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"Do it. Do it!" she whispered through a throat bereft of moisture.
Dragon pushed one final time, and his fluids coursed through him just as Alice began to collapse upon the blanket. He thrust into her, hoping he wasn't bending her in two but unable to resist the animal urges of his muscles during his own orgasm. He could feel his semen fly forth and fill Alice. There was a second pulse and another spray.
Then he collapsed upon her.
Several minutes passed before her laboured breathing reminded Dragon to roll off Alice. He slid out easily, as a sticky flow of liquids seeped from Alice's folds. She breathed in and out deeply.
Dragon lay upon his back, collecting his strength. Alice's breasts rose and fell at a slower and slower rate until she was at last asleep.
As she slept, the hyperman pondered the morality of using one woman to rescue another. It took a while before his brain cleared enough for him to remember that Alice was a pirate and, therefore, deserving of no mercy. She preyed upon others, killing, stealing, and perpetrating all sorts of other crimes upon her fellow humans; Dragon was under no compunction to treat her with anything other than contempt.
Once he became Galactic Overlord, he smirked at the ridiculous title, ridding the Milky Way of all pirates would be high on his list. He glanced over at the red head. Although perhaps some would be given the option of finding another profession, he thought.
XXXII
"It was my discovery," announced Miguel proudly. The others rolled their eyes. Minx wasn't sure what this was about, but she had agreed to go on this hunting trip after both Vanessa and Paul had suggested it to her and she felt that some in their group might be less guarded around her during the outing. The bounty hunter felt confident she could handle any of them if there was trouble, and she was now beginning to view everything these people did with a small amount of suspicion, although she had not totally given up on them as of yet.
Miguel stood in front of the berry bush, his spears set against a large conifer a couple of metres away. The cherry-like fruits were perfectly round and bright red, which contrasted prettily with their dark green leaves. The seven had taken Minx to the edge of a rainforest roughly three kilometres from the village. None of the larger animals came anywhere near their home, so the group often had to range quite far to find their quarry.
"We've all had them," said Mike, " and they are delicious."
"You've got to try them," suggested Miguel. He picked a few and handed them to Minx.
The bounty hunter eyed them dubiously. She had noticed that none of the others were eating any.
Miguel picked a few more and popped them into his mouth. "If you chew on three or four at a time you get the full taste explosion. Try it!" he said between chews.
Minx raised her hand to her mouth. A glance at the others showed they were all waiting on her and Miguel. Vanessa yawned and Paul looked nervous, as if he was eager to move on. Minx popped the berries into her mouth and chewed.
"Hmmm!" She had to admit they were delicious. They were very sweet and had a delightful texture. It was almost as if the berries fell apart in her mouth.
Still none of the others showed any sign of wanting to eat these savoury treats. Minx saw a glimmer of a smile on the faces of Xie and Victor that quickly disappeared as she glanced their way. The sound of Miguel stumbling into the bush caused her to turn his way. His eyes were glazing over as he struggled to regain his balance. Then, he fell to the ground unconscious.
Minx whirled on the others.
"Shouldn't take much longer to knock her out. Then we can have some fun and she won't be so prissy," said Paul. The other men chuckled.
"Stuck up bitch!" declared Vanessa. "We'll see how arrogant you are after each of them has fucked you up good!"
Minx could feel the narcotics in the berries beginning to take effect. She stumbled forward a step. "You've all made a baaatttt misssss..."
Realizing she was fighting a losing battle against the drugs in her system, Minx clenched her fingers around one of the spears she carried. She saw the eyes of the others go wide as she took a step forward and swung at them.
Vanessa and Paul let out screams as the obsidian tip of the spear cut through them. Paul grabbed his throat thinking he'd been cut there, but Minx's weapon had slashed across his chest just below his neck. Vanessa's hands went to her face, but blood flowed over her fingers from the gash across left cheek.
Minx allowed herself a grim smile and the spear slipped from her numbing fingers. She fell to her knees, and then pitched face-first onto the ground.
XXXIII
A hairy hand grabbed Minx's upper arm and gently shook her awake. She turned over and looked through the bamboo bars at the ape-man who'd brought her food.
"Hello, Butler. How are they treating you?" she asked, as she sat up and then stretched.
