Chapter 45

We spent the short time before lunch talking. Along with the fruit that I offered everyone, I provided drinks. Soo Hong was thrilled when I handed her a coffee. When everyone was settled, I broke into my narrative, describing the events leading up to our arrival on this world. Soo Hong confirmed that her family was also told that the Earth had been destroyed by a meteorite. That news silenced me for a moment and brought about grim looks from everyone. It wasn't something we wanted to think about.

Thankfully, Soo Hong urged me to continue and after a heavy sigh I shook off my gloominess and pushed forward with my family's tale. I told her about the conditioning imposed upon us by the aliens and the fact that they'd told us that our purpose was to resurrect the human race through bearing children. Again Soo Hong, and this time Gaeta stated that their people had been told the same thing. The only difference had been the conditioning. Soo Hong's family hadn't been conditioned to mate and neither group had been conditioned to be bisexual.

"We'll have to keep that item from Tilly," Vicky interjected in a low voice, drawing questioning looks from both Soo Hong and Gaeta.

"Who is Tilly?" Soo Hong asked.

I answered that. I explained the details about Tilly's family and their arrival on the planet and how Rodney had died. That took Soo Hong and Gaeta by surprise and they both sat in silence as I told them about how Tilly's family had been forced to trek from their arrival point to my family's settlement, driving there over a three month period. The description of our first meeting with Tilly and her kin left both women speechless.

"You must be kidding," Soo Hong declared once she recovered from her initial shock. "That sounds terrible."

"It was," Samantha admitted, looking embarrassed by the memory of the incident.

"Forgive me for my rudeness," Soo Hong apologized, "for while I expressed disbelief, I am certain that you are telling me the truth. I just cannot believe these aliens have been so cruel. I will admit that this young body had made me feel things that I haven't felt in ages but to be driven by desire to such a state is not good."

"It wasn't," I interjected in a remorseful manner, "but things have worked out since then. Overall, I think the urge has abated some what and people are managing."

"Well," Samantha responded, glancing over at her sister before going on, "to be honest it hasn't abated enough. If it wasn't for the sex toys at our disposal and the fact that we've all been conditioned to be bisexual, I think Adam would never get out of bed. The fact is I get horny everyday and talking about it just makes it worse. If we don't change the topic soon, I might have to drag Adam over to an air mattress and rape him."

I gasped with surprise at Samantha's declaration and then gasped again as Gaeta added her own two cents.

"I want to join you when you do!" Gaeta exclaimed enthusiastically. Her words took everyone by surprise and several glared at her in disbelief. Soo Hong just chuckled softly to herself.

"What are you looking at?" Gaeta demanded to know when we all looked at her, "I have not had a mate in a long time and I have needs like all women. I am willing if you want me. I know how to share nicely with your other mates."

Soo Hong burst out laughing again at that, before anyone else could respond. I glanced at her again and waited. With effort she got herself under control and then apologized again. When she had I continued with my tale.

What shocked them more were the details about what our 'benefactors' had given us. It turned out that neither Soo Hong's family nor Gaeta's people had been as fortunate as we'd been. Gaeta's tribe had been dumped in front of a cluster of caves with the furs on their backs and little else. Soo Hong's family had received a little more but not much. They'd been given a rowboat and some tools that they were to use to build what they needed and a couple of sets of clothing. That was it.

Lunch diverted our conversation for a bit. It was late in the afternoon and most of us were very hungry. Happily, Karen, Samantha, and Helena had gone out of their way and whipped up lunch for us. With the obvious assistance of our 'benefactors' they put on a small feast. We were treated to Chinese food. It was American-style Chinese but it was Chinese to us and we were grateful for it. There was a beef and broccoli teriyaki stir fry served over a bed of steamed rice and there were spring rolls, stir fried mixed vegetables and some savoury stuffed dumplings as sides. There were even fortune cookies for everyone.

The meal went down well, especially with the beer that I was now nursing. While we ate we continued chatting. As you'd expect, the conversation moved towards the number of women in our community and the fact that I was the only male around. Lizzy decided to inform our three guests that there were thirty-seven women in the settlement, including Pebble and Shell and that the majority of the women were pregnant. It brought on wide eyed gazes from all of them. It also started a round of questions. Amazingly, Little Fish was one of the first to ask a question.

