Rosanha shook her head. “You can be so crude sometimes. I don’t believe I know you, Mandy.”
Lillith and Mandy laughed. “You think I’m crude, you should hear some of the guys talk, now there’s crude.”
“I know how they talk. They don’t impress me. You should have heard the young man from Alpha Colony, he was so polite.”
“What’s the difference?” Lillith threw a berry at Rosanha and giggled. “He got what he wanted, didn’t he? I can just hear him say, Lovely lady, would you mind terribly if I put my seed-maker into your delicate flower? Maybe that’s his style. Would you have let him if he said, Let’s fogg? Would you? What exactly did he say?”
“Nothing, it just happened. And he would never talk that crude, you’ll see. I’ll go with you tonight. He’ll come.” Rosanha tossed her long braids over her shoulders. “You’ll see.”
They continued picking their berries in silence. The sun began to throw long shadows, it was almost time to get back to the small settlement.
“Oh, oh!” Lillith jumped up suddenly, startling the other two girls. “Did you forget? Father Champain called a special meeting tonight, before supper. Let’s hurry or we’ll be late.”
They delivered their baskets to the kitchen. The cook glared at them. “Is this all you girls picked? What have you been doing the whole day?”
Mandy stuck out her tongue at the older woman. “You’re never happy. Maybe you should come down to the lakeshore at night.”
“What do you mean by that?” A streak of color crept into the woman’s cheeks. “Have you girls been snooping around where you’re not supposed to?”
“We have to go to the chapel.” Rosanha said and pulled on Mandy’s arm. “Are you coming too, Mrs. Armesto?” Without waiting for an answer, they ran out of the door and headed for the small church building.
The chapel was almost full, some latecomers joined the three girls as they rushed through the door. They took their seats in one of the last rows. Father Champain already stood behind his pulpit. An imposing figure, dressed in a black cloak, and with his long beard and burning eyes, he looked like the archangel himself. When he looked up Rosanha had the feeling that he was looking directly at her.
“Evil and sin have befallen our small community!” he thundered. “The time to take measures is now.” He paused, glared at the congregation. “I have seen with my own eyes, down by the lake, the evil things being done under the cover of night. I have seen whores and fornicators. I have seen the Demon-woman from Hell appear out of the water. I have seen her naked breasts and thighs, and her belly that is without a navel. She has tempted me with her dark Triangle of Sin, but I resisted the evil seductress.” He lifted his fist and shouted, “I resisted the temptation of the flesh. And so must you!
“This is a new frontier, a new planet, we’ve named it Nu-Eden, and like in the Garden of Eden there is a snake in this new paradise.”
Rosanha’s attention began to drift. She bent over to Mandy. “What’s a fornicator?” she whispered.
Mandy shrugged. “Who knows. Someone who fornicates, I guess.”
“You’re a big help.” Rosanha looked around the chapel. It was not a fancy building, not at all the way she remembered the churches back on Earth. It really looked like no more than a large, rectangular structure, very plain inside and outside, large enough though to hold about 250 people. Half the colony. Not all of the 500 colonists belonged to Father Champain’s church, only about 200 of them. However, sometimes non-members came to listen to the sermon.
By now Rosanha knew most of the settlers, some better than others. She spied her mother sitting beside Eileen and Roger Ranson. Not too far from them sat Francesca and Franco Geomez. She watched Roger for a few minutes. Even in daylight, he was a handsome man. A couple of times he would glance over at Francesca.
Rosanha stifled a giggle. I guess he is the fornicator and Francesca is the whore, she thought and had another, more sobering thought. And that makes me also a whore, I had sex with Mr. Ranson!
“I realize that some of you think the laws of Earth don’t apply here anymore,” thundered Father Champain, “but remember this, the laws of God supersede every law made by man. God’s laws are still valid here on Nu-Eden. Satan is alive and thriving in this New World. He appears in many forms. Beware!”
Rosanha wondered if that young man from Alpha-Colony came here. In a crowd of over 200 people, it was not easy to find someone you were looking for. She didn’t even know his name.
