along the cliff face, to either side of the brambles. Then she saw something that crystallized her fears. On the very end of one of the bramble branches, overhanging a sheer drop of thousands of feet was a shred of purple and green, a flickering point of color in the raging wind.

She swung herself out in a wide arc at the end of her lasso and snatched it up. Resting against the cliff face, she examined it closely. There was no doubt. It was a shred of lyntronex. She remained suspended on the cliff face for many moments – time seemed to stand still. Then she tucked the shred of fabric in one of her wrist bracers and slowly pulled herself up, hand over hand, till Felicia hauled her on to the path above. She sat on the path, physically tired, but mentally exhausted.

'I am afraid that Cornelle Diana may be lost,' she said, finally. 'However, we cannot abandon our mission. We will continue. I will report the situation to Captain Hebe.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

5. Diana had fallen backwards and concentrating on tossing the zircon lasso accurately to Alexandra, her body began a head-first dive over the precipice. With her extraordinary body control, she spun herself around to fall feet first. She trusted that Alexandra had caught and secured the lasso. Diana looked down the cliff for holds or a landing spot. Everything was happening very quickly now and the swirling snow and poor visibility made her task virtually impossible. A jutting rock appeared out of the mists and she twisted her body to avoid it. In doing so she hit her side against the cliff face, knocking the wind out of her. She fell free for another few yards before landing on her stomach on another protrusion from the cliff face. This hard landing would have killed her except that her lasso was its length now and jerked tight, arresting her fall. The protrusion was rocky and covered with thick brambles that further broke her fall. Diana was only semi-conscious and could not see her belt clasp catching in the brambles and snapping open. She felt rather than saw her belt pulled off her by the lasso and hauled up to the path far above by her sisters.




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 09



It is the middle of the last Ice Age, about 50,000 years ago. The Neanderthals roam the Earth, but co-exist with a recently arrived tribe of technologically advanced aliens known as the Zon. The Zon hunt Neanderthal men for their wild semen. Aablar has captured a Zon huntress and her acolyte. The ruthless Diana Tragina, known to the Neanderthals as Lady Death, has tracked him down. However, after an interrupted combat, he has disappeared with the huntress. Meanwhile the incident has led to political turmoil in the Zon establishment.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

1. In spite of her outward show of ice-cold calm, Deirdre was extremely nervous about the impregnation ceremony. A team of priestesses wearing caps emblazoned with the blue cross of the Repro Institute undressed her and shaved her fine blonde pubic hair. Then they laid her on a preparation table and anointed her pelvic region with antiseptic oil made from aromatic herbs and massaged it into the folds of her cunt, murmuring admiringly amongst themselves at her gorgeous, yet powerful body.

Andomache arrived with her handmaiden. She had removed her tiara and ceremonial sword and was all business. She carried out the short preliminary religious ceremony, invoking the name of Hera and asking that Deirdre's unborn daughter be blessed with the might of Artemis and the bodily form of Aphrodite. Then Deirdre was moved to a gurney and quickly wheeled into an impregnation theatre. Andromache took the director's high chair. She asked for the impregnation prep report and was handed a thin plexi-glass sheet with a double pane of complex holographic coding. Andromache was one of the foremost Zon experts in molecular biology and she read the report like a book.

The sheet contained holographic images of the complete genetic codes of both the mother – Deirdre – as well as the sperm. Deirdre had chosen very well. The sperm's genetic coding exhibited a very high probability score in the all-important female gender axis – the pregnancy would almost certainly yield a daughter. The sperm also showed extremely high probability scores in intelligence quotient, as well as in the physical prowess and coordination. More important, the genetic make-up of the sperm as well as its savage inter-cutting matched Deirdre's own genes very well, both in terms of outcome probabilities as well as physical fit. Deirdre is so gifted, thought Andromache with a trace of bitterness. Even her genetic coding is perfect, so suited to match high potency sperm. She even matches the savage inter-cutting! If we could breed her, we could create a race of superwomen! No wonder Caitlin is such a perfect specimen in mind and body.

On the impregnation table, Repro priestesses strapped Deirdre's ankles into stirrups. Naked, she stared fixedly at the ceiling, brightened by recessed lighting. More than two decades had passed since her impregnation with Caitlin, but even this length of time had not lessened her fear and loathing of penetration and impregnation. It took all her self-control to retain a composure of steely calm. Andromache sensed her disquiet. Impulsively, she rose from her high chair and came down to the table. She leaned over and rubbed nipples. Deirdre's nipples were already puckered from their naked exposure and the rubbing caused them to harden and stand out as bright red buds. Simultaneously she kissed Deirdre on the lips and then whispered, 'Don't worry, dearest Deirdre. It will be over very soon. We will be so gentle, you will barely feel it.'

Deirdre began to relax, the tautness in her muscles slowly receding. The priestess controlling the impregnator activated it. It was a large wheeled machine with a steel-titanium mechanical probe extending from a rubber housing. The control panel of the machine was extremely complex, with myriad dials and gauges, as well as several flat display panels. The arm ended in a thin pencil-like device that was just over a foot long. Now, with a low whine, the priestess propelled the arm forward. Her controls were extremely precise and she could govern its movement to within microns.

As the head of the impregnator neared Deirdre's crotch, Andromache signaled for the masking screen to be lowered. With a hiss, it descended from the ceiling, obscuring Deirdre's lower regions from her view. Another of the priestesses moved between her legs to stimulate her clitoris to induce lubrication prior to the insertion of the impregnator probe. This was standard practice. However, Andromache waved her away and herself began to kiss and lick Deirdre, starting from the swell of her belly and slowly descending in gentle spirals. Finally, she reached her pubic area and felt Deirdre's breath quicken and her muscles tense again. Showing great adeptness, she slowed her ministrations, till she felt her charge relax again. By the time Andromache softly kissed her clitoris, Deirdre merely sighed. However, through all of this, her cunt had grown pleasantly wet and Andromache licked off some of her sweet-smelling vaginal fluid.

Now she signaled to the priestess on the impregnator. The thin, shiny probe had been warmed to a very pleasant temperature and was now propelled forward. Deirdre was wet enough and pliant enough that she barely felt its entry. The operator had been carefully selected and she was the best at her craft. The minuscule camera on the probe head showed her multiple images of the probe's location in Deirdre's cunt. She drove the probe into Deirdre's vagina quickly while her charge was relaxed. She moved it to within a hair's breadth of her cervix and then stopped. She knew that this was always slightly alarming, even to sisters who were relatively unfazed by penetration.

Andromache knew the procedure intimately, so she now moved to Deirdre's head and took her arm in hers and kissed her on the lips again. Deirdre could feel the warm probe in her cunt and sensed that the ultimate penetration was about to begin. But her own steel will, aided by Andromache's loving embrace held her fears in check and she remained relaxed and calm. 

The operator waited for Andromache's signal. She was amazed at her instruments' readings – though she had done thousands of impregnations, she had never seen a cunt that gripped her probe with such power. Princess Deirdre's vaginal muscles were enormously powerful! Truly, she is a Zon royal by birth, she thought, to be so gifted in everything prized by the sisterhood. With this in mind, she expected her cervix to be equally tight and tough to penetrate. What a story she would have to tell her friends!


Andromache gave the signal and the priestess activated a very gentle and insistent forward pressure. The instruments indicated a huge increase in pressure on the probe head as it began to penetrate the entrance to Deirdre' womb. 'Gently, gently, breathe, Deirdre, breathe, … there, … there. …,' Andromache's voice was soothing and supportive.

The probe penetrated her cervix and now emerged into her womb. The operator magnified the camera image and quickly and professionally searched for the most promising eggs. Her judgment was excellent and she found the perfect match within minutes. She moved the probe into position and the instruments gave her the location settings. The margin for error was less than a micron, for the Zon procedure used less than ten individual sperm cells. She jockeyed the probe, frowning in her concentration, adjusting and re-setting till she was satisfied. Finally, all the position lights and arrows glowed green.

'Set, Princess Andromache,' she called.

'Fire when ready,' Andromache intoned.

The priestess's finger caressed the impregnator trigger and then she squeezed it. There was no noticeable sound, but the intravenous sonar in the probe head tracked in the single sperm cell that was ejaculated. It traveled slowly in the very short planned trajectory. The sonar showed it docking with the egg. They all waited anxiously. Five more minutes ticked away. The micro-bio-scanners were drawing in mounds of data and presented a complex pictorial array on one of the display screens of the impregnator. The priestess eyed the screen as the picture wavered and steadied, then wavered again. Finally, the bio-scanner image glowed and green signals appeared on the output displays.

'The egg has been fertilized,' the impregnator operator said gravely. 'Error probabilities approach zero. I am retracting.'

Andromache was stunned. To be fertilized with the very first sperm! Five to six shots were considered the normal count. She knew that she herself was highly fertile, but it had taken three shots for her to become pregnant with Althea. Was there anything about Deirdre that was not perfect? 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

2. Even before Aablar hit the water, Diana was running round the pool. Megara unslung her rocket-pack and followed. She came up beside her cornelle at the pool's edge where Aablar had disappeared with the Lady Caitlin. Diana was breathing heavily and she could not avoid grimacing with the pain in her side. Megara reached forward and steadied her, earning a smile of gratitude from her normally imperious commander.

'We have no diving equipment and do not know the depths of this pool,' said Diana. 'And while I am loathe to admit it, I am injured and not up to free diving at the moment.'

'Cornelle, I will go,' said Megara without hesitation.

Diana was torn between wanting to do everything to pursue Aablar and risking Megara's life in a fruitless effort.

'A 50 second free dive, Seignora, no longer,' she said finally. 'Set your alarm.'

Megara set her disintegrator down and tapped her wrist bracer, keying up the chronometer display. Setting the alarm as directed, she pulled off her thigh boots and unfastened her helmet, shaking out a mass of shiny raven hair. Then she cleaved the pool surface in a smooth dive, barely raising a splash. Diana gazed into the pool worriedly – the savage had the upper hand now, since he obviously knew this cavern and its secrets. The second ticked away slowly. As the 50-second window approached, Diana could make out a dark shape deep in the pool, rising slowly. More seconds ticked by and the shape seemed to get no larger. At one minute, Diana glanced over at the throne. Both Lena and Althea were still naked, but alert.

'Watch the blonde, Lady Althea,' said Diana. 'I will be back momentarily.'

So saying, she pulled off her thigh boots and helmet and dived smoothly into the pool, leaving barely a ripple on the surface. She kicked hard and within seconds had reached Megara, who appeared to have run out of breath and was kicking weakly. Diana took her head in a firm grip and locked her lips on Megara's forcing her mouth open with her tongue. She blew a mouthful of air into Megara's mouth and then with her hands under the Seignora's armpits, she kicked powerfully for the surface. Another kick and her lips sought Megara's again, blowing in more air. Clasped in close embrace, their breasts rubbed together. Diana's short fuse burned bright and her nipples hardened.

It took Diana just three kicks and they broke surface together. Diana made a mental note to invite the Seignora to her chambers back on the 'Andromeda'. She towed Megara to the poolside, but the Guardian was already recovering rapidly. As they pulled themselves out of the water Megara was shamefaced and began, 'I humbly apologize, Cornelle for causing a problem. I thought I could try for a little greater depth …'

As they donned their boots and helmets, Diana waved her apologies aside.

'That is of no consequence now, Seignora. What have you to report?' 

'I am sorry, cornelle,' she said, as water cascaded off her uniform. 'I was able to descend only about fifty feet. The pool is obviously very deep – I could not make out a bottom. The sides up to the depth of fifty or sixty feet are very smooth, offering no concealment.'

'I am afraid we cannot do more without specialized diving equipment,' said Diana finally. 'Now go to the entrance of this cavern and try to raise the 'Andromeda'. Sue the comm. to direct the others of our party to our location.'

'Aye, aye, Cornelle,' said Megara.

As Megara proceeded to the entrance of the cavern, her lyntronex uniform was already dry and her temperature shield quickly dried her wet skin. Diana approached the throne, noting that both Althea and Lena had donned their deerskin panties and halters. She expected the blazing hostility in Leia's eyes, but she was surprised to see the lack of welcome in the Lady Althea. The girl is exhausted and has been through Hades, thought Diana. She's probably still in shock. Relief will come later.

'It is all over, Lady Althea,' she said kindly, extending an arm. 'You are safe now.'

Althea did not answer, but nodded dumbly. The girl has been severely psychologically scarred, thought Diana. Gentleness did not come naturally to her, but she made an effort and drew Althea into her arms and patted her head and stroked her bruised neck. The girl remained stiff as a board in her arms and at length Diana gave up.

'I have a patrol on the way,' said Diana. 'We will wait for them by the cavern entrance.'

Almost as she spoke, there was a clatter of boots and Alexandra led Megara and the other two Guardians into the cavern. All of them broke into smiles of relief as they hurried over to Diana and saluted.

'It is with great joy that I see you alive, Cornelle,' said Alexandra formally. 'I was afraid that our ineptitude had cost you your life.'

'No, no, you could not have done better, Alex,' said Diana, warmth in her melodious voice. 'It was my foolishness in the face of the charging ice bear.'

She quickly related the events leading to the disappearance of Aablar and Caitlin. 'Time is of the essence. We must get back on the 'Andromeda' as soon as possible and get some specialized diving equipment down here. The savage obviously knows this pool and I feel certain that he did not dive in to drown himself and Lady Caitlin.'

'Seignora Megara, double Guardian Dar-Ella on your rocket-pack. She will lead you back to our original landing site. Collect all the four rocket-packs and fly back here on the double.' As soon as the two Guardians left, Diana turned to Alexandra. 'As soon as they are back, we will make the laser signal to 'Andromeda' indicating our readiness for pick-up, so that they will have the recovery team on the launch deck with grappling hooks.'

She paused. 'Alex, now let us put our time to good use! Please counsel with Lady Althea. I will have some words with the savage girl.'

Alexandra took Althea aside.

"I am Quinta Lady Alexandra Scheel,' she said, introducing herself. 'Your mother, the Princess Andromache officiated at my birth and Lady Caitlin is a dear friend. I am delighted that Cornelle Diana has found you safe.'

She took Althea's lack of response for grief at Caitlin's continued captivity.

'Do not worry. We will hunt the savage down and free Lady Caitlin. It will not be long.'

Tears welled up in Althea's eyes. Alexandra took her in her arms and patted her, whispering, 'Ssssh, don't worry, Althea. You are safe now. Soon Caitlin will be too. Ssssh …. sssssh ….'. But Althea continued to weep silently.

In the meantime, Diana walked over to Leia, followed by Felicia Andrus. Her boots echoed loudly in the huge cavern. Alexandra had brought back her belt, so she now had her laser pistol on one hip and sword on the other. Leia cowered on the floor as Diana towered over her. Expecting no mercy from Diana, her eyes darted appealingly to Felicia. She noted the lock of brown hair escaping from the brow of Felicia's helmet, and searched for a hint of compassion, but found none. Crouching, so that her height was hidden and wearing hideous animal skins, there was little to distinguish her from a filthy savage except for her blonde head and blue eyes. Even her skin was burned brown from unprotected exposure to the sun.

Diana leaned down, grabbed Leia by her hair and yanked her to her feet, unmindful of the scream of pain.

'What is your name, savage?' she asked roughly.

'You are evil, Lady Death,' the girl hissed and spat at her.

Still holding her handful of hair, Diana slapped her hard with an open palm. It sounded like a pistol shot and whipped Leia's head around. Bright stars danced in front of Leia's eyes. But even as the red imprint of Diana's hand began to appear on her cheek, she still glared at her tormentor balefully.

'I have been beaten many times, Lady Death. You cannot frighten me.'

'We will see,' said Diana evenly. 'Felicia, hold her!'

With this Diana pushed her back towards Felicia, who tightly pinioned her body. Leia instinctively struggled against the powerful Guardian. After a few moments, the futility of her efforts was painfully obvious and she ceased. She looks like a wild animal, thought Diana with revulsion. To think she was born into the sisterhood! Civilization is such a thin veneer!

'You are allied to the savage, Aablar?' she asked curtly.

'I am Leia, his woman,' she said proudly. 'He is a mighty hunter and does not need to hide behind magic weapons like you Zon.'

'You were born Zon,' said Diana without emotion. 'You are a traitor to your sisters and the sisterhood. I am empowered to sentence you to death. But first you will tell us all you know about the savage, Aablar.'

A red curtain of rage descended over Leia's vision and lacking any other means of assaulting Diana, she spat. Her salvo struck Diana's just above the breasts on the bare skin exposed by one of the rips in her uniform. The warm saliva oozed down into her tight cleavage. Diana did not bother to wipe it away. Coupled with the blazing rage in Leia's eyes, she found the feeling mildly erotic.

When Diana spoke, her voice was level and without a hint of emotion.

'Tell me where the savage Aablar is headed,' she said.

Leia stared at her defiantly and was silent. Diana's eyes darted over Leia's shoulder and briefly met Felicia's and unspoken understanding passed between them. The tall Guardian braced herself and her charge. Diana's extended her right hand in front of her forming a fist barely a foot from Leia's face. Leia stared at the fist mesmerized, like a rabbit frozen in the gaze of a snake. Diana's movement was too quick for the eye to see. Her fist struck Leia just between her upper lip and nostrils, striking the nerve center of her face with paralyzing force. The extent of the pain was beyond anything Leia had ever experienced. Her body went rigid in Felicia's grip, as though she had been shot through with a high voltage shock. Her mouth opened in a perfect 'O', but no sound emerged, just an explosive expulsion of air. A second later her vocal chords recovered and a thin scream of pain echoed in the cavern. As the waves of intense pain coursed through her, her body went from rigid to a series of spasmodic jerks that tested even Felicia's great strength. Involuntarily she was gasping in gulps of air and panting, causing her firm breasts to jounce. Beads of sweat sprang out of her brow. Diana opened her fist and shook it to loosen the fingers. Then she formed a fist again and poised herself to strike.

Leia's eyes were wide open and there was naked fear in them now. She was drooling involuntarily and her eyes were watering so much that Diana's form appeared hazy to her. She tried to speak, but found that she could barely control her tongue and bring forth a guttural whisper.

