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Message-ID: <39253asstr$1036984203@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: "Leviticus" <leviticusthebard@cableone.net>
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Subject: {ASSM} Her New World:  Section 8   (Sci-fi, BDSm, M/f)
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 22:10:03 -0500
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Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
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Her New World



By Leviticus





SEEING:



1.



   The burrow wasn't all that visible from a few steps away, unless you knew
what to look for.  It sat very low to the ground, only a couple of feet high
at the top, and could easily be tripped over before being spotted.  Mostly a
collection of leaves and branches, stacked in such a way that they propped
each other up, it was the most primitive of buildings.  Yet there was an
organization to it, the way the leaves were laid to keep out the wet of the
rain steadily pouring at that moment, and the way the opening was facing
downwind.   Looking through the entryway there was evidence of more
sophisticated thought in the burrow's design.  Most of the area under it had
been dug out, giving it considerably more room than was evident from
outside.  The excavated earth was also packed in a ring around the edge of
the hole, again to stop the rain from filling it.  Primitive as it was, a
lot of thought had gone into it and it was evident that whatever had built
it was not just an animal.

   Inside, near the far wall, shallow pits just a few inches deep had been
dug, and a bed of leaves laid down in each.  All were unoccupied except for
one, where a lump lay in the darkness.

   The lump was vaguely human-shaped under the viscous fluid that looked and
smelled like vomit.  A mass of blond hair at one end was all there really
was to show that it was indeed a person.  But the rest of the shape didn't
look right; it was too bloated, too big, as if someone had taken a
human-shaped balloon and over-inflated it.  You would hardly think that it
was alive until you saw it breathing, slowly, in and out in a labored effort
that had it wheezing in the silence.  Further examination would have shown
it laying face down, its head lifted and pointed forward to keep its airway
open.  It was an odd position to lie in, but then the person hadn't really
chosen the position herself.  Whoever it was, they were out for the count,
and had been for several days, something that worried her caretakers.

   Three of them were with her now.  Big, shaggy, covered with fur, they
could have been men but they obviously were not.  Men just didn't match
their size, their presence.their appearance.  Their fur was in patterns of
brown, grey and green, and grew everywhere but the palms of their hands and
feet and on their faces, their very unique faces.  Two cat-like eyes were
set midway under heavy brows, with a large and firm-looking jaw underneath.
Yet no nose was visible which gave each face a rather flat appearance, and
if they had ears they were hidden under the thick fur on their heads.

   The large claws on their three-fingered hands made them look menacing,
but there was a grace about them that made you want to stop and take a
second look.  And if you could have read their expressions you would have
been amazed to see that they were worried.

   They were concerned about the stranger in the slime, the person they had
rescued from the other strange creature, the one trying to kill it.  All the
tribe knew that to approach the thorny bushes was dangerous unless you were
furred, and these new strangers obviously were not full grown yet, for their
skin was still bare and they were still small.  They hadn't yet reached the
age of full fur.  Yet the strangers were big enough to have started furring
which confused the tribe.  And the strangers' shapes were wrong in some
places, especially their faces.  They didn't seem right.

   One of the three got up and crept closer to the figure in the slime.  It
gently poked the sleeping body, feeling the way the flesh was still bloated,
and sighed.  To cure the poison of the bush was easy but it was taking a
very long time, much longer than if one of their own had been caught.  But
whatever the stranger was it was still alive, which meant that the three and
the rest of the tribe were not about to give up.  Life was hard, which meant
that life was precious.

   The One had been watching the strangers for a long time, ever since the
lights from above had heralded their arrival.  From out of the sky the
strangers had come in their big white caves and the One had gone out to see
them, to see if they were threat or friend.

It, and a few others brave enough to go with it, had watched them closely
yet remained hidden as was their way.  But watching didn't mean
understanding and the One was as puzzled now by these strangers as when it
first saw them.  Indeed, it took a while for the One to begin to tell them
apart and even now all it knew for sure was that there were two kinds of
stranger, one flat and one with bumps on their front, and that the bumpy
ones, like this one, did the flat ones' bidding.  Everything else about them
was beyond the One's simple comprehension.

   But when the One saw one of the bumpy strangers being forced into the
thorn bushes, it had to act.  Life was precious and to take a life without
reason was against the Holy Code.  That the One took a stranger's life didn'
t weigh on its conscious, the stranger voided its own life in the act of
taking another.  The One's soul was clean.

   The One moved slightly, making a noise deep in its chest and with a lurch
it bent low and vomited over the figure, adding to the foul smelling fluid
already covering it.  It spread the highly acidic mix over the body, kicking
aside the smoking remains of the chain and cuffs that had once connected the
stranger's feet.  The stomach acid of the One and its kind was unique in
that it dissolved minerals yet could not dissolve living flesh.  Yet it was
packed full with anti-toxins.  Evolution had done some strange things on
this world.

   Long ago the tribe had learned how their vomit countered the poisons of
the thorn bushes.  It was instinctive knowledge in a way, yet also passed
down to each generation.  Vomit from a furred one took away the swelling and
made you well again.  So as soon as this stranger had been pulled from the
thorn bush, its rescuer had known what to do.  There was some surprise when
the hard objects covering it had dropped away smoking, but it was quickly
forgotten in the rush to get away.

   Still, as the One moved back to its position in the watch, it brought
with it the remains of the chain and looked at it curiously, tasting it with
its long tongue.  It gave what passed for a smile and sucked on the end of
the chain, enjoying its flavor.  And as it sucked the chain it thought about
the new strangers, wondering where they may have dug up such shiny, tasty
rocks.







2.



   It was also raining at the Colony, the rain coming down hard enough to
bounce, and few noted the return of the search party as they walked slowly
into town.

   The group of six men walked straight to the Recreation building and
dumped their packs in the entryway before going inside.  One of them, their
leader, walked to the bar and ordered six large drinks.

   Behind the bar, Nicholas Butu regarded the tired men and sighed, knowing
that their efforts had come to naught.  As he poured the drinks he waved at
Mya to come serve the other men, while he leaned close to the man at the
bar.

   "You tried, my friend," he said to his boss, Bob McKinly.  "There is no
dishonor in that."

   Bob looked up at him.  He looked like he hadn't slept at all since Staci
disappeared, and in all likelihood he probably hadn't.  Nicholas Butu knew
the man was heading for a complete burnout.

   "She's out there, I can feel it," Bob said slowly.

   Butu handed him the drink.  "If she is, then she will be returned to us.
But you need to rest or you will never find her."

   "Screw that!" Bob said angrily, taking the drink and heading back to his
men who had found a table where they'd collapsed.

   The group had been volunteers, and Bob appreciated the fact that all of
them believed in the possibility of Staci still being alive, which most of
the Colony didn't.  There was Tommy Windwalker of course, who Bob considered
the most valuable man in the group because of his tracking skills.  Tommy
had led them on a three-day jaunt deep into the interior following the trail
of what he had called a very fast-moving animal.  But when the rain started
it washed away the almost invisible remains of its passing and soon the
trail was lost.  Tommy had to give up and lead them back.

   Also with the group was Kyle Laslo.  He had come along partly as a way of
helping the only man on his side during the troubles with his wife Lynn.
His knowledge of the planet was the other reason, so that the rescue group
wouldn't run into anything else that was poisonous.

   The other three were members of Tommy's crew, and trusted by him.  That
made them fine in Bob's eyes, even if his own friendship with the big
Ex-SEAL seemed to be strained.  Since Priss' death, Tommy's new-found trust
in Dick Janis and his mission had caused several arguments between the men.
But when Staci disappeared his friend was there for him, and Bob really
appreciated it.

   The six men stared at each other, reading in each other's faces the
defeat they had been forced to accept.  Doubts crept into all their minds,
even Bob McKinly's, as to whether or not Staci Mann was still alive.  But
unlike the others, Bob wasn't ready to contemplate the end just yet.

   "She's out there guys," he said, looking them each in the eye.

   The other men tried to avoid looking at him, except for Tommy who knew
personally what Bob was going through.  Dealing with denial can be tough.

   "Bob.  You have to be prepared.just in case.  She fell into the thorn
bush; that much we know.  Like Priss she would have been poisoned and like
Priss she wouldn't have.survived, long.  And even if she had somehow not
received a lethal dose she was still at the mercy of whatever killed Roy.
Hurt, helpless, she would have been easy prey," said Tommy slowly.

   "There was no blood at the scene," Bob replied without looking at him.
"None of her blood was left behind.  She could be perfectly fine.
Kidnapped."

   "Kidnapped by an animal?" Tommy asked quietly.

   Bob looked at him, "You believed enough in that to go with me into the
forest to look for her!"

   "Yes.  I believed, because there was still a chance.  But, Bob, if the
rain hadn't turned us back when it did, I would have turned us around not
long after anyway.  Each day that passes, makes it less and less likely
that."

   "NO!  I WON'T hear it!" shouted Bob, jumping to his feet.  "You're not
giving up on me.on her!  I know she's still alive out there, I can feel it.
And it's going to take a lot more than a rain shower to make me believe that
we have lost her trail!"

   "There's nothing left to track," Tommy said.  "It's not like she still
has her collar on.  With that we could have tracked her anywhere on the
planet!"

   "Bullshit!  I'm surprised at your limited thinking, Tom.  Not to mention
the rest of you," Bob said, looking around at his group.  "I have a plan
that will put us back in action, and if you come with me now you'll see what
it is!"

   Tommy could see that Bob was acting like a desperate man, but there was
also something about him that told Tommy that maybe his friend actually had
a new idea.  So he nodded.  "Okay.  Let's go."







3.



   "I want to go up to the Mayflower," Bob McKinly said a little while
later.  They were in Alan Kent's home sipping coffee that had obviously been
made for the meeting between him and Dick Janis that they had interrupted.
Janis decided to stay, much to Bob's disgust, and stood admiring the art in
the room while Bob pled his case.

   "Why?" Kent asked simply, noting how worn-out Bob looked.  He glanced at
Tommy Windwalker and the two men shared a concerned look over Bob.

   "I want to use the thermal imaging cameras we have up there for
geological studies to look for Staci," was the reply.

   "Jesus," Janis said.  "What are you going to look for, her life signs?  I
know we've gone where no man has gone before but this isn't a fucking TV
show!  There's no way you'll be able to pick her out from anything else
living here!"

   Bob ignored him by not replying to him.  Instead he focused on Alan Kent.
"It's not a matter of finding her, just tracking her.  There's a camera
focused on this entire peninsula and the surrounding area, set up to give us
warning of geological instability or natural fires.  I know; I had to point
the ship so the cameras could get the best view right before we left.  I
want to go back into the data record and see if it picked up the attack on
Staci.  Maybe, just maybe, it might have caught something."

   Kent was surprised.  Bob actually had something there.  "Can't you do
that down here?  They're all supposed to feed to the science center aren't
they?"

   "I looked, but there wasn't enough detail on the downloaded record.  I'll
need to go up and mess with the hardware directly.  And if I have to broaden
the search, then that is best done up there."

   "Broaden the search," Kent echoed.  "What do you mean?"

   Bob sighed, "All I might get, if we're lucky, is a direction, a pointer
to where we can concentrate our search.  But I'd like to scan ahead, see
what major concentrations of life forms are out there so we can plan
accordingly."

   Janis moved closer.  "What makes you think they'll show up?" he asked.
"The only reason we know that Staci was carried away was because she showed
up on the sensor grid that was supposed to warn us of anything coming
through."  He glared for a second at Tommy, who had set up the grid.
"Whatever it was that took her might not even show up on the thermals."

   Bob took a deep breath, holding in his anger.  It seemed to him that he
had been angry a lot lately, and put it down to this man here.  "That's
true.  And that is another reason to go up.  I can deal better with the data
up there."

