Centaurs (Parallel Worlds)

by Aaron Pery

  "Sons of bitches," Nick mumbled. "Anyway, what I'm going to do is put my hand on your forehead so I'd be able to reach your mind easiest, and hold it there for probably five minutes."

  "Sounds easy. It's not that I mind it, but why you, Nikki, and not Marty?"

  "Because I'm pregnant, Swifty, and doing it would weaken me considerably."

  Swifty burst into happy neighing. "That is marvelous news, my friends."

  "Thank you, and maybe you'll be giving us similar news soon, too. Now close your eyes and empty your mind of all thought while Nikki reaches into it."

  When Swifty did not say anything as he closed his eyes, Nick approached him and put one palm on his forehead and concentrated with his own eyes closed. To her great surprise, Marty saw a moment later his body slowly become insubstantial until it literally vanished. It then reappeared section by section until it was whole again--in a form that seemed slightly smaller than before. She actually gasped at the sight of two very large gonads hanging between his hind legs and pointed at them to Nick, who had just opened his eyes.

  "Well, my dear, the operation to restore Swifty's balls had been successful."

  "As we were sure it would be." Nick said as he sat down. "Now let's see how our boy reacts once he regains his senses.

  When Swifty did, he lowered his head and looked between his legs for a long time before suddenly rushing out of the house wordlessly, which made both of them chuckle with satisfaction at what they had just accomplished.

  Early the next morning, Marty took her usual run down the hill but instead of turning around for the uphill run she continued to the beach, where she plunged into the gentle bay surf. She was surprised once she reached deep water, as her front and hind legs instinctively made swimming motions until she started to move quite fast.

  "Well, I'll be a son of a bitch." She mumbled to herself as she padded quicker and quicker until she reached open water and five miles distance in her estimate before turning around. Once back on the beach, she twitched her skin to get rid of the water and proceeded to run back home where Nick greeted her with a large towel, which she rejected as she went directly into the tub and turned the shower on.

  "Did you know that half the town was watching your crazy marathon?" Nick asked with a smile.

  "I saw some from the corners of my eyes but paid them no mind because I was too intent on what I was doing. Which was absolutely great, and I regret that it had never occurred to me to take a swim before today."

  "Considering that until a short time ago you were literally a slave, I see no reason for you to regret anything. Ready for a spot of breakfast downtown?"

  "You bet because I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. Well, not exactly and not here, but I'm starving."

  "Shall I drive rather than have you run downhill again?"

  "I'd rather be driven."

  A few minutes after they were seated, sue burst into the coffee shop and rushed over to them, smiling happily. "So you performed another miracle here, Marty."

  "What are you talking about? Oh, Swifty. Blame Nikki rather than because it was his doing since I can't expend too much energy in my delicate state. How did you find out about it?"

  Sue grinned. "It was a bit disconcerting to me yesterday afternoon to observe an unfamiliar stallion mounting our adopted mare Brindle over and over, until I realized that it was Swifty. A younger looking Swifty who possessed the proper male equipment but it was him nonetheless, and I realized that the two of you had to have been involved in restoring him to his manhood."

  "We did, Sue, after much debate and a deep search of our abilities."

  "Well, you did a great service for Swifty, and I'm sure that the other geldings will look you up to ask for your help very soon."

  "I'm sure they will and we intend to help them as well. So how about joining us for breakfast?"

  "I'd love to."

  Swifty was waiting for them at the house, looking choked up with emotions as he greeted them. "Sorry for running out of here yesterday the way I did after the marvelous gift you'd given me."

  "Nonsense, Swifty. You were too overcome by the enormity of becoming the stallion that you were fated to be. And we understand that you rushed over to the female you must've loved all along to show your new self to her, and she apparently accepted you wholeheartedly."

  "Yes, Brindle and I always loved each other and had bonded before the great injustice that was done to both of us, with me gelded and her sent to the milking pens. And then after she was healed from her ordeal she wouldn't bond with any of the other stallions even though we could no longer be a proper couple."

  "She must love you a lot to remain true to you, Swifty. Anyway, what are you going to do now that you got your mate, get off the island?"

  "Never, Nikki. I'd already joined Brindle at Sue's and Dave's farm, and that's where we'll both stay--close to the people we love. Besides, I've been serving the people who stayed here as a leader so I can't desert them."

  "So what's next for you all? Did you talk yet to the people who want to leave?"

  "I didn't have a chance because once word got out about the miracle that you had performed on me a bunch of geldings rushed over to ask if I thought you'd be willing to do the same for them. Would you?"

  "Of course, Swifty. But I can't do it for more than two people at a time since it requires a great expenditure of energy on my part. So bring, or rather send them to me in pairs and I'll take care of them."

  "That's what I thought, which will be wonderful, Nikki." Swifty neighed loudly and a moment later two grizzled looking geldings showed up, seemingly quite shy, and stood before Nick expectantly.

  Ten minutes later the two horses, now looking youthful and whole, rushed out after each put their heads on Nick's shoulder to express their utter gratitude.

