Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 11

Arm-in-arm, the two tall blondes stepped on to the poop deck of the 'Andromeda' and the hatch was closed behind them. All the Dominesss and airship crew dropped to one knee and bent their heads.

'Arise, arise,' said Fiona. 'I am merely here to announce the arrival of your most important guest, the Princess Charlotte Spalding, Pontifex Magna Maxima.'

All rose and as Fiona took her place on the deck beside Elizabetha and Sophia, the 'Thetis' hatch opened again and this time a tall dominess in the uniform of the Susanna Regiment stepped out. Charlotte followed, covered from head to foot in a bulky jumpsuit, topped by a bubble helmet. She wore a leather safety harness with a long tether that was fed out of the 'Thetis' hatch. As she came on to the conduit, the dominess took her arm to steady her. The dominess continued to steady her as they made their way slowly along the conduit. As they neared the 'Andromeda', the recovery team sent out a grappling hook, which the dominess grabbed. As they got to the hatch, the recovery team hoisted both of them in with willing hands. Members of the recovery team quickly closed the hatch again, signaled to 'Thetis' to power off the conduit and unfastened Charlotte's bubble helmet.

'Isn't it wonderful to be here, Charlotte?' asked Fiona. Then she turned to Elizabetha. 'Colonel, please lead the High Priestess and me to the Royal Stateroom.'

'I hear and obey, Peeress,' said Elizabetha formally. She led the way, flanked by Sophia. The squad of Dominesss brought up the rear.

On the bridge, Carol turned to her first officer.

'Take us up to sixty thousand feet, Quinta,' she said. 'And set a direct course for the City. Flank speed.' As the ship began its rapid ascent, the comm. began to clear and she opened a channel to Rhea. 'Captain Rhea, I am returning as quickly as possible to the City. What are your orders?'

'My orders are to return to allow my crew full participation in the election,' said Rhea. 'We will set our autopilot to your wing position, Capitain Carol. Please make a note of our position.'

* * * * * * * * * *

5. The main view deck of the 'Andromeda' was a huge flat deck, larger than a football field with a clear transparent dome, which straddled the entire vessel amidships. There were several small and large doors that led into it from fore and aft as well as several platform elevators that could raise personnel or material from lower decks. The storm was far below and behind them now and the sky above them was pale blue. With the exception of a skeleton crew flying the ship, virtually all personnel aboard were assembled by unit. The complement of dominesses were at the forefront. There was the loud buzz of conversation and the air of anticipation.

Then one of the platform elevators sank out of sight with a whine. It reappeared moments later with Fiona and Charlotte, both now attired in their ceremonial robes with glittering tiaras and flanked by Carol and Sophia. Three gurneys were on the right of the platform, bearing Katnissa, Althea and Leia. A loud cheer arose from the gathered assembly and both princesses raised their arms in acknowledgement. Katnissa and Althea rose in their gurneys and waved. Leia sat up as well and stared at the massed ranks of the Amazon wide-eyed with terror.

Sophia drew her laser pistol, set its power to zero and fired a series of pure beams of light at the dome. The streaks of light bounced off the dome, refracted and created a rainbow-like spectacle. The dominesses at the front of the assembly followed her lead and soon the view deck was alight with an intense laser light show.

The cheering continued until the laser show died down. It drowned out the whine of a second platform elevator that descended and reappeared to the left of the royal party. There was a collective sharp intake of breath as Aablar appeared. His wrists and ankles were shackled with heavy steel chains. He wore a heavy steel collar with two steel leads, one each held by Seignora Melania Paulus and Dominess Amber Willey. The Dominesss also held long ceremonial halberds in their free hands. Colonel Elizabetha Warren stood behind the three, a thumb hooked in her belt, a palm resting on her sword hilt.

Aablar felt strong and angry. The intravenous fluids Elizabetha fed him had rapidly erased his malnourishment and he found it hard to stand still, continually taking a pace forward and backward, tugging at his steel collar. His eyes were bloodshot and a thin line of spittle ran out of the corner of his mouth. He constantly clenched and unclenched his fists and flexed his muscles. As the elevator platform locked on to the deck, he uttered low, guttural and menacing growls, and pulled harder on his collar.

A buzz of talk arose from the assembly, with scores saying that Aablar's appearance confirmed their worst fears about him. Katnissa, Althea and Leia stared at him in shock -- this was not the Aablar they knew! What had happened to him?

