"2566-04" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bigge Jerome - Warlady 4 - 2566 Ad)2566 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Four "Impressive!" I breathed, standing there, Tais' eyes, blue like Darlanis', glowing into mine as she smiled back at me. Once I had been the means by which SHE had transmitted a "message" to the First Priestess, a "message" I knew that spoke of events that would be happening some time in the future. Events that would involve both Darlanis and Princess Tara, although their "roles" in all this were not really all that "clear". I did know, howev- er from what Tais had told me that Tara would become the "Anti- Lys", the "servant" of the "EVIL ONE" who is the enemy of "GOOD". As this at the time reminded me more of the sort of "mumbo-jumbo" I've heard back in the 20th Century as a child, I paid it little attention at the time. Now I'm not so "sure" anymore as I do know that Tara seems strangely "unkillable", and both Darlanis and I "tried", neither of us with any degree of success. Even Aurora herself related to Darlanis that she sensed "something" about the Princess. There is also the "mystery" of the true identity of "Domino Tremaine", who was the last Leaderess of Earth after the death of Janet Rogers. From what evidence we now have in our possession, it appears as if she was Darlanis' child! "I would say so too," Raspa spoke from a speaker mounted be- tween her antennae, her black exoskeleton gleaming in the light of the lamps. Her great compound eyes like multi-faceted jewels gleaming into mine as she moved forward to greet me on her six legs, opening her mandibles wide to embrace me in friendship as I knelt before her, clasping that great horrid head in my hands. I felt once again the "touch" of her mind, saw as she saw, every- thing in those strange alien colors. The Lorr having a visual sense that is considerably "different" from that of human beings. I saw Darlanis step forward, take Aurora's hands in hers. My "eyes" still those of Raspa's, which didn't "do" much for ei- ther, the Lorr seeing in a somewhat different "spectrum" than us, their visual sense going well into the infrared range where they actually can "see" just by the heat radiated from your own body! "We were once a `predatory race' like you," Raspa commented. They had at that time hundreds of thousands of years before on their own world hunted a species of creature much like us in a way, but smaller. Those that they later used as their "Helpers", the Lorr forelimb ending in a claw instead of a hand like ours. While they have tools designed to overcome such "handicaps", the Lorr for thousands of years have used human women as "Servitors" to perform such tasks that the Lorr forelimb is ill suited to do. It was for this reason that they modified the human race to ob- tain a more "useful" servant than the original Neanderthals that they used as "replacements" for their "Helpers" there on Mars. I suppose our own evolution would have been different without them. They were the "gods", alien "gods" perhaps, who "raised" us. The same beings who we sought to destroy in The War of 2047 by means of a great comet redirected so that it would "collide" with Mars. With a final caress I "broke contact" with Raspa, experienc- ing as I have before that momentary sense of "confusion" that one feels when one has been in close contact with a truly alien mind. In those few seconds I had sensed much of Raspa's own thoughts. Felt that suppressed anger she yet felt towards the Priestesses. The very same "Priestesses" that I was in my way "responsible" for by the suggestions I had made to Janet Rogers long long ago! "From Mars to Earth by only the power of their minds!" I heard Aurora tell Darlanis in low tones. It had been, I thought, a good "demonstration" of the power that the Priestesses of Lys possessed. A "power" that allowed them to now conquer the limits of time and space without the need for an "advanced technology"!* * The Priestesses do of course have an "advanced technology". One that I was instrumental in its development by my suggestions to Janet Rogers back in the 20th Century about electronic hypno- sis, which I believed would be the next great development in science. It also proved to be an extremely "dangerous" tool too! "It is a `changed world'," I heard Darlanis now smile back. "If `we' had that `technology'..," I heard Sharon breathe. The jut of her breasts beneath her gown reminded me of Darlanis'. Others have remarked upon the "resemblance" between the two now. She is "riper" bodied than my own Princess, my lovely Gayle Marn. Once again I wondered where Gayle and her young Prince had gone off to. No one had seen them anywhere about, which puzzled me! Had Princess Tara not been safely "locked up" in Vegas I would have worried a bit that she might have something to do with this! "You were suddenly just `here'," Lara breathed, the rise and fall of her full soft breasts again reminding me of the "comment" that Jon had made about her. The way that she "filled" her clinging figuring revealing gown left no doubt that she was a woman who any man might "lust" after. A woman who might be truly deserving of the title, "The Queen of Sex" as she is still some times called. A "sensual" woman, Lara reminds me of another that I once knew back in the 20th Century, one now dead for centuries. "There is no such thing as `distance' to those capable of `movement' in both space and time," Tais smiled back at the Bajan Princess. I