RICK JOHNSON'S
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS WEBSITE

DRYING OUT IN A HUMID WORLD
I

by: Rick Johnson
PO Box 40451
Tucson, Az.
85717
RikJohnson@juno.com

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This is a story in the form of Akira Kurosawa's classic work Rashomon. For those unaware, Rashomon deals with telling the same story through the different views of the main characters.
Thus here you will read the same event as seen through the eyes of Jason Obrien, his former lover Diane Winters and through the eyes of the Don of Pal-ul-Don.
It may seem a bit confusing at first but remember that every third chapter reverts to the same person but chapter 1, 2 & 3 are all the same event, experienced from a different view. And so as people are unique, they will hear the same words spoken differently, add experiences of which the others are unaware and remember events differntly.

Yo-Bal-Lee made her husband a lunch of dried jerky and hard bread, wrapped it in some leaves and added gourd of water with some willow bark to chew for his headache and sent him off to the farms as usual. Last night he had come home late, drunk, and forced himself on her again. This was happening far too often of late. Maybe life was changing too fast and he couldn’t accept that. Maybe his dreams and promises of a farm of their own had never happened and he felt like a failure. Maybe he was just meeting the wrong people and she hadn’t the strength to make him stop seeing them. Or maybe it was her refusal to give him sons until things were better. But whatever the reason, she was glad he was gone for another day.

Like most Ho-Don in Bu-Lur, they had married after a long courtship that had been arraigned by their parents. A courtship that ensured that they would love each other before they married or, at least, not hate each other for if love was the ideal marriage, friendship and family ties were easier on both. She thought about love as she cleaned their modest home. She had loved him once. She thought. There was that time when they had both reached their changing-time, when they had stopped being children, grew hair ‘down there’ and she grew breasts and he broadened to a find handsome man. Those few years were wonderful as they had snuck off alone to kiss and touch each other, both knowing that virginity was important to marriage so going no further. She loved him then, or was it just adolescent passion? No, she was certain that they loved each other for they would lay on the grass outside the city and look at the stars and plan for their future. A future that was very different from today.

Now she was done. Cleaning a three room home in a tall building took little time and so she had too much time to think. Perhaps had she given him a child or three, things would be different. Maybe the responsibility of a family would make her husband be more responsible, work harder, remember their dreams and spend more time home. Or maybe it would just fill her day and keep her too busy to think.

She cleaned her loin-cloth, made of doeskin instead of the preferred ja or jato that important women wore, then checked her harness, combed her hair and examined her golden breastplates for scratches or dents. Then she picked the best of the flowers she grew on the window-porch then left and took the long stairs to the ground where she took her time walking.

Ho-Don, Waz-Don and Ho-Waz-Don were on the streets, mostly women as was she, for their husbands and fathers were out hunting or trading or farming to feed their families. She passed a site where some were repairing a building. There was too much construction in Bu-Lur these days. Her mother had told her the same thing she but remembered her grandmother telling her how the ancients would cut their homes from the chalk hills and not make them from stones and bricks.

Ever since the Dor-ul-Otho had outlawed human sacrifice and made peace between Ho-Don and Waz-Don two hundred years ago, the population of Pal-ul-Don had exploded. The peace hadn’t affected Bu-Lur for here Waz-Don and Ho-Don had lived in peace since the founding of the city by those who had simply gotten tired of the racial warfare, and moved to where The-Great-River met the Morass and build a city where no other would live. Then, a hundred fifty years ago, maybe more, maybe less, the Great Quake had happened and then the morass had begun to drain to reveal a growing lake to the south. A lake so vast that a new word had been invented for it, ‘sea’. Some philosophers had thought that the Great quake caused the Morass to drain and the sea to form but most thought this was a foolish idea.

But regardless, when the morass has drained, Bu-Lur discovered that they could expand their city south and relieve some of their crowding. Then later As-Lur was built on the shores of the sea where the The-Great-River flowed.

Controlling the River route to the sea made Bu-Lur rich for the Ho-Don from Tu-Lur and A-Lur and even fabled Ja-Lur had to pass through Bu-Lur to reach the riches of the sea. They even built the cities of Lul-Lur and Jato-Lur where the rivers of the southern mountain range which once fed the morass now fed the sea. But always, Bu-Lur was the gate and all had to accept the importance of this city of outcasts.

Along the way she met one of her few friends in the city, Pan-Sad-Bu. Although Ho-Don and Waz-Don lived in peace, mostly, only in Bu-Lur and As-Lur was this really true. Pan-Sad-Bu was a few years younger than she and not yet married though she had many suitors. “Yo-Bal-Lee,” she cried out, running to greet her friend. Women in Bu-Lur tended to dress alike despite the fact that the Waz-don was covered with sleek fur and the Ho-Don was hairless but Pan-Sad-Bu actually wore a ja pelt, a gift of an admirer who wished to court her. Had they not been such good friends, the Ho-Don would have been more than a little jealous. But with Yo-Bal-Lee’s family moving to As-Lur some years ago to make a better living and to escape the crowding of Bu-Lur, she had to find her friends as she could.

“Where are you going today,” Pan-Sad-Bu asked, then continued, “You are going to the temple again. You spend so much time there you should become a priestess. What is it this time?” She was genuinely concerned for her Ho-Don friend.

“The same,” Yo-Bal-Lee said. “I don’t know what to do. Our lives aren’t the same anymore and I want to save my marriage, I really do…” she trailed off. Divorce was allowed, but rare and those who did divorce rarely married again for who would want a man or woman who had abandoned their family instead of working things out. Divorce reflected not only on the married couple, but both their families who were expected to help them whenever necessary.

Pan-Sad-Bu offered a suggestion, “Why not visit your mother? It’s only about 5 leagues and if we take a ride on the cargo-canoe, we can be there in a couple hours. We stay over and ride the return canoe back. I’m sure she will know what to do.”

Yo-Bal-Lee argued, “I really can’t. What would..” then Pan-Sad-Bu interrupted, “Males have managed to survive without women far longer than we have without them. Males hunt alone for days and manage to find something to eat. So he has to cook for himself a couple meals. He won’t poison himself. Besides, I have three suitors who all demand that I share dinner with them tonight and I really don’t want to marry any of them.” She laughed at this for Pan-Sad-Bu always had suitors lined up and competing for her affections.

Yo-Bal-Lee really wanted to see her mother again and her husband wouldn’t be angry, he’d just spend the evening with his drinking buddies. “Let’s!” she said and together they ran back to her home to leave a note for her husband.

An hour later they had purchased passage on the canoe with the promise of cooking a meal for them for despite Pan-Sad-Bu’s comments, men DID like a meal cooked by a woman, especially when they had a long paddle ahead. So Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee sat in the canoe and prepared a nice meal for the paddlers. The canoe was large, almost thirty feet long with an outrigger to stabilize the boat so they didn’t loose cargo. There were four paddlers on each side and Yo-Bal-Lee remembered that in the old days, the paddlers were often slaves. But with the morass draining, the slaves simply stole their boats and paddled away to build their own city in the newly discovered lands so now the merchants had to hire warriors to paddle. Without war, there was no reason to prevent this, so young men now worked at jobs that their grandparents would never consider.

A couple hours late they reached As-Lur and the women cheerfully fed the men their promised lunch and then left, promising to return later for the return trip. Pan-Sad-Bu stared at the city for she had never left Bu-Lur and As-Lur was so different. “There are no cliffs! Where do the Waz-Don live? And the buildings aren’t carved, they are... built. There aren’t any walls! Not real walls like we have, just these wooden things. Who do they keep the beasts and enemies away?”

Yo-Bal-Lee tried to explain but she had only been here once herself and didn’t understand it all herself. “The Waz-Don live in houses too. Mother tells me that there aren’t any gryf’s this far south and the ja and jato find so much game in the plains and forests that they never come into the city. My parents live over there. Come!”

Yo-Bal-Lee’s mother greeted them both with hugs and an invitation to enter and have tea. Tea was, she explained, a new drink that had come across the land by the hairless-black-men who had discovered the city as it was being built.

Pan-Sad-Bu said, “I heard that there were tailless people, the Tand-at-don, out here. How amazing. Are they gods as you Ho-Don believe?”

Yo-Bal-Lee’s mother laughed and explained, “The first to meet them thought so and prostrated themselves to the hairless black Tand-at-don, but after being captured and enslaved, we saw that they weren’t gods but just people who were different. Also it was found that they were not as strong as were we and so the chains they used were broken and the Tand-at-don were themselves enslaved. Years later another caravan arrived only these made it clear that they wished peace and trade and ever since we have had complex dealings with them. Some come to conquer, some to trade. Those who can tell which, live and become wealthy for these Tand-at-don men have wonderful things to trade and they seem to think that gold is valuable.

“Come, look at this!” her mother called.

“What is it?” asked Yo-Bal-Lee. “It’s so beautiful and has all the colors of a rainbow.”

“They call it ‘cloth’! The Tand-at-don men and women use it as we do skins and breastplates.”

“How huge a ‘cloth’ beast must be to have a pelt this large?” admired Yo-Bal-Lee.

Her mother said, “It’s not a skin, it’s woven from a plant as we weave grass into floor mats. Look closely!”

“Yes, I can see the weave now. Such fine work. How do they do that?”

“They Tand-at-don have something called a ‘loom’ that makes this. We even have three of them in the city and are growing this ‘cotton’ in the fields. It’s still cheaper to buy it but soon, we will sell cloth to the entire land of Pal-ul-Don.”

“I don’t know, mother,” Yo-Bal-Lee said. “There are too many changes happening. What will this do to us? Remember when the Dor-ul-Otho came and made peace and outlawed sacrifice? Things changed and not all for the better. True we no longer killed our old and babies to Jad-Ben-Otho and we not so much died in war, but the population grew so fast and the cities became crowded and we had to learn to care for our grandparents as they aged and became as children again. What will these Tand-at-don do to us?”

Later her father and brothers came home, smelling of fish and dirt and had to bathe in standing water instead of the running streams that the older cities had. Ben-Un saw his daughter and hugged her saying, “Welcome dear, what brings you all this way?”

“I missed my family, father.” She replied, not yet ready to tell them about her marital problems. “The sea is so big, how do you find your way upon it?” she asked to change the subject.

“We never go far and all we have to do is paddle north to shore then east or west to home. No one knows how large the sea is. Some say it goes on forever but they used to say that about the morass too so I think that if you go far enough, you will see land and who knows what people we will discover.”

“Do you want to go there?” Pan-Sad-Bu asked.

“Me? No! I’m far too old for that foolishness. Every time someone goes exploring, they discover something that changes our life and forces us to rethink our ways. I’m getting conservative in my old age and would rather not see any more changes. Besides, I’ve heard stories about the Tand-at-don carrying weapons called ‘guns’ that kill like thunder and lightening from a distance. I don’t even like these bows-and-arrows the warriors are carrying now. War with clubs where you saw your enemies eyes was good enough for my grandfather, it’s good enough for me.” He explained. For the rest of the evening they talked about small matters then were shown to another room where they stayed with Yo-Bal-Lee’s sister who had mixed feelings about sharing her room which she felt was too small anyway and being with her sister whom she loved.

The next morning after helping her mother with the housework, Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu decided to stroll around the city and there they saw their first Tand-at-don. The man had black skin as did Pan-Sad-Bu but was as hairless as Yo-Bal-Lee, and what hair he did possess wasn’t straight but grew in tight curls on his head. It was also evident that he was far weaker than any Ho-Don or Waz-don as he had to carry smaller bundles than the others. Unlike some of the others, this Tand-at-don was not a slave, for it was explained to them ‘why steal a slave that was too weak to work when as a free man, the Tand-at-don freely gave their knowledge to their employers and worked hard themselves to become rich’. There were few in the city simply because they felt as uncomfortable among the Don as the Don were around them.

Finally Pan-Sad-Bu sat on the beach and told Yo-Bal-Lee, “I’d like to go on the sea sometime. Someday I will marry and probably never leave my kor again so while I am young, I’d like to have as many memories as I can.”

Yo-Bal-Lee added, “I don’t know. The world is a dangerous place. There are ja and jato and gimla and up north gryf and the Tand-at-don are so strange. I’m happy staying home. But,” she leaned closer, “I see what you mean. What stories we could tell our children if we had an adventure like the bards sing of.”

It wasn’t long before they found a fishing canoe readying to leave. The man was old and had trouble loading his nets so they glanced at each other and ran over to ask if they could help. The old man was happy with the assistance and when they pushed his outrigger canoe into the water, he never even noticed them climb aboard until they were a mile from shore.

“What are you doing here,” he demanded. “The sea is too dangerous for women. Now I have to turn back and loose a day’s fishing.”

“But sir,” Yo-Bal-Lee said, “We are already here and you can use the help and we are still in sight of land so what danger could there be? Please let us help you before we have to return to Bu-Lur.”

Finally the man relented partially because he did need the help and partially because old men love the thought of people listening to them and he had a captive audience.

Unfortunately for all, they lost track of time and never noticed until they saw the sun near the horizon. By then, they had drifted far from shore and there was nothing but water all around. The old man tried to paddle north, or rather the direction he thought shore lay but it was clear that he was lost and as neither woman knew how to navigate, they finally gave us and sat there hoping to be found. The man blamed himself for being useless while the women blamed themselves for sneaking aboard and so the night passed with all worrying about everything from starving to being eaten by the gimlas that haunted the sea.

When the sun rose, they knew which way to paddle and began when Pan-Sad-Bu stood and said, “Look! There! Something white on the water.”

The old man looked but his eyesight wasn’t good enough so asked for a description. Then he said, “That’s called a ‘sail’. The Tand-at-don use them to allow the wind to push their canoes across the water. Some of our larger canoes use them too. Maybe it’s a trader or fishing boat returning home and can tow us.”

The women then stood and waved and called until they realized that the canoe was far larger than any they had ever seen. It had a ‘mast’ which held a huge triangular piece of ‘cloth’ to catch the wind and had no paddlers at all. At the back end of the canoe, they had built a house to keep the sun off themselves. As the canoe came closer, the sides were crowded with more than a dozen Tand-at-don but some of these were white-skinned and all wore white ‘cloth’ that covered their bodies and heads leaving their faces free and these had hair growing on their face like a Waz-don, only longer. From their looks and gestures, it was clear that these Tand-at-don were unfriendly and so they turned the canoe and paddled as fast as they could but the large canoe easily overtook them. “Why are we going away from shore,” cried Yo-Bal-Lee.

“Because we cannot out race these bad men and if they know where our land is, they may seek it and invade. We need to pretend that we live elsewhere.” He explained as he paddled hard.

The canoe easily overtook them and the Tand-at-don made motions for them to stop and surrender. The old man picked up his club and said, “I’ll try to hold them off, try to escape.” Then three jumped into the canoe with long curved knives and attacked the old man who fought valiantly and even killed two until there was a bark of thunder and the old man fell to his knees, bleeding form a hole in his chest. Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu tried to fight off their attackers and it was clear that they were easily as strong as any of the Tand-at-don but weight of numbers over whelmed them and they were bound and dragged aboard the large canoe. As the Tand-at-don emptied the canoe of it’s fish-nets and everything useful, they dragged the body of the old man aboard, stripped him and fondled his gold buckles, their eyes lighting up in greed.

They examined his tail and feet and even his thumb, making comments and then one who as their gund, gave an order and his body was cast into the sea. Another order and two leapt into the canoe and hacked holes into it to sink the canoe, then they turned their attention to the women.

Tied up as they were, they could do nothing but struggle and soon were stripped naked and thrust into a makeshift cage where they huddled in each other’s arms as the bad men tormented them. Eventually, the gund of the canoe gave orders and the canoe turned to the southwest. Yo-Bal-Lee was crying but Pan-Sad-Bu commented, “At least they think Pal-ul-Don is far away in the other direction. We are sacrificed as slaves but our families are safe.”

“Slaves?” Yo-Bal-Lee asked. How can you be certain?”

Pan-Sad-Bu explained, “Why else treat us so? If they were seeking wives, they would be nicer to us, fearing a dagger on our wedding night. And look down on the bottom of the canoe. I see people in chains.”

That night three of the crew approached and tried to pull the don from their cage. They fought and kicked and scratched which made the Tand-at-don laugh until their gund approached and kicked them away. He yelled at them in their foreign tongue then when one argued, he pulled a small club from his belt and with a roar of thunder, killed the man and one of his mates. The gund made it clear that the don were not to be touched and so after stripping their dead comrades, they tossed the bodies overboard and then entered then hold and dragged a few of the chained women on deck. Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu saw that the women dragged were hairless black women and very young and then the evil Tand-at-don held them down and took turns raping the poor girls. When done, they returned them to their chains and went to sleep.

The next days were a nightmare for the women. The gund had their cage covered not from kindness but for concern for his property that he clearly saw as valuable, more valuable than the poor girls below. They were fed and given water but forced to relieve themselves in a pot while the crew watched and laughed.

Then the evil men covered their cage with a tarp to hide them and they prepared to fight again. “What other poor wretches will these demons kill?” Yo-Bal-Lee asked.

The crew stood by the rails, their weapons hidden and voices passed back and forth, becoming more demanding. Then a series of thunderous sounds filled the air and four if the pirates fell back, dead. The rest ducked and hid then another white Tand-at-don climbed over the side and hiding behind some bales, began to seek to kill the pirates with his strange gun-stick that belched fire and thunder. A moment later a white woman with hair the color of the sun joined him and after another moment, the women jumped into the lower hold and screamed. The voice of the man showed concern then was calmed and he crawled to the other side of the canoe and continued to deal death and injury with his ‘gun’ for the two realized that they were seeing these horrible weapons in action.

The man moved past their cage, ignoring them then suddenly there was a sound of dozens of thunderclaps at once and the last of the evil men lay on the deck dead or dying. “Now what?” asked Pan-Sad-Bu. “Are we better or worse off with this new Tand-at-don.”

The man listened to a woman in the water call out and then took a rope from the woman below and tossed it to someone who shortly climbed overboard. Then the two of them began to search the bodies until they found a ring of metal, which the second women took below as the man stripped the dead and tossed them over the side.

Immediately afterwards, the imprisoned women climbed on deck, many crying and then fell to the bales and ate as if they were starving. One of the women attackers, the one whose hair was the color of the sun, went to the man and hugged and kissed him. Obviously they were married. Then they removed the tarp from the d’Don cage and stood there staring.

The dinner was good, the wine excellent, the company pleasant and she resisted the urge to laugh at his attempts to seduce her. She had long ago decided to say ‘yes’, only now she wanted him to work for it. Despite her chronological age, she had been born in the late 1940’s, she didn’t look a day past thirty which caused a lot of trouble as her drivers license said she was in her late sixties. She told people that she ate right, exercised and avoided bad habits and people. It was this appearance, actually she WAS only thirty, that allowed her to date a wide range of men.

She still made mistakes but when she did she laughed and said that she had spent the last few decades in the Third World. Today she was in a Mid-east restaurant and ordered in Arabic, then when she recognized the waiter’s accent, she switched to Turkish. That always impressed, and intimidated her dates but got her better service. “Never,” she leaned forward to both reveal a bit of cleavage and to ensure than no one heard her, “Look in the kitchen no matter how clean the dining areas is.”

Her date was left-handed and she had to stop him and insist that he used his right to pay the check. “I’ll explain later,” she said for to Arabs, using the left hand was an insult.

Next he would take her dancing which was hard for her as she didn’t know these new dances, if they even had steps to learn. She came from a generation of the dances with interesting names like Watusi and frug. But some of the modern music did have a nice beat.

In the car, she was relaxing when her cell phone rang. She almost ignored it but her Priestess had told her ‘why train your psychic ability if you won’t listen to your instincts?” She had ignored that in Anatolia and been tossed into an arena as a gladiator. She had ignored it in Petra and was trapped in a tomb with ghouls. So she took a deep breath, excused herself and answered.

The voice was almost unrecognizable but the desperation was clear. “Where are you! I’m on my way, don’t hang up!” Then to the driver, no longer her date and her plans forgotten, she ordered, “Turn right, ahead. NOW!” She kept talking on the phone, trying to calm the person on the other end and force her date to drive her across town, ignoring stop lights, other cars and potential arrest. After some time giving directions and encouraging him to go faster, they arrived at a house, a modest home but with potential and when the car stopped, she was out and across the porch instantly.

The door was locked and no one answered so she picked up a large planter and tossed it through the glass then jumped through as her date panicked. She never even heard his concerns about breaking and entering as she searched the house. Finally she found what she sought on the bathroom floor. “Fi, I’m here, everything will be ok baby.” She hugged and rocked the woman calming her and trying to wipe the vomit from her face. The man saw his date, a beautiful and well build blonde, heedless of her expensive dress cradling a brunette who would cause accidents by walking down the street, yet now that woman was in her underwear, covered with filth.

The blonde called to her date, “Turn the shower on, cold. Hurry!” And he did so trying to remain dry as he did so but it was clear that the blonde had no such concerns as she lifted her friend into the shower and began to wash her off, ruining her own hair, make-up and dress as she did so. “If you are going to stand there gawking, help me! Hold Fi for me!” she commanded and her date removed his jacket before coming to her aid. It was this one time consuming act that caused her to decide that he was no longer worth her time. As he held the brunette, her date washed her body and mouth and hair then took her from the man and stripping her, dried her and carried her to bed, removing her own dress only when Fi was safely under the covers. She then dropped her soaking dress and hugged her friend, oblivious to her date staring at her wearing nothing but panties, nylons and stockings.

‘For a woman approaching sixty Diane has an incredible body,’ He thought, as he stared. When Fi had fallen to a normal sleep, Diane got up and pulled her stockings off then searched for and found a t-shirt, which she put on and then seemed to notice her former date. “I guess the evening didn’t go as you planned,” she offered almost in apology.

“We can still salvage some of it,” he said, still trying to recover the lost mood when they heard voices from the front.

“Fiona, we’re here, let’s party!”

Diane glanced to her friend, then left the bedroom and approached the five men and women slipping through the broken glass. “Fiona, where are you?” It was obvious that these were stoned or high or drunk or all three and more. Diane walked to them and yelled, “What the hell are you doing here? Who the hell are you people!” Now she wasn’t asking questions, she was demanding answers.

“Well, pretty lady, want some blow, we’re here to party with Fiona. Where is she?”

Diane then pushed him back yelling, “You did this to her! I’ll kill you for that! Get out now while you are still in one piece!” and she pushed again.

One of the men, the biggest and towering over Diane by a good foot and 150 pounds grabbed her saying, “Be nice little girl. Now where’s Fiona? Be good to me and you won’t get hurt!”

The man, her former date was looking for a phone hoping that the police would get here in time when Diane simply drove her thumbs into his upper ribs. Then as he let go, she grabbed his hand, twisted it then struck his elbow causing a cracking sound that he could hear even above the man’s scream. She then punched him in the nose, breaking it too and kneed him in the groin. But before he could collapse, she pushed him into his friends and yelled, “Get out! Once Fi is safe, I’m coming after you and when I do, you’d better hope they lock you in the biggest prison in this country because what I do to you will give Hannibal Lector nightmares. Now..”

They ran but not before she picked up a piece of broken glass and threw it at them, eliciting another scream. “I’ll kill those fucking assholes for this! Don’t try to stop me or else!” This last to her date who was understandably terrified that such a small woman could turn into such a dangerous beast. She calmed down a bit then said, “I need to clean this mess up and cover that window.”

She went to the kitchen and found the broom and dustpan as her date said, “I’ll see if I can find some wood and nails,” happy to get away. By the time he was back with some plywood he had found, the floor was swept and she was picking up the broken planter. So he nailed the plywood sheets to the opening hoping that his assistance would calm Diane a bit. He knew his evening was ruined, he only hoped for another try later or to just survive the night.

Diane returned to the bedroom and laying down, held her friend soothing her, then she picked up the phone and dialed a number. “Is Jason there, it’s important. Tell him it’s Diane. (long pause then) Jason, it’s Diane. Fi’s in trouble. No, don’t come yet but I need you to be supportive for me on this. I need an adventure! Now! Do you have anything lined up? ( long pause, then) Chicago, 22nd century will be fine. How soon? Good. Jason, I can’t have you being an ass over this. Fi is hooked on drugs and we need to dry her out. SHUT UP! Listen to me! I said I needed support! If you can’t help… Ok, I’m sorry love. I’m just scared for her. Also, when we get back I want to go hunting. Yes, the people who did this to her. No survivors! Thank you. I love you dear. I’ll wait for your call. Bye.”

