The Abandoned (Part 5)

Igor Cummings

To most people on the planet Eridani, paperwork is boring. To Igor Cummings however, paperwork is wonderful. There’s just something in the orderly matter of paperwork that always relaxes him. To him, the time he spent working as an administer in the Central Administration Authors, or the CAA for short, was less of a job, and more of a luxury.

Yes, most men considered him an odd man, but when you are having fun, caring about what other men say was just a waste of time. As for women…well, if the lower beings had any opinions, they wisely left it to themselves. So to Igor, his job as a clerk in the CCA was near perfect as running a city required tons of paperwork and he often brought his work home.

That was what Igor was doing when he felt a presence in his study. Unlike most homes on Eridani, his came with a study. As usual, he was at his desk working when he looked up and saw his wife laying prostate on the floor. Igor was surprised as Kettle knew better than to bother him when he was working. He hid his surprise with annoyance.

“Yes, what is it?” he asked gruffly.

“Master, this one has something to report.” Still lying with her face to the floor, Kettle replied. “This one has committed a grave error and request punishment.”

Now he was beyond surprised. Igor had always thought Kettle to be an excellent wife, that was why he allowed her to work with the foreign women who crash-landed on Eridani when most men would not even considered it. For her to now admit to a fault made Igor wonder if he had made a terrible mistake.

“Explain,” he said.

“Today, this one had carnal relationship with another woman without the permission of her master.”

“Who?”

“The foreign woman known as Lisa Williams.”

Silence reigned in the room as Igor absorbed the information. Like most men on Eridani, Igor couldn’t care less about the relations between women; they were after all lower beings, lacking both the self-control and intelligence needed to lead. However intimate relation between women who were not related was only allowed when their masters allowed it. Kettle should have known better.

No, Igor was sure she did knew better…so why did she had relations with that foreigner? It made no sense. He needed more information.

“Explain yourself slave”

“Today, this one and the foreigner known as Williams went for an evening walk. We went to the outer hill knows as Color Peaks.”

“I know the place. You were there to see the setting sun?”

“Yes we were. As the sun sets, Williams was enchanted by the sight and commented on how beautiful it was. We stayed till the sun finished setting and then went back to her home. The other two foreigners were not at home and we were alone. When it was time for us to part, Williams kissed me.” Kettle stopped. After realizing Igor was not going to comment on the kiss, she continued.  “I responded to the kiss and with our arms around each other, we went to her bed where we took off our clothes.”

“Wait,” Igor had to stop his wife there. “You had sex with her in her bed? You went on a bed without my permission?”

“Yes master,” Kettle immediately replied. “Another error in need of punishment.”

Indeed! On Eridani, women slept on the floor with only a mat or flat mattress for comfort. Like most men, Igor only allowed his wife onto the bed when he wished to fuck her and he knew of men who don’t even allow that. Any fucking was done on the floor as the bed was considered fit only for men. Another thing that made no sense for Igor; why did Kettle did this?

“Continue”

“After our clothes were off, we wrapped our arms around each other and kissed passionately. We then went into what Williams called the 69 position.”

“69?”

“We were just eating each other like normal…” Kettle hesitated before continuing, “well, normal for me at least. Williams seem a little embarrassed by the situation.”

“Why?” Igor was surprised.

“In the UFP, it seems sex between the same gender is…discouraged. I don’t really understand why but Williams said something about it being illogical and against nature.”

Igor had heard rumors that these foreigners have some strange customs, but it was one think to hear about it and another thing to actually experience it. So outside their strange clothing and rude behavior, the foreign women had bought some strange thinking with them as well. Everyone knows sex between women happens all the time, and to Igor it’s strange to hear that there’s nothing wrong with that. Sex between women was very normal, after all they were all lower beings so how can that be unnatural? As for it being illogical…well, they’re women! Since when did women care about logic? Igor did not understand these women; they acted as if they were men.