   Kent sat back, shaking his head.  "No, Bob, sorry.  There're too many
variables, too many doubts that the trip wouldn't be worth the fuel.  We
have a limited number of lifts to the Mayflower available to us and we have
to make sure we don't waste them, sorry."

   Bob was stunned.  "You think that the survival of one of our own would be
a waste of fuel?"

   "I didn't say that," Kent countered.  "For God's sake man, accept it.
She's probably dead already.  I mourn her loss, I really do.  But death is
something we are going to have to accept about living here, and we have had
far too many deaths already.  I don't want you chasing after ghosts either;
so no more unauthorized trips into the jungle."

   "I wouldn't be forced into chasing ghosts, as you say, if I had better
information, which I can get by going up to the Mayflower," said Bob
angrily.

   "No.  That's my final answer on this matter," Kent said firmly.

   Janis coughed slightly.  "Actually, there may be a way for Bob to get
what he wants, and not waste shuttle fuel."

   Everyone turned to look at Janis, surprised by his positive words.

   "Go on," Kent said.

   "In two weeks we have the first scheduled flight up to the ship for
routine maintenance.  I was going to take some of my guys I've been
training, and the plan was that both Bob and Staci would also come up
because they already know the systems.  We need to keep up with the
Mayflower maintenance a lot more now that she's in orbit.  What I suggest is
that we move the trip forward.  We could combine the two activities and we
wouldn't be wasting fuel because the trip is planned anyway.  Two weeks
early doesn't really matter when the trips are twice a year."

   Bob blinked.  "That's brilliant.  I'd forgotten about the service trip.
Thank you, Dick.  Really!"

   Kent put a hand over his eyes, considering the possibilities.  "How soon
can you be ready?" he asked.

   "We could leave tomorrow," Janis said.

   "HELL NO!  We can leave in an hour!" Bob countered.

   "I need a day to assemble the crew," said Janis.

   "Besides," added, Kent, "Bob, with Staci gone you're our best shuttle
pilot.  Unless you want a trainee flying the thing I suggest you get some
rest; not to mention getting checked out by Doctor Kelly first."

   "Yeah," added Janis, jumping in, "you guys missed your genetic booster
shots and you don't want to get behind on those."

   The three other men looked at Janis for a moment before Bob nodded.
"Okay, sure, to be honest I could use the sleep.  The data isn't going
anywhere.  I'm just worried that every second counts, you know?"

   Kent put his hand on Bob's shoulder.  "If she is still alive, there's no
reason to think she won't stay alive.  The hard part was living through that
attack.  Wherever she is now, she's probably in a much better situation.
She's a fighter; I think we all know that."  He smiled and got smiles from
all present, including a reluctant but honest smile from Janis.

   "Thomas," Kent said to Tommy Windwalker, "take this man over to see
Doctor Kelly and then take him home.  You're responsible for seeing that he
is rested and ready to fly tomorrow.  Understood?"

   "Yes, Sir," Tommy answered, quite willing to look after his friend.  He
helped Bob up and Janis and Kent watched them leave.

   "Why were you being so helpful?" Kent asked Janis after their visitors
had left.

   "I have to consider the possibility that seems to remain unspoken at the
moment," said Janis, standing at the window and looking outside.

   "And what's that?"

   "That somehow Staci got Roy killed during the attack.if there was an
attack and not just the actions of a provoked animal.  And also that Staci
wasn't taken by anything but chose to run off by herself."

   "What, naked, and with no food?" Kent asked.

   "She may have help, someone feeding her, giving her what she needs to
survive alone out there.  In any case, I'm going to keep a close eye on Bob'
s so-called search, just in case he's faking it.  And if he isn't, then his
plan just might be what we need to track her down."  Janis looked directly
at Kent, his eyes dark.  "We can't allow for the possibility of any of the
women escaping.  Once one does it, then the others will have hope that they
can do it too.  We can't give them that hope.  They have to learn their
place, and that place is here under our feet."

   "You mean at our feet, don't you?" Kent asked.

   Janis just smiled, a thin, humorless smile that was becoming well-known.

   Kent shifted uncomfortably, wondering not for the first time if he made a
wise decision all those years ago making deals with this man.  "I guess this
means that you think she's alive too."

   Janis' smile faded for a moment, before returning.  He shrugged and moved
toward the door.  "No.  I think the cunt is as dead as women's free will.
But just in case, I'm going to follow McKinly closely.  I've got nothing to
lose by doing so, and in any case, it's fun to watch him run around in
circles."

   Kent looked at the man for a moment.  "Why do you dislike Bob McKinly so
much?" he asked.

   Janis didn't move, didn't bat an eye, but something about the man grew
darker and Kent had no problem sensing it.  Then Janis spoke so softly that
Kent almost didn't catch what he said.  "The man is just like my Father," he
whispered.

   Alan Kent didn't know what to say.

   After a moment Janis looked away from the window.  "What about Kelly?  So
far I haven't seen much difference in the women yet.  Are you sure that he's
actually doing what we told him to do?"

   "My dear fellow, Doctor Kelly is doing exactly what we told him to do,"
Kent answered, glad for the change of subject.  "I've gone over his records
and each woman, except for those on his staff of course, is receiving her
prescribed course of treatment.  The thing you have to remember is though,
that it takes time to bring about these kinds of changes in the brain.  You
can't just make someone less intelligent over night!"

   Janis grunted, "I don't trust the man."

   "As long as you control his family, you don't have to."

   This made Janis grin.  "Yeah.man his daughter is a hot piece of ass, and
his wife isn't bad either.  Well worth the training I put into both of
 them."

   Kent stood and walked over to the other man.  "I have to say again that I
don't approve of what you did to them.  You were just supposed to kidnap
them and hold them for the trip.  How are you going to restore them when
Kelly has finished his work?"

   Janis gave Kent a look that spoke volumes in itself, and Kent knew that
Janis had no intention of giving the two women up.

   "Dick," said Kent, trying to get back a measure of control that he was
now aware of losing, "I know that without you none of what we had planned
could have ever come to pass.  But one thing I have to make clear to you is
that I am the one in charge, not you.  You answer to me.  Understood?"

   Janis' mouth formed that thin smile.  "Sure, Alan, sure.  You're in
charge."

   "Dick," said a female voice from the door, "what a pleasure!"

   "Joyce!  It's good to see you!" Janis replied, turning to see Kent's wife
standing in the doorway.

   Joyce Kent was between extreme bondages at the moment, taking a break to
let her body recover, something she did only reluctantly.  She was dressed
in a loose white gown that draped over her body and hid its charms from the
casual viewer, but her natural shape could be glimpsed from time to time as
she moved.

   She moved now, walking slowly, Janis going to meet her until the two
hugged in the center of the room.  Janis' whole demeanor had changed with
her arrival and now he was all smiles and charms as the two of them caught
up.

   Staying at the window, Kent watched them talk, aware as always that it
was because of his wife that he knew Janis at all.  Joyce's quests for ever
more restrictive and unusual bondage had led her to Dick Janis and his
extreme methods and many times since then she had been trapped in one of his
creations.

   Watching them talk, Alan Kent couldn't help thinking how alike they were
in certain ways.  They both had an obsessive streak that threatened to kill
them both if they weren't careful, and there were times he wished he had
never heard of Dick Janis.  It was clear now to him that Janis was no longer
under his control and that he had allowed the man too much power in the
community.  This was something that Kent couldn't allow, after all the
Colony was his creation and this was his planet.  He had paid for it!

   Janis was useful, but that use was rapidly drawing to an end.

   Putting on a fake smile, Kent moved to join his wife.







4.



   It was looking better, the stranger, now lying on its back after being
turned over as it was each day.  Its body was firming up as the poisons left
it, driven away by the cure.  It still slept though, except for brief
periods when it stirred and uttered sounds, still half in the spirit land.
During those times it was possible to give it water, which it drank
greedily, and some food which it at first rejected.

   They first gave it the food of the unfurred.  Leaves, fruit and meat, but
it had rejected it all, throwing it back up.  So instead they gave it the
food of the furred, the dark stones, the shiny pebbles, the soft yellow rock
they could chew, and it also rejected that.  So they fed it like a baby,
using one of the unfurred to predigest and vomit the food it needed to
survive into the stranger.  Now it could almost take food by itself although
it still could only keep down the fruits and meat.

   At least it was something.

   Soon it had to wake, for the tribe was ready to move to the Holy Place,
and the One who watched it, who rescued it from certain death at the hands
of its own kind, did not want to leave the stranger behind.  The tribe was
restless; it was almost time to go.













5.



   It felt strange being back in space after so long on the ground and in
the back of Bob McKinly's mind he knew that Staci would have enjoyed making
the trip.  She often spoke in the dark of night as they shared their bed of
how she missed being weightless, of how she missed looking out to see the
stars and the great planet below her.  Half her working life had been spent
in space; it was where she wanted to be.

   'Well,' Bob thought to himself, 'maybe she'll make the next trip.'

   He was counting on it really, but even Bob was enough of a realist to
know that it was possible that Staci was dead.  Not just possible, but very
likely, even though he would never admit it out loud.  But just the
possibility of her being alive was enough to keep him going, and Bob knew he
wouldn't give up as long as there were leads to follow.  But this lead was a
long shot indeed, as he was now being told.

   Allie Banks was one of the few women in the Colony whose job couldn't be
taken away from her.  The Colony's lone digital hardware/media expert, she
was in charge of all the recording equipment and data processing for the
scientists.  They discovered things, but she gave them the tools to do so
and record their findings.  No one else knew the camera systems aboard
Mayflower better than she did.

   Janis was pissed when he was told that a woman would be accompanying them
into orbit, and took personal control over her before leaving by stripping
her and chaining her heavily.  Now she floated over her seat on the
Mayflower flight deck severely restrained.  Her legs were doubled up and
wrapped separately with straps that dug into her thick thighs.  Her ankle
cuffs were connected together and a chain led from them up and over her
shoulders, pulling her ankles toward her head, bowing her backwards.  A
chain between her wrist cuffs ran through a ring on the front of her collar,
giving only enough freedom of movement to operate her systems.  More chains
were wrapped around her body, compressing her breasts into globes of
sensitive flesh that protruded in front of her.  And to finish it off a
single chain ran from the rings in her pierced labia to the chair itself,
preventing her from floating away.  Under gravity such stringent bondage
would have soon become torture, but weightless it was merely painful.

   Allie didn't care for it; bondage was not her thing except in the
lightest sense.  But lately her Master had developed a hair trigger temper
and was talking about selling her off to another man.  She tried to behave.

   "Master," she said, being as polite as she could, "the cameras really
weren't designed for what you are asking from them.  They were meant to scan
large areas for large temperature gradients, not specific heat patterns the
size of a human being."

   Bob sighed, "But you told me on the ground that there was a possibility
you could find her."

   "Yes Master, I did.  I can wash the data through some digital filters,
write up a program to narrow the gradient parameters, but I want you to know
that despite all I do, we are limited by the hardware itself.  I.just want
you.er.,"

   Bob put his hand on her bare shoulder, "It's okay, and I won't get mad if
you fail, only if you don't try.  Okay?"

   Allie put a smile on her face, although it was a fake to make Bob happy.
Too much had happened to her in the past few weeks to really trust what any
man told her anymore.  Still, she knew that this man was now without a slave
girl, and if her Master was going to give her to anyone he might just offer
her to Bob McKinly.  She tried to make the smile more genuine.

   "I'll try, Master," she said, "but you'll have to give me a little space
to work.  To be honest, Master, I don't do well with someone.looking over my
shoulder and I know you want me to do my best."

