by: Rick Johnson 
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
RikJohnson@juno.com
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I
The journey from Earth to Barsoom would be simple and quick. At point-01c I could make it in a day which would give me time to reflect on my life and goals. I did that a lot, reflecting, but never really came up with anything worthwhile. I was totally unsuited to be a housewife to man or woman and even as a lover, I was too selfish to spend my hours thinking of ways to pleasure my partner, as much fun as that may be. So the only thing I was really happy doing was adventure. Smuggling, robbing criminals, assassinating bad people and fighting in wars for I tried to believe myself an ethical criminal. Maybe it was because of my early life where at the age of fifteen when I should have been married and popping out Irish brats, I was a motherless orphan helping my father fight the British invaders. And lacking a feminine role model, I learned to be a man in a man’s world despite my gender. Maybe it was hunting English soldiers after what they did to my family warped me into the more violent aspects of life. Maybe it was being abducted by the Demons and changed into not only an alien but a technical-slave during the Kris Wars that did it. I don’t know. I just realized that every time I tried to work at a real job using the technical experiences and abilities I possessed, I got really bored and went looking for trouble, too often in a bar for I was an obnoxious drunk.
I had heard about Barsoom from the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs and remembered something I had read in the Demon archives. The planet existed, the Demons had visited it and the only difference between Barsoom as described by the author, Burroughs, and the real planet was that Burroughs dressed the place up and made it more exciting for his readers. Well, Shakesphere did the same whenever he wrote history into a play for the reality of Julius Caesar or Richard III was far from that shown in the play. And the television shows I had seen about Ireland under Cromwell’s rule was nothing like what I endured. But then, 20th Century America was more English than they wanted to admit and so wouldn’t tell the truth about what I and my family suffered in the 17th century so I accepted the editorial differences and hoped that Barsoom would be as exciting as I needed.
Once leaving planetary surface and leaving those stupid people behind, (how could I have thought that I would fit in?) I did a quick scan, located the Red Planet and plotted the course. Then my sensors detected something in Canada. An energy spike that shouldn’t be there. My charts said Saskatchewan near Montana in a remote area that had no real population to warrant that much power. Curious I adjusted orbit and moved lower to investigate. My cloak would easily keep me undetected by the American radar system so I had no fear of them trying to shoot me down. Even if they tried, anything less than a nuke wouldn’t get through my shields and I could easily outrun anything they tossed at me. With only a pulse laser for a deck gun, I couldn’t destroy a city or anything like they showed on the movies, but I could shoot down any aircraft or missile so had no fears at all.
The spike was strange, neither electro-magnetic or nuclear or thermal, or rather not like what Earth was capable of generating. I had seen that spike before…. That’s it! A Stargate! Ten years ago I had found one about 5,000 light years away and it had sent me to Earth where I met and fell in love with Jean before she betrayed me for a man. It took me six months to build a communicator to contact my ship, the Mairayd, and bring it to Earth to rescue me. Then I had taken Kevin and Cyndi to the stars as lovers and friends. Five years ago they had left to see the galaxy and I resumed my smuggling career until I met Kara who had left just weeks ago wishing to live on the planet of her ancestors. I hoped that she was smart enough to keep her origins secret for the Earth nations were too paranoid about alien visitors and would gladly torture information out of her even if she was 100% Saxon.
So I had found a Stargate on Earth. But where did it go to? Only one way to find out and I lowered until I was within meters of the tree-tops and did a thorough scan. The Demons used Stargates often but they understood them. I did not. Some were stable and went from one place-time to another with no problems. Others were unstable and shifted with the desires of the user. Still others would just send you into the heart of a star or disperse your atoms to the emptiness of space. You never really knew and this one was a bit strange.
Finding a clearing I landed the ship and as I dressed for excursion, called out, "Mairayd?""
Yes, captain," the ship replied.
Please keep scanning the area for human life, I’d hate to be surprised while bathing in a stream."
"Of course, Captain."
"Also, I’m looking over that Stargate so keep in contact just in case something happens so you can rescue me."
"Of course, Captain."
I had used Stargates before with only a couple mishaps but you never took chances. The Demons never had trouble with the things but then, they loved art and exploration so you could teleport a Demon a million light years away to a world that was killing it from poisonous atmosphere and temperature and they’d think it was a grand adventure that they had planned carefully. Me, I preferred my adventures where I could breath the air, drink the water and not worry about the local animals or plants or rocks trying to eat me.
So, gear. Boots with a decent sole and flexible enough to allow me to use my tarsial thumb. Pants and shirt with armour fibers to deflect stingers and bullets. Hat for rain and sun. gloves. Water and food for three days, knife, sword, the one I made for training with Brount, not the Katana I had bought in Las Vegas and beamer. Plus a medical kit, fire and cooking kit and a bag of gold and silver coins to sell in case. I didn’t know what to expect but I might just decide to camp out and sleep under the stars. I had done that in Ireland after humanity had become extinct and when I decided to go swimming and accidentally triggered that Stargate that took me to California ten years ago I wished I had this kit so was taking few chances. I wasn’t dressed for war but a knife was always useful and a beamer and sword diverted a lot of potential trouble-makers. And the only difference between these clothes and the ones I wore aboard ship were that I usually wore a long dress and now was wearing pants. The armour fibers were standard and prevented a loose drive-shaft or rogue meteorite from killing me when I was working. Then I thought, "what the hell am I doing? I’m in Canada! What trouble do I expect? A mad bear or a lumberjack looking for a beer? So I changed to some cotton pants (or what the Vanthi used as cotton) and carried only my sword and beamer calling out, "Mairayd, I’m leaving now, please keep a lookout for me."
"Of course, Captain," she responded as I left the ship.
Once outside I took a deep breath and smelled the recent rain. It even looked like Ireland, same vegetation, same climate, same overcast sky. All it needed was a peat bog and a few more rocks underfoot and a few less trees overhead.
I had been smelling a few flowers when I saw the bee. I knew that the Americas had imported the European honey-bee but this one was different. Not really different, but the bands weren’t exactly right. The flower too, it was different. Now I began to look around carefully. That was a pine tree but the cone was too tight. Most of the biota was normal but then, I’d see something different. I was an Engineer and a soldier (of sorts) not a biologist but I knew that mercury used in the paper industry would mutate genes and many other industrial pollutions were mutagenetic. So this could be a natural evolution or a genetic defect from pollution or…. I emenned for electro-magnetic fields and felt them to the right. The Demons had given me these antennae to detect em-fields to help me repair their ships and I could just as easily feel the magnetic field of the Earth or even a human so the difference from a Stargate was easy to find.
But if there was a Stargate here, then if another animal crossed to Earth, the strange conditions would quickly kill the animal but some of the bacteria and parasites could survive and reproduce and evolve. This is why fleas colonized worlds that killed humans. The simpler the life-form, the better their chances for survival and a single sneeze could change the face of any planet forever. Then the local life here in Canada would react to the alien bacteria and parasites by adapting, evolving into a form that could resist the invaders. Thus the new species. Nothing drastic as a reptile changing into a bird or mammal but something more subtle like a new form of honey-bee or a different shape of a pine-cone.
The fields were from a cave, narrow and not very deep and I could feel the deflection field at maybe ten feet. Normally these Stargates operated where kinetic energy generated by flowing water caused an iron mass to release tachyons or something like that. I’m not certain as I’m as much a physicist as I am a biologist but I do know you need a natural worm-hole plus iron to de-gauss and some form of kinetic energy to degauss the iron and free-flowing water under and around an iron ring works well. At least that’s what the Demons said when they had me build one on some planet twenty years ago when I was maybe nineteen years of age. There were obviously other ways Stargates existed but these were the ones the Demons preferred to use because they could be controlled. The problem was often that since the mind generated low-frequency em-fields if you wanted something strongly enough, your thoughts and desires could influence the Stargate and shift the wormhole to another focus. Maybe that was what happened to John Carter and Ulyssus Paxton? They wanted to go to Mars so badly that the Stargates in Arizona and France shifted to meet their desires? Or maybe the Stargates there were stable and the reflections from Mars influenced their minds to think of Mars? It’s all very metaphysical, another field where I am lacking.
I heard a grunting behind me and saw a bear rising over me. I know I could have cut it apart with my beamer easily for my reflexes were far faster than that of the animal but it was probably defending it’s den and I had no wish to kill a mother for I saw her cubs to the side. So I leapt backwards and slammed into the cliff-face. Stunned, I felt for the opening and crawled inside grasping my sword and beamer and preparing to defend myself if I couldn’t escape.
Moments later I was overcome by weakness and my last sight was a red star, Mars, just above the trees as the sun set.
II
I awoke, hearing something grunting in the trees overhead and a dozen thoughts ran through my head at once. I was no longer in the cave. I was freezing cold. I was wet from laying in a shallow bog. Something was crawling up my leg andISCREAMEDANDPUSHEDMYSELF AWAY then when on dry ground, as dry as a bog could be, I calmed and other thoughts meandered through. The thing I had kicked off my naked leg was a snake with ten legs. I had time to actually count them, my mind was shifting so fast and the snake was staring at me with no further movement. It hissed at me and then I poked at it with my sword sheath. It snapped but didn’t bite then moved back into the water and swam away through the red scum that covered the water. My next action was to huddle into a ball, covering my breasts and privates for I actually was naked. I still held my sword and beamer but nothing else. It was also hard to breathe between the humidity and the thinness of the atmosphere.
I forced myself from my nudity for the only times I had ever been naked was while bathing, having sex or when I awoke on the Demon med-table after they did something to me. No clothes, no med-kit, no food or water, just me, my skin and my sword and beamer.
The things in the tree looked like eight-legged lizards with long necks but I could estann intelligence from them. Not on a human level, though some people were less intelligent than a frog I believed, but still there were concepts and ideas and drives there. "Hello," I called to them in Spanglic, then Vanthi, Gaelic and English. With no answer of images, I tried the hissing of Demon which I could speak after a fashion though my accent was terrible. The things stopped at this, stared then continued as if I had been mouthing gibberish.
Something bit me and I slapped it to red ruin before I thought. Then I scraped the mess off my thigh and examined the wound. It was already beginning to swell with venom and I toyed with the idea of cutting it open and sucking the poison. But was that a good idea? Ireland had no snakes and neither did any starship or space station I knew of but I recalled watching something on TV in America about more people being killed by fools who believed in the cut-and-suck than were harmed by the poison so decided to leave it alone. After all, the Demons had created this body to survive and I hoped that they kept alien worlds in mind when they did so. Or maybe since they created me as a tech-slave, they never thought I’d ever leave their ships. That last thought was disturbing.
I crawled to the water, trying to slow my heart and respiration in case I was poisoned and washed the mess from my leg. At least it wasn’t growing worse and I’d suffered worse bites from bees and dog-bites.
Then I stood and flew through the air and struck a tree. Ok, gravity was less. No problem for I had been on enough planets to know how to move about in everything from zero-g to three-g. I was twice as strong as any human male and could survive in heavy or light gravity.
Being naked bothered me for I had been born into a nation where women wore dresses to the ground, sleeves to the wrist and more undergarments than most Americans owned. I stood carefully, never letting go of my beamer or sword and took inventory. The last time I crossed alone through a Stargate, I ended up on Earth in California and wearing my clothes. This time I was naked but holding my weapons. Why?
Because of my desires! I had planned to visit Barsoom and those thoughts were in my mind. I was thinking of John Carter and Ulyssus Paxton who had transited to Barsoom and they were in my mind. I was thinking of escaping the bear while hiding in the Stargate and that triggered the Stargate and thrust me to…. Barsoom? Wasn’t Barsoom a desert and not a bog-infested forest?
"Shut up!" I screamed to the things overhead. So the Stargate stripped me naked including the weapons I wasn’t frantically grasping as was its wont. Biologicals only it seemed under normal conditions. But my strong desire for self-defense and my clutching of these two weapons as a life-line brought them along. I seemed to remember that both Carter and Paxton thought only of escape and so thoughts of fighting or even decent attire never crossed their minds. Thus they’d escape everything, including their clothes. DAMN! Why couldn’t I be more worried about nudity! Now I would bounce all over this planet until… I’d need to build another transceiver to summon my ship. Left alone, it would eventually start to search for me, I had programmed into the Mairayd a really strong loyalty, but telling her where I was would help tremendously. All I had to do would be to survive until she arrived. Last time this happened it took six months to be rescued.
Looking around I chose a direction towards higher and dryer ground then noticed that I was walking with my hands and tail covering my breasts and private areas. I tried to laugh for who would see me here? I was alone with a few alien animals and god and I no longer believed in him so it mattered not if he watched me. Hell! God watched me get gang-raped when I was seventeen so probably enjoyed the sight of naked flesh. Probably a good reason to dress though.
The sounds continued despite my wishes and finally I stopped, held my sword under my breasts and screamed to the trees, "Look all you want! I may not be the most beautiful woman in the galaxy but I’ve never wanted for a lover or had my lovers be embarrassed to be seen with me in public!" The sounds died again then commenced. Stupid animals. At least in this low gravity I no longer bounced and my breasts felt much lighter than on Earth despite their size which got in the way sometimes.
I continued on using the glide that Brount, my sword-master and teacher of spiritual-philosophy had taught me when I was a Demon slave to avoid leaving the ground with every step. I don’t know why I use the word ‘slave’ when talking about Demons. They didn’t really own me and I was treated far better by them than by my own family in Ireland. And they did give me the Mairayd and healed my wounds and educated me. Habit I guess. Something crawled up the inside of my leg and I swatted it away before it crawled inside me. THIS is why I needed clothing, to keep the vermin outside my skin and out of my womb which they’d probably find inviting.
I also needed a belt or rope to hold my weapons, a canteen for water, a pack for whatever food I could find and numerous other things that I had no way to make. I tried a vine but it broke when I tried to tie a knot. I tried to weave the grass, for weaving wool and flax into thread then into cloth was something every Irish girl learned as she suckled at her mother’s breast. Eventually I was able to make a pad of sorts. It wasn’t beautiful but would allow me to sit without something seeing my privates as a potential home. After some time I was able to roll and braid the grass into a flat rope of sorts and this made a belt to hold my sword and beamer, thus freeing my hands for other tasks, like climbing a tree or swatting the bugs. Next came a skirt and panties though this grass against my nether lips might be as uncomfortable as wool.
I did find a rock with a moderate edge (I am totally ignorant on how to chip flint even though some men needed a modicum of that skill to repair the flints in their flintlocks on Earth) and began to scrape the purple grasses until I had the fibers left which I collected. With some pounding, they softened well and I was able to weave them into something that was protective and wouldn’t chafe. Looking down into the murky water I felt like a topless dancer on stage with desperately lonely and horny men staring up at me. I only needed those 7 inch heels with the stupid 2 inch soles and a pole to complete the image. I also decided that a bra wasn’t overly needed in this lighter gravity but I’d need a hat once I got away form the trees. So by the time the sun was setting, I had a belt and panties of a sort and a sitting mat but nothing more and I sought a place to sleep the night away. I did tie my beamer tightly to my thigh and my sword to my back for fear of loosing them and sought safety for the night in the trees.