knew that the Priestesses had finally mastered the ability to move infinite distances in no time at all by means of space-time warps similar to those produced by the use of anti- matter weapons by the Lorr in The War between Earth and Mars. I also understood that it was possible to travel through time just as one might travel through space to another world. A world per- haps circling a star thousands of light years away on the other side of the Galaxy! The Priestesses of Lys now being a part of that mysterious group of "super-beings" who called themselves "The Guardians". Beings pledged to protect less developed worlds from those more developed so that "history" of the sort that has happened here on Earth in the past will not happen elsewhere. I am well aware of what the Lorr did to Mankind, and what Mankind has also done to those of his own race who were less "developed". "Would you like some wine? Something to eat before we go below?" Darlanis suggested to her mother as Aurora stood there quietly beside Tais. There was an excellent selection of wines, liquors, and snacks. A half dozen of the highest officials of the Empire here at this intimate gathering who would later be witnesses to the signing of the treaty between Talon and the Em- pire. Yvette kneeling there on a cushion waiting to be of serv- ice. Her dark eyes gleaming bright as she watched our visitors' every move. Lynn at a nod of Darlanis' golden head filling a goblet with a fine wine and handing it to the golden Aurora. I filled a glass for Raspa, let her take it with a forelimb claw. Those about us giving the First Princess of the Lorr wide berth! "This is a historic meeting for all of us," Darlanis said. Aurora nodding, smiling as Lynn gave her a goblet, Lynn so in awe of her that she almost forgot to let go of the goblet when Aurora took it from her hand. "Mankind is now `free' of the Lorr." It was true, but we had only exchanged one "master" for another, I felt. Tais had already also warned us that she would "enforce" the "Edict" just as the Lorr had done, but now for the "protec- tion of Mankind from ourselves". Like Darlanis, Tais did not think much of the more "advanced" weapons that I was capable of building. Tais feeling that Mankind had no "need" for firearms! I recalled people in the 20th Century who had shared such ideas! Man is in my opinion a "weapon-making creature". That is why Man is what he is. Why we are not like the chimps yet swinging from the trees there in Africa. It is, anyway, what I "think" of it. Janet Rogers had no more sucess in "outlawing" guns than did the governments of the 20th Century in "outlawing" illegal drug use. "If you could talk to Queen Maris....," Darlanis ventured to Tais, a glass of wine now in one hand, some sort of snack in the other. She tends to get a bit "plump" if she doesn't constantly exercise. I suspect that the problem is due to having too much "food" around all the time. Too many slave girls eager and will- ing to bring more whenever she wishes it. She needs to live a more active life than she does. Spend more time in the saddle, or on a deck. Feel the heat of the sun, the wind in her face. "I have already done so," Tais smiled, her eyes glowing into the azure of Darlanis'. "I feel that she is being given bad ad- vice by her advisors regarding her relations with California." I handed the First Priestess a glass of "sparkling water", which she took, the Priestesses of Lys being forbidden to use alcohol. "Did you tell her that?" I interrupted, being well aware that this could very well be the source of all our troubles now! "She did not believe that I spoke the truth," Tais smiled. "But with your powers...?" Dala Dai now ventured here then. "And what would you have me DO?" Tais challenged her back. I knew of the POWER that she commanded, but seemed so reluctant to use. No doubt a consequence of her own mental "conditioning". The Priestesses of Lys rarely "interfered" in political matters. Janet Rogers, who I knew as a young woman, did a number of things in her lifetime that show the results of putting too much POWER in the hands of one person. The destruction of Mecca by a thermonuclear missile being one example. She was in the last decade of her life an absolute dictator much like Hitler or Sta- lin or Chairman Mao. Benevolent, yes, but also "hard", and able to order the deaths of thousands should they disobey her wishes. She sent tens of thousands of people to "corrective labor camps". Did a number of "other things" not now widely known. The fact that she is now "worshiped" as "OUR LADY" does not mean as that she was all that "good" as Mankind's first and only World Leader- ess. In many ways the Priestesses of Lys are perhaps the best "answer" to such problems, I now feel after considerable thought. I do not think that "another Janet Rogers" would be a "solution". "It's obvious that Darl Jord has filled her head with lies against me," Darlanis breathed, standing there beside her mother. I knew of him, of what he was like. He had raped Darlanis, his younger "sister", when she had been but a young teenage girl. Darlanis had then been "disowned" by Queen Tulis for telling such a tale! Maris Marn, too "ambitious" for her own "good", had lat- er married the Prince of Dularn shortly before the death of the former Queen of Dularn due to some sort of an "inoperable" brain tumor. Dularn like Talon being a "Queendom" where now only a woman may rule. Such policies I consider a misunderstanding of history. There