I awoke with the rising of the Sun there in the east, the bright glow there on the horizon behind me reflecting off the rocks and sand there in front of me. The events of the night now only like a dream. I had no doubt that it had all been but just an hallucination, for the sand before me was completely unmarked. Doubtlessly Raspa had been right when she had told me that her paralyzing venom might cause such things. It would be something to share with her when she came back for me as I was sure that she would. I trusted her even if we were of a different species.
Yet even so my memories were so vivid, so vivid that I almost believed that they could have been real! That I could have walked, spoke with SHE who I had once worshiped as a child before the harsh realities of 20th Century Science taught me that such ideas were nothing but superstition and ignorance designed by dishonest men to deceive the gullible and separate them from their hard earned money. That such ideas were not for an intelligent person like me to believe in. Yet, I had put people under deep hypnosis and had them tell me things that seemed hard to believe unless there was "life beyond the grave". Others who had been "brought back from the dead" who recounted their experiences of seeing brilliant light, of actually seeing their "Savior". As a medical student, I had encountered such things, but had put them off as being nothing more than the hallucinations of overstressed minds. Now I wondered at what they had seen? SHE had told me that SHE appeared as what we wished HER to appear. Raspa had seen HER as a Lorr Queen. I had seen HER as a beautiful blonde haired woman, one so beautiful that it took my breath away to look upon HER. Others would no doubt see HER as "Jesus" according to their own beliefs. SHE is neither male or female, but as SHE is a protector of life, I consider HER as being "female". The Priestesses of Lys, who have studied this subject closely for centuries, possessing Janet Rogers' awesome secret of electronic hypnosis, consider HER to be "feminine". That is good enough for me. Especially since I saw HER as a woman, and Raspa saw her as a Lorr Queen, both of us seeing HER as the "feminine principle".
I watched the frost melt slowly off the rocks, the thought going through my mind that given enough water, Mars could be made into a lovely fresh clean world for a "new" species of "Man", one that would no longer know what "war" meant, for the women of Mars have no interest in "conflict" as we of Earth yet know it. Yet I find them in a way almost like children, displaying affection towards one another in hugs and kisses that to a woman yet of Earth sometimes seem "disturbing". There are of course no men, reproduction being done by a technology somewhat similar to "cloning", but allowing for the correction of any genetic faults. The Lorr having used the same system on themselves now for tens of thousands of years, the males of the species being totally extinct.
I doubt that the Lorr will ever allow men on Mars, for they feel that the male of the human species is too violent to be trusted. Perhaps they are right, as men tend to be more "aggressive" as a rule than women, who tend more to only fight in self- defense against an attacker. There are exceptions, of course, my own Caste being one, but as a rule women are less "aggressive" than men. That is why all the human inhabitants of Mars are women. Their numbers being now about thirteen million, as compared to the eight million of the Lorr that live out their lives for the most part beneath the surface of the planet. The light of the Sun, even at the distance Mars is from it, yet bothers them to a certain degree. They are creatures of darkness, and prefer their own dimly lit caverns much like the ants that they resemble so much both in their appearance and in their own mannerisms.
I watched the light from the Sun come creeping down the side of the crack in the surface of Mars that I laid within, wondering to myself how much oxygen remained in the cylinder there at my hip buried beneath the sand. True, my respiratory rate was far slower than normal, but even so the supply would be exhausted by the time the Sun once again set, only the slowing of my metabolic rate by Raspa's venom having allowed me to live even this long! I also worried how long the internal cylinder in the breathing bag there on my chest would continue to remove the carbon dioxide from my breath, the design also now being used with a small air compressor to draw the Martian atmosphere into the breathing bag where it was purified of its carbon dioxide so that the wearer of the device breathed pure oxygen despite the fact that the atmosphere of Mars is almost two thirds carbon dioxide. The present plans being to eventually raise the atmospheric pressure to about two PSI with an oxygen content of about 90%, making it thus suitable for human life upon the surface without the need for carrying about oxygen cylinders or wearing a compressor device filtering out the CO2. Thus equaling the atmosphere already found in the Lorr caverns a mile or so beneath the surface of the planet.
There will eventually be Earth mammals on Mars, although no birds or flying insects, as the atmosphere will always be far too thin for any winged form of life. I am told however, that reptiles are more efficient as they consume less food for their body weight than mammals, and thus most Martian life will be reptilian. The ecology of Mars having been carefully studied as to what will be most satisfactory in the long run. The Lorr and their lovely human companions are in no hurry to "get things done" and I suspect that there will never be the "pollution" or other ecological disasters that overtook Man on his own world. I should also mention here that neither the Lorr or the women of Mars have any interest in overpopulating the planet they share, which is why their own numbers by Earthly standards are so low!
It is interesting in this context to note that one of the things SHE does object to is thoughtless, careless irresponsible reproduction. As many of the religions of my own era were opposed to the use of contraception or abortion, it is perhaps interesting to note here that what they taught was actually against HER own teachings! It is interesting to note, of course, that the Priestesses of Lys do the exact opposite of the "Christian" religions of the past, which is further indication of the fact that the Priestesses of Lys may very well know something of the TRUTH! That they might very well actually speak for SHE! It is also interesting to note here that the religious beliefs of the Lorr so far as I can determine indicate a viewpoint much like that of the Priestesses of Lys. Had the Lorr taken more of an "interest" in Mankind it is quite likely that The War never would have taken place as with their guidance we never would have done all the stupid things that we did. On the other hand we would have always remained "children" watched over and guided by the Lorr, and who knows what we would have turned out like? Would we have developed civilization, technology, or would we have remained simple peasants living out our lives in superstition and ignorance? And worshiping the Lorr as our "gods". One wonders?
Now the Sun shone down directly upon me, its heat just barely sensible to me, which indicated that Raspa's venom was starting to wear off just a bit, which also worried me considerably! Had she erred on the side of too little? Perhaps my own metabolic rate was different than that of a Martian? I was a woman of Earth, not Mars. My own biological processes might be different!
It was then that the saucer came, silent but for that faint hum of its anti-gravity drive, the disc stopping and then landing on the edge of the crack, a woman descending on a rope towards me while I saw a Lorr standing above watching, its great compound eyes seeming to glow into mine. Raspa had come back for me!
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