Fortunately, the adaptations the Demons made for me to work in the zero-gravity of a starship worked equally well in a forest and I was easily able to climb any tree I chose, first by leaping the distance to the lower limbs, a feat made easier by my enhanced strength as much by the lower gravity then using my tarsial thumbs and prehensile tail to hold onto the branches about me. And soon I was watching the lizards and bugs glow in the dark. Reptiles are cold-blooded and never glow since their body temperature matched their surroundings. These glowed with infra-red which meant that although they resembled lizards, they were warm-blooded.
Soon the sun vanished and with it the heat. I had spent many an Irish Winter with few clothes and this was as bad if not worse for I was naked save a triangle of ‘cloth’ that covered my pubic hair and privates for the string in back ran between my cheeks to separate around my tail then join into a belt to hold the front, thus I was effectively naked!
The atmosphere was so thin it probably held little if any heat so I pulled as many leafy branches as I could around me and huddled and shivered through the night. Once I awoke from a dream of falling to find I WAS falling. Then I hit a branch across my belly and near died from the impact. I would need to make a hammock or platform I reflected as I returned to my bower, my aches driving the cold away.
In the morning I was cold but alive and crawled upward to the sun which was rising in what I took to be the East. Were I in the southern hemisphere or the planet rotate backwards, these directions would be reversed but for now I enjoyed the thought that I had learned the cardinal directions to my new home. As the sun rose, it shrank to be much smaller than on Earth though the colour was the same. I spread out to catch the em-fields but felt none. No magnetic field to this world. This meant that either the iron core had cooled because the planetary mass was too small to keep it molten or this world had no iron core. Either way as dangerous for without a magnetic field, there would be no van allen belts to stop the UV-radiation and I’d sunburn quickly once away from the trees. Damn! Another problem to endure.
Then I noticed that although I had a few welts from the evening, none of the bugs bit. I watched carefully and saw one alight then leave without biting. They had decided that I wasn’t a snack which meant that our biologies were different.
Demons took humans because we shared the same biology and so we could eat their food, breathe their air and live in their ships without fear of us dying off. The worlds colonized by the abducted humans during the Diaspora were mostly Demon terra-formed worlds so were compatible with us but this world may be different. If the bugs decided that I wasn’t edible, did that mean that the local food was equally poisonous?
I picked two nuts then, holding them against each other in my palms, pressed and cracked the shell of one. Then after investigating them with every sense the Demons had enhanced, I ate one, chewing slowly and feeling for any sensation that would indicate poison. But aside from a slight acrid taste, they were bland and caused no numbness or tingle or sting so when I had masticated the nut to a fine paste, I swallowed, prepared to stick my finger down my throat.
My Vanthi pleasure slave, Ethelinda, had bragged that she had no gag reflex which had her male owners happy but for me, the one time I tried with my tail to see what it felt like, I near lost my lunch so I knew a simple finger in my throat would cause the nut to vacate my bowels immediately were I to feel poisoned.
After some time and no ill effects, I repeated the same with the other nut then as I digested that one, I began to pick others. Another tree over held fruit but biting into one made me spit and rush for water, not caring if I were sucking parasites with the water, so determined was I to wash out the taste of that thing.
I tried another fruit with the same results then finally found one that looked like an American potato only growing from a tree. This was as bland as the nuts but between the two I filled my belly. At least I had found a nut and a ‘fruit’ I could eat and a number I could not. Of course, they hadn’t gone through my system yet and I knew not which leaves would be safe to use when I wiped.
***
I traveled on in a general northerly direction for a few days before I found the forest thinning and the desert taking over as the ground rose. Ahead of me was the desert, red rock and reddish moss and little else. I remembered driving though Death Valley ten years ago when Jean and I visited Los Vegas and even that desert was lush compared to this one. So, perhaps I was on the Barsoom of Burroughs? The forest said no but the desert said maybe. I’d need to see some eight legged lion or a fifteen foot six-limbed Green man to be certain. One thing I was certain of as that I had no desire to cross that wasteland on foot, naked and with no supplies.
Since the desert was littered with broken hills and no evidence of water, I chose to follow the edge of the forest for a time. I could easily climb a tree to escape danger from the desert and run to the desert to escape forest predators. I recalled that John Carter, was that his name?, was able to outrun a horse and leap thirty feet once here. So I experimented. I marked a spot then jumped as far as I could, then paced off the distance. I was twice as strong as a man and more than two and a half times as strong as I was when human so some simple calculations implied:
A Human male can long jump7’ on Earth + 62% = 11’ on Mars, twice that at a run.
A Human female can long jump 5 ½’ on Earth + 62% = 9’ on mars, twice that at a run.
I was twice as strong as a Human man so I should jump twice as far or 23’ or 46’ at a run.
My distance was near sixteen feet. A bit lower than expected but then, I wasn’t an athlete and being twice as strong as a man didn’t mean I could simply double his abilities. With work, I could probably do maybe eighteen feet though that would reduce to maybe fifteen feet as I adapted to the lower gravity. But I as still having trouble breathing in the reduced atmosphere and would need more meat to build up red blood cells and the few lizards I could eat weren’t doing that fast enough.
Well, right is lucky so I turned to my right and followed the forest eastward thinking to myself, "How the hell did John Carter jump thirty feet when he should be barely able to jump twenty?
If a man can jump three to four feet up and a woman can jump two to three feet up, then a man should be able to leap to the top of a six foot wall and a woman to the top of a five foot wall… I think the author was exaggerating when he described human abilities on mars.
Thus employed I near tripped over the skeleton in my path.
III
The skeleton was scattered over a wide area and some bones were covered with the ochre moss while others were fully exposed and most showed the tooth marks of whatever had eaten the thing. The spine was mostly intact and stretched for dozens of feet, each vertebrae as round as a dinner platter. Yet they were deceptively fragile-looking. The skull was huge, bigger than a throne but the bones were thin and there were many holes as of to reduce weight. When I found the legs, for a leg bone is a leg bone, I counted eight but too thin for something of this size. Each was more than five feet long but only as thick as a cows leg. This thing was tall and long and thin then I laughed, "You don’t need to fight Earth’s gravity so you don’t need strength. And you have to be long to keep tripping over your own feet." I searched the corpse some more but found nothing of use, no harness, no meat, just bones so traveled on.
By the third day I was doing better time, having made a sling from grass and used that weapon to kill four winged birds that had two or four legs. Once I found a clutch of fresh eggs, each the size of a goose egg and dined well that day but mostly I ate nuts, that potato fruit and the occasional lizard. I slept in trees and walked in the shade as my skin slowly tanned and soon forgot that I was naked for my breasts were so light for their size I could almost forget they existed. Plus the moss was so thick that I rarely stepped on a rock and so my feet toughened easily and suffered little damage though I wore a set of grass sandals I had woven. I also was breathing well for my diet had allowed me to build the necessary blood to use this thin air and had enough breath to even sing as I walked.
But of humanity I saw naught.
Each day I would gather dried sticks and branches and tie them into a bundle for my evening fire. Then well before sundown I would seek a space between rocks well away from the forest, a place where the rocks would be hot from the day and keep me warm most of the night. I would build me small fire, cover my alcove with leafy branches to retain heat and by the time the sun had set, I was safe and snug in my temporary hut where I would practice weaving the local grass into mats and finally a bag in which I could carry the treasures I found.
One day, maybe a week into my journey I was squatting by a rock, peeing and watching the moss send runners to my urine at a speed I could almost observe, so desperate was the red moss for any water. I knew men in Ireland and even the Vanthi who would brag about being able to write their names in the snow but for me, I was happy if I kept my legs and feet dry. I didn’t hear it, but I estanned intelligence and quickly wiping with a bit of grateful moss, stood a bit to spy two green monsters mounted upon a couple long-bodied, eight-legged and olive-coloured horses. These then must be the Green Men described by Captain Carter to his biographer. I recalled that they were a cruel race and not wishing to be tortured and raped again, I started to duck down when I heard a woman moan in pain.
Each thoat, for that is what they were, held some prisoners tied to their mount. The extreme length of the beasts allowed for not only their rider and gear but also two prisoners hanging over the spines of the beasts. Three were men, I believed but the fourth had long black hair that hung for feet, hiding her head and the sides of the mount of her captor.
"Hey there!" I stood and cried, forgetting to pull my loin cloth up. The two immediately turned to spy me then their mounts made a slow turn towards my location. I took the time to dress though why I don’t know other than I disliked nudity. A naked woman may be beautiful but a naked man, dangling there was just laughable and my own nudity embarrassed me, though many women on Earth and Vanthi wished they had a body as firm, tight and attractive as was mine.
I adjusted my clothing around my tail then slid my sword to a handy position and ensured my beamer was ready then waited. I had killed Green Pirates twenty years ago when I returned to Ireland to conquer England and free my nation but those where more robust, heavier of limb ands possessed advanced technology. These were almost insect-like, their limbs were so thin, doubtless adapted to the lesser gravity.
One dropped his lance and charged me then as I drew and waited, trusting to my strength and reflexes to survive, he saw that I wasn’t what he expected and pulled up at the last moment and called to his companion for I estanned no friendship in these monsters for me or for each other.
Both came to a halt, staring at me with lances pointed to my heart but yards away. They would have to spur their mounts to pierce me but the threat was there, if I moved, I would die. The two looked me over and I estanned flashes of images as they seemed to discus my tail, eyes, feet and even my breasts then some decision was made and one called to me to do something that I believes was ‘surrender or die’ though it could have easily been ‘why are you peeing in public?’
I responded in Spanglic, then Gaelic. English, Vanthi and Demon,, "I don’t understand what you are saying," but I was as unintelligible to them as they were to me.
The two discussed this again and as they did so I took note of their weapons. Their lance was some forty foot long and was held by their right middle limb in it’s armpit, being counter-balanced by it’s right upper arm which held the lance steady by grasping it far behind his body. His middle left arm grasped the lance before it’s body and helped to guide the point thus freeing it’s upper left arm for other weapons for I saw neither reigns nor harness on the thoat. I would occasionally receive a flash of ‘turn’ or ‘stop’ which implied that they controlled their mounts through telepathy. I suspect that the lightness of the metal which wasn’t steel, iron or wood aided by the lower gravity enabled them to do this for on Earth they hadn’t the muscles to even stand, much less hold a lance of such length steady.
Each also carried two swords at their left hips, one six foot long and the other three foot long with an eighteen inch dagger and heavy revolver at their right hip. I also noticed a pack at their belt behind their back and a number of pouches plus a rifle with a barrel far longer than my own height in a holster at the side of the thoat though one had his rifle slung over his back.
I call these two ‘he’ only because I believed them to be so for I did not believe that a woman would be acting as did these nor did I see any sign of breasts though for all I knew, they could be male, female, neither or both. But didn’t John Carter mention that Green Women fought but only in defense? Perhaps I should have taken more care in my reading.
Thrusting the pointed butt of the lance into the ground (I hesitate to say earth and ‘into the mars’ didn’t sound right) it stared down at me for its head was easily seven or eight higher than my own five foot height. It walked around me and I received an image of it breaking my tail bones one at a time from distal to ass. The thing was assessing my use as a plaything for torture, not for ransom or curiosity. Once it moved before its fellow, I acted, jumped forward, rolled between it’s legs and before it could react I hamstrung it with one slice. Then as it went to its knees with a cry I ran for its fellow who dropped it’s now useless lance and pulled it’s longer sword from his side.
By then I had avoided the thoats sharp teeth and closed in for a sword that long was made for cutting people with the last couple feet of the edge and once closer than four feet, it was useless. The sword Brount made for me, however, was made for cutting while close in and thought I could have thrusted I wanted to get too close for it to avoid my blow and leapt up, grabbed it’s leg with my tarsial feet, wrapped my tail around a saddle projection for a brace and struck it in the side above the belt then pushed in and drew as I pushed myself backwards.
The draw-cut worked well for it stood in slow motion, it’s side opening and then it watched it’s entrails fall from it’s body for I had cut it to the spine.
With that one dying I returned to my first opponent and circled it at the guarde. Loosing it’s lower legs seemed to only inconvenience it slightly for it used it’s middle limbs as legs and upon it’s lower knees, resorted to a mode of quadrapedal motion that was hindered only slightly by the damage I had caused to it calves. It reared its upper body upright and resembled a centaur, green and hideous but never the less a centaur and went on guard with it’s longer sword held in both hands. Rather than crippling the thing, I had simply moved it down to my level of attack and now it had the advantage of reach for it could thrust and cut long before I could reach a killing distance myself.
It’s skill far surpassed my own for Brount had taught me the sword as an art and a means to spirituality, not as a means to exterminate my fellows for a space-faring people fight from thousands of miles away, not feet. I tried to block and charge, deflect and leap, any tactic that I thought might get me within the Green man’s point to no avail and soon I was bleeding from a number of cuts and pokes, none fatal but all irritating and I was sweating like a horse in the sunlight which the Green Man seemed to accept as natural.
When I advanced, it held position and thrust or cut. When I retreated, it followed, when I moved around it easily turned and I was about to cut my losses and run away then I thought of a plan. It was moving it’s legs slower as it bled from my cuts but in this heat it I would desiccate from thirst before it bled to death so I backed towards the forest and shade. Once under the leaves, the thoats grazing some distance away and ignoring us, I felt cooler and better though it became much muggier with the humidity. I allowed it to back me further in, and I needed not to feign exhaustion for I was rapidly loosing strength. Confident in my eventual loss, I allowed myself to be backed further into the forest then I turned and ran before it could react and by the time it thought to chase me, I was hidden by the boles of trees and grass.
Then I leapt to a low branch and climbed overhead to spy down upon my victim. I had guessed right. Like humans this thing had evolved in the open plains so it’s instincts were to look out and down for that was where prey, danger and safety lay. Being a desert creature, it never thought to look up into the trees so I carefully climbed overhead until I was directly overhead. I froze when it did look up but it never saw me and I appeared to be invisible to it’s telepathy while I estanned it’s direction at all times. Then as it turned to leave the forest, I dropped onto it’s back, driving my blade through it’s spine and pinning it to the ground. Without care I released my sword and grasped it’s head and twisted, hearing it’s neck snap and then I was alone, on top of the body of my foe where I collapsed in exhaustion.
***
How long I lay there I know not. Minutes? Days? Hours? I only know that when I roused myself, it was because some of the local reptiles had started to munch on me and when I kicked it away, it hissed then moved to consume the dead Green Man not caring that I was feet away. My blood had dried and so I stripped the body, kicking away the scavengers who bit at me as I did so and dragged the weapons, gear and harness back to the edge of the forest. There I collapsed again and examined the Green Man’s gear finding a canteen with a milky substance that tasted like cheese. Drinking this, I easily kept it down and then, refreshed, found some dried fruit which I ignored and that potato-fruit which I consumed with more nuts. Then my strength recovered, I bundled the gear of my foe and returned to the thoats that had wandered some distance away in their search for food.
