Chapter 17

That night while we were eating, we got Sue and Julie's story. They'd had no problems in getting to the place we were now calling "Landing Site #1." They saw the new boat when they arrived, and it appeared to be abandoned. They were in the process of climbing on board when the crew showed up; the crew had been foraging through the trees looking for fresh water when the two women were spotted.

Two naked women wandering about had been a total shock for the Spaniards, but they assumed that they were simply more Indians. The women looked liked wonderful fuck toys if they could be captured and not killed, so that was the immediate plan. The men had all had some military training, so it was easy for them to sneak up and capture the women, who were not paying as much attention to their surroundings as the should have.

The two women were grabbed and stripped of their weapons and backpacks, and they were raped on the spot. Afterwards, they were held by several men while others went into the boat and returned with the chains. The whippings were the result of the language lessons—an error brought about a few slaps with the whip. Thus, the women learned a few basic commands in very short order. The main one the men wanted the women to learn was the Spanish equivalent of "spread your legs, whore!"

Their days and nights until we arrived had been concentrated on cooking and fucking. They were both close to their fertile period, so they would not be surprised if they came up pregnant, but that was a hoped-for event, since it would be adding to the gene pool. Pedro had shielded them as much as he could, but he could not keep them from being raped many times a day.

The "game" was losing its charm for Sue and Julia by the time their rescuers showed up, and the two women would have gladly chopped the balls off of any and all of the men, except Pedro. Everybody hoped that the whippings from the language lessons would not leave any permanent scars. It was too late to start home that night, so they decided to wait until the next day.

The return home was uneventful, and the three new members of the colony were welcomed with open arms. Pedro and Swift Rat were astounded when beautiful young women asked them to spend the night in their beds that evening. Sue and Julie had to assure the two men that the young women were serious before they would believe their luck. The women wound up teaching the men the "modern" ways of love and sex. None of the four got much sleep that night.

Six days later, an expedition was organized to return to Landing Site #1 to salvage what they could from the Spanish ship. Amos and I led the group again, with ballista team #2 and seven women, plus Pedro, pulling four carts. By this time, we knew what we needed to do and had a pretty good routine set up. Again, we were lucky and did not meet any carnivores, so we were able to make the trip in three days.

When we arrived, Pedro was able to show us where the most desirable items were stored, so it looked like we could be completely loaded with the copper from the ship bottom and the utensils from the galley in only two days. We had a real surprise at about mid-morning on the first day that caused some delay in being ready to return.

We were hard at work when the sky suddenly darkened and a powerful wind came up, blowing in a circle. It seemed like a tornado, but the wind effect was confined to the immediate outer surface of the tornado. The tornado lasted only about four or five seconds, and when it vanished in only a few seconds, it left a very large boat where its center had been. This was the first time we had seen an arrival, and we were mesmerized.

Amos broke from his amazement first and roused the rest of us. We ran to the ship and tried to clamber aboard. This ship had a very wide beam, so it was sitting almost in a neutral position on the ground, canted over no further than it could be in a moderately rough sea. About all we could tell about it was that it was a sailing ship with three masts and was square-rigged, though none of the sails were set.

Amos sent Pedro to the Spanish ship to fetch a grapnel and rope. When Pedro returned, Amos, with the skill of long practice, heaved the grapnel over the ships rail and pulled himself aboard. He was a little bit disappointed that he had to leave his BAR behind (yes, by now, the BAR seemed to belong to Amos), though he still had his automatic pistol. He quickly found a rope ladder and tossed it over the side so that I could climb up with him. Pedro followed me.

When we got on board, Amos bellowed out in his seafarers voice, "AHOY, ANYBODY ABOARD! WE ARE HERE TA HE'P YE! SOUND OFF SO THAT WE MAY FIND YE!"

There was a response of a voice down below decks, it was weak and we could hardly hear it. Amos bellowed, "WE HEAR YE! WE'RE ON OUR WAY! REST EASY 'TIL WE GIT THERE!"

There was an obvious companionway, and we took that down one level. Amos shouted again and got a reply, this time on this deck. The noise was coming from the direction of the bow, and we hurried in that direction. We were hurrying down a corridor, so there was not much to slow us down, and we quickly came to what had to be the ship's brig. Inside was a Black man who looked much the worse for wear. His back was showing the remnants of a flogging, and he had some trouble moving when he caught sight of us. The first thing he said when he saw us was, "Lord he'p me! Why are y'all naked?"

Amos said, "We'll explain later. Where's the cell key? Never mind, I see it." The key was on a hook fastened to the wall on the opposite side of the corridor out of reach of anyone in the cell. I sent Pedro back up to relay the news that we were OK and had found one survivor. Meanwhile, Amos and I went into the cell to see what we could do for the occupant.

Fortunately, Jim Bell was in pretty good shape, so I asked him what had happened. He said, "I was flogged fer sassin' the first mate over the way the hosses were bein' treated. By the way, did they survive the storm?"

"We don't know. This is the first thing we've heard about horses. Where are they? Dammit, they'er more valuable than anything else on this boat. Please show us where they are."

"They're in the hold, the next level down from here. If y'all he'p me ta walk, I'll show ye." Amos threw Jim's arm over his shoulder and practically carried him where Jim said to go. We went down another companionway and saw what looked like 25-35 horses, each in an individual box-like stall.

I asked, "How many horses are there? And, are they trained for riding or as draft animals."

Jim answered, "If they all survived the storm, there should be 34 horses: 30 mares and 4 stallions. They're trained fer both ridin' and pullin' wagons or plows. When we loaded them on board, there weren't no finer hosses in Kent."

"Shit, Amos, this is like finding a gold mine, except worth a hell of a lot more to us if we can keep the dinosaurs away from them. I can't wait to get them back home."

Jim interrupted with, "What's a dinosaur? I ain't never heard of none such."

I answered, "It's a monster sized animal that eats everything that it can catch. We try to stay well away from them. How can we get the horses to the ground?"

"That's simple, we pull up to the dock and unload them by crane with a sling."

"I've got a surprise for you. We aren't on the ocean any more. This ship is resting on dry land, and there's no crane anywhere to be had."

"Ye're joking with me, ain't ye?"

"Nope, come on to the main deck and see for yourself."

Jim nearly fainted at the combination of dry land and naked women. "Come on, Y'all gotta tell me, why ain't none of y'all wearin' clothes?"