Diane kissed Fiona then after making certain she was sleeping, she left and searched the house.

“What the hell was that all about? You were so dangerous, you scared me. I thought you were going to kill those people. Fiona needs professional help, she needs a clinic trained to…”

Diane slammed him against the wall saying as she looked up to him, “If you cannot help, get out!” Then she let him go and opened another closet. This time she found what she was looking for and pulled out some boxes and bags of varying sizes and shapes. She took these to the table and opened them to reveal an impressive amount of weaponry. She pulled a sword from it’s case, examined it’s edge and polish with a professional eye then re-sheathed it and examined the dagger then the bow ands arrows.

Her former date watched then said in a soft voice, “My father was a Green Beret. I used to watch him check over his gear and he looked like you do. The way you hurt that man, the way you are readying those weapons, You’re not just a writer are you?”

Diane laid the arrows down then entered the kitchen and started to strip the cupboards for useful food as she explained, “What I write is, was true. I only dress it up for publication. Fi, Jason, Tears and I traveled across the Middle East for years adventuring. I’ve been a gladiator in a Turkish arena, fought vampires and ghouls in Jordan, guarded caravans and killed some of the most powerful assassins and terrorists on the planet. I’ve killed more people with a sword than your father probably did with an M-16. It taught me how to survive and it gave me the ability to know that I can do anything no matter what the odds. Now Fi had met an enemy she can’t fight so I need to get her away from it so she can recover. It won’t be easy but if there isn’t anyone to give her drugs, then she’ll get over them.”

“A hospital can do that for her.” He offered.

“Yes it can,” she answered, “But Jason and I love her and love is the strongest of all medicines.”

He thought a minute and said, “You weren’t joking, you really intend to kill those people aren’t you? You’ll go to prison if you do.”

Her look was stern as she said, “Only if I get caught and Jason will make certain that I don’t. Yes I am going to kill them. I intend to kill them and their suppliers and their drug lords in Colombia or wherever they are and if the CIA is helping them, I intend to kill them too. I’m not pure or innocent. I do grass and have done acid and ‘shrooms and I did them with Fi, but we never did this shit or got hooked. Your time is different from mine.”

“My time? What does that mean? And you mentioned the 22nd century?”

She sighed, “I’m not as old as you think. I’m barely thirty. During the Vietnam War my husband was killed and I miscarried in grief. To get away, Jason took me to the past, the 15th century. Then when we returned, it was the 21st century, thirty years later. I guess you could call me a time traveler. Yes, time machines exist, we just don’t advertise them. As Jason said, ‘I do what you pay $7.50 plus popcorn to watch on the movie screen.’ That’s why Fi does so poorly in adventure movies. She’s lived that life and it isn’t anything like the movies. Now I have to get us ready for our next job. I don’t know what it is, I only know that it will be dangerous and exciting and push us to our limit and so it will cure Fi.”

“You love her?” he asked

“Yes, but not in that way. You are just a man, but Fi and I are friends. We go way back and swore to never let anything get in the way of our friendship. Not our marriages, not our divorces or widowhood, not even sharing the same lover. We are closer than anything you can imagine and I’d die for her. Hell, I’ve killed for her and intend to do it again. Can you accept this?”

“Sure I can, you are important to me.” Then he saw her stare and changed his story, “I really don’t know. You scare me shitless. I thought you were just a nice piece of ass desperate for a younger man but now… I don’t know what I can do about, … us.”

She almost said, ‘there is no us, you were just a pleasant distraction,’ but he was still here when most men would have run. He admitted that he was scared of her yet, he was still here and that was a big plus. She hadn’t been close with anyone since Jason, then before him, her husband. Maybe….

“David,” she began. “I like you a lot and for what it’s worth, I had already planned to sleep with you tonight, before this happened. But right now I need to take care of Fi. We’ve been through a lot together. You can’t get much closer than we are.”

“And Jason,” he asked. “Who is he?”

“After my husband was killed, I miscarried. The combination drove me over the edge and I tried to kill myself a few times. Fi always stopped me. Then one night I went to a bridge and was about to jump when this white samurai walked by. He was like something out of a Toshiro Mifune film but he was casually walking along a bridge in twentieth century Chicago. I told him that if he came closer I’d jump and he simply said, “I was under the impression that you had already decided to do that.” I started to laugh in hysteria then he looked over the edge and said, “Filthy water, there must be a cleaner way to go.” And he just looked at the river. He didn’t ask, he just stood there leaning on the railing wearing that kimono and swords as if a medieval samurai were completely natural in Chicago.

“I gave him the ‘you don’t know what I’m going through’ speech and he just asked my story. I told it and he was crying and told me about coming home in Ireland to find that the British police had killed his wife and children. I guess he did know how I felt. Then he said, “the pain never goes away, but you learn to live with it.” We talked and I found that he was a time traveler who visited different times and places, a bit like Dr Who only with swords, and he was going to 15th century Japan. I walked with him and Fi caught us. She thought he was crazy and tried to get me away from him and he told me to listen to her because Fi obviously loved me.

“By then he was at his time portal and activated it and stepped through. I needed to get away so before it closed, I jumped through too and Fi followed to drag me back and we ended up in Syria instead. Something about our added mass throwing the portal off. And we just stuck around.”

“We spent three years in the Mid-East adventuring and such. Then we broke up, and he left and Fi and I stuck around another year until Sulieman kidnapped Tears and put those worms in Fi’s head and I had to make up with Jason to save them and we’ve been friends since.”

She finished gathering Fiona’s gear and said, “In the morning, I’ll collect my gear then we’ll meet Jason and take off. I don’t know when I’ll be back.” Then she returned to her friend and lay on the bed and held her as she slept. David knew his evening was over so she made certain that the place was locked up, found some blankets and fell asleep on the couch.

I knelt by the pond and counted again. It wasn’t easy as many of the koi were hiding under the lily pads. Most people didn’t understand that despite their price, koi were carp and so just a glorified goldfish and thus were ambush hunters. They hid under lily pads and rocks and when a smaller fish swam by, lunge & gulp. Those feeder fish that survived grew into koi themselves.

But in this case, I figured that another one, maybe two were missing. It’s those cranes or herons that lived in the park across town. They liked to drop by here for an evening snack so I’d better figure out some way to protect my pond or I’d loose the entire school.

I still hadn’t figured what to do when my daughter came out, “Dad! Phone Call, someone called Diane. It sounds important.”

I took the phone wondering which of the dozens of Diane’s in the world this was. It was a common name and every one of them thought that they were the only one I knew. “Diane, what’s up? … I’m on my way! … All right, I’ll hold on. … An Adventure? Let me see what I can find.” I headed for my office and sat looking at the walls. Most were covered with maps that ranged from medieval to modern to those found in a Science Fiction Convention. Each was under glass and had grease-pen markings covering places I had visited or intended to visit which scared some people when they saw notes like ‘beware psycho jed’ or “good food’ on a map of fictional Barsoom by a popular fantasy author.

I saw a photo of Desiree and decided, “Di? How about Chicago, 22nd century. I’ve been meaning to check out the terminator factories. Give me a day to locate the right stargate and calculate the transfer, sometime tomorrow or the next day should do. Drugs? I’ve told you that that…. OK, I’m sorry! What can I do? Hunting? I would assume for her dealer. No problem at all. Give me some time to make arrangements and I’ll get back to with the stargate location. Love you too.”

Well, I knew that Diane and Fiona were users. They had been hippies when I met them in Chicago in the 70s. But they knew I disapproved and so did their thing when they were away from me and now it caught up with Fiona. The girls were very good in a medieval setting but hash was so easy there it would simply aggravate the problem. Chicago would be better. Both girls had grown up there so would be good guides and the Imperium had executed every drug user in the Mid-west so that problem was gone. I’d just need to ensure that they knew how to use firearms for a broadsword would be useless against a terminator robot. Some of those things needed a nuke to stop them.

But, the terminators had killed everyone they saw and Jennifer had deliberately programmed them without a safety code so when activated, her own people were the first to die. Thus, without people, Chicago would be a nice place to dry out. But then, people were like cockroaches. They always managed to survive somehow. The Ik survived in Uganda, Jews survived in Nazi Berlin, somehow people would have managed to survive in the Imperium but these would be few and far between.

Mountmeet was having trouble fighting the terminators off and Desiree would love whatever info they could get so this seemed like a win-win adventure.

I pulled a binder from the shelf and looked through seeking the likely spots and finally found one just east of Los Angeles. Mountains, quartz and granite, water, kinetic energy. All the keys to a stargate. In the future, it would be under water as California slipped into the Pacific but today it was high and dry and a shift to Chicago wouldn’t be hard to do. All I needed was a metal mass forged a century and a half ago in Chicago to key the stargate and a polarity reverser to move to the future instead of the past.

It really didn’t take long. A few phone calls and I was able to purchase some antique horseshoes guaranteed to be 150 years old and forged in Chicago. Then I loaded a couple canoes and camping gear, sail and weapons onto a trailer and arraigned to meet the girls at the stargate. Most trips required far more planning than this.

Once there I unloaded and began to set the canoes out when Diane and Fiona arrived. They also had a man with them. “He is?” I asked.

“Someone special.” Diane replied. “He knows some of my past and helped me with Fi.”

The man walked over and introduced himself with outstretched hand, “Hi, I’m David, Diane’s boyfriend. Pleased to meet you…” I looked him over but didn’t take the hand. “Jason Obrien. How long have you known Diane and Fiona?”

“Play nice, Jason. He’s not a threat.” Diane admonished. “Jason doesn’t like to be touched. So, what do we have here?”

Fiona looked like hell! Her eyes were puffy even under her make-up but she was attentive and interested in what I was doing. “When Jennifer got tired of waiting for the Rapture to finish killing everyone, she united the fundie Baptists, nazi party and kkk into one political-religious group. They took over Chicago by democratic means, declared independence and formed the Chicago Imperium as god’s kingdom. Then she started her own ethnic cleansing program and killed anyone who didn’t meet her own standards of racial or religious purity. It took too long so she got a hold of some military war robots, turned them into terminators, converted some auto factories into mass production and then shipped the things all over the world. Once activated, they killed every human they found.

“What I plan to do is sneak into the Imperium and look for whatever technical info I can find then turn it over to the Brits and Mountmeet and let them figure a way to stop the things. Of course, we have to avoid the terminators long enough to do that.

“Wait a minute,” David interrupted. “You’re telling me that in the future, some religious racists are trying to destroy the world with killer robots like in the movies?”

I laughed at his naivety, “Not exactly like the movies. Consider that every fundamentalist Islamic state has turned bad. Every fundamentalist Pagan state has turned bad. What makes you think a fundamentalist Christian state would be any different? Read Revelations sometime. Any movie made from it would be rated ‘adults-only’. And, incidentally, the terminators aren’t human-robots covered with skin and wearing clothing and sunglasses. They are more like what you see on those robot-wars TV shows where people put remote control machines in an arena to fight. The military liked the idea and perfected them. Think of a terminator as a model car with armor, knives and guns and programmed to drive around seeking prey. Some are the size of a remote controlled toy car, some the size of a tank, most about the size of an office desk. They move around on tracks or wheels and recharge with solar panels. Nasty and dangerous but hardly unbeatable. Their main danger is that there are so many of them and they are deliberately carrying military grade smallpox and typhoid fever so they spread plagues also.”

“And you are taking Diane into that place? No way!”

Diane stood to him and said, “First of all, I, not you, decides where I go and what I do. Second, if Jason felt we couldn’t handle it, he wouldn’t take us along. And third, we are not married, we are just dating. I’m still single and can do whatever I want.”

Fiona asked, “Jason, why did you ask for us?”

I looked at her, obviously she didn’t know about Diane’s phone call. “Fi, I’ve never been to Chicago. I can’t hunt for info and avoid the terminators and Imperium troops and try to read a map at the same time. You two are from there and know your way around. Plus I know I can depend on you. I trust you Fi.”

Diane asked, “What’s with the canoes?”

“If we gate into the city, we could arrive inside a building or underground and who knows what will happen then. I figure that if we arrive on Lake Michigan, a few inches up or down wouldn’t matter and the water is level enough to ensure a safe entry. Plus I never heard of an aquatic terminator. They were designed to hunt people and people tend to stay on land so any that chase us into the lake, sinks and shorts out. You get to direct me to the most likely places to land nad guide us around the city.”

I then ran them through firearm safety and sight picture, injected them with the ‘cocktail’ we used to prevent disease when people adventure and had them help me convert the two canoes into a catamaran sailboat.

David asked how we planned to get there and where was the time machine. It was clear that he believed nothing of this and was being sarcastic. So I showed him the box I had mounted on the struts of the cat. “This is it. It isn’t much, just a degausser to focus and trigger the thing. The actual ‘time machine’ is too big to move so we set up a Focus Point here and use this trigger device to allow the actual gate to focus on us and transport us to our destination. In the old days this box would fill a stadium but they re doing marvelous things with miniaturization today. Pity we can’t reduce the velocity reducers or mass adjusters to a portable unit.”

I turned it on then said, “The field itself should be about ten feet radius so be certain to keep your body inside that space or leave a hand behind.” The machine hummed then I took hold of the degauss ring and spun it manually and fed the horseshoes into the slide rack. “All ready? Dave, back off unless you want to end up in the water with the fish. Three two one engage!” and the horseshoes slid through the ring, the air shimmered and the makeshift boat fell three feet through the darkness onto the water.

Fiona yelled, “Couple inches my ass! I feel like my stomach is still in the sky.”

“Can it!” I said, “Report please.”

“Diane here, all is well, gear still lashed down, shook up though.”

“Fiona here, bruised and bitchy but all seems intact.”

“Jason here, seems to be ok, no leaks. Ok, lets check the compass and find out which way to paddle. Too bad there’s no wind.”

“Jason,” Diane called, “I know it’s dark but unless we are a dozen miles out, we should see the skyline somewhere.”

“It’s because we missed the fucking lake!” Fiona yelled. “We’re probably in the Gulf or something.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Because, look at the Dipper! It’s too low in the sky. Chicago has the Dipper and Pole Star high in the sky, Los Angeles has it high but lower but here it’s on the horizon. We must be near the Equator. How the hell did this happen?”

“Where’s Dave?” I called. “If he got too close, his mass could have deflected us and he should be around in the water.”

We all called but heard nothing and breaking out the flashlights, found the water was clear, nothing floating at all. I checked over the trigger and reported all well, “I don’t understand it. Chicago should be over there about a mile.”

“OK, Jason, what could have gone wrong? You’re the expert on stargates.” Diane asked.

I listed the possibilities: “Sudden change in mass at the point and time of transition. Sudden energy peak at point and time of transition. Improper focal mass. Random Murphy’s Law screwing with us again.”

“Ok, so if Dave stood back, and nothing else that large entered, then we can forget that.” Diane counted. “Save a nuke going off, and I think we’d see that, we can forget that. So what about the trigger-mass?”

“I bought the horseshoes from D&R Antiques. They guaranteed that they were forged in Chicago a century and a half ago.”

“D&R!” yelled Fiona! “Don’t you read the fucking papers! D&R has been sued for passing off cheap African fakes as real antiques. You probably bought horseshoes made in Zimbabwe or someplace just last week. God! We could be anywhere and anywhen! You are such an ass!”

“Calm down Fi,” Diane pleaded. “Yelling won’t solve anything. So we are lost, let Jason think a moment and he’ll come up with something.”

“Come up with something? He fucking got us fucking lost! I knew we shouldn’t have come here.”

She yelled and ranted and generally carried on until she screamed and scrambled onto the support frame, “There’s something in the water! It nudged the boat!”

I called out, “Everyone away from the sides. If it climbs aboard, move fast. Lights!”

Everyone shone flashlights into the water and Fiona yelled, “there it is, it’s a fucking shark!”

I shone my light in her direction but saw nothing. Then after looking around, I dipped my hand into the water and tasted it. “Fresh! You didn’t see a shark because sharks are salt-water fish and we are sitting on fresh water.”

“Don’t fucking tell me I didn’t fucking see a fucking shark! I narrated a shark special last month for Discovery Channel. I saw a fucking shark!” Fiona insisted. “There it is!”

We all shone our lights and saw a large shark, possibly ten feet long, circling the boat. “Fi, I apologize to you. That is definitely a shark.” I apologized.

“No fucking shit, Sherlock! Maybe you should listen to me more and keep your eyes off my tits.”

I looked at Diane who smiled. ‘This is going to be a long hard trip’ I thought. “Fi, It’s probably a bull shark. They can tolerate fresh water for days at a time. But they are man-eaters. Good thing you are a woman.”

“Funny, So where are we and how do we get out?” Fiona demanded.

“Well,” I mused, “We need to think of a large lake near the equator with access to the sea. The only thing I can think of is Lake Titicaca in Peru and Lake Victoria in Kenya. Anyone know of any others? Problem is that both of these are isolated. I think we are stuck until morning when we can see more. So let’s set watch and wait it out.”

By morning, Fiona was shaking and vomiting over the side as Diane rushed to hold her. I started to make some comment about being glad I, at least, never did drugs but Diane froze me with a look. So I dug out my binoculars, “Nice thing about a boat is that we can carry a lot more gear than in a back-pack. Here’s the med-kit. I’ll make an ice-pack from the ice-chest for you.”

While Diane cared for our friend, I, feeling completely useless scanned the horizon and saw nothing but water. At six feet altitude, the horizon should be some three miles away and a ten story building could be seen 20 miles out. So, assuming that we were in a lake surrounded by flat land, we could be as close as three miles form shore. But if there were any objects on shore like buildings or trees, they could be as far as 25 miles, and a mountain a half mile high would make us 40 miles out. I had nothing to work with here so had to trust instinct. So when Diane was at a break-point in her care of Fiona, I asked, “How is she?”

“Not good. Withdrawal is a bitch but she’ll pull through. Any ideas?”

“I’m at a loss. We could be as close as three miles to shore or as far away as a hundred. Without any indicators, I can’t do anything more than guess. So it’s your chance to be psychic and point a way.”

Still holding Fiona with one hand, she pointed to the Southwest and said, “That way.” So I raised sail and turned the makeshift catamaran to the southwest.

The canoes weren’t made to sail and neither were they made to maneuver lashed together but they were stable and sluggish and we made some headway. It was some hours later, possibly ten or twenty miles into the voyage for I hadn’t planned this and so left all my navigation tools at home, we saw a sail. It was barely above the horizon and so I stood to see what it was. My own mast was 12 feet high which made it visible at four miles. If the sail of the other boat was 20 feet tall, that would make us about… eight miles apart. Then the sail turned towards us so we had been seen. My own maximum speed under sail would be 1.5 times the square root of the waterline length which was about … six miles per hour and probably less. That other boat would be much faster simply because it was longer and carried maximum canvas and was designed for sailing. “Diane, I need Fiona ready to fight please.”

“I’ll do what I can. Why?”

“It all depends on that sail approaching. They could be fishermen or pirates but they turned towards us and not many yachts do that. Pirates do though.”

“Damn!” was all she said.

An hour later Fiona was better and we were as ready as we could. Fi asked, “Can we run?”

“They’re too fast. Had I dropped sail before they saw us we might have been unseen, but they saw us the same time we saw them, maybe before. We have to hope they are friendly.”

“And how often,” Fiona offered, “Have we met friendlies when we adventure?” She looked and sounded terrible.

Another hour and we knew we were in trouble. A sambuk dhow flying no flag. It could come from any of a dozen nations from Iran to Iraq, Arabia to Omen to even Zanzibar or India. It was missing the Kuwait prow extension though which meant very little. “At least we know we are around Africa to SE Asia. Arabs don’t sail the Pacific or Atlantic.”

“As I recall, you didn’t have good luck with those people when you were a kid.” Diane suggested. She was right. I had been captured by slavers, beaten, starved and gang-raped until I was able to escape. But I was older now, a lot more experienced and determined to save the girls from my fate. “Then let’s hope these are traders,” I offered. “Lock and load but keep it subtle. Let them focus on me and you can flank if it comes to fighting.”

They furled sail as did we and drifted close calling out in Arabic, “Are you lost?”

“Yes we are, can you please tell us where we are?” I replied. The railings were crowded with the Arabs, all staring at Fiona and Diane, most snickering. I was standing in the middle near the mast, my katana hanging from my belt and holding my carbine casually.

“Come aboard and we’ll help you.”

“No thank you, we have so much gear to move, will you please tell me where we are?”

“You are in the **** Lake,” one said and the others laughed.

“I don’t know that word, Can you please describe it for me?”

“It’s a large lake inside Africa. The Zambezi River flows from it to the Indian Ocean near Madagascar. Come aboard now!”

“No thank you. I think I will take my women and go now. Thank you for the information. Have a pleasant journey.”

“No!” they said, “You may leave but your women will come aboard. We are twelve to your one!” Damn!

I quickly shot two and both Diane and Fiona shot two more. The rest ducked behind the rail so I jumped and began to climb aboard as an arrow shot overhead. Archers! Well, nothing to do but have at them. I lay my carbine on the rail and squeezed off a couple rounds blindly, then rolled onto deck and managed to shoot another Arab as they ran for cover. Two were in the hold and a couple rounds removed them from the fight. From there we both pinned each other down. Stalemate. I had the bow, they the stern and tiller but neither the mast.

A moment later Diane was over the side and next to me behind some date bales. “Take the hold but be careful. Work back and I’ll go for the other side. With luck we can pin them against the rail for Fi to pick off.” I said this loudly and heard Fi yell, “got it.”

She rolled down and screamed as I heard a thud. “Di?”

“I’m ok. This bilge is filled with sewage!”

I made it to the other deck amid a hail of bullets and arrows but was low enough to avoid being hit. I am very good at crawling under bullets. Flatworms can take lessons from me. I was able to see an exposed foot so I shot it and the owner screamed and moved into view to take another round in his leg. This did have the advantage of forcing them to the rail and then Di called “Ready!” and I rushed to closer cover as they opened fire. Diane shot two from the hold and then as the remaining stood to the rail, Fiona killed them and it was over.

“Deck is clear!” I called.

“Hold is cleared,” from below.

“Can you guys rescue me?” called Fiona. I ran to the side and saw her drifting away. “Di! I need a lot of rope, fast!” I called.

“Plenty of it here,” and she tossed me a coil. I quickly tied a monkey’s fist in the end and tossed it past Fi who picked up the rope laying across the canoe and tied it to a thwart. I then pulled her in and made the line fast to the rail. Fiona climbed aboard with my help and Dianna called up, “Can anyone find some keys somewhere?”

“Keys?” I asked. “Why?”

“Look!”

I jumped down and saw the reason why the dates were on deck and not in the hold. There were rows of slaves chained to the keel, all women, some far too young and crying in terror. Memories flooded back from when I was a teen in chains and I climbed out and began to strip the bodies. Fi looked into the hold and then helped me and soon we found the ring and Fi took them to Di while I tossed the bodies overboard to the waiting sharks.

Diana and Fiona led the women into the light and they fell to the dates, stuffing themselves until they saw me. Diana had to come to me and place her arms around me to show I was safe. Still they avoided me and I didn’t blame them at all. Finally I pulled a tarp off a cage on deck and found two naked women huddling on the floor. One black and covered with fur, the other white and hairless, both possessing a long tail.

“Now I know where we are,” I said. “Diane, would you please open their cage. They’re probably terrified.”

“Terrified?” Fiona offered. “After what I saw below, terrified is an understatement.”

As soon as Diane opened the cage, the two tailed women rushed out and climbed a line to the top of the mast where they sat on the boom in obvious terror. Di and Fi both tried to call them down but they refused to budge. “Damn, we can’t sail with them up there. Lets see if we can find our guests some clothing.” And we began to search the bundles until we found some with cloth that looked like dresses. Diane and Fiona took them to the black women who fell upon them with glee and were soon dressed. We offered some to the women on the mast but they ignored us. So I searched the cabin in the back, if an overhanging sun-screen could be called a cabin and found a chest that when opened, contained some fur and belts and golden breastplates.

“Fuck!” Fiona mentioned when she held them. “Those women must have breasts of iron to wear these!” We then took the chest to the mast and after making certain that the women saw us, we placed their clothing into a bag with food and water, tied a line to it and then I tossed the other end to the boom. “You throw like a girl,’ Fiona said. “Let me do this.” Then she tied as smaller rope to the heavier line, snapped the head from an arrow, tied the lighter string to the arrow and yelling at the tailed women to move, she shot the line over the mast. Fi then moved us to the stern of the dhow as the tailed women took the line and pulled their clothes up, dressed and then fell to the food and water.