The royal party crossed the short distance and approached Aablar, with the princesses leading the way. Fiona carefully followed a half step behind Charlotte, which was technically correct as the High Priestess preceded the Regiment Peeress in order of protocol. Charlotte came within about six feet of Aablar and noted all the dried blood and bruises on his face and body -- the dominesses had not treated him well! She also noted his great height and relatively fine facial structure. He looks so like his mother, she thought.

'Aablar,' Charlotte intoned in the voice she used when presiding over ceremonies. 'You will be treated fairly and well. We will show you the error in your ways. We Amazons are powerful, but we are magnanimous as well ...'

Aablar's reaction was sudden, violent and totally unexpected by all, except Fiona and Elizabetha.

'You lie, Amazon witch!' he roared. 'After all you have done to my people, I know what you will do to me! But I will kill you first!'

With that he lunged forward. In addition to making him aggressive and angry, the hypersteriod had boosted his impact strength and the leads were torn out of the hands of Melania and Amber. Aablar took one giant hop on his shackled legs and swung his huge shackled arms with his fingers laced together. He was even faster than Fiona or Elizabetha had expected. His blow struck Charlotte on the jaw and lifted her clear into the air to crash on the deck a few feet away. The force of the blow was such that her limp body rolled over a few times before coming to a stop. There was a cacophony of screams and confusion in the assembly.

Charlotte's body was still in the air when Fiona rapped out, 'Stand back everyone!' Then to Amber, 'Dominess, your halberd!' Elizabetha wordlessly took Melania's halberd.

Everyone backed away from Aablar, who continued to growl menacingly and exercise his great muscles in a futile effort to tear his wrist shackles apart. He watched warily as Fiona approached him holding the halberd reversed, with the heavy staff towards him. Behind him, Elizabetha did the same. He backed away, eyeing both dominesses. But, with Aablar's wrists and ankles shackled, it was a hopeless fight. Elizabetha feinted and as Aablar turned to face her, Fiona crashed the staff of her halberd on the back of his head. He did not go down, but whirled to face his attacker, emitting a bloodcurdling roar. Even as he turned his back to Elizabetha, she struck his head again with her halberd staff. This blow dropped him to his knees. He tried to raise his arms to protect his head, but Fiona's second blow brushed them aside and the thud of the steel staff striking his skull carried around the view deck. This blow knocked him down to a crawling position. Both dominesses now began to methodically beat him to a pulp.

When his body was finally still, both Fiona and Elizabetha were breathing heavily from their exertions. Elizabetha now touched her wrist bracer and trussed up his battered body in an invisible force field.

'Seignora Melania, Dominess Felcia, take another four Dominesss and place the savage back in the prison hold,' said Elizabetha, a touch of harshness in her melodious voice. 'Leave him trussed in the force field even after you suspend him from the bulkhead shackles. Then get a Doctor to make sure that he does not die.'

'I head and obey, Colonel Elizabetha,' said Melania with unruffled calm.

Althea screamed when Aablar struck her mother, but it was lost in the general bedlam. She swung her legs off the gurney and ran over to her fallen form, cutting through the gathering circle, saying with uncharacteristic assertiveness, 'Make way, make way! I must see my mother!'

By the time she got to Charlotte's side, a Doctor from the airship crew was already kneeling beside her, monitoring her pulse and gingerly feeling her jaw line. Charlotte was out cold and looked peaceful, her beautiful heart-shaped face in repose, even as the injured side seemed to sag.

The Doctor became aware of Althea at her elbow and answered her mute question.

'Her jaw is broken, Lady Althea, and there may be other bones broken in her face. I don't know whether there are any internal injuries, but we must get her to sickbay as soon as possible.'

'Please use my gurney, Doctor and hurry!' Althea was beside herself with worry.

Two dominesses now brought Althea's empty gurney through the crowd and gently lifted Charlotte's limp form on to it. Then, with the doctor, several assistants and Althea following, the dominesses wheeled the gurney to a small platform elevator and descended to the sickbay level. Within minutes, Charlotte was in a high care medical emergency unit and a medical team began diagnostic, preventive, curative and reconstructive procedures. Althea was not qualified as a doctor, but had had considerable training, so she followed the medical team into their cleansing spray and posted herself as an observer as they began working on her mother.