   Bob chuckled, "Sure.  I'm the same way when I want to concentrate.  I'll
leave you up here; it's not as if you will go wondering off anyplace.  I can
help with the maintenance details while I'm waiting."

   "Thank you, Master.  Just give me several hours and then check in."

   Bob nodded and left the flight deck, glad that something was being done.

   Allie watched him leave, glad he hadn't bitten her head off for being so
forward, and thought that maybe being given to him might not be so bad after
all.  But then she sighed when she turned to her work.  Lately, it seemed
like she was turning into a bit of a scatterbrain, always forgetting things
that had seemed so simple not too long ago.  But she was sure she could
manage the job that Bob had just given her.  She just had to buckle down.

   Bob worked his way aft and Dick Janis put him to work outside the ship,
giving the hull an eyeball inspection for any potential problems.  It was
scut work, but giving it to Bob meant that his techs were free to do their
own jobs.

   It was actually three hours later, after the lengthy space walk, before
Bob reappeared on the flight deck to find Allie floating silently watching
the planet through the large forward windows.

   "Done?" he asked, making her jump.

   "No, Master.  The computer is compiling, but I'm getting close," she
replied.  "Master, I know this isn't my position, but could you please
release my legs?  I'm getting an awful cramp in one of them."

   Bob could see the woman was indeed in pain, and remembered that she wasn'
t a bondage lover so she wasn't used to long-term restraints.  "I'm sorry,
only Janis has the keys.  I'll go ask him to let you go if you want."

   "NO!  No, Master.  It's okay, I'll survive," she said, obviously scared
of disturbing the engineer.

   Bob shrugged, not really caring.  He was more concerned about Staci down
on the planet.  "How long then?"

   The panel made a beeping sound and a display lit up, showing the
peninsula and the surrounding area.  The land looked dark while the sea was
a bright reddish white.

   "Maybe this time, Master," Allie answered, turning to look.  She
manipulated the image and soon Bob could see reddish white dots all over the
map, mostly concentrated where the Colony was sitting.  He saw Allie smile.

   "Master, with all due respect could you go get a cup of coffee or
something and come back in half an hour.  I've got the resolution finally,
now I need to run through the data record."

   Bob pushed back a sudden urge to slap her.  He was too excited to want to
leave now, not when answers were so close.  "No.  I'm staying." He said
simply.

   Allie looked at him for a second, but then tried to concentrate on her
work.  She felt she had a pretty good handle on it but she had lost twenty
minutes when she forgot to save some data and it got overwritten before she
was finished with it.  But the big stuff was over; she just had to let the
computer do most of the work.

   Bob watched as she skimmed the record back to the time of the attack,
running it forward and back at different scales, making notes directly on
the screen.  He found it hard to follow at first, but soon got the hang of
what she was doing.  As she got close to finishing, he called Janis up to
the flight deck and the two men watched silently as a now very nervous Allie
set up what she had discovered.

   "Masters, I'm pretty sure I know where she is now, but I think I had
better walk you through the data."

   "Go ahead, Allie," Bob said, while an amused Dick Janis just nodded.

   Allie brought up the first display of the peninsula again, doing a good
job despite the chains that bound her so tightly.  "Right here is where the
Colony set down," she said.  "I have the resolution set to show human-sized
heat sources as the white dots you see on the screen.  There is a fifty
degree variance on the temperature gradient, so anything within that range
will also show up."

   She zoomed in the image to a spot near where the power station operated
next to the river.  "Right here is where the clearing was being done that
day; you can see a lot of spots representing all the workers.  Over here is
the line of women reported to be where Staci was working.  They are too
close together to pull individual people from it, but it matches the map you
gave me."

   "Can you tell who is who, cunt?" Janis asked.

   "No, Master.  But as I advance the record you can see this dot moving
behind the line.  I figure that was Master Roy, because of what happened
soon after."

   The dot in question was already tagged with Roy's name, something Allie
had done earlier.  "Now, watch.  I'm running this in real time now and you
can see Master Roy separate two people from the line, Laura and Staci.  I
tagged them as you can see, according to Laura's statement of what
 happened."

   Both men nodded and they watched the three dots move away from the rest
of the group into a place by themselves.  They both knew Laura's statement
by heart and in Bob's mind he could see Roy taking the girl as their dots
merged.  His blood boiled at the thought of how casually the man had availed
himself of some easy sex, even though the woman's Master okayed it; but that
was nothing compared to his anger that the man assumed he had the same
rights with Staci.  As far as Bob was concerned, Roy got what he deserved.

   Nearby, Janis could see how angry Bob was getting and he smiled.  He didn
't give a shit that one of his men had taken time for a quickie, that's what
the cunts were for!  The man shouldn't have let his guard down, that's all.

   "Now Master Roy is going after Staci," Allie said, as the dots moved
around.

   "Hey wait, freeze that," said Janis suddenly.  Allie stopped the play
back.

   "Where's the animal, the one that attacked them?" he asked.

   Allie looked down.  "I.er.couldn't find it," she said, fearing her
failure.

   "There wasn't a trace of it?" Bob said, not believing it.

   "Nothing, Master.  I tried several gradients but it just didn't register
on the thermal cameras."

   "I don't get it," Janis said, cautiously confused, "how can anything
living not show up?"

   "Maybe it isn't living.as we would call it," Bob replied.

   "Screw you and your space monsters.  Okay, get on with it, cunt!"

   "Yes Master.  Moving on, we see Roy chase Staci a short way, and then."

   The group watched silently as Roy's dot flickered for just a few seconds,
and then seemed to spread out before remaining still.  Staci's dot was also
still and suddenly dimmed."

   "What's going on?" Bob asked.

   "I think, Master, that something came between Staci and the camera,
something that blocked her thermal signature for a moment."

   Bob nodded and seconds later the dot representing Staci was bright again.
Roy's dot then moved some more and tiny little dots flew from it, dropping
out of the image as the filters disregarded them.  Soon Roy's dot itself
vanished and Allie told them it was because by this time Roy's body was too
small to register as human-sized.

   Then Staci's dot began to move and Allie zoomed the image out to keep
track of her.  Both men watched as her dot moved quickly away from the site
of the attack, passing the line where the sensors Tommy had laid out were
supposed to be, and on into the interior.  It was moving at quite a speed
and both Bob and Janis blinked when they realized just how fast that was.

   "She covered a mile in just over a minute," Janis said.

   "No way could she do that, not even without a hobble chain on.  Something
got her and took her!" said Bob, slapping his knee.

   Janis frowned, his theory of her escaping by herself now in doubt.

   "Where did she go?" Bob asked.

   Allie speeded up the image and they were able, with the computer's help,
to keep track of the dot that was supposedly Staci as it went up the coast.
It passed many other dots, other animals that they knew nothing of yet,
before coming to rest almost eighty miles away near the coast line, right at
the edge of the maximum range of the camera image.

   Allie brought up a new image on a different monitor.  "That's it for the
record, Masters, but I focused another camera on that area and fed it the
same processing information.  It's a live feed."

   Both men looked at it.  It was indeed the same stretch of coastline, and
in the middle of the image lay a reddish, white dot in exactly the same
position as the record had shown.

   "That's her?" Bob asked, barely breathing.

   "That's her, Master.  And by her heat signature she's still alive."

   Bob closed his eyes, thanking whatever Gods were listening.  "Dick," he
said, "release her.  Get her out of those straps and chains."

   "Why?" Janis asked.

   "Because she has just earned a break, dammit!  Those things are hurting
her, she isn't used to them and I want her released!"

   "She had better get used to them, if she knows what's good for her," said
Janis, folding his arms.

   "Dick, this woman has just done the impossible, and I want her
comfortable.  Lock her up another way if you have to; just do what I ask
before I go get something to cut her free with!" Bob said, ready to follow
up his order with his fists.

   Janis looked him in the eye, smiling for some reason.  "Angry, Bob?" he
asked.

   Bob felt suddenly confused.

   Janis chuckled and reached for his keys.  "Okay, cunt, I guess it's time
to free you up a bit.  I'm sure my guys would appreciate a break with you as
entertainment.  You'll find them down in the Mess."

   Allie didn't know if being freed right then was a good thing or not.  But
she silently waited until all the chains were undone, although Janis
immediately locked her hands behind her, and then she awkwardly left the
flight deck for her fate.

   Janis moved to look at the display again.  "That's a long way.  You
planning to walk?  I doubt a truck would take you that far from town."

   "No.  I'm planning to fly.  Let's get ready to go, we can drop down right
on top of her and pick her up," Bob said, his eyes fixed again on the dot
with Staci's name.

   "Just like that, huh?" Janis asked.

   "Just like that."

   Janis shrugged.  "Sure.  We can do that.  But not yet.  I want to finish
up here first, and we have another day to go."

   "She might not be there another day," said Bob.

   "Then we track her again.  We'll get her, and we'll get whatever took
her."

   Bob really didn't want to wait, and had a strong urge to just board the
shuttle and take off.  But he held it in check.

   "Okay, but get your crew in gear.  No time for pussy breaks."

   Janis chuckled, "Bob, there's always time for a pussy break!"









6.



   Staci groaned and opened her eyes, seeing nothing for a few seconds until
the image resolved itself into a mud wall.  It was a familiar wall, as if
she had seen it many times before, but Staci couldn't remember why it was
familiar.  She thought about moving, about looking at something else, but
she felt so damn tired.  She also felt cold and sticky and figured she had
better pull the covers up before she caught something.  With an effort she
turned her head to look for said covers and froze.  There was someone.no,
something, looking at her.  It was big and hairy and reminded Staci of.

   A stab of fear entered her heart and the adrenalin rush helped her wake
even more, yet she still felt too weak to do anything about it.  She now
remembered Roy and his attempt to kill her and the thing that killed him!
There it was, sitting not ten feet from her.watching her.  Why, it could
kill her at any second, any second indeed.  Then it occurred to Staci that
she should have been dead already.  The poison from the thorn bush should
have been her demise, but other than a body ache that wouldn't quit and her
lack of strength, she didn't feel dead.

   She risked a glance around the hole in the ground as she now saw it, and
observed the two other furry giants watching her.  All had their eyes on
her, which made her nervous.

   Movement at a hole in the roof just out of her line of sight, and another
furry giant came in.  It looked at her a moment, staring into her eyes,
before moving to one of her companions and bending close.  It looked to
Staci as if the two were whispering, and her startled mind grasped the fact
that what she was with was maybe intelligent.  Were they the ones that cured
her, she wondered.  Why wasn't she dead?

   The two furry giants exchanged places and all was still for a while.
Staci laid her head back, exhausted, and tried to come to terms with what
was happening to her.

   Where was she?  Where were Bob and the rest of the Colony?  Did they know
where she was, who she was with?  If they didn't, were they looking for her?
Just who were these.people?  Obviously they had to be natives of this
planet, but there wasn't supposed to be intelligent life living here.  But
then, given what she had seen so far of their living conditions, it would be
easy to miss them.

   Then there was the big question, what was going to happen to her?  What
were their plans for her?  If they had cured her of the poison then Staci
had to assume they didn't want her dead.  So what did they want?

   All these thoughts kept bouncing through her head until something else
entered the burrow.  Staci lifted her head to look and was quite startled.
It looked like the giants, yet was different.  Smaller by half, it had the
same, nose-less face.  But it had little or no long fur, instead being
coated in a very tight knap that showed shadows of the distinctive patterns
the long-furred ones had.  It also had very short claws compared to the
others and didn't look nearly as menacing.

   Staci wondered if it was the female of the species, or maybe one of their
young.  She tried to see what sex it was for it was obviously nude, but its
body betrayed nothing.

The newcomer, seeing Staci awake, stood still for a moment before walking
carefully toward her.  Staci was a little alarmed by that until she saw what
it was carrying in its hands.  It was a bowl made of a large leaf, and there
was water in it.