“Ok Jason, give.” Diane demanded.

I looked at the slaves in the bow, saw how they had settled in and were making a tent from extra cloth to shade them from the sun and deciding that we were stuck adrift, began. “What happened, or will happen was called The Rapture. The Moslems had another name for it, the Jews and Buddhists another and the Pagans still another but the theory is the same. The Kris simply got tired waiting for their god to return and decided to force the issue. They’ve tried this a dozen times in the past and failed but this time they had nukes.

“People think of the Rapture as an angel in the sky and everyone sitting down in comfort then their souls float off to heaven like balloons. It wasn’t like that at all. It was more like Revelations. 90% of the population died the first 24 hours. 90% of the survivors died over the next year from starvation, disease and war. Then it took almost a century for those few remaining survivors to be able to shift from simple survival to rebuilding.

“Vast tracts of land became radioactive wasteland. Half of California slid into the ocean. The Congo got blocked and central Africa flooded. Dams collapsed and the freed water washed entire cities away. With transportation systems gone, people starved in the cities and cannibalism was epidemic everywhere. Armies of the starving rushed from urban areas to the countryside, eating and burning the farms as they fought over moldy grain. Tucson took three dozen nukes and is inhabited by carnivorous predatory cockroaches. Little Rock and a dozen other cities followed the same.

“Then just as people began to settle in and survive, Jennifer released the plagues and terminator robots to finish humanity off. This is the world we are in now.” I finished.

Then I continued, “We are somewhere between a hundred and a hundred-fifty years in the future. Things have settled down, people are trying to rebuild but most of the human race is just trying to fill their stomachs. When the Congo was somehow dammed, Central Africa simply filled up from the rains and Zaire became the Congo Lake. It overflowed into Chad and Niger to form the Chad Sea, then through the Sahara to the Mediterranean.

“I believe that we are in the Congo Lake. Those women up there on the mast are Don from Pal-ul-Don. It was an isolated area in the Congo that was discovered by Greystoke when he was searching for his kidnapped wife after the First World War.

“These slavers are from one of the Arab nations and are simply seeking goods to sell when they found these two women and saw them as a means to get rich either by selling to a zoo or someone’s harem as an exotic sex-slave and because of the gold they are wearing.

“What I don’t know is exactly where on the Congo we are and how the slavers crossed the morass to capture these two. But, one thing is clear, we have to return everyone to their homes before we think about ourselves.”

“I was waiting to hear that last part,” Diane said. “THAT is the Jason I fell in love with. What’s first?”

I sighed and said, “First we clean this tub. I saw the bilge, and it is filthy. We bail it dry, fill it with water, scrub, bail and repeat until we can stand to go below. We wash the deck and stow the cargo where it will be safe and try to get those Don off the boom so we can sail. We also take the Cat apart and stow the canoes and gear on this sambuk and make everyone accept that they are safe and we mean to return them to their families. I suspect that accepting me, a man, as a friend is asking a lot so you two will have to play intermediary.”

So we cleaned as we drifted. I stored away my weapons and those we took from the dead, then I stripped to my underwear and took my turn in the bilges scooping and cleaning. The slaves, well, former slaves, eventually joined in and they began to sing as they passed buckets of sewage up and over the side. As we did so, I had buckets of lake water dumped in and used that to scrub the sides and dilute the bilge water. It took two days of drifting and hard work to get the dhow clean enough to stand. For a people as clean as the Arabs, this boat was a mess.

By then the Don had climbed down and I began the hard task of turning these women into sailors. Both Diane and Fiona had some experience sailing small sailboats on Lake Michigan and a bit more when we adventured so knew some, but not enough. So I decided to teach everyone the English words instead of the Arab simply because none of us could understand each other. The Don spoke only Donian and I didn’t remember any more than maybe a half-dozen words from Greystoke's memoirs. None of the Africans spoke Arabic or English and I didn’t speak any of their languages of which I gathered there were maybe half dozen total.

So I wandered around the boat, Diane and Fiona following as I would touch something and say it’s name, then with prompting from my girls, the rest would follow. Thus they learned: dhow, deck, line, port, starboard, mast, sail, boom, head and a couple dozen other words they needed. I learned some of their names but many of the younger girls would hide from me and the older ones became their surrogate mothers. Fiona and Diane would share my bed but nothing happened. We were more interested in showing that I was safe. And with all this hard work, Fi got over her cravings. She still had shakes and fits of nausea almost daily but these faded and she gained weight, of sorts, and began to cheer up, even singing occasionally.

Finally on the third day, we raised sail and with Fi at the tiller, the settee filled with wind and we were underway. I clapped and cheered my crew and told them ‘well done’ though they didn’t understand the words, they knew I appreciated their work.

A days sailing to the Southwest brought us to land. Two of the girls got excited and pointed south so we sailed along the coast until we found a village near the shore. I had the anchor dropped and a canoe over the side then the women whose home this was climbed in and we paddled them to shore. The village was deserted but I could feel eyes and weapons focused on me so I remained in the canoe as the women ran into the village crying for their families. Finally a woman ran to one and they hugged and cried as the former captive pointed to me and explained, hopefully, that I was safe. After that the rest of the village arrived, the men armed mostly with bows but some with rifles that had seen better days. Considering that none of the AK-47s aboard worked on auto and barely on semi-auto, I felt that the locals had been cannibalizing weapons to keep a few working and reloading the bullets to the best of their ability over the past couple centuries.

However, a bow at close range was still an effective weapon.

The village headman came forward and spoke to me but I had no idea of his language so tried English, then Arabic as that was my best chance and finally, they brought a man who spoke some Arabic and I was able to explain that we needed supplies to bring the rest of the captives to their homes.

The village came out to celebrate and we all disembarked and had a grand party that night.

Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu sat on the boom and watched the Tand-at-don and discussed their situation. “The white man killed the evil men and his women seem to feel safe. Maybe we should come down?” Pan-Sad-Bu suggested.

Yo-Bal-Lee countered, “We don’t know anything about these kind. Maybe he is a different evil.”

“They are freeing the other slaves and look, he is giving them their clothes back.”

“I still don’t trust them. Let them prove that they are kind.”

“Look Yo-Bal-Lee, there are our clothes. See how he is showing them to us. He wants us to come down to dress. We should, I’m tired be being naked.”

“Maybe it’s a trap!” Yo-Bal-Lee insisted.

They saw him put their clothes in a bag and tie a rope to it then try to toss the rope up. After a number of tries, one of his women laughed at him, then she tied a string to an arrow and, after warning them to move, shot that arrow over the boom. Then they stepped back. “If we take the string to pull our clothes, they may run forward to grab the rope and pull us down.” Yo-Bal-Lee insisted.

“I’m willing to take a chance, I want to be dressed again.” And Pan-Sad-Bu came to the string, touched it and seeing the Tand-at-don do nothing, she grabbed it and pulled their clothes up. As soon as they had the bag, they dressed and ate the food and drink also provided.

“Look, Yo-Bal-Lee, see how they are cleaning the filth from the canoe. At least we won’t have to smell that sewage any more. I think the man is kind. He treats his women well and they wear weapons too. See how they stand up to him and he doesn’t beat them at all!”

“I’m still not convinced. I can still hear those screams of the young girls.”

The two watched the man strip and clean the boat with the women and laugh along side of them as if he had no dignity at all. They saw how he loaded their canoes onto the big canoe and gave the black women cloth to shade themselves from the sun and all the food they wanted. Then that night, he slept and the yellow haired woman slept in his arm while the other slept next to them in the same bed. At least if he had two wives, he probably wouldn’t need the slaves for his pleasure. When all were asleep, the two Don climbed down and filled their stomachs with food and water, then packed another meal and before dawn had returned to the boom. The sail was tied up to the boom so after making certain that the Tand-at-don couldn’t untie the ropes and drop them to their deaths, they crawled into the cloth and slept comfortably until the sun and heat aroused them.

That day was spent in cleaning and the man was universally polite and kind to the women, smiling to them and never demanding but asking. Two of the black women began to cook and when they offered him a meal, obviously terrified of his reaction, he smiled at them, said something that sounded like thank you and ate the meal. Finally Pan-Sad-Bu convinced Yo-Bal-Lee to take a chance and they climbed down when he wasn’t looking. The two went to the stove and as the black woman backed away, they too some food and moved away to the mast to eat and watch in case they had to climb again. The man noticed and watched but waved at them and said something strange and then ignored them as he went around the canoe touching things and calling out a word. Yo-Bal-Lee said to Pan-Sad-Bu. “I think he is teaching the black women how to sail and speak his language. See how he holds that rope and says ‘line’ over and over. I don’t think he can move this canoe alone and needs us.”

“If so,” Pan-Sad-Bu responded, “Then it is in his best interest to keep us happy. See how he carries only a knife, as do his women. See how the some of the black women are armed too. I think we should have taken a knife when we had a chance last night. That way if he tries to hurt us, we can defend ourselves.”

“He keeps the knives in that box there, let us try to see what he does.” Yo-Bal-Lee suggested and they wandered over to the box, keeping an eye on the Tand-at-don. He watched them but made no moves as they opened the box and took a couple knives. But when they tried to take the ‘gun’, he yelled at them and shook his head back and forth.

It was also clear that the black women feared the Don and avoided them as much as possible. That night they returned to the boom and slept in the sail again, but returned to the deck when the sun was up. The man kept teaching words and when he touched a rope and one woman said ‘line’ he clapped and was obviously happy and proud of her. Finally he loosened the sail, then laughed and pointed for it was stuck where the Don had tied it to the boom. He looked at them and said “Yo-Bal-Lee, ***** ****** ***** ***** sail,” while pointing to the cloth tied to the boom.

Yo-Bal-Lee looked at him, then decided to take a chance and climbed to untie her handy work. She then climbed down and all pulled on ropes and the sail fell and filed with wind and the canoe surged forward as the man clapped and gave congratulations to the women for their work.

They sailed for a day, fishing and cleaning and mending ropes and gradually some of the women lost their fear of him for he was always polite and gentle. The closest he came to anger was when two of the women were fighting over a piece of bread. He appeared suddenly and took the bread as the women cowered in terror. He then broke the bread in half, handed a half to each woman and gestured to opposite sides of the boat until each woman was separated. He looked sternly at each, then walked away, leaving them alone. No beatings or whippings, just separating them as if they were young children.

Then they saw land, not Pal-ul-Don for the Don were aware that he was sailing away from their home but two of the black women got excited and pointed down the shore so he sailed along the coast until he saw a village. Then he stopped the boat, had the sail raised to the boom and dropped a big hook into the water to stop the boat from drifting away. He then had a canoe put over the side and allowed some of the women to climb into it and he paddled them to shore, waiting in the canoe as they ran into the village calling out for their families.

Eventually, the villagers came out and after talking to the man, he returned to the boat with one of the Tand-at-don men who looked the boat over and pointed to shore, smiling. The black man returned to shore and then food and water was brought to the boat and later, all the women and the man went to shore where a feast was being held. There was music, strange dancing and beer which the white man drank but avoided getting drunk by simply not drinking too much.

Finally, he and his women returned to the boat with Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu and some of the black women and they slept on board. For the first time, Yo-Bal-Lee felt safe enough to sleep on the deck. “Pan-Sad-Bu,” she asked, “What do you think of Jay-Son? His wives sleep with him but they don’t love him as a wife should. He treats them more like sisters than wives.”

“I think he is a wonderful man. You saw how he climbed on board and killed those evil men. How he treats us all nice and how he is returning the black women to their families. I think that he will take us home too.”

“That’s not what I meant” Yo-Bal-Lee insisted. “He has no tail but was born that way so he isn’t a criminal who was bobbed in punishment. His feet are strange looking and cannot grasp anything at all. And he allows his wives to laugh at him without getting angry. But he knows so much and always seems to be capable of anything.”

Pan-Sad-Bu sat up and looked at her friend. “Yo-Bal-Lee, are you thinking of him as a husband?” She was shocked at the thought.

Yo-Bal-Lee lay back looking at the stars, “Not really. I have a husband and Jay-Son has two wives. I was just wondering what it would be like…”

The next morning the two Don began to work very hard at learning Jay-Son’s language and teaching him theirs.

After leaving the first village, three women lighter and with a full larder, we sailed along the coast until a couple more women got excited. We dropped anchor but the shore was covered with locals, all brandishing spear and bows. Well, I figured that all wouldn’t be as easy, so I ordered the canoe sent over the side with a painter tied to the stern. Then we helped the women who were leaving into the canoe, gave them some gifts and they paddled to shore.

Once there, the locals grabbed the canoe to prevent us from retrieving it but the released women finally convinced them to let it go and we pulled it back to the sambuk, raised it and we waved good-by to the former prisoners as we weighed anchor and sailed on.

It was three days more before we landed again. This time the locals were armed and ready but willing to talk and when the women explained what had happened, they lowered their weapons and invited us ashore. I saw evidence of trade here and there was even a make-shift dock so when we tied up, an Arab came out to see us.

“Allah be praised. I am Ibn Ahmed. A poor trader here in Kananga. I recognize this boat as one that stole some of the women from a nearby farm and killed their husbands. Now I am told you killed the slavers and are returning their captives to their families. May the blessings of Allah be upon you for your generosity and kindness. Come, let us have coffee and talk of matters that concern men.”

I asked, “Will my friends and companions be safe here?”

“Of course, we are not savages. Please put your fears to rest.”

Fiona followed us but Diane wanted to see the town and went sightseeing with the Don who she had convinced to hide their gold to prevent greed. The Arab wasn’t happy with a woman coming along but I explained, “I am an Irish Celt and among my people a man rarely argues with a women. At least not unless he can sleep with both eyes open.”

“You Celts are a wondrous people. I, for one, would never give my wives that much freedom. But if you insist, let us share coffee and conversation.”

“Coffee?” said Fiona. “I would kill for a cup of coffee. Jason, you have no idea of what you are missing by being a tea drinker. Thank you, Ibn Ahmed, I would love a cup of coffee.”

We sat and talked for a while and he told us that it has only been the last few years that regular trade had been opened with the southern half of the Congo Lake. There were too many storms to encourage anything else. No, he didn’t know what year it was because after the Hammer of Allah had struck, people had been more interested in staying alive than in counting days. The Zambezi River was navigatable to the Indian Ocean once you got past the rapids at the bay but he had no idea of what lay north. It was rumored that partway down the Zambezi, you could go overland and reach a lake that flowed into the Nile though no one had actually done that. There were no maps for the trade routes were kept secret and learned by heart. These African people here were friendly but some to the west were not.

The man talked incessantly. Perhaps the idea of speaking his native language, even to an infidel and a woman loosened his tongue but the information he gave was useful as far as it went.

“Ibn Ahmed, I need my sambuk cleaned and refitted. Can we find something aboard that we can trade for labor and supplies?”

“Of course, I am certain that we can find something of value. If nothing else, your slaves may be useful, especially the monkey-girls.”

Oops, before Fiona could kill the man I jumped in, “I’m sorry Ibn Ahmed. We have no slaves. All these are women who had been enslaved by the slavers are now free and I am bound by geis to protect them with my life. I can only show you what I have and hope it is useful.”

We returned to the boat,(markab in Arabic for Dhow is a Swahili word that translates literally as ‘boat’), where Ibn Ahmed looked over our cargo and finally settled on the dates and the slaver firearms in trade for a complete overhaul. I didn’t miss these for the ones we brought with us were still in excellent shape. So the next morning we pulled the sambuk into a dock, sealed the opening to the lake and began to pump and bail the water out until the sambuk was laying on it’s side on a series of heavy logs. The locals then scraped the hull clean and applied another coating of shahamu which is basically lime and animal fat and is used to retard marine growth in the same way copper sheeting and anti-foul paint are used in European boats.

Then he had the hold filled with smoldering piles of cucumber peels to drive out the cockroaches and other vermin that infested sailboats. It stank but was preferable to the bugs. When the sambuk was cleaned and ready they knocked the wall down, the lake rushed in and the boat was ready to go again.

Ibn Ahmed commented that many of the locals wanted to know where the monkey-girls lived so I told him that, “you need to sail east of India to the Malay Peninsula where not only monkey people lived but also giants whose faces were on their chests and lizards grow large enough to eat people.” Ibn commented “Yes, I have heard of these and once I saw a stuffed dragon as you describe but I’ve never known exactly where to look. Thank you and may Allah bless your travels which are as fantastic as was those of Sinbad.” I hated lying to Ibn for he had been an honest man whose help was invaluable. But had he suspected that the Don lived a few hundred miles away and wore gold as clothing, the entire Mid-east and SW Asia would invade the Congo seeking, killing and looting in the search of the gold.

It was at this time I decided to name the boat. So I took suggestions and we voted on Fiona’s name, “Recovery”. Then gathering the crew around, and knowing that they didn’t understand most of what I was doing, Fiona and I put on white robes bought for this purpose and I spoke to the group in English as Diane translated into Arabic.

“Boats are traditionally believed to be women for like our mothers, they carry us through good times and bad. And like a woman, she needs a name of distinction. And so I ask the Gods of the Sea to look upon us with favor, to erase the history of this boat from their records and to accept her as a new craft, a boat we call, Recovery!”

And at that time, Fiona cried out, “I give thee the name, Recovery! Blessed Be thou creature of wood and carry us through wind and storm in the safety of thy hold.” Then she broke a bottle of the best beer we could find against her bow.

Diane then painted her new name on her stern and bow and we reloaded her with our supplies.

We remained three days in that town and enjoyed ourselves immensely. The Don took to wearing native clothing as did Diane and Fiona and the dresses they wore were bright and flowing. Finally we took our leave, Fiona and Diane making certain that they each had a bag of coffee in their private lockers. And so we sailed along the coast seeking the homes of our remaining guests.

A week later we turned into the Zambezi thinking that we would find the remaining homes for the women for Ibn Ahmed had questioned them for us and found they lived up the coast near a river. But which river they couldn’t tell. But they were certain the Zambezi wasn’t it so after two days, we turned and tacked north and a day later I saw something I recognized. “Ophir!” I cried out.

“What?” Diane asked.

“Ophir! The City of Gold. Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians bought myrrh and gold from Ophir by caravan. Then one of the pharaohs got tired of paying a middleman and so sent a two year expedition down the east coast of Africa to bring back myrrh trees, cameleopards, dog-faced monkeys and 64 tons of gold. Later King Solomon hired he Egyptians to sail to Ophir to get enough gold for the temple he was building. It got lost afterwards and everyone looked for it. Pizarro looked for it in Peru, Columbus in Cuba, Marco Polo in Japan. But Greystoke found it just before the First World War. I found it in the 1960’s and used the gold to rebuild my family lands and castle. There is a stargate nearby and if we land, I can get us home!”

Both were excited until Diane saw the remaining girls, “Jason, if we go home, what about them?”

I looked and sighed, “well, it will still be there when we are finished. Let’s just make some good maps so we can find it again. In the meantime, why not replace that rock ballast with gold bullion?”

The Don were convinced that Jay-Son was crazy. But crazy in a good way. He cared for the women even when they gave him nothing in return, which was strange bordering in insanity. Occasionally they would hear him and one of the white women in the back, the stern of the boat behind the walls they had hung so he was finally receiving his duty from his wives. And they knew without doubt that he would return them to Pal-ul-Don though they weren’t certain when or where it was anymore. They had the idea it was vaguely north. But when they landed in that last town, he insisted that they leave their breast-plates behind with most of their jewelry. Now it was ok for the black women to be flopping like that, they didn’t seem to care or know, but any decent Ho-Don or Waz-Don never went out without support. The white women even wore support though theirs were of cloth and kept hidden in shame and not of durable and beautiful gold to show the world.

So when they walked through the town wearing the ‘dresses’ that the black women wore, both Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee walked with their arms crossed and lifted high to stop the inevitable bouncing. Di-Ann, the yellow haired white woman with a strange man’s name saw this and laughed, then took them back to the boat and helped make them something she called a ‘bra’ that helped but was still embarrassing. The black women never wore ‘bra’s or breast-plates and their breasts hung to their waist unless they were young enough to be firm. A good set of breast-plates would help keep a woman firm for years even after nursing three children.

But then, the white women tended to wear the same clothes that Jay-Son wore, a loincloth that covered their entire legs. Something similar that covered their chest and back and arms and strange leather objects that hid their feet and made it impossible for them to grasp anything, had they a tarsial thumb. Yet, when town, they gladly changed to wear the same dresses that the black women wore, admiring the colors and touching the fabric and commenting on the design. Even Jay-Son changed to wearing local clothes at times.

The town itself was dirty. The roads were of dirt and mostly not paved as were the Ho-Don cities. The buildings were made of brick and stone and wood and rarely more than three stories high. And the filth was amazing. Yes, the mothers let their children run around naked as did the Ho-Don and Waz-don but these never cleaned up after the children voided outside. Everyone wore clothes of cloth with almost no metal at all save jewelry of which there was much, though it was of dull brass or copper and not of shiny silver or gold.

But Di-Ann seemed to enjoy the sights and was always pointing something out to them. Jay-Son and Fee-ona, now there was a strange name, left with that man who looked like the slavers. “Do you think he’s going to sell us?” Yo-Bal-Lee asked.

Pan-Sad-Bu answered cautiously, “I don’t think so. That man in white looks like the slavers but he seems nicer. Maybe these ‘Arabs’ are good and bad like any other people. Still, keep your knife handy just in case we need it.”

Later they visited the ‘Arab’ and were offered a cup of something called ‘koff-ee” which smelled good but tasted terrible. It was hot and scalded their throat and felt like something was eating their tongues so they spit it out coughing. Jay-Son was drinking tea but Di-Ann and Fee-Ona seemed to love the stuff. It was almost as if they were having sex, they moaned and sipped in enjoyment.

“If Di-Ann and Fee-Ona didn’t like this stuff, I’d think they were trying to poison us.” Yo-Bal-Lee said.

The Arab, like everyone else in town, stared at the Don, never taking their eyes off the woman’s tails or feet. Finally the Don took to curling their tails under their dresses and making certain that the dresses were long enough to hide their feet so they could almost pass. Pan-Sad-Bu’s fur, though, could not be hidden.

Finally they repaired the boat and both Jay-Son and Fee-Ona dressed as Arabs and spoke at length but neither Don understood what they said. They Di-Ann broke a bottle of beer against the boat and all clapped as if something special had happened. “It must be something religious,” Yo-Bal-Lee commented. “You see how the white Tand-at-don are always praying.”

Later they sailed away and even Yo-Bal-Lee noticed that she was becoming a decent sailor and they could easily get along without the women that had left.

Finally they turned up a river then changed their mind and turned around. Then, as they passed a mountain, Jay-Son got excited and began one of his long and dull speeches that even Di-Ann and Fee-Ona only pretended to hear. Even with their new language skills, he lost them but Di-Ann pointed to the black women and to the Don and said something that Yo-Bal-Lee thought meant taking them home or not taking them home. Jay-Son looked sad but agreed with her but he did look at the coast carefully and drew his map then he ordered the sail taken up and the anchor dropped close in to the shore.

Once tied to some trees, Jay-Son led them inland a bit, then he started to climb a cliff wall carrying a rope. Both Don laughed and took the rope then scaled the cliff easily. Once inside the cave he had pointed out, they tied the rope off to a rock and the white women and Jay-Son climbed inside. They had these marvelous metal tubes that cast light ahead and as the five walked down the tunnel, they came to a rock fall that blocked the tunnel. Jay-Son climbed over the fall to a hidden opening and they all crawled past the fall to find a large empty cavern on the other side. Jay-Son led them to a shaft then tied the rope off and climbed down to another room some distance below the empty one. Once inside they shone their lights around and saw rows of gold. All three Tand-at-don acted as if this were important or valuable. In Pal-ul-Don gold was so common that dinner plates were made from it. If he wanted gold, they would fill his boat with gold in return for those ‘flash-lights’.

The Tand-at-don began to carry the gold bars to the shaft and both Don saw how weak these people were. Di-Ann and Fee-Ona could barely carry one each though they were no heavier than a child and even Jay-Son carried one only. It was as if the men of the Tand-at-don were as weak as a Don woman and women were always far weaker than men. Had it not been for their weapons, Yo-Bal-Lee thought that the Ho-Don could easily conquer the world from these weaklings who found the strangest things worthwhile.