Katnissa could not believe what she had seen. She too, leaped from her gurney and watched helplessly as both Aablar and Charlotte were spirited off the view deck. Fiona now returned to the elevator platform, squeezed her daughter's shoulders and called for calm. It was a few minutes before calm was restored.

Fiona's breathing was still slightly heavy from her exertions and the excitement. Her eyes were bright, her breasts rose and fell and a fine sheen of perspiration covered her face. She had never looked more beautiful. The public video comm. was still open and virtually all of the Amazon society now looked on with rapt attention.

'My sisters on the cruiser 'Andromeda' -- Princess Charlotte and I came here to congratulate you on your wonderful work in recovering your sisters and our precious daughters. We also wished to communicate to you our competing visions for the future of the sisterhood. In the light of this terrible tragedy, I cannot take advantage of my dear sister's absence to speak to you. Let us therefore adjourn with heavy hearts and wait for news of the condition of our dear sister, Princess Charlotte, High Priestess of the Temple of Artemis.'

At this point, Sophia approached Fiona and whispered in her ear. Fiona faced the assembly again.

'I have just been informed that Princess Charlotte has entered a medical emergency unit and procedures to return her to normalcy have begun. My sisters will share my own pleasure in hearing that her dear daughter, Lady Althea, is in attendance.'

Elizabetha now took the center of the platform and called out, 'Please disperse in an orderly fashion. The public comm. will remain open and developments were be continually available.' She struck the elevator pad with her boot heel and with a whine the platform began to descend below the view deck. As soon as they were out of sight of the assembly, Fiona drew Katnissa into her arms. They rubbed nipples. Fiona's delight was complete and unfeigned -- her eyes shone and her happiness radiated out like a beacon. Elizabetha observed her closely and thought, 'No, she loves Katnissa so dearly, she could not have planned for any harm to come to her.'

Katnissa's joy at seeing her mother again was unalloyed and washed away all other feelings for the moment. Almost thirty years apart in age, Amazon health was such that they looked like sisters -- indeed it was impossible to say which one was the older.

While mother and daughter drank in each other, their mutual communication was wordless and neither spoke. Fiona merely made an aside to Elizabetha, 'Lady Katnissa and I will retire to the Royal Stateroom.'

They were soon by themselves in the Royal Stateroom -- in truth a suite with a living room, a study, two huge bedrooms and a glamour bath. Fiona went over and poured two stems of wine and offered one to Katnissa. They clinked stems and sipped. Fiona spoke first.

'Katnissa, I thought I had lost you. I felt like a part of me had died! Seeing you is like having a daughter all over again. My dearest, you must stay close to me for a while. I cannot bear to let you out of my sight.'

Katnissa came closer and ran her fingers down her mother's long aristocratic neck, feeling her choker and the star denoting her rank.

'When I was out in the wild and thought I would never see you again, the memories of our time together became sharper. I am grateful for all we have shared -- I never forget how fortunate I am to have such a wonderful mother!'

They drained their wine, embraced and proceeded naturally to the wide bed. They cuddled in each other's arms, glorying in being together again. But while they kissed each other tenderly, neither was in the mood for sex. They were lost in quite contrasting thoughts -- each would have been shocked to know those of the other.

Fiona was feeling flushed with success. Her plans had worked even better than she had hoped -- the savage was shown to be unquestionably dangerous, Charlotte herself had been injured and would have hard time supporting her position of reconciliation now. And she had yet to announce the coup de grace of her pregnancy! I must not grasp beyond my reach, she thought, but I am very close to becoming Queen. We are both descended in a direct line from the legendary queens of Atlantis -- Hippolyta, Hypathia, Pentheselia -- will it be Fiona or Charlotte whose name joins theirs in the history archive?

Lying warm and secure in her mother's arms, Katnissa's thoughts returned to Aablar. In all the time of her captivity, she had never seen Aablar lose his composure and behave in the mad, uncontrolled manner he had displayed at the assembly. Was he driven to such irrationality by captivity? Did he hope to obtain a quick death and a reprieve from the agony of endless torture that he knew awaited him? What she did know was that each time Elizabetha and her mother had struck him with their steel staffs, the solid sound of metal on flesh and bone had caused her to recoil. She had covered her ears to block out the horrible sounds. As they beat him, she had whispered, 'No, no, don't hurt him, don't hurt him ....' As Melania and Amber dragged him away, her arms reached out as though to stop them and then dropped to her sides, helpless. I must see him, she thought. Soon.

