Continues from part one
Part Two - The Parade of Shame
When Mousey awoke, she was once again chained in the small cell with the other seven. “What happened?” she asked. She wasn’t so much interested in what had happened to her, but wanted to know if the same had happened to the others.
“After a while,” Kalina said, almost laughing, “you seven screamed and passed out. They continued fucking us for a while. I think there were ten men working on each of us after the women had finished. They laughed at the ten who fucked me and called them Kootas because I didn’t pass out.” She wrinkled up her face and asked, “What’s a Koota?”
Mulasi laughed her deep laugh and said, “They’re a special kind of mule that was bred for use in space mining.” She laughed again and said, “Machines can’t do everything. That’s why they still use men and Kootas to mine asteroids that are too big to crush up and process, but still too small for the machines to be able to follow the twisting paths of the rich ores.”
Bethu interrupted with, “It’s an insult. The Kootas are male, but sterile. They also like to hump each other down in the mines. Calling someone a Koota is a sure way to start a bar fight.”
“Oh,” Kalina said. “All because I didn’t pass out?”
“Did it burn?” Mousey asked suddenly.
“Did what burn?” Kalina answered.
“The cum,” Mousey said, almost angrily, “did it burn when they spurted inside you?”
“It was warm,” Kalina replied, “but it didn’t burn.”
“Was the woman’s cum hot in your mouth?” Barney asked.
“No,” Kalina answered, starting to sound angry. “It tasted kind of bitter, almost like a Sujay nut, but it was just girl juice.” She gave a wrinkled smile and added, “Coleen tastes much better. She is sweet, almost like the dusting powder some of the crew uses.”
“Holy Shit!” Mauri exclaimed. “I think I know what is going on!”
“What!?” the rest of the girls said in unison.
“We are all sniffers,” Mauri began to explain, pointing at the other six sniffers in the room. “You all endured the insults and put downs growing up about us being bastard children of the Tookees.” She paused and looked around and then said softly, “Maybe it’s true.”
Mauri paused and again looked around. It was very quiet in the room while everyone waited for her to continue. “We can smell Tookees because we are Tookees... almost. Maybe our mothers were raped. Maybe they had a one night stand. Hell, maybe my dad is actually a Tookee.”
She laughed slightly, “Maybe that’s why he used to use so damn much cologne. It would practically gag me every time he walked into the room.”
“You’re getting off subject,” Boobs said curtly. “We may not have much time.”
“OK,” Mauri said, “this is it. What if we are descendants of the Tookees and we have something within our bodies that when it comes in contact with Tookee cum– male or female– gives off energy. It feels hot because it is hot. It wasn’t hot for Kalina because Kalina’s not a Tookee. She’s just a slut.”
Mauri startled, stopped, and said quickly, “Sorry, Kalina, that just came out.”
“It’s what I am,” Kalina said hurriedly. “I’m a slut. I love sex. I’m addicted to sex... any kind of sex. I have to live with that just like you have to live with your green skin.”
“OK,” Mauri said quickly, “anyway... this energy does something that opens something that releases the captured ships.”
The discussion at this point was suddenly interrupted by the steel door of the cell clanging as it was unlocked and then slamming loudly against the wall as it was thrown open by a very angry guard. It was the same two guards accompanied by the small Mufah.
Evidently they had heard the very last part of what the girls were saying because the large guard said angrily, “But it doesn’t... not for you eight.” He then glared at the small Tookee dressed now in a white lab coat.
“I don’t know why it isn’t working,” the Mufah said shrilly. “The Mufah Tulah would have known, but he’s gone. Eight Bookahs fucked by ten Tookees each should definitely release the offering.”
The guard stooped over slightly so he could snarl directly in the small Tookee’s face, “Then why doesn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” the Mufah sobbed. He pulled the data board close to his chest and continued in his nearly crying voice, “I know that the big, flat circle that closes on the ships was once an open pit, and I know that it should open when the Bookahs are fucked on the altars. But I don’t know why it isn’t opening. I can’t help it that Mufah Tulah didn’t pass on all of his knowledge before he left. I was just a small child then.”
The smaller of the two guards said softly, “We could use some of the virgins.”
The larger guard pushed him against the wall and snarled, “The people would never stand for it, except on Ka Al. They would see it as rape.”
“And this isn’t?” Julina screamed at them.
The guard glared at her in silence for a moment and then said, “Let’s try the Parade of Shame and then see what the stone Kootas do.”
He turned and walked out of the cell, saying loudly, “Bring them.”