'Please ……' The sound barely carried to Diana, who paused. Leia desperately tried to make her vocal chords obey her, but her whole body felt paralyzed. What had Lady Death done to her? Incoherent sounds began tumbling from her mouth as she began to panic. Finally she was able to form a few hoarse words. 'Please don't hit me again.'

A ghost of a smile flitted across Diana's face. Her fist remained poised to strike.




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 09



'I am waiting and listening,' she said slowly and clearly, as though speaking to a child. 'I want to know everything about where Aablar is going.'

Leia's fear was palpable and her defiance was gone. Slowly her gasping eased and the pain receded to a dull ache. Her expression was one of abject misery.

'Forgive me, O mighty hunter, for I have not your strength,' were Leia's first whispered words. 'I cannot bear this pain. I wish that you would kill me before I speak, Lady Death.'

Diana said nothing.

'The pool descends to great depth,' Leia said tonelessly. 'But Aablar has reached the bottom before. There is an underwater passage leading to an underground river within the mountain. There are many passageways in the mountain and there is a way out to the northern ice fields. Aablar and his brothers have hunted mammoth there. They have a large store of frozen meat. He will hide there in the ice fields and then plans to strike further north where no one of the Clans has gone before.'

Diana listened with increasing horror. Aablar may survive this mad scheme, she thought, but Caitlin! Without her temperature shield, how long would she last in the northern ice fields? Diana was tempted to relieve her frustrations by striking once more. She knew that she could easily break Leia's neck with a blow, killing her here and now. Instead she opened her fist and struck her captive's solar plexus with extended stiff fingers into. Leia collapsed with a moan and her muscles lost all function. The pain blinded her. Felicia held up her limp form. But Diana drew scant comfort from it. Her mind was fully occupied with planning her next move in the pursuit of Aablar.

Moments later a clatter of boots signaled the return of Megara and Dar-Ella. They each wore a rocket-pack and had strapped together the other three with zircon lassoes. Diana waved aside their greetings and rapped out her orders.

'Felicia, I will entrust the savage girl to double with you on your rocket-pack. Seignora Megara can take the Lady Althea. I do not trust my own strength at the moment. Alex, Dar-Ella will remain here with you. We will get diving equipment down to you as soon a possible. You will lead a diving party and follow the trail of the savage from this end. I will monitor the north face of the mountain. We should be able to catch him between our two forces. But do exercise extreme caution. At all costs we must ensure that the Lady Caitlin is not put at risk.'

The Guardians worked very quickly. Both Felicia and Megara used their zircon lassoes to create crude but effective slings. Alexandra gently shepherded Althea to Megara who secured her so her arms and thighs were supported by the rocket-pack webbing harness. Diana pushed Leia much less gently towards Felicia, who bound her wrists before securing her in the sling. Then Diana strapped on her own rocket-pack harness, suppressing a grimace of pain as the weight stressed her cracked ribs. The party made for the entrance to the cavern. Alexandra went ahead of them and worked the laser beacon to send up a repeating signal to the 'Andromeda'. 

They were about to ignite their rocket-packs when impulsively, Diana turned and held her arms to Alexandra. They rubbed nipples. Diana held her tightly, much longer than protocol called for, oblivious to the watching Guardians.

'Take care of yourself, Alex,' she whispered, her melodious voice betraying a note of concern. 'I grow more fond of you every day.'

Emboldened, Alexandra ran her fingers down the powerful muscles of Diana's back and kissed her on the lips. Their tongues entwined, but briefly.

'Diana, your regard makes me the envy of the sisterhood,' she whispered. 'Every moment in your arms is bliss. I pray we shall have time together in peace after this is over.'

Alexandra and Dar-Ella retreated into the cavern to stay clear of the rocket blasts. Diana, Megara and Felicia ignited their rocket-packs and were quickly aloft. They set their altimeter-gauges to achieve fifteen thousand feet. Both Althea and Leia were terrified. Althea closed her eyes and prayed, repeating a childhood prayer to Hera for safety again and again in her head. Leia had no such comfort and felt a rising tide of panic sweep through her. However, she was so tightly trussed that her struggles produced no noticeable effect on their flight path. Felicia could feel her burden beginning to hyperventilate and intoned into her ear,

'Calm down, savage. We will soon be safe on the airship.'

Leia took no comfort from this announcement, but it served to slow her breathing.

It was Diana whose keen eyes first caught sight of the 'Andromeda'. She steered her pack into a horizontal flight path. Megara and Felicia followed Diana's rocket exhaust closely. Hebe had set all the ship's powerful searchlights on a steady flashing pattern to maximize her visibility in the storm. But even so, it was some time before the other two Guardians made them out. As they approached her, Diana opened a

comm. channel to Hebe, linking it to Megara and Felicia as well. They were close enough that the channel was virtually unimpeded.

'Captain Hebe, I am approaching with two Guardians, both of whom have passengers. Please warn your deck party. They will approach first. I am unburdened and will come aboard last.'

'I will do so immediately, Cornelle.' There was obvious relief in Hebe's voice.

Diana's comm. was clear and Megara powered ahead, followed by Felicia. As she approached, she could make out the launch deck crew, lashed in place. They saw the flashing strobe on her rocket pack and two hundred yard extensible hooks snaked out towards her. She jockeyed with the rocket-pack controls until she was very near one hook. Just as she was about to reach for it, a powerful wind gust swept it several yards away, out of her reach. She eased open the thrust of her rocket-pack and pursued the hook. The turbulent effects of the gale increased at this slow speed and she was buffeted up and down and rolled completely over several times. With great skill, she kept her eyes on the hook. All this was too much for Althea, however. Even though she kept her eyes tightly shut, she began to be violently airsick, retching and spewing the contents of her stomach into space. Through it all Megara remained focused on her prize. Three, four, five attempts, and each time she just had her target snatched away from her by the storm. Finally, on the sixth attempt, she overshot the hook and caught it with a lightning reflex as it was whirling away. She quickly snapped the hook's clasp into the reinforced eye on her rocket-pack harness. She opened a comm. channel to the launch deck. 'Ready for tow-in,' she cried, tired, but relieved.

'Steady on for tow-in,' intoned the launch deck seignora. As she was drawn near the ship, willing hands heaved her and Althea onto the launch deck. 'Welcome back, Seignora Megara,' said the launch deck seignora, unable to completely mask her delight behind her professional demeanor.

A second crew was working with Felicia and they had similar difficulties. Leia was heavier than Althea, so Felicia's task was harder. Both grappling hooks were now deployed to retrieve her and finally, by working them in series, they were able to get one right to her. She was also quickly brought on board with Leia.

Unburdened as she was, and with her almost supernatural body control, Diana caught a hook on her first pass. Megara and Felicia had barely unfastened their rocket-packs and secured themselves and their charges to D-rings when Diana swung herself, unaided onto the launch deck. This time she could not suppress a grimace of pain as she unfastened her heavy rocket-pack. The launch deck seignora had quickly activated the controls and jump-door slid closed, suddenly shutting off the roar of the storm.

Within moments, the ship's hatch to the launch deck opened and Hebe with her staff of ship's officers appeared. She approached Diana and rubbed nipples formally.

'Cornelle, we are delighted to see you back,' she said. Surveying the tall cornelle, she continued. 'You are injured. Shall we proceed to the sick-bay right now?'

'We will escort you, cornelle,' said Megara anxiously.

'Yes, bring the Lady Althea and the savage as well,' said Diana, faintly. Her long ordeal had taxed even her great strength to its limits. Now that she was back in the safety of the ship, she began to relax her iron control and her wounds began to exercise their effects. She began to say, 'Seignora Megara, I will need your help ….' but she felt her knees begin to give way before she could finish her sentence. She began to pitch forward.

Megara and Hebe rushed forward and caught her. Hebe rapped out commands and the crew produced an air cushion. Diana was gently laid on it. Another two air cushions were brought for Althea and Leia (the latter strapped to hers with leather restraints) and the three, escorted by Hebe, some of her crew and the two anxious Guardians, hastened to the sick bay.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

3. Dragged down by the heavy rock, Aablar and Caitlin sank swiftly. Aablar had watched his brothers and some others of his clan do this dive and had done it himself several times. So he adjusted easily as they sank to lower and lower depths. 

Caitlin had a summa diving qualification, so she had automatically obeyed his shouted instruction and had a large lungful of air. Her training stood her in good stead and she was not uncomfortable even as the surrounding depths grew murkier and murkier. She mentally counted to try and gauge their depth, but the speed of descent was more rapid than she had ever experienced before. 'This is really risky!' was the thought that kept running through her conscious mind. 

She reached a count of seventy-five and reckoned that they were approaching a hundred feet. By the time she reached a count of a hundred, she had to fight her fear, for she was now deeper than she had ever free-dived before – they were certainly deeper than a hundred and fifty feet! She began to think that he meant to drown them both. She had exhausted much of her stock of air and it was becoming very difficult to think clearly. Should she try and fight him, even though her wrists were still bound?

She had reached a count of a hundred and fifty and her thought processes began to get confused. All she could think of was that they were approaching two hundred feet –

deeper than any known Zon had free-dived before. She only vaguely saw the approach of the bottom and the beds of blue stones that sparkled even in this dim light. Aablar felt her body begin to go slack and knew that she was beginning to lose consciousness. He quickly dropped the chain to his ballasting rock and grabbed a large blue stone. With one powerful kick, he propelled them both in to a wide tunnel at the floor of the pool. Two more kicks and they were in another watery shaft.

Now came the tricky part. Even though he had done this before, Aablar had to fight the urge to shoot for the surface. He stroked upwards with a measured ascent, dribbling out air expertly to maintain a safe pressure in his lungs. Even as they rose, he pumped Caitlin's chest to get her to exhale slowly. He saw the bright surface and fought the temptation to accelerate their ascent. Gradually it grew nearer and relief flooded over him as they broke surface. He stroked gently for the side of this pool, towing Caitlin, who was now inert. He dragged himself over the side and then pulled her out of the water.

They were in another cavern, similar to the one they had come from, but even larger. The pool here was fed by an inflow of warm water from the far recesses of the cavern and a corresponding flow drained out of it on to a small waterfall and then proceeded to the lower levels of the cavern. Light streamed in through vents high above. Forests of stalactites and stalagmites grew around them. But at the present, Aablar had only concerns for the huntress. Her body felt cold. Putting his ear to her chest, he could barely discern a heartbeat. He stripped off her deerskin halter and unfastened her wrists. Then he began to press down on her breasts. Her nipples, flaccid from there immersion it he warm water, began to harden and stand out. He smiled to himself. 'She is not dead yet,' he thought. He continued working on her, until finally she retched and some water emerged from her mouth. He did not stop and she retched again and brought out more water. She coughed once, but then collapsed and lay deathly still. The buds of her nipples began to soften and he could no longer discern a heartbeat.

Mentally and physically exhausted, he felt the uncharacteristic urge to weep. She is a Zon huntress, the foremost enemy of my race, he thought. She would not hesitate to torture and kill me. Why should her death cause me grief?

'Because you love her,' said a deep voice. 'You were meant to become lovers since the time you were born.'

Aablar rose to his knees and whipping out Caitlin's dagger, looked around the cavern wildly. There was no one in sight. 

'Show yourself and face me, whoever you are!' he called out. He repeated the call again and again, but was only greeted with silence. Finally, his resolve, so sorely tested in past days, began to crumble. He beat his head on the stony floor, drawing blood.

'I am losing my mind!' he cried out. 'Jondolar, my father, let me join you in death before I descend into madness!' 



Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 10



Aablar the Neanderthal – Chapter 10

It is the middle of the last Ice Age, about 50,000 years ago. The Neanderthals roam the Earth, but co-exist with a recently arrived tribe of technologically advanced aliens known as the Zon. The Zon hunt Neanderthal men for their wild semen. Aablar has captured a Zon huntress and her acolyte. The ruthless Diana Tragina, known to the Neanderthals as Lady Death, has tracked him down. After an interrupted combat, Diana has recovered the acolyte, but Aablar has disappeared with the huntress. Meanwhile the incident has led to political turmoil in the Zon establishment.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

1.

The lighting in the sick bay of the ‘Andromeda’ was dimmed. Diana lay on a bed, covered with a thin white sheet, a complex set of wires and probes attached to her body. A Medica, a priestess in the medical corps was monitoring a control center that gave her a complete analysis of Diana’s every organ. She wore a white cap with the blue cross of the Repro Institute (since all Zon medical personnel belonged to Repro) and she also wore a titanium choker with the twined serpents insignia of the Medical Corps. Seignora Megara Paulus sat at the foot of the bed, stiff-backed and dry-eyed, but the look of concern on her face was obvious. In addition to the fierce loyalty that all the Palace Guardians had for their cornelle, their adventure together had infused tenderness into her feelings for her commander.

A set of chimes went off and the Medica removed the white sheet and began disconnecting all the sensors. Turning to Megara, she said, ‘All the procedures were successful, Seignora. I’ve mended all the cornelle’s cuts with skin grafts – there will be no scarring. She had three broken ribs. I’ve inserted titanium struts that will make her chest wall stronger than it was before. All the monitors indicate that the cornelle is in peak physical condition. Indeed, she possesses the most superb body and musculature I have ever had to honor to examine.’

She paused.

‘What more needs to be done, Medica?’ There was a note of concern in Megara’s voice.

‘Right now, she just needs another hour’s rest. I have set the timer and the chimes will sound as the effects of the sedation fade.’

‘Then you may withdraw, Medica,’ said Megara firmly. ‘I will stand watch and summon you if anything untoward occurs.’

The Medica nodded and withdrew silently.

Megara resumed her seat the foot of the bed, contemplating her commander’s naked body. Diana’s pale blonde hair was pooled in a silky mass around her face. In repose, her powerful musculature was softened and her features displayed the innocence of youth. Her full breasts stood out firmly and jounced ever so slightly with every deep breath, the nipples puckering a little. Her skin was flawless again – the Medica had indeed done a wonderful job. Megara recalled the multiple cuts, the heavy bruising and the accompanying purple and yellow discolorations that had marred Diana’s body when she had laid her on this bed just over an hour ago. Zon medicine was truly miraculous – the Medica’s hand was guided by the divine Hera!

A few minutes passed and Megara stood and approached her sedated commander. She stroked Diana’s silky blonde hair and sighed – ‘Ah, Cornelle Diana, you are truly a goddess for you are such a perfect creature! We all strive to follow where you lead.’

Diana’s sighed in her sleep – this slight reaction roused Megara further and she leaned forward and kissed the cornelle’s hair and then her brow. Before she knew what she was doing, her lips brushed Diana’s and one of her hands gently kneaded one of the impossibly full breasts. Diana sighed again and slightly arched her back, pushing her breasts more firmly into Megara’s grasp. Megara now took a breast in each hand and began to knead them with a will, the firm and rubbery mounds pliant under her firm ministrations.

She ran her tongue down Diana’s long neck and traced a thin pattern to one of the breasts, stopping only when she had a meaty nipple in her lips. She began to kiss and playfully bite at it, watching incredulously as it hardened and grew to an erection of almost an inch! She worked at it some more before transferring her affections to the other nipple, causing it to match its twin in dimensions. Diana sighed again, louder this time, but her body remained in repose, her muscles completely relaxed.


Still kneading the magnificent breasts, Megara kissed Diana again, this time forcing her tongue between her lips. Diana’s mouth opened hesitantly and Megara’s tongue snaked in, seeking its mate. She aggressively courted Diana’s lips, gently biting and sucking on them and twining her own active tongue around Diana’s passive one.

She paused, breathing heavily, and eyed her passive partner with glazed eyes. She could not stop now! She traced a line with her tongue again, this time through the tight valley of Diana’s cleavage and paused briefly at the swell of her belly. She ran her tongue into the perfect well of Diana’s belly button and then proceeded downward, slowing now and savoring the strengthening smell of Diana’s womanhood.

Diana’s pubic hair was downy soft and so pale as to be virtually invisible against her white skin. Megara’s own dark hair contrasted sharply with it as her tongue found Diana’s nether lips. She began to kiss and suck on Diana’s vulva, breathing deeply of the clean and slightly musky scent of the slowly emerging vaginal fluids.

Megara’s ministrations were adept and Diana’s sex drive was lusty and strong. Awake, she would have had an orgasm by now. But the powerful sedation kept her arousal exceedingly mild and she sighed continually, slowly oozing vaginal fluid, but did not mount to excitement. However, in ministering to Diana’s perfect body, Megara grew increasingly aroused. Soon her vaginal moistness grew to wetness and began to dampen the crotch of her uniform leotard. Still working her lips and fingers on Diana’s vulva and clitoris, her left hand worked her own clitoris through the thin uniform. She felt her excitement rise and her cries were muffled in Diana’s crotch. Suddenly she felt herself crest and waves of contractions wracked her. Her knees grew weak and she crawled on top of Diana, resting her face between her magnificent breasts, shivering in the afterglow of her orgasm.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

2.

The chimes sounded and on cue, Diana opened her eyes. Megara, showered and changed into a fresh uniform, leaned over her with a reassuring smile.

‘You look wonderful, cornelle,’ she smiled. ‘I will summon the Medica immediately.’

Megara proceeded to do so and moments later, under the supervision of the Medica, Diana swung her legs off the bed. She examined her naked form critically in a full-length 3-dimensional mirror on the wall. The Medica had indeed done a magnificent job. There was no evidence of injury. She was a little tired, but otherwise she felt great. She stretched luxuriously and sighed, feeling strangely sated. A complete combat uniform and set of arms were arranged on a table by the wall. She slipped on her wrist bracers and pulled on her thigh boots. Then she strapped her dagger to her thigh.

‘How long have I been unconscious?’ she asked Megara.

‘Just over two hours, cornelle.’

Diana signaled to the Medica to approach her. They embraced and rubbed nipples. The priestess’ diaphanous robe parted in the embrace and Diana’s naked nipples puckered up on contact with the Medica’s smooth siltex leotard.

‘Medica, I am greatly in your debt,’ she said. Even speaking formally, her melodious voice caused a flutter in her listeners’ senses. ‘I hope that I am in a position to repay you some day.’ 