Once the thought came to him, Igor immediately understood the danger and the truth of these women. In their minds, they were equal to men! Another strange quirk of their culture, but one that was potentially dangerous. What if they start to infect the proper women of Eridani with the idea they were equalt to men and who knows what other dangerous ideas they had bought with them?

Igor stood up immediately. On most homes on the planet, there was a cane in every room and it was no different in his house. Igor walked to the wall where the cane was hung, took it off the wall and walked to where Kettle laid. He did not bother with words and the thrashing began.

Kettle screamed as the cane struck her. Igor aimed the cane at the ass of the woman and held nothing back. This was punishment and she must remember who the Master was and who was the woman. When Igor came back to himself, he realized that he lost time. He did not know how many times he struck her but Kettle was sobbing and unmoving on the floor.

Igor kicked her lightly with his foot and gave an order, “Kneel and show your ass.”

Kettle was in pain but her training overcame it. Slowly, she rose to her knees, spread them apart but made sure her head was still on the floor. Igor went the back of her and pulled down her pants. Taking out his manhood, he entered her.

She screamed in pain as Igor pounded her from behind. The pain from the beating was still fresh but Kettle did not move away. No woman on Eridani would even think of doing something as terrible as to avoid her master. In her mind, Kettle deserved this pain. She was the one in the wrong, and the only regret she had was that the pain prevented her from moving backwards in rhythm with her master to please him better. Igor released inside her. Backing out, he stood up and ordered his woman to clean him.

Kettle turned and started cleaning. As she began cleaning her master’s manhood with her mouth, Igor raise the cane above his head and used it. The cane struck his woman on her back and Kettle grunted in pain. However she did not stop and continued her worship.

This time Igor kept control. He maintained a steady rhythm on his strikes and when he was finally happy with his woman’s work, he stopped. Igor ordered Kettle to stand and took a good look at her.

Kettle was wearing a blue jacket with a pair of black pants and a green scarf covered her head. Her lower face was hidden behind a pink veil but it could not hide the tears in her eyes. Igor did not usually beat her, he never liked it, but discipline must be maintained and they both knew it.

“Why did you have sex with the woman without getting permission from me first?” he asked.

“This one is sorry master. It just happened and…” Kettle’s reply was interrupted by a slap across her face.

“Why did you have sex with the woman without getting permission from me first?” Igor asked again.

This time Kettle took a moment to think. Her master clearly refused to accept that this was something that “just happened”; he wanted a reason and Kettle could only think of one. She steeled herself for further beatings and answered.

“This one…this one was bored master.”

A dozen thoughts went through Igor’s head. He thought of his work and how often he bought them home. He remembered that he had not disciplined his woman for months and that the last time he had used her was weeks ago. Of course, she was bored! Igor realized that he had not been diligent enough. He had neglected his duty and had not done a proper job as master.

The realization embarrassed him and he vowed to do a better job of it in the future. Still, he loved his job and he knew he couldn’t rule out bringing his work home back. Something must be done for Kettle to prevent her from making the same mistakes.

A mischievous thought came to him and Igor quickly dismissed it. However the thought would not go away and in fact grew in his mind. He grinned and this caused Kettle to look at him with a strange expression.

“Slave,” he said to Kettle, “tell this Lisa Williams I want to meet her.”

The Abandoned (Part 4)

Todd Gasol

Todd woke up to the sound of snores. He opened his eyes sleepily and turned his head to the sounds. At the corner of his room sleeping on the straw mattress that was their sleeping rug, laid his two wives. Hugging each other for warmth, they were both fully covered in their sleeping gowns and the sight bought a smile to his face.

Todd lay there for a moment to drink everything in; a moment he wanted to enjoy the contented life he had. Still smiling, he stretched and gave a theatrically loud yawn. His wives heard the noise and began to stir.

Cup opened her eyes first. Todd smiled as Cup quickly shook her sister wife and began crawling towards him after lifting her gown up to her chest. Plate woke from her sleep and after a moment of confusion, saw Todd sitting on the bed. She quickly started to crawl towards her master.