I dropped the gear near the other body and with but my own sword and beamer, why didn’t I just shoot them both with my beamer when I had the chance? I approached the thoats and called them to me. Horses could be tamed by a gentle word, a kind thought and some grain held under an armpit to collect sweat and cause the horse to associate your smell with good food. I cut some thick and tasty-looking, I hope, moss and approached the beasts calling to them in a gentle voice and finally caught one. I cut the prisoners free then repeated the act with the second, then carried my unconscious burden to the shade where I lay them as I repaired to collect the gear from the dead and the thoats. By the time I had returned to the shade with my burdens, I was exhausted and collapsed again though I managed to force a few drops of the milky-cheese down the throats of three of the captives, the fourth being dead. Obviously, the Green Men had enjoyed their breaks by torturing their prisoners and one had died from this treatment, another looked like he would not survive but the woman and man might with care.
Twice I chased off scavengers who were attracted to my dead companion until I had the strength to drag the body into the desert and pile rocks over the poor man. Not knowing of their beliefs, I could only call out, "If there are any gods here, please care for this poor man who suffered so and give him rest and an ease to his torments. Thank you." Then I returned to my charges and sought whatever medical supplies I could find in the gear I now possessed.
Something in a container that was obviously not cosmetic or food seemed to do so when I rubbed it on one of my own cuts, the pain vanished and the would began to heal immediately. This must be that miraculous healing salve that Captain Carter had described and so I used most of it on my companions who needed it far more than did I. So cruelly was the woman used that I cried as I treated her wounds and prayed that she would survive for such beauty that was evident even under her bruises and cuts deserved life.
I made each a bed from the silks and furs I had taken from the thoats, trusting the their own body heat to keep them warm, laved their wounds with water I fetched from the forest, force-fed them water and the milky-cheese and cared for them as best I could. Then before the sun set, I built fires around us to drive away predators and to keep us warm and determined to remain awake to protect my charges.
I awoke shivering and realized that I had fallen asleep and saw them glowing infra-red in the dark. Three people with heat patterns so different from humans that I knew not if that was normal or a result of their injuries. The darkness around us glowed with the wild-life that approached in the darkness so I built the fires again, destroying my night-vision in the process and using my beamer to kill one swamp thing that the fires failed to intimidate.
I must have fallen asleep again from exhaustion and blood loss for my next memories was of the sun up and the girl moaning in terror as she dreamt of her captivity. I touched her to sooth and comfort her but the images and sensations she was broadcasting were so vivid I let go and backed away to empty my stomach in terror. How could she survive that I did not know for her experiences made what I had suffered at the cruel hands of the British seem like pleasure.
Steeling myself I tried to project thoughts of calmness and love but she seemed to not be able to detect my own telepathy so I carefully laved her wounds, used the rest of the Green man’s salve on her then when she rested I sought her companions to find one dead in the night. Crying, I cared for the last man and then carried the body to bury him next to his fellow who had not been disturbed.
I stood there, naked in the sun, wondering what god could allow such cruelty and fearing that tomorrow there would be two more graves to dig. Then, I returned to my charges and hunted food for us all.
During my morning meal, which I had taken late due to my labours, I looked over the gear I had inherited. A spyglass of such power that distant mountains came into sharp focus though the further they were, the harder it was to keep them in view for even my breathing and blood pulsing would move the spyglass a fraction that was imperceptible to me but caused the distant images to flit about like a moth.
There was a chess set with a cloth board of 100 squares and tiny pieces which caused me to wonder how such a cruel race could take such pleasure in a game like this. This was but one of the many inconstancies that I was to discover on my sojourn upon the red planet.
The revolver was too large for me to hold but a larger man might do so. The handle had been rebuilt for the larger hand of the Green Man but could be re-fitted to a smaller hand though it would still be too large for me. I remembered the explosive power of the weapon so I sighted upon a distant rock, held my breath and holding the weapon with both hands, squeezed the trigger and with the report of the weapon came an explosion and the rock blew apart as the radium explosive shattered the target into fragments. With weapons like this they still chose to fight with swords? Perhaps there was some reason for even though I had a beamer that could easily have killed both Green men instantly, I still used my sword which was totally unlike me. Why?
A torch that could be adjusted for dim to blinding light, from a narrow beam to a broad pattern was a joy to find, as were a few other devices that I could not understand but would in time. So I spent the morning shortening the leather belts of the Green men to fit my own frame and soon had a sword belt from which hung my own sword and one of the daggers of the Green Man which was like unto a short sword for me. I also cut some of the silk to replace my loin-cloth with one far more comfortable, a skirt that fell to my knees (for the shorter skirts and pants I wore in California were never to my liking) and another cloth to cross my chest and form a bra of sorts to conceal my breasts (I had no needle and thread to make a blouse) and finally a scarf to protect me from the sun. Thus attired, I felt much more confidant, though I admit I looked more the barbarian my ancestors were. The revolvers I could not handle so left those for my companion should he awake. Of the thoats I never saw them again for they must have wandered away in the night and returned to the wild for how does one hobble a creature with eight legs?
Much of the saddle-bag contained harness and jewelry that obviously belonged to my charges and these I left for them, hoping that they would awaken soon which they did later that afternoon.
I smiled at them and greeted them with a hearty "Cén chaoi 'bhfuil tú ?" for I hadn’t really spoken my native Gaelic in near twenty years and gave up on these people speaking Spanglic.
The man stared then tried to smile through smashed lips and broken teeth then replied, "koar!" which I remembered was a greeting so replied the same which seemed to relax the two. So I touched myself and said, "Eibhlin Inghean Ui Bhrian."
They tried then settled on Eivleen Obreen which I accepted for I would have time to correct their pronunciation. The man introduced himself as Dar Moras and the woman as Lanor then they asked for a couple other words which I took to be names of their companions so I pointed to the desert and thought about the graves I had dug as I told them, "they died in the night. I’m sorry for your loss." Lanor cried at the news though she didn’t estann my thoughts, the tone of my voice spoke volumes. I gave them more of the milky-cheese which they called ‘mantilla’ and so my language lessons commenced.
I spent the day caring for them and bringing them food and water and when the man asked for something, I received an image of a sword and revolver so I gave these to the man who relaxed immediately, now he was armed though too weak to hold either. Fortunately, the extreme simplicity of the Martian language (for the thoats and Green Men had convinced me that I was indeed on Barsoom) and the telepathic images that accompanied most of the words and the fact that we Irish are natural linguists aided me and within days I could speak and understand simple sentences like "may I have some water’ and ‘this is a rock’ and ‘I don’t understand you.’
When it became clear that they wanted to know where I was from, I drew a picture of the solar system on some paper-like material I found in the saddlebags, pointed to the sun and the central dot, the fourth dot which I called Barsoom and when they named the other planets, "RASOOM, COSOOM, JASOOM, BARSOOM, SASOOM and so on, I pointed to Earth and said, "I am from Ireland on Jasoom," which caused them both to look at me like I was mad. I laughed at that for I looked like no Human they had ever seen and doubtless thought I was some strange race from an isolated part of their world.
All I could do was smile and wait until I knew more of their language to explain my abduction, physical changes and my life in space. But they stared at me constantly and it wasn’t until days later that I found it was my dress that was stranger than my physical appearance for neither was bothered at being totally naked though both had ample silk to cover themselves had they wished. And when they were strong enough to go through the saddle-bags and separated their own belongings, Lanor dressed in a simple panties and loin-cloth flap with a few belts and a lot of jewelry. Dar Moras dressed the same though he didn’t wear earrings as did Lanor but both wore bracelets, arm-bands and ankle chains and such with pins on their harness. Lanor cared not that her breasts were fully exposed though hers were so small as to be almost non-existent. She did have the soft curves that ensured that she was, definitely, a woman.
Looking closer as they stood and carefully walked on damaged legs, I saw that both were near hairless though both had wavy black hair, his short and hers flowing to her waist in a manner that made me wish her tresses were flowing over my body as we kissed. Other than the copper-y red colour of their skin, the larger rib-cage and their lack of body or facial hair, they resembled humans in every other way I could see. Even their heat patterns were becoming familiar as they healed and when I looked carefully, I saw the normal finger-prints on their digits, the same as upon my own fingers and tail. Until my abduction, my body was as hairy as any man’s for women in my time never shaved their arms, legs or other areas but the Demons hated my being hairy and had removed it all save my pubes, head and eyes. But my pubes were a jungle compared to hers which were a meadow so though we appeared to have a common ancestor, Barsoom had robbed them of body hair as the Demons did me.
Both were attractive in the extreme, she being so beautiful she took my breath away whenever she shook her hair or smiled. He being handsome that even I, who preferred women, could appreciate with a body hard but not overly muscular to indicate the man who exercised but not to extreme. Sometimes I would hear them whispering about me when they thought I did not hear and when I would return from hunting, they would act embarrassed as if I had caught them in some conspiracy.
The potato-fruit I ate they called ‘usa’ but the bitter one I could not stomach, they ate with relish and called it ‘somp’. Thus I learned that our digestion was different and would have to be careful with what I ate.
It was almost a week before they were able to leave the forest for home and during that time I became more fluent in their language though our discussions tended to be very general and impersonal with many pauses while I’d ask about a word and they’d have to explain it which would lead to another digression. But I learned that the planet was called Barsoom which I knew, that John Carter as a Warlord or military leader of a number of cities. The planet was shared by many races from the Red to the Green who were almost always at war over dwindling resources.
Barsoom had been dying for a half million years and only heroic efforts by the ancient White Race had staved off death but the current Red Men were taxed to even maintain the constructions of the ancients and all knew that death was inevitable though there as talk of sending ships to Sassoom (Jupiter) and bringing ice water back to replenish some of the ancient seas and atmosphere but politics and jealousy made cooperation in this endeavour unlikely for no one trusted anyone else and few could divert valuable resources from survival to such a project. Each city tried to be independent but sometimes one would conquer another along the waterways and form an empire such as Ptarth to the west or Helium to the southwest or Jahar to the southeast for all empires were seen as dangerous. The Green Men were mostly in the south but there were some smaller hoards in the north like the Northern Warhoons near the Artolian Hills.
Further we were apparently near or at the Koal Forest which was dangerous for Koal protected their forest savagely for fear other nations would take the valuable lumber and water. To the north was the Toonol Marsh ruled by Toonol at the east and Phundahl at the west with the River Iss flowing from these marshes south through the Koal Forest and eventually to Dor about which they would not speak.
Nor would they say which nation they came from though they did mention that they were on one of the rare scientific expeditions to track the moisture-laden winds the circled the planet when they met a hoard of Green Men that decimated their ship with rifle fire. Lanor, Dar Moras (for they always used both names) and six others escaped alive in the damaged flier. Or so they thought until they passed over a hill and met more Green Men who finished the flier and in the battle, all but these four and two Green Men survived.
That first night the Green Men tortured two of their number to death along with their own two wounded, then they took the remaining four across the desert, stopping at meals to torture their prisoners for fun. Neither remembered much of that journey other than the agonies they endured then blissful unconsciousness as the Green Men pushed off for some unknown destination.
"Then as I am a stranger here until I can be rescued, where do you suggest we go for you two are my only friends on this world," I asked.
Dar Moras thought then said, "Without any real gear and supplies, I can only suggest that we follow the forest east seeking the River Iss then follow that north to Toonol or rather one of the smaller free cities that surround the Marshes. Maybe there we can find a way to contact our own nations and return home. I cannot guarantee the reception you will receive for we are a suspicious race and see every stranger as a potential enemy until proven otherwise."
"What about mercenary soldiers?" I asked. "I seem to recall that these could pass safely."
"Sometimes, Eivleen Obreen. But too many at one place is suspicious and you, being a woman and armed is even more suspicious."
"You would be more concerned with me being armed than alien?"
"Here, women rarely fight and female Panthans are so rare as to be immediately noticed. That and your dress would attract more attention than your features." Lanor explained to me. "Were you to disarm and dress more feminine, then perhaps you could pass safely with little notice.
I had to laugh at that. The fact that I wore a skirt and bra attracted more attention than my tail, eyes, hands and feet. Then, "Let us assume that I will refuse to disarm myself. What suggestions do you have for me?"
Dar Moras left us then for this was embarrassing to him. Lanor walked around me then suggested, "That skirt is far too long. It hides your knees even. Shorter would be more feminine. Maybe remove three/fourths of it to a decent and respectable length."
"Three-fourths?" I cried. "I couldn’t even sit without showing where babies come from at that length!"
"That’s another thing, you sit and move like a man. Move more lady-like. When you sit, keep your knees together and your back straighter. Like this," and she sat on the ground in a manner that was extremely feminine even to my eyes. It as similar to what I learned when I lived in Ireland twenty years ago but different, more fluid and I admit that she showed nothing but promised everything as she sat. "Also, why do you cover your breasts like that? Are you ashamed of them? I know that they are so huge I wonder how you can walk so does their size embarrass you?"
"Large? Well, larger than they were when I was still human but I grew up in a country where women wore dresses to their wrists and the ground. At parties we would show some back and reveal a bit of chest but nothing more. Even now I feel so over-exposed that I feel like a trollop. Even in Los Angeles I wore more than this and you want me to wear less?"
"That cloth you wear crossed over your chest attracts attention. Here," she came forward and placing her hands around my neck, "Let’s remove it and see what we see."
Her touch made me want to kiss her hard and long and I’d have let her do anything to retain the feel of her hands on my body. "There, well, they are horribly huge but now are not as noticeable. And when your hair grows longer, you can comb it before you to hide them. How do you manage your hair so straight?"
"I was born with straight hair. I am so jealous of your natural waves." I hesitated to tell her that many of my nation had red, yellow or brown hair, straight and wavy.
She removed my shirt, folded it a few times then retied it and said, "Much better. Now you almost look like a woman. Are you certain you won’t give over your weapons?"
"Absolutely! If your world is as hostile as you say, I‘ll need them. Besides they saved me and you from the Green Men."
She sighed, "Very well, then let us make you into a female panthan. The right harness, some feminine clothes, some jewelry and cosmetics and lighter revolver and you may be able to pass."
By the time Dar Moras returned Lanor had totally remade my harness to a woman’s fashion, altered my clothing so I wore a micro-mini shirt and nothing to cover my breasts and I didn’t know if I felt like a whore offering myself or a man with a chest. She had also done my eyes to call attention away form my cat-like feature and my lips and nipples, commenting on how hard and erect they became when she touched them. "And why are you panting so?"
How could I tell her that I found her so attractive and desirable? But I was saved by Dar Moras who said, "Now you look presentable. You will still attract attention but people will think you are from some isolated nation where everyone looks like you. We occasionally see bald Therns or Black Pirates or even the rare Jasoomian as Panthans so we have an explanation for your looks. But please don’t tell people you come from Jasoom. We can see it easily in the sky and know that the Jasoomians look like us, not you so such a claim will only earn you time in the pits while the psychologists probe your mind."
I looked at myself in her hand mirror, turned about and admitted that I looked good. Slutty by Earth standards, but good then laughed.
"What’s funny?" she asked.
