"Things do seem to be kind'a `looking up' now," Sharon said with a sleepy smile to me. Both of us now feeling the effects of what we had gone through, neither of us having had a chance to sleep for many hours. The teenage blonde slipping off her blouse and skirt as I nodded in agreement. The thought going through my mind that we would both have to obtain new clothing as soon as possible. Sharon's ripening figure well revealed by her skimpy bra and matching bikini panties. The knowledge that Princess Janis was in charge of things having taken a great burden off my mind. Our snack of wine and cheese and dried preserved meat having taken the edge off our hunger and served to help settle our jangled nerves after our experience with the horrid looking Lorr.
"I'll see about different sleeping arrangements later," I smiled as I slipped into the late captain's bed beside Sharon. The touch of my body against hers no doubt "comforting" to the lovely teenager after everything we had been through in the last twenty four hours. Sharon snuggling up to me like she used to when she was little and there was a thunderstorm to terrify her. I thought of the one we had flown through to get to this strange place. Of the horrid Lorr, of the battle I had fought against the brutes who had sailed this ship. I wondered if I would have nightmares from it all. I hoped not. I had been through enough!
It had been my decision that the slaves aboard the Ronda be freed and given their choice of going to Dularn with us or being put ashore somewhere, there to seek their own fates. The Princess agreeing with my decision on the matter, fortunately, for I would have hated to have started out our relationship on a "sour" note! Janis promising me that in Dularn the women would be all given the chance to make new lives for themselves as best they could. All had agreed to take the Princess up on her generous offer. Dularn, from what Janis had told me of it, being a society much like that of early colonial America, in many ways something like what America had been back in the Seventeenth Century. Unlike the "Empire of California", Dularn was a true democracy, with the monarch having only the power to repeal bad laws and a popular Assembly serving to pass them. Members of this being selected by a vote of the "taxpayers" to serve a term of office, thus insuring that the interests of the people were truly served. Janet Rogers had invented the concept of limiting "voting rights" to taxpayers back in the 21st Century, Janis had told me much to my surprise! She admired the woman muchly, saying that had she not died when she had there would have never been any War between Man and the Lorr. I think she was right. Janet was the one person who could have faced the Lorr, saw them truly for what they were, and accepted them as being our equals, not as the horrible alien monsters that they first appear to be to the human eye.
As Sharon snuggled up against me, her lips like a pink rosebud there in the near darkness of the cabin, I thought again of the warning that Janis had given me that under Imperial Law I was now a pirate and could be hung from a yardarm if ever captured! Words that had done nothing to settle my nerves at the time, Janis having informed me that only in her own distant Canadian country could I ever hope to find a safe home for Sharon and myself under the benevolent protection of her mother the Queen!
I thought I would keep the matter for the time being to my- self, there being no reason to worry Sharon over the fact that her beloved stepmother was now legally a PIRATE! The thought making me smile as I cuddled the girl to myself, thinking of the romantic novels I had read as a young girl. The very idea of I, Lorraine Duval, being a pirate! With such thoughts going through my mind and Sharon warm at my side, sleep swiftly came on its silent silken wings to finally bring peace to my fevered thoughts.
In our conversation with the Princess shortly before we retired for the night, Sharon and I had been amazed at the changes that had taken place over the centuries. Even the names of cities and places having changed, The War having left little untouched. Those who survived having been few and perhaps subconsciously trying to "bury" the past that had caused them so much pain and suffering as they destroyed and burned what little remained. Such not being that uncommon as I knew from my own professional experience. The "Priestesses of Lys" no doubt playing a part in things as Janis pointed out to me. Their teachings of the "evils" of the pre-War era doubtless having had their effect on such matters too. The truth was of course different, but the Priestesses were powerful and held the allegiance of most people. To go up against them was the act of a "fool", Janis had informed me. It being commonly believed that they had the "antennae" of the Lorr and served to keep Humanity properly "docile" under the domination of the ant-like aliens and their own spaceship now orbiting the Earth like a second Moon. Organized religion has often served such purposes in the past, and it was no surprise to me, a professed agnostic at the time, that this one did too! One could expect no less from the Lorr, who after all, knew as much about Man and his "weaknesses" as anyone did! The "Ants", as Janis called them, having been apparently watching over Man and all his social activities for some nearly fifty thousand years now!
Going on, Janis explained that the name "Trelandar", which sounds like a place nowhere on Earth, is actually merely the name for what was once known as southern California. The name having been started by the practice of referring to persons who came from that area as "Tree-landers" because of the great redwoods. Janis explaining that in her own country, the name "Dularn" was brought about from the combination of the French word for "God", "Du", with the English word for "land"; thus producing the word "Duland" or "Dularn" as it was now called by most people, few referring to it as the island of Vancouver which lies off the coast of Canada. It is a lovely country, and is a true "God's-land". The cultural changes seem to be more the after effect of The War and the resulting barbaric social disorders that followed. There are examples in history of such, the "Dark Ages" after the fall of Rome being one. The well educated Princess of Dularn noting that it was also possible that the Lorr, knowing as "much" of human history as they did, had decided that encouraging such a social order would be in their own best long term interests!
