by Jack Challis
“My God” thought Blodwyn. The big cat, like the Stabasade was trying to communicate with me: this was spooky! Spooky by human standards maybe: but not in deep space. Blodwyn was right – this predator had vocal cords:
‘We are both hunted by the Cold-bloods…do not be afraid…strange female…I have fed well…we can escape together…you can be my new mate!’
The purring big cat beckoned her to leave the protection of the Galla Quall space-chariot and join it outside. The laser had not only confused the Symator but it had also dulled a raging appetite.
Although Blodwyn did not understand the big cat’s language she got the gist of the potently deadly invitation; she was not convinced at the cat’s relaxed and sleepy persona. (She had seen Squeaks; her fat and lazy tom cat look at a mouse many a time in an affectionate, almost caring way after it dropped the rodent into the bath tub for later deadly attention.)
The hairless Symator then began circling the craft – inspecting it like some curious car thief. The big cat’s mood was reverting back to its true nature as its feline brain began to un-scramble from the first laser blast. The big cats hunger returned; the helpless creature within the chariot was food.
Then to her horror, Blodwyn watched the big intelligent cat break off a small branch and began to try to insert it into the space-chariot to disable it somehow; time to use the small laser again. This cat was indeed dangerous.
At the second charge of the laser, the spotted Symator again shook its great head, watching, confused as the space chariot rose vertically into the darkening sky.
Chapter Twenty
Ora Pellas Two
We are beautiful Ora Pellas who;
neither worry, toil or chew.
Our dwelling place is burning gas;
our lovely bodies a swirling mass.
We are frivolous, dangerous females,
who be sometimes one
and sometimes two!
Blodwyn took the space-chariot to a safe height and hid in some clouds that were catching the last dazzling reflected rays of the alien sunburst… she looked below … the Cold-bloods and the Na Idriss had gone, night was falling. Using the cloud as cover from the eyes of the Symator and the still feasting squabbling Yarbies, she flew higher into the dim dark mountains of Tarus Tarm and landed, she now felt a little safer.
Again there were more berry bushes, not that she was tempted to leave the safety of the space-chariot. It was now almost dark when she caught sight of many twinkling lights that looked like large fire flies around the far bushes: the lights approached. ‘What now!’ she thought.
She did not have to wait long to find out – Brindled Noops – the same species she had seen on Tarrea-one. After buzzing around the space-chariot they settled on the clear telium canopy; pressing their half insect, half humanoid faces close and staring at her they grinned with bird-like chirrups.
She had nothing to fear from these little colorful beings who were distant kin to the Lings. Soon Blodwyn realized what the Brindled Noops were interested in: the chrysalis of the Sisling hanging in front of her. She gave the chrysalis a gentle poke, it twisted, annoyed at the intrusion; the Noops giggled.
‘Hurry up you lazy little sod,’ she exclaims, ‘when are you going to metamorphose and help to protect me – that’s what you are here for isn’t it?’
The Brindled Noops giggled and gestured to her to poke the Sisling chrysalis again. Blodwyn did not realize that allowing the little Sisling to stuff itself with pollen toffee, was why it was taking so long to remain in chrysalis. She noticed that the Noops were giving her new position away by lighting up the space-chariot.
Unknown to her, the Symator had moved in the opposite direction to escape the coming cold alien night that was slowly engulfing the steamy reed beds of the swamp. However her new illuminated position had not gone unnoticed by the Bat-winged Yarbies! Try as she may, Blodwyn could not shoo the Brindled Noops away. She went to sleep; slumber came quickly.
The following morning she awoke to shrill cries of:
‘We have found the Bitch Terasil – in a nut bubble.’
Looking up overhead she could see a flock of these bold repulsive creatures flapping a few meters above the space-chariot, eyeing her. Waking quickly she started up and immediately took off. But before she could gain any appreciable height or build up any speed, she noticed a dozen Yarbies were clinging to the craft slowing it down, making it impossible for her to escape.