"I was just remembering that abut ten years ago on Jasoom, my lover Jean and I were in a park wearing far more clothes than you saw me in earlier. We considered ourselves decently dressed but saw some women from Arabia with their children. These women were required by their religion to cover every part of their body save their hands and eyes and Jean commented on how degrading it was for them to be forced to wear so much clothing. Were she here, expected to undress as do you, she’d die of mortification for you say the same to me that she said about them."
"She?" Dar Moras asked.
Oops, I made a mistake. Well, nothing to it, "I prefer the attentions of my own gender," Lanar moved back a step then. "Maybe it was being abused so harshly by the British when I was still young that made me turn from men, maybe the Demons messed with my mind when they changed me into a Weir, maybe I was born this way and didn’t know until I was changed. I occasionally need a man to bed me to stay alive but prefer a feminine lover." The secret was out. But somehow Dar Moras accepted this easier than Lanor who was shocked.
Neither spoke other than to say, "Well, we should continue on." And from then on our relationship changed. Lanor was more distant and Dar Moras stared at me more often, almost as if he were deciding on if he should approach me as a potential lover. If so, then he wanted me, I wanted Lanor and she wanted neither, a fine situation for us all.
Of course, these few paragraphs appear to have happened immediately but the entire conversation took almost a week to cover and it was only the last day that we had even a modicum of normal conversation. And then we were only able to do so because of the Barsoomian telepathy and my own enhanced telepathic abilities that allowed me to receive an image or emotion with many words. Fortunately, the language had few adverbs or adjectives, preferring to add case endings to denote such things or simply flash an image of colour or size and I wondered how non-telepathic peoples like normal humans could communicate so well, lacking this ability. No doubt, the Red Men considered Earth Humans to be somewhat autistic.
But by the time we reached a river which flowed from the desert into the swampy forest we were able to communicate almost normally.
"What is this river," I asked for it was narrow and shallow, probably not more than a few dozen yards across though the water was red from the red dust that existed everywhere.
"I know not," Dar Moras commented, bending over and touching the water. "There are so few rivers that the only one that comes to mind is the River Iss which flows from the Toonolian Marshes through the Koal Forest and eventually to the Valley Dor. But I imagined the Iss to be much more grandiose.
"I seem to recall that Barsoom is mostly desert with few forests or lakes. If so, then it should be easy to determine which forest this is and so what river this is and where we are."
"Perhaps. Most of the large forests exist along or near the equator and they are Koal, Lost Souls and Manor Forests. Some valleys have forests but all are small and easily circled so this must be one of the three. From where we were captured and the general easterly direction of travel of the Green Men, I assumed this to be the Kaolin and I know of only the Iss which flows into that forest. I would suggest that we follow this north for if we remain along the forest, we will eventually reach the Iss and the patrols of Koal who will enslave all who are not pilgrims. The way will be safer though food more difficult to find."
Having no opinion and Lanor being content to allow Dar Moras to lead and protect her, I accepted the wisdom of his logic and we spent a couple days collecting as much food as we could for the trip.
Dar Moras explained over dinner that night, "If this is Koal, then the Toonol Marshes are about a thousand Haads north of us (about 375 miles) though following the river will increase that distance. The closest city I know is Toonol which lies within the marshes though there are doubtless other cities scattered wherever water can be found so once outside the influence of Koal, we should find cities upon the banks of this river. Unless it is the Iss in which case no one is allowed to live along the banks."
"Why? I would think that in a desert, any water would be so valuable that people would fight over it."
"Because," Lanor explained, "You being from another world wouldn’t share the same religion as do we. The ancient religion of the worship of Issis requires that all Barsoomians make their final pilgrimage down the Iss to the Valley Dor some time before their thousandth year. Cities along the banks would interfere with this sacred journey so were forbidden. And although Iss and the Therns have been discredited, we are ruled by custom and so the rule remains. Have you nothing that you follow even when common sense speaks otherwise?"
I sighed for aside from one Mass I attended in Los Angeles that left me spiritually empty, so different was it from what I attended in Ireland for the Priest faced the people and not the Altar as was proper and he spoke in English not the Latin I remembered. I felt that they had gutted the Mass to please the people and had forgotten that the Mass was to glorify God. Save that one time, I hadn’t been in a church since I was seventeen and that was more than twenty years ago.
"I was Catholic as a child and we were taught that the world was flat even though Magellan and others had sailed around the world to prove the Church wrong. Still, they taught a flat Earth made by God only a few thousand years before. Also they taught that God was all-powerful and all-good but if so, then why was there evil? Because he is helpless against the will if Satan which means he is NOT all-powerful or he chooses to not interfere which means he is not all-good. Also we were taught that you could be as evil as you wished and once you confess, all your crimes are washed away so why be good. Plus the Priests were as greedy for wealth and power as any other and a woman or child in confession would oft pay for forgiveness with their bodies so how could God allow men such as these to be His representatives?
"About the time I was born, the Protestant reform tried to answer these questions with as little success as did my own Church and after what happened to my family and me, the priests could only say that it was ‘God’s Will’ and I should praise Him and not ask embarrassing questions."
"So do you have any faith now?" Lanor asked.
"I don’t know. The Catholics on Earth told us that any evil was justified if done in the name of God and that the Protestants were evil. The Protestants said exactly the same thing. Centuries ago, the Holy Empire was formed ten thousand light years away and said the same as they expanded and murdered billions in the name of God and somehow God, who was so good and powerful, stood by as all this evil was done in His name so I stopped believing.
"The Vanthi are pagans who worship Wotan and Thor who seem to encourage war and piracy for their God seeks to populate the Vanthi Asgaard with only the best warriors, and the Mon are Pagans who worship a Moon Goddess and Horned God and who speak of peace but gladly fight and kill the Christians out there. The S’tyr follow a religion similar to the Mon and they seem to be the only ones who DO believe in peace but they manipulate others to make the galaxy in their image despite their claims of free-will. So what do I believe? I don’t know any more. Everyone I met believes, but few are really good people because of their beliefs and I’ve never seen a God or Goddess actually do anything for their people."
Lanor touched my arm and spoke, "I see that distresses you. We are a people who once believed with all our hearts and souls then the Jasoomian, John Carter stripped us of that and since then we have been a people without a faith. I was a devout follower for centuries then suddenly, only seventy years ago, he discredited my faith, killed my Goddess, turned the priests into mercenaries and destroyed my hopes for eternity in Heaven. Sometimes I wonder why we continue on without hope."
I took her hands and tried to hold and comfort her but she misconstrued my desires and pulled away, embarrassed. Or maybe her telepathy allowed her to see my true desires for her though this time, my motives were innocent.
Angry I moved off to throw rocks into that water and complain about people and gods and people. Dar Moras came to sit by me and tossed a couple rocks too and fortunately didn’t speak or I’d have snapped his head off then. Finally he asked, "Eivleen Obreen, lately you’ve been irritable and anger easily. Is something wrong?" He placed his hand over mine and without reason I turned and kissed him. No, I raped his mouth with mine, forcing my tongue into his mouth and dragging his hand to my breast, pressing it tight as my tail sought his lap. He forced himself away, no mean feat as I was easily twice as strong as was he and he cried in shock, "What are you doing? A maiden doesn’t do that!"
I tried the pull him again then fell down crying, "I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m so angry all the time, I hurt, my belly aches and my loins are always wet and… oh god, my Need is here."
I turned away and stared at anything but him, "My people need sex or we die. I must be … done.. every few weeks or the pressure builds up and I die. This food has delayed it but now it’s here and if you don’t… if you…" I sent him images, graphic images of what I needed because I couldn’t say it. I wanted Lanor but my body needed his male member.
He was horrified and backed away until he was a dozen feet away then turned and left. I was still touching my breast, kneading it and my hard nipples and finally said, "oh hell!" and removed my loincloth and jilled for what seemed like hours, using my tail then finally the handle of my dagger until the pressure was eased. I still ached but no longer suffered so though in hours the Need would return.
When I returned to my companions, neither would look at me for they both knew. But neither understood. "I’m sorry," I began. "I’m not like you. I need food and water and air and sex or I’ll die. What I do.. what I’ve been doing to myself these last weeks is just to hold it off. But please understand this, If I don’t get sex soon, a lot of sex, I will be dead within days. I want a woman but I need a man. Dar Moras, I know this horrifies you but please, I need your body. I hate myself for being like this but…" I couldn’t look at them because they saw in me a monster. They could overlook my alien physical attributes but my needs disgusted them.
Finally, Lanor touched me then pulled away. I didn’t even know I was laying on the moss crying. Eivleen Obreen, I… I don’t know what to say. There are some few people here who … they seek their own gender in slaves but…. I’m sorry. I like you and I can feel your desire for me but I cannot return that. You saved our lives and I suppose.. I’ll go away for awhile. Please call me when you are done."
A moment later, Dar Moras was stroking my hair. "Eivleen Obreen, I don’t know what to do for you but Lanor said that you saved our lives so we must save yours. She wishes she could help you but you say you’ve waited too long so," He lifted my face and kissed me under the twin moons and that image is what made it endurable. His face was in the shadow as the Nearer Moon raced across the heavens and I imagined he was Kara for she was always the aggressor in our love-making. I don’t remember undressing and easily climaxed as he entered and never ceased to climax the entire time. He tried to be gentle but it was too late and I cried out "harder! Faster!" until I was screaming in ecstasy until I felt him match my own as he climaxed.
Without waiting, and knowing that if I did wait, he’d grow soft but I could keep him ready with a little work, I rolled him over then rode him until he was done and useless to me. Finally, I let his hands fall from my breasts and tried to shut his thoughts from my mind for this wasn’t making love, but an animal rutting. I was like a cat in heat who needed a pack of toms to ease the pain and cared not who the tom was.
Finally I rolled off, lay under the further moon and said, "Thank you," as he moved to the river to wash my sweat off his body and my other juices off his genitals. I didn’t care as I wanted to do the same but the longer I kept him inside, the longer it would be before my Need returned. At times like this I wished I liked men for it would make times like this easier.
"I heard, it sounded like he was torturing you." Lanor said standing nearby. She had returned when we were done.
"I guess I am a bit noisy at this time. Normally I am much quieter. I must disgust you. I disgust myself."
"It’s the way you are made. I don’t understand but you aren’t in pain and angry now. How long…"
"Tomorrow again. Then perhaps another month. The better it is, the longer I can go between. I’m sorry I am like this."
"I… I felt your… I could feel what you felt even in the forest. The animals were silent and they… I wanted to …." She was embarrassed at this.
"You felt it too? That is different but then, neither Vanthi nor Earther are telepathic so unless I am touching them during the act they can’t estann me. Earlier, days earlier when I was alone and… did you feel me too?" Now I was embarrassed.
"Not days, but today and yesterday. I didn’t know because we don’t do that. Not to ourselves. I’m not a virgin but it’s been a hundred years since my husband died and I haven’t been with a man since… I missed it I think."
I started to reach for her because now that my rutting was done, I wanted to make love but she stiffened and I let her go. She looked up then turned away as Dar Moras returned. Then in silence we ate and fell asleep with some distance between us. I tailed myself to sleep thinking of Lanor this time wondering if she were estanning my emotions and sensations. At least this time I was quiet and gentle.
The next morning Dar Moras awoke with me on top of him and he responded more so than he did last night and we were done before Lanor woke up, I think. Then I cleaned myself, dressed and stood in the desert as he washed up. My sandals were of thick grass but were near worn through and my feet too small for those of the dead Red Men so I cut some lizard skin with my dagger and made a pair of soles that would work, though not be very comfortable. Years aboard a starship had given me sensitive feet.
Then we said our good-byes to the forest and struck out north along the river. Neither of the two Red Men would look at me but I was feeling better and another evening would flush my system enough to think clearly so they’d have to tolerate me again. Or not for I knew that if they hadn’t been here with me, I could easily be dead in another week of celibacy.
That first lunch break, Dar Moras stopped early and showed me a Mantilla plant which looked a but like an Earthly pineapple but larger than was I. "Here Eivleen Obreen, your skin is burning so rub this on yourself," he said as he cut a leaf free with his dagger then split it and scooped the inside, mashed it to a pulp and handed it to me. I rubbed the goop over my skin and my sunburn immediately stopped burning. In a few days, my body would produce enough protection from the UV but for now, this Mantilla juice saved me considerable pain and misery.
He also showed us how to cut a small scale free and allow the milky sap to collect into our canteen for later use. So this was the source of that milky-cheese I had been drinking from the Green Men! Had I known about this plant, I could have had my fill from the beginning for the plant was common in rocky hollows where it could collect air-borne moisture and bask in the rock-absorbed heat. He also showed us how to find the darkest and thickest of the ochre moss and to dig down to find water. And once, when the sky darkened pink, he rushed us to a deep space where he soaked some silk in water and had us wrap it around our faces as we waited out a sand-storm. I am certain that he saved my life in a dozen different ways, not including how to use silk to filter the red sand and dirt from the river water before we drank.
Along the way, I also insisted that he fence with me to improve my skills for the Dances taught to me by Brount were proper moves that worked in combat, they just weren’t designed for real battle. So Dar Moras would show me how to use them in a real fight and slowly I shifted from a fencer to a fighter. Of course his experience with the sword was centuries greater than my own and when I won, it was only because I was stronger and faster and not because of any skill. Once after I had disarmed him, he rubbed his wrist and said, "You use that blade as if it were a club. I can see talent there but you still need to think of it as a part of you and not something you carry in your hand. Otherwise when you meet a real warrior, he’ll cut you down in an instant."
"You sound as if you weren’t a real warrior yourself? Are there people better than you?" I asked. The man could give Brount a run and win easily.
He laughed. "Me a warrior? Hardly. It’s true I’ve fought in my share of wars but I am far from a professional warrior and my skill is but adequate. No, Eivleen Obreen, I am a flier mechanic by trade."
I laughed then, "Me too. Only I was trained to repair starships. I only fight because I cannot find much of a job save as a technician and sometimes I get bored soldering connections and tracing shorts." Here was a man who had more knowledge I could use. But when I questioned him, I found that without a flier to study, much of what he described was unintelligible to me. I did understand that the fliers were wood and metal boats with flotation tanks that were filled with some substance (gas or energy I couldn’t understand the word) that was pushed away from a gravity source. The greater concentration of this buoyancy substance, the faster the boat was pushed up. Their engines used a concentrated fuel that lasted almost forever because the spent fuel was returned to the tanks where it was recombined and refreshed by mixture with the original fuel. It appeared that the fuel could be reused a hundred times or more before it wore out or rather, lost its radioactivity. I got the feeling that the fuel tank was a breeder reactor that kept refreshing the spent radioactive fuel. Thus the fuel of a single flier was almost limitless and rarely needed replacing. The problems were dust and sand clogging the fuel lines or parts wearing out from sand damage. The Red Men built to last and many of the original fliers constructed almost a thousand years ago were still in operation unless destroyed in war or accident. I knew I’d have to study one of these fliers for what I think I described made no sense at all to me and I am certain that a physicist would say that it was impossible.
