“I fully realize I am violating your orders. I know my career will be over whether I succeed or not. But at least I will have done something to try to save my crew. If I fail, you won’t hear from me or my crew again. We don’t expect a rescue. We knew the risks when we took on this mission. The only request I make is that you see if you can pick up our transponder signals when another ship arrives. This is Captain Kathryn Dyson of the U.S.S. Letanya, out.”
She sent the message, and sat back. Pausing just a moment to reflect on the enormity of her undertaking, she rekeyed the signal and started a new message. “Houston, this is U.S.S. Letanya, requesting you send this personal message to the families of the crew.” Kate already could feel the tears burning her eyes. “Brian and Donnie; Bill, Robert and Margaret…” Kate ran down the list of family members of her crew by memory. “I wanted to take this moment to tell you what happened to the crew and how bravely they performed their duties.”
Kate described the pod flights, how everyone was cool under pressure and the brave decision by Commander Egerton to go down alone to attempt a rescue. “I know they all loved you very much. I’m going down now to follow in Allyson’s footsteps and try to bring them all back home to you. I know they would do the same for me or any other crew member. Wish me luck. Captain Dyson, out.”
Kate put the ship into automatic mode, which should keep it in orbit until someone could come along and claim it if she was unable to return. She stopped by sick bay and injected herself with a transponder. She doubted the signal would last a year, but it was the only way a rescue ship could find her. Hell, in a year, they’d probably all be dead anyway.
Kate pulled the last phaser out of its holder and checked to make sure it was fully charged. She moved to the escape pod. There were two pods aboard the shuttle. Each could hold up to three persons, although it would be a tight fit. They were designed for one-way transport down to a planet, or between ships. They had no engine and limited thruster control. A computer aimed the pod at the right angle to bore through the atmosphere, then the chute deployed, carrying the pod to the surface.
To try and aim the pod at the landing site of the second pod would be like trying to score a hole-in-one on a par four. The best Kate could hope for was to land somewhere within a few miles of the site. Even that would be miraculous, considering she’d be flying the aerodynamic equivalent of a stone.
She went to the bridge to check the latest photos.
Chapter 15
“We’ve got to get them to turn on the U.T.s,” Ally said. “If we can communicate with them, we might be able to convince them to let us go.”
“I don’t understand why they weren’t more scared of us,” Jorja said, shifting her position to relieve her aching muscles. “I mean, picture how we’d react if an alien ship landed in Central Park. There’d be screaming in the streets!”
“They don’t seem to be an excitable bunch, that’s for sure. Maybe they’re just very confident.”
Ally wanted to keep the group focused on escape. “OK, barring talking to them or scaring them to death, how do we get out of here? The pod is just sitting there, waiting for us. If we can get just a little lead on them, we can jump in and take off.”
“That won’t work—Greta can’t run,” Beth pointed out.
Ally looked at the commander. Greta was pale. The gash on her head glared red and blue. She opened her eyes upon hearing her name and Ally could tell the light hurt her eyes. That wasn’t a good sign.
“All right. We need to get to our weapons,” Ally said. “Then we can blast our way out. Anyone know where they have them?”
“I think they’re in that bag by Lumpy,” Jorja said, pointing.
“Are our clothes in there too?” Ally asked hopefully.
“No,” Beth said. “They dropped them by the road.”
The bag was about two feet away, but it might as well have been two hundred feet. They couldn’t reach it through the wooden bars of the cage and even if they could, the hulking back of the driver loomed right next to it. He’d break anyone’s arm that came close.
There was nothing the women could do. The cart rolled on. Soon the village came into view. Their hearts sank. What little chance they had would become smaller once they were surrounded by the villagers.
“I wonder what the captain is doing right now?” Ally asked.
“Probably pulling her hair out. She knows where we are—she just has no way of reaching us,” Jorja said.
“I’ll bet she’s burning up the airwaves between here and Earth,” Beth said.
The cart came to the edge of the village. All of the captives except Greta sat up and looked at it with calculating eyes, refusing to give up hope that they’d find a way out. The village was composed of huts, made out of mud bricks, and some crude log cabins. Wide, dusty streets separated the groupings of structures. There were many men, dressed similarly to the ones with them. They strutted like peacocks through the streets. The crew saw women for the first time, walking behind the men, their heads bowed slightly. Many were on leashes! They appeared so small compared to the giants. They were also universally naked.
Villagers paid the captives no attention at first—perhaps they were thought to be just another prisoner transport. Then a man noticed their lack of body hair and lighter complexions and pointed, talking in that melodious language to a companion. Soon others noticed and began to approach the cart. Beth, the anthropologist of the group, observed that the women didn’t take any action on their own, they merely followed the men, even if they weren’t leashed.
Off to the side, near a log building, Beth caught sight of a couple. She stared, unable to believe her eyes. The man was signaling to the woman. She was naked and had wispy hair between her breasts and thicker hair in her armpits, on her pubis, legs and arms. Without hesitation, she braced herself against the building, her head low. The man pulled his loincloth aside and let his erection come free. It was large, but otherwise looked human. Beth couldn’t fathom how the sex organs of these humanoids could be nearly identical to the men of Earth. She also was stunned that she was about to see a couple mate right out here on the street.
Sure enough, the man pressed himself against her from behind and his cock disappeared from view. The woman braced herself as the man began pumping—the same way a man of Earth would, Beth noted. She observed the woman reach down between her legs and rub herself, indicating the women probably had clitorises on this planet, just like the women of Earth.
The cart rolled on before Beth could see any more. She sat back, stunned by the meaning of her observation. The shockwaves would be felt all the way to Earth. If two species separated by such a great distance could be so similar, what did that say about the very fabric of the universe? The vast universe would be a lot more cohesive and organized than anyone previously had thought.
A small crowd gathered as the cart approached the main square. Skinny, walking behind, began answering their questions, waving his arms, his voice rising and falling. Murmurs filtered through the crowd as the man’s words were relayed to newcomers. By the time the cart stopped near a large platform, the crowd had grown to more than fifty. The driver reined in the donkey, then stood. The crowd seemed to fall back slightly. Beth thought Lumpy must be an important figure to the villagers.
He came around to the back and unlocked the cage. There was no chance for the crew to try to overpower him, not with the crowd behind, so they allowed themselves to be taken out, one by one, and let him tie their hands behind them. They were led up the stairs to the platform. Greta limped and staggered, unable to maintain her balance. The man’s partner held her up easily with a large hand wrapped around her upper arm.