Thinking of him made her thighs tingle, and she couldn’t wait for nightfall. She glanced over at Mandy, who, it seemed quite obvious, was lost in her own daydreams. Wonder who she is thinking about, Rosanha thought, Maybe Franco Geomez. According to Mrs. Geomez her husband was having sex with Mandy and Lillith.
People were getting up, Rosanha realized that the sermon had ended. She followed her two friends out of the door. Outside she waited for her mother. When Roger Ranson and his wife walked by her, she said, “Good evening, Mr. Ranson.”
He barely glanced at her. “Oh, hello there,” he mumbled and walked by.
“Didn’t I tell you?” Mandy whispered beside her. “He ignored you completely. There is something really weird going on.”
“Rosie.” It was Rosanha’s mother. “I haven’t seen you all day.”
“Elder Helstrome assigned me berry-picking duty,” she said hastily. “Come, I’ll walk with you to the community hall.”
They walked side by side without talking.
“You’re awfully quiet,” said the older woman after awhile. “Is there something bothering you?”
“Not really,” Rosanha said, then, “well, yes, there is. Last night, down by the lake, I met this young man from Alpha-Colony.”
“From Alpha-Colony? That’s a long way from here. How did he get here?”
Rosanha shrugged. “I don’t know, he didn’t say.” She blushed. “He was awfully handsome.”
Her mother stopped, turned to face Rosanha. “Handsome, was he now? Did you have sex with him?”
The young girl blushed even deeper. “Mother,” she exclaimed, “how can you ask me that?”
“Because you are my daughter, and I care about the things you do.” The older woman sighed and ran her hand across her forehead to wipe little droplets of perspiration away. “Strange things have happened lately. People are coming into my office to tell me about unusual experiences. Most of them involve sex.” She closed her eyes. “Something happened to me that I can’t explain. A few nights back, when I walked along the shore of the river, I saw your father.”
“You saw daddy?” Rosanha stared at her mother. “I thought he was dead.”
“That’s what I was told. I never saw his dead body. He just suddenly appeared. He came out of the water, dripping wet, and completely naked.” The woman delicately dapped at her cheeks with a small piece of cloth. “When I saw him I just broke down, and when he undressed me, I let it happen.”
Rosanha looked away, embarrassed. “Where is he? Where is my father?”
“Gone,” her mother said. “I fell asleep in his arms, when I awoke he was gone. Just like your handsome young lover from Alpha-Colony, unless you’ve seen him since.”
“I haven’t, but I’m sure he’ll be back.”
Theresa took her daughter’s face between her hands. “Rosanha, darling, he is not real, just like the man who said he was my husband, it wasn’t real. This place we call Nu-Eden, it should be called Hell. There is evil here, like Father Champain said, and we’ll have to be on guard.” She put an arm around Rosanha’s shoulders. “Come, daughter, let’s go and eat something. Maybe Mrs. Armesto has cooked up another gourmet dish.”
“Pah.” Rosanha made a face. “That old woman just pretends to be a cook. Who knows what she did before she joined our colony.”
“Now, now.” Theresa chuckled. “Do I detect some resentment here?”
“I don’t actually hate her,” Rosanha said, “but she can be so mean. She’s never happy with th
e stuff we bring, and sometimes we work so hard, just to please her.”
“She’s had a hard life. She lost her husband and two children only a month before our ship left Earth, so don’t judge her too harshly. She is a good cook.”
The community hall was another large building constructed from pre-fab materials. Here the council members held their meetings and it also served as the dining area.
Rosanha and her mother lined up at the long counter to get their food. One of the kitchen girls smiled at Rosanha. “Mrs. Armesto made a spectacular desert with the berries you picked today. She was quite pleased. You must have found a good spot.”
Rosanha took the tiny tubers the girl handed her and put them on her plate. “She never told us she was pleased. She never does.”
The girl shrugged. “She’s not that bad once you get to know her.”
“I told her that,” Theresa said beside Rosanha. “How is your father, Hillary? I hear he had a successful hunt.”