The space chariot began to lose height. As she could no longer see where she was going Blodwyn was forced to land with a thud. With clawed hands the Yarbies began to try to gain entry. Using her small laser was not the answer because as one of her attackers became bewildered and confused, another took its place.
Seeing it was impossible to get at her, the bat-wings had another idea. To Blodwyn’s horror they collectively began to lift the space chariot into the air, up and up to the height of over six hundred feet – they intended to drop the space-chariot from a great height – ‘that would crack open their nut!’ The intention of the Yarbies soon became apparent to Blodwyn: what could she do? “If given enough thought, all problems can be solved.” But of course she did not have much time to ponder this problem.
Gaining enough height, the Bat-wings let go of the space-chariot; her stomach dropped as she plummeted to terra firma. The aerodynamics of the craft kept it level as it fell: she pressed the start button. The falling space chariot stopped just before impact and hovered five feet above the ground.
Blodwyn had no time to celebrate; the Bat-wings had not given up, again they attached themselves to the space chariot. This had the effect of grounding it. Once again, up and up they took the craft but on this occasion over a narrow deep chasm with jagged walls. This time there would be no escape; no room to maneuver.
The Galla Qualls would never find her remains that far down. Over the deep chasm now, she looked down: it looked bottomless. The Bat-wings let go of the space chariot. They sniggered to themselves as they watched it fall.
Down. Down She fell: waiting for impact! A green spiral light flashed before her eyes, quickly turning red; was this color of impending death: red? Blodwyn closed her eyes it would lessen the horror of the impact and her inevitable demise.
She just managed the first line of the Hail Mary! The rapid fall took her breath away. She braced herself for the coming crash – clutching the sides of the craft. But no impact followed, instead she felt she was gently floating – had she died, was she now an Angel – a Star-child floating upwards?
Blodwyn opened her eyes: a lovely green feminine face with short spiky hair was grinning at her. It was the Ora-Pella she had met on her last quest; the same frivolous being that with her powers, had subdued the Malis Afar Captain Karak and the whole crew of the Na Idriss Night-cat battleship. The single female Ora Pella quickly split into two lovely green slim female forms, they lifted the craft and gently placed the space chariot down onto green grass.
Blodwyn immediately opened the clear telium canopy before the Ora Pellas melted it.
‘Lovely bag of water,’ say both the higher beings in union, ‘Blodwyn…white flower…a lovely bag of water.’
Ora Pellas are made up of hydrogen and helium gasses; no liquid. To an Ora Pella, a human at over ninety percent water was indeed ‘a bag of water.’ Ora Pellas were of a frivolous and dangerous nature; they could take their bodies to the highest temperatures and glow blue hot. Rock and telium would melt in their lovely hands. They could also make their bodies blood warm, or as cold as a mountain stream: these mischievous, higher beings were much feared and respected.
‘Thank you for saving me,’ says Blodwyn getting out of the space-chariot and curtsying gracefully. The two Ora Pellas responded with a frenzy of curtsying, to Blodwyn and to each other; they then began curtsying to imaginary beings.
The bout of curtsying over, Blodwyn noticed that all her attackers had landed near by and were looking terrified. Then the two Ora Pellas turned to t
he cowering Yarbies.
‘This bag of water Blodwyn is our friend – do not dare trouble her again.’
All the She-male Yarbies nodded, looking down at the ground sheepishly; they knew their punishment was about to begin. Giggling, the two Ora Pellas picked up rocks and held them: the rocks glowed red hot and became pliable with the heat, then dripped like molten lava. Blodwyn moved a safe distance away she did not want to be splashed. The two lovely higher beings then began to throw the glowing, dripping rocks with amazing force and velocity at the grounded Yarbies.
The bat-wings gave out sharp cries of pain and shrill shrieks as the red hot rocks splattered; burning fragments landed on their tough, leathery bodies. Oooooooch… scabby-tits…. Ahhhhh… damabug…Oooooooch! The She-males quietly cursed as they were splashed by red hot laver. As the bombardment continued, the She-male Yarbies hopped, skipped and jumped as if performing some kind of painful, demented, frantic jig, trying to avoid the red hot fragments and shake off the burning embers from their thick smoking hides. Tiring of this sport the two Ora Pellas turn away and look at Blodwyn giggling. She knew exactly what was coming next.