Mousey expected to be taken back to the strange, domed room, but instead they were lead outside. It was night– sort of. The sky was the gray of twilight or a very foggy morning, but everything seemed well lit. It was almost as if the air itself was giving off light.
There were eight small, two-wheeled carts arranged in a circle. They looked almost like one cart with eight wheels because the long tongue on the front of each cart was hitched to the back of the cart in front of it. The very front cart had a much longer tongue with two pairs of small, strange-looking donkeys harnessed to it. Mousey remembered seeing pictures of such carts used to haul ore from the mines. In the pictures there was a box mounted above each set of wheels to hold ore. Now the boxes were gone and each narrow cart held what looked like a steel door frame mounted sideways. In the middle of that door frame, a long steel rod pointed upward.
“This doesn’t look good,” Mauri said anxiously. Her green skin was glistening with a light sheen of perspiration.
“Climb up into the frames!” the large guard barked loudly.
The smaller guard pointed to a step stool next to the wheel of the last cart and said quickly, “Just climb up and stand there. We’ll get you all secured before we start.”
Mousey found herself automatically saying, “Thank you,” as he helped her step up onto the first cart. Since there were leather restraints hanging from the top corners of the doorframe and the floor of the cart consisted of only a thin plank of wood between the uprights of the frame, it was pretty obvious where she was supposed to stand. Two leather restraints also lay open on the plank.
The long metal rod reached up well past Mousey’s waist and rubbed against her tummy as she balanced on the thin plank. She had a pretty good idea of where that was supposed to go and said aloud, “I really hope that thing is adjustable or I’m going to be impaled.”
“It adjusts,” a soft voice said from behind her. She turned to see the diminutive Mufah standing behind her holding a light gray penis. Some people would call it a dildo, but this was not just a cylindrical object intended to go into her cunt. This was an intricately carved stone penis, complete with skin texture, veins, and a small ureter drilled into the center of the split, domed glans which protruded from the drawn-back foreskin. The veins appeared to have been somehow darkened, making the penis look even more realistic.
“I’ll adjust it after I attach the neutralizer,” he said flatly. Mousey had heard a lot of different euphemisms for the male appendage, but neutralizer was a new one. Hopefully the Mufah didn’t mean it in the same way that the weapons techs did when speaking of their more powerful weapons. Kalina’s words, “there are a lot worse ways to go,” echoed through her mind, but they didn’t comfort her.
The other girls had evidently climbed up onto their carts, because the two guards walked back to the back cart and the smaller one clambered up alongside her. “I think you know where your hands are supposed to go,” he said, trying to sound forceful.
When Mousey brought her feet together before stretching out her arms, he said in genuine surprise, “Why are you standing like that?”
“You told me to put my hands up so you could tie me in place.” she answered, trying not to sound sarcastic.
“No,” he replied as he began wrapping her right wrist in the restraint, “why did you bring your feet together?”
“This is your first time tying up a woman, isn’t it?” Mousey asked. This time she didn’t hide the sarcasm and derision in her voice.
“Er... um... yes it is,” he said softly, hanging his head. “But don’t tell Zelco. He already thinks I’m a fag.”
Mousey laughed softly and said, “If you tie the hands first while I am standing up straight on my feet, then when you pull my feet wide apart to tie them, my body drops slightly and my arms are automatically held tighter.”
“Oh, thank you,” he replied as he wrapped her left hand in the restraint. “Please spread your feet out to the edge of the frame,” he said and Mousey laughed once again. He quickly wrapped both feet in their restraints and then hurried up to the next cart.
Mousey laughed once more as she heard him say firmly, “No, stand tall and upright with your feet together. I’ll tell you when to spread your legs.”
“You won’t be laughing once this is in place,” the Mufah said, almost angrily. He looked up at her smiling down at him and added, “Well, maybe you will. I think you’re a strange one. Aren’t you?”
Mousey just continued smiling and said, “You won’t have to use any lubrication when you insert that thing, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Not exactly,” the Mufah said as he screwed the stone penis onto the end of the steel rod. There was evidently some sort of set screw on the side of the rod which allowed it to collapse down. The Mufah lowered it and then said, “Center yourself over this,” as he slowly raised it back up.
Mousey swayed slightly forward and then rotated her hips in small circles as the Mufah carefully pushed the stone dildo deep inside her.
“What does it do?” she asked as the Mufah tightened the set screw which held things in place.