“Yes, he did,” Hillary said proudly. “He shot a couple Rock-sheep; they’ll be part of tomorrow’s supper.”
“They’re good eating, if you don’t mind the greasy taste,” Rosanha said, smirking.
Hillary laughed. “Cheer up, Rosanha, tonight we’re having your favorite, smoked tree-fungus.”
“Phew, I hate those.” Rosanha made a face. “We’ve had them once already this week.”
“Hey, you two, stop the chattering and move on! I’m starving,” someone said behind them. It was Franco Geomez. He looked at Rosanha. “You’re Mandy’s friend, right?”
Rosanha nodded. She admitted to herself that he was quite handsome. Black curly hair, dark smoldering eyes. Suddenly, a funny sensation started inside her belly. He foggs Mandy and Lillith, she thought, wonder how he’d feel inside me. She blushed and turned away, moved on down the line to pick up a ladle full of black spiny pieces of fungus. What is the matter with me, I’ve never looked at a man like that before!
The image of the young man from Alpha-Colony popped into her mind. He seemed to be smiling. He stood naked, his penis strutted like a log between his legs.
Rosanha brushed her hand across her eyes to wipe away the image. Stumbling to the table, she sat down on the hard bench. Theresa sat down beside her and began to eat, she didn’t seem to notice her daughter’s distress. Rosanha wasn’t hungry anymore, the pungent aroma of the smoked tree-fungus rose up her nose.
Her thighs and pubic area itched. Her vagina seemed inflamed. She needed the hard flesh of a man inside her belly. She couldn’t wait for night to come.
Chapter Twenty
Space Station
Captain Cunningham insisted that he be present when they awakened one of the Sleepers. He watched anxiously as Bret McGuinness examined the gauges and controls. “What do you think?”
The young man looked at the captain. “I wish my sister Breanna were here now,” he said slowly. “She should be here. She’s the expert.”
“I know, son, but she isn’t,” Cunningham said patiently, but he felt like grabbing one of the levers and pulling it, just to see what would happen.
As if reading his mind, Bret said, “I’d like everyone to step back a little. We don’t want anyone touching something by accident, even though, by the looks of it, there are plenty of safeguards in place to prevent accidental initiation of the reviving process.”
“So you can do it?”
Bret ran a hand across his short-copped red hair, and pursed his lips. “I think so. The controls are more sophisticated than ours, but not that much different. Those levers you are staring at open a valve at the bottom of the cylinders, allowing the liquid inside to drain out. Each cylinder has its separate controls.” He smiled when he saw Cunningham pull back his hand. “Don’t worry, nothing is going to happen until I push the corresponding keys on that control board.” He pointed at the wall with all the gauges and blinking lights.
“How will you know which ones?”
“Give me a couple of hours to study the controls and trace the circuits. It can’t be that difficult. After all, this is what I do best.” He turned his back to the Captain, ignoring him and the others who were watching him.
“Insolent red-headed bastard,” Beringer murmured beside Cunningham. “No respect for authority.”
The Captain chuckled. “Goes with the territory. I’m told he is a genius. The best there is.”
“We’ll see. I liked his sister much better,” Beringer grumbled, and stalked out of the room.
Since he could do nothing in here, Cunningham followed him. He found Beringer talking to one of the women of the exploration team, a tall, wide-shouldered Blonde with large glasses. Nobody wore glasses these days, a fashion fad 20 years out of date. Only eccentrics wore them now. Cunningham chuckled to himself. That Beringer sure knew how to pick them.
“This is Dr. Crestin,” Beringer introduced the woman.
“Captain,” the woman said, and gave him a little smile. “I believe we’ve met.”
Cunningham nodded. Of course they met. He knew everyone on the team. “Dr. Crestin,” he said, “you must be very excited.”
“Oh, I am,” she beamed. “When I joined the team I hoped we’d find something. But this is beyond my wildest dreams. Everyone is excited.”
“Maybe we’ll finally find out who these people are, where they come from, and what happened on this station.”