was only one "Janet Rogers". Women do not have some mysterious ability to do a better "job" of things than men. "I can't intervene in your affairs as long as neither you or Dularn violate the `Edict'," Tais explained. The Edict being a law (not sometimes well enforced immediately) that prohibited the invention, development, or use of weaponry past that of say the Twelfth Century. I had violated it several times now without any response from the Lorr, although Tais was a different matter! Darlanis having already warned me about the use of black powder, nitroglycerine, and my famous or rather infamous "napalm bombs". The last of course were not technically in violation of the Edict as they did not represent an "advance" in technology. I was al- lowed to retain use of my airplane, "Black Lady", but I was not allowed to use it in any military sense as I once had! I had however "other alternatives" that I now planned to put into use! "You might reconsider your policy of `non-interference'," Sela Dai suddenly spoke up from beside me. Tais smiling back. I knew what the "answer" to that would be even before Tais spoke. "I believe you'd feel `differently' if we did," she smiled. I found myself in agreement with that. The history of religious organizations that have involved themselves in "politics" is not something that needs to be "repeated" once again here in the 26th Century. The Catholic Church's intervention in politics in the 20th Century doubtlessly had "effects" that in their way led up to The War between Earth and Mars in 2047. There is little if any doubt in my mind at least that "population pressure" was part of the cause why Earth was willing to fight a war with the Lorr! And the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion and birth con- trol was one of the major reasons why the Earth became overpopu- lated in the first place. I "explained" such to Janet Rogers, but she tended not to believe that "population" might be a seri- ous world problem because of the "fact" the United States had no trouble "feeding itself". Such was a "point" she always brought up in our talks. In my conversation with SHE there on Mars it was explained to me that "Christianity" was a "perversion" of her own teachings, and that the intolerance of the Priestesses of Lys towards it and other religions was thus completely "justified". As SHE said to me, one of the worst "sins" you can commit is to "reproduce" in an irresponsible manner with no thought for the future. A "sin" I fear much of humanity was once "guilty" of! I consider it "proper" that our birthrate is now "controlled" by the Priestesses of Lys. That no woman can become pregnant with- out their permission. They take their "responsibilities" seri- ously. They are, after all, our "GUARDIANS", our "PROTECTORS". 2566 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Four "Impressive!" I breathed, standing there, Tais' eyes, blue like Darlanis', glowing into mine as she smiled back at me. Once I had been the means by which SHE had transmitted a "message" to the First Priestess, a "message" I knew that spoke of events that would be happening some time in the future. Events that would involve both Darlanis and Princess Tara, although their "roles" in all this were not really all that "clear". I did know, howev- er from what Tais had told me that Tara would become the "Anti- Lys", the "servant" of the "EVIL ONE" who is the enemy of "GOOD". As this at the time reminded me more of the sort of "mumbo-jumbo" I've heard back in the 20th Century as a child, I paid it little attention at the time. Now I'm not so "sure" anymore as I do know that Tara seems strangely "unkillable", and both Darlanis and I "tried", neither of us with any degree of success. Even Aurora herself related to Darlanis that she sensed "something" about the Princess. There is also the "mystery" of the true identity of "Domino Tremaine", who was the last Leaderess of Earth after the death of Janet Rogers. From what evidence we now have in our possession, it appears as if she was Darlanis' child! "I would say so too," Raspa spoke from a speaker mounted be- tween her antennae, her black exoskeleton gleaming in the light of the lamps. Her great compound eyes like multi-faceted jewels gleaming into mine as she moved forward to greet me on her six legs, opening her mandibles wide to embrace me in friendship as I knelt before her, clasping that great horrid head in my hands. I felt once again the "touch" of her mind, saw as she saw, every- thing in those strange alien colors. The Lorr having a visual sense that is considerably "different" from that of human beings. I saw Darlanis step forward, take Aurora's hands in hers. My "eyes" still those of Raspa's, which didn't "do" much for ei- ther, the Lorr seeing in a somewhat different "spectrum" than us, their visual sense going well into the infrared range where they actually can "see" just by the heat radiated from your own body! "We were once a `predatory race' like you," Raspa commented. They had at that time hundreds of thousands of years before on their own world hunted a species of creature much like us in a way, but smaller. Those that they later used as their "Helpers", the Lorr forelimb ending in a claw instead of a hand like ours. While they have tools designed to overcome such "handicaps", the Lorr for thousands of years have used human women as "Servitors" to perform such tasks that the Lorr forelimb is ill suited to do. It was for this reason that they modified