* * * * * * * * *

6. There was a musical note and Fiona opened her comm. channel. It was Captain Carol.

'Pardon for disturbing you, Princess Fiona,' she began apologetically.

'No need, Captain Carol. What can I do for you?'

'I have received word from the sickbay that Princess Charlotte is out of the emergency medical unit and resting in a suite. She requests that you attend on her.'

'Of course. Please let her know that I will attend on her as soon as possible.'

'I hear and obey, Princess.'

Fiona looked at the time. Two hours had passed. The rest had done her good -- she felt refreshed and ready to go. Katnissa was still asleep. Fiona looked at her and smiled. Her silky red hair was spread over the pillow and her relaxed and beautiful face made her look like an angel. My beautiful child, thought Fiona. Soon you will have a sister! Fiona decided to let her sleep -- she had been through so much! But even as she looked at her, Katnissa stirred and opened her eyes. Seeing her mother standing, she asked, 'Have you been awake long?'

'Princess Charlotte asks me to wait on her and I must go,' said Fiona. 'I must get myself ready.'

'Oh no, you can't do that, Princess,' said Katnissa, a note of formality entering her voice. 'I know you have no handmaiden on board. Please allow me to serve you in that capacity.'

Fiona smiled, her eyes sparkling. 'My dearest child, I cannot think of anyone I would like better.'

She put her arms up in the air and Katnissa very efficiently stripped her clothes off. Then she engulfed her in cleansing mist from a mobile unit, waited a moment for it to dry and then quickly and expertly began to anoint her mother's magnificent body with sweet-smelling herbal lotions and moisturizers. She began with an overall body lotion, massaged into Fiona's feet, ankles and long legs, up on to her flat belly and back and shoulders. Then she took up a fine herbal essence and massaged it into the folds of Fiona's cunt, drawing forth sighs of satisfaction. Next she took up a special breast and nipple cream that she gently massaged into Fiona's small firm breasts, finally working on the puckering nipples, tweaking them between finger and thumb to knead the cream in. The nipples quickly stood out to their full length, and Fiona sighed again and patted Katnissa on the head, saying, 'Good, good, my dearest girl ...' A final set of creams for her face and Fiona was ready to be clothed.

'I will wear another set of ceremonial robes, please, Katnissa' she said. Katnissa picked the clothing out of a walk-in closet and dressed her mother. Finally she stood back and examined her handiwork.

'You look beautiful, mother,' she said.

'Thanks to you.' returned Fiona. Katnissa merely smiled.

Embracing Katnissa once more, Fiona left her and made her way to the sickbay. Charlotte had been placed in the largest and most luxurious suite. She rapped on the door and on a query from within, spoke in a carrying tone,

'Countess Fiona, Peeress of the Susanna Regiment!'

The door was opened immediately by a doctor, who had risen from monitoring the instruments connected to Charlotte's body, predominantly around her head and jaw, the area of her injury. The High Priestess was naked and Althea had been in the process of anointing her, for a bag of oils and creams lay open on a bedside table. Althea now paused and looked up as Fiona entered.

'I come at your summons, Pontifex Magna Maxima,' said Fiona formally. 'But I can wait outside till Lady Althea has finished.'

'No, please be seated, Princess Fiona,' Charlotte's voice was low. 'We will be done in a moment. I am pleased to find Lady Althea by my side and fully recovered from her ordeal. How is Lady Katnissa?'

Fiona seated herself next to Althea and patted her shoulder.

'I am pleased to say that Lady Katnissa is well and resting comfortably in the Royal stateroom,' she said, and then turning to Althea. 'Allow me to say that my delight at your safe return is second only to your mother's.'

Althea bowed in her seat, but did not reply.

In a moment, Althea was done. Doctor covered her with a thin sickbay gown.

'Doctor,' said Charlotte to . 'Could you allow Princess Fiona and me some time together, please?'

'Of course,' said , bowing deeply and withdrawing. Then Charlotte turned to Althea, who stood and withdrew without her mother asking.

There was a pregnant silence, as though Charlotte were waiting for Fiona to speak. But Fiona did not speak -- she merely sat and crossed her long, elegant legs and waited, her beautiful head cocked in expectation.

'Fiona,' said Charlotte finally. 'We both know that you had Aablar drugged. He was unfocused, just a waiting to attack the first one to approach him. The look of madness, the red eyes, the slight drool, the clenching and unclenching of muscles -- the picture is too clear. Why did you do it?'