   Staci licked her lips, suddenly aware of her parched mouth and throat,
and knew she wanted that water.  So she didn't resist as the newcomer knelt
at her side and tipped the water into her waiting mouth.  Staci drank
greedily, sucking it down as fast as she could.  It felt cool and oh so
good, and she felt worlds better after drinking her fill.  She smiled at the
unfurred newcomer who to her surprise smiled back, mimicking her expression.
Then it got up and left, only to return moments later with another leaf,
this time filled with some pieces of fruit and what looked like broken-up
roots.

   Staci shook her head, knowing that she couldn't yet eat the local food,
for Doctor Kelly's genetic treatments hadn't had near the time for such a
radical change to her digestive system.  She even managed a few words of
protest now that her throat was lubricated, and she was surprised at how
horse she sounded.  But the native ignored her babbling and gently shoved a
piece of fruit into Staci's mouth with its three-fingered hands.

   The taste hit Staci like a freight train, her mouth taking over and
swallowing the fruit before she could stop it.  It was incredible, better
than chocolate, and she was too shell-shocked by it to refuse a second
piece.  Unable to move much, she knew she couldn't stop them from force
feeding her, and she hoped that she wouldn't get too sick from trying to
digest this wonderful meal.  But once finished and left alone, she found
herself keeping it down, and she began to wonder just how long she'd been
out.  Was it months?  She didn't think so.  She could feel her fingers, and
her nails seemed just the same length as they should have been.

   She concentrated on moving an arm so she could see her hand and in doing
so realized that she was still naked.  This made her lift her head again and
with the renewed strength of the food she had been given she took a better
stock of herself.  She saw she was lying in a shallow hole about the size
and shape of a bed, covered in sticky goo.  Her body was pretty visible
through it though and she could see that it looked fairly normal, although
still puffy in places.  Normal that is except for the bruises all over her
which explained why she hurt so much.  She thought that she had been beaten,
but then remembered that the poison caused your flesh to expand.  Did that
happen to her?  If it did, then the flesh shrinking again would no doubt not
be left in the best shape.  Bruises could be expected.

She tried to sit up, aware that she was still being watched, and managed to
get up on one elbow.  She looked at her hands and feet and realized that
something was missing.  It took a few minutes for her fuzzy thinking to
figure out what it was - her chains.  She had been chained on the work crew,
but not only the chains but the cuffs she had worn on her ankles and wrists
were completely gone, as was the ring in her clitoris hood and the thin
chain attached to it.  She had worn those cuffs ever since being taken by
Dick Janis aboard the Mayflower, just as she had worn her.collar.  She
reached up and discovered her neck was also clear, and a brief moment of
elation was overshadowed by concern as she looked around for the missing
items.

   If her collar was gone, and she wondered how they had gotten it off, it
meant that she was probably not in any kind of contact with the Colony, for
all the women wore collars there.  But that meant that they didn't know
where she was, for the collar contained a tracking device and without it
they couldn't track her.  On one hand Staci was glad to be out of it, for
now she was her own woman again, something she hadn't been since boarding
the Mayflower in Earth orbit.  But on the other had her only chance of being
reunited with humans again was now gone.  Or was it?  What did the natives
want with her?

   She looked at them.  "Hi," she croaked.

   They sat silent, just watching.

   "Do any of you.well.talk?" Staci asked.

   Still they remained silent, and Staci sighed.  She didn't know why she
expected them to be able to talk to her.  It was always easier in those
space operas she watched as a kid.  You could always talk to the aliens in
those.

   Another furr, as she thought of them, came in.  It glanced at Staci for a
second before going to whisper with one of the others, and then it
approached her.

   Now Staci got scared, easy to do when an eight-foot furry beast with no
nose and large claws walks right up to you, but she didn't have the strength
to do more than shudder.

   It crouched down next to her and appeared to examine her, poking her
gently as if to test the resilience of her body.  It hurt to be touched, but
Staci held back from pushing it away, because for all she knew this was the
one that had saved her from being poisoned.  Maybe it was their doctor?

   If it was, then it gave the almost universal grunt of satisfaction that
doctors give after an examination, and returned to confer with the others.

   Staci knew that something was afoot.









7.



   The intercom on the wall began to buzz and Allie's voice rang through.
"Master Bob!  Master Bob!  Hurry to the flight deck!" she repeated over and
over.

   Almost in a panic, Bob headed to the flight deck as fast as he could,
with Janis on his heels for the two men had been working together at the
time.  They burst into the compartment and collided with the console next to
where Allie was now more comfortably chained.

   "Master," she said, pointing at her display, "she's on the move again.
Not far, but it looks like she's heading to the coast!"

   "What?  Are you sure?" Bob said, trying to make some sense of the crowded
display.

   Allie punched a few buttons and the display cleared to show just an
overhead map and a single dot with Staci's name next to it.  But one side of
the picture was a bright band the same color as the dot.

   "What's that?" Bob asked.

   "It's the ocean.  Right here it's pretty warm, only twenty degrees off
from our own body temperatures.  These cameras just can't resolve a
temperature difference that small, so it looks to them to be the same
temperature as Staci.  The thing is, Master, is that if Staci goes into the
water we'll lose her.  The computer won't be able to track her anymore.  She
'll be a part of the background and untraceable."

   Bob went white.  He couldn't believe that after having such incredible
luck in finding her, that they were about to lose her again.  "How long, do
you think, before she gets that close?"

   Allie shook her head slowly.  "I don't know, Master.  Honestly I don't.
Maybe a few hours, she's not going that fast."

   Bob turned to Dick Janis.  "We're going down, now!" he said.

   "We've still got work to do up here," Janis said, shaking his head.  "We
can leave this evening, but no sooner."

   Bob moved quickly in the Zero-G of the cabin and grabbed the front of
Janis' jumpsuit, propelling the man into a console.  Bob then pulled Janis
directly to his face.

   "I'm not asking, Asshole, I'm telling.  We leave in thirty minutes, and
anyone not aboard by then can stay up here.  Got it?" Bob growled.

   "Aren't you being a little overdramatic over one cunt?" Janis said with a
slight smirk.  He then gasped as Bob tightened his hold even more, and Janis
could see that the guy was about to explode.  He would have laughed if he
could breathe, but instead he nodded.  "Okay, okay.  I'll gather the
 troops."

   "And release her!" Bob added, pointing at Allie.  He let go of Janis and
headed for the airlock.

   Janis watched him go and then turned his attention on Allie.  "Tell me
girl, are you damn sure about all you've told us?" he asked, moving over to
her and placing a hand on her naked thigh.

   Allie resisted shuddering, her shoulder already carried a bruise from
when she flinched from Janis' touch during their break.  "Yes, Master.  I'm
pretty sure."

   "Pretty sure.  It's just that.if you've been experiencing.well.mental
blackouts, or.periods of confusion."  He looked her in the face and saw that
he had hit the mark.  He was pleased because he had been beginning to worry.
He chuckled and slipped a finger into her sex for a moment.  "Don't worry
about it.  I trust you.  Come on, I'll undo the chain but you had better go
straight aboard the shuttle, or else!"

   "Yes, Master," Allie replied, and closed her eyes to his touch.

   The shuttle did leave when Bob said it would and everyone managed to be
aboard.  But it was a two hour drop because of where the Mayflower was in
its orbit and for each minute of those two hours Bob feared that they were
going to be too late.  To compensate he put the shuttle into a faster,
steeper re-entry, carving a wall of flame across the sky as the atmosphere
slowed the shuttle down, and soon they were over the area where Allie said
Staci was heading.

   At first they cruised around, looking out the windows but there was no
sign of her, so they landed and took a look around while Allie patched into
the Mayflower computer for the latest images.

   "Any sign?" Bob said impatiently.

   Allie was feeling flustered, so it took her a couple of tries to bring up
the data files she wanted, and the news wasn't good.  It seemed that about
the time they were streaking through re-entry, Staci speeded up and reached
the shoreline, only to disappear into the water.  At that point the computer
lost track of her and even if she came ashore just a mile further down the
beach it wouldn't have known it.  As far as the cameras aboard the Mayflower
were concerned, she was gone.

   Bob was at the end, he couldn't believe they had been that close and lost
her.  He started to scream, to pound the walls of the shuttle in a display
of temper that would have shocked his friends.  Then he focused on Allie who
sat cringing in her seat.

   "It's your fault, bitch!" he said.  "You could have kept better track of
her, found her faster.  But you must have fucked up somehow!  YOU LOST HER!"
he yelled, diving for her.  He had her by the neck and she couldn't stop him
because of the bondage Janis had her in, and for a moment the other men
aboard just watched in shock.  But Janis got out of his seat and grabbed
Bob, pulling him back and away from the girl.

   "Hey, guy.back off, pal!  Back off!" he said.  "Take it easy.we need her,
you can't go around wasting women.  Not till we breed some more at any rate.
Take it easy, calm down!"

   Bob did calm down, slowly, but surely.  And as the fog lifted he felt
shocked at his loss of control.  He didn't know what was coming over him
lately, he didn't feel like himself, and put it down to the shock of losing
Staci.

   "I'm, sorry," he mumbled to Allie, before pulling free of Janis and
exiting the shuttle.  Janis followed him.

   "You okay?" he asked, truly interested.

   "I'm.fine. I didn't mean to.I wasn't going to kill her.  I just."

   "Yeah, it's okay.  I know you've been under a lot of stress over the past
week.  Don't worry, I won't arrest you for attempted murder," Janis said
with a smile.

   Only then did Bob remember that Janis could do that.  It was not a pretty
thought.  He sighed and looked out to sea.  Somewhere out there was Staci,
close enough to touch almost.

   "What do I do now?" he asked out loud.

   Janis shrugged.  "She got away, and there's nothing we can do about it.
Face it, pal, if you had really meant anything to her, would she have
escaped?  Would she have run the moment she saw us getting close?  She sure
as hell would have see our re-entry the way you were flying, I damn near
thought you were driving straight for the ground at one point.  She would
have seen us and waited.  That is, if she wanted us to find her."

   "What if she was kidnapped?" Bob whispered.

   "What, by aliens?  You don't really believe that do you?  So that girl
plotted out a bunch of fancy dots on a screen for us to follow.  The theory
was sound I admit, but I know the equipment just as good as she does and I
have my doubts about her accuracy.  I think she promised more than she could
give, so she told you what you wanted to hear.  There are only two
reasonable choices, pal.  Staci either ran, or she's dead.  Either way, she
isn't coming back, and you're going to have to live with that.  We all are.
Now come on, there's nothing more we can do here and I want to be back in
town for dinner.  Its meatloaf night at the bar, isn't it?"

   Bob nodded, knowing that what Janis said was true.  They had lost, and
even if Bob was right and Staci was still alive but held by something.they
still couldn't help her anymore.  Not now anyway.  Yet there had to be
another way and he couldn't see just giving up.

   He picked up a rock and threw it at the water.  "This fucking sucks," he
said.  "Come on, let's go."









8.



   The One had seen the stream of light across the sky and had hurried its
pace.  It had a suspicion about what it was, for many such lights had
foretold the arrival of the strangers.  The One suspected they were hunting
for their tribe mate, to kill it.  But the One wasn't about to let them find
it, at least not until it grew to be furred and could defend itself.  In
saving its life the One was now responsible.

   So it picked up the pace, moving more quickly through the forest toward
the shore, and the tribe speeded up with it.  On its back was the stranger,
its arms about the One's neck, held in place by a vine tied around its
wrists so it wouldn't fall free.  It was still too weak to walk, and the
tribe couldn't wait any longer to begin heading to the Holy Place, so the
One carried the stranger like it would carry a child, except a child would
have the strength to hang on.