When they had a large stack of the bars, Jay-Son began to tie the to the end of the rope so he could pull them to the above chamber so Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee climbed the rope and as Pan-Sad-Bu pulled the bars up, Yo-Bal-Lee would carry them to the fall. Maybe, she wondered, they were useful for building something?

Thus with the Tand-at-don below tying the bars to the ropes, Pan-Sad-Bu pulling them up and Yo-Bal-Lee carrying them to the fall, they were soon done. Jay-Son had calculated how many he wanted and they left most of the bars behind. Then they pushed the bars through the secret opening in the fall and piled them at the cave opening. Then they lowered them all to the ground (Jay-Son refused to toss them out) and they carried the bars to the boat in the darkness. Once there, he had them loaded and taken below where for each bar they placed in the bilge, he had a rock removed and piled on shore and soon all the rocks were gone and the bars in their former places. It was then that Jay-son armed himself with all his weapons and those tubes that allowed him to see far things easily and then he started into the jungle. Then he stopped, looked at the women on board, and with a sad look returned to the boat. Yo-Bal-Lee had seen that same look on her father when he wanted to go with his friends but needed to remain with his family. Desire fighting with duty and the duty won. “I wish my husband would be more dutiful as he,” Yo-Bal-Lee mused.

Jay-Son looked into the jungle with regret and longing but never complained and so they returned to The Great Sea and sailed up the coast.

I’ve been lax in keeping this journal which is bad because if I am going to write this adventure up and sell it, I’ll need to remember what really happened. Not that that matters much as I’ll write what sells which is rarely the truth. When we were in Petra, I could just publish my journal as is but when we killed Sulieman, I had to dress it up a bit, add some extra fight scenes, change the sex a bit and rewrite the friendship into a love interest. So I’m torn between writing the truth and writing my latest adventure novel. We’ll see how I feel as I go on.

Jason came through as I knew he would. When I broke up with him in Syria and left with some really harsh words, hating him for making love to Fi, even then I knew that he’d come back to help, which is why I went to him to help rescue Tears. Despite everything, all the anger, he was still there for me. So when I called him from Fi’s house, I knew that he’d help in the same way I knew that the sun would rise in the morning. Some things only the insane question.

David though, was a problem. I didn’t know him well enough to have anything for him other than fondness and a mild lust. Note how I hesitate to say ‘friendship’ for I doubt that David would die for me or kill for me wheras Jason has done and will do both without hesitation. Jason’s love for me never ended, it simply changed to that deep friendship that you read about but never have. The kind of friendship that Fi and I have, the friendship that has lasted all our lives and remains no matter what. David wasn’t like that and probably never would be. But he tried to be there. I could tell he was scared when I beat the crap out of that man in Fi’s house, breaking his nose and elbow so easily. Yet, he nailed the wood over the window for me and helped me get Fi to the stargate. And he promised to be there when I got back. Though how he’ll deal with me and Fi and Jason hunting down and killing those dealers I don’t know.

I told him I wasn’t pure. I did grass and will do it again, but never around Fi now. I’ve done acid and mushrooms and would love to try peyote but I don’t have that addictive personality so to me these are simply recreation. And I’ve killed in the past. You can’t adventure and avoid killing. But I console myself with the thought that I never killed an innocent person. Every person I killed tried to kill me first.

I had to convince Fi that Jason needed us to help him because if she though we were doing this for her, she’d fight all the way. Sometimes you lie for friendship. I didn’t give details because I felt that Jason could do that better. Gods that man talks. It’s like I ask a simple question like ‘what time is sunset?’ and he gives me a three hour lecture on astronomy. I think the man is a frustrated science teacher who turned to adventuring out of desperation.

When we arrived at the stargate location, I’ll never understand how he finds those things and am afraid he’d spend a month explaining it if I asked, he was almost set up. David tried to be nice but I could see Jason’s possessiveness and insecurity kicking in. It wasn’t that macho bullshit because Jason isn’t macho. He is the best and he knows it and it never occurs to him to brag or show off. Well, there was that one time in Damascus when we were accosted by that street gang and Jason simply turned and told them, ‘you are not good enough to take me so turn around and walk away and I’ll let you walk away!” and they did. He never mentioned it again.

No, this thing with David and Jason was sexual. Jason and I had been lovers for a couple years before the Fi incident and even now we occasionally shared the same bed. But that was simple frustration. Jason never could understand when a woman was interested in him, he is, after all a nerdy geeky science teacher. So Jason knew my body, I knew his, he was sterile and clean so why not? But Jason never could handle other men sleeping with ‘his’ women. It made him insecure like he was afraid that they were better or bigger than he was. The fact that I hadn’t yet slept with David didn’t matter to Jason.

So Jason did what he always does in those times when he is frustrated and feeling insecure, instead of talking about it, he kicks into teacher-mode and busies himself so he can avoid the problem. Maybe if he talked a bit more and opened up in the beginning, he’d still be married and maybe even to me.

Jason was creating some really strange boat contraption made out of canoes and a sail. He said that he wanted to arrive on Lake Michigan to avoid the terminator robots. Now that was strange. I had always assumed that the stargates went only into the past. All of our adventures were in the 15th century which is why I got so good at archery and fencing. Now I find that they also go into the future and to other planets. Of course it makes sense and explains a lot but it wasn’t anything that I had actually thought about.

And this future was one where a religious state had destroyed civilization. Of course, you can’t believe a lot of what Jason says sometimes. When he speaks facts like dates and places in history or astronomy or physics or such, he is completely truthful. But anything that requires an opinion, he gladly gives his opinion but makes it sound like truth even though he always quotes Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, “There are always three sides to a situation; yours, mine and the truth.” So when he blames the Christians for destroying the earth, I have to remember that he did spend time in a Lutheran torture chamber in Germany during the Inquisition and that a number of his friends did turn on him when they learned he was pagan. It doesn’t take much of that sort of thing to make a person an unconscious racist. So I suspect that the destruction of the Earth was more than some Christians deciding to force the Second Coming.

I recognized the stargate trigger immediately. It had something to do with forging a mass of metal which locked it’s molecules into that time and place. Then if you strip the tachyons from that metal by passing it through a strong magnetic field, it triggers the stargate and you step into another place and time. The problem is that you need a particle accelerator a mile across and a nuclear reactor to power it first. The device he had was only a focus and trigger, the actual stargate Time machine was somewhere else.

So we loaded the canoes and climbed aboard and he told David to stand back, started the trigger and WHAM! We appeared a few feet over the lake. And we fell with a thud and splash that caused Fi to loose her temper. That’s the problem with drugs, unless you are a casual user like me, they can eat away at you. It isn’t so much the drugs because anyone who has tried to quit drinking or smoking suffers the same thing so coke or pot or anything like that isn’t the problem, it’s the people who loose control and choose drugs as their means of self-destruction that’s the problem.

But Fi was going through withdrawal and was as bitchy as my mother was when she quit smoking only Fi forgot that Jason suffers more from words than from any war wound. He really tried to ignore her but I could tell it was eating away at him.

It didn’t take long to realize that we weren’t near Chicago and it was Fi who figured out that we weren’t even in North America. Unfortunately, Jason couldn’t figure out where we were and until we knew that, he couldn’t get us home. Plus having sharks around us in a fresh-water lake didn’t help either.

Eventually as I was caring for Fi during one of her fits, Jason asked me which way because he always trusted my instincts or psychic ability so I pointed in the first direction that came to mind. Always trust your feelings. And he raised sail and we headed southwest.

It wasn’t long before we saw a sail and Jason, being a bit cautious when we were around, worried about it being a pirate. I can’t blame him because he had been an IRA terrorist, a pirate, assassin and a bunch of other things I didn’t want to think about. So if he was worried, he usually knew what he was talking about.

I managed to get Fi in her right mind and we prepared to fight. If they were traders of peaceful, fine, but it’s better to meet strangers with bow strung than unarmed. In this case, I didn’t like that dhow at all. It stank and the Arabs on board were dirty and completely unlike the ones we knew in the Mid-East. Despite their bad press, the average Arab is as good a person as the average American. Only when they turn bad, their religious convictions make them as dangerous as Torquemada was to the Jews in Spain. So Fi and I moved to opposite sides of the canoe so we could get a cross-fire and avoid bunching up. Jason stood back to attract attention and give us a chance since the Arabs wouldn’t see us as a threat. It’s a good tactic and one that saved our lives on many an occasion.

The Arabs saw Jason standing there with a carbine in hand and sword at his hip and I noticed that they all kept their hands below the railing. This was a sure sign that they were armed. I was scared and Fi was nervous because we weren’t in a good position. They had the advantage of height and cover, they outnumbered us four-to-one and our main advantage was that they wanted us aboard their boat. Probably because we’d be at their mercy as we climbed aboard. Then I saw Jason get that nervous twitch and immediately calm down. It’s some Zen thing he does to repress emotion just before he kills a lot of people so I knew we were about to start a fight. When he swung into action, so did we, and our first volley killed at least three or four of them. Then before they could recover from the shock, Jason was over their rail firing and then I followed. Fi stayed in the canoe to hole their hull and pick off the occasional man who was stupid enough to look over the rail but rifles weren’t our weapon of choice. I am much better with a bow but we managed anyway.

I fell to the deck next to Jason who was hiding behind some woven baskets and he and the Arabs were occasionally popping a round or arrow at each other. So we made plans for him to reach the other aside of the boat while I got into the hold and crawled to the stern under the deck. The chances were that the entire fighting crew would be on deck so my movement would be fairly safe.

When he gave the signal I was into the hold and screamed because I had landed in inches of sewage. Didn’t these guys ever clean their bilge? I had no idea of what was living here and didn’t want to know. Then as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw rows of naked women chained to the hull. These guys were slavers so there went any concerns and hesitations on my part. I told them to be quiet as I made my way back to the rear hatch and once I was in position, I called out that I was ready and shot two more that were in sight. Between my shooting from the hold and Jason from the deck, the Arabs panicked and some were stupid enough to stand up so Fi could kill them.

That’s the trouble with slavers, bandits and cops. They all talk big but when you come down to it, they know that the people they are facing are generally civilians. Untrained, outnumbered, mostly unarmed and always scared so it’s really easy for such people to cause trouble. But when they meet a professional soldier with organization and training, they always loose.

Jason called for a rope because Fi had drifted away and as he was rescuing her, I looked over the slaves and wanted to kill every slaver on that boat. It was a good thing that they were all dead because I would have made their killing a pleasure. I called for keys and when Jason and Fi looked down, they immediately vanished and then Fi jumped down with a ring and we unlocked the manacles and freed the prisoners.

They just huddled together and finally Fi said, “They think we are slavers too,” so we talked to them and finally, Fi opened her shirt to show we were women too.

We left the hold and helped Jason strip the bodies and toss them over the side to the sharks who were already gathering. Fi said something about Bull Sharks being able to live in fresh water and these had that shark ability to smell blood before it was shed. I watched them eat the slavers for a while and never felt sorry at all. Some people are alive only because it was illegal to kill them and people like us tended to ignore stupid laws like that.

Finally we looked under the tarp on the deck and saw another two naked women but they weren’t human. Well not completely. Maybe their ancestors were human or maybe they evolved from monkeys while we evolved from apes or maybe they were mutations but one was white and brown haired, hairless save for her pubes and head. The other was black and covered with straight sleek fur. Both had long straight hair on their head that hung past their shoulders and both had a long tail that they used just like a monkey did. Both also had ape feet and an extra long thumb and both were beautiful and terrified.

We released them and they immediately were up the mast and on the boom. Jason commented that he knew where and when we were now and then joked that we couldn’t sail with them on the boom. He tends to make bad jokes when he’s nervous which took a long time to get used to. Fi and I used to think he was an asshole, but finally we realized that he was simply oblivious to everything and unless you hit him with a 2x4, he had no clue about anything.

Jason looked over the boat and decided that it needed to be cleaned well before we did anything. So we started to bail out the bilge and Fi and I got the women to help out, then Jason had more clean water tossed in so we could scrub the hull and bail. He also cleaned the decks and everything on board. The man never dusted in his life but he worked hard to make this floating home livable. He even stripped to his underwear and got filthy with the rest of us. That is one thing about Jason, he worked hard to make our lives safe and comfortable, he accepted us as equals and he never asked anyone to do something he wouldn’t do himself. You have to respect that in a man.

Finally the boat was clean and so he took us around, the women following and began to teach them the English words for the boat parts. At first they didn’t understand but when Fi and I would repeat the word, they got the idea and the next day when he grabbed a line and looked and one of the women said ‘line’, he clapped and cheered so much the girl instantly fell in love with him. She followed him around like a puppy in love and he never noticed. He’s like that.

Jason also explained that we were in the Congo Lake, which had been flooded during the Rapture. Apparently we could get out by any of a number of rivers depending on if we wanted to reach the Atlantic, Indian or Mediterranean seas. But for now he wanted to get those girls to their homes. That is just like him to put other people before himself, so when the Don, the tailed girls, finally came down, we lowered sail and headed Southwest. Jason believes in ‘praise much in public and yell rarely in private’ so whenever the women did anything right, he’d praise her right then and they all loved him for it and would have followed him to hell. Fi and I were the same. We had been hippie-chicks in the sixties and despite the feminist movement, only Jason really treated us as near equals. He’d expect me to board this ship with him and fight next to him, yet at night he’d make certain that our beds were comfortable and we had a full stomach. Not many leaders or men would be like that.

A day later, we reached land and some of the women made a fuss and kept gesturing along the coast so we followed the coastline until we reached a village. We dropped anchor, furled the sail and Jason loaded those women into a canoe and took them to shore. It took the locals some time to accept that he was returning their women and not trying to take more but when they accepted that we were safe, they threw us a party and resupplied the boat with cloth, matting for beds and fresh food. It made the effort worthwhile.

A couple days later we reached another village but couldn’t land because the locals were armed and ready to fight. So Jason loaded the women into a canoe that he tied to the boat and had them paddle to shore alone. The locals wanted to come out and attack but the women convinced them to let the canoe go and we sailed away in safety. Good thing as Jason would have had no problem killing the families of the women we saved if they pushed him.

Then the next port was actually a town. The houses were built of brick and lumber and not huts and they even had a dock. Of course we had a reception committee, armed and waiting, but the women who lived there cried to the men on the dock and we were allowed to tie up as the former captives rushed in to the arms of their families.

Then an Arab came out and greeted us warmly. He was even nicer when he learned that we spoke Arabic too. Jason left with Fi to talk to him while I went sightseeing. Jason cautioned me to hide the Don’s gold to keep the locals honest and THAT was not easy. I had no trouble wearing a dress that the women made for me and I enjoyed the feel of being in a dress again. But the Don kept holding their breasts as if they couldn’t stand the jiggle. Personally sometimes I like the freedom from a bra but I took them back to the boat and managed to rig a few bra’s for them and they accepted this with poor grace. They just couldn’t understand why they had to leave their golden breastplates behind. Maybe gold was so common in their country or maybe no one stole anything but here they had to worry about that and I still went around armed.

Finally Jason cut a deal with the locals and we off loaded our cargo and put it in a warehouse while they put the dhow into dry-dock so it could be cleaned out. When they tossed the burning cucumbers into the hold, the number of roaches that abandoned ship made me sick. We were living with them? Jason said, “This I why we have to be careful of every fruit we load on board.”

Finally they were done and we were afloat again. Jason had every box opened and repacked after close examination for bugs and eggs, then when all was loaded, he fumigated the dhow again. The man was a fanatic but he was terrified of roaches. He explained that he had seen the predator roaches drag down two of his friends one day. Then another time he was a POW and locked in a cage with giant Asian roaches so I suppose he had a good reason to freak out.

When we left, we sailed up the Zambezi River a ways then turned and retraced our course on the other side of the bay until Jason got excited and dropped anchor near Opar. He said that this was where the Egyptians and Israelites got their gold but it had been lost thousands of years ago until Greystoke discovered it. Then Jason found it when he went adventuring and used the gold to get rich.

He also said that there was a stargate nearby that would take us back home but then I mentioned, “What about the remaining women? We have four Africans and the two Don to return home.” So he marked the position on the maps, made certain that we could find it again then he came into a small bay, dropped anchor and said that we were going treasure hunting.

So, leaving the African’s to watch the dhow, we three and the Don took some ropes and bags and headed inland. Jason led us to a cliff with a cave high up and started to climb until one of the Don took his rope and climbed the cliff like it was a casual stroll. She tied the rope off and we all got into the cave and discovered that a cave-in had blocked the way. “No problem,” Jason said and showed us a hidden way over the slide and shortly we were on the other side in a huge empty room. “This is where Greystoke found the gold he used to become rich. It was empty when I got here but I remembered he described a tunnel so I went exploring and found another vault below this one.” So we rappelled down and found another vault filled with gold! The room had four rows of gold bars. Each row was 20 feet long, three feet high and maybe a foot wide. God! There was enough gold her to wipe out the national debt! Or knock the world off the gold standard.

We carried a few dozen bars to the shaft then Pan and Yo, the Don, climbed up the rope and pulled the gold up as we tied the bars to the end. When all we wanted were in the room above, we left. I wanted to stay there forever. All that gold collecting dust and no one knew where it was but us. Jason said ‘Don’t be greedy, we each have a fortune already’ and so we carried the bars back to the dhow. Once there, we loaded the gold as ballast and replaced the rocks we used before so when we were ready to sail, we had a hold full of a ton or more of gold bullion and a pile of rocks on the shore.

We now sailed north at a leisurely pace. The wind was against us so we tacked a lot and were becalmed for hours at a time but Jason was happy. He had discovered that both Fi and I were willing to share his bed again and he believed that ‘those days spent sailing are not taken from your allotted lifespan,’ so the man was in heaven. Sometimes we would see him at the tiller reading a book and watching the sea and us and just enjoying life. Sometimes I think that he would have gladly never left the Congo if he could spend his life sailing with us.

We learned the Don language and they English and one day while becalmed I commented to Fi, “See how Yo watches Jason? I think she’s infatuated with him. It’s only a matter of time before he beds her.”

“You really think so? Pan isn’t far behind and is more forward. I think she’ll be first.” Fi replied.

“If so, she will have to make the move. Look at Jason, he hasn’t a clue. He even thinks that Indiana Jones look he’s wearing is cool.”

“Yup!” she agreed. “When we get home, we are going to have to clean his closet and burn everything he has, then take him shopping.”

“Won’t do any good. That man can screw up jeans and t-shirt. If he hadn’t been pushed into adventuring, he’d be a high school science teacher haunting Sci-Fi conventions and bragging about his twelfth level D&D character. Ten bucks says Yo gets him first!”

“Done! But no helping him out. He has to realize it on his own.” She demanded.

We watched the one-sided romance with interest and saw both Don competing for his attention and Jason saw nothing at all. Ye Gods, had Fi not gotten frustrated a week ago and climbed on top of him while he was asleep, we’d all still be celibate. Fortunately, we both loved him but were not in love with him so to us it was just sex so neither of us were jealous about the prospect of Jason sleeping with either Don, though we were mildly curious about how they’d use their tails. “Those tails would give lesbianism a whole new meaning,” Fi commented one day.

Eventually we found the last village and after dropping the last of the Africans off, we five sailed north seeking Pal-ul-Don. Looking back, those days were wonderfully relaxing. Fi had brought aboard a gross of coffee, I fished over the side, Fi sang and danced, Jason tried to make us happy and comfortable and no one tried to kill us.

Finally we let off the last of the African women and we were down to the five of us sailing a dhow that was made for a dozen. European shipbuilding was given a kick in the pants by rising labor costs that forced the merchants to build boats that could be sailed with fewer crew to save money. A modern sailboat of this size could be sailed with two people, one if need be. But a sambuk of this size was labor intensive. Cheap labor and slavery meant plenty of cheap sailors which meant that there was no need to invent ships that could be sailed by fewer people. By the time that became important, the diesel engine had been invented and suddenly every dhow had an engine and most of the crews were laid off. Now I had a boat that used a crew of a dozen and had only five to sail her. That meant no rough weather sailing, limited tacking to prevent wareing the boom and avoid anything that could cause trouble. Had this been a movie, I could simply re-rig the boat to allow it to be sailed by one person but here, I’d have to change the entire ship, add a heavy lead keel to balance a taller mast with a Marconi rig. And without a decent shipyard and an expert shipwright, that was impossible.

So I took my time, carefully considering every course change as we sailed north. I knew that the Congo was a closed system with a few exit rivers so all I had to do was hug the coast and eventually I’d get someplace the Don would recognize. I had purchased an Astrolabe from the Arab merchant in the town but unless I knew the latitude of Pal-ul-Don, all I could do was make a map and hope I could get the east-west direction close to the truth. I had paced off the length of the hull and made a log-line so when I had it tossed over the side at the bow, then counted the seconds until it passed the stern, I knew our water speed. I could also, mark a point on the beach exactly perpendicular to the hull then when that point was 45 degrees astern, a simple right triangle would tell me my land speed. I could then compare the two and figure our actual speed. Di and Fi had brought watches so I could use the time shown to add to the figures and get a rough idea of the shape of the Lake. Since the Don said that the Lake was south of Pal-ul-Don, I knew all I had to do was to find the north shore, but was that shore ten miles or a hundred miles away?

Every night we dropped anchor and slept far enough from shore to feel safe but close enough to avoid drift. But basically, I was happy. I enjoyed sailing and the company was very pleasant and I didn’t let on that I wasn’t certain of our course.

Finally we reached the north shore of the lake, which I estimated to be about 350 miles north to south and maybe 225 miles from Ophir. It had taken us a total of more than three weeks to tack north against the wind and now we had a westerly so the next leg would be much easier.

After three days, we saw an outrigger canoe on the water and when we got close enough to see, both Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee insisted that we were near their home. The canoe was manned by two Don who were fishing with nets and each was wearing an animal skin loin-cloth held by a belt at the waist and belts crossed over the shoulders. They wore gold buckles and for weapons, carried clubs which they readied. We immediately furled the sail and as we slowed Yo-Bal-Lee called out to them, “I am Yo-Bal-Lee of Bu-Lur. These Tand-at-don saved us from evil slavers and brought us home. Please meet them in peace.”

We tossed the canoe a line and within seconds, both had climbed on board and after confirming that Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee were safe, looked us over and introduced themselves. “I am Ho-Tan and this is my brother Ko-Lul. We are fishing and hoped that you were peaceful traders.” We talked awhile and showed them the dhow and asked them about docking at As-Lur and Bu-Lur. They told us that there was a wall on the river that people fished off of and maybe we could tie up there though the cargo canoes preferred to pull in at the north side of the city. So we tied their canoe to our stern and after unfurling the sail again, we approached the city. An hour later we saw it in the distance and Yo-Bal-Lee became very excited to finally see her family again after more than a month’s absence. An hour after that, Ho-Tan and his brother got into their canoe and shot ahead to prepare for our arrival. We tossed the fenders over the side as we passed the mouth of The Great River which was miles wide but very shallow and slow. Then as we approached the city, we turned up-river, furled the sail as fast as we could then allowed the river to slow us to a stop as we bumped against the seawall. Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee immediately jumped ashore with lines and tied us off. Then I tossed a couple more and we crossed them to establish a secure berth.

Yo-Bal-Lee immediately ran off the find her family but Pan-Sad-Bu remained behind to help us talk to the gund of As-Lur. Of course we had attracted a crowd even before we docked and the longer we sat, the more people crowded the shore to see us. Finally some guards pushed the crowd aside and Ben-Den, the local chief, arrived to look us over. The man was huge, easily six inches taller than me and had massive arms that spoke of a lifetime of exercise. I had expected to see a messenger to call us to the palace but he apparently wanted to see the dhow himself for this was the largest boat Pal-ul-Don had ever seen.

Both Diane and Fiona curtseyed to him while Pan-Sad-Bu prostrated herself and I bowed fairly low, saying, “Greetings, Ben-Den, Gund of As-Lur. I am Jason Obrien, and these are my companions, Fiona O’Neill and Diane Winters. A month ago we rescued Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu from evil slavers and we have brought them back to the arms of their families. In return we ask only that we be permitted to remain her for a few days to relax, re-fit our ship and enjoy the beauties of your city.”

He stepped aboard with his guards, looked at the boat then asked, “Where is Yo-Bal-Lee? I see only Pan-Sad-Bu.”

“Yo-Bal-Lee missed her family so much that as soon as we were tied up, she couldn’t resist the urge and ran off to find her family.” I explained. “May I show you my ship?”

