Blood Sabers

by Burbaugh, MF;

  ~~~

  The commander was now really pissed. Nothing had been said about any demons still being alive. They were promised easy victory over the weak humans, and little opposition, yet ships were lost, soldiers died. Had the goddess abandoned them?

  His reports were mixed: two packs of demons, front and rear were converging on him. Time to go. He fired the home buoy. Raised the cover, set the self-destruct and activated it. They couldn’t stop it; he would get them in the end. He smiled.

  He fired the escape launch separators. He heard them fire, he felt the bridge rock, he smiled. He grew curious why it was taking so long to separate.

  ~~~

  Rodel was screaming at them to get out. Going to blow, no help.

  Linda was moving now, a goddess in high speed made Queastra’s bursts of speed look slow. She slashed and smashed through a bulkhead and doors. She cleared a door and saw them. The entire world went nova.

  I came to in a pool of my own blood. I was still in space, in a bubble. Linda was on her lion pushing the bubble. I rolled over, I could see our ship, it was coming this way.

  I looked around, all the girls floated, blood everywhere. Linda was crying. “I can’t do anything, suits are damaged, I need the ship, hurry Rodel, God damn it, hurry.”

  I asked if there was anything I could do. She said she didn’t know. No way in or out, ships lock ahead, just had to wait.

  I could hardly move. Things were broken. I tried, I wanted to so bad. I crawled to Aawasa’s suit; she looked like she was asleep, except for the blood puddling inside her helmet.

  All were the same, all so pretty, all asleep, except they wouldn’t wake up.

  I felt being pushed, we were at the ship. Linda was stuffing us all in the lock, no choice. I remember it cycling then I was out from the pain.

  I came to, Linda sat there, she had been crying.

  She saw me wake and told me to please not move. I tried to anyway but the pain tore me a new asshole.

  “Aawasa? The others?” I asked.

  “I heal what I can. No power, all gone, fight, explosion, all gone.” She shook it off. “All live for now. Rodel has maximum efforts going to try to recharge. You are a little better; your suit took a lot until the power ran out. How the bubble held I still don’t know.” She gave the bad news. “Aawasa and two others have broken necks. Aawasa’s spine is crushed. All have massive internal injuries.” She started crying again.

  “Rodel, Seekers, fire,” I said.

  “He did, everything we got is deployed. We are almost dead in the water,” she said.

  “No, fire seeker, power.” I was out.

  I woke again. Linda’s face came into view and she smiled, weakly. It was three days later according to her. I was still in excruciating pain. I tried to ask Rodel something, but guttural sounds came out.

  “All live my husband. We must still wait for power, but we survive,” she said. “Massive injuries still, but I heal as I can. None are life threatening now.”

  I raised an arm, hurt like hell, I touched her face. “Forgive me, I can not ride for a while.” I smiled and was out.

  I was awake and fully functional the next day. Rodel had sacrificed a second seeker.

  I still had soreness but nothing like my wives had, all of them.

  All lay, unmoving, some still in various bandages. Rodel had reduced the gravity to just enough to keep everything in place. It eased the pains.

  We had two Seekers left. We could not jump anywhere so he had to save them.

  “The 40 MMs into rubble? Boomers?” I asked.

  Neither he nor Linda were thinking straight. Rodel, because he quite literally was on death ration power.

  Linda found the largest space junk she could and piled it. Rodel set every form of energy charging/absorbing devices we had and I fired every 40 MM shell we stocked, blew the few hand grenades and the two biggest things they forgot—the two chem Gens salvaged from the old NASA ship we found. All brought the caps back on line and Linda got enough charge to heal the majority of wounds and bones. Rodel sedated them all anyway; they would truly hurt for a while, or until we could get more power up.

  Really wasn’t a lot to do but wait, so we waited.

  Queastra was the first to really come out of it. She saw the white panties and knew she was alive.

  “Honest, I tested them, they fit,” I said and gave her a kiss.