the human race to ob- tain a more "useful" servant than the original Neanderthals that they used as "replacements" for their "Helpers" there on Mars. I suppose our own evolution would have been different without them. They were the "gods", alien "gods" perhaps, who "raised" us. The same beings who we sought to destroy in The War of 2047 by means of a great comet redirected so that it would "collide" with Mars. With a final caress I "broke contact" with Raspa, experienc- ing as I have before that momentary sense of "confusion" that one feels when one has been in close contact with a truly alien mind. In those few seconds I had sensed much of Raspa's own thoughts. Felt that suppressed anger she yet felt towards the Priestesses. The very same "Priestesses" that I was in my way "responsible" for by the suggestions I had made to Janet Rogers long long ago! "From Mars to Earth by only the power of their minds!" I heard Aurora tell Darlanis in low tones. It had been, I thought, a good "demonstration" of the power that the Priestesses of Lys possessed. A "power" that allowed them to now conquer the limits of time and space without the need for an "advanced technology"!* * The Priestesses do of course have an "advanced technology". One that I was instrumental in its development by my suggestions to Janet Rogers back in the 20th Century about electronic hypno- sis, which I believed would be the next great development in science. It also proved to be an extremely "dangerous" tool too! "It is a `changed world'," I heard Darlanis now smile back. "If `we' had that `technology'..," I heard Sharon breathe. The jut of her breasts beneath her gown reminded me of Darlanis'. Others have remarked upon the "resemblance" between the two now. She is "riper" bodied than my own Princess, my lovely Gayle Marn. Once again I wondered where Gayle and her young Prince had gone off to. No one had seen them anywhere about, which puzzled me! Had Princess Tara not been safely "locked up" in Vegas I would have worried a bit that she might have something to do with this! "You were suddenly just `here'," Lara breathed, the rise and fall of her full soft breasts again reminding me of the "comment" that Jon had made about her. The way that she "filled" her clinging figuring revealing gown left no doubt that she was a woman who any man might "lust" after. A woman who might be truly deserving of the title, "The Queen of Sex" as she is still some times called. A "sensual" woman, Lara reminds me of another that I once knew back in the 20th Century, one now dead for centuries. "There is no such thing as `distance' to those capable of `movement' in both space and time," Tais smiled back at the Bajan Princess. I knew that the Priestesses had finally mastered the ability to move infinite distances in no time at all by means of space-time warps similar to those produced by the use of anti- matter weapons by the Lorr in The War between Earth and Mars. I also understood that it was possible to travel through time just as one might travel through space to another world. A world per- haps circling a star thousands of light years away on the other side of the Galaxy! The Priestesses of Lys now being a part of that mysterious group of "super-beings" who called themselves "The Guardians". Beings pledged to protect less developed worlds from those more developed so that "history" of the sort that has happened here on Earth in the past will not happen elsewhere. I am well aware of what the Lorr did to Mankind, and what Mankind has also done to those of his own race who were less "developed". "Would you like some wine? Something to eat before we go below?" Darlanis suggested to her mother as Aurora stood there quietly beside Tais. There was an excellent selection of wines, liquors, and snacks. A half dozen of the highest officials of the Empire here at this intimate gathering who would later be witnesses to the signing of the treaty between Talon and the Em- pire. Yvette kneeling there on a cushion waiting to be of serv- ice. Her dark eyes gleaming bright as she watched our visitors' every move. Lynn at a nod of Darlanis' golden head filling a goblet with a fine wine and handing it to the golden Aurora. I filled a glass for Raspa, let her take it with a forelimb claw. Those about us giving the First Princess of the Lorr wide berth! "This is a historic meeting for all of us," Darlanis said. Aurora nodding, smiling as Lynn gave her a goblet, Lynn so in awe of her that she almost forgot to let go of the goblet when Aurora took it from her hand. "Mankind is now `free' of the Lorr." It was true, but we had only exchanged one "master" for another, I felt. Tais had already also warned us that she would "enforce" the "Edict" just as the Lorr had done, but now for the "protec- tion of Mankind from ourselves". Like Darlanis, Tais did not think much of the more "advanced" weapons that I was capable of building. Tais feeling that Mankind had no "need" for firearms! I recalled people in the 20th Century who had shared such ideas! Man is in my opinion a "weapon-making creature". That is why Man is what he is. Why we are not like the chimps yet swinging from the trees there in Africa. It is, anyway, what I "think" of it. Janet Rogers had no more sucess in "outlawing" guns than did the governments of the 20th Century in "outlawing" illegal drug use. "If you could talk to Queen Maris....," Darlanis ventured to Tais, a glass of wine now in one hand, some sort of snack in the other. She tends to