  "I can't believe our luck in being able to help these poor people out of a life of miserable servitude. And both expressed their desire to stay here with us rather than join their brethren in Turkey."

  "That was a pretty quick decision."

  "Not really, because you of all people should understand the enormity of their gratitude for reversing their castration."

  "I do, of course."

  The next morning when Marty came out of the house she was surprised to find a large group of women waiting for her, who wordlessly joined her on her run and swim, which she appreciated.

  Two days later, Stan came to visit them accompanied by Paula, all bubbling with excitement about the news of her pregnancy. "Gosh, Marty, how will I ever be able to thank you for not only bringing me back to life but turning me into a father of a little girl?"

  "We're very happy for you both, and no thanks are necessary, Stan. But we've been thinking about the effect of it on you, Paula, and your children, and came to the conclusion that maybe we'd done you all a disservice."

  "How could you think that when you'd made us so joyful?"

  "Because, Stan, and let's consider the harsh reality, while you're in your mid thirties and have a life expectancy of at most fifty more years, Paula and all your kids will live about a thousand years beyond today."

  "Oh, my God. And most of them without me around to be a husband and father. You're right, Marty, it's a terrible thing I did to them all."

  "I don't care, Stan." Paula burst out. "At least by then we will have had quite a few years together."

  "Unless...." Marty said.

  "Unless what, Marty?"

  "What we came up with was that maybe we should do to you purposely what the lightening had done to us accidentally, and fuse all your brain lobes together. Which will allow you to command your mind to modify your system and bring it to a literal immortal state."

  Stan's eyes sparkled with sudden excitement. "Can you really do such a thing to me?"

  "Willing and able Stan, very much like we're returning the poor horses' balls that had been stolen from them. Well, not exactly because once your mind is freed from its confines it'll be your job to study it and
determine what needs to be done in order to bring your longevity up to par with Paula's."

  "Jesus, Marty, are you saying that I'll possess your immense mental powers?"

  "Yes, which I hope you'll use judicially once you learn all about them."

  "You have my assurance that I will. When can you do it?"

  "How about tomorrow morning, when both Nikki and I will be rested and strong?"

  "Sounds marvelous, Marty. We'll be here."

  The moment Paula and Stan left, Marty's phone rang and she answered. It was Herb, who sounded quite agitated. "We need to get the Board assembled, Marty, urgently and right now."

  Rather than inquire about the reason for it, Marty accepted his request without any hesitation. "I'll call Jenny right now and have her set it up. Shouldn't take us more than thirty minutes to assemble everyone."

  "Thanks, Marty, it's really necessary."

  "I'm sure it is, Herb, so I'll see you there."

  By the time she and Nick arrived at Government House everyone was there and Jenny asked Herb to tell them about the rush to get everyone together.

  "I'll get into it without any lengthy preamble." Herb said. "The fact is that we're about to face an invading force, by midnight tonight in fact, of a bunch of Gogians."

  Though the the color drained out of her face at the news, Jenny remained calm. "I'd like to know all the details of it, Herb, rather than your statement which I don't understand at all. I thought all the Gogians were dead, so where are these coming from and how many of them are there?"

  "Sorry, everyone, but I had to tell you about it as quickly as I could. Anyway, after Nikki came over and taught us so much about a modern navy and its equipment, we discovered a rather large cache of wireless communications equipment, which we had installed on every one of our boats and tested to make sure that it works properly. We'd set up a central station for the purpose and assigned one of our more electronics' savvy kids to run it whenever we were on maneuvers. Anyway, Lieutenant Justin, being highly inquisitive about the equipment, took it upon himself to spend every off-duty fiddling with the equipment and learning about its capabilities."

  "Sounds about right for the breed." Marty said with a chuckle.

  "I guess so. Anyway, two days ago he stumbled on a strong voice transmission that he was sure sounded like it was a Gogian, and alerted me to it immediately. Since he barely understand Greek, I brought Adelle with me since she's quite knowledgeable in the language and she had no problem identifying it as a Gogian speaking in the clear to a counterpart of his on another wavelength that we quickly started searching for and were able to find quickly."

  "Unbelievable. What were they talking about, Herb?"

  "The attack on the dumb 'animals' and how they'll be able to exact their revenge on them--us, that is. Anyway, we quickly discovered that there were five such locations, all of which were set up on small and literally barren islands who were left by the Gogians as a rear guard when they withdrew from the mainland."

  "Who are all just about out of supplies?"

  "That's right. Kind of desperate, in fact, so they decided to retake Crete. Their force count is about five-hundred, all converted, and they're fully armed with assault weapons, which they'll use from the boats to soften our town first before they land all their warriors here, in the bay. They're quite desperate by now, and intend to kill us all."

  "Apparently they'd spied on us but have no idea that we are equal to the task of not only defending ourselves but giving them worse than what they plan on doing to us. How did you find out about their plan of attack and when they're scheduled to arrive on our doorstep?"

  "I guess they don't think anyone can listen to them so they talk openly about their plan. They'd been assembling on a small island about three-hundred miles north of us, and the last transmission we got was early this morning from the final group just before they landed at the assembly area. Which is why I hurried over in such a rush."

