by Unknown
"Yes, the distraction." Amy spoke sternly; she had found her commanding niche. "As I see it, this will require a great deal of time. As there are only ten or so of them left, we will have to kill them all before Mario can attempt his task. Right?" She turned to Mario, and he nodded. "You two will use those uniforms," she pointed at the two corpses, "to sneak inside. I will provide the distraction, and you two will blast them. Simple enough?"
"Uh, what distraction?" Mario asked.
Amy squeezed her lips together and thought about how to describe her plan to the man she loved. She decided to evade the issue for a bit longer. "I really think you guys should hurry and get those uniforms. I'm not sure how long a dead body will hold…" She left the thought for them to finish.
Karallas understood her concern and immediately began undressing the fully dressed man. Mario slowly followed suit with the partially dressed man. Once their bodies were nude, they looked so much worse. However, Mario and Karallas looked rather handsome in the Barbas uniforms.
Amy began to feel more self-conscious as she sat nude with the two fully dressed men. "Do you have a razor, or a knife? You guys are going to need to shave those beards off and cut your hair." Mario found a knife and a canteen of water in one of the Barbas backpacks. The two men began a crude and painful shave. Unable to effectively cut their hair, they stuffed it under the caps the Barbas had worn. It took only thirty minutes for the two nude savages to transform back into modern men.
"Now, Amy, what distraction do you have in mind? If they see us up close, they will know that we are not those two men." Mario glanced at the naked bodies.
Amy swallowed the lump in her throat. "They have proven themselves to be rather horny. I suspect that the Barbas have no females in their encampment. Right?" She turned to Karallas.
"No, ma'am, at least, I didn't see any." Now a shy young man, he did not look at her.
"You two will tie me up and take me to the encampment. Tell me, is it one building, or a collection of huts or tents?"
"One rather large building. They make no attempt to hide it," Karallas answered.
"Good, that is best. Once they see me, they will pay no attention to you two. You will give me to them. Then, as they… take advantage of the situation, you will kill them. It should be easy."
The two men stared at her, careful to look only at her eyes.
"Are you sure about this?" Mario asked.
"I don't see another way. You just make sure that you kill them and get the message sent. That will make everything right with me… and it should make things right with you, too." Amy wished she could tell Mario that she loved him, but this was probably not the best time.
"Don't worry, ma'am, they won't live long enough to touch you."
"Sergeant, you are under orders to make sure that they are all gathered together before you kill them. If you act too swiftly, you may not get them all. If that means that one or more of them has an opportunity to… touch me, that will be an acceptable risk. It is essential that Mario has sufficient time to complete the transmission; you and I are expendable. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am, but they will all die just the same." He glanced at Mario.
"Did you find any rope in those backpacks?" she asked. Mario produced a length of cord. "Good, let's go."
They followed Amy's bare butt over the rocks.
Stardate 3527.9.18 – Three Hours Past Noon
Amy led her expeditionary force down the slope to the river. Upon reaching it, they turned north. Along the riverbank, they might have been easier to spot, but they would be able to traverse the distance much faster than walking through the forest.
"How much farther?" she asked Karallas after an hour of fast walking.
He checked his electronic instrument. "Maybe a half-mile further north, and then another half-mile westward along the next canyon. Perhaps we should make the rest of the trip in the cover of the trees."
"Yes, we'll save time by cutting northwest now. We'll turn west when we reach the stream that flows down the canyon. Then we will have to be much more careful to stay hidden."
The trio resumed their march, angling westward and into the forest.
When they reached the stream, they turned, walking against the flow of water. Amy led and carefully moved through the brush and trees; she flowed among the brush and trees as Kar had taught her. What little noise she made was suppressed by the sounds of the rushing water. The two men followed in her footsteps.
She smelled it before she saw it. Amy had not realized how distinct the odor of civilization was. The men, despite their barbaric ways, bathed with scented soaps. They cooked with spices. And they used oiled machinery.
Amy stopped and waited for David and Mario to catch up. "It must be just over that hill." She pointed.
"Yes," Karallas agreed. "That's how I remember it."
"Okay, let's get ready to be noticed." Amy held out her crossed wrists and Karallas bound them with the cord. "Cut a switch."
"A what?" the sergeant asked.
"You know, a thin branch for whipping—spanking." Karallas eyed her, but did as ordered. He selected a two-foot long branch, about a quarter-inch in diameter. He stripped off the leaves. Mario took the end of the cord and began to lead Amy toward the Barbas encampment.
"Swat my butt with the switch," she said. "Make it look as though you are forcing me along." Bewildered and reluctant, Karallas snapped the makeshift whip across Amy's backside. "Oh, come on, Sergeant, make it look real," Amy instructed.
She saw him pull his arm back and looked away, gritting her teeth. She heard the swish as the switch sailed through the air, followed immediately by the firebrand burning as the Marine followed her orders.
"Eee-ouch!" Amy jumped and skipped several steps. "Yes, just like that." Karallas had added several more pink stripes to her bronze derrière by the time the building came into sight.
Two minutes after they topped the rise, four Barbas men spilled out of the building.