   There was thunder in the sky, far away but getting closer by the time the
tribe reached the shore, and without breaking step they entered the water
and began to swim.  They had a long way to go, but the tribe was as at home
in the water as they were on land, with only the very young unable to keep
up.

   Like otters or seals, the tribe swam on.









9.



   Staci was well aware by now of the tribe's ability to swim.  She'd been
surprised earlier in the day when one of the furrs, the one she thought of
as her doctor, had come to her again and pulled her wrists together.  She
tried to pull away as it wrapped a long thin vine about her wrists, binding
them together, but she was unable to do anything about it.  Scared, she was
then lifted up high, brushing the roof of the burrow and placed on the furry
giant's back, her arms around its neck.  It hurt to hang like that, and she
was terribly confused until they got outside and she saw the rest of the
tribe; nearly three dozen of the giant furrs with more than that of the
smaller ones.  All were out and heading in the same direction, and Staci saw
a few of the giants with much smaller natives clinging to their backs.  It
was then that Staci relaxed, figuring that maybe she wasn't in trouble, that
this was just how they were going to move her as they made their way
someplace.

   Staci wasn't that eager to go though, knowing that each time they moved
it would be harder to track her down.  Yet again she was at the mercy of
others and unable to chart her own course.  She had managed to get away from
her human fellows, but not from her forced submission.

   The tribe left the clearing, their burrows almost invisible to Staci, and
set off into the woods.  It was a bumpy ride for the human woman, although
"Fred", as she named him to keep him straight in her head although she didn'
t know if it was male or female or even if that applied.Fred's back was
fairly soft and comfortable.  Still it was odd hanging there naked, her ass
on full view to those behind her, and she was glad there was no one around
to see her like this, which struck her as funny, so she laughed.

   Fred turned to look at her when she did that, his head almost coming all
the way round, and Staci wasn't sure if he was annoyed or just plain
curious.  So she smiled and he looked away.

   The tribe maintained a steady pace until the unmistakable trace of a
spacecraft on re-entry carved its way across the sky.  Staci knew what it
was, it had to be the shuttle, and she wondered if they had used the
Mayflower to look for her, for unlike Bob she knew the scheduled flight to
the great ship wasn't for another couple of weeks.unless she had been out
longer than she thought.  In any case, it was important now to stop and wait
for them, so she began to kick Fred in the.well, where his ass would have
been if he had one, until almost absentmindedly he reached around and
swatted her behind.

   He looked up at the sky and Staci felt him tense up, then she hung on for
dear life as he broke into a run.  Never had she known an animal move so
fast, and she had once ridden horses at full gallop.  This was like riding a
two-legged roller coaster as it weaved through the trees, ducking and
jumping.  From time to time Staci would also see the other tribe members
running as well, and no one looked like they were having problems keeping
up, even the small ones.  This was normal for them.

   When they got to the sea, Staci expected them to stop or go up the coast.
But she got yet another shock when everyone plunged into the water and began
to swim.  A mouth full of warm sea water taught her to lift her head up and
she pulled with her bound arms in order to ride a little further up Fred's
body.  Fred didn't seem to mind, instead apparently concentrating on his
swimming style, which oddly enough was a perfect breast stroke.  Around them
the other giants also swam with a steady beat, while some of the smaller
ones looked like they were frolicking, playing as they swam.  This finally
convinced Staci that they were the children of the furred ones.

   But she didn't think about this at that moment.  Now that she knew she
wasn't going to drown, she sat up as high as she could and looked about for
the shuttle.  The fire of its re-entry was fading from the sky fast, and
Staci knew that the shuttle could be miles away yet, probably close to the
Colony if they weren't that far away from it.  But she looked for it anyway,
and after a while she thought she saw something in the sky behind them, over
the land that was rapidly receding in their wake.  She knew then that the
shuttle was indeed looking for her, and she wished her hands were free so
she could wave.  Yet deep down she knew it was futile, that there was no way
they could see her in the water, and as the land finally disappeared over
the horizon, she knew it was too late.  Her only hope was that whatever
trick they had used to find her, would work again.  But she was too tired to
try to figure out what it was.

   The tribe kept going and she settled down to rest on the furry body that
was carrying her, and let herself relax.  The water actually felt very good,
very soothing to her aching body, and what made it better was that it was
washing away the gunk that was covering her.  She wished she knew what it
was they had put on her to counteract the poison, probably some native
concoction of roots and berries, but it was messy and stinky and she was
glad to be rid of it.

   She was thinking such pleasant thoughts when she finally went to sleep
and was surprised to find herself waking up still in the water, still on
Fred's back.  It was full dark by then, and the other giants could only be
heard as they swam, not seen.  Yet the sky was ablaze with stars and a
groggy Staci realized that this was a way she could figure out where they
might be going.

   Before first landing, one of Staci's tasks had been to do a star survey,
a map of the night sky.  One of the items she had needed to work out was
which star was the pole star and what group of stars could best point out
the pole star to the naked eye.  This was considered important because then
if anyone got lost they could use the stars to at least figure out what way
was north, as the Colony was going to be established in the northern
hemisphere.

   So, looking up, Staci searched for the cross of stars that pointed the
way to where the north star was and saw that they were heading basically
east.  In Staci's head she pictured a map of the nearby island chains, and
sighed because there were an awful lot of them and they could have been
going to any of them.  All she knew for sure though was that they were
heading away from the big island the Colony was on, which lay to the west of
them.  At least it was something, for if she ever got away from the giants
she knew that she would have to head west.  But how?  She couldn't swim this
far, and she was literally without anything at all that could help.  She
realized that she had nothing of mankind's technology on her.  She was as
naked as a human could get.

   Dawn was breaking by the time the tribe reached land again, a tiny island
not much bigger than the Mayflower by the look of it.  Everyone stumbled out
of the water and sat down to rest for a moment, and Fred undid the vine that
held Staci's hands together and set her down gently on the sandy shore.  He
barked out loud, an unusual sound, and several of the other furrs got up and
headed for the undergrowth in the middle of the island.

   Staci watched them go and then looked out to sea.  Back there somewhere
was Bob, and she wanted to be with him, but she could do nothing about it.

   One of the youngsters brought her a leaf cup filled with water and Staci
drank, thanking the child out loud.  It didn't respond though, it just ran
away.  Then Fred returned, holding what Staci took to be two red
coconut-sized gourds.  Whatever they were they had a hard, tough shell, and
Fred used a long claw to puncture one before handing it to Staci.

   Staci could see others drinking from theirs, the unfurred ones at least,
so she tipped it back and took a sip.  The milk inside was tart, not sweet,
but not bad and she found it easy to finish.  She was still worried about
not being able to digest what she was given to eat, but just like the fruit
she had been given earlier, she didn't have any problems keeping the milk
down.

   There was a loud crack beside her and Staci looked to see Fred opening up
a gourd with his large claws, splitting it up into pieces.  He handed a
piece to Staci, and she took an experimental bite, and then another, eating
her fill and feeling better because of it.  She needed to get her strength
back, if only to gain some independence.  As she ate though, she kept an eye
on the other tribe members, and noted that many of them stared at her as
they shared their own meals.  Staci began to blush at the attention, after
all being naked and stared at was still something she wasn't used to, but
then figured that as odd as they looked to her that she must look just as
odd to them.  She was certainly shaped differently in certain ways, none of
them had breasts that she could see and she wondered how they managed
without noses.  How did they smell?  Not terrible as the old joke went, in
fact they had very little scent from what Staci could remember from her
close contact with Fred.  But there was nothing she could do to stop them
from staring so she just tried to ignore it.

   Then she saw something quite incredible.  One of the furred natives was
scooping up sand into its mouth, chewing on it as if it were food.  This
shocked Staci and she looked at Fred as if to point out to him what was
happening.  But Fred was also feeding on the sand, as were more and more of
the furrs as the youngsters were now supplied with their own food to eat.

   Some of the furrs avoided the sand, instead picking up small rocks near
the scrub line and sucking on them, while others dug in the ground for
something to eat.  Staci couldn't believe what she was seeing, she had never
known anything eat sand before and she wondered if they were all sick.  But
it looked so normal for them to be doing this; no one was acting alarmed at
all.  So Staci had to assume that this was really what they ate.  The furrs
ate rocks.

   This kept her mind occupied for a while until all were done with their
meals, and while many of the furrs decided to curl up and sleep, a lot of
the youngsters began to play, chasing each other and wrestling, or exploring
the thin interior of the island.  Even though they were an entirely
different species, Staci saw that children still acted like children, and
she had to smile.  But she was feeling tired too and achy, so she lay back
and tried to sort out her thoughts for a while, drifting into a light sleep.

   The tribe slept on the beach for most of the day, although not all at the
same time, and Staci slept too, but not as much.  The sun was quite hot out
in the open and fearing an all-over burn on top of her bruises she had to
curl up in the only shade she had, which was Fred.  The furry giant didn't
seem to mind though, and the two slept together for a while.

   By evening almost everyone was up and looking a lot more energetic, so
food was again passed around and all ate their fill once more, be it organic
or mineral.  Then to Staci's surprise they began heading for the ocean.

   Fred picked up the vine he had used on her earlier and looked at her.
Staci, knowing she didn't yet have the strength to hold onto him for another
marathon swim, held out her hands and he bound them the same way as before
and soon she was again on his back.  They slipped into the water and
continued their journey.

   In this way, they moved for almost three weeks by Staci's count, swimming
from island to island, generally heading east, and spending one or two days
on each one.  Staci hoped that this wasn't the tribe's normal method of
existence, and she had nightmares of being marooned halfway around the
planet with no way of getting back.  She also saw the irony in the fact that
soon after she arrived at Freedom she had wanted just that, to be put down
someplace far away and left alone.  But now faced with the reality of it
all, she wanted nothing more than to return to the Colony, even if it meant
becoming a slave again.  She would even welcome seeing Dick Janis' face.
But one thought occupied her mind the most: how Bob was doing.  What was he
thinking?  What was he feeling?  Did he really miss her, or had he found
another woman by now.maybe Roy's girl?

   She ached to be with him.











10.



   When Staci came ashore on the big island, she was a different person from
the one that went to sea three weeks before.  Most of her injuries had
healed, her skin now tight and well tanned, and she had her strength back.
Every time the tribe had stopped she had worked to get back in shape, and
the steady and surprisingly nutritious diet she had lived on had helped her
heal and become a person again.  She was now as strong as she ever was,
physically anyway.

   Mentally she still felt fuzzy at times, but that was hardly noticeable
against her need to rejoin the other humans on the planet.  She had tried in
vain to communicate this need to Fred and some of the other furrs, but
understanding was very slow in coming.  She had even out of desperation,
drawn pictures in the sand of the Colony buildings, as best she could
anyway.  She would point to them and to herself and then to the west,
gesturing madly in an attempt to be understood.  But Fred would just look at
her and move away, although in one case he first poked at her drawing until
it was destroyed.

   Staci wondered if these people had evolved enough to recognize a three
dimensional object in a two dimensional format.  She had heard that seeing
pictures was only achievable by a certain level of intelligence.  But except
for the burrow she had woken up in, Staci had seen little to think that the
natives were very high on the evolutionary scale.  She knew they
communicated somehow, but they weren't tool users.

   So she had to travel with them, and now they had come ashore on a very
large island, so big that it rose in the middle like a small mountain.  It
was the first real rock that Staci had seen on this lush world, and she
wondered if the reason they came here was so the big furrs could get a
decent meal.  She was still astounded that they ate rocks and stones, and
she wondered how they lived that way.

   Still, whatever the reason for coming here she was glad to be out of the
water for a while.  The last couple of legs had worn on her nerves because
of an incident that had cost the life of one of the youngsters.