“Too bad Breanna McGuinness isn’t here,” Dr. Crestin said. “She is a xenologist, also a linguist. I hope we will be able to communicate with these aliens.”
Cunningham smiled. “One problem at a time. Let’s hope her brother can awaken at least one of them.” He looked at Beringer. “I don’t want any weapons visible, but at the same time, let’s not take any chances.”
The Commander nodded. “I’ll have my boys standing by, discreetly. If you don’t mind, I’d like to be there when it happens.”
“I want you to be there.” Cunningham glanced around him, took in the people who were crowded in the corridor. He tried to keep the discovery quiet, but he’d been unable to keep the news from spreading. Almost everyone at the station asked for permission to be present when the first genuine alien of a space faring race was brought back to life.
Of course, there had not been enough room to allow everyone to be here. As it was, there were too many now. He shouldn’t have been so generous.
Surprisingly, most of the people present spoke with a hushed voice, as if they were afraid they might awaken too many of the Sleeper at once.
“Excuse me,” he said to Beringer and the woman. He spotted Professor Romanof among the crowd. The professor was hard to miss. With his seven-foot frame, he towered over everyone. On top of that, he was not soft-spoken.
“I’m telling you, we’ll be disappointed, after all this time they’ll all be morons!” Professor Romanof spoke to a short, balding man. Dr. Reinhard, a physicist. Professor Romanof was a mathematician.
“You don’t know that, Professor. You know nothing about the human mind, much less about these aliens.” Dr. Reinhard saw the Captain first, and lifted a hand. “How long, still, Captain?”
Romanof turned around, gave Cunningham a nod.
“Not long, I hope,” Cunningham said and smiled. “I see you two are at it again.”
“Everyone has a right to his opinion, but there are times when certain things are just obvious,” Romanof growled. “My esteemed colleague here will not even allow himself to consider that these aliens most likely will have lost their cognitive abilities and will not be coherent.”
“He calls them morons,” Dr. Reinhard cut in.
“They may not even be that.” Professor Romanof threw up his hands. “Mark my words, we may be able to revive their bodies, but their brains will be nothing but dead matter.”
Cunningham chuckled. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that Romanof and Reinhard hated each other’s guts. However, these men respected each other. Both were famous for their theorie
s on multiple universes and back holes. Neither agreed with the other, of course, but they grudgingly admitted that both theories had their merits.
“Why waste time arguing?” Cunningham said. “We should know soon, one way or the other.”
“Would you like to wager a small bet, Captain?” Romanof asked.
“I’m not a betting-man, Professor. Why don’t you ask Commander Beringer? I’ve heard he’s not above playing the odds.”
“By the way, Captain,” Professor Romanof said, “have you heard from the team on the fifth planet?”
Cunningham shook his head. “Nothing.”
“I miss my discussions with Professor Findlay. He developed some interesting theories about the correlation between ancient civilizations and alternate worlds.” Romanof shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t always agree with his views, but he understood numbers. Instead of studying anthropology he should have become a mathematician.”
“You talk as if he is dead,” Reinhard said, accusingly.
“He’s missing on a hostile planet. That is as good as dead. We should have heard from them by now.”
“It’s only been three weeks,” Cunningham said. “If their shuttle crashed, which we have to assume, then it may take them a long time to reach the research station.”
“Unless they get killed by the severe conditions on that planet, or eaten by wild animals.” Romanof nodded and smiled smugly when Reinhard rolled his eyes. “I know what I’m talking about. I took the time to study the initial reports. That fifth planet is not human-friendly.”
“I think I’m going to check up on Mr. McGuinness,” Cunningham said. “I’ll leave you to your discussion.” Scientists! he thought, as he made his way back to the room with the cryogenic cylinders. They’re like little children. Always arguing.
McGuinness looked up when the Captain approached. “You have an eerie sense of timing,” the young man said and smiled. “I believe I’ve cracked it. I’m already starting the thawing sequence. The process will take about three hours until he awakes.” He pointed at the only cylinder that was in a horizontal position. “That one is programmed to be the first.”
The Xandra (Book 1): Daughter of the Dark Page 13