“I don’t know,” he said softly. “My dad... Mufah Tulah said something about flipping switches the other way, but I was still very young when he... disappeared. I don’t really know how it works. Maybe he didn’t know either. But if the triggers don’t work the first time or if they start to get weak, sometimes the Parade of Shame will renew the spark.”
He started to say something else, but the large guard... evidently named Zelco... yelled out, “Get your sacred ass over here and plug these other sluts. We don’t have all day, and people are starting to get restless. They want to see the show.”
Mousey waited nervously for the Mufah to position the penises in the cunts of the other seven girls. She was trying to figure out what kind of a show the people were expecting. It wasn’t an execution because they needed her as a trigger... unless killing her would release energy in the same way that fucking her to orgasm would. But if they wanted to kill her, why use such an elaborately carved penis if the only purpose was to purposefully impale her? Luckily, the Mufah worked quickly and Mousey didn’t have too much time to come up with more imaginative and dreadful things which could be done to her.
“Line ‘em up!” Zelco roared and the smaller guard began leading the donkeys forward so that the carts came out of their circle and formed a straight line. Mousey’s cart would be the last one so there was no cart attached to the back of it. Instead a large wooden post was mounted sideways with several long, rusty chains attached to it which dragged on the ground. They made a metallic grinding noise as the cart moved.
“Move ‘em out!” Zelco ordered and the smaller guard led the first donkey forward. Herana was restrained on that cart, then came Julina, followed by Boobs, Barney, Mulasi, Bethu, Muari, Kalina, and then, of course, Mousey.
They had moved only a few meters when Mousey realized the insidious purpose and design of the carts– at least in their current configuration. As the donkeys moved, they bounced slightly up and down, which moved the tongue of the first cart up and down. That moved the back end of the cart down and up which moved the tongue of the cart behind it. The up and down movement was translated along the line of carts, growing slightly at each cart as the girls attempted to hold themselves steady. Their actions merely increased the movement, so by the time the wave of motion reached Mousey, she was thrown almost violently side to side.
Her hands and feet were strapped tightly in place, so she wasn’t going anywhere, but her body shifted slightly with the movement, and the only thing holding her body, itself, in place was the stone penis embedded in her cunt. The motions of the cart moved it from side to side and her struggles to stop the motion moved her body slightly up and down. The response of her body added to the motion of her cart, which caused the cart in front of hers to move, passing a new wave back up the line of carts.
The double waves of motion interacted with each other as the donkeys continued to plod slowly forward. Sometimes the cart would remain almost motionless. Other times it would tip precariously forward or back. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Mousey remembered reading somewhere that such trains of carts were called “ore bouncers” by the miners, but the strange design continued to be used because it allowed the small donkeys to haul relatively large quantities of ore out of the narrow, twisting mines.
Looking up the line of carts, Mousey could see that all of the women were bound almost exactly as she was. The only difference was that every other girl was bound facing the opposite way. She could also see that the smaller guard was walking alongside the lead pair of donkeys, pulling them along with a rope connected to their muzzle bits.
As he led them around a corner onto a larger street the crowds began to cheer and shout. People were standing three or four deep on both sides of the street. Mousey tried to see how far the crowd stretched. She at first thought that it stretched to the horizon, but then she realized that there was no horizon. They must have started off in a slight bowl or depression because every way she looked seemed to be slightly uphill.
They continued for block after block. The undulating wave soon began to have an effect on her and the other girls. She was moaning softly. One of the other girls was already keening lightly and sounding like she was very close to orgasm.
Kalina, who was in the next cart up from Mousey, was the first to succumb to the erotic motion. They had only gone ten or so blocks when she threw back her head and yelled out her passion as her body quivered and thrashed on the stone phallus.
No sooner had Kalina started screaming in orgasm than the children in the crowd started pelting her with rotten fruits and worse. It didn’t sound like there was anything really hard in what was thrown, but the stench was horrible. Obviously there were rotten eggs and worse in what was thrown. The adults in the crowd began hooting and laughing and making what were obviously obscene comments about Kalina, whose orgasm had been cut short by the humiliating onslaught.
Mousey now understood why it appeared that some of the children, especially the young teenagers, seemed to be walking along keeping up with the cart as they slowly ambled along. They were waiting for one of the women to go into orgasm so they could throw their filth at her. She was determined not to give them the opportunity.
Maybe it was because she was on the last cart and the motions were perhaps different, or maybe it was because she had more control over her body, but Mousey was the last to give in to the erotic touch of the stone pricks. Orgasm control was one of the things she had learned– or was trained to and taught– while she was undercover as a sex slave on a previous assignment. Her Master from then would have been proud of how long she was able to withstand the strange, swirling, probing motion of the stone penis.