"So tell me Adam," Little Fish said to me, her gaze fixed upon me from across the fire pit where we'd gathered to eat our lunch, "Cone Shell has told me that you have mated her companion Little Pebble and that Little Pebble is now carrying two babies. Cone Shell has also told me that you have mated her as well, even though she has not been in heat. All of this amazes me. How can this be so?"

I told her the truth. I told her that Pebble had gone into heat and that the only choice had been for me to mate her, stating clearly that I had never intended it to happen but I hadn't too many options to pick from when I got told that Pebble would die if I hadn't. There were no naysayers on this point from amongst my group and Little Fish just nodded in response as I told her this, understanding clearly upon her face. I then explained that Shell had discovered sex with the help of some of my wives back at the settlement and one thing had led to another. Shell nodded in agreement as I explained how she'd transitioned to me after seeing me mate Pebble.

"Very strange," Little Fish murmured when I was done. Her face was now filled with a mix of curiosity and confusion. It was clear that she wasn't certain what to make of Shell's behaviour.

Seeing this I decided to change the topic.

"I think it's about time to move things along," I declared firmly. As I did I glanced from one to the other of our guests. "So far I've done most of the talking and while you've told us a bit about yourselves, I'd like to hear more. We can start with you Soo Hong. You've told us that you're here with your family. Are your mother and father out there somewhere looking for you or what?"

My question caused Soo Hong to burst out in laughter, which took the rest of us by complete surprise. It took her a few minutes to calm down. I just glared at her until she got herself under control.

"Please forgive me Adam," Soo Hong pleaded after she got herself under control, "I know I should not have laughed at you, but your question was very funny to me. I apologize though for my rudeness."

"All right," I said tentatively, trying to soften my manner, "I'll forgive you, but you're going to have to explain yourself. What was so funny?"

"What is funny is that my parents are dead," Soo Hong said in a matter of fact manner, "but do not get upset at this fact, for they have been dead now for almost eighty years. Like you the aliens that kidnapped us from Earth have regressed my age. I know I look like a little girl to you. I see how you looked at me when I stripped off my outer furs. I have almost no breasts and I look like a child. The truth however is that I am not a fourteen year old child. That is the age that the aliens rejuvenated my family and me to when they took us. I am really a hundred and two years old. I am a very old woman and that was what I was laughing at."

This news floored me and it certainly stunned the remainder of my family. When I was able to think I got Soo Hong to relate her story to us. Soo Hong told us that she had been born in Imperial China just before World War One. Her family had been farmers and when she turned thirteen she'd married her first husband. In total, she'd had three husbands during her life. She'd had her first child before she was even fourteen. Soo Hong also told us that she'd fought for the Nationalists during the Japanese invasion of China in the nineteen-thirties and had continued fighting for them during the Second World War. Mostly she'd served as a porter carrying supplies to the Nationalist forces, but she'd gotten into combat a couple of times including once with the Communists. When Mao had taken over after the war she'd fled to Taiwan with what was left of her family. This had included three daughters and their children including a grandson. Eventually, her family had immigrated to the States during the Fifties. By then her own children were dead and she was living with her grandson. Her grandson had four sons and they had all flourished in the States. She'd been living with her great-grandson and his family when the aliens had snatched them up. Soo Hong informed us that she'd been living in Portland, Oregon at the time. The aliens had taken her great-grandson, his wife and two daughters including one who was actually fourteen years old and his great-grandson's mother-in-law along with twelve other female members of the extended family. The aliens had dropped them off on the south coast of this continent and had left them there to survive. Here Soo Hong reiterated that compared to what my family had been given, her family had been given nothing. As for being turned into fourteen year olds, they'd been told that it was to accommodate for the atmospheric differences between Earth and this planet. That caused us all to look at her in bewilderment and it made Soo Hong chuckle again. She admitted that no one in her family believed it, especially when the aliens had said that they'd never mature beyond the age of eighteen. To them it had sounded as if the aliens had been playing games and I had to admit that it sounded that way to me as well. As for any other conditioning, there hadn't been any. Her great-grandson had limited his sexual contact to his wife and one of his sisters-in-law and the women had been left to their own devices. It had been interesting since all of them soon found out that they were going through the normal hormonal changes that pubescent teenagers went through. Soo Hong told us that it was both annoying and frustrating.