Unlike Earth, the Red Men saw no use for a jet engine for that would waste fuel in thrust while a propeller could re-use the same fuel in an enclosed system. Still, some propeller-driven fliers could almost reach a thousand miles an hour or so though three-hundred-fifty miles was average. "On Jasoom, a 747 jet flies at around 600 haads per zode with four jet engines that waste hundreds of gallons of fuel per zode. You fly the same speed with a propeller and no fuel consumption. I must look at your engines when we find one," I cried.
Lanor shook her head at that. "Eivleen Obreen, I can well believe that you will never fit in as a woman on Barsoom. Between your desire for combat, your lust for engines and technology and your need for.. carnal acts, you are so different from a Red Woman."
I hugged her then, chastely for my Need was gone for another few weeks and cried, "I was raised to be a proper Irish wife and mother, so I learned to spin, weave, sew and most other feminine values though cooking was one I missed. Doubtless, had my mother not been sold into slavery and my father hanged and my home burned, that is exactly what I would be. But circumstances forced me into war and technology and there I remain." Then I thought and continued, "But Lanor, my dear friend, I did try. Ten years ago on Jasoom, I met a woman I loved with all my heart and soul. I tried to be a good housewife to her but failed miserably for I found that robbing criminals made more money and was more enjoyable than repairing broken televisions and being a lover more pleasant than dusting which I hated."
"Then, Eivleen Obreen, by all means take up the sword for with that attitude you will never fit in with proper Red Woman society."
After a week, I was done with the desert. Yes the mountains, or rather broken hills were beautiful in their reds and browns and occasional blues and greens but all were covered with reddish moss and after days, they all looked alike. Three days out, we met a banth, one of the ten legged lions that continued to rush us even though Dar Moras emptied a half dozen rounds into the beast, each blowing away chunks of meat and bone the size of my double fists. Damage that would kill any Earthly beast was ignored by the thing that ran on even with both front legs blown off. Finally I cut it in half with my beamer and regained consciousness with Lanor laving my face with river water for I had been struck by the bottom half of the beast at a very high speed. Another second and I’d have been killed as it died.
She was crying in relief as I awoke, "Dear Eivleen, I was terrified that you were dead." And she actually kissed me. For that kiss I would allow a dozen banths to strike me down.
Then, Eivleen Obreen," asked Dar Moras as he examined the body. "If your weapon could kill so easily, why wait to use it?"
I sat, groaned for though I had denser bones, still a straw can kill if thrown fast enough by a tornado, and answered, "My beamer isn’t a weapon but a cutter I use to get through starship hulls and replace plating. It’s range is normally inches, sofs, but can be extended to a dozen ads (near a hundred feet) with some loss of cutting ability. At that range it won’t penetrate metal but flesh vanishes at its touch. The banth moved too fast for me to adjust for range. I’ll try to act faster in the future."
He laughed and cut the banth’s claws and teeth free, "I wasn’t complaining, just curious. Do your people have weapons that are as effective at range?"
"Ireland? No! Not in my time though today most nations on Jasoom do. War and hunting there never occur where you can see your enemies eyes and so lacks the courage required by you Red men. Demons prefer to kill with claws but can easily destroy an entire planet from a dozen light years away. I fear to ask what Demons and Mon use in war today for when I am back in Demon Space, I do so three centuries ago."
"You travel through time and space? That’s amazing," Lanor commented.
"More trouble than you think. The Demons ensure that I never return to their space much past my own time though they don’t seem to care if I visit Jasoom in my past, present or future. So I must always calculate the Relativity curve to ensure that I return to their space in my own time lest I pass on dangerous knowledge. Though to tell the truth, the Demons and Mon winning the Kris Wars is predictable and so why fear that knowledge? Perhaps they fear me bringing weapons from this century back in time to my own."
"Then you are now in your future? You come from the past?" she asked.
"I am. I actually come from and live in the 16th century on Jasoom but it is now the late 20th or early 21st century there. That’s why I stopped trying to free my country. By now most of Ireland is already free and soon will die when the planet is destroyed."
"Was, Eivleen Obreen. Jasoom has already been destroyed. I suppose you are farther into your future than you knew." Dar Moras added.
"What mean you?" I demanded.
"About thirty five (Barsoom) years ago some of our scientists contacted one of your governments via Gridley Wave and gave them considerable information. They kept our existence a secret from their people but used the knowledge we gave them to visit their moon. Then a few years ago, a ship from Barsoom left for Jasoom to contact the people and we announced it to your planet. Shortly afterwards, we detected massive radioactive explosions that decimated most of your world. We think they feared us so much that they destroyed themselves rather than admit that they were not alone in the universe. When the ship arrived, most life on your world was dead and the remainder of the population was trying to barely survive and attacked the ship which was never heard from again."
Somehow this saddened me. True, twenty years ago, my life-time, I returned to Earth intending to free Ireland in my time but the relativity curve threw me into the future after humanity had destroyed itself so I knew this was inevitable, but hearing it hurt. I used the Stargate to go from Earth, early 21st century to Barsoom, mid-20th century. This meant that I’d need to build a communicator that would cross time and space to reach the Mairayd. It was no longer a matter of waiting hours for my ship to cross from Earth to Mars but maybe months or years? I knew I was thinking about my ship to avoid thinking about the destruction of my homeworld but then, Earth was no longer my home. In the forty-some years of my life, I had spent less than half that on Earth and were I to appear as I am now, they’d either burn me as a demon or werewolf or capture and vivisect me as an alien, depending on which time I arrived. Still… I had friends and lovers there who were destined to die and I was helpless to save them.
The next couple days I was sad though both tried to cheer me up. During this time we hid from two groups of Green Men who may or may not have been looking for us then we were discovered not by Green Men but by Red. There were six of them on thoats, the eight legged horses but unlike the monsters ridden by the Green Men, these were the height of a real horse though in profile they were twice as long and much thinner. Also these were controlled by reigns as much as by thought. Dar Moras explained it was to prevent an enemy from controlling your mount in battle.
The group surrounded us and after looking us over, demanded to know our intentions. Dar Moras answered for us all, "We are visitors who were captured by the Green men until Eivleen Obreen here rescued us. Now we simply seek a place to rest and to make our way home. We are asking only the width of the desert for the length of time it takes us to cross your lands."
The groups looked us over and the padwar asked, "And you, Eivleen Obreen, a strange name for a strange race. You look more like a cross between a Thern and a moorouk than a real person. What is your story!"
I didn’t like his attitude and was tired of being laughed at so retorted in anger, "I am the LADY Eibhlin UiBhrian, a Princess of Eire and so demand due respect from a commoner like yourself."
Lanor whispered, "you are a Princess, I didn’t suspect and apologize for…"
I waved her away and stared at the mounted me for I didn’t need a distraction. Then one of the men laughed and said, "A princess of arboks I would say. Look at her, she had a tail like one of the creatures of Gooli in the Marshes. Come here, creature, have you a pouch too?"
This was to much so I jumped the dozen feet that separated us and pulled him from his thoat and to the ground yelling, "When you speak of me, do so politely and when you speak to me, don’t!"
Instantly the man was up with his blade out crying, "calot! I’ll use your pelt as abed covering!" and thrust at me. I had my blade out and easily blocked for the man was no decent swordsman. I heard Dar Moras call out, "Lady Obreen, don’t kill him!" as his padwar called out, "Lower your blade, she is a woman!" for Red Men do not raise their blades against a woman, even one as alien as am I.
The man retorted, "The beast wears a sword, it has given away all protection of her sex," and thrust again.
Now I was angry and blocked, deflected, stepped in and slamming my blade against his belly, stepped through and cut him in twain with a simple draw-cut. Without looking at what I did I went on guard facing the other five and cried out, "Any others wish to join this peasant? Come forward for you can die no sooner."
The padwar stared and called, "Enough Lady. He was crass and deserved death. Would have killed him myself as I see your companion would with his drawn blade. You did the job only because you were faster than we. But it is over if you would wish for I judge the killing to be honorable."
I forced myself to calm down then cleaned my sword on the silk of the dead man and sheathed it saying, "Agreed. I have no quarrel with you or your nation. If you will let us go our way, I shall consider this matter closed."
Then Dar Moras called, "Padwar, a word please." He was sheathing his own blade for I estanned his intent to kill the man himself for insulting one of his charges. "As said, we are simply passing through on our way home. But if your city is nearby, perhaps we could visit and seek employment to earn tanpi for supplies or even a flier to our nations?"
"We are not a war so need no panthans. What else can you do that is honest?" Since theft is unknown on Barsoom ,he was probably thinking of gorthans, the assassins and kidnappers of Barsoom who plague the cities.
"I am a flier engineer and the Lady Eivleen Obreen has knowledge of advanced technology. We can offer these skills and promise to obey your laws while in your city."
And so were we admitted to the city of Arlas on the shores of the Koal River which branched from the Iss and wound its way to the southwest to enter the Koal Forest some hundred fifty haads southwest from where the Iss enters that same forest. Arlis was on a bend that was near the hills that bordered the southern edge of the Toonolian Marsh and was one of many independent city-states that owed loyalty to none and sought no foreign entanglements that would risk the wrath of larger empires.
IV
Both Lanor and I were given the thoat of the man I had killed while Dar Moras had to ride double with another man. When I asked Lanor why this was when we lighter women could ride double with a soldier and ease the load of Dar Moras’ mount she replied, "Because Princess, it wouldn’t be seemly for an unattached woman to ride behind man not her protector or chieftain."
Soon we reached the walls of the city, the first I had seen and after seeing the cities of Londinium and Edward and even Earth, it wasn’t overly impressive. It was walled with massive round gates at the four quarters but smaller ones scattered about. It was to one of the larger we approached and when there, our Padwar called for the officer of the gate to whom he explained the situation in total honesty, explaining how they had found us, how his man had insulted and challenged me and how I had killed him. Then the Dwar looked us over and called for us to dismount and follow him which we did.
We entered the Dwar’s office where he took our statements then leaned on his elbows and looked me over until I blushed in embarrassment. The last weeks I had almost forgotten I was naked but now became concerned with my state of undress. He stared at my breasts not in lust but in amazement for no Red Woman was near as large as was I, a fact I learned later on. On Barsoom, anything the size of a fist was considered large and here was I easily thrice that size. This fact attracted unwanted attention on Earth for though I was larger than most human women being what the Americans call a ‘small D-Cup’, I was still not grossly huge by Earth standards. He tried to not stare at my tail or hands, ears, eyes or antennae though. I suppose had my own father showed up with horns and four arms, I’d notice his saucer-sized eyes before anything else, so accustomed are we with normal attributes that enlarging these would be stranger than additional limbs.
He did force himself to look over my weapons which looked out of place on the harness and body of a woman, noting my two-handled sword of alien design and beamer which failed to match the remainder of my blades and revolver. "Lady Eivleen Obreen," he asked. "Can you hold that revolver with your hands?"
I pulled the weapon, both thumbs curling in opposition to my remaining three fingers and commented, "I can but not well, Dwar. I suppose I should have a better grip made for me when I can afford it."
He laughed at that and the tension ended, "I was just curious. Excuse me for staring but I have never seen anyone like you and it is my task to determine threats to my city. Not only do you possess features that are unknown among any race I have seen, those you do have are… exaggerated and I cannot read any thought in your mind. Here is the name of a hostel that caters to foreigners. If you move, you must notify me immediately. Have you any money?"
Dar Moras mentioned, "We have some, but it won’t go far." He lay the money he had on the table. The coins were all oval and the same size though their thickness differed and some few were gold while most were silver and bronze. The thinner bronze were pi and valued about a penny, the silver were teepi or ten pi and the gold were tanpi or 100 pi. The thinner were one tanpi, the thicker ten tanpi and I learned that there were even thicker 100 tanpi coins.
The Dwar looked them over then exchanged them for identical looking coins but with the face of the current Jed or king of Arlis. Then he thought and looked at me and said, "I will give you a loan to ensure you remain honest. Repay it when you can for my interest is less than the money-changers."
Then he handed us papers and said, "Princess Eivleen Obreen of Eire, Lanor of Ptarth and Dar Moras of Talum, you are authorized to remain in Arlis for no more than a teean (month). If you choose or must remain longer, return here that I may update your papers. Thank you and good visit."
"Thank you Dwar," Dar Moras said as we women smiled to him. And that was that. I knew people who had to spent six months arguing and begging for a visa to America because they came from a country America didn’t trust. This was so simple but then despite the natural distrust the Barsoomian had for any and all foreigners, once accepted, matters happened quickly. So from his office we were taken to a room where the camera took our photo and measured our height and weight at the same time and impressed this image on our identity papers. Copies of these were sent to a number of government offices and I suppose any noble could call for us for another interview if he so desired.
We retired immediately to the hostel we were assigned to and checking in were given rooms on different floors. I wanted us all to remain together but was told, "Women and men never stay on the same floor unless they are married." The first floor was the desk clerk and the automated restaurant with the sleeping rooms above that. Married couples had separate rooms on the third floor, men on the fourth and women on the fifth with the roof being a landing pad for fliers. I never saw the inside of the man’s room but was told it was similar to the woman’s which was a dormitory where there were simply rows of beds with a deck and trunk assigned to each bed. We lay the silks and furs we were given at the desk on the bed, placed our belongings on the desk or in the trunk, neither of which could be locked and never worried about anyone stealing them.
There were female slaves, most of which were naked with a collar but a few had jewelry or a loincloth or short skirt which were gifts of guests who patrolled the floor. One introduced herself to us, kneeling on the floor, looking down with her waist length hair hiding almost everything and said, "Princess, Mistress, if it pleases you, my name is Anora. Please call upon me for anything you need."
Lanor mostly ignored her saying, "A bath would be nice." To which after leaving most of my weapons on my bed and taking only my sword and beamer, we followed Anora to another room where she helped us strip naked then she bathed us with cloths and washed our hair after which we were allowed to soak in the bath. Water, it seems was too precious even on the river, to waste by plunging in while dirty. We were washed by slaves outside the tub and entered to relax only when clean. Our harness, silks and jewelry were then cleaned and washed by Anora as we soaked. "One of the things I miss about Jasoom is that I could bathe in hot water all day and every day if I wished. Aboard my ship I washed in five gallons of recycled water."
Lanor laughed at this, "This is the first real bath I have had in near two months. I know I was beginning to stink before we found the Koal River."
"My dear," I replied, "Even at your worst you smelled wonderful to me. I, however, must have stank like a horse!"
"I don’t know what a horse is but you did stink a bit," she laughed. Red Men, it seemed, used a different method of cooling than sweat.
Other women entered and joined us, all staring at me and asking questions. ‘Where are you from?’ ‘Does everyone look like you?’ ‘What do you use your tail for?’ ‘Why are your breasts so grossly huge?’ ‘You are a princess?’ ‘It’s fascinating how your eyes open and close in the light and dark like a sorak.’ ‘What are your antenna for?’ ‘Can you use your tail like fingers?’ ‘Your hair is so straight and short (below my shoulders) and your pubic hair so lush and thick, are all your women like that?’ ‘Why are you armed? Have you no men to protect you?’ and so on. A hundred questions and no answers that satisfied any of them much. But they did impress upon me a lot of jewelry and if I mentioned that I liked the nail polish of one woman, a dozen other women would call for a slave to fetch their own cosmetic case and my nails would be done and I’d be given vial of the stuff in any colour I could imagine. I wasn’t used to this attention even in Ireland when we had servants and the last couple decades never.
