Sheeeit!! This was going to hurt. The thought flew through my mind as I struggled for control.
I stared out of the screen as the ship hurtled its way through the stratosphere on a sure fire collision course with this world. I knew that I was so far off the beaten stellar highway that I was going to be the proverbial Robinson Crusoe, marooned in space.
I fought the controls hoping that I could get some semblance of flight from this flying brick, a worthless attempt, seeing it was never designed for travel in anything other than the void of space. It was a losing battle, the ship was rolling and tumbling, without the inertial dampers to smooth out its flight path I was going to get really hurt, that is if I survived the crash, and it was going to be one Hell of crash at that.
My name is Debben Reed, entrepreneur, which is why you find me in this predicament. I had made a mountain of money from trading between planets, but the thrill of the chase of a new money making scheme is what makes life for me, not the accruing of the wealth at the end.
I had more money than I could spend if I lived my life ten times over, but I still wanted the chase. I had heard a rumour of a new pharmaceutical to be had on one of these distant planets, and as usual I booked myself a space hopper out of Debben Incorporated's space dock, much to the chagrin of Tesa Rane my security chief. She hated me going off on these wanderings, knowing that I preferred to be alone and she couldn't bring the security resources of D.I to my protection.
The hopper plunged toward a heavy landing, I was now low enough to make out topography of this alien world, it looked green, so it had to have water, and if it was green chances were I would also find food.
The sweat was standing in beads on my forehead as I continued to fight the controls, only managing to keep the thing the right way up. I was a couple of hundred metres up from the ground now, traveling at over 400 kilometres per hour, it was going to be a fine balancing act between hitting the thrusters to slow the craft and hitting the ground hard.
I was mentally checking the height of the craft and trying to look for a 'soft' landing place, the craft continued its ungainly descent, just as it seemed nothing could stop me from opening a crater a hundred metres wide in the ground, I hit the reverse thrust lever.
I was thrown forward in the seat harness as the thrusters kicked in, the hopper skipped and bounced across the landscape, without warning I was torn from the seat harness and thrown across the cabin, my last thought before consciousness left me was the fact I had somehow survived.
I don't know how long I was out, all electronic systems on the ship were dead, the chronometer's once glowing face now just a dead glass eye staring from the centre of the instrument console, at least life support was still working, I could hear the soft hum of the air recycler as it sucked up stale air and gave back fresh.
I pulled myself upright, my body ached as though I had fought a ten round fight with a sleek bodied Arang from the planet Golgoth, believe me, that is an experience you don't want! I hurt in places I had long since forgotten I possessed, muscles spasm-ed as I moved. I gripped the back of the flight seat and stared out of the screen, I was still alive and from this point of view the ship looked battered but okay. Maybe I could effect repairs myself, at least get the comms set working and dial in the automatic distress beacon. Get that going and it was only a matter of time before Tesa Rane and a posse of security 'bots would be in to get me.
I settled into a routine of checking through the instruments that I could get working, and so far everything checked out perfectly, so I wondered, what had caused the craft to crash? Only one other area to check and I would have to leave the safety of the pod for that. So I began the ritual of sampling outside atmosphere to make sure it was breathable, that would take thirty minutes or so for the whole gamut of toxicological tests to run.
I sat in the rear of the cabin where it afforded me more room to stretch myself, I swallowed down a couple of pills to ease the pain and took a can of isotonic fluids to keep my own fluid levels balanced. It was as I was drinking from the can I heard the noise from outside, a banging, like someone hitting the ship.
I stopped in mid gulp and looked out the screen. Screens on hoppers are not unusual in ship design nowadays, made from a one way material, it allows you see out, but from the outside just looks like any other part of the hopper, in other words the whole vehicle looked like a tortoiseshell with no apertures to see inside it.
My gaze fell on the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. Obviously an upright biped the same as we humans, however she if indeed it was a she, how was I to know at this point? Had the most stunning looks and beautiful body under a long flowing gown. The chiffonous material whilst not see through clung to her ample curves and showed her off to perfection. I judged her to be very tall, must be over 1.8 metres, around 10 centimetres taller than myself.
Still the air quality sample wasn't finished yet and I wasn't about to take chances by stepping out of the protection of the ship just yet, not even for a beautiful creature such as she was.
She disappeared from view and I switched to the hopper's outside viewing camera's to see where she had got to. Once again stunned as she climbed aboard the back of a creature that seemed to be a cross between an Earthside zebra and llama. The creature had a long neck and face like a llama but the striped body of a zebra, the patterning fading as it rose up the creatures neck.
She pulled on a reign and the creature turned about and walked away.
I watched her disappear into the distance before she was swallowed up by some long vegetation. Well, what on the moons of Keybasa was I going to do now?
It was obvious I wasn't going to sit in the ship for God knows how long before rescue, especially when such a gorgeous creature existed out there! I set to and finished off the instrument checks, replaced a bridging component in the emergency beacon, set it to transmit my last coordinates and inserted it into its launch tube.