There is no such thing as orgasm prevention, however, and Mousey eventually succumbed to the needs of her body. Holding back an orgasm doesn’t make it less. In fact, holding back an orgasm allows it to build higher and higher and higher until, when you finally release the pent up energy, it is many times more intense than it would have been if you had just allowed yourself to go over the edge. Maybe that was the purpose of the children throwing eggs. It was a way of encouraging the women to hold back their orgasms so they would be more powerful. Mousey already knew how to hold back an orgasm, so hers was very powerful.
Mousey didn’t feel the eggs and filth striking her body as she screamed and thrashed in place. Somewhere, deep down in her mind, she did, however, notice that the crowd was cheering her rather than hooting at her as the extremely powerful orgasm tore through her body.
She also noticed that the stone penis seemed to erupt within her as she shook on it. No, erupt was not the right word. There was heat, perhaps even more intense than when the Tookees spurted into her, but it was different. It was the opposite of an eruption. The heat was not coming from the penis into her body, it was going from her body into the penis.
That heat remained smouldering within her cunt as the penis continued to bounce and sway within her. The other’s were screaming and keening almost continuously now as a second powerful orgasm was building within her. She wanted that orgasm. She wanted to feel the heat and power transfer from her body, through her cunt, into that stone penis. But she also wanted it to be more intense than her first orgasm.
Mousey began to use every trick that her Master had taught her in those months in which she served him. She kept envisioning his face in front of her saying, “You can last a little longer my little mouse. Hold off a little longer, just for me.”
She had no idea of how much time passed as she struggled to hold off the pressure building within her. She was sure that she had heard Kalina orgasm at least twice more... or to be more accurate, she had at least twice heard the children fling their mud and eggs and rotten fruits and other filth at the hapless Kalina.
Then the pressure reached the tipping point and Mousey exploded. The blond-haired Herana, who was restrained in the first cart, clearly heard Mousey scream when she finally lost control. Everyone along the parade route probably heard Mousey scream. Her scream was so loud and her body twitched and thrashed so violently that many of the youngsters forgot to throw their filth. They stood instead with mouths open watching in awe as Mousey experienced the most violent orgasm any of them had ever seen.
As Mousey’s scream died away, she slumped unconscious in her restraints. Her last conscious memory would be of something as hot as lightning jumping from the depth of her cunt into the stone prick. The ore carts would travel for another several miles, and for the rest of the girls several orgasms, but Mousey would not regain consciousness until they were once again back in their cell chained to the ring in the center of the floor.
***
“Wake up. Wake up, Mousey,” someone was repeating over and over. At first, Mousey could hear it like it was someone talking in the next room. Gradually the voice got louder and clearer as the room got brighter.
Suddenly everything snapped into focus. She was lying on the stone floor with her head in Julina’s lap. Julina was sitting cross-legged and leaning over her so that they were face to face.
“You had us worried, Mousey,” Julina said, shaking her head. “You’ve been out most of the day.”
“Yeah,” Boobs said, walking over so she could look down at Mousey, “you didn’t even notice when they hosed us off with cold water at the end of the parade. They cancelled whatever they were planning until you woke back up.”
“They said you had to be awake because there had to be eight balanced triggers,” Kalina said.
Mulasi leaned over her and said in her deep voice, “So we have a day of rest... or at least a couple of hours. I’m not sure they have days and nights here.”
“I think we’re inside a really huge spaceship,” Herana said. “I was looking at the horizon as we were being paraded through town and it curves the wrong way. It looks like the hangar deck on the Marauder, only a LOT bigger. I’ve never seen anything this big.”
“If it’s so damn big,” Mauri said, “how in the hell do they keep it hidden? ... And how does it open up and swallow other ships?”
“It’s all about the Meridium,” Mousey said as she got shakily to her feet. “The ship must home in on the scent of the Meridium dust in the ship's engines and then... materialize around them. They keep materializing around ships until they accumulate enough sniffers, then they do their little fuck-fest and de-materialize leaving the ship– or ships– drifting in space.”
“That would explain what happens,” Julina said. “But this has to be some fabulous technology to do that.”
“Only this time it isn’t working,” Kalina said, “and it’s all because of me.”
“Nothing we can do about that now,” Mousey said firmly. “And none of us want the Tookees to succeed. Besides, if we tell the guards what is going on, Zelco is likely to kill us all just for making him look bad.”
“Who’s Zelco?” the other seven replied in unison.