The Yarbies – quiet now, as if not to draw further attention to themselves, inspected and rubbed parts of their burnt bodies and blamed each other in low whispers as to who first instigated the attack on the ‘bag of water.’
Blodwyn knew from the last time what these two mischievous and frivolous Ora Pellas would now want a fashion show – trying on all her clothes; then a naked dance would follow and then a bath. The two higher beings began undressing Blodwyn and trying on her clothes while she stood stark naked; shivering and trying to cover herself as best she could, she watched the two Ora Pellas excited antics, as both tried to climb into her jeans at the same time. Blodwyn felt ridiculous standing starkers and hoped she did not have an uninvited audience.
After tiring of their fashion show the two Ora Pellas, as usual, began molding each other’s flat-chested bodies, using Blodwyn as a model; they added a curve here and there to their slim bodies until they looked like replicas of her. Then they began pulling and tugging at each other’s short hair until it was as long as hers. Now all three looked like triplets, time to dance.
Blodwyn played ‘Rakish Paddy’ on her tin whistle and the three females danced like demented, naked banshees on that distant, alien mountainside.
Dancing over, the green twins say.’
‘Now we bathe,’ pulling Blodwyn to a small mountain pool – it was bath time and the water was freezing.
‘I can’t bathe in this cold water. Blodwyn protests, ‘I will freeze my **** off!’
But she had no option and was pulled in the chilly rock pool by the giggling twins. As usual the two Ora Pellas turned blue in water.
‘The water is too cold. I will catch Pneumonia… and die in minuets!’ Protests Blodwyn… breaking out in goose pimples. Noticing this, the two Ora Pellas followed suit, developing goose pimples the size of marbles.
‘Flaming Hell!’ Exclaims Blodwyn, ‘I am freezing – warm the water up please.’
One of the Ora Pellas turns fire-red and dips her delicate hand in the water which sizzles and bubbles around it.
‘Ahhh…that’s better sighs Blodwyn.
‘Ouchhh! - no that’s too hot now.’
The blue Ora Pella then dips her hand in the rock pool.
‘Holy Mother,’ ….shouts Blodwyn, ‘that’s too cold now – warm the water up – for Christ sakes!’
Soon the water was too hot again.
‘Oooochhhh!…too hot,’ cries out Blodwyn climbing out quickly from the over hot rock pool, as pink as any lobster; the Ora Pellas giggled and turned pink themselves. Blodwyn quickly dressed; she knew the two frivolous Ora Pellas were having some fun with her and smiled.
Blodwyn had an idea and got the twelve gold Antares ducats given to her by the Sillian, and handed six to each Ora-Pella. She indicated to the two green females that she wanted replicas of them in gold: they obliged. Now the gold could be used for a good purpose; if she ever got back to Earth.
Fun over, the two lovely Ora Pellas merged into one again.
‘Goodbye Blodwyn… white flower…lovely bag of water.’
Both beings merged and turned into a swirl of green gas that spiraled into space. The She-male Yarbies looked relived. They bowed to Blodwyn; some even curtsied. The Bat-wings took off in the opposite direction. The red light in the space chariot began flashing: the Galla Quall Time-ship was back.
Chapter Twenty One
Three and a Half Million BC: The Race to Become Man
Who would become our nearest kin;
the happy stone-breakers;
the content honey-lickers or the gentle root-diggers –
of these none would win!
It was the only species of man –
Homo Sapiens who were content and willing to commit murder –
concidered the greatest sin!
Blodwyn was relieved to be back in her quarters in the Galla Quall Time-ship. She hung the Ling chrysalis back on the blue lamp and ate some pollen toffee – delicious.
‘It will serve you right if I eat all this pollen toffee before you break chrysalis,’ she threatens.