The girls had stood by this time and as the chief grunted his assent, we took him on a tour, explaining the mast, sail, tiller and a few other things of interest. He asked a few questions that showed his intelligence such as ‘how fast is the dhow?’ ‘How much cargo can it carry?’ ‘How far can it sail?’ ‘How many men does it take to sail?’ and a few others. It was clear he was thinking as a merchant and not a soldier. Then he invited us to his palace for dinner and turned and left, talking to his advisors as they walked away.

We cleaned up to the best of our ability and waved at the sightseers but managed to keep them off the ship until Yo-Bal-Lee arrived with her family. She introduced us to them and they thanked us for saving their daughter and promised us anything in their power to do. “Sir, having the pleasure of your daughter’s company and assistance sailing is payment enough.” she reddened at this, “But tonight we must have dinner with your chief and I fear that the curious would overwhelm my ship unless you could ask one or two of your sons to stay here and watch the boat while we are gone.”

Ben-Un readily agreed and told his two sons to remain here and protect the ship at any cost. Then he handed me a golden bracelet in thanks anyway. Yo-Bal-Lee’s mother, A-Ad-Ro, hugged all of us, crying then gave Fiona and Diane necklaces that would have paid for a house back home and insisted that we stay with them for as long as we were here. Then after showing her brothers as much as we could, Yo-Bal-Lee led us the palace, which wasn’t as impressive as I though it would be. The building was large but still made from brick and it was clear that the Ho-Don hadn’t yet learned how to build large domed buildings from the local materials yet. The roof was supported by tree trunks that had obviously been alive and left in place as the palace was built around them. Ben-Den was siting on his throne on a low pyramid as we entered and we were announced. I noticed that there were six steps to the pyramid and made a mental note to ask Yo-Bal-Lee if that was significant. On each step was a man or woman, which from their attitude were probably military and political and religious advisors. Finally, after the major-domo had explained to the chief who we were and what our business was, he greeted us, gave us the freedom of the city, then he invited us to eat with him and as he left his throne, all relaxed.

Dinner was much easier than most formal state dinners I had attended. There was plenty of food which was plain. We drank beer which was stronger than American beer and the conversation was mostly the Ho-Don asking us about our travels and what we had seen. Ben-Den listened closely and I could see that he was using his people to draw us out and learn as much as possible. Both Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu went into detail about how we killed the slavers and Ben-Den said, “I’d like to see these g’gun in action.” To which I promised to show him in the morning. I knew that we were treading on dangerous ground here for he could easily confiscate our weapons but without additional ammo, they’d soon be useless. I had no illusions about pretending that they were magickal weapons because I could tell that the Ho-Don were not stupid savages. Their technology and economy was classical Greek and even the Greeks wouldn’t believe in magickal weapons. But a volley would still kill and terrify them as it would any other race.

Late, we all staggered to Yo-Bal-Lee’s parents house where I was given her brother’s room since they were on the Recovery and since they thought the Fiona and Diane were my wives, we three slept together while Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee stayed with her sister, Aden-Ho-Jato. We could hear Yo-Bal-Lee talking to her mother “Mother, you didn’t! I’m not ready to talk to Pele-Sad yet.” The rest was lost so I whispered to Fi, “Who is Pele-Sad?”

“I don’t know. Obviously someone she doesn’t want to see.”

The next morning I awoke with a dry mouth and an uncontrollable urge to pee so used the chamber pot I found in the corner as Diane laughed at me. “That’s what you get for drinking so much. Come on, breakfast smells nice.” Fi used the pot after me as I got dressed and then Diane, then they both dressed and we retired to the dining room where the meal was plain and hot and much better than anything we had on board the dhow. We all thanked the family for having us and I gave her father a LED pen-light as a host gift and Diane gave her mother her wrist watch. From talking to Yo-Bal-Lee, I think we just made them wealthy.

Yo-Bal-Lee then said, “If you want to see the city, you need to dress properly. Mother, can we find them proper clothing?”

“Yes, Jay-Son can have your brother’s extra loin-cloth and harness and I’m certain we can find some breastplates for your female friends.”

Her father showed me the described clothes and although they were clean, I still wore my underpants between myself and the fur. Diane and Fiona wore similar pelts but also some halter top that they had to add pieces to for Diane wasn’t particularly flat and Fiona was much larger in that department. The breastplates were round and shaped to form to their natural curves but were still too small.

Diane said, “Yo’s mother said we’d go get larger ones made for us but frankly, I thought my chest was heavy before, with these things, my back will be killing me before lunch.”

Fiona added, “You’re back? Think of me. I can barely stand up now. And we have to go barefoot? Jason, you’ll be sunburned in an hour with that white skin.”

Yo-Bal-Lee looked at us and laughed. “You look funny. But once we get your clothing properly adjusted, you will look better. Come with me. Mother told me where to find a harness maker.”

So she and Pan-Sad-Bu led us to a nearby shop where they adjusted my harness and made me a hanger for my katana for I felt that I’d be worse than useless with a club. I wasn’t allowed to talk to the girls as they were getting theirs adjusted but eventually they came out and I was drooling at what I saw. They looked so hot, all I could do was stare. “You like?” Fiona asked.

“It is taking all my strength to not strip you both and have at you now. No, just push the fir aside, leave the rest on.” I responded. She gave a simple curtsey and said, “Thank you kind sir, I do believe that is the most graphic compliment I have had in a very long time.”

Yo-Bal-Lee then took us around the city and we five played tourist because neither Yo-Bal-Lee nor Pan-Sad-Bu were native to the place. Everywhere we went we attracted attention and crowds followed us. We tried to keep to the shade and grassy areas because none of us had the calluses that the Don grew from birth so the flagstones burned our feet as the sun burned our skin. Finally we returned to Yo-Bal-Lee’s house to nap and cool our aching skin but when we arrived, a Ho-Don was there waiting.

He took Yo-Bal-Lee in his arms and kissed her and Diane had to hold me back, “Settle, he is obviously someone important to her. Take your nap and we’ll find out what’s going on later when it’s cooler.”

Yo-Bal-Lee and the man left to another room to talk and I wanted to listen but Fiona held me back. “You have your secrets, she has hers. She’ll tell us what she feels we need to know when she feels we need to know it.”

I didn’t like it but Fiona was right so I soaked my shirt in water and lay back with it over my forehead and eyes and soon was asleep. I awoke before anyone else for although I enjoy naps, I don’t sleep long and everyone was still asleep for the Ho-Don seemed to take the idea of Siesta seriously. I saw Pan-Sad-Bu on a fur on the floor in the family room with Aden-Ho-Jato then looked back and peeking into Yo-Bal-Lee’s sister’s room, saw Yo-Bal-Lee and the new guy asleep together naked. So I let the door hanging fall back and went outside to think.

I didn’t know how long we would be there but it would take at least two weeks to get back to Ophir. Probably longer as we’d need to reduce the length of the boom and bend a smaller sail that could be handled by the three of us, and that would also reduce our speed. Then we’d need to hand carry the gold across a couple miles of jungle to the stargate, then smuggle it out of America to Geneva for deposit. I was working on how to do this when Diane arrived and sat next to me. “What are you thinking?” she asked.

I told her about the problem with the gold and she said, “I saw them. Pan told me they are married for about three years now. She was never yours. You were a taxi driver exactly as you said you were. It was gratitude and respect and maybe a little lust. Accept her as a friend and get used to it or be hurt. And you need to get used to something else. I’m seeing David and will again when we get home. I know it hurts but life is like that. We all have our own lives and sometimes they don’t involve you. It doesn’t mean we don’t love you, it simply means that we have our own lives sometimes. Shhh, don’t say anything, don’t think anything, just let me hold you for a minute.”

The Don were happy and frustrated at the same time. Finally they were sailing north towards home. But the reduced number of women on board meant that they had to work harder, longer and sail slower than before. It had been a month since their capture and more than three weeks on this boat but the time was well-spent. Both Don were learning English and learning about boats and sailing and we were learning their language.

Both Pan and Yo cooked and served Jason and us who they believed were his wives until they learned that neither Fi nor I was actually his wife. We were occasional lovers, yes, and definitely comrades but when Pan asked Fi if she and Jason had children, she laughed, “No, and I don’t plan to have any for a very long time. I lost my children when my husband divorced me and I don’t want to go through that again.”

“But”, Yo, “You and Di-Ann both sleep with him as wives? And you aren’t married?”

Fi explained to them about our relationship, “Jason and Diane were lovers at one time and almost married. But things happened and they split up. Then when Sulieman kidnapped Tears, a friend of ours, and put worms in my brain, Diane swallowed her pride and went back to ask Jason for help. Jason agreed because that is the way he is. He’s the most forgiving man in the world and never betrays a friend, so after we killed Sulieman, we remained friends. We all have our lives but what we do at night is just sex. I do love him, but not as a husband, just as a very close friend so neither Diane nor I am jealous of who Jason takes to bed.”

“That is so strange,” Pan said. “With us a woman sleeps only with her husband.”

“And does her husband sleep only with one wife?” Fiona asked.

Yo replied, “Some wealthy and powerful men have more than one wife.”

“It sounds somewhat unfair to me,” Fiona commented. “When I was a child, I was told to be a good girl and marry well and a man would take care of me. Well, I find that I am more than capable of taking care of myself. Yes, Jason is a wonderful man who devotes his life to making us safer and more comfortable and I love him for that, but even without him, there is nothing I can’t do that requires a man to own me. I do what I want when I want and if I screw up, at least I can say it was me and not a man who did it.”

“I envy your freedom, Fee-Ona.” Yo said. “Sometimes I feel so trapped, it is as if the only difference between those slavers and my… family is that the slavers had a cage I could see.”

“My dear,” Fiona said, “the only chains you wear are the ones you want to wear.”

The Don thought about this a moment then Yo stood up, walked to Jason and said to him, “I wish to remove my chains now.”

Jason looked at her with a vacant expression, “What chains?” He had no idea at all, the poor fool.

She then unfastened her buckles and letting her clothes fall to the deck, took him by the hand and led him unconcerned with her nakedness to his cabin in the stern. “See, a total geek! Pay up Fi!” I said.

Pan watched all this in horror saying, “She’s... she’s… she’s……”

To which Fi touched her on the shoulder and said, “She’s having fun by the sound of things. Well, as much as I want to peek in, it looks like rain and I want to wash my clothes.” I agreed and gathered my clothes too so we could give them some privacy.

The next few days were relaxing, that night Pan followed and spent the rest of the night singing to herself as she brushed her fur back into place. So we sailed, fished, washed and played in the rain, slept, made love and generally had the kind of vacation that everyone wishes for but rarely has. Once I wondered if David would be comfortable here but then reason hit and the thoughts faded.

About a month into the voyage we were following the coast east and had to take refuge from a sudden storm. Jason lay the anchor but then insisted that we tie the dhow to trees to keep it away from the river and still pointing into the wind. He was afraid that if a wall of water came down the river, it would snap the anchor line and bowl the dhow over so with ropes all over the place the Recovery rocked, but the walls he had been building kept all of us warm and dry, though without any privacy and Fi and I finally learned what Pan and Yo did with their tails. Fiona sang and taught everyone new songs while the Don taught her songs from their land.

After a day, the storm was gone, the bay was filled with flotsam from upriver and pointing to one tree in the mud, Jason commented, “That’s why I wanted to be out of the way of the river. Had that struck us, we’d have drowned.” We crew cleaned the sambuk, made certain that all was well and that she had sprung no leaks then we turned about and allowed the wind to push us west. A day later, we saw campfires on shore and pulled in to investigate.

The rag-tag group of people on shore welcomed our group but we did go ashore armed with swords and slung rifles. Fiona and I noticed that they all kept hold of their spears and swords but saw nothing really wrong until the six soaking people turned into two dozen. Jason excused us and we began to leave when their leader insisted that we lay our weapons down and tell them where the gold the Don wore came from. It was clear that this was a raiding party from up north that had gotten lost and were looking for slaves, loot and mostly gold.

It was when one made the mistake of grabbing Yo-Bal-Lee demanding she tell them that caused the trouble and cost that man his arm.

Jason stood there with drawn katana as Yo frantically pulled the severed limb from her arm as Jason told us, “return to the ship, weigh anchor and prepare to leave, I’ll be there shortly. Di, Fi, the Don and the ship are your responsibility.” Then as we walked away, pulling Yo and Pan, We heard a scream and ran.

Pan insisted, “We need to help him!” as she ran but I yelled, “He can take care of himself. We need to make certain that the ship is ready to go so we can escape.” And I kept pulling the Waz-Don as we ran.

Once in the canoe and paddling back, Pan-Sad-Bu managed to look back and the sight she saw was burned into her mind forever. Jason was calmly walking to the shore over the bodies of a dozen men. Then he spun and with a flash of light, three more fell, sewing blood and entrails. He then cut another in half from crown to groin and a fifth in half at his ribs, then turned and continued to walk as if he were on a morning stroll. A group of the raiders flanked him and attacked from both sides and for a moment, he was lost in the press of men. Then the raiders fell like toys and Jason continued his stroll. Once on the beach, he turned to face the raiders whose numbers had been diminished considerably, turned to let a few spears pass him by then he knelt on the beach, laying his sword before him. As the raiders closed in, he leapt up and the killing began anew until the few survivors dropped their weapons and ran, leaving easily a dozen or two dead and dying behind.

Jason then stepped into the remaining canoe and calmly paddled back to the dhow where he stripped and asked for a bucket of water to wash the blood off. He never mentioned the killing again other than to comment that they looked like Sudanese.

Days later we found an outrigger being manned by two Don fishermen. Yo called to them and between their conversation we found that we were near As-Lur were Yo’s family lived. Unlike many of the other people we had met, these were friendly and were invited aboard and once they were on the deck, both Fi and I couldn’t breathe. My God! They were gorgeous. They had abs that could have washed clothes, shoulders that could not end and…. My knees were weak at the sight of such humanity and Fi said, “If there are more like them, I’m never leaving.”

We showed them the boat, I would have killed Jason had he refused, and as we neared the city, they climbed in their canoe and paddled away, their back muscles…. Fi said something about a sandwich and tails and I could only agree.

We docked easily considering that it was only our second try and we tied off and waited for the authorities while Yo ran off to see her family. Of course we attracted a crowd and every man there was wearing those fur loincloths and belts and tails and tanned bodies that wouldn’t end.

Finally their king arrived and even he was drop-dead sexy! Jason invited him aboard and we gave him the grand tour then he invited us to dinner and left. A few minutes later Yo arrived with her family and these men kept getting sexier all the time. Her brothers, Ben-Sar and Mu-Lot were two of the sexiest men I had ever seen. “You can have the fishermen, I’ll take these.” Fi whispered.

When Jason asked if Yo’s father would loan a son to watch the dhow while we were gone, he ordered both to remain. “Jason,” I called, “I really don’t feel like going to dinner, I think I’ll stay on board and rest up.” Fi grabbed me and said, “Not alone you won’t.” then she forced me to clean up for the feast. ‘I’ll leave early,’ I thought.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t leave at all. And somehow we all ended up at Yo’s house in her brother’s room.. in a pile. I don’t know what Fi was thinking but I was thinking of men, all the men in that city, and tails, and feet that held onto my ankles, and lots of fur and muscles. I don’t think that Jason minded or even knew.

The next morning I awoke with a hang-over. Not a big one but enough. Then over breakfast Yo’s parents said that they had arraigned for us to have decent clothing so we could go outside without being embarrassed and Yo took Fi and me into her room where they tried to dress us as a Don. My god my chest weighed a ton with those gold breastplates. I thought Yo and Pan had iron tits before, now I added a back that could support the universe. And those women wore these every day? Now I’m a large C or small D and Fi is about as close to a DD as a woman can be and still stand up. If she weren’t an exercise freak, she’d have incredible back problems. Add about ten pounds of gold over each cup and I had to help her to her feet.

Finally, we were ready, hair done, wearing make-up, fur loin-cloths and enough gold to attract every jewel thief on the west coast. When we left the bedroom, Jason was there wearing Don clothes too but looking nowhere as good as any of Yo’s brothers. The only reason we didn’t giggle was because he took one look at us and drooled down his chest. That look made me determined to wear this in style and grit my teeth and smile.

We toured the city but it didn’t take much for my bare feet to kill me and Jason was read from sunburn. So we returned to the house for an afternoon nap and saw yet another sexy man waiting. He stood, came forward and held then kissed Yo and Jason almost went for his throat. I grabbed him and said, “Settle, he is obviously someone important to her. Take your nap and we’ll find out what’s going on later when it’s cooler.” I couldn’t sleep at all so put on my halter top, sans breastplates, then left and found Pan in the family room with Yo’s sister and asked her for the story.

“The man is Pele-Sad. She married him about three years ago but they haven’t been happy. He drinks too much and worries about his friends more than he thinks of her sometimes. She isn’t happy but divorce is unthinkable and sometimes she would talk about going away so they could both start over. That’s why we came here, to get her away so she could think, then we impulsively helped that fisherman and you know the rest.” She explained.

I cried out, “The man is the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen in my life. I’d marry him just to touch that belly occasionally!”

Pan laughed and said, “Beauty and compassion don’t always go together. Jason isn’t as beautiful and is built more like a boy than a man, yet, he killed all those slavers for you and he killed those raiders for us. He worked hard to make us comfortable and sacrificed himself to get us home. Don’t object. I saw him at Ophir. He really wanted to go into that jungle and explore but he had responsibilities and he chose us over his own wishes. He is gentle and compassionate and kind and when need be, terrible to his enemies. He loped that man’s arm off because he touched Yo-Bal-Lee without her permission. I’ve heard you all talk about his children. I understand that he is a wonderful father too who gave up his own life until his children were adults. Would that more men were like him.”

“Yes,” I said. “Those things made me fall in love with him. I should have married him then but now it’s too late. We are the best of friends and comrades in arms and I still enjoy him in bed occasionally but the time when we could be husband and wife is over. Still,” I sighed, “I do wish he were as handsome as Yo’s brothers or husband.”

“I don’t have anything to compare him to. He was my first and Yo-Bal-Lee’s second,” she whispered in my ear. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

I promised to keep her secret and hugged her, still amazed how soft her fur was. Then after a few more minutes of conversation, I excused myself and returned to watch Jason sleep, holding Fi and knowing that he’d die before allowing any harm to come to us. I re-wet the cloth over his eyes then crawled into his other arm and lay there, listening to his heart and wondering if I would feel as safe with David, or would David feel less of a man because he couldn’t?

I never did sleep and then Jason woke up and carefully loosed himself from us and snuck outside. I saw him return and look into Aden’s room, then tense and walk on. I’ve seen that look before. Jason is the most capable man I’ve ever seen. Get us into trouble and he’d get us out in one piece but for some reason, he was an idiot around women. He had that look when he met David and he had that look when I broke up with him in Lebanon. It was hurt and betrayal and sexual insecurity and failure all rolled into one.

So I got up and followed him outside, peeking in at Yo and her and Pele then moving on.

I sat next to him and asked what he was thinking and he talked about how he was going to get our gold back to America. Gods, he chooses the stupidest times to be a guy. Avoidance! He always avoided talking about his feelings. Probably because of his cowboy father and mentally ill mother. And that bitch he married didn’t do much good either so he simply couldn’t talk to me about how he felt so I had to start talking, “I saw them Jason. Pan told me they’ve been married for about three years now. I now you care for her or you couldn’t have bedded her but she was never yours to love. You were a taxi driver exactly as you said you were. For her it was gratitude and respect and maybe a little lust. So accept her as a friend and get used to it or be hurt.”

Then I thought and had to say, “And you need to get used to something else. I’m seeing David and will again when we get home. I know it hurts but life is like that. We all have our own lives and sometimes they don’t involve you. It doesn’t mean we don’t love you, it simply means that we have our own lives sometimes. Shhh, don’t say anything, don’t think anything, just let me hold you for a minute.” And I held him as he cried silently. It wasn’t easy for him to loose two lovers in the space of two minutes, even if we were lovers in his mind only. But Jason was never the macho man people wanted him to be. He only wanted to be a high school science teacher, married with children and play D&D on weekends. Instead, he was an adventurer, a hero and sometimes he felt that the world would discover he was a fake and laugh at him when those of us who took the time to know him, saw him as exactly what he was, a wonderfully caring man who had standards of integrity and loyalty that few would dare to reach.

That afternoon, I left while everyone was still asleep and returned to the dhow. I greeted Yo-Bal-Lee’s brothers and we talked about the sea, sailing, places I had been and they told me about Pal-ul-Don, Bu-Lur and As-Lur and their family. They had no idea that their sister wasn’t happy and I wonder if they would have admitted to themselves if they knew. I made a point of showing them my room in the stern and how Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee had hammocks in the hold under bug netting. I went into detail about the netting because of the mosquitoes and asked them if they were bothered at all by the pests. It seemed that they would eat something similar to garlic during the rainy season and smear the juice over their skin to repel the bugs.

Then I showed them my katana and cut some tossed fruit for them and they showed me how they could swing their clubs as if they were weightless. I held one and it was as heavy as a mace. These men had a strength that was almost superhuman. Eventually we ran out of things to talk about and ate a meal in silence.

I tried to beg off dinner but wasn’t allowed to and Pele-Sad sat next to Yo-Bal-Lee and I imagined that I saw him ignore her and her unhappy but I am prone to fantasies like that so tend to ignore them as wishful thinking. After the sun set, the night cooled a bit and we walked around the city with Yo-Bal-Lee’s parents introducing us to all their friends, none of whose names I could remember.

Then we retired to their home and people would drop by all night to visit, drink and meet the strangers. Diane kept taking my beer away saying that it wouldn’t be polite to get drunk which I really wanted to do but fortunately, the beer was warm and I prefer my beer ice cold. Finally I excused myself and said I’d like to sleep on my ship and staggered off to the Dhow where I released Yo-Bal-Lee’s brothers and lay my hammock under the stars and fell asleep watching the clouds cover the sky.

I awoke with Pan-Sad-Bu trying to get me out of the rain and under the cabin and I finally realized that I had drunk far more than was good for me. My bladder was bursting and I excused myself to pee over the leeward side. When I was finished, Pan-Sad-Bu was naked, her furs and leather hanging to dry and she demanded the same of me so we sat there naked in the dark, listening to the rain as she combed her fur dry. Then she handed the comb to me so I could do her hair and back as she made light talk. “Ben-Sar and Mu-Lot returned and were talking to Di-Ann and Fee-Ona when it started to rain. I don’t know why Pele-Sad came here, I think both should divorce and start over. Yes I now divorce is bad but sometimes it is the only way. I noticed that none of my suitors came here to see me. I suppose that means that they either gave up and found other wives or they got tired of being rejected. I think I am pretty and now I know I have a lot to offer a husband. I love the rain on the cabin and the way the Recovery rocks in the wind, it is like being rocked in my mother’s arms. You cannot ever tell anyone about you and Yo-Bal-Lee or she’d be disgraced and her husband would have to kill you and I know he can’t so her father and brothers would have to fight you and she would hate you for killing them so never tell anyone. Are you going to let me talk all night or are you going to kiss me?”

I slept in late then dressed and checked the hold to ensure that we didn’t take on much water in the storm. What we did take was clean so I bailed the bilge dry, checked the cargo, such as it was and returned to the deck to find Pan-Sad-Bu making breakfast. As I was eating, one of Ben-Den’s guards arrived and reminded me that we had promised to show the Gund how our weapons worked so we finished and I sent Pan-Sad-Bu to tell Diane and Fiona that I’d bring their rifles to the testing area.

I handed the guard a can of ammo and one carbine then took the other two as we walked across the city. The Don appear to have never bothered to domesticate any animal, including a dog or cat which was a shame because right now I could use a good horse and buggy.

I arrived at the same time as my crew and the field was filled with people, all curious so I had Fiona run some fruits out to some sticks as I started, “This is a BM-62 assault rifle. It is a cut-down version of the M-1 Grand battle rifle and fires the same round but from a magazine underneath instead of a clip from overhead. It was developed by the Italian army who purchased thousands of M-1s after the last big war then abandoned when NATO decided that everyone should use the same smaller round...” Diane came up and whispered, “You are loosing them. No one cares about this save a few gun and survival freaks. Get on with it.”

I slid a magazine into the rifle, chambered a round and squeezed a few rounds off to cause the fruits down-range to explode. I’m a good shot but not an expert so I had the fruits big and less than 50 yards away to ensure strikes. The observers started at the weapon’s report but no one panicked as they do in the movies and literature. Then the chief came up looking a the rounds my carbine had ejected and asked, “Are these what kills?” Well, there went my plans to pretend the weapon was magickal.