“I am,” the larger guard growled as he slammed the door open, “and who told you my name?”
“Someone from the crowd shouted at you as we passed,” Mousey said quickly. “I hope it wasn’t an insult instead of your name.”
“No one insults Zelco and lives,” the guard snarled. “And what were you eight talking about before I came in?”
“They were worried about me,” Mousey replied. “They thought your magic stone penises might have burned out my brain or something.”
Zelco smiled broadly. “They do tend to burn a little as they reset you, don’t they,” he said, almost laughing, “but usually it isn’t your brain that gets fried.” He then started laughing at his own joke, stopping just long enough to order the smaller guard to open the manacles.
When all of the women were released from their chains, he smiled once again and said, “It’s time for a little donkey ride.”
Looking directly at Mousey and pointing to her head, he added, “Maybe this ride will finish scrambling your egg.” He again started laughing as he turned to leave the room. The smaller guard motioned for them to follow Zelco and fell in behind them as they walked down the corridor.
Mousey thought that they would be taken back to the same domed room where they had been before and once more fucked on the stone altars. She was surprised, therefore, when the altars were gone. Maybe it was a different room. Or maybe the Tookees had somehow moved the massive stone receivers and replaced them with stone statues of the same little donkeys which had pulled the strange carts through the town.
“Those must be kootas,” Kalina chirped as they approached.
Boobs said quietly, “The ones pulling our carts never had pricks like those.” The stone kootas had been carved with huge pricks which lay on the floor beneath the animal's stubby legs and extended out past its front hooves. The statue also had huge balls, each nearly the size of a small melon, which hung down so that they were just short of touching the floor.
“I don’t think they could have pulled the carts if their pricks were that big,” Mauri said. Then she sighed and added, “But they would make a wonderful pet on board the Marauder.”
“I think you are about to find out what it is like to be fucked by one of them,” Mousey said. “I don’t think that is a saddle horn on that saddle.”
“Oh!” Mauri said as she spied the intricately carved dildo pointing straight up from the center of the saddle. It was the same size as the penis laying on the floor between the donkey’s front legs.
“That saddle has two horns,” Malusi said slowly. It was hard to tell if she was afraid or excited... or both.
“I think it’s going to be one hell of a ride,” Barney said, shaking her head slightly from side to side.
The smaller guard stepped up next to Mousey and said, “I think this time you will need some extra lubrication... at least for the back hole.”
“Thank you, ... .... I don’t know your name,” she replied.
“Punca,” he replied as he pushed Mousey’s shoulders down, bending her over so he could begin smearing some sort of lube between her asscheeks. “My name is Punca.”
“Thank you, Punca,” Mousey repeated. It came out “POONca” as the small man forced some of the lube into her rosebud.
“I think you know what is expected of you,” Zelco said in his customary growl. “So get onto those saddles.”
“Then what?” Kalina asked. Her eyes went wide when she realized that she had said that aloud.
“Then the kootas will take care of the rest,” Zelco replied smiling.
“I was afraid of that,” Mousey said very softly.
Punca set a small platform next to the donkey so she could mount it. To her surprise, the dildos slid into her relatively easily. Even more to her surprise, they were warm, almost as if they were alive. The stone of the saddle itself was cold against the inside of her thighs, but the huge penis within her cunt felt warm and the thin, smooth rod in her ass was even warmer.
After all eight of the women were in place on the donkeys, people began to file into the room. This time, all of them were naked. They stood in a giant circle around the pillar and star and kootas and began singing. It was a slow arrhythmic chant that sometimes sounded sad, sometimes sounded happy, and other times sounded... sexy. During the sad portions of the chant, the phalluses within her cunt and ass would cool slightly. During the happy times they would again warm up. And during the sexy portions they would become almost hot.
The people’s chant slowly changed so that there were fewer and fewer sad portions. The sad portions were replaced with sexy portions so that the stone penis in her cunt began to become uncomfortably hot. The stone wasn’t the only thing affected by the chanting. Mousey noticed that more and more people had stopped singing and instead had paired off to fuck. Soon the area around the star looked like a living Kama Sutra with men and women, men and men, women and women, all driving each other higher and higher and higher. Soon the chant had all but disappeared, to be replaced by keening wails which echoed throughout the domed room forming a new sexy chant and somehow causing the penis in her cunt and the rod in her ass to heat even hotter.