  She smiled and grimaced. She was in a lot of pain so she received another shot.

  Matawasa was next, saw her green ones, smiled, gave me a kiss, and said, “That didn’t go well, I think,” and she went back to sleep.

  All but Aawasa came to and were either sedated again or had pain shots and suffered.

  Linda said most of Aawasa was put back together. She still had some spine injuries but should be okay. “Her mind hurts and I have done a despicable thing again.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “To save power, it was easier,” she said.

  “What?” I asked, slightly annoyed.

  “They are all virgins.” She hung her head in shame.

  I stood and hugged her. “We’ll suffer through it.” And I gave her a kiss.

  All but Aawasa were up and about now.

  I washed Aawasa and combed her hair. We all waited. Linda finally had her healed but she slept on.

  We analyzed what we could on the Blood Sabers. Apparently the commander knew he was losing. If Rodel had it right he fired the self-destruct and the separator system. Apparently it had to be done that way or you couldn’t separate it.

  Linda saw the double bulkheads and welded them together along the bottom. He realized he wasn’t getting away, but it was too late, nothing he could do. It was a very short sequence.

  Rodel detected the countdown but there was no time to find, control, or jam anything. Rodel swore Linda blew threw a bulkhead and two hatches and threw the bubble in the five remaining seconds. The bubble activated plus/minus a few ten thousands of a second before the self-destruct blew all their fission materials and F/F reactor in one blast. Our ship was too close and was literally blown several hundred thousand miles away.

  Rodel said the only thing that saved us was we were at just the right area in the ship and we were surrounded by all the nuke devices going off, and the waves all more or less hit the bubble at the same time. We got blasted all over the inside of the bubble, but there were enough cancellations that we were still breathing. Oh, he actually ‘caught’ a probe leaving. Well, it ran right into the bubble and petered out. It was stored. No power to waste checking it.

  Linda had used the little power she had left at the time of the explosion to remove the radiation; there simply wasn’t anything left for healing.

  We were powered up, we could jump, but we weren’t moving until Aawasa was awake. I didn’t know what would happen if we jumped with her comatose. The girls got together. I went in and caressed her heart, and kissed it, and cried, and I told her to hurry back, we were all waiting.

  About three weeks after it was all over she fluttered her eyes, just a second. She saw red panties, smiled and was out. All of them said she would be fine, it was a good sign.

  Not once did anyone mention that we all knew it was Aawasa who made us tick; we waited.

  Two days later I was combing her hair and she said, “No ice water, my husband?” She slept another day. Rodel figured she was the closest to death the whole time, may have actually died, no way to know.

  Finally, I was sitting there reading to her and she opened her eyes and said, “Could I please get a kiss? You have been so neglectful of your duties,” and lay there beaming. I kissed her gently, and hugged her, and told everyone she was awake. I broke down and cried.

  She just patted my head.

  “I wasn’t supposed to come back, I fought it. I was supposed to die, we all were supposed to, so I did, but you kept calling and calling and calling and I felt the pain. I was very far away. I missed it a couple times, going around and back like a
speedboat trying to catch a fly on the water. I am here, but still think I am not supposed to be.”

  I had known we shouldn’t jump; I kissed her, “If you were not suppose to be here you would never have heard the call. Sleep.”

  Next day eight new Seekers, four jumpers, and two searchers arrived in two service pods, along with some mass for the F/F. We had been here a long time. We restocked and finally went to New Earth, the closest planet.

  Gloria was very far along. Having a baby she had no recollection of having done anything that someone could claim ‘father’ to.

  I was asked to remain with Aawasa. She was still very weak and needed tending and since Linda was the cause, the rest would all go and help fix the problem.

  Aawasa held my hand. “You kissed my soul when I was far away. I felt you, I needed you so much, and I had to come back.”

  I joined her in bed, and had her lay in my arms. I hugged her gently. “That was what you saw so long ago, the surrogates, everything, you saw us all dead in space, wasn’t it?” I asked her.