Oddly enough, the Lorr had permitted some of the knowledge of the past to continue on, such as the anti-aging serums that I found so amazing when I first heard of them. As well as the equally necessary controls upon human reproduction that made me smile as I heard of thought of certain friends of mine would have had to "say" about that! This last being in the domain of the Priestesses of Lys, who apparently watched over Mankind like a benevolent mother. The Princess telling me that the Priestesses had now taken over the complete control of organized religion, "permitting" none other but their own. Christianity having been ruthlessly stamped out along with all other religions that had survived The War of 2047. They having done so by a means that Janis didn't completely understand, saying that they possessed strange alien powers that made them almost the equals of the Lorr! Telling me of Priestesses who could read minds, heal with their thoughts, move objects without touching them, and do other utterly amazing things that no one understood just how they did! The Priestesses claiming that they received their powers from "Lys", although no "educated" person really believed all that "nonsense"! I suspected, however, that there just might be a simpler answer now to how they managed to do the things they did!
I considered it quite possible that the Priestesses had perfected a certain device I had discussed with Janet Rogers before my flight through time, that being the concept of computer controlled electronic hypnosis, against which of course there would be no defense. Prolonged use of such a device could, I suspected, perhaps lead to the development of mental powers only hinted by my own earlier experiences with hypnosis. Janet Rogers having been one of my best subjects, possessing under hypnosis amazing powers that had lead me to later suggest that the subject might be very well be one well worth further investigation! Had such studies been carried out, it was quite possible I thought to myself that the "Priestesses of Lys" would be the ultimate result. Janet and I having discussed just how such a device of such awesome power could be kept from "falling into the `wrong hands'", Janet laughing and saying what we needed was a new type of "religious order" that could keep the device from being abused by ambitious politicians and other evil people out to rule Humanity!*
* The next book of this series delves deeper into this topic.
I awoke to the heavy leaping and rolling of the ship as it surged and leaped in what I knew must be a heavy sea. A motion that did little for my beginning seasickness, the meal I had eaten earlier not one that had agreed that well with me. Forcing the sleep like misty fog from my mind, and clad only in my chemise, I slipped from the swaying bed. Sharon still sleeping soundly despite the motion, the bed on its chains swaying back and forth with the now increasing sway and the roll of the Ronda.
Pulling back the curtain and looking through the salt stained stern windows, I could see that it was now dark, the only light coming from a guttering candle set in its stand alongside the door. My watch having as I have mentioned expired during the passage through the time-warp, I had no idea of how long we had slept, except to note that it must have been at least half a day from the look of things. I thought fondly of a long soak in a hot tub as I stretched, my wound having healed amazingly swiftly from the application of the healing compound I had applied to it, as I felt surprisingly little discomfort considering how badly I had been cut only that morning! The thought going through my mind of my fine silken nighties back home in the 20th Century and how nice it would be to slip into one right now and go back to bed for some more well deserved sleep after all I'd been through.
I was about to rejoin Sharon in the swaying bed when there came a soft knock at the door. And as I padded over in my bare feet to answer it, it suddenly opened and admitted one of the ship's former slave girls. The wench holding a candle lantern and clad in only a bit of soaking wet reddish silk that did little more than accent the feminine curves there beneath. Sharon's eyes gleaming in the pale shadow of her face as she awoke from the disturbance to regard us both now standing there at the door.
The briefly clad brunette saying to me in an urgent voice, "Please come, Lady Lorraine, the Princess has been hurt and the crewmen are all gone!" Her soft skin beaded with droplets of water that left no doubt that there was now considerable spray flying up over the bulwarks as the Ronda pounded her way along through the growing seas! The ship's heavy pounding telling me that we were doubtlessly in for a storm with no one on left board capable of sailing her through it!
"I'll be all right," Janis groaned, holding her head. The Princess the now picture of misery, one of the former slave women having found the Princess lying unconscious below decks in the wardroom beneath the captain's cabin, the three surviving members of the Ronda's crew now gone! "I'm lucky they didn't stop to slit my throat for their trouble too," she groaned as I cradled the Princess of Dularn in my lap, seeing the blood now matted and clotted in her golden hair. Knowing she was lucky to be alive!
From her I swiftly learned that she had come upon the three preparing to escape from the ship. One of them striking her down with a wooden belaying pin before she could draw her sword or give an alarm. What concerned me more just then was the fact that without any of the crew to help sail the Ronda, we were in serious trouble! Especially with the weather getting up as it was! The ship's rolling and pitching and pounding getting worse and worse by the minute!
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