Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/startrek/old-incomplete/thehunted.p0

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From: [e-mail] (Henry Gordon Chatroop)
Subject: Story "The Hunted" - Prologue
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Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 02:34:31 GMT
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The Hunted
Prologue

    The border war with the Federation had been going for ten years and
for the last three, Starfleet, the Federation's defense arm, had been
sending ships into battle with female crew only.
    The Prime Matriarch simmered away. Fighting other women, even those
of an alien species was fur raising business. Worse still there was no
profit in it. Their ships weren't worth capturing as their technology was
outdated next to the current Felistian technology. Without men to capture
there was no point to capturing ships.
    Federation men - in particular, Terran men were highly sought after
for the harems. The anatomical differences between Felistian and Terran
men were just enough to make mating a pleasure and not a chore to be
endured for the sake of progeny. And out of the men of various species
captured it was the Terran men who proved to be the most compatible for
breeding purposes. There were none of those abominable deformed kitlets that
came from breeding with the men of other species.
    The Prime Matriarch's one and only heir Alistriayen had come from
such a union. And she was considered one of the most attractive kitlings in
the clan court. Old enough to begin breeding, it was time for her to produce
a heir. One never knew when the First Mother would call one home. But after
one mating with a Felistian manling of like age the kitling had refused to
do her duty again. Worse still, no kitlets had resulted from the mating.
    The Prime Matriarch tried to obtain a suitable Terran manling for her
kitling to breed with. She discovered there were none to be had and so she
decided to kill two beasts with one stone.  Out went orders to the defense
fleet to capture a Federation starship, preferably the one that held the
greatest value to their fleet.
    As commanded, such a starship was captured-the USS Amazon. The Prime
Matriarch had personally spoken with Captain Carter and a truce was made. As
predicted the Federation's response was to start sending in female
ambassodorial envoys to attempt to create a treaty. All but one of the
envoys was sent scuttling home with their tails tucked between their legs. One
had made an unfortunate offense and had been killed in anger by one the Clan
matriarchs.
    The Federation chose to send in a male envoy, a Vulcan, who insulted
many of the clanswomen with his manner and disapproval of their ways. The
Prime Matriarch ordered her court to treat him with kitpads and so he
narrowly escaped death without being aware of how close he came to it. The
Prime Matraich sent him scuttling home with the bait for her trap (family is
everything - if one is clansless one is nothing) and waited to see if the
Federation would take the bait.
    Three months later, A Terran diplomat, male, arrived bringing with
him his heir, a manling of age to Alistriayen. The manling's name was Julian.
Never one to count her hatchlings before they survived she arranged for the
manling to have an 'accident' which lead to his needing the attention of her
personal physician, who carried out a discrete, but through examination of
the manling. Once assured the manling was of breeding age and carried no
nasty genetic timebombs the Prime Matriarch began planning phase three.
    While his father was busy talking diplomacy with the Prime Matriarch
and the Matriarchs of the the 12 ruling clans his son was confined to the
visitors wing. Unknown to either the Senior or Junior Bashir, it was not the
actual visitors wing. For phase three to work the manling had to be driven
to ignore the warnings of his progenitor. There was nothing in the wing that
proved entertaining to the manling. The Prime Matriarch had arranged for him
to encounter her kitling in passing, laying the bait down so subtly neither
the kit nor the manling were aware they were pawns in a game that the
Matraich controlled.
    When sheer boredom drove the manling to ignore the warnings and
explore his environment further, the Prime Matriarch ensured he explored only
the areas she wanted him to explore. Areas where he was sure to encounter
her kitlet - who was also starting to suffer from extreme boredom. According
to plan the two joined forces finding ways to allevate their boredom. Yet
things were going too slowly for the Prime Matriarch's liking so she
arranged for the manling's water to be laced with the aphrodisiacs used to
encourage stubborn Terran males to get into the mood to mate.
    She gave herself a mental pat on the back when she noticed her
kitling's increased interest in the manling. And hissed when it became
obvious the manling was too thick to get on with it. She ordered the amount
of aphrodisiac in his liquids to be increased and also added to his food.
Seven days later when she entered her kitling's quarters in search of her
favorite dress which the kitling had a habit of borrowing she came up her
daughter and the manling exploring the differences of gender and species.
They didn't notice her and she quietly slipped behind a drapery to spy. She
almost purred when she saw her kitling teach the manling the ways to
pleasure. Soon after the manling began to teach her kitling the Terran ways
of pleasure.
    As she sniffed at the air the Prime picked up the scent of Terran
male arousal and remaining only long enough to confirm the pair's
explorations were heading in the right direction, she slipped out of the
chamber quietly with the sounds of her kitling's purr and the manling's
little noises of pleasure in her ears.
    That night she purred to herself as she began preparing the
redecoration of the matriarchal littery.

    Ambassador Bashir was highly pleased when the Matriarch indicated
she was ready to start discussing a treaty in detail. He patted himself on
the back then, produced the tentative treaty his superiors had drawn up to
present to the Matraich. He was so wrapped up in his work that he failed to
notice how love sick his son appeared or the bruises and puncture marks on
Julian's neck that were clear evidence of intimate relationships with a
Felistian female. It took a week for the ambassador to realise that something
was up. This was confirmed when it registered that Julian wasn't appearing
for meals and a search of his chamber revealed a bed that hadn't been slept
in.
    He didn't panic at first even he remembered after the fact seeing tell-
tale bruises on the boy's neck. He remembered seeing his son smiling at the
princess and her smiling back in the flirtatious manner of teenage girls.
He correctly came to the assumption Julian and the Princess had taken
things beyond flirtation and assumed Julian had taken to sneaking out to
sleep with his princess. Amused, the ambassador sent his wife a message
telling her their precious son had finally become a man and had found a real
live princess to do it with.