get a bit "plump" if she doesn't constantly exercise. I suspect that the problem is due to having too much "food" around all the time. Too many slave girls eager and will- ing to bring more whenever she wishes it. She needs to live a more active life than she does. Spend more time in the saddle, or on a deck. Feel the heat of the sun, the wind in her face. "I have already done so," Tais smiled, her eyes glowing into the azure of Darlanis'. "I feel that she is being given bad ad- vice by her advisors regarding her relations with California." I handed the First Priestess a glass of "sparkling water", which she took, the Priestesses of Lys being forbidden to use alcohol. "Did you tell her that?" I interrupted, being well aware that this could very well be the source of all our troubles now! "She did not believe that I spoke the truth," Tais smiled. "But with your powers...?" Dala Dai now ventured here then. "And what would you have me DO?" Tais challenged her back. I knew of the POWER that she commanded, but seemed so reluctant to use. No doubt a consequence of her own mental "conditioning". The Priestesses of Lys rarely "interfered" in political matters. Janet Rogers, who I knew as a young woman, did a number of things in her lifetime that show the results of putting too much POWER in the hands of one person. The destruction of Mecca by a thermonuclear missile being one example. She was in the last decade of her life an absolute dictator much like Hitler or Sta- lin or Chairman Mao. Benevolent, yes, but also "hard", and able to order the deaths of thousands should they disobey her wishes. She sent tens of thousands of people to "corrective labor camps". Did a number of "other things" not now widely known. The fact that she is now "worshiped" as "OUR LADY" does not mean as that she was all that "good" as Mankind's first and only World Leader- ess. In many ways the Priestesses of Lys are perhaps the best "answer" to such problems, I now feel after considerable thought. I do not think that "another Janet Rogers" would be a "solution". "It's obvious that Darl Jord has filled her head with lies against me," Darlanis breathed, standing there beside her mother. I knew of him, of what he was like. He had raped Darlanis, his younger "sister", when she had been but a young teenage girl. Darlanis had then been "disowned" by Queen Tulis for telling such a tale! Maris Marn, too "ambitious" for her own "good", had lat- er married the Prince of Dularn shortly before the death of the former Queen of Dularn due to some sort of an "inoperable" brain tumor. Dularn like Talon being a "Queendom" where now only a woman may rule. Such policies I consider a misunderstanding of history. There was only one "Janet Rogers". Women do not have some mysterious ability to do a better "job" of things than men. "I can't intervene in your affairs as long as neither you or Dularn violate the `Edict'," Tais explained. The Edict being a law (not sometimes well enforced immediately) that prohibited the invention, development, or use of weaponry past that of say the Twelfth Century. I had violated it several times now without any response from the Lorr, although Tais was a different matter! Darlanis having already warned me about the use of black powder, nitroglycerine, and my famous or rather infamous "napalm bombs". The last of course were not technically in violation of the Edict as they did not represent an "advance" in technology. I was al- lowed to retain use of my airplane, "Black Lady", but I was not allowed to use it in any military sense as I once had! I had however "other alternatives" that I now planned to put into use! "You might reconsider your policy of `non-interference'," Sela Dai suddenly spoke up from beside me. Tais smiling back. I knew what the "answer" to that would be even before Tais spoke. "I believe you'd feel `differently' if we did," she smiled. I found myself in agreement with that. The history of religious organizations that have involved themselves in "politics" is not something that needs to be "repeated" once again here in the 26th Century. The Catholic Church's intervention in politics in the 20th Century doubtlessly had "effects" that in their way led up to The War between Earth and Mars in 2047. There is little if any doubt in my mind at least that "population pressure" was part of the cause why Earth was willing to fight a war with the Lorr! And the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion and birth con- trol was one of the major reasons why the Earth became overpopu- lated in the first place. I "explained" such to Janet Rogers, but she tended not to believe that "population" might be a seri- ous world problem because of the "fact" the United States had no trouble "feeding itself". Such was a "point" she always brought up in our talks. In my conversation with SHE there on Mars it was explained to me that "Christianity" was a "perversion" of her own teachings, and that the intolerance of the Priestesses of Lys towards it and other religions was thus completely "justified". As SHE said to me, one of the worst "sins" you can commit is to "reproduce" in an irresponsible manner with no thought for the future. A "sin" I fear much of humanity was once "guilty" of! I consider it "proper" that our birthrate is now "controlled" by the Priestesses of Lys. That no woman can become pregnant with- out their permission. They take their "responsibilities" seri- ously. They are, after all, our "GUARDIANS", our "PROTECTORS". |
|
|