“No gund, I said. “If you put water in a pot and seal it tight then place it on a fire, the water boils and the steam, unable to escape, causes the pot to explode. The same thing happens here,” I handed him an unfired round. “Only inside this cartridge is a substance called gunpowder that boils very quickly and as the cartridge is contained in the heavy barrel, it cannot explode so this bullet is forced out by the pressure and it is this part that kills. These cartridges are now useless until reloaded.”

“How far can you kill with this?”

“This version is reduced for lightness and so is effective at about 350 double steps. It can kill up to a mile easily IF you can strike your target. But once the ammo is used up, the weapon becomes useless.”

“Can you make these for us?”

“No gund. I don’t know how and if I did, I’d need to make the tools I needed to make the tools I needed to make the tools I needed to make the parts. Maybe in a hundred years, maybe.”

“Then I wish to trade for these. Yo-Bal-Lee says that you think gold is valuable, take as much as you need and bring back these guns.”

“I cannot gund. The factories that made these were destroyed a century ago when the morass began to dry up. These may be the last of this kind. There are other guns out there but they are falling apart as their owners are unable to make replacements. Some people are making simpler versions but again, I don’t know where to find them.”

“Then how can we fight such weapons if your people invade mine as those slavers captured Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu? There have been other Tand-at-don pass through and some trade but some fight and we barely survive their attacks only because we took their bows and are stronger than they. Mostly we were lucky and I would be better, not luckier.”

“My people had that same problem when we were invaded by the British. They conquered us and it took centuries to win our freedom. Part of my country still isn’t free. There isn’t any good answer to that but I can give you ideas on what worked for us and what didn’t.” I explained.

”Oh god,” Diane cried. He’s on that IRA-freedom kick of his again. Jason, perhaps we could deal with this problem in a more constructive manner? Ben-Den expressed an interest in the Recovery, perhaps giving him a ride would clear our heads?”

I thought this was a good idea because no one wants to hear about Ireland, not even the Irish. So I invited the chief and his retainers on board and with Yo-Bal-Lee, Pan-Sad-Bu, Diane and Fiona to direct, we showed the Don chief and his advisors the basics of sailing.

We loosened the dock-lines, pushed the bow off to catch the river current, held the stern off the dock to save the rudder then when we were turned about, unfurled the sail and tacked to the SE until we were in open water. Then we turned west and followed the coast a half-mile out to show the Don how the dhow traveled. The wind was steady and we made a good 6 knots and almost three hours later saw Lul-Lur, one of the coastal cities that Tu-Lur had built. Ben-Den had me sail closer to shore and as we cane into sight, he climbed the mast and yelled that the people to attract attention. Once they recognized him as the gund of As-Lur, he climbed down happy and said, “Jato-Lur lies is the same direction, take me there too.”

“Are these your enemies,” I asked?

“No, we are simply not friends. I think that now we will be when they see the power of As-Lur.”

I was beginning to think that this man had dreams of empire despite his reputation for peace. So we returned to our distance to give maneuvering room and another couple hours, as we passed Jato-Lur and repeated the announcement, this time the city had been alerted by runners and the shore was crowded, I felt that it was time to turn about. “What lies beyond?” I asked.

“A bay then the river that connects this sea with another one north of us.” He replied, happy with the tiller.

The other sea must be the Chad sea which I believed, without much evidence, had a couple rivers that flowed into the Mediterranean. Here was a possibility indeed. Another hundred miles and I could sail north, cross the Chad then down the Sahara or Niger or Chad rivers then to Ireland or England. I could then deposit the gold in the BoI or BoE and then have the funds transferred back in time. It was complicated and expensive but possible.

We then tacked back and arrived well after dark, tired but happy.

I spent the night aboard the Recovery again, partially because Ben-Un’s house was too crowded now with his family and visitors and partially because I didn’t want to watch Yo-Bal-Lee and Pele-Sad together. Intellectually I knew that they were married and but the thought that I was just something to do, someone to be used hurt. Once I had a few days to mull things over in my subconscious, I’d be better able to deal but I needed those days apart. Pan-Sad-Bu stayed aboard again too but she made it clear that she was planning to return to Bu-Lur and with her new experiences across the lake, she’d be able to attract a better class of suitors. I didn’t mind at all because sometimes her talking would push my mind into a path that opened up new avenues of thinking that I needed.

It rained again that night and I found the sound relaxing as always. True the next day I always had to dry the sail which was never an easy job, especially if there was any wind but for now the motion of the boat, the sound of the rain gave me pleasant dreams.

I awoke late and we set about lowering the sail and turning it free so it could dry and not roll the dhow when Fiona ran up. She was holding her chest because her breastplates were bouncing which looked uncomfortable considering the size of the things. “Jason!” she yelled so I stopped what I was doing and waited for her to arrive and climb aboard. “Those Sudanese you killed! They were an army and they are coming here! All you killed was an advance party! Some hunter saw them and almost killed himself running to warn the city. Runners have been dispatched to all the cities and the Don are raising an army. If the Sudanese have firearms, they will massacre the Don. You are needed in the palace.” She was panting with exhaustion so I grabbed my carbine and sword and took off, leaving Fiona to catch her breath.

I was admitted immediately and found the chief looking over a poorly executed map of the area which had rocks to show the advancing Sudanese. Diane was already there and Fiona arrived a few minutes later. Ben-Den looked up at us and said, “I want you here because you three have experience with this warfare. I have sent my battle-chiefs to Bu-Lur as my Gund commanded and they will prepare an army but if you an give me ideas, I will pass them to my Gund and he may listen. If you show him your weapons, he must listen or we will die. Give me your ideas.”

I’m not an open field soldier. Against Patton or Rommel, I’d loose instantly. But I am a guerrilla fighter and know well how to harass an enemy and reduce their numbers and morale with traps and snipers. So I explained what I knew, how to make traps along the path, poison wells and food, hit-and-run, snipe from behind and other things. They were horrified at this and felt it unmanly but I argued that every low-tech force that had met advanced weapons had lost. The Aztec nation outnumbered the Spanish a thousand to one and Cortez still won. The Zulu’s outnumbered the British a hundred to one and still lost. But the Viet Cong, outnumbered and outgunned, fought the mightiest nation in the world to a standstill land drove them out using these tactics.

Ben-Den listened then asked me to go to Bu-Lur and demonstrate the might of my carbine to convince the Gunds that traditional tactics wouldn’t work this time. “The Recovery won’t sail well in the canyon without decent winds so we’ll have to paddle to Bu-Lur.” But he felt that seeing the Recovery would add force to my report.

The main problem here was that the wind was four to six points off our course so we would have to do a broad tack to make any headway. The river was a couple miles wide at the mouth but narrowed quickly and with the narrowing of the river, the current would increase. Also Dhows had no keel so could take water only a couple feet deep and so the shallowness wouldn’t be a problem but the mountains upstream would block the wind or create gusts that my crew, limited as they were, would be hard put to compensate for. Had I an engine, I’d motor right to the city but with sail only, I had to leave the dhow behind or have it towed.

Ben-Den brought paddlers and I questioned them carefully about rapids, current, water depth, winds and finally decided to try. We wared the boom to the port side, pushed off and with a dozen Don assisting the girls and following their directions, grudgingly, we headed upstream. It took two hours and we passed a number of canoes going both ways. Fighting the rudder and the wind, constantly adjusting the sheet and lines, having the depth checked with a lead-line every few minutes and my constant paranoia about hitting rocks or sand I was too busy to notice the beauty of the landscape. Diane commented on a pride of ja, spotted lions and a herd of deer but I was afraid to take my eyes off the water and hated that sail.

Finally we reached the southern edge of Bu-Lur. Once it was a small city against the cliff and home to both Waz-Don and Ho-Don, now it spanned easily seven miles of river but was rarely more than a half-mile wide, mainly because of the cliffs. Once past the Mountains of the Moon, Jad-Bu-V’ved, the city began to spread and it was here, away from the mountains and in shallow water I had the Recovery beached. With no tides and a faster current, we’d need to be pushed off before we could leave but the city had no dock and the current was too swift to allow anchorage away from the shore.

As always we had a crowd awaiting and without fuss, the co-Gunds, Lul-Dan and An-Tan, insisted on seeing our weapons at work. We had some targets set up and at a decent range, fired a dozen rounds to tear apart logs and such until the Gund was convinced that if the Sudanese had these weapons, they’d massacre his army before they got within arrow range, much less club fighting.

So we went over hit-and-run tactics and I suggested that “the Sudanese are like us, we evolved in the plains where danger came from the grass and we hid in the grass. So we are not used to looking up for danger. You Don are at home in the trees so draw the enemy into the forest, hide in the trees and shoot them in the back with arrows. When they turn to return fire, hide and let them think you are ghosts or gone away. Follow them thus, attack at night when they cannot see and fight face-to-face only when they have no firearms and you will win and save your families the horrors of slavery.”

Lul-Dan disliked the idea as did his chiefs but then Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee interrupted and described their experiences aboard the Recovery and how the slavers would drag girls to the deck, gang-rape them and then toss them back into the sewage of the hold and that convinced them. I had little fear of the Don creating an empire as their numbers were too small and it would be a century before they could breed enough men to conquer anything and by then, they’d learn to live in peace. What I was interested in was preventing another Aztec conquest. If the Sudanese got away, they’d tell of the riches of Pal-ul-Don and every nation that could mount an expedition would be invading. But a few decent military victories would convince their neighbors to trade instead of war.

We had met the first force a hundred miles east and as the army would travel maybe 20 miles a day, being forced to forage as they went, we had five days of which we lost three. Ten miles east was a river they’d have to cross and that could be an ambush point. They would also be trapped between the mountains that followed the coast and another range twenty miles north. These two ranges came close to meeting where I had killed the first raiders and I liked that place but now, they were in an open area.

Fiona looked over the map and mentioned, “That river here to the east. If we could take the Recovery there, maybe we could intercept the raiders?”

“Good thought but we’d have to go back to the Congo, two hours to the lake, another 10 miles tacking against the wind, maybe four hours there, then four hours upstream. Maybe ten hour sail if all goes well. Lul-Dan, can you tell me how deep and wide this river is?”

“Too small for your boat,” he said. “I saw it once. A canoe can travel it but needs to portage a number of times.”

Damn! Overland it is. We will probably meet them at the river so had to set up a defense there. We had three carbines, 3000 rounds and not much more against an unknown force with unknown weapons. The Don force would be doing almost all of the fighting then which was fine as it’s their country. I did remember to mention to Lul-Dan that we are accustomed to being paid for risking our lives and he offered us a hold full of whatever we wished when we won the battle.

We returned to the Recovery and changed clothes for Fiona flat out refused to fight or even travel far wearing nothing more than a furry g-string and twenty pounds of metal hanging from her chest. The ammo cans were heavy so we loaded up a few magazines each and had some of the Don carry the remainder of the ammo for us. And so with carbine, sword, water, food and a med-kit each, we traveled with the Don army to the east. Fortunately, they didn’t like to run any more than we did but they did travel lighter and were stronger than were we so most of the army left us behind. When we arrived at the stream, for it was too small to be called a river, the Don forces were spread out waiting while scouts had advanced across the river searching for the enemy. At this point I wished I had a bow for killing with one was quieter than with a 30.06.

One of the scouts returned at a run to report that the raider army was camped about ten miles further on near a small stream and their line of march would bring them along the shore by noon tomorrow. I left the girls to prepare firing points along the river that would give them cover and protection and I crossed with some of the Don to harass the enemy.

Getting past their sentries was easy. The Don simply climbed a tree and bypassed them. I waited until they looked away and crawled past. The army itself wasn’t large. Maybe a hundred men, about half with flintlocks a dozen with AK-47 that were probably falling apart and had limited ammo and the rest with an assortment of rifles and bows that must have raided every museum in north Africa. One nice thing is that once a rifle ran out of ammo, they’d not be able to borrow from anyone else and have a very unwieldy club. The flintlocks, however, despite their two-minute re-load time, were probably accurate at a distance.

I had the Don kill the sentries and remove their bodies so the army would think they deserted, and do the same for anyone who left camp to pee. Then I settled onto a tree branch and looked over the camp. Obviously they were used to open range and these trees made them nervous. We could be hiding anywhere, and we were. I whispered to one of the battle-chiefs “Pity we cannot bring a gryf here to do the work for us.”

“How about a couple Jato?” he asked. Then he sent one of his men away with a message. I hoped that they remembered that I had ordered cobras and mambas collected and scattered in the grass along the raider’s march.

An army on the march travels on it’s stomach so I noted where their food reserves were and made arraignments to have it taken away in the dark. I also noted that urine in the gunpowder would effectively remove many of their rifles. And if we killed their leaders, the army would be disorganized and easy prey.

When it got dark, we slowly picked off the sentries that were sent out to replace the former shift and when these failed to return, people got nervous. Not yet scared, but nervous. We did, however, manage to eliminate about a tenth of their force without alerting the rest. But when the replacements for the replacements remained, things settled down a bit more. I relaxed and took a nap for it was going to be a long night.

I was shaken awake after the last of the raiders had gone to sleep then had the new sentries killed and removed. Then we snuck into camp, stole their food and whatever weapons we could carry without alerting them to our presence then when we had done all that we could, we began to slit throats.

Then I called a retreat because a terrified enemy was often a better ally than a dead one. Scared people wasted ammo and broke ranks, causing confusion and disorder. Dead men just made their comrades angry and determined for revenge.

In the morning, the raiders found their sentries gone, most of their food gone many of their guns gone and a number of their fellows dead. It was this last that I liked. Waking up to find the man next to you dead and knowing it could have been you was always terrifying. Some say I am a bit cruel but hey! If they wanted to live, let them stay home and farm.

Their leaders forced order (I wished I had been able to kill them too) and they moved on towards riches and glory…. and death!

About an hour later, they walked into the field and the snakes began to bite. They panicked and wasted too much ammo shooting at snakes and branches then just as their leaders forced order again, I had some of the men killed by arrows. The Don weren’t excellent archers but they could move in close, shoot a man in the back then duck down before the arrow hit. The Sudanese only knew that if they faced forward, anyone in the rear would die. So, after the initial panic which was better than those few we killed, they continued on, each man turning around every few steps to watch the grass.

I let them go and they walked into the traps. Holes dug in the ground with sharpened stakes and covered with grass. A hundred sixty pound man stepping into a hole would easily drive the stake completely through their feet and sometimes damage leg muscles too. I didn’t kill anyone that way… until they saw that the points were covered with feces. For a people with few anti-biotics, lockjaw and infection were more feared than a charging rhino.

Now their leaders had a problem. They had walked into a mine field and had a dozen wounded and no real medical supplies. Morale was now so low that I saw their general shoot a man that argued with him. This caused two more to run off and be shot in the back. Excellent. I wanted to do the mad-scientist laugh and wring my hands in glee. A third of his army was dead or injured and he had a choice, leave the wounded behind or carry them and slow his march. A good general would take them, a smart one would leave them behind. He chose to bandage his injured and carry them with him.

He was a good man, this general, so I popped a round through his brain at 350 yards.

They panicked and I stood there in the grass watching them mill in confusion. By the time they realized that they were facing one man, the next in charge gave a command and riflemen took aim at me. I laughed and ducked as they fired and then listened to their screams as more arrows struck them in the back.

Taking a chance I peeked up then killed two more and ran away through the grass. It took an hour to get the raiders ready to march again and by that time, the Don had removed the muzzles of the bound jato and ran. The raiders saw them running and started to shoot but were stopped when their leaders realized that something bad was about to happen.

A picket line was organized and they advanced slowly, searching for more snakes and traps but by the time they got ten feet, the jato had chewed through the ropes holding their paws together and decided to take their anger out on anything in the area, which happened to be the picket line.

By the time the jato were dead, the survivors had pressured their leaders into calling for me to negotiate terms. I stood, with carbine ready, and demanded unconditional surrender and a life of slavery or death. More than half their force was gone, another dozen wounded and no food save what they had in their personal packs. They refused only because they saw the stream ahead and little cover for us but trees and rocks for them. They made a run for cover and I allowed this.

Some tripped over the ropes and fell onto more stakes, some stepped into holes and broke ankles but most made it to the stream. We moved in slowly killing the injured as we went then I demanded their surrender again which elicited a laugh. That was when Fiona and Diana began to shoot them from across the stream. By taking cover from us, they were in the sights of the remaining army, which picked them off with rifle and arrow.

Finally they got a defensive line set up facing both of us and I waited for the inevitable. A Don fell from each tree and being too close for rifles, the fighting was hand-to-hand. But since a Don was much stronger than a human and those muscles were swinging clubs that couldn’t be blocked by anything other than another club, the end was a forgone conclusion. As I wandered to the stream, listening to the screams of the dying and yells of the victors, I said to the battle-chief who was watching with me, “THAT is how you destroy a superior force. Terror and slow attrition does more than any human wave ever did.”

I met with Diane and Fiona and we returned to the city as the Don cleaned up the mess I had made.

Jason was in one of his moods. He had been sleeping with all four of us and still was feeling insecure. Maybe it was sour grapes or maybe a part of him had lost so often he couldn’t stand loosing anything, even what he never had. But I had known him long enough to know that he just needed time to accept things and to decide that my seeing David and Yo returning to her husband was his idea. So when he left for the Recovery intending to stay there, I let him go. He needed to be left alone and get laid and I figured that someone in this city would be curious enough to try him out. If not, he’d have a good night’s sleep.

Later on I forgot completely about him because Yo’ brothers arrived. Both Fi and I started to divide them between us but frankly, I didn’t care who I was with, they were both the sexiest things I had ever seen.

I had another beer, talked to Ben-Sar while Fi talked to Mu-Lot and enjoyed the rest of the night. Pele-Sad got drunk and kept trying to get Yo to go off with him. Jason would have punched him out and despite the man’s muscles, Jason would wipe the floor with him. Unfortunately, Pele WAS Yo’s husband and so had every right by Don law to his wife. If she insisted on saying no or he got physical, Fi and I would step in but so long as he only talked and begged, she could easily say no.

Fi had her harp and played and sang as I tried to teach Ben how to dance. The Don danced, but men danced with men and women danced with women and so this boy-girl dancing was new and shocking to the family. Finally I figured that it must be near midnight so asked Ben to walk with me so I could clear my head and seducing him was like seducing Jason. It’s hard to believe a man that good looking was still a virgin. But what he did with that tail gave me shivers.

The next morning both Fi and I had hangovers and we compared notes on our conquests. Both men had been virgins, both learned fast and both were well worth the effort.

Then we got the call, “Shit! Fi, get up and get dressed! We’re supposed to demo the rifles for the army today.”

“Do I have to? I want to sleep in.”

“Yes you have to, Jason is cranky enough as it is, you want to tell him you missed the demo because you were fucking his ex-lover’s brother?”

“Shit! He’ll kill all six of us and still try to sail home alone. Ok, where’s my clothes. No, not the fur, my clothes… oh, I have to wear these today. Damn!” Fi complained a lot when she woke up too early without enough sleep.

As usual, Jason had kicked into teacher mode and was boring the audience to death until I reminded him that these were not gun-freaks and didn’t care about any details. So he cut himself off, looked at me closely then had us run some gourds downrange. While we were setting up, Fi was nervous and said, “I think he saw your hickey. We’d better get going before he tries to shoot these things off our heads and miss.”

Jason easily took out the gourds because as good as he is with a bow, he was just as good with a rifle. Show him a weapon and he will insist on being an expert. That drive has saved our lives more times than I can remember. I was hoping he’s try the Robinson Caruso thing where he pretended the rifles were magic but he was too honest for that. Besides I saw Ben-Den watch too closely and he noticed the spend rounds being ejected. The man picked them up, tossing then to cool then he smelled them and asked Jason if these were what killed.

Jason, of course, jumped into an explanation about physics and thermo-dynamics and impact velocity which we all translated into ‘yes’. Then when the chief asked for him to bring weapons, Jason had to admit that this was probably impossible due to the loss of technology. Then Ben-Den asked for tactics to fight people with guns and of course, Jason had to tell how he fought the British to a standstill and I interrupted and suggested showing how the dhow sailed instead. If I had to hear once more about guerilla tactics and politics I’d tell him about me and Ben hoping he’d kill me so I wouldn’t have to hear it again.

Yo and Pan had to help as we four were the only ones who could sail. But Pele and Ben and Mu insisted on coming too along with a veritable army of retainers and Jason had us show them how to sail and what everything did as we sailed west along the coast. After a couple hours, Ben-Den climbed the mast and yelled like a demon to attract the attention of a city we were passing. Ben, my Ben, told me that As-Lur was subject to Bu-Lur but this town, Lul-Lur was subject to A-Lur along with Tu-Lur and J-Lur and, further up the coast, Jato-Lur. Apparently there were two Ho-Don kings and a number of chiefs, all living in relative peace.

Jason insisted on sailing a mile offshore in case he had to maneuver but Ben-Den insisted on moving in close to show off to the other cities. I saw Jason talking to Ben-Den and looking at me and I was worried that he knew and would do something stupid so I decided to tell him before someone else did and headed back to the cabin where he had removed the walls and allowed Ben-Den the tiller.

I took a deep breath and said, “Jason, this is embarrassing but…” I couldn’t do it in front of everyone, especially with those puppy eyes of his so I said, “You are exposed.” He turned away and adjusted himself then went back to sailing. After that, finding out about me and Fi would be easier for him to handle.

We had to tack back and didn’t dock until well after dark which was well as I didn’t want to walk those hot streets in my bare feet.

Jason slept aboard again and I think Pan stayed with him. As for me, I spent an exhausting night with Ben proving how good a teacher I was. I woke up sore but happy until a runner arrived asking for Jason. It seemed that a scout had seen a war party of humans approaching Pal-ul-Don and the chief wanted our opinions.

Fi got dressed and ran off holding her chest while I took a more leisurely pace to the palace and met them both in the war-room. Ben-Den and his advisors were looking over a poor map of the area and pointing the army to the east represented by a pile of rocks.

The chief asked for Jason’s opinion’s on how to defeat a large force armed with rifles and Jason went into graphic detail concerning terrorism, booby-traps and psychological warfare all of which sickened both Fi and myself but the Don also. To Jason, this was the way he always fought but then, the man had a history of that sort of fighting so he knew what he was doing.

During the Vietnam War, I believe that he was the only American soldier who actually understood the Viet-cong and had sympathy for them. It didn’t stop him from killing them in droves, he just didn’t hate them.

Finally, Ben-Den asked us to sail to Bu-Lur and talk to the king before he sent a force to be massacred. Jason mentioned the Aztec army being destroyed by Cortez and a few dozen Conquistadors with less powerful weapons that they now faced and that scared the Don. Jason didn’t want to sail up the river with a small crew but Ben-Den insisted that the Dhow would impress the king as much as our rifles would so we questioned everyone who had traveled that river and Jason thought we ‘might’ be able to do it which means he had already figured out how and with a bunch of the guests from yesterday to help out, we took off up the river.

It wasn’t a fun trip with Jason worried all the time and panicking over every rock and sand bar but we made it and he docked at the first opportunity. “I refuse to take a chance upstream against that current and in those canyons,” he explained. “We are safe here so here we stay!” Jason is far from a coward and never overextends his abilities unless it’s to save a friend so if he said we dock, I was willing to support him. I did try to point out to him a pride of ja, the spotted lions that were native to Pal-ul-Don but he just glanced and returned to the trip which terrified me because on normal times, he’d stand by the rail, watch them and then expound on the genetic diversity that would produce such a pelt.

We talked to the king and his advisors and then Jason sacrificed a dozen rounds to prove to the king that his army would be killed long before they reached club range. None of the Don wanted to deal with them until Yo and Pan came forward and begged, “Gund, please listen to Jay-Son. Pan-Sad-Bu and I were prisoners of evil Tand-at-don like these and they did horrible things to their prisoners.” Then they went into detail. And as the did so, you could see the resolve of the chiefs to do whatever it took to stop the raiders.

Lul-Dan commanded, “Jay-Son, I place you as bar-gund for this war. You know of these invaders and their weapons and know how to stop them. All will obey your orders as if they came from me. Go and do what you must.”

So we traveled with an army of sorts. Lul-Dan was still collecting his main army from the various cities so we left with what he could spare and we almost ran to meet our doom. Fortunately, Jason insisted on changing clothes on the way and Fi and I took the opportunity to change too. Those golden breastplates may be sexy, but they weighed a ton and I didn’t want to have to run in them.

