Chapter 3: The Order of the Brush

At this point I left the bridge and knew Mother would take care of the Beverly. I went to the emergency airlock near the middle of the Zeus. Once at the airlock, I put on my environmental suit for my own safety. The Zeus's emergency air lock has a flexible docking tube that allows me to connect to another ship's airlock even if the other ship was three hundred feet (100 meters) away. This was ideal for the current situation because with the Beverly being a smashed and twisted wreck I doubted mother would have been able to maneuver the Zeus into a hard docking position. I entered the airlock and proceeded to the other end of the tube that was connected to the Beverly. I entered the Beverly checked the atmosphere with my hand held scanner. There were no deadly pathogens in the atmosphere and it was breathable. I opened my helmet and got a whiff of the Beverly's atmosphere, and nearly vomited. The air smelled awful. I had no way of knowing it at the time but the accident had occurred two days before I received the distress call. The Beverly's AI computer (its Mother) was unable to send the distress call earlier because the emergency transmitters aboard it were disabled by the accident. The computer finally was able to repair and jury rig a combination of systems together to send the FTL distress call. Meanwhile the atmosphere of the ship had been festering, especially where life support was not at a premium. All the lights inside the Beverly were out. Fortunately, as with most major passenger liners, a power bypass control panel, with connections to power the life support systems in an emergency, was just inside emergency docking hatch.

I connected my ship's power system, via wireless energy devices, to the Beverly's four remaining passenger compartment life support systems. This took longer than I would have liked since it took a while to get the Beverly's emergency power management system to stop trying to power various shorted out life support systems throughout the Beverly. The Beverly's emergency power management system was not a standard design so it took me a short time to figure out how to do the things I needed to do. Finally the Beverly's power management system and I managed to cut the power lines to the dead parts of the ship. As I finished I heard the unmistakable roar of the Beverly's air circulation systems as they came to life. Within a few minutes, I could see that the atmosphere in the ship was clearing by the gauges on the control panel. I was glad to see the lights in the corridor came on about two minutes later as I finished checking that all four passenger compartments had sufficient life support. I checked the Zeus' power consumption and determined that my ship could handle the addition power drain for several days at least.

I was surprised that no passengers were at the airlock to meet me. I went further into the Beverly seeking out the passengers. At first there was no sign of them. Every compartment's lights were out, probably shut off by the ships computer to maintain life support. Since the ships computer probably then shut itself off for the same reason the lights did not turn back on. Using my flashlight and my hand held scanner I located the manual light controls and turned on all compartment lights. I continued scanning for the passengers. The access way to the emergency airlock was through passageways that are designed to allow maintenance access to various systems and for easy passenger evacuation. These systems and the anti radiation shielding interfered with personnel scanners so finding the passengers was not as easy as one would expect it to be.

After about fifteen minutes of searching, I located the sub compartment of the ship that the passengers were in, only to discover that all three hatches to the compartments were blocked by debris. The one hatch was cracked open and I also heard a conversation on the other side of the hatch. So I knew some of the passengers were conscience. I started clearing the debris and heard a voice saying "Someone is coming from the air lock!!!", then a scampering of feet and then total silence. Once I had the debris clear I opened the hatch and entered the compartment.

I made my way inside and found a scene that I could only describe as breath taking. There were 100 extremely fit beautiful women and in white string bikinis huddled together praying for someone to save them. When the hatch opened and they saw me they were scared. They had been in the dark for quite a while and their eyes still needed to adjust to the light.

One of the women who was a gorgeous a green eyed, long haired, long legged, brunet tentatively stepped forward and said, "Sir, who are you?"

I realized I was taking in the scene most impolitely, removed my helmet and said, "Oh sorry, I am Captain Edward Jones of the Earth freighter TFC Zeus. Your ship has been severely damaged and mostly destroyed. I am here in response to the automated distress call your ship sent out. Simply put I am here to rescue you". They were then all asking me about 10 or 20 questions a second, most of which I had no answers to. For women as scantily attired as they were, I thought this most unusual. Even on the most liberal of the planets I have been to (I've been to a lot of planets over the past 2200 or so years), a woman in a bikini would only get this close to men she knew and mostly only place you'd see a bikini in public was in as strip club or on the beach. Most of the questions revolved around someone named, Reverend Willmont, where was he, is he ok, etc., etc ... Finally I bellowed "Quiet Please!!" and everyone shut up, jumped back and cowered. I calmly said, "Ok that's better, I have no idea who Reverend Willmont is. We really do not have time right now to answer any of your questions. Your ship was fatally damaged during hyperspace transit and is going to have to be abandoned. You need to gather some clothes and a few personal items you can carry, and follow me to my ship".