"Hey, Jacob, what do you have there?" one man shouted as he sprinted toward them.
Mario looked down to conceal his face and gave a tug on the rope. Amy stumbled forward, and then pulled back. David gave her buttocks another whack with the birch whip.
"Eeow!" Amy jumped forward.
"For you to… play with," Sergeant Karallas said in a coughing voice.
As Amy had predicted, they were mesmerized by the sight of the bound, naked woman, and paid no attention to the two men. Several more Barbas men joined them. In a blur, hands took control of her leash while others began smacking her bottom. The crowd of men pulled her away from David and Mario as they propelled her into the building. Amy was careful not to look back or to speak as the myriad of hands began to grope her.
David will save me. David will save me, she continued to repeat to herself.
Fingers tugged on her curly mons hair and her nipples. She was led along interconnecting hallways and into a barracks room. Eyeing her tormentors, she noticed that none of them were armed with blasters. She had lost sight of David, but knew he would be close by. Hopefully, he would make quick work of his task to kill the Barbas men.
The barracks room's walls were lined with beds. Amy counted six on a side.
A dozen beds for a dozen men.
Part of her hoped that all of them would show up quickly. A more logical part of her mind imagined what it would mean to be taken by ten men. Glancing around, she could not count them.
They pressed her against the foot-rail of one of the beds. She squealed and struggled as hands pulled her feet apart and tied her ankles to the bed's legs. The cord that tied her hands was stretched to the head-rail and secured. Bent over at the waist, she was helplessly exposed. She had not counted on being bound. Amy screamed.
The room filled with laughter and grunts from the men. Hands reached between her legs. Fingers poked inside her. Other palms continued to spank her sore ass. She continued to scream and tug with her bound limbs.
"
Get back," a voice commanded. "I'm the leader of this troop. I get her first."
The crowd backed away. Amy looked over her shoulder at the tall, thick man in a Barbas uniform. He snarled at her, and then his face morphed into a demonic grin. He opened his pants and let them fall to his knees.
Amy looked away as his hands gripped her hips. His man-weapon was cold against her womanhood. She hoped that she was moist enough to allow his penetration to be painless. Suddenly, his thumb pressed against her most private hole.
Oh, please, not that way!
Amy had never experienced the use of her bottom entrance for sex and she did not want to lose that virginity today. She squealed and strained to pull away, and he pressed his thick digit inside her.
*****
As planned, Mario and Sergeant Karallas hung back as the Barbas men took control of Amy. Mario and David, with their hands close to their blasters, followed the jubilant crowd. Standing in the hallway, they counted the Barbas men as they entered the barracks behind Amy.
"I only count eight," Mario said as the barracks room filled.
"Yes, with the two Amy killed, that's ten. There are at least two more somewhere. You'll have to be careful." The sergeant's gaze held Mario's eyes. "I don't think we should wait any longer."
"Just kill the bastards. Kill all of them." Mario handed his blaster to Karallas. "I'll get my job done!"
Sergeant Karallas was glad that Mario was not going to be forced to witness what the Barbas men had planned for Amy. He knew that Mario loved her. No man should be forced to watch such barbarian abuse of the woman he loved.
"Good, I'll do my job, too," Karallas said to Mario's back as the man trotted away.
Per the plan, Mario would take advantage of the confusion and excitement of Amy's abuse to find the communications room. He would reset the transmission frequency and realign the super-light speed lanthanum antenna that projected the gravity wave bubble. Finally, he would transmit their message to Eden.
I hope he doesn't take too long, Karallas said to himself. He had seen two separate staterooms for the officers. There were actually four Barbas men missing from the group.
David entered the barracks room and saw Amy, bound hand and foot to the bed. He saw the man mounting her. While David had both blasters, each one had a limited number of charges, and several of these had already been expended. He would have to make each shot count. He stood in the doorway, the blasters casually by his sides, and watched the pulsating, pasty-white butt of the Barbas officer standing between Amy's outstretched legs. Sergeant Karallas waited to ensure that all the Barbas men in the building entered the barracks. He waited as long as he could stand the sight of Amy's abuse. Before long, the adrenaline-charged rage consumed him. He raised the blasters and took careful aim. One blaster was pointed at that disgusting butt, and one at the head of the closest man.
He fired.
Carefully, letting his training take control of his motions, David re-aimed and fired, again and again. Caught completely unawares, the Barbas men dropped stone dead, two by two. All except the officer who had been attacking Amy. Karallas had intentionally given him a paralyzing, but non-fatal shot in the ass.
Walking over the dead men, David reached Amy and untied her.
"Are you all right?" It was a pointless question, but it seemed a necessary thing to say.
"Yes, thank you."
Together they looked down at the half naked man struggling on the floor. Paralyzed from the waist down, he was attempting to crawl away.
Amy kicked him, and rolled him over onto his back. His face was no longer frightening; he was now the terrified one. He struggled like a helpless bug stranded on its back.
"This is for all my friends aboard the Carpenter," Amy said slowly, in distinct English.
She nodded to David and he fired one last shot from his blaster into the Barbas man's forehead.
Amy spent only a second watching him die. She turned for the door. "Where's Mario?" she asked as she gingerly stepped over the corpses.