When we reached the river or rather stream, Jason left us in charge and ran ahead with a force to do what damage he could. Fi and I looked over the stream and the terrain and figured out that an army would choose the path of least difficulty which meant near the lake but far enough off it to have level, dry ground. South was rocks and marsh, north were hills and dense forest so they would try to keep as close to the lake as possible to avoid getting lost. This area was flat and had an excellent view of the terrain so any enemy attacking them would have to cross open grassland where their rifles would give them a military advantage. Hanging with Jason did teach us a lot.

“What do you think?” I asked Fi.

“If I were an army, I’d cross here but to stop them I’d want them to cross there. Downstream.”

“I agree,” I said. Then I gave the order to place rocks and dead trees along the stream here to give the impression of a rough crossing. Then we stomped the grass towards our chosen spot to make it look like a natural ford. We placed slippery rocks below the surface to encourage broken legs and had the Don make blinds in the trees where they could hide unseen. We also sent men to the field to dig holes and place sharpened sticks in the bottom. These were nasty things but when fighting for survival, anything goes and we had listened to Yo and Pan describe the gang rapes too and had seen the slaves in the hold. No matter that these were a different race entirely, why take chances for as Jason would say, ‘it they wanted to live, let them stay home’.

We also had more venomous snakes collected to plant along the line of march and built rock hide-behinds for us. We worked all night and by afternoon broke off because we began to hear gunfire in the distance. Our best warriors I sent into the trees to hide in the blinds because Jason said that humans rarely look up. Then the rest we stationed along the river in holes and Fi and I waited. Eventually we saw the Sudanese army marching. “Let me see, Di,” Fi asked as she took my binoculars. “The scouts reported more than a hundred, I count less than half that. Jason has been busy.”

We sent the snake handlers to crawl through the grass to hide the snakes under leaves until they were stepped on. And when another groups arrived with a couple jato, those saber tooth tiger-lions that were so terrible that even the Don were scared of them, we had them placed, still tied up in the line of march.

We saw the leader on horseback survey the field then direct his army to our position. Good! He saw what we wanted him to see. Soon after his men began to scream as they stepped into the foot-falls. Their march faltered and shooting erupted as the Sudanese fired at imaginary enemies. Then the leader ordered another march and suddenly I saw a cloud of red erupt from his head and he fell from his horse, which panicked and ran away.

There was confusion for some time then the march continued until they ran into more snakes and more traps. Finally we saw Jason’s men stand and run as fast as they could. The Sudanese fired at them but I think the Don outran the bullets and a moment later we saw why. The jato had chewed their way to freedom and had attacked the nearest thing which were the Sudanese raiders. I almost felt sorry for them because so many died before they were able to kill the jato.

Finally Jason and his men opened fire on the survivors who broke and ran for the stream. They reached it and saw how much brush was on our side and so took cover on their side behind rocks and trees and fired back. From their position, they had cover and guns while Jason had one rifle and a bunch of club-wielding savages. So as they settled in, Fi and I and the Don with bows opened fire from their rear and decimated their numbers again. The Raiders changed position to face both directions and aside from an occasional shot, they were safe. So I gave the order and the Don they never saw dropped from the trees and took over with clubs and knives. Within a minute it was over and the only living were our people.

Jason walked up happy as he always was when a plan went well, kissed us both in that way that make my knees weak (I wish he’d do that more often) and directed a clean-up of their raiders weapons and gear. Then we casually returned to the city in triumph where Jason showed the Don how to use the captured muskets and rifles. I was still sore from the night before last but took Ben aside to celebrate anyway. Really, who needs to walk anyway.

After leaving the tunnel with all that worthless gold, Jay-Son seemed to forget about his desire to explore. Yo-Bal-Lee saw him looking off to the jungle towards the vault but he never complained, never accused, he simply decided that his needs weren’t as important as returning the remaining women to their homes. Her husband would have complained for days. But then, her husband would have bragged for days over some of the grand things Jay-Son did too. And for the next three days Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu talked about Jay-Son and his wives.

Jay-Son did strange things that made sense only when he explained them, like how he knew how fast the boat was moving by tossing something over the side and counting how many heartbeats it took for the boat to pass it completely, or how to look at a tree on the shore and then look at it again later and tell how far they were from the shore and how far they had traveled. Pan-Sad-Bu said after one of these lectures, “He makes my head hurt with all this wisdom he possesses. His wives must be so proud to be married to such a great warrior and kind and wise man.”

“I am certain that he is taking us home.” Said Yo-Bal-Lee one day. “Now that the other black women are home and the hold is again full with fresh food, he sails north and if we follow the shore, we will eventually reach home.”

“Then you will be with your family and I with my suitors.” cried Pan-Sad-Bu. “What tales I shall tell of our journey. We are learning things like sailing and the stars and people that not even our wisest men know. People will seek us for our knowledge and admire us. So why are you sad?”

Yo-Bal-Lee couldn’t put it into words. “Jay-Son is such a wonderful man. He is everything a woman would want in a husband. And I find myself comparing him to my own and Jay-Son comes off ahead and that’s not fair. Sometimes... I wish he and I were free to marry and then I’d work very hard to make him happy.”

One day the Don were serving dinner and Yo-Bal-Lee said to Fee-Ona, “I made something special for your husband today. I hope you aren’t angry with me for that.”

“Husband?” she said. “Jason and I aren’t married. I’m divorced from my ex, Diane is a widow and Jason, well the less said the better but he's not married either. What gave you the idea we were married?”

Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu looked at her and said, “but you sleep with him as a wife. Why would you do that if you weren’t married?”

Di-Ann remarked, “Why should I have to be married to enjoy sex? I enjoy the experience, he enjoys it and it relaxes all three of us. Oh there was once a time when I thought of marriage, but that time passed and we are now close friends who enjoy each other’s company in and out of bed.”

Pan-Sad-Bu commented on the strangeness of the situation, “Among us, a woman sleeps only with her husband and never anyone else.”

Then Fee-Ona asked, “And does a husband sleep only with his wife?”

Yo-Bal-Lee said, “Some men who are wealthy and powerful take more than one wife sometimes.”

The Fee-Ona said, “That sounds unfair to me. Why should a man have rights that are denied a woman? When I was younger, my mother told me to be a good girl and if I were lucky a good man would marry me and take care of me. It didn’t happen. My husband and I were unhappy and him divorcing me was great for me. I miss my children but for myself, it opened up a new world. I discovered that I could do anything I wanted and didn’t need a man to take care of me. Jason knows that, and although he cares for us and takes care of us, he still accepts us as equals and for that I love him. Yes, sometimes I make mistakes but then, when I do it is MY doing and not some man who dragged me down with him.”

Yo-Bal–Lee sighed, “I envy you your freedom. We are bound by custom and law. I do as my father wishes and then as my husband wishes then when old and alone as my son wishes. Sometimes, I think that the only difference between my life in Bu-Lur and slavery is that before you rescued us, I could touch the bars of my cage.”

Fee-Ona held Yo-Bal-Lee and looking into her eyes, said, “My dear, on this boat, Jason is the only law and his rule applies only to the ship, not to you or me or anyone. Aside from that, the only chains you wear are the one you lock about your own neck.”

Yo-Bal-Lee thought about this for a while then, turning red with embarrassment, she stood and walked over to Jay-Son who had lowered the anchor for the night and was looking over the lines. As she looked up to him, she said, “I wish to remove my chains now.”

Jay-Son looked at her and said, “What chains? You were freed weeks ago.”

‘That foolish Tand-at-don. Did he see nothing?’ Yo-Bal-Lee mused. It took all her strength, especially with the others watching but she undid her belt buckle, then her back buckle then the ones at her breasts and then her clothing fell to the deck, leaving her naked for the first time with any male other than her husband. Conflicting desires ran through her body but she wanted this and so she took him by his hand and naked, led him to his cabin. There she kissed him for he was as red as she, then she tried to undo his clothing but the fastenings were beyond her so she asked him for help.

He was gentle and yet insistent and truly cared for her pleasure and she had feelings in her body that she thought had died years ago. And after it was over, he even held her.

Pan-Sad-Bu was shocked and tried to tell the Tand-at-don ‘She’s married. She cannot do that! She’s disgracing her family!’ but she couldn’t get the words out, she was so shocked. Then Fee-Ona said, “She is having fun. Everyone deserves some happiness and we don’t mind sharing since he doesn’t belong to us. Besides, it looks like rain and I’d like to wash my clothes.”

Pan-Sad-Bu thought long and hard about this and as it rained and the Tand-At-Don, including Jay-Son washed themselves and their clothing, she asked Yo-Bal-Lee about the experience.

“It was wonderful. I really enjoyed it so much I want to do it again.”

“But aren’t you ashamed? What will your husband and family think?”

Yo-Bal-Lee looked at her friend and said, “They will never know unless you tell them. In Bu-Lur I am married and imprisoned by custom. Here we are as free as are Fee-Ona and Di-Ann. Maybe my husband has taken another wife thinking I am dead. Maybe tomorrow we may die, so today I will be happy and free and do whatever I wish and not care who knows. Please be happy for me.”

Pan-Sad-Bu thought this over and that night, she entered Jay-Son’s cabin before Yo-Bal-Lee or the others could and asked him to pleasure her too. When they were done, she lay there listening to his heard and pretending it was talking to her, she thought that for her first time, it was fun. Next time she’ll try harder to give him some of the pleasure he gave her. She couldn’t sleep and as he was fast asleep, she left and sat on the deck in the moonlight thinking about what her body felt like and what his felt like and if her own people were the same.. down there, and she found herself singing as she brushed her fur back into place. Yo-Bal-Lee came to her, almost angry and then Pan-Sad-Bu asked, “Was your first time wonderful too? My fur still smells like him.”

Yo-Bal-Lee melted then and said, “No, my dearest friend. My first time was more a struggle because neither if us knew what to do, then it became pleasure when we learned each other, but now it is a chore with an occasional rare pleasure. It is nice to be with a man that cares how we feel. I can see how Fee-Ona and Di-Ann share him. I just don’t understand why they share him.”

For days the Dhow sailed north then east, following the coast and seeking Pal-ul-Don. Both Don enjoyed the trip and did as they pleased. Some days they didn’t dress and sometimes Jay-Son would anchor near a stream and they’d strip naked and swim and play in the water then one of the women would attack Jay-Son and they’d make love not caring if their friends watched or not. If there was a heaven, thought Yo-Bal-Lee, this must be it.

Then one day after exploring a river, Jay-Son decided that they should turn about and head west for he believed that Pal-ul-Don lay in that direction, when the storm struck. Jay-Son had dropped the anchor and insisted that they tie the dhow to a number of trees and keep it away from the mouth of the river. He was nervous so the women quickly ran to bring ropes and they made the dhow fast to a number of trees and they also covered the hold with mating to deflect the rain over the side. Then after taking as many precautions as they could, they waited out the storm in the cabin singing songs and enjoying the warmth as the wind and rain rocked the boat.

After the sky calmed down, they cleaned the dhow, bailed the hold, checked for damage and saw a mighty tree in the water feet from the hull. “Had we not been aside the river, that tree would have sank us.” Explained Jay-Son.

A couple days later they saw some men waving at then from the coast. Jay-Son had the sail furled and as they slowed to a stop, he commented, “Looks like they got caught in that storm. They probably lost their food and supplies. We should check them out.”

Fee-Ona answered “Be careful, it may be a trap! We should go with you.”

“I thought I was the cynical one?” Jay-Son replied but he allowed us all to enter the canoes and paddle to the shore though he did insist we all were armed. Fee-Ona and Di-Ann carried their swords and guns as did Jay-Son but Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee only carried knives.

On the shore the men greeted the sailors with warmth and gratitude though none could understand the other until Jay-Son spoke Arabic which most understood. They had been separated from their friends in the storm, their bowstrings and gunpowder and food had been soaked and they were hungry and seeking the rest of their friends when they saw the sail. Jay-Son offered to give them some supplies then Di-Ann saw more men come from the trees. “Jason,” she warned. “I see them,” he responded. “I think it is time to return to the Recovery.”

The small group was leaving when one of the men grabbed Yo-Bal-Lee by her arm and demanded they remain. She saw a flash and the man fell screaming as blood spurted from the severed end of his arm. Yo-Bal-Lee panicked and pulled the hand from her arm as Jay-Son turned to face the men and said very calmly, “Return to the ship, weigh anchor and prepare to leave, I’ll be there shortly. Di, Fi, the Don and the ship are your responsibility.”

Di-Ann and Fee-Ona took Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu and hurried them to the canoes, slowing only long enough to kill a man who stood between them and freedom. Pan-Sad-Bu insisted that they remain to help Jay-Son but Di-Ann screamed, “He can take care of himself. We need to make certain that the ship is ready to go so we can escape.”

Pan-Sad-Bu managed to look back from the canoe and would never forget what she saw. Jason was calmly walking to the shore killing anyone who stood in his way. They fell like grass before him, never standing a chance and he moved as if he were dancing, his sword weaving like smoke. Pan-Sad-Bu had watched a water snake in a pond following and eating tadpoles and this was like that. Not a fight, but simply a predator killing it’s natural prey with no wasted motion.

Then Jay-Son then stepped into the remaining canoe and calmly paddled back to the dhow ignoring the screams of the dying. Once aboard, he then stripped and asked for a bucket of water to wash the blood off

As they were under sail and away from the shore, Jay-Son called them together had said, “I blame myself for this. I should have taught you two how to defend yourselves. I cannot teach you to become warriors as are Diane and Fiona but I can teach you a few tricks that may save your life.”

Then he called Fee-Ona forward and took her by the arm. She turned, struck his upper ribs then as he let go, she took his wrist and twisted it so Jay-Son fell to his knees in pain. “Ok, Fi, enough, you … ouch! Enough! Let me go!”

She easily held him with one hand and seemed to exert no effort as she smiled and said, “Are you sorry for being such an ass?”

“Yes! I’m sorry!”

“And are you going to give me a foot rub tonight?”

“Owww! Yes, whatever! Fi… owwww.”

Fe-Ona released him and said, “It only takes a small pressure to make any man your bitch! Don’t worry dear, I’ll make you feel good tonight… after my foot rub.”

Jay-Son taught them a number of ways to force a stronger man to release him from pull-and-jerk to driving their thumbs into the small upper ribs and how to grab and twist a wrist to cause excruciating pain. “Kicking a man between the legs works, sometimes. Most men learn how to protect that area and many wear padding and armor there, and even if you connect, the pain is short lived, but a wrist-lock hurts more and goes on forever.”

Days of pleasant sailing followed then they saw a fishing canoe from Pal-ul-Don and moving in close, Jay-Son hailed the boat and had Yo-Bal-Lee calm them down and determine the safety of the situation. The Don, Ben-Sar and Mu-Lot tied their canoe to the dhow and climbed on board. Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee didn’t think they were particularly attractive but Fee-Ona and Di-Ann couldn’t stop staring. Fee-Ona said something about a sandwich which was when Jay-Son put meat and cheese between two pieces of bread but why Fee-Ona would be hungry at that time escaped the Don.

Jay-Son showed them the dhow and learned that As-Lur was close and as it came into sight, the fishermen returned to their canoe and paddled away to prepare for the Dhow. Both the Don women stared ahead, happy to be home and straining to see if they could recognize anyone on shore.

As soon as the dhow was tied off, Yo-Bal-Lee called out, “Jay-Son…”

“Go! Your family awaits!” and she ran off leaving Pan-Sad-Bu behind for her family was up in Bu-Lur and she had no reason to go anywhere yet.

When she reached her father’s house, she burst in crying for her parents, then almost knocked her mother over with the force off her embrace.

“Yo-Bal-Lee!” Her mother cried, “Where have you been? Pele-Sad has been worried and so have we. You came to visit then vanished with your Waz-Don friend. Where have you been?”

Yo-Bal-Lee sat and explained, “Pan-Sad-Bu and I went to the shore and helped an old man with his fishing. But we got blown too far south and were captured by Tand-at-don slavers who killed our host and took us prisoner. Then three Tand-at-don, Jay-Son, Dee-Ona and Di-Ann were attacked by the slavers and they killed the evil men and rescued us and the slaves. Then Jay-Son taught us how to sail and we returned all the prisoners to their homes and Jay-Son killed some bandits that tried to take me and ….” She did keep certain personal things a secret, things that would hurt her mother or husband and asked that they find her father and brothers to let them know she was safe.

Her mother sent Aden-Ho-Jato, her sister, to the fields to find her brothers and then the two went to the shore to tell her father the good news. Once the family was together, Yo-Bal-Lee had to tell the story again as they went to the river to see the dhow. They had to force their way past the crowd that had gathered and her father said, “That is the biggest canoe in the world, how do they paddle it?”

After Jason showed her parents the boat, and Di-Ann and Fee-Ona did the same for her brothers, he explained that they must have dinner with the gund but he was concerned about leaving the dhow alone and unattended. Her father immediately ordered both his sons to remain on board and watch the boat though all were jealous that their daughter would be at the palace that night.

The dinner at the palace was everything that Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu had dreamed of. Every important person in the city from the battle-chiefs to the priestesses of the temple were there and they were the center of attention.

Although the party was to last late, Jay-Son begged off early for he was tired as were the rest and reluctantly, both Don took them to Ben-Un’s home where the Tand-at-don slept in her brother’s room while she and Pan-Sad-Bu slept with her sister Aden-Ho-Jato. But before they fell asleep, A-ad-Ro told Yo-Bal-Lee that she had sent word to Pele-Sad that his wife was safe and he should come fast. Yo-Bal-Lee cried, “Mother, I’m not ready to see him yet!” but the deed as done.

The next morning when they awoke, Yo-Bal-Lee decided that they needed to dress decently. Wearing just cloth was acceptable on the boat but in a city, they should dress as civilized people and so they tried to adjust some extra furs and harness to fit. Unfortunately, Jay-Son was a bit taller but smaller in body than her brothers and neither woman would fit in Yo-Bal-Lee’s breastplates. Di-Ann was big but Fee-Ona was huge! Pan-Sad-Bu joked, “Jay-Son always did like that part of a woman.” So they decided to do the best they could and find a dresser that would make breastplates that would fit. The Tand-at-don women spent some time putting make-up on their faces, far more than any Ho-Don would wear and when Jay-Son saw them, he just stood there in shock.

He said something in their native language that made the Don women glad that no one else could understand their words. Then they left, keeping to the shadows and the women complaining that their bare feet hurt. But they found the harness-maker and the women were dressed properly with breast-plates that fit, decent jewelry and although their furs were of deer, they did look nice. The group them toured the city for much was new to them all.

Finally when the sun was high, Yo-Bal-Lee suggested that they return for a nap during the hottest part of the day and all returned to her parents house where Pele-Sad was waiting. Despite her confused feelings, she allowed him to hug her and kiss her and even to take her to her sister’s room where he said, “I missed you so much. I was terrified that you were dead then I thought you had run away because I was never home. I’ll change, I promise! I’ll work hard and make our life what we wanted it to be!” He was very gentle and finally she gave in and even enjoyed his love-making. As she fell asleep in his arms, she wondered if she had learned to enjoy sex because of Jay-Son or just because Pele-Sad was so kind after such a long time. Whatever the reason, she relaxed and fell asleep smiling in her husband’s arms.

Pan-Sad-Bu was settling down in the family room with Aden-Ho-Jato who had been banished there because her sister needed some privacy with her husband and as the Ho-Don fell asleep, Di-Ann appeared, dressed as a Ho-Don but wearing only the very thin skin which was usually worn under the breastplates. She asked the Waz-don about the man with her friend and Pan-Sad-Bu explained that “He is Pele-Sad, her husband of three years. The marriage wasn’t happy because, well, just because and he spends more time with his friends than with his wife.”

Di-Ann cried out, “Yo is absolutely gorgeous. Who would want to spend any time at all away from her? And her husband is the most beautiful and sexy man I’ve ever seen. Just looking at him makes my knees weak. I’d marry him just so I could touch that body!”

Pan-Sad-Bu laughed and said, “Beauty is good and makes a woman proud but it doesn’t always go with compassion. Jason might not be as beautiful because he is built more like a boy than a man, but look at all he has done for us, all the men he killed to protect us. He works hard to make us comfortable and made personal sacrifices to get us home. Don’t interrupt please, I saw him at Ophir. He really wanted to go into that jungle but he had responsibilities and he chose us over his own desires and never made us feel guilty over that. He is gentle and compassionate and kind to us and still terrible to his enemies. He killed that man because he touched Yo-Bal-Lee without her permission. I’ve heard you all talk about his children. He is a wonderful father who gave up his own life for his children until they were old enough to care for themselves. I wish more men were like him.”

“Yes,” Di-Ann said. “Those things made me fall in love with him and I should have married him then but now it’s too late. We are best friends and I still enjoy him in bed but the time when we could be husband and wife is over. Still,” she sighed, “I do wish he were as handsome as Yo’s brothers or husband. I wonder what they would be like in bed?”

“I don’t have anything to compare him to. Jay-Son was my first and only lover and Yo-Bal-Lee’s second,” she whispered in my ear. “Please don’t tell anyone for it would disgrace us both.”

Di-Ann whispered back, “We girls will always have secrets from men. Now I have to talk to Jason and calm him down. One of the duties of a woman is to keep their men happy and in a blissful state of fantasy.”

Pan-Sad-Bu could tell that Jay-Son wasn’t happy with his talk and shortly after all awoke, he insisted on returning to the dhow to check it over. He said that the boat was old and had taken them this far because of tender care and it would need more such to travel the remaining distance. Somehow she had never thought that they would be leaving and the thought made her sad. They five had been through a lot together, seen sights she hadn’t dreamed existed and done things no Don would believe. And now it would end and she’d have to return to her old life which was little more than waiting to marry. A few months ago, the idea of picking which suitors to accept and which to send away thrilled her but now, after seeing how Fee-Ona and Di-Ann lived their life, she realized that she could be more than her mother.

Pan-Sad-Bu watched Jay-Son dress and carry his weapons to the shore so when Yo-Bal-Lee awoke, she tried to take her aside and express her new thoughts, but her friend had that look she had when she first married and was happy. She wanted to spend all her time with her husband and didn’t listen too much to anyone else. So she spent the day talking to the Tand-at-Don and explaining to them about Bu-Lur and Pal-ul-Don and eventually she got them dressed properly and took them on another tour of the city.

When they returned for dinner, Jay-Son had arrived too and Pan-Sad-Bu seemed to be the only one there who saw how all were. Yo-Bal-Lee sat with Pele-Sad and they laughed and smiled as they did before. Di-Ann and Fee-Ona flirted with Yo-Bal-Lee’s brothers and her father kept Jay-Son busy answering questions about the outside world. His wife would ask the Tand-at-Don women about their lives and when they discovered that Fee-Ona was divorced and not the least ashamed of the disgrace, they didn’t know what to say. It was easier to accept Di-Ann’s husband dying in a war for that was a common event in Pal-ul-Don. Then when it was discovered that none of the three were married, the family was even more shocked.

Jay-Son did drink too much beer and then begged off, saying he wanted to sleep aboard the Recovery because the house was getting too crowded. Di-Ann kissed him good-night and joked about him snoring all night and he’d scare away the fish and they had one of their play-fights that embarrassed the Don for no woman of Pal-ul-Don would say such a thing to her husband, and yet, both Fee-Ona and Di-Ann and Jay-Son would make such jokes and still be the best of friends. It was unimaginable that they could be so.

Once Jay-Son was gone, Di-Ann responded to a question, “We’re the best of friends. He’d die for us and we’d do the same for him, but married? No! He and I were mated for a few years and planned to marry but something happened and I threw him out in anger. Then some months later Sulieman kidnapped Tears, another friend and hurt Fiona and I had no choice but to call for help. Fortunately, Jason is the world’s most forgiving man and forgot the past and returned to rescue Tears, heal Fi and kill Sulieman and his army. We became friends again and occasional lovers but marriage was no longer an option. He dates and beds whomever he wishes and so do I!” Pan-Sad-Bu saw her look directly at Ben-Sar when she said this.

Di-Ann and Fee-Ona asked the brothers to walk with them outside and see the stars but the night was overcast and Yo-Bal-Lee and Pele-Sad had gone off to talk alone so Pan-Sad-Bu was left by herself. There were Waz-Don in the city but she didn’t feel like seeking them out, though those who had heard of her had made their interests plain. Somehow, her travels had made the flirtations of the men less desirable. She hoped that would change because she knew that the only place she could marry would be Pal-ul-Don though she now knew that she wasn’t ready to marry yet. She wanted to see more of the world first.