She turned now to Megara. ‘Seignora Megara, what provisions have been made in sending diving equipment to Quinta Lady Alexandra?’

‘Captain Hebe had a photo-guided drone pod to dispatched shortly after our pick-up,’ she reported. ‘We have received a garbled confirmation of receipt.’ Megara paused awkwardly. Pre-occupied as it was with youth and beauty, the subject of death was not an easy one in Zon society. Megara gathered her wits and ploughed on.

‘ The ship’s bio-sensors picked up traces of a life-form in the vicinity of the cavern,’ she said stoically. ‘The traces faded and have now ceased. The ship’s sensor experts feel certain that this is Guardian Cara Henn. They believe she was seriously injured in our descent and that she is now dead.’

Diana had been expecting this but Megara’s words, bringing home the reality of her trooper’s fate still caused her to flinch. In her mind, the Guardians were the best of the best, the foremost flower of the sisterhood. To lose even one of them was an irreplaceable loss.

Megara continued in a flat monotone. ‘Captain Hebe has delayed the funeral ceremonies till your recovery.’

‘We cannot have the funeral ceremony for a Palace Guardian without a senior priestess present! I will proceed to the bridge immediately to speak with Captain Hebe. Megara, you will accompany me.’

They were on the bridge within minutes. The weather had deteriorated further and through the huge forward dome bright flashes of lightning could be seen all around them. The deck heaved and rocked beneath their feet. Hebe sat in the Captain’s command chair, but on Diana’s entry, she stood. They rubbed nipples and Diana took the command chair without hesitation.

‘Captain Hebe, we cannot hold a funeral for Guardian Cara without a senior priestess to officiate. I would prefer to hold it in the Temple of Artemis on our return to Atlantic City.’ Diana spoke firmly and clearly.

Hebe nodded. She sensed from Diana tone that there would be no arguing on this point.

‘We will, as always, support your endeavors in any way that we can, Cornelle,’ she said formally.

Almost as soon as she finished speaking one of the comm. officers called out, ‘Transmission from Quinta Lady Alexandra, Captain!’

‘On speakers!’ Hebe’s response was sharp. The mention of Alex brought a frown of worry to Diana’s face. The deteriorating weather played havoc with the transmission, and it was extremely garbled –so bad in fact, that it was difficult to recognize Alex’s voice.

‘Flash urgent … Aablar … custody … awaiting response …’

Diana’s decision was instantaneous.

‘Captain Hebe,’ she said. ‘I will rejoin Quinta Lady Alexandra immediately. Kindly photo-guide my rocket pack to the same coordinates as the diving equipment.’ She paused briefly and glanced at Megara. There was no need for verbal communication.

The raven-haired Guardian Seignora responded immediately. ‘I will join you, Cornelle.’

‘I hear and obey, Cornelle.’ Hebe’s response was mechanical. ‘A crew will await the two of you on the launch deck.’

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

3.

‘Hush, hush, Aablar,’ the voice became seductively mellow. ‘Don’t chastise yourself. I am here, look up and perceive me.’

Aablar looked up, the blood flowing freely from the gashes in his forehead. He blinked as the hot fluid got in his eyes and wiped it away with the back of his arm. He saw a tall elderly man clad in dark flowing robes girt with a broad leather belt. His full head of hair and long beard were snowy white. It was his bright twinkling blue eyes that drew attention. Right now they were soft and kind. He leaned on a long staff.

‘You have really injured yourself, Aablar,’ he continued. ‘First of all, let me heal you.’

With that, he raised his staff. A bluish light suddenly shot from the tip and Aablar felt warmth on his forehead. Just as suddenly, the light and the warmth faded. Aablar felt his forehead with this hand. The gashes and the blood were gone!

Now that he could see the source of the voice, his fear left him.

‘What kind of sorcerer are you?’ he asked boldly. ‘I have seen magic enough from the Zon and fear it not. Your claims about me are baseless, for you do not know me! The Zon are my lifelong enemies and I feel nothing but hate for them, one and all.’

‘Aablar, Aablar, I am your friend. I am your guardian. But right now I do not have time to explain everything to you. The huntress Lady Caitlin is dying. We cannot allow that to happen. You must dive and return to the pursuing Zon and bring them here. Their medicine can yet save her, but another hour and it will be too late.’

‘Why should I save this bitch? She would torture and kill me without hesitating for an instant!’

‘Aablar, we have not time now!’ The old man was becoming impatient. ‘You must trust me. The future of your race is in your hands. But you must trust me! Return and bring the Zon here. I will protect you from serious harm. The Zon cannot match my power. Look into my eyes! Can you honestly tell me that you feel no tenderness toward Lady Caitlin?’

‘Well, …’ Aablar hesitated.

‘Look at her! Even in her death-like repose see how beautiful she is! Her bright red hair, her lithe, strong body! And she is one of the most intelligent of her kind besides. But you are her match. You know that you want her love. But you can’t have it if she dies.’

‘What … what should I do?’

‘Dive and return to the Zon. Bring them back here as soon as you can.’

‘But they will kill me on sight!’

‘No, they want to save the Lady Caitlin more than they want vengeance on you. As soon as you break surface, call out, “The Lady Caitlin is dying, I need your help!”’.

Aablar approached the prone form of Caitlin and bent over her. He stroked her shiny hair gently. She was breathing fitfully, in shallow gulps, but her pulse was very weak. He turned from her and walked to the water’s edge and hesitated. He turned and looked at the old man, who now raised his staff again.

‘Go with confidence, my boy,’ he said mildly. ‘You won’t need a ballasting stone.’

Another jet of bluish light leapt from the tip of his staff and Aablar felt a warm glow all over him. His very skin seemed to radiate a bright incandescence. He took a deep breath and dived into the water. He sank quickly, much faster than he had done with the ballasting stone. But his body, even his hair, remained dry. Tentatively he opened his mouth – cool air rushed in! He could breathe! What magic did the old man possess?

It was now easy for Aablar to navigate the connecting passage and rise quickly to the surface in the other cavern. The sound of his breaking surface was enough to alert both Guardians. His quick eyes saw laser pistols trained on him from front and side. Following the old man’s instructions, he cried out, ‘The Lady Caitlin is dying, I need your help!’

Alexandra was in front of him and her voice was sharp, her pistol barrel steady as a rock. ‘Swim slowly to the edge and climb out. Make no sudden moves or I will slice off your arm.’

He did has he was told. As he climbed out of the water, he felt the warmth leave his skin and the when he stood up, the incandescence was gone. Alexandra approached him, her eyes cold and hard.

‘Guardian Dar-Ella, cut off a limb with you laser pistol if he makes any sudden moves. Savage, put your hands forward, wrists together.’ Alexandra’s sing-song Zon accent was even more pronounced than usual, betraying her tenseness. As soon as Aablar’s wrists were close together, Alexandra tapped one of her wrist bracers and he heard a buzzing sound, then a short, sharp stab of pain. He could see no restraint, but his wrists were stuck together – Alexandra had shot a micro force field of charged particles from the power pack in her wrist bracer. He worked his great strength at separating them, but he was could make no impression on the invisible restraint.

‘He is restrained, Dar-Ella, but keep him covered with your pistol and don’t go near him. I’ll try and contact the ‘Andromeda’.’

Alexandra was back less than five minutes later. Aablar turned his gaze towards her and his eyes were now pleading.

‘Please, huntress, you must believe me. The Lady Caitlin d’Orr is dying! You must come and help me save her!’

The two Guardians did not reply, but stood eying him with stony eyes, laser pistols unsheathed. Aablar saw that further entreaties would be useless. He was now at their mercy – and he knew that they would have none for him. Well! He steeled himself. He knew that in the hands of the Zon, his death would not be an easy one. He did not fear pain, he did not fear death, but he was saddened by the manner of his meek passage into captivity.

The huntresses were obviously waiting for something, but what? In matter of minutes, he was answered as rocket pack blasts were heard and then the clatter of boots announced the arrival of Diana and Megara. Aablar, who still bore the marks of his combat with Diana, looked at her pristine and unmarked body with amazement. Her helmet was burnished and shone in the bluish light in the cavern and her green and purple uniform was in perfect order. Her laser pistol and sword remained sheathed, but her eyes were as pale and as cold as ever.

‘Lady Death,’ Aablar gritted out. ‘Lady Caitlin is dying. You must help her!’

Diana’s sense of priorities was very clear.

‘Alex, get diving gear on this savage! Megara, get ready as well. Savage, you will lead the two of us to the Lady Caitlin. Hurry, hurry!’

So saying, she unslung her disintegrator and took up a diving canister from the stowage pod that had been photo-guided down to the cavern from the ‘Andromeda’. It was a small silver canister about six inches long that clipped onto her belt. It sprouted a long flexible hose with a mouthpiece that doubled as a breathing device as well as a link to her helmet communicator. Megara quickly followed her cornelle.

In the meantime, Alexandra approached Aablar warily, with a diving canister in her right hand and her laser pistol in her left. She circled around him so that his back was to her. He did not move, he did not seem to breathe and was as still as a statue. She came close to him and first jammed the muzzle of her laser pistol into the small of his back. This close, his great height and powerful musculature caused her repress a slight shiver of – what? It was not fear, it was not hate, she could not place it and she brushed it aside. Aablar was slightly taller than her, even in her thigh boots, so she rose slightly on her toes to hiss in his ear, ‘Do not move a muscle, savage, or I will be delighted to carve a chunk of flesh out of your side.’

With this she reached around him and clipped the diving canister to the waistband of his loincloth. She flicked the ballast switch on, so that it would ionize and attach a small balloon of heavier charged water to itself on being submerged. Then she took the mouthpiece and hissed, 

‘Open your mouth, savage! Clasp the soft section of this piece in your teeth.’ 

He was obedient, even docile. He sucked on the mouthpiece, surprised at the heady feeling of breathing pure oxygen.

Alexandra stepped away from him, surprised at her quickened breathing. Without thinking, she raised her right hand to her mouth. Aablar’s smell was extremely strong and some of the mixture of sweat, blood, semen and vaginal fluids (from his many recent couplings) clung to her fingers from contact with his loincloth. It intoxicated her to the point that Diana’s voice only dimly entered her consciousness.

‘Savage, enter the water! We are following you. Be aware that our pistols work just as well under water.’

After the long hunt and chase, the Lady Caitlin was recovered with remarkable speed. Even Alexandra and Dar-Ella, who waited impatiently, were surprised at how quickly they returned, Diana now bearing the limp form of Caitlin. Even as Diana reached the edge of the pool, Alexandra was there and together they gently laid her on the cavern floor. Alexandra began a vigorous CPR on Caitlin while Diana was still clambering out of the pool. Alexandra found her skin was cold to the touch and she had barely any pulse. She counted as she blew hard into Caitlin mouth and worked her chest cavity, just below and around her breasts. Pausing briefly, she stripped off Caitlin’s soaking deerskin halter. Then she tapped on her temperature shield and widened its band to create a cocoon of warmth around her patient. Diana now sat next to them, water streaming off her uniform, worry writ in her face. Still restrained, Aablar also came and sat by them, Dar-Ella and Megara overseeing him with drawn laser pistols.




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 10



Alexandra worked hard for several minutes before she was rewarded with a cough. Caitlin retched and brought up some water and coughed again. Her pulse became stronger and some color began to return to her face. Alexandra went to work again and finally sat up as Caitlin began to cough afresh, this time more strongly. Her skin was warming up and her eyes fluttered open. She became dimly aware of Diana and Alexandra and then of the cavern. Rotating her gaze, she saw the restrained Aablar under the pistol barrels of Megara and Dar-Ella. Life returned to her formerly vacant green eyes and soon they were fiery. She sat up.

‘I warned you that my sisters would hunt you down, savage! Now you will suffer!’ Caitlin’s voice was high with anger. But it was too much, too soon and she fell back, coughing and retching into Diana’s arms. Diana cradled her head in her lap, and stroked her damp red locks, saying, ‘Rest, dearest Caitlin. You was safe now.’

Turning to Alexandra, she said, ‘Set her in the field medical unit. Make sure that she is fit to make the trip back to the ‘Andromeda’ in a rocket pack sling.’

‘I hear and obey, Cornelle,’ said Alexandra, drawing Caitlin out of Diana’s arms onto an inflatable mattress even as she spoke. Diana watched anxiously as Alexandra began quickly setting up the field medical unit. Soon a shimmering warm high-oxygen field enveloped Caitlin’s body, replacing Alexandra’s temperature shield. She was breathing easily as Alexandra began attaching various probes. However, the heavy bruising to her face, neck, belly and other parts of her body stood out starkly.

Confident now that Caitlin was safe, Diana felt the return of cold rage and turned her attention to Aablar. He stood also, in anticipation and their eyes locked. Restrained as he was, there was no fear in his eyes, just a mute challenge.

‘Savage, if I had not promised to deliver you alive to the Princess Deirdre, I would roast you here and now,’ said Diana tightly. ‘However, seeing how insolent you are, even after we have caught your worthless hide, let me give you a taste of what lies ahead!’

Diana drew her sword with a flourish. Balancing it in a two-handed grip, she made a few quick passes with it, creating whistles whose counterpoint echoed in the great cavern. Suddenly, she moved forward and the sword whistled again. This time Aablar felt a sharp stab of pain as the blade cut his chest. Diana’s supreme skill ensured that the razor sharp blade barely broke the skin in a long vertical incision. Globules of blood began to pop out of the superficial cut and Aablar felt the warmth of the small trickle as it coursed down towards his belly. Then Diana swung again. She created another cut in his chest. Aablar knew that his slightest movement could cause Diana’s blade to stray and kill him. He also knew that she was toying with him, trying to draw an expression of fear.

He did not give her that satisfaction. Even as she swung again and again, each time drawing another tiny rivulet of blood from his chest, he remained calm and his gaze at her was steady and unafraid. Totally fearless herself, Diana was grudgingly impressed by Aablar’s own fortitude.

The cavern was warm and sweat began to run down Diana’s brow as she went through an advanced sword workout. Each rivulet of blood was very tiny, but combined the two-dozen or so cuts made Aablar’s torso quite bloody. The cuts stung, but did not unduly hurt. Aablar heard the note of the next swing and it was deeper than those before. Failing to draw fear with her exquisite swordplay, Diana turned her hilt and swung the blade broadside. She clubbed him on the side of the head with the flat of her sword. The violence of this blow made Aablar’s head ring and bright lights flashed before his eyes. The suddenness of the blow caused him to lose his balance and he fell on heavily on his side. He did not see the next blow coming as Diana swung her foot in a graceful arc and the steel toe of her boot smashed into his temple, sending more dancing lights exploding before his eyes. This blow forced a deep groan from him. He lay on his side and did not rise. Diana paused and leaned on her sword.

‘I look forward to your screams of pain, Aablar,’ Diana said, panting slightly and wiping the sweat off her brow.

Meanwhile Alexandra had completed her all the basic medical probes of Caitlin. She did not appear to be severely injured and a trip in a rocket pack sling would probably do her no further harm. Alexandra felt that the sooner they got her to sickbay aboard the ‘Andromeda’ the better.

‘Cornelle, we are ready to evacuate the Lady Caitlin,’ called Alexandra.

‘Quinta Lady Alexandra, use your zircon lasso to make a harness to double the Lady Caitlin back to the ‘Andromeda’ on your rocket pack’, said Diana, rapping out orders in staccato fashion. ‘Seignora Megara, you and Guardian Dar-Ella re-pack all the equipment into the drone pod and photo guide it back to the ship. I will handle the savage.’

In a matter of minutes, with the exception of Aablar, all was ready for departure. Caitlin was slightly groggy from the mild sedative that Alexandra had given her, but she stared at Aablar’s inert body and asked Alexandra, ‘Quinta Lady Alexandra, is the savage dead?’

‘Oh no, Lady Caitlin, Cornelle Diana has merely stunned him.’

As though to reiterate the point, Diana tapped Aablar’s head roughly with the toe of her boot. He rose slowly. The blood on his chest had congealed into a sticky mess. There was an angry bruise down the side of his face from the flat of Diana’s sword and a bloody cut on his temple from her boot. Alone, unarmed and restrained, in the face of the heavily armed huntresses, he looked beaten and Caitlin’s eyes moistened.

‘Did Cornelle Diana capture him?’ Caitlin asked Alexandra, as they walked towards the entrance to the cavern.

‘Oh no, he came to us to ask our assistance in saving you. Even with his feeble brain, he seemed to realize that your condition was serious, and that you would die without our medical aid.’ Alexandra spoke flippantly. ‘The repulsive creature really seemed concerned about you. He must have thought that returning you to us would buy him favor with us. I think your mother, the Princess, and Cornelle Diana will rapidly make him see the error in his primitive thinking!’ She laughed, but was surprised to find Caitlin unresponsive, with her eyes suspiciously misty. Like the Lady Althea, she must be in deep shock, she thought.

Aablar followed the others to the cavern entrance, stumbling slightly, prodded on by Diana’s sword. Megara and Dar-Ella fired the drone pode and took off immediately afterward on the photo-guided coordinates of the ‘Andromeda’. Alexandra powered off with Caitlin in a similar fashion a few moments later. Once on the ledge outside the cavern, Diana took a moment to restrain Aablar’s ankles as well before harnessing him to her rocket pack straps with her zircon lasso. Within a half hour they were all safely back on the launch deck of the airship.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

4.

Aablar was chained and confined in the prison hold. Caitlin was tenderly placed in the sick bay. Diana congratulated her three Guardians and dismissed them. As they were leaving, she called Alexandra back.

‘Quinta Lady Alexandra, I would like to go over some details with you before the official debriefing back at Atlantic City,’ she said. Alexandra stayed on Diana’s stateroom as Megara and Dar-Ella left. As soon as the door hissed shut behind them, she rose and the two tall Guardians embraced, fervently rubbing nipples, out of lust rather than formality. They stripped off each other’s clothing as they made their way to the power bath. Sinking into the foaming water, they kissed and their fingers explored each others’ bodies anew. Alexandra dived below the surface and her mouth found Diana’s cunt and clit. She sucked and probed with a prodigiously long breath, with Diana’s hands in her hair, urging her on. She was rewarded as her lover came with an explosive orgasm that surprised even Diana with its intensity. As Alex came up for air, Diana luxuriated in the rippling afterglow.