   As the tribe had been swimming along, Staci noticed a sudden commotion
among the natives in the rear.  She looked back and saw something large
swimming in the water just behind them and her first thought was that it was
a small whale.  But whatever it was broke the surface a little and Staci saw
it had a furry back with spines.  As she watched, the creature turned and
pushed against one of the youngsters that had swum too close to it, and
immediately it began to scream in pain.  The youngster lost its rhythm and
began to flounder, thrashing the water in obvious panic.  Some of the other
tribe members moved forward to help it while others circled around
nervously.  Even Fred turned around to watch and Staci could feel him tense
up under her.  But before anyone could get close enough to reach the
drowning youngster, the shape in the water rose again and Staci saw a long,
crocodile-like jaw open up and grab the poor native.  The water went red for
a moment before both creature and youngster vanished, and all became still
again as the tribe treaded water looking around nervously.

   Then Fred barked once and everyone resumed swimming, putting a lot more
effort into getting out of the area than they had before.

   Staci, unable to help with the swimming, simply lay down on Fred's back
and started to cry.  She had built a bit of a connection with the tribe over
the past few days and thought the youngsters especially friendly.  She could
hardly believe that death could come so suddenly and so easily here, but
thinking back to the loss of Jill and Priss at the Colony, she knew that
death was everywhere here and counted herself lucky; very lucky in fact, for
it suddenly occurred to her that the thing that took the youngster had
attacked in a way that reminded Staci of her first day on the planet.  Staci
remembered being stung by something that had swum up to her and brushed
against her.  Had it been one of those things?  If it had been, then Alan
Kent had saved her from being a meal for those horrible jaws.  She shuddered
to think how close she had come to being killed that day, and from that
point on the ocean didn't look very inviting to her.

   They arrived as dusk was falling and the tribe stayed on the beach
overnight, eating and sleeping and building up their strength after the long
swim.  Then, just as Elvira was peaking above the waves, Fred and the others
started walking into the brush toward the mountain.

   Staci walked with them, glad to be moving on her own two legs and she
wondered what they would find when they arrived at wherever they were going.
Would it be someplace they would stay for a while?  Or was this just another
short stop?

   She wondered because she had been thinking of a way she might signal the
Colony as to where she was.  She knew there was no way she could contact
them directly, but it might be possible to let the Mayflower know where she
was.  She'd done a lot of thinking during the trip and figured that they
must have used the thermal imaging cameras on the Mayflower to track her the
first time.  Nothing else made as much sense.  But as an engineer she knew
the capabilities of those cameras better than most and had no doubt that
once the tribe had entered the water that first time that the cameras would
lose track due to the warm sea water.  Those cameras were built to track
temperature ranges of thousands of degrees, so the tiny temperature
difference between her body and that of the warm ocean water was beyond
their capabilities.  But if they were going to be here a while, it would be
possible to make a mark that the cameras just might spot.

   She didn't think that they had swum out of the range of the wide-scanning
cameras, even though they had come a long way, so it was possible that as
the Mayflower passed overhead that it was still looking down on her.  Staci'
s plan was to build several huge fires, set in a pattern of some kind,
probably a square; anything as long as it looked manmade and not created by
nature.  Then, when someone reviewed the imaging data, as she hoped someone
was, they would see four dots of bright heat and know that someone was
there.  Hopefully then they would come for her.

   It was not quite a desperate plan, but it was close, and Staci really
didn't know what else to do.  The trouble was, she needed fire, and she didn
't know if the tribe was advanced enough to be able to make it.  Being naked
Staci knew she had nothing to make fire with herself, except her knowledge
of basic survival skills, and she figured she might have to rely on that.
But she also came up with an unexpected dilemma.

   If these people didn't have fire yet, would she be doing them any favors
by giving it to them?  After all, she could hardly hide what she was doing
unless she left them, and she got the idea that Fred wasn't going to let her
go just yet.  She got the impression he was waiting for something, but didn'
t know what.

   Anyway, she didn't know if it would be damaging to introduce fire to a
culture that hadn't come up with it themselves, and Staci didn't want to
make problems for the tribe.  They had saved her life, so she felt she owed
them.  But she knew that she had to return to her own kind, and her plan
might be the only way.

   But she felt she had some time yet before deciding, after all the tribe
might know how to make fire and just haven't bothered because they were
traveling.  So she followed along as the tribe walked up the mountain,
moving slowly through the trees until they came upon a well-worn path that
continued in the same direction they were going.

   No one was surprised to see the path, from what Staci could tell, and the
general air about the tribe was very relaxed.  So obviously this was not a
place where they expected trouble, which helped Staci relax a bit too.

   The path continued to climb and then opened up into a wide plateau where
Staci saw they weren't alone.

   Scattered about the plateau were dozens and dozens of burrows like the
ones she saw on the other island, and mixed in among them were more
natives.lots of them.  There had to be hundreds of them, big shaggy furrs
and their sleek children.  It was a huge encampment.  Unlike the tribe, who
hardly made a noise except for the occasional barking, this larger group
chattered in soft barks and growls.  Staci figured it was hard to make a
crowd completely silent, even an alien one.

   The appearance of Fred's tribe caused little concern by the natives that
were already there, that is until they saw Staci.  Then she discovered that
it was indeed possible to silence so large a group as they all stopped what
they were doing to look at her.   Some of the bigger furrs moved forward,
their body language threatening, but Fred also moved forward, going to each
one and seemingly whispering in their ears.  One by one he calmed his fellow
natives and word seemed to spread for they all returned to whatever they'd
been doing.  Staci figured that the word was that she was harmless, nothing
to worry about.

   She felt claws at her arm and a tug.  It was Betsy, the youngster who
seemed to be the one that Fred had told to look after her.  Staci had
started calling her Betsy just to give her a name.  Like Fred, it just
helped Staci keep track of who was who.  She chose the name Betsy because of
her coloring; it was rather pretty and gave Betsy a feminine air, even
though Staci had no idea if Betsy was really a girl.  It just made Staci
feel better to think that way.  Betsy though, was obviously not going to be
a child much longer.  There was evidence of her fur starting to grow and
Staci had seen her eat both regular food and the odd rock.  She was
undergoing a change of some kind and Staci was curious to see how it went.

   But now Betsy was urging Staci to go with her and she and most of the
tribe walked through the clearing to where several burrows lay empty
together.  This was obviously where they were going to stay.  Before going
into one though, Staci took a look around, searching.  With a sigh she noted
that nowhere could she see any signs of the natives using fire.







11.



   The One was happy they had arrived at the Holy Place, happy that its
tribe had made the long swim although it mourned the loss of the child.
Many times in the past a young one was lost to the demons that lived in the
big waters, and the One took it as a bad omen that they had been unlucky
this time.

   But not all was bad, the rest had made it fine including the stranger,
who now looked well, or at least as well as the others of its kind.  It was
now able to walk and feed itself; which meant that the One felt comfortable
leaving it alone from time to time.  Yet the One knew that it wanted to go
back to its tribe, its entreaties were clear enough in the One's head.  But
the One couldn't seem to explain that it wasn't safe, that it would most
likely be killed by the rest of its tribe.  Maybe when the stranger came of
age and furred, then it would be safe.

   But lately the One had wondered about that.  Perhaps the strangers didn't
fur.  After all, they were different.  Perhaps instead of furring, the young
ones lost their shape and grew flat.  That seemed to make sense to the One.

   But now they were at the Holy place and the Rejoining was close.  It was
good to spend time with the other tribes that were here, it had much to tell
them.  But first, as the late comer, the One listened politely to the news
of the Great Dragon coming from the south, and of the new land discovered
far in the east.  Then it told of the strangers in the west and how they
came out of the sky.

   The other tribal heads listened closely to the news and wondered if
strangers would appear in their territories as well.  But the consensus was
that they would be unwelcome, an upset to the balance, especially if they
had no respect for life.

   Some argued that it might have been better if the One had not rescued the
young stranger, that getting involved with the strangers was a mistake.  But
the One held his position and the arguments stopped.

   Then it was time for serious talk, the Rejoining was coming and they
needed to be ready.







12.



   It rained for three days straight, so Staci put aside any thoughts of
starting a fire and instead tried to find something to wear.  It wasn't
easy, for the natives certainly didn't have a use for clothes so there was
nothing lying around that she could just pick up and put on.  There was one
time while wondering around the camp that was growing bigger every day, when
she came upon a group skinning some animals for food.  She thought she might
use some of the pelts to make herself some clothes, but when she tried to
gather a few together she was chased off none too politely.  She found out
later why they did that.  It wasn't to keep her out of clothes, but because
they buried the skins of the animals they took to eat, almost with a
reverence Staci thought was religious.  So she resigned herself to using the
local flora instead, and hunted in the rain for leaves and vines that she
could use to make a skirt.  The planet's lack of grasses meant a grass skirt
was out, but she figured she could do just as well with leaves.

   While she looked and gathered she couldn't help watching the natives.
More and more of them came, swelling the group from a few hundred to over a
thousand.  If she hadn't gotten to know them through her own tribe she would
have been terrified.  But the looks she got from all the newcomers made her
nervous, so she never went far from where her tribe had made camp, and she
was especially careful not to go out of Fred's sight for very long.

   She wondered why they were all coming together, for it had the look of
something very organized, yet it was a mystery to her because she couldn't
understand how they all communicated.  It didn't seem like the few verbal
sounds they made were enough to really call speech, but then she wasn't an
expert.

   So in the end she retired to the burrow she shared with Fred, Betsy and a
few others, and worked on her leaf outfit.

   By the time the sun came back out she was done, but even she had to admit
that it was a poor job.  She didn't have the skills and only a bare idea of
the theory behind what she was doing, and it only took a day for it to begin
to fall apart.

   By that time Staci was beginning not to mind anyway, for her so-called
outfit was attracting more attention than she was.  In fact, she was pretty
sure she was being laughed at, although she didn't know why she thought
that.  The idea just seemed to float in her head whenever she was outside
with a large group of furrs around her.  So by the time she was introduced
to the wallow, it was pretty much history anyway.

   The wallow, as a place, would have been something that Staci would
normally have avoided.  Yet it appeared to be a sudden community favorite
and she went along because her tribe did.

   Rainwater running down the side of the hill above them had collected in
an open depression, turning the soil into mud and attracting the natives
like flies.

   All those huge bodies had churned up the mud into something resembling
thick soup and Staci was amazed to see them all literally rolling and
swimming around in it.  She was a little horrified when her tribe almost
rushed in to join the mob, but once she was in she actually found that it
felt somewhat nice.  The mud was warm and smooth and helped to ease the few
pains she had left.  But it was so sticky that moments after she had arrived
she was covered from head to toe and pretty much indistinguishable from the
youngsters her size.  For once she didn't stand out, except for her breasts
of course which no amount of mud could ever hide. But she was close enough
in appearance now to truly enjoy herself with her new companions without
being stared at, and even almost being drowned at one point by a furr who
rolled on top of her, didn't spoil it.

   She was a part of a tired, yet happy group when she left the wallow and
she didn't bother pulling her leaf outfit onto her muddy body as they made
their way to a nearby water hole to wash up.  Nor did she put in on
afterward when back in the burrow, for by then she knew her nudity really
didn't matter to anyone but herself, and it wasn't as if she needed clothes.
So feeling rather content she watched as the tribe groomed itself, the furrs
acting very cat-like as they combed their furry bodies with their tongues.
She wished she had a comb for her own hair which was getting quite long now
since Bob wouldn't let her cut it, but got instead the help of Betsy who
groomed her like a mother cat.

   That contentment only lasted into the night though, and as she tried to
get to sleep curled up next to Fred in a shallow pit full of leaves, she
thought once more of Bob and her desire to get back to him.