The hominid shrugged, which surprised Minx. She hadn't expected such a human reaction, but then he'd been around humans for some time. Butler watched Minx as she ate the pasty mixture of water and grains in the small, dirty wooden bowl. There was sadness in his eyes, but no anger at her weeks-long imprisonment.
"Any sign of Arachne?"
Butler shook his head; again, it was a surprisingly human gesture. Minx thought it was if he was opening up to her a little bit, revealing things about himself and his people now that it was clear that Minx was not on friendly terms with the humans who kept his people enslaved.
What had happened to Arachne? Minx had seen no sign of her since just before the hunting trip and that had been over a dozen sleeps ago. The bounty hunter wished her arachnid friend well, wherever she had disappeared to.
Minx finished her food and passed the bowl back to Butler. He pulled it out between the bamboo bars, raised it to his lips and gave her a questioning look. She scanned the area outside the cave and spotted Victor sitting upon a tree stump and staring at her.
"No. No more for now. You'd better get going before one of them punishes you again for hanging around my prison."
Butler rose and walked away. Minx sent a look of loathing directly at Victor until he could face her no more and turned away. Then she crawled to the back of her cave. She'd taken to exercising as best she could in her tiny cell. Paul and his troop were keeping her for something nasty. She had no doubts about that.
Both of those she had swung that spear at were scarred, Vanessa horribly. Minx had overheard two of the men discussing how ugly she'd become.
Now the bounty hunter had nothing to do but wait until Paul decided her fate, or until Dragon arrived to rescue her. She cursed herself for getting tricked as easily as she had.
Rain began to fall from the sky. The drizzle quickly transformed into a downpour. Minx watched as everyone ran for shelter, including Victor.
"Ship?"
"Yes, boss. I'm glad to hear you're still with us and haven't gone over to the Great Electron."
'Uhm, yeah," responded Minx with some confusion. "What's the news?"
"Well, since Dragon was able to repair my communication link with him I've learned that he's found twelve of the other pirates who were in good enough shape to travel. He's moving to your location as fast as he can, but it's quite a distance on foot."
"I didn't ask for his help."
"And you can tell him that when he arrives. I asked for his help, boss."
"Pirates?" Minx shook her head in disgust. "He sought help from pirates?"
"It's not so far-fetched if you think about it; Dragon's a bit of a rogue himself. He told me that he arranged for them to attack him, then killed their captain and took over their vessel."
And found time for a little romance, thought Minx darkly.
"They're afraid of him, so they obey him," continued Ship. "Although I think eventually they're going to turn against him. These are lawless people and I just can't see them blindly following him for too long. In the meantime, he's headed your way as fast as he can go."
"I don't need him," stated Minx automatically. She eyed the bars to her cell thoughtfully, despite the fact that she knew they were beyond her strength.
"You keep saying that," the exasperated A.I. pointed out. "Seriously, boss. I'm beginning to wonder if you're really all right. Ever since Dragon started stirring up your memories you've been a little stranger than usual."
"Well, I don't need him!"
There were a few seconds of thoughtful silence during which Minx regretted speaking so emphatically.
"Try to stay safe, boss. I care about you."
"I know. Get some rest, Ship."
XXXIV
"And I'm telling you that the only way we'll survive is if we stay together and you follow my orders!" declared Dragon.
The pirates, looking more antagonistic than ever, were all facing him. The hyperman noted that the First Mate was not standing beside him, nor was she standing with the rest of the crew.
Rod, a wiry man in his mid-thirties, pointed a finger at his captain. "You promised us riches if we followed you to this world, and all we've met have been nightmarish monsters! The King Midas is destroyed! Most of our crew is dead! What good has come from following you?"
"I see." Dragon let his arms hang at his sides. "I see that I'll have to explain a few things to you. You follow me because I'm a hyperman and I'm just as likely to torture you all to death as to lead you to glorious riches. Just take a look at your First Mate. She doesn't obey me out of love. She obeys me because she knows I'm smarter, faster and stronger than any of you, and I terrify her. Isn't that right, First mate?"
All eyes turned to Alice. "Yes, Captain. I obey because I'm terrified of you." But Dragon saw her blink as she spoke, and recognized that as a sign that she was lying.
