"IN HARM'S WAY"
AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
By Robert J. Simmons
Chapter Thirty Nine
"Lorraine's hoisting more sail," Sandra said, the Athena's crew busy at work setting the top sails and the top gallants now. She also had steam up, and was making all the speed that she was able to make. I didn't know what she was trying to "prove", but I had a suspicion as to what it might be. I pushed all three of the "repeaters" to half speed ahead, the engines quickly speeding up to our "normal cruising speed" of seven and a half knots. If Lorraine wanted to make a "race" out of it, I could go to three quarters, which gave nine knots, the highest I usually push it...
"Looks like she's setting stun and stay sails," Carol ob- served, lowering the telescope she had been holding to her eye.
"Go to three quarters," I smiled, Sandra pushing the repeat- ers to three quarters, the beat of the engines growing stronger.
"We might ask her if she needs a tow," Carol smiled then.
"Slow to between three quarters and one half," I said a few minutes later, the ram of the Diana only a hundred yards now be- hind the Athena. In a good wind Lorraine would have been able to outrun the Diana, but not in a mild warm westerly like this one.
"She gets pretty good speed out of that," Sandra observed.
"She's probably the best sailor on this ocean," I smiled.
"You think pretty highly of her, don't you?" Sandra said.
"She's extremely `competent' at what she does," I replied.
"`Hard' looking woman, though," Sandra mused to herself now.
"They call her `old steel and iron' in Trelandar," Carol smiled. I supposed that was a pretty good "term" for Lorraine... *****************************************************************
"Weather's getting up," I said, Sandra nodding. There was a heavy swell from the west, the coastline of Mexico there just ahead of us. The barometer had fallen quite low, a line of dark clouds behind on the western horizon. The Athena a quarter mile of us now hoisting up more sail, obviously running for "shelter".
"Chart shows some bays and coves ahead," Sandra said to me.
"Assuming you know exactly `where' we are now," I smiled.
"And that there is enough `water' for us," Carol now added.
"I guess we'd better stick it out with Lorraine," Sandra an- swered. I thought that was perhaps the best decision right now. "And hope that she knows this area better than we do," she added.
"Sometimes seems `strange' that women can `do' so much in this era when they couldn't back in ours," Carol said to me then.
"Our `culture' is far different than yours," Sandra smiled. "Women have far more `opportunities' here than they did before."
"If you don't end up with a slave collar locked around your neck," Carol answered back, Sandra nodding, giving her a smile...
"Most slave girls don't have it that bad," Sandra replied. "It is common knowledge that the slave girl is better treated as a rule than the wife." I'd heard "that" several times in Arsana.
"I didn't `enjoy' my experiences as one," Carol "retorted".
"You weren't `owned' by any one man," Sandra pointed out.
"That makes a `difference'?" Carol "challenged" in reply.
"It `would' for me, and most any other woman," Sandra said.
"I suppose that it might," my wife "admitted" then to her.
"Stay on her," I said, hopeful that any rock would be struck by the Athena first than by us. We were only a hundred yards be- hind the steam frigate, the lightning now flashing in the sky be- hind us. I had withdrawn the lookout for fear of being "struck". The Diana rolling heavily in the swell as we followed the Athena into this little rock bound cove on the western coast of Mexico.
"Coming about, dropping anchor," Sandra answered, the Athena doing so as soon as she got behind the point of jagged rock that extended half way out into the bay. Sandra pulling the repeaters to "slow astern" as the Diana now approached the steam frigate. She was getting the "feel" of the ship now, and "needed" me less.
"We'll do the same," Carol spoke, her eyes meeting my own.
"This should blow over by morning," Lorraine said, handing a goblet of wine to Carol and another to me. The sharp "crack" of the lightning making me "start" just a bit as a bolt hit nearby. The furnishings and fitting of the stern cabin reflecting the Warlady's own personality, the cabin a bit "austere" like Maris' had been aboard the North Star. I could hear the wind howling, the rain striking the deck over our heads like a fine hail now.
"Wouldn't want to be ship wrecked here," my wife smiled. Jon Richards was sitting there silently looking up at my wife. I sensed the "thoughts" there in his mind. Carol is "provocative" in a way that a "plainer" woman like Lorraine never ever can be.
"You'd probably bring a good price," Lorraine laughed. I saw Jon nod, smile at me. Carol probably would be "expensive"... Carol wasn't a "beautiful" woman, but she did have a nice figure.