I hit the launch button and watched it zoom into the sky on the outside camera. It would sit in a geosynchronous orbit above my position until the end of time if necessary, drawing all its power from the nearest star.
I watched the comms panel come to life before me and made sure the ship was transmitting its own distress coordinate to the beacon now high above us in space. I looked at the last part of the equation, a tiny capsule that was either surgically inserted under the skin of the forearm or swallowed, depending on how long you expected help to arrive. I wasn't too keen to cut into my arm, but it had to be done, it would only take 36 to 48 hours for the capsule to leave my body naturally and how long was I going to be here?
I took another of my painkillers, something we had invented and sold by the billion to the Galactic Protection Force, three were enough to kill the pain of even losing a limb in battle. Turning my attention to the laser scalpel I made a two centimeter cut in my arm, there was no blood because of the cauterizing effect of the laser. I inserted a spreader tool and created a tiny pocket between the dermal layer of skin and the underlying muscle. I pushed the minute tracking beacon into the hole and then sealed the cut with staples, they would drop out as the skin healed itself in the next day or so.
I checked the readout for outside conditions, Hot around 25 Celsius and the air was breathable but could be heavy going if any physical exertion was to be done, rather like being in the Tropics back on Earth I thought.
I strapped on a stun gun to my belt and hit the cabin's exit button. The hatch opened with a hiss and the outside warmth flooded into the air conditioned cabin. I turned off the aircon unit to preserve what power I had left, it may be a nuclear fuel cell but even they can be run down if overused and I had no idea how many flight hours this one had on it. I picked up the infra red remote unit for the door and clipped that to my belt grabbed myself a couple of bags of water and swung down out of the open hatch.
The ground under my feet was springy, like trying to walk on a huge bed, each foot movement was accompanied by a sense of overbalance, now I knew how the ship got off so lightly in the crash. I moved away from the ship then turned and zapped the door closed with the remote unit. They always amazed me the way they looked when stranded like this, a large metallic ovoid just laying there like a half buried Yeelon egg.
I had only traversed half the distance between the ship and the long vegetation when I became aware of movement just inside the long grass looking plants. Dropping to one knee to be less visible I watched intently, two gaps opened up and two of the creatures I saw earlier emerged, both of them carrying people, the first I recognized from earlier, the second one equally as beautiful had darker hair than the first. They were on a direct path to me.
Once I was sure that no others were around I slowly stood, they continued toward me, not gathering pace, just the same slow amble as before.
It took perhaps five minutes for them to get to me, smiling I greeted them, foolish I know, how was a people on a planet so far out on the rim going to understand Standard Galactic English?
The female, yes they had to be female, that came earlier slid from her mount and approached me. Then without warning she raised her hands and gripped my head tightly, clamping her mouth to mine, the last thing I was aware of was a long tongue sliding into my mouth, then I passed out again.
I came to in a high ceiling-ed room, laid out on what appeared to be a bed, I was aware that I was now naked, where had all my belongings gone to? The room had six walls and no visible doors, kind of like my ship but from the opposite view point. As I sat up and swung my legs over the edge, a slight whisper came from one of the walls, a panel slid upward almost noiselessly and in came the female that had kissed me earlier.
She began talking or rather I could hear and understand every word of hers, except she never spoke. Each word seemed to form in my brain and could be understood, was it telepathy?
We spoke to each other for a long time, I was seated on the bed and she remained standing. She was aware of me inside my ship from the first moment she found it, she just could not gain entry. She was curious to know where I had come from and what the outside worlds were like.
Time passed and I was keen to be back to my ship and told her so, she began laughing at me. The words once again formed in my head.
I couldn't leave. She found me and by right of accession I now belonged to her, to serve and do her bidding and would be treated well compared to males of this planet.
After what seemed many more hours of arguments I had the full story. On this planet the female of the species ruled, there were no wars, no famine, no destitution. All men once of legitimate age were to serve the needs of the females. A woman could take as many men as she so wished, a man could not object to ownership, unless of course he was already claimed by another female, at that time they would enter into a barter system should either female think the man was worth it.
To disobey incurred severe punishment and for repeated disobedience death was always an option. Men must always be kept in their correct place less they should have ideas of overthrowing the Amazonian regime.
Amazonian? My eyes must have bulged at that. Did the ancient Earth story of a world of women warriors actually exist? It seems that it could indeed, but how? So far out on the rim, how did our forefathers know of these people.
She had read my mind and was smiling, the thoughts entered my head, they had at one time traveled the galaxy in great ships looking for a world to settle, many they visited were such as ours, a young developing race, but far too violent to be tamed, even by a race such as theirs. Finally they found this world and settled it.
She turned to the wall she had entered and the door opened again, in came a man totally naked, carrying a tray before him.
Again thoughts entered my head......
'These will be your clothes, wear them at all times, unless of course you want to enter service as one of my male slaves and not a consort'
She left taking the man with her.