The small being within the chrysalis wiggled three times as if in protest, then it was quite again.
Blodwyn went to bed and turned on the soothing blue light. She awoke three minutes later feeling totally refreshed: in fact she had slept for seven days, earth time. The ship was traveling back in time, millions of miles an hour, faster than the speed of Time! She knew their first stop was Earth, three and a half millions before Christ! At this particular period several species of our distant ancestors were wittingly and unwittingly struggling to become us: modern man – Homo sapiens.
Blodwyn would soon witness how cruel and desperate this struggle was at the time when fang and claw and the savage mind dominated.
‘Now that you are efficient in handling the space-chariot, here is a more advanced model,’ says Sebus and pointing to the controls adds, ‘you can cloak this craft…just press this button.’
She looked at the dashboard of twelve buttons – they all had Alien symbols – how would she remember?
‘Think of your numbers; press button seven,’ instructs Admiral Sebus…’but use cloaking sparingly…it uses a great amount of x-Ninne. At the nose of this craft there is a more powerful laser,’ continues the Galla Quall, ‘it causes a greater shock to the brain… but does not kill larger predators…you also have your small laser.’
Blodwyn changed into light clothes, flats and a slightly battered straw hat with a light blue scarf as a hat-band. She knew it was going to be very hot. She was excited but frightened, after all this was an area now known as Africa! The continent was not a place in which to be alone – even in modern times: humans are always frail and vulnerable when alone.
‘Where will you be?’ Blodwyn asks.
‘We will be conducting scientific research in the far South,’ answers Sebus before leaving. Again she hung the Sisling’s chrysalis above the dashboard of the space chariot and left the exit bay of the Galla Quall Time- ship. Blodwyn was thrilled as this was an era when this continent was at its wildest; she looked at her watch; it was Sunday, ten o’clock in the morning, earth time: three and a half million years BC!
Blodwyn slowly took the space chariot lower and joined a group of circling griffin vultures in a cloudless sky; the birds were using the first thermals of the day, scanning the golden plain below. She would do the same, after her nasty experience on Tarus Tarm with the Symator. This time she was not going to land near any dangerous animals, or leave the protection of the space-chariot for that matter.
In the distance over a shimmering lake, millions of flamingoes circled in different levels and directions; their bright and pale pinks against a blue sky dazzled in the morning sunlight like a revolving kaleidoscope. The plains of central Africa looked not that much different to those of modern times but the nu
mbers of herds of grazing animals covered the grasslands in a way that they did not do so today. Countless flocks of small seed-eating queleia rose and fell to ground level, skimming the grassland. A herd of milling zebras in the distance raised clouds of red dust. A massive heard of dun-colored, Quagga (now extinct) dominated the plain in its migration south and stretched between the horizons.
She took the space chariot lower, just above a large quartering Rufus eagle that eyed her with suspicion. The big raptor was watching something with interest below on the burning plain. Blodwyn dropped lower to see what held the bird of prey’s interest.
Three tiny, dark figures were crossing the open grassland: they looked vulnerable. Humanoids! She was about to lose more height when she realized the humanoids were actually very small in stature. Ramapithecus, our first and smallest ancestors; were still just managing to hold on to existence in this world of fang and claw.
Not wanting to frighten these tiny ancestors of humans she kept the craft well behind them, pressed the numbers on the dash board as she had been instructed and cloaked the space chariot. The craft became invisible. This was wonderful as not only did she feel safer but she could observe events unseen. Blodwyn slowly followed the small family of humanoids and observed.
She could now see there were in fact four of these small beings; the female was carrying an infant. The male held a puny stick in one hand – his only defense. In the other hand walking in the shade of his shadow, a juvenile clung.
It was clear this small family group were in a high state of anxiety out in the open plain. They constantly kept looking around and up at the giant raptor circling overhead. The small humanoids were heading for a small rocky outcrop known a kopie on which a tree was growing.
Blodwyn wondered why the large circling raptor had not attacked the small vulnerable family below… she soon found out… they were already being stalked by one of the most efficient killers of early man!