A smile came to Todd's face as he saw his two wives doing the correct submission wife crawl. With their bellies and breasts touching the cold floor, and their legs joined and straight, both Cup and Plate were pulling themselves towards him on the elbows. With the long sleeping gowns lifted to their chest, Todd should see his wives' naked legs and ass wriggling on the ground. The sight made him smile wider.

As they were crawling, Todd finally hoisted himself out of bed. Sitting up, he placed both feet on the ground. It was a cold morning and he had to half-fight the urge to curl back into his warm blankets. However his wives were already near him and he didn't want to "disappoint" them. Cup reached him first and began to kiss his feet; Plate was only moments behind her. Pleased with their attention, Todd  reached down to both of them and ruffled their heads.

"Up"

Both his wives stood up on command, but with eyes looking down at the ground in submission. Gray in color, their gowns came with a hood that covered their heads leaving only an opening for their face. From their head, the gowns then spread out widely over their bodies, covering even his wives' arms from view. That was why they had to lift it up to crawl. With their arms by their side, the sleeping gowns came down to their knees. Todd looked at the faces of his wives and made his choice.

"Plate, on the bed."

Cup immediately got on her knees and reached for Todd's pajamas. Carefully pulling it down, she put her mouth to work the moment Todd's penis showed. As Cup worked to get her master up, Plate went to the foot of the bed and crawled in. Todd looked behind him and saw that Plate had pulled her gown up again. She was fingering herself, getting ready for her husband and master.

With well-practiced moves, Cup soon got Todd ready and satisfied with the progress, Todd rewarded her with another pat on the head. Cup stopped at his pat and smiled, pleased with herself. Todd knew he would need to do something about that later but right now he had more important things to do. He turned and used his other wife for his daily morning fuck.

Plate wasn't fully ready but she did not say no. Like all women on Eridani, telling your master to wait was a punishment offence, telling him to stop was downright unthinkable. Ignoring her own discomfort, Plate quickly moved her hips in sync to her master's pounding. With no consideration to his wife, Todd quickly spent himself and came into his wife.

Sitting up, he gave a hard slap on Plate's thigh, a signal for her to get off the bed. Plate quickly got off, joining her sister wife on her knees. Placing both feet on the ground again, Todd smiled at his two wives and gave a new order.

"Clean me"

Both women used their tongues to clean the juices off his penis, never putting their mouth over their master's penis like what Cup did earlier. The reason soon became evidence as Todd reached up and grabbed a bamboo cane that was hanging on the wall above the bed. As his two wives were cleaning his cock, Todd struck down with the cane.

Again and again the cane went up and down over their backs but while both his wives gave a start whenever the cane struck them, they never stopped their worship. They were well-trained and Todd felt a sense of pride over them. So much so that an unseemly unmanly giggle came from him. He did not care. A sense of euphoria wash over him, an euphoria that was broken by a knock on the door.

Slightly annoyed, Todd got up and walked to the door, leaving both his wives on their knees. Like most homes on Eridani, his only had a living room, a kitchen and a sleeping room so it was quick trip to the main door. Opening it, Todd saw a woman dress in typical women garb. Wearing a orange jacket that covered her arms and a pair of black pants which flare out at the legs, the woman was looking down at the ground. He couldn't her face as she was wearing a wide conical hat.

"Head up."

The woman raised her head at Todd's command and he saw that she was wearing a red scarf that covered her head and her lower face were hidden by a veil of the same color. With her scarf and veil in red, Todd knew the woman was here on official business. Still, that doesn't mean he needed to be polite to her for ruining his morning fun.

"Well! What is it?"

The woman shuttered at his almost shout but rallied well. She too was well-trained. "Sir Todd Gasol, this one has a message from Sir Derek Value of the Central Administration Authors."