She lay in the family room with Aden-Ho-Jato as earlier and saw Yo-Bal-Lee and Pele-Sad return to her sister’s room. Then later Fee-Ona and Mu-Lot snuck into his room and just as the door closed, she saw them hang a wall mat between his and his brother’s bed. Obviously, Fee-Ona had intentions that the family didn’t want to know. About an hour later, Di-Ann and Ben-Sar snuck in and Pan-Sad-Bu heard some mumbling as the new arrivals surprised the former occupants. The Waz-Don lay there in the darkness trying to not laugh at what had happened. A month ago, she would have been horrified, now she was simply amused.

Later she heard the rain fall and decided to watch the raindrops strike the street and as she did, she remembered the patterns on the sea as they drifted miles from shore imagining pictures on the water. She then took a woven mat and using it as a rain-shield, ran to the dhow to see that Jay-Son was ok. The man did stagger as he left the house.

When she climbed on board, she was glad she had for he was fast asleep, snoring as the rain struck. The cold water was waking him up but she pushed and pulled until he was aware and she got him out of the hammock and into the cabin. He complained that he needed to pee and as she had seen him do that often enough, she ignored him as she removed her clothing and hung her furs to dry. Then when he returned, again wet, she told him to strip and hang his clothes and she watched him do this as she combed her fur dry. Waz-Don stank when wet so they took pains to remain dry and clean.

Jay-Son watched her and she felt a twinge of embarrassment at being watched during her grooming then when his interest became evident, her embarrassment turned to pleasure and she handed him the comb and told him, “I cannot do my back, please comb my hair and back fur and don’t forget my tail, I think I have a beautiful tail, don’t you? Ben-Sar and Mu-Lot remained at home so I knew you were here alone and I was afraid you’d get wet and catch cold. I wish Yo-Bal-Lee would divorce Pele-Sad because he said he would change but men never do. They talk always but return to the way they were. Are you like that? I know you and Di-Ann were mated and she left you for some reason but you seem to be friends now so you must have changed a bit for her to still love you. The family of Yo-Bal-Lee were shocked to find Fee-Ona was divorced and you and Di-Ann are still lovers even though you two are divorced too. I think it’s wonderful to be friends with your former wives. But I still think that Yo-Bal-Lee should divorce Pele-Sad. I know your people don’t see it as a disgrace but we do. I wish my suitors had come her to see me back. Maybe they all married or think that I am too worldly for them now. It’s their loss for I know I am pretty and have a lot to offer a man, don’t you think so? Scratch me there, lower, yes that’s the place. I love watching the rain fall and hearing it strike the cabin roof. And the boat rocking makes me feel like I’m being held in my mother’s arms. I miss my mother, why don’t you ever talk about your mother? You can never tell anyone about you sleeping with Yo-Bal-Lee or me even. If you did we’d all be disgraced and Pele-Sad would have to challenge you to a death-fight and I know you’d win easily so then her father then her brothers would have to challenge you and it would hurt Yo-Bal-Lee when you killed her family like that so never tell anyone. Are you going to let me talk all night or are you going to kiss me and love me instead?”

Pan-Sad-Bu awoke and began to make breakfast for Jay-Son as did Yo-Bal-Lee for Pele-Sad and she was cooking when one of the palace guards arrived to remind Jay-Son that he had promised to demonstrate their weapons that morning. He agreed and said he’d collect his weapons and Pan-Sad-Bu was afraid he’d try to kiss her in public but instead he called to her, “Pan! Where did you put my hat when you cleaned up yesterday?”

She said, “on the wall, like always! Men! I’ll find it for you!” And they passed as he handed a box of bullets and a rifle to the guard asking him to put them on the dock while he fetched the other carbines. Inside, he did grab Pan-Sad-Bu and kissed her soundly in private then let her go and taking his hat, left with the remaining rifles. “Pan, would you please remind Diane and Fiona about the demo? Thank you!” and then walked away with the guard as she ran off to Ben-Un’s house to pass the message.

When she arrived, she called for Dee-Ona and Di-Ann and told them about the domo then Yo-Bal-Lee took her aside and said, “Wash up, your fur smells like Jay-Son.” But she smiled as she did so. “I hope he washed himself or everyone would smell you on him too.”

The entire family accompanied Fee-Ona and Di-Ann to the field and watched as they placed gourds and fruits on poles at long distances, too far for a thrown club. Then Jay-Son talked for too long about the weapons until Di-Ann whispered to him. So he loaded his gun and destroyed the targets within seconds. All the Don were impressed and the older warriors were concerned that this weapon would end their way of life forever. The Gund came up and talked to Jay-Son for a while then Di-Ann interrupted and suggested that they look over the dhow.

Jay-Son called for Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee to help and with Yo-Bal-Lee’s family and the gund and his chiefs, all traveled to the dhow and Jay-Son had the girls teach the Don what they were doing. They pushed off, turned about and unfurled the sail to head west along the coast. Jay-Son quickly moved a mile offshore to get maneuvering room and he and the girls showed the guests everything they could about the dhow and answered their questions as to construction and navigation. It was clear that Ben-Den was thinking of building or buying a fleet of these boats.

Within a couple hours, Ben-Den directed the Recovery to approach shore and he then climbed the mast and yelled at those of A-Lur who lived in the coastal city of Lul-Lur. Then after he was certain that he had been recognized, he allowed the dhow to move back to deeper water until the approached Jato-Lur, the westernmost Ho-Don city.

Finally Jay-Son suggested they return before it got too dark as sailing a dhow in unfamiliar waters in the dark was dangerous. So he turned around and explained why they needed to tack against the wind, which was why some boats carried oars, large paddles, to enable them to travel against the wind or when the sky was calm.

It was dark as they approached and Jay-Son asked Ben-Den to call for torches at the sea-wall so he could see as he docked. Then he tacked past the river, turned and came in to dock with nary a bump.

All left the boat happy and discussing the uses of such a vessel save Jay-Son who decided to remain aboard again to avoid the crowding at Yo-Bal-Lee’s house and Pan-Sad-Bu offered to remain behind to help lay the boat up for it would rain again that night.

Yo-Bal-Lee saw Di-Ann and Fee-Ona walk close to her brothers and she thought,’ wouldn’t it be wonderful if they married and we were all sisters.’ It rained hard that night and kept everyone indoors so Pan-Sad-Bu spent another pleasant evening aboard the dhow. She never considered it as love, but simply something enjoyable to do until she was ready to marry.

The next morning a runner for the palace arrived at Ben-Un’s house to call the Tand-at-don to counsel. A large army of well-armed soldiers were a few days march east and heading for Pal-ul-Don. From the description Yo-Bal-Lee saw in them more of those that Jay-Son had killed far to the east. As she was explaining this to her family, Fee-Ona dressed and ran to the Dhow to fetch Jay-Son who was drying the sail and rigging with Pan-Sad-Bu.

Pan-Sad-Bu heard Fee-Ona describe the foreigners and together they ran to the palace to discuss tactics with the war-council. Jay-Son was trying to explain how some conqueror called Kor-Tez with an army of three dozen conquered the Az-Tek Empire of millions because they had guns and horses and armor and the Az-Teks couldn’t learn new tactics fast enough to survive.

Ben-Den than said, “I want you five to see Lul-Dan, my Gund in Bu-Lur and tell him these things. Show him your weapons and convince him to learn how to fight these invaders while we still have a chance. Between your dhow and your guns, he must listen.

Jay-Son didn’t believe they could sail up the river but after questioning the paddlers who traveled the river daily, he agreed to try. So with Pele-Sad, Ben-Sar, Mu-Lot and a number of others, they set out. The trip was almost frightening as Jay-Son took no chances and tacked from bank to bank fearing stoving in his hull on a rock or getting stuck in the sand, but finally when they reached the southern edge of the city, Jay-Son called for a halt and had the dhow pulled to shore and tied off. He explained that the current between the cliffs was too strong and would break the anchor and send the Recovery into the lake so best they remain here where the current was gentler, even if they had to walk a ways.

It seemed that the only person worried about the trip was Jay-Son. Di-Ann said, “If he was that worried, he would have refused to come. The very fact that he agreed to try means that he knows he can do it safely.” And she spent much of the voyage watching the shore with Ben-Sar and pointing out the sights that Jay-Son refused to see.

Lul-Dan was waiting for the group but didn’t believe what they had said despite the evidence of the guns and the dhow until Pan-Sad-Bu and Yo-Bal-Lee fell the floor before him and begged an audience. “Gund, we were prisoners of slavers like these raiders. They shot to death an old man and started to skin his body until they changed their mind. We were stripped naked and caged and forced to watch these men drag helpless young girls from a hold used as a toilet. Then these poor girls were held down and the men took turns raping them over and over until they were done, then they threw the girls, bleeding and crying, back into their chains. Their weapons were terrible and only the strength and courage of Jay-Son and Di-Ann and Fee-Ona and their superior guns stopped these men.” Cried Yo-Bal-Lee.

Pan-Sad-Bu continued, “If you fight facing them as is our custom, you will die long before you see their eyes then what will happen to us and your daughters? For the sake of we, your wives and daughters, you must listen to Jay-Son for he has fought these kind many times before. Please Gund, use Jay-Son as you would your own advisors and believe that he means only to help us for we spent a month with him and never did he show us harm and expressed only respect.”

Lul-Dan agreed to watch their guns in action and the demonstration convinced him that he needed to use different ways of war to defend his land and people. So as they talked of how they would fight this enemy, Yo-Bal-Lee returned to her home with Pele-Sad and prepared for the coming war. She made him meals and ensured that his leather was in good order as he cleaned his knife and club. She thought that this was the hard part. Once in battle, her husband wouldn’t have time to think of her but she must remain here to worry for him. Would he live or die or return a cripple? Glory never concerned her, only his safety. With Jay-Son leading the band, victory was certain but at what cost? Finally, when they could do no more, she did what every wife should, took him to bed and sent him off with a smile and a pleasant memory.

Pan-Sad-Bu returned to her home in the Kor-ul-Bu cliffs above the city for Bu-Lur had both caves and buildings to house the Waz and Ho population. There she met with one of her former suitors who announced, “Pan-Sad-Bu! I go to fight these invaders and will return with glory and booty to lay at your feet.”

“Rather,” she responded, “You return with your head on your shoulders. Men who fight for glory die and leave their widows to try to feed their starving children alone.”

He laughed and bragged, “I am the best warrior in the Kor! I am not afraid and my love for you will keep me safe.”

“Then why did you not come to As-Lur when you heard I was back? You were sniffing the tail of my sister and the thought of me never entered your mind. I can do better than you. You may no longer court me.”

“Pan-Sad-Bu, when I return, covered with glory, you WILL marry me!” he insisted.

She laughed at him, “I? Marry you? Do you forget who we are? Waz-Don women choose their husbands. I am no Ho-Don to await my father to choose a suitable husband to care for me! I choose whom I would wed and the only thing you will return covered in is fleas. Be gone lest I scratch you from my fur!”

She had goaded him too far and he grabbed her to force a kiss upon her lips. Before another could interfere, she had jabbed her thumb into his upper ribs and as he released her, she took a hand and twisted, sending him to his knees in agony. “See how I, a woman, make you scream like a child. If you cannot take me, how can you take the life of an enemy? How can you feed my and my children. No, your value as a suitor is long past. Go, that I may allow a real man to court me.” And when she released him, he slunk away amidst the laughter of his fellows. Pan-Sad-Bu was glad for this for none of the Tand-at-don had taught her what could happen next. She would have to remedy this oversight.

So for the next few hours, she was the center of attention, men begging for her hand and promising her pelts and jewelry until their leader called out, “Come! We must help our Ho-Don brothers defeat this menace and save our women, though perhaps Pan-Sad-Bu would like to lead us into battle? She seems to have the heart of a jato herself.” Al the men laughed at this and the thought released the fears that had been growing for laughter is sometimes an excellent medicine for fears of the liver.

When the men left, the women and children gathered around and asked about her adventures and so she spent that day and evening telling tales and being the center of attention. When the men returned and heard what she had experienced, many would be the young man who sought to marry her.

Pan-Sad-Bu remained in her Kor that night and the next day worrying about the coming battle for although she had faith in Jay-Son and faith in her own people, together they didn’t give the image that she liked. So she visited friends and relatives and told stories of what she had seen and generally made herself at home.

Yo-Bal-Lee did the same in the city, visiting friends and telling stories and remembering her experiences. Children followed her around and young girls asked, “Was Jay-Son handsome? What did he look like without a tail? You learned to sail like a man? He never forced himself on you?” But always was the fear that he might not duck fast enough and not see the bullet that killed him.

The army returned in victory. They didn’t have much glory and so the celebrations were subdued and those who had fought knew that life would never be the same. Yo-Bal-Lee waited for Pele-Sad to return fearing that he had been killed in the fighting. ‘Where was he?’ she wondered. ‘Wouldn’t Jay-Son tell her if he had died or was hurt?’ It was the not knowing that was the worst. Finally she left her home and went looking for him. It wasn’t difficult to find him. No battlefields needed to be searched, she simply looked at the Pal-e-don-so which he frequented and found him there, half-drunk already.

She walked up to him and asked, “Are you coming home to me? Or remaining with your friends?”

He focused, with a bit of effort, then looked at the other men and said, “I am celebrating! We won and I wish to celebrate our victory!”

She looked into his eyes and said, “I would rather you had decided to celebrate with me.” Then she turned and left. She wanted him to follow and at the door, she turned to look back and saw him arguing with his friends, knowing he should leave but afraid of loosing face to his friends and being called a ‘woman’s man’! Jay-Son would never have worried about what others thought, he would have cared what his wife thought and wished. Her mind finally made up, she returned home, packed her belongings and wrote a long letter to him. It took a very long time for the Don language is cumbersome to write and she needed to wipe her eyes often but the entire letter could have been said in three words, “I’m divorcing you!” Then she left.

When she arrived at the Recovery, she tossed her belonging on deck, climbed in after and interrupted Fee-Ona and Mu-Lot sleeping on deck. Their lack of clothes showed that they had been celebrating themselves. Inside the cabin, she found Di-Ann and Ben-Sar is a similar state so she left her bundle under cover in case it rained and visited the palace where she was admitted based on her being ‘ul-jad-dhow’. She was now famous and respected but would rather have been married and pregnant. She asked where Jay-Son was but the guards didn’t know though they directed her to the apartment he was given and so she sought him there, planning her apology for interrupting him and whomever he was celebrating with. She hoped it would be Pan-Sad-Bu for then she wouldn’t be angry and they could talk when she was done.

She knocked, too lightly, then entered and whispered his name. She wanted to catch him with someone new, someone that would justify her pain but the bed as empty. Doubtless he was in another apartment. Then she heard a noise on the balcony and when she peeked there, she saw Jay-Son sitting alone in the moonlight. “I would have thought you would be celebrating the victory?” she asked as she sat next to him.

“I stopped celebrating death long ago. And a victory, regardless of how justified it was…, those men were evil and needed to die, but they DID have wives who I widowed, children I orphaned and parents I hurt. Life would be so easy if people would only get along with each other. Then I could put my sword away and explore like I want to. Unfortunately, so long as there is greed for wealth and power, people will pay me much wealth to kill someone else for them. I do it simply because in this war, your people were right. All those people would have to do to stay alive was to remain in Sudan with their families. But they chose to leave and seek to steal gold and women that didn’t belong to them.”

She thought then replied, “Maudlin thoughts for a warrior. Why are you not with someone?”

He laughed and misunderstood, “I’m a cheap drunk and don’t enjoy watching other people puke up their beer. So I thought I’d come here and look at your city. Now that the moon has cleared the cliffs, the city is beautiful. All that white stone you build from shines so nice in the moonlight. Were I a painter, I’d capture this image in oils forever. See there, those points of light? People singing and dancing and enjoying life. And over there, the moonlight shining off the river as it flows to the sea.” He stood and walked to the rail, then held his hand to her. She came and he held her close as he pointed out the temple, carved as a gryf or a small building now peeking from behind a taller one. Finally he said to her, “Diane and Fiona are out partying somewhere so I … thank you for sharing this view with me.”

She stood there for a moment then said, “I divorced Pele-Sad tonight.”

He looked at her in shock and said, “Why? You were doing so well together.”

“He chose to celebrate the victory with his friends rather than his wife. What they thought of him was more important than me.”

“He is a very stupid man. I’m sorry for you.”

“I’ll manage somehow. You and Fee-Ona live with divorce, I suppose I can too. At least we didn’t have children or property. My parents will be angry though.”

They watched the city in silence then when she yawned, he took her to bed and kissing her goodnight on the forehead, stood up. She reached for him and said, “You can stay with me.” But he replied, “Not tonight, you’ve been through too much and you need to be certain you don’t make a mistake you will regret. If you still feel like this tomorrow, then…” He smiled, then sat in a couch and was asleep immediately. She watched him there, then undressed and lay next to him and fell asleep herself.

Pan-Sad-Bu danced all night, flirted with a dozen men and chose which ones she’d allow to court her. She was famous and desired and they were now calling her ‘Pan-Sad-Bu-ul-jad-dhow’, Soft Forest Moon of the Dhow. A title! They gave her a title. Only the greatest had a title. She could now choose any man she wished. Finally she fell asleep exhausted and slept in late.

Over the next week, the crew enjoyed their stay in Bu-Lur. Both Ben-Den and Lul-Don were very generous with their gratitude and filled their hold with furs, mattings, jewelry and anything else they saw and admired. Then the girls walked in on Jason pouring over a map he had made.

“Are you planning on leaving soon?” asked Diane.

“I’m trying to figure out the next course. I made this map from memory from one I saw decades ago the library. Some Nazi engineer had the idea that when Hitler conquered the world, he’d build a dam at the mouth of the Congo River here and flood central Africa. The power from the dam would power the entire continent but they lost and it took the Rapture to fill with a mountain slide what he planned to do with concrete. It’s not accurate, no map is, but it gives us an idea of what to do next.

“Here is the Congo Lake with Pal-ul-Don in the north and the villages we visited here, here, here and here. Ophir is here at the mouth of the Zambezi Bay. The Zambezi flows into the Indian Ocean but the river at the Bay is rough and dangerous which is why they beach here and go overland to Kananga. BUT it is possible to get through and then we decide if we want to sail north to the Red Sea or south around the Cape.

“Or we dock at Ophir, carry the gold overland to the stargate and carry it through the Arizona, smuggle it out of the country and go from there.

“Or, we sail up the Chad River to the Chad Sea and I think there is a river here on the east end or here on the west to the Mediterranean. From there we sail to England or Ireland, off load the gold and shift it back in time. If we do that in Ireland, I can deposit it in the Bank of Ireland with few questions then sell it over the next year and transfer the funds to your accounts.

“Each plan has advantages and disadvantages. The Ophir plan gets us home within a week and we turn the Recovery over to the Don. But it also forces us to smuggle the gold out of the US to Switzerland.

“The Zambezi plan has few advantages that I cannot remember and I’d rather not do that one. Our biggest problems will be sailing with only three of us. What do you think?”

Fiona answered first, “Sounds like you want to do the Ireland thing and just want us to agree with you. What about Chicago and the Terminators?”

“If we do Ireland, then we can buy a better ship, one that will cross the Atlantic in comfort and we can portage around Niagara then finish that job from the Lake.”

Yo-Bal-Lee asked then, “Why only the three of you? If you plan to abandon the Recovery, why not give it to us? A crew of Don to go with you, learning along the way, then they bring it back and we use the Dhow to build our own fleet.”

“Because,” I answered, “she’s leaking. Her nails are rusting away and her wood is beginning to rot. She’s not a new boat but is really decades old which is why the slavers had her and the bilges showed how little that cared for her. Had we not had her rebuilt in that Kananga, she wouldn’t have made it this far. She has one last voyage left then she falls apart. Even now, before we leave we’ll need her rebuilt a bit and this will teach your people how to build and sail. I thought about that but frankly, leave her in the Congo and she will live a few more years, take her on an extended voyage, the thousand miles to Britain, and she will probably make it there but not back. Whatever we do is a one-way trip.”

Diane then said, “Britain it is. Once there we can decide on England or Ireland. Are you certain there is a river going north?”

“I’m only guessing here. Once in the Chad, I leave it to your instincts to point the way.”

“Goddess, Jason, I hope you are right about this. With only three of us, we’ll sail only during the day, anchor during any inclement weather and do a lot of magick to help us out. So when do we leave?” Fiona asked.

“We trade whatever gear we have to the Don and rebuild her here or in As-Lur. Re do the hull and replace the hull coating, clean her good and add additional ribs and hull-planking. Load a smaller boom and find another sail. So as to when? It all depends on how long it takes to effect repairs.” He explained.

And so the repairs were made with the Don learning about boat construction as they repaired the dhow. Some of the ribs were rotten and had to be replaced as were some of the hull planks. Nails had to be made and pounded in. The hull scraped and cleaned and re-painted with lime and fat and all sanded smooth.

During this time, Fiona and Diane took apartments nearby and Ben-Sar and Mu-Lot moved in with them to learn the art of ship-building. Jason was depressed at first but got over it with the help of Yo-Bal-Lee who consistently refused to see Pele-Sad. “I gave him a chance, he refused to change and still he parties with his friends. My marriage is over.” So the people of Bu-Lur saw in her as a divorced woman disgraced but now mated to another so her shame was somewhat mitigated.

And Pan-Sad-Bu moved in also to learn about the art for she had dreams of being more than a wife and mother. She realized that with Yo-Bal-Lee’s family to help, she could be a part of the new Bu-Lur navy. She still had many to court her though and few really cared about her relationship with Jason. Or rather, those who did, she forbade to court her. Those who wanted her that much dealt. Then when An-Tan, co-Gund of Bu-Lur began to court her too, her popularity increased. Some of the women called her names behind her back but others admired her freedom and so life generally went on and even Yo-Bal-Lee’s parents got used to their children being mated to Tand-at-don.

Jason wasn’t happy with Pan-Sad-Bu’s new-found love for sex and her occasional explorations into Waz-Don and Ho-Don loving but Fiona told him, “What did you think, You’d have a harem of complacent faithful women? You never asked us to be submissive and encouraged us to be ourselves and now that Pan is being what she wants, you are upset. You taught her about sex, we taught her about birth control and she taught herself about freedom.”

Finally it was done. Jason was going over the packing list for the dhow, “soap, bug netting, water casks, water funnels, bow, arrows, medical kit, fire starter, charcoal,” and so on, all the stuff he hadn’t brought initially because a week trip into a big city simply didn’t require the gear a three month sea voyage needed. They had done much of the work at Bu-Lur then sailed to As-Lur for the final details and with the hold filled and everything packed, only the last, painful details needed to be done.

Fiona said ‘good-bye’ to Mu-Lot and sent him home but Diane had a harder time with her lover until Fiona took her aside, “Di, Jason cannot be casual about sex. He couldn’t bed you until he knew you and cared for you and that caring made him fall in love. He cares for Yo and Pan as much as he does us and you are very much the same. You couldn’t just think of bedding Ben for a good time, you needed to care for him. I’m different because I knew that Mu and I were just about sex. But you have to let him go. Imagine what it would be like for him in LA. The government would kidnap him as a potential alien threat and dissect him just because they can. And even if you kept him free, what would he do in LA? Direct movies? Drive a Limo? Work at a burger joint? The man has NO marketable skills at all nor does he have any of the social skills he would need to survive in LA. The only way you could have him would be for him to be a house-husband, spending most of his time at home. Could you respect him for that? With Yo and Pan it would be different. They were trained to be a housewife so they could live on Jason’s ranch easily with occasional trips into town with him to take care of them but men are different.”

So as much a it hurt, Diane sent Ben-Sar away, both suffering the separation. Jason actually cried when he said ‘goodbye’ to Yo-Bal-Lee and Pan-Sad-Bu. But he explained that the next part of the trip would be another month to two months then another month or two to Chicago which was infested with terminators and there was no guarantee that he could get them home again. He gave them as many gifts as he could spare and ensured that they would be safe and comfortable when he left then as they left the dhow, he turned away to supervise the last of the preparations. Finally, they pushed off and all scanned the shore for their friends as they drifted to the lake and the wind caught the sail. Then they were too busy to do anything else but sail.

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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