Then it was her turn to dive into the foaming water and service Alex, who also came with a climax powerful beyond her experience.

‘By Hera, we both came really hard,’ commented Diana, when they were cuddling under a heat canopy on Diana’s wide bed. ‘I must confess you, Alex, that savage Aablar is like no other I have come across in a decade and half of raids. He is powerful and dangerous, but he seems to exude some primeval power. Being in close proximity with him seemed to bring out my most primitive instincts. With him on my rocket pack harness, I really felt lust rising and could not wait to be with you.’

‘Just touching him filled me with base and odious desires,’ confessed Alex. ‘It must be the wild smell of him. He is so intensely MALE! He represents all the evil that the sisterhood has worked so hard to destroy. I hope that the Princess Deirdre and you will dispose of him quickly.’



Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 11



Fearing for Caitlin’s life, Aablar has been talked into given himself up to the pursuing Zon by a strange apparition. He has fallen into the hands of the ruthless Diana Tragina and her elite team of Palace Guardians. Even as the Zon rejoice, the election campaign to succeed Queen Hildegard rages on.

* * * * * * * * * *

1.

Caitlin, Althea and Leia were all in a luxurious suite in the sickbay of the ‘Andromeda’. Arrays of non-contact sensors monitored all their body functions and displayed them on screens to a Medica in the sickbay office. Nonetheless duty Medica Dannae Margell looked in on them every fifteen minutes. These were the most important patients that she had ever had. They had suffered so much! And Leia, a lost sister, recovered from the wild, intrigued her. It was like a story from the legends!

In spite of their sedation, both Caitlin and Althea tossed and turned fitfully in their soft sickbay beds, drifting in and out of sleep, occasionally emitting low moans. Leia, more heavily sedated and chained to her bed, lay still, with no sound except for her deep breathing.

All her life Althea had been meek, the youngest daughter of the Royal House of Spalding, whose brilliant mother was rapidly rising in the ranks of the sisterhood. From an early age, she had displayed poor athletic abilities, but superior intelligence. However, her dark hair in a society obsessed with blondeness, her relatively small stature and her looks – she was pretty, rather than classically beautiful – made her shy and self-effacing. She studied what her mother told her to. When the time came to serve her two years as an acolyte, Andromache chose Caitlin as a ‘safe’ huntress who would appreciate her daughter’s worth and not treat her harshly. It had worked well, and the two had rapidly become inseparable.

Then Aablar had roughly and unceremoniously entered their lives and their bodies. Now her conscious thoughts centered on the defining moment of her life so far – when she had decided to ally herself with Aablar and bear his son. Althea could clearly visualize his huge, powerful frame on the throne in the cavern, the naked Leia at his feet, licking and fellating his massive cock. She carefully observed how Leia arched her neck as she swallowed and with the grace of a sword-swallower, managed to engulf almost three-quarters of his huge length with her mouth. And she noted that Aablar’s hands in her hair guided her, up and down, up and down, Leia sucking as she swallowed, exhaling as she withdrew.

She saw Aablar motion Leia away and sit back in the throne, his rampant erection causing wetness in her cunt by its very sight. She could almost feel his cock-head at her cunt and she moaned softly, vividly recalling the pain and the pleasure as she had impaled herself, driving that huge cock into her cunt. Even as she lay in the sickbay bed, she grew wet and her breath grew short. Her right hand found its way to her wet crotch as her mind replayed the feeling of Aablar’s steel hard manhood in her vagina and of his rock hard chest against her nipples. In her sedation, her fingers felt leaden as she tried to manipulate her clitoris. Even so, she moaned again. Media Dannae looked at her instruments, shook her head in disbelief. Lady Althea had just had an orgasm! She quickly went to the suite and poked her head in. All was quiet now and the three girls were peaceful for the moment.

Althea slipped back into a fitful sleep, in that in-between state when dreams appear very real. She climbed down from the throne in the cavern, saying over and over, ‘Aablar, I will bear your son!’ Then there was the clattering of boots and Diana entered the cavern.

‘Althea, you carry the savage seed! I must purge you of it!’ she cried.

‘No, no, Aablar, save me! Save me!’ She tried to run from Diana, but her belly kept growing and growing and soon she could barely walk. Aablar just sat on the throne, immovable, like he was carved out of stone. ‘Aablar, at least save your son, if you care nothing for me!’ Tears streamed down Althea’s face now, for with her huge belly she could not even walk and sank to her knees. Then Diana towered over her.

Diana caught her by her hair and dragged her to her feet, simultaneously drawing her long dagger from the sheath in her thigh boot.

‘You are a shame to Royal House of Spalding, Lady Althea,’ Diana spat, shaking her like a rat. ‘You are a shame to the sisterhood! You cannot defile the pure Zon race with filthy savage blood. I will cut your sin out of your womb!’

As Diana’s dagger approached her vulva, Althea covered her crotch with both hands, crying out, ‘No! No!’ But the blade slipped between her fingers and she felt the cold steel in her cunt, the long blade seeking to kill her unborn son. Even as she shrieked, she felt her son struggle and die in her womb. As Diana withdrew her bloody blade, Althea felt torrents of her amniotic fluid stream out of her cunt, drenching her thighs and knees. And then she felt the first contractions of labor that heralded the birthing of her dead child.

Her eyes jerked open. The sickbay floor pitched and rolled as the ‘Andromeda’ rode out the storm. Periodically brilliant lightning flashes illuminated the dark suite. Her face was wet with tears and sweat. She was breathing with quick, shallow gasps. Medica Dannae’s cool hand was on her forehead.

‘There, there, you are safe now, Lady Althea,’ Dannae’s voice was soothing. ‘It was just a dream. The savage can’t hurt you now.’

Caitlin’s sleep was also tormented. It was heavy blow to her pride to be captured by a primitive savage. And even the pain of the rape, with Aablar’s huge cock stretching and bloodying her tender ass, was dwarfed by her humiliation in the eyes of her sisters. She wanted vengeance! She knew all the torture equipment in the basement of the Central Military Complex. She would take delight in personally killing Aablar by inches. Diana and her mother would be glad to give him to her, so that she could get ‘closure’ and resume her life. He would have days, weeks of agony until he begged her to kill him. Yes! Yes!

Another nagging voice arose in her head. Did he not have a right to hate her? She had participated in many raids on his people; she had blown ‘useless’ old men and women to pieces with her disintegrator. She had seen terrified young mothers huddling on the ground, trying to protect their children from her horse’s hooves and laughingly trampled them. She had helped to capture scores of prime age males. Then, after weeks of semen harvest, she had helped to herd them, exhausted and resigned, to the gas chambers.

Unbidden, an image of Aablar invaded her mind – toe to toe, locked in mortal combat with Diana. And then a second image – of Aablar lying bloodied and beaten at Diana’s feet. He had given himself up to save her life. She knew Aablar better than Alexandra – he was no fool and he had no illusions about the Zon. He knew that by saving her life, he was giving himself up to torture and a slow, painful death. Why? Why couldn’t he have just let her die? 

She heard the huntresses say that he was in chains in the prison hold. She knew what it was like down there – she had placed savages there in the past. It was unheated, so it would be terribly cold. His wrists would be shackled high above his head to a bulkhead of the prison hold, so that he had to remain standing. The Zon used old-fashioned steel chains to increase their savage prisoners’ discomfort. A large lump began to form in her throat.

* * * * * * * * * *

2.

Diana heard her comm. channel ping. She opened it. It was Hebe Nevis.

‘Cornelle, we have just received a flash communiqué from ‘Thetis’. Princess Deirdre and Princess Andromache are on board and on their way to meet us. They expect to be alongside within the hour.’

‘You want to attempt a mid-air docking in this weather/’ Diana was incredulous.

There was a musical tone as Hebe switched to a private secure channel. ‘It is not what I want, Cornelle Diana. I have been ordered to organize a mid-air docking to get the Princesses on board the ‘Andromeda’ at once. They have especially asked to meet with you and Quinta Lady Alexandra at a reception immediately on boarding and that the reception be beamed on the public comm. I imagine that you’ll be receiving official commendation as part of the election campaign.’

Almost as soon as Diana closed the comm. channel with Hebe, she heard a musical note indicating another secure incoming comm. She opened the channel and heard Deirdre’s smooth tones.

‘Diana, my love, I have been wrong these past years to doubt you. You have done us all proud.’

‘I did not physically capture the savage, Princess Deirdre,’ said Diana, slightly embarrassed to receive more than she considered her fair share of praise.

‘Nonsense, my dear,’ Deirdre would have none of it. ‘Two rocket pack descents on high elevations of the Claw Peak, with its abominable weather! Single-handed combat with the savage, while severely wounded! Safe recovery of both Lady Althea and our own dear Caitlin! I will see that you are awarded the Purple Garter for this.’

The Purple Garter was the highest Zon award for valor and was so rarely awarded that it had not been awarded in over a hundred years. While both she and Deirdre had won the Order of Merit, neither had won the Garter.

Diana demurred, still more embarrassed. ‘Princess, I do not deserve this honor…’

But Deirdre ignored her and went on.

‘Diana, I require yet another service from you.’

‘I am yours to command, Principal,’ said Diana formally.

‘You know that the Princess Andromache and I will shortly board the ‘Andromeda’ to congratulate you and all of your team on your great achievements. We are here as mothers. But you know full well that we are in the midst of a close election campaign and our future as a sisterhood depends on the outcome. Before I proceed, I would like you to declare, under oath, which one of us you support.’

‘Princess Deirdre, I assume this question is a formality. Regardless of our differences in the past, my support for you has never wavered. I swear under oath to the divine Hera that I support your bid for the throne and will do all in my power to further your quest for it.’

‘I never doubted you, Diana. But what I am proposing requires me to be sure that you believe in me. This visit to the ‘Andromeda’ will be on the public video comm. Nearly all of our sisters and certainly the vast majority of the electorate of priestesses and huntresses will be watching. Andromache favors reconciliation with the savages. I would like an incident to demonstrate to our sisters the threat posed by the savages in the most graphic terms.’ Deirdre paused here, but Diana made no comment, content to listen intently.

‘We should be ready to transfer to the ‘Andromeda’ from the ‘Thetis’ in about an hour. I would like you arrange our formal reception, as Pontifex Magna Maxima and Legion Principal, on the ship’s main view deck. At the height of the reception, before we make our speeches, introduce the savage in steel chains. Right now,’ and here Deirdre paused, ‘shoot him up with two or three units of cerebrus hypersteroid. I want him madly aggressive and I want him tugging and dragging Guardians hanging on to the chains on his collar. Ideally, I would like him to launch an attack on Andromache. You and I will prevent her from coming to any harm. Once the sisterhood sees this on the video comm. my warning speech will bring all but the most radical priestesses to my side.’

Diana’s mind raced. The plan was brilliant! But how much of this entire saga had Deirdre planned and how much had she improvised? She was lost in thought as she briskly strode down the companionways to the sickbay. Medica Dannae was still on duty in the sickbay office and looked up and smiled when she saw Diana enter. She stood up, parted her robe and raised herself on her tiptoes to rub nipples with the tall Guardian cornelle.

‘All three patients are sedated and resting, Cornelle,’ she said pleasantly. ‘Lady Caitlin required substantial skin grafts to prevent scarring, but had no internal injuries. Lady Althea and our lost sister Leia had very minor injuries. All three were very malnourished, however, so I have had them on intravenous fluids – their dosages should be complete in a few more minutes. The only thing that I am a bit concerned about is their mental state. All three seem extremely depressed, and even sedated, the Ladies Caitlin and Althea are disturbed and occasionally cry out. This is not my area of expertise – we have a trainee psychiatrist on board, but I would rather they saw a real expert in Repro on our return to the City.’

Diana nodded. ‘Your work is highly commendable, Medica. I will make sure to include your contribution to this mission in my report to the Council of Principals. What is your name?’

Dannae beamed with satisfaction. For a junior officer, this was very high praise. And to get into the report to the Council of Principals! ‘I am Medica Dannae Margell, she said, happily.

‘By the way, Medica,’ Diana continued casually. ‘Do you have any units of cerebrus hypersteroid on board?’

Medica Dannae blanched. ‘Cornelle, that is a controlled substance. I cannot prescribe it or give it out without clear medical necessity.’

‘Medica, I have absolute faith in your loyalty to the sisterhood. This is a matter that affects of the security of the Zon state at the highest level. I require three units.’

Medica Dannae stood stock still, but did not argue. ‘I hear and obey, Cornelle Diana,’ she said, finally. She left for the medical storeroom, returning a few moments later with three small glass vials. Diana drew a thin air pistol from a small pouch that was clipped on her belt, just in front of her laser pistol holster. She snapped open the finely machined ergonomic butt within which was a set of four steel darts. She selected one and unscrewed the base, revealing it to be hollow. She poured the three units of hypersteriod into the dart, one at a time and screwed the base back on. Then she smashed the three glass vials into a metal pan and handed them back to Medica Dannae.

‘Medica Dannae, make a note in your records. These three units were destroyed in the bad weather we are having.’ She left quickly and quietly.

* * * * * * * * * *

3.

Aablar’s wrists were chained so high above his head that he could not keep his balance as the ship pitched and rolled. He was constantly thrown against the limits of his shackles and back on to the bulkhead, so that the steel cuffs bruised his wrists. He shrugged off the pain, but he was weak from hunger. With no food in his belly and just wearing his loincloth and rough deerskin boots, the cold penetrated to his very bones and he shivered continually.

The old man said he would protect me from the Zon, he thought. But I never really believed him! Why have I done this to myself? But another voice arose in his head – the huntress Caitlin is safe, it said. For some reason this thought gave him comfort, even though he kept repeating to himself aloud, ‘Jondolar, my father forgive me, for I have failed to avenge you.’

Through the bars of his cell, he could see a tall huntress standing guard at the force field marking the entrance to hold. She was in a warm and brightly lit corridor and stood nonchalantly, leaning on her ceremonial halberd. Soon after he was chained in his cell, she had come into the hold and poked at him through the bars of his cell with her long halberd, obviously expecting to draw an angry response. The sharp tip of the weapon cut him and drew blood, but he did not acknowledge the pain or her presence and she rapidly tired of this pointless sport.

Suddenly, he saw her stiffen to attention and rap the floor with the shaft of her halberd. The familiar clatter of boots announced Diana’s arrival.

‘At ease,’ she said to the huntress on guard. ‘Take up station a hundred paces down the corridor, please.’

‘I hear and obey, Cornelle,’ the huntress touched her helmet with the shaft of her halberd and withdrew down the corridor, out of sight.

Even in his current state, Aablar had a hard time reconciling Diana’s melodious voice with her ruthless nature. He tried his best to control his shivering, concerned that she would mistake it for fear. She came to the bars of his cell and stared at him – once again they locked eyes, but neither spoke. Without ado, Diana raised the air pistol and fired. There was a hiss and then Aablar felt a stab of pain in his chest. The dart struck him high on the left side of his chest and the tip had penetrated his heart muscle, precisely as Diana intended.

She waited a moment to let the dart’s contents seep into him and entered the cell and withdrew the dart. Then she produced a plastic bottle filled with clear fluid and secured it to his forearm with tape. A rubber hose ran from the mouth of the bottle ending in a shiny steel needle. She stuck the needle into a vein inside his elbow and taped it on. Within seconds, she was back outside his cell again and clanging the bars shut. Without a backward glance, Diana left the prison hold and the huntress resumed her position at the entrance. The momentary stabs of pain from the dart and the needle dissipated quickly. Another Zon game, he thought resignedly.

* * * * * * * * *

4.

Diana, Alexandra and a squad of Guardians stood anxiously behind a recovery team of airship crew on the poop deck of the ‘Andromeda’. Hebe and her senior officers were on the bridge, using the ship’s engines to try and hold her steady – a task that required great skill in the furious storm. About a hundred yards away, the running lights of the ‘Thetis’ could be seen through the murk. Captain Rhea Candaris and her senior officers were equally engaged, trying to hold their ship steady. Both ships had their bright searchlights on and focused on the chasm between them. A glimmering green conduit could be seen, tracing a midair trail between the poop deck hatches of the two ships. Then the ‘Thetis’ hatch slid open and all free hands on both ships clicked on their magna-visions.

Princess Deirdre emerged from the ‘Thetis’ and stepped out on to the seeming nothingness of the force field conduit between the ships. Fully aware that multiple views of this scene were being played on the public video comm., she was in full ceremonial regalia, her tiara glinting in the beams of the ships’ searchlights. Her flowing red robes billowed in the gale force winds that sought to tear her from the narrow conduit and hurl her thousands of feet into the rocks below. She wore no safety harness and her step was steady, even as the conduit flickered and sagged with the electricity discharge of every lightning flash.

‘She looks every inch a queen,’ whispered Alexandra into Diana’s ear.

When Deirdre was about twenty yards away from the ‘Andromeda’, Diana signaled to the recovery team and they opened the ship’s hatch. Impulsively, Diana stepped out of the ship on to the conduit and reached Deirdre in a few long strides. On the unsteady conduit they embraced and rubbed nipples. 

‘It is with great pleasure that I welcome you, Princess Deirdre,’ Diana said, raising her voice to be heard above the storm. Deirdre laughed, a long silvery laugh and squeezed Diana’s arms.

‘You are such an adrenalin junkie, Diana,’ she said happily, but in a normal tone that was not picked up on the comm.

‘You and me both, Principal,’ returned Diana in same tone.

On the ‘Andromeda’ bridge, Hebe gripped the arms of her command chair. Her eyes, like those of most of the Zon sisterhood, were riveted on the scene playing out below her. ‘Lunatics!’ she muttered. On her own bridge, Rhea just shook her head in wonder.

Arm-in-arm, the two tall blondes stepped on to the poop deck of the ‘Andromeda’ and the hatch was closed behind them. All the Guardians and airship crew dropped to one knee and bent their heads.




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 11



‘Arise, arise,’ said Deirdre. ‘I am merely here to announce the arrival of your most important guest, the Princess Andromache Spalding, Pontifex Magna Maxima.’