   Fire.  She would have to do it.

   The next day however, she would forget about her plans though, because of
something quite extraordinary.

   The morning was much like the others, with Staci out with the youngsters
gathering fruit and roots for their first meal.  Staci had discovered what
fruit it was that she had loved so much and usually looked for more of that.
But each day they had to walk farther into the interior of the island, and
Staci knew that soon the entire place would be picked clean.  Something had
to happen soon, she knew, or else anyone who didn't eat rocks was going to
starve.

   So it started when they got back to the camp.  The tribe was waiting for
them and they followed along with all the other tribes as the entire
community began walking up the mountain once more.

   The walk made Staci nervous for none of the furry giants made a sound and
their young were almost as silent.  Only the babies, which Staci was seeing
more and more of, made noise, and as the natives approached the summit even
they got quiet.

   What Staci saw when she got to the top made her stop and stand
open-mouthed.

   The crater was maybe three hundred meters wide at the top, and about
fifty meters deep.  It was ringed around the sides as if seats had been
carved into it, and it indeed give the impression of a huge amphitheatre as
the natives moved into it, for they all took their places like a crowd going
to an aeroball game.

   But it was what was in the middle that made Staci stop, for it appeared
to be a twenty meter high statue of a furr with both arms raised.  It was
well done, certainly not the work of a professional sculptor, but smooth and
well sculpted all the same.  The icing on the cake though was the large
green crystal embedded in the heart of the statue.  It looked to be bigger
than Staci's head, and she wondered what it was.

   She was wondering lots of things by now, and she didn't move until Fred
gave her a push.  So she followed along in a daze until the tribe found
their seats.

   It took a little while for everyone else to arrive, but Staci figured
that every native on the island was there when the last stragglers sat down.

   One furr at the front stood up and walked toward the statue, and if it
were possible for a silent crowd to grow even more silent, this one did.  It
was as if they all were holding their breath, and even the wind was still.

   Staci took hold of Fred's hand and he looked at her for a moment, his
strange flat face not giving her much confidence.  Then he turned away and
focused once more on the statue, so Staci did too.

   The furr now standing under the statue, raised its own arms in imitation
and very quickly so did everyone else.  Not understanding yet not wanting to
show disrespect to what was obviously something very important to these
people, Staci did the same.  Then the chanting started.

   Staci couldn't make out what was being said and half suspected that most
of it wasn't being said at all, at least in a way that she could hear.  But
the chant was hypnotic and Staci couldn't help staring at the statue.

   Images started passing though her mind, flashes of thought and feelings:
an ocean view she knew she hadn't seen before; the taste of copper; the feel
of live flesh pulsing under her claws; and other things that she had no
reference for describing.  She could feel herself going.somewhere, and it
even seemed to her that the green crystal heart in the statue was glowing.
But that wasn't possible, was it?  It was so hard to tell, so hard to see.
Her head was so full yet so empty at the same time and she couldn't
focus.couldn't think.couldn't breathe!









13.



   Staci woke with water dripping on her head and she rolled over to get out
of its way.   Drumming on the roof told her that it was still raining, and
the sound of distant thunder spoke of worse weather to come.  This wasn't
good news.  It had been raining steadily for almost a week now and the
longer it did the longer Staci had to put off her plan.  Not that she was so
enthusiastic about it any more.  It wasn't that she didn't want to go home,
but more that she was filled with a sort of lethargy that left her feeling
drained, unambitious.  It was quite unlike her and she wondered what was
wrong with her.

   One thing she could fix though was the grimy feel of her skin.  Sleeping
on a bed of leaves in a hole in the ground wasn't exactly conducive to
cleanliness, so she decided to grab a shower.  She tiptoed around the other
occupants of the burrow, some sleeping and some still awake, and crawled out
into the open.

   The rain was hard and still warm, and the naked girl walked out into it,
letting it pelt her skin and wash away the grime.  The wind was picking up
and looking south she could see lightning in the distance, the promised
storm.

   Her eyes on the horizon she sat on a rock and let her mind drift,
thinking once again of the events of two weeks before.  She couldn't figure
it all out, there were too many strange things, but what she did know gave
her pause.

   That the natives were telepathic was obvious.  It explained their lack of
a real spoken language, but that they spoke at all puzzled her.  Where they
evolving into their telepathy, or away from it?  In any event, what happened
the other week showed her the power of a thousand telepaths working
together.  She didn't remember much of that day but she was sure that what
happened had something to do with their beliefs.and also their survival as a
species.  She had flashes of memory, memory that wasn't hers and she figured
that just being among them had been enough to see what no other human being
had ever seen.  Staci didn't know if she was honored or cursed.

   But either way she was stuck with a group that communicated in a way that
was beyond her.  Yet.she had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't totally
out of the loop.  There were times when she seemed to feel what they were
doing, times when just for the briefest moment she would get a flash of
something.  And now, after the.Rejoining?  She had those flashes more often.

   Rejoining.  Where did she get that thought from?  Somehow it made sense
to her.  All these furry giants and their children, coming together to share
their experiences mentally, to join with the others as they have done
before.  It all made sense to her until she thought about the venue for the
event.

   Staci distinctly remembered the amphitheatre, the seats carved into the
side and the great statue in the middle with the glowing green heart.  But
when she went back there a few days later she found it a lot different.  The
crater was still there, but it was rough and overgrown and certainly had no
seating.  And in the middle there wasn't a statue, just a tall stack of rock
which from a certain angle could have once been a figure like the one she
had seen.

   So what happened?  Had she just imagined it?  Or had she been receiving
the cumulative imagination of everybody else?  Was she seeing what they saw?

   She wished she could talk to someone about it, but to her regret there
was no one, and her urge to get home remained strong.  But the weather was
conspiring against her.

   A furr came by, its cat-like eyes narrowing when it saw her, and it
stopped.  It looked a lot less menacing in the rain with its fur all
plastered down, and Staci wasn't really afraid of them any more.  But the
attitudes of some of the other tribes worried her a little.  They seemed ill
at ease with having a human around.  But most of them were gone now anyway,
the bulk of the tribes leaving during the few days between the Rejoining and
the start of the rain.  What was left was stuck here due to the weather for
the seas were too rough for even these people to swim through.

   As the tribes left Staci saw that some trading had gone on.  Most of the
youngsters the tribes came with either stayed or left with a different
tribe.  Even most of the youngsters from her own tribe were gone, including
Betsy, replaced by other native youngsters who now had to get used to Staci
the way their predecessors had.

   There was a flash of teeth and claws in her head and Staci blinked.  The
furr with her was looking out to sea and Staci got the vague impression that
it looked at the approaching storm like it was some kind of beast.  But it
lost interest with what was happening miles away and it turned once more to
look at Staci.

   She held still, not wanting to provoke the furr, for it evidently had an
interest in her that was stronger than normal for its kind.  She looked at
the patterns in its fur and wondered if she had seen it before, but they
were hard to read when wet.  Then she froze as the furr approached her.

   It examined her face, then her body, poking at her breasts and arms.  It
seemed to be testing her, although Staci got nothing mentally from it to
tell her why.

   A moment later though it moved away and disappeared into the veil of
rain.

   Staci started breathing again and headed back to her burrow.  She had a
strong urge to stay close to Fred for a while.







14.



   The Dragon came.

   It came with a hunger to rival the size of the world and the ground
trembled with fear.  The Dragon was strong and loud and it tore at the land
with its great claws, roaring its anger and lighting up the sky with its
blazing eyes.

   The One knew it was helpless in the face of the Dragon, that nothing
could stand up to it but the earth itself.  All the One could do was to
huddle with its tribe mates, hiding from the great flashes of light that
carved across the sky.  It hoped that by hiding in the earth, that the
dragon would pass them by and find food elsewhere.

   But the stranger, it was not afraid of the Dragon.  The One saw it stand
while others hunkered down, its face into the Dragon's breath.  The stranger
looked fearless, its long hair blowing back from its otherwise hairless
body.  For once it looked powerful instead of vulnerable, and the One
wondered what courage it possessed for it to take the Dragon so calmly.

   Another roar and some of the youngsters whimpered in misery.  But the One
saw the stranger just look around before climbing out of the burrow.  It
stood in the wind and the rain, arms up, and yelled.  And the One saw
defiance, excitement.pleasure.

   What was so scary about the Dragon?  It made lots of noise and its anger
was strong, for sure.  But in the end it never took anyone, no matter how
many times it came.  Could the stranger be right in defying it?

   The One made a decision and stood, surprising its tribe mates.  It
struggled against the wind as it left the burrow to stand next to the
stranger.  It was so small and fragile looking next to the One, but the
stranger was teaching it something about courage.

   The stranger looked at the One, then raised its arms just like in the
Rejoining and it yelled once more.

   The One, after a beat, did the same and the two, human and native,
together defied the Great Dragon.









15.



   The fire burned strong, giving off a blackish smoke as the unfamiliar
wood crackled and cooked.  Two long weeks had gone by after that night in
the storm where Staci suddenly found herself with company as she
storm-watched.

   Staci liked storms, the violent kind that is, and the weather that hit
the island that night had waves tens of meters high crashing into the
shoreline.  The lightning was also incredible as was the thunder, and she
wasn't surprised that not another furr was in sight.  She figured them too
primitive to really understand that it was just nature, not the animal they
thought it was.  So she was surprised to see Fred with her and happy that he
chose to stand and yell into the rain as she often did.  It had been a happy
time for her and had also rejuvenated her.

   But it had taken two weeks for the storm to pass and for the island to
dry up enough for her to start building her fires.  In fact, her project
almost got aborted by one of the last tribes to leave the island.

   She had been close by the burrows of her own tribe that afternoon, and
the furr that had examined her before the storm walked up to her and took
her arm.  Before she knew it she was being dragged away and Staci started to
yell and scream in fear.  Her struggles were successful enough in that she
managed to break free, and she made a mad run for her burrow with the furr
in casual pursuit.  Fred must have heard her screams though because he came
out of the burrow and caught Staci in his big hands, moving her behind him.

   Like a little girl peaking around her mother, Staci watched as Fred and
the other furr had a sort of conversation.  She had flashes, not so much
pictures as maybe insights into what they were talking about for it was, for
them, a heated conversation.  Staci thought that the furr considered her a
youngster, and that like the others she should switch tribes and go with
him.  But Fred was protecting her, stopping the other furr and eventually it
went away.

   Staci was glad for many reasons. But the main one was because she couldn'
t afford to lose track of Fred.  He was the only native she knew of that
knew where Staci lived, and if all else failed Fred was her last chance of
getting back to the other humans on this planet.  Lose him, and Staci would
be lost forever.  And so she stayed with Fred the rest of the day until she
saw the other tribe head to sea.

   Staci wondered if her own tribe was leaving soon, but it appeared that
they were staying a while when it became apparent they were the last ones
there.  So Staci decided to start her fire project, hoping that the furry
giants wouldn't be too scared of what she was doing.

   So she combed the island looking for dry wood which was difficult at
first, but easier going once the strong sun started to dry everything.  She
dragged and pulled enough wood together to make four large bonfires about
fifty meters apart, arranged in as accurate a square as she could manage.
She then spent two hours turning theory into fact by rubbing her hands raw
with two sticks.  But she succeeded and soon there was fire, burning bright
and hot in the first of the bonfires.  It was her plan to light them all at
once and then keep them burning for as long as she could.  Hopefully they
would be scanned by the cameras aboard the Mayflower and someone would see
that four fires in a square couldn't possibly be natural.

