Chapter 238: The Secret Place

Day 1, (Evening)

As I lay on my pallet on the foredeck, I studied the nighttime sky without recognizing any of the many constellations that were visible. There was no moon and I automatically assumed that it just hadn’t risen yet. Then Thesan’s warning came to mind and I realized that there may not even be a moon here. Wherever or whenever HERE is.

“What are you contemplating so deeply, my husband?” Ileana asked from beside me.

“I was just wondering if there was a moon on this planet,” I replied.

“Ha! That’s convenient!” quipped Nicky from somewhere nearby.

Of course, most of the girls giggled at that. They all thought that I was worried about their discovery earlier this evening. The discovery that Rie’ka could overhear my thoughts.

While Captain Tab had gotten the generator running, he thought it prudent to use it only to power up the essential systems until he could acquire more fuel. That meant just running the refrigerators and the freezers along with communications equipment. After over an hour of trying and failing to raise anyone, I explained how we were likely in another dimension and our radios and such, probably wouldn’t work. He finally relented, but assigned a couple of his crew to man both of the aft guns.

Of course that meant the air conditioning was out and so my girls had pulled all the mattresses from their bunks and pushed them together on the foredeck, making a huge bed, large enough for all twenty-one of us.

“Does that mean that he going to ... ah ... have sex with all of us?” Aida had stammered when she saw what the other girls were arranging.

“We can only hope!” Eve told the two girls. Lydia and Aida both shivered at Eve’s pronouncement. Neither of them had any experience with me or with men in general and while I considered them ‘Off-Limits”, the other girls seldom bypassed the opportunity to tease them. They all assumed it was only a matter of time.

“Hey! Don’t be afraid. Michael would never do anything with either of you without way-y-y too much discussion before he does it,” Shelby told them. “I mean, I’ve been with him almost every day for the last two months and he still hasn’t tried anything! Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to have to send the boy an engraved invitation!”

I’m not too sure that Shelby’s words really assured them of anything, but I kept silent at the time. Now as we all settled in for the night, the girls were taking the time to revel in being all together in the huge bed they had formed and to rehash our meeting with Rie’ka and her ‘tribe’ tonight.

Ne’mara had sent word that we were invited to join them for their evening meal and so we went, en masse. Everyone except Captain Tab, Larry, and his crew. Penny, along with Luisa, Karla, and Kip also came along, leaving the rest of our security team to guard the Edna Lorraine. I showed Serkia how to blow the ship’s fog horn if there were any signs of trouble.

After wading through the ankle deep waters while wondering when the tide would come in, and following Rie’ka’s directions, we walked down the beach maybe a hundred yards and then climbed a slight rise into the edge of the lush tropical rain forest. We then followed a well-worn path under the thick canopy until we ran into the base of a rock cliff.

Suddenly, out of nowhere stepped Rie’ka.

Since my girls had been asleep when she was onboard our ship earlier, I took a moment to introduce everyone. Rie’ka studiously considered each one as I said their names, but said nothing. I later learned that she was memorizing the names and faces of each of them.

“It grows late,” she said as she looked to the canopy of leaves above us. I followed her gaze and wondered how she could tell.

“Come!” she said. Then she turned and disappeared! Right into the face of the rock cliff!

Kip looked at me with concern just as Izzy, who had been closest to Rie’ka also turned and disappeared.

One by one, the rest of my family turned and followed Izzy, each disappearing in turn. As I got closer, I discovered that there was a narrow fissure, open to the top of the rocky cliff, that had been hidden from my earlier point of view by another outcropping of rock. Inside the fissure was a narrow trail with carved steps leading upward. After a few minutes of climbing single file, I reached an elevation that I estimated to be over fifty feet high, but had no way to confirm that because we were still hidden by the rock outcropping. I could see the sky, but otherwise we were hemmed in tightly by towering walls of sheer rock.

The narrow path leveled off and widened a bit as I followed the girls into a cave. I don’t think it was as wide as the hallways were going to be in our new home back in Tennessee, but Kip raised his rifle and couldn’t touch the ceiling. In the distance, I could see another opening.

Hurrying to catch up with everyone else, we came to an abrupt halt as Kip and I emerged from the cave that I now knew was a tunnel. We stopped because everyone else had stopped and were just standing there, admiring the view

Below us was a large tropical forest. On the other side of the volcanic crater, was a waterfall, coming through the side of the volcano’s wall about half way up. I followed its drop of maybe a hundred feet into the lush forest below, then caught sight of a small stream as it meandered its way through the forest until it reached a small clearing filled with maybe two dozen primitive structures, similar to the one Hanna and I started our honeymoon in back on Tapato.

“They DO look just like that, don’t they?” Hanna reminisced with a smile. Of course that got most of them talking about the actual honeymoon. I mean the gritty details that the girls shared with their sister wives and those with the special connection to me. Vickie must have everyone connected because I sure didn’t want any part of that conversation.

As I continued to stare out over the now extinct interior of the volcano, I wondered how big an area it was. I estimated it to be close to a mile to the other side of the volcano and I tried to do a quick calculation on the overall land area Rie’ka’s people occupied inside the volcano.

“Probably over six hundred acres if you’re accurate about the distance,” Vickie thought to me.

“Yeah. And the general consensus these days is that you really need at least five acres of land per person to be self-sufficient. That’s assuming you have quality land, adequate rainfall, and a long growing season, “ Adriana added. “Of course, I’m citing information from our home land. It may be different here.”

“Come,” Rie’ka said as she turned and lead us down a gently descending path along the inner wall of the volcano.

After a short walk down the interior face and then through the lush foliage, we came to the clearing we had seen from above. Most of the women we saw stopped what they were doing to stare at us, but no one rushed to say hello. I saw no men among the population. Finally, Ne’mara emerged from a nearby hut and the villagers all gathered at her back as she began to address us.

“Welcome, Michael and family,” she said happily. “We are pleased that you have arrived. Please gather around and we shall be honored to serve you.”

“Thank you for sharing your evening meal with us, Ne’mara. We have brought you gifts of flour, rice and sugar, as well as a ham shank that we might not be a burden on your villages resources,” I announced.

The women became excited at this and quickly gathered up the bags of food stuff that we had brought. Then they invited us to sit.

The twenty-four of us quickly looked for a log or rock to sit on as they began to bring each of us a bowl of food. No words were spoken while we ate. When we finished, our bowls were efficiently collected by the large group of mostly twelve to fifteen year old girls, who then seemed to disappear. It was odd that there were few younger children. And no male children that I could see.

Ne’mara then stood beside the fire and began to speak.

“Welcome to our secret place,” Ne’mara began. “You are the first outsiders that we have allowed to visit our hidden vale. My name is Ne’mara and I, along many of these other women have been here for more than sixteen seasons. I personally was kidnapped, raped repeatedly, and then left here to die when I was but fifteen seasons old.”