Finally as Anora was drying us and dressing us, Lanor whispered to me, "it isn’t a disgrace for you to ask the slave girl to … service you, though a tip afterwards is customary." It seemed that a free man or woman must be celibate or faithful but what was done between master and slave didn’t matter at all. Plus a slave could own property and saved their tips and gifts in the hope of buying their own freedom.
I curled my tail around and used it to raise Anora’s face to mine, actually to lower it for she was inched taller then my five foot but she always looked to the floor around us, and smiled at her. Then I leaned forward and whispered, "I am told you are available to my more physical needs. Is this true and pleasing to you?"
She looked at me, then without breaking eye contact, raised the sensitive tip of my tail to her lips, kissed it and gave it a flick with her tongue and whispered back, "I await the Princess’ call." Then she looked down again but I thought I saw the hint of a smile there. A woman every few days would keep me alive as easily as a man and be much more pleasant.
As we returned to the dorm, I asked Lanor, "How did you know?"
She laughed, "Your tail. All women are curious about what you can do with that. I simply noticed how she stared and licked her lips."
"And you, dear Lenor, are you curious too?"
"That, Princess Eivleen Obreen, we will not discuss for I am a free woman and widowed and unmarried."
We met Dar Moras for a late dinner on the first floor and discussed our options. They weren’t much. Arlis was at peace so had no need for panthans though body-guards were always in demand. He would seek employment as a flier mechanic the next day but cautioned me to not follow for women would not be hired no matter how capable they were. In short, both Lanor and I would be expected to remain here, be a good girl and allow our man to care for us. I had no problem with that but knew I would get bored very quickly just associating with the women, bathing, talking, visiting as Lanor found to be normal so asked, "If kidnapping is so common that we have armed guards outside our dorm, why do they not arm the female slaves inside?" I knew the answer but wanted it mentioned.
"Because, aside from you and a very very few female panthans, women do not go about armed and men are not allowed in a woman’s sleeping quarters."
"Then my dear friends, I shall be the first and hire myself out to guard women for I can go into their bed-chambers."
Lanor was shocked but Dar Moras laughed, "That you may do. I shall put the word out tomorrow. But do not expect many replies."
"I don’t see why not. It seems that I offer the best of all worlds. I can fight and being a woman can attend my charge anywhere, including the bath, and being a Tierna, can attend royal functions whereas and common warrior cannot."
"Still, Princess Eivleen Obreen, you are still a woman and custom rules."
He was right. Within a week he had found employment repairing the fliers I a nearby hanger but I did not. So to while away the time, for I found woman’s banter to be as useless as I found it to be in Ireland, I helped Dar Moras work on the fliers and learned the Barsoom technology.
My one enjoyment was that Anora was a willing and enthusiastic lover. True she expected a tip after each encounter which made her a whore and me her John or Jane but the alternative was my own fingers and tail and without privacy that was unworkable. Anora knew the hideaway where we could sneak away for minutes or hours for though I climaxed easily and near instantly when I had time to think about the event, I enjoyed the long kisses and caresses before and during and afterwards. Men just want to get it in and over with but women take time. On Earth there is a saying that a Lesbian quickie is four hours and a lesbian second date is moving in together. Here I found that Anora would see me walking, pull me into a closet and finger or tongue me to climax almost instantly as I knew that people were walking outside, mere sofads away. Or she would approach, kneel before me the dutiful slave and request my appearance at a certain place which would be a nice room with silks and furs and candles and perfumes and I would leave hours later, satiated.
I felt bad about giving her money so arranged to have small bags of coins left on her pallet in the slave quarters at odd times so she wouldn’t feel that she was selling her body or I buying it, both of which were true. There was one time when I insisted and she demurred but finally agreed only to find that a man had been there before me. I stifled my anger for really, she wasn’t my wife or girlfriend, only a woman I rented and that taught me that she rented herself to others. After that, when she begged off, I let her. That night as I lay there on my bed next to Lanor I whispered to my friend more for someone to listen to me than any other need, "I know I have no exclusive rights to her but still, knowing or rather discovering that way that she had been with another, a man, upset me. Still, for a few years I had as lovers Cyndi and Kevin who were married and I shared them. Not caring that he was with her just before she was with me so why is this time different?"
She never answered but she did listen and never judged me out loud though I could estann her tensing when I spoke. But still she listened and that as what I needed.
V
You may ask how I was able to pay for my room, meals and my sexual activities when I had no employment and the answer is simple. In the baths, I became quite famous as the strange warrior Princess from Erie who traveled about the planets. So I would bathe, answer questions and tell tales of my adventures on other worlds. The incident with the Green pirates terrified the women while my romance with Jean saddened them. And afterwards, they would reward my tales and attentions with coin and jewelry. It wasn’t much for Arlis wasn’t as large and wealthy as Ptarth or Helium but when I wandered about the city and talked in a eatery, I ever wanted for food or wine. The wine I drank in moderation for my stools ran afterwards such was my allergy and so I never became drunk on Barsoom. Then I would keep my favorite pieces of jewelry, necklaces, rings, bracelets for arm and leg and sell not only what I didn’t want to keep but also some of the larger Green Man pieces for I found that wearing the metal of the Green men I had killed enhanced my reputation.
I couldn’t pierce my ears though for my body healed too fast and would fester about the earrings until I was forced to remove them. Nor was I able to wear much jewelry on my tail for the taper caused all rings and bracelets to fall off as I moved and the muscles and tendons flexed. Then one woman suggested that I wear clip-on earrings and tie a light golden chain to my waist and wrap that around my tail as a net sleeve with gemstones and devices here and there and for the first time, I could decorate that beloved member. Plus it was free so long as I told people which shop had made it for me.
When I tired of the endless prattle of the women of Arlis, for they talked of nothing but marriage, gossip and other matters that had no interest with me, I would seek out Dar Moras and assist him in his labours in the hanger. At first the other Red men saw in me just a strange looking woman with a curiosity about fliers then one day when I crawled from inside after replacing a cable, covered with grease, Dar Moras told the observers, "She has a talent for engineering that I find valuable. Besides, my employer gets two workers for the price of one and she is small enough to crawl into places I cannot." Then I would discuss the job and soon was accepted by the others as a capable mechanic though were I human, this would have been impossible. My alien features opened for me doors that were normally closed to a woman.
And so I survived though not well but I had a room in which to sleep, food to eat and a lover of sorts and I had my friends who would soon return to their homelands. Finally the time came when Dar Moras was paid to deliver a flier to Ptarth which is exactly what he had been seeking and soon we were in the air covering the 6700 haads west to Ptarth.
Dar Moras climbed slowly to allow me to see the desert and the hills bordering the Marshes and the sight took my breath away. Some of the smaller hills were revealed to be impact craters from ancient meteors and the curvature of the larger hills suggested the same. The Barsoom word for ‘valley’ was better translated as ‘crater’ though true valleys did exist here there appeared to be no real continental plates and so lacking plate tectonics, the only true mountains were ancient or volcanic.
Soon though I was gasping for breath and Lanor called to Dar Moras to drop lower for I was suffocating. At a much lower altitude, Dar Moras se the Destination Compass for Ptarth and both cared for me asking, "What’s the matter? We weren’t high enough to suffocate."
Gasping, I tried to think, "I was born on a heavier world with thicker atmosphere. Your air is maybe a third of what I am used to. I was able to breathe in the low desert but this high, the air is too thin to support me. I’m sorry but to continue with you we must fly lower."
"Nothing to it then but to fly at a lower altitude. Keep watch, though, for Green Men who would do to us what they did to our original flier." His words made Lanor blanch for she still carried the scars of their torture both on her body and within her mind.
"Then dear Dar Moras, fly higher and I will tell you when I can no longer breathe comfortably."
We rose slowly but it didn’t take long before I had to gasp, "enough," to him. It seemed that the air thinned out quickly and so the Navy and mountain climbing would be barred to me on this world. Lanor tried to joke about it, "With a chest as huge as is yours, I wonder that your lungs are so small and weak."
Rather than become angry I laughed back. "Would that this was true, but you Red Women, being egg-layers, have no need for breasts other than as another means to differentiate between the sexes. Humans are live-bearers who birth helpless young and our breasts are mostly fat and possess milk glands that feed the baby. But when the Demons changed me, they also changed my breasts. Before my milk glands were tied to my blood system for food. Now they are tied to my breast fat which is more nutritious than my body fat. It seems that when I have babies, a normal woman wouldn’t be able to produce enough milk for the child so my body creates stores food in my breasts to feed the child which is why they are so much larger than before.
"They do get in the way a lot," I added then laughed, "though here they weigh almost nothing and make excellent flotation when I swim." I weighed a hundred pounds on Earth and my breasts felt like half that. On Barsoom my total weight was nearer thirty-eight pounds and my breasts felt almost weightless though the reduced air pressure and gravity made them swell larger and lift higher than before. Then I had to stop talking for even that explanation tired me and caused me to pant for air.
A little over a zode later Dar Moras changed course to the south to avoid another city. "I would move north where the Marshes are and avoid the desert which is the home of the Green Men but both Toonol and Phundahl own the Marsh and I would avoid their navies.
Another few zodes and we reached the hills that curved down from the western edge of the Toonol Marsh then up to meet the snow-capped Artolian Hills. "We seek a low pass to cross into the plains for on the other side of these hills is Talum and beyond that Ptarth which rules much of the plains."
He slowed the flier even more and both Lanor and I kept to our spyglass searching for Green Men and other danger as our pilot sought a low area in the hills. Normally he would simply fly over them but with my infirmity, he must choose another way and soon we were moving slowly through the hills which were real hills, eroding away by wind and sand and so the shapes were beautiful and fantastic. Here one that resembled a mushroom, there an arch and another that could have been a face carved such was the whim of nature. For such a small planet, the sights here were far more fantastic than any on Earth.
We flew slow and low and any Green man in those hills could have simply tossed a rock down onto us if he wished but Lanor told me, "The Green Men prefer the deserts and rarely enter the hills save the occasional raiding party." But it wasn’t a Green man that attacked us.
We were cruising very slow between two hills and as we passed under one of the beautiful stone arches that took my breath away with their beauty, I failed to notice the movement upon the bridge. Suddenly the flier tipped and near rolled as a White Ape landed upon the stern. It grasped the deck with arboreal feet and it’s intermediary limbs as I did the same with my similar feet and tail but Lanor wasn’t as lucky. Unlike Dar Moras who was strapped into the pilot’s chair, she near fell overboard and survived only because I was able to grasp her harness with one hand. So as she hung over the edge and I held on with one hand, grasping the rail with feet tail and my other hand, and as Dar Moras fought to steady the flier and prevent a crash, the white ape moved forward, holding on with six limbs though once in reach it would use it’s two upper arms to grasp and kill us.
They say that the white ape is the only thing that instills terror into the Green man and seeing this one I could well believe that for the thing was thrice my height, even taller than a Green Man and though white skinned and hairless, it had muscles that were far greater than it needed. Its ape-like face and shock of bristle hair on its skull was why John Carter called it an ‘ape’ for the Barsoomian word was untranslatable other than it was a cognate with ‘terror’ or ‘nightmare’ so ‘white terror’ would be a better description.
Only the twisting and bucking of the flier as Dar Moras fought to steady the craft in the updrafts and shifting weights prevented the beast from attacking faster than it did for it must release one limb to seek another hold before advancing another and that slowed the beast. On flat ground or a larger flier, it would have charged and killed us all so only the small size and poor movement of the flier saved us. But Dar Moras was so busy trying to steady the craft he was ignorant of the beast and I was too occupied holding onto Lanor to do much else save hold on myself.
At that time I thanked the Demons for making me into what I am for were I still human, both Lanor and myself would have gone over the side and it was only the adaptations created for climbing around a starship in zero-gravity that saved us both. Pressed against the side holding Lanor who was twisting in the wind (she weighed a bare forty pounds but the wind and rocking made it seem more) I couldn’t reach my beamer or the revolver that had been modified for my grip, so I had to release the hull and draw my sword, trusting to my feet and tail to keep us both aboard.
As the beast moved into range, I cut and the demon poly-steel with a near molecular edge easily severed a hand that was holding the rail. Perhaps had the limb been free, I might have only cut or broken the wrist but braced as it was, I easily cut it free. Now the beast roared in anger and grabbed its bleeding stump with its other hand which I also severed. It lunged forward and instead of leaning back as it expected, I thrust forward into it’s maw and near two feet of the blade penetrated the back of its neck as if forced itself to me. I held onto my handle with all my might and twisted as the monster shook its head and blood burst from mouth and wound then my sword cut free, severing the juggler and throat. At least if it killed me now, it wouldn’t be able to swallow.
Then I gave up all pretense of fencing and just hacked away at its head and face as it continued to approach. Without hands, and with the rocking of the flier to occupy its feet and intermediary limbs, it could only fight with its fangs which were as long as my dagger. Blood was everywhere, the thing was blind from my cuts and then inches from my face, it shuddered and fell over the edge to strike the ground but a few feet below. I immediately dropped my sword to the deck and grasping the rail, swung the object of my desire over the rail and onto the slippery deck hoping that she was still alive for the entire time from when I had grasped her, only a single scream had escaped her lovely lips.
Then gasping for breath, I sat on the deck as Dar Moras was able to bring the flier under control now that our passenger had left. He brought the craft to a stop and landed on a flat place between some rocks then turned to call out, "Is everyone safe… by Isis what happened there?" as he saw the blood covering me and the craft.
Gasping from the altitude and exertion, I held up a severed hand and called, "We had an unexpected passenger but he didn’t like the service or maybe the food disagreed with him and he left," then I tossed the limb over the side and collapsed with hysterical laughter.
Lanor joined me and when I could talk again, Dar Moras searching us both for injury, asked, "I thought you were unconscious or dead?"
"No dear, Once I felt you grasp my harness I ceased to struggle or scream fearing that anything I did would hinder your attempts to pull me aboard. And when I saw the white ape, I almost undid my harness fearing that you couldn’t save both me and yourself and would rather sacrifice my own life to save yours." She sighed and continued, "but there was so much pressure on my leather that I could not undo the buckles and so had to hang there hoping that you could do something. I had hoped you would hang me from a stantion and use your revolver or beamer on the beast but it seems that you are a better swords-woman than I thought."
"Not better, stronger, and fear gives even more strength. But we still live and that is the important thing."
"Dar Moras," she suggested, "Perhaps we should continue on and clean the flier when away from these dangerous hills?"
"An excellent suggestion and we are near through." And he returned to the controls shaking in fear for us.
We soon were past the hills and a zode later we had much of the blood cleaned though the new owner would have to pay for a good cleaning. "I hope he doesn’t deduct the cleaning bill from your fee," I called to our pilot who laughed back at my jest.