  “Yes, we all slept and there was so much blood, and I knew we were all dead but Linda.” She frowned.

  I gave her the full and complete rundown. “We could not have gotten closer, any of us, but we didn’t die, we lived.” I held her head against me.

  “Know how I found you?” she asked.

  “No, tell me,” I said.

  “I saw a little red dot, it was so small as I kept heading to it. When I finally got close, I knew what it was. My red panties. Silly, yes? Speaking of which, they itch. Could you remove them?”

  “Did Linda tell you?” I asked.

  “Tell me what, my husband.” She looked at me strangely.

  “When she healed you all, you’re all virgins again,” I said.

  “You know, it will be the first time I ever was for you,” and she smiled.

  We rode little, gentle waves and she said, “I am so glad you called me back home.”

  The girls got back. “Gloria said she didn’t think she’d done anything. She agreed to be the mother. Contract and all. She was in a high office in government and the Prez had found her interesting,” Linda told us.

  We headed home to Camelot. I worked through my wives, removing the despicable curse Linda placed on all of them. I think we all rather enjoyed it.

  We were met with days of parades and reunions. We saw two beautiful twins run around, one boy, one girl, and if they touched each other, sparks flew. Ying and Yang? Positive and Negative? Latwasa was studying it. All the other surrogate babies were beautiful too and we were assured the tribe would continue.

  Latwasa tore the probe of the Blood Sabers apart. Its home world was identified.

  Linda and Rodel dissected some of the Blood Sabers that attacked us. They had little more than a bio transmitter in their brains hooked into their nervous system with focus and range enhancements. The Creator’s mate had wasted little effort on them. Sensory overload occurred when their dying couldn’t be isolated.

  Latwasa said we couldn’t move against them for a year to a year and a half.

  A few months later we had jumpers and Seekers surrounding three of their planets. It was almost certain a fourth was around after intercepting some of their chatter from, and between, the planets since the telepathic abilities were short range.

  Rodel put together their basic story. The goddess who made them gave them eighteen huge ships. She had swords introduced because of what happened to her other children. She promised them a grand battle at the end. They of course knew it was for them to vanquish the evil (spit) humans.

  We had destroyed seventeen ships so far. The last was tracked and followed; it was being disassembled so they could try to make more of their own. Their current defenses prevented us from destroying even one of the three known planets using all our resources. In a year we’d be ready, as Latwasa had said, one and a half tops.

  We made it mandatory to drop Seekers, jumpers and searchers at every jump anyone made. Max development in all areas. We would track and wait.

  Three days later the Doc informed me that all six of my wives were pregnant, and congratulations!

  Queastra’s father, through various means, had a third of his women with children as well, using the new seed from Earth. Their tribal identity was saved.

  Aawasa and I went to a little cave high in the hills for a few days. It was wonderful to relax by the fire without the drama or tensions of the universe bearing down on us.

  Brigit and Matawasa came along to see where the world turned and red panties came to mean so much for so many.

  They spent the day and first night with us and helped us rechristen the cave, leaving at dawn with the helicopter to go see were the great battles took place. They also wanted to meet Matawasa’s parents and maybe fly to the south to see Queastra’s family where she was staying for a while.

  Aawasa and I felt almost like old people. I was twenty-four now, she turned an old hag at twenty this life. We had hundreds of great-greats running around and we were content. The second and third days and nights we just walked and talked and hugged.

  She lay in my arms. “I wish we were done, my husband, but we still have much to do. You know that don’t you?”

  “I thought we came here to rest and forget for awhile?”

  “We have, you have many other duties and other wives that need attention,” she said.

  “Always worried about others after so many years?” I asked.

  “Time does not erase the love, or negate the pain or happiness we feel, you know that.”

  “One more day?” I asked.

  “Of course, my love. You will need to leave, without us this time, and fairly soon too.”