All rose and as Deirdre took her place on the deck beside Diana and Alexandra, the ‘Thetis’ hatch opened again and this time a tall huntress in the uniform of the Pentheselia Legion stepped out. Andromache followed, covered from head to foot in a bulky jumpsuit, topped by a bubble helmet. She wore a leather safety harness with a long tether that was fed out of the ‘Thetis’ hatch. As she came on to the conduit, the huntress took her arm to steady her. The huntress continued to steady her as they made their way slowly along the conduit. As they neared the ‘Andromeda’, the recovery team sent out a grappling hook, which the huntress grabbed. As they got to the hatch, the recovery team hoisted both of them in with willing hands. Members of the recovery team quickly closed the hatch again, signaled to ‘Thetis’ to power off the conduit and unfastened Andromache’s bubble helmet.

‘Isn’t it wonderful to be here, Andromache?’ asked Deirdre. Then she turned to Diana. ‘Cornelle, please lead the High Priestess and me to the Royal Stateroom.’

‘I hear and obey, Principal,’ said Diana formally. She led the way, flanked by Alexandra. The squad of Guardians brought up the rear.

On the bridge, Hebe turned to her first officer.

‘Take us up to sixty thousand feet, Quinta,’ she said. ‘And set a direct course for Atlantic City. Flank speed.’ As the ship began its rapid ascent, the comm. began to clear and she opened a channel to Rhea. ‘Captain Rhea, I am returning as quickly as possible to Atlantic City. What are your orders?’

‘My orders are to return to allow my crew full participation in the election,’ said Rhea. ‘We will set our autopilot to your wing position, Capitain Hebe. Please make a note of our position.’

* * * * * * * * * *

5.

The main view deck of the ‘Andromeda’ was a huge flat deck, larger than a football field with a clear transparent dome, which straddled the entire vessel amidships. There were several small and large doors that led into it from fore and aft as well as several platform elevators that could raise personnel or material from lower decks. The storm was far below and behind them now and the sky above them was pale blue. With the exception of a skeleton crew flying the ship, virtually all personnel aboard were assembled by unit. The complement of Palace Guardians were at the forefront. There was the loud buzz of conversation and the air of anticipation.

Then one of the platform elevators sank out of sight with a whine. It reappeared moments later with Deirdre and Andromache, both now attired in their ceremonial robes with glittering tiaras and flanked by Hebe and Alexandra. Three gurneys were on the right of the platform, bearing Caitlin, Althea and Leia. A loud cheer arose from the gathered assembly and both princesses raised their arms in acknowledgement. Caitlin and Althea rose in their gurneys and waved. Leia sat up as well and stared at the massed ranks of the Zon wide-eyed with terror.

Alexandra drew her laser pistol, set its power to zero and fired a series of pure beams of light at the dome. The streaks of light bounced off the dome, refracted and created a rainbow-like spectacle. The Palace Guardians at the front of the assembly followed her lead and soon the view deck was alight with an intense laser light show.

The cheering continued until the laser show died down. It drowned out the whine of a second platform elevator that descended and reappeared to the left of the royal party. There was a collective sharp intake of breath as Aablar appeared. His wrists and ankles were shackled with heavy steel chains. He wore a heavy steel collar with two steel leads, one each held by Seignora Megara Paulus and Guardian Felicia Andrus. The Guardians also held long ceremonial halberds in their free hands. Cornelle Diana Tragina stood behind the three, a thumb hooked in her belt, a palm resting on her sword hilt.

Aablar felt strong and angry. The intravenous fluids Diana fed him had rapidly erased his malnourishment and he found it hard to stand still, continually taking a pace forward and backward, tugging at his steel collar. His eyes were bloodshot and a thin line of spittle ran out of the corner of his mouth. He constantly clenched and unclenched his fists and flexed his muscles. As the elevator platform locked on to the deck, he uttered low, guttural and menacing growls, and pulled harder on his collar.

A buzz of talk arose from the assembly, with scores saying that Aablar’s appearance confirmed their worst fears about him. Caitlin, Althea and Leia stared at him in shock – this was not the Aablar they knew! What had happened to him? 

The royal party crossed the short distance and approached Aablar, with the princesses leading the way. Deirdre carefully followed a half step behind Andromache, which was technically correct as the High Priestess preceded the Legion Principal in order of protocol. Andromache came within about six feet of Aablar and noted all the dried blood and bruises on his face and body – the huntresses had not treated him well! She also noted his great height and relatively fine facial structure. He looks so like his mother, she thought.

‘Aablar,’ Andromache intoned in the voice she used when presiding over ceremonies. ‘You will be treated fairly and well. We will show you the error in your ways. We Zon are powerful, but we are magnanimous as well …’

Aablar’s reaction was sudden, violent and totally unexpected by all, except Deirdre and Diana.

‘You lie, Zon witch!’ he roared. ‘After all you have done to my people, I know what you will do to me! But I will kill you first!’

With that he lunged forward. In addition to making him aggressive and angry, the hypersteriod had boosted his impact strength and the leads were torn out of the hands of Megara and Felicia. Aablar took one giant hop on his shackled legs and swung his huge shackled arms with his fingers laced together. He was even faster than Deirdre or Diana had expected. His blow struck Andromache on the jaw and lifted her clear into the air to crash on the deck a few feet away. The force of the blow was such that her limp body rolled over a few times before coming to a stop. There was a cacophony of screams and confusion in the assembly.

Andromache’s body was still in the air when Deirdre rapped out, ‘Stand back everyone!’ Then to Felicia, ‘Guardian, your halberd!’ Diana wordlessly took Megara’s halberd.

Everyone backed away from Aablar, who continued to growl menacingly and exercise his great muscles in a futile effort to tear his wrist shackles apart. He watched warily as Deirdre approached him holding the halberd reversed, with the heavy staff towards him. Behind him, Diana did the same. He backed away, eyeing both huntresses. But, with Aablar’s wrists and ankles shackled, it was a hopeless fight. Diana feinted and as Aablar turned to face her, Deirdre crashed the staff of her halberd on the back of his head. He did not go down, but whirled to face his attacker, emitting a bloodcurdling roar. Even as he turned his back to Diana, she struck his head again with her halberd staff. This blow dropped him to his knees. He tried to raise his arms to protect his head, but Deirdre’s second blow brushed them aside and the thud of the steel staff striking his skull carried around the view deck. This blow knocked him down to a crawling position. Both huntresses now began to methodically beat him to a pulp.

When his body was finally still, both Deirdre and Diana were breathing heavily from their exertions. Diana now touched her wrist bracer and trussed up his battered body in an invisible force field.

‘Seignora Megara, Guardian Felcia, take another four Guardians and place the savage back in the prison hold,’ said Diana, a touch of harshness in her melodious voice. ‘Leave him trussed in the force field even after you suspend him from the bulkhead shackles. Then get a Medica to make sure that he does not die.’

‘I head and obey, Cornelle Diana,’ said Megara with unruffled calm.

Althea screamed when Aablar struck her mother, but it was lost in the general bedlam. She swung her legs off the gurney and ran over to her fallen form, cutting through the gathering circle, saying with uncharacteristic assertiveness, ‘Make way, make way! I must see my mother!’

By the time she got to Andromache’s side, a Medica from the airship crew was already kneeling beside her, monitoring her pulse and gingerly feeling her jaw line. Andromache was out cold and looked peaceful, her beautiful heart-shaped face in repose, even as the injured side seemed to sag.

The Medica became aware of Althea at her elbow and answered her mute question.

‘Her jaw is broken, Lady Althea, and there may be other bones broken in her face. I don’t know whether there are any internal injuries, but we must get her to sickbay as soon as possible.’

‘Please use my gurney, Medica and hurry!’ Althea was beside herself with worry.

Two huntresses now brought Althea’s empty gurney through the crowd and gently lifted Andromache’s limp form on to it. Then, with the Medica, several assistants and Althea following, the huntresses wheeled the gurney to a small platform elevator and descended to the sickbay level. Within minutes, Andromache was in a high care medical emergency unit and a medical team began diagnostic, preventive, curative and reconstructive procedures. Althea was not qualified as a Medica, but had had considerable training, so she followed the medical team into their cleansing spray and posted herself as an observer as they began working on her mother.

Caitlin could not believe what she had seen. She too, leaped from her gurney and watched helplessly as both Aablar and Andromache were spirited off the view deck. Deirdre now returned to the elevator platform, squeezed her daughter’s shoulders and called for calm. It was a few minutes before calm was restored.

Deirdre’s breathing was still slightly heavy from her exertions and the excitement. Her eyes were bright, her breasts rose and fell and a fine sheen of perspiration covered her face. She had never looked more beautiful. The public video comm. was still open and virtually all of the Zon sisterhood now looked on with rapt attention.

‘My sisters on the cruiser ‘Andromeda’ – Princess Andromache and I came here to congratulate you on your wonderful work in recovering your sisters and our precious daughters. We also wished to communicate to you our competing visions for the future of the sisterhood. In the light of this terrible tragedy, I cannot take advantage of my dear sister’s absence to speak to you. Let us therefore adjourn with heavy hearts and wait for news of the condition of our dear sister, Princess Andromache, High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis.’

At this point, Alexandra approached Deirdre and whispered in her ear. Deirdre faced the assembly again.

‘I have just been informed that Princess Andromache has entered a medical emergency unit and procedures to return her to normalcy have begun. My sisters will share my own pleasure in hearing that her dear daughter, Lady Althea, is in attendance.’

Diana now took the center of the platform and called out, ‘Please disperse in an orderly fashion. The public comm. will remain open and developments were be continually available.’ She struck the elevator pad with her boot heel and with a whine the platform began to descend below the view deck. As soon as they were out of sight of the assembly, Deirdre drew Caitlin into her arms. They rubbed nipples. Deirdre’s delight was complete and unfeigned – her eyes shone and her happiness radiated out like a beacon. Diana observed her closely and thought, ‘No, she loves Caitlin so dearly, she could not have planned for any harm to come to her.’

Caitlin’s joy at seeing her mother again was unalloyed and washed away all other feelings for the moment. Almost thirty years apart in age, Zon health was such that they looked like sisters – indeed it was impossible to say which one was the older.

While mother and daughter drank in each other, their mutual communication was wordless and neither spoke. Deirdre merely made an aside to Diana, ‘Lady Caitlin and I will retire to the Royal Stateroom.’

They were soon by themselves in the Royal Stateroom – in truth a suite with a living room, a study, two huge bedrooms and a glamour bath. Deirdre went over and poured two stems of clove wine and offered one to Caitlin. They clinked stems and sipped. Deirdre spoke first.

‘Caitlin, I thought I had lost you. I felt like a part of me had died! Seeing you is like having a daughter all over again. My dearest, you must stay close to me for a while. I cannot bear to let you out of my sight.’

Caitlin came closer and ran her fingers down her mother’s long aristocratic neck, feeling her choker and the star denoting her rank.

‘When I was out in the wild and thought I would never see you again, the memories of our time together became sharper. I am grateful for all we have shared – I never forget how fortunate I am to have such a wonderful mother!’

They drained their wine, embraced and proceeded naturally to the wide bed. They cuddled in each other’s arms, glorying in being together again. But while they kissed each other tenderly, neither was in the mood for sex. They were lost in quite contrasting thoughts – each would have been shocked to know those of the other.

Deirdre was feeling flushed with success. Her plans had worked even better than she had hoped – the savage was shown to be unquestionably dangerous, Andromache herself had been injured and would have hard time supporting her position of reconciliation now. And she had yet to announce the coup de grace of her pregnancy! I must not grasp beyond my reach, she thought, but I am very close to becoming Queen. We are both descended in a direct line from the legendary queens of Atlantis – Hippolyta, Hypathia, Pentheselia – will it be Deirdre or Andromache whose name joins theirs in the history archive? 

Lying warm and secure in her mother’s arms, Caitlin’s thoughts returned to Aablar. In all the time of her captivity, she had never seen Aablar lose his composure and behave in the mad, uncontrolled manner he had displayed at the assembly. Was he driven to such irrationality by captivity? Did he hope to obtain a quick death and a reprieve from the agony of endless torture that he knew awaited him? What she did know was that each time Diana and her mother had struck him with their steel staffs, the solid sound of metal on flesh and bone had caused her to recoil. She had covered her ears to block out the horrible sounds. As they beat him, she had whispered, ‘No, no, don’t hurt him, don’t hurt him ….’ As Megara and Felicia dragged him away, her arms reached out as though to stop them and then dropped to her sides, helpless. I must see him, she thought. Soon.

* * * * * * * * *

6.

There was a musical note and Deirdre opened her comm. channel. It was Captain Hebe.

‘Pardon for disturbing you, Princess Deirdre,’ she began apologetically.

‘No need, Captain Hebe. What can I do for you?’

‘I have received word from the sickbay that Princess Andromache is out of the emergency medical unit and resting in a suite. She requests that you attend on her.’

‘Of course. Please let her know that I will attend on her as soon as possible.’

‘I hear and obey, Princess.’

Deirdre looked at the time. Two hours had passed. The rest had done her good – she felt refreshed and ready to go. Caitlin was still asleep. Deirdre looked at her and smiled. Her silky red hair was spread over the pillow and her relaxed and beautiful face made her look like an angel. My beautiful child, thought Deirdre. Soon you will have a sister! Deirdre decided to let her sleep – she had been through so much! But even as she looked at her, Caitlin stirred and opened her eyes. Seeing her mother standing, she asked, ‘Have you been awake long?’

‘Princess Andromache asks me to wait on her and I must go,’ said Deirdre. ‘I must get myself ready.’

‘Oh no, you can’t do that, Princess,’ said Caitlin, a note of formality entering her voice. ‘I know you have no handmaiden on board. Please allow me to serve you in that capacity.’

Deirdre smiled, her eyes sparkling. ‘My dearest child, I cannot think of anyone I would like better.’

She put her arms up in the air and Caitlin very efficiently stripped her clothes off. Then she engulfed her in cleansing mist from a mobile unit, waited a moment for it to dry and then quickly and expertly began to anoint her mother’s magnificent body with sweet-smelling herbal lotions and moisturizers. She began with an overall body lotion, massaged into Deirdre’s feet, ankles and long legs, up on to her flat belly and back and shoulders. Then she took up a fine herbal essence and massaged it into the folds of Deirdre’s cunt, drawing forth sighs of satisfaction. Next she took up a special breast and nipple cream that she gently massaged into Deirdre’s small firm breasts, finally working on the puckering nipples, tweaking them between finger and thumb to knead the cream in. The nipples quickly stood out to their full length, and Deirdre sighed again and patted Caitlin on the head, saying, ‘Good, good, my dearest girl …’ A final set of creams for her face and Deirdre was ready to be clothed.

‘I will wear another set of ceremonial robes, please, Caitlin’ she said. Caitlin picked the clothing out of a walk-in closet and dressed her mother. Finally she stood back and examined her handiwork.

‘You look beautiful, mother,’ she said.

‘Thanks to you.’ returned Deirdre. Caitlin merely smiled.

Embracing Caitlin once more, Deirdre left her and made her way to the sickbay. Andromache had been placed in the largest and most luxurious suite. She rapped on the door and on a query from within, spoke in a carrying tone,

‘Deirdre d’Orr, Principal of the Legion of Pentheselia!’

The door was opened immediately by Medica Dannae Margell, who had risen from monitoring the instruments connected to Andromache’s body, predominantly around her head and jaw, the area of her injury. The High Priestess was naked and Althea had been in the process of anointing her, for a bag of oils and creams lay open on a bedside table. Althea now paused and looked up as Deirdre entered. 

‘I come at your summons, Pontifex Magna Maxima,’ said Deirdre formally. ‘But I can wait outside till Lady Althea has finished.’

‘No, please be seated, Princess Deirdre,’ Andromache’s voice was low. ‘We will be done in a moment. I am pleased to find Lady Althea by my side and fully recovered from her ordeal. How is Lady Caitlin?’

Deirdre seated herself next to Althea and patted her shoulder.

‘I am pleased to say that Lady Caitlin is well and resting comfortably in the Royal stateroom,’ she said, and then turning to Althea. ‘Allow me to say that my delight at your safe return is second only to your mother’s.’

Althea bowed in her seat, but did not reply.

In a moment, Althea was done. Medica Dannae covered her with a thin sickbay gown.

‘Medica,’ said Andromache to Dannae. ‘Could you allow Princess Deirdre and me some time together, please?’

‘Of course,’ said Dannae, bowing deeply and withdrawing. Then Andromache turned to Althea, who stood and withdrew without her mother asking.

There was a pregnant silence, as though Andromache were waiting for Deirdre to speak. But Deirdre did not speak – she merely sat and crossed her long, elegant legs and waited, her beautiful head cocked in expectation.

‘Deirdre,’ said Andromache finally. ‘We both know that you had Aablar drugged. He was unfocused, just a waiting to attack the first one to approach him. The look of madness, the red eyes, the slight drool, the clenching and unclenching of muscles – the picture is too clear. Why did you do it?’




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 11



Deirdre’s eyes widened with shock.

‘What are you talking about, Andromache? How can you make such wild accusations? You have seen countless savages in semen harvest, but that is after they have been broken by the huntresses and are tractable for your priestesses. Have you ever seen a prime age male taken straight out of the field? Believe me, they are wild! And Aablar is the biggest and strongest we have ever encountered. I am sorry that we failed to protect you and you have my sincerest apologies …’. Here Deirdre got out of her chair, dropped to one knee and bent her head in supplication. ‘… but please don’t make such accusations.’

Andromache patted Deirdre’s silky head and sighed.

‘All right then, let us drop the subject. I am sure that you have been clever enough to use a drug that will leave no traces. However, I must say that I am disappointed in you, Deirdre.’

Deirdre did not reply immediately. After another pause, she said, ‘Dearest Andromache, you are in no condition to campaign. I propose that we request the Queen to remain on the throne for another few days, so we can postpone the election until you are ready to campaign.’

‘I accept, Deirdre,’ said Andromache faintly. ‘Please contact the Queen on my behalf. Thank you for your magnanimity.’