    Her response was succinct - 'Chauvinist pig'.

    Three days later he was ready to hit the panic switch. His son
hadn't returned to his quarters at all, not even for fresh clothing and
the Princess was wandering around snarling and growing at everyone in a
real snit. When she sidled up to him and asked if he would let Julian off
his leash so they could *play* together he really hit the panic switch.
    A search of the Palace and the adjoining grounds turned up ominous
stains in a corridor. DNA testing confirmed the ambassador's worst fears.
The stains were blood, his son's blood.

    The Prime Matriarch issued an edict, death to the manling napper if
the manling was not returned unharmed to the palace. She watched her court
carefully noticed many of the clanswomen clustering to gossip. She
overheard more than one conversation where the manling's abduction was the
topic under discussion. In every case the women expressed the wish they'd
thought of it.
    Her precious kitling was climbing the walls threatening to rearrange
faces so the Prime Matriarch had her kitted up and sent on her Life test to
get her out of the palace. Obviously the kitling had formed an attachment to
the manling.
    Word came to the Prime Matriarch through anonymous sources that the
manling could be found in a certain clanwoman's harem. A raid of said harem
resulted in nothing but frustration. Then the Matraich ordered a search of
all harems within a thousand K radius. Still nothing.
    Weeks passed.
    Alistriayen returned to the palace dragging a makeshift stretcher
behind her. On the stretcher lay the manling. Battered and bruised, near to
death. Gripped in a fever, delirious. He slipped away while the physicians
examined him cataloging his wounds. It was only after ten minutes of work
that the manling was revived, only to enter a coma they could not rouse him
from.
    The Prime Matriarch considered the ramifications of telling the
manling's father his son had been found. He already believed the boy was
dead. Telling him about the manling and seeing him in the state he
was in could only end in accusations and enmity. Of course if she didn't
tell him the manling could die simply because her physicians didn't know
enough to save him. Then again, he might pull through and keeping the father
ignorant would lead to his departure once she finished the treaty
negotiations. In which case she could install the manling in Alistrianyen's
harem as her first mate.
    The choice was made for her. Her witless kitling informed the
ambassador of his son's condition and where he could be found. The ambassador
had shown up in the intensive care ward to take root at his son's bedside.
Three days later a starship arrived and he and the boy departed. But first the
ambassador took her kitling aside for a secretive discussion.
    The Prime Matriarch wondered what they had discussed. She was sure it
was in part about the manling, but she was also sure it went further seeing
as how her kitling took to visiting all the clans and finagled invitations
to make use of their harems. Six months later Alistrian gave birth to a
litter of kits, two females and a boy. The boy was quickly euthanised. Male
heirs were not permitted to live. One of the females died soon after birth
and the remaining child was inducted as the Prime Matriarch's official heir
after Alistrian.
    Then her daughter showed her claws.In a clan meet she had proceeded
to vent her disgust with the treatment of intelligent males captured during
the border wars. She had several of these males brought forward and had them
prove their intelligence to all and sundry. There was an uproar. The
Federation ambassador who followed Bashir was present on the day and
declared the Federation would not take this lying down. The fragile truce
was in imminent danger of collapsing and the Matriarch ordered the
collection of all males captured during the border war. Those that survived
were given medical treatment. Their progeny were located while the Matriarch
came to an agreement with the Federation ambassador and a treaty was signed.
    The first of the POW's were released to the Ambassador's care and
with their departure came the final trespass by Federation people into
Felistian space.
    Yet again Alistrain rose up to embarrass her mother. In the next
clan meet she identified 32 harems where Terran men captured during the border
wars were still being held. She also identified a dozen children born from
unions with these men. Children who lacked the natural defenses of Felistians.
Kitlets who would never survive their Life tests.
    She berated the clanwomen and informed the Federation of the
existence of these unfortunates. When the Federation made noises, the
Prime Matriarch was backed into a corner. She ordered the release of all the
prisoner/slaves and the rounding up of the defenseless kits. There was an
uproar, of course. But no one dared to disobey.
    Alistriayen crossed the line when she brought up the euthanisation
of male children born to Noblewomen. Her stance earned her the title of
'traitor-fed lover'. The clanswomen called for her execution. She was brought
to trial and admitted her preference for the Federation's ways over the
Felistan's. She was found guilty of the charges laid against her and
offered a choice - death or dishonorable exile.
    She chose exile. Cast out of her home with nothing but the clothes
on her back. She caterwauled for a day in the grounds. Exile without her
child. Banished never to see her precious daughter grow to become a woman.
Had she known the full price of her choice she would have chosen death. For
now her dishonor would be her daughter's and she would have to face the
harshest of lives trying to expunge that dishonor and prove her worthiness
to ascend to the Matraichary.
    As for the Prime Matraich - her duty had been done. As mother, only
one remained. The Prime Matriarch had her daughter netted and carried to the
starship where the men and kits waited for the permission to depart. As
soon as they took aboard the exile and gave their word to see that she did
not seek self-killing they were escorted to the border and never seen again.

              END OF "THE HUNTED" - PROLOGUE
        ******************************************

Standard disclaimers apply. Characters copyrighted by Paramount.
Alis, FBOLA and Felistians are copyrighted to Mission Ops Productions.

Copyright @ 1994 Mission Ops Productions.

Part One has already been written.
Part Two will follow only if requests for it are made.

Enjoy and let us know if we have tantalised you enough to make
you want more.
Reprinting this story in whole or in part is denied without the permission of
Misson Ops Productions first - except in cases of review.

Send your comments and requests for Part Two to:
    '[e-mail]'

<END TRANSMISSION>