   Her actions had attracted attention though, and as the first bonfire
caught and started to burn, the tribe showed up.  All of them stood a short
distance away, watching the flames, and Staci wondered what they were
thinking.  She had, at one point, entertained the thought that they may
think her a God for creating fire, but dismissed it with a chuckle.
Although it might have been nice to have been the naked human God of planet
Freedom.  She would have had the tribe take her back to the Colony carried
on a throne, where she would then proclaim that all the women were free and
in turn enslave the men.  It was a fun fantasy, but a fantasy was all it was
for she was sure that the men had a firm grip on the women of the Colony by
now.  Things had been going bad there for a while before she left, and she
wondered how things were now with her being gone for almost two months or
so.  What new degradations had Dick Janis forced on the women, and was Bob
now a part of it?  Still, as bad as it might be, Staci still wanted to go
back.  She was an outsider here and always would be, but even as a slave she
would still be a part of a human community.  It was almost enough, she
thought.

   The tribe did nothing as she stoked up the fire and pulled from it a
burning branch.  She needed it to go start the next one and she hoped that
no one burned themselves while she was gone.  As it was she didn't get far.
She was intercepted by Fred just a short distance away, who knocked the
burning limb from her hands and stamped out the fire.

   "Hey!" she yelled at him, trying to salvage it, but he pushed her away,
keeping her away until it was out.  Then Staci heard a rush of footsteps
behind her and the rest of the tribe attacked the burning bonfire.  They
pulled it apart, uncaring of any burns, screaming and barking as they did
so.  They stomped on the scattered burning branches, squelching the flames
while Staci looked on in shock.

   Of all the reactions to the fire she had thought of, she hadn't expected
this and she began running, yelling at them to stop.  She needed the fire,
it was her ticket home, but they were destroying it, putting it out and she
couldn't understand it.  She began hitting them, pushing them, but it was no
good.  They were all too strong and too single-minded in their task, and in
the end she stood crying, held by Fred, as the last of the flames were
extinguished.

   For good measure they also tore down the other pyres and then they went
back to their regular routines.

   It was a long time before Staci understood why they did what they did
that day, and why every time she tried to begin again they stopped her.  But
on that day she lost hope for a time, and a part of her seemed to die.









16.



   They were still on the island eight months later, although by that time
Staci had stopped counting.  She was thinner and sleeker than she was a year
before, her muscles stronger and well defined.  Her blonde hair was long,
having grown quite fast because of her diet, and had gone from a shipboard
length of above the shoulders to down past her buttocks.  It had also turned
almost white due to all the exposure, for except for at night when all slept
in the burrows, her days were pretty much all spent outdoors.

   There were the occasional storms, and for a short while it grew so cold
that she wished she had clothes, but generally it was warm and sunny.

   Staci grew to be an expert on the flora and fauna of this and the other
nearby islands.  She knew what to eat and what to leave alone.  She knew how
to catch the little marsupial rodents that were a part of her diet.  She
could fish like a native although she had learned how to fish with a spear,
something that made the furry giants nervous although they left her alone
when she used it.  She could hunt and gather and completely sustain herself,
and if she chose to leave the tribe she would have had no problems surviving
until she was old and grey.

   But that wasn't what Staci wanted; she wasn't going to settle for it.
Every day she prayed to return to her own people, and while she had great
affection for many of the furrs, especially Fred who watched over her, she
could not explain the loneliness she felt.  Even though she was surrounded
by friends, she had no real connection to them.

   But that was changing, and had been changing for months.  Not long after
she had finally given up on the fire idea and had dealt with her depression,
she found herself thinking about their telepathy.  She knew she was
receiving parts of what they were talking about, especially if a lot of
emotion was involved.  And the Rejoining proved that she could receive a lot
more than that.  So she figured that it might be possible for her to learn
how to be a better telepath herself, so maybe she could talk Fred into
taking her back, or at least not be so lonely anymore.

   So she started meditating, sitting on a sandy hillock every day, guiding
herself slowly into a Zen state that allowed her to plumb the depths of her
mind.  She ignored the possibility of failure and just let each day come and
go; knowing that eventually she would succeed.  She did have promising
indications that she was doing the right thing, for as the months passed she
found she could consciously hold on to an image, or influence a furr's
behavior by thought alone.

   But she had to be in her Zen state to do so and it was not something
easily achieved.  It was frustrating, but it wasn't as if she had anything
else to occupy her mind.  It was either that or mope around thinking of the
worlds she had lost, the one across the sea and the one across the stars.
Each was as out of reach as the other, and she felt like a cosmic castaway,
living naked without a single human artifact to remind her of her past.  She
wondered what would happen if she stayed with the tribe for years.  Would
she forget that she was human?  Would they?  Would she think that she was
just an odd-shaped youngster who never seemed to grow up?

   Staci sometimes thought she was going mad.

   But if nothing else, her meditation was holding her together, so she
continued on.

   Feeling at loose ends one day, Staci was wandering around the crater
where the Rejoining had taken place.  It looked little like the vision she
must have shared with the other natives, but the place still intrigued her
because it didn't look quite natural either.  What events would create a
bowl-shaped hollow on top of an island with a large, humanoid shaped pile of
rocks right in the middle of it?   It wasn't right.  So she came back often
to look at it, and she had even tried meditating there a few times to see if
what ever magic the place had was still there.

   It certainly meant something to the natives, for they treated the place
almost like a shrine.  There were no flowering plants on the planet, so
instead they would sometimes come with fruit or interesting looking rocks,
piling them at the base of the rock formation.  Staci knew that the local
wildlife would later come pick the offerings clean, but the furrs didn't
seem to notice, or if they did they didn't mind.

   There was a pile of offerings down there now and Staci wandered down to
look at it, noting that some of the bits of rock and stone looked almost
like gold.  Then a thought struck her and she looked up.  She had never
actually stood between the legs of the formation before, not wanting to get
too close because it looked old enough to collapse at any second.  But there
she was right in the middle now and it occurred to her that she had never
tried meditating there.  So she looked up to position herself right under
the formation when she noticed with surprise that the thing was hollow.  Not
only that, but there was something green deep inside.

   Staci stood quietly for a minute, thinking about what she was seeing.
Green, the crystal from the vision was green although there was no sign of
it now.  No sign but the green thing inside this supposedly natural
formation.  She knew she couldn't get inside to check, she had no way of
reaching the crotch of the formation where a large hole beckoned, but still
it gave her pause.

   What if it was true?  What if the crystal was really there, buried deep
inside the chest of the formation?  What would happen if she tried to
meditate here?

   Staci was keen to find out and she dropped down cross legged where she
stood, her bare butt resting on the warm stone.  She closed her eyes and
slowly slipped into her Zen state.



   She was looking through the eyes of the statue of Rysa, staring out
beyond the mountain at the great circle plain.  There was no ocean, no water
to be seen except for the river Themn snaking its way across the
countryside.

   The city of Themnes covered much of what she could see.  It was a place
of towering structures and immense wealth.  Flying machines buzzed around
the sky like bees around a hive, and its teeming populace made the city seem
alive.

   All was good, all was prosperous, but then came the light from the sky,
the moon.  It was torn apart and driven out of orbit by mistake, an
experiment gone wrong.  It hit the world and the world died in a flash of
heat and cloud of dust.  Then the water came, flowing freely from the poles
which no longer held the ice of the world.

   A massive wave washed away what little the heat had spared, and only a
few survived.  Then the darkness came and the rain that wouldn't end, and
all that was known was lost, the world immersed.

   No one wanted to remember, no one wanted to tempt the Gods again.  To go
down that dark path once more only invited more death, and the children of
planet were not yet ready, not ready for things like what happened in the
past, or what was happening now!

   A scene change, a well-lit room with a table and people.  Staci was
surprised to see that she knew them, they were Colonists.  On the table was
a young woman, naked, her head hooded, her belly large with child.  She had
a heavy chain attached to her collar that ran down to a ring welded to the
wall.  She also wore heavy chains on ankles and wrists and her nude body
showed bruises and whip marks.  Her legs were lifted and locked into
stirrups that held them wide apart, and Staci could see that she was about
to give birth.

   There was no sound, she could only watch as Doctor Kelly and a naked and
chained Anna took the girl through the delivery, while other men watched.
Anna looked beaten, not physically but mentally, and she moved like a robot.
Kelly too looked like he carried the weight of the world and of all the men
in the room he was the only one that seemed concerned for the health of the
girl on the table.

   The other men, Staci saw Alan Kent and Dick Janis among them, talked
quietly and watched, as if this were just an animal giving birth and not a
real human being.

   Staci could see the agony in the girl's movements as the baby came out,
and Anna hardly had a chance to weigh and measure the newborn before Janis
moved in.  He took the child and opened the blanket it was wrapped in,
revealing to Staci that it was a girl, and he took from his pocket a tiny
green ring.

   Staci saw with horror that it was a collar, a baby-sized collar, and she
watched helplessly as Janis closed it around the newborn's neck before
handing it back.

   The vision changed again to show a group of nude women digging a ditch.
All were chained heavily and not a back was unmarked from some sort of whip.
But there was something wrong with the line of women, something Staci couldn
't see for a moment.  But then it was there, right before her eyes.  Not all
the women were women, some of them were native youngsters as enslaved as the
rest.  And standing on a ridge above them, gauss rifles in their hands, were
Janis and his men.

   One more change, this time to an open glade in the forest somewhere.
Staci could see that this was a place where the furrs lived for she could
see them doing their daily activities.  But then they started to fall, one
by one, their flesh exploding.  From the surrounding trees came the men,
filled with a bloodlust that gave them no quarter, firing their gauss rifles
on full automatic.  Staci watched horrified as they slaughtered the furrs,
leaving behind only the smaller youngsters who were immediately clapped into
irons before being dragged away.  And in the middle of all this carnage was
Dick Janis, a thin smile on his face.

   Then the scene changed once again to show a moon, a moon that was no
longer there.



   It was dusk and Staci woke with a start and she knew right away that what
she had seen was both past and future; that the Colony under Dick Janis was
going to bring the death of the natives.  She remembered all she had seen
and she knew now why the Yahshi, for that was their name, wouldn't let her
have fire.  A race memory, so old they had no idea where it came from, saw
fire as the first step down the dark road of technology.  As a species, they
were not ready to take that road yet.  The Yahshi were not a species in
their own prehistory, they were post history, in the dusk of their life.
But there was hope for them yet, unless the humans spoiled it for them.

   Staci knew this now, but the memories were fading quickly.  She felt that
very soon it would all be gone and all she would have left were her own
conclusions about what she saw, and she also had a feeling that she wouldn't
be allowed to have this vision again.

   She looked back up at the statue, for that was what it really was, a
statue thousands of years old built at a time when its civilization was at
its height, and she looked for the green glow but it was gone.  She sighed.
There was little left in her head now, but there was enough for one more
task, a task she had to take for it was no longer her own desire that she
return.  Something bigger was telling her what might be, and she knew she
had to stop it.

   She found the One near the burrows, and it looked as if it was expecting
her.

   "I want to go back to my people," she communicated to it, finally able to
do so.

   "They tried to kill you," the One replied.  "You are too young to defend
yourself."

   "I am full-grown for my kind, and I will defend myself.  You have taught
me much, I thank you."

   The One thought nothing for a moment, nothing it was willing to share
anyway.  Then it blinked its cat-like eyes.  "You will go back and die; we
do not want you to die."

   "I will not die, I must go back," Staci pleaded as best she could.  She
wondered if she should tell it about the vision she had, about their
possible future.  But she suspected that it already knew she had experienced
something in the Holy Place, for it wasn't surprised that they could now
communicate.  Did it need to know?  She decided not to tell it.  "I'
m.lonely," she finally admitted.

   Again the pause as the One considered this.  "I will take you back," it
stated finally.

"Thank you," communicated Staci, and the words faded too.







End of this Section.



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