At this point Medica Dannae knocked and entered without waiting for a response. ‘I must ask you to rest, Princess Andromache,’ she said kindly, but firmly. ‘You are recovering from a very complex procedure.’ She bowed low to Deirdre. ‘With greatest respect, I must ask that you allow Princess Andromache to rest, Principal.’

‘I was just going, Medica,’ said Deirdre pleasantly. ‘Take very good care of her. She is a jewel of the sisterhood.’

* * * * * * * * * * *

7.

When Deirdre was gone, Caitlin had a quick shower and found a full set of one of her purple-and-green Queen’s Household Legion uniforms in the walk in closet. She dressed, and as she pulled on the thigh boots, she noted that someone had polished and replaced the dagger that Aablar had taken, back in the sheath. One of her pistol belts hung on a peg and as she put it on, the familiar weight of her laser pistol felt good on her hip. One of her formal helmets with tall purple and green plumes was on the shelf and she donned it, adjusting the polished chain-link chinstrap as she left the stateroom.

She walked purposefully to one of the elevator banks, acknowledging salutations from the few airship crew that she passed in the corridor. She took an elevator to the lowest deck and passed forward until she reached the very end of the long corridor. A single huntress of the Queen’s Household Legion was on duty. She wore the insignia of the Cohort of Palace Guardians and Caitlin recognized her from a raid the previous year. She touched her halberd to her ceremonial plumed helmet saying, ‘Greetings, Lady Caitlin. Praise Hera that you have returned safely to us!’

Caitlin embraced her and they rubbed nipples.

‘Thank you, my dear Felicia,’ she said warmly. ‘You did well in the dangerous task of bringing the savage back here.’

Felicia Andrus’ face clouded over. ‘I failed in my duty to protect Princess Andromache,’ she said disconsolately. ‘I will never forgive myself! I don’t know how the savage could have had the strength to get away from Seignora Megara and me.’

‘It was not your fault. He is crafty in a low animal sort of way and has enormous brute strength! Typical male! Ugly, stupid and destructive.’

Felicia nodded and Caitlin continued.

‘Has anyone been to see him?’

‘At Cornelle Diana’s orders, a Medica examined him soon after we shackled him. She said that he was weak, but in no danger of dying immediately.’

Caitlin hesitated and then plunged on. ‘Felicia, could I ask for a favor? I know that you are probably supposed to prevent any one from seeing the savage, but I would like a few moments alone with him,’ she paused significantly. ‘After all he has done to me, I would like to give him a little foretaste of Zon revenge.’

For a few moments, Felicia was nonplussed. She looked as though she understood Caitlin’s desires, but Diana had given her strict orders over a secure channel to see that no one saw the savage. Finally, she made up her mind.

‘I understand your desires. The savage must pay! But I cannot let you into his cell. Here, take my halberd. You can use it to reach him through the bars. But I must have your word as a huntress that you will not kill him.’

‘You have my word. Thanks for the halberd. Please take up station down the corridor, so you can truthfully say that you did not see us together.’ Felicia approached and rubbed nipples again before retreating down the corridor.

Caitlin powered through the force field into the prison hold. It was pressurized, but not heated and was as cold as she remembered. At sixty thousand feet, the temperature in the hold was well below freezing and frost had formed along the bars and bulkheads. Caitlin immediately tapped her wrist bracer to set her temperature shield and relaxed in the gathering warmth.

Aablar was chained as before, but now force field restraints bound his forearms, biceps, thighs and calves together, so he could barely move at all. His whole body was one big bruise. Blood still dripped from head wounds, and his face was swollen beyond recognition. His lips were puffy and broken and both his eyes were almost swollen shut. His whole body shivered violently, even though he tensed his muscles in an attempt to prevent it in her presence.

He tried to give her a crooked grin, but it came through as a grimace.

‘Hello, Caitlin,’ he said through chattering teeth. ‘Come to play with me? I’d rather you poke me with the sharp end of your spear rather than beat me with the round end.’

She looked at the halberd in her hand as though seeing it for first time.

‘No, no, I don’t want to hurt you,’ she said hastily. ‘They said you gave yourself up to save me. I had to see you. I want to help you.’

‘Then kill me, Caitlin,’ he said bluntly. ‘We both know that would be the greatest kindness at this point.’

She tentatively raised the halberd. He managed to stop shivering for a moment and looked straight at her, unafraid. Their eyes remained locked for several moments. Finally, the halberd drooped in her hands. She couldn’t do it! Instead she tapped her wrist bracer again to widen the band of her temperature shield. The warmth cascaded over him and he stopped shivering. But the warmth also intensified the severity of the pain that had been numbed by the cold. He gritted his teeth to prevent himself from crying out, but he did not entirely succeed and deep groan escaped his lips, reverberating around the prison hold.

‘Oh! You Zon are so good at torture! I will pay for fighting you. So be it!’

‘Aablar! I don’t want to hurt you!’ said Caitlin desperately, wishing she were a Medica. ‘I am only warming you to keep out the cold. I would not torture you, of all people! But you must listen to me. We are returning to Atlantic City. You will be placed in the dungeons of the Repro Institute and go through a semen extraction program with the priestesses there. They will treat you well and heal you, before returning you to the huntresses. We have some time – I will work on a plan to rescue you. But have faith in me! Don’t give up hope!’

Aablar looked at her, clenching his jaw to hold in his pain. Even in his agony, her loveliness shone through to him like a beacon. Unlike the cold, hard beauty of Deirdre and Diana, her beauty radiated warmth. He thought – the old man said she was born to be my woman.

‘I will wait for you, Caitlin,’ he said. He tried to smile, but on his ruined face, it looked ghoulish.

Caitlin quickly left the prison hold and her temperature shield powered down automatically. Felicia came down the corridor and she handed her the halberd.

‘Oh, you did well, Lady Caitlin,’ Felicia enthused. ‘I heard his cries of pain down the corridor!’

Caitlin nodded dumbly and hurried away. She trotted and than ran to the elevators and back to the Royal Stateroom. Once in, she darted into the bathroom and set the lock on the door. She leaned on the counter and looked at her perfect face and body in the holographic mirror. Her shoulders began to shake first and then a sob forced itself out of her dry throat. Then there was another. Finally, she fell forward on the counter and buried her face in her hands. She sobbed noisily and inelegantly, tears finding their way through her fingers and pooling on the counter.



Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 12



Fearing for Caitlin's life, Aablar has been talked into giving himself up to the pursuing Zon by a strange apparition. He has fallen into the hands of the ruthless Diana Tragina and her elite team of Palace Guardians. Even as the Zon rejoice, Caitlin finds herself unable to join in the celebrations wholeheartedly. In the meantime, Princess Deirdre uses the Aablar incident to good advantage in the election campaign to succeed Queen Hildegard.

* * * * * * * * * *

1. Parting her red ceremonial robes, Deirdre plumped her breasts through her tight-fitting red bustier. Then adjusting the silver chain around her waist so her short ceremonial sword hung just so, she knocked on the door of the command stateroom. Diana's melodious voice floated out, 'Enter.' Deirdre tapped the door panel and it slid noiselessly aside. Diana was sitting in her favorite leather club chair by a porthole, dressed in her combat uniform, except for the plumed helmet, that was on an end table beside her. When she saw her visitor, she immediately stood and came forward, saying, 'Principal, you need only have summoned me …'

'Oh, I have Caitlin with me in the Royal Stateroom, and I wished to see you alone. In just over an hour we will be arriving in the City, where you will make your triumphal entry. You'll be the center of attention and there will be no chance of privacy.'

Deirdre's recommendation of Diana for the Purple Garter had been passed unanimously at a virtual meeting of the Council of Principals held over the comm. As the recipient of a high honor returning from the field, Diana would be received with a triumph. This involved a triumphal march from the airport to the Temple of Artemis on the peak of the Acropolis, where there would be a service presided over by the Queen herself. In the evening, there would be a Triumphal Ball at the Chateau Reine, to which all priestesses, huntresses and their guests would be invited. Diana was still slightly embarrassed over the whole affair. 'I would rather have had a bar added to my Order of Merit,' she had confided to Alexandra. 'The Purple Garter is just too much for what I've done. I wasn't killed in combat for Hera's sake!'

But now as Deirdre parted her robe, she embraced her warmly and rubbed nipples, saying, 'You do me great honor, Princess Deirdre. How can I serve you?'

Deirdre remained in close embrace and ran her fingers through Diana's loose, pale blonde mane and traced the outlines of her fine cheekbones. Deirdre was one of the few Zon who matched Diana's height and her cornflower blue eyes were on a level with Diana's pale gray ones.

'Diana, you cannot imagine how I regret our falling out. It took this awful incident to make me realize how important you are to the sisterhood,' here she paused. 'And to me.'

She drew Diana even closer, feeling her full breasts with her own small, pert ones. Then she kissed her on the lips, her tongue probing and seeking response. Diana felt heat forming in her belly and descending to her loins. She knew that very soon she would be unable to resist the advances of the beautiful princess. She managed to break the kiss and step back, still with her hands on Deirdre's shoulders.

'Princess, you are dear to me and I ever aspire to follow your lead. However, now …'

But Deirdre stepped forward and continued to kiss her temple and stroke her silky hair, saying, 'Kiss me, dearest Diana. Oh, how I have missed you!'

'Princess, I …' Deirdre's hands now came around and began kneading Diana's full breasts through the thin lyntronex of her uniform leotard. Her nipples were already puckered and now quickly stiffened in response to Deirdre's expert ministering. When Deirdre's lips traced a path along her cheekbone and to her own lips, Diana's mouth opened and her tongue twined around her lover's. Her formerly inert hands buried themselves in Deirdre's honey blonde hair, holding her tight as their mouths worked on each other's.

It had been many years since Deirdre had experienced Diana's passion and it surprised her a little with its force. Diana's nimble fingers found the ties of Deirdre's bustier and impatiently unthreaded them till she could loosen the garment and pull it off. Then she reached under Deirdre's short red skirt and found her crotch, massaging it expertly through her thin thong panties. Within a few moments, she stripped the panties down and over Deirdre's knee-high laced boots.

Deirdre's hands were not idle and she found the clasp of Diana's belt and unfastened it. The belt, weighed down by the laser pistol, sword and other leather pouches, felt to the thick carpet with a muffled thud. Then she unzipped Diana's uniform leotard and pulled the garment apart, pausing to admire Diana's wonderfully firm breasts with her lips. Then she peeled the leotard off her shoulders and down over her thigh boots.

Minimally clothed now, their hungry lips returned to each other's, their bodies rubbing, breast against breast, nipple against nipple, mewing sounds escaping them as their excitement rose. Diana's mouth followed a path down Deirdre's long neck and to her firm little breasts with their eraser-like nipples. She kneaded Deirdre's breasts as she sucked on the nipples, causing them to become even harder. She dropped to her knees, her hands now massaging Deirdre's firm rump and her tongue tracing circles around the tiny swell of Deirdre's belly. She teased her lover, her tongue darting down to the edge of Deirdre's cunt and then back to her belly. Deirdre moaned, 'Oh Diana, Diana, you are driving me insane!'

Finally, she yielded to the princess's entreaties and her mouth found Deirdre's nether lips, kissing and sucking, her tongue darting into the tight orifice of her vagina. Deirdre lost herself to passion now, crying out, 'Don't stop, oh, don't stop my love!' These cries served to heighten Diana's own passion and she felt the wetness forming in her cunt. She transferred her attentions to Deirdre's clit, finally driving her up over the edge. Deirdre held Diana's head tightly in her grasp as she rotated her hips and came with powerful spasmodic contractions, crying out, 'Oh, Hera! Oh, Athena! Mother goddess! Oohh!! Oohh!! Oohh!!'

Her knees felt weak and gave way. She collapsed into Diana's willing arms. Diana nuzzled her neck and hair and half carried her gently to the wide bed. They snuggled and Deirdre's fingers traced the ridges of Diana's abs and then the edges of the red shield painted around her belly button. She was just beginning to work on Diana's cunt when Diana's comm. channel pinged. Deirdre kissed her and said, 'Ignore it, Diana, close your comm. channel for a few moments.'

Diana was sorely tempted, but demurred. 'Let me just see who it is,' she said, slightly breathless in her passion. She opened the channel and heard Alexandra's smooth tones.

'Cornelle, I am setting up the order of protocol for the debarkation at Atlantic City,' she said. 'As the triumphal victor, do you want to the savage in your control as we process to the Queen's dais?'

Alexandra's voice brought Diana back to the present.

'Yes, I will control the savage,' she replied, not completely succeeding in keeping the breathlessness out of her voice.

Alexandra's tone changed from formal to a softer, caressing one. 'Can I see you before we form up for debarkation?' she asked.

Deirdre's hands continued to work on her cunt and Diana felt her hot breath on her throat. It was difficult for her to think straight, with Deirdre's adept attentions. Finally, in a faint voice, she said, 'Come to my cabin in ten minutes.'

Diana closed the comm. channel and Deirdre ceased her ministrations, content to play with one of Diana's still hard nipples. She cocked a quizzical eyebrow.

Diana's expression showed traces of embarrassment.

'I tried to tell you as soon as you came in, Princess,' she said seriously. 'I have been thinking of going mono.'

'And I assume that Lady Alexandra is the lucky girl?' Deirdre made it sound like a statement, rather than a question.

'Yes. But I haven't asked her yet.'

'Mono' or commitment to a single sexual partner, with legal trappings with regard to the joint ownership of property was a well-established Zon institution. However, it was much more frequent amongst commoners than amongst the aristocracy and the huntress/priestess elite. Since children were brought by the State, the Zon had no need for a family unit. Temporary co-habitation was the norm, so that property passed from mother to eldest daughter with no complications.

Deirdre hugged Diana tightly and kissed her again on the lips.

'She will be lucky to get you,' she said sincerely. 'You are the best of us all. Oh! You have just returned to my arms and now you will leave my embrace forever!' Then Deirdre's eyes twinkled mischievously. 'You realize that if I become Queen, Alexandra will become my handmaiden, with all the requirements of that position?'

Diana flushed. "I was hoping that as Queen you would promote her.'

'Oh, she is much too young to be a cornelle,' said Deirdre. Then, seeing Diana's concerned expression, she relented. 'I am only teasing. Of course if I win the election, I will re-assign her.' She became more serious. 'Her mother and sister will take a dim view of this.'

A mono between Diana and Alexandra would entitle the Guardian Cornelle to half of the Scheel estate on Countess Dorothea's retirement. As an aristocrat of minimal abilities, highly placed commoners like Diana were anathema to her. Alexandra's younger sister, similarly undistinguished, would be equally upset.

Deirdre slid lazily out of bed, stood and stretched luxuriously, dressed in little other than her red boots, wrist bracers and choker. She put her arms in the air in mute command. Diana hurriedly got out of bed, got her bag of lotions out of the bathroom and proceeded to anoint Deirdre. She had just completed dressing the princess, when there was a knock on the door, signaling Alexandra's arrival.

'Anoint yourself in the bathroom, Diana,' said Deirdre. 'I will receive Alexandra on your behalf.'

Diana disappeared and Deirdre called out, 'Enter!'

Alexandra entered with a puzzled expression and bowed on seeing the princess. Deirdre beckoned her and as she approached, parted her robe and rubbed nipples.

'Diana is just freshening up, my dear,' said Deirdre blandly. She patted her maternally on the head and smilingly continued, 'It has been so long since I have seen you informally, Alex. I remember you playing with Caitlin in the d'Orr palace when you were a young girl. Now look at you – a Quinta in the Cohort of Palace Guardians, handmaiden to the Queen! Dorothea must be so proud of you.'

Alexandra blushed with pleasure under the princess' praise. In truth, Dorothea was rather jealous of her daughter's success. Alexandra often envied Caitlin her glamorous mother.

Moments later Diana emerged from the bathroom, thumbs hooked in her gun-belt, and Deirdre took her leave.

As soon as they were alone, they embraced fervently and kissed with passion. Diana's passion was stored up and she would very much have liked to make love, but she knew that time was now short. She wanted to speak to Alexandra before they arrived back in the City.

Diana spoke first. 'Alex, by now you know how much I care for you. I have a very serious question for you and please don't feel constrained to answer me immediately. I would like to ask you to go mono with me.'

Alexandra's face lit up further and her smile was incandescent. So before she could answer, Diana continued. 'Before you answer, please think about the difference in our positions. Think about the reaction of your mother, who may well cut off your allowance till she retires. You must know that I could not live under her thumb in the Scheel mansion. You would have to live with me in my quarters in the Legion barracks.' Here she paused again. 'But I do love you, Alex and I offer you everything that is mine.'

Alexandra's eyes continued to shine. 'Oh, Diana, I would live with you in the Northern wastes if that were necessary! This is the happiest day of my life! Of course I will go mono with you! I will! I will!'

* * * * * * * * * *

2. Captain Hebe Nevis was in the command chair as the 'Andromeda' began her final approach into Atlantic City. Above, Captain Rhea Candaris held the 'Thetis' on a circular course at ten thousand feet waiting for the larger airship to touch down. All of the distinguished company on board were on the bridge – Princesses Deirdre and Andromache sat in check captains' chairs, while Cornelle Diana and Quinta Lady Alexandra stood in full combat uniforms on the overlooking flying bridge. Hebe noted that the apron of the Atlantic City airport was bare – all the other four Zon airships were away bringing eligible Zon voters and curious commoners back to the capital for the election. Before taking over the con from her first officer, she stood to face her august passengers.

'Princesses, we are now in our final approach to Atlantic City. I suggest that you join the honor guard on the launch deck to prepare for debarkation. The Queen's reception party is at the airport. Princess Andromache, will you require assistance?'

Andromache shook her head. Nonetheless, as she stood up, Deirdre came and took her elbow. The 'Andromeda''s descent was as smooth as silk and she gently waved Deirdre away. Her step, however, was delicate. The medical procedure she had undergone was a serious one and she was still slightly sedated to ward off the pain of the repairs that had fused her jaw and cheekbones back into their original form.

Hebe now concentrated on bringing the huge airship in for landing, a very delicate and skillful task. The 'Andromeda' was well over a thousand tons and had to be landed with her keel precisely positioned on a prepared landing pad.