The brunet spoke up and said, "Captain, I am Sister Paula, my sisters and I belong to the 'Order of the Brush', we have no other clothes and very few belongings. Everything we needed was supplied to us on this ship by our companion, Reverend Wilmont. Sir, where is the rest of your crew?"

I had no idea what the "Order of the Brush" was but right then I didn't need to know, or so I thought. I answered her, "I run the Zeus myself. Ok then follow me". I turned and started to my ship, no one else moved. I turned back and asked, "What is the problem? You'll die if you stay here, so let's get moving". No one budged.

Paula said, "Sir, frankly we don't trust you". That was not unreasonable. "We can't go anywhere with you without the approval of our companion, Reverend Samuel Willmont. Please contact him in the Command Section". That might be a problem since what remained of the command section was crushed to about 2 inches high (5 cm). I was now aware that my time calculation on how long it would take to get the passengers off the Beverly might be slightly off. Little did I know.

Somewhat annoyed, I answered, "Ladies, I am sorry to tell you the command section of the Beverly was destroyed. All that remains intact of your ship are the four forward passenger compartments. We have to get you out of here and onto my ship so that I can get the people out of the other 3 compartments before they die too, this ship is on a collision course with a star in a little over 11 hours. So let's get moving." They did not look convinced and they didn't move.

Paula said, "Sir, our companion ordered us into this compartment. We cannot leave without his permission". I could see from her body language (and what a body) she was totally stressed and scared to death. "If we were to follow you without our companion's permission we will be severely punished. Can you prove what you say is true?"

I was becoming exasperated. I knew that these women knew that the ship was badly damaged since they were praying for rescue. What I didn't realize at the time was they were praying for rescue from me (at first they thought I was a pirate). I said, "Ladies enough of this, you know as well as I do that your companion, if he was in the control section is certainly dead". I had shown them the pictures. "You will be able to see the remains of the ship yourself, when we are safely aboard my ship. My ship is currently powering the life support systems of your ship but my ship's power system will not be able to do that for very long, we must get you off this ship now". They did not move. The pictures could be fakes, especially since the Beverly did not look anything like the Beverly they knew. I reasoned with them for 30 minutes. I pleaded with them another 40 minutes. By this time I was getting angry and that just made them cower. There was no way I could drag 100 women by the ear into my ship, especially since it looked to me like they would protect each other and fight back.

I looked at my watch, almost two hours had passed since I moved the Beverly from its place of peril, I knew that the Beverly was on her way back into the star in a little over 10 hours. Finally, I lost my temper and said, rather angrily, "We don't have time for this any more. You all are endangering your lives as well as my life. I don't have time to deal properly with your childish behavior and give you all the spankings you all deserve".

Don't ask me why I said exactly that. I really don't know. All I knew was it was way out of line under the circumstances. My conscience was reading me the riot act. I call it male foot in mouth disease and right now it was the last thing I needed. I had just lost my temper and I don't normally do that, especially in an emergency. I never threaten people who afraid of me, especially if they are still opposing me. Threatening just makes people run or dig in. The sisters of the Order of Brush were certainly frustrating but they were obviously scared to death.

I was getting worried for my own mental health. Watching people be incinerated because I had failed to get them all off the doomed ship was going to be a difficult thing to live with.

Blowing a fuse, however, was not going to ease the ladies' minds. I would not have been surprised if they banded together, threw me out of the compartment and then closed and locked the hatch.

The Ladies response could not have been more different than I expected. I expected them to at best continue to cower in fear. The women's faces lit up like a child's in a candy store. Paula said, "Yes!!! That's it, Sir!!! I was beginning to wonder if there was any way out of this. Sir, now that you have told us that we are endangering your life, I can explain the situation more thoroughly".

Paula began, "Sir, you don't know our customs. We cannot go with you unless you force us. We have to fight back. The best way to do this is to beat us into submission. A spanking will work for that. You must spank each of us until we capitulate. We will then be freed of our vows to our companion and be able to follow you to your ship.

"After that you may do whatever you wish will us, as we will be your subjugated companions. We will do whatever you wish at that point. This is called 'The Capitulation Ritual' in our culture. No woman in our culture may follow the orders of another man, which contradict our dominant companion's orders, unless this ritual is performed".