We approached a waterway that was miles wide and stretched into the distance. "This waterway stretches from Talum to the northeast then east to pass the Marsh to their north. We just follow it to Talum then another waterway to Ptarth and our journey will be at an end." The waterway was not the canal envisioned by the astronomers but a covered pipe that stretched from the north ice cap to various cities along the way. Water was taken from this pipe to feed the roots of the crops which grew in a wide band along its length. Nobles would patrol the waterway on thoat keeping peace and defending the value from desperate men and animals. It kept the nobility busy and out of the palace and so prevented trouble and guarded the crops upon which the cities depended. Plus as valour was so important to the Red Men, it offered the Nobility a chance to earn honours and impress the ladies of the court.
Dar Moras soon saw a large building and landed to give his name and city and the reason for the foreign flier in Ptarth lands for empires here were linear and followed the waterways and not circular as on Earth or in space. Wars on Barsoom were fought over water and farmlands, not a few acres of desert as would be the case on Earth. Thus you could have two antagonistic empires a hundred miles apart and they would be at peace if no waterway connected them. If there was a waterway, such as between Ptarth and Talum, the weaker would eventually be conquered by the stronger and absorbed into the Empire.
A zode later we landed in Talum where Dar Moras was met outside the city by a naval flier who tied us to their larger craft and questioned us at length until he was satisfied that Dar Moras and Lanor were citizens and I was no threat to the Empire of Ptarth. Then we proceeded on the land in a rooftop hanger in the building where Dar Moras’ family lived.
VI
After tying the craft down and arraigning tie-down fees, he led us to an elevator that used magnets and not cables to move up and down. My antennae, being sensitive to em-fields, ached whenever I was in the thing and I would prefer stairs or ladders had the Red Men any.
Dar Moras introduced us to his mother and father, both of whom looked in their twenties though both were centuries old and after hearing how I had saved their son from the Green Men and banth and white ape, they showered me with gifts and praises until I would die from embarrassment. They insisted that I tell them about my life and adventures until I begged to sleep from exhaustion and then I was given a private room, my first on Barsoom and I don’t even remember undressing and falling into bed.
I awoke late to breakfast and had to refuse much of the delicacies offered for my digestion wouldn’t handle them and must answer as many questions as before. Then I was rescued by Dar Moras who had cleaned the flier and informed his parents that we must continue on to Ptarth and so left the family and soon were in the air again.
By flier, Ptarth was but a zode and a bit along the waterway and we met the Ptarth navy long before we saw the city. Dar Moras showed his papers to the officers who stared at me, not the papers then they waved him on.
Ptarth was huge and crowded. The city was walled and unable to build out they built up. As we flew over, I saw at least three sets of inner walls, each marking the edges of the city as it was older and smaller for Ptarth had been founded on the foothills some 75 thousand years ago!
"Seventy-five THOUSAND?" I called out. "That’s older than the human race on Jasoom." Though to be honest I saw a Demon city that was inhabited thirty million years old so I don’t know why I was amazed. "I was born in a house that was built four hundred years before and all my ancestors were born in that same home before the English burned it. My house was older than was Jean’s country and she thought fifty years was an antique. But 75,000 years is totally unimaginable to me."
"Eivleen, my dear, my home was built eight thousand years ago and is far from old." Lanor explained. "My bed is four thousand years ago and this ring I wear is twenty thousand years old and is far from an antique. We are along-lived race who build to last and so rarely have need for new items as you tell me is common on Jasoom."
We landed on another roof-top hanger for in a walled city, this was the only place for aircraft to land and Dar Moras turned the newly cleaned flier over to its owner and collected his fee. Then we took another elevator down to the ground (another headache) where we took a ground flier to the home of Lanor. These ground fliers resembled an automobile in the same way an auto resembles a horse-drawn wagon. But they rolled along on huge tires and the ride was totally smooth and comfortable. Air traffic flew overhead in lanes and once again I marveled at the country that had firearms with nuclear rounds but preferred the sword, had aircraft and anti-gravity but rode horses, had a technology that rivaled and exceeded Earth but preferred a simpler life.
Her house, being ‘only’ 8,000 years ago was in one of the newer parts of Ptarth but had its own walls and guards who immediately let us in when she was recognized. And by the time we exited the ground-flier, slaves were at the door to aid us and carry our limited baggage inside. One female who I saw as a slave only because of her collar for she wore the harness and jewelry of any Red Woman flung herself into Lanor’s arms crying that they had heard of the attack and feared she was dead. "Your father was so angry with himself for allowing you to go on that expedition he will probably never allow you out of this home ever again."
"That is fine with me, I had enough adventure to last me a lifetime." Then her parents and family met us in the main visiting room and all tried to be proper and dignified but upon seeing the scars on their daughter’s body, fell apart and cried as they held her. Dar Moras ignored this display for unlike many Earthly races, the Red Men weep openly and hug their loved ones in public. I suppose that when your children live for centuries, the bonds of love run deep. Would my own children be as loving after four centuries? Could I remain married to the same woman for that long, she watching me take an endless stream of male lovers to remain alive and sire my babies? And how many children would I have over the centuries? One every few years or one every century for I had no idea of how my reproductive biology worked. When pregnant would my Need end? Or would I wish my children would move out after a few decades? Would I even remember my children’s names and faces as the centuries rolled by?
I had a lot of time to think these thoughts for her parents examined every scar and injury given to her by the Green Men and cried over them all. I had forgotten they existed and saw only the beauty of her former self. Finally they were done and she tried to stifle their tears with introductions, "Mother, Father, this is the Princess Eivleen Obreen of Ireland who rescued me from the Green Men and many other dangers. And this is Dar Moras who also fought for me and returned me to your arms. Please offer them the hospitality of our home for as long as they wish to remain. Lady Eivleen Obreen and Dar Moras, this is my father, Odwar Bimos Lan and my mother Ullia Tome."
I tried to curtsey to them but they would have nothing of it and I had to explain, "I’m not really a princess but am a Noble for the rank of a Tierna in Ireland rises and falls with the number of other Tierna who swear fealty to you and right now," I laughed, "That number is about… none. Though my mother and father are both descended from the Great Jeddak Brian Boru for whom my family and Clan is named."
"Then to us you are a Princess and a Princess you shall remain for the blood of Jeddaks flows in your veins and your courage and nobility are those that any Jeddak would admire. Our home is yours, our slaves yours and all that we have is yours."
Dar Moras remained a guest for a few days then returned to his dorm and former employment though on another ship. I stayed a couple weeks then became too embarrassed with all the attention though Lanor did find me a couple attractive female slaves to bed me as I wished and even found a male slave "for when your Need arises, my dear Eivleen." Ever since the white ape incident she had become far more friendly and personal but still refused my advances, though with good humor saying, "My dear Eivleen, had I any desire for a woman, you would be the one. But for now let us be friends and sisters."
Finally all good things must end and I went to her saying, "My dear Lanor, I love you and your family has made me feel so welcome it pains me to say this but, I need more freedom. I enjoyed the dances and your friends but really, I am not a pampered pet and must seek adventure but so long as I remain here, I will never find my way. Please watch over the communicator I built so when my ship arrives she can find me but if I remain here, I’ll become a lady seeking marriage and I want to see more of your world and must live on my own to do so. But I will visit often for I love you so."
We both cried and held each other then I walked out with my jewelry ,weapons, kit and harness and sought my life in the city of Ptarth.
VII
The only thing worse than being unemployed is being unemployed on a strange planet with few prospects for female employment.
My ship was still in orbit around Earth and fueled for I had taken the precaution of skimming the gas giant to refuel before coming to Barsoom. I even had plenty of water for the same reason but food was a concern because of two reasons, the first being that I had little cash and the second being that most Barsoomian food disagreed with me and aside from Mantilla milk and Usa fruit, most would make me sick in time. Yes, once the Mairayd responded to my signal and arrived I could reach Earth easily in a few hours or days but then how would I buy the supplies I’d need to reach Commonwealth Space. I could easily sell my military skills and technology to earn whatever I needed but… the temptation for the local humans to try to take my ship and me for their own use would be too great for them to resist and I had no desire to be vivisected. At least on Barsoom, they had a belief that a person’s property belonged to the person and not to the state. So no matter how much they wanted my starship and my Beamer and other advanced technology aboard the Mairayd, they’d not take it. Also there were so many races on this world that an alien Weir like myself attracted attention but not the kind that would put me in a lab for study as would happen on Earth. Had I returned to Earth in my own time, I’d be burned as a devil but as Earth became more civilized they replaced the stake with the surgeon, the Inquisitor priest with the government agent.
So I was safe here. Safer than on Earth.
Unfortunately, there were problems too. Local clothing styles required near nudity. People wore a very brief loin-cloth, a few belts and little else. I could wear a man’s warrior harness and be considered as strange since women here were rarely warriors for here, women were slaves, wives and little else, so unless I was willing to marry and be a housewife, a situation I learned that I was totally unfit for ten years ago on Earth, I had to resort to being a technician or a mercenary warrior.
So far I was able to make a living repairing and upgrading the local fliers for the simple reason that the Demons had created me for exactly that purpose, to be a tech-slave. But I wanted more. I had spent the last couple decades being a technician on a dozen worlds and I was tired of being greasy and dirty and sweaty all the time, breaking my nails and getting my hair caught in a drive-shaft for pennies.
I had been a pirate, a merchant, a soldier, a smuggler and a technician and I found being a soldier was more to my liking than any other. The thrill of combat, the knowledge that I was winning because I was better than everyone else made me so excited, I found normal life dull by comparison.
Were I still human, I’d be a freak, but now I was simply an alien and aliens were tolerated here despite their beliefs and appearance.
I tried being a body-guard but no Red Man would demean himself by allowing a woman to protect him so I mostly guarded their wives and daughters which allowed me to see the city but offered little in excitement or pay.
About the only time I did anything other than carry packages while my charges were shopping was a few days ago.
***REMINESCENCE***
"Eivleen Obreen," Maral Nara called.
"I am here. What do you wish?" I approached from the drapes for one of the advantages of my former human life was that I was undetectable to the Barsoomian telepathy so once out of sight, I was totally invisible. But I could estann any Red Man within a hundred feet so no one could sneak up on me. This made me fairly valuable.
"I would show you off to my friends. And not at a party but in the outside world. So we are going shopping and wish you to accompany us, to defend our persons and to entertain us with your adventures on other worlds."
"Of course, I am at your command. When do we leave?"
"Soon. My friends will arrive anon but with the recent kidnappings, be alert."
"Of course I shall. Give me a zode to rearm and I will be ready."
Inside her father’s home I carried little more than a short-sword and Revolver, my Beamer being hidden, so returned to the ante-chamber for my other weapons and gear, then left for my hostel where my other belongings rested. If she wanted to show me off, I’d have to tie my hair back. I wished I could braid it as I did in Ireland but Red Women never braided their hair, preferring to allow it to flow loose or to tie it into various styles with combs and ribbons of silk. That was something about the Red Women I loved, their long wavy black hair. All Red Women had wavy black hair and all grew it long. Mine was as black and growing longer but was straight and I normally combed it before me to hide my breasts which the Red Men saw as a deformity. Well, being egg-layers, the Red Race laid some thirteen goose-sized eggs a year, destroyed most of these, and those few which were allowed to hatch remained in a roof-top incubator for five years where they grew until they hatched a child who was physically near adulthood, for the Red Men knew no infancy or childhood. Then at forty they were fully mature though some married as young as twenty and all would remain young until they reached almost a thousand years. I, myself was forty but looked seventeen for I ceased to age when the Demons changed me and I would not age again until I was 400 and would die at 500 years. In this case, I was similar to the Barsoomian for we both enjoyed near eternal youth.
And since the Red Woman never nursed, they had very small breasts which were more a sexual dimorphism left over from their ancient ancestors a half-million or more years ago than anything else. When surrounded by women whose breasts could fit in a hand easily, mine which were as large as a child’s head looked to them to be grotesque. And since the Red Woman had no need for support, brassieres were unknown here. Fortunately for me, the .38 gravity aided my natural Weir firmness so I almost felt as if I were under water, my breasts were so light. I recalled my former American lover Jean who was more endowed than myself showing me the ‘pencil test’ where she held a number of pencils under her breasts. With me, they fell to the floor. Perhaps she would do the same too here but too many years braless and a baby had taken their toll on her.
Since my employer wanted to show me off, that meant that I was expected to expose everything that was alien. My pale skin had tanned but was far different from their coppery-red. And I had to expose my pointed ears and antennae which required a different hairstyle, my tail must be revealed and I must ensure that they could see my tarsial toes and medial thumbs.
Only slaves went habitually naked so although I was forced to expose my breasts, my nipples were always erect and aching in the cold here, I could wear a loin-cloth and a bit of a short skirt to hide my woman’s area and keep the red dust from up where it should never go.
I tied my hair back to reveal my ears and choose a skirt to match my ribbons. Damn I wish it were longer as I never enjoyed the micro-mini’s I wore in America on Earth. Growing up in 17th century Ireland and living on a Vanthi station gave me an appreciation for dresses that went to my ankles while pants were more comfortable on a Demon ship and even my own. It’s not that my legs were fat or unattractive, I just preferred to keep them covered.
Once my ‘dress’ was chosen, I strapped my sword belt and revolver belts to my waist, wrapped my shoulder straps to these and crossed them between my breasts to ease the weight of my weapons. Unlike the man’s harness, I could wear smaller and narrower belts that wouldn’t chafe my breasts or push them apart overly much. I chose a light tan leather to compliment my skin tone and ensured that the device of the house of Mar was prominent over my right breast. When I left her service, I’d have to return the device but the jewelry I received as the occasional gift I could keep. I also added to my left breast strap the Arms of my family in Ireland for I was Tierna, a Noble of Ireland and never forgot my home to which I could never return. I had no awards to wear so my leather was mostly plain.
So with long and short swords at my left hip, revolver and dagger at my right hip and beamer strapped to my back under my hip-pouch, I adjusted my cosmetics, added some clip-on earrings for my Weir body healed too fast for piercings, a few bracelets on arm and leg and a choker necklace that drew the eyes to my face and away from my chest and was ready to return for my charges. Although I lusted after women and worked in a man’s occupation, I found that if I looked feminine, I could attract feminine women and not those dykes that dressed, looked and acted as a man. If I wanted a man, I’d date a man. Unfortunately, Barsoom had the belief that sex was reserved for a man and his wife or wives so I was forced to resort to slaves for my Needs.
Once returned to the house of Mar, I was shown my charges who circled and stared at me forever. I was getting used to this, almost. Demons never stared and neither did the Mon out of politeness but the Saxon Vanthi had been isolated so long that they never saw anyone other than the occasional human slave and so wherever I went, they stared. Most of my time on Earth was as a human and the few days I spent there as a Weir was in disguise so I had to allow these women to look and ask their questions. It was a part of my job.
Maral Nara interrupted, "Please, we can talk as we walk. Please Eivleen Obreen, walk among us and not behind so we may converse."