The Central Administration Authors, or the CAA for short, were the main authority on Eridani. Members of the CAA were elected via city-wide elections and liaison with the CAA members of other cities to produce planet laws and regulations. Derek Value was a high ranking member of the CAA of Kami City and Todd had no idea what he wanted with him. Still, there was no way a woman would lied to him.

"I take it he didn't tell you why?"

"No sir," the woman replied. "This one was not told, only that sir must attend a meeting at the CAA building on level 2 at 10am this morning."

No surprise there, messengers were never told more than what was needed. Todd waved the woman away and she quickly turned and ran off. Todd then realized he might not be the only one at the meeting. It was both strange and curious.

He closed the door and walked back to his room. Both Cup and Plate were still on their knees, only they were now hugging and kissing each other. Sexual relations between sister wives were an accepted fact on Eridani and Todd personally thought it was a good thing as it made his wives closer.

"Okay, enough with that!" Todd said. "I'm taking a bath, you two get yourself ready for a trip out. Cup, you are puller. Plate, normal attire. Get..."

"Master!" Todd was walking toward his small bathroom when he heard Plate's call. He turned towards her and saw his wife laying prostrate on the ground. This was a morning of surprises.

"Yes?"

Plate asked, "Master, this one begged to be the puller of the master's cart this day."

"Why?"

"This one was privileged to be used by her master just now. It is only fair this one be the one who suffer the whip later."

It was a surprise request by Plate but Todd knew that on a certain level, she was correct. Transportation on the planet was via ponycarts and the puller of the cart suffered whipping. Todd himself was an advocate of women suffering the whip.

"Very well," Todd said. "Now go get ready! I want to get going the moment I'm finish."

Todd turned back to the bathroom and as he was closing the door, he saw that both his wives were hugging and kissing each other again. He shrugged. As long as it doesn't interfered with their service to him, Todd didn't care. After all, it was relations between women. If he could help it, he would never bring himself down to know about relations between such lowly beings.

In that, Todd was typical of a man of Eridani.   

The Abandoned (Part 3)

Rose Catterly

“I think I got it!”

Dr. Rose Catterly had called her follow survivors, Captain Janet Pinkerton and Lisa Williams, to the city library because she had found the answer to some questions they had. 3 days after they had their debriefing from Kettle, the trio of survivors of The Pagoda had went into the city and got the culture shock of their lives.

Williams had seen women were pulling men on carts like animals; at a construction site, Pinkerton saw women who did all the manual labor while men sat under the shade supervising them by shouting out what sounded like insults; and Catterly herself saw an adult woman who knelt and bowed her head in submission to a little boy no more than 6 years old. On the planet of Eridani, men were the rulers while women were slaves and the 3 of them had been wondering what to do about the situation.

A scientist to her core, Catterly knew that the first thing they needed was information and had found the local library of the city. For the past week, she had found several pieces of information about the planet, Eridani, but nothing that explained why society had turned out the way it did.

Nothing till today!

“What you found?” As the captain, Janet Pinkerton had seniority over the 3 survivors and had been the most anxious to know more about the planet.

“I found this.” Catterly showed her follow survivors a small blue crystal.

“What’s that?” Williams asked.

“It’s what called an “energy crystal”.” 

“I think I read about it. “ Pinkerton said. “Wasn’t it the main source of energy storage before it got replaced by newer technologies like lasertech?”

“Yes,” Catterly was impressed the captain knew about ancient technology. “For about 100 years, it was the main source of energy storage but about 400-500 years ago, it got replaced. It seen that Eridani was a mining planet for these crystals.”

The captain and Williams looked at each other. Captain Pinkerton was the one who spoke. “It’s an energy crystal but that doesn’t prove this was a mining planet?”

“It’s what we called an energy crystal,” Catterly corrected. “However, the local uses it for more than that. They found a way to store information data on it."
"How they managed that?" The captain asked.
"My best guess is that as they were cut off from the UPF, they were unable to follow the latest technological advances." Catterly said. "They had to make do with what they have and advance their tech along those lines. Follow me and I’ll play it for you.”

