Chapter 4

"How do you feel, Angela? It looks like those filthy bastards gave you a real working over!"

Doris saw that the newcomer was awake at last. She pushed the newly wakeful and still amorous Marcella away from her. Some stirring of conscience told her that the dalliance with her lustful fellow captive had been a mistake and that the prisoners, all of them, must now look to find ways of escape.

The glances that the pirates were casting at them were getting more and more obvious by the day. Soon it would be impossible for the Captain to restrain his men and he would be forced to allow at least one of the lovely naked slaves to be used as sport in order to stop the lid blowing off. Doris was not to know that they were all granted regular shore leave and able to enjoy the services of a collection of whores all of whom were well paid and sworn to secrecy. Even so, the sight of these three (now four) nubile and eternally naked young women about the ship every day was beginning to arouse dangerous (for them) passions.

Angela tentatively rubbed her long and bruised legs. She only touched them tenderly but she still gasped in agony. She looked down at her battered ribs and reddened stomach, where those hard fists and harder boots had crashed into her so many times. Poor Angela wondered if she would ever recover and was very much inclined to doubt it. No point in being downhearted, though!

"OK, thanks Doris. They roughed me up pretty badly but they haven't done any lasting damage - except to my pride! I can take care of myself as a rule, but against those four big ruffians I didn't stand a chance. And in any case I had no intention of escaping - yet"

"You mean you are going to try? Can we come with you, Angela? It's not nice here, in spite of what you saw us doing just now! We just need to take our minds off thing - that's all. I hate this place more and more and poor old Marlene will die if we can't get her away soon. She's very brave, that girl and won't kowtow to them at all, no matter what horrible things they do to her. And they have done some very nasty things to her - even more so than to me and Marcella."

She told Angela about the weeks turning into months that Marlene had spent in the hold and how she was still sick and pale even after being brought back up again. Angela felt her anger growing by the second as the details were related to her of all the vile things that all three girls, but especially Marlene, had suffered in the past year. She was proud of her future step daughter as the tale of her bravery unfolded. Proud of her and even more angry at Farr.

"That Farr is a notorious bastard, sadistic and sick. He was in the Navy for a time and I was at his Court Martial when he was finally cashiered. Even the Royal Navy draws a line when it comes to some unnatural practices! Since leaving the Service he has been up to the same tricks. He had a castle on a remote Scottish Island where he kept a number of girls, torturing and beating them just like he does you three. One of them got away and gave the alarm. The victims were saved but a couple were pretty far gone by the time they were rescued. There have been other things he's done, and finally he got hold of a piece of scientific research which he's using to keep you in another time and place."

Doris nodded. "That's what they told us a long time ago. That we were back in the past and no one could reach us to rescue us and if we did escape we'd still be no nearer getting back home again because we'd be in the same time as this."

"That's crap!" replied Angela. "If we could get sufficiently far away from the ship we'd be back in our own time. I know. I've tried it with the equipment at the University and as soon as you're away from what ever force is keeping us in this limbo, we'll be back in the 20th Century!"

Doris looked thoughtful for a minute and said how they had experienced something odd once when ashore.

"The ship seemed to vanish and come back again and I could swear that for those few seconds there were other boats in the bay."

"Stupid of them to try that." said Angela. "They were getting overconfident. I bet they've never did it again!"

Doris nodded and said "They were really freaked out. Couldn't get us back to the ship fast enough!"

Angela laughed. "Yes. Did you but know it, but you were almost saved on that day. My guess is that the ray can be affected by the weather. Also it's possible the transmitter might have gone on the blink temporarily. The power supply on that island is none too reliable and they must have their own stand-by generator which will take a few seconds to come on stream. We were working through all the people known to have their own generators but drew a blank."

She changed the subject after a few minutes silence during which she struggled hard to overcome the pain she was still feeling. Doris and Marcella looked worriedly at her as she fought to continue and seemed again on the verge of passing out. But Angela had not been in the Navy for nothing. She pulled herself together and continued.

"We've got to persuade Marlene to stop being uncooperative. It's vital we all be together for at least part of the time. I'm not leaving here without her, no matter what. If they stick her back in the hold we're really going to be in trouble. If you get a chance to talk to her or I or Marcella do, then we've got to make her see sense. OK?"