"So which of you wants to die first?" asked Dragon in a tone that clearly demonstrated his boredom with the whole affair. "I'm tired of this delay. I have places to go. If you follow me I'll keep you alive to the best of my ability, and any treasure we find is yours. So who's with me?"
There were a few seconds of silence, and then an unenergetic chorus of cheers rang out from the crew. Dragon put Rod on point, and the troop began marching again. They had entered a barrens, with it's rocky masses of various sizes poking free of the sand, and the hyperman suspected that the dangers here were as great as they'd been in the forest.
He wasn't that troubled over the fact that Alice didn't keep as close to him as she used to. After all, she still came to his blankets every sleep cycle.
XXXV
"Have you come to gloat, or are you ready to plead for my mercy?" asked Minx, sitting cross-legged a couple of metres inside the cave she'd been imprisoned in. She had placed herself far enough back that she was in shadow but still visible. "I'm in a good mood right now," she added.
"I still say we should try to convince her to join us," said Mike to the others.
Minx could see that Paul and Vanessa were determined to hurt her in as bad a way as they could think of. Mike and Miguel seemed somewhat sympathetic towards her. Victor, Xie, and Gable were difficult for the bounty hunter to read, but she suspected they would go along with whatever their leader said.
"She's not going to join us." Vanessa rubbed the red groove in her flesh that would forevermore mar her cheek. "She still thinks she's better than we are." Vanessa stepped forward and spat at Minx. The bounty hunter calmly wiped the spittle from her own cheek.
"Yes, she'd made it clear that she's going to be nothing but trouble." Paul nodded to Vanessa and she came over to him and hugged his arm. "I gave her so many chances to join us, and she's refused each time."
"Ha!"
The group ignored Minx's laugh of disgust.
Paul turned to the group. "She attacked two of us. The apes have noticed that. We have to make an example of her or the apes will see us as weak. If we're going to keep control over them we have to be united and strong." He pointed at Minx. "She has to be punished in such a way that it shows our power and our unity. This society won't survive unless we lead the apes."
"I don't know, Paul." Miguel stared at Minx and she gave him a wink. "It was okay when we were raising the apes from squalor, but this is going a little far. You're talking about murder."
"It's not murder. You all chose me as leader a long time ago. I make the decisions that need to be made. I've kept us all alive through terrible storms and attacks from the most frightful of prehistoric monsters. I organized this society so we could live in comfort. If all of this is to continue then we must proceed."
"Do I get a vote?" asked Minx. "If it's going to save me from a lot more blather as you wishy-washy wimps debate my future then I'd say proceed with whatever you've got planned."
"Shut up!" yelled Vanessa.
"Don't let her get to you, honey. Remember that we're better than her," advised Paul.
"Yes, don't let me get to you Vanessa. You've helped in organizing the gang rape of a drugged woman. You're definitely better than me." Minx turned to Mike. "And you, you're just as bad as Paul. You think the only way to keep a woman from refusing you is to attack her when she's unconscious. Very brave. I'm sure these hominids respect that kind of bravery."
Mike blanched, as did Miguel and Xie. Minx allowed herself a cold smile. "So what's the hold you have over these primitives? Is it the berries? The group of you brought down a few animals with poisoned weapons and that impressed the locals enough for them to declare you gods? Beware mighty Turok! He slays the jabberwocky with one throw of his invincible spear! Like that's going to last! Once you play the god act you have to maintain it. Two of you have been hurt by little old me. The ape-men have seen the scars and they know I'm being punished for it. They're not stupid; they're just primitive. One day they're going to put two and two together and then heaven help you, because I won't be here to save you. When they realize they've been duped, they're going to forget that they're a peaceful people and they are going to come down on you hard. So go ahead and get this thing over with."
Paul put a hand to his forehead. "You see, she's intractable. Mike, Victor, and Gable, you three bring her over to the arena. We'll get everything ready."
Minx laughed. "Even better! You're going to kill me in front of the ape-men, aren't you? Now they'll see that we humans are mortal. Are all of you so stupid that you can't see how bad a leader Paul is?"
The three men shifted a heavy rock from in front of Minx's cell. Once it was out of the way, Victor pushed some bars out of place and then the three men stood in the doorway as an opening was made in the remaining bars. Minx stepped out. Her arms were grabbed and the third man followed as she was led to the arena. As she reached the wall she made a grab for one of the men's spears. Gable was behind her and he shoved his own spear against her back.