Catterly led the duo to a room in the library where a table sat in the middle of it. Most tables on the planet were made out of stone but this one was made of metal. There was a device on the table and Catterly carefully placed the crystal in this. The blue crystal lit up and an image appeared about the table. 5 men were sitting around the table waiting for something and after a short while, the image began to move and sound came from the device. The 3 survivors stood silently and watched the images unfold.

The oldest man in the room cleared his throat and began speaking. “Attention! This meeting will now commence. John Petroff will be presiding; in attendance are Oda Katsuragi, Rick Perterson, and Kamal Colvin.”

The men looked at the old man who was obviously called Oda as he had turned and nodded to each man when he spoke their names. He now turned and looked at the man called John Petroff again. Oda nodded his head to Petroff, indicating that he should take over. Seeing all eyes on him, Petroff stood up and did so. He started speaking;

“The Makgeni Corporation is the last galactic corporation still with a presence on this planet. Last month, Diana Sheffler was informed that Makgeni will be abandoning their colony on 82 Eridani to “concentrate” on its more profitable colonies in the Compress system. The Makgeni Corporation will be leaving within the month and the majority of the colonists will be leaving with them. Thus far, we have 4,221 people who have indicated that they plan to stay on the planet. This meeting is called so that we can have a working plan of the colony when the Makgeni Corporation leaves.”

Oda addressed the other 3 men at the table. “The 3 of us are the oldest of the group who intend to stay. Leadership of the group will fall to us when the time comes. So I think it is important we are all on the same page for the colony.”

“Then why is he here?” Rick Perterson pointed at Petroff. “You’re staying?”

“Yes, I am”

John’s answer surprised the men.

“Why are…nevermind.” Rick quickly corrected himself. “I guess you have your own reasons for staying. So what’s this plan you have?”

Petroff looked at Oda who nodded for him to continue. “Right now, this is what we have so far. When Makgeni leaves, food and water will not be a problem as we will have the 3 greenhouse to grow our food and the water plant will be working. The main problem we will have is whether we can have long-term success without the backing of a corporation behind us. Basically, we need to find a way to be self-sufficient.”   

“Nothing we don’t already know.” It was Rick again with the comment. “So what’s the plan?”

“Food and water are issues that can take care of themselves. The planet also has fauna in abundance that are edible for us humans though we might need to increase production of the greenhouse for those of us who just came to 82 Eridani recently. People like Oda who were born on 82 Eridani had long been used to the alien food provided by the planet and used them to supplement the food provided by the greenhouse but newcomers to the planet like myself are only comfortable eating the Earth plants and vegetables provided by the greenhouse.”

The men nodded in agreement.

Seeing that everyone was in agreement, Petroff continued. “The problem we will have is the economy. There are a lot of things we can’t produce on 82 Eridani. The planet just does not have enough metal ore for us to mine to maintain the technology level we have. The transport of metallic materials to our remote planet is one of the reasons why it was so hard to maintain a healthy profit margin for the company and for that, we will need to continue with the mine.”

“Will that be enough to maintain the colony?” Rick asked. “I know we still have the spaceport but it’s going to take a lot of materials to maintain the colony.”

“That’s the big question.” Petroff admitted. “Makgeni couldn’t solve the problem but we can’t go around the problem either. We need to buy materials so we need the mine.”

“Why not cut out level of technology then?” The question was Kamal’s first input in the meeting and what he said caused everyone to look at him in surprise. “Like you said, the planet does not have enough metal ore for us to maintain our level of technology. So why not cut the level of technology we have?”

“You need to explain yourself, Mr. Colvin.” Petroff said.

“We need to maintain technology for the spaceport and medical facility. Essential things like that but for non-essential things like short distance transportation, we can cut them out. This will save materials and resources.”

“Short distance transportation is non-essential?” Oda asked. 