"The `idea' of slavery was `reintroduced' by Janet Rogers," Carol answered, meeting the darkness of Lorraine's eyes. Janet of course had been the "protege" of the Warlady back in the 20th Century. Many of the "ideals" Janet put into practice were hers.
"It was the only answer to the `criminal problem'," Lorraine smiled. "As you will recall the `cost' of housing and guarding prisoners reached unaffordable heights back in your own time..." Violent criminals were castrated as a part of their sentence. It turned out to be an excellent "deterrent" to crime, especially with the Black ghetto males, who looked upon their "manhood" in a way that reminds one of primitive barbarians, not "civilized" men as such. Many fearing castration more than enslavement itself, hard as it may be to understand it by those of the 26th Century.
"And how `many' of those were `criminals' by our standards?" Carol challenged. About half were "political criminals", people guilty of nothing more than violating some law that was a "crime" only because the "powers that be" of that time had "decided" to make such "activities" a crime. Merely carrying a "concealed weapon" could send you to prison, "unbelievable" as it may seem today for any of my 26th Century readers. The United States of America in the last decade of the 20th Century (the 21st was an "improvement" in some respects and "sexual freedom" was consider- ably better) was not "the land of the free and the home of the brave". It was in fact a "democratic `dictatorship'" that almost makes the worst of Darlanis' own activities seem "benevolent" in comparison. We hardly realize today how "bad" it was back then so far as personal freedom was concerned. This was a society where by 1995 under President Clinton employers were actually be- ing told by the government "who" they could hire, a society where workers almost "owned" their jobs. A "socialist state" in "real- ity", if not in "name" almost like that of the U.S.S.R. Janet Rogers herself reintroduced much of the old "economic freedoms" that those earlier had taken away through government action. On the other hand her "cashless economy" gave her a degree of "eco- nomic control" that seems unbelievable by present day standards.
"We have made some `advances'," Lorraine smiled in reply. "I consider our present social order far superior to yours," she added. "We know the `meaning' of freedom here, `yours' did not." Jon giving me a smile, while he looked up at Lorraine standing there. The black silk and leather of her attire quite "fitting". Carol dressed in the silken blouse and slacks that were a part of the new styles that she had introduced there in Dularn last year. Her uniform coat tossed over a chair, still wet from the rain.
"You were `responsible' for Janet Rogers," Carol replied.
"I am not all that `disappointed' in her," Lorraine said.
"You agree that what she did was right?" Carol challenged.
"Overall it was a successful civilization," Lorraine smiled back. "Especially if compared to that of the Twentieth Century."
"She outlawed the private possession of firearms," Carol re- torted. Janet had allowed people to carry swords, even encourag- ing such. There is something "good" to be said about such a "so- cial policy". Janet did recognize a need for "personal defense". One where skill and self discipline counted for more than it did with firearms, where the "level of violence" was "controllable". Janet offered considerable "bounties" for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those in possession of firearms. It appears to have been quite successful judging from what we know of that era, although complete "disarmament" proved impossible.
"So `do' the Priestesses of Lys in our own time here," the Warlady smiled back at me. "I personally much prefer to live in a social order like ours where the sword is the personal weapon of self defense. Where skill with weapons is still `meaningful', not just the ability to `pull a trigger' like back in our time."
"A woman who is very `deep'," Carol said as we prepared for bed, the rain still beating down upon the Diana's armored hull.
"One who thinks deeply," I answered, seeing my wife nod.
"I think her husband is `interested' in me," Carol smiled.
"It would be `wise' that you don't `encourage' anything," I said to her. Lorraine was not the type to forgive such actions. "Don't forget that she is not truly a woman of the 20th Century." Back then she had been a "misfit", a woman who never did belong. Here on the other Lorraine "belonged" as if she was born here...
"It is nice to know that I am still `attractive'," Carol teased me, undoing her blouse, her bared nipples "erotic" in this culture where a woman never revealed her nipples except to her husband and Physician. The "origins" of this "taboo" are lost in time now. "That I am still a `woman' that other men can desire."
"You could stand to be `milked'," I smiled back, her breasts swollen and heavy. Carol enjoyed having me "milk" her, the "act" in itself tending to be sexually arousing to her, my wife being the sort of a woman who enjoys a great of "intimacy" in marriage.
"I'm glad I came instead of staying in Dularn," she smiled.
"So am I," I told my delightful brownette in reply then.