Gaeta told us her story next. To our amazement Gaeta informed us that she and her people had been taken from Earth a long time ago. Soo Hong helped Gaeta with this part of the story. From what she'd learnt since meeting Gaeta was that the young woman was a cave woman or what people once called a Cro-Magnon. She and her people had been taken from the Earth about twelve thousand years ago. That caused a stir as we all questioned how the aliens had been able to do it. Gaeta eventually continued and told us that six men and twenty-four women had been plucked from her village and transported here with essentially the same purpose set for them as it had been for my family. The individuals that had been snatched up had all been in their late teens already so there hadn't been any rejuvenation for her and her people. There had been some 'magic' to make them healthier but nothing else. Gaeta told us again that they'd been dropped in some caves in the interior of this continent and told to mate and multiply. Naturally, the males picked their mates and then kicked the rest of the women out of the caves. Gaeta said that none of the men wanted more than one mate and their mates didn't want to share. The remaining eighteen women had gone off to another cave and they'd established themselves there, trying to gather food and survive. Some like Gaeta had even learned to hunt so that the women could have more food. As for sex, the aliens had built in an urge to mate and have children so the extra women would often try and lure a male away from the other cave. Some had been successful, but most hadn't and the men never stayed. It had been frustrating for them.

It was Little Fish's origins that brought us to the heart of the story and finally provided me with some information that I'd been looking for since I'd first visited the rift valley. The first part of the story was told by Little Fish. It was simple. Like Pebble and Shell, she'd been washed away from her friends and family while trying to use a log boat. In Little Fish's case she'd been trying to reach another island near her own to help out a woman who'd gone into heat. As I'd guessed, Little Fish was much older than Pebble and Shell. In real years she was just over thirty years old, but by Ka-Fay-La standards, saying that was like saying that a person was just over sixty. As an older woman who'd borne children she had been expected to give assistance when someone nearby went into heat. Unfortunately, the local current caught the log and carried her away. After two days at sea, Little Fish had ended up on the southern shore of this continent. That was where Soo Hong picked up the tale.

"It happened like this," Soo Hong told every one, glancing about as she did. "My family had spotted Little Fish washed up on our beach. We'd run to her to give her help. We quickly realized that she was an alien. An argument started right away over whether we should help her or not. Several wondered if she was one of the aliens that had kidnapped us. We were still arguing when the space ship crashed."

"What space ship?" I and the other members of my family asked, stunned by this revelation.

"The one that crashed into the bay where my family was living," Soo Hong declared bluntly. "It was a massive ship and it was belching fire from its hull even before it crashed. Everyone in my family ran when we saw it hit the water. Instinctively, a couple of my great-great grandchildren grabbed Little Fish and dragged her with us. The impact of the space ship in the bay caused a small tidal wave. We were lucky to get to high ground before it hit us, but we lost everything that we had built and all our tools."

"When was this?" I asked, interrupting Soo Hong, curiosity getting the better of me.

Soo Hong couldn't give me a firm date. All she could remember was that it was roughly two months ago, which by my calculations put it around the time we went and rescued Pebble and Shell. It made me wonder, although I didn't say a word. Instead I asked her to go on.

"Well," Soo Hong continued, "before my family knew it we'd been taken prisoner. The survivors from the space ship were very hostile. They were led by a short, stocky being that had eye stalks instead of eyes. There were a dozen of them and they were clustered about the crown of his head. Once he had my family and Little Fish under control, he gave everyone an amulet. That's when we found out it was a universal translator. Buktohesh - that was his name - told my family and Little Fish that we were now his possession and that we were to obey him. My great-grandson tried to protest, but the soldiers with Buktohesh shot ray weapons at him that left him stunned on the ground. Buktohesh then said that if we protested again he would start killing us."

"How many soldiers were there with this alien?" Vicky asked, cutting into Soo Hong's narrative.

"There were ten soldiers with him," Soo Hong replied without hesitating, "although they are not of the same species as Buktohesh. The soldiers look like turtles. They stand about five feet tall and they had a shell on their backs. They do have some anamorphic features though that make them look slightly humanoid. Their arms and legs are definitely more like ours. They do have a stomach shell as well but it is segmented so that they can move about on two legs."

"So what happened next?" I asked wanting to hear more.

"Buktohesh marched us away from the beach and into the interior of this continent," Soo Hong told us. "We learned as we travelled that he was looking for something, some kind of buried treasure. About a week into our journey we ran into the two Cro-Magnon groups. The men of the first group tried to fight Buktohesh's soldiers but their spears were useless and the soldiers quickly stunned everyone. Then they went after Gaeta's group and captured them."