“Like cars for example. We need to maintain the spaceport and things like planes for long distance travel but things like cars are not really needed here. We can use bicycles which are smaller and use less material than cars to operate and maintain.”

Petroff nodded his head. “True. That might be something to look into.”

“Okay, that will be in the future. What else?” Rick asked Petroff.

“One essential provision I suggest we make is to makes it illegal to employ a woman in positions that endangers her physical, moral or mental health. This means we need to take all the women out of the mines and in any jobs that would be dangerous.”

“Why?” Both Kamal and Rick asked together. 

“For the long-term health of the colony! With only 4,000 people left, the only way the colony can continue is if we replace the people who would leave with the shuttles. Basically, we need to have more babies if we are to be a viable long-term colony.”

“That’s never been a problem before.” Kamal said.

“It will be now. At least for the next few years, we need to depend on ourselves.” Petroff explained. “Before we had colonists coming for work and this boosted the population of the colony. However with Makgeni’s withdrawn, we will no longer see new colonists. At the same time, the danger of childbirth will increase as most of the medical staff and medical equipment are leaving. Frankly, we can’t take any chances.”

“Petroff, I’m not comfortable telling the women they will be nothing but breeding animals.” Rick said. “I’m sure most of the remaining people will say the same thing.”

“We will need to explain the situation to them.” Oda was the one who chirped in. “The provision is needed if we are to survive. I think most of them will understand if we tell them the truth of our situation here. All of us already understand sacrifices will be needed by everyone.”

Kamal and Rick kept quiet for a few moments before Kamal gave a nod to Oda. A few seconds later, Rick grudgingly did the same.

“Is that all?” Rick asked.

“For now,” Petroff said. “I have a few ideas down the line but if we don’t survive the next few years, it would mean nothing.”

The images ended and the 3 survivors stood in shock, even Catterly who had seen the program before. All 3 of them heard the stories and this was proof there were some truth in them. In the past, galactic corporations like this Makgeni were a power onto themselves on planets they controlled. They controlled everything on the planet where they had the rights to and were supposed to report everything unusually to the UPF. However, it would be a small matter for them to “forget” to report that a small number of colonists on a remote planet far from the civilized planets of the UPF had decided to remain.

“My god,” Williams said. “Kettle was right; they were abandoned.”

The Abandoned (Part 2)

Lisa Williams was what people in the UPF kindly called a “spacer”. She was born on a space cruiser, educated on a space station, worked in space travel. Born and bred in space, she had spent more time in space than on any planet. Some would just call her an alien.

And she was now paying for it.

Dr. Catterly informed her that she believed the planet's gravity was slightly lighter than Earth but it was small comfort to a spacer. The gravity was still heavier than what Williams was used to in space.

“Come on, you’re almost there.”

Williams looked up to the top of the hill where Kettle was waiting. It has been 3 days since she first saw the woman and since then Kettle had been the 3 survivors’ guide to their strange new world. Seeing her at the top of the hill, Williams couldn’t help but wonder how Kettle managed to get up there so quickly. Looking at Kettle’s pink jacket, black baggy pants, scarf, veil and straw conical hat, Williams (not for the first time) couldn’t help but wonder how she could be so comfortable in such a comical outfit.

Although her spacesuit has been dirtied, Williams had refused all attempts to wear the strange outfit of the locals and was currently wearing her sport top and short shorts. She had been wearing them underneath her spacesuit and she was glad of it. She knew that it had scandalized the locals when she said she would be going out in the outfit but they had been gracious hosts and accepted her request. There was just no way she was going to wear the conical hat and veils of the locals.

Looking at Kettle however did make Williams realize just how close to the top of the hill she was. Ignoring the fire in her calves and back, Williams pushed on.

The moment she reached the top, the breeze hit her almost immediately.

Williams' gaze drifted out and saw, to her immense surprise, an ocean. The golden light of the sun shone brightly on the ocean and Williams found that she could not look away from it. It took a while before she recovered.