Mousey found herself closing her eyes and reaching for her breasts. As she pulled and twirled and massaged, she could feel her own warmth rising to match the heat of the prick in her cunt. She could also hear Mulasi’s distinctive deep voice begin a keening wail of her own. Soon the voices of the others on the donkeys joined in the communal keening as the sounds and smells of sex permeated the room.
Mousey’s right hand was now sliding into the top of her slit. Her fingers would slide down until they were stopped by the stone penis, then they would slide back up, once again riding across the length of her clit and rubbing against the tip which was now fully out of its hood and exposed to the pressure– and the feel– of her fingers.
Her hand was moving faster and faster. She was almost there. It was past that point where she wanted stimulation of her clit. Instead she began bouncing in the saddle so that the stone penis would move in her love tunnel. The donkeys were so short that the other women could probably almost lift themselves off the stone dildos, but Mousey’s petite size meant that she could barely touch the floor when her feet were held flat. On tiptoe, she could only lift herself an inch or two. But an inch or two of movement is more than enough when a penis that large is stretching your cunt to the maximum.
Mousey’s hands were now back on her breasts, or more accurately on her nipples. She pinched and twisted and pulled as she bounced up and down on the stone prick that was stretching her cunt. She could feel the stone pillars within her growing warmer and warmer and warmer and warmer. Then, just as she thought she could no longer bear the heat and pain, she climaxed.
It was as if her entire body was suddenly consumed with a fire that started in her cunt and exploded through her veins to the rest of her body. She screamed aloud. For a moment, she wondered if she was dying. Then the wave of fire passed and she was left breathless and spent sitting on the stone donkey.
As she sat with her eyes closed, she could hear people once again moving around in the room. They were getting up and leaving. After a while, it was quiet. Mousey continued to sit quietly in place with her eyes closed.
“Are they just going to leave us here?” Julina said plaintively. “This thing is starting to get cold.”
“Can any of you get off the donkey by yourself?” Mousey asked.
“I can,” Mulasi answered.
“So can I,” Barney added.
Soon Mousey felt hands on her arms near her shoulders. She opened her eyes to see Mulasi on one side of her and Barney on the other. Together they said, “One, two, lift” and pulled Mousey upward off of the stone dildos. The slim rod must have had a bulb on the tip because it made a slight popping noise when it pulled out of her ass. The stone penis, even with its properly-shaped mushroom glans did not pop when it pulled out of her cunt. But as they set her on the ground, her cunt farted slightly as it returned to its normal size and expelled excess air.
“Can you stand?” Barney asked and Mousey shook her head yes.
“Then we will help with the others,” Mulasi said as they walked to the next donkey.
In a few minutes the eight women were standing in a small group next to the tall pillar in the center of the star.
“What now?” Kalina asked.
Mufah Manu stepped from around the pillar. “Now we try pain,” he said. “That is our last resort.”
“And if that doesn’t work?” Mousey asked.
“Then,” the Mufah said slowly, “we put you back on your ship and let you die with your crewmates.”
When Kalina gasped loudly, he raised his hands and said, “I’m sorry, there are too many on your ship to allow them to wake up, but the gasses we use to keep crews unconscious once the capture effect has worn off can only be used for so long. That’s why we trigger the distress beacons before releasing the ships. This is the first time that something as large as a fleetship has been captured. If we could control it, we wouldn’t have captured it.”
He looked down at the stone floor. “We are not murderers. No one has had to die before. At Ka Al the ship will be released and the bodies will be recovered.” He paused, but did not raise his eyes back up. “I’m sorry, there is nothing I can do.”
“Can’t you just hold this Ka Al thing a little early?” Julina said. It was more of a statement of hope than a question.
“Don’t you think I haven’t already suggested that!?” Mufah Manu said angrily. He was now looking rapidly at each of the women. “It should work, but the people aren’t interested in what will work. They know only the stories and the stories say that Ka Al must be on a certain day and no one except a Mufah Taluh can change that.” His voice again became flat. “Even if I were a Mufah Taluh,” he continued, “Zelco would probably not accept it unless the Mufah Taluh Manu appeared at the top of the Shaft of Power.” His head once again hung down and he stared at the floor as he walked away repeating, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Zelco was now standing alongside them. “So, bitches,” he said angrily, “if you don’t want to die with the rest of your shipmates, you’d better stop blocking things and let the power flow through you to the Shaft of Power.” He laughed slightly and motioned for them to follow him while he led them back down the corridors to their cell.
As Punca was again chaining them in place, Zelco said, “We will be giving you a little encouragement tomorrow.” He paused to smile broadly at them. “Until then,” he added, “sleep well.”
Continues in part three