"He's doing his job, but wait." David touched her shoulder as she reached the door. When she turned toward him, he continued, "There are four of them unaccounted for. They must not be in the building, or they are indisposed and did not hear the ruckus."
"Perhaps they are in the mine," Amy suggested.
"Yes, but we probably can't find and kill them." One of the blasters was completely discharged, and the other one had energy for only one more shot. He did not worry her with that detail. "We will have to destroy the transmitter to ensure that they can't send their own message for help."
"Yes, of course."
"On the way in, I spotted a supply room. I'm hoping that it will have explosives. We need to set some charges to blow up the transmitter, and maybe their power source."
"Show me where, and let's be about it."
David led Amy back along the way they had come. Near the exterior door, they found the room with mining supplies.
"Here, these are pre-assembled explosive charges. There's enough here to blow a big hole in the mountain."
"Or blow this building to dust."
"Indeed!"
Karallas examined the foreign devices, the instructions were written in English. "These are pretty straightforward," he said after a couple of minutes. "The charges are designed to be detonated by a remote electronic device. These are safety pins." He pulled a ring attached to a pin from one of the bundles and looked up with a stupid grin. "At least, I hope that's what they are."
Amy chuckled, but she was grateful that the bomb did not prematurely explode.
"Here, stack these up in that corner." He pulled another pin and handed the two bundles to Amy. Then he pulled the pins from a dozen more and tossed them to her. When the pile was assembled, he pulled the pins on three more and handed her a fob on a wrist lanyard. "This is the detonator. Simply press the red button, and this place will be history."
"Why are you giving this to me?"
"Ma'am, I think that it is best for you to head outside and hide. I will find Mario and help him. I will set two of these charges with the power generator, and one in the communications room to ensure that everything is destroyed. We'll join you as soon as possible."
"No, I'm going with you."
"Ma'am, there are four Barbas left. Somebody has to get to safety and detonate the explosives. I strongly suggest that you go outside and hide. If we are not out in ten minutes…" He left the remainder unsaid as she nodded her head. "You have to do, what you must do," he encouraged her, lightly gripping her arm.
"Yes-yes, I'll do it."
He paused for a moment to watch her bare bottom bound through the door and toward the trees. When she was out of sight, he followed the path Mario had taken.
The building was not large; it took only two minutes for him to find the power supply and the communications room. However, upon his arrival, he saw Mario lying on the floor. Mario's hands and feet were tied.
As Karallas stepped through the doorway, his head exploded with pain as somebody clubbed him. He dropped the blaster and inadvertently kicked it away. He sank to his knees. He saw the boots of his attacker in time to duck away from being kicked. Ignoring the pain in his skull, he thrust his shoulder upward and into the Barbas man's gut. With the wind knocked out of him, the attacker slumped back against the wall.
Pulling a huge knife, he managed to slice through David's arm. Prevented from continuing his attack, Karallas stepped back. The Barbas man slashed the air between them with the blade. Recovering his breath, he advanced on the Marine.
This is no miner; he has military training!
Blood poured from Karallas's arm. He looked around for something to use as a weapon or shield.
The man lunged and David threw his bum arm up to deflect the knife's edge, receiving another deep, painful gash for his effort. Stumbling backward, he continued to search for something to fight with.
Picking up some unknown electronic device from the counter,
he threw it at the attacker's head. As it struck him, David lunged forward, trying to get the knife. The blade flashed through the air and sliced Karallas's neck. Blood sprayed from the cut artery, and the two men slipped in the rapidly forming pool of blood.
Realizing that he would be dead in a matter of seconds, the Marine threw his all into wrenching the knife from the man's hand. Turning the blade, he plunged it into the center of the Barbas's chest. Not waiting for his assailant to die, David crawled to Mario. With one hand struggling to stem the blood flow streaming from his neck, he cut the cord binding Mario's hands.
"Amy's going to blow up the place in seven minutes." He inhaled shallowly. "There's only one shot left. Make it count." Sergeant Karallas pointed toward the blaster on the floor as his vision faded.
Chapter Ten
Stardate 3527.9.18 – Approaching Twilight
Like every green commander, Amy was grateful for her battle-hardened sergeant. Karallas had been correct. As Amy had said earlier, he and she were expendable. Now, she had only one purpose left. She had to ensure that the building was destroyed.
The sun was behind the mountain and the valley was awash with shadows. Amy sprinted for the trees and squatted in the darkness. Holding perfectly still, she melted into her surroundings. She watched the door to the Barbas building and counted the beats of her heart pounding in her chest, trying to estimate when ten minutes had passed.
Mario, what is keeping you?
She held the detonator fob in her hand, her thumb on the button. She would wait as long as necessary for Mario to appear. However, she would press the button at the first sight of a Barbas man.
Amy gave up trying to measure time and concentrated on calming her breathing.
An eternity passed. Mario did not appear.
I can blow this thing from the inside, as well as the outside.
Amy decided that if Mario didn't survive, she didn't care to, either. He either sent the message to Eden or he didn't. Either rescue arrived, or the Barbas killed them. There was nothing she could do to direct events now.