I was about to say that this was pure nonsense and that I'd never do this since it was at best assault by the FoM BHC statutes, but Paula could see I was not buying it and cut me off before I said anything. "Sir, this is consensual. You are not hurting us against our will. We need you to do this for us or we mind as well stay on the Beverly and perish here. It will be a lot faster and much less painful for us. The ritual is the only way for us to live. We take our vows seriously on my planet. If we return to our planet without you doing this, we will have broken our vows to the Reverend, even if he is dead. We will be executed in a most hideous manner when we return home. The ritual of capitulation is legally recognized as releasing us from our vows, when our companion has left us in a life threatening situation. You are performing the ritual on us with our consent. We want you to do it".

She looked around the room and said, "Does everyone consent?"

All the ladies said, a much to enthusiastic, "Yes!!!".

With a pleading look Paula said. "Sir, will you please do this for us?"

If it was not an emergency I would have started spanking right then and there, I enjoy erotic M/F spanking. Under different circumstances this could be fun, but the current reality was we would all be dead by the time I was done.

I said, "Ladies, there is nothing I'd like to do for the next 20 hours or so than to give you the spankings you need. There is a serious flaw in this plan. We have to compromise on this or we would all be dead before I have reddened 20 of your very beautiful butts, to the level you need it done. I have three other compartments to empty, too".

After a few seconds, the lady next to her, a beautiful redhead said to Paula, "The surrogate rule can solve this! In an emergency one of us can act as a surrogate and do the ritual for all of us".

Paula suddenly lost her smile and swallowed hard. It was clear that she was about to argue with the other lady, but I think there was a light dawns on Marblehead moment. This was certainly an emergency by anyone's standards. She looked at me with that, "Oh shit, I'm in trouble, do I really want to do this?" scared look. Then suddenly the look on her face changed to a determined almost defiant look, she gathered herself, turned to the others and said, "Yes, Linda you are right! I will serve as surrogate for all of you. My spanking will be as if all of you are being spanked at the same time. If the Captain spanks me until I capitulate, the rest of you will get one swat with the Brush and then follow him to his ship. He will spank each of you properly as time permits over the next several days. Will you all agree to this?"

The Ladies were all smiles, eagerly shaking there heads up and down and saying yes. They didn't want to die. I'd learn soon that the Ladies had been forced to watch what had happened to women on their planet that had broken their vows. It was not pretty.

Paula then turned to me and said, "Sir, this is the best I can do, our vows are important to us, and we live our lives according to them. Our companion ordered us to remain here, and we have to do that even if it means death. To release me from my vows and the laws of my planet, you must perform the ritual on me. I must feel that I have no choice in the matter but to submit to you to finish the ritual. Because I am acting as surrogate I must accept sufficient punishment so that all of my sisters believe they would have capitulated also. This is the only way to quickly release us from our vows. While we are all disposed to believe your description of our peril, it does not matter. Will you do this for us? Please?" It was the most pleading look I ever seen in face of a woman, who had not already been over my knee, begging me to stop.

I asked Paula, "What are you not telling me?"

She said, "The surrogate rule never has been used this way. I am almost positive that it will hold up in court, mostly because I am the one who usually decides and the Reverend gets to apply final judgment. If what you say is true, which by the way I believe is true, then there could be problems when we return home. The new Reverend will have to decide if I was correct. There are a lot of good reasons I believe the decision will be accepted, but we really don't have time to discuss this now".

She was right. Resigned to the inevitability of the delay, I said, "If I understand this correctly, I will give you, Paula, a severe spanking. When I get done with you, your 'sisters' will follow me to the hatch and remove their panties and grab their ankles for one swat and then go through the airlock hatch and follow me".

Paula said, "Yes, sir", and she swallowed hard.

By now I understood that spanking the ladies was the fastest way, and as far as I could tell the only way, to get them off the ship in the time we had. I said, "Ok, I'll do what needs to be done".

I could see in Paula's body language that she was relieved but that suddenly turned into fear of what she was going to have to say next. After a couple of seconds she pressed on, with a distinct warble in here voice, "Sir, to make this as fast as possible, we should use the 'Order Brush'. It is designed to inflict a tremendous amount of pain in the quickest fashion. I also suggest we use the 'Order Horse' to restrain me and prevent me from blocking the blows, moving and hurting myself. It will also be much faster that way".

"Ok, sounds like a plan" was my response. I was not comfortable with this at all. It was just too far fetched to believe. It seemed cruel that a person would consider dying if someone didn't beat the crap out of them before they could be saved. What if there wasn't time? I didn't ask then, but I was less than completely shocked by the answer when I asked later. The ladies were expected to die. When I found this out I was quite sure that I would have liked to meet the idiot who came up with that idea, with an implement of my choice.