"Try it again and I'll put it right through you," he whispered into her ear.
Minx relaxed. She allowed them to lead her to the wall, but as they pushed her in she somersaulted and came to a graceful landing on the floor of the arena. Her feet sank into the sand just a little.
"So this is it? I'm to be bored to death?" she called up to the others.
There was no response. As time went by the ape-men gathered around the walls and looked down upon Minx, where she stood waiting in the centre of the open space. When Paul seemed convinced that everyone had arrived he climbed atop the wall and raised his hands.
"You all know that this woman is not one of us! She attacked me. She attacked Vanessa. She has refused to work with us! WE MUST PUNISH HER!"
Paul leaped back off the wall. He called across the arena to two ape-men who stood by some kind of winch mechanism. "Open the gate!"
Minx watched as the two ape-men bent to their task, and she realized that this was not the first time this particular punishment had been meted out. She scanned the crowd, spotted Butler and gave him a sympathetic look. Despite all of her taunting earlier she didn't really think Butler and his people were going to stand up to her fellow humans.
The barred gate rose slowly, revealing a dark cave leading deeper into the ground. Minx heard a hiss, but saw nothing dangerous rushing forth. She stood her ground at the centre of the arena, wondering how she was going to get herself out of the situation. A groan went up from the ape-men as a large reptilian snout poked into the light. The bounty hunter watched as one of the giant lizards she had seen several weeks earlier pulled itself up out of the cave.
Minx debated the possibility of leaping out of the arena and over the wall. She thought it was possible, but a quick look showed her that her captors had spread themselves around the outside of the arena. If she did try to escape she was going to be captured very quickly, and likely thrown back in after she'd been stabbed a few times with poisoned spears. As the beast surveyed its surroundings, Minx tried to determine her best course of action.
"Ship?"
"Yes, boss? What's all that noise?"
"I just wanted to say I love you, and I hope Dragon takes good care of you."
"Oh, Minx! Dragon's going as fast as he can, but he's still a few days away."
"Tell him that the humans here murdered me. He'll see that justice is done."
"And if he doesn't I will!"
Suddenly, there were screams of fright along one wall. The spectators parted, and a brown shape crested the wall and fell to the sandy floor. Minx recognized Arachne and rushed over to her foolish friend.
"Get out of here, Arachne! Go!" She tried to push her friend away to the wall, but the spider turned, tucked a leg under its body and then pulled out a sword and offered it to Minx.
The bounty hunter stared in amazement, understanding in a fraction of a second that Arachne had run off to recover Minx's weapon from the grasslands of the terror birds. She heard the thumping of the giant lizard's feet upon the sand behind her. Her fingers wrapped around the pommel of her old sword and she whirled to face the reptilian threat.
The beast stopped a few metres away, unsure of what to make of this prey that had cowered a few short seconds ago but now seemed ready to fight. It let out a ferocious roar that silenced those watching.
"She can't possibly win, can she?" asked one of the men above her, voicing his uncertainty.
"No one ever has," stated Paul, but he didn't sound as sure as his words implied.
Minx stood between Arachne and the giant lizard. Its mouth was big enough to swallow the woman in one bite, and each of its conical teeth was as long as her fingers. She adjusted her footing and swung her sword around before it. The animal took the bait and snapped at the blade. Minx swung her arm wide, twisted her wrist and stabbed at the side of the beast's head.
The reptile reared back and roared in pain. Its front claws hit the sand with an audible "thump" that Minx felt through the sand, and then it backed away from her.
"Now it looks just like Vanessa!" shouted Minx. "I managed to kill a few of these on the way here, Paul. This will just make one more!"
Vanessa started screaming obscenities at Minx, but the bounty hunter ignored the words. She glanced at Arachne and spied the spider squeezing into a crevice that was too small for Minx to escape by. She relaxed a little in the knowledge that her loyal friend was safe from this threat.
The lizard charged, its claws throwing sand higher than Minx's head as the beast shot forward with its mouth agape. The bounty hunter ducked down, grabbed some sand and then cast it at the animal's face. A split second later she was rolling under the yellowed teeth and dripping saliva. She kept rolling until she heard the lizard strike the side of the arena headfirst.