Neither princess had a handmaiden on board, so Diana and Alexandra quickly clambered down the steps from the flying bridge and took up positions behind them. Diana, the senior officer, took up station behind Andromache, who was the senior of the two in Zon protocol. Alexandra, quite used to this position since she served as the Queen's own handmaiden, took up station behind Deirdre. The four of them made their way down the companionway to the central elevator bank of the ship.

'Deirdre, we should agree on a recommendation to the make to the Queen regarding our lost sister, this Leia,' said Andromache as they walked.

'She has actively participated in an assault on the sisterhood,' said Deirdre grimly. 'She has committed treason, which is a military offense so she will come up before a military tribunal.'

'Treason is also a capital offense,' said Andromache gently. 'Do you really want her shot?'

Deirdre was silent for a moment.

'No,' she admitted finally. 'She was born in the wild and knew nothing else. A shame we did not find her when she was younger! Now, I understand from Medica Dannae that she is almost three months pregnant and the fetus was almost certainly fathered by the savage Aablar.' 

'It is also male,' said Andromache. 'Since I find you sympathetic, Deirdre, I suggest the following. My priestesses will guide her through a gentle period of re-programming. She knows and trusts Medica Dannae, who is a priestess of the Temple of Artemis. Let us place her with Althea, under the wing of Dannae. They can recover together. I will arrange for Dannae to abort Leia's fetus under general anesthetic, so that she can be led to believe that she miscarried. I am confident we can re-integrate her into the sisterhood.'

Deirdre was doubtful.

'Medica Dannae is not a psychiatrist,' she said. 'Don't you think that Lady Althea should see one?'

'Do you think that Lady Caitlin should see one?' Andromache's tone was slightly teasing.

'No, I suppose you are right. Both Caitlin and Althea can have a minimal psychiatric screen and we can decide on that basis whether they need anything more.'

They had descended to the launch deck now. Both squads of Palace Guardians on board were arrayed in ceremonial combat uniforms with highly polished plumed helmets and swords. They all had their horses, with splendidly turned out tack. Seignora Megara held the bridle of Diana's huge stallion in addition to her own horse. Alexandra's horse was hitched to a D-ring on a bulkhead. Guardian Felicia Andrus held one of the reserve horses that had been readied for Princess Deirdre and had a blanket and plumes in the colors of the Pentheselia Legion.

All the Guardians and other airship crew dropped to one knee on the entrance of the princesses. Andromache bid them to rise. There was a ground speeder anchored just by the main hatch and both Leia and Althea were in it along with Guardian Dar-Ella who sat in the driver's seat. The speeder's wings flew flags with the arms of the Temple of Artemis and of the Royal House of Spalding. The front seat was vacant and awaited Andromache. Even as the party proceeded on to the launch deck, the voice of Captain Hebe's first officer came over the ship's comm. 'Five minutes to touchdown.'

Andromache smiled and took her place in the speeder at the head of the debarkation party. Diana turned to Deirdre, saying, 'Princess, I beg of you to take my horse, it is improper for your highness to ride a reserve stallion.'

'Nonsense, Diana,' returned Deirdre with a smile. 'Today is your triumph. You must show how glamorous the foremost huntress of the sisterhood is!'

Alexandra had disappeared for the moment from the launch deck. Now she returned with two other huntresses, holding the lead chain to Aablar's collar. Again his wrists and ankles were shackled, but this time he appeared much more docile. He walked with a painful shuffle – every step was agony. His swollen and disfigured face drew a collective gasp. Alexandra handed the lead to Diana, her left hand on the butt of her laser pistol. But Aablar remained meek. Caitlin, attired in the formal combat uniform of the Household Legion and holding another reserve horse, watched intently from the rear of the launch deck.

'One minute to touchdown,' the first officer came on the ship's comm. again. Everyone on the launch deck mentally counted down the seconds and then there was an amazingly gentle bump as Captain Hebe set the huge airship's keel down on the landing pad stays.

There was now a flurry of activity as the huntresses all mounted their horses and formed up behind the speeder. As Dar-Ella started the engine of the speeder, the huge main hatch began to open with a whine. The speeder led the way down the ramp, Dar-Ella driving it at a slow walking pace. As soon as it was clear of the shadow of the airship, Andromache stood on the small reviewing platform that slid out of the dashboard. Aablar shuffled a few paces behind the speeder, the long lead chain from his collar arcing up to Diana's left hand on her magnificent white stallion. Deirdre rode behind Diana and the Guardian cavalry squads rode behind her.

Huntresses cordoned off the airport apron and behind them was a huge crowd – almost the entire population of Atlantic City had turned out to witness the Triumph. In front of the huntress cordon was a smaller crowd of huntresses, priestesses and commoners related, mono'ed or co-habiting with returning personnel. In front of this crowd was a raised dais with two steps leading up to it. On it was gilded throne and several lesser seats. The Queen and all senior Zon dignitaries were on the dais. As soon as Andromache's speeder emerged from the airship, the Queen rose and all the dignitaries followed suit. A roar erupted from the crowd. A second, louder roar, as well as cries of 'Cornelle Diana! Hurrah! Our champion!' arose as Aablar and Diana came into view. As the mounted huntress squads came into view, the crowd began a raucous rendition of the Zon anthem:




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 12



'We are the Zon, daughters of Artemis

Beautiful, strong, brave and true!

Our hearts are fixed on fair Atlantis

Her Olympian heights and her oceans blue.

With our might, our rule, our sway, our law,

Males and lesser beings, we overawe!'

As the procession from the airship approached the dais, Diana called out, 'Huntresses, present arms!'

She drew her sword with a flourish and held it vertical, with the hilt an inch from her nose. Every huntress behind her did the same. The crowd loved the pomp and pageantry – and they cheered lustily. Everyone seemed to have a favorite and there was much gesticulating and pointing. Those in the smaller crowd of relatives were particularly vociferous, looking for and in many cases seeing their loved ones. The mounted Guardians, however, betrayed no emotion whatsoever.

The Queen, a veteran of many such military reviews, raised both arms and called out, 'Welcome home, my daughters! We are pleased to see such a fine presentation.'

Diana now called, 'At ease!' and the swords were sheathed with the same flourish with which they were drawn. She began her triumphal invocation.

'Your majesty,' she proclaimed in her melodious and carrying voice, 'No matter what dangers we face in the field, we always feel the shelter of your warm, maternal embrace, constantly guarding and protecting us. We salute you and present you the savage who has committed such vile crimes against our beloved sisters.'

Aablar was in front of Diana's huge stallion, only about five yards from the dais. A gust of wind brought the strong smell of those on the dais to his sensitive nostrils and it immediately conjured up strong images from his infancy. As an infant, he had bonded with his mother and her smell was indelibly imprinted on his brain. Thousands of years of civilization had dulled this sensitivity in the Zon, but for the Neanderthals it was a survival skill. Aablar became a bit restive and began to pull on his collar. Diana glanced down at him – the drugs had long since worn off, what was the matter with the savage? 

Hildegard, clad in her formal diaphanous robes, and wearing the ancient Zon crown, raised her scepter, stepped forward to edge of the steps on the dais and intoned,

'Cornelle Diana Tragina, the Council of Principals has unanimously recommended to us that you be invested with …' here she hesitated ever so slightly as her gaze, which she had purposely kept away from Aablar, accidentally strayed and caught a glimpse of his beaten and battered form. The pain of this sight almost caused her to lose her composure, but she steeled herself and prepared to continue.

Another gust of breeze and this time, he was sure – it was the ash blonde Zon with the crown. He glanced up at Diana and saw that she was preoccupied with the Greca speech that meant nothing to him. He gathered his remaining strength and suddenly lunged forward, as he had on the airship. This time, it was Diana who was not prepared and the lead was torn from her hand! Aablar reached the dais with two huge hops.

The entire assembly was paralyzed. Only Diana reacted instantly. She drew a heavy bullwhip from her saddle-scabbard and the lash whistled through the air, flogging Aablar precisely, laying his back open from right shoulder to left hip. This pain made the blunt blows of the steel staffs feel mild by comparison – he felt as though he had been cut in two. He screamed and fell forward on the two steps of the dais, his shackled arms reaching forward towards his mother. Diana's stallion snorted and reared as she raised the bullwhip again. She had just begun her stroke, aiming to cut a giant X into his back, when Hildegard's commanding voice cut through the babble.

'STOP, Cornelle!' She pointed her scepter at Diana like a sword and her voice lashed out like the bullwhip. Diana stopped her stroke and the lash of the whip hit the ground beside her. She patted her horse and whispered in his ear, calming him.

Aablar raised himself to one elbow and looked up into Hildegard's eyes. For the briefest of instants he saw the true depths of her love and then it was as though a steel curtain were drawn over her feelings. His back was bleeding freely now and he began to feel faint. With a Herculean effort, he managed to speak in a loud and carrying voice.

'O Queen of the Zon, I acknowledge you as my Queen. I am your slave.' Then his rough and calloused hands grasped her ankles. Diana instantly drew her laser pistol, but the Queen's scepter remained pointed at her, holding her in check. With incredible gentleness, he traced the contours of her delicate feet through her open thonged sandals. He fell forward on his chest and kissed her toes, one by one. Then he spoke again. 

'Command me, your majesty,' he said loudly. Then in the lowest whisper, that she strained to hear and did not carry even to her handmaiden standing but four paces behind, 'Dearest mother, I love you. Do not grieve – my death was written thus on the day I was born.'

Consciousness left him and his head fell on his arms, his fingers still touching Hildegard's toes. The queen swung around imperiously and her voice lashed out again, this time at one of the senior priestesses from Repro on the dais.

'Put together a medical team and transport this savage to Repro! Immediately! He is in no condition to march in the Triumph.'

There was rising buzz of consternation from the crowd. For a savage to recognize and bow to the Queen of the Zon! This had never happened before! Many of the commoners did not understand the savage tongue and myriad translations were done. The formal procession remained frozen in place while a medical team from Repro put Aablar into a portable medical unit and loaded him into a speeder for transport to Repro. Diana swiveled in her saddle and signaled to Seignora Megara Paulus and Guardian Felicia Andrus. They slipped out of the ranks and trotted after the medical speeder. As soon as they were through the crowd, they broke into a full gallop to reach Repro and mount guard on the unpredictable savage.

The Queen now raised her arms again for calm. The buzz of conversation died away, as the packed assembly eagerly awaited her words.

'Cornelle Diana Tragina,' the Queen began again, without the slightest tremor in her voice. 'On the recommendation of the Council of Principals, I am pleased to appoint you to the Order of the Purple Garter.' She held out her hand and her second handmaiden, Seignora Stacia Dragova placed the purple garter in it. Diana swung down from her horse, ascended the two steps to the dais and dropped to one knee in front of the Queen, bending her head forward. The Queen bent and fastened the garter on Diana's upper right thigh, just above her thigh boot.

'Arise, sister. You are in the noblest company of Zon history.' Diana rose. The Queen parted her robes and they rubbed nipples. She put her arm around Diana's slender waist and turned to face the huge crowd behind the dais.

'I hope to see you all at the Temple of Artemis at noon for the Triumphal service,' she called out. Then to Diana, privately, 'I will receive your Triumphal procession on the steps of the Chateau Reine, Cornelle. Once again, my congratulations and thanks.' They rubbed nipples again and then Seignora Stacia escorted the Queen to her speeder. Diana returned to her horse and mounted and called out, 'Company, form up! Single time, forward!'

The crowds now rushed to find the best spots on the main Olympian Way that led up to the Acropolis.

* * * * * * * * * *

3. The triumphal service was over and Dannae and Leia had just had a quick meal in the Medica's quarters in the lower town. Leia sighed with contentment.

'Dannae, that is the best meal I have ever eaten. You are too good to me.'

Dannae laughed good-naturedly. It was not in her nature to be devious and she was taking a genuine liking to this wild thing.

'Come, Leia, you have much to learn. I will take you on a short tour of the City and then we will go to Repro to give you a overall health check.'

'Oh, you need not do that,' Leia laughed. 'I am very healthy. The medicine woman in the Clan of the Stag always said I was never sick.'

'Oh, I think we know a bit more than the medicine woman,' Dannae said, not pursuing the point.

Atlantic City was built on a ridge with its acropolis on a commanding peak. All around were thirty to forty foot high walls with wide ramparts, built hundreds of years previous during the first tenuous years of Zon colonization. Even the 'lower' town was on a height and mountain slopes dropped away thousands of feet on all sides of the City. It was several miles from end to end, but only about half a mile across.

Dannae took Leia to see the Holographic Historical Record, where she saw graphic holograms of women being beaten and bloodied by drunk and unkempt men.

'Those were the earliest times on Atlantis, our home planet,' Dannae told her. 'The Dark Ages were the period of patriarchy when Men ruled. You can see the awful lot of our poor foremothers. See how the men fight and kill each other as they compete for dominance. The male does not know the meaning of cooperation.'

There were holograms of a women chained to fences and then others in official roles – the Age of Transformation. Finally holograms depicted only women in positions of power and authority with men in subservient roles. But in contrast to the Dark Ages, the men were well treated and cared for. Finally, in holograms depicting Modern Times, men had disappeared.

From the Historical Record they proceeded to The Flight Memorial. Here they saw holograms of gallant priestesses and huntresses laboring together to build and equip a huge spaceship. The account of the long space flight with its details of suspended animation made no sense to Leia's uneducated mind, though Dannae tried to explain it as a kind of hibernation like bears in the winter. In the middle of the Memorial was a huge metallic cylinder, more than a hundred feet in diameter and hundreds of feet high. A low hum emanated from it. Large metallic tubes were attached to it on all sides and each tube fed into a low concrete blockhouse. Leia gazed at it in awe.

'Is this your God?' she asked in a small voice.

Dannae laughed. 'You could call it that,' she said. 'This is the engine of the great spaceship that brought our foremothers to Eartha over five hundred winters ago. It provides us with almost all our power. From the huge power packs in our airships and factories to the tiny power packs in our wrist bracers and chokers, all of them are recharged by power from this great engine. Our foremothers on Atlantis built it and we priestesses have been trying to understand how they did it for hundreds for years – but we still don't know how it works. So I guess it is like our God!'

Dannae now gently guided Leia into the street. She had used to comm. to call Repro and a team was setting up in a medical unit to abort Leia's fetus. She had about half an hour to kill, so she took Leia to one of her favorite cafes. She ordered two mugs of katsch and some sweet rolls. Leia bit into them hungrily and was about to take a big gulp from her mug when Dannae intervened.

'It's very hot,' she said. 'Blow on it and sip it.' She demonstrated. Leia mimicked her – she was a quick study.

'Oh, Dannae, I am so glad to see you,' the voice was breathless as it interrupted them.

Leia looked up to see a short, pleasantly plump woman with a round face and auburn curls. Dannae obviously knew her and smiled, but without warmth.

'Clodine, how nice to see you,' she said coolly. She could hardly believe that this commoner had been her lover. But she was thinner then, she thought.

'May I join you?' she asked and drew up a chair and sat down without waiting for a response.

A waitress came by and she ordered katsch as well, but asked for a klava – a

slightly alcoholic and very rich topping. When the waitress was gone, Clodine leaned over and embraced Dannae, forcing her to rub nipples. She would have kissed her on the lips, but Dannae averted her face gracefully and accepted a warm kiss on the side of her throat.

'I was so delighted to see you arrive on the 'Andromeda',' Clodine said excitedly. 'You were such a wonderful sight, all the huntress squads in their dazzling uniforms and you in your formal priestess robes! I pointed you out to everyone. And they say that you attended on the Lady Caitlin, the Lady Althea and the Princess Andromache herself!'

As Clodine prattled on, her katsch arrived and she began to sip it. Finally she noticed Leia, who was now antiseptically clean, fragrantly anointed and dressed in a tight halter top and panty-skirt borrowed from Dannae. She leaned toward Dannae and whispered in her ear, rudely and obviously.

'Is this the savage girl?'

The Greca meant nothing to Leia, but Clodine was so obvious that she knew that she was being talked about. She blushed and Dannae's eyes grew grim.

'She is our rescued sister, yes,' she said tightly.

Clodine surveyed Leia briefly – amongst the Zon, her blonde beauty was not unusual. Her interest returned to what she considered most important – herself.

'Dannae, I am so pleased that you have such highly placed friends now. I need your help. You will not believe this, but the Beauty Board has rejected my appeal. They have signed an order deporting me to Ostracis! I am barely thirty! I am just as pretty as the next girl. But you know that – you will get Lady Caitlin or Princess Andromache to intercede with the Board, won't you?'

Obsessed as they were with physical beauty, all Zon were tested for weight and fitness every six months. Three consecutive failures led to forced early retirement and deportation to the Ostracis Citadel. Clodine had always struggled with her weight – she had no self-control and constantly gorged herself on sweets and then starved herself. Even when she was Dannae's lover, she had failed Beauty Tests. But she had managed to avoid failing three in a row. Obviously now her luck had run out. With her record of past failures, it was no surprise that her appeal had been turned down.

The pudgy face with its look of childish confidence disgusted Dannae. It was even worse in contrast with Leia's sleek good looks.

'I am sorry Clodine, but you have had many, many warnings. You have been failing your Beauty Tests for years. With your record, there is nothing I can do.'

Clodine's face fell.

'But you must help me,' she cried piteously. 'I will die in Ostracis. It is not my fault that I don't have classic Zon beauty. Many girls think I am beautiful in my own way! You loved me yourself once!' Tears sprung from her eyes.

Dannae hardened her heart. 'I am sorry Clodine, but you must leave us now. We have important business to attend to.'

Clodine began to snivel. 'I was good enough for you when I was young and nubile, but now I am not good enough for Medica Dannae, the great priestess of Artemis!' 

She downed her katsch and stood. She began wringing her hands and sobbing aloud. 'Oh, what will become of me? Dannae, you are my last hope! How can you forsake me like this? I will do anything for you, anything! Anything that this savage bitch will do and more …' 

She carried on in this vein, leaving Dannae nonplussed and Leia bemused. Another patroness of the café, a huntress in the uniform of the Pentheselia Legion rose, came up and took Clodine by the arm.