Paula said, "Jackie, Susan, bring the horse. Linda, please get the brush". While we waited, Paula was stiffening up almost like she was in a trance. Her face was turning whiter and whiter. I could see that she was scared and get more scared by the second. I understood that the spanking with the brush was something that had to be done for the ladies own sakes. I determined that I would do whatever was necessary to get the ladies off the Beverly. I felt sorry for Paula though because she was in a totally unenviable position. I would not enjoy spanking her because this was not my idea of an erotic spanking. This was going to be pure punishment for the sake of a law that made no sense to me (and never would).

Sally and Jackie returned with the Order Horse about 30 seconds later. When no one moved, I decided to take charge and I said, "Paula, go to the punishment horse", which broke her trance and she walked stiffly to the horse. "Sally and Jackie, you have more experience with that horse than I, secure Paula to it properly". I could see that Sally and Jackie had not expected to be told to do this, but they did as instructed. They really expected me to drag Paula over to the horse by the earlobe and secure her myself, with a look of glee in my eyes.

I heard Paula whisper to Jackie and Sally, "Set me up for the full treatment, he's going to have to hurt me. The tighter I am held the safer it will be for me and the easier it will be on him. Do what ever it takes to get him to finish me properly. He is not going to enjoy this, as his beliefs are different than most men on Jewel". I pretended not to hear, it was not intended for my ears, but I was beginning to dread the extent I was going to have to punish her.

Linda then returned with the Brush. I had expected a typical woman's hair brush, but the Brush was nothing like any hairbrush I'd ever seen. The business end was made out of some polymer, probably for strength. The face of the bush was oval about four inches long and three inches wide. There were holes drilled into the face of the oval about a quarter inch in diameter and placed about a half an inch apart. One side of the brush had moderately stiff short bristles about a half an inch long. The most unusual part of the brush was its handle which was 20 inches long. This brush was obviously not built for brushing hair! It was clearly designed to blister someone's butt properly. As Linda handed it to me I saw that the handle had a nice grip on it that make is easy to wield. Linda then walked up to me and whispered to me, "There is a reason that we wear string bikinis. They can be easily removed. Make sure you take it off before you start. It is expected. We are trained to take a lot of punishment. Use the bristle side of the brush if you want this to be over more quickly. We are used to it". I took the 'Brush' from Linda and noted that while it was very light weight, most of the weight was in the business end. I was not going to be surprised to latter learn that it had lead added to the business end to make it more effective.

Soon Paula was securely fastened to the punishment horse, which was quite interesting. The horse consisted of platform which the girl stood on. Leather cuffs attached to her ankles held her feet in place. Attached to the platform rose an adjustable height 'T' shaped appliance which the girl was bent over. The bar of the tee was padded. The girl's wrists were secured with leather cuffs which had ropes attached to the base of the platform. The lengths of the ropes were adjusted and the woman's position was tightened until the Paula's wrists were touching her toes. Properly attached, which Paula was, the girl was nearly completely doubled over and her buttocks stretched to their limits. It was not intended to be a comfortable position but a position designed to inflict the maximum amount of discomfort to the victim when struck.

I walked behind her and pulled the strings on her bikini's pants and pulled them off her. Then I pulled the strings on her bikini bra. She was now totally naked and completely exposed in a very compromising position. Under different circumstances it would be a beautiful sight.

I said to Paula, "You look beautiful, but that can't be comfortable". She replied with a smile, but rather strained, "Thank you sir. It is not supposed to be comfortable, Sir. Captain, may I give you advice?"

I bent over closer to her face, and said "Sure, but whisper it to me."

She said, "I understand that we need to do this quickly but you need to be extremely severe and brutal. Use the bristle side of the brush, if you don't we will be here forever. The bristles are very painful and effective".

Paula continued, "You need to convince the others that I've have no other choice but to be obedient to you and that they would have given in too. You'll need to give me at least 100 swats with the bristles. I will be screaming in agony, begging you to stop at about 90, but PLEASE give me at least 10 more after I capitulate. I'll survive and one of my sisters will need me to take that many. Please don't force her to say that it is not enough, it would be very difficult for her. Her safety depends on me taking as many as she would.

"Don't worry about marking me, bruising me, any blood from the welts, blisters or permanent damage. The autodoc in your ship will repair that in a few days, when you give me permission to use it".

Now I know what Paula was afraid of. I whispered to her, "Ok, thanks. I'll start in a couple of seconds, just hang on. I'll make it as quick as I can". If I had my way it would be painless too, Paula deserved better than this.