"As you wish, Maral Nara, though please if trouble occurs, move away form me that I may react quickly."
Along the way, I was asked about my life to which I replied, "I was born a Noble in Ireland in the 17th century. England, a nation to the east, had conquered my nation and we fought constantly to free ourselves. The English sold my mother into slavery, burned my home, hanged my father and gang-raped and shot me, leaving me for dead.
"Then I was taken by Demons, an alien race who needed technicians to repair their ships. They took my body, healed my wounds and changed me into what you see here.
"Years later I was given a star-ship of my own and I’ve been traveling around the galaxy ever since."
"Then why, Lady Eivleen," one of her friends asked, "Do you wear the harness of a man and bear weapons?" Why not return home, marry and live a life as before?"
I sighed. I hated thinking of this but… "All that I know is dead and gone. I tried to return home to free my nation but found the planet dead. Laid waste by some catastrophe and all life dead. I saw the futility of my designs and left. I returned once again but too much was different and I didn’t fit in. Besides, I enjoy the excitement of the sword."
"That catastrophe, I remember it." Another commented. "Jasoom had just developed space travel again after Carson Napier left for Cosoom. Some of their nations had contacted Barsoom via Gridley Wave and Helium built a ship to visit Jasoom. When we told them we were coming, they went insane and destroyed themselves with atomic weapons and plagues. I think they feared us."
"More likely they feared what you represent." I added.
"And what is that?"
"That humans are not alone and that other ways and beliefs are as valid as theirs. That is very terrifying to some people who believe in only their own ways."
"And you don’t fear that?"
"I am Irish. I was raised Catholic and taught that there was only one Church and only one way to god. The Protestant English were different and conquered us so the Catholic Church must be wrong though the English said the same beliefs as the Catholics. When I was taken, I saw so many other races and beliefs and customs living in peace and war that I realized that all are valid, so long as they respect each other. Unfortunately, humans and Christians tend to believe in their way alone."
"All this talk is disturbing. Let us talk of.." she looked around, "love. We all have warriors and nobles who we wish to marry. What of you. Is there some prince on another world that attracts your eye?" She smirked in conspiracy for these Red Women were like Irish and American girls and even Vanthi for women are women and love to talk about love and romance so long as the objects of their affections cannot hear the truth. I had asked the Demons about this and they said to me, "We are not the only race that takes humans for our use. This and the Stargates that cross the quae ensure a wide distribution of life. If it looks human, you probably have a common ancestor." If I closed my eyes, I could imagine talking with my girl-friends in Ireland in the 17th century or my woman-friends in America in the 20th century.
"I fear not, Ladies, for my desires lie with my own gender."
"I’ve heard of women who love other women, rare though they may be. But how can you marry a woman and have children?" She was both shocked and intrigued. Perhaps the curiosity of Vana Horas would be to my advantage.
From then on I listened to the four speak of certain men who they wished to attract and the scandals of the court for none of these were nobility, though all wealthy and the merchants love to discuss the personal problems of their betters.
I slowly allowed myself to lag behind the women for their lovers, real and imagined, interested me not at all and I had a job to do. And well it was for a group of six men approached from a side street and surrounded my charges. "Maral Nara!" one cried, "give over to us and none shall be harmed."
This wasn’t an assassination for the Red Men do not murder their women. So it must be a kidnapping. Doubtless some rejected paramour had hired these me to kidnap my employer for his own use or perhaps they felt that they could make a profit by selling the other women as slaves. Rape on Barsoom was unknown but slaves could be required to bed their owners with no ill thought for either. Obviously they saw me, a small alien woman, as no threat at all and their casual glance implied that neither was I their target for abduction.
"If you will," I called to them, my hand on my sword-hilt, "These are my charges you are accosting. Please let be and leave now lest I resort to violence." I adjusted my sword Brount had made for me on by the Demons to a drawing position and waited.
I think they noticed me for the first time then for they stared and one laughed, "You? What can you do? The smallest of us is easily a sofad taller than are you."
He was right for I was a bare five foot tall in thick sandals but my Earthly strength made me almost twice as strong as were they and twice again because of my Weir enhancements. Thus I had naught to fear from them other than they had centuries with the sword and I had a but a couple decades of part-time practice and little in actual battle. I had killed before, but that was mostly with crossbow, matchlock or beamer. This would test my metal.
I glanced around to ensure that there were no others, for although I had found that I could easily read the Red Man’s thoughts, I was invisible to them. Then, assured that these six were the only threat, I moved through the women and stood before their leader. I could read confusion in their thoughts because they had never been faced with a woman who carried more than a dagger and their natural chivalry prevented them from attacking me.
One laughed than looking down to me called to his fellows, "She will make a fine exotic for some harem. Let us sell seven instead of six." Then he made a fatal mistake by grabbing me.
I wrapped my tail around his neck and choked as I grasped the offending limb and broke it at the wrist. Once he was off-balance I pulled with my tail and flung him to the ground. Knowing that with a sword I was at their mercy despite the training Brount had given me and the fencing classes I attended here in Ptarth, I waded in and kicked one in the family jewels, jumped to the side and back-fisted another and grabbed a third by the throat and squeezed, feeling his larynx crush beneath my grip.
The remaining two leapt back and drew steel, forcing me to do the same. They both had the Barsoomian long sword which was similar to a European rapier with a 30" blade while I had a curved sword similar to the Japanese katana. I could fight single-handled if I wished or carry a sword in one hand, short sword in the other and use my tail as a grasper but preferred the two-handed style I had been taught.
One came at me as the second waited, honor that was unknown on Earth and I lived only because I was stronger and faster than was he. Then I realized that he was playing with me, testing my skills. I recognized some of the moves I had learned from my fencing school and knew that he could have gotten past my guard and killed me at any time. His eyes were on me alone and I dared not look at his companion so relaxed and estanned someone behind. A trap! And I almost fell for it. I waited for the emotion from behind then leapt aside and cut, killing the man who was about to club me into unconsciousness. He was the one with the broken wrist
The one I had back-fisted was unconsciousness, another dying from a crushed throat, ignored by his fellows and this one spilling his guts. I now had two angry men to defeat and a third struggling to stand after emptying his stomach after my kick. I charged the one waiting, blocked and opened his throat as I passed, then killed the one I had kicked with a thrust. That made the first angry and he forgot about the prohibition against fighting women as he attacked for real.
I went on the defensive and only by leaping back was I able to avoid the worst of his thrusts. But I was bleeding from shallow jabs and a few cuts, the worst across my breast as he tried for my heart, which wasn’t where he thrusted but still the wound was painful and messy and my breasts were too large of a target.
Finally I felt a wall behind and leapt up, twisted, struck the stone with my feet, bounced and flipped over my opponent, striking down as I passed. He blocked but then I was on the ground, he turned and I thrust before he could return to a guard. I twisted the blade, he screamed and I cut as I withdrew, near severing the man in twain.
I leaned against the wall, panting for I still hadn’t fully adapted to the thin air and my wounds bled, then slowed as I healed though I’d need medical treatment soon. I recall the women surrounding me, commending me for my actions and exclaiming that they’d never seen anything like that before. Soon after the police, or what the Barsoomian used for police which was whatever soldier who wasn’t at war, arrived and took statements, arrested the one who was still unconscious, took my name and hostel and told me that I needed to make an official statement upon the morrow. Then we were released and we sought a doctor to treat my wounds and clean the blood from my body.
***END REMINESCENCE***
Now I was passing people on the street and someone bumped into me. I turned and almost challenged him but he apologized and continued on while I fumed. I was cramping and irritable. Were I still human I would think my menses were about to occur but I hadn’t bled woman’s blood in twenty years since the Demons had changed me and stopped that curse of Eve. Well, there was that six months on Earth when I was human again and ended when I was able to resume my Weir life. But without menses, there was only one thing this meant and I didn’t need to see my lips and nipples reddening over the days to know that my Need was approaching and I needed sex fast. I would get more and more irritable, the cramps would get stronger and more painful, then I’d die. Jilling myself with tail and fingers and phallus would only slow the inevitable. I needed a woman or, I shuddered, a man. Maybe it was time to visit Vana Horas. Many human women are bi-curious and resisted experimentation only because they feared social disapproval.
Unfortunately, when I called at her home, she was busy with company, "Eivleen Obreen, enter and meet …"
I saw who was there and realized that I had no chance at all so made my excuses and left. Damn!!! On the way to my room, my thighs rubbed against each other and I am not fat. In fact there is near an inch between them so it was the way I was walking that caused the friction that made my insides itch and my love button tingle. I knew my loincloth was soaking so I stopped to have a drink of wine, then another and headed for the slave rental.
Slavery was a big thing on Barsoom with most menial work being done by slave labor for no honest man would resort to cleaning a toilet or picking trash from the street, work that needed doing in every city in the galaxy. Most menial labour for the city was done by slaves taken in war but owning a slave was expensive for you needed to feed and house them and care for their medical needs. Yet, these jobs needed to be accomplished so some dealers would rent out their unsold stock or certain businessmen would buy slaves for rent and for a reasonable fee, you could rent a slave to do all those tasks you needed done but would not do yourself. This task, unpleasant as it was, would be one of those.
I looked over the stock and realized that although I wanted a woman, I was soaking, my nipples ached and I had to force my thighs apart for I had waited too long. Even a woman with a phallus in hand wouldn’t save me so I looked over the men and chose one who was as effeminate as possible. Red Men never grew beards or hair on their chest or arms or legs so that wasn’t a problem but I wanted someone with curves and found one who would do. Doubtless unsold because he wasn’t as large or as strong as most men and so unsuitable for heavy labour.
Paying his daily rental, I called, "Follow me," and led him to the inn where I had another drink, gave him one and tried to not look at my rental. I think he tried to speak then gave up as I ignored him while I wondered what to do next. I couldn’t take him to my room for only women were allowed in the dorm, private rooms on Barsoom are only for the very rich or married couples. Then I called the slave who waited my table and asked, "Have you a room where I can conduct some private business?"
She looked at me, then at the slave, finally deciding that I was planning something illegal or needed to question the slave over some matter best done away from curious ears for the idea I had was incomprehensible to the Red Man. Then she said, "Yes Lady, for four tanpi we have a room."
$4 or so for a private room for a few hours. Well, income on Barsoom was low but they built to last and the American concept of conspicuous consumption was as foreign to them as would be a brothel so I said, "Show me please."
The room was far from romantic but it was clean and had a table and a comfortable couch so I paid her and directed, "send my slave here with a bottle of wine please." And waited.
He arrived and I removed my harness, handing it to him and said, "I was in a fight a few days ago and this needs a better cleaning than I was able to do." Then as he began the task, I lay my weapons upon the table and sat on the couch. How the hell do I seduce a man? On Earth or among the Vanthi, I would just walk into the room and men would surround me. I wasn’t beautiful but was attractive and with my athletic body and more than adequate breasts I could have any man I wanted though not the women I desired.
I started to toss my hair behind my back for even the Red Woman used that tactic to show interest but stopped when I realized that he looked away when my breasts were exposed. What a human would see as a sexual signal, the Red Man would see as a deformity so I let my hair fall forward again. Dammit! Why was this so hard? The Vanthi outlawed lesbians, the Barsoomian didn’t know we existed and Earth was some distance away and it would take days or weeks to find someone there even if I had my ship. Like it or not, I did not, I was stuck with this man.
So I tried honesty.
"Do you get many visitors from other worlds here?"
"Some, but few, lady. I’ve never seen an alien though I hear visitors from Jasoom are becoming common with the planet dead as it is."
I had heard that sometimes a human would die on Earth and be ‘called’ to Barsoom where they would have a physical body free from the injury that had killed them. "I’ve been on a dozen worlds. Most were colonized by Jasoomians. The Demons, a reptilian race, tend to abduct us and change us to their needs and uses. I was once human until they took me and changed me into what I am now."
I took another drink and continued, "But they made mistakes. You Red Men need food and drink and air to survive. Weir like me need those too but more. You need three zodes of decent sleep and dreams a night or you go insane and die. Jasoomians are the same but I need but a zode to a zode-and-a-half a night and can make do with a zode every couple nights for a teedan with no ill effects."
Another drink, "But there is one thing I need every three teedans. If I don’t get this, I die and my time is fast approaching." He was still cleaning my harness but listening now for someone talking to a slave, even an alien, was so unusual it was worth his attention. "Sex! I need sex or I will die."
He froze, uncertain what to do or say. I lay a couple tanpi on the table and offered, "service me, keep me alive and these are yours."
He was torn between greed and disgust for the money he earned occasionally as a tip, added to the coins he found on the street or the floors of places like this would be hoarded and someday buy his freedom. Yet, what I was asking was against everything a Red Man believed. In the end, greed won out. Had he been human, I could have saved my money. "What do I do?" he asked.
I don’t know if he was a virgin or not but he followed instructions, twice, then as I lay there, disgusted with myself but no longer in pain, I told him, "You can leave now. If I need you again, I’ll call in a couple days." He actually tried to kiss me goodbye but I turned my face away, wishing he were a she for although my body reacted with enthusiasm for his, my mind fantasized that he were a woman with a phallus strapped to her hips. After he left, taking his earned gold, I removed my mirror from my hip-pack and checked myself. My lips and nipples were pink again, no longer red with Need and my cosmetics needed little touch-up for although I learned to wear make-up ten years ago with Jean, I rarely wore them in space. I resisted the urge to see if my labia were pink again for I didn’t want to see what he had left inside me.
I wiped the sweat from my body, dressed, combed my hair quickly, applied a little perfume to cover my sin and drained my glass, then his, and left for the toilet where I peed away everything I could in my bladder and womb. Half a block away, I cringed as my loincloth became soaked with something I didn’t want inside me but didn’t want running down my legs right now. I thought it was all gone but was wrong.
I loved a woman’s touch and kiss but I also loved a man inside me. Why couldn’t I have both in one person? A woman with an occasional penis? I was an engineer, not a biologist so maybe I could make my dreams of a cyborg with attachments come true?
I imagined that people were staring at me, knowing what I had done and, well, staring at me. The man must have saved himself for years considering how soaked my clothes were becoming. A long dress would hide the stain and the way I was walking but in naught but a loincloth… I moved into an alley and pulled it tight, then down to give a bit of flap before my sensitive areas but it didn’t help. Please whatever god or goddess was out there, ‘let them think I had peed myself’ I prayed, then ran down the alley to find a less traveled way to my hostel. Along the way I interrupted an assassination and killed the assassin as I passed without slowing.
Finally I reached my cot which was surrounded by curtains as the only privacy a bachelor woman had in these dorms and frantically tossed my weapons on my cot as I searched for replacement clothing. Then near naked, or at least, wearing naught but a cloth wrapped around my waist and a short-sword, entered the common baths and washed myself until I was raw. Then I soaked in the hot water forever, watching the occasional Red Woman enter and leave.
The next day I took a position as a Panthan in another nation and left for war.
END
To contact me or to request topics to be covered, send to RikJohnson@juno.com
by: Rick Johnson
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
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