  "You did well, Herb. Anyway, any ideas about how to defend ourselves and kill the remnants of the Gogians?"

  "First thing we must do is evacuate the city, Marty." Jenny stated emphatically.

  "That goes without saying, just in case they shell it. How about you, Ben?"

  "I'd like to set up a battery of heavy artillery on the heights, which we had trained in using for this exact kind of eventuality in past few months. And set up thick defensive trenches on the beach with, again, heavy weapons and snipers."

  "Excellent ideas, Ben. How about you, Herb?"

  "Mine should be simple--to ambush their fleet with ours just as they reach the mouth of the bay, and bombard them with our own artillery."

  "Which, together with the fire from the heights should decimate them. But we'll have to run identifying lights so that we don't shoot at each other."

  "No problem with that, Marty." Ben said. "Because we have huge spotlights that will illuminate the entire area and differentiate between friend and foe."

  "I like that, which will play havoc on their night sight. And let's use squad size boats rather than large ones, which I'd like us to use mainly as artily platforms."

  Sounds like a good plan to me."

  "And me as well." Ben chimed in. "So I better get my people going on everything right away."

  "Same here." Herb said. "I'd like to bring all my boats close to the bay by sundown, though, and wait for them to arrive."

  "Good idea."

  Chapter 32

  Marty sat on the raised chair in the gently bobbing small, four man assault boat near the mouth of the bay, and kept scanning the horizon with night-vision binoculars. With her was Stan, who insisted on joining her he was an expert mortal shooter, one man to serve as a number two, and a sailor whose job it was to move them around.

  Finally, at a few minutes to midnight, Marty heard the sounds of fast boats slicing through the water and indicated to her people to approach the advancing task force Very slowly and quietly. Then, once she estimated the distance to be correct, she shot a red flare into the black sky, which was immediately followed the powerful spot lights and a huge barrage of every weapon in the Minoan arsenal.

  The bombardment and fire fight were over in just a few minutes as all the Gogian boats were sunk. Unfortunately, one of their last mortar shot was a direct hit on Marty's boat, and she found herself instantly treading water weakly and feeling dizzy before she lost consciousness

  Marty woke up in a hospital bed, feeling as though every muscle in her body was stretched to its limit and hurt terribly. Yet, she had the presence of mind to realize that other than the great discomfort she was basically unhurt.

  The sound of Nikki's voice and the touch of his lips on hers hand brought her instantly out of the fuzzy fog. "How d'you feel, my darling?"

  "Okay, I guess."

  "You scared the living hell out of us, you know, when your boat exploded just when the fight was over."

  "Yeah, I remember that. How are the rest of the kids in the boat?"

  "One sailor was killed on the spot and the other was in shock when he hit the water so he unfortunately drowned and was pulled out of the water much too late to and he's now a mental vegetable until Vic disconnects him. Stan was seriously hurt but he'll survive his injuries and will heal in about two weeks."

  "And me?"

  "You were always kind of hard to kill, you know, so other than a bunch of scrapes all over your tough hide you came out quite okay."

  Marty looked him in the eye. "Why do I sense that there's a lot more to my injuries that what you're telling me, Nikki?"

  "You and your damn senses. Oh hell, Marty, yes there is. The terrible concussion made you abort the baby, but Vic tells me that no damage was done to the reproductive system."

  "Oh shit." Marty said with tears in her eyes. She was about to fall into exhausted sleep when an idea popped into her mind. "Tell me, how bad was the drowned sailor hurt before he was thrown into the water?"

  "Not a mark on him."

  "Then
don't let Vic pull the plug on him until you talk to Stan and Paula about you moving his mind into the kid's body." Her exhaustion and blood loss made Marty's eyes close and she was asleep before Nick could respond to her request.

  It was late afternoon when Marty woke up in her platform bed, and when she opened her eyes she saw Paula and Harrold standing to to it on one side and Nick on the other, all looking quite concerned. She pulled herself to a sitting position against the headboard and smiled at them. "I see, Stan, that I'll need to call you Harry from now on. Am I right, kiddo?"

  "You certainly are, General." The young, huge centaur answered in the rambling voice that she remembered from the short time they were on the boat together.

  "And thank you and Nikki for taking care of us, Marty." Paula said as tears streaked down her cheeks.

  "Nonsense, kids. Now go home and get yourself reacquainted. Now scoot."

  She smiled at Nick as both left reluctantly. "I'm pleased that you did as I'd asked, Nikki, because those two deserve to have a good life together."

  "They sure do."

  "Now tell me, what kind of losses did we suffer during the fight."

  "Surprisingly, none other than the two kids with you. Well, some were hit but not too badly, and the Gogians never had a chance to bombard the city. They're all dead by now, mostly from direct hits, drowning, and butchery on the beach so there's no need to ever worry about another batch of them ever trying to hurt any of us again."

  "I'm glad to hear that. What did Vic say about my getting out of here?"

  "He said anytime you wish since you'd slept for almost twenty-four hours and all you need to do now is eat a bunch. Oh, and abstain from love-making for a week."