“What…is that a sea?” Williams did not care if her shock was evident in her voice. She never realized they were so close to the ocean. “There are oceans on this world?”

“Of course,” Kettle said. “Fishing is one of the main sources of food here. Look over there!”

Williams look where Kettle was pointing. Although she did not have a watch, she figured that it had been an hour since they had set out on the walk and the hill she was on offered a good view of the landscape. Williams could see that the city they had been in was small and that not only was the city close to the sea, there was also a winding river that cut through the city.

“That’s the Kami River. We use it both for power and to travel into the interior.” Kettle looked at Williams and Williams could sense that she was smiling behind her veil. “Beautiful, isn’t it? I love this view.”

Williams couldn’t help but nod her head in agreement. A spacer she may be but even she could appreciate the view. Not only that, her body was glistening with the sweat from the long walk and the cold breeze from the sea was welcome against her face and skin.

Williams looked around the hilltop and saw that outside the path where they walked up, there was another bigger path on the other side of the hill. However they were the only ones up there. She was surprised and kind of glad no one else was up there with them.

“Yes, this is great.” Williams replied to Kettle. “But next time, let’s drive here. This walk is too much for me.” Williams’ laugh was cut short by the horror in Kettle’s eyes. “Uh,,,did I say something wrong?”

“Wo…women don’t drive. We walked!”

For the first time, Williams could hear angry in Kettle’s voice and she could not understand why. “What do you mean? Women don’t drive here? We’re not allowed to?”

“No, it’ll be wrong. Only men drive.”

“But…that’s..,” Williams tried to think of the right word to use here. “That’s so strange. Everyone drives where I come from. Don’t you ever want to drive before?”

“No,” Kettle’s left no room to debate on that. “Women suffer the whip, we do not take it!”

The conversation was getting stranger and stranger for Williams but before she could make a bigger fool of her self, she heard the sound of creaking wheels. She looked at the other side of the hill and saw the strangest thing she had ever seen.

A man and a woman had come up to the hilltop from the other path and both of them were staring at her. Williams was staring right back.

The woman was in a black bodysuit with red knee high boots and she was pulling a cart that a man was sitting in. For a few seconds, the duo was just staring at Williams but the man recovered. He cracked the whip in his hand and Williams twitched when she heard the sound of the whip hitting the woman.

The women quickly got back to pulling the cart and as they got closer to Williams, she managed to get a good look at them. Williams saw that the black bodysuit on the woman was total with only an open hood for her face. It reached from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, leaving only her face uncovered. However she was wearing some sort of harness around her head that locked a bit across her mouth. At the end of the mouth bit were 2 leashes that the man in the cart was holding. Williams immediately understood the leashes were actually reins that the man used to control the woman pulling the cart. As they went pass her, Williams couldn’t take her eyes off them and belatedly saw that the man in the cat was wearing a tunic with a pair of normal pants.

The duo ran to the other side of the hilltop where the man pulled on the reins to stop the woman. The woman knelt on the ground and lowered the poles of the cart. The man, reins in hand, got up from the cart and guided the woman to a rail like an animal. He then put the leashes onto the rail. Williams then realized the rail was a hitching rail.

Shaking, she turned to Kettle who was looking at her with eyes of concern.

“Are you alright?” Kettle asked. “You suddenly looked pale.”

Williams quickly realized she was having problems breathing. Taking a few breaths, she asked, “What is that?” Williams pointed at the duo. She saw that the man was now wiping the woman’s face with a towel and the woman looked like she was loving every moment of it.

“What’s what?” Kettle asked.

“What’s that?” Williams asked again, this time with more heat in her voice. “That woman was pulling that man like an animal! What do you call that?”

Even with the veil covering the lower half of her face, Williams could see that Kettle had no idea what’s wrong with the picture. Finally giving up, Kettle shrugged her shoulders and said a word that bought the world down on Williams, “Transportation?”