'Is this woman bothering you, Medica?' she asked solicitously.

'I am afraid so, Trooper,' Dannae said, a note of regret in her voice.

The huntress's steely grip on Clodine's arm tightened.

'Please come with me, miss,' she said to Clodine with stiff politeness.

'No! No!' Clodine began to struggle, but the huntress was well muscled and powerful. Clodine was no match for her. She was swiftly propelled out of the café. The last Dannae saw of her, the huntress had placed force field restraints on her arms and was pushing her into a speeder with Pentheselia Legion markings. In the silence following her departure, Dannae heaved a sigh of relief.

'What was all that about?' asked the unsuspecting Leia.

Dannae explained briefly and economically. 'We'll go to Repro for your physical examination now,' she concluded. They both drained their katsch. Leia greedily ate the crumbs of the sweet rolls, saying, 'These taste so, so good!'

She continued to chatter to Dannae as they entered Repro. Dannae closed her ears and tried to not look guilty.

* * * * * * * * * *

4. The Triumphal Ball was in full swing. Every huntress and priestess not on emergency duty was there and the huge ballroom of the Chateau Reine was crowded and abuzz. Beautifully robed and jeweled aristocrats and meritocrats, dressed to display gorgeous bodies, many with the latest fashions in bright body paints, traded gossip and looked for companionship. At one end of the ballroom, an orchestra played an intricate Hasspo ballet. At the other end, on a slightly raised dais was the Queen's throne and seating for her immediate court. The only commoners present were the myriad uniformed wait staff, pressed into service on temporary duty and all wearing the Queen's crest.

Diana looked stunning in a long white diaphanous gown split open all the way down to a single clasp below her waist and white thong slippers with high stiletto heels. It was extremely rare for her to be out of uniform and unarmed, but Alexandra had insisted that this was to be special evening and she had reluctantly acceded. However, she still retained her choker and wrist bracers. Alexandra was on her arm and similarly attired in a sky-blue gown, but with a girlish choker of blue silk. She reached over and her fingers gently traced the outlines of the red shield painted around Diana's belly button, as she kissed her ear and whispered in her ear, 'I have never been so happy, Diana!'

Caitlin was gorgeous in a sea green gown that set off her eyes and red hair and high platform pumps. She had arrived on the arm of her mother, with the full entourage of handmaiden, aides and personal maidens. She was well aware that Deirdre was using her as part of her election campaign, speaking to everyone about the 'danger of the savages' and her own personal anguish at her darling daughter's suffering – that would have come to an even worse end but for the courage of the incomparable Diana Tragina. 

Diana was prevailed upon to take the stage with the orchestra and she launched into a rousing ballad, her melodious voice filling the huge hall. Soon hundreds of voices were joining her in the chorus and the orchestra played faster and faster. Fine clove wine flowed and the mood of the Zon elite grew more and more elated.

Deirdre was surrounded with well-wishers and her political allies, Caitlin forgotten for the moment. Seizing her opportunity, Caitlin slipped away out of one of the doorways onto one of the large balconies of the Chateau. As a royal, Caitlin had frequented the Chateau Reine since early girlhood and knew her way about. She shivered involuntarily at the chill of the evening in her thin evening gown, but hurried out of a side entrance to the palace. In just a few minutes, she was at her own house.

* * * * * * * * * *

5. Caitlin quickly dressed in combat uniform. She loaded equipment and supplies into her speeder quickly headed out of her garage. She did not put on any lights and the vehicle hissed along in silence in the black night. She drove slowly to avoid attracting any attention from the few commoners loitering in the streets. Still she covered the two miles to Repro in less than five minutes. She parked in an alley behind the hulking Repro building.

There was only a single receptionist on duty at the front desk of the cavernous Repro foyer. She rose on seeing Caitlin and bowed, saying 'Good evening, Lady Caitlin.'




Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 12



Caitlin nodded to her. She was a young commoner and rather overawed, but still curious as to why the Lady Caitlin would be here, fully armed, instead of at the Triumphal Ball.

'I am here to see the Guardians overseeing the savage Aablar,' Caitlin said stiffly. 'Who is on duty?'

The receptionist checked her holo-sheet and looked up. 'Seignora Guardian Megara Paulus and Guardian Felicia Andrus,' she said. Almost before she had finished speaking, Caitlin had opened a wideband comm. channel to Megara.

'Seignora Megara, its Caitlin d'Orr,' she said in a carrying voice so that the receptionist could hear. 'I'm coming down to see you. I have a message from Cornelle Diana and my mother, Princess Deirdre.'

Megara's voice came back over the wideband, sounding rather loud in the empty foyer. 'I am delighted to welcome you, Lady Caitlin. Please come down to level 14, Section D, cell 1.'

With a curt acknowledgement of the bow of the receptionist, Caitlin entered one of the elevators in foyer and quickly sank into the bowels of Repro. Fourteen levels below the surface, Caitlin entered one of the holding floors, where savages were held during their period of semen extraction. There were long corridors, painted sky blue, with hundreds of holding cells, each equipped with semen collection and storage kits.

Caitlin had been down here many times both as a huntress herding savages for holding as well as during her training as a priestess of the Upper Temple. As she made her way unerring to the cell were Aablar was being held, she drew a thin stainless injection cylinder with a hypodermic needle point from her belt pouch and concealed it in her fist. 

Megara was waiting for her outside in the corridor, her helmet and halberd gleaming in the bright artificial light.

'Welcome, Lady Caitlin,' she said formally. They rubbed nipples and Megara followed her into the cell. Aablar was shackled against the far wall, his wrists and ankles restrained by heavy chains. The Queen's commands had been carried out – he had been treated medically, but Caitlin was shocked to see the hurried slapdash job that had been done. While the bruises and welts had been treated with herbal lotions and were gone, no skin grafts had been used on his cuts, so that several thin white scars appeared on his shoulders and one even appeared on his left cheekbone.

He did not acknowledge her entrance, but hung his head and stared at his feet. However, Felicia stood up from the chair she was in and came forward to rub nipples.

'How delightful to see you, Lady Caitlin,' she said. 'Why do you trouble yourself to leave the Triumphal Ball? You can see that the savage is now safe in our hands. The medicas finished with him an hour ago and he is scheduled for his first semen extraction at dawn tomorrow.'

Caitlin could see that both Megara and Felicia were puzzled by her presence. She knew she had little time before their puzzlement turned to suspicion. She turned to Megara, assessing her to be the more dangerous of the two and tears began spilling down her cheeks.

'Oh, Seignora, you can't imagine how much my mind torments me with the thoughts of my captivity. I cannot eat, I cannot sleep,' her voice caught. 'I must have my revenge! Oh Hera, how I have suffered!'

Megara automatically took her in her arms, murmuring soothing words. Caitlin's hand went around her neck and found her carotid artery and pressed the hypodermic needle into it. A powerful anesthetic reached Megara's brain within seconds and she felt her sight go black. She slumped in Caitlin's arms. Caitlin gently laid her on the thick carpeting and turned to Felicia whose mouth had dropped open.

'What …?' she began. And again, 'By Hera, Lady Caitlin …. what …?'

For Caitlin had drawn an air pistol from her belt pouch and pointed it at Felicia's chest. Wordlessly, she fired. With a hiss, a dart struck Felicia just above the breastbone and the same anesthetic seeped into her bloodstream. She knew this was all wrong, she knew she had to put out the alarm on the comm. She tried, oh, how she tried. But the room was spinning faster and faster and the blackness was descending like thick, irresistible syrup. She managed to open her comm. channel, but no words came from her lips, just a gentle sigh as she collapsed gracefully to the floor.

Caitlin restrained both the Guardians with a force field using her wrist bracers. She worked quickly now, removing their helmets, holster-belts and wrist bracers. Only now did she take the old-fashioned keys from Megara's belt and free Aablar. He rubbed his wrists and ankles and then a ghost of a smile flitted across his face.

'Let's call it even, Caitlin,' he said.

She nodded. 'A new beginning,' she said. 'We start even. Follow me.'

She led the way out of the cell and tossed the helmets, wrist bracers and holster-belts into an empty cell down the corridor. She pulled the door shut. Then she took off at a dead run for the elevators with Aablar a step behind her.

* * * * * * * * * *

6. Caitlin knew that every movement on the holding floors was video recorded and that the receptionist had but to pull up the level 14 feed to see them. She was gambling that the one or two huntresses normally on security detail – a boring and uneventful job – were at the Ball. After all, Megara and Felicia were on duty on one of the holding levels. She knew that they had to silence the receptionist before she raised the alarm.

Even as she ran, Caitlin slid another dart into the barrel of her air pistol. Both of their hearts were hammering as the elevator raced toward to surface. Caitlin opened her helmet comm. to monitor all Legion traffic to catch any alarm or unusual activity. It was eerily silent, without even the usual chatter amongst the night patrols on the Outer Walls. Diana's Triumphal Ball, coupled with the imminent election had truly drawn virtually all the Zon elite to the Chateau Reine!

As they approached the surface, Caitlin said, 'I will restrain your wrists and explain to the Zon on duty that I am transferring you. Please put your wrists forward.'

Aablar did so without a word and a moment later the doors opened and they were in the foyer. The receptionist looked up from her Hi-Res screen where she was watching the video comm. feed of the Ball. Diana and Deirdre were kneeling before the Queen who was prevailed upon to grace the dance floor. She swirled onto the floor on the arm of Princess Deirdre. The receptionist sighed, and then froze as she saw the bulk of Aablar standing mutely behind Caitlin.

Caitlin did not waste time – the air pistol hissed and the receptionist's fingers did not come close to reaching the red alarm button. She slumped forward over her desk. Caitlin released Aablar from the force field restraints and led the way out to her speeder, making sure that there was no one in the street. 

Once in it, she drove slowly toward the main stables that adjoined the Legion Barracks by the City Gate. Aablar was restive and his gaze was drawn to the back seat that was piled with equipment and supplies. He hefted a long metal tube with a handle and leather sling, asking, 'What is this, Caitlin?'

'We call it a microwave disintegrator,' she responded absently, her eyes sweeping the streets for any prying eyes. 'It is a powerful weapon. At low power, it can blow a person into pieces; at maximum power it can reduce a small hill to rubble.'

As he examined it, she continued, 'The safety switch is the red one. Don't touch it. The black lever on the side adjusts the power – it is set to minimum right now to use against a person. The small lever in front of the hand hold is called a trigger – squeezing that will fire it.' Aablar's rough fingers caressed the trigger. 'You can squeeze the trigger now with the safety on. But don't play with it – it makes me nervous.'

They were passing the huge Flight Memorial and like Leia, Aablar asked what it was. Preoccupied, Caitlin answered cryptically and was taken aback when Aablar said, 'Can we stop for a moment and see it? I would like to see how you Zon came to our world.'


Caitlin checked her chronometer on her wrist bracer – it was just before midnight when she knew that the sentry detail on the Outer Walls would change. She planned to let the new detail get about an hour into the boredom of their routine before making their escape attempt. The incoming detail would have come from the Ball and with any luck would have drunk a fair bit of fine clove wine from the Queen's private cellars. So they had some time to kill – why not indulge Aablar's curiosity? However, her cautious nature made her demur.

'Let's get the horses ready first, Aablar,' she said. 'We will have time to come back and look at it if you wish.'

She drove on and as they passed the Legion Barracks, she stiffened involuntarily at the sight of the sentry box at the gate. She drove around to the rear of the stables and parked in the shadows. Aablar followed her as she went to one of the small rear entrances and placed her palm on the security pad. The door slid open noiselessly and Caitlin led the way unerringly to the d'Orr stalls where mother and daughter kept their numerous horses and ponies. Their status as huntresses meant that their mounts were all housed here and cared for by Legion grooms at the expense of the Zon State.

Caitlin opened the stall door and her favorite stallion, a huge 17-hand roan trotted out and whinnied and licked her hand. She saddled him with quick, efficient movements and then proceeded to draw out and saddle another of her mounts, am equally tall and rangy black gelding. She shut both stalls and led the horses out of the stables. She tied them to tree just beside her speeder. Aablar had been following her in mute helplessness and now she spoke to him: 'Hand me the stuff from the back of the speeder, one item at a time.'

She loaded the supplies and weapons onto the horses. Aablar handed her all the material, but left one disintegrator in the speeder. Caitlin noted the absence, but time was pressing, and she made a mental note to pick it up before they left. Her chronometer said it was half past midnight. They had another half an hour before she wanted to make the attempt at the Main Gate.

'Can we see the Flight Memorial now?' Aablar asked.

'Just for a short time,' Caitlin answered. 'We must make our attempt to leave the City in a short time.' Aablar nodded. They both got back into the speeder and Caitlin eased it back uphill towards the Flight Memorial. The horses nickered as the speeder hissed away.

The huge engine in the Flight Memorial was even more daunting in the night, bathed in subdued lighting emanating from concealed sources, the vastness of the hall in which it stood magnified by its emptiness. Even with their attempts at silence, their footfalls echoed eerily above the constant hum of the great machine.

'So this is it, the great goddess, the source of all Zon power,' said Aablar, pensively.

'As I told you, Aablar, only this great engine survives of the ship that brought our foremothers here to Eartha,' said Caitlin patiently. She looked at her chronometer. 'We must go now and try to leave the City.'

When she looked up, shock froze her into inaction for a split second. Aablar had the second disintegrator in his hands and had disengaged the safety. Her mind noted that the power lever was set to the maximum setting and he was pointing it at the center of the great engine. Her concern found voice and she screamed, 'NO!!" as she launched herself at him, but her frozen moment of shock gave him the window he needed. As he squeezed the unfamiliar trigger, the disintegrator circuits engaged and an enormous pulse of microwave energy coursed out at the speed of light. It energized the air molecules in its path, appearing as a blinding incandescent line. Huntresses were required to use dark glare shields before firing disintegrators. And they were never, never to be fired inside since the collateral microwave vibrations could collapse any structure. But Aablar knew nothing of this and merely looked away from the incredible brightness.

The microwave pulse struck the engine half way up its enormous height. It caused the molecules of the metal and all the component parts of the structure to vibrate violently. The metal parts of the massive engine began to rapidly heat up. But the collateral vibrations caused the structure of the Flight Memorial building to literally disintegrate. Caitlin knew what was happening. She had snapped the glare shield of her helmet down as she launched herself through the air at Aablar. She struck him just above the waist and the blow was enough to unhinge his finger from the trigger. As they both fell to the floor in a heap, all hell began to break loose. Cacophonous alarm klaxons began all around them. Everything around them seemed to heave and weave like jell-o.

Her awareness of the situation gave her purpose and Caitlin snatched the disintegrator out of Aablar's hands. She sprang up and helped him up, hissing, 'Fool! Just follow me now and do exactly as I say! We must get outside as fast as we can!'

Both were extremely athletic and agile, but even they were tested to their limits as they raced for the door. The floor bucked under their feet, gaping fissures opened and huge chunks of the ceiling fell about them. Their eyes were everywhere, as they leaped over chasms, dodged falling missiles and sought to retain their balance on the wildly pitching surface. They were out in the nick of time. Just as they emerged into the cool night air, the ceiling of the Flight Memorial building collapsed entirely. Aablar and Caitlin paused briefly to look back. Only the upper cone of the huge engine had formerly been visible above the Memorial building. Now it stood naked with nothing but rubble about its base. But its black metallic skin now blazed red and was turning blue in patches. Caitlin had a good idea what was happening, and she knew that they must keep moving.

'Get in the speeder!' she snapped. As one they dived into it and she opened the throttle to full, revving it as she headed for the stables, unmindful of its deep-throated roar. In her rear-view mirror, she saw the first speeders of the Night Patrol arrive, yellow-and-white strobe lights flashing. She brought her speeder to a screeching halt by the horses and reached them at a dead run. Aablar was only a step behind her. She was about to leap into her saddle, when remembered that he would have no idea of what to do.

'Put your foot in the stirrup and climb up,' she commanded. He obeyed her without a word. 'Just hold the reins with one hand and hang on to his neck with the other. His name is Bathor – talk to him. When we get going, hang on with both arms. I won't be able to come back for you if you fall.'

She slapped Bathor's rump and leaped into her own saddle. Peganor, her stallion responded with alacrity, and they rapidly overtook Aablar. Bathor took the lead from his stable-mate and they were soon galloping for the Main Gate. Caitlin's eyes were peeled for the sentry detail, but she could see none. As they approached the Gate, she tapped her wrist bracer and silently, the two gigantic Gates began to slide back into the Outer Walls. She drew her laser pistol in readiness, but still the sentry detail did not appear. They must have been drawn to the explosion at the Flight Memorial, she thought. A moment later they passed through the Gates. They were on the winding mountain road outside the City the led down to the plains. Caitlin urged Peganor on and they galloped down the mountain. Aablar was now holding on to Bathor's neck for dear life. Caitlin glanced back from time to time. But there was no sign of pursuit.

The mountain road leveled out in a few miles as it spilled into the plain. From here one could normally see the bright lights of Atlantic City high on the mountaintop. Caitlin slowed to a canter and twisted in her saddle to look upon her home. She could hardly believe her eyes. The City was in darkness with the exception of a huge blaze in the lower town. Even the high red warning beacons for the airships were snuffed out.

Caitlin opened the military emergency channel on her helmet communicator. It was immediately flooded with a garble of heavy voice traffic, so heavy that she could only make out the occasional word. She narrowed the band to the Household Legion channel without any improvement. Finally, she narrowed it down to the Night Patrol channel and shouted commands and screams began to make sense.

Confusion and chaos reigned in the City. All she could make out was that the great engine in the Flight Memorial had exploded and the entire City had lost all normal power. All senior personnel were at the Ball and while skeleton crews were fighting the fire, no one knew what to do. Huntresses had been dispatched to the Chateau Reine, but no orders had been received as yet.

'Come, Caitlin, we must keep moving,' said Aablar, not unkindly. 'It is only a matter of time before they begin to pursue us.'

Caitlin sat mute in her saddle. Finally, she turned Peganor's head back to the plain away from the City.

'Oh Hera, what have I done?' she whispered.

* * * * * * * * * *