  “I go nowhere. We have nothing to do for a year!”

  She turned to me slowly and kissed me in the way she does right before she rips my heart out. She looked into my eyes and just caressed it and kissed it and loved it.

  “We really need more time than one or two generations between recycles. I love you, but look at all of us from the old group, we are tired and weary of heart. Only the young ones we brought in fill our lives with interest and diversity. I love them and you, but I still feel the tiredness of burdened souls. Love me, Jake, make me happy again, please. Find a storm or two. There is no answer to what we do, we just do and we all love it.”

  We rode storms and tempests and cyclones and she grabbed control and we rode the perfect curl over and over. I thought I was dying and told her so. We collapsed.

  Six days and nights, I was almost dead. She laughed and lowered her head, turned it slightly, batted her beautiful eyes, and said, “You like Aawasa, yes?”

  I almost died of laughter. We had a long shower; she had to hold me up. She laughed after a while and said, “Your joys are definitely far more life draining than ours. I see how we may have really killed our men so many generations ago.”

  Needless to say we received massive complaints from around the world. We also got five congrats on six days from the other wives.

  The world knew and felt. Except for the builders, we were far enough away from all, they really didn’t mind much.

  Every wife was, on the other hand, in torture for six days. Even Queastra, who was on the other side of the planet, she said she and Matawasa and Brigit had to huddle, it was so good and it hurt so bad, and all with babies, they were worried.

  Aawasa looked at me, I looked at her, and we both said, “Shit,” then laughed. We’d forgotten, for a while anyway.

  “And that, my love, is the other reason. For our safety, you must fly away for a while. Leave us be, please, or our children will die, all six, with one little slip. Then we need three months to get our fat flabby bodies back into shape for the push.

  “You need to leave in a week, max. Any longer one of us will desire. I am sorry, it never should have. We know not the how or why, but it is and you are, for the next nine months, our greatest danger,” she said.

  “What pisses me o
ff is, as always, you are right, but damn it, I wish just once you were wrong,” I said.

  “I was once, so you got your wish. We were all supposed to die.” She kissed me and I slept the night and most of the next day away.

  The helicopter took us home.

  I Must Leave

  We were all saying goodbyes. Aawasa had Doc, now the first assistant, to go with us to help Jebedalous with the skin ailment we found, and curing some new STD strains. She would then return with us.

  The other was My Captain, recently out of childbirth. She was to keep us company to Earth were she would replace Big Guy, who would move with his wives from there to the new, pre-space colony found but a few weeks ago. We would pick up two young ladies there to be brought to Camelot for mating. The Chief had it all figured out. They had some gene problems as well.

  All were there to see us off, like three fourths of the planet. Linda hugged me and I felt something. “Okay, what was it?” I asked.

  “A new Doc’s special. Keeps the seed sweet but prevents the combining with any egg. Lasts until it is undone. Chief wants no random bastards she can’t track! Nor do we.” She smiled so sweetly. They all smiled so sweetly.

  Aawasa gave me two fresh courtesan contracts to sign, the Doc and My Captain.

  My Aawasa’s eyes got so bright; she was going to cry. They all hugged me one last time and Aawasa said, “When you get time. Read the fine print.” The door was closed, soon we boosted and we turned the day to middle of the sun bright as the boosters fired and roared to life, making our ship claw for the heavens on trails of roaring flames.

  I read the contract that afternoon. It stated I may demand, but it was added that they may demand, and I could not refuse either.

  “Rodel!”

  “You need not yell, Sire. Aawasa added it to insure you were kept busy. Something about soul links and depression?” He laughed.

  On Earth they had the prototype of Latwasa’s gun idea ready for testing. It got rid of the 40 MMs and now I had two turreted, fully automatic or manually controlled, 6000 rounds per minute, hyper velocity nail guns. Seems she was reading some sci-fi and picked the idea up, worked out the bugs in her mind, and sent the design to Earth to build.