The Abandoned

She sat in the comfortable chair facing the sole desk in the room. Placed on a raised platform, a strange woman was standing behind the desk trying to compose her thoughts. Janet Pinkerton looked at the two women beside her. Her two follow survivors, Lisa Williams and Rose Catterly, both had an impression of restlessness on their face and it’s no wonder. 

Since the time they woke, it has been one strange thing after another.

Protocol seems to have been abandoned on this planet. First, the people here did not speak English or any other known language the three of them knows off. Then there was the strange attire the people were wearing. Janet Pinkerton's gaze drifted down to the attire of the woman standing in front of them, trying to think of which planet had a fashion like that. The woman was wearing a pink jacket that covered her arms and a pair of black pants which flare out baggily at the legs.  Nothing unusual there but she was also wearing head was a colourful scarf that covered her head and her lower face were hidden by a veil. Hung on her belt was a straw conical hat that had seen some use before.

Pinkerton drew a blank.

“H…Hello”

Silence reigned in the room as the 3 women were momentarily surprised by the greeting. It was the first time since they had awoken that someone had spoken in a language they understood. All 3 of them started asking questions together and it was too much for the strange woman. She put up both hands and the questions stopped.

The woman looked to be smiling behind the veil. She put down her hands, looked at the 3 women and began again. “You may call this one Kettle. Do you understand me?”

Kettle? What kind of stupid name is that? But that was a question for another time. Janet Pinkerton stood up. “My name is Captain Janet Pinkerton, commanding officer of the science vassal Pagoda. Beside me are Lisa Williams and Dr. Rose Catterly. I demand to know what planet we are on and why no one from the UPF has come to see us yet!”

Kettle’s eyes looked at her curiously, as if trying to process some information. “You are…you are from space? UPF stands for United Planets Federation?”

The surprise was evident from Kettle’s voice and not for the first time since she woke from the escape pod, Pinkerton had a bad feeling about all this. “Yes, of course! Now where the hell are we?”

“By the council…it’s true!” Kettle's whisper could clearly be heard in the emptiness of the room.

“Miss…Kettle,” Williams asked softly. “What planet are we on?”

“This is the planet Eridani.”

Williams, Catterly and Pinkerton looked at each other. All 3 had the same look on their face. “We never heard of a planet Eridani.” Pinkerton said. “Which system are we in? What is the operating function of this planet?”

Again Kettle put up her hand. This time more firmly. “Please… captain,” Kettle bit the word as if it was an insult, “we have questions of our own. May we know what happened to you?”

Of course there would be questions and Pinkerton had been ready for a debriefing the moment she woke up. Only no one from the UPF had came to interview her. She decided to treat this as the debriefing.

“The Pagoda was on a mission to map the material contents of a comet travelling through the Tarus system. We managed to get into the tail end of the comet without problem but on our approach to the comet, our ship suffered a serious malfunction of some sort. We had to abandon our approach but traveling out of the tail of a comet carries its own risk and the Pagoda suffered complete system failure.” Pinkerton took a breath and swallowed the bile in her throat. As the captain, the failure strung her. “We…I had to abandoned ship. Now which system are we in?”

“We do not know.” Seeing the looks on the 3 spacefarers, Kettle explained further. “We do not remember. All we know is that this planet was once called 82 Eridani. Over time, the 82 was taken away and now we just call our planet Eridani.”

“Lost!” Pinkerton and Williams both looked at Catterly the moment the words came out of her mouth. Catterly’s mouth was open in disbelief but she continued. “They are lost. We crashed on a planet filled with lost colonists.”

Pinkerton looked back at Kettle and for the first time truly saw her. It was so obvious she couldn’t believe she didn’t put two and two together. Kettle’s dress was a dead giveaway. There was no way a modern woman in this time would wear something as strange as that. Her thinking however was broken when she noticed that Kettle was shaking her head.

“No, not lost